Page:The Siege of London, The Pension Beaurepas, and The Point of View (Boston, James R. Osgood & Co., 1883).djvu/131

Rh You must remember that she 's an old friend of mine." Littlemore had become rather stern; Mrs. Dolphin was forgetting the consideration due, from an English point of view, to brothers.

She forgot it even a little more. "Oh, if you are in love with her, too!" she murmured, turning away.

He made no answer to this, and the words had no sting for him. But at last, to finish the affair, he asked what in the world the old lady wanted him to do. Did she want him to go out into Piccadilly and announce to the passers-by that there was one winter when even Mrs. Headway's sister did n't know who was her husband?

Mrs. Dolphin answered this inquiry by reading out Lady Demesne's letter, which her brother, as she folded it up again, pronounced one of the most extraordinary letters he had ever heard.

"It 's very sad—it 's a cry of distress," said Mrs. Dolphin. "The whole meaning of it is that she wishes you would come and see her. She does n't say so in so many words, but I can read between the lines. Besides, she told me she would give anything to see you. Let me assure you it 's your duty to go."

"To go and abuse Nancy Beck?"

"Go and praise her, if you like!" This was very clever of Mrs. Dolphin, but her brother was not so easily caught. He did n't take that view of his duty, and he declined to cross her ladyship's threshold. "Then she 'll come and see you," said Mrs. Dolphin, with decision.