“And said,” added Sir Charles, not flippantly, and half under his breath.
The old magnate who had admired Rita at her wedding made use of almost the same words as Lady Clyde.
“After all that his wife had done, and was doing, to quit like that, and leave her to face the life he’d brought her to! What a brute!”
A little while afterwards he proposed to Rita, diffident, in spite of his wealth, because of the great difference in their ages.
She accepted him, and this time it was Sir Charles, looking at the bridegroom’s bald head and infirm gait beside the pretty bride at the quiet wedding, who repeated to himself the old man’s catchword, with an ironical emphasis of his own:
“A very gallant little lady.”
THE HOTEL CHILD
THE HOTEL CHILD
(To Y. de la P.)