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She kept us all amused, and, whether Lady Grenellen would eventually permit it or no, Lord Luffton seemed immensely épris with her now. There was only one other girl at the table, Lady Agatha de Champion, and her slouching, stooping figure and fuzzled hair did not show to advantage beside the heiress's upright, rounded shape and well-brushed waves.
"And you really should not use that little word 'you. Of course, you don't mean any of us, but it sounds unkind and might be misunderstood especially," she added, in a whisper to me, "as that is the exact case of Cordelia Grenellen."
At the station Augustus had already arrived, and, under pretence of seeing whether the servants and luggage were all there, he was scanning the platform anxiously for Lady Grenellen. His face fell when he saw me. Perhaps he hoped she would have arrived first. I could not prevent myself from speaking in a voice of extra coldness, although I tried hard to be natural.
Then, with infinite tact, my kinsman attracted his attention, said some thrilling thing about the war, and, as Lady Grenellen moved off and Augustus made another ineffectual attempt to rise and follow her, Sir Antony sat down in her vacant place and for half an hour conversed with my husband. Oh, I force myself to write the words "my husband."
And like a group of summer-flowers the women, in their light and fluffy tea-gowns, added the touch of grace to the heavy darkness of the old stone walls. I paused a while and watched them. Lady Grenellen, gorgeous as a sultana, seemed to have collected all the cushions to enhance her comfort as she lay back in a low, deep sofa. Augustus sat beside her.
"And I expect you were frightfully bored, Letitia, darling," said Lady Grenellen, "and that is why you never stay at home now." It seemed to me quite wonderful how they could be so disrespectful to this elderly lady, but she did not seem at all offended. "You are incorrigible, Cordelia," was all she said, and she laughed.
Whether it was to make the latter jealous, I do not know, but Lady Grenellen had been remarkably gracious to him all the evening. I learned, casually, that she was to be the fourth at Dane Mount. "We shall be such a little party," she said. "Only myself and you and your husband.
There was a great deal of business to be seen about in connection with the will. Lady Tilchester had telegraphed at once all her sympathy, and I got numbers of letters from all sorts of people. Among them Lady Grenellen! A beautifully expressed note, full of the friendliest sympathy.
Sir Antony Thornhirst, who had stopped to speak to Lady Tilchester by the billiard-room door, now came over to us. He stood by me for a moment, then crossed to Lady Grenellen. "They are wanting you to play bridge in the blue drawing-room," he said. She rose quite reluctantly, still overcome with mirth. Augustus tried to get up, too, but stumbled back into the sofa.
I told you it wasn't only the uniform, and it might get you into trouble some day. Oh, to think that an extra glass of champagne could have made you volunteer. And now you've got to go to the war and you have broken my heart." Augustus's own terror was pitiable to see if it had not roused all my contempt. Oh, that I should bear the name of a craven! Lady Grenellen was also in London.
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