"Do you really think the ball has gone off well?" she asked incredulously.
"It seems to me to have been an elaborate failure." She was thinking of
those two whom she had surprised tete-a-tete in the balcony, and wondering
what George Fairfax could have been saying to produce Clarissa's confusion.
Clarissa was her protegee, and she was responsible to her sister Geraldine
for any mischief brought about by her favourite.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XIV.
THE MORNING AFTER.
The day after the ball was a broken straggling kind of day, after the usual
manner of the to-morrow that succeeds a festival. Hale Castle was full to
overflowing with guests who, having been invited to spend one night, were
pressed to stay longer. The men spent their afternoon for the most part in
the billiard-room, after a late lingering luncheon, at which there was
a good deal of pleasant gossip. The women sat together in groups in the
drawing-room, pretending to work, but all desperately idle. It was a
fine afternoon, but no one cared for walking or driving. A few youthful
enthusiasts did indeed get up a game at croquet, but even this
soul-enthralling sport was pursued with a certain listlessness.
Mr. Fairfax and Lady Geraldine walked in the garden. To all appearance, a
perfect harmony prevailed between them. Clarissa, sitting alone in an oriel
at the end of the drawing-room, watched them with weary eyes and a dull
load at her heart, wondering about them perpetually, with a painful wonder.
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