The demands on his
complete respectability, however, had been irksome. He was too obviously
finding no savor in life.
I really was not altogether sorry at first to notice the improvement in
his spirits, though my sentiments changed when, a little later in the
evening, the girl opposite left her place and came over to us. She greeted
Mr. Bundercombe with the most brilliant of smiles and he held her hand
quite as long as was necessary. He presented me and I learned that her
name was Miss Blanche Spencer.
"I must not stay long," she said, laughing. "The gentleman I am with is a
sort of cousin of mine and we don't get on very well; but I mustn't be
rude."
Mr. Bundercombe and she seemed to have a good deal to say to each other
and presently I noticed that their heads were drawing closer together. The
girl dropped her voice. She was proposing something to which Mr.
Bundercombe was listening with keen interest. I heard him sigh.
"If it weren't for certain changes," he explained regretfully, "I guess I
wouldn't hesitate a moment. But--"
I heard a whispered reference to myself as his daughter's fiance and an
allusion to the continued presence of his wife in London. She nodded
sympathetically.
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