Simone, glancing from Lady Fairfax to the gentleman behind her, was very glad to hide her sudden confusion under cover of a curtsey directed to both new comers at once. Lady Fairfax passed her arm affectionately round the girl, and with Marion on the other side walked across to the terrace.
'I was always terrified of your Aunt Keziah,' she murmured. 'I shall look to you two for protection. Ten years since we met.'
She nevertheless gently disengaged her arms as the three crossed the stone flags, and by mutual consent, while the sisters greeted each other, the two girls turned to talk to Sampson and Beckenham.
'It is over,' called Lady Fairfax presently. 'You may approach. Come and sit down. I want to hear the whole story again.'
Marion gently placed Simone in the spare seat of the stone bench and herself stood with one hand gently resting on Mistress Keziah's shoulder. The bond between herself and her Aunt Constance was a very tender one, but there was now another presence in her little shrine of loved ones. Mistress Keziah's face was wearing a hard look which Marion rightly guessed was only a mask. And the old lady was tired. The marks of the vigils she had kept on Marion's account could not at once be effaced.
'Have you not already heard it all, Aunt Constance?' asked Marion.
'A repetition would be good for one's pride, my dear,'
'How so?' queried Marion.
'How so? Thus. Here I come, after sleepless nights, after completely undoing the peace and quiet of the Court and setting Her Majesty at her wits' end by reason of the loss of her waiting woman and the most important officer in her suite; here I come, I say, with a Royal Pardon in my pocket. And it is of no consequence whatever. All I do is to sit and hear what happened the day before. I feel as if I simply were not here. I might just as well have stayed in Tunbridge and—ah! there is that dear soul Curnow. I must go and speak to her. Would the Admiral but arrive now, we should feel like Moses and all the prophets.'
'Constance, Constance!' remonstrated her sister.