"How shocking!" she said more than once, and when she said that, you might be sure that she was enjoying herself.
Lucy sat apart—turning over a book. Ella thought she was reading and let her alone.
Scraps of their talk reached her now and then—just now it was about some girl, a governess who had been flirting, and it seemed with somebody's husband.
"She was sent off at once."
That gave the dismayed ladies some small comfort.
"But fancy carrying on like that," one gasped.
"And trusted so, and recommended by a clergyman."
"What really happened?" asked Ella. In low tones Ella was told that some one came into the conservatory and they were there, kissing each other.
"And recommended by a clergyman," Ella repeated.
"And dressing so quietly."
"Really one's never safe."
And tale after tale of the audacity of their sex went the round of the party.
It was a pity, even Ella thought it rather a pity, that just then Tom and a friend should come in, and the conversation should take another direction.
There was a buzz, of talk, and tea-cups were handed round.
"If only she would undertake it, my friend, Miss Wren, would be an excellent person to take your girls abroad," said Ella to a lady who was making anxious inquiries for a suitable person, "but she's so much appreciated where she is. She's over there," she said in a lower voice glancing towards Lucy.
The lady looked.
"The girl your husband is standing by, a quiet reliable-looking little person?"
