“Who’s that, taking George’s name in vain?” cried George, looking round.
“It is I, George. You never told mamma, when you wrote, that the Verralls were with us at Homburg.”
“I’m sure I don’t remember whether I did or not,” said George.
“The Verralls are in Wales,” observed Mr. Hastings.
“Then they have travelled to it pretty quickly,” observed George. “When I and Maria quitted Homburg we left them in it. They had been there a month.”
Not one present but looked up with surprise. “The impression in Prior’s Ash is, that they are in Wales,” observed Thomas Godolphin. “It is the answer given by the servants to all callers at Lady Godolphin’s Folly.”
“They are certainly at Homburg; whatever the servants may say,” persisted George. “The servants are labouring under a mistake.”
“It is a curious mistake for the servants to make, though,” observed the Rector, in a dry, caustic tone.
“I think the Verralls are curious people altogether,” said Bessy Godolphin.
“I don’t know but they are,” assented George. “But Verrall is a thoroughly good-hearted man, and I shall always speak up for him.”