"Out speaking at meetings or serving on committees," said Lady Wolfer.
"And you will arrange about the dinner parties and--and all that kind of thing, you know--the stupid things that I"m expected to do, but which I really haven"t any time for. Do you quite see now?"
"I will do all I can," Nell said, and she laughed.
Lady Wolfer glanced at her rather curiously.
"How pretty you look when you laugh--quite different. You struck me as looking rather sad and sobered when I first saw you; but when you laugh----I should advise you not to laugh when you first see Lord Wolfer, or he"ll think you too absurdly young and girlish for the post.
Do take your hat and jacket off! It will be some time before your room is ready. Let me help you."
Nell got her outdoor things off quickly, and Lady Wolfer looked at her still more approvingly.
"You really are quite a child, my dear!" she said, and for some reason or other she sighed. "Why didn"t Wolfer tell me about you before, I wonder? I wish he had; I should like to have had you come and stay with us. But he is so reserved----" she sighed again. "But never mind; you are here now. And how tired you must be! You are looking a little pale now. Why don"t you drink that wine? When you are rested--quite rested--to-night, after dinner, perhaps--let me see, am I going anywhere?"
She consulted a large engagement slate of white porcelain which stood erect on the crowded table.
"Hem! yes, I have to speak at the Sisters of State Society. Never mind; to-morrow, after lunch--if I"m at home. Yes, I can see that we shall be great friends, and that is what I wanted. The others--I mean your predecessors--were such terrible old frumps, without any idea above cutlets and clean sheets, that they only bored and worried me; but you will be quite different----"
"Perhaps I shan"t be able to rise to the cutlet and clean sheets,"
suggested Nell diffidently; but her ladyship laughed.
"Oh, yes, you will!" she declared. "I am an excellent judge of character--it"s one of my qualifications for the work I"m engaged in--and I can see that you are an admirable manager. I suppose you ran the house at home?"
Nell smiled.
""Home" meant quite a small cottage," she said. "This is a mansion."
"Same thing," commented Lady Wolfer encouragingly. "It"s all a question of system. I haven"t any; you have; therefore you"ll succeed where I fail. You"ve got that quiet, mousy little way which indicates strength of character----What beautiful hair you have, by the way."
Nell blushed.
"It"s no prettier than yours. Why do you wear it so short, Lady Wolfer?"
Lady Wolfer laughed--just a little wearily, so it struck Nell.
"Why? Oh, I don"t know. All we advanced women get our hair cut. I imagine we have a right to do so, and that by going cropped we a.s.sert that right."
"I see," said Nell. "But isn"t it--a pity?"
Lady Wolfer looked at her curiously, with an expression which Nell did not understand at that early period of their acquaintance.
"Does it matter?" she said. "We women have been dolls too long----"
"But there are short-haired dolls," said Nell, with her native shrewdness.
Lady Wolfer did not seem offended.
"That was rather smart," she remarked. "Take care, or we shall have you on a public platform before long, my dear."
"Oh, I hope not! I mean--I beg your pardon."
"Not at all," said Lady Wolfer, with no abatement of her good humor.
"There"s no danger--fortunately, for you. No, my dear; I can see that yours is a very different metier. Your role is the "angel of the house"--to be loved and loving." She turned to the desk as she spoke, and did not see the flush that rose for an instant to poor Nell"s pale face. "You will always be the woman in chains--the slave of man. I hope the chain will be of roses, my dear."
She stifled a sigh as she finished the pretty little sentence; and Nell, watching her, saw the expression of unrest and melancholy on her ladyship"s face again. Nell wondered what was the matter, and was still wondering when there came a knock at the door.
"Come in!" said Lady Wolfer; and a gentleman entered. He was young and good-looking, his tall figure clad in the regulation frock coat, in the b.u.t.tonhole of which was a delicate orchid. The hat which he carried in his lavender-gloved hands shone as if it had just left the manufacturer"s hands, and his small feet were clad in the brightest of patent-leather boots.
"I beg pardon!" he began, in the slow drawl which fashion had of late ordained. "Didn"t know you weren"t alone. Sorry!"
At the sound of his voice a faint flush rose to Lady Wolfer"s rather pretty face.
"Oh, it"s you, is it?" she said, nodding familiarly. "I thought it was Burden."
"I"ve come to take you to the meetin"," said the beautifully dressed gentleman, clipping off his "g" in the manner approved by the smart set.
"Thanks. This is Sir Archie Walbrooke," said Lady Wolfer, introducing him; "and this is my cousin--we are cousins, you know, my dear--Miss Lorton."
Sir Archie bowed, and stared meditatively at Nell.
"Goin" to the meetin", too?" he asked. "Hope so, I"m sure. Great fun, these meetin"s."
"No; oh, no," explained Lady Wolfer. "Miss Lorton has come to set us all straight, and keep us so, I hope."
"Trust I"m included; want it," said Sir Archie--"want it badly."
"Oh, you"re incorrigible--incorrigibly stupid, I mean," retorted Lady Wolfer. "She has come to take care of us--Wolfer and me."
"Run the show--I see," he said gravely. "If it isn"t a rude question, I should like to ask: "Who"s goin" to take care of Miss Norton?""
"Lorton, Lorton," corrected Lady Wolfer. "And it is a rude question, to which you won"t get an answer. Go downstairs and smoke a cigarette. I"ll be ready presently."
"All right--delighted; but time"s up, you know," he said; and, with a bow to Nell, sauntered out.
Lady Wolfer sat down at the desk, and wrote rapidly for a moment; then she said casually--a little too casually, it would have struck a woman of the world:
"That is a great friend of mine--and Lord Wolfer"s," she added quickly.
"He is an awfully nice man, and--and very useful. He is a kind of tame cat here, runs in and out as he likes, and plays escort when I"m slumming or attending meetings. I hope you"ll like him. He"s not such a fool as he looks, and though he does clip his "Gees"--sounds like a pun, doesn"t it?--and cuts his sentences short, he--he is very good-natured and obliging."
"He seems so," said Nell, a little puzzled to understand why Lady Wolfer did not take her maid or one of her lady friends to her meetings, instead of being taken by Sir Archie Walbrooke.
Burden knocked at the door at this moment, and announced that Miss Lorton"s room was ready.
"Very well," said Lady Wolfer, as if relieved. "Be sure that Miss Lorton has everything she wants. And, oh, Burden, please understand that all Miss Lorton"s orders are to be obeyed--I mean, obeyed without hesitation or question. She is absolutely in command here."
"Yes, my lady," responded Burden respectfully.
Nell followed her to a corridor on the next floor, and into a large and handsomely furnished room with which the bedchamber communicated. Her box had been unpacked, and its modest contents arranged in a wardrobe and drawers. The rooms looked as if they had been got ready hurriedly, but they were handsome and richly furnished, and Burden apologized for their lack of homeliness.
"I"ll get some flowers, miss," she said. "There"s a big box of them comes up from the country place every morning. And if you think it"s cold, I"ll light a fire----"