A quite beautiful
tea equipage awaited them on a small table, but Lady Etynge was
not in the room.
"What a beautiful house to live in," said Robin, "but, do you know,
the number ISN'T 97 A. I looked as we came in, and it is No. 25."
"Is it? I ought to have been more careful," answered Fraulein
Hirsch. "It is wrong to be careless even in small matters."
Almost immediately Lady Etynge came in and greeted them, with a
sort of gentle delight. She drew Robin down on to a sofa beside
her and took her hand and gave it a light pat which was a caress.
"Now you really ARE here," she said, "I have been so busy that
I have been afraid I should not have time to show you the rooms
before it was too late to make a change, if you thought anything
might be improved."
"I am sure nothing can improve them," said Robin, more dewy-eyed
than usual and even a thought breathless, because this was really
a sort of adventure, and she longed to ask if, by any chance,
she would "do." And she was so afraid that she might lose this
amazingly good opportunity, merely because she was too young and
inexperienced to know how she ought to broach the subject. She
had not thought yet of asking Mademoiselle Valle how it should be
done.
She was not aware that she looked at Lady Etynge with a heavenly,
little unconscious appeal, which made her enchanting. Lady Etynge
looked at her quite fixedly for an instant.
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