“Your own boys?” said Mrs. Lenny, raising herself very erect in her chair. “Oh, I feel for you—I feel for you, Will! but if you put the least bit of a slur on my sister or her child——
“Don’t make it worse,” he said, throwing up his hands. “I throw a slur! You know I never thought of anything so impossible—it is impossible; but how could I think of him as mine? Adoption has its rights—but Lenny will tell you what I propose.”
A short time after there were affectionate good-nights between the ladies. Lady Markham accompanied Mrs. Lenny to her room to see that she had everything she could desire.
“I am so sorry you must go to-morrow,” she said, half out of politeness, but with a little mixture of truth, for there was something in the genial warmth of the strange couple which touched her heart.
“My dear, it’s just possible we may have another day,” said the old campaigner.
The mother and daughter had a harmless little laugh together over Mrs. Lenny’s “evening body,” but they agreed that “papa’s old friends” were real friends, and adopted them with cordiality though amusement.
“She asked me a great deal about the family and about Paul,” Alice said as they separated.
“No letter again to-day,” said Lady Markham, with a sigh.
That name subdued their smiles. To think he should be the best beloved, yet so careless of their happiness!
“He is so forgetful,” they both said.