plastic lay figure she was wont to appear in public, and the Duchess
had spoken to her most intimate and confidential friends of the
approaching nuptials with almost a sigh of relief, and a whispered
word.
"She has indeed been very difficult to manage, and really, though I
am speaking of my own daughter, I never can quite understand Ethel;
she is not like other girls. It will be a huge responsibility shifted
from my shoulders when she is married."
And everybody had wondered what the girl had seen in Sir John, that
he should have taken her fancy. To the outside world and to those who
had not come within the immediate charm of his manner and bearing, it
did offer food for speculation, and since his engagement he had grown
greyer and stiffer and more professionally precise than ever.
But he suited Lady Ethel, or she fancied he did; which answered the
purpose quite as well. She had always detested very young men; she
liked a man whom she could look up to and lean upon, and certainly
this she could do with perfect faith as regarded her _fiance_. Now
Duchesses are no more exempt from the weary ills which weak flesh is
heir to than their less favoured brothers and sisters, and in the
early summer the Duchess began to complain of certain aches and pains
and to bethink her that Sir John's advice might be worth following;
so she drove over to Camelot Square and was shown into the waiting
room with the rest of his patients. She had some little time to wait,
and while the Duchess sat tapping her foot impatiently at the delay,
Ethel looked round the spacious apartment and decided on certain
improvements she would effect when she should preside over John's
establishment.
And then the door was flung open, and Soames, the eminently correct
footman, ushered them into his master's presence.
The Duchess advanced gushing a little.
"So good of you to see us so soon! I was positively timid at coming
without an appointment, even with Ethel."
"It is you who are good, Duchess, to give me such an unexpected
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