'
'I hope so.'
'I do, I know.' Lord Popplecourt endeavoured to look as though he
intended to understand that she was the pretty thing which he most
particularly liked. She partly conceived his meaning, and was
disgusted accordingly. On the other side of her sat Mr Boncassen,
to whom she had been introduced in the drawing-room,--and who had
said a few words to her about some Norwegian poet. She turned
round to him, and asked him some questions about Skald, and so,
getting into conversation with him, managed to turn her shoulder
to her suitor. On the other side of him sat Lady Rosina De Courcy,
to whom, as being an old woman and an old maid, he felt very
little inclined to be courteous. She said a word, asking him
whether he did not think the weather was treacherous. He answered
her very curtly, and sat bolt upright, looking forward on the
table, and taking his dinner as it came to him. He had been put
there in order that Lady Mary Palliser might talk to him, and he
regarded interference on the part of that old American as being
ungentlemanlike.
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