When the party broke up for
the night, she lingered till all were gone but her son and nephew.
"Well, Madame Ma Mere, what troubles you?" asked Sir Jasper, as she
looked anxiously into his face before bestowing her good-night kiss.
"I cannot tell, yet I feel ill at ease. Remember, my son, that you are
the pride of my heart, and any sin or shame of yours would kill me. Good
night, Maurice." And with a stately bow she swept away.
Lounging with both elbows on the low chimneypiece, Sir Jasper smiled at
his mother's fears, and said to his cousin, the instant they were alone,
"She is worried about E.S. Odd, isn't it, what instinctive antipathies
women take to one another?"
"Why did you ask E.S. here?" demanded Treherne.
"My dear fellow, how could I help it? My mother wanted the general, my
father's friend, and of course his wife must be asked also. I couldn't
tell my mother that the lady had been a most arrant coquette, to put it
mildly, and had married the old man in a pet, because my cousin and I
declined to be ruined by her."
"You _could_ have told her what mischief she makes wherever she goes,
and for Octavia's sake have deferred the general's visit for a time. I
warn you, Jasper, harm will come of it.
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