at fair? He can't be happy, and it's not in nature for them to be
satisfied. And yet, if I went up and attempted to please them all by
taking one away, the probabilities are that he would knock me down. Such
is life! We won't be made comfortable!'

Nevertheless, he passed them with indifference, for it was merely the
principle he objected to; and, indeed, he was so wrapped in his own
conceptions, that his name had to be called behind him twice before he
recognized Evan Harrington, Mrs. Strike, and Miss Bonner. The arrangement
he had previously thought good, was then spontaneously adopted. Mrs.
Strike reposed her fair hand upon his arm, and Juliana, with a timid
glance of pleasure, walked ahead in Evan's charge. Close neighbourhood
between the couples was not kept. The genius of Mr. Raikes was wasted in
manoeuvres to lead his beautiful companion into places where he could be
seen with her, and envied. It was, perhaps, more flattering that she
should betray a marked disposition to prefer solitude in his society. But
this idea illumined him only near the moment of parting. Then he saw it;
then he groaned in soul, and besought Evan to have one more promenade,
saying, with characteristic cleverness in the masking of his real
thoughts: 'It gives us an appetite, you know.'

In Evan's face and Juliana's there was not much sign that any protraction
of their walk together would aid this beneficent process of nature. He
took her hand gently, and when he quitted it, it dropped.

'The Rose, the Rose of Beckley Court!' Raikes sang aloud. 'Why, this is a
day of meetings. Behold John Thomas in the rear-a tower of plush and
powder! Shall I rush-shall I pluck her from the aged stem?'

On the gravel-walk above them Rose passed with her aristocratic
grandmother, muffled in furs. She marched deliberately, looking coldly
before her. Evan's face was white, and Juliana, whose eyes were fixed on
him, shuddered.

'I'm chilled,' she murmured to Caroline. 'Let us go.' Caroline eyed Evan
with a meaning sadness.

'We will hurry to our carriage,' she said.

They were seen to make a little circuit so as not to approach Rose; after
whom, thoughtless of his cruelty, Evan bent his steps slowly, halting
when she reached her carriage. He believed--rather, he knew that she had
seen him. There was a consciousness in the composed outlines of her face
as she passed: the indifference was too perfect. Let her hate him if she
pleased. It recompensed him th