Mrs. Dorriman Volume Iii Part 16

said Grace, laughing.

"My dear Miss Rivers!"

"Now I have got the P's," said Grace, "and I will run through the list."

"Penshurst!" exclaimed Lady Lyons. "Yes, Penshurst is the name."

"There are seventeen," said Grace, in an aggravated tone, "and they live all over London. What _is_ Mr. Penshurst?"

"I do not know."

"Ha!" said Grace suddenly, "this is funny. Here is a name Penryn. I used to know one of the girls a little, the daughter of Sir Jacob Penryn, and here is his address. I wonder if she would remember me?"

"Was she at school with you?" asked Lady Lyons, with evident relief.

"Oh! dear no. Her father had a place in the neighbourhood and we went there sometimes, my sister and I, because our father had shown some kindness to a son of his who had died."

"But, my dear, that is a very good thing indeed; write at once, and say you have come into a fortune and are here. A beginning! Why he is an M.P., and has his own house in London."

"No, I will not write," said Grace, decidedly, "and my fortune is hardly worth speaking about, but I will call, and if they wish to renew acquaintance they can return it."

With this Lady Lyons had to be satisfied--indeed, she was more than satisfied, as the difficulty seemed to her to be completely overcome.

She took heart now and went off on her own account to see a doctor, and paid a good deal to be a.s.sured there was nothing whatever seriously the matter with her.

This was hardly what she had expected or what she antic.i.p.ated--she was not at all sure she was pleased.

Grace in the meantime left her card, and wrote on the top "In London for a short time with Lady Lyons."

In a few days Miss Penryn called, a very nice-looking girl, dressed with extreme simplicity. She apologized for her mother and brought her card, and an invitation from Lady Penryn for a meeting to be held in her house that week.

When she had left, Grace surveyed her elaborate white toilette and thought her lace frills too numerous.

"It is overdone," she said, discontentedly, to Lady Lyons.

"It is very sweet," said Lady Lyons, who was not thinking of her "young friend's" dress, but who was weighing in her own mind the pros and cons in connection with Lady Penryn's meeting.

She wished to make acquaintance; on the other hand she was terribly afraid of having an appeal made to her pocket, and she was one of many who make small payments to stated charities, and do not like spontaneous action.

Grace settled the point for her, saying with her usual nonchalance,

"You will make your first appearance as my chaperone, Lady Lyons."

After that she could make no objection, but she made many inquiries about Lady Penryn.

"What is she like, my dear? Is she nice?"

"I should say that word describes her exactly; my remembrance of her is that she is much too nice; to be sincere, she always said, 'Dear thing!'

and got rid of us as soon as possible."

"She may not have liked children," observed Lady Lyons, lucidly.

"Possibly," but Grace did not think that she was much fonder of grown-up people. She and Margaret had always unfavourably contrasted Lady Penryn's neglect and Sir Jacob's heartiness.

"Grat.i.tude about her son," began Lady Lyons, "that must have been there at any rate."

"Oh! the poor man father knew so well was not her son. She has no son.

There were two or three by a first wife; this girl is not her daughter."

When Grace and Lady Lyons arrived in Cromwell Road they found the whole place crowded with people, mostly elderly; a few girls, and the men might be counted on their fingers. Papers were handed to them, and Grace with much amus.e.m.e.nt found that the meeting was convened about woman's suffrage.

Lady Penryn in a rich crimson velvet was very cordial in her reception of both Lady Lyons and Grace, advised them to sit on the right, said they would find plenty of friends, and turned her back upon them to receive somebody else.

Miss Penryn was not there, or, if there, Grace could not see her.

For upwards of two hours they sat in a room which in spite of open windows was stifling, seated on very small cane chairs, and hearing speeches from men and women more or less celebrated, upon a subject they neither of them took the faintest interest in.

No question of the day ever interested Grace. Lady Lyons never understood the question, and the injustice of women who have large control of money, and who contribute largely to the revenue in many ways and yet cannot give a vote, did not give her a pang. She knew that some women had made the subject ridiculous; she was afraid of ridicule, and she did not take the trouble of disentangling the question from the absurdities reared round it, and judging it on its own merits.

"I don't like being here at all," whispered Lady Lyons; "I am so afraid of being taken for a strong-minded woman."

"Pray do not be afraid of that," said Grace, satirically; "that is the very last thing your worst enemy would accuse you of."

The meeting dragged on, and the heat became quite suffocating. All at once Grace gave a little cry, and threw herself back, closing her eyes.

"A lady fainting! Air! Water! Salts! Salvolatile!" shouted dozens of voices at once.

Grace, still with closed eyes, was carried out of the room, where Lady Lyons gladly remained with her, in a small back room, consecrated to Lady Penryn's writings.

When the meeting dispersed she came in to see how Grace was, and was overwhelming in her affectionate attentions.

"Poor dear thing," she said.

"The heat was very great," said Lady Lyons, apologetically.

"Not in my rooms," said Lady Penryn, very decidedly. "The ventilation is admirably done--a private arrangement of my own."

Lady Lyons was too much awed to contradict her.

"Poor dear thing! how do you feel now?" said Lady Lyons, turning again to Grace.

"I feel better, Lady Lyons, and we will go home," said Grace. "And Lady Penryn, I must apologise for disturbing you all. What funny things everybody said. Do _you_ really believe in all that was said to-day?"

Lady Penryn coughed gently.

"My dear, the object of a meeting is to ventilate the subject."

"Oh! I see. Well then, you do not mind my saying that it all struck me as very absurd!"

"The question in itself is not absurd; and it should interest the moneyed cla.s.s; and it is of general interest."