Page:Eliot - Felix Holt, the Radical, vol. II, 1866.djvu/21

Rh "That Mr Jermyn asked me if you would probably be at home this morning before one o'clock."

Esther was surprised to see her father start and change colour as if he had been shaken by some sudden collision before he answered,

"Assuredly; I do not intend to move from my study after I have once been out to give this letter to Zachary."

"Shall I tell Lyddy to take him up at once to your study if he comes? If not, I shall have to stay in my own room, because I shall be at home all this morning, and it is rather cold now to sit without a fire."

"Yes, my dear, let him come up to me; unless, indeed, he should bring a second person, which might happen, seeing that in all likelihood he is coming, as hitherto, on electioneering business. And I could not well accommodate two visitors up-stairs."

While Mr Lyon went out to Zachary, the pew-opener, to give him a second time the commission of carrying a letter to Treby Manor, Esther gave her injunction to Lyddy that if one gentleman came he was to be shown up-stairs—if two, they were to be shown into the parlour. But she had to resolve various questions before Lyddy clearly saw what was expected of her,—as that, "if it was