"No," she replied. "A gentleman went with her."
The earl laid down his knife and fork suddenly, then picked them up again, and made a great fuss with the remains of his cutlet.
"Oh! Did you--er--did you hear who it was?"
"Yes," said Nell, "but I can"t remember his name. It has quite gone for the moment;" and she knit her brows.
The earl stared straight at the epergne.
"Was it--Sir Archie Walbrooke?" he said, in a dry, expressionless voice.
Nell laughed, as one laughs at the sudden return of a treacherous memory.
"Of course, yes! That was the name," she said brightly. "How stupid of me!"
But Lord Wolfer did not laugh. He bent still lower over the cutlet, and worried the bone a minute or two in silence; then he consulted his watch, and rose.
"I beg you will excuse me," he said. "I have an appointment--a meeting----"
He mumbled himself out of the room, and Nell sat and gazed at the door which had closed behind him.
She was too innocent, too ignorant of the world, to have even the faintest idea of the trouble which lowered over the house which she had entered; but a vague dread of something intangible took possession of her.
CHAPTER XXI.
If Nell wanted work that would prevent her dwelling upon her heart"s loss, she had certainly found it at Egerton House. Before a week had pa.s.sed she had slipped into her position of presiding genius; and, marvelous to relate, seeing how young and inexperienced she was, she filled it very well.
At first she was considerably worried by the condition of domestic affairs. Meals were prepared for persons who might or might not be present to eat them. Sometimes she would sit down alone to a lunch sufficient for half a dozen persons; at others, Lady Wolfer would come down at the last moment and say:
"Oh, Nell, dear"--it had very quickly come to "Nell"--"ever so many women are coming to lunch--nine or ten, I forget which. I ought to have told you, oughtn"t I? And I really meant to, but somehow it slipped out of my head. And they are mostly people with good appet.i.tes. Is there anything in the house? But, there! I know you will manage somehow, won"t you, dear?"
And Nell would summon the long-suffering Mrs. Hubbard, and additions would hastily be made to the small menu, and Nell would come in looking as cool and composed as if the guests had run no risk of starvation.
The dinner hour, as Lady Wolfer had said, was eight, but it was often nine or half-past before she and Lord Wolfer put in an appearance; and more than once during the week the earl had been accompanied by persons whom he had brought from the House or some meeting, and expected to have them provided for.
The cook never knew how many guests to expect; the coachman never knew when the horses and carriages would be wanted; the footmen were called upon to leave their proper duties and wait upon a mob of "advanced women" collected for a meeting--and a scramble feed--in the dining room, when perhaps a proper lunch should have been in preparation for an ordinary party.
There was no rest, no cessation of the stir and turmoil in the great house, and amid it all Nell moved like a kind of good fairy, contriving to just keep the whole thing from smashing up in chaotic confusion.
Presently everybody began to rely upon her, and came to her for a.s.sistance; and the earl himself was uneasy and dissatisfied if she were not at the head of the breakfast table, at which he and she very often made a duet. He seemed to see Lady Wolfer very seldom, and gradually got into the habit of communicating with her through Nell. It would be:
"May I trouble you so far, Miss Lorton, as to ask Lady Wolfer if she intends going to the Wrexhold reception to-night?" Or: "Lady Wolfer wishes for a check for these bills. May I ask you to give it to her?
Thank you very much. I am afraid I am giving you a great deal of trouble."
Sometimes Nell would say: "Lady Wolfer is in her room. Shall I tell her you are here?" and he would make haste to reply:
"Oh, no; not at all necessary. She may be very much engaged. Besides, I am just going out."
Grave and reserved, not to say grim, though he was, Nell got to like him. His pomposity was on the surface, and his stiffness and hauteur were but the mannerisms with which some men are cursed. At the end of the week he startled her by alluding to the salary which he had offered her in his letter.
"I am afraid you thought it a very small sum, Miss Lorton," he said. "I myself considered it inadequate; but I asked a friend what he paid in a similar case, and I was, quite wrongly, I see, guided by him."
"It is quite enough," said Nell, blushing. "I think it would have been fairer if you had not paid me anything--at any rate, to start with."
"We will, if you please, increase it to one hundred pounds," he said, ignoring her protest. "I beg you will not refuse; in fact, I shall regard your acceptance as a favor."
He rose to leave the room before Nell could reply, and Lady Wolfer, entering with her usual rapidity, nearly ran against him. He begged her pardon with extreme courtesy, and was pa.s.sing out, when she stopped him with a:
"Oh, I"m glad I"ve seen you. Will the twenty-fourth do for the dinner party? Are you engaged for that night? I"m not, I think."
The earl"s grave eyes rested on her pretty, piquant face as she consulted her ivory tablets, but his gaze was lowered instantly as she looked up at him again.
"No," he said. "Is it a large party?"
She shrugged her shoulders.
"I"m afraid so. I"m going over the list with Nell, here. Oh, for goodness" sake, don"t run away, dear!" she broke off, as Nell, thinking herself rather de trop, moved toward an opposite door; and Nell, of course, remained.
"She"s the most awful girl to get hold of!" said her ladyship. "If ever you want to speak to her, to have a nice, quiet chat with her, she has always got to go and "see to something.""
"I can understand that Miss Lorton"s time must be much occupied," said the earl, with a courteous little inclination of the head to Nell.
"Yes, I know; but she might occupy it with me sometimes," remarked her ladyship.
"I can give you just five minutes," said Nell, laughing. "This is just my busiest hour."
The earl waited for a minute, waited as if under compulsion and to see if Lady Wolfer had anything more to say to him, then pa.s.sed out. On his way across the hall he met Sir Archie Walbrooke.
"Mornin", Wolfer," said the young man, in his slow, self-possessed way.
"Lady Wolfer at home? Got to see her about--"pon my honor, forget what it was now!"
The earl smiled gravely.
"You will find her in the library, Walbrooke," he said, and went on his way.
Sir Archie was shown into the room where Lady Wolfer and Nell were conferring over the dinner party, and Lady Wolfer looked up with an easy:
"Oh, it"s you, is it? What brings you here? Oh, never mind, if you can"t remember; I dare say I shall presently. Meanwhile, you can help us make out this list."
"Always glad to make myself useful," he drawled, seating himself on the settee beside Lady Wolfer, and taking hold of one side of the piece of paper which she held.
They were soon so deeply engaged that Nell, eager to get to Mrs.
Hubbard, left them for a while.
When she came in again, the list was lying on the floor, Lady Wolfer was leaning forward, with her hands clasped tightly in her lap, her pretty face lined and eloquent of some deep emotion, and Sir Archie was talking in a low, and, for him, eager tone.