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Then with a sad, scared face, motioning Phillipa on one side, who, equally white and grief-stricken, would have helped her, she crept slowly upstairs, feeling that at one blow the whole fabric of her social repute was tumbled in the dust. The lights were out, the play was over, the house still and silent, when, with loud shrieks, Mrs. Purling's maid rushed to Phillipa's room. "Mrs.
Purling's view of the question was plainly evident from a letter which awoke Harold rather rudely from his rosy dreams. "So at length I have found you out, Harold. I never dreamt you could be so deceitful and double-faced. To talk of clinical lectures in town, and all the time at Harbridge, philandering with that forward, intriguing girl!
Where was Phillipa? Very late; she might have dressed earlier. A servant was sent to call her, and Phillipa, hurrying down, met Gilly on the upper floor coming out of Mrs. Purling's bedroom. "What have you been doing there?" she asked. "Mrs. Purling wanted a fan," said Gilly readily. She might want one fan, but hardly two; and had Phillipa been less flurried she might have noticed that Mrs.
"We might go to a colony." "I can fancy you in the bush!" "Anything would be preferable to the false, hollow life I lead. I want rest. I could pray for it. I long to lay my head peacefully where " "Wherever you please. Try Mr. Purling's shoulder. You have my full permission." Phillipa's eyes flashed fire at this heartless persiflage. "There is no such luck." "Can he dare to be indifferent?
"You certainly made an impression upon her, Phillipa," said Lady Calverly afterwards. "She is a vain and rather silly old woman," Miss Fanshawe replied. Language that might have opened Mrs. Purling's eyes. "But I am very glad you became such good friends. Purlington is a very desirable place." Here, then, was a faint clue to the mystery of Mrs. Purling's tardy reception at Compton Revel.
It was odd that Miss Purling's choice should have fallen where it did; for her tendencies were decidedly upward, and she would have dearly loved to be styled "my lady," and to have moved freely in the society of the "blue-blooded of the land." It was her distrustfulness which had stood in the way. She feared that in an aristocratic alliance she could not have made her own terms.
The latter made her feel proud, for the first time in her life, of her son, and the line he had adopted so sorely against her will. "Mr. Purling's paper on toxicology," he said, "is quite the cleverest thing that has appeared on the subject. My friend, Sir William ," he mentioned a physician of world-wide repute, "considers that Mr. Purling will go far."
Would their respective opinions agree as to the style of girl most likely to suit him? Then he began to consider what style of girl his mother would choose; and while he was thus musing there came a missive which plainly showed Mrs. Purling's hand. "I have been at Compton Revel for a week " "I wonder," thought Harold, when he had read thus far, "why they asked her there?
To Phillipa she spoke with diffidence, doubting whether this great personage could condescend to favour her son. But there was no lack of frankness in the old lady's speech. "If you and he would only make a match of it!" Miss Fanshawe squeezed Mrs. Purling's hand affectionately. "I like him, I confess. More's the pity. I'm sure he detests me." "As if it were possible!"
Within a few days of this interview the greatest event of Mrs. Purling's whole social career was due; she was to entertain royalty beneath her own roof. This crowning of the edifice of her ambition filled her with solemn awe; the preparations for the coming ball were stupendous, her own magnificent costume seemed made up of diamonds and bullion and five-pound notes.
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