“But not to walk in the Rooms⁠—!”

“She is staying here with her aunt, who has been ill. They do not mix much in society.”

“How very dreadful! Yet she used to walk in the Rooms, for you met her there?”

“Yes,” he admitted coolly. “ ’Tis for that reason that she now avoids them.”

“Oh, Tracy, the poor child!” exclaimed his sister in a sudden fit of pity. “How can you persecute her, if she dislikes you?”

“She does not.”

“Not! Then⁠—”