the wrong he had done her at the
Beach: that disposed of him forever, and altogether to her advantage.
Cool polished politeness; but she did not intend to talk with him any
more, of course, admitting him as a social acquaintance; and she was, in
fact, just moving after Mattie and Mr. Canning, really opening her mouth
to join in their pleasant chat, when--

"I wonder, do you know if there are any _marrons glaces_ to-night, Miss
Heth," said the voice she had first heard in the summer-house--"with the
little white jackets on them?"

The girl felt a number of things. From every point of view this inquiry,
so queer yet so clearly social, so almost glaringly inoffensive, came as
a surprise and an annoyance. He had merely asked that on purpose to
detain her. Continuing to look at her two friends, so near and yet such
worlds away, she said, coldly:

"I really do not know. I've not been in the dining-room."

"Then I may still hope," he answered, with the same air of friendliness,
eager in its way. And, continuing his out-of-place remarks, he said: "I
promised to bring some from the party to a little girl that--that
I--well, I board with her mother, in fact. She seemed to have set her
heart on _marrons_, though how she knew that such things existed passes
imagination."

"I hope you'll find them, I'm sure."

"Oh, thank you," said the Severe Arraigner, quite gratefully, it
seemed....

Through the open door of the pleasant little room, there floated in the
continual murmur of voices and the sighing refrain of the waltz. As from
a great distance, Carlisle noted that Mr. Canning found Mattie agreeably
amusing. (What on earth did I he men see in her, with her baby airs and
great pop-eyes?) But she was not thinking of her two special friends
now. The flat brusquerie of her two remarks to the man had struck her
own ear unpleasantly: they were neither polished nor courteous. Why was
she so silly as to let this nobody, who had nothing whatever to do with
her, so annoy and distract her at his pleasure? Above all, by what trick
of his look had he made her feel, the moment his eyes fell upon her,
that his apology had not settled the Beach episode, exactly,
after all?...

The whole situation seemed to be growing intolerable; and suddenly it
came over her that polished courtesy was not the note at all. Doubtless
the trouble was that she could not forgive his remark in the
summer-house, after all, no matter how generously she tried. Wh