The Saint and the Sinner by Barbara Cartland

that Mrs. Meadowfield would be deeply shocked at the way the actresses behaved and spoke, and she thought old Burrows would be appalled if the best china dishes were broken at the table or anyone dented the silver.
    Then she told herself that she was quite certain he would have the good sense not to use the best table-ware.
    He knew far better than the present owner of the house what they were, and she deliberately stopped herself from asking him to take care and to prevent from happening again the sort of incident that had taken place last night.
    Because she knew they would expect it, she told the coachman to pull up at the side of the house so that Mrs. Meadowfield and Burrows could walk round to the back entrance.
    Then she drove up to the front and knew as soon as she saw the expressions on the faces of the footmen that things had been happening.
    She had been longer than she had expected. It was in fact nearly luncheon-time and she realised that she was very hungry.
    Mary’s revelations had prevented her from having any breakfast and it seemed a long time since dinner the preceding evening.
    She walked into the hall, saw a hat lying on a chair, and knew that Michael Farrow had arrived and was doubtless with the Earl.
    She went upstairs to her bedroom and as she was taking off her bonnet Mary came in.
    “Oh, Miss Pandora, such goings-on! Such excitement as you never knowed!” Mary exclaimed.
    “What has been happening?” Pandora asked with a smile.
    “Almost immediately after you’d gone, his Lordship sends for Mrs. Jenkins and Mr. Dalton. He sacks them both, an’ I hear from one of the footmen that they were very impudent in the things they says too. Mary paused before she went on with relish: “James says as His Lordship was looking black as thunder when he sees Mr. Anstey.”
    “What happened then?” Pandora asked.
    “You’ll never believe, Miss, but when Mr. Anstey rides off out the front door he shakes his fist at him! ‘You’ll rue this day!’ he says. ‘Mark my words – you’ll all of you rue this day!’”
    Pandora gave a sigh of relief.
    The Earl had kept his word. Mr. Anstey had gone, and she could only hope that all the outsiders whom he had put into the cottages on the Estate would follow him.
    Mary was almost incoherent with excitement, but she had very little more to tell.
    Demurely Pandora went downstairs to the Salon, and found only Hettie there, looking very hollow eyed and talking with Freddie and Clive.
    “It must be nearly luncheon-time,” Pandora said as the two gentlemen rose. “Where is everybody?” “All too ill to appear,” Hettie answered. “Caro has been sick all night and so has Lottie. Kitty’s got such a headache that she can’t open her eyes. “
    “The trouble with Norvin’s wines,” Freddie said, “is that they are too good and too heavy. If the girls had taken my advice and stuck to champagne, they would have been all right!”
    “That comes well from you!” Hettie replied. “You were completely bosky, as you well know, and Richard was as tight as a Lord.”
    “That reminds me, I have not seen our host this morning,” Clive said. “I thought he was coming riding with us.”
    “I think he had other things to do,” Pandora said.
    “Well, if he did them with you,” Hettie remarked, “Kitty will scratch your eyes out. I’m warning you, she’s very jealous, and she doesn’t talk – she acts!”
    “There is no reason for Kitty to be jealous of me,” Pandora answered. “I am just the poor relation and nobody ever worries about them!”
    The two men laughed and Hettie said: “Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you!”
    The Earl appeared, and, looking at him, Pandora knew without being told that he had enjoyed himself. She had the feeling that he liked getting his teeth into something difficult.
    It was characteristic of many of the Charts and she thought that perhaps one of his troubles was that since he had inherited a great fortune he had had