'O yes,' said Lucy; 'Sarah Anne asked me whether we ate wedding-cake
every day.'

'Poor Miss Sarah Anne!' said Albinia, laughing. 'But one cannot help
feeling inhospitable when people come so unconscionably early, and
cut up all one's morning.'

The door was again besieged by visitors, just as they were all going
out to make the round of the garden, and it was not till half-past
four that the succession ceased, and Albinia was left to breathe
freely, and remember how often Maurice had called her to order for
intolerance of morning calls.

'And not the only people I cared to see,' she said, 'the Dusautoys
and Nugents. But they have too much mercy to call the first day.'

Mr. Kendal looked as if his instinct were drawing him study-wards,
but Albinia hung on his arm, and made him come into the garden.
Though devoid of Winifred's gardening tastes, she was dismayed at the
untended look of the flower-beds. The laurels were too high, and
seemed to choke the narrow space, and the turf owed its verdant
appearance to damp moss. She had made but few steps before the water
squished under her feet, and impelled her to exclaim, 'What a pity
this pond should not be filled up!'

'Filled up!--'

'Yes, it would be so much less damp. One might drain it off into the
river, and then we should get rid of the fog.'