And on the whole she could, vastly better than might have been expected of her birth and breeding.
At six o’clock a note was delivered for her. Richard wrote from an hotel in the neighbourhood, asking her to come to him. She found him in a private sitting-room, taking a meal.
‘Why didn’t you come to the house?’ she asked. ‘You knew mother never comes down-stairs.’
Richard looked at her with lowered brows.
‘You mean to say she’s doing that in earnest?’
‘That she is She comes down early in the morning and gets all the food she wants for the day. I heard her cooking something in a frying-pan to-day. She hasn’t been out of the house yet.’
‘Does she know about Jane?’
‘No. I know what it would be if I went and told her.’
He ate in silence. Alice waited.
‘You must go and see Emma,’ was his next remark. ‘Tell her there’s a grave in Manor Park Cemetery; her father and mother were buried there, you know. Keene ‘ll look after it all and he’ll come and tell you what to do.’