d,
seizing her hand.

'Why is it loathsome, if he comes so often? It's rubbish, his caring for
Selina--a married woman--when you are there.'

'Why is it rubbish--when so many other people do?'

'Oh, well, he is different--I could see that; or if he isn't he ought to
be!'

'He likes to observe--he came here to take notes,' said the girl. 'And
he thinks Selina a very interesting London specimen.'

'In spite of her dislike of him?'

'Oh, he doesn't know that!' Laura exclaimed.

'Why not? he isn't a fool.'

'Oh, I have made it seem----' But here Laura stopped; her colour had
risen.

Lady Davenant stared an instant. 'Made it seem that she inclines to him?
Mercy, to do that how fond of him you must be!' An observation which had
the effect of driving the girl straight out of the house.

XI

On one of the last days of June Mrs. Berrington showed her sister a note
she had received from 'your dear friend,' as she called him, Mr.
Wendover. This was the manner in which she usually designated him, but
she had naturally, in the present phase of her relations with Laura,
never indulged in any renewal of the eminently perverse insinuations by
means of which she had attempted, after the incident at the Soane
Museum, to throw dust in her eyes. Mr. Wendover proposed to Mrs.
Berrington that she and her sister should honour with their presence a
box he had obtained for the opera three nights later--an occasion of
high curiosity, the first appearance of a young American singer of whom
considerable things were expected. Laura left it to Selina to decide
whether they should accept this invitation, and Selina proved to be of
two or three differing minds. First she said it wouldn't be convenient
to her to go, and she wrote to the young man to this effect. Then, on
second thoughts, she considered she might very well go, and telegraphed
an acceptance. Later she saw reason to regret her acceptance and
communicated this circumstance to her sister, who remarked that it was
still not too late to change. Selina left her in ignorance till the
next day as to whether she had retracted; then she told her that she had
let the matter stand--they would go. To this Laura replied that she was
glad--for Mr. Wendover. 'And for yourself,' Selina said, leaving the
girl to wonder why every one (this universality was represented by Mrs.
Lionel Berrington and Lady Davenant) had taken up the idea that she
entertained a passion for her compatriot.