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Updated: June 21, 2025
"A second attempt might be fatal!" "How well Mr. Hescott dances!" goes on Mrs. Chichester, who admires Tom Hescott. "True. The very worst of us, you see, have one good point," says Gower. "I don't consider Mr. Hescott the worst of you, by a long way," returns she. "Oh no, neither do I," says a pretty little woman next to her, a bride of a few weeks, who, with her husband, has just come up.
Gower, who is an indefatigable player, has called on Miss Hescott to get up a double with him. The idea has evidently caught on, for now everyone seems to be swarming tennis-wards, rackets in hand, and tennis shoes on feet. Rylton, turning back from the stables an hour later, and with a mind still much upset, finds all the courts occupied, and everyone very much alive.
He draws in his breath a little sharply, and without descending the steps, goes round the courts nearest him to where an opening in the wood will lead him beyond fear of conversation. As he reaches this opening, a voice behind him cries gaily, "Whither away, Sir Maurice?" He turns and manages to smile pleasantly at Minnie Hescott, who, with Mrs. Bethune, is close behind him.
"What an excellent sister you are!" says Mrs. Bethune, with a slight laugh. "Why?" asks Miss Hescott slowly. "Because I was with him?" Her tone is a little dangerous. "Naturally," says Mrs. Bethune, saving herself promptly. "To be always with one's brother shows devotion indeed; but you forget your rôle, don't you? Where has he been for the past hour? You haven't told us that!
All things seemed to swear against her all things save her cousin, Minnie Hescott." "Minnie Hescott!" Marian Bethune laughs aloud. "Minnie and Tom Hescott! Would a brother swear against a brother? Would a sister give a brother away? No. And I will tell you why. Because it is to the interest of each to support the other.
It is plain, indeed, to all present that he is expecting someone, and that someone Mrs. Chichester his mistaken, if honest, infatuation for that lean young woman being still as ardent as of yore. Minnie Hescott, who is talking to Tita, conceals a smile behind her fan. "What! haven't you heard about her and Marian?" asks Gower, leaning towards his hostess.
Revenge to show him how little she cared for his censures. When, therefore, Hescott during the evening asked her to go for a ride with him before breakfast next morning, she had said yes quickly so quickly, that Hescott foolishly believed she meant more than a readiness to ride in the early morning. Did she wish to be with him? A mad hope made his heart warm.
"Well, if I didn't say it, I meant it," with a shrug. "But, you see, I had lost my card, so I wasn't sure whether I was engaged to somebody else or not." "Why " begins Hescott. He stops dead short. Suddenly it occurs to him that perhaps she doesn't wish her husband to know! He curses himself for this thought afterwards. She she to descend to duplicity of any sort!
She breaks off. The tears are running down her cheeks. She makes a little swift turn of her body towards him. "Oh, Tom! and I did so believe in you!" There is a short silence fraught with misery for one soul, at all events. "Believe in me still," says Tom Hescott, in a queer, low tone. "Believe in me now and for ever to" with passionate fondness "the last moment of your life."
After that he sees only Tita sitting there with Hescott beside her he whispering to her, and she to him. He stops in his rapid walk, and pulls himself together: he must have time time to think, to control himself, to work it all out. Things seem to come back to him with a strange clearness. He remembers how Tita had once said to him that she never cared to kiss anyone except Margaret.
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