'
Lady Merrifield laughed. 'The girls are very good about it!' she said.
'Now you have found it out, see whether that note will make Miss
Hacket swallow it.'
'Can't be better! But oh. Lily, it is disgusting! Could not I rig up
something fanciful for the children?'
'That's not so much the point. 'The General's lady,' as Mrs.
Halfpenny would say, is bound not to look like 'ane scrub,' as she
would be unwelcome to Victoria, and what would be William's feelings?
I could hardly have accomplished it even with this, and the catastrophe
settles the matter.'
'You could not get into my black satin?'
'No, I thank you, my dear little Brownie,' said Lady Merrifield,
elongating herself like a girl measuring heights.
'Ada has a larger assortment, as well as a taller person,' continued
Miss Jane, 'but then they are rather 'henspeckle,' and they have all
made their first appearance at Rotherwood.'
'No, no, thank you, my dear, Jasper would not like the notion--even if
there was not more of me than of Ada. I have no doubt it is much
better for us.'
'Should you have liked it, Lily?'
'For once in a way. For Rotherwood's sake, dear old fellow. Yes, I
should.'
'Ah, well! You are a bit of a grande dame yourself. Ada enjoys it,
too, or I don't think I ever should go there.'
'Surely Victoria behaves well to you?'
'Far be it from me to say she is not exemplary in her perfect civility
to all her husband's relations. Ada thinks her charming; but oh.
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