It was not surprising that Carlton quite wrongly attributed Gay's welcome change of front about trotting, to Rensslaer's influence, for although that sport was the one tabooed subject with them all, he knew from Tugwood, who had insisted on keeping him well posted, that she seldom took the trouble to see her horses run now.
But he was equally correct in thinking that her friendship with Rensslaer had developed a side of her character that up to now, no one had been aware of, and with some mortification realised, that neither he nor Chris had allowed for the spirituality that is in every woman worthy of the name, and that Rensslaer so fully recognised.
While just as original, Gay had wider sympathies, read more, thought more, and that she had a very genuine and even warm affection for Rensslaer, no one could doubt who saw them together. She displayed an eager pleasure when they met, that neither of the two younger men by any means evoked—it happened, therefore, that Carlton came to entirely misunderstand the position, be as certain that the man was in love with Gay (for a lover always thinks the whole world is in league to want what he wants), as he suspected Gay, out of sheer perversity, to fancy herself in love with Rensslaer.
With men of Carlton Mackrell's type and position, brains are never admitted, or if possessed, they are sedulously hidden—it would be bad form, make uncomfortable other men to use them, and he had never seriously considered their value till now, when he saw the mental hold that Rensslaer had taken on her. But the more complex a man is, the better he likes a woman to be purely normal, and like Chris, Carlton by no means approved of the change in Gay.
He thought of the sweet perfume of the wild hawthorn, of how the cultivated, double variety, beautiful in shape and colour though it may be, has none, and he missed the wildness and spontaneity, yes, and the wilfulness that he loved in Gay, and longed to have it back again.
It was curious with what jealous iteration in conversation between Carlton and Lossie, Rensslaer's name cropped up, and that the man should display such incredible blindness to the real position of affairs between Gay and Chris, appealed to Lossie's sense of humour. She only bided her time to undeceive him, and the opportunity came at Ranelagh on the Saturday preceding the opening of the Horse Show, when somehow the two couples had got separated, as often happened. It was a significant fact which seemed altogether to escape Carlton, that uneasy as Gay and Chris seemed to be when together, it was impossible to keep them apart.
Sitting under the trees, Carlton and Lossie talked trifles till, as was inevitable, Rensslaer's (to Carlton) abhorred personality intruded, and the reason of his influence over Gay was debated.
"I can't see his charm," said Carlton, who, like many other very handsome men, quite unconsciously exaggerated the power of good looks over women.
"He's got a mind," said Lossie significantly, "and that lasts longest in the long run."
"So has Gay," said Carlton, "and that is the point d'appui between them. She could never put up with poor Hannen, who has but one idea in his head—horses."