“No, I have not,” said that young lady, calmly.
“Well, you will if you go to London and go into society. He is as lively as his wife.”
“Captain Eversleigh will make a good husband for some girl,” said Nina, with a matronly air.
“Indeed he will,” assented Mrs. Grayley.
Nina had not found out what she wished to know, so she asked, point-blank, “Is he engaged?”
“No; the Dunmoor-Marleys said that he nearly breaks poor old Lady Glenville’s heart. She invites all the nice girls she knows to her house, hoping he will fall in love with one of them; and he tells her they are all charming, but not half as charming as she is. Now what can you do with a man like that? Many a girl has gone wild over him, plain-looking as he is; but he has never yet taken interest enough in a woman even to hint that he would like to marry her.”
Nina threw Miss Marsden a significant glance, and developed such a strong tendency to laugh that the young lady said, hastily: “I should not think that he would be very much sought after if he had only his captain’s pay.”
“But you don’t understand,” exclaimed Mrs. Grayley. “The Glenvilles are to leave him their money. He has always been a most eligible parti.”
Nina got up and sauntered down the deck, and Mrs. Grayley thoughtfully contemplated the sea.
“Do you really think he has a kind heart?” asked Miss Marsden, languidly, “or is he just putting it on?”