"I did not mean absurd precisely," retracted Margaret, who would never dream of contradicting a peer of the realm, "I only meant it was very ridiculous."
Lord Osborne did not condescend to answer any more, but rose and walked whistling away.
Meantime, Tom was trying to be excessively gallant and agreeable to Lady Gordon, who, never particularly prepossessed in his favor, seemed now unusually cold and ungracious. In fact she could not quite forgive the danger she had been in of being called into court, and naturally looking on him as the cause, she felt a considerable degree of repugnance towards him.
His obsequiousness and flatteries did him no service; she would not be accessible to any compliments of his, and to the most elaborate praises, returned him the coldest answers.
"Where is your charming friend Miss Carr now?" enquired he at length, "I should rejoice to meet her again, though my position is altered since I last had that felicity. I hope she has not forgotten me!"
"I cannot possibly answer for that, but I have no idea that your change of position will at all affect her; but she will soon remember you if she does not at first."
"She was a delightful girl," observed he again, "so truly lady-like and lively; a combination one does not often meet with."
"She has high spirits," replied Lady Gordon.
"High spirits are charming things—so captivating."
"I think them very apt to be tiresome," observed she.