He had longed not only to be set free from his uncle, but also to find Mary Garth.
She was now in her usual place by the fire, with sewing in her hands and a book open on the little table by her side.
Her eyelids had lost some of their redness now, and she had her usual air of self-command.
“Am I wanted upstairs?” she said, half rising as Fred entered.
“No; I am only dismissed, because Simmons is gone up.”
Mary sat down again, and resumed her work. She was certainly treating him with more indifference than usual: she did not know how affectionately indignant he had felt on her behalf upstairs.
“May I stay here a little, Mary, or shall I bore you?”
“Pray sit down,” said Mary; “you will not be so heavy a bore as Mr. John Waule, who was here yesterday, and he sat down without asking my leave.”
“Poor fellow! I think he is in love with you.”
“I am not aware of it. And to me it is one of the most odious things in a girl’s life, that there must always be some supposition of falling in love coming between her and any man who is kind to her, and to whom she is grateful.
I should have thought that I, at least, might have been safe from all that. I have no ground for the nonsensical vanity of fancying everybody who comes near me is in love with me.”
Mary did not mean to betray any feeling, but in spite of herself she ended in a tremulous tone of vexation.