“Yes; you exaggerate my dullness enormously. Now, will you promise to share the joke with me?”
“But William is only a boy. If I were to laugh with you as I do with him, Harry would think himself shunted and be horribly unpleasant, as usual. I don’t mean to say anything against Harry,” she added, hastily. “He is your brother——”
“Do you think I feel so tenderly toward him, that I cannot hear a word of truth about him?” said George passionately. “Do you think I cherish any deep affection for the brute who first robbed me of the treasure I would have died to win, and then neglected her, crushed the brightness out of her youth by his boorish ignorance, insulted and disgusted her by his tastes and habits?”
Annie was frightened by his vehemence—moved too in spite of herself. He saw this, and seized his advantage.
“Annie,” said he, bending down over her with his handsome face full of passionate tenderness, “it is too late now; but didn’t you care for me a little once?”
With a long sobbing breath which was almost a cry, Annie bent her head instinctively to hide her face, and, springing away before he could detain her, went back into the drawing-room.
Sir George drew himself up again to his full height, and mechanically put his long-since-extinguished cigar to his lips. He was answered.
CHAPTER IX.
The next day Colonel Richardson went to Scotland, after taking a very warm farewell of Annie, who, so far as she herself was concerned, was extremely sorry for his departure. He was the only man to whom she had spoken since her marriage who had tastes in common with her, and whose views of life were not bounded by the stable, the kennel, and the dinner-table. George had indeed shown himself to be ready to enter into her feelings, but his sympathy she was afraid to encourage. It was true that she had felt for him, from the first time he had talked to her at the Grange dinner-table, a warmer sentiment than she had ever felt for Harry or any other man; and, though since her marriage she had stifled it without much difficulty, she could not but know his interest in her remained strong. She felt, however, that since last night’s talk she would have to be more careful as to her conduct, and combine prudence with a little more graciousness. It did not prove so difficult, after all.
That very afternoon she had gone into the library to amuse herself among the old books that nobody else ever touched, but in whose very presence she delighted; and she was perched upon the ladder that stood there by which to reach the highest shelves, and had covered herself with dust in her endeavors to get at the dingy-looking volume whose only attraction lay in the fact that it was out of reach, when Sir George came in. She was surprised to see him, as she had never seen any of the brothers indulge in heavier reading than that which a sporting paper afforded.