“Kathleen—Katherine—is in India, my lady.”
“Good gracious! Why?”
“Well, she’s great friends with the Marquis of Framlingham’s daughters,” said Mrs. Massarene, feeling sure this time she was safe.
“What! Sherry and Bitters?” cried Lady Kenilworth. Sherry and Bitters was the nickname which his caustic but ever courteous wit had earned for Lord Framlingham in that London world which he had left for an Indian presidency. She was vexed with herself for not having thought sooner of asking for this daughter and taking her under her own wing.
Mrs. Massarene was bewildered by the exclamation; but she was sure of her ground this time, and was not alarmed. “Lord and Lady Framlingham, ma’am,” she repeated with zest. “It’s cruel hard on me to lose her for so long, but as they’re such grand folks one couldn’t in reason object.”
“Grand folks?” repeated her visitor with amusement. “Poor dear souls! how amused they be. They’d have been sold up if they hadn’t gone out; she hated going, said she’d rather live on a crust in England, but he jumped at the appointment; he’d a whole yelling pack of Jews on him; it’s quieted them of course; and he’s let Saxe-Durham for the term. You’d better tell your husband not to lend him any money, for he never pays, he can’t pay; he’s sure to get your daughter to ask.”
“Lord’s sakes, my lady!” murmured Margaret Massarene: life became altogether inexplicable to her; if a gentleman who was a marquis, and governor of a province twice as big as France, they said, were not everything he ought to be, where could excellence and solvency be looked for? O vertu où vas-tu te nicher? she would have said had she ever heard of the line.
“But they are very—very—good people, are they not, ma’am?” she asked pathetically.
“Oh, dear, yes; she is much too ugly to be anything else, and he’s a very good fellow though he does make himself hated with his sharp tongue. He’s like that monarch, you know, who never did a wise thing and never said a silly one. He’s awfully clever, but he can’t keep his head above water. But why on earth did you let your daughter go for so long? They’ll get marrying her to one of their boys; they’ve no end of them.”
She was not pleased that the young woman was staying with Lord Framlingham; he was a very clever and sarcastic person who might supply his guest with inconvenient and premature knowledge of English society in general and of Cocky and herself in particular.