"
"He'll lose a good many hours before long, at this rate. Silly
fellow! That's not the way to do well at an exam! I must counsel him
for his soul's good, I must, indeed. Will he dine here to-night?"
"No doubt."
"And make all haste to get away when dinner is over," said Olga,
with a smile.
"Then we won't let him. He shall tell us all about the Member of
Parliament; and then all about his famous father. I undertake to
keep him talking till ten."
"Then, poor fellow, he'll have to work all night to make it up."
"Indeed, no! I shall expressly forbid it. What a shocking thing if
he died here, and it got into the papers! Aunt, do consider; they
would call you his _landlady_!"
Mrs. Hannaford reddened whilst laughing, and the girl saw that her
joke was not entirely relished, but she could never resist the
temptation to make fun of certain prejudices.
"And when you give your evidence," she went on, "the coroner will
remark that if the influence of a lady so obviously sweet and
right-feeling and intelligent could not avail to save the poor
youth, he was plainly destined to a premature end."
At which Mrs. Hannaford again laughed and reddened, but this time
with gratification.
If Irene sometimes made a mistake, no one could have perceived it
more quickly, and more charmingly have redeemed the slip.
CHAPTER IV
When Piers Otway got back to Ewell, about four o'clock, he felt the
beginning of a headache.
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