"I cannot afford expensive dresses," said Alice.
"I should not ask you to get them if you could not afford them. I
warned you that I should give you expensive habits."
Alice hesitated. She had a healthy inclination to take whatever she
could get on all occasions; and she had suffered too much from
poverty not to be more thankful for her good-fortune than humiliated
by Miss Carew's bounty. But the thought of being driven, richly
attired, in one of the castle carriages, and meeting Janet trudging
about her daily tasks in cheap black serge and mended gloves, made
Alice feel that she deserved all her mother's reproaches. However,
it was obvious that a refusal would be of no material benefit to
Janet, so she said, "Really I could not think of imposing on your kindness in this
wholesale fashion. You are too good to me."
"I will write to Madame Smith this evening," said Lydia.
Alice was about to renew her protest more faintly, when a servant
entered and announced Mr. Webber. She stiffened herself to receive
the visitor. Lydia's manner did not alter in the least. Lucian,
whose demeanor resembled Miss Goff's rather than his cousin's, went
through the ceremony of introduction with solemnity, and was
received with a dash of scorn; for Alice, though secretly
awe-stricken, bore herself tyrannically towards men from habit.
In reply to Alice, Mr. Webber thought the day cooler than yesterday.
In reply to Lydia, he admitted that the resolution of which the
leader of the opposition had given notice was tantamount to a vote
of censure on the government. He was confident that ministers would
have a majority. He had no news of any importance. He had made the
journey down with Lord Worthington, who had come to Wiltstoken to
see the invalid at the Warren. He had promised to return with him in
the seven-thirty train.
When they went down to dinner, Alice, profiting by her experience of
the day before, faced the servants with composure, and committed no
solecisms. Unable to take part in the conversation, as she knew
little of literature and nothing of politics, which were the staple
of Lucian's discourse, she sat silent, and reconsidered an old
opinion of hers that it was ridiculous and ill-bred in a lady to
discuss anything that was in the newspapers. She was impressed by
Lucian's cautious and somewhat dogmatic style of conversation, and
concluded that he knew everything. Lydia seemed interested in his
information, but quite indifferent to his opinions.
Towards half-past seven Lydia proposed that they should walk to the
railway station, adding, as a reason for going, that she wished to
make some bets with Lord Worthington. Lucian looked grave at this,
and Alice, to show that she shared his notions of propriety, looked
shocked. Neither demonstration had the slightest effect on Lydia. On
their way to the station he remarked, "Worthington is afraid of you, Lydia--needlessly, as it seems."