easily to be accounted for. Of course she must despise him; of course she could feel nothing but contempt for the ignoble part which circumstances forced him to play. He put on a melancholy face whenever she appeared, and even in her absence was apt to be silent and out of spirits.
Thus a week or two passed away, without any special event to mark them, and the four persons who spent the greater portion of this quiet period together would have been as contented as fine weather and plenty of expedients for killing time could make them, had not each and all of them been irritated by a sense of suspense and a conviction that things could not go on in this fashion much longer. Even Dick was provoked into saying to his wife, "I wish to goodness the fellow would do one thing or the other! The end of it will be I shall have to ask him his intentions."
"Perhaps Carry will save you the trouble," answered Hope, who was quite unable to feel any sympathy with her sister-in-law in this matter, although she was sincerely sorry for her.
"Upon my word, I believe it would be the best thing that she could do," returned Dick, laughing. "He is coming over to dine and sleep for the dance next Thursday, and if she doesn’t bring him to the point then I shall begin to doubt whether she ever will. It strikes me very forcibly that our young friend Cunningham is giving us all a great deal more bother than he is worth."
"It is hardly his doing," Hope felt bound, in justice to the absent, to urge.
"Well, perhaps not," agreed Dick, pensively,—"perhaps not. Very few things appear to be anybody's doing in particular, when you come to look into them."
It certainly was not Hope's doing that the neighbors had been bidden to a dance at Farndon Court. That, as well as sundry picnics and other entertainments of a mild order which had preceded it, was entirely due to the initiative of Carry, who may possibly have thought, as her brother did, that opportunities were thereby afforded to persons desirous of "coming to the point." It was by her suggestion also that a numerous house-party was invited to assemble at this time. Parliament having now risen, the Lefroys, among others, were persuaded to pay their niece a flying visit, and Hope derived some satisfaction from the thought that any lingering suspicions of her which Lady Jane might harbor would now probably be dispelled. It would take a very perverse person to see Captain Cunningham and Miss Herbert together and then accuse the former of flirting with his hostess.
Nor did Lady Jane fail to justify expectation. She arrived on the afternoon of the day appointed for the dance, and during dinner made
