"I'm afraid I forgot all about it," said Lady Mary, with a conscience-stricken glance at her husband.
"I hope you sent the carriage round to the stables?" said Sir Timothy.
"No, no; we mustn't stop a minute. But I couldn't help just popping in—so very long since I've seen you—and all this happening at once," said Mrs. Hewel. She was a large, stout woman, with breathless manner and plaintive voice. "And I wanted to show you Sarah in her first grown-up clothes, and tell you about her too," she added.
"Bless me!" said Sir Timothy. "You don't mean to say little Sarah is grown up."
"Oh yes, dear Sir Timothy; she grew up the day before yesterday," said
Mrs. Hewel.
"Sharp work," said the doctor, grimly.
"I mean, of course, she turned up her hair, and let her dresses down. It's full early, I know, but it's such a chance for Sarah—that's partly what I came about. After the trouble she's been all her life to me, and all—just going to that excellent school in Germany—here's my aunt wanting to adopt her, or as good as adopt her—Lady Tintern, you know."
Everybody who knew Mrs. Hewel knew also that Lady Tintern was her aunt; and Lady Tintern was a very great lady indeed.
"She is to come out this very season; that is why I took her to the Gilberts', to prepare her for the great plunge," said Mrs. Hewel, not intending to be funny. "It will be a change for Sarah, such a hoyden as she has always been. But my aunt won't wait once she has got a fancy into her head; though the child is only seventeen."
"At seventeen I was still in the nursery, playing with my dolls," said Lady Belstone.