Van Berg addressed her affably
two or three times, but received brief and discouraging answers.
"Your cousin evidently is not pleased with the new arrangement you
have brought about. I cannot see what I have done of late to vex
her."
"I'll tell you the trouble. You offend her by not being the
counterpart of Mr. Sibley," said Stanton, irritably.
Van Berg's brow darkened. "Do you think," he asked in a meaning
tone, "that she understands what kind of a man he is?"
"Oh, she knows that he can dance, flirt, and talk nonsense, and
she asks for nothing more and thinks of nothing further. I'm out
of patience with her."
Stanton's words contained the most plausible explanation of Ida's
conduct that occurred to Van Berg. The episode in the stage had
made them acquainted, and her preconceived prejudice and hostility
had been so far removed as to permit a certain degree of social
companionship, whose result would now seem only increased dislike
and distaste. As he supposed she would express herself, "he was
not of her style." Had she not spent the greater part of Sunday
afternoon and evening with Sibley? What other conclusion was
there save that he was "of her style," congenial both in thought
and character! And yet he still refused to entertain the belief
that she recognized in him more than a fashionable man of the world.
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