"Really, you think?"
"I mean it might if it weren't for something else."
"I'm too judicious to ask what that is."
"I'll tell you when we're back in town," said Mrs. Gosselin, getting up.
Lord Beaupré was restored to them, and the ladies prepared to withdraw.
Before she went to bed Mrs. Gosselin asked him if there had been
anything the matter with Maud; to which he replied with abysmal
blankness (she had never seen him wear just that face) that he was
afraid Miss Ashbury was ill. She proved in fact in the morning too
unwell to return to London: a piece of news communicated to Mrs.
Gosselin at breakfast.
"She'll have to stay; I can't turn her out of the house," said Guy
Firminger.
"Very well; let her stay her fill!"
"I wish you would stay too," the young man went on.
"Do you mean to nurse her?"
"No, her mother must do that. I mean to keep me company."
"_You_? You're not going up?"
"I think I had better wait over to-day, or long enough to see what's the
matter."
"Don't you _know_ what's the matter?"