By this time, meanwhile, Alice and Bobby had noticed. Alice, indeed, had
a number of young men over whose emotions she kept guard and Peter had
become, during these weeks, very valuable to her....
She did not want him to marry anybody--especially she did not want him to
marry Clare. At breakfast, past Peter's ears, as though he were not
concerned at all, she talked to Bobby--
"Really, Dr. Rossiter spoils Clare beyond all bounds--"
"Um?"
"He's taking her with him up to Glasgow to that Congress thing. He knows
perfectly well that she ought to stay with Mrs. Rossiter--and so does she."
"Well, it's no business of ours--" Bobby's usual tolerant complacency.
"It is. Clare might be a fine creature if she didn't let herself be spoiled
in this way. She's perpetually selfish and she ought to be told so."
"We're all perpetually selfish," said Bobby who began to be sorry for
Peter.
"Oh! no, we're not. I'm very fond of Clare but I don't envy the man who
marries her. There's no one in the world more delightful when she has her
own way and things go smoothly, but they've wrapped her up in cotton wool
to such an extent that she simply doesn't know how to live out of it. She's
positively terrified of _Life_."
This, as Alice had intended, was too much for Peter. He burst out--
"I think Miss Rossiter's the pluckiest girl I've ever met.
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