"My poor Clary, how I wish I had never exacted that promise! It did no good; it did not save Geraldine, and it seems to have made you miserable. Good gracious me," cried Lady Laura with sudden impetuosity, "I have no patience with the man! What is one man more than another, that there should be so much fuss about him?"
"I must go home to Lovel," Clarissa said anxiously. "I don't know how long I have been away from him. I lost my head, almost; and I felt that I must come to you."
"Thank God you did come, you poor wandering creature! Wait a few minutes,
Clary, while I send for a cab, and put on my bonnet. I am coming with you."
"You, Lady Laura?"
"Yes, and I too," said a calm voice, that Clarissa remembered very well; and looking up at the door of communication between the two rooms, she saw the portière pushed aside, and Geraldine Challoner on the threshold.
"Let me come and nurse your baby, Mrs. Granger," she said gently; "I have had a good deal of experience of that sort of thing."
"You do not know what an angel she is to the poor round Hale," said Lady Laura; "especially to the children. And she nursed three of mine, Maud, Ethel, and Alick—no; Stephen, wasn't it?" she asked, looking at her sister for correction—"through the scarlatina. Nothing but her devotion could have pulled them through, my doctor assured me. Let her come with us, Clary."
"O, yes, yes! God bless you, Lady Geraldine, for wanting to help my darling!"
"Norris, tell Fosset to bring me my bonnet and shawl, and fetch a cab immediately; I can't wait for the carriage."
Five minutes afterwards, the three women were seated in the cab, and on their way to Soho.