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"Oh, laws, Mr Crosbie," the woman of the house exclaimed when she saw him. "Yes, I know," said he. "I've had an accident and got a black eye. What's a good thing for it?" "Oh! an accident!" said the woman, who knew well that that mark had been made by another man's fist. "They do say that a bit of raw beef is about the best thing. But then it must be held on constant all the morning."
Lalkhan returned, bearing a salver, and laid on the salver was one of Jan's lavender bags. He presented it solemnly to his master, who with almost equal solemnity handed it to Mrs. Crosbie. "There!" she said. "Of course I knew I couldn't be mistaken. Now where did you get it?" "It was, I suppose, put among the things when poor Mrs. Tancred had the flat.
Her cousin, who is the heir to the Allington property, is my nephew by his mother." And then the subject was dropped. Crosbie, on his arrival, was shown up into his room, told the hour of dinner, and left to his devices. He had been at the castle before, and knew the ways of the house. So he sat himself down to his table, and began a letter to Lily.
"Well; we shall be sitting at two, you know, and of course you'll come to us. If you're at leisure before that I'll make over what papers I have to you. I've not been a Lord Eldon in my office, and they won't break your back." Immediately after that Fowler Pratt had been shown into Crosbie's room, and Crosbie had written the letter to the squire under Pratt's eye.
And, to tell the truth honestly at once, Mr Crosbie had been on terms of great friendship with Lady de Courcy's daughters, the Ladies Margaretta and Alexandrina perhaps especially so with the latter, though I would not have my readers suppose by my saying so that anything more tender than friendship had ever existed between them.
And, moreover, we may presume that Crosbie did feel much at thus parting from such a girl as Lily Dale, with whom he had lived in close intercourse for the last six weeks, and whom he loved with all his heart, with all the heart that he had for such purposes. In those doubts as to his marriage which had troubled him he had never expressed to himself any disapproval of Lily.
See ante, p. 78, note 5. It was here that Lord Auchinleck called him Ursa Major. Ante, p. 384. See ante, iii. 266, and v. 20, where 'Mr. Crosbie said that the English are better animals than the Scots. When he was told of a caricature 'of the nine muses flogging him round Parnassus, he said, 'Sir, I am very glad to hear this.
Almost all the Courcy world were assembled in the drawing-room as she now walked into the room with Crosbie at her heels. When she found herself near the crowd she turned round, and addressed him in a voice more audible than that generally required for purposes of drawing-room conversation. "Mr Crosbie," she said, "have you heard lately from our dear friend, Lily Dale?"
"That woman almost drives me mad," said Alexandrina, as they stood together with their toes upon the fender. "But, my dear, you of all people should not allow yourself to be driven mad on such a subject." "That's all very well, Amelia." "The question is this, my dear, what does Mr Crosbie mean to do?" "How should I know?"
"It will be of no use, mamma. She is fond of him, very fond. In a sort of a way she loves him so well, that I feel sure she never mentions his name without some inward reference to her old childish thoughts and fancies. If he had come before Mr Crosbie it would have all been well with her. But she cannot do it now. Her pride would prevent her, even if her heart permitted it.
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