“I’m sorry! It took such ages to fasten, and I had to take my hair down and do it up again to get the hat at the right angle. I wanted to fasten my gloves, to give you the whole effect, parasol and all. There!” Mollie strutted to and fro, turning her head from side to side like a sleek, self-satisfied pigeon. “How do you like it? Don’t you think I look rather—nice?”
The two young men laughed aloud, and Mr Farrell said drily—
“Fine feathers make fine birds! I am glad to see that you have honoured my friends by wearing your fineries for their benefit. Ruth, I presume, prefers to keep hers for another occasion?”
Ruth dropped her eyelids and vouchsafed no reply. There was a little lump in her throat at that moment which would have made it difficult to speak in her usual voice. It was hard to have denied herself for naught, and less than naught, for Mollie’s extravagance seemed more to the old man’s taste than her own prudence. It was not the first time that the difference in their attire had been the subject of little edged remarks, which had made her bitterly regret the lost opportunity.
Seated in the carriage opposite Victor, she was still further depressed by the fear that he was also comparing her with Mollie, to her own disadvantage; but there was no hint of such a thought in his look or manner. The dark eyes met hers with sympathetic understanding. At every point he deferred to her opinion with a subtle flattery which was inexpressibly soothing to her wounded feelings.
The occupants of the first house on the list were not at home, so a sheaf of cards were left, and the carriage sped on another mile to Number 2, where the family were discovered superintending the arrangements of bedding-out plants round the front lawn. They greeted the visitors with easy cordiality, consulted them on the knotty question of geraniums versus begonias, escorted them round the gardens, and were vociferously reproachful when they refused to stay another half-hour to partake of tea.
As the carriage drove up the drive leading to the third house, a masculine figure was seen rushing to conceal itself behind the bushes, and the visitors had hard work to conceal their smiles when their hostess sent an urgent message to summon her husband from the grounds, and, on hearing that he could not be found, expressed her conviction that he would be woefully disappointed to have missed the pleasure of making their acquaintance.
“A fellow-feeling makes us wondrous kind! I don’t feel a bit of a grudge against that fellow,” Victor said laughingly, as they drove off once more. “With your permission, I am going to follow his example and make a bolt of it when we get back to the high-road. I shall enjoy the walk home, after being cramped up all afternoon. You will excuse me, won’t you?”
“But we are going to the Moat. That’s the next house on the list. Don’t you want to see Lady Margot?” cried Mollie, outspoken as usual.
Both girls stared at him in amazement, but there was no sign of embarrassment on the handsome, smiling face.