“Jack Rotherfield!” exclaimed she. “Do you really mean that he’s coming again? Why, he’s always at your house. Does Sir Robert approve?”
There was a little spot of red colour in Lady Sarah’s cheeks as she said quickly:
“Why shouldn’t he approve? He was Jack’s guardian once. And now, though it’s nine years ago, naturally they feel the same towards each other still.”
“He doesn’t come to see Robert, for he only comes when you are at home,” said Lady Eridge, in some displeasure. “People must notice it, and I am surprised that Robert doesn’t notice it himself.”
“I hope you won’t put any ridiculous notions into Robert’s head, mama,” said Lady Sarah. “Jack and I have always been the best of friends, and it would distress me very much if anything were said which would make it difficult for him to feel at home in Robert’s house.”
“Did you see him at all while you were away?” asked Lady Eridge.
But Lady Sarah found it convenient not to hear the question. She was by this time talking to her sisters, who were full of inquiries as to what she had been doing with herself during her stay abroad, and what she had done with Minnie.
Minnie was in town with some cousins, Lady Sarah said. She was evidently displeased at her mother’s rebuke, and she did not stay very long.
Lady Eridge, who was very gracious to Rhoda, invited her to come to tea on the following day.
“It was I,” she explained to the girl, “who suggested to my daughter that she should try to find some nice lady to be a companion to poor little Caryl, and I should have called to see you before now, Miss Pembury, but that my daughters and I have been staying in Yorkshire ever since you came.”