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Louis Gigue played wonderful improvisations on the piano that evening, and Cicely sang so brilliantly and ravishingly that had she then stood on the boards of the Paris Grand Opera, she would have created a wild 'furore. Lady Wicketts knitted placidly; she was making a counterpane, which no doubt someone would reluctantly decide to sleep under and Miss Fosby embroidered a cushion cover for Lady Wicketts, who already possessed many of these articles wrought by the same hand.
And then, if the beholders fell into the trap and uttered exclamations of rapture at the 'Shepherdess' or the 'Madonna, or whatever allegorical subject it happened to be, she would smile triumphantly and say-'Lady Wicketts! to all appearance enjoying the violent shock of incredulous amazement which her announcement invariably inflicted on all those who received it.
"Where has she gone?" asked Roxmouth, affecting as much ease and lightness of manner as he could in putting the question. Miss Fosby smiled a little more. "I really don't know," she replied, with civil mildness "I fancy she has no settled plans at all. She has kindly allowed Lady Wicketts and myself the use of the Manor for three weeks." "Till she returns?" suggested Longford.
"Not possible!" they would murmur "Lady Wicketts !" "Yes, Lady Wicketts when she was young," Miss Fosby would say mildly "She was very beautiful when she was twenty. She is sixty- seven now. But she is still beautiful, don't you think so? She has such an angelic expression! And she is so good ah! so very goodl There is no one like Lady Wicketts!"
The 'Sisters Gemini, Lady Wicketts and Miss Fosby, had departed from Abbot's Manor when the time of their stay had concluded, and neither of the twain had given the slightest hint to any enquirer, as to the probable date of the return of the mistress of the domain.
Now this dream was over, and he could willingly have thrown plates and dishes and anything else that came handy at the very name of Maryllia for her 'impudence' as he called it, in leaving them all in the lurch. "It will be quite easy to ascertain where she has gone," said Marius Longford presently, in soft conciliatory accents "Lady Wicketts will probably know, and Miss Fosby "
Gigg have also left," said Primmins. "I suppose Miss Vancourt went with them?" "No, sir." This was baffling. "Lady Wicketts is staying here, I believe," murmured Roxmouth "Can I er?" "Her ladyship has the neuralgy and is lying down, my lord," and an acute observer might have noticed the tremor of a wink in Primmins' eye "Miss Fosby is in the drawing-room."
She had been represented as a 'Shepherdess, a 'Madonna, a 'Girl with Lilies, a 'Lady with a Greyhound, a 'Nymph Sleeping, and more briefly and to the purpose, as 'Portrait of Lady Wicketts, in every exhibition of pictures that had been held during her youth and prime. Miss Fosby carried prints and photographs of these works of art everywhere about with her.
I know heaps and heaps of married women, and they are in anything but an enviable state. I would not change with one of them!" "Would you like to be another Miss Fosby?" he suggested in a mirthful undertone. She smiled. "Well no! But I would rather be Miss Fosby than Lady Wicketts!" Here she rose, giving the signal for general adjournment to the drawing-room.
There is no one there now, so my imparted information relates, with the exception of her ladyship Wicketts, a Miss Fosby and a hired musician from the cells of the professional caterer, named Gigg." Walden's eyes twinkled. He was always very indulgent to Mr. Netlips, and rather encouraged him than otherwise in his own special flow of language. "Really!" he said "And so they are all gone!
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