‘Don’t let us quarrel. I am sorry if I have vexed you, Maggie,’ he said.
‘I’m not vexed,’ she answered, in a not very reassuring tone, keeping her eyes upon the rocks at her feet.
Her brother’s real offence was that he had fallen in love with Laura, and that she now occupied a very secondary place in his heart. And that she could not forgive.
‘Won’t you come up to the house?’ she asked.
‘No; and you can tell that cad that the next time he wants Mr. Fraser’s boat he had better borrow it himself.’
So saying, Alec shouldered the oars and strode away.
Though he had defended Laura passionately when his sister spoke her mind about that young lady, Alec felt that he had been badly used. He had certainly made the proposal to the whole party, but he had pointedly looked at Laura and spoken to her; and she had replied in the same way. There was, indeed, a tacit understanding between them at the moment, that she would be his partner for the evening; and it was chiefly from a spirit of coquetry that she had chosen to ignore it afterwards.
But Laura showed no trace of embarrassment when she met Alec in the village next day.
‘Why didn’t you come into the house last night?’ she said with a smile.
‘I didn’t think it mattered.’