“I am a perfect idiot,” she thought, and again the expression on her face struck Miss Lermont as unusual.
“At Wyverston,” she repeated. “The Headforts’ place. Oh, yes, I remember your telling me in your very first letter from home about Evelyn’s going there. But you never said anything more—as to how the visit went off and if she enjoyed it. You were not very well about that time, if I remember rightly. I think your mother wrote and said so?”
“I don’t think there was much the matter with me,” said Philippa, “but mamma was a little anxious. They will think me looking brilliantly well when I go home after this splendid holiday, I am sure. You were asking about Evey’s visit? Yes, she enjoyed it very much, and it was a great success. She took to the Headforts and they to her wonderfully.”
“Then,” began Miss Lermont, “but don’t answer if it is indiscreet of me to ask, do you think the old man is going to recognise your brother-in-law as his heir and—to treat him accordingly?”
“We don’t quite know,” said Philippa, “and after all, as Duke says, there is no hurry to know. The squire is not a very old man, and he must be wiry to have lived through the shocks he has had. He knows nothing almost of Duke except by hearsay, though there is nothing but good to hear of him. All he has said has been to express a wish that Duke should give up India and settle down at home, and he worded it as if he meant to help him to do so. Of course we shall know more after they have met.”
“Will that be soon?” asked Miss Lermont.
“Yes, I believe Evey and he are going north very shortly after we get back,” said Philippa. “And they are taking the boy, Bonny, with them. The Wyverston people have specially invited him.”
“I think that all looks very promising,” said Maida. “You would be very glad for your sister not to have to go abroad again, would you not?”
“Very,” said Philippa, heartily. “It would be the greatest comfort in the world; even if they had to go to live in the north, it would seem delightful after India.”
“Is Wyverston a pretty place?” said Maida, but she checked herself almost as she said the words. “Of course you have never been there, so how could you know.”