Page:Alice Lauder.pdf/158
A week later.
“I found this letter at the bottom of my blotting-case; I am glad it was not posted in the proper time, for I must tell you something more. Something rather uncomfortable has happened—not happened, rather, but hinted. However, you shall hear all, and then you must absolve me from any imprudent interest in the affairs of my neighbours, for that is just where Clare is a little deficient. She fancies I get myself into scrapes by knowing people too easily,—not being English enough, in fact. You shall be the judge on this occasion.
“We had the dinner party last Friday, with a little reception afterwards. Clare belongs to the straitest sect of dinner-givers—an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a dinner for a dinner, is her system of retribution; consequently the first part of the entertainment was middle-aged and slightly deaf, for the most part, as she was determined to invite back all those who had asked her, through good report or evil report. I fell to the lot of Mr. Austin, and thanked my stars it was no worse. The Austins go back to town for the winter, but they often come here for a few days’ holiday with their friends. Their house is kept in readiness for them at any