He laughed in an amused fashion she did not understand.
"Suppose we do," he said. "By Jove, that"s a good idea!"
He laughed as he followed her.
"What amuses you so?" she inquired.
"Oh!" he replied, "I am merely thinking of Lady Theobald."
"Well," she commented, "I think it"s rather disrespectful in you to laugh. Isn"t it a lovely night? I didn"t think you had such moonlight nights in England. What a night for a drive!"
"Is that one of the things you do in America--drive by moonlight?"
"Yes. Do you mean to say you don"t do it in England?"
"Not often. Is it young ladies who drive by moonlight in America?"
"Well, you don"t suppose they go alone, do you?" quite ironically. "Of course they have some one with them."
"Ah! Their papas?"
"No."
"Their mammas?"
"No."
"Their governesses, their uncles, their aunts?"
"No," with a little smile.
He smiled also.
"That is another good idea," he said. "You have a great many nice ideas in America."
She was silent a moment or so, swinging her fan slowly to and fro by its ribbon, and appearing to reflect.
"Does that mean," she said at length, "that it wouldn"t be considered proper in England?"
"I hope you won"t hold me responsible for English fallacies," was his sole answer.
"I don"t hold anybody responsible for them," she returned with some spirit. "I don"t care one thing about them."
"That is fortunate," he commented. "I am happy to say I don"t, either. I take the liberty of pleasing myself. I find it pays best."
"Perhaps," she said, returning to the charge, "perhaps Lady Theobald will think _this_ is improper."
He put his hand up, and stroked his mustache lightly, without replying.
"But it is _not_," she added emphatically: "it is _not!_"
"No," he admitted, with a touch of irony, "it is not!"
"Are _you_ any the worse for it?" she demanded.
"Well, really, I think not--as yet," he replied.
"Then we won"t go in," she said, the smile returning to her lips again.
CHAPTER XII.
AN INVITATION.
In the mean time Mr. Burmistone was improving his opportunities within doors. He had listened to the music with the most serious attention; and on its conclusion he had turned to Mrs. Burnham, and made himself very agreeable indeed. At length, however, he arose, and sauntered across the room to a table at which Lucia Gaston chanced to be standing alone, having just been deserted by a young lady whose mamma had summoned her.
She wore, Mr. Burmistone regretted to see, as he advanced, a troubled and anxious expression; the truth being that she had a moment before remarked the exit of Miss Belinda"s niece and her companion. It happened oddly that Mr. Burmistone"s first words touched upon the subject of her thought. He began quite abruptly with it.
"It seems to me," he said, "that Miss Octavia Ba.s.sett"--
Lucia stopped him with a courage which surprised herself.
"Oh, if you please," she implored, "don"t say any thing unkind about her!"
Mr. Burmistone looked down into her soft eyes with a good deal of feeling.
"I was not going to say any thing unkind," he answered. "Why should I?"
"Everybody seems to find a reason for speaking severely of her," Lucia faltered. "I have heard so many unkind things tonight, that I am quite unhappy. I am sure--I am _sure_ she is very candid and simple."
"Yes," answered Mr. Burmistone, "I am sure she is very candid and simple."
"Why should we expect her to be exactly like ourselves?" Lucia went on.
"How can we be sure that our way is better than any other? Why should they be angry because her dress is so expensive and pretty? Indeed, I only wish I had such a dress. It is a thousand times prettier than any we ever wear. Look around the room, and see if it is not. And as to her not having learned to play on the piano, or to speak French--why should she be obliged to do things she feels she would not be clever at? I am not clever, and have been a sort of slave all my life, and have been scolded and blamed for what I could not help at all, until I have felt as if I must be a criminal. How happy she must have been to be let alone!"
She had clasped her little hands, and, though she spoke in a low voice, was quite impa.s.sioned in an unconscious way. Her brief girlish life had not been a very happy one, as may be easily imagined; and a glimpse of the liberty for which she had suffered roused her to a sense of her own wrongs.
"We are all cut out after the same pattern," she said. "We learn the same things, and wear the same dresses, one might say. What Lydia Egerton has been taught, I have been taught; yet what two creatures could be more unlike each other, by nature, than we are?"
Mr. Burmistone glanced across the room at Miss Egerton. She was a fine, robust young woman, with a high nose and a stolid expression of countenance.
"That is true," he remarked.
"We are afraid of every thing," said Lucia bitterly. "Lydia Egerton is afraid--though you might not think so. And, as for me, n.o.body knows what a coward I am but myself. Yes, I am a coward! When grandmamma looks at me, I tremble. I dare not speak my mind, and differ with her, when I know she is unjust and in the wrong. No one could say that of Miss Octavia Ba.s.sett."
"That is perfectly true," said Mr. Burmistone; and he even went so far as to laugh as he thought of Miss Octavia trembling in the august presence of Lady Theobald.