Delia maintained that she understood perfectly, though she
couldn't explain--and at any rate she didn't want the manoeuvring
creature to come flying back from Nice. She didn't want him to know
there had been a scandal, that they had a grievance against him, that
any one had so much as heard of his article or cared what he published
or didn't publish; above all she didn't want him to know that the
Proberts had cooled off. She didn't want him to dream he could have had
such effects. Mixed up with this high rigour on Miss Dosson's part was
the oddest secret complacency of reflexion that in consequence of what
Mr. Flack HAD published the great American community was in a position
to know with what fine folks Francie and she were associated. She hoped
that some of the people who used only to call when they were "off to-
morrow" would take the lesson to heart.
While she glowed with this consolation as well as with the resentment
for which it was required her father quietly addressed a few words by
letter to their young friend in the south. This communication was not of
a minatory order; it expressed on the contrary the loose sociability
which was the essence of the good gentleman's nature.
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