He
had changed his mind about giving notice.
"Well, I wouldn't," his companion replied; as if she didn't need any
caution in regard to making vain statements.
"I want to keep my arrival a little surprise for to-morrow. It will be a
great pleasure to me to see Miss Birdseye," he went on, rather
hypocritically, as if that at bottom had been to his mind the main
attraction of Marmion.
Doctor Prance did not reveal her private comment, whatever it was, on
this intimation; she only said, after some hesitation--"Well, I presume
the old lady will take quite an interest in your being here."
"I have no doubt she is capable even of that degree of philanthropy."
"Well, she has charity for all, but she does--even she--prefer her own
side. She regards you as quite an acquisition."
Ransom could not but feel flattered at the idea that he had been a
subject of conversation--as this implied--in the little circle at Miss
Chancellor's; but he was at a loss, for the moment, to perceive what he
had done up to this time to gratify the senior member of the group. "I
hope she will find me an acquisition after I have been here a few days,"
he said, laughing.
"Well, she thinks you are one of the most important converts yet,"
Doctor Prance replied, in a colourless way, as if she would not have
pretended to explain why.
"A convert--me? Do you mean of Miss Tarrant's?" It had come over him
that Miss Birdseye, in fact, when he was parting with her after their
meeting in Boston, had assented to his request for secrecy (which at
first had struck her as somewhat unholy) on the ground that Verena would
bring him into the fold.
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