Mrs. Mornway, fresh from her afternoon
walk, entered the room with that air of ease and lightness which
seemed to diffuse a social warmth about her; fine, slender, pliant,
so polished and modeled by an intelligent experience of life that
youth seemed clumsy in her presence. She looked down at her husband
and shook her head.
"You promised to keep the afternoon to yourself, and I hear Grace
has been here."
"Poor Grace--she didn't stay long, and I should have been a brute
not to see her."
He leaned back, filling his gaze to the brim with her charming
image, which obliterated at a stroke the fretful ghost of Mrs.
Nimick.
"She came to congratulate you, I suppose?"
"Yes, and to ask me to do something for Ashford."
"Ah--on account of Jack. What does she want for him?"
The Governor laughed. "She said you were in her confidence--that you
were backing her up. She seemed to think your support would ensure
her success."
Mrs. Mornway smiled; her smile, always full of delicate
implications, seemed to caress her husband while it gently mocked
his sister.
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