“Yes, I think you must see that it would be shocking indeed,” he agreed, smiling and putting out his hand. “I shall leave you now. If you should be nervous, I recommend you to let Nicky’s dog roam at will over the house during the night. He could certainly give tongue at the approach of any stranger.”
“How little one guesses what one may come to!” she remarked, turning her head to look at Bouncer who was enjoying a satisfactory roll on the hearthrug. “Never did I think I should live to be grateful to that horrid animal!”
He laughed, shook hands, and went away. Bouncer stood up, shook himself, and wagged his tail expectantly.
“If it’s your dinner you are thinking about,” said Elinor severely, “you had best come and be civil to Mrs. Barrow.”
He pranced ahead of her down the long stone-paved corridor that led to the kitchens. Nothing could have exceeded his affability there, but only Elinor’s persuasion induced Mrs. Barrow to bestow a plate of scraps on him. She said that he had already had the shoulder of mutton designed for Elinor’s own dinner. But the sagacious hound listened to Elinor’s reproaches with an expression compound of innocence and such gnawing hunger that she found it hard to believe such a thing of him, and insisted that he should be fed. There was nothing in the manner in which he disposed of his portion to lend the least color to the allegation made against his character.
The evening passed tranquilly. Miss Beccles, who had lost no time in getting upon good terms with Mrs. Barrow, made a panada for the invalid which he pronounced to be first rate; Elinor lost to him all the vast sums she had won at piquet on the previous night; and Bouncer suddenly achieved popularity with Mrs. Barrow by catching a large rat in the larder, whither he had repaired in search of something to maintain his strength during the night watches. Mrs. Barrow was moved to bestow on him a large ham bone. He subsequently hid this under Elinor’s bed, and his recollection of its whereabouts in the middle of the night and insistent demands to be admitted into her room were all that occurred to spoil her rest that night.
The morning found her spirits fast recovering their tone. Nicky seemed to be much amended, and the presence of Miss Beccles was at once so comfortable and so calming that she received the news that his lordship’s carriage was at the door ready to carry her to Chichester with a docility surprising in one so high-spirited. The two ladies set off in this luxurious vehicle and spent an agreeable few hours shopping, returning in the afternoon with so many bandboxes piled up on the seat before them that Nicky said he wondered they had not thought to hire a wagon or even Pickford’s van.
It would have been useless for Elinor to have attempted to pretend that her mind was of too elevated an order to rejoice in the possession of new clothes, and she lost no time in running up to her room to try on the dove gray muslin with black ribbons, and the handsome black silk trimmed with lace and a treble flounce. She was just trying the effect of a very pretty lace cap with lappets that tied under her chin with a black bow when she heard Bouncer set up a great barking in the hall. The next moment Nicky was thumping on her door, and telling her to make haste and come downstairs, for a post chaise had just driven up to the door.
“It’s old Bedlington, Cousin, for I craned out of my window and had the plainest view of him! Lord, I wonder what he will say when he finds you here! I wish Ned were here still to enjoy the jest!”
She ran to the door and opened it. “Oh, Nicky, what \ shall I say to him? Where is your brother?”