"What is that?" he enquired in a sharp voice. "Cambridge?"
"Yes. He does n"t remember you at all distinctly," said Tilly, "but says he has an impression that you were the most brilliant man of your year."
"If that," remarked Mr. Welwyn, in a distinctly relieved tone, "is all that he recollects about me, I shall be pleased to meet him again."
"How is d.i.c.ky, Tilly?" enquired Amelia.
Tilly"s merry face softened.
"d.i.c.ky," she said, half to herself, "is just d.i.c.ky. He brought me as far as the door, but I would n"t let him come in."
"And are they all coming to tea?" enquired Mrs. Welwyn anxiously.
"Yes--the whole boiling of them, at five this afternoon--a state call!"
replied Tilly. "By the way, Mother, that was a bloomer we made about the invitation. I knew at the time we talked about it that you ought to have written a note and chanced the spelling. Her ladyship made that _quite_ plain to me."
"Oh dear!" said Mrs. Welwyn in distress. "What did she say?"
"She did n"t say anything in particular," admitted Tilly, crinkling her brow. "Nothing one could take hold of, you know. Just--just--"
"Sort of snacks," suggested her mother sympathetically.
Tilly nodded her head.
"That"s it," she said. "Anyhow, she has sent you a written reply. Here it is."
Mrs. Welwyn and Amelia breathed hard and respectfully at the sight of the large thin grey envelope, addressed by Lady Adela"s own compelling hand.
"You read it, dearie," said Mrs. Welwyn.
"No; I"ll tell you what," exclaimed Tilly. "We"ll let little "Melia read it. She does n"t get much fun."
"Oh, Tilly!" cried Amelia gratefully.
She took the letter, opened it with an air, and began:--
"_My deah Mrs. Welwyn--haw!_"
There was great merriment at this, for in her own family circle Miss Amelia enjoyed a great reputation as a wit and mimic. The fact that neither she nor any of her audience, save Tilly, had ever beheld Lady Adela in the flesh detracted not a whit from their enjoyment of her performance.
"_It is really too good of you,_" continued Amelia, in the high-pitched and even tones of a lady of exceptional breeding, "_to invite us all--such a crowd of us--to come to tea on Monday. As it happens, we shall be in town that day, so Mr. Mainwaring and I propose to take you at your word, and shall be charmed to come with our son and daughter at five o"clock._"
"That"ll be four cups," murmured Mrs. Welwyn abstractedly. "We can get Mehta Ram"s. Go on, Ducky."
"_After our recent experience of your daughter"s society--_"
Here Amelia broke off, to observe that in her opinion the last phrase sounded tabbyish.
"Never mind! Go on!" urged Mrs. Welwyn.
"_--Daughter"s society, we are naturally anxious to make the acquaintance of her forbears._"
"Her four what?" asked Mrs. Welwyn in a dazed voice.
Amelia carefully examined the pa.s.sage, and repeated:--
"It says "four bears"--written as one word. Does that mean you and Dad and me and Perce?"
"If her ladyship," began Mrs. Welwyn warmly, "is going to start naming names from the Zoo--"
Tilly laid a quick hand upon her mother"s arm and turned in the direction of the fireplace.
"Dad," she enquired, "what does "forbears" mean?"
A chuckling voice from behind "The Daily Mail" enlightened her.
"The laugh is on your mother, children," said Mrs. Welwyn good-temperedly. "Finish it, "Melia."
Amelia did so. "_What weather! Sincerely yours, Adela Mainwaring_.
That"s all."
"Quite enough, too!" commented Mrs. Welwyn, who still had her doubts about the four bears.
"Any way," remarked Tilly energetically, "they are coming; and we have till five o"clock to get ready for them. Hallo, Perce!"
To the company a.s.sembled entered Mr. Percy Welwyn, immaculate in frock coat, brown boots, and a rakish bowler hat.
"What oh, Sis!" he exclaimed, kissing Tilly affectionately. "Back again from the Moated Grange--eh? My dinner ready, Mother?"
"Wait a minute, Percy dear," said Tilly quickly. "I want to talk to you--all of you. Sit down, everybody. Father!"
"My daughter?"
"Come and sit here, please!"
"A round-table conference?" enquired Mr. Welwyn amiably. "Capital!"
Tilly upon her own quarter-deck was a very different being from the frightened little alien whom we saw at Shotley Beauchamp. In two minutes the Welwyn family had meekly packed themselves round the octagonal table. Tilly took the chair.
"Now, then, all of you," she began, with a suspicion of a high-strung quaver in her voice--"Father, Mother, Percy, and little "Melia--listen to me! You know, no one better, that when I went down to Shotley Beauchamp on Sat.u.r.day I meant to act perfectly square to d.i.c.ky"s people--tell them who I was and what I was, and that I worked for my living and so on; and generally make sure that they did n"t take me in on false pretences. Is that correct?"
"Yes--quite correct," chorused the family.
"Well," continued Tilly defiantly--"I have n"t done it! I have n"t said a word! There! I _couldn"t_! I have seen d.i.c.ky"s people, and their house, and their prosperity, and the way they look at things. They"re a pretty tough proposition, the Mainwarings. They are no better born than we are; but they are rich, and stupid, and conceited, and purse-proud--"
"Tilly! Tilly!" said Mrs. Welwyn, scandalised to hear the gentry so miscalled.
"Yes, they _are_, Mother!" cried the girl pa.s.sionately. "You don"t know what I have had to put up with this week-end, when d.i.c.ky was n"t by.
Why--"