"Ennison here thought he saw her in London," Meddoes remarked.
Drummond nodded.
"Very likely. The two sisters were very fond of one another, I
believe. Perhaps Sir John is going to take the other one under his
wing. Who's for a rubber of whist?"
Ennison made so many mistakes that he was glad to cut out early in the
evening. He walked across the Park and called upon his sister.
"Is Lady Lescelles in?" he asked the butler.
"Her ladyship dined at home," the man answered. "I have just ordered a
carriage for her. I believe that her ladyship is going to Carey House,
and on to the Marquis of Waterford's ball," he added, hastily
consulting a diary on the hall table.
A tall elegantly dressed woman, followed by a maid, came down the
broad staircase.
"Is that you, Nigel?" she asked. "I hope you are going to Carey
House."
He shook his head, and threw open the door of a great dimly-lit
apartment on the ground floor.
"Come in here a moment, will you, Blanche," he said. "I want to speak
to you."
She assented, smiling. He was her only brother, and she his favourite
sister. He closed the door.
"I want to ask you a question," he said. "A serious question."
She stopped buttoning her glove, and looked at him.
"Well?"
"You and all the rest of them are always lamenting that I do not
marry. Supposing I made up my mind to marry some one of good enough
family, but who was in a somewhat doubtful position, concerning whose
antecedents, in fact there was a certain amount of scandal. Would you
stand by me--and her?"
"My dear Nigel!" she exclaimed. "Are you serious?"
"You know very well that I should never joke on such a subject. Mind,
I am anticipating events. Nothing is settled upon. It may be, it
probably will all come to, nothing. But I want to know whether in such
an event you would stand by me?"
She held out her hand.
"You can count upon me, Nigel," she said. "But for you Dad would never
have let me marry Lescelles. He was only a younger son, and you know
what trouble we had. I am with you through thick and thin, Nigel."
He kissed her, and handed her into the carriage. Then he went back to
his rooms and lit a cigar.
"There are two things to be done," he said softly to himself. "The
first is to discover what she is here for, and where she is staying.
The second is to somehow meet Lady Ferringhall. These fellows must be
right," he added thoughtfully, "and yet--there's a mystery somewhere."