Business still kept Graydon abroad, although a year had
passed. There were no indications that he was pressing his suit with
Miss Wildmere, and our heroine's mirror and the eyes of others began
to tell her that the confident belle would not now bestow a glance so
cold and indifferent as to mean, "You can be nothing to him or to any
one." Moreover, Miss Wildmere's coveted beauty might prove an ally.
One so attractive would be sought, perhaps won, before Graydon
returned, and absence might have taught him that his regard had been
little more than admiration. Naturally Madge would not be inclined
to think well of one who had brought so cruel an experience into her
life; but, prejudice apart, the society girl had given evidence of a
type of womanhood not very high. Even Graydon, in his allusions, had
suggested a character repulsive to Madge. A woman "as hard to capture
and hold as a 'Bedouin'" was not at all her ideal. The words presented
to her one who was either calculating or capricious, either heartless
or fickle.
"Truly," she thought, "if there was ever a man who merited
whole-hearted, lifelong constancy, it is Graydon Muir; and if he even
imagines Miss Wildmere incapable of this, why should he think further
of her? Perhaps while beyond the spell of her beauty he has formed a
truer estimate of her character, and has abandoned all thought of her
as a mocking dream.
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