“I will go to-day. There is a train at one o’clock. I can send a telegram from the station, and tell mother I am coming. I will go up-stairs now and pack,” I cried, and she never protested a bit, but said quite quietly that she would order a cab to take me to the station. Talk about feeling small! I simply cringed as I went out of that room.
The carriage was waiting for me at the station at the end of a miserable journey, but no one was in it. I had hoped that father would come to meet me. I could have spoken to him, and he would have understood. John said he was out for the day with a shooting-party, and when I reached the house another disappointment awaited me, for I was met by an announcement that mother also had been obliged to go out to keep an engagement.
“She hopes to be home by five o’clock,” said the servant. “Miss Vere and Lady Mary are in the blue sitting-room. Mr Dudley has just come to call.”
I had forgotten that Lady Mary was staying at the house, and it made me feel as if I were more superfluous than ever, for Vere would not need me when she had her best friend at hand, and, somehow or other, Will Dudley was just the last person in the world I wanted to see just then. There was nothing for it, however; I had to go upstairs and stand the horrible ordeal of being cross-questioned about my unexpected return.
“Don’t tell me it is an outbreak of small-pox!” cried Lady Mary, huddling back in her chair, and pretending to shudder at my approach. “That’s the worst of staying in a doctor’s house—you simply court infection! If it’s anything interesting and becoming, you may kiss me as usual, but if it’s small-pox or mumps, I implore you to keep at the other end of the room! I’m not sure that mumps wouldn’t be the worse of the two. I can’t endure to look fat!”
“Has Lorna turned out a villain in disguise? Have you quarrelled and bidden each other a tragic farewell?” asked Vere laughingly.
She looked thinner than ever, but her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes as bright as stars. As for Will Dudley, he stared at the pattern of the carpet, and his eyebrows twitched in the impatient way I know so well. I think he saw that I was really in trouble, and was vexed with the girls for teasing me.
“Thank you, everyone was quite well when I left. You need not be afraid of infection, and Lorna is nicer than ever. We have certainly not quarrelled.”
“Then why this thusness?” asked Lady Mary, and Vere burst into a laugh.