"Would you rather come in and dine with us--we should send you home,
of course--or go home straight?" asked Lady Harriet of Molly. She and
her father had both been sleeping till they drew up at the bottom of
the flight of steps.
"Tell the truth, now and evermore. Truth is generally amusing, if
it's nothing else!"
"I would rather go back to Miss Brownings' at once, please," said
Molly, with a nightmare-like recollection of the last, the only
evening she had spent at the Towers.
Lord Cumnor was standing on the steps, waiting to hand his daughter
out of the carriage. Lady Harriet stopped to kiss Molly on the
forehead, and to say,--
"I shall come some day soon, and bring you a load of Miss Edgeworth's
tales, and make further acquaintance with Pecksy and Flapsy."
"No, don't, please," said Molly, taking hold of her, to detain her.
"You must not come--indeed you must not."
"Why not?"
"Because I would rather not--because I think that I ought not to have
any one coming to see me who laughs at the friends I am staying with,
and calls them names." Molly's heart beat very fast, but she meant
every word that she said.
"My dear little woman!" said Lady Harriet, bending over her and
speaking quite gravely. "I'm very sorry to have called them
names--very, very sorry to have hurt you. If I promise you to be
respectful to them in word and in deed--and in very thought, if I
can--you'll let me then, won't you?"
Molly hesitated. "I'd better go home at once; I shall only say wrong
things--and there's Lord Cumnor waiting all this time."
"Let him alone; he's very well amused hearing all the news of the day
from Brown. Then I shall come--under promise?"
So Molly drove off in solitary grandeur; and Miss Brownings' knocker
was loosened on its venerable hinges by the never-ending peal of Lord
Cumnor's footman.
They were full of welcome, full of curiosity. All through the long
day they had been missing their bright young visitor, and three or
four times in every hour they had been wondering and settling what
everybody was doing at that exact minute. What had become of Molly
during all the afternoon, had been a great perplexity to them; and
they were very much oppressed with a sense of the great honour she
had received in being allowed to spend so many hours alone with
Lady Harriet. They were, indeed, more excited by this one fact than
by all the details of the wedding, most of which they had known
of beforehand, and talked over with much perseverance during the
day. Molly began to feel as if there was some foundation for Lady
Harriet's inclination to ridicule the worship paid by the good people
of Hollingford to their liege lord, and to wonder with what tokens
of reverence they would receive Lady Harriet if she came to pay her
promised visit. She had never thought of concealing the probability
of this call until this evening; but now she felt as if it would be
better not to speak of the chance, as she was not at all sure that
the promise would be fulfilled.