When I expressed my
surprise that he should have bandied about anything so precious (I
happen to know it's his only copy--in the most beautiful hand in
all the world) Lady Augusta confessed to me that she hadn't had it
from himself, but from Mrs. Wimbush, who had wished to give her a
glimpse of it as a salve for her not being able to stay and hear it
read.
"'Is that the piece he's to read,' I asked, 'when Guy Walsingham
arrives?'
"'It's not for Guy Walsingham they're waiting now, it's for Dora
Forbes,' Lady Augusta said. 'She's coming, I believe, early to-
morrow. Meanwhile Mrs. Wimbush has found out about him, and is
actively wiring to him. She says he also must hear him.'
"'You bewilder me a little,' I replied; 'in the age we live in one
gets lost among the genders and the pronouns. The clear thing is
that Mrs. Wimbush doesn't guard such a treasure so jealously as she
might.'
"'Poor dear, she has the Princess to guard! Mr. Paraday lent her
the manuscript to look over.'
"'She spoke, you mean, as if it were the morning paper?'
"Lady Augusta stared--my irony was lost on her. 'She didn't have
time, so she gave me a chance first; because unfortunately I go to-
morrow to Bigwood.
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