Threlfall the following day during the morning.
After luncheon, Victoria announced her intention of going to call on the
Penfolds.

"You can follow me there in the motor," she said to her son; "and if any
news comes, bring it on."

They were in the drawing-room. Netta, white and silent, was stretched on
the sofa, where Victoria had just spread a shawl over her. Felicia
appeared to be turning over an illustrated paper, but was in reality
watching the mother and son out of the corners of her eyes. Everything
that was said containing a mention of the Penfolds struck in her an
attentive ear. The casual conversation of the house had shown her already
that there were three ladies--two of them young--who were living not far
from Duddon, and were objects of interest to both Lady Tatham and her
son. Flowers were sent them, and new books. They were not relations; and
not quite ordinary acquaintances. All this had excited a furious
curiosity in Felicia. She wished--was determined indeed--to see these
ladies for herself.

"You will hardly want to go out," said Victoria gently, standing by
Netta's sofa, and looking down with kind eyes on the weary woman lying
there.

Netta shook her head; then putting out her hand she took Victoria's and
pressed it. Victoria understood that she was waiting feverishly for the
answer from Threlfall, and could do nothing and think of nothing till it
arrived.

"And your daughter?" She looked round for Felicia.

"I wish to drive in a motor," said Felicia, rising and speaking with a
decision which amused Victoria. Pending the arrival from London of some
winter costumes on approval, Victoria's maid had arranged for the little
Italian a picturesque dress of dark blue silk, from a gown of her
mistress', by which the emaciation of the girl's small frame was somewhat
disguised; while the beauty of the material, and of the delicate
embroideries on the collar and sleeves, strangely heightened the grace of
her curly head, and the effect of her astonishing eyes, so liquidly
bright, in a face too slight for them.

In forty-eight hours, even, of comfort and cosseting her elfish thinness
had become a shade less ghastly; and the self-possession which had
emerged from the state of collapse in which she had arrived amazed
Victoria. A week before, so it appeared, she had been earning a franc
a day in the vineyard of a friendly _contadino_. And already one might
have thought her bred in castles. She was not abas