"
"For that no avowal is necessary," said Anne; "the fact is sufficiently
evident."
"You are right, Anne;" and for once Maude spoke earnestly. "I do _not_
like Percival Elster. But I will always be civil to him for your sweet
sake."
"Why do you dislike him?--if I may ask it. Have you any particular reason
for doing so?"
"I have no reason in the world. He is a good-natured, gentlemanly fellow;
and I know no ill of him, except that he is always getting into scrapes,
and dropping, as I hear, a lot of money. But if he got out of his last
guinea, and went almost in rags, it would be nothing to me; so _that's_
not it. One does take antipathies; I dare say you do, Miss Ashton. What a
blessing Hartledon did not die in that fever he caught last year! Val
would have inherited. What a mercy!"
"That he lived? or that Val is not Lord Hartledon?"
"Both. But I believe I meant that Val is not reigning."
"You think he would not have made a worthy inheritor?"
"A worthy inheritor? Oh, I was not glancing at that phase of the
question. Here he comes! I will give up my seat to him."
It is possible Lady Maude expected some pretty phrases of affection;
begging her to keep it. If so, she was mistaken. Anne Ashton was one of
those essentially quiet, self-possessed girls in society, whose manners
seem almost to border on apathy. She did not say "Do go," or "Don't go.
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