"An opinion, I am grieved to say, wholly opposed to that of an equally eminent man--Dr. Ferrers."
"And then, sir, it behooves Mr. Guy Ormsby, as a younger son without expectations, to look out for a wife with money."
"Why do you say that, Mrs. Jenwyn?"
"I am merely repeating Mrs. Drelincourt's own words to her brother."
"So!" Then to himself he added: "Evidently between my wife and this woman there was no love lost."
He seemed to consider for a few moments, and then he said: "But tell me this, Mrs. Jenwyn: Did Anna seem to take to young Ormsby in the way you think my wife would have liked her to do--that is to say, did he succeed in entangling her affections? For I have no doubt he was ready enough to follow up his sister's precious scheme."
"That is more than I can say, sir, with any degree of certainty. Sometimes I am inclined to think one thing, and sometimes another. Miss Anna is not an easy person to read."
"Not an easy person to read? One of the most transparent and simple minded girls in existence."
A thin smile flickered for a moment over Mrs. Jenwyn's bloodless features. She had a soft, level voice, which, while it fell soothingly on the ear, was not without a certain penetrative quality of its own.
"Excuse me, sir, but you don't know so much of her as I do, or you would scarcely say that. You think her transparent and easy to read, whereas there are depths in her character which not even I, who am with her every day and all day, have yet succeeded in sounding. You can never make sure beforehand of what she will either say or do in reference to any given subject. In short, Miss Anna is a law unto herself."