"Shall I write to her and ask her to come back?"
"Well, I'm not sure; I wish I knew a great many things. You've not
heard anything of poor dear Osborne Hamley lately, have you?"
Remembering her father's charge not to speak of Osborne's health,
Molly made no reply, nor was any needed, for Mrs. Gibson went on
thinking aloud--
"You see, if Mr. Henderson has been as attentive as he was in the
spring--and the chances about Roger--I shall be really grieved if
anything happens to that young man, uncouth as he is, but it must be
owned that Africa is not merely an unhealthy--it is a savage--and
even in some parts a cannibal country. I often think of all I've
read of it in geography books, as I lie awake at night, and if Mr.
Henderson is really becoming attached! The future is hidden from us
by infinite wisdom, Molly, or else I should like to know it; one
would calculate one's behaviour at the present time so much better if
one only knew what events were to come. But I think, on the whole, we
had better not alarm Cynthia. If we had only known in time we might
have planned for her to have come down with Lord Cumnor and my lady."
"Are they coming? Is Lady Cumnor well enough to travel?"
"Yes, to be sure; or else I should not have considered whether or no
Cynthia could have come down with them. It would have sounded very
well--more than respectable, and would have given her a position
among that lawyer set in London."
"Then Lady Cumnor is better?"
"To be sure. I should have thought papa would have mentioned it to
you; but, to be sure, he is always so scrupulously careful not to
speak about his patients. Quite right too--quite right and delicate.
Why, he hardly ever tells me how they are going on. Yes! the Earl and
the Countess, and Lady Harriet and Lord and Lady Cuxhaven, and Lady
Agnes; and I've ordered a new winter bonnet and a black satin cloak."