Page:The Lark - E Nesbit, 1922.djvu/232

Rh see her to-morrow if you really feel it's necessary to see her. Really, I can tell you anything you want to know. (I wish I'd said six guineas. That might have choked her off.)"

"Could I not see her if I called this evening—say at nine? I shall be dining with my son. We could come round after dinner. Yes?"

"That will do perfectly," said Jane, rising with much the air of a duchess ending an interview with a dressmaker. She knew better, but also she heard a movement in the library which told her that Mr. Rochester had returned.

"I'll see you out—this way," she went on very quickly. "I'll tell my aunt, and I'm sure she will be very pleased, but she's an old lady and rather deaf. Mind the step. Yes—it's a beautiful day. It's been a lovely summer. (Thank goodness I've got you out of the drawing-room!) Oh no—it's no trouble, I should love to see you to the gate. Aren't the evergreen oaks a nice shape? Yes, my aunt will be sure to be in this evening. Good-bye."

Jane, having watched the trim, grey figure out of sight, ran like a rabbit to the library.

"You've come to hear the secret?" cried Rochester, jumping up.

"Oh, nonsense!" said Jane. "Look here—the most awful thing's happened. No, don't look like that—nobody's dead yet—but your mother's been here."

"My mother?"

"Yes. She came to see about a Miss Antrobus coming as a P.G."

"Miss Antrobus?"

"Don't," said Jane—and I am sorry to record that she stamped her foot—"for goodness' sake don't keep repeating everything I say! Your mother called—and I thought she was Lucilla dressed up—and I crept up behind her and clumped her on the back, and said"

"What did you say?"

"I said, 'Oh no, you don't, old girl!'—just like that. Oh, don't laugh—don't!"