“Are you really?” said Mrs. Gregg.
“It’s what the doctor has put out about me,” said Mary Ellen.
“It isn’t a matter of what I’ve put out or haven’t put out,” said Dr. O’Grady. “Mr. Billing has publicly acknowledged her as the grand niece of the General. Didn’t he, Mary Ellen?”
“He did,” said Mary Ellen.
“And Mr. Billing is the greatest living authority on everything connected with the General. So that settles it. Under those circumstances she must, of course, be presented to the Lord-Lieutenant when he comes down to unveil the statue.”
“I wonder what Mrs. Ford will say?” said Mrs. Gregg.
“We’ll talk about that afterwards. What I want to get at now is this: Will you undertake to see that Mary Ellen is properly dressed for the ceremony?”
“Oh, I couldn’t possibly.”
Mrs. Gregg looked at Mary Ellen again as she spoke, looked at her very carefully and then smiled.
Mary Ellen was also smiling. The proper dressing of Mary Ellen was plainly a very difficult task. Mrs. Gregg’s smile was at first contemptuous. Mary Ellen’s, on the other hand, was purely good-natured, and therefore very attractive, Mrs. Gregg began to relent.