It might have been her fancy, but she thought that she could detect a shade of reserve in his manner, a grave look in his usually merry eyes. After a little while she said as lightly as she could: “I daresay you have heard by this time of my shocking conduct, Captain Audley. Are you disgusted? Do you think you should stand up with such a sad character as myself?”
“You refer to your drive from town, I collect. I should not have described it in such terms.”
“But you do not approve of it. I can see that you think ill of me for having done it.”
He smiled. “My countenance must be singularly deceptive, then. I think ill of you! No, indeed, I do not!”
“Your brother is very angry with me.”
He returned no answer, and after a moment or two she said with a little laugh: “It was not so very bad, after all.”
“Certainly not. What you do could never be bad. Let us say rather that it was not very wise.”
She was conscious of a constriction in her throat; she overcame it, and replied: “I am sure I do not care. Such an excessive regard for public opinion is what I have no patience with. Your brother is not here to-night, I think.”
“He was engaged to dine with some friends, but I daresay he will be here presently.”
They went down the dance at this moment, and when they stood opposite to each other again another topic for conversation came up, and continued to occupy them for the rest of the time they were together.