times her age, because he was very rich, and also, of course, because
she loved him for having won the Victoria Cross, and then he died, and
they found he had left all the money to some one he had liked better all
the time. So there is a horrid woman with forty thousand a-year
somewhere or other, and Rose Bright is almost starving and can't afford
to buy decent boots, and every one is devoted to her. I am rather
surprised that she should come to Groombridge for a party, she has shut
herself up so much; but it must be a year and a half at least since that
wicked old General was killed, and he certainly didn't deserve much
mourning at _her_ hands."

As Adela's little staccato voice went on, Molly stiffened and
straightened and starched herself morally, not unaided by this facile
description of the story in which she was so much involved. She would
fight it out here and now; nothing should make her flinch; she would
come up to time as calm and cool as if she were quite happy. And, after
all, Sir Edmund Grosse would be there to help her.

It was not until the first of the two heavy handsome old-fashioned
carriages, drawn by fine, sleek horses, was beginning to crawl up a very
steep hill that its occupants began to take an interest in those who
were following.

"Who is in the carriage behind us?" asked Sir Edmund of the young man
usually called Billy, who was sitting opposite him, and whom he was
never glad to meet.

"Mrs. Delaport Green and a girl I don't know--very dark and thin."

Edmund growled and fidgeted.