The major dropped quietly away from Lady Geraldine's side, and the plighted
lovers strolled under the trees for a little, pending the signal for the
return.
"So you know Miss Lovel?" Geraldine said, with an icy air of surprise, as
soon as she and George Fairfax were alone.
"I can hardly say that I know her; our acquaintance is the merest
accident," answered Mr. Fairfax; and then proceeded to relate his railway
adventure.
"How very odd that she should travel alone!"
"Scarcely so odd, when you remember the fact of her father's poverty. He
could not be supposed to find a maid for his daughter."
"But he might be supposed to take some care of her. He ought not to have
allowed her to travel alone--at night too."
"It was careless and imprudent, no doubt. Happily she came to no harm. She
was spared from any encounter with a travelling swell-mobsman, who would
have garotted her for the sake of her watch and purse, or an insolent
bagman, who would have made himself obnoxiously agreeable on account of her
pretty face."
"I suppose she has been in the habit of going about the world by herself.
That accounts for her rather strong-minded air."
"Do you find her strong-minded? I should have thought her quite gentle and
womanly."
"I really know nothing about her; and I must not say anything against her.
She is Laura's last _protegee_; and you know, when my sister takes any one
up, it is always a case of rapture.
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