He interested her in his
personality, he interested her in his work. She would have liked to
speak of him with her father; but Dr. Derwent never broached the
subject, and she could not herself lead up to it. Whenever she saw
his name in the paper--where it often stood in reports of public
festivities or in items of social news--her eye dwelt upon it, and
her fancy was stirred. Curiosity, perhaps, had the greater part in
her feeling. Arnold Jacks seemed to live so "largely," in contact
with such great affairs and such eminent people. One day, at length,
a little paragraph in an evening journal announced that he was
engaged to be married, and to a lady much in the light, the widowed
daughter of a Conservative statesman. It was only an hour or two
after reading this news that Irene met him at dinner, and spoke with
him of Hannaford; neither to Arnold himself nor to anyone else did
she allude to the rumoured engagement; but that night she was not
herself.
About lunch time on the next day she received a note from Jacks. His
attention had been drawn--he wrote--to an absurd bit of gossip
connecting his name with that of a lady whose friend he was, and
absolutely nothing more. Would Miss Derwent, if occasion arose, do
him the kindness to contradict this story in her circle? He would be
greatly obliged to her.
Irene was something more than surprised. It struck her as odd that
Arnold Jacks should request her services in such a matter as this.
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