“Charming! Such lovely roses!”
“Beautiful band, isn’t it?”
“Oh, charming! Quite charming!”
Then he seated me at a little table and provided me with an ice, (number four), and stared furtively at me from the opposite side. It was fun. I crinkled my veil up over my nose and tilted my hat over my forehead, and shot a glance at him every now and then, to find his eyes fixed on me—not recognising at all, but evidently so puzzled and mystified to think who I could be. Father had told him only a week before that Vere would not be home for a month—and now who was this third Miss Sackville who had suddenly appeared upon the scene?
“You have returned home rather sooner than you intended, haven’t you?” he inquired, and I shook my head and said—
“Oh, no, I kept to the exact date. I always do! What makes you think otherwise?”
“I—er—I thought I heard you were not expected for some time to come. You have been staying with friends?”
“Oh, a number of friends! Quite a huge house party. I feel quite lost without them all.”
He would have been rather surprised if I had explained that the party consisted of forty women and no man, but that was not his business, and it was perfectly true that I missed them badly. All the Rachel Greaveses in the world would never make up for Lorna and the rest!
“But you have your sister!” he said. “I have seen a good deal of your sister in her morning walks with Mr Sackville. She is a charming child, and most companionable; I am sure she will be a host in herself!”