“Do you think it’s possible to be too pleasant?” Robinette remarked, stupidly enough, scarcely caring what she said.
“Well, when it leads a poor girl to imagine that she is loved! I hear that Dolly Meredith is just heart-broken. The engagement kept on for quite a year, I believe, and then to break it off so heartlessly!––I was reminded of it all by coming here. Miss Meredith is a cousin of our hostess, and they met first at Revelsmere when they were quite young.”
“There is always a certain amount of talk 200 when an engagement has to be broken off,” said Robinette in a cold voice.
“They seemed quite devoted at first,” Miss Smeardon began; but Robinette interrupted her.
“The sooner such things are forgotten the better, I think,” she said. “No one, except the two people concerned, ever knows the real truth.––Tell me, Miss Smeardon, whom we are likely to meet at Revelsmere? Who is our hostess? What sort of parties does she give?”
Being so firmly switched off from the affairs of Mr. Lavendar and Miss Meredith, it was impossible for Miss Smeardon to talk about them any more, and she had to turn to a less congenial theme.
“We shall meet the neighbours,” she told Robinette, “but I am afraid they may not interest you very much. I understand that in America you are accustomed to a great deal of the society of gentlemen. Here there are so few, and all of them are married.”
“All?” laughed Robinette.
“Well, there is Mr. Finch, the curate, but he is a celibate; and young Mr. Tait of Strewe, but he is slightly paralysed.”