“No, Mary,” said her mistress, perusing it; “there is nothing here that I can better by thought, although I spent all night in thinking over it. A refusal could scarce be made shorter or more decided than this; there is not a trace of vacillation to give the most sanguine suitor hope.” Then, as if some other idea was expressing itself almost in spite of herself, she added: “Do I not look deadly pale, Mary?”
“Very white and worn, madam, as you well may.”
“But bad enough for people to observe who did not know the cause?”
“For some people, madam. She saw it sharp enough, if you mean her, my Lady,” and the waiting-maid made a significant gesture in the direction of Miss Rose Aynton.
“Nothing escapes her, bless you—nothing; and the sooner she's out of the house, under present circumstances—and indeed under every circumstance, in my opinion—the better.”
“You never liked her from the first, Mary,” said her mistress in the tone of one who argues against her own conviction. “We should not be uncharitable in our judgments of others, and particularly as respects young folks; we often set down as serious faults what in them is only thoughtlessness.”
“Miss Aynton is none of that sort, my Lady; she always thinks before she speaks, and takes a good long look before she leaps; and for all she seems as though butter would not melt in her mouth, she's as full o' schemes as a cat at a dairy-door. If there's cream to be got in this world, she'll get it, my Lady, I'll go bail, let the butter-milk fall to whose share it will.”
“I confess that I can't quite understand her,” said my Lady musing. “I am sure, when she first came, she seemed simple and unobtrusive enough; while, on the other hand, in her manner towards me of late”——
“Downright impudence, I call it, my Lady, in such a chit as she.”
“Well, I don't say that; but she is certainly not so respectful as she might be. I shall be sorry to send her back to London just as the summer is beginning, to live with her cross old aunt, whom she appears to dislike so; but I confess I think she has been here long enough.”