Lucy,
however, was ill at ease at the obscurity which shrouded the
illustrious guest, and in her anxiety, gave so little attention to
her two neighbours, that Willie Ferrars, affronted at some neglect,
exclaimed, 'Why, Lucy, what makes you screw your eyes about so! you
can't attend to any one.'
'It is because Polly Silly is there,' shouted Master Maurice from his
throne beside his mamma.
To the infinite relief of the half-choked Albinia, little Mary
Ferrars, with whom her cousin had been carrying on a direful warfare
all day, fitted on the cap, shook her head gravely at him, and after
an appealing look of indignation, first at his mamma, then at her
own, was overheard confiding to Nora Nugent that Maurice was a very
naughty boy--she was sorry to say, a regular spoilt child.
'But how should you hinder Miss Kendal from attending?'
'I'll tell you, darling. Poor Lucy! she is very fond of me, and I
dare say she wanted me to sit next to her, but you know she will have
me for three days, and I have you only this one evening. I'll go and
speak to her after tea, when we go into the drawing-room, and then
she wont mind.'
Lucy, after an agony of blushes, had somewhat recovered on finding
that no one seemed to apply her brother's speech, and when the
benevolent Mary made her way to her, and thrust a hand into hers,
only a feeble pressure replied to these romantic blandishments, so
anxious was she to carry to Mrs.
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