CHAPTER VIII.
CAPTAIN AYLMER MEETS HIS CONSTITUENTS.
On the first evening of their visit Captain Aylmer was very attentive to his aunt.

He was quite alive to the propriety of such attentions, and to their expediency; and Clara was amused as she watched him while he sat by her side, by the hour together, answering little questions and making little remarks suited to the temperament of the old lady's mind.

She, herself, was hardly called upon to join in the conversation on that evening, and as she sat and listened, she could not but think that Will Belton would have been less adroit, but that he would also have been more straightforward.

And yet why should not Captain Aylmer talk to his aunt?
Will Belton would also have talked to his aunt if he had one, but then he would have talked his own talk, and not his aunt's talk.

Clara could hardly make up her mind whether Captain Aylmer was or was not a sincere man.