第96章

"Dolly,are you serious?Has she been touching our books?""Hasn't she,though!What used to be the hall's full of them.Charles thought for certain you knew of it.""I am very much obliged to you,Dolly.What can have come over Miss Avery?I must go down about it at once.

Some of the books are my brother's,and are quite valuable.She had no right to open any of the cases.""I say she's dotty.She was the one that never got married,you know.Oh,I say,perhaps she thinks your books are wedding-presents to herself.Old maids are taken that way sometimes.

Miss Avery hates us all like poison ever since her frightful dust-up with Evie.""I hadn't heard of that,"said Margaret.A

visit from Dolly had its compensations.

"Didn't you know she gave Evie a present last August,and Evie returned it,and then--oh,goloshes!You never read such a letter as Miss Avery wrote.""But it was wrong of Evie to return it.It wasn't like her to do such a heartless thing.""But the present was so expensive."

"Why does that make any difference,Dolly?"

"Still,when it costs over five pounds--I didn't see it,but it was a lovely enamel pendant from a Bond Street shop.

You can't very well accept that kind of thing from a farm woman.

Now,can you?"

"You accepted a present from Miss Avery when you were married.

"Oh,mine was old earthenware stuff--not worth a halfpenny.Evie's was quite different.You'd have to ask anyone to the wedding who gave you a pendant like that.Uncle Percy and Albert and father and Charles all said it was quite impossible,and when four men agree,what is a girl to do?Evie didn't want to upset the old thing,so thought a sort of joking letter best,and returned the pendant straight to the shop to save Miss Avery trouble.""But Miss Avery said--"

Dolly's eyes grew round."It was a perfectly awful letter.Charles said it was the letter of a madman.In the end she had the pendant back again from the shop and threw it into the duckpond.

"Did she give any reasons?"

"We think she meant to be invited to Oniton,and so climb into society.""She's rather old for that,"said Margaret pensively.

"May not she have given the present to Evie in remembrance of her mother?""That's a notion.Give every one their due,eh?Well,I suppose I ought to be toddling.Come along,Mr.

Muff--you want a new coat,but I don't know who'll give it you,I'm sure;"and addressing her apparel with mournful humour,Dolly moved from the room.

Margaret followed her to ask whether Henry knew about Miss Avery's rudeness.

"Oh yes."

"I wonder,then,why he let me ask her to look after the house.""But she's only a farm woman,"said Dolly,and her explanation proved correct.Henry only censured the lower classes when it suited him.He bore with Miss Avery as with Crane--because he could get good value out of them."I have patience with a man who knows his job,"he would say,really having patience with the job,and not the man.Paradoxical as it may sound,he had something of the artist about him;he would pass over an insult to his daughter sooner than lose a good charwoman for his wife.

Margaret judged it better to settle the little trouble herself.Parties were evidently ruffled.With Henry's permission,she wrote a pleasant note to Miss Avery,asking her to leave the cases untouched.Then,at the first convenient opportunity,she went down herself,intending to repack her belongings and store them properly in the local warehouse:the plan had been amateurish and a failure.

Tibby promised to accompany her,but at the last moment begged to be excused.

So,for the second time in her life,she entered the house alone.