"Lady Mabel is, as usual, having a good many adventures," he said, taking a chair near. "She has been on a driving-tour with her brother—"
"Mr. Cranmer? I know him slightly," said Frederick.
"Yes; they are in Devonshire, at a little place called Edge Combe, near Stanton."
"Dear me! Isn't that where all those old maids live—the Miss Willoughbys?" said Ottilie, turning to her husband.
He made one of the many English inarticulate sounds representing "Yes."
"I wonder if Lady Mabel has come across Godfrey's step-sister, Elaine Brabourne?" she went on, in her deep contralto accents.
"Oh, yes, certainly; she mentions a Miss—is your nephew's name Brabourne? I never knew it. Then his father used to be colonel of my regiment."
"That's it," said Frederick, calmly. "Yes, he has a step-sister, I'm sorry to say, who has been brought up by a set of puritanical old maids—old hags, my poor sister used to call them."
"Lady Mabel is staying with the Miss Willoughbys," said the colonel, rather red in the face.
There was an uncomfortable pause; then Mr. Orton laughed lazily.