Page:The Old Countess (1927).pdf/164

 Marthe!' she cried suddenly. 'Marthe! Here is Madame Graham who wishes to say good-night to us. We are keeping her! We must not forget our manners!'

Mademoiselle Ludérac came to them at once, but with no appearance of haste or contrition, and Jill, feeling angry and amused, turned to Graham. 'I'm trying to get someone to consent to have a motor-drive with me. Madame de Lamouderie doesn't like motors. Will you come?' she asked Mademoiselle Ludérac. 'Will you come for a drive to-morrow?'

Mademoiselle Ludérac stood silent and perplexed.

'But how can you go, Marthe? What can we do here, without you?' said Madame de Lamouderie, though, now that her protégée was before her, her tone towards her had altered. It was almost pleadingly that she spoke. 'You have the ménage in the mornings and your harp;—and it is in the mornings that you read to me. You will not abandon your old incubus for new friends?' said the old lady with a twisted, wheedling smile.

'But she can go with me in the afternoon,' interposed Jill. 'Dick is with you then, so you won't miss her.'

The old lady's expression changed at that.

'At what time is the reading?' Graham inquired, and they were none of them giving Mademoiselle Ludérac a chance to reply to Jill's invitation.

'At eleven—and again at seven!' cried the old lady, reviving in his presence. 'In the mornings she reads what I choose, and in the evenings, when I tend to go