CHAPTER IX.
WAITING FOR DINNER.
Dinner at Hartledon had been ordered for seven o'clock.

It was beyond that hour when Dr.Ashton arrived, for he had been detained--a clergyman's time is not always under his own control.

Anne and Arthur were with him, but not Mrs.Ashton.He came in, ready with an apology for his tardiness, but found he need not offer it; neither Lord Hartledon nor his brother having yet appeared.
"Hartledon and that boy Carteret have not returned home yet," said the countess-dowager, in her fiercest tones, for she liked her dinner more than any other earthly thing, and could not brook being kept waiting for it.

"And when they do come, they'll keep us another half-hour dressing." "I beg your ladyship's pardon--they have come," interposed Captain Dawkes.

"Carteret was going into his room as I came out of mine." "Time they were," grumbled the dowager.