The thrill of that moment in the Tallyn drawing-room,
when he had felt himself Diana's conqueror; delighting in her rosy
surrender, which was the mere sweet admission of a girl's limitations;
and in its implied appeal, timid and yet proud, to a victor who was also
a friend--all this he was conscious of, by association, while the
sparring with Alicia still went on. His tongue moved under the stimulus
of hers; but in the background of the mind rose the images and
sensations of the past.
Lady Lucy, meanwhile, looked on, well pleased. She had not seen Oliver
so cheerful, or so much inclined to talk, since "that unfortunate
affair," and she was proportionately grateful to Alicia.
Marsham returned to the drawing-room with the ladies, declaring that he
must be off in twenty minutes. Alicia settled herself in a corner of the
sofa, and played with Lady Lucy's dog. Marsham endeavored, for a little,
to do his duty by Miss Falloden; but in a few minutes he had drifted
back to Alicia. This time she made him talk of Parliament, and the two
or three measures in which he was particularly interested. She showed,
indeed, a rather astonishing acquaintance with the details of those
measures, and the thought crossed Marsham's mind: "Has she been getting
them up?--and why?" But the idea did not make the conversation she
offered him any the less pleasant.
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