"I am sorry to say that things are not as we both wish them to be, at West Falls," the young girl heard the Colonel say. "Of course I am not less anxious than yourself to have everything arranged and the property—"
"Ah, there is some property involved, then! and at West Falls, of all the places in the world!" commented the uninvited listener, speaking to herself, and with her words very carefully kept between her teeth, as was becoming under such circumstances—always provided there could be anything "becoming" about the affair.
"Uncle John," the Colonel went on to say, "seems to have imbibed some kind of singular prejudice against your mode of life in the city, if not against you, and Mary—"
"Humph! there is a 'Mary'—a woman in the case, as well as the property," commented the listener. "Little while as I have been here, the thing already begins to grow interesting!"
"Well, Mary? what of her? Why does she answer my letters no more?" asked the invalid, calming his voice by an evidently strong effort and speaking as the Colonel paused for an instant. "Does she too begin to share so bitterly in the—in the—"
"In the prejudice? I am sorry to say—yes," the Colonel went on, "though I do not think that either of them could give a reason. I tried to probe the matter a little when there, but the old gentleman answered me so shortly that I had no excuse to go on; and Mary—"
"You did not say anything to her?" broke in the invalid, with the same evident suppression in his voice.
"Of course not!" was the answer. "You know me, Richard, I hope, and know that I would not have lost a chance of saying anything in your favor—"
"Trust you for that!" was the mental comment of the listener. "Wouldn't you glorify him! Wouldn't you make him blue and gold, with gilt edges! I see you doing it!"
"—If I had any opportunity," concluded the Colonel.