Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 1.djvu/310

298 I was. And I in return, was very fond of her—I should entirely exclude poor Milicent in my general animadversions against the ladies of my acquaintance. But it was not on her account, or her cousin's, that I have mentioned the party: it was for the sake of another of Mr. Wilmot's guests, to wit Mr. Huntingdon. I have good reason to remember his presence there, for this was the last time I saw him.

He did not sit near me at dinner; for it was his fate to hand in a capacious old dowager, and mine to be handed in by Mr. Grimsby, a friend of his, but a man I very greatly disliked: there was a sinister cast in his countenance, and a mixture of lurking ferocity and fulsome insincerity in his demeanour, that I could not away with. What a tiresome custom that is, by the by—one among the many sources of factitious annoyance of this ultra civilized life. If the gentlemen must lead the ladies into the dining-room, why cannot they take those they like best?