One of these days--not just yet--he would
look in at Mrs. CIover's and see whether she still kept in the same
resentful mind towards him. It was an odd thing that nowadays he
gave more thought to Mrs. Clover than to Minnie. The young girl
glimmered very far away, at a height above him; he had made a
mistake and frankly recognized it. But Mrs. Clover, his excellent
friend of many years, shone with no such superiority, and was not
above rebuke for any injustice she might do him. Probably by this
time she had forgotten her fretfulness, a result of overstrung
nerves. She would ask his pardon--and ought to do so.
He thought of Polly Sparkes, but always with a peculiar smile,
inclining to a grimace. Polly had "come round" in the most
astonishing way. But she would "come round" yet more before he had
done with her. His idea was to take Polly to Dulwich and show her
the bow-wows; he saw possibilities of a quiet meal together at the
inn. The difficulty was to reassure her natural tremors, without
losing the ground he had gained by judicious approaches.
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