"There is nothing uncertain about the second Miss Templeton's age,"
he said impatiently; "she is still a young woman." Then it struck
him that Mr. Jacobi looked a trifle crestfallen.
"Young, do you call her? Oh no, very mature and sedate, like a
middle-aged woman. Gyp Campion told me as a fact--do you know Gyp?
he is in the Hussars, and a tiptop swell in the bargain--well, Gyp
let out that his brother Owen had proposed to Miss Elizabeth
Templeton years ago at Alassio."
"Oh, I daresay," indifferently. "I think I must go back to the house
now;" it cost Malcolm an effort to be civil.
"I will walk back with you. What was I saying? Oh, she refused the
poor chap, and told him that the holy estate of matrimony had no
attraction for her, or some such rubbish. That is why I call
Templeton a lucky fellow. There is not a creature belonging to them,
except a distant cousin or two in New Zealand, so of course he will
come in for everything;" a pause here, and a furtive glance of
inquiry; but Malcolm remained mute, and his face might have been a
blank wall as far as expression was concerned.
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