The young men glanced slightly at Annie, and Mr. Meredith even gave her a second look. He thought her decidedly pretty, and a “new face,” which was something; but after a remark or two, finding she “knew nobody,” and did not belong to the clique, the trouble of finding topics of mutual interest seemed greater than he thought her worth, and so he turned to Miss Hauton; and Annie soon found herself dropped from a conversation that consisted entirely of personal gossip.
“So, the wedding has come off at last,” said Susan Hauton to Mr. Constant. “I hope the Gores are satisfied now. Were you there? How did Mr. Langley look?”
“Resigned,” replied the young man, slightly shrugging his shoulders.
Susan laughed, though at what Annie could not very well perceive, and continued with,
“As brides always do—charmingly, of course,” he replied, languidly. “You ladies, with your veils, and flowers, and flounces, may set nature herself at defiance, and dare her to recognize you such as she made you.”
“If Fanny Gore looked charming,” said Ellen Hauton, sarcastically, “I think it might have puzzled more than dame Nature to recognize her. I doubt whether Mr. Langley would have known her under such a new aspect.”
“I think we may give him credit for differing from others on that point,” said Kate. “A woman has a right to be thought pretty once in her life, and Cupid’s blind, fortunately.”
“Cupid may be, but Mr. Langley is not,” replied Miss Hauton, in the same careless, sneering tone. “It’s a shameful take in.”
“A take in!” repeated Kate, with surprise.
“Yes, certainly,” replied Miss Hauton. “He did not want to marry her.”
“Then why did he?” asked Kate. “He was surely a free agent.”
“No, he was not,” persisted Miss Susan. “The Gores would have him; they followed him up, and never let him alone until they got him.”
“Do you believe,” returned Kate, with some spirit, “that any man is to be made to marry against his will? There’s no force can do it.”
“But the force of flattery,” said young Meredith; “is a very powerful agent, Miss Leslie.”
“Then,” said Kate, laughing, “every match is a ‘take in,’ on that ground. Is not every bride flattered till she feels as if she had entered a new state of being? Is not every girl turned, for the time being, into a beauty? Do you suppose any body ever yet fell in love on the truth?”