Still immersed in her reflections, Lady Lydiard suddenly rose to the surface, and spoke her mind, as usual.
"About your niece, ma'am. The other day Mr. Hardyman called at my house, and saw Isabel.""Yes," said Miss Pink, politely attentive, but not in the least interested, so far.
"That's not all ma'am. Mr. Hardyman admires Isabel; he owned it to me himself in so many words."Miss Pink listened, with a courteous inclination of her head. She looked mildly gratified, nothing more. Lady Lydiard proceeded:
"You and I think differently on many matters," she said. "But we are both agreed, I am sure, in feeling the sincerest interest in Isabel's welfare. I beg to suggest to you, Miss Pink, that Mr. Hardyman, as a near neighborof yours, is a very undesirable neighbor while Isabel remains in your house."Saying those words, under a strong conviction of the serious importance of the subject, Lady Lydiard insensibly recovered the manner and resumed the language which befitted a lady of her rank. Miss Pink, noticing the change, set it down to an expression of pride on the part of her visitor which, in referring to Isabel, assailed indirectly the social position of Isabel's aunt.
"I fail entirely to understand what your Ladyship means," she said coldly.
Lady Lydiard, on her side, looked in undisguised amazement at Miss Pink.
"Haven't I told you already that Mr. Hardyman admires your niece?" she asked.
"Naturally," said Miss Pink. "Isabel inherits her lamented mother's personal advantages. If Mr. Hardyman admires her, Mr. Hardyman shows his good taste."Lady Lydiard's eyes opened wider and wider in wonder. "My good lady!" she exclaimed, "is it possible you don't know that when a man admires a women he doesn't stop there? He falls in love with her (as the saying is) next.""So I have heard," said Miss Pink.
"So you have _heard?_" repeated Lady Lydiard. "If Mr. Hardyman finds his way to Isabel I can tell you what you will _see_. Catch the two together, ma'am--and you will see Mr. Hardyman making love to your niece.""Under due restrictions, Lady Lydiard, and with my permission first obtained, of course, I see no objection to Mr. Hardyman paying his addresses to Isabel.""The woman is mad!" cried Lady Lydiard. "Do you actually suppose, Miss Pink, that Alfred Hardyman could, by any earthly possibility, marry your niece!"Not even Miss Pink's politeness could submit to such a question as this.
She rose indignantly from her chair. "As you aware, Lady Lydiard, that the doubt you have just expressed is an insult to my niece, and a insult to Me?""Are _you_ aware of who Mr. Hardyman really is?" retorted her Ladyship. "Or do you judge of his position by the vocation in life which he has perversely chosen to adopt? I can tell you, if you do, that Alfred Hardyman is the younger son of one of the oldest barons in the English Peerage, and that his mother is related by marriage to the Royal family of Wurtemberg."Miss Pink received the full shock of this information without receding from her position by a hair-breadth.
"An English gentlewoman offers a fit alliance to any man living who seeks her hand in marriage," said Miss Pink. "Isabel's mother (you may not be aware of it) was the daughter of an English clergyman--""And Isabel's father was a chemist in a country town," added Lady Lydiard.
"Isabel's father," rejoined Miss Pink, "was attached in a most responsible capacity to the useful and honorable profession of Medicine. Isabel is, in the strictest sense of the word, a young gentlewoman. If you contradict that for a single instant, Lady Lydiard, you will oblige me to leave the room."Those last words produced a result which Miss Pink had not anticipated--they roused Lady Lydiard to assert herself. As usual in such cases, she rose superior to her own eccentricity. Confronting Miss Pink, she now spoke and looked with the gracious courtesy and the unpresuming self-confidence of the order to which she belonged.
