“And who is his friend M'Gruder?” asked Lady Lyle, superciliously.
“A rag-merchant from Leghorn,” said Skeff; “but Tony calls him an out-and-out good fellow; and I must say he did n't take five minutes to decide when I told him Tony was coming up from Cava, and would be glad to have his company on the road.”
“These are, of course, exceptional times, when all sorts of strange intimacies will be formed; but I do hope that Tony will see that his altered circumstances as to fortune require from him more care in the selection of his friends than he has hitherto been distinguished for.”
“Don't trouble yourself about that, my dear,” said Sir Arthur; “a man's fortune very soon impresses itself on all he says and does.”
“I mistake him much,” said Bella, “if any wealth will estrange him from one of those he cared for in his humbler days. Don't you agree with me, Alice?”
Alice made no reply, but continued to gaze at the ships through a glass.
“The danger is that he'll carry that feeling to excess,” said Skeff; “for he will not alone hold to all these people, but he 'll make you and me hold to them too.”
“That would be impossible, perfectly impossible,” said my Lady, with a haughty toss of her head.
“No, no; I cannot agree to go that far,” chimed in Sir Arthur.
“It strikes me,” said Alice, quietly, “we are all of us deciding a little too hastily as to what Tony Butler will or will not do. Probably a very slight exercise of patience would save us some trouble.”