"Ah! nothing--nothing at all, no doubt, especially since it is said that he is all but engaged to Lady Angela. He has admired her for years."
"And what then? Are any of his friendships a menace to his engagement do you think?"
"Of course not, Felicia. You jump at such odd conclusions. And I did not say that he was engaged, merely that he had admired her for years. It's improbable that Lady Angela would accept him."
"At all events, a friendship of two days' standing can hardly be affected by anything you may or may not have heard. _You_ mustn't jump at odd conclusions, Aunt Kate." Felicia could not repress this as she put her book under her arm and stepped from the window on to the lawn. In spite of the lightness of her tone, the grunt had come as an ugly interruption in a melodious mood. To hear such things did affect the two days' friendship, though she did not believe them. She had known him for only two days, but the two days had been hers so exclusively that any other "admiration" must mean very little. Not that the two days meant much to either of them, she assured herself. They had only strolled among rose-hedges. A pity, though, that the pig-sty had to be faced.
On the lawn coming towards her were Angela, Maurice and Geoffrey. They personified the new life into which she seemed to have entered. To see them together pushed her back once more into the place of spectator. Felicia had time to recognize her own hurt and almost angry mood as she approached them and smiled at them in passing. But Angela, with a winning hand held out, detained her. "You are so fond of walking. Won't you come with us? Just about the grounds?" she said. She drew Felicia's hand within her arm. "I am not very strong, so I can't make magnificent expeditions as you do--Maurice tells me--with him before breakfast. But even a little walk has twice the value if it's a talking walk, don't you think?"
"I suppose it has," said Felicia, feeling a slight confusion as she walked between them.
"Though a silent walk, with a companion one cares for, has even more, perhaps," Angela added. "Don't you love silence?"
"I have had so much of it," said Felicia.
"So much silence; how exquisite! Isn't that a picture, Maurice, that she makes for us! Much silence ought to mean much peace, much happiness, much growth. You and your father on your hill-top; Maurice has told me of it." Again she smiled from him to Felicia, the gentle link between them. "Do you understand one another so well that you need talk very little?"
