should think not!」
replied Mary, laughing.
But somehow Jack seemed to have an
antipathy for the baronet, and growled and
showed his molar tusks very unmistakably
each time that personage focussed him
with his eyeglass.
【關於傑克（Jack）的描寫及其對不同人物的反應】
「Surely even that is too large for a
hand like yours,」 said he; and Mary now
fairly blushed at the tenor of the
conversation, and when he attempted again
to take her shapely little hand in his
she resolutely withheld it, and, thinking
of Blanche Galloway, said,
「Please don't, Captain Colville; and now
I must bid you farewell, with many thanks
for your escort.」
【關於手套的描寫及其引發的對話與瑪麗的反應】
-------------------------------------------------------------------------->
「You fear I do not love you?」 he asked,
reproachfully.
「I do not fear it.」
「Look into my eyes.」
She did look, and her own lowered, for
she saw that which so often passes for love
with the unthinking or unwary—deep and
burning passion; and again she glanced
nervously around her, but felt impelled to
remain where she was.
Robert Wodrow
were sweethearts, as it is called, when you
were children, I have heard.」
「Indeed!」
「Well?」
「The very reason, if true, that we should
wish to be no more to each other,」 replied
Ellinor, with some annoyance, remembering
certain angry and bitter speeches of
Robert's when last they met and parted,
and some of his dark looks within the last
hour.
Sir Redmond was radiant at this response.
No, my dear Miss
Galloway; I can't afford such a luxury
in these times, and consequently cannot be
a marrying man, unless——」
「Unless what?」
「I found one facile enough to have me,
and with the necessary amount of acreage,
coalpits, money in the Funds, or elsewhere.」
「If so, why are you so attentive in that
absurd quarter, where there is no money
certainly?」 asked the lady, pointing to
Ellinor with her fan.
「Why, indeed!」 thought Mrs. Wodrow,
exasperated about her son Robert.
If you
have not cast me utterly out of your
heart, for pity sake give me some sign
then to-morrow—place a vase of flowers
upon your window-sill, and I shall know
the token.'
But Robert Wodrow next day, from
earliest dawn till morn was long past,
looked and watched in vain for the sign,
but none was given to him; for though
the heart of Ellinor Wellwood was wrung
within her, she was too completely under
a new and baleful influence now, and the
old love was fast being forgotten.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------->
'Men are very weak,' surmised Lady
Dunkeld; 'but, of course, a man in
Captain Colville's position can mean nothing
more than simplest kindness, but the girls
are pretty—unfortunately for themselves,
I think, more than pretty.'
The pride, admiration, and half-alarm
of Elspat Gordon and other old servitors
on the subject of the visit, which proved
their nine days' wonder, amused while it
annoyed Mary.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------->
He sat for a time silent, and Mary
thought his question a very strange one,
unless he had a deeper interest in them
both than she thought he could possibly
have; and, still pursuing a personal theme,
he said,
'I have heard from Dr. Wodrow that
his son Robert was your sister's admirer,
and that they have quarrelled. Is not this
to be regretted?'
'Regretted indeed!'
'You always seemed interested in him.'
'I always thought he was yours.'
'Mine—who said so?'
'Miss Galloway, repeatedly.'
'A speech meant to be gallant; but he
shall not see me if I can help it.'
He laughed again, and Mary felt piqued.
'From what I hear of all the matter,' he
began, 'from what I know of you——'
'Of me, Captain Colville—what can you
know of me?' asked Mary, almost petulantly.
'Shall I say, then, from what I know of
your cousin Wellwood——'
'Well—quick; from what you know of him?'
'Which I do as well as one fellow can
know another in the same battalion, I am
sure he would never dispossess so
charming—two such charming cousins.'
'Indeed! you have said something like
this already.'
'Would you not write to him and ask—'
'Emphatically—no!'
'Allow me, then?' asked Colville, in his
most persuasive tone.
'Never! I—we shall be beholden to
none! I thought, small as it is, that
Birkwoodbrae was almost our patrimony;
it proves to be his, so let him have it.'
No, Miss
Wellwood: I am, thank Heaven, a free
man—as yet.'
【關於柯爾維爾否認與布蘭奇的訂婚謠言】
To-morrow came, and the next day, and
the next, but there was no sign of, or
letter from, Captain Colville, so Mary
resumed her arrangements all the more briskly
and bitterly.
Ellinor had heard of his interview with
Mary, and felt much tender interest and
concern.
Why did
I
not prevent him?' she thought, while her
cheeks burned, and the conviction that he
had been only amusing himself with her
grew hourly stronger in her heart. She
remembered, too, that he had laughed
once or twice during the most earnest
parts of her conversation about her
troubles, and she thought that most people
could hear of the misfortunes of others
with tolerable equanimity.
【關於柯爾維爾未兌現的承諾與瑪麗的失望】
Could I have believed that
Mary——」
「Possessed so much individuality, decision,
and independence of character.」
「Most true; the drama has been
overdone, but can be quickly amended by a
pleasant epilogue. And it would have
been so some days ago but for this
wretched accident to my right hand, which
prevented me from writing to Mary or to
you.
Prejudiced, as you know, by my
father against them, I wished to learn
the real disposition and character of these
girls before befriending them, as I
intended to do; and, even while learning to
love Mary, I carried my romantic schemes
too far. Why the devil did we make all
this mystery!」
「We. It was your own suggestion and
wish—not mine,」 said Dr. Wodrow, testily;
「and now they have anticipated everything
by going forth into the wide waste of the
world and leaving us no clue.」
