The girl looked down, and then lifting her eyes she said, with a sort of timorous appeal--
"I've been reading that book since you were down at Nantasket."
"Book?" repeated Corey, while she reddened with disappointment. "Oh yes. Middlemarch. Did you like it?"
"I haven't got through with it yet. Pen has finished it."
"What does she think of it?"
"Oh, I think she likes it very well. I haven't heard her talk about it much. Do you like it?"
"Yes; I liked it immensely. But it's several years since I read it."
"I didn't know it was so old. It's just got into the Seaside Library," she urged, with a little sense of injury in her tone.
"Oh, it hasn't been out such a very great while," said Corey politely. "It came a little before DANIEL DERONDA."
The girl was again silent. She followed the curl of a shaving on the floor with the point of her parasol.