“Good gracious me, yes!” cried Mrs. Lennard. “Why, you seem to know everything about me.”
“I know this much,—the man you jilted was Gilbert Monckton, of Tolldale Priory.”
“Of course! Tolldale was poor papa’s place till he sold it to Mr. Monckton. Oh, Miss Villars, if you know him, how you must despise me!”
“I only wonder that you could——”
Eleanor stopped abruptly; the termination of her speech would not have been very complimentary to the good-tempered major. Mrs. Lennard understood that sudden pause.
“I know what you were going to say, Miss Villars. You were going to say you wondered how I could prefer Fred to Gilbert Monckton; and I’m not a bit offended. I know as well as you do that Mr. Monckton is very, VERY, VERY superior to Frederick in intellect, and dignity, and elegance, and all manner of things. But then, you see,” added Mrs. Lennard, with a pleading smile, “Fred suited me.”
CHAPTER LIV.
VERY LONELY.
Eleanor had considerable difficulty in parrying Mrs. Lennard’s questions as to how she had come to know Gilbert Monckton and his ward; and she was obliged to confess that she had been musical governess to Laura at Hazlewood.
“But I must beg you not to tell Mr. Monckton that I am with you, if you should happen to write to him,” Eleanor said. “I have a very particular reason for wishing him to remain in perfect ignorance of my present home.”
“To be sure, my dear,” answered Mrs. Lennard, “of course I won’t tell him if you don’t wish me to do so. And as to writing to him, I should no more think of doing so than of flying in the air, except just a civil note of a few lines, to thank him for sending me news of Laura. He only writes to me once in six months or so, to tell me how my lost darling is, and though I’ve implored him again and again, he won’t let me see her. ‘She is still little more than a child,’ he wrote in his last letter, ‘and I dread the effect of your influence upon her. It is out of no revengeful feeling that I keep your daughter apart from you. When her character is formed and her principles fixed, you shall know her.’ As if I was a wretch!” cried Mrs. Lennard, in conclusion, “and should contaminate my own daughter.”