"There is no doubt about it," Lady Honoria thought to herself, "she is lovely--lovely everywhere. It was clever of her to leave her hair down; it shows the shape of her head so well, and she is tall enough to stand it. That blue wrapper suits her too. Very few women could show such a figure as hers--like a Greek statue. I don't like her; she is different from most of us; just the sort of girl men go wild about and women hate."All this passed through her mind in a flash. For a moment Lady Honoria's blue eyes met Beatrice's grey ones, and she knew that Beatrice liked her no better than she did Beatrice. Those eyes were a trifle too honest, and, like the deep clear water they resembled, apt to throw up shadows of the passing thoughts above.
"False and cold and heartless," thought Beatrice. "I wonder how a man like that could marry her; and how much he loves her."Thus the two women took each other's measure at a glance, each finding the other wanting by her standard. Nor did they ever change that hastily formed judgment.
It was all done in a few seconds--in that hesitating moment before the words we summon answer on our lips. The next, Lady Honoria was sweeping towards her with outstretched hand, and her most gracious smile.
"Miss Granger," she said, "I owe you a debt I never can repay--my dear husband's life. I have heard all about how you saved him; it is the most wonderful thing--Grace Darling born again. I can't think how you could do it. I wish I were half as brave and strong.""Please don't, Lady Honoria," said Beatrice. "I am so tired of being thanked for doing nothing, except what it was my duty to do. If I had let Mr. Bingham go while I had the strength to hold on to him I should have felt like a murderess to-day. I beg you to say no more about it.""One does not often find such modesty united to so much courage, and, if you will allow me to say it, so much beauty," answered Lady Honoria graciously. "Well, I will do as you wish, but I warn you your fame will find you out. I hear they have an account of the whole adventure in to-day's papers, headed, 'A Welsh Heroine.'""How did you hear that, Honoria?" asked her husband.
"Oh, I had a telegram from Garsington, and he mentions it," she answered carelessly.
"Telegram from Garsington! Hence these smiles," thought he. "I suppose that she is going to-morrow.""I have some other news for you, Miss Granger," went on Lady Honoria.
"Your canoe has been washed ashore, very little injured. The old boatman--Edward, I think they call him--has found it; and your gun in it too, Geoffrey. It had stuck under the seat or somewhere. But Ifancy that you must both have had enough canoeing for the present.""I don't know, Lady Honoria," answered Beatrice. "One does not often get such weather as last night's, and canoeing is very pleasant. Every sweet has its salt, you know; or, in other words, one may always be upset."At that moment, Betty, the awkward Welsh serving lass, with a fore-arm about as shapely as the hind leg of an elephant, and a most unpleasing habit of snorting audibly as she moved, shuffled in with the tea-tray.
In her wake came the slim Elizabeth, to whom Lady Honoria was introduced.
After this, conversation flagged for a while, till Lady Honoria, feeling that things were getting a little dull, set the ball rolling again.
"What a pretty view you have of the sea from these windows," she said in her well-trained and monotonously modulated voice. "I am so glad to have seen it, for, you know, I am going away to-morrow."Beatrice looked up quickly.
"My husband is not going," she went on, as though in answer to an unspoken question. "I am playing the part of the undutiful wife and running away from him, for exactly three weeks. It is very wicked of me, isn't it? but I have an engagement that I must keep. It is most tiresome."Geoffrey, sipping his tea, smiled grimly behind the shelter of his cup. "She does it uncommonly well," he thought to himself.
"Does your little girl go with you, Lady Honoria?" asked Elizabeth.
"Well, no, I think not. I can't bear parting with her--you know how hard it is when one has only one child. But I think she would be so bored where I am going to stay, for there are no other children there;and besides, she positively adores the sea. So I shall have to leave her to her father's tender mercies, poor dear.""I hope Effie will survive it, I am sure," said Geoffrey laughing.
"I suppose that your husband is going to stay on at Mrs. Jones's,"said the clergyman.
"Really, I don't know. What /are/ you going to do, Geoffrey? Mrs.
