"You will have to wait for your tea," she said, "the water doesn't nearly boil."
Marcella went up to the fire and, kneeling before it, put the logs with which it was piled together. But she could not contain herself for long.
"Will you go to the Court, mamma?" she asked quickly, without turning round.
There was a pause. Then Mrs. Boyce said drily—
"Miss Raeburn's proceedings are a little unexpected. We have been here four months, within two miles of her, and it has never occurred to her to call. Now she calls and asks us to luncheon in the same afternoon. Either she took too little notice of us before, or she takes too much now—don't you think so?"
Marcella was silent a moment. Should she confess? It began to occur to her for the first time that in her wild independence she had been taking liberties with her mother.
"Mamma!"
"Yes."
"I asked Mr. Aldous Raeburn the other day whether everybody here was going to cut us! Papa told me that Lord Maxwell had written him an uncivil letter and—"
"You—asked—Mr. Raeburn—" said Mrs. Boyce, quickly. "What do you mean?"