“I? Oh–well, yes. I think it is extremely unlikely that he will marry her.”
“I almost wish I had offered to take him to the party to-night,” said Mrs. Wyndham, evidently unsatisfied. “However, as he is coming to-morrow, that will do quite as well. Sybil, dear, you look tired. Why don’t you go and lie down before dinner?”
“Oh, because–I am not tired, really. I am always pale, you know.”
“Well, I am tired to death myself, my dear, and as there is no one here I will say I am not at home, and rest till dinner.”
Mrs. Wyndham had been as much startled as any one by news of the senator’s death that morning, and though she always professed to agree with her husband she was delighted at the prospect of John Harrington’s election. She had been a good friend to him, and he to her, for years, and she cared much more for his success than for the turn of events. She had met him in the street that afternoon, and they had perambulated the pavement of Beacon Street for more than an hour in the discussion of the future. John had also told her that he was now certain that Vancouver was the writer of the offensive articles that had so long puzzled him; at all events that the especial one which had appeared the morning after the skating-party was undoubtedly from his pen. Mrs. Wyndham, who had long suspected as much, was very angry when she found that her suspicions had been so just, and she proposed to deal summarily with Vancouver. John, however, begged her to temporize, and she promised to be prudent.
“By the way,” she said to Sybil, as she was about to leave the room, “it was a special providence that you did not marry Vancouver. He has turned out badly.”
Sybil started slightly and looked up. Her experience with Pocock Vancouver was a thing she rarely referred to. She had undoubtedly given him great encouragement, and had then mercilessly refused him, to the great surprise of every one. But as that had occurred a year and a half ago, it was quite natural that she should treat him like any one else, now, just as though nothing had happened. She looked up at Mrs. Wyndham in some surprise.
“What has he done?” she asked.
“You know how he always talks about John Harrington?”
“He always says he respects him immensely.”