"He did. In fact, I prepared a codicil to his will that afternoon.

But--it was never signed."

"And you wish--" asked Nina.

Mr. Widdicombe was less abrupt than usual. "I--I would like simply to learn whether you, Mrs. Darling, as Viscount Kneedrock's sole legatee, would care to--to--"

"I do care to," she broke in, much to his relief. "I care very much to.

I desire that the codicil be carried out precisely as though Viscount Kneedrock had signed it."

The solicitor, who had risen when Nina did, bowed with an unprecedented graciousness.

"You are more than generous, Mrs. Darling," he said. "But would it not be well for you to have a copy of the provisions? Perhaps--"

"No," she interrupted again. "I am quite satisfied to let it be as he would wish it." Then, after a slight pause, she added: "He had written to her of it, hadn't he?"

"Yes, poor child! She received a letter on the day following his death."

Mr. Widdicombe had made his adieus when Nina stopped him.

"I should like to see the little girl," she said. "Will you have her brought to me?"

"I shall indeed," returned the solicitor, b.u.t.toning up his greatcoat.

"At the very earliest opportunity, Mrs. Darling. I will fetch her myself."

"No," Nina rejoined. "Pray, don't take the trouble. You are a very good solicitor, Mr. Widdicombe; but you told me once that you were not a wet-nurse, and I prefer you send some one else. And, by the bye," she added, "please tell Miss Agnes to be quite sure to bring her parrot with her."

CHAPTER x.x.xI

What They Knew and Thought

"Poor Nibbetts!" melancholically sighed the d.u.c.h.ess.

The _incroyables_--some one had called them that--were gathered at Bellingdown again for the shooting, and Nina Darling was expected at any moment.

"Nibbetts was a martyr," declared the duke. "That's what I say. Fancy his being married all those years and never whispering it!"

"We'd never have known it at all probably," declared Kitty Bellingdown, "if it hadn't been for Caryll. It was he who wrote me, you know.

Nibbetts confided it to him to put a stop to his annoying Nina."

"She was barely seventeen when it happened, you know," added the d.u.c.h.ess.

"When what happened?" asked Charlotte Grey, speaking for the first time and making her absorption in a book the excuse.

"Nina's wedding," answered his grace quickly. "Didn't you know we were talking of Nina's wedding?"

Lady Grey yawned behind her hand. Then she smiled. "I thought, perhaps, you were talking of her daughter," she returned.

"It's an adopted daughter. Didn't you know that?" rejoined the duke, reaching for the seed-cake. His tone was more petulant than usual.

"I've heard it," answered Lady Grey, "but what one hears and what one knows are not always the same."

Then the d.u.c.h.ess came to the defense. "Why, the child's barely ten," she said.

"They say she looks older--old enough to be fourteen."

"She's large for her age, it's true," the d.u.c.h.ess came back bitingly; "but no one with eyes could take her for more than twelve."

"Where did Nina find her?" asked Sir George in an effort to ameliorate his wife's evident discomfiture.

"Wait until she comes and then ask her, Shucks," recommended the duke.

"She hasn't told us. I say, Doody, Nina hasn't told us where she got the child, has she?"

"I doubt she's told any one--or will," agreed the d.u.c.h.ess.

"But isn't that odd?" persisted the baronet. "One would think--"

"Oh, one can think what one likes," Lady Bellingdown cut in, still pouring her tea. "But what one thinks isn't as good as what one hears very often."

"Nina's very much changed," observed Lord Bellingdown. "She is, really.

Grown quite maternal, don't you know. Fancy! One would never have thought that of Nina."

"None of you ever understood Nina. I always said that. You remember I always said that, don't you, Donty?" defended the duke.

"Nina's had a very difficult life," the d.u.c.h.ess contributed. And at that Charlotte Grey made bold to laugh.

"She's had her tragedies, yes," she said; "but she's always taken her fun where she found it. Is she expected to cheer any one up this time?"

"She'll cheer us all up," said his grace.

"But without some new man--won't she be quite lost?" Charlotte continued.

"She's bringing the man with her," announced Waltheof, who always knew.

"She's bringing Andrews, that Somersetshire chap who's got a million or so, made from sheep and freestone."

"Oh, I remember him!" The duke was nibbling now, and spoke with his mouth full. "He was at Nibbetts's place that day. I remember him very well. Fine chap--young Andrews--devilish fine chap!"

"Nina will never marry, though. She's had enough," was Lady Grey's expressed opinion. "She likes the chase, but balks at the capture."

"But Nina's changed," insisted Donty Down. "You can't tell what will come next. You'd never thought of her adopting a kiddy, now would you?

And yet she did. She's very much changed. She's a different Nina altogether."

"Is she bringing the kiddy along?" asked Sir George.

"Of course," said Waltheof. "Never goes anywhere without her."