"See how this pretty creature looks at me!" she said to mamma, laughing, as she detected my conscious scrutiny.
I blushed and looked down; I did not know what to say.
"I'm very much obliged to you, dear, for looking at me, so few people do now-a-days; and I was just going to steal a good look at you, when I found I was anticipated. I have just been saying to your mamma that I have ordered a boat, and we must all have a sail together on the lake after dinner; what do you say?"
Of course I was delighted; I thought the place perfectly charming.
"I lived the earlier part of my life here," she resumed, "and so did your mamma, you know—when she was a little girl, and until she came to be nineteen or twenty—I forget which you were, dear, when you were married?" she said, turning to mamma.
"Twenty-two," said mamma, smiling.
"Twenty-two? Really! Well, we lived at Mardykes. I'll point out the place on the water when we take our sail; you can't see it from these windows."
"And where does Sir Harry Rokestone live?" I asked.
"You can't see that either from these windows. It is further than Mardykes, at the same side. But we shall see it from the boat."
Then she and mamma began to talk, and I went to the window and looked out.