"That sounds as if it ought to suit me. I can't explain it, but I was so afraid this might be Yorkshire. Where is Nellie? I do hope she wasn't lost at that dreadful railway station."
"Nellie is upstairs," Mrs. Drake replied.
"I wish somebody would go and bring her. I don't know what she can be doing upstairs. My memory is getting so troublesome, Maria. Before Nellie came to live with me I had quite forgotten she was Percy's sister."
"But she isn't," said Mrs. Drake. "Percy's only sister died as a child."
"Did she!" exclaimed Miss Yard. "I wonder how long I shall remember that. How many children did my brother Peter have?"
"He never married," replied Mrs. Drake.
"Then Nellie must be poor dear Louisa's daughter."
"That would make her Percy's sister. Nellie is your companion. She is not even so much related to you as George."
"Now I have quite forgotten who George was," said Miss Yard.
At this moment Nellie herself appeared with a load of luxuries, such as footstool, shawl, wool slippers, and various bottles to sniff at, which she had just unpacked. Miss Yard fondled the girl's hands, and told her that somebody—she could not remember who—had bees trying to make trouble between them by spreading a malicious story about Nellie's birth and parentage; but she was too muddled to know what it meant.