Letty noticed that not only did Miss Maywood use Mr. Romaine’s name very often, but she glanced at him continually. He sat quite close to the Colonel, listening with a half smile to Colonel Corbin’s sounding periods, describing the effects of the war and the present status of things in Virginia. His extraordinarily expressive black eyes supplied comment without words.
“I am very glad you are coming to the county,” said Letty, after a moment, “and I hope you’ll like Newport, too. At first I didn’t like it, but afterward, I met the Farebrothers”—she spoke in a low voice, and indicated Farebrother with a glance—“and they have been very kind to me, and I have had a very good time. We intended to go home next week. Newport’s a very expensive place,” she added, with a frank little smile. “But now, we—that is, my grandfather and my aunt and myself—intend staying a little longer.”
“Everything in America is expensive,” cried Miss Maywood, with energy. “I can’t imagine how Mr. Romaine can pay our bills; they are so enormous. Reginald—Mr. Chessingham—is his doctor, you know, and Mr. Romaine won’t let Reggie leave him, and Reggie wouldn’t leave Gladys, and Gladys wouldn’t leave me, and so, here we are. It is the one good thing about Reggie’s profession. I hate doctors, don’t you?”
“Why?” asked Letty, in surprise.
“Because,” said Miss Maywood, positively, “it’s so unpleasant to have people saying, ‘What a pity—there is that sweet, pretty Gladys Maywood married to a medical man’—he isn’t even a doctor—and Gladys cannot go to Court, you know, and it has really made a great difference in her position in London. Papa was an army man, and we were presented when we came out; but society has come to an end as far as poor Gladys is concerned. And although Reggie is a dear fellow, and I love him, I do wish he wasn’t associated with plasters and pills and that sort of thing.”
All this was thoroughly puzzling to Letty, but she had realized since she came to Newport that there was a great, big, wide world, with which she was totally unfamiliar, outside of Corbin Hall and its neighborhood. She knew she was a stranger to the thoughts and feelings of the people who lived in this outer world. She glanced at “Reggie”—he had a strong, sensible face, and she could imagine that Mr. Romaine might well find help in him.
“Is Mr. Romaine very, very ill?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” replied Miss Maywood, smiling. “He’s a very interesting man, rich, and has an excellent position in England. He doesn’t do a great deal, but he always has strength enough to travel. I think, occasionally, perhaps, he is only hipped, but it would not do to say generally. Sometimes he talks about dying, and sometimes he talks about getting married.”
“Who would marry him, though?” asked Letty, innocently.
“Who wouldn’t marry him?” replied Miss Maywood, calmly. “There was a French woman a few years ago—” She stopped suddenly, remembering that she knew very little about this French woman, a widow of good family but small means. There had been a subdued hurricane of talk, and she remembered hearing that at the time wagers had been made as to whether the French woman would score or not. But Mr. Romaine had apparently outwitted Madame de Fonblanque,—that was her name,—and since the Chessinghams had been with him, nothing had been seen or heard of the French widow. So Miss Maywood merely said in her gentle, even way, “I grant you, he isn’t young, and his health is not good, but his manners and his money are above reproach, and so is his position.” Miss Maywood mentally added to this last qualification—“for an American.”