"Thank you, Aunt Anne," says Miss Beauchamp, in carefully modulated tones. "I, too, am glad to get home. It was quite delightful to find Guy waiting for me at the station!"
She smiles a pretty lady-like smile upon Sir Guy as she speaks, he having followed her into the room. "How d"ye do, Cyril?"
Cyril returns her greeting with due propriety, but expresses no hilarious joy at her return.
"This is Lilian Chesney whom I wrote to you about," Lady Chetwoode says, putting out one hand to Lilian. "Lilian, my dear, this is Florence."
The girls shake hands. Miss Beauchamp treats Lilian to a cold though perfectly polite stare, and then turns back to her aunt.
"It was a long journey, dear," sympathetically says "Aunt Anne."
"Very. I felt quite exhausted when I reached Truston, and so did Fanchette; did you not, _ma bibiche_, my treasure?"--this is to the little white stuffy ball of wool in her arms, which instantly opens two pink-lidded eyes, and puts out a crimson tongue, by way of answer. "If you don"t mind, aunt, I think I should like to go to my room."
"Certainly, dear. And what shall I send you up?"
"A cup of tea, please, and--er--anything else there is. Elise will know what I fancy; I dined before I left. Good-night, Miss Chesney.
Good-night, Guy; and thank you again very much for meeting me"--this very sweetly.
And then Lady Chetwoode accompanies her up-stairs, and the first wonderful interview is at an end.
"Well?" says Cyril.
"I think her quite handsome," says Lilian, enthusiastically, for Guy"s special benefit, who is sitting at a little distance, glowering upon s.p.a.ce. "Cyril, you are wanting in taste."
"Not when I admire you," replies Cyril, promptly. "Will you pardon me, Lilian, if I go to see they send a comfortable and substantial supper to my cousin? Her appet.i.te is all that her best friend could wish."
So saying, he quits the room, bent on some business of his own, that has very little to do, I think, with the refreshment of Miss Beauchamp"s body.
When he has gone, Lilian takes up Lady Chetwoode"s knitting and examines it critically. For the first time in her life she regrets not having given up some of her early years to the mastering of fancy work; then she lays it down again, and sighs heavily. The sigh says quite distinctly how tedious a thing it is being alone in the room with a man who will not speak to one. Better, far better, be with a dummy, from whom nothing could be expected.
Sir Guy, roused to activity by this dolorous sound, crosses the room and stands directly before her, a contrite expression upon his face.
"I have behaved badly," he says. "I confess my fault. Will you not speak to me, Lilian?" His tone is half laughing, half penitent.
"Not"--smiling--"until you a.s.sure me you have left all your ill-temper behind you at Truston."
"I have. I swear it."
"You are sure?"
"Positive."
"I do hope you did not bestow it upon poor Miss Beauchamp?"
"I don"t know, I"m sure. I hope not," says Guy, lightly; and there is something both in his tone and words that restores Miss Chesney to amiability. She looks at him steadily for a moment, and then she smiles.
"I am forgiven?" asks Guy, eagerly, taking courage from her smile.
"Yes."
"Shake hands with me, then," says he, holding out his own.
"You expect too much," returns Lilian, recoiling. "Only an hour ago, you refused to take my hand: how then can I now accept yours?"
"I was a brute, nothing less!" declares he, emphatically. "Yet do accept it, I implore you."
There is a good deal more meaning in his tone than even he himself is quite aware of. Miss Chesney either does not or will not see it. Raising her head, she laughs out loud, a low but thoroughly amused laugh.
"Any one listening would say you were proposing to me," she says, mischievously; whereupon he laughs too, and seats himself upon the low ottoman beside her.
"I shouldn"t mind," he says; "should you?"
"Not much. I suppose one must go through it some time or other."
"Have you ever had a--proposal?"
"Why do you compel me to give you an answer that must be humiliating?
No; I have never had a proposal. But I dare say I shall have one or two before I die."
"I dare say. Unless you will now accept mine"--jestingly--"and make me the happiest of men."
"No, thank you. You make me such an admirable guardian that I could not bear to depose you. You are now in a proud position (considering the ward you have); do not rashly seek to better it."
"Your words are golden. But all this time you are keeping me in terrible suspense. You have not yet quite made friends with me."
Then Lilian places her hand in his.
"Though you don"t deserve it," she says, severely, "still----"
"Still you do accept me--it, I mean," interrupts Guy, purposely, closing his fingers warmly over hers. "I shall never forget that fact. Dear little hand!" softly caressing it, "did I really scorn it an hour ago? I beg its pardon very humbly."
"It is granted," answers Lilian, gayly. But to herself she says, "I wonder how often has he gone through all this before?"
Nevertheless, in spite of doubts on both sides, the truce is signed for the present.
CHAPTER X.
"How beautiful is the rain!
After the dust and heat.
To the dry gra.s.s, and the drier grain, How welcome is the rain!"--LONGFELLOW.
Miss Chesney, who, had she been born a man and a gardener, could have commanded any wages, is on her knees beside some green plants, busily hunting for slugs. These ravishers of baby flowers and innocent seedlings are Miss Chesney"s especial abhorrence. It is in vain to tell her that they must be fed,--that they, as well as the leviathan, must have their daily food; she declines to look upon their frequent depredations in any other light than as wanton mischief.
Upon their destruction she wastes so much of her valuable time that, could there be a thought in their small, slimy, gelatinous bodies, they must look upon her as the fell destroyer of their race,--a sort of natural enemy.