"As if we should bring him away from home if he were not! You will laugh at his old-fashioned name, Grace—Thomas."
"Thomas is a very good name. It is your husband's."
"Yes—and not one of his first wife's children bear it. So I thought it high time this one should."
"Why did your husband not bring you up today?"
"Because he has two funerals this afternoon—people are sure to die at the wrong time," added Lady Mary, quaintly. "And the vicar of the next parish, who is always ready to help him, is away this week."
"And the godfathers?—who are they, Mary?"
"My husband is one of them: he has stood to all his children. The other is Oscar Dalrymple."
"Oscar Dalrymple?" echoed Grace.
"Yes. He is not a general favourite; but Mr. Cleveland likes him. And he thinks he has behaved very well in this wretched business of Selina's. The one we should have preferred to have for godfather, we did not like to ask—if you can understand that apparent contradiction, Gracie?"
"And who was that?" asked Grace, looking up.