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George got no further in his sentence, but the Major seemed to understand what he meant, for he spoke very kindly to him, and they left me for a bit and walked up and down the verandah together. Just before Mr. George left, I heard him say, "Have you heard anything of Mrs. Vandaleur?" "I wrote to her, in the best fashion that I could," said Major Buller.
Aunt Theresa used to make us laugh by repeating Nurse Brown's sayings, and the little shake of herself with which she emphasized the last sentence. If she had no sympathy for Madame de Vandaleur, she had a double share for the poor lady's husband: "a good soul," as she used to call him.
Eily had been thinking of Dermot continually of late, wishing with all her heart that she had not so scorned his love; she had learnt many lessons in the quiet watches of the night and the weary hours of weakness through which she had passed. Bee Vandaleur said no more, but patted the dark curls gently. "Don't cry, Eily, all will be right soon," and she left the room. Eily was alone once more.
Cold and distant with others, she was affable and even kind to Leslie Hamilton, and among her friends it was whispered such treatment could only end in one way; and though better things had been spoken of for Bee Vandaleur, the wife of an R.A. was by no means a position to be despised, and if Bee's fancy lay that way, why ! a shrug of its white shoulders, an elevation of its pencilled eyebrows, and Society went on its way.
This daughter, with much of her mother's strong will and practical capacity, had got her father's physique and a good deal of his artistic temperament. Dreading the development of de Vandaleur qualities in her, the mother made her education studiously practical and orderly.
Leslie Hamilton had taken up his position near the door that he might easily acknowledge each new arrival. He was leaning over the fair Bee Vandaleur, watching the animation in her beautiful face, the grace with which she wore her large picture-hat, and the regal manner in which she sat.
Clement seemed to be rather older than Eleanor, and Jack, I thought, a little younger than me. "How d'ye do, Margery?" said Jack, shaking me warmly by the hand. "I'm awfully glad to hear the news about you; we shall be all square now, two and two, like a quadrille." "How do you do, Miss Vandaleur?" said Clement.
Vandaleur was emphatically Elspeth's mistress, if she was also her friend; but in the absence of "the mistress" Elspeth ruled "the master" with a rod of iron. I quickly gained a degree of power over him myself.
He then returned to England, and paid his respects to his cousin and the Scotch Mrs. Vandaleur. She congratulated herself, I have heard, that her only child, a daughter, was from home when this visit was paid. Mrs. Janet Vandaleur was a high-minded, hard-headed, north-country woman.
No one knew how loth I was to leave, still less that it was to a much older relative than those at The Vine that I owed my expulsion to my great-great-great-grandfather Monsieur le Duc de Vandaleur. Thomas, the cat, purred so loudly as I withdrew, that I think he was glad to be rid of me.
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