"But this comes from undoubted authority." Mr. Parsons smiled a little. "One can't help it if servants _will_ hear things. Well! any way it will be overruled for good to that dear boy-though it would be a cruel stroke on the parish."
It was the twilight of a late spring evening when the congregation streamed out of Church, and Elvira, who had managed hitherto to avoid all intercourse with the River Hollow party, found herself grappled by Lisette without hope of rescue. "My dear, this is a pleasure at last; I have so much to say to you. Can't you give us a day?"
"I am going to town to-morrow," said Elvira, never gracious to any Gould.
"To-morrow! I heard the family had put off their migration."
"I go with Lucas. I am to stay with Mrs, Evelyn, Lord Fordham's mother, you know, who is to present me at the Drawing-room," said Elvira, magnificently.
"Oh! if I could only see you in your court dress it would be memorable," cried Mrs. Gould. "A little longer, my dear, our paths lie together."
"I must get home. My packing-"
"And may I ask what you wear, my dear? Is your dress ordered?"
"O yes, I had it made at Paris. It is white satin, with lilies-a kind of lily one gets in Algiers." And she expatiated on the fashion till Mrs. Gould said-
"Well, my love, I hope you will enjoy yourself at the Honourable Mrs. Evelyn's. What is the address, in case I should have occasion to write?"
"I shall have no time for doing commissions."
"That was not my meaning," was the gentle answer; "only if there be anything you ought to be informed of-"
"They would write to me from home. Why, what do you mean?" asked the girl, her attention gained at last.
"Did it never strike you why you are sent up alone?"
"Only that Mrs. Brownlow is so cut up about Janet."
"Ah! youth is so sweetly unconscious. It is well that there are those who are bound to watch for your interests, my dear."
"I can't think what you mean."
"I will not disturb your happy innocence, my love. It is enough for your uncle and me to be awake, to counteract any machinations. Ah! I see your astonishment! You are so simple, my dear child, and you have been studiously kept in the dark."
"I can't think what you are driving at," said Elvira, impatiently. "Mrs. Brownlow would never let any harm happen to me, nor Allen either. Do let me go."
"One moment, my darling. I must love you through all, and you will know your true friends one day. Are you-let me ask the question out of my deep, almost maternal, solicitude-are you engaged to Mr. Brownlow?"
"Of course I am!"
"Of course, as you say. Most ingenuous! Ah? well, may it not be too late!"
"Don't be so horrid, Lisette! Allen is not half a bad fellow, and frightfully in love with me."
"Exactly, my dear unsuspicious dove. There! I see you are impatient. You will know the truth soon enough. One kiss, for your mother's sake."
But Elvira broke from her, and rejoined Allen.
"I have sounded the child," said Lisette to her husband that evening, "and she is quite in the dark, though the very servants in the house are better informed."
"Better informed than the fact, may be," said Mr. Gould (for a man always scouts a woman's gossip).
"No, indeed. Poor dear child, she is blinded purposely. She never guessed why she was sent to Kencroft while the old Colonel was called in, and they all agreed that the will should be kept back till the wedding with Mr. Allen should be over, and he could make up the rest. So now the child is to be sent to town, and surrounded with Mrs. Brownlow's creatures to prey upon her innocence. But you have no care for your own niece-none!"
CHAPTER XXIX. FRIENDS AND UNFRIENDS.
Ay, and, I think, One business doth command us all; for mine Is money. Timon of Athens.
Before the door of one of the supremely respectable and aristocratic but somewhat gloomy-looking houses in Cavendish Square, whose mauve plate-glass windows and link-extinguishers are like fossils of a past era of civilisation, three riding horses were being walked up and down, two with side-saddles and one for a gentleman. They were taken aside as a four-wheel drove up, while a female voice exclaimed-
"Ah! we are just it time!"
Cards and a note were sent in with a request to see Miss Menella.
Word came back that Miss Menella was just going out riding; but on the return of a message that the visitors came from Mrs. Brownlow on important business, they were taken up-stairs to an ante-room.
They were three-Mr. Wakefield and Mr. Gould, and, to the great discontentment of the former, Mrs. Gould likewise. Fain would he have shaken her off; but as she truly said, who could deprive her of her rights as kinswoman, and wife to the young lady's guardian?
After they had waited a few moments in the somewhat dingy surroundings of a house seldom used by its proper owners, Elvira entered in plumed hat and habit, a slender and exquisite little figure, but with a haughty twitch in her slim waist, superb indifference in the air of her little head, and a grasp of her coral- handled whip as if it were a defensive weapon, when Lisette flew up to offer an embrace with-
"Joy, joy, my dear child! Remember, I was the first to give you a hint."
"Good morning," said Elvira, with a little bend of her head, presenting to each the shapely tip of a gauntleted hand, but ignoring her uncle and aunt as far as was possible. "Is there anything that need detain me, Mr. Wakefield? I am just going out with Miss Evelyn and Lord Fordham, and I cannot keep them waiting."
"Ah! it is you that will have to be waited for now, my sweet one," began Mrs. Gould.
"Here is a note from Mrs. Brownlow," said Mr. Wakefield, holding it to Elvira, who looked like anything but a sweet one. "I imagine it is to prepare you for the important disclosure I have to make."
A hot colour mounted in the fair cheek. Elvira tore open the letter and read-
"MY DEAR CHILD,-I can only ask your pardon for the unconscious wrong which I have so long been doing to you, and which shall be repaired as soon as the processes of the law render it possible for us to change places.
"Your ever loving, "MOTHER CAREY."
"What does it all mean?" cried the bewildered girl.
"It means," said the lawyer, "that Mrs. Brownlow has discovered a will of the late Mr. Barnes more recent than that under which she inherited, naming you, Miss Elvira Menella, as the sole inheritrix."
"My dear child, let me be the first to congratulate you on your recovery of your rights," said Mrs. Gould, again proffering an embrace, but again the whip was interposed, while Elvira, with her eyes fixed on Mr. Wakefield, asked "What?" so that he had to repeat the explanation.
"Then does it all belong to me?" she asked.
"Eventually it will, Miss Menella. You are sole heiress to your great uncle, though you cannot enter into possession till certain needful forms of law are gone through. Mrs. Brownlow offers no obstruction, but they cannot be rapid."
"All mine!" repeated Elvira, with childish exultation. "What fun! I must go and tell Sydney Evelyn."
"A few minutes more, Miss Menella," said Mr. Wakefield. "You ought to hear the terms of the will."
And he read it to her.
"I thought you told me it was to be mine. This is all you and uncle George."
"As your trustees."
"Oh, to manage as the Colonel does. You will give me all the money I ask you for. I want some pearls, and I must have that duck of a little Arab. Uncle George, how soon can I have it?"
"We must go through the Probate Court," he began, but his wife interrupted-
"Ways and means will be forthcoming, my dear, though for my part I think it would be much better taste in Mrs. Brownlow to put you in possession at once."
"Mr. Wakefield explained, my dear," said her husband, "that, much as Mrs. Brownlow wishes to do so, she cannot; she has no power. It is her trustees."
"Oh yes, I know every excuse will be found for retaining the property as long as possible," said the lady.