Margaret felt annoyed, and could not quite see why she should be annoyed. Still her innate loyalty made her dislike even a covert sneer, and looking at him full in the face she said, "What is there to see here that you think interesting?"
He laughed merrily; "How severe you are,—very severe. Some people like the sea, others go into raptures about the hills; it depends upon whether you like nature or human nature. There is no choice here, there is only the sea and the hills, always the hills."
"We think the place lovely," said Margaret, "and we have seen so little, only school and then Renton. Renton is such a smoky place."
"But Renton Place is a fine place," he rejoined. "I have all my life heard of Mr. Sandford as being a millionnaire."
Margaret laughed. "We used to think it would be a fine place standing in a large park. I believe we thought (Grace and I) that there would even be deer there, but it is quite different—a square house, a short avenue, and the town just outside the gates."
Mr. Lyons looked puzzled. "How strange!" he began, when Grace interrupted him. "All very rich men have whims," she said, in a tone quite unlike any Margaret had ever heard her use before. "Mr. Sandford's whim is to live close to Renton, where he coins money, I believe."
"It will be all the better for those who succeed him," the young man said, looking more attentively at Grace than he had done as yet.
"Yes," said Margaret, in her straightforward way, "but that is a question that does not interest us."
"My dear Margaret, you should not make these very positive assertions," said Grace; "you know nothing, really. My sister is very young, Mr. Lyons, and young girls always draw their own conclusions, often without anything really to go upon."
Mr. Lyons laughingly said her youth was very self-evident. "How beautiful is youth!" he exclaimed, with mock solemnity, and Mrs. Dorriman was startled to hear them all on such a familiar footing already.