Staggchase,
ignoring her previous visit to a woman of whose existence it was only
proper to assume her new acquaintances to be entirely unaware.
Fred Rangely was shrewdly and humorously appreciative of her attitude,
being the more keenly conscious of the exact situation because he
himself made a point of ignoring his acquaintance with Mrs. Sampson. He
had debated in his mind what change in his conduct was advisable now
that Miss Merrivale was visiting Mrs. Staggchase. He had astutely
decided that the latter, at least, would make no remarks about him to
her guest; and, in view of the fact that it was scarcely possible to
conceal his flirtation with the New Yorker from the penetration of her
hostess, he decided to content himself with hiding from the stranger
his devotion to his older friend. He still assured himself that his
serious intentions were directed toward Miss Mott, and he secretly
smiled to himself with the foolish over-confidence of a vain man, when,
from time to time, he heard allusions to the devotion of Thayer Kent to
Ethel. Kent had been in the field before Rangely presented himself as a
rival candidate for the damsel's good graces; and the novelist might
have been less confident had not personal interest blinded him to a
state of things which he would have apprehended easily enough where
another was concerned.
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