The house of the relative she had thought of visiting would be open to George, as would be one or two others in which she might stay a while.

It was most undesirable that he should encounter Bland, which would be likely to happen.

Then it struck her that Herbert might derive as little satisfaction from his cousin's visit as it would afford her.
"Have you succeeded in selling George's shares yet ?" she asked, and though this was, on the face of it, an abrupt change of subject, she thought Herbert would follow the sequence of ideas.
"No," he answered, with a smile of comprehension.

"It was too late when I was able to attend to things; they have dropped to such a price that I'll have to keep them.

I'm afraid it will be a blow to George, and he's having trouble enough already with your farm; but, luckily, some other shares I bought on his account show signs of a marked improvement before long." Sylvia inferred from this that he had not informed his cousin of the state of his affairs, and did not wish to see him until the improvement mentioned, or some other favorable development, should mitigate the shock of discovering what use Herbert had made of his powers.