She began to rock the infant in her arms, and Sir Geoffrey, who had listened to her with growing disfavour, beat a retreat, almost dragging his wife with him. As they mounted the stairs he said: 'Upon my word, Amabel, I begin to wish I hadn't prevailed upon Annis to engage that woman! But I don't remember that she talked us silly when she and Annis have visited us!'
'No, dear, but at home you never saw very much of her. That is what I dislike about town houses: however commodious they may be one can never get away from the other people living in the house! And goodnatured and obliging though poor Maria is I own I have frequently been forced to shut myself into my bedchamber to escape from her. I think,' she added reflectively, 'if ever she came to live at Twynham I should give her a sitting-room of her own.'
'Came to live at Twynham?' he ejaculated. 'You don't mean that Annis means to turn her off ?'
'Oh, no! But one never knows what circumstances might arise to make her chaperonage unnecessary. Annis might be married, for instance.'
He laughed at this, and said, with comfortable conviction: 'Not she! Why, she's nine-and-twenty, and a confirmed old maid!'
She said nothing, but he apparently turned her words over in his mind, for he asked her, a few minutes later, if that fellow Carleton was still in Bath.
'He went to London some ten days ago,' she replied. 'His niece, however, is still here, so I imagine he must mean to return.'
'Ay, you wrote to me that she was here, and I wish to my heart she were not! Mind you, she's a taking little thing, and I don't wish to say a word against her, but I've never approved of Annis's conduct over that business, and I never shall!'
'Mr Carleton doesn't approve of it either. He says Annis is not a fit person to take charge of Lucilla.'
'Damned impudence!' growled Sir Geoffrey. 'Not but what she ain't a fit person, and so I've said all along!'
'No, I am persuaded you are right,' she agreed. 'But I fancy – indeed, I know – that Mr Carleton has every intention of removing her from Annis's charge. That is why he has gone to London. You must not mention this, Geoffrey, for Lucilla knows nothing about it, and Annis told me in confidence.'
'You told me in the first letter you wrote after I left you here that you thought there was no danger of Annis's losing her heart to him. The Lord only knows why so many women do lose their hearts to him, for a more disagreeable, top-lofty fellow I wish I may never meet!'
'I own I don't like him, but I think he could make himself very agreeable to anyone he wished to please.'
'Good God, you don't mean to tell me he's been making up to Annis?' he exclaimed, in patent horror.
'You wouldn't think so, but – I don't know, Geoffrey! He doesn't flirt with her, and he seems to say detestably uncivil things to her, but if he isn't trying to fix his interests with her, I cannot help wondering why he has remained in Bath for so long.'
'Does she like him?' he demanded.
'I don't know that either,' she confessed. 'One wouldn't think so, because they seem to rip up at each other every time they meet; but I have lately suspected that Annis is not as indifferent to him as she would have me believe.'
'You must be mistaken! Annis, of all people, to have a tendre for a fellow like Carleton? It isn't possible! Why, they call him the rudest man in London! I am not surprised that he should be trying to attach her: he is notorious for his philandering, and I was very uneasy as soon as I discovered that Lucilla was his niece, for it seemed likely that he would come here, and Annis is a devilish goodlooking woman! But that she should be in love with him – no, no Amabel, you must be mistaken!'
'Perhaps I am, dearest. But if I am not – if she accepts an offer from him – we must learn to like him!'
'Like him?' echoed Sir Geoffrey, in a stupefied voice. 'I can tell you this, Amabel: nothing will ever prevail upon me to consent to such a marriage!'
'But Geoffrey – !' she expostulated. 'Your consent isn't needed! Annis isn't a minor! If she decides to marry Mr Carleton she will do so, and you will be obliged to accept him with a good grace – unless you wish to become estranged from her, which I am very sure you don't.'
He looked to be somewhat disconcerted, but said: 'If she chooses to marry Carleton, she will have to bear the consequences. But I shall warn her most solemnly that they may be more disagreeable than she foresees!'
'You will do as you think proper, dearest, but you must promise me that you won't mention this matter to her until she herself speaks of it. Recollect that it is all conjecture at present! And on no account must you say anything to distress her! But when you see her you won't wish to!'
He was not to see her, however, until the following day, a visit from Miss Farlow having left her with a headache, and a disinclination to receive any more visitors. Once the doctor had said that there was no longer any danger of infection to be feared, Lady Wychwood had found it to be impossible to exclude Miss Farlow from her room, for Annis had asked to see Lucilla, and Miss Farlow had, most unfortunately, encountered Lucilla coming out of the sick-room. A painful scene had been the outcome, for, accused of having gone slyly in to see Miss Wychwood when Jurby's back had been turned, Lucilla said indignantly that she had done nothing of the sort: Miss Wychwood had asked for her, and as for Jurby's back having been turned, Jurby had been in the room and was still there. This sent Miss Farlow scurrying away in search of Lady Wychwood, demanding hysterically to know why Lucil
la had been permitted to see Miss Wychwood while she, her own cousin, was kept out. The end of it was that Lady Wychwood, feeling that there was a certain amount of justi fication for Miss Farlow's threatened attack of the vapours, had said that no one was trying to keep her away from Annis: of course she might visit her! She added that she knew Maria might be trusted not to stay with her too long, or to talk too much. Miss Farlow, still convulsively sobbing, had replied that she hoped she knew better than to talk too much to persons in dear Annis's tender condition. So too did Lady Wychwood, but she doubted it, and put an end to the visit twenty minutes after Miss Farlow had entered the room, by which time Annis looked as if she was in danger of suffering a relapse.
'I think I must turn you out now, Maria,' Lady Wychwood said, smiling kindly. 'The doctor said only a quarter of an hour, you know!'
'Oh, yes, indeed! So right of him! Poor Annis is sadly pulled! I declare I was quite shocked to find her so pale and unlike herself, but, as I have been telling her, we shall soon have her to rights again. Now I shall leave her, and she must try to go to sleep, must she not? I will just draw the blinds across the window, for nothing is more disagreeable than having the light glaring at one. Not that it is not very pleasant to see the sun again after so many dull days, and they say that it is very beneficial, though I myself rather doubt that. I remember my dear mama saying that it was injurious to the female complexion, and she never went out into the open air without a veil over her face. Well, I must leave you now, dear Annis, but you may be sure I shall be always popping in to see how you go on!'
'Amabel,' said Miss Wychwood faintly, as Miss Farlow at last got herself out of the room, 'if you love me, murder our dear cousin! The first thing she said when she came in was that she wasn't going to talk to me, and she hasn't ceased talking from that moment to this.'
'I am so sorry, dearest, but there was no way of keeping her out without giving grave offence,' responded Lady Wychwood, drawing the blinds back. 'I shan't let her visit you again today, so you may be easy.'
Miss Farlow succeeded in exasperating Sir Geoffrey at the dinner-table, first by uttering a series of singularly foolish observations, and then by trying to argue with Lady Wychwood. As dinner came to an end, she got up, saying: 'Now you must excuse me, if you please! I am going up to sit with our dear invalid for a little while.'