Page:The Aspern Papers.djvu/242

 shan't you? I do want to float in a gondola with you.'

'It's very possible my brother may be with us for weeks.'

Sir Rufus hesitated a moment. 'I see what you mean—that he won't leave you so long as I am about the place. In that case if you are so fond of him you ought to take it as a kindness of me to hover about.' Before the girl had time to make a rejoinder to this ingenious proposition he added, 'Why in the world has he taken such a dislike to me?'

'I know nothing of any dislike,' Agatha said, not very honestly. 'He has expressed none to me.'

'He has to me then. He quite loathes me.'

She was silent a little; then she inquired, 'And do you like him very much?'

'I think he's immense fun! He's very clever, like most of the Americans I have seen, including yourself. I should like to show him I like him, and I have salaamed and kowtowed to him whenever I had a chance; but he won't let me get near him. Hang it, it's cruel!'

'It's not directed to you in particular, any dislike he may have. I have told you before that he doesn't like the English,' Agatha remarked.

'Bless me—no more do I! But my best friends have been among them.'

'I don't say I agree with my brother and I don't say I disagree with him,' Sir Rufus's companion went on. 'I have told you before that we are of Irish descent, on my mother's side. Her mother was a Macarthy. We have kept up the name and we have kept up the feeling.'

'I see—so that even if the Yankee were to let me