Chapter 49

Miss Wace did not appreciate such remarks, but Lucy was correct in her diagnosis all the same. The anticipation of Sebastian’s marriage and its results were constant factors at the back of the minds of all the feminine population of Chevron. Miss Wace, Mrs. Wickenden, the housemaids, the scullery-maids, the stillroom maid, the laundresses, and the wives of the men-servants all looked forward secretly and lasciviously to the day when his Grace’s engagement should be announced. The essential secretiveness of their an…