“Florence,” repeated Lucy patiently, “I tell you again, you miss the whole point of the position. I did not do this for money. I did it because under present conditions it seemed an opportunity for the interchange of neighbourly service. If Charlie had been at home, I am sure he would have asked the boy to be our guest for a week or two, till some fit home was found for him, which Charlie would have helped to find. I have done the next best thing—the one thing possible under present circumstances, and I receive a favour in giving one, which is always the most wholesome and pleasant thing for both parties concerned.”
“It seems to me that you consider everybody and everything except your own position and the feelings of your relations,” returned Florence. “But it is high time we were downstairs; and I must put the whole matter out of my mind for the present, or I shall not be fit to receive my visitors. That ever I should live to see the day——”
She bustled off leaving her sentence unfinished, Lucy meekly following her.
If Lucy’s news had “shocked” Florence, Lucy was certainly startled by the new standpoint in the Brand establishment! If the five people to whom she was introduced—quite strange to her, and in most elaborate toilettes—were “one or two friends,” what represented “formality” in the Brand ideas? Of course, the hostess’s sister was introduced to them all—a murmur of names, a waving of bowing figures, amid which Lucy caught the name of Jinxson, and was able to associate it with a little woman, in emerald green brocade, a thatch of tawny curls beetling over a brow which needed no dwarfing. Then she found herself relegated to the more special society of a very tall man, very dark, with a sounding Highland name, whose prefix alone fastened itself upon her ears, so that ever afterwards she thought of him as “Mr. Mac.” He opened conversation with her by asking first if she had seen the last opera, and then if she contemplated going “for the autumn” to the Highlands or to Norway? Then he murmured, “May I have the honour,” and they fell into the procession filing into the dining-room.
The dining-room was a still further revelation of the long distance the Brands’ customs had travelled during the few months since Lucy had last joined in their social life. Fine napery they had always had, but now the long table-cloth was edged with rich embroidery and heavy lace. The table centre was a creamy film over pale rose-satin, and that note of colour was carried out in every detail of china, glass and floral decoration. The latter was a wonderful arrangement, which Lucy at once knew it must have taken hours to work out. The menu was equally elaborate; one out-of-season delicacy followed another. The wines and liqueurs seemed to Lucy to be equally rare and choice, judging from their names whispered in her ear ever and again by two men in severely correct evening dress who “waited at table,” and were in their turn waited upon by the housemaid and the parlour-maid.
One of the ladies exclaimed on the loveliness of the floral scheme. “What genius you have at your service, Mrs. Brand!” she cried.
“Oh, not at my service only,” Florence replied nonchalantly. “I could not trust such a thing to my maids, and I could not spare time for it myself. Gosson, the florist, knows of one or two young women whom he recommends for such work.”
“It needs much taste,” said the Highland gentleman.
“Oh, I understand they are quite superior people,” Florence answered. “When I asked if one could rely on their honesty, he gave me the history of the one he meant to send. The daughter of a doctor, I think Gosson said, who had found it so impossible to provide for his family by his profession that he was tempted into speculation, and, of course, lost everything and committed suicide. It looked odd to see the dismal-looking girl in black creating such visions of beauty.”
“Ah, you have such a sensitive heart, dear Mrs. Brand,” said Mrs. Jinxson. “I should not wonder you helped her with most valuable suggestions. I think I trace your exquisite taste.” Florence smiled and did not reply.