Page:The Confessions of a Well-Meaning Woman.djvu/154

 for the Twelfth,” said Will. “Get him to lend you the Hall and ask Consuelo down.” My brother, as you know, is of so curious a temper that I have always been more than chary of even seeming to put myself under an obligation to him. One had the feeling, don’t you know, that, if he did not place a wrong construction on one’s request, my niece Phyllida would. . . Since Culroyd’s engagement, however, poor Aunt Ann’s shoulders have been relieved a little of their burden; the family persists in thinking that I contributed to bring it about, whereas I rigidly set my face against any planning of that kind and was only responsible to the extent that Hilda Surdan was staying in my house when my nephew Culroyd met her. . . The point of importance, however, is that Aunt Ann is now embarrassingly popular. Brackenbury lent me the house almost before I asked for it. . . Then I had to think how the invitation might be made most attractive to Consuelo. After the excitement of her life in London, undoubtedly the best thing would have been to give her all the rest and quiet that we could. There is, however, a strain of something restless and untamed about her; one pictures her running bare-foot through the woods or plunging into the surf by moonlight; and, though she