"Oh, but Papa," replied the spoiled girl, "I am not at all in a serious frame of mind."
"It is highly probable that you will find yourself so at the end of our talk."
"Charming prospect! After such an inducement as that I can"t resist any longer." She sank back into a low chair near a great case of books, for they were sitting in the cosy library.
"I met young Dunlop coming out of the house as I was coming in," began the Commodore. "I was sorry to see that."
"I was sorry to see it, too, Papa, but he couldn"t be persuaded to stay longer."
"That is not a very respectful answer to give to your old father; nevertheless, I am glad to hear it, as it a.s.sures me that you have not reached the point when his absence will leave you sad."
"Oh, no! But I am willing to admit that over Mr. Galton"s departure I did come very near shedding tears--of joy."
"I hope my little girl will have no cause to shed any other kind."
"His little girl" endeavoured to look oracular as she replied: "That will largely depend upon the nature of the information you are about to communicate to me."
"It is only a request, my dear! I wish for your own sake that you would have as little as possible to do with that young Dunlop."
There was an appreciable interval of silence. Rose stared hard at the fire. Her father added, "Of course, I do not wish you to do anything unreasonable."
"I am sure of that," said the girl softly, "nor anything unkind."
The gentleman stirred a little uneasily in his chair. "You must remember," he said, "that the greatest unkindness one can do another is to encourage false hopes in him."
"How would you like me to treat him?"
"Oh, my dear child, I can"t tell. You know perfectly well yourself. Be preoccupied, absent-minded, indifferent, when he comes. Make him repeat what he says, and then answer him at random. Look as though you had a thousand things to distract your attention, and treat him as though he were the chair on which he is sitting."
"And you think that would be an ample and delicate return for the countless kindnesses shown me by himself, and his people last summer?"
"Oh, hang himself and his people!" was the Commodore"s mental comment.
Aloud he said, "Well, the young fellow could hardly leave you to perish under the horse"s heels. What he did was only common decency."
"Then, perhaps, it would be as well to treat him with common decency.
Don"t you think that desirable quality is omitted from your course of treatment?" Her tones were those of caressing gentleness, but the flame of the firelight was not more red than the cheek on which it gleamed.
"Why, bless me, Rose, I don"t want you to give him the cut direct.
There is no need to put him either in paradise or the inferno. Better adopt a happy medium."
"Yes; but purgatory is rather an unhappy medium."
"Well, my dear, I have nothing more to say. I suppose it is natural that you should set aside the counsel of a man who has loved you for nineteen years in favour of the attention of one who has known you about the same number of weeks."
"Papa, you are unjust!" The repressed tears came at last, but they were dried as quickly as they dropped.
"Can"t you understand," he continued in a softened tone, "that I would willingly give him anything in return for his kindness--except my eldest daughter?"
"That is a gift he would never value. A society man might do so, but the idea of a young fellow of talent and energy and ambition and brains looking at a little goose like me!"
The Commodore laughed. "No doubt it would be a great hardship for him to look at you; but young men of talent, ambition and that sort of thing are not afraid of hardship. In fact they grow to love it. So you think he would not value the gift?" He laughed again very heartily.
"I am perfectly certain," declared the young girl, with impressive earnestness, "that he will never stoop to ask you for it."
"Then there is nothing more to be said," replied the Commodore, with an air of great relief. "The whole question could not be more satisfactorily settled. You are my own loyal little girl and--and you don"t think me a dreadfully cross old bear, do you?"
She went straight to his arms. "How can I help it," she asked, with her customary bright smile, "when you give me such a bearish hug?"
But alone in her room, the smile vanished in a tempest of fast-coming tears. There was a reason for them, but she was unconscious of it then. Later she discovered it to lie in the fact that in her heart of hearts she was not a "loyal little girl" at all, but an "out and out little traitor and rebel."
CHAPTER XII.
A KISS AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.
It was late afternoon in a Canadian midwinter day. Cold and still, with a coldness so intense that the blinding brightness of the sun made no discernable impression on the densely packed snow, and with a stillness absolutely undisturbed by any slightest breath of bl.u.s.tering wind. Before the early twilight came, Rose Macleod, wrapped in furs from dainty head to well-booted feet, ran lightly down stairs, tapping softly at the library door on the way.
"I am all ready, Papa," she said, illumining the room for a moment with a pair of dark blue eyes and crimson cheeks. "Don"t you think it will be a beautiful night?"
"Very beautiful, and cold enough to kill an Esquimaux. I confess it would be a pleasure to know that in a few hours you would be safe under the blankets instead of junketing over at Madame DeBerczy"s."
"I shall be just as safe under the buffalo robes, just as warm, and a great deal happier."
"Very well; be off then. By the way, how many are in your party?"
"Oh, nearly a dozen at least."
"Then there is a possibility that you will not all perish. Tell the survivors to report themselves here as early tomorrow morning as possible."
There was a sound of bells and a mingling of merry voices as a sleigh-load of young people drove up to the door, and waited for Rose to join them. "Delays are dangerous," observed Edward, as his sister, after opening the door, was suddenly stung by the reflection that she had not taken a last comprehensive view of herself in the gla.s.s, and turned to the hall mirror to rectify the omission.
"Particularly, when it is below zero," said another.
"What is she doing now?" patiently inquired a third.
"Airing the hall," responded a girlish voice. "Oh, no, she is really coming! Rose," she called, "come and sit by me."
"No, there is more room here," said another voice; while still another exclaimed, "I have been keeping such a cosy little corner here for you."
She stood in smiling hesitancy a moment, when her hand, from which she had removed the glove in order to adjust an unruly hair-pin, was taken by another hand, firm and warm and gloveless, and she was drawn almost unconsciously to the side of its owner. It was Allan Dunlop who had thus taken summary possession of her, and incurred a little of her dignified displeasure.
"You left me no room for choice," she said in a slightly offended tone.
"I beg your pardon, I was thinking only of leaving you room for a seat."
She was silent. It was very difficult to keep this young man at a distance, when there was such a very little distance between them, and yet she must be true to the promise tacitly given to her father. She must be cool, indifferent, uninterested. "It isn"t a matter of any importance," she said absently.