‘Oh, mamma, what are you saying?’ said Emmy, still anxious to save appearances. ‘Aunt Emily will think that dear Jim——’
Florence said nothing, but sat staring into the vacant air with wide open eyes full of trouble, while Mrs. Plowden, altogether broken down, put her head upon Lady William’s shoulder and cried.
‘It’s mamma’s nerves,’ said Emmy again; ‘she has been upset to-day. You are not to think, Aunt Emily, that anything dreadful has happened. Nothing is wrong with Jim; it is only that papa is angry with him, and mamma has got it on her nerves, and—mamma, this was not what you came to talk of, you know.’
Mrs. Plowden raised her head after a minute with a piteous smile. ‘Thank you, Emily, you’re always kind,’ she said; ‘and it’s only my nerves, as Emmy says. I get agitated, and then everything looks black, as if it never would come right again. It isn’t that there’s anything to be frightened about, and you know what a true good heart my Jim has, and that’s everything, isn’t it? That’s everything,’ the poor lady said.
‘What mamma really wanted to ask you, Aunt Emily,’ said Emmy, ‘was whether you had seen Mrs. Swinford. She has been to call at the Rectory.’
‘Yes, yes,’ said Mrs. Plowden; ‘that was what we wanted, to be sure. Emily, you won’t think anything more of the little fuss I’ve made about Mr. Osborne, will you? You would think I meant that he intended to slight my son. You know I couldn’t mean that. And he is a very good curate, and James puts great confidence in him. It’s my nerves that get the better of me. But Emmy always brings me up to the mark. Yes, about Mrs. Swinford, that was it; did she come here, too?’
‘I believe so; but before we came in. She left a card with a message—— ’
‘My dear Emily, I don’t think Mrs. Swinford is a very nice woman,’ said Mrs. Plowden solemnly.
‘Don’t you?’ said Lady William, with a faint smile.
‘You see, girls,’ said the Rector’s wife, ‘your aunt will never say anything. Perhaps it is prudent, but it’s a little confusing. One doesn’t know what to say.’