"Mab has always professed to positively loathe Percy; tolerated him because she liked his sister. He is a bit of a bounder, you know."
"Your sister does not seem to share in that opinion of yours."
He could not quite keep the bitterness out of the way in which he said that.
"No!"
The brother admitted it; spoke just as bitterly. When they reached his lodgings Masters said:
"Come round, will you?"
"You—you won't come on to the cottage to——"
"Oh, no! No!"
"No. I didn't expect you would. I had counted on things being so different! Counted on a merry Christmas."
Dick laughed as he said, thought of, a merry Christmas: the unpleasant, ironic laugh of a disappointed man. Just then he was as full of disappointment as he could well hold.