To hear him talk, indeed, you would have supposed he was a usurer.

Then Mr.Mervyn, who looked a little pale and excited, turned the doctor about, and they made another little circuit, while he entered somewhat into his affairs and prospects, and told him something about an appointment in connexion with the Embassy at Paris, and said he would ask him to read some letters about it; and the doctor seemed a little shaken; and so they parted in a very friendly but grave way.
When Mervyn had turned his back upon Belmont, on the occasion of the unpleasant little visit I mentioned just now, the ladies had some words in the drawing-room.
'I have _not_ coquetted, Madam,' said Miss Gertrude, haughtily.
'Then I'm to presume you've been serious; and I take the liberty to ask how far this affair has proceeded ?' said Aunt Rebecca, firmly, and laying her gloved hand and folded fan calmly on the table.
'I really forget,' said the young lady, coldly.
'Has he made a declaration of love ?' demanded the aunt, the two red spots on her cheeks coming out steadily, and helping the flash of her eyes.
'Certainly not,' answered the young lady, with a stare of haughty surprise that was quite unaffected.
At the pleasant luncheon and dance on the grass that the officers gave, in that pretty field by the river, half-a-dozen of the young people had got beside the little brook that runs simpering and romping into the river just there.

Women are often good-natured in love matters where rivalry does not mix, and Miss Gertrude, all on a sudden, found herself alone with Mervyn.

Aunt Becky, from under the ash trees at the other end of the field, with great distinctness, for she was not a bit near-sighted, and considerable uneasiness, saw their _tete-a-tete_.

It was out of the question getting up in time to prevent the young people speaking their minds if so disposed, and she thought she perceived that in the young man's bearing, which looked like a pleading and eagerness, and 'Gertrude's put out a good deal--I see by her plucking at those flowers--but my head to a China orange--the girl won't think of him.
She's not a young woman to rush into a horrible folly, hand-over-head,' thought Aunt Becky; and then she began to think they were talking very much at length indeed, and to regret that she had not started at once from her post for the place of meeting; and one, and two, and three minutes passed, and perhaps some more, and Aunt Becky began to grow wroth, and was on the point of marching upon them, when they began slowly to walk towards the group who were plucking bunches of woodbine from the hedge across the little stream, at the risk of tumbling in, and distributing the flowers among the ladies, amidst a great deal of laughing and gabble.