She
longed so ardently to know her brother's fate, to find some means of
communication with him, now that she was rich, and able to help him in
his exile. He was starving, perhaps, in a strange land, while she was
surrounded by all this splendour, and had five hundred a year for
pocket-money.
Her maid came in to light the candles, and remind her of the dinner-hour,
while she was still looking out at the darkening woods. The maid was an
honest country-bred young woman, selected for the office by Mrs. Oliver.
She had accompanied her mistress on the honeymoon tour, and had been dazed
and not a little terrified by the wonders of Swiss landscape and the
grandeurs of fallen Rome.
"I've been listening for your bell ever so long, ma'am," said the girl;
"you'll scarcely have time to dress."
There was time, however, for Mrs. Granger's toilet, which was not an
elaborate one; and she was seated by the drawing-room fire talking to her
husband when the second dinner-bell rang.
They were not a very lively party that evening. The old adage about three
not being company went near to be verified in this particular case. The
presence of any one so thoroughly unsympathetic as Sophia Granger was in
itself sufficient to freeze any small circle. But although they did not
talk much, Clarissa and her husband seemed to be on excellent terms.
Sophia, who watched them closely during that initiatory evening, perceived
this, and told herself that her father had not yet discovered the mistake
which he had made.
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