"
"I should not have done half so well," said Elizabeth hastily.
Katie smiled. After this they sat and talked some time longer; it was
the first free interview that they had had since their estrangement was
over, and Elizabeth's voice had a happy ring in it. After a time, Katie
began to give an account of some gathering at which she had been
present. At the sound of Lord Bulchester's name, among the guests,
Elizabeth's attention wandered. She began to think of the young's man's
strange reticence respecting Edmonson, and evident uneasiness about
something connected with him. Why were they not friends still? Was it on
account of this unknown something? All at once the light of conviction
flashed over her face. She perceived at least one cause of the
separation. Bulchester's attentions to Katie were distasteful to
Edmonson, for he wanted Katie to marry Stephen Archdale, because he
feared lest Elizabeth should grow fond of him, lest Stephen should come
to find a fortune convenient. Elizabeth's unaided perceptions would
never have reached this point; but in Edmonson's anger at her second
refusal of him he had dared to intimate such a thing, so darkly, to be
sure, that she had not seen fit to understand him, but plainly enough to
throw light upon the estrangement of the two men.
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