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"All weariness and satiety are caused in emotion; in pleasure in persons, places, or things; by the want of proportion in them somewhere which, like all simple things, is the hardest to find." "Do you make theories about everything, Mr. Markrute?" she asked, and there was a smile in her eye. "It is a wise thing to do sometimes; it keeps one from losing one's head." Lady Ethelrida did not answer.
She was so surprised that this "grave and reverend signor," as she called him, should be able to valse! "So do I," said Francis Markrute "under certain circumstances. This is one of them." And then he suddenly held her rather tight, and laughed. "Think of it all!" he went on.
And Francis Markrute, as he looked round the table, with the perfection of its taste, and saw how everything was going on beautifully, felt he had been justified in his schemes. Lady Anningford sat beyond Tristram, and often these two talked, so Lady Ethelrida had plenty of time, without neglecting him, to converse with her other interesting guest. "I am so glad you like our old home, Mr.
But at that moment Francis Markrute came out of his room and Tristram let her go panting. He could not make a scene, and she went on, with her head set haughtily, to her room. "I see you have been quarreling again," her uncle said, rather irritably: and then he laughed as he went down.
I mayn't be much catch, financially; but I have one of the oldest names and titles in England and up to now we have not had any cads nor cowards in the family, and I think a man who marries a woman for money is both. By Jove! Francis, what are you driving at? Confound it, man! I am not starving and can work, if it should ever come to that." Mr. Markrute smoothed his hands.
Markrute had never heard anything about the silly affair between her cousin and Lady Highford what would he think! What might she not have done! "That won't matter," he said, with his fine smile. "It will be good for my niece. I meant something quite different." But what he meant, he would not say. And so the evening passed smoothly.
"My uncle never does anything without having calculated it will turn out perfectly," she said bitterly "only sometimes it can happen that he plays with the wrong pawns." And Tristram wondered what she meant. He and she had certainly been pawns in one of the Markrute games, and now he began to see this object, just as Zara had done. Then the thought came to him.
But he let her pass out, and, turning round, he found Francis Markrute pouring out some liqueur brandy from a wonderful, old, gold-chased bottle, which stood on a side-table with its glasses.
"And you will really show me your favorite haunts to-morrow, Lady Ethelrida?" Francis Markrute was saying to his hostess. He had contrived insidiously to detach her conversation from a group to himself, and drew her unconsciously towards a seat where they would be uninterrupted. "One judges so of people by their tastes in haunts." Lady Ethelrida never spoke of herself as a rule.
Francis Markrute glanced at her, sideways, with his clever eyes; had she ever heard anything of Zara's parentage, he wondered for a second, and then he smiled at himself for the thought. Lady Ethelrida was not likely to have spoken so in that case she would not be acting up to her group. "There are certain reasons why she should," he said.
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