“Has your lordship any orders to give me?” inquired the butler.
“Yes. Select a good room for Miss Forster, and another for Father Norman, and let all be got ready for them without delay.”
“It shall be done, my lord,” replied the butler. “Your lordship will find them in this room,” he added, opening the door of a spacious and well-furnished apartment.
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IV
Mrs. Scarisbrick
As the earl entered Father Norman advanced to meet him, and saluting him affectionately, gave him his benediction. This little ceremony over, Lord Derwentwater addressed himself to Dorothy, expressing his delight at seeing her, and thanking her for her kindness in accompanying the countess on the hazardous expedition.
“I only hope you will have no cause to regret your obliging compliance with her wishes,” he said. “I hope you will stay with her here, for I really think you will be better off in this house than in the general’s quarters.”
“Oh! yes, Dorothy will stay with me I’m quite sure,” cried the countess. “I can’t part with her.”
Dorothy gladly assented to the arrangement, which indeed was very agreeable to her, and this matter being settled, the earl again addressed himself to Father Norman, and told him he was happy in being able to offer him such excellent accommodation.
“You shall have as good a room as you have been accustomed to at Dilston,” he said.
“I beg your lordship not to trouble yourself on my account,” replied the priest. “I care not where I am lodged.”
Just then, Newbiggin came in and announced General Forster and Mrs. Scarisbrick, and next moment the general made his appearance with the young widow.
While he presented her to the countess and his sister, the priest retired to the further end of the room.
Both ladies were very much struck by Mrs. Scarisbrick’s beauty and liveliness. She did not seem more than five-and-twenty. She was a blonde, with very fine eyes and pretty features, and had a graceful figure, set off by a charming dress.
She appeared exceedingly good-natured, and was certainly very desirous to please. Indeed her manner was so engaging that both ladies were delighted with her. The only thing that surprised Lady Derwentwater was that she could tolerate such a man as Forster.
“I hope your lordship and Miss Forster will like Preston,” she said after her presentation to them by the general. “We will do our best to amuse you. In spite of war’s alarms, a good deal is going on. To-night there will be a grand ball at the town-hall. I have no doubt it will be a very gay affair. All the officers will be present.”
“And some of the loveliest women you ever beheld,” said the general. “I never knew what beauty was till I came to Preston.”
“Don’t mind what the general says,” observed Mrs. Scarisbrick. “He thinks too much of us.”
“I can’t think too much of you,” sighed Forster.
“Ah! you flatter,” said the widow. “However, if Lady Derwentwater and Miss Forster will honour the ball with their presence, they will be able to judge for themselves.”
“Shall we go to this ball?” said the countess to the earl.
“By all means,” he replied. “It will be very numerously attended. In addition to the officers, all my gentlemen soldiers will be there.”
“Yes, there will be plenty of military,” observed General Forster. “Your ladyship may think I am jesting, but I assure you there is not an officer or a trooper in the Northumbrian regiments, who isn’t in love.”
“Beginning with the general himself,” remarked the countess.
“Yes, I own the soft impeachment,” he replied.
Mrs. Scarisbrick affected not to hear the observation, and said to Lady Derwentwater:
“I must congratulate your ladyship on the house you have got. ‘Tis the best in the place.”
“So I fancied,” said the countess. “Sir Henry Hoghton must have been very sorry to quit it.”
“He was driven out by General Forster’s approach,” laughed Mrs. Scarisbrick.
“Do you know him?” inquired the countess.
“Intimately,” replied Mrs. Scarisbrick; “and like him very much. But he has one great fault. He is a Whig and a Hanoverian.”
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