Standing
at the open window, with the drapery of the lace curtain sweeping
gracefully behind her, she did not look much like the Anna who led the
choir in Hanover and visited the Widow Hobbs, nor yet much like the
picture which Thornton Hastings had formed of the girl who he knew was
there for his inspection. He had been absent the entire day, and had
not seen Mrs. Meredith, when she arrived early in the morning, but he
found her card in his room, and a strange smile curled his lip as he
said:
"And so I have not escaped her."
Thornton Hastings had proved a most treacherous knight and overthrown
his general's plans entirely. Arthur's letter had affected him
strangely, for he readily guessed how deeply wounded his sensitive
friend had been by Anna Ruthven's refusal, while added to this was a
fear lest Anna had been influenced by a thought of him and what might
possibly result from an acquaintance. Thornton Hastings had been
flattered and angled for until he had grown somewhat vain, and it did
not strike him as at all improbable that the unsophisticated Anna
should have designs upon him.
"But I won't give her a chance," he said, when he finished Arthur's
letter.
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