"Oh, what a pity! I thought—"
But what Lady Violet thought, she never told him, for at that moment her brother and sister came into the room together, and Lady Earlswood soon followed. And then dinner was announced.
The dinner-table was covered with the rarest hothouse flowers and ferns, amongst which were burning numbers of tiny electric lamps, the brightness of which was reflected in the shining silver and glass. As Kenneth Fortescue sat talking to Captain Berington after the ladies had gone into the drawing-room, he could not help wondering whether he would ever again sit down at such a table.
The evening passed pleasantly and all too quickly. Lady Earlswood had the happy gift of making all who came to her house feel at home and thoroughly at their ease, and she expressed great sorrow when Captain Fortescue announced that he must be back in Aldershot the following day.
She looked somewhat surprised when he asked her if he might speak to her on a personal matter before he started, and she glanced at Lady Violet, as if she wondered if the interview he had asked for had anything to do with her. If so, she was inclined to listen favourably to what he had to say, for Captain Fortescue was apparently the richest man of her acquaintance, and certainly the most aristocratic in appearance. He had no title, which was, of course, a serious drawback, and she would have to make full inquiry about his family and prospects before giving her consent. But if Violet was fond of him, and if all turned out satisfactory, now that he had inherited his father's money, an offer from him would, at any rate, have her serious consideration.
Thus Lady Earlswood looked forward with anything but dissatisfaction to the appointment that she had made with Kenneth Fortescue, to come to her morning-room after breakfast the following day.
"You would like to see me alone," she whispered, as they rose from the breakfast-table and were leaving the room.
"No, Lady Earlswood; if you do not mind, I should like all of you to hear what I have to say."
Lady Earlswood was surprised. Surely his private communication could not be what she had expected. However, she at once fell in with his suggestion, and soon the family party was gathered together in her pretty boudoir.
Then he told them all; he laid before them the story of his life; he spoke tenderly of his old father, dwelling on his self-denying love in bringing him up, and educating him regardless of expense, and in such a way as to make him (he was ashamed to own it now) even feel out of place in his own home, and out of touch with his own father. He said that he had often wished to tell them of this, but a feeling of loyalty to his father had held him back from doing so.