"I thought once I might like her, but I shan't, and I'll be
revenged on her for refusing the best man that ever breathed. I'll go
to Newport instead of Saratoga, and so be clear of the entire Meredith
clique, the Hethertons, the little Harcourt, and all."
This, then, was the secret of his being there at the Ocean House. He
was keeping away from Anna Ruthven, who never had heard of him but
once, and that from Lucy Harcourt. After that scene in the Glen, where
Anna had exclaimed against intriguing mothers and their bold,
shameless daughters, Mrs. Meredith had been too wise a maneuverer to
mention Thornton Hastings, so that Anna was wholly ignorant of his
presence at Newport, and looked up in unfeigned surprise at the tall,
elegant man whom her aunt presented as Mr. Hastings. With all
Thornton's affected indifference, there was still a curiosity to see
the girl who could say "no" to Arthur Leighton, and he had not waited
long after receiving Mrs. Meredith's card before going down to find
her.
"That's the girl, I'll lay a wager," he thought of a high-colored,
showily-dressed hoyden, who was whirling around the room with Ned
Peters, from Boston, and whose corn-colored dress swept against his
boots as he entered the parlor.
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