“Not a near relation?” stormed her husband. “Do you mean to put me in my place? Confound it all, your brother-in-law’s sister, your sister-in-law in fact, indeed my sister-in-law, was the late Lady Avesham. If we don’t hang together it’s the ruin of England!”
“If I were you I shouldn’t go about talking of the Aveshams as your relatives, particularly now they’ve come to live in the town,” she said; “it will only make people laugh.”
The Colonel glared at her a moment; he could literally not find words.
“Anything else, madam, anything else?” he asked at length.
“No, that is all, Robert,” she said, listlessly; “I didn’t mean to make you worried.”
“I shall call there this afternoon,” he said, “and you will go with me.”
“Then you won’t take the children out?” she asked, with a ray of hope in her voice.
“Certainly I shall take them out,” he said, “and--and they shall come and call, too. Go and get your things on, all of you.”
“You won’t go far then, if you are to be back in time to call?” asked his wife.
“We shall go a good brisk walk,” he said, grimly, “and we shall be home by four. Now, am I to wait all day?”
Dismal, faltering feet came down the passage outside, and the three little victims appeared in the doorway.
It was some little while after four when the hot and jaded expedition returned. The walk had been more severe than usual, and even the Colonel flung himself with an air of fatigue into a chair.
“I’ve changed my mind,” he said; “I shall not go near the house. Not go near it. At least, I sha’n’t go to-day. Tea--isn’t tea ready? Let it be brought.”
Even the friends of the Colonel might have felt inclined to accuse him of a slight duplicity for his action on this occasion. He had returned by way of Bolton Street, like the burned moth to the candle, and sending the children on with instructions to go home after waiting for five minutes at the end of the street, he had rung the bell, which was opened by a surprised maid. The hall was full of miscellaneous furniture, and the maid had to go warily among pictures and stools to the drawing-room, bearing his card. Jeannie’s voice was what is known as “carrying,” and she did not reflect how near the front door was to the drawing-room, where an agonizing measurement of a carpet was going on. Her words were distinctly audible.
