"It cannot be, surely!" cried Katherine, flushing with a curious feeling.
"Why not? I don't say immediately. I have no doubt everything will be done decently and in order."
"Well, it is incomprehensible."
"Not to me. What can—(Make that little brute on the off side keep up to the collar. You want a few lessons from me still.) What can a girl like Lady Alice do? She is an earl's daughter. She cannot dig; to beg she is ashamed; she must therefore take to herself a husband from the mammon of unaristocratic money-grubbers."
"I should like to meet her again—poor Lady Alice!" said Katherine, more to herself than to her companion.
"I think you are wasting your commiseration," he returned. "She seems quite happy."
"She may be successful in hiding her feelings."
De Burgh laughed. "Tell me," he asked, "do you really think Errington is the sort of fellow women break their hearts about?"
"I cannot tell. He seems to me very good and very nice."
"That is a goody-goody description. Well done!"—as Katherine guided her ponies successfully through the gate of her abode and turned them round the gravel sweep. "I must say you have a pretty little nook here."