Your mother is better, I see."
"Yes, thank you--out driving with papa. Good Rollo!" as the
dignified animal rose from the hearthrug to greet her, waving his
handsome tail, and calmly expelled a large tabby cat from the easy-
chair, to make room for his friends. "Well done, old Roll! Fancy a
cat in such company."
"Herbert's dogs partake his good-nature."
"Mungo seems to be absent too."
"Gone with him no doubt. He is the great favourite with one of the
Miss Strangeways."
"Which--Herbert or Mungo?"
"Both! I might say, I know the young ladies best by one being
rapturous about Tartar and the other about Mungo. Rollo treats both
with equally sublime and indifferent politeness, rather as Raymond
does."
"What sort of girls are they? Herbert calls them 'awfully jolly.'"
"I'm sorry to say I never can think of any other epithet for them.
For once it is really descriptive."
"Is it either of them in particular?"
"Confess, Joan, that's what brought you over."
"Perhaps so. Edith heard some nonsense at Backsworth, and mamma
could not rest till she had sent me over to see about it; but would
there be any great harm in it if it were true? Is not Lady Susan a
super-excellent woman?"
"You've hit it again, Jenny.
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