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October has almost come, and the damp and the falling leaves. It will soon be time for Mrs. Gurrage to depart for Bournemouth.
She does not have to fluster in, buttoning her cuff, when people call. "Mr. Gurrage wishes to see you, grandmamma," I said, as I kissed her hand, and then I left them to take off my hat and I did not come down again until I heard the front door shut. "That is a terrible young man, Ambrosine," grandmamma said, when I did return to the drawing-room.
It had a "suite" in it like the one at the cottage, only with Louis XV. legs and Louis XVI. backs, and a general expression of distortion, and all of the newest gilt-and-crimson satin brocade. And under a glass case in the corner was the top of a wedding-cake and a bunch of orange blossoms. I was kept waiting about ten minutes, and then Mrs. Gurrage bustled in, fastening her cuff.
For several days after this a good deal of my time was taken up by my mother-in-law's advice and directions as to how I should rule the house during her absence at Bournemouth, where she would be until she returned to spend Christmas with us. It was a great wrench, one could see, to Mrs. Gurrage to relinquish even for this short two months her rule at Ledstone.
He had not come up to dress. Indeed, when I was quite ready to go down to dinner he had not yet appeared. Half-past eight sounded. I descended the stairs quickly and went along the passage towards his "den." There I met his valet. "Mr. Gurrage is asleep, ma'am," he said, "and does not seem inclined to wake, ma'am," and he held the door open for me to pass into the room.
I had one of the most distant spare rooms prepared for myself, and when I was going to bed a note came to me. "I swear," it ran. "Only come back to me. I want to kiss you good-night." "Tell Mr. Gurrage I will see him in the morning," I said to Atkinson, and I locked my door. Augustus was not able to leave his room for four or five days after this.
When the invitation came brought down by Mrs. Gurrage in person grandmamma said she never allowed me to go out without herself, but she would be very pleased to take me. I was perfectly thunderstruck when I heard her say it. She grandmamma going out at night! It was so good of her, and when I thanked her afterwards, all she said was, "I seldom do things without a reason, Ambrosine."
She was the daughter of a small publican in one of the southern counties, Miss Burton said, and married Mr. Gurrage, then a commercial traveller in carpets. He was "a puny, delicate boy," to quote Miss Burton again, and was not sent to school only to Cambridge later on.
I thought of grandmamma "looking in" on this person, and I could have laughed aloud; however, I managed to say, politely, that my grandmother was an aged lady and somewhat rheumatic, and as we had not a carriage I hoped Mrs. Gurrage would excuse her paying her respects in person. "Rheumatic, is she? Well, I have the very thing for the j'ints. My still-room maid makes it under my own directions.
My dress, as I said before, was perfection. Mrs. Gurrage wore what she told me were the "family jewels." Her short neck and undulating chest were covered with pearls, diamonds, sapphires, and rubies, all jumbled together, necklace after necklace.
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