"Only I do _not_ understand
why you should have dragged John Charteris's name into this ludicrous
affair----"
"You really do not understand----?"
But Colonel Musgrave's handsome face declared very plainly that he did
not.
"Well," Mrs. Pendomer reflected, "I dare say it is best, upon the whole,
you shouldn't. And now you must excuse me, for I am leaving for the
Ullwethers' to-day, and I shan't ever be invited to Matocton again, and
I must tell my maid to pack up. She is a little fool and it will break
her heart to be leaving Pilkins. All human beings are tediously alike.
But, allowing ample time for her to dispose of my best lingerie and of
her unavoidable lamentations, I ought to make the six-forty-five. I have
noticed that one usually does--somehow," said Mrs. Pendomer, and seemed
to smack of allegories.
And yet it may have been because she knew--as who knew
better?--something of that mischief's nature which was now afoot.
IV
The colonel burned the malefic letters that afternoon.
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