Anything
rather than undergo any further shocks to my nervous system.
Happily I was spared the necessity of perjuring myself to this extent.
When the breakfast bell rang, I descended and found that as usual very
few of the guests, had obeyed the summons. Mrs. Maitland was pouring out
tea quite undisturbed by this irregularity, for Longacres is a house
where attendance at the meals is never compulsory.
"And how have you slept?" she said, extending me a plump hand glittering
with rings. "We were afraid that perhaps you were a little overtired
last night, as you went off to bed in the middle of the singing.
Capital, wasn't it? Mr. Tucker is so very funny, and never in the least
vulgar with his jokes! Now some comic singers really forget that there
are girls in the room.--(Lily, my love, just go and see if your uncle is
coming down).--I assure you, Mr. Carew, I was staying in a country house
last year--mind, I give no names--where the songs were only fit for a
music-hall! It's perfectly true; even George said it made him feel quite
red to hear such things in a drawing-room. But, as I was saying, Mr.
Tucker is so different; such genuine humour, you know!"
It is impossible to conjecture how long my amiable hostess might have
rippled on in this strain if our conversation had not been interrupted
by the entry of Miss Latouche.
"You have been introduced?" whispered Mrs.
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