Jane D'Arcy tossed her head.
"Father says that perhaps he'll be taking us to London for it," she whispered.
"I wouldn't go if any one offered me," said Joan. "It's Polchester I want to see it at, not London. Of course I'd love to see the Queen, but it would probably be only for a moment, and all the rest would be horrible crowds with nobody knowing you. While here! Oh! it will be lovely!"
Jane smiled. "Poor child. Of course you know nothing about London. How should you? Give me a week in London and you can have your old Polchester for ever. What ever happens in Polchester? Silly old croquet parties and a dance in the Assembly Rooms. And never any one new."
"Well, there is some one new," said Betty Callender, "I saw her this morning."
"Her? Who?" asked Jane, with the scorn of one who has already made up her mind to despise.
"I was with mother going through the market and Lady St. Leath came by in an open carriage. She was with her. Mother says she's a Miss Daubeney from London--and oh! she's perfectly lovely! and mother says she's to marry Lord St. Leath----"
"Oh! I heard she was coming," said Jane, still scornfully. "How silly you are, Betty! You think any one lovely if she comes from London."
"No, but she was," insisted Betty, "mother said so too, and she had a blue silk parasol, and she was just sweet. Lord St. Leath was in the carriage with them."
"Poor Johnny!" said Jane. "He always has to do just what that horrible old mother of his tells him."