As it was, the brilliancy of the match was considered a little dimmed by the fact of Bertie’s not being of the Semitic race. It showed indifferent sportsmanship, if nothing else, to have failed in bringing down one of the wily sons of Shem.
The Samuel Sachses came over at the first opportunity to wish joy, as they themselves expressed it, and inspect the new fiancé.
It is possible that they were not well received, for Netta gave out subsequently, whenever the Lee-Harrisons were in question: “We don’t visit. Mamma doesn’t approve of mixed marriages.”
The day on which the engagement was announced happened also to be that of the election, and in the course of the afternoon Adelaide burst in, much excited by the double event.
“An overwhelming majority!” she cried; “Reuben is in by an overwhelming majority.”
Then going up to Judith, she gave her a sounding kiss.
“I am so glad, dear,” she said gushingly.
Judith submitted to this display of affection with a good grace.
For the last four days she had been living in a dream; a dream peopled by phantoms, who went and came, spoke and smiled, but had about as much reality as the figures of a magic lantern.
As before Bertie’s proposal she had been too much preoccupied to be much aware of him, so now she continued to accept his attentions in the same spirit of amiable indifference and unconsciousness. Bertie, as Gwendolen Harleth said of Grandcourt, was not disgusting. He took his love, as he took his religion, very theoretically. There was something not unpleasant in the atmosphere of respectful devotion with which he contrived to surround her.