It cost him an effort to put the
narrative aside, the while he pondered the arguments
which had suddenly reared themselves against publicity.
When at last he spoke, it was with a glance of conscious
magnanimity toward the lady who had consented to be his wife.
"Never mind," he said, lightly. "There wasn't much to it.
The man annoyed me, somehow--and he didn't get what he came
for--that's all."
"But he was entitled to get it?" asked Celia Madden.
Thorpe's lips pouted over a reply. "Well--no," he said,
with a kind of reluctance. "He got strictly what he was
entitled to--precisely what I had promised him--and he
wrung up his nose at that--and then I actually gave him
15,000 pounds he wasn't entitled to at all."
"I hardly see what it proves, then," Edith Cressage remarked,
and the subject was dropped.
Some two hours later, Thorpe took his departure.
It was not until he was getting into the hansom which had
been summoned, that it all at once occurred to him that he
had not for a moment been alone with his betrothed.
Upon reflection, as the cab sped smoothly forward,
this seemed odd to him. He decided finally that there
was probably some social rule about such things which he
didn't understand.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In the drawing-room of the house in Grafton Street
which he had quitted, the two ladies sat with faces
averted from each other, in constrained silence.
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