That there should be so much duet-singing, and Mary's occupation with the stranger, and that the general conversation was of a kind in which he could bear no prominent part, disgusted Hew, who was in a detestable humour; yet he had the policy to conceal it pretty well (though his bilious eye was more bilious than ever) till once, he drew near Mary, while Cecil, in another part of the room, was occupied with old Mrs. Garth, who was relating with great unction some memory of the Cameronians in her day; and now Hew's ready jealousy became painfully apparent.
'Good heavens, Hew!' said Mary, in a low voice, her dark eyes dilating as she spoke; 'what is this Mr. Balderstone has told us?'
'Can't say, for the life of me; the old pump!'
'That you nearly shot Mr. Falconer to-day in the Fir Wood.'
'Did I? Well, the blundering fellow was out of his proper place, I suppose,' was the sulky rejoinder.
'What a dreadful thing if you had injured him! Hew! you are positively dangerous.'
'My dear Mary, you deem him an Admirable Crichton, I doubt not,' said he, smilingly, in her ear.
'What do you deem him?'
'Slow and deuced ugly.'
'Ugly—oh, come, Hew!' said Mary, laughing very merrily at such undisguised jealousy, which somehow did not flatter her in the least—it was too comical.