‘Yes, quite—at least, practically so. I can’t recall much about it. In fact, I’m strange to the north altogether, except Scotland—staying at hotels or shooting-boxes, you know.’
‘Ah, yes. Those are luxuries for the rich,’ said Magdalen, whose whole person, attire, and surroundings breathed an atmosphere of more than riches, of extravagance. ‘I may say I have never been in the south, for I haven’t, except to Bournemouth, with my aunt. Well, I wonder how you will “like,” as they say here. The society of Bradstane is a little peculiar. It is not intellectual—Eleanor felt a little surprise at this; Magdalen herself had not struck her as looking intellectual—‘and it is not by any means lively. And I suppose you have been accustomed to a good deal of variety in your life?’
‘Not lately. Six months ago, my aunt, Mrs. Stanley, who has been my second mother, died very suddenly. We have had a very quiet and a very sad house ever since, and if Bradstane were ever so gay, I should not be going out much now.’
‘Ah, yes, very sad—Otho mentioned your loss,’ murmured Magdalen, who, with the self-absorption of her kind, had forgotten Eleanor’s account of her uncle’s condition.
‘And then,’ added Eleanor, feeling her heart beating just a little faster, but marching straight into the fray, ‘I have Otho. I hope to see something of him now. He is my only brother, and I have been much separated from him.’
‘Ah, your brother,’ said Magdalen, all at once discarding her purring tone, and taking up her knitting, with the expression of one who has just come to some mental decision. ‘He was the attraction, was he?’
‘Hateful woman!’ said Eleanor within herself. ‘She thinks he is her property, and that I am come to dispute him with her. So I have, and so I will.’ Then aloud, ‘Certainly, he was an attraction, if it needed a great attraction to make me wish to visit my own home, after so many years. Besides, who knows how long I may have the chance to be with him, and get to know him? I am astonished that he has not married before now.’
A slight pause. Eleanor herself was surprised to find in what style she was talking; but something in the very presence of the other woman seemed to arouse her pugnacity, and to place her in an almost aggressive attitude.
‘At any rate, while I have the field to myself, I mean to let Otho know that he has a sister,’ she pursued, with a slight laugh.
‘Highly commendable,’ said Magdalen, either with constraint or a slight sneer; it would have been difficult to say which.