"So soon?" asked Mr. Baldwin, in a surprised tone.
"So soon! why not? You don't suppose Margaret has any tender confidences with Mrs. Carteret which must not be broken in upon, and, as for her father, I am sure he is as much accustomed to her being there, since yesterday, as if she were one of those horrid specimens en permanence."
Mr. Baldwin laughed. "I don't suppose the meeting has been very demonstrative," he said, "considering the parties to it whom I do know, and Dugdale's account of the party whom I do not. According to the little he said, Mrs. Hungerford's firmness and reserve are wonderful--more wonderful than pleasing, I should consider them."
"Never mind Mr. Dugdale, Fitz," replied his sister. "He never liked Margaret either I believe: I know she quarrelled with him at the time of her love-affair. It is very likely he does not like her coming home; she may make things unpleasant for him now, you know, which she could not when quite a girl. Don't you mind him. Take my word for it, the young widow is a darling."
"Take care, Nelly; that is rather a dangerous thing to insist upon so strongly, except that you know I have a prejudice against widows--always excepting you, he added, as she raised a warning finger.
"Nonsense," said Lady Davyntry; and then she left the room, and her brother resumed his newspaper; but, as he folded it and prepared to read the leading articles leisurely, he thought, "I wonder if she is really nice. Certainly Dugdale did not convey to me any impression that he did not like her, or that her coming was contrary to his convenience,--rather the opposite, I think. This must be a fancy of Nelly's."
"Am I right? Did I say too much of Margaret, you incredulous Fitz?" asked Lady Davyntry of her brother, when the gates of Chayleigh had closed upon them at the termination of an unusually protracted visit, during which Mrs. Carteret had endured the mortification of seeing Lady Davyntry in a character of affectionate neighbourliness, which had never been evoked by all her own strenuous and unrelaxed efforts.
"Did you ever see a nicer creature?" persisted the impulsive Nelly, "and though of course she's changed, I assure you I never thought her so handsome when she was quite a girl; and her quiet manner--so dignified and ladylike--not cold though: you didn't think it cold, did you, Fitz?"
"Not cold to you, certainly," replied Mr. Baldwin, who was glad to escape, by answering this one, from the more direct question his sister had put to him at first.
"No, no," she went on; "quite cordial; and I told her how I looked at her with the glass this morning, and how you were quite too proper and precise to follow my example; and she blushed quite red for a moment--her pale face looked so pretty--and just glanced at you for an instant: it was when Mr. Carteret was bothering you about the articulations of something--and I'm sure she thought you very nice and gentlemanly, and----"