"
"Thanks for nothing. She has not been to see me. She invited me to dine
and I declined, and then she wrote and asked me to visit there when I
finished my stay here."
"Shall you do it?"
The thought with which Rangely asked this question was one oddly
mingled of regret and of hope. He had flirted too seriously with Miss
Merrivale to wish to meet her at Mrs. Staggchase's, although he had
never seriously cared for her; and he reflected with a humorous sense
of relief that if the pretty New Yorker should really visit her cousin,
he was likely to be put in a position to give his undivided attention
to wooing Miss Mott, a consummation for which he wished without having
the strength of mind to bring it about. As she let his question pass in
silence, he smiled to himself at the ignominious manner in which he
must retreat from his attitude as the devoted admirer of Mrs.
Staggchase and of Miss Merrivale, feeling that to set about the earnest
attempt to win Ethel would be quite consolation enough to enable him to
reconcile himself to even this. The comfort of having circumstances
make for him a decision which he should make for himself, is often to a
self-indulgent man of far more importance than the decision itself.
As the dinner progressed, Miss Penwick, warming with the good cheer--
for Mrs. Sampson was too thoroughly a man's woman not to appreciate the
value of palatable viands--become decidedly loquacious; and at last, by
a happy coincidence for which her hostess could have hugged her on the
spot, she introduced the name of Orin Stanton.
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