“To be sure, we were talking of Miss Courtney. Well, she was brought up at Courtney Grange, and has a sister and brother who are perfectly lovely, strange as it may seem when you look at her plain face. I believe they pride themselves upon being a county family, but they were a very poverty-stricken lot until the father secured for his second wife a rich widow, the daughter of the Earl of Greatlands. Then one startling announcement followed another. Lady Elizabeth’s brother, the heir to the earldom, became engaged to the beautiful Miss Courtney. Then the wedding was put off because the old earl was to be married to the ugly Miss Courtney, the one who is here now. While all society was opening its eyes in amazement at this freak of the old earl, it was startled by the news of his death on his wedding-morning.”
“How shocking! And had the marriage taken place?”
“How could it? This girl would then have been the Countess of Greatlands.”
“Poor thing! What a dreadful disappointment for her.”
“Yes, you may well say so. And that is what surprises me so about her. She seems to be quite happy and merry. Look how she was running about the garden when we came—a perfect tomboy.”
“So she was. It’s really very indecent of her, when one comes to think of it. She ought to keep herself as quiet as if she were really a widow.”
“H’m! widows! I don’t think much of them. They are a flighty lot. But what do you think people are saying about the ‘Greatlands Romance,’ as it is called?”
“I’m sure I don’t know. You see, I have been abroad, and—”
“And you can’t afford to buy the newspapers. Yes, I know all about that. Well, they say that the earl’s son—that is, the present earl, and his intended bride, Miss Belle Courtney, were furious when they heard of the old gentleman’s infatuation, and that they swore the marriage should never take place. One of the servants overheard a desperate quarrel between the two sisters, in which the elder vowed all sorts of horrible things. After that it was queer, to say the least, that the poor old man, who had gone to bed the night before quite healthy and happy, should be found to be dead when his valet went to rouse him on his marriage morning.”
“Good heavens! why, they must have murdered him!”