He knew whom she expected, and thought it would give her some satisfaction to quarrel with the fellow.
Cartwright did not mean to soothe her.
"Mr.Shillito ought to have sent his apologies when he found he could not come," he said.
Barbara's glance got fixed, and Cartwright knew he had blundered.
"Oh!" she said, "now I begin to see! Mother kept me by her all the evening; but mother's not very clever and Mortimer's too fastidious to meddle, unless he gets a dignified part.

Of course, the plot was yours!" Cartwright nodded.

Sometimes he used tact, but he was sometimes brutally frank.
"You had better try to console yourself with the Wheeler boys; they're straight young fellows.

Shillito is gone.

He went by the car this morning and it's unlikely he'll come back." "You sent him off ?" said Barbara, and her eyes sparkled.