When Morton came up he raised his hand to his
head and did open his mouth, though not pronouncing any word very
clearly. Morton looked at him as grim as death, just raised his
hand, and then passed on with a quick step. Larry was displeased;
but the other was so thoroughly a gentleman,--one of the Mortons,
and a man of property in the county,--that he didn't even yet wish
to quarrel with him. "What the deuce have I done?" said he to
himself as he walked on--"I didn't tell her not to go up to the
house. If I offered to walk with her what was that to him?" It must
be remembered that Lawrence Twentyman was twelve years younger than
Reginald Morton, and that a man of twenty-eight is apt to regard a
man of forty as very much too old for falling in love. It is a
mistake which it will take him fully ten years to rectify, and then
he will make a similar mistake as to men of fifty. With his awe for
Morton's combined learning and age, it never occurred to him to be
jealous.
Morton passed on rapidly, almost feeling that he had been a brute.
But what business had the objectionable man to address him? He
tried to excuse himself, but yet he felt that he had been a brute,
and had so demeaned himself in reference to the daughter of the
Dillsborough attorney! He would teach himself to do all he could to
promote the marriage.
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