Later, as they were walking home across the hills, by Great Langdale and Little Langdale, and Fox Howe and Loughrigg Fell, she fell behind a few paces with Maulevrier, and said to him very earnestly-- 'You won't tell, will you, dear ?' 'Tell what ?' he asked, staring at her.
'Don't tell Mr.Hammond what I said about his thinking me ugly.

He might want to apologise to me, and that would be too humiliating.

I was very childish to say such a silly thing.' 'Undoubtedly you were.' 'And you won't tell him ?' 'Tell him anything that would degrade my Mary?
Assail her dignity by so much as a breath?
Sooner would I have this tongue torn out with red-hot pincers.' On the next day, and the next, sunshine and summer skies still prevailed; but Mr.Hammond did not seem to care for rambling far afield.
He preferred loitering about in the village, rowing on the lake, reading in the garden, and playing lawn tennis.

He had only inclination for those amusements which kept him within a stone's throw of Fellside: and Mary knew that this disposition had arisen in his mind since Lesbia had withdrawn herself from all share in their excursions.

Lesbia had not been rude to her brother or her brother's friend; she had declined their invitations with smiles and sweetness; but there was always some reason--a new song to be practised, a new book to be read, a letter to be written--why she should not go for drives or walks or steamboat trips with Maulevrier and his friend.
So Mr.Hammond suddenly found out that he had seen all that was worth seeing in the Lake country, and that there was nothing so enjoyable as the placid idleness of Fellside; and at Fellside Lady Lesbia could not always avoid him without a too-marked intention, so he tasted the sweetness of her society to a much greater extent than was good for his peace, if the case were indeed as hopeless as Lady Mary declared.