'You forget your breeding, child. A visitor, of course, sits beside me.'
'I know that, mamma, therefore I decline.'
'You will come, Jesse?'
'As you wish, mamma, and show to the admiring visitor the City of Bladud, Beau Nash, and of Tomkin-Jones.'
'My dear, eschew flippancy.'
In a quarter of an hour the ladies were ready, and descended to the carriage.
This was a somewhat battered conveyance, let by the hour, drawn by a horse that had known better days, as had the chariot and the driver. The steed leaned forward, so that but for the counterpoise of the carriage he would have fallen headlong on his nose.
Thinking that the general aspect of the conveyance, driver, and steed, left something to be desired, Mrs. Tomkin-Jones said in her grandest manner, 'Everything may not be quite as might be desiderated, but I study safety above all else. It is my first consideration, and one is compelled to sacrifice appearances to that!'—she shrugged her shoulders—'I can rely on this chariot. The horse I have known never to fall, though it sometimes coughs. The coachman I knew by long acquaintance—I mean employment—as one who does not drink. One cannot be too cautious. An inebriate driver, even with the most sober horse, may do terrible things. Moreover, Baker is attached to the family by cords of gratitude, as he was attended in a case of considerable internal complication by my dear husband. The horse has good blood in him. Observe the nose and the hanging underlip—it was a characteristic of Charles the Fifth. Will you favour me by stepping in? The cushions and lining have a smell—a mouldy, damp, strange savour—but it is wholesome, and was particularly recommended by the dear doctor in cases of hay fever—from which I suffer.'
Winefred had never sat in any other carriage than a carrier's van or a mail-coach, and she was in no mood to note the defects in that she now entered.
Her heart swelled with pride. She was made much of, was indulged, treated with some deference. She had passed into a new world in which the atmosphere was new. She was away from the suspicion, the slander of Axmouth. She would not have been a woman and young not to have felt elated at the thought that she was rich, and on account of her riches was respected. Yet withal she was uneasy at her surroundings, so different from any wherewith she had been acquainted, and she was afraid of exposing her ignorance.