Page:The Private Life, Lord Beaupré, The Visits (New York, Harper & Brothers, 1893).djvu/164

154 to his neglected affairs. The news had been a bomb in the enemy's camp, and there were plenty of blank faces to testify to the confusion it had wrought. Every one was "sold," and every one made haste to clap him on the back. Lottie Firminger only had written in terms of which no notice could be taken, though, of course, he expected every time he came in to find her waiting in his hall. Her mother was coming up to town, and he should have the family on his back; but taking them as a single body he could manage them, and that was a detail. The Ashburys had remained at Bosco till that establishment was favored with the tidings that so nearly concerned it (they were communicated to Maud's mother by the house-keeper), and then the beautiful sufferer had found in her defeat strength to seek another asylum. The two ladies had departed for a destination unknown; he didn't think they had turned up in London. Guy Firminger averred that there were precious portable objects which he was sure he should miss on returning to his country home.