"Let me sit in the porch with Margaret," said Lena, when they came back
from their walk round the garden; "I am quite tired. Take Mr. Farley to
see the cows, dear Miss Barton."
Hannah had stood by the visitors and showed the glories of the garden
herself. It was her place, she thought, and time that she proved it.
"I want to rest," continued Lena, "and to talk to Margaret about her
lover." She sat down and held out her hands. "Do come to me, little
Margaret."
"It's all a mistake," Margaret began, in dismay.
"Who is it that's her lover?" Hannah asked, looking up sharply.
Lena scented an exciting track, and was happy. "George Stringer told us
about him. He saw them in the fields together." She put out her hands
again, but Margaret shrank back with something that was like horror. "He
said you looked so happy together, darling; and you lingered behind the
hedge just as lovers always do."
"He is not my lover, and I hate him!" Margaret exclaimed.
"Mr. Garratt cares nothing for her, I can tell you that," said Hannah,
emphatically.
"Oh, but he must," Lena answered. "George Stringer said you blushed so
sweetly when you took him to the gate, and spoke of him, and then
Tom--our dear Tom--told us how Mr. Garratt came to tea, and he was so
careful not to say that you had taken him to the wood for fear there
should be jealousy."
"Miss Lakeman, I want you to understand--" Margaret began.
"Darling, you must call me Lena."
"That Mr. Garratt comes here to see Hannah, my half-sister, and not to
see me."
"Oh, but Tom said that you and he talked to each other all the time,"
Lena went on in her sugary voice.
"This is just what I expected, considering the goings on," Hannah cried,
almost losing control over herself. "But it's not Margaret that he comes
to see."
"No one could come and see any one else when she is here," Lena
whispered to herself; but Hannah heard, and answered quickly:
"It's she that puts herself forward and forces herself upon him."
"Oh, she couldn't, she looks so sweet. Here comes Mr. Farley back from
his little walk. Shall we ask him if he thinks it possible that any one
doesn't love you?"
Margaret turned and blazed at her. "Please be silent," she said; "you
may not mean it, but you say things that are simply dreadful, and they
sound as if you said them on purpose."
"I'll ask Tom about it when he comes to-morrow; and I'll make him come
and see you again if I can." Lena put on an air of being puzzled and a
little injured. "But we have not seen each other for three days and I
want him for myself, just as Mr. Garratt wants you."
Margaret went forward and put her hand on Hannah's arm. "She's doing it
on purpose, Hannah," she said, with distress in her voice, "and because
she sees that it vexes you, and that I hate it."
Lena was enjoying herself immensely. "I have made you angry again," she
said; "but you look splendid, just as you did in London. Isn't she
beautiful, Miss Barton?"
Hannah could hardly bear it. "I have never been able to see it," she
said, as her mother and Mrs. Lakeman entered.
Dawson Farley was standing by the porch. "Are you likely to come to
London again, Miss Vincent?" he asked.
"I hope I shall, and soon," Margaret answered; and then she went on
eagerly, "I heard that you saw Miss Hunstan first when she walked on the
stage holding up a princess's train?"
Mr. Farley looked at her curiously. "There is a princess in my new
piece," he said. "Do you want to come and hold up her train?"
"I should love it!" she answered, and walked up the grass-covered path
with him.
Meanwhile Mrs. Lakeman, too, was amusing herself. "And what do you think
of your step-father's chance of coming into the title?" she asked of
Hannah.
Mrs. Vincent's lips locked closely together, but she said nothing.
"What title?" Hannah looked up quickly.
Mrs. Lakeman felt that here was quite a new sensation: she had always
been a gambler in sensations, an inveterate speculator in effects.
"You know that your step-father will be Lord Eastleigh when his brother
dies?"
"I know nothing about it. Why has a mystery been made of it?"
"There has been no mystery made of it," Mrs. Vincent said, firmly. "I
don't suppose father will take up the title, and, anyway, it needn't be
spoken of while the one who has it lives. It seems like hurrying him
into his grave."
But Hannah was not to be silenced. "I suppose this is why we never heard
anything of his relations," she said. "Was he ashamed of us?"
"Such a thing never entered his head," Mrs. Vincent answered.
"And why did this brother, who has got a title, go hiding himself in
Australia? Did he do something he oughtn't to have done?"
"He never did anything but spend his money too quickly," Mrs. Lakeman
answered. "He made an unlucky marriage, of course--dear old Cyril; but
heaps of men do that. We must be going, Mrs. Vincent. Some people are
coming to tea--the Harfords from Bannock Chase; do you know them?"
"I see them in church, but we have not their acquaintance," Mrs. Vincent
answered. Mrs. Lakeman told Dawson Farley afterwards that she said it
with the air of a duchess who had refused to call upon them.
"When are you going to be married, dear?" she asked Margaret, as she got
into the fly. "George Stringer and Tom told us about Mr. Garratt."
"It's all a mistake--" Margaret began, with passionate distress in her
voice.
"Don't tease her," Lena cooed, "she doesn't like it."
Mrs. Lakeman looked at her with an air of worldly wisdom and said,
significantly, "I should wait if I were you. You'll be able to do better
when your father returns." She opened her parasol, which was lined with
lilac silk--and framed her face in it. "Good-bye, Mrs. Vincent, I'm so
glad to have seen you." She made a last effort to put some feeling into
her voice and almost succeeded.
But Mrs. Vincent only said "Good-bye," and turned away almost before the
fly had started.