"So I was. What did you win of me, Miss Capel?"
"Nothing," said Margaret, "I would not bet at all."
"I was so sorry for your determination," said George Gage, across the table to Margaret, "it would have been such a pleasure to lose to you."
And upon this gallant speech, he and Harriet exchanged one of their singular glances.
"You did not care which horse won, did you?" asked Hubert.
"Yes, I did," said Margaret, "but I knew that one would not win."
"And how did you contrive to form so correct an estimate of Hyacinth's merits?" asked George Gage.
"Oh! I knew nothing about it," said Margaret. "Harriet told me."
"Miss Conway has the advantage of a friend behind the scenes," said George coolly; and then another glance flashed across the table from Harriet's splendid eyes.
Mr. Elliot mentioned the name of the person to whom Hyacinth belonged--made some remark upon the fore-foot of the animal, and then was silent; naturally thinking that he had instructed the company enough for one while.
When Margaret returned to the drawing-room, she found her head so very much worse, that she was obliged to tell Elizabeth, in confidence, that she did not think she would be able to go to the ball.
She said this with her eyes full of tears; partly on account of the delicate white crape dress, which was laid out in her room with its pretty garniture of lilac primroses.
Elizabeth was all kindness. She would not hear of her giving up the ball, but took her into her own sitting-room, and tried every remedy that her ingenuity could suggest. At last, while bathing her forehead with eau de Cologne, she exclaimed, "My dear child, I hope that foolish Harriet has not been persuading you to smoke."
"No, indeed!" said Margaret earnestly, "but it was the horrid scent of those cigars. I had no head-ache before."
"How vexatious!" exclaimed Miss Gage. "I must read her a lecture upon it. But if you keep very quiet until we set off, my dear Margaret, you may be able to go. I cannot endure that you should be disappointed. Indeed, two or three people," said she smiling, "will endure it as ill as myself."
Margaret blushed, and wondered to herself who Elizabeth could mean; but she was suffering too much to make the attempt. She was too giddy to stand, too ill to think of undergoing another toilet, or to be able to sit up all night afterwards. She made the best of it, however; said the pleasure was only postponed; tried not to think of her lilac primroses, and laughed at Harriet who was really distressed, when she learned that she had caused her little friend's illness.