Page:Between Two Loves.djvu/78

Rh her appearance at the entertainments of others, was not flatteringly commented on. Sometimes he would point them out to Ben Holden, but whether he did or did not, Ben always knew when they were there by the fatherly pride on Jonathan's face, and the respectful manner with which he laid aside that particular number of the Guardian or Mercury.

At least once or twice in the month he received a pretty unbusiness-like envelope of thick satin paper closed with the Aske arms. It was the formal invitation to a dinner at Aske, and though it was understood to be a ceremony, all the same, the ceremony pleased Jonathan. "Thou sees," he said one morning to Ben Holden, "I might sit and hobnob wi' Baron Fairley, and t' Lord High Sheriff, and t' member for Parliament and all t' rest of t' quality, if I hed a mind to," and he pushed toward him Eleanor's pretty invitation, with a very poor pretence of indifference.

"Why doesn't ta go an odd time?"

"Because I doan't like to go where I can't do mysen justice. When I take t' chair at t' wool-exchange dinner I feel all there. But at Aske's they'll talk of hunting and coursing, and what