"
"I am in no especial hurry, and I shall be most happy to take a turn
round the Park with you."
Mrs. Branston's footman opened the carriage-door, and Gilbert took his
seat opposite the widow, who was enjoying her afternoon drive alone for
once in a way; a propitious toothache having kept Mrs. Pallinson within
doors.
"I have been expecting to see you for ever so long, Mr. Fenton. Why do
you never call upon me?" the pretty little widow began, with her usual
frankness.
"I have been so closely occupied lately; and even if I had not been so, I
should have scarcely expected to find you in town at this unfashionable
season."
"I don't care the least in the world for fashion," Mrs. Branston said,
with an impatient shrug of her shoulders. "That is only an excuse of
yours, Mr. Fenton; you completely forgot my existence, I have no doubt.
All my friends desert me now-a-days--older friends than you. There is Mr.
Saltram, for instance. I have not seen him for--O, not for ever so long,"
concluded the widow, blushing in the dusk as she remembered that visit of
hers to the Temple--that daring step which ought to have brought John
Saltram so much nearer to her, but which had resulted in nothing but
disappointment and regret--bitter regret that she should have cast her
womanly pride into the very dust at this man's feet to no purpose.
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