"She looked awfully cut up, poor little thing," says Jack, kindly. "You were the only one she opened her mind to, Nick What did she say? Did she betray the ravings of a lunatic or the inanities of a fool?"
"Neither."
"Then, no doubt, she heaped upon you priceless gems of Irish wit in her mother-tongue?"
"She said very little; but she looks good and true. After all, Geoffrey might have done worse."
"Worse!" repeats his mother, in a withering tone. In this mood she is not nice, and a very little of her suffices.
"She is decidedly good to look at, at all events," says Nicholas, shifting ground. "Don't you think so, Violet?"
"I think she is the loveliest woman I ever saw," returns Miss Mansergh, quietly, without enthusiasm, but with decision. If cold, she is just, and above the pettiness of disliking a woman because she may be counted more worthy of admiration than herself.
"I am glad you are all pleased," says Lady Rodney, in a peculiar tone; and then the gong sounds, and they all rise, as Geoffrey and Mona once more make their appearance. Sir Nicholas gives his arm to Mona, and so begins her first evening at the Towers.