By Jupiter! but it would
be sport to cut 'em both out; and I could do it if I were up here
a week. Those who know the world know that such women cipher out
these matters in the spirit of New England thrift, and you have
only to mislead them with sufficient plausible data to capture them
body and soul." And Sibley complacently sipped his wine as if he
had stated all there was to be said on the subject. Few men prided
themselves more on a profound knowledge of the world than he.
Ida's despondency while at dinner was so great she could not throw
it off. Listlessly and wearily she barely tasted of the different
courses as they were passed to her. She consciously made only one
effort, and that was to appear utterly indifferent to Van Berg; and
both circumstances and his contemptuous neglect made but little
feigning necessary. The evening before had associated her so
inseparably in his mind with Sibley, that he was beginning to regard
her with aversion.
"Trivial natures are disturbed by trivial causes," he thought; "and
she looks as if the world had turned black because Sibley has been
lured from her side for an hour by a bottle of wine. He'll revive
her again before supper.
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