I noticed that she was very
flushed and her eyes bright, and that she chattered and laughed a great
deal.
I had made up my mind that I would not speak to Richard Dawson, although
I was forced to sit by him, and that was a contact which I found most
detestable. But he would talk to me and sit close to me, and once when I
had turned away from him and addressed Sir Arthur Ardaragh, who was on
the other side of me, I caught my grandmother's eye on me with a look of
appeal.
I wished my godmother had been there. She had been invited to the
dinner, but she would not go nor consent to be civil to the Dawsons. Nor
would she believe that there was anything about Uncle Luke which might
not come into the light of day.
"And if there could be," she said proudly, "I would rather it was told
than go in terror of the Dawsons. I had as lief trust the world as them
any day."
After that glance of my grandmother I did not turn away again from
Richard Dawson, much as I detested his closeness and his breath upon my
cheek. I thought the dinner would never be over. As it went on I could
not but feel that he was making himself and me conspicuous. He drank a
good deal of wine, and the more he drank the more he leant to me and
tried to look into my eyes, so that I felt thoroughly sick and ashamed.
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