Lilian took no notice of his remark, and asked Annie if she had seen many of the people of the neighborhood since she had been at the Grange.
“Yes, most of them have called, to my surprise, since William let out to old Mrs. Knowles that I had been on the stage. She and her niece made a tentative call, and I suppose the rumor spread that I did not bite, so everybody came and praised my wifely devotion, which I certainly did not deserve.”
Lilian laughed.
“Harry ill must be a great trial, though.”
“He is rather; he has such strange freaks.”
“Husbands always have, dear. Only fancy—my husband wanted to prevent my coming to the Grange!”
“Really? For what reason?”
“Oh, he disapproves of my brothers, or some such nonsense!” said Lilian lightly.
But Stephen raised his eyes to his cousin’s face with a penetrating look which Annie noted and remembered.
Dinner that night was a banquet of rejoicing. The two ladies were both, in different ways, among the most charming women of the day. Lilian was very handsomely dressed in dark red velvet, which showed off her fair, queenly beauty well; Annie, in maize-colored silk, with soft folds of Indian muslin about the throat, looked like a little fairy. The style of each was so different from that of the other that their attractions did not clash, and Annie’s quiet, simple manner of saying amusing things was the best contrast possible to Lilian’s laughing impertinences.