you needn't to have taken Mr. Weston's umbrella," observed Rosalie, with a very unamiable cloud upon her pretty face.
"I would have come without an umbrella, but Mr. Weston offered me the benefit of his and I could not have refused it, more than I did, without offending him," replied I, smiling placidly, for my inward happiness made that amusing, which would have wounded me at another time.
The carriage was now in motion. Miss Murray bent forwards, and looked out of the window as we were passing Mr. Weston. He was pacing homewards along the causeway, and did not turn his head.
"Stupid ass!" cried she throwing herself back again in the seat. "You don't know what you've lost by not looking this way!"
"What has he lost?"
"A bow from me, that would have raised him to the seventh heaven!"
I made no answer. I saw she was out of humour, and I derived a secret gratification from the fact; not that she was vexed, but that she thought she had reason to be so. It made me think my hopes were not entirely the offspring of my wishes and imagination.
