CHAPTER XVI.
GWEN AND PAULINE.
“I see you are not changed, Pauline,” said Lady Gwendolyn; “it was always self with you, and always will be. My sufferings are nothing so long as you run no risk!”
“Oh! but you are not suffering, I am sure,” answered Lady Teignmouth. “You are looking exceedingly well, and handsome, and the whole affair has blown over so comfortably, there’s no reason why you should not resume your proper position in society. I am afraid Reggie won’t let me chaperon you—at least, just yet; but there is Mrs. O’Hara. She is not particular.”
“Possibly; but I am,” returned Lady Gwendolyn, with angry hauteur; “so particular, indeed, that, if Reggie were willing I should go out with you, I should decline the doubtful honor!”
“You are very severe, my dear,” said Lady Teignmouth uneasily; “and yet, I ought not to be annoyed with you, since, in the eyes of the world, I have certainly the best of it!”
“You would be sure to take care of that! But, really, Pauline, you are forgetting that you are a ‘model of discretion,’ nowadays.”
“How?”
“Why, is it prudent to be seen walking with me? If we were to meet any one we knew——”
“But I told you the whole affair had blown over. We should not have returned to England if it had not been for that.”