Carruthers
boxed my ears for it. Just before going up to dress for dinner Mr.
Montgomerie asked blank out if it was true that Mr. Carruthers had
arrived. Lady Katherine had been skirting round this subject for a quarter
of an hour.
I only said yes, but that was not enough, and, once started, he asked a
string of questions, with "Burrrr" several times in between. Was Mr.
Carruthers going to shoot the pheasants in November? Had he decided to
keep on the chef? Had he given up diplomacy? I said I really did not know
any of these things, I had seen so little of him.
Lady Katherine nodded her head, while she measured a comforter she was
knitting, to see if it was long enough.
"I am sure it must have been most awkward for you, his arriving at all; it
was not very good taste on his part, I am afraid, but I suppose he wished
to see his inheritance as soon as possible," she said.
I nearly laughed, thinking what she would say if she knew which part of
his inheritance he had really come to see. I do wonder if she has ever
heard that Mrs. Carruthers left me to him, more or less, in her will!
"I hope you had your old governess with you, at least," she continued, as
we went up the stairs, "so that you could feel less uncomfortable--really
a most shocking situation for a girl alone in the house with an unmarried
man!"
I told her Mr.
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