"Yes," said Theo, when she had procured a minute's delay by stooping down to disentangle slowly a wisp of her flouncing from a splinter of wood on the table-leg. "It's wonderful how well she's turned out, isn't it? Does her such credit, poor thing, and the Helstons too. Mother was obliged to send her away, you know; fortunately Mrs. Helston had no girls. She seems to be quite all right now, doesn't she? You would never guess what she came from."
Lance was so astonished that for a moment he could not speak. At last he said:
"I don't understand. Are you talking of your cousin, Miss Lutwyche? I thought her mother was the vicar's sister?"
"So she was; but you see, poor Aunt Melicent married a brute. It was a runaway match, of course. I can't tell you what he did—drank himself to death, or something of the kind. I believe my aunt died of a broken heart It's a wretched story. But oh, I forgot! Papa does not like us to speak of it, on poor Millie's account. He thinks it would be so bad for her if such a thing got about, so you must try and forget what I have said! I am so heedless!"
She laughed boisterously. Lance was furious. He had always disliked the Cooper girls, this turned his dislike to positive rancour. He felt sure that almost the whole of what he heard was mere ill-natured calumny. Still, there is no smoke without fire, and his self-esteem received a jolt. He was the eldest son of a baronet, and though the Burmester blood was not blue, it was very respectable. What would his parents say to a bride whose antecedents were shady?
His discomposure was momentary. His eye fell upon the proud, careless grace of Melicent as she walked along the path before him. She was giving Captain Brooke a fluent account of the finding of the oaken angel, which left him no chance to put in a word until they reached the others.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE END OF THE FIRST ROUND
"Go, if you will! Let continents divide us,
And put the seas between, and sink the ships!
What space shall sunder us, what darkness hide us,
What force shall keep apart our meeting lips?"
One of Captain Brooke's first purchases when he came to England was a motor; and it had since been Carol Mayne's fate to be driven hither and thither by a driver whose want of skill at first was only equalled by his recklessness. Now he had mastered the art, as he mastered most of the things he cared to try; and it fell out that he drove Mayne and Burmester home from the Glen Royd tennis-party, the early spring air being chilly, and the ladies of the party all preferring Sir Joseph's motor, which was closed.