"Bad!" cried Mrs. Chester.
"I think so. There's nothing good or kind in them; and she's eaten up alive with vanity. You must take care of your husband, Clara, for she seems to covet his admiration."
Clara Lake, who was in advance, looked back and laughed merrily.
"How can you put such notions in her head?" spoke Mrs. Chester, severely. "Robert Lake's manners with women are in the highest degree absurd; but there's no need for his wife to be reminded of it to her face."
"I don't mind being reminded of it, Mrs. Chester. It means nothing."
"Of course it does not. I only hope Lady Ellis will not take offence at him. What age is she, I wonder--five-and-twenty?"
"Five-and-thirty, if she's a day!" spoke Mary Ann Jupp, in her strong decision. "She is made-up, you know--cosmetics and that, and dresses to look young. But just look quietly at her when the sun is on her face."
"But she cannot be that age."
"I think she is. I will ask mamma when I get home: she knows."
The subject dropped. Mrs. Chester took them round the house, and in at the back door, showing one thing, explaining another. The larder and the dairy were first entered.