Mrs Thomas was everything Hardley had led me to suppose. She breezed into the room and barely allowed Cecily time to introduce us before she began.

 'I am excessively glad to meet you Lady Hardley! I have been so looking forward to it, because you can set me right on some points regarding your marriage. I did hear that you eloped! But I'm sure that cannot be true?'

 I did not know what to say, but darling Cecily saved me. 

 'Robert and Lydia's marriage was rather sudden, but we are all very pleased with it. No elopement was necessary.'

 This was rather clever of her, I thought. She did not say that we had not eloped, only that it wasn't necessary. Mrs Thomas seemed disappointed though. She was not intelligent enough to see through the s...

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