“A great deal, I fancy, though he may not have found plain speech for his feelings yet awhile.”
“If—if you are not a very foolish person, and there is any foundation for your absurd idea, Captain Hulbert will know where to find us. He can spread his wings and follow.”
“The Vendetta? Yes, she is pretty familiar with the bays and bights of the Mediterranean. No doubt he will follow us, dear. But I should like him to speak out before we go.”
“Then I’m afraid you will be disappointed. He likes coming here—he likes you and Isola, and perhaps he likes me, pretty well, after a fashion; but sailors are generally fickle, are they not? And if he is at all like his brother, Lord Lostwithiel, who seems to have a dreadful reputation, judging by the way people talk of him here——”
“He is not like his brother in character or disposition. If he were, I should be sorry for my sister to marry him.”
“Have you such a very bad opinion of his brother?” asked Allegra, shocked and grieved that any one closely allied to John Hulbert should bear an evil repute.
“Perhaps that would be too much to say. I know so little about him. I have scarcely seen him since he was a lad—only I have heard things which have prejudiced me,” continued Disney, lapsing into moody thoughtfulness.
Was it not Mr. Crowther’s insolence, and that alone, which had prejudiced him against Lostwithiel—had made the very name hateful to him? Yes, that was the cause of his aversion. He had disproved those insolent insinuations; he had exploded the covert slander and rebuked the slanderer; but he had not forgotten. The wound still rankled.