WYLDER'S HAJVD.
57
"Well now, thought, really it is funny; it did not
strike me before, but do you know, now, it is," laughs out
jolly Mrs. Dolly, " isn't it. Look at it, do, Mr. Wylder
— isn't it like the ace of hearts?"
And Wylder laughed too, more suddenly and noisily
than the humor of the joke seemed quite to call for, and
glanced a grim look from the corners of his eyes on Lake,
but the gallant Captain did not seem to perceive it; and
after a few seconds more he handed it very innocently back
to Mrs. Dorothy, only remarking —
"Seriously, it is very pretty, and appropriate."
And Wylder, making no remark, helped himself to a
cup of coffee, and then to a glass of Curacoa, and then
looked industriously at a Spanish quarto of Don Quixote,
and lastly walked over to me in the hearth-rug.
"What the d— has he come down here for? It can't
be for money, or balls, or play, and he has no honest
business anywhere. Do you know?"
"Lake? Oh ! I really can't tell; but he'll soon tire of
country life. I don't think he's much of a sportsman."
"Ha, isn't he? I don't know anything about him al-
most; but I hate him."
"Why should you, though? He's a very gentlemanlike
fellow, and your cousin."
"My cousin — the Devil's cousin — every-one's cousin.
I don't know who's my cousin, or who isn't; nor you don't,
who've been for ten years over those d—d papers; I
took a dislike to him at first sight long ago, and that never
happened me but I was right."
"He's not a man for country quarters; he'll soon be
back in town, or to Brighton," I said.
« If he doesn't, / will. That's all."
Just to get him off this unpleasant groove with a little
jolt, I said —
3*