“Oh yes; we understand each other ever so much better! I have been impressing upon him ever since our first meeting that I am really very nice, and at last he is beginning to realise it for himself. He likes me very much. He told me so with his very own lips; but he told me something else, too.”
“Yes! May we inquire—”
“Oh, certainly! It is quite as interesting to you as to me. Liking has nothing whatever to do with the mysterious condition; he may quite probably choose the one of us he cares for least, as his heir. ‘Curiouser and curiouser,’ as Alice said; isn’t it?”
“Humph! There may be a chance for me, after all,” said Jack lightly.
Victor knitted his brows, and tugged once more at his moustache.
“He said so definitely—you are sure you are not mistaken? Then how can one possibly judge? That upsets all our theories at a blow.”
“That’s what I thought myself. I felt sure that it would be Ruth, but now I am all at sea; but, for my own part, I’m glad. It is easier to be good friends when there is nothing mercenary involved.”
Mollie smiled her sunny, candid smile, and lay back in her deck-chair, her hands clasped easily behind her head. It was delightful to laze in the sunshine, to feel at peace with all the world. The present was so all-absorbing that she had no time to worry her head about the future; but Ruth sat by her side, with unseeing eyes bent upon her book, while the swift thoughts surged through her brain.
She also had felt inwardly convinced that Uncle Bernard’s choice would fall upon herself, who was so truly a daughter of his race, and it had been a shock to learn that there was nothing to be deduced from his signs of preference; but of late days there was another problem which was becoming of even more vital interest than the heirship of the Court.
Even as she sat there, with averted head, she was acutely conscious of Victor’s presence. She seemed to know, without looking in his direction, the absorbed, contented expression of the dark face. She knew it so well by this time—knew it in an aspect which no one saw but herself; for when they were alone together, it was as if a mask fell away, and revealed the true man. Then he looked at her with open admiration, spoke unreservedly of himself, and drew her out to tell of her own life, and hopes, and ambitions. And there were even more thrilling moments, when the talk ceased, and they sat side by side, silent, yet absorbed, acutely conscious of each other’s presence; delightfully, inexplicably confused.