But, as I have said, Alice had become quite comfortable at Matching Priory. Perhaps she was already growing upwards towards the light. At any rate she could listen with pleasure to the few words the Duke would say to her. She could even chat a little to the Duchess,--so that her Grace had observed to Lady Glencora that "her cousin was a very nice person,--a very nice person indeed. What a pity it was that she had been so ill-treated by that gentleman in Oxfordshire!" Lady Glencora had to explain that the gentleman lived in Cambridgeshire, and that he, at any rate, had not treated anybody ill. "Do you mean that she--jilted him?" said the Duchess, almost whistling, and opening her eyes very wide. "Dear me, I'm sorry for that. I shouldn't have thought it." And when she next spoke to Alice she assumed rather a severe tone of emphasis;--but this was soon abandoned when Alice listened to her with complacency.

Perhaps Alice was already growing upwards towards the light. At any rate she could listen with pleasure to the few words the Duke would say to her. She could even chat a little to the Duchess - so that her Grace had observed to Lady Glencora that "her cousin was a very nice person indeed. What a pity that she had been so ill-treated by that gentleman in Oxfordshire!"
Lady Glencora had to explain that the gentleman lived in Cambridgeshire, and that he had not treated anybody ill.
"Do you mean that she jilted him?" said the Duchess, almost whistling, and opening her eyes very wide. "Dear me, I'm sorry for that. I shouldn't have thought it." And when she next spoke to Alice she assumed rather a severe tone - until Alice listened to her pleasantly.
