Mrs. Sundon was not more than four years older, at twenty-one very handsome, with an air of command, which had been born with her—command too well assured to be other than simple and self-denying, or to require haughtiness and arrogance to back its claims. Mrs. Sundon was a woman living in separation from her husband, it is true, but by an act quite different from poor Lady Bell’s hushed-up escapade. Mrs. Sundon’s separation from Gregory Sundon did not affect her social position in the least—in effect rather elevated it. It was perfectly well understood through the Mayor that the details did the greatest honour to Mrs. Sundon’s dignity and discretion. And dignity and discretion were qualities very highly, but not unjustly, valued in a generation liable to run into extravagant flights and excesses. Mrs. Sundon showed the same appreciable discretion in refraining from accusing her husband, and in adopting, along with a chosen friend, a life of retirement as well as of virtue in the flower of her youth, and in bringing up her little girl—as it was quite understood Mrs. Sundon was bringing up the child, when Caro was not yet three months old—in the most meritorious manner. The very peculiarity of the two ladies’ position with the union of their forces, gave them a freedom and weight in the society in which they moved that they could not have commanded had they been single women, that they could hardly have possessed had they been separate, though each had dwelt in the house of her husband. With Nutfield Lady Bell and Mrs. Sundon maintained the most kindly, cheerful relations, long after use and wont had hardened Miss Kingscote to the sound of “my lady.” When the ladies of Summerhill wished a little variety in their domestic routine, they had only to stroll over to Nutfield to bask in its homely cordiality, and to get a little permissible fun out of Miss Kingscote’s uncouth whimsicalities. Lady Bell and Mrs. Sundon could not have managed for themselves without Master Charles to act the part of a brother to them. In those days, when walking on country roads was not always safe for ladies, when they could not attend a single public place with propriety, unless they were supported by male attendance, a gentleman who was a privileged friend proved indispensable in every household of women. Sometimes the friendships thus entertained were of a peculiarly gentle and chivalrous character, which the very scandal-loving world admitted and respected. Thus it saw no objection—not even that of age—in the intimate association of a young man like Master Charles with two charming young women only a little above him in rank, since the one was a wife and the other a widow, and both were deprived of their natural protectors. CHAPTER IV. FRIENDS IN NEED.