The Nonesuch

“You can’t mean that it must be given up!” cried Tiffany, looking in dismay from Ancilla to Lindeth.

It was he who answered her, saying gently: “You wouldn’t care to go without her. None of us would! Another day, when it isn’t so hot—”

“Oh, no!” Tiffany interrupted imploringly. “I hate put-offs! I know what it would be—we should never go to the Dripping Well, and I want to!”

“Yes, we will go, I promise you,” he said. “It is very disappointing that we can’t go today, but—”

“We can go today!” she insisted. “Not Lizzie, if she doesn’t care for it, but the rest of us!”

He looked slightly taken aback for an instant, but a moment later smiled, and said: “You don’t mean that, I know. In any event, we can’t go, because we’ve settled that your cousin is to ride to Bardsey, to see if he can come by a carriage there.”

Her face cleared at that; she said eagerly, “So that Lizzie can drive the rest of the way? Oh, that’s a capital scheme!”

“So that she can be driven home,” he corrected.

“Oh! Yes, well, perhaps that would be best. I daresay he would much prefer to drive Lizzie home, too, and it will make Lizzie feel much more comfortable to know she hasn’t spoilt the day for us after all. Only consider! She will be perfectly safe with Courtenay, and so we may be easy! Do say you will go, Lindeth! Ancilla? Sir Waldo?”

Ancilla shook her head, trying to frown her down; but Sir Waldo, apparently divorced from the scene, was pensively observing through his quizzing-glass the gyrations of a large white butterfly, and evinced no sign of having heard the appeal. But Courtenay, leading his horse out of the yard, did hear it, and it was he who answered.

“Go where? To Knaresborough? Of course not! We are none of us going there. I wonder you should think of such a thing!”

“Why shouldn’t I? I don’t mean you,either: you are to drive Lizzie home! We need not all go with her!”

“Miss Trent must! Ma’am, you surely won’t leave Lizzie?”

“Of course not,” she replied. “Don’t say any more, Tiffany! You must know you cannot go without me, and that I cannot under any circumstances leave Miss Colebatch.”

“I could go if Courtenay went,” Tiffany argued.

“Well, I’m not going,” said Courtenay. “I’m going to Bardsey, to try if I can find some sort of a vehicle there. But it ain’t on a pike-road, so the odds are I shan’t be able to get anything better than a gig. Would a gig serve, ma’am?”

“No, no, of course it wouldn’t!” interposed Tiffany. “She would have the sun beating down upon her head, and that would never do! I don’t think she should attempt the journey until it is cooler, do you, Ancilla? Poor Lizzie, I daresay she would liefer stay in this delightful inn! Then we can all ride home together, when the rest of us come back from Knaresborough! She will be quite well by that time, and Ancilla won’t object to staying with her, will you, Ancilla?”

Lindeth, who was beginning to look extremely troubled, said: “I don’t think you can have considered. It would be quite improper for two ladies to spend the day in a taproom!”

“Oh, fudge! I shouldn’t care a rush, so why should Lizzie? She will have Ancilla to bear her company!”

“But you could not enjoy the expedition, knowing that they were so uncomfortably situated!” he suggested.

“Oh, couldn’t she?” said Courtenay, with a crack of rude laughter. “You don’t know her! I can tell you this, Tiffany! you may as well stop scheming, because you won’t cozen me into going to Knaresborough, and that’s my last word!”

A flush rose to her cheeks; her eyes blazed. “I think you are the horridest, most disobliging toad!”she said passionately. “I want to go to Knaresborough, I will go!”

“Tiffany!” uttered Miss Trent, in despairing accents. “For heaven’s sake—!”

Tiffany rounded on her. “Yes, and I think you’re as disagreeable and unkind as he is, Ancilla! You ought to do what I want, not what Lizzie wants! She shouldn’t have come with us if she meant to be ill!”

“Take a damper!” said Courtenay sharply, looking towards the door of the inn. “Hallo, Lizzie! Are you feeling more the thing now?”

Miss Colebatch, steadying herself with a hand on the door-frame smiled waveringly, and said: “Yes, thank you. I’m much better—quite well! Only so very sorry to have been such a bother!”

Tiffany ran to her. “Oh, you are better! I can see you are! I knew you would be! You don’t wish to go home, do you? Only think how flat it would be!”

“Miss Colebatch, don’t come out into the sun!” interposed Miss Trent, taking her hand. “I am going to ask the landlady to make some tea for us, so come and sit down again!”

“Yes, some tea will refresh you,” agreed Tiffany. “You’ll be as right as a trivet then!”

“Oh, yes! Only I don’t think—I’m afraid if I tried to ride—”

“But you’re not going to ride, Miss Colebatch,” said Julian. “Underhill is to fetch a carriage for you, and we are none of us going to Knaresborough. It’s far too hot!”