"
"You darling generous-minded girl! And you won't go away for a fortnight
and never come back again, will you, dear? I had a cook who did that, and
left me with a large dinner-party hanging over my head; and how I got
through it--with a strange man-cook, who charged a guinea, and used fresh
butter, at twentypence, a pound, as if it had been dirt, and two strange
men to wait--I don't know. It all seemed like a dream. And since then we
have generally had everything from the confectioner's; and I assure you,
to feel that you can wash your hands of the whole thing, and sit down at
the head of your table with your mind as free from care as if you were a
visitor, is worth all the expense."
Diana promised she would not behave like the cook; and two days after
this conversation left the London Bridge terminus with her father and
Gustave Lenoble.
Mr. Sheldon troubled himself very little about this departure. He was
informed of Miss Paget's intended marriage; and the information awakened
neither surprise nor interest in his heavily-burdened mind.
"A Frenchman, a friend of her father's!" he said; "some swindling
adventurer, no doubt," he thought. And this was as much consideration
as he could afford to bestow upon Miss Paget's love affairs at this
present time.
CHAPTER V.
ASSURANCE DOUBLY SURE.
On the day after Miss Paget's departure Mr. Sheldon came home from the
City rather earlier than usual, and found Charlotte alone in the
drawing-room, reading a ponderous volume from Mudie of an instructive and
edifying character, with a view to making herself clever, in order that
she might better understand that prodigy of learning, Mr.
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