Читать книгу Mignonette - Bowen Marjorie - Страница 11

Table of Contents

The letter from Paris was followed by another, written immediately after; Barbara calculated that the first must have been answered by return of post and the second written at once.

This was even more affectionate than the first. Aimée could not express the gratitude that she felt for this unexpected kindness and sisterly feeling. She (the "we" was now dropped, as if she had resolved not to mention her mother again) had contrived everything for her visit to England. A sober friend and his wife, who often made business trips to England, would escort her. She would arrive in two weeks' time. She ran over her little accomplishments. She would be useful in the ménage. She had been well educated. She was sorrowful that she would not wear mourning. That would be indiscreet. As for anything else, Barbara need not trouble, she had no resemblance to Mr. Lawne (as she now termed her father). As for the story, the contrivance, it was very simple. She could keep her name, she was sure that no one in England had heard it, her mother had for long passed as a widow, très comme it faut. It needed now only to add that she had been a friend of the late Madame Lawne, who had been at school in Brussels, and that her daughter, desirous of seeing England, had been invited to stay with Mademoiselle Lawne for a brief visit.

Aimée gave all this a breathless air of childish enthusiasm. As a screen for the secret it was well enough, but Barbara did not like the girl's calm acceptance of her equivocal position, and she winced at the use of her mother's name, but she believed these to be the blunders of innocence.

Probably the little creature had been taught to respect her mother's long repentance and to believe all the world in charity with this meek sinner. But Barbara, when she wrote agreeing to this needful deception to shield a dead man's reputation, substituted the name of a friend for that of her own mother.