"I suppose one couldn't reasonably call _him_ a fogey," returned George.
Gertrude laughed; but Eleanor said sharply,
"No, he is only a fool."
Meredith was seated next her, and while the others went on talking, he said to her in a low tone,
"Do you think him a fool? I don't. He knows the value of first impressions, and being early in the field, or I am much mistaken."
If Robert Meredith had made a similar remark to Gertrude, she would simply have looked at him with her grave gray eyes, in utter ignorance of his meaning; but Nelly understood him perfectly.
"He _is_ an admirer of Gerty's," she said.
"And a more ardent admirer of the Deane," said Meredith. "Do you like him?"
"Not at all. Not that it matters whether I do or not; but Gerty does not either. I daresay Lord and Lady Gelston think it would be a very good thing."
"No doubt they do. Nothing more suitable could be devised; and as people of their class usually believe that human affairs are strictly regulated according to their convenience, and look upon Providence as a kind of confidential and trustworthy agent, more or less adroit, but entirely in their interests, no doubt they have it all settled comfortably. There was the complacent ring of such a plan in that pompous old donkey's bray last night, and a kind of protecting mother-in-law-like air about the old woman, which I should not have liked had I been in your sister's place."