Mr Erle, and Mr Warburton, and Mr Monk, all
of whom were unmarried, stood by enraptured. But Lord Silverbridge
kept himself apart, and interested himself in a description which
Mrs Boncassen gave him of their young men and their young ladies
in the States. He had hardly spoken to Miss Boncassen,--till he
offered her sherry or soda-water before she retired for the night.
She refused his courtesy with her usual smile, but showed no more
emotion than though they two had now met for the first time in
their lives.
He had quite made up his mind as to what he would do. When the
opportunity should come his way he would simply remind her that
the three months were passed. But he was shy of talking to her in
the presence of Lady Mabel and his father. He was quite determined
that the thing should be done at once, but he certainly wished
that Lady Mabel had not been there. In what she had said to him at
the dinner-table she had made him quite understand that she would
be a trouble to him. He remembered her look when he had told her
that she would marry.
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