Well, now that I'm on the County Council, I mean to _go for
him!"_
The young man sprang up, apparently to fetch cigarettes, really that
he might once more obtain a full view of Lydia, who had moved from the
tea-table to a more distant seat.
Mrs. Penfold waved the silver box aside. "I never learnt"--she said,
adding with soft, upturned eyes--confidingly--"sometimes I wish I did.
Oh, Lydia will!"
And Lydia, following Lady Tatham's lead, quietly lit up. Tatham who
cherished some rather strict and old-fashioned notions about women, very
imperfectly revealed even to his mother, was momentarily displeased; then
lost himself in the pleasure of watching a white hand and arm--for the
day was hot and sleeves short--in new positions.
Lady Tatham looked round in answer to her son's last words.
"I wish, Harry, you'd leave him alone."
"Who? Melrose? _Mother!_ Oh, I forgot--he's a sort of cousin, isn't he?"
"My second cousin."
"Worse luck! But that's nothing, unless one chooses it shall be. I
believe, mother, you know a heap of things about Melrose you've never
told me!"
Lady Tatham smiled faintly, but did not reply. Whereat Mrs. Penfold whose
curiosity was insatiable, within lady-like bounds, tried to ask questions
of her hostess. A wife? Surely there had been a wife?
"Certainly--twenty years ago. I saw her." The answer came readily.
"She ran away?"
"Not in the usual sense. There was no one, I understand, to run with.
But she could not stand Threlfall--nor--I suppose--her husband.
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