Ticehurst Park in the autumn. I shall send youthe invitation."
"And your friends will be welcomed by Lord Saxham?"
Lady Mary smiled quite a brilliant smile. "I may tell you in confidencethat my dear old father is as wax in my hands. Are you satisfied withthat?"
Yes, Farquhar felt quite satisfied. But he thought of thegrief-stricken girl keeping her lonely vigil in that quiet home, and hisheart was very sore for her.
Still the world went on, and here was a very charming woman, not perhapsquite so youthful as Isobel, who was showing very plainly that she hadtaken an interest in him. The world was a very pleasant place.
CHAPTER ELEVEN.
The Head of the Family arrived next day. He was a very stolid andbucolic-looking person, a breeder of prize oxen and fat sheep. Hecommiserated with poor Isobel in a heavy fashion.
"Strange thing going off like that," he commented. "We are a verylong-lived family. But your father was always a little bit differentfrom the rest of us when he was a boy."
Isobel said nothing in reply. She had seen several members of herfather's family at rare intervals, and she had not been greatlyimpressed by them. The only one she had really liked was Mrs Farquhar,the mother of her Cousin Maurice. She was a sweet, charming woman, thefavourite sister of her dead father.
Mr Clandon fingered his moustache a little nervously. "I suppose youknow all about his affairs, my dear? He has left you comfortably off,eh? He came into quite a tidy little bit when my father died."
Isobel smiled faintly. Mr Clandon wanted to be assured that he was notgoing to have a penniless niece thrust upon his hands. She knew allabout her father's affairs. Had not the dear old General spent hours ininstructing her as to the careful management of her small patrimony,when anything happened to him?
"Quite comfortably off, uncle, thanks to his loving care. With mysimple wants, I shall be rich."
"Very relieved to hear it," said the bucolic Mr Clandon. "And, ofcourse, you are going to marry a rich man. Lord Saxham, I understand,is one of the wealthiest peers in England."
"Reported to be," corrected Isobel gently. "The estates are veryheavily encumbered, and there are living three dowagers, and otherpensioners who draw their portions."
"God bless me," said Mr Clandon, who was a very thrifty person. "Whata frightful incubus! Then I take it your fiance won't get very muchfrom that quarter?"
"Very little, I expect. But he will inherit a large fortune from hisgreat-aunt, Lady Henrietta, a very old lady, over eighty."
The Head of the Family looked relieved. He gazed with a certainrespectful admiration at his good-looking niece. He had alwaysrecognised that she was a very pretty girl. At the present moment,grief had made great inroads on her good looks. But he thought somewhatsorrowfully of his own large family of girls, who were rather of thedumpling-faced order. They would have to seek their mates amongst thesmall squirearchy.
"I suppose my poor brother made a will?" was Mr Clandon's nextquestion.
"Oh, yes, he made his will years ago, after my mother's death," wasIsobel's answer. "He left her everything. When she died, he left meeverything."
"Quite right and proper," observed Mr Clandon. He was very dull, butquite an upright and just person. He was relieved to find that hisbrother was more business-like than he thought. "And he has appointedexecutors, I suppose?"
"Yes, two--a very old friend, and my cousin, Maurice Farquhar."
"Ah, Maurice Farquhar, Anne's son! Yes, of course, your father and Annewere always great comrades. Maurice is getting on very well at the bar,I hear. You have seen a lot of him, I suppose. Somehow, we seemed tolose sight of Anne. We were such a big family, you know; and bigfamilies get scattered."
Uncle Clandon had not the delicacy of Maurice or Lady Mary. Hecordially accepted Isobel's invitation to put him up. He was a verythrifty and careful person, and had no fancy to waste his money inexpensive hotels, now that he knew his niece was left comfortably off.
The General was buried amongst his forbears in the family vault. Whenthe sad business was over, Lady Mary took Isobel away to Ticehurst Park.
Guy Rossett had rushed over for the funeral, but he was so engrossed indiplomatic affairs that he had to leave immediately after.
The lovers had little time to say anything to each other. But Isobelwas very much touched with Guy's delicate feeling.
"Wasn't he a darling to come over?" she said to Lady Mary. "I shouldhave forgiven him if he hadn't, but I love him ever so much more becausehe did."
To which somewhat incoherent declaration Mary had replied with her usualair of experience and worldly wisdom.
"All men have something bad in them, and most women. But I think dearold Guy has the least bad in him that a man can have."
Lord Saxham was very kind, very gentle, very paternal to his son'sbetrothed. He had only seen General Clandon once, and he could notpretend to feel any great interest in him. But that sudden deathreminded him that he also was nearing the goal. The remembrance of thatfact softened, at least temporarily, his asperities, curbed hisexplosive temper.
The two girls were sitting in Mary's cosy little boudoir. It was a verycharming room, reflecting in every detail the delicate anddiscriminating taste of the young _chatelaine_.
"Mary, I can never go back to Eastbourne. I loved that little home somuch while he was there. But now it would be torture. I should see himin every room, and I should want to cry out to him and he could notspeak to me. Oh, I don't think you can guess what we were to eachother."
"Have you thought of anything, dear?" asked Mary in her kind, gentlevoice. She knew the girl was half hysterical with her sorrow.
"I should so love to go to Spain to be near Guy. Did I tell you dearfather wanted to take me himself, only a few days before he died, andthe doctor forbade him. Oh, Mary, if you could only come too?"
"I would love to," said Mary slowly. "But you know as well as I do thatmy duty lies here. My father is old, I dare not leave him, and, inspite of his little faults of temper, he has been a dear, kind parent."
"I understand perfectly," was Isobel's answer. "But, you see, nothingnow ties me to England. All the world meant to me only two people, myfather and Guy. Now, only Guy is left. I would love to be near him,even if he did not know." Mary pondered a little. "I wonder if thatnice cousin of yours could help in the matter?"
Isobel caught at the suggestion at once. "Yes, he is very clever. Iwill go up and see him to-morrow."
"No need for that, dear. I will send him a wire at once, asking him tocome down to-morrow to see you."
"But he is always so frightfully busy," cried Isobel.
"Bah!" said the more practical Lady Mary. "I know he is going to dowonderful things in the future, but he has plenty of time. When I sendhim that wire, he will come."
Lady Mary sent off the telegram. It was quite a little excitement inher usually placid life. Farquhar came down as quickly as he could. Hehad handed over his briefs to a friend.
Lord Saxham greeted him kindly, being apprised by his daughter of hisarrival. The poor old Earl was very subdued by now; he was quiteprepared to make any amount of new acquaintances. His daughter hadaffairs well in hand.
Lady Mary plunged into matters at once.
"Isobel doesn't want to go back to Eastbourne--that is quite natural.She is eager to go to Spain, to be near Guy. Of course nothing bindsher to this country now."
Mr Farquhar was not to be hurried. His judicial mind, if it worked alittle slowly, also worked very surely.
"I should not say that, at the present moment, Spain was a verydesirable country for anybody, still less so for a young and unprotectedwoman." He looked rather disapprovingly at Isobel for having harbouredsuch daring thoughts.
"I shall take a maid, one of the servants we had at Eastbourne," saidIsobel, in a rather quaking voice. She had sense enough to see that, atthe best, it was a wild venture.
Lady Mary shot at him an appeali
ng glance. "Don't you think you hadbetter let Isobel have her way? And I expect she will have it whetheryou approve or not."
There was also a little something more in that glance than Mary wasquite conscious of. And the little something was this: Why was MauriceFarquhar so foolishly in love with Isobel, while Isobel was so devotedto Guy Rossett?
Farquhar looked from the younger to the elder girl. Lady Mary was verycomely, she had behind her a long line of illustrious ancestry. She hadbeen very sweet and gracious to him.
"Do you approve this rather daring scheme, Lady Mary?"
"On the whole, I think I do. Of course, I recognise the objections toit. But Isobel cannot go back to Eastbourne. If she stays in