Part 34 (1/2)
Maria came to him. There was no mistaking her start of surprise when she saw him, or the rush of emotion which overspread her face.
”Who did you think it was?” asked George.
”I thought it was your brother. She said 'Mr. G.o.dolphin.' Grace will be down in an instant.”
”Will she?” returned George. ”You had better go and tell her it's Mr.
George, and not Mr. G.o.dolphin, and then she won't hurry herself. I am not a favourite with Miss Grace, I fancy.”
Maria coloured. She had no excuse to offer for the fact, and she could not say that it was untrue. George stood with his elbow on the mantel-piece, looking down at her.
”Maria, I hear that Mrs. Hastings has declined to go to the Folly on Thursday. What's that for?”
”I don't know,” replied Maria. ”We do not go very much amidst those unusually grand scenes,” she added, laughing. ”Mamma says she always feels as much out of place in them as a fish does out of water. And I think, if papa had his own wish, we should never go within a mile of anything of the sort. He likes quiet social visiting, but not such entertainments as the Verralls give. He and mamma were consulting for a few minutes over the invitation, and then she directed Grace to write and decline it.”
”It is an awful shame!” responded George. ”I thought I should have had you with me for a few hours that day, at any rate, Maria.”
Maria lifted her eyes. ”It had nothing to do with me, George. I was not invited.”
”Not invited!” repeated George G.o.dolphin.
”Only Grace. 'Mrs. and Miss Hastings.'”
”What was that for?” he exclaimed. ”Why were you left out?”
”I do not know,” replied Maria, bending her eyelids and speaking with involuntary hesitation. In her heart of hearts, Maria believed that she did know: but the last person she would have hinted it to, was George G.o.dolphin. ”Perhaps,” she added, ”it may have been an omission, an oversight? Or, they may have so many to invite that they can only dispense their cards charily.”
”Moons.h.i.+ne!” cried George. ”I shall take upon myself to ask Mrs. Verrall why you were left out.”
”Oh, George! pray don't,” she uttered, feeling an invincible repugnance to have her name brought up in any such way. ”Why should you? Had the invitation been sent to me, I should not have gone.”
”It is a slight,” he persisted. ”A little later, and let any dare to show slight to you. They shall be taught better. A slight to you will be a slight to me.”
Maria looked at him timidly, and he bent his head with a fond smile. ”I shall want somebody to keep house for me at the bank, you know, Maria.”
She coloured even to tears. Mr. George was proceeding to erase them after his own gallant fas.h.i.+on, when he was summarily brought-to by the entrance of Grace Hastings.
There was certainly no love lost between them. Grace did not like George, George did not like Grace. She took her seat demurely in her mother's chair of state, with every apparent intention of sitting out his visit. So George cut it short.
”What did he come for?” Grace asked of Maria, when the servant had showed him out.
”He came to call.”
”You appeared to be in very close conversation when I came into the room,” pursued Grace, searching Maria with her keen eyes. ”May I ask its purport?”
”Its purport was nothing wrong,” said Maria, her cheeks deepening under the inspection. ”You question me, Grace, as if I were a child, and you possessed a right over me.”
”Well,” said Grace equably. ”What was he talking of?”
Yielding, timid, sensitive Maria was one of the last to resist this sort of importunity. ”We had been talking of the Verralls not including me in the invitation. George said it was a slight.”
”As of course it was,” a.s.sented Grace. ”And, for that fact alone, I am glad mamma sent them a refusal. It was Charlotte Pain's doings. She does not care that you should be brought too much into contact with George G.o.dolphin, lest her chance should be perilled. Now, Maria, don't pretend to look at me in that incredulous manner! You know as well as I do that George has a stupid liking for you; or, at least, acts as though he had.