Page:Arminell, a social romance (1896).djvu/67

Rh mouth was weak. Her complexion was clear. Jingles had inherited his good looks from her. As Arminell approached, she curtsied, then opened the gate, and asked—

"Miss Inglett, if I may be so bold, I would so much like to have a word with you."

"Certainly," answered Arminell.

"Will you honour me, miss, by taking a seat on the bench?" asked Mrs. Saltren, pointing to a garden bench near the door.

Arminell declined graciously. She could not stay long, she had been detained already, and had transgressed the luncheon hour.

"Ah, Miss Inglett," said the captain's wife, "I did so admire and love your dear mother, the late lady, she was so good and kind, and she took—though I say it—a sort of fancy to me, and was uncommonly gracious to me."

"You were at the park once?"

"I was there before I married, but that was just a few months before my lord married your mother, the first Lady Lamerton. I never was in the house with her, but she often came and saw me. That was a bad day for many of us—not only for you, miss, but for all of us—when she died. If she had lived, I don't think we could have fallen into this trouble."

"What trouble?" Arminell asked. She was touched by the reference to her mother, about whom she knew and was told so little.

"I mean, miss, the mine that is being stopped. Her dear late ladyship would never have allowed it."

"But it runs under the house."

"Oh, miss, nothing of the sort. That is what Mr. Macduff says, because he is trying to persuade his lordship to close the mine. It is not for me to speak against him, but he is much under the management of Mrs. Macduff, who is a very fine lady; and because the miners don't