XII

The result of this missive was that next morning the servants whispered that someone had been about the house on the preceding evening.  Olive and Barnes sat talking for hours; and one day, unable to keep her counsel any longer, Olive told her sister what had happened.  The letter that Barnes had taken across the field for her had, she declared, frightened Edward out of his senses; he had come rushing through the snow, and had spoken with her for full five minutes under her window.  He loved her to distraction; and the next day she had received a long letter, full of references to his colonel, explaining how entirely against his will and desire he had been forced to accept the invitation to go and shoot at the Lawlers’.  Alice listened quietly; as if she doubted whether Captain Hibbert would have died of consumption or heartache if Olive had acted otherwise, and then advised her sister quietly; and, convinced that her duty was to tell her mother everything, she waited for an occasion to speak.  Mr. Barton was passing down the passage to his studio, Olive was racing upstairs to Barnes, Mrs. Barton had her hand on the drawing-room door; and she looked round surprised when she saw that her daughter was following her.

‘I want to speak to you, mamma.’

‘Come in, dear.’

Alice shut the door behind her.

’How bare and untidy the room looks at this season of the year; really you and Olive ought to go into the conservatory and see if you can’t get some geraniums.’

’Yes, mamma, I will presently; but it was about Olive that I wanted to speak,’ said Alice, in a strained and anxious way.

‘What a bore that girl is with her serious face,’ thought Mrs. Barton; but she laughed coaxingly, and said: 

’And what has my grave-faced daughter to say—­the learned keeper of the family’s wisdom?’

Even more than Olive’s—­for they were less sincere—­Mrs. Barton’s trivialities jarred, and Alice’s ideas had already begun to slip from her, and feeling keenly the inadequacy of her words, she said: 

’Well, mamma, I wanted to ask you if Olive is going to marry Captain Hibbert?’

It was now for Mrs. Barton to look embarrassed.

’Well, really, I don’t know; nothing is arranged—­I never thought about the matter.  What could have made you think she was going to marry Captain Hibbert?  In my opinion they aren’t at all suited to each other.  Why do you ask me?’

’Because I have heard you speak of Lord Kilcarney as a man you would like Olive to marry, and, if this be so, I thought I had better tell you about Captain Hibbert.  I think she is very much in love with him.’

’Oh! nonsense; it is only to kill time.  A girl must amuse herself somehow.’

It was on Alice’s lips to ask her mother if she thought such conduct quite right, but, checking herself, she said: