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What could Lady Staveley's idea have been of the sorrows of some other mothers, whose daughters throw themselves away after a different fashion? After lunch on Sunday the judge asked his daughter to walk with him, and on that occasion the second church service was abandoned.
Arbuthnot, and even after that the evening did not pass very briskly. One little scene there was, during which poor Lady Staveley's eyes were anxiously fixed upon her son, though most of those in the room supposed that she was sleeping. Miss Furnival was to return to London on the following day, and it therefore behoved Augustus to be very sad.
And now as he asked the question he stood up again, looking down with all his eyes into Lady Staveley's face, that face which would have been so friendly to him, so kind and so encouraging, had it been possible. "Never is a long word, Mr. Orme." "Ah, but did she say it? Come, Lady Staveley; I know I have been a fool, but I am not a cowardly fool.
Indeed, there was no sign of sterling worth so plainly marked in Staveley's character as the full conviction which he entertained of the superiority of his friend Felix. "You are quite wrong about him," Felix had said. "He has not been at an English school, or English university, and therefore is not like other young men that you know; but he is, I think, well educated and clever.
"I don't think I shall go," said Madeline; and thus Lady Staveley became really unhappy. Would not Felix Graham be better than no son-in-law? When some one had once very strongly praised Florence Nightingale in Lady Staveley's presence, she had stoutly declared her opinion that it was a young woman's duty to get married. For myself, I am inclined to agree with her.
You should not talk such nonsense to me, and I beg you won't again." Then she went away, and began to read a paper about sick people written by Florence Nightingale. But it was by no means Lady Staveley's desire that her daughter should take to the Florence Nightingale line of life.
It was a fine moonlight night; I stepped into the back drawing-room, and looked out of the window. There they were, walking arm-in-arm with their heads close together, deep in talk. With my knowledge of Miss Jillgall, I call this a bad sign. An odd thought has just come to me. I wonder what might have happened, if I had been visiting at Mrs. Staveley's, instead of Eunice, and if Mr.
Staveley's, I had slipped out of the difficulty easily by assuming the character of the eldest sister an example of ready tact which my dear stupid Eunice doesn't understand. In my father's presence, it is needless to say that I kept silence, and left it to him. I was sorry to be obliged to do this. Owing to his sad state of health, he is easily irritated especially by inquisitive strangers.
Now considering that Gordon was at this time greatly overworked in the trenches, he might well have been excused had he allowed Colonel Staveley's remark to pass; for it must be remembered that it is no part of the duty of a young engineer officer to instruct infantry field-officers in their duties. But this was not Gordon's style.
On three or four occasions his grandfather asked him how things were going at Noningsby, striving to interest himself in something as to which the outlook was not altogether dismal, and by degrees learned, not exactly all the truth but as much of the truth as Peregrine knew. "Do as she tells you," said the grandfather, referring to Lady Staveley's last words.
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