She bore her mother’s gentle complaints, when she met her later in the morning, with docility but not much sign of penitence. Except for warning her that if she again played truant, unseasonable hours he should send her into the country, her brother paid no further attention to her escapade. She was relieved, for she had quite expected him to probe a good deal deeper into the matter, and felt some surprise at his forebearance. She thought, peeping at him over the coffee-pot at the breakfast-table, that he looked preoccupied, but she would have been more than surprised had she known the cause of the faint frown between his brows.
Mr Ravenscar, if the truth were told, was toying with the idea of driving down to Berkshire, to pay a flying visit to his friend Waring. Twice he was on the point of ordering his curricle to be brought round to the door, and twice he refrained. “Damn it all!” he told the bell-pull, “I’m not going to spy on the boy!”
He compromised by calling in St James’s Square that evening. The rooms were rather thin of company, and the want of Miss Grantham’s presence was generally felt. Several dowagers were there, looking remarkably like birds of prey; and Lady Bellingham, who had started the evening by routing Sir James Filey, seemed to be in a belligerent mood. Sir James had go nothing out of her but a selection of home-truths which had made him fling out of the house in a rage; and, emboldened by this victory, she was able to face Mr Ravenscar with scarcely a tremor. He arrived only a few minutes before supper, and begged the honour of taking her down to it. This made her ladyship look a little wary, but she accepted his proffered arm, and descended the broad staircase with him in tolerable composure. He found a seat for her in the supper-room, supplied her with some lobster patties, and a glass of iced champagne-punch, and sat down opposite to her.
Lady Bellingham summoned up her courage, and said: “I am glad to have the opportunity of speaking to you, Mr Ravenscar. I do not know what my niece may have written to you on the subject of those horrid bills, but for my part I am very grateful to you for restoring them to me.”
“Pray do not give the matter a thought, ma’am! How long does Miss Grantham expect to be out of town?”
“As to that, I do not precisely know,” replied her ladyship vaguely. “She has gone to stay with friends, and there is no knowing how long they may persuade her to remain with them.”
“In what part of the country is she staying, I wonder?”
“Oh, I don’t—that is to say, not very far away! I don’t suppose you would know the place,” said her ladyship firmly. “It is in the north somewhere.”
“Indeed? You must miss her, I feel sure.”
“Yes, certainly I do! No one ever had a better niece. Of course, you must not think that I approved of her putting you in the cellar, and I do hope she begged your pardon for it! But in the main she is a very good girl, I assure you!”