“Have you shown the poems to your uncle, Annie?”
“Not yet, Priscilla. Uncle Maurice has not been well; I could not worry him with those sort of matters.”
“Not well?” said Priscilla. “And you have left him?”
“Yes, my dear, good Priscilla,” said Annie; “I have been wicked enough to do so. He is too ill to be bothered with Susan Martin’s productions, but not too ill to afford me a pleasant little holiday. Now do let’s change the subject.”
“With pleasure,” said Priscilla. “I wish to change it, if you don’t mind, by shutting my eyes, for I have a very bad headache.”
While Priscilla slept, or tried to sleep, Annie sat back amongst her cushions lost in thought.
“Really,” she said to herself, “if all the things that I have done lately were discovered I should have but a poor time. I forgot all about Susan Martin and her manuscript book. It came in very handily at the time, but now it is no end of a bore. I ought to have cautioned her not to speak of it to any one. It is a great pity that Priscilla knows about it, for if by any chance she asks Susan to show her the book, the two poems attributed to Mabel will immediately be discovered. Certainly Priscilla is a disagreeable character, and I cannot imagine why I have bothered myself so much about her.”
The railway journey came to an end, and a short time afterwards the girls found themselves greeted by Lady Lushington and Mabel at the Grand Hotel.
Lady Lushington was a tall, slender woman of from thirty-eight to forty years of age. Her face was rather worn and pale. She had a beautiful figure, and was evidently a good deal made up. Her hair was of a fashionable shade of colour. Annie concluded at once that it was dyed. Priscilla, who had never heard of dyed hair, thought it very beautiful.
“My dears,” said the good lady, advancing to meet both girls, “I am delighted to see you.—Mabel, here are your two young friends.—Now, will you go at once with Parker to your rooms and get ready for dinner? We all dine in the restaurant—demi-toilette, you know. Afterwards we will sit in the courtyard and listen to the band.”