Hanbury-Green.
Halcyone abruptly turned the conversation. She could not, she felt,
discuss her beloved and his opinions, even casually, with this man of
another class.
Oh! her poor mother--her poor, sweet mother! How terrible it must have
been to her to be married to such a person!--though her common sense
prompted her to add he was probably, under her influence, not nearly so
coarse and bluff in those days as now he appeared to be.
Her little stepbrother, James Albert, had not returned from his private
school for the summer holidays, so she perhaps would not see him during
her visit.
As the dinner went on everything struck her as glaring, from the
footmen's liveries to the bunches of red carnations; and the blazing
electric lights confused her brain. She, the little country mouse,
accustomed only to old William's gentle shufflings, and the two tall
silver candlesticks with their one wax taper in each!
She could not eat the rich food, and if she had known it, she looked
like a being from some shadowy world among the hearty crew.
Next morning Mr.
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