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Updated: May 26, 2025
"Perhaps you'll tell her who I am, Hartledon; and that I have undertaken to preside here for a little while." "I believe Mrs. Mirrable knows you, ma'am," spoke up Percival Elster, for Lord Hartledon had turned away, and was lost amongst his guests. "You have seen the Countess-Dowager of Kirton, Mirrable?" The countess-dowager faced round upon the speaker sharply. "Oh, it's you, Val Elster?
"And likely to have her, if all's true that's said," put in Mrs. Jones. Mirrable tacitly admitted the probability. Her private opinion was that nothing short of a miracle could ever remove the Dowager Kirton from the house again. Had any one told Mirrable, as she stood there, that her ladyship would be leaving of her own accord that night, she had simply said it was impossible.
The man keeps himself to himself, and troubles nobody; and for that very reason idle folk carp at him, like the mischief-making idiots they are!" "I thought there was nothing in it," remarked Mr. Elster. "I'm sure there isn't," said Mirrable, conclusively. "Would you like some broiled ham, sir?" "I should like anything good and substantial, for I'm as hungry as a hunter.
But, Mirrable, you don't ask what has brought me here so suddenly." The tone was significant, and Mirrable looked at him. There was a spice of mischief in his laughing blue eyes. "I come on a mission to you; an avant-courier from his lordship, to charge you to have all things in readiness. To-morrow you will receive a houseful of company; more than Hartledon will hold." Mirrable looked aghast.
She went away, and Clerk Gum wished he could denounce her to the police. Mirrable laughed again; and Mrs. Gum, cowardly and timid, fell back in her chair as one seized with ague. Beyond giving an occasional dole to Mrs.
"Oh!" said Mirrable, who had once had the honour of seeing the Countess-Dowager of Kirton. And the monosyllable was so significant that Val Elster drew down the corners of his mouth. "I don't like the Countess-Dowager, sir," remarked Mirrable in her freedom. "I can't bear her," returned Val Elster.
Elster thought was involuntary; for she was busy at the moment rubbing the coffee-pot with some wash-leather, her head and face bent over it, as she stood with her back to him. He slipped off the table, and went up to her. "I saw smoke rising from the shed, and asked Capper what it meant, and she told me about this man Pike. Pike! It's a curious name." Mirrable rubbed away, never answering.
A few evenings after the funeral had taken place, Mirrable, who had been into Calne, was hurrying back in the twilight. As she passed Jabez Gum's gate, the clerk's wife was standing at it, talking to Mrs. Jones. The two were laughing: Mrs. Gum seemed in a less depressed state than usual, and the other less snappish. "Is it you!" exclaimed Mrs. Jones, as Mirrable stopped.
The sentence broke off abruptly, and ended with a growl at things in general. Mr. Pike was evidently not in a genial mood. Mirrable reached home to find the countess-dowager in a state more easily imagined than described. Some sprite, favourable to the peace of Hartledon, had been writing confidentially from Ireland regarding Kirton and his doings.
Gum, who was given to indirect answers. "I thought I was never going to see you again, Mary." "You could not expect to see me whilst the house was in its recent state," answered Mirrable. "We have been in a bustle, as you may suppose." "You've not had many staying there." "Only Mr. Carr; and he left to-day. We've got the old countess-dowager still."
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