"I felt absolutely hurt, silly and childish as it was to care for so slight a thing. I suppose my tell-tale face showed it, for Mrs.
Harrington said, teasingly--
""Really, James, you are very stately and magnificent, this morning!
that speech sounded grand and stilted enough to have suited Sir Charles Grandison."
"He laughed a little, but it sounded so forced that I wondered Mrs.
Harrington did not observe it.
""I told you that I was stupid," he said, "so you need not be severe on my poor attempt at a compliment."
""I a.s.sure your lordship that Mabel does not care for compliments,"
continued his mother. "Do you, my pretty Queen Mab?"
""I think they are a very poor subst.i.tute for real kindness between friends," I said.
"I could hear that my voice sounded somewhat irritable, but I could not resist speaking, though the instant after, I could have bitten my tongue off for showing so plainly any annoyance at his manner and words. Mrs.
Harrington did not notice my little ebullition--was it wounded selfishness and pride, I wonder? She took my remark quite as a matter of course.
""You are perfectly right," she said. "Please to remember that, master James."
"I saw that he was looking earnestly at me--perhaps he thought that he had hurt me, but I was determined to make no more silly self betrayals.
I forced my face to look indifferent, and sat playing carelessly with the bronze paper cutter in my hand.
""I am sure Miss Crawford knows that I should be only too proud to be acknowledged as her friend, and that I value her intellect too highly for an attempt at empty compliments," James observed, gravely.
""Ah, _viola l"amende honorable_!" laughed Mrs. Harrington. "Mabel is appeased, and I am content with your explanation."
"There was a brief silence; I could feel that James was still looking at me, and did not raise my eyes. Mrs. Harrington was playing with her flowers, and when she spoke again had forgotten the whole matter--the merest trifle to her, indeed to anybody possessed of a grain of common sense, but of so much importance to ridiculous, fanciful me.
""This is so perfect a day," she said, "that I think we must go out to drive. Will you go with us, James?"
""I fear that I shall be unable," he replied, "I have several letters to write, and the American mail goes out to-day."
""Then we will ask Miss Eaton, Mabel," said Mrs. Harrington, "she always likes to go with us."
"I could have dispensed with this young lady"s society, but of course I did not say so, and I had the decency to be ashamed of my unaccountable feeling toward her. She was so very beautiful that to anybody less captious than I had grown, even nonsense from such lips as hers would have been more graceful and acceptable than the wisest remark from almost any other woman.
""I am sorry you can"t go, James," Mrs. Harrington was saying, when I had finished my little mental self-flagellation for all my misdemeanors and evil thoughts, and could listen to what they were saying.
""Are you particularly anxious to have me go with you, this morning, _pet.i.te mia_?" James asked, with more animation than he had before displayed.
""Indeed I am! I feel babyish to-day, and want to be petted! If you don"t go, I shall think you are beginning to tire of this poor invalid woman who is so great a trouble to you all."
""My mother could never think that," he said hastily, rising, and moving close to her sofa, where he stood gently smoothing her beautiful hair with his hand.
""Besides," she went on, "these women are just no party at all. Mabel"s head is full of the book, and between us, poor little Miss Eaton will have a wearisome drive of it."
""I shall go with you," James answered, "my letters can wait till the next mail."
""We have conquered, Mabel!" cried Mrs. Harrington, with that air of triumph so many women show on such occasions,--a feeling which, I confess, has always been a mystery to me.
"But just now Mrs. Harrington made a sad mistake when she said that we had conquered--as if either of us had anything to do with Mr. James"
change of determination! The moment she had announced her intention of inviting our beautiful neighbor, he had discovered that it was easy for him to let his correspondence lie over. Either Mrs. Harrington was very blind, or she chose to ignore a fact that was as palpable as if he had given utterance to it.
"I felt tired and moody, and half inclined to make that ordinary feminine fib, a headache, a plea for not making one of the party. I do not know what I might have said; I dare say something I should have been sorry for, because I felt strangely perverse and irritable."
CHAPTER XLVIII.
ZILLAH"S LETTER.
"One morning, while we were arranging a drive for the afternoon, General Harrington entered the room, bringing a letter in his hand.
""How do you find yourself this morning, fair lady!" he asked, approaching his wife and kissing her hand with his accustomed gallantry.
""Quite well," she answered, lifting her eyes to his with that lovely smile of greeting she always had for him, and which made her face so beautiful.
""That is the most delightful news that could greet me," he replied, with one of his courtly bows. "How is my paragon of wards?" he continued, turning to me.
"I answered him pleasantly; he was so elegant and thorough-bred that one was insensibly forced to restrain even pettish thoughts in his presence.
But I was abashed all the while, for I noticed that as the General came up to the sofa, James immediately retreated and resumed his seat in the window. He had often of late betrayed those little signs of desiring to avoid the General"s society, and they puzzled me very much, for the elder man"s behavior to him was always friendly and courteous in the extreme.
""I need not ask after your health, James," the General said, good naturedly, "because it cannot have materially altered since I made the inquiry an hour ago."
""What is that letter?" asked Mrs. Harrington, with the curiosity that becomes habitual with most invalids, and speaking so quickly, that James" disregard of his stepfather"s remark was not noticeable.
""It is for you, madam; I could not resist the pleasure of giving it to you myself, for I know how much you like to receive letters."
""Thanks! You manage in everything to give me a double pleasure," she said, taking the letter from his hand and tearing it open.
""From Zillah," she said, glancing down the page.
"I saw James start. He caught me looking at him, and quieted himself at once; but I noted his agitation plainly.
"The General was busy wheeling an easy chair near the sofa, and did not catch his wife"s remark.
""From whom did you say it was, my dear?" he asked.
""From Zillah," she replied, without looking up.
""She, indeed," said he carelessly, "and what does the poor and rather bad tempered Zillah have to say?"
"He sat down by his wife"s side, playing with the flowers that lay on her cushions, and did not observe the quick, angry, defiant look that James shot at him as he spoke.
""Poor girl," said Mrs. Harrington, as she finished reading the hurried scrawl, "she is pining to come and join us; she says she is much better, but so lonely and homesick that she feels it will be impossible for her to get well until she is safe with us again."