Wine gave Hawkey Sharpe fresh courage, and just then some new thoughts had begun to occur to him.
He had seen that—unlike young Malcolm Skene, who hovered about Hester like her shadow, and unlike Roland, who was never absent from the side of Annot—Captain Elliot and Maude were not apparently overmuch together; for in the assured position of their love and engagement they seemed in society very much like other persons. He was ignorant of the mystery that there could be
'Sighs the deeper for suppression,
And stolen glances sweeter for the theft,'
and in the coarseness of his nature and lack of fine perception he mistook the situation, and began to think that, notwithstanding all he heard mooted, and notwithstanding the fact of seeing a letter addressed in Maude's handwriting to the gentleman in question, there might be 'nothing in it,' but perhaps an incipient flirtation; and he had resolved on the first opportune occasion to renew his pretensions, as the Captain had evidently danced much with other girls—perhaps, he thought, had preferred them—during the past night.
And now it seemed the time had come; and, over and above all his extreme assurance, he thought to win through her terror and necessity of temporizing for appearance' sake what she never might yield to any regard for himself; and even now, as he prepared to address her, anger, fear, and a sickly sense of humiliation suddenly came into the heart of Maude, though a moment before it had been beating happily with thoughts that were all her own.
'I hope,' said he, with what he meant for a smile, but was more like a grimace, 'that you enjoyed the dancing to-night, Miss Lindsay?'
'Thanks,' replied Maude curtly. 'I hope you, too, have been amused,' she added, making a side step to pass, but, as on a previous occasion, he barred the way, and said:
'I did not venture to ask you for one dance, even.'
Maude, who deemed his presence there, though at the invitation most probably of her stepmother, presumption enough, smiled coldly and haughtily, and was about to pass down with a bow, which might mean anything, when, still opposing her progress, he said, while eyeing her fair beauty with undisguised admiration, and with a would-be soft voice, which, however, was rather 'feathery':
'Have you quite forgotten the subject on which I last addressed you?'