“Of course, and the sooner the better,” said Lady Lysle.
“But if you will help us, and prevent your husband from coming to our school to-morrow, there is no reason whatever why she shouldn’t stay at the school. Even her expenses can be paid from quite another source.”
Mrs. Martin looked intensely nervous. A bright spot of color came into her left cheek. Her right cheek was deadly pale. 170
“I—I cannot help it,” she said. “I never meant Bo-peep to go; I never wished him to go. But he said, ‘Little-sing, I will go’—I—I forgot myself—of course you don’t understand. He is a very good husband to me, but he and Maggie never get on.”
“I am sure they don’t,” said Aneta with fervor.
“Never,” continued Mrs. Martin. “I got on with her only with difficulty before I married my present dear husband. I am not at all ashamed of his being a grocer. He gives me comforts, and is fond of me, and I have a much better time with him than I had in shabby, dirty lodgings at Shepherd’s Bush. I don’t want him to go to that school to-morrow; but I thought it right to let Maggie know he was coming, for, all the same, go he will. When James puts his foot down he is a very determined man.”
“This is altogether a most unpleasant interview,” said Lady Lysle, “and I have only come here at my niece’s request.—Perhaps, Aneta, we can go now.”
“Not yet, auntie darling.—Mrs. Martin, Maggie and I had a long talk yesterday, and will you put this matter into my hands?”
“Good heavens! what next?” murmured Lady Lysle to herself.
“Will you give me your husband’s address, and may I go to see him?”