Lady Joan and Lady Maud!" repeated Gerard in a voice of bitter
sarcasm. "I did not care for the rest; but I could not stand
that Lady Joan and that Lady Maud. I wonder if my Sybil saw
them."
In the meantime, Sybil had been sent for by Mrs Trafford. She
had inferred from the message that the guests had departed,
and her animated cheek showed the eagerness with which she had
responded to the call. Bounding along with a gladness of the
heart which lent additional lustre to her transcendent
brightness, she suddenly found herself surrounded in the
garden by Lady Maud and her friends. The daughter of Lord de
Mowbray, who could conceive nothing but humility as the cause
of her alarmed look, attempted to re-assure her by
condescending volubility, turning often to her friends and
praising in admiring interrogatories Sybil's beauty.
"And we took advantage of your absence," said Lady Maud in a
tone of amiable artlessness, "to find out all about you. And
what a pity we did not know you when you were at the convent,
because then you might have been constantly at the castle;
indeed I should have insisted on it. But still I hear we are
neighbours; you must promise to pay me a visit, you must
indeed.
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