“It depends on two or three things,” Ryder answered. “I scarcely know what may suit Mrs Littlewood yet, and I am always busy in my own, perhaps useless, way. But a few days, yes, I must stay a few days if possible, and I hope I may take my chance of finding you at home?”
He glanced round with the half intention of asking to be introduced to the tall fair girl, whose appearance, to tell the truth, had considerably surprised him, but he gave up the idea. Frances was seated at some little distance, and bending over her, as he stood beside her chair, was Horace Littlewood, talking eagerly.
Chapter Fourteen.
In the Old Library.
When the ladies returned to the drawing-room after dinner, two figures in white, with broad blue sashes, rose to greet them.
Frances’ face grew still brighter. She had dreaded for her sisters an entrance into an already crowded room, for such to their inexperienced eyes would it have appeared a quarter of an hour or so later, though the number of guests was in reality but a small one. In addition to the Charlemonts, father, mother, and daughter, were one or two odd men, whom Horace had managed to secure from no great distance, and a young married couple, who thought nothing of a twelve-mile drive for the sake of a little variety in what they considered the dullest of dull neighbourhoods, where they were forced to pass three months of every winter, for the sake of pleasing an elderly uncle. They, like the rest of the party, were spending the night at Craig-Morion, and the young wife had been confiding to Frances, in their progress from the dining-room, her regret that they were not nearer neighbours. For Miss Morion’s appearance and name had at once caught her attention.
“You would find it unbearable here,” said Frances, “if you think Mellersby dull. We consider that neighbourhood quite in the centre of things compared to this.”
“Oh, you don’t know—” her companion was rejoining, when her glance fell on the two expectant figures standing near the fireplace. “Who are these?” she broke off. “Parson’s daughters, no doubt.”