"The lectures were very dull; they had no redeeming features," said
Angela, getting up, but turning away from her mother. She stood
looking at Bernard Longueville; he saw she was annoyed at her mother's
interference. "Every now and then," she said, "I take a turn through
the gaming-rooms. The last time, Captain Lovelock went with me. Will you
come to-night?"

Bernard assented with expressive alacrity; he was charmed with her not
wishing to break off her conversation with him.

"Ah, we 'll all go!" said Mrs. Vivian, who had been listening, and she
invited the others to accompany her to the Kursaal.

They left their places, but Angela went first, with Bernard Longueville
by her side; and the idea of her having publicly braved her mother,
as it were, for the sake of his society, lent for the moment an almost
ecstatic energy to his tread. If he had been tempted to presume upon his
triumph, however, he would have found a check in the fact that the young
girl herself tasted very soberly of the sweets of defiance. She
was silent and grave; she had a manner which took the edge from the
wantonness of filial independence. Yet, for all this, Bernard was
pleased with his position; and, as he walked with her through the
lighted and crowded rooms, where they soon detached themselves from
their companions, he felt that peculiar satisfaction which best
expresses itself in silence. Angela looked a while at the rows of still,
attentive faces, fixed upon the luminous green circle, across which
little heaps of louis d'or were being pushed to and fro, and she
continued to say nothing. Then at last she exclaimed simply, "Come
away!" They turned away and passed into another chamber, in which there