Part 3 (2/2)

”No beastly fuss,” his lords.h.i.+p demanded. ”Let it be somewhere in the country, and no mob!” and his mother, thinking she understood his reason, patted his cheek affectionately.

”I should like to go down to Aunt Jane's and be married quietly from there,” explained Miss Hodskiss to her father.

Aunt Jane resided on the outskirts of a small Hamps.h.i.+re village, and ”sat under” a clergyman famous throughout the neighbourhood for having lost the roof to his mouth.

”You can't be married by that old fool,” thundered her father--Mr.

Hodskiss always thundered; he thundered even his prayers.

”He christened me,” urged Miss Clementina.

”And Lord knows what he called you. n.o.body can understand a word he says.”

”I'd like him to marry me,” reiterated Miss Clementina.

Neither her ladys.h.i.+p nor the contractor liked the idea. The latter in particular had looked forward to a big function, chronicled at length in all the newspapers. But after all, the marriage was the essential thing, and perhaps, having regard to some foolish love pa.s.sages that had happened between Clementina and a certain penniless naval lieutenant, ostentation might be out of place.

So in due course Clementina departed for Aunt Jane's, accompanied only by her maid.

Quite a treasure was Miss Hodskiss's new maid.

”A clean, wholesome girl,” said of her Contractor Hodskiss, who cultivated affability towards the lower orders; ”knows her place, and talks sense. You keep that girl, Clemmy.”

”Do you think she knows enough?” hazarded the maternal Hodskiss.

”Quite sufficient for any decent woman,” retorted the contractor. ”When Clemmy wants painting and stuffing, it will be time enough for her to think about getting one of your '_Ach Himmels_' or '_Mon Dieus_'.”

”I like the girl myself immensely,” agreed Clementina's mother. ”You can trust her, and she doesn't give herself airs.”

Her praises reached even the countess, suffering severely at the moment from the tyranny of an elderly Fraulein.

”I must see this treasure,” thought the countess to herself. ”I am tired of these foreign minxes.”

But no matter at what cunning hour her ladys.h.i.+p might call, the ”treasure” always happened for some reason or other to be abroad.

”Your girl is always out when I come,” laughed the countess. ”One would fancy there was some reason for it.”

”It does seem odd,” agreed Clementina, with a slight flush.

Miss Hodskiss herself showed rather than spoke her appreciation of the girl. She seemed unable to move or think without her. Not even from the interviews with Lord C--- was the maid always absent.

The marriage, it was settled, should be by licence. Mrs. Hodskiss made up her mind at first to run down and see to the preliminaries, but really when the time arrived it hardly seemed necessary to take that trouble.

The ordering of the whole affair was so very simple, and the ”treasure”

appeared to understand the business most thoroughly, and to be willing to take the whole burden upon her own shoulders. It was not, therefore, until the evening before the wedding that the Hodskiss family arrived in force, filling Aunt Jane's small dwelling to its utmost capacity. The swelling figure of the contractor, standing beside the tiny porch, compelled the pa.s.ser-by to think of the doll's house in which the dwarf resides during fair-time, ringing his own bell out of his own first-floor window. The countess and Lord C--- were staying with her ladys.h.i.+p's sister, the Hon. Mrs. J---, at G--- Hall, some ten miles distant, and were to drive over in the morning. The then Earl of --- was in Norway, salmon fis.h.i.+ng. Domestic events did not interest him.

Clementina complained of a headache after dinner, and went to bed early.

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