The talk continued chiefly on his side until the general conversation turned upon racing, and he hastened, with an eager interest which no woman could excite in him, to join in the argument that was going forward. When he again glanced at the girl by his side, she was looking puzzled and rather prim.
“Our talk about horses and betting shocks you, I see,” he laughed. “You think it very wicked.”
“No, indeed, I don’t. But I am not used to it. It is so new to me, at least, since I have been a governess.”
“Since you have been a governess? Well, that can’t be very long. And did you hear talk like ours before?”
“Not—quite like yours; but I have heard gentlemen talk about racing and theaters, and—things like that, at home, before my father died.”
“Is that long ago?”
“No”—rather tremulously.
“Are you happy at the Vicarage?”
“Oh, yes, they are very kind to me!”
“So that now any conversation that is not serious surprises and distresses you?”