Gabriel said, in reply to it,
"The truth is, Miss Wayne, you have seen him before. The first time you
ever saw me he was with me."
The clear eyes of the young man were turned full upon her again.
"Oh, yes, I remember now!" she answered. "He was your friend in that
terrible battle with Abel Newt. It seems long ago, does it not?"
However far away it may have seemed, it was apparently a remembrance that
roused no especial emotion in Miss Hope Wayne's heart. Having satisfied
herself, she released the attention of Gabriel, who had other subjects of
conversation with May Newt than his quarrel with her brother for the
favor of Hope Wayne.
But Arthur Merlin observed that while Hope Wayne listened with her
ears to him, with her eyes she listened to Lawrence Newt. His simple,
unselfish, and therefore unconscious urbanity--his genial, kindly
humor--and the soft, manly earnestness of his face, were not
unheeded--how could they be?--by her. Since the day the will was read he
had been a faithful friend and counselor. It was he who negotiated for
her house. It was he who daily called and gave her a thousand counsels in
the details of management, of which every woman who comes into a large
property has such constant need. And in all the minor arrangements of
business she found in him the same skill and knowledge, combined with a
womanly reserve and softness, which had first so strongly attracted her.
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