Lady Alice looked up with more of pleasure and animation than she had yet shown. Errington bent his head.
"Many thanks for your prophecy;" and he immediately turned the conversation to the ever-genial topics of hunting and horses. Then Mrs. Ormonde gave the signal of retreat to the drawing-room.
Here Katherine looked in vain for her nephews.
"I suppose the boys have gone to bed, Ada?"
"To bed! oh yes, of course. Why, it is more than half past eight; it would never do to keep them up so late. Would you like to see baby boy asleep? he looks quite beautiful."
"Yes, I should, very much," returned Katherine, anxious to gratify the mother.
"Come, then," cried Mrs. Ormonde, starting up with alacrity. As the invitation was general, Lady Alice said, in her gentle way.
"Thank you; I saw the baby yesterday."
"She has really very little feeling," observed Mrs. Ormonde, as she went upstairs with her sister-in-law. "She never notices baby."
"I am afraid I should not notice children much if they did not belong to me."