"
"Well," said Elvira, "there were the Folliots. We met them at Nice,
and Lady Flora did ask me the other day, but Mrs. Brownlow does not
like them, and Allen says they are not good form."
"Ah! I knew you could not want for friends. You are not bound by
those who want to keep you to themselves for reasons of their own."
Thus before Elvira brought her aunt down stairs, enough had been done
to make her eager to be with one who would discuss her future
splendour rather than deplore the change to her benefactor, and thus
she readily accepted a proposal she would naturally have scouted, to
go out driving with Mrs. Gould. She came back in a mood of exulting
folly, and being far too shallow and loquacious to conceal anything,
she related in full all Mrs. Gould's insinuations, which, to do her
justice, the poor child did not really understand. But Sydney did,
and was furious at the ingratitude which could seem almost flattered.
Mrs. Evelyn found the two girls in a state of hot reproach and
recrimination, and cut the matter short by treating them as if they
were little children, and ordering them both off to their rooms to
dress for dinner.
Elvira went away sobbing, and saying that nobody cared for her;
everybody was wrapped up in the Brownlows, who had been enjoying what
was hers ever so long.
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