And yet she's had warnings--
she very nearly made a dreadful mistake once with the Duchess of Levens,
who dyed her hair and--well, swore and smoked. One would have thought that
might have been a lesson to Lady Susan." Miss Pinsent resumed her knitting
with a sigh. "There are exceptions, of course. She took at once to you and
Mr. Gannett--it was quite remarkable, really. Oh, I don't mean that
either--of course not! It was perfectly natural--we _all_ thought you so
charming and interesting from the first day--we knew at once that Mr.
Gannett was intellectual, by the magazines you took in; but you know what
I mean. Lady Susan is so very--well, I won't say prejudiced, as Mrs.
Ainger does--but so prepared _not_ to like new people, that her taking to
you in that way was a surprise to us all, I confess."
Miss Pinsent sent a significant glance down the long laurustinus alley
from the other end of which two people--a lady and gentleman--were
strolling toward them through the smiling neglect of the garden.
"In this case, of course, it's very different; that I'm willing to admit.
Their looks are against them; but, as Mrs. Ainger says, one can't exactly
tell them so."
"She's very handsome," Lydia ventured, with her eyes on the lady, who
showed, under the dome of a vivid sunshade, the hour-glass figure and
superlative coloring of a Christmas chromo.
"That's the worst of it. She's too handsome."
"Well, after all, she can't help that.
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