That very Saturday brought
both gentlemen, and by the same train. They made each other out as
they were leaving their bags at the Fortinbras Arms, and arrived
together in marked contrast--the tall, dark, regular-featured, soft-
eyed Life-guardsman, and the little sandy, freckled, sun-dried
engineer; and thus two courtships had to be carried on in the two
rooms, only supplemented by the narrow parallelogram of a garden! For
Ferdinand Travis was back again, rather amused at the family
astonishment at the rapidity of his journey to America, which to his
Transatlantic notions of travel was as nothing, and indeed had been
chiefly performed in a big steamer, where he could smoke to his
heart's content.
For the first few days there was a good deal of restraint: Wilmet was
more shy than in the unconscious days of Bexley, while John Harewood
was devoid of his family's assurance and bonhomie, and so
thoroughly modest and diffident as to risk nothing by precipitation
in begging for a decision. Felix, inexperienced, and strongly
sensible of his office as guardian of his sister's dignity, would not
hint at the result of his investigations into Wilmet's sentiments;
and it was to Geraldine that Captain Harewood's attentions were
chiefly paid.
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