He was horribly
humiliated by the Friar looking over his head last week."
"Very well. If he chooses to call, here we are."
"Yes, and don't put on your cold shell, mother mine. After all,
Evelyn is Evelyn. There are wiser fellows, but I shall never warm to
any one again like him. Why, he was the first fellow who came into
my room at Eton! I am to meet him to-morrow after the lecture. May
I bring him home?"
"If he likes. His mother's son must have a welcome."
She could not feel cordial, and she so much expected that the young
gentleman might be seized with a fresh fit of exclusive disdain, that
she would not mention the possibility, and it was an amazement to all
save herself when Jock appeared with the familiar figure in his wake.
Guardsman as he was, Cecil had the grace to look bashful, not to say
shamefaced, and more so at Mrs. Brownlow's kindly reception, than at
Barbara's freezing dignity. The young lady was hotly resentful on
Jock's behalf, and showed it by a stiff courtesy, elevated eyebrows,
and the merest tips of her fingers.
Allen took it easily. He had been too much occupied with his own
troubles to have entered into all the complications with the Evelyn
family; and though he had never greatly cared for them, and had
viewed Cecil chiefly as an obnoxious boy, he was, in his mournful
way, gratified by any reminder of his former surroundings.
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