Nothing could be more natural than that Mrs. Vivian
should suppose that Bernard desired his friend's success; for, as our
thoughtful hero said to himself, what she had hitherto taken it into her
head to fear was not that Bernard should fall in love with her daughter,
but that her daughter should fall in love with him. Watering-place life
is notoriously conducive to idleness of mind, and Bernard strolled for
half an hour along the overarched avenue, glancing alternately at these
two insupposable cases.
A few days afterward, late in the evening, Gordon Wright came to his
room at the hotel.
"I have just received a letter from my sister," he said. "I am afraid I
shall have to go away."
"Ah, I 'm sorry for that," said Bernard, who was so well pleased with
the actual that he desired no mutation.
"I mean only for a short time," Gordon explained. "My poor sister writes
from England, telling me that my brother-in-law is suddenly obliged to
go home. She has decided not to remain behind, and they are to sail a
fortnight hence. She wants very much to see me before she goes, and as I
don't know when I shall see her again, I feel as if I ought to join
her immediately and spend the interval with her.
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