Ah, Virginia!
“They did not tell you!” cried Stephen.
Now Miss Carvel was complacency itself.
“Jackson is so careless with cards,” said she, “and very often I do not take the trouble to read them.”
“I am sorry,” said he, “as I wished for the opportunity to tell you how much I enjoyed myself. I have found everybody in St. Louis very kind to strangers.”
Virginia was nearly disarmed. She remembered how, she had opposed his coning. But honesty as well as something else prompted her to say: “It was my father who invited you.”
Stephen did not reveal the shock his vanity had received.
“At least you were good enough to dance with me.”
“I could scarcely refuse a guest,” she replied.
He held up his head.