lroy under a cloud. Although Allan's note had
assured her, in Allan's strongest language, that the one great object of
reconciling the governess's arrival with the celebration of the picnic
was an object achieved, the doubt still remained whether the plan
proposed--whatever it might be--would meet with her father's approval.
In a word, Miss Milroy declined to feel sure of her day's pleasure until
the carriage made its appearance and took her from the door. The major,
on his side, arrayed for the festive occasion in a tight blue frock-coat
which he had not worn for years, and threatened with a whole long day of
separation from his old friend and comrade the clock, was a man out of
his element, if ever such a man existed yet. As for the friends who had
been asked at Allan's request--the widow lady (otherwise Mrs. Pentecost)
and her son (the Reverend Samuel) in delicate health--two people less
capable, apparently of adding to the hilarity of the day could hardly
have been discovered in the length and breadth of all England. A young
man who plays his part in society by looking on in green spectacles, and
listening with a sickly smile, may be a prodigy of intellect and a mine
of virtue, but he is hardly, perhaps, the right sort of man to have at
a picnic. An old lady afflicted with deafness, whose one inexhaustible
subject of interest is the subject of her son, and who (on the happily
rare occasions when that son opens his lips) asks everybody eagerly,
"What does my boy say?" is a person to be pitied in respect of her
infirmities, and a person to be admired in respect of her maternal
devotedness, but not a person, if the thing could possibly be avoided,
to take to a picnic. Such a man, nevertheless, was the Reverend Samuel
Pentecost, and such a woman was the Reverend Samuel's mother; and in the
dearth of any other producible guests, there they were, engaged to eat,
drink, and be merry for the day at Mr. Armadale's pleasure party to the
Norfolk Broads.

The arrival of Allan, with his faithful follower, Pedgift Junior, at his
heels, roused the flagging spirits of the party at the cottage. The plan
for enabling the governess to join the picnic, if she arrived that day,
satisfied even Major Milroy's anxiety to show all proper attention to
the lady who was coming into his house. After writing the necessary
note of apology and invitation, and addressing it in her very best
handwriting to the new governess, Miss Milroy ran upstairs