"To you," said Dana spitefully.

"No, he is not; it is to you. If I were you, I'd give Master Alison such a lesson to-night! I'd flirt with Burwood till I made him half mad with jealousy."

"That's the advice I was thinking of giving you," said Dana with a sneer. "He is always at your heels, or wanting to help you mount or dismount."

"Oh, come, I like that," said Saxa, whose face was now scarlet, and she frowned as she gazed at her sister's reflection in the gla.s.s instead of at her own and the bracelets she was attaching to her well-shaped arms.

"He was riding by your side all day yesterday."

"Look here," said Dana coldly, "if you want to quarrel send away the maid. I don't want Burwood. You can have him."

"Thank you. But you might tell the truth."

"Don't be a fool!" said Dana, and then, hurriedly, "Hush! don't let's quarrel here. But it's too bad; anyone would think we were n.o.body at all, and that the boys were not at home."

"Don't be a fool yourself," whispered Saxa, leaning forward and offering a cut gla.s.s bottle. Then, aloud, "Scent?" and again, in a low voice, "That minx's ears are like a fox's."

"Thanks," said Dana, taking the bottle and using it liberally. "Here, what's-your-name? Maria, have a drop of scent?"

"Oh, thank you, miss," cried the maid eagerly. "No; don't take it now,"

said Saxa, replacing the scent on the table. "You may empty the bottle when you pack up our things to-morrow."

"Oh, thank you, Miss Lydon."

"Got quite well and strong again?"

"Yes, miss, quite, thank you."

"It was this nurse who attended you, wasn't it--at the hospital?"

"Yes, miss," said Maria, tightening her lips and looking vicious.

"Hallo!" said Dana, laughing boisterously. "Look at her, Saxa. I say, used she to drink your port wine and eat your new laid eggs?"

"Oh, I don't know what she did, miss," said Maria, in a tone of voice which seemed to say, "Ask me a little more."

"There, I'm nearly ready," said Saxa, examining herself in the gla.s.s.

"I suppose the dinner bell will go directly. Maria doesn't like nurse.

She's too much of the fine madam--eh, 'Ria?"

"Yes, miss, a deal too much for me."

"Never mind; she made a better job of you than of the old man. He gets well very slowly."

"Perhaps nurse knows when she is in a comfortable place, and doesn't want to go back to London," said Maria tartly.

"Very likely," said Saxa coolly. "No love lost between you two, I see."

"No, Miss Lydon, indeed there is not."

"Pity," said Saxa laconically. "Servants ought to be very happy together."

"I don't look upon Nurse Elisia as a fellow-servant, miss, and I'm sure she doesn't as to me."

"Likely enough. Thinks she is too pretty. There, 'Ria, shall I do?"

and Saxa spread out her dress, and swept across the room and back.

"Well done, female peac.o.c.k!" cried Dana sneeringly.

"You look lovely, miss," cried Maria. "Pretty?" she continued. "Her pretty? P-f-f! Why, she's nothing to you two young ladies, only I suppose some people think differently."

"Eh?" said Dana sharply. "What do you mean by that?"

"Oh, nothing, miss; only I do say it's a pity some people think so much of white faced nurses."

"'Ria has a sweetheart, and he has been making eyes at the nurse and wishing he was an interesting invalid," said Saxa merrily.

"Oh, no indeed, miss," cried Maria viciously; "but if I had, it isn't me as would have such goings on."

"Ah, well, it isn't my business," said Saxa carelessly. "Somebody has been paying her attentions then, I suppose; and nurses like them as other people do."

Maria tightened her lips and said nothing, but Dana looked flushed and excited.

"Look here," she said sharply, as if she were speaking to one of her grooms, "what does all this mean?"

"Oh, nothing, miss; it isn't for me to say, only I don't like to see such goings on."

"What goings on?"

"Oh, nothing, miss."

"But--"

"Let her alone, Dana. What is it to you?"

"But I want to know," cried Dana sharply, for a faint suspicion had been in her brain for some weeks past consequent upon a sudden change she had noted in Alison; and this suspicion, increased by the maid's words, was rapidly growing into a certainty.

"Well, want to know," said her sister. "I say, why doesn't that dinner bell ring? I'm hungry."

"Look here, Maria; I've always been kind to you when I've come here,"

said Dana excitedly.

"Yes, miss, always," said Maria.

"And I always will be, and so will my sister."

"That means half a sovereign, 'Ria," said Saxa merrily. "Don't you let her put you off with a paltry half crown."

"Then tell me what you mean."