Chapter 5

LUCIA.

In this manner Slowbridge received the shock which shook it to
its foundations, and it was a shock from which it did not recover for
some time. Before ten o'clock the next morning, everybody knew of the
arrival of Martin Bassett's daughter.

The very boarding-school (Miss Pilcher's select seminary for young
ladies, "combining the comforts of a home," as the circular said,
"with all the advantages of genteel education") was on fire with it,
highly colored versions of the stories told being circulated from
the "first class" downward, even taking the form of an Indian princess,
tattooed blue, and with difficulty restrained from indulging in
war-whoops,--which last feature so alarmed little Miss Bigbee, aged
seven, that she retired in fear and trembling, and shed tears under the
bedclothes; her terror and anguish being much increased by the stirring
recitals of scalping-stories by pretty Miss Phipps, of the first
class--a young person who possessed a vivid imagination, and delighted in
romances of a tragic turn.

"I have not the slightest doubt," said Miss Phipps, "that when she is at
home she lives in a wampum."

"What is a wampum?" inquired one of her admiring audience.

"A tent," replied Miss Phipps, with some impatience. "I should
think any goose would know that. It is a kind of tent hung with
scalps and--and--moccasins, and--lariats--and things of that sort."

"I don't believe that is the right name for it," put in Miss Smith, who
was a pert member of the third class.

"Ah!" commented Miss Phipps, "that was Miss Smith who spoke, of course.
We may always expect information from Miss Smith. I trust that I may be
allowed to say that I _think_ I _have_ a brother"--

"He doesn't know much about it, if he calls a wigwam a wampum,"
interposed Miss Smith, with still greater pertness. "I have a brother who
knows better than that, if I am only in the third class." For a moment
Miss Phipps appeared to be meditating. Perhaps she was a trifle
discomfited; but she recovered herself after a brief pause, and returned
to the charge.

"Well," she remarked, "perhaps it is a wigwam. Who cares if it is? And
at any rate, whatever it is, I haven't the slightest doubt that she
lives in one."

This comparatively tame version was, however, entirely discarded when the
diamonds and silver-mines began to figure more largely in the reports.
Certainly, pretty, overdressed, jewel-bedecked Octavia gave Slowbridge
abundant cause for excitement.

After leaving her, Lady Theobald drove home to Oldclough Hall, rather
out of humor. She