“Ah, but you will hear me sing,” returned Emilia. “We will drive to Brookfield and get my harp, and then to Ipley Common. I am to be sure you will be ready with the carriage at just a quarter to ten?”
The Captain gave her his assurance, and they separated; he to seek out Adela, she to wander about, the calmest of conspirators against the serenity of a household.
Meeting Wilfrid and Lady Charlotte, Emilia was asked by him, who it was she had quitted so abruptly.
“That is the gentleman I told you of. Now I know his name. It is Captain Gambier.”
She was allowed to pass on.
“What is this she says?” Lady Charlotte asked.
“It appears...something about a meeting somewhere accidentally, in the park, in London, I think; I really don't know. She had forgotten his name.”
Lady Charlotte spurred him with an interrogative “Yes?”
“She wanted to remember his name. That's all. He was kind to her.”
“But, after all,” remonstrated Lady Charlotte, “that's only a characteristic of young men, is it not? no special distinction. You are all kind to girls, to women, to anything!”