“You don’t think she’s spiteful?” Oldmeadow suggested after a moment, while Mrs. Averil still examined her lupin.
“Dear me, no! I wish she could be! It’s that smooth surface of hers that’s so tiresome. She’s not spiteful. But she’s human. She’ll want to keep Barney away and Nancy will be hurt.”
“Want to keep him away when she’s got him so completely?”
“Something of that sort. I felt it once or twice.”
“My first instinct about her was right, then,” said Oldmeadow. “She’s a bore and an interloper, and she’ll spoil things.”
“Oh, perhaps not. She’ll mend some things. Have you heard about Captain Hayward?”
“Do you mean that stupid, big, tawny fellow? What about him?”
“You may well ask. I’ve been spoken to about him and Meg by more than one person. They are making themselves conspicuous, and it’s been going on for some time.”
“You don’t mean that Meg’s in love with him?”
“He’s in love with her, at all events, and, as you know, he’s a married man. I questioned Nancy, who was with Meg for a few weeks in London, and she owns that Meg’s unhappy.”