Passed over here,
dropped there, counted out as one more man not to be depended upon, it
was not a question of loss of caste; he simply stayed away, and his
absence was accepted by people who, in the breathless pleasure chase,
have no leisure to inquire why a man has lagged behind.
There were rumours, however, that he had merely temporarily donned
overalls for the purpose of making a gigantic fortune; and many an
envious young fellow asked his pretty partner in the dance if it was
true, and many a young girl frankly hoped it was, and that the fortune
would be quick in the making. For Selwyn was well liked in the younger
set, and that he was in process of becoming eligible interested
everybody except Gladys and the Minster twins, who considered him
sufficiently eligible without the material additions required by their
cynical seniors, and would rather have had him penniless and present
than absent and opulent.
But they were young and foolish, and after a while they forgot to miss
him, particularly Gladys, whose mother had asked her not to dance quite
so often with Gerald, and to favour him a trifle less frequently in
cotillon.
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