‘So now, dear Madame De Vigne, you know all,’ resumed her ladyship. ‘If we shall incommode you in the slightest degree, pray tell us so at once, and’——
Madame De Vigne held up her hand in gentle deprecation. ‘Not another word is needed, Lady Renshaw,’ she said. ‘What you ask is a very small favour, indeed. Pray, consider this room as yours during your stay. It will please me much to know that you do so.’
‘Isn’t she nice!’ said Bella to herself admiringly. ‘If I were a man I believe I should fall in love with her.’
‘You are really very kind, and I am more obliged to you than I can say,’ remarked Lady Renshaw with her most expansive smile. ‘Archie too, dear boy, will be immensely gratified when he finds us installed here.’ Then after a momentary pause, she added: ‘Do you purpose making much of a stay among the Lakes, may I ask?’
‘I can scarcely tell. Our little holiday may come to an end in two or three days, or it may extend to as many weeks.’
Bella’s gaze had been intently fixed on Mr Dulcimer. ‘I do believe he is winking at me over his book!’ she cried to herself. ‘But he has audacity enough for anything.’
‘Pardon the question, dear Madame De Vigne, but am I right in assuming that, like myself, you have been left desolate and forlorn in this vale of tears?’
‘I am a—a widow, if that is what you mean, Lady Renshaw.’
‘Then is there one more bond of sympathy between us. Never can I forget my own loss. It was five years last Monday since poor dear Sir Timothy died. But I see him every night in my dreams, and I carry his portrait and a lock of his hair—he had not much hair, poor darling—with me wherever I go. He was not handsome; but he was a most excellent creature. He left me all he possessed, and—and he only lived two years and a half after our marriage!’
The affecting picture was too much for her ladyship’s feelings; she pressed her perfumed and delicately embroidered handkerchief to her eyes. Madame De Vigne, with a slightly disdainful expression on her pale features, sat as cold and unmoved as a statue.