Margaret had not said she wished him away, but she did not contradict him.
"Of course I should not tell my uncle many things before you," she said, "because little circumstances, which are new to me and strange to him, now that he never goes out, would seem very trifling to a third person."
"Don't you know," said Mr. Haveloc, "that first impressions are always interesting? You must not therefore prevent my hearing yours."
Miss Gage was rising at this moment, and Margaret availed herself of the move to avoid giving a reply.
When the ladies returned to the drawing-room, they gathered round the fire, and began to discuss the amusements of the next day. Margaret, who was standing by Elizabeth Gage, looked earnestly in her face to see whether she could really enter into conversation of so trifling a nature as that which was going on among the ladies.
Yes,—Elizabeth patiently heard Miss Lawson Smith's complaints of her crape ball dress, which had not been trimmed with roses of the proper tint, and gave as much comfort as she could under the circumstances; and she endeavoured to decide upon a bonnet for Miss Conway, when that young lady professed to be unable to bring the matter to a conclusion for herself.
"Recollect, my dear Lucy," said she, "that if the Fates grant us a fine day to-morrow, it will be made up of a bright sun and a keen north wind; the only advantage of an airy toilet, is to make you look blue upon the course, and send you home with a severe cold."
The prospect of a cold did not seem to frighten Lucy, but she was keenly alive to the disadvantages of looking blue.
Harriet Conway looking up from the footstool upon which she was seated close to the fire, remarked that, "her costume gave her no sort of trouble, as she was to ride on horseback to the races."
Margaret looked at her with some surprise and no little envy, thinking what a bold, accomplished horsewoman she must be.