'Exactly. Willy can't do anything without him, when he's in these parts; and it spoils everything!'
Nelly dropped a kiss on Cicely's hair, as she stood beside her.
'Why didn't you put off coming till next week?'
'Why should I allow my plans to be interfered with by Captain
Marsworth?' said Cicely, haughtily. 'I came to see you!'
'Well, we needn't see much of him,' said Nelly, soothingly, as she dropped on a stool beside her friend.
'I'm not going to be kept out of the cottage, by Captain Marsworth, all the same!' said Cicely hastily. 'There are several books there I want.'
'Oh, Cicely, what have you been doing?' said Nelly, laying her head on her guest's knees.
'Doing? Nothing that I hadn't a perfect right to do. But I suppose—that very particular gentleman—has been complaining?'
Nelly looked up, and met an eye, fiercely interrogative, yet trying hard not to be interrogative.
'I've been doing my best to pick up the pieces.'