“I should have thought gentlemanly conduct was the same on both sides of the Atlantic. A gentleman does not consider that he has established a claim upon a woman when he does her a service.”
“Now I have made you mad,” said Maimie sorrowfully, “and I’m real grieved. It’s just for Félicia’s sake I’m speaking. I don’t want to see her engage herself right now, when she’s naturally thinking more of her father’s wish, and of all your sweet love and kindness to her, than of her own feelings.”
Lady Caerleon wished in vain that there was some means of knowing whether this girl was laughing at her or not. “You seem to suggest that nothing but pressure from her father would have induced Félicia to accept Usk,” she said. “If you have any reason to believe this, I think it is your duty to tell me.”
“Why, that’s just what I can’t tell you,” said Maimie, with the most engaging frankness. “I don’t see anything of Félicia these days, and I can’t seem to find out what she feels like. Only I had my misgivings before all of this happened, and I don’t want to see her rushed into anything.”
“You may feel quite happy. No one will put the slightest pressure upon Félicia to do anything but please herself,” said Lady Caerleon stiffly. “Usk won’t even try to come to an understanding with her before he sails.”
“And when he comes back, he’ll just begin over again from the beginning?” cried Maimie ecstatically. “Dear Lady Caerleon, you have taken a weight off my mind!”
“What a curious person Miss Logan is!” said Lady Caerleon afterwards to her son. “I can never make her out. She always seems to suspect us in some way.”
Usk’s private opinion was that Maimie suspected the Caerleon family, generally and individually, of anxiety to lay hold upon Félicia’s fortune, but he would not suggest this to his mother, lest in the shock of such an accusation she should insist upon washing her hands of both girls forthwith.
“Oh, I don’t think she likes me much,” he said lightly; “but one can’t wonder at it, when she’s so devoted to Félicia. You won’t let her turn Félicia against me while I am away, will you?”
But Maimie had no thought of doing anything so crude. One of her reasons for wishing to return to America had been the hope of obtaining from Mr Hicks some clue to the nature of the proofs Mr Steinherz had left in his charge; but since she was foiled in this, she had decided to keep her secret to herself for the present. As things were, Félicia’s claim upon her father’s relations would meet only with ridicule if it was brought to their notice. The house of Albret-Arragon would be likely to entertain it only if it offered some advantage, Mr Steinherz had said, and so far there was nothing but money to offer. But time might bring other opportunities, and it was time that Maimie had gained. Still, she did not think it well to let Félicia see that she was tolerably satisfied.