Mr.Parish, as he sipped it, realized that the war was indeed over.
But, all the time, he gave a certain amount of scrutiny to the little lady beside him.

So she was to be "companion" to Miss Helena Pitstone--to prevent her getting into scrapes--if she could.

Lord Buntingford had told him that his cousin, Lady Mary Chance, had chosen her.

Lady Mary had reported that "companions" were almost as difficult to find as kitchenmaids, and that she had done her best for him in finding a person of gentle manners and quiet antecedents.

"Such people will soon be as rare as snakes in Ireland"-- had been the concluding sentence in Lady Mary's letter, according to Lord Buntingford's laughing account of it.