3The Honourable Mrs. Edgmont read the letter she held in her hands a second time, then folded it and dropping her lorgnette, went in search of Caroline. She found her playing the spinet in the ante-room to the silver drawing-room. When Caroline saw her cousin and chaperon enter the room, she jumped up and ran towards her.
“You have had a letter from my godmother?” she said. “I saw it when the post arrived. What does she say, Cousin Debby?”
“That is precisely what I have come to speak to you about, Caroline,” Mrs. Edgmont replied in a grave voice.
Caroline sighed.
“When you talk to me in that voice, Cousin Debby, I know there is something amiss. Tell me quickly.”
Mrs. Edgmont looked flustered. She was a small grey-haired woman who, a quarter of a century earlier, had been married for o
