If, after the conclusion of the business between them, the sisters imagined that, in all likelihood, they should see no more of Lady Pell, they were mistaken. As long as she should remain at Foljambe Court she evidently intended not to lose sight of them. Seldom did she let more than a couple of days go by without calling at Rose Mount, and at least twice a week she insisted on taking Ethel for an afternoon drive. They all grew to like her more than at one time they would have thought it possible that they should like anyone after so brief an acquaintance. Meanwhile no further steps were taken in the matter of the loan. Thanks to Lady Pell, Ethel was already looking brighter and better, and when the former confided to the sisters that her visit would not terminate till the middle of September, Miss Matilda said to Miss Jane when they were alone: “We shall lose nothing by delaying our holiday till after Lady Pell’s departure. A decided improvement is already discernible in the dear girl’s health; besides which, all the seaside resorts will be much less crowded, and, consequently, far pleasanter during the latter half of September than they are now.” But all these dispositions came to naught one afternoon when Lady Pell’s visit had still about a week to run. She was sitting with the sisters, Ethel being out of the room, when she startled them as they had rarely been startled by saying apropos to nothing that had gone before: “My dear friends, if I may be permitted to call you so, I want you to do me a very great favour, which is neither more nor less than to allow me to run off with your niece for a couple of months at the very least.” The sisters gazed at each other in consternation. Neither of them spoke: they could not. “The fact is,” resumed Lady Pell, “that my companion, Miss Beilby, whom you have heard me speak of as being away just now on account of her health, instead of recovering, as I had hoped she presently would do, has unfortunately taken a turn for the worse, and goodness only knows when she will be well enough to come back to me. While at Foljambe Court I don’t much miss her, but as soon as I leave there I shall want someone to replace her for the time being. Now, that I have taken a great fancy to your niece you must by this time be well aware, and I think that if she were to come to me for a couple of months, or longer if you can spare her, the change could scarcely fail to prove beneficial to her, while, at the same time, you would be conferring on me a great personal favour. On leaving here I purpose going direct to a sunny château in France, the home of a very dear friend of mine, there to stay for some time. Is it asking too much that you should allow your niece to be my _compagnon de voyage?_” As far as the reader is concerned, it will be enough to state that when, about a week later, Lady Pell left Foljambe Court and St. Oswyth’s, she took Ethel with her.