"
I started. Newhaven looked at her for an instant, and then
turned on his heel. She turned to me, quick as lightning, and
with her face all aflame.
"If you tell, I'll never speak to you again," she whispered.
After this there was silence for some minutes.
"Well?" she said, without looking at me.
"I have no remark to offer, Miss Queenborough," I returned.
"I suppose that was a lie, wasn't it?" she asked defiantly.
"It's not my business to say what it was," was my discreet
answer.
"I know what you're thinking."
"I was thinking," said I, "which I would rather be--the man you
will marry, or the man you would like----"
"How dare you! It's not true. Oh Mr. Wynne, indeed it's not
true!"
Whether it were true or not I did not know. But if it had
been, Miss Trix Queenborough might have been expected to act very
much in the way in which she proceeded to act: that is to say, to
be extravagantly attentive to Lord Newhaven when Jack Ives was
present, and markedly neglectful of him in the curate's absence.
It also fitted in very well with the theory which I had ventured
to hint that her bearing toward Mrs. Wentworth was distinguished
by a stately civility, and her remarks about that lady by a
superfluity of laudation; for if these be not two distinguishing
marks of rivalry in the well-bred, I must go back to my favorite
books and learn from them--more folly. And if Trix's manners
were all that they should be, praise no less high must be
accorded to Mrs.
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