"No. There was a coolness, of course, but--oh, no, I am sure they did not quarrel. He has seemed anxious to make up for it, and she has not shown any temper or resentment. But things have been uncomfortable if you can understand--very unsatisfactory and uncomfortable--ever since. I think she was disappointed in him, and cannot get over it. I have been hoping that it was all right, and that she was only unsettled and dispirited about leaving Adelonga. But now you mention it--yes, now I think of it--I'm afraid she is brooding over that other trouble still. Foolish child! she lives in a world of romantic ideals, I suppose." "_Why_ did Mr. Kingston flirt with Minnie Hale?" asked Mrs. Reade, looking up at her mother impressively. "Oh, my dear, you know him as well as I do." "You think he was worn out with being good?" "He _has_ been good, Beatrice--very good--ever since his engagement." "Yes, he has. But if he had had a mind to misbehave, I don't think his duty to Rachel would have stopped him. The fact is, since his engagement he has never wanted anyone but her. I have watched him closely, and wonderful as it seems, he has never shown the slightest disposition to flirt beyond the stage of pretty speeches--not even when she was away--not even with Sarah Brownlow." "It is a great pity," sighed Mrs. Hardy. "I wish they were safely married." "And at the worst of times," the younger lady proceeded thoughtfully, regardless of the interjection, "he was fastidious in his choice--he liked someone who was either pretty or clever, or decidedly attractive in some way. I never knew him take any notice of a girl of _that_ sort before." "There is no accounting for men's tastes, my dear." "Oh, yes," Mrs. Reade replied promptly; "I know that Minnie Hale is not _his_ taste. I know he did not go on with her as you say he did, merely for the pleasure of it to himself. I think it must have been to spite Rachel." "Beatrice!" "Yes, mother--that is what I think. It is the only reasonable motive he could have had." "But why on earth should he wish to spite Rachel?" "That is what I want you to tell me. You were in the house with them--try and think of all that happened just before the ball. I'm certain something was wrong between them, to begin with. Perhaps you did not notice it at the time, but you might remember little circumstances--" Mrs. Reade broke off, and watched her mother's disturbed face with bright attentiveness. "_Rachel_ did not flirt with anybody, did she?" "Now, my dear, you know the child is incapable of such a thing." "Oh, I don't mean deliberately, of course. But she might do it accidentally, with those sentimental eyes of hers. And she _is_ so charmingly pretty!" "No, she certainly did not flirt," said Mrs. Hardy; "she has never given him any uneasiness on that score, pretty as she is, and never will, I am quite sure. But there was a man----"