Nevertheless, he passed them with indifference, for it was merely the principle he objected to; and, indeed, he was so wrapped in his own conceptions, that his name had to be called behind him twice before he recognized Evan Harrington, Mrs. Strike, and Miss Bonner.  The arrangement he had previously thought good, was then spontaneously adopted.  Mrs. Strike reposed her fair hand upon his arm, and Juliana, with a timid glance of pleasure, walked ahead in Evan’s charge.  Close neighbourhood between the couples was not kept.  The genius of Mr. Raikes was wasted in manoeuvres to lead his beautiful companion into places where he could be seen with her, and envied.  It was, perhaps, more flattering that she should betray a marked disposition to prefer solitude in his society.  But this idea illumined him only near the moment of parting.  Then he saw it; then he groaned in soul, and besought Evan to have one more promenade, saying, with characteristic cleverness in the masking of his real thoughts:  ‘It gives us an appetite, you know.’

In Evan’s face and Juliana’s there was not much sign that any protraction of their walk together would aid this beneficent process of nature.  He took her hand gently, and when he quitted it, it dropped.

‘The Rose, the Rose of Beckley Court!’ Raikes sang aloud.  ’Why, this is a day of meetings.  Behold John Thomas in the rear-a tower of plush and powder!  Shall I rush-shall I pluck her from the aged stem?’

On the gravel-walk above them Rose passed with her aristocratic grandmother, muffled in furs.  She marched deliberately, looking coldly before her.  Evan’s face was white, and Juliana, whose eyes were fixed on him, shuddered.

‘I’m chilled,’ she murmured to Caroline.  ‘Let us go.’  Caroline eyed Evan with a meaning sadness.

‘We will hurry to our carriage,’ she said.

They were seen to make a little circuit so as not to approach Rose; after whom, thoughtless of his cruelty, Evan bent his steps slowly, halting when she reached her carriage.  He believed—­rather, he knew that she had seen him.  There was a consciousness in the composed outlines of her face as she passed:  the indifference was too perfect.  Let her hate him if she pleased.  It recompensed him that the air she wore should make her appearance more womanly; and that black dress and crape-bonnet, in some way, touched him to mournful thoughts of her that helped a partial forgetfulness of wounded self.

Rose had driven off.  He was looking at the same spot, where Caroline’s hand waved from her carriage.  Juliana was not seen.  Caroline requested her to nod to him once, but she would not.  She leaned back hiding her eyes, and moving a petulant shoulder at Caroline’s hand.

‘Has he offended you, my child?’

Juliana answered harshly: 

‘No-no.’

The wheels rolled on, and Caroline tried other subjects, knowing possibly that they would lead Juliana back to this of her own accord.