He then turned the conversation upon other subjects, and Fanny found him so agreeable that she never thought of the hour until Mr. Wilmot, Mrs. Carrington and Julia suddenly entered the parlor.
"Upon my word," said Mrs. Carrington, "you have both stolen a march upon us."
"I hope you have been agreeably entertained, Dr. Lacey," said Julia, in an ironical tone.
"I assure you I have," said he, warmly "I do not remember having passed so pleasant an evening for a long, long time."
"I dare say not; Fanny is usually very interesting," was, Julia's contemptuous reply, and as Mr. Wilmot just then took his leave, she very haughtily left the room and went upstairs, muttering to herself, "Foiled for the first time in my life."
From this time nothing of particular importance occurred for two or three weeks, except that Dr. Lacey seemed each day to grow fonder of Fanny, which greatly annoyed Mrs. Carrington and Julia, both of whom spared no pains to make Fanny appear in as bad a light as possible. But Dr. Lacey understood their maneuvers, and whenever they were present seemed to take delight in being very attentive to Fanny. He ardently desired to see the father of the two girls, and ere long his wish was gratified. But of this we will speak in another chapter.