e she had esteemed herself the better bred of the two;
but that opinion had hardly consoled her for Agatha's superior quickness
of wit, dexterity of hand, audacity, aptness of resource, capacity for
forming or following intricate associations of ideas, and consequent
power to dazzle others. Her jealousy of these qualities was now barbed
by the knowledge that they were much nearer akin than her own to those
of Trefusis. It mattered little to her how she appeared to herself in
comparison with Agatha. But it mattered the whole world (she thought)
that she must appear to Trefusis so slow, stiff, cold, and studied, and
that she had no means to make him understand that she was not really so.
For she would not admit the justice of impressions made by what she did
not intend to do, however habitually she did it. She had a theory that
she was not herself, but what she would have liked to be. As to the one
quality in which she had always felt superior to Agatha, and which she
called "good breeding," Trefusis had so far destroyed her conceit in
that, that she was beginning to doubt whether it was not her cardinal
defect.

She could not bring herself to utter a word as she embraced her
schoolfellow; and Agatha was tongue-tied too. But there was much
remorseful tenderness in the feelings that choked them. Their silence
would have been awkward but for the loquacity of Jane, who talked enough
for all three. Sir Charles was without, in the trap, waiting to drive
Gertrude to the station. Erskine intercepted her in the hall as she
passed out, told her that he should be desolate when she was gone, and
begged her to remember him, a simple petition which moved her a little,
and caused her to note that his dark eyes had a pleading eloquence which
she had observed before in the kangaroos at the Zoological Society's
gardens.

On the way to the train Sir Charles worried the horse in order to be
excused from conversation on the sore subject of his guest's sudden
departure. He had made a few remarks on the skittishness of young
ponies, and on the weather, and that was all until they reached the
station, a pretty building standing in the open country, with a view of
the river from the platform. There were two flies waiting, two porters,
a bookstall, and a refreshment room with a neglected beauty pining
behind the bar. Sir Charles waited in the booking office to purchase a
ticket for Gertrude, who went through to the platform. The first person
sh