It was not so much that there had been no one to greet her, for she was not expected and it was late in the afternoon, but to be told by a servant that she would like as not find Miss Paget in the stable was the outside of enough! What was the world coming to when a visitor was expected to go in search of her hostess? ‘Can she not be fetched?’ ‘There’s no one to fetch her,’ the housekeeper said. ‘If you don’t care to go to the stables, ma’am, you could wait for Miss Felicity in the drawing-room.’ ‘And, pray, where is she?’ ‘I believe she walked to the village.’ ‘And how long is she likely to be?’ ‘I am afraid I can’t say, ma’am. She’s visiting Mrs Wardle.’ Mrs Bertram decided she would have something to say about the rag-mannered way she had been received when she came face to face with her nieces, but for now there was nothing to do but wait until one or other of them put in an appearance. Drawing herself up to her full height, which was nothing to speak of, for she was as round as she was tall, she allowed herself to be conducted to the drawing-room.
