"I see. No doubt you are right. Certainly he is standing his long engagement very well."
"Poor boy! he wants to shorten it very much, which is just the very reason why I want it to be long."
"Miss Carston is satisfied, I gather?"
"It looks like it," said Mrs. Davenport, smiling, and indicating with her eye a shady corner of the room where the two lovers were sitting.
"Old Lady Hayes was staying with us for a week in London last summer," she continued, after a pause. "She was defeated in a great battle, apparently, with your sister, and came here to bind up her wounds by bullying us all. I have an immense admiration for anyone who can rout her."
Percy laughed.
"I heard something about it. Eva behaved abominably, I expect."
"I met her several times in London," said Mrs. Davenport. "She has a wonderful way of appearing to notice no one, and obliging every one to notice her."
"I never saw anyone so changed in a short time as Eva," said Percy. "She has suddenly found men and women extraordinarily interesting. A year ago, she was exactly the reverse. She disliked most women, and never remembered any man."
"That was the impression she gave me in the summer."