Anna's Tea Party

"I suppose you haven't the least idea who I am," Lady Lescelles said,
as she settled herself in Anna's most comfortable chair.

"I have heard of you, of course," Anna answered hesitatingly,
"but----"

"You cannot imagine what I have come to see you about. Well, I am
Nigel Ennison's sister!"

"Oh!" Anna said.

"Nigel is like all men," Lady Lescelles continued. "He is a sad
blunderer. He has helped me out of scrapes though, no end of times. He
is an awfully good sort--and now he has come to me to help him if I
can. Do you know that he is very much in love with you?"

Anna smiled.

"Well," she admitted. "He has said something of the sort."

"And you have sent him about his business. He tells me that you will
not even see him. I don't want to bother you, of course. A woman has a
perfect right to choose her own husband, but Nigel seemed to think
that there was something a little mysterious about your treatment of
him. You seemed, he thought, to have some grievance which you would
not explain and which he thought must arise from a misunderstanding.
There, that sounds frightfully involved, doesn't it, but perhaps you
can make out what I mean. Don't you care for Nigel at all?"

Anna was silent for a moment or two.

Lady Lescelles, graceful, very fashionably but quietly dressed, leaned
back and watched her with shrewd kindly eyes.

"I like your brother better than any other man I know," Anna said at
last.