Mr. Malcolm's List Read Free Page B

asked
Selina.
    “What?   Yes, of
course.”
    “That’s good then,” Cassie said, beaming at her.
    Julia launched into another lecture, only to be interrupted
by her cousin once again.   “Oh, I almost
forgot,” Cassie said.   “No winking.”
    “Excuse me?” Selina said.
    “Malcolm doesn’t like flirtatious tricks.”
    “Cassie, if you were paying the least bit of attention to
me, you would have realized that is what I was just saying to Selina.   I was explaining to her that there should be
no artificiality in her behavior when she pretends an attraction to Mr.
Malcolm.”
    “That doesn’t sound anything like what I just said,” Cassie
said.
    “Excuse me for not using words of fewer syllables to ensure
that you would understand—”
    “Well if you are so smart, Miss Hoity-Toity, why couldn’t
you pass Malcolm’s little test?”
    “Perhaps if you’d warned me—”
    Selina had heard enough.   “Stop it this instant!” she said, breaking into their argument.   The cousins turned to look at her, their eyes
big.   “I have heard enough of your petty
bickering this week to last me a lifetime.   I believe I have an idea of what Mr. Malcolm is looking for.   Now what plan do you have for us to meet?”

 
 
    Selina, peeking out from behind the door of her host’s
library, could not believe this was the manner in which she was spending her
first ball.   She had been introduced to
her host and hostess, danced one dance with Cassie, and then been ushered into
the library to hide for the rest of the evening.   Mr. Malcolm was apparently in attendance, and
her cohorts felt that she should present an air of mystery to pique his
interest.   After her first dance she was
to disappear while Julia and Cassie mingled with the rest of those in
attendance, whispering about the new Incognita.
    Selina could not help but reflect that the society in Bath ,
as elderly as it was, was superior to that of the harebrained cousins.   “I should have gone to Sussex after all,” she said aloud, still standing at the door and peering into the
empty hallway.
    “I beg your pardon?” a voice said from behind her.
    She whirled around to see a young man standing in the room,
apparently having risen from his seat at her entrance.   And the sight of him made her very glad she
had not gone to Sussex .   He was the most beautiful man she had ever
seen.   The library was not
well-lit—evidently the hosts did not expect their guests to seek refuge
there in the middle of a ball—so Selina could only hope that when seen in
the full light of day he would look less like a Greek god and more like a mere
mortal.
    “I am sorry to disturb you, sir,” Selina said, when she
finally recovered from her surprise.
    “It is no matter,” he said, folding a paper he held in his
hand and slipping it into his pocket.   “I
was just reflecting on the futility of a dream.”
    Selina, who had been reflecting likewise just moments ago,
was now thinking perhaps she’d been overly hasty.   “Is any dream futile?   It gives us hope, and hope is a good thing.”
    “In your opinion.   Others of us may believe, as the poet said: ‘Hope is the most hopeless
thing of all.’”
    “What a sad conviction to hold!   I prefer to believe, like Johnson, that hope
is the ‘chief happiness which this world affords.’   But perhaps you hope for something unworthy,
in which case you deserve to hope in vain.   Confess, sir, you were hoping to win at the gaming tables this day and
you have lost, and now you are indulging in a fit of pique.”
    The mysterious gentleman smiled.   “I would not confess to such childish
conduct, although had I played I would have hoped to win.”
    “So you contend that you hope for something worthy.”
    “I do, indeed.”
    “Then it is my hope that you obtain it,” Selina said,
smiling.
    “I am honored.   Perhaps I am mistaken in thinking hope a useless thing,” he said,
staring intently at Selina.
    Her