"Not in the least."
"If you do, it would have been better if you had said so at once," said Eva, carelessly. "I've asked him now."
"Why should you suppose I object to him?" he asked suddenly.
"You didn't seem very cordial about it. Have you asked anybody else?"
"I mentioned it to my mother when I saw her in Trelso, but she said she wouldn't come."
"Ah!" said Eva, with the ghost of a smile, "did she say why?"
"Apparently it was for your sake—because of you, in fact."
"I expect she meant for her own sake. I should be charmed to have her. There is a straightforwardness, a refusal to compromise, in her behaviour to me, that is very refreshing."
"She speaks of you with bitterness—I might almost say rancour," remarked Lord Hayes.