At dinner Elizabeth was between Sir Temple Dacre and Major Vaughan.
The former devoted himself especially to her. Opposite sat Katie, Lord
Bulchester on one hand, while on the other was placed the guest last
arrived, the one whose coming had been doubtful because it had not been
certain that he would reach the city in time to accept his invitation.
Lord Bulchester so far forgot his manners as to pay very little
attention to the pretty young lady who had been assigned to him; his
thoughts were all for Katie Archdale, his ears were for her, and his
eyes, except for the defiant glances which shot past her at Kenelm
Waldo, this last arrival, to whom had fallen the place on her other
hand. Katie's air of pensiveness as she took her seat seemed to her aunt
suitable and very becoming. But it was impossible to the girl's nature
not to enjoy the situation, and the smile that often lurked slyly in the
depths of her dimples and brought a light beneath the grave droop of her
eyelids made her only the handsomer. Her dress of white India muslin
was simple and beautiful; it heightened the effect of her gravity of
demeanor, and by making her seem even more youthful than she was,
softened any expression of enjoyment that flashed across her
pensiveness. Elizabeth in her brocade thought how little the girl needed
ornament. Edmonson, watching the high-bred air of the latter, her
attentiveness and tact where she used to be dreamy, her face full of
indications of strength and refinement, felt that in ten years, when
Katie's attractions had waned, Elizabeth would have an added charm of
presence, and an added power. He admired intellect, although he so
readily adapted himself to people with tastes, and pursuits differing
from intellectual, and secretly he had his ambitions. When he should
marry well, as he intended to do, the wealth thus gained would give him
the place to which his birth entitled him, and then he looked forward
to political eminence. Supposing, only supposing, that one day he
should be premier he mused, studying Elizabeth,--stranger things had
happened--what a help a wife like this would be to him; her pride,
her self-control, her graciousness, her wit would then come into play
excellently. She belonged to him by right, and----. Again there came
that ominous flash in his eyes as they turned furtively in another
direction, and the shadow that lurked in his heart leaped forward again
and clutched at its victim. Then Edmonson