‘That’s our friend C. G.,’ said
Livy.
‘I should think not,’ said the minister,
who had his own ideas about an English lord.
‘I’m sure it is, because of the tall man
with the buttons,’ said Olivia.
‘It’s very unlikely,’ said the secretary
of legation. ’Lord Peterborough is a man
of immense wealth, very old, indeed. They say
he is dying at Naples. This man is his eldest
son.’
‘Is that any reason why he shouldn’t have
been civil to us?’ asked Olivia.
’I don’t think he is the sort of man likely
to sit up in the banquette; and he would have posted
over the Alps. Moreover, he had his suite with
him.’
‘His suite was Buttons,’ said Olivia.
’Only fancy, Carry, we’ve been waited
on for two days by a lord as is to be, and didn’t
know it! And you have mended the tips of his
lordship’s glove!’ But Carry said nothing
at all.
Late on that same evening, they met Mr Glascock close
to the Duomo, under the shade of the Campanile.
He had come out as they had done, to see by moonlight
that loveliest of all works made by man’s hands.
They were with the minister, but Mr Glascock came
up and shook hands with them.
‘I would introduce you to my uncle, Mr Spalding,’
said Olivia ’only as it happens we have never
yet heard your name.’
‘My name is Mr Glascock,’ said he, smiling.
Then the introduction was made; and the American Minister
took off his hat, and was very affable.
‘Only think, Carry,’ said Olivia, when
they were alone that evening, ‘if you were to
become the wife of an English lord!’
SHEWING WHAT TOOK PLACE AT ST DIDDULPH’S
Nora Rowley, when she escaped from the violence of
her lover, at once rushed up to her own room, and
managed to fasten herself in before she had been seen
by any one. Her eider sister had at once gone
to her aunt when, at Hugh’s request, she had
left the room, thinking it right that Mrs Outhouse
should know what was being done in her own house.
Mrs Outhouse had considered the matter patiently for
a while, giving the lovers the benefit of her hesitation,
and had then spoken her mind to Stanbury, as we have
already heard. He had, upon the whole, been so
well pleased with what had occurred, that he was not
in the least angry with the parson’s wife when
he left the parsonage. As soon as he was gone
Mrs Outhouse was at once joined by her elder niece,
but Nora remained for a while alone in her room.
Had she committed herself; and if so, did she regret
it? He had behaved very badly to her, certainly,
taking her by the hand and putting his arm round her
waist. And then had he not even attempted to kiss
her? He had done all this, although she had been
resolute in refusing to speak to him one word of kindness
though she had told him with all the energy and certainty
of which she was mistress, that she would never be
