Page:The Semi-detached House.djvu/72

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THE SEMI-DETACHED HOUSE.

very glad to see you, and thank you for your very great kindness."

"Kindness—bless you, Miss Grenville! why where's the kindness in taking you three ladies out of the smoke and rain, I should like to know? If you have not all caught cold it's next to a miracle," and Mrs. Hopkinson walked off with her tea and bread and butter. She was inclined, thanks to the 'Weekly Lyre,' to be rather more formal with Lady Chester than she had been with the aunt and sister, she wished to shew her strong disapprobation of a young wife separating herself voluntarily from her husband. She almost grudged her the Japan tea-cup and saucer, and thought the willow pattern would have done, but somehow she could not keep up her sternness, Blanche received her so courteously, was so earnest in her gratitude for the hospitality she had met with and looked so fragile and pretty, that Mrs. Hopkinson subsided with a sigh into her usual motherly manner, and her conviction that it was all Lord Chester's fault.