“Troth, and if he resembled you, miss, I'm not surprised that Lady Emily fell in love with him.”
“But how did you come to hear all this, Alice?” asked Lucy with a good deal of anxiety.
“Why, miss, there's a cousin of my own maid to Mrs. Palmer, and you may remember the evenin' you gave me lave to spend with her. She gave a party on the same evenin' and Dandy was there. I think I never looked better; I had on my new stays, and my hair was done up Grecian. Any way, I wasn't the worst of them.”
“I am fatigued, Alice,” said Lucy; “make your narrative as short as you can.”
“I haven't much to add to it now, miss,” she replied. “It was observed that Lady Emily's eyes and his were never off one another. She refused, it seems, to dance with some major that's a great lord in the regiment, and danced with Mr. Roberts afterwards. He brought her down to supper, too, and sat beside her, and you know what that looks like.”
Lucy paused, and seemed as if anxious about something, but at length asked,
“Do you know, Alice, was he there?”
“No, miss,” replied the maid; “Dandy tells me he goes to no great parties at all, he only dines where there's a few. But, indeed, by all accounts he's very unhappy.”
“What do you mean by all accounts,” asked Lucy, a little startled.
“Why, Dandy, miss; so he tells me.”