What were you
doing in the garden all the morning? I did not hear you playing tennis.'
Lady Maulevrier had already interrogated the German governess upon this
very subject, but she had her own reasons for wishing to hear Lesbia's
account.
'No, it was too warm for tennis. Fraeulein and I sat and worked, and Mr.
Hammond read to us.'
'What did he read?'
'Heine's ballads. He reads German beautifully.
'Indeed! I daresay he was at school in Germany. There are cheap schools
there to which middle-class people send their boys.'
This was like a thrust from a rusty knife.
'Mr. Hammond was at Oxford,' Lesbia said, reproachfully; and then, after
a longish pause, she clasped her hands upon the arm of Lady Maulevrier's
chair, and said, in a pleading voice, 'Grandmother, Mr. Hammond has
asked me to marry him.'
'Indeed! Only that? And pray, did he tell you what are his means of
maintaining Lord Maulevrier's sister in the position to which her birth
entitles her?' inquired the dowager, with crushing calmness.
'He is not rich; indeed, I believe, he is poor; but he is brave and
clever, and he is full of confidence in his power to conquer fortune.
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