Nell, of Shorne Mills Part 46

"Oh, no, no," said Nell, as brightly as she could.

"And can I help you change, miss? I'm your maid, if you please."

Nell shook her head, still smiling.

"It is all very nice," she said, "and I shall only be a few minutes. I should like to go over the house," she asked, rather timidly.

"If you ring that bell, miss, I will come at once; and I will tell Mrs.

Hubbard that you want to go round with her," said Burden.

Nell, after the ardently desired "wash and change," sat down by the window and looked onto the grimy London square, whose trees and gra.s.s were burned brown, and tried to convince herself that she really was Nell of Shorne Mills; that she really was housekeeper to Lady Wolfer; that this really was life, and not a fantastic dream. But it was difficult to do so. Back her mind would travel to Shorne Mills and to--to Drake.

What had he done and said when he had got her letter? Ah, well, he would understand; yes, he would understand, and would take it as final. He would go away, to Lady Luce. They would be married. She would not think.

Providence had sent her work--work to divert her mind and save her from despair, and she would not look back, would not dwell upon the past.

But how her tender, loving heart ached and throbbed with the memory of those happy weeks, with the never-to-be-forgotten kisses of the man who had won her heart, whose face and voice haunted her every moment of the day.

She sprang to her feet and rang the bell, and Burden came in and led her along the broad corridors and across the main hall. A middle-aged woman in a stiff, black dress stood waiting for her, and gave her a stately bow.

"I am Mrs. Hubbard, miss," she began, rather searchingly; but Nell's sweet face and smile melted her at once. "I shall be pleased to take you hover, miss," she commenced, a little less grumpily. "It's a big 'ouse, and not a heasy one to manage; but per'aps, your ladyship--I beg your pardon, miss--per'aps you have been used to a big 'ouse?"

"No, indeed," said Nell, whose native shrewdness told her that this was a woman who had to be conciliated. "I have never lived in anything bigger than a cottage, and I shall need all your help, Mrs. Hubbard. You will have to be very patient with me."

Mrs. Hubbard had been prepared to fight, or, at any rate, to display a haughty stand-offishness; but she went down before the sweet face and girlish voice, and, if the truth must be told, by a certain something in Nell's eyes, which shone there when the _Annie Laurie_ was beating before a contrary wind; a directness of gaze which indicated a spirit, not easily quelled, lurking behind the dark-gray eyes.

Mrs. Hubbard instantly realized that this beautiful girl, young as she was, was compounded of different material to the "old frumps" who had preceded her, and whom Mrs. Hubbard had easily vanquished, and the old lady changed her tactics with rather startling prompt.i.tude.

She conducted Nell over the large place; the footmen and maidservants stood up, questionably at first, but respectfully in the end, and Nell tried to grasp the extent of the responsibility which she had undertaken.

"I think it all rests with you, Mrs. Hubbard," she said, as she sat in the housekeeper's room, Mrs. Hubbard standing respectfully--respectfully!--in front of her. "I am too young and inexperienced to run so large a place without your help; but I think--I only think--I can do it, if you stand by me. Will you do so? Yes, I think you will."

She looked up with the smile which had made slaves of all Shorne Mills in her gray eyes, and Mrs. Hubbard was utterly vanquished.

"If you come to me every morning after breakfast, we can talk matters over," said Nell, "and can decide between us what is to be done, and what not to be done; but you must never forget, please, that I know so little about anything."

And Mrs. Hubbard went back to the servants' hall with her mouth and her eyes set firmly.

"Now, mind," she said, with an imperial dignity to the curious and expectant servants, "there's to be no more goings-on from this time forth. No more coming in by the area gate after eleven, and no more parties in the servants' 'all when 'is lordship and ladyship is dining out! An' I'll 'ave the bells answered the first time, an' no waitin'

till they're rung twice or three times, mind! An' if you want to see the policeman, Mary Jane, you can slip out for five minutes; he don't come into the house, you understan'!"

Little dreaming of the domestic reformation she had brought about, Nell went back to her room, and resumed her endeavor to persuade herself that she was not moving in a dream.

Presently a gong sounded, and, guessing that it rang for lunch, she went down to the smaller dining room, in which Mrs. Hubbard had told her that meal was usually served.

The butler and footman were in attendance, but, though covers were laid for three, there was no one present but herself.

She looked round the richly decorated and handsomely furnished room, and felt rather lonely and helpless, but it occurred to her that either Lord or Lady Wolfer might come in, and that it was her place to be there; so she sat at the head of the table--where the butler had drawn back her chair for her--and began her lunch.

By this time, she was feeling hungry--for she had eaten nothing since her very early breakfast, excepting the biscuit in Lady Wolfer's room; and she was in the middle of her soup when the footman went in a leisurely manner to the door and opened it, and a gentleman entered.

Now, Nell, from Mrs. Lorton's talk of him, and his letter, had imagined Lord Wolfer as, if not an old man, one well past middle age; she was, therefore, rather startled when she saw that the gentleman who went straight to the bottom of the table, thus proving himself to be Lord Wolfer, was anything but old; indeed, still young, as age is reckoned nowadays. He was tall and thin, and very grave in manner and expression; and Nell, as with a blush she rose and eyed him, noticed, even in that first moment, that--strangely enough--his rather handsome face wore the half-sad, half-wistful expression which she had seen cross Lady Wolfer's pretty countenance.

He had not noticed her until he had gained his chair, then he started slightly, as if aroused from a reverie, and came toward her.

"You are--er--Miss Lorton?" he said, with an intense gravity in his voice and eyes.

"Yes," said Nell. "And you are--Lord Wolfer?"

"Your cousin--I am afraid very much removed," he responded. "When did you arrive? I hope you had a pleasant journey?" he replied and asked as he sank into his seat.

Nell made a suitable response.

"You will take some soup? Oh, you have some. Yes; it was a long journey.

Have you seen my wife--Lady Wolfer? Yes? I'm glad she was in. She is very seldom at home." He did not sigh, by any means; but his voice had a chilled and melancholy note in it. "And Sophia--Mrs. Lorton--is, I hope, well? It is very kind of you to put in an appearance so soon. I'm afraid you ought to be in bed and resting."

Nell laughed softly, and he looked as if the laugh had startled him, and surveyed her through his eyegla.s.ses with a more lengthened and critical scrutiny than he had hitherto ventured on. The fresh, young loveliness of her face, the light that shone in her dark-gray eyes, seemed to impress him, and he was almost guilty of a common stare; but he remembered himself in time, and bent over his plate.

"I am not at all tired, Lord Wolfer," said Nell. "I am not used to traveling--this is the first long journey I have made--but I am accustomed to riding"--she winced inwardly as she thought of the rides with Drake--"and--and--sailing and yachting."

The earl nodded.

"Put the--the cutlets, or whatever they are, on the table, and you may go," he said to the butler; and when the servants had left the room he said to Nell:

"I seldom lunch at home, and I like to do so alone."

Nell smiled. Grave as he looked, she did not feel at all afraid of him.

"I did not mean that," he said, with an answering smile. "I meant without the servants. And so you have come to our a.s.sistance, Miss Lorton?"

"I don't know whether that is the way to put it," said Nell, with her usual frankness. "I'm afraid that I shall be of very little use; but I am going to try."

His lordship nodded.

"And I think you will succeed--let me hand you a cutlet. Our great trouble has been--may I trouble you for the salt? Perhaps you would prefer to have the servants in the room?"

"No, oh, no!" replied Nell, quickly, as, reaching to her fullest extent, she pushed the salt. "It is much nicer without them--I mean that I am not used to so many servants."

He inclined his head.

"As you please," he said courteously. "Our great trouble has been that my wife's public duties have prevented her from taking any share in domestic matters. She is--er--I presume she is not coming in to lunch?"

he asked, with a quick glance at Nell, and an instant return to his plate.

"N-o; I think not," replied Nell. "Lady Wolfer has gone to a meeting--I'm sorry to say I forget what it is. Some--some Sisters--no, I can't remember. It is very stupid of me," she wound up penitently.

"It is of no consequence. Lady Wolfer is greatly in request; there is no movement of the advanced kind with which she is not connected," said his lordship; and though he spoke in a tone of pride, he wound up with a stifled sigh which reminded Nell of the sigh which she had heard Lady Wolfer breathe. "She is--er--an admirable speaker," he continued, "quite admirable. Did she go alone?"

The question came so suddenly, so unexpectedly, and apparently so irrelevantly, that Nell was almost startled.