“Nonsense!” exclaimed Mrs. Hartley, but she gave way nevertheless, and wrote a note forthwith in which she stated she desired to have Lord Ardmorne’s advice and assistance, and stating she would send her carriage to meet any train by which he might appoint to travel.
By return of post came his lordship’s answer. He should be only too delighted, he said, if his advice or assistance could be of any service to Mrs. Hartley, and he would leave London by such a train on such a day.
“So far well,” said the widow; “now we must have a nice luncheon for the dear old man, and you must look your very best. I suppose you are not desirous of adding any other members of the nobility to your list of suitors; but as penance for your sin of omission, you ought to make yourself very charming.”
“I will try,” answered Grace, and she succeeded. Lord Ardmorne was delighted with her.
When, in the pretty drawing-room, Mrs. Hartley repeated all Grace had told her to him, the visitor looked exceedingly grave.
“This thing must not be,” he said; “we must save the General from ruin, and keep the estate for the son—a fine, brave, honest fellow. I never did a kindness to any young man whose subsequent career satisfied me so completely. I never receive a letter from India in which his name is not mentioned, and with approval.”
Grace felt her colour rise a little at this laudation of a man she had never thought clever or remarkable in any way, and she turned her head away, so that if Mrs. Hartley glanced towards her, she might build no fancy from her face.
But Mrs. Hartley did no such thing. She was much too astute a woman to let Grace imagine she was going to plead John Riley’s cause again. She had made up her mind that Miss Moffat and her first lover should marry, but she did not intend to let Grace see her game, or tell her for what stakes she was playing. Mentally, she likened her own position to that of the man who, driving pigs along the road to Cork, told all the people he met that he was proceeding in a contrary direction for fear the animals might immediately turn back.
She had guessed Grace’s little peculiarities with tolerable accuracy, and she was determined not to risk damaging her favourite’s chance by running counter to them.
From the tone of his letters, she knew no woman had as yet filled up Grace’s place in John’s heart.