rise! I’d no notion you were in these parts! If I’d known you were coming to Hunterbury I’d have been there myself! Who’s doing for you there? Have you brought someone down from London?”
Elinor shook her head.
“I’m not staying at the house. I am staying at the King’s Arms.”
Mrs. Bishop looked across the road and sniffed dubiously.
“It is possible to stay there, I’ve heard,” she allowed. “It’s clean, I know. And the cooking, they say, is fair, but it’s hardly what you’re accustomed to, Miss Elinor.”
Elinor said, smiling:
“I’m really quite comfortable. It’s only for a day or two. I have to sort out things at the house. All my aunt’s personal things; and then there are a few pieces of furniture I should like to have in London.”
“The house is really sold, then?”
“Yes. To a Major Somervell. Our new Member. Sir George Kerr died, you know, and there’s been a bye-election.”
“Returned unopposed,” said Mrs. Bishop grandly. “We’ve never had anyone but a Conservative for Maidenford.”
Elinor said:
“I’m glad someone has bought the house who really wants to live in it. I should have been sorry if it had been turned into a hotel or built upon.”
Mrs. Bishop shut her eyes and shivered all over her plump aristocratic person.
“Yes, indeed, that would have been dreadful—quite dreadful. It’s bad enough as it is to think of Hunterbury passing into the hands of strangers.”
Elinor said:
“Yes, but, you see, it would have been a very large house for me to live in—alone.”
Mrs. Bishop sniffed.
Elinor said quickly:
“I meant to ask you: Is there any especial piece of furniture that you might care to have? I should be very glad for you to have it, if so.”
Mrs. Bishop beamed. She said graciously:
“Well, Miss Elinor, that is very thoughtful of you—very kind, I’m sure. If it’s not taking a liberty…?”
She paused and Elinor said:
“Oh, no.”
“I have always had a great admiration for the secretaire in the drawing room. Such a handsome piece.”
Elinor remembered it, a somewhat flamboyant piece of inlaid marqueterie. She said quickly:
“Of course you shall have it, Mrs. Bishop. Anything else?”
“No, indeed, Miss Elinor. You have already been extremely generous.”
Elinor said:
“There are some chairs in the same style as the secretaire. Would you care for those?”
Mrs. Bishop accepted the chairs with becoming thanks. She explained: