and Ermine married tohim before I came here."
The softened feeling--as most feelings did with Ella--expressed itself.
"Madelene," she said half timidly. "I am of course _quite_ willing todo as you like--I mean as you think best--about going out at all or not.I know--I quite understood at the time that my godmother's taking me tothe Manor dance was an exception--a sort of extra thing altogether. AndI am sure she couldn't be vexed if you said it was best for me not to goout any more just yet, and if Ermine went instead. I do believeErmine," with a grateful glance in her second sister's direction, "I dobelieve Ermine planned it to please me, and asked godmother to invite meinstead of her." Madelene looked relieved at this--some diplomacy hadbeen exerted by Ermine the day before at Cheynesacre, she felt sure, andshe was glad to think it had been thus simple--but Ermine, though shereddened a little, replied rather abruptly.
"No, Ella. I did not really. The inviting you was Aunt Anna's ownidea."
"I will tell papa about it, Ella, and see what he thinks," Madelenesaid. "But thank you, dear, for what you say. I shall be so glad foryou to believe that interfering with any pleasure for you is my verylast wish."
CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
SIR PHILIP BURNS HIS FINGERS.
"Of course she must go; it would seem like dictating to my lady to makeany difficulty about it," Colonel St Quentin replied, when the subjectof the Cheynesacre invitation was mentioned to him by Madelene. "Whatconceivable reason is there why she should not go?"
"I am very glad indeed for her to go," said Madelene gently. "I only--was not sure, papa, how you might feel about it, because you know youwould not let her go to the Manor dance at first, not till--"
"Not till my aunt made a point of it and then I gave in, for which Isuppose you think me very inconsistent--well, well, I am not going todefend myself, my dear. I dare say I am inconsistent and weak andfoolish and in my dotage--what you like," he replied irritably. "Butone thing, Madelene, is certain, I am not going to quarrel with my aunt.She seems to have taken a fancy to Ella and she may be a good friendyet to the poor child. And Heaven only knows how soon she may need afriend."
Colonel St Quentin sighed or groaned--his daughter knew the peculiarsound and it was inexpressibly trying to her.
"Papa," she said, "you don't know how you pain me when you take thattone about Ella. Of course I am delighted for her to go--but reallysometimes I don't know how to please you."
"Well--well--never mind. I didn't want to vex you. But I havesomething more important to consult you about. I have a letter fromMrs Marchant--did you know they had asked Ermine to stay there and thatshe had refused?"
"No," said Madelene in surprise. "I know something was said about it atthe Manor when we met them there--both Mr and Mrs Marchant and abrother of his were there, and they were speaking of gaieties they aregoing to have. But it was not definite. And why should Ermine haverefused, without even telling me?"
Madelene's voice sounded aggrieved.
"Nor me," said her father. "But it is very sensible of Mrs Marchant tohave written to me. She says she is sure Ermine would enjoy it, andthat she only gave some vague reason of being wanted at home, orsomething of that kind. There is no reason why she should not go, isthere?"
"None whatever, and every reason why she should," said Madelene eagerly."Papa, will you speak to her yourself, and say you wish it? She hasonly refused out of some exaggerated idea that we can't get on withouther here, and it is such a pity for Ermine to get in the way of shuttingherself up. She enjoys society and shines in it; she is quite differentfrom me."
Colonel St Quentin glanced up at his daughter as she spoke. Her facewas a little flushed with the interest of what she was saying, but stillshe looked ill and less serene than her wont.
"I don't see why you should speak so of yourself, Maddie," he saidkindly. "When I get round again--when the weather's a little better,perhaps, couldn't we ask a few people? It might cheer us up--and littleElla would enjoy it."
Miss St Quentin listened in surprise, not wholly unmingled with a lessinnocent sensation. For Madelene was not perfect.
"He would do for Ella already what he has never dreamt of doing for me,"she thought with a passing flash of bitterness. But she quicklyovercame it. "If you felt able for it, certainly, papa. We might thinkof some nice people. That would be when Ermine comes back. Let mesee--when do the Marchants want her?"
She took up the letter which her father held out to her, and somediscussion as to the journey and other details followed. And thenMadelene, with a brighter face than she had had for some time, went offto summon Ermine to an interview with her father.
At luncheon that day Ella was struck with the increased cheerfulness ofthe family party, and for some little time her powers of discernmentwere baffled as to the cause.
"Can papa have decided I am not to go, and can they be looking sopleased on that account?" she said to herself. "Can they--Madelene atleast, for after all it is she that is looking the cheeriest, _can_ shebe so horrid?"
But as no allusion was made to the Cheynesacre invitation--which inpoint of fact had for the moment been forgotten by the elders of theparty in the greater excitement of Ermine's projected visit--she couldnot or would not not approach the subject, till her elder sister and shehappened to be by themselves. Then said Ella in a voice which thoughsounding timid and even meek was in reality soft with restrainedindignation.
"Have you asked papa, Madelene? Is--is Ermine to go, then?"
"Of course," Miss St Quentin replied. "He decided at once and he hastold her so. In her heart I am sure she is pleased though she ispretending to grumble a little. But I am so pleased--and I am surePhilip will be too to see her there, though he won't be there the firstpart of the time."
Ella scarcely attended to the latter part of this speech, so _almost_boiling over with indignation did she feel.
"Oh indeed," she said icily. "Then of course you will explain it all tomy godmother. I should like to have thanked her for thinking of me, butfor the future I hope she will not go through the mockery of invitingme."
Madelene stared at her.
"What do you mean, Ella? What has Aunt Anna got to do with it? And, bythe by," as the first hazy perception of some element of cross-purposesbegan to penetrate to her brain, "how did you know about Ermine's goingat all? She couldn't have told you about it when she hadn't told me?"and there was an accent of pain in the last words.
Ella stared in turn.
"You told me yourself--this morning at breakfast when Lady Cheynes'invitation came," said she.
Madelene stood still and began to laugh.
"My dear child," she exclaimed, "I am so sorry. I had forgotten allabout to-morrow. Yes, certainly you are to go--you and I. Papa is_quite_, pleased, and of course if he is, I am. What I was talkingabout was quite another matter," and she went on to tell Ella all aboutthe invitation Ermine had received and her pleasure that it was to beaccepted. Never had Madelene been so confiding and companionable to herbefore; she seemed a different creature.
"She _is_ very unselfish," thought Ella, and she felt ashamed of her ownsuspicions, as she heartily joined in Madelene's pleasure.
"You see," Miss St Quentin went on, "we have lived rather a shut-uplife--for even travelling is often shut-up, though it sounds absurd tosay so, and Ermine is still young--I don't want her to begin fancyingshe is not. I should like her to go about more."
"You would like her to marry, wouldn't you?" said Ella, calmly, thoughsoftly. But the calmness rather took Madelene's breath away.
"Yes," she said honestly, though the colour deepened a little in herfair face. "I should. But," she went on rather confusedly, for to herthere seemed something slightly coarse in the bald connection of the twoideas, "it isn't exactly that--girls often marry just as happily whostay at home."
Ah, thought Ella, I understand. "Is it far from here where Ermine isgoing?" she asked.
"Not very; still it is a new part of t
he country to her, which will makeit all the nicer. Philip will be there part of the time, too. They areold friends of his. Mr Marchant's half-brother (his mother marriedtwice; her second husband is Lord Farrance) Guildford West, was atschool and college with him. He was at the Manor. I dare say youdanced with him. A small thin man, much smaller than Philip and notnearly so good-looking."
"I don't remember," said Ella indifferently. "Then you are quite sureyou wish me to go to-morrow to Cheynesacre?" she added.
"Of course," Madelene repeated bewildered by the change in Ella's