Page:The principal girl (IA principalgirl00snai).pdf/135

 CHAPTER XIII

JANE'S AFTERNOON OUT

The Green Chartreuse was able to break its journey at Romano's, as it passed that home of wassail en route to Bedford Gardens. And having done so, it was able to answer back a bit, but only in a very minor key just now, my lords and gentlemen.

The dear girl herself opened the door to Mr. Philip; it was Jane's afternoon out. Wasn't Mary very tired after the two performances yesterday? Not a bit. But wasn't he a bit below the weather? No? She thought he looked so, rather. Merely because he had been lunching with his people, was it? Very wrong to make a joke of such a filial action, particularly as Grosvenor Square on a Sunday is thought to be the home of the serious.

Granny was sitting very upright in the cozy corner, and looking very stately in her smartest cap with lace on it, that had been worn by Siddons. An approximation of the grand manner when she shook hands. The weather was not cold, perhaps, for the season of the year; but when one was turned four-and-eighty, one's vitality was perhaps a little less than formerly.