As soon as luncheon was over next day Miss Matilda prepared to set out on her self-imposed errand. Miss Jane had again offered to go with her and her offer had again been declined. A parcel had been made of the jewellery and one or two pieces of plate, which Tamsin would carry for her mistress as far as the door of Mr. Daykin\'s bank, but neither she nor Ethel was aware of what the contents consisted.
Miss Matilda, with rather a sad heart it must be confessed, was in the act of putting on her outdoor things when from the window of her room she saw a pair-horse brougham draw up at the garden-gate, from the box of which a powdered footman presently alighted, and after speaking to someone inside the carriage, opened the gate and entered the tiny demesne. A few seconds later the cottage resounded with a rat-a-tat loud enough to have awakened the seven sleepers. The door was opened by Tamsin, while Miss Matilda ceased her preparations pending the explanation of an incident so strange and unusual.
Presently Miss Jane in person burst into the room in what for her was a state of unwonted excitement.
"Lady Pell--here\'s her card--is desirous of an interview with one, or both of the Misses Thursby on a matter of business, and the footman is waiting at the door for an answer," she exclaimed in a breath. "I never heard her name before--did you, sister? and what can the business be she wants to see us about?"
"That is a question I am no more able to answer than you are," responded Miss Matilda, who was not so readily flustered as Miss Jane; "but a few minutes will doubtless serve to enlighten us. Will you send word by the man that both of us are at home and shall be pleased to see her ladyship. I will follow you downstairs in a couple of minutes."
When, three minutes later, Lady Pell entered the little sitting-room the sisters saw before them a woman considerably taller than either of themselves; thin, but not unusually so, and carrying herself with an uprightness that would have done credit to a grenadier. In age she might be anything between sixty and seventy. She had Roman features of a pronounced type which time had served to accentuate, so that it was now difficult to realise that she had ever been accounted handsome. There had always been a certain masculine element about her, more seeming, perhaps, than real, which was not lessened by a faint suspicion of a moustache which, in certain lights, could be seen to shade her upper lip. She was richly but soberly dressed, as became a person who in her day had filled the distinguished position of London\'s Lady Mayoress.
"My card will have told you who I am," she began, addressing herself smilingly to Miss Matilda, who was wearing the heavy gold chain which marked her as occupying for the time the position of elder sister. "For the present I am staying with my friends at Foljambe Court, and my business here is to see you with reference to Vale View House, which is to let, and which, I am told, is your property. I was directed in the first instance to a house agent\'s in the town, but I prefer to deal with principals whenever I find it possible to do so."
All this was spoken rapidly in the clear staccato tones of one who was in the habit of making herself heard in whatsoever company she might be.
"Will you not be seated?" It was Miss Matilda\'s soft voice, in marked contrast to Lady Pell\'s, which preferred the request.
Lady Pell sat down on the nearest chair, while the sisters seated themselves side by side on the sofa opposite her.
"It\'s not for myself that I\'m looking for a house," she resumed, "but for my stepdaughter, Mrs. Loftus, who has been ordered by her physician to exchange the air of London for seven or eight months of the year for that of the country. I had a glimpse of Vale View--there\'s not much of it can be seen from the road--when I was out driving the other day, and it seemed to me just the kind of place Amelia is in want of. By the way, I have not yet inquired as to the rent--a point," she smilingly added, "which is usually regarded as one of paramount importance."
"The rent is one hundred guineas a year," answered Miss Matilda.
"Hum. I fancy that is rather more than Amelia thought of giving. Still, I don\'t suppose a few guineas more or less would be allowed to stand in her way if the place suited her in other respects. I should like to go thoroughly over it, so as to be in a position to send her a full report. I presume there is no objection to my doing so."
"None whatever, Lady Pell. The keys shall be placed at your disposal whenever you please."
"There\'s no time like the time present. I\'ve nothing to do this afternoon and I\'ll go at once. By-the-bye, is there anyone that knows the place who can go with me?"
The sisters looked at each other in perplexity.
On the spur of the moment they could not think of anyone. Why, oh why, had she not gone to the house agent and done her business through him!
Lady Pell was looking from one to the other with an amused smile. She had heard a good deal from one of her friends about the twins and their little peculiarities. "Who is that very pretty girl I saw busy in the garden just now?" she asked.
"That is our niece," responded Miss Jane, speaking for the first time.
"Then perhaps she will condescend to act as my cicerone."
The faces of the sisters lighted up.
"You could not have a more efficient one," responded Miss Matilda.
"I have a weakness for young and pretty faces," resumed Lady Pell, "due perhaps to the fact that it is so long since I was young myself and that at no time was I ever otherwise than plain-looking."
Ethel was at once summoned, introduced to Lady Pell, and told what was required of her. In a very short time the two were being driven in the brougham in the direction of Vale View, calling on their way at the house agent\'s to obtain possession of the keys.
When they got back to Rose Mount, afternoon tea had just been brought in, whereupon Miss Matilda begged of her ladyship to join them, which she frankly did. But long before this she and Ethel had become on excellent terms with each other, for, unlike the sisters, who had been rather overawed by their visitor\'s authoritative manner and high-pitched voice, the girl had hardly been ten minutes in Lady Pell\'s company before, as by a sort of instinct, she seemed to divine the existence of the really fine qualities out of which her character was built up. Lady Pell recognised this and was proportionally gratified, and from that moment she laid herself out to draw Ethel to her by a bond which should prove a source of interest and pleasure to both.
By the time tea was over the sisters had discovered that their first and not altogether flattering estimate of Lady Pell was a quite erroneous one. They too felt drawn towards her although in a lesser degree, just as Ethel had been. Behind a magisterial and somewhat repellent exterior, which to many people caused her to seem a somewhat formidable personage, lay a transparent sincerity of purpose and a hatred of pretence or cant of any kind, which had an attraction for, and gradually endeared her to, those of a like disposition to her own. Then too, she was a well-informed person, with singularly clear and observant faculties, who, when she chose, could be very good company, and on the present occasion she did so choose. She had not failed to notice that the sisters had been repelled, and perhaps somewhat cowed, by her slightly aggressive manner at their opening interview, and she now set herself to reverse the mental verdict which they had evidently passed upon her.
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