Page:The Confessions of a Well-Meaning Woman.djvu/254

 “There’s a lady downstairs who wants to see one of you for a moment. She was on the doorstep, when I arrived, and your servants didn’t want to admit her. I gathered, however, that she’d been waiting for some time, so I made them let her in.” Made. . . In the school in which I was brought up, the bare idea of giving orders to other people’s servants. . . I do not know whether you have been forced into contact with the world of “business men”, but I find their autocracy sometimes a little trying. “A lady to see me?,” I said. “Really, this is not a reasonable time for calling.” “I fancy it was your son, Lady Ann, that she asked for,” said Sir Appleton.

“Oh, I can’t be bothered to see people at this hour of the night,” said Will. When Norden came in to announce dinner, I told him to explain that neither Will nor I could possibly desert our guest to talk to this girl at such a time. . . “Oh, don’t mind me,” said Sir Appleton.

“But I do!,” I said. “And I mind about dinner.”

“I should be disposed to see her,” said he. “Perhaps she’s in trouble.” “It’ll keep till to-morrow,” said Will.

There was nothing so very heartless either