Lord Fitzroy obeyed his wife's behest, and then he turned with a relieved air to his old friend Phillis. She was the clever one; and though some people called her quiet, that was because they did not draw her out, or she had no sympathy with them. He had always found her decidedly amusing and agreeable in the days of his bachelorhood.
He had married the beauty of a season, but the beauty was not without her little crotchets and tempers; and though he was both fond and proud of his wife, he found Phillis's talk a relief this afternoon.
But Phillis was a little _distraite_ on this occasion: she wanted to hear what Nan was saying in a low voice across the room, and Thorpe and his subordinate were setting the tea-table, and Lord Fitzroy would place himself just before her.
"Now look here, Miss Challoner," he was saying, "I want to tell you all about it;" but here Thorpe left the room, and Lady Fitzroy interrupted them:
"Oh, Percival, what a pity! Do you hear?--we are going to lose our nicest neighbors? Dear little Glen Cottage is to be empty in a week or so!"
"Mr. Ralph Ibbetson will decide to take it, I think; and he and Miss Blake are to be married on the 16th of next month," returned Nan, softly.
"Ibbetson at Glen Cottage! that red-headed fellow! My dear Miss Challoner, what sacrilege!--what desecration! What do you mean by forsaking us in this fashion? Are you all going to be married? Has Sir Francis died and left you a fortune? In the name of all that is mysterious, what is the meaning of this?"
"If you will let a person speak, Percival," returned his wife, with dignity, "you shall have an answer:" and then she looked up in his handsome, good-natured face, and her manner softened insensibly. "Poor dear Mrs. Challoner has had losses! Some one has played her false, and they are obliged to leave Glen Cottage. But Hadleigh is a nice place," she went on, turning to Nan: "it is very select."
"Where did you say, Evelyn?" inquired her husband, eagerly. "Hadleigh, in Sussex? Oh, that is a snug little place; no Toms and Harries go down there on a nine hours' trip. I was there myself once, with the Shannontons. Perhaps Lady Fitzroy and I may run down one day and have a look at you," he continued, with a friendly look at Phillis. It was only one of his good-natured speeches, but his wife took umbrage at it.