"O, he's been asking you, has he?" said Mr Bennett jocosely. "It's lucky you can explain yourself, or poor Warren would have put his foot in it." "Mr Warren!" said Ada with scorn. "Come, come, what has the poor man done? Upon my word, I should have thought young ladies would consider him a good-looking, agreeable young fellow. I am sure you did when you first knew him, Ada, eh?" "I don't know what I thought once," said Ada, looking down, and smiling prettily again; "all I know is that I don't admire him now." If Anthony wanted mollifying,--which was perhaps not the case, although this family party had not seemed to go quite as smoothly as those which had preceded it,--this little speech effected its purpose. He liked the covert homage, and, congratulating himself upon the good-humour which Mr Bennett's rather trying allusions could not ruffle, roused himself into the old brightness which only now came in occasional flashes. Ada was enchanted, shook back her long curl, and put out all her attractions; and Anthony, walking home through the quiet lanes sweet with the dewy freshness of a summer night, dreamed his new dream with a better success. Only, alas, even in dreams there are jangled notes, struggles, interruptions. People's faces come and go, and look sadly at us, changing often, just as the joy of their presence makes itself felt. Every now and then out of Ada's face other eyes looked at him; eyes that were grave and true and tender, and full of a trust that had never failed, although he had read it wrongly. CHAPTER TWENTY ONE. "While friends we were, the hot debates That rose 'twixt you and me! Now we are mere associates And never disagree." Fraser's _Magazine_. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Anthony's engagement, coming so soon after the other affair, made a little sensation in the neighbourhood. Things die out so quickly that, except in the more immediate Thorpe circle, his supposed act of injustice might have ceased to interest people; but the young man was so antagonistic, so sore, so fierce with all the world, that there was nothing for it but to take the position he insisted upon. The news of his engagement gave something pleasanter to talk about. There were a few injured mothers, but the gentlemen generally pronounced that he had shown his sense by making up his mind to marry Bennett's niece. The Bennetts were favourites, and held a thoroughly respectable place in the county; and though Anthony might have done better as to family, every one felt that a sort of cloud had just touched him, and was on the whole glad that the Bennetts should be rewarded for their hospitality and liberality and conservatism by seeing their niece well married. As for the Squire, who had been more ruffled and made uneasy by the consequences of his own coolness than he himself knew, he came into the room where Winifred and Bessie were together, chuckling and rubbing his hands.