"Some of them; not all. I know a considerable few who dress so little that they might as well leave it alone."
"Eh?" says Mona, innocently, and stares at him with an expression so full of bewilderment, being puzzled by his tone more than his words, that presently Mr. Rodney becomes conscious of a feeling akin to shame.
Some remembrance of a line that speaks of "a soul as white as heaven"
comes to him, and he makes haste to hide the real meaning of his words.
"I mean, some of them dress uncommon badly," he says, with much mendacity and more bad grammar.
"Now, do they?" says Mona. "I thought they always wore lovely clothes.
In books they always do; but I was too young when with Aunt Anastasia in Dublin to go out. Somehow, what one imagines is sure to be wrong. I remember," laughing, "when I firmly believed the queen never was seen without her crown on her head."
"Well, it always _is_ on her head," says Mr. Rodney, at which ridiculous joke they both laugh as gayly as though it were a _bon-mot_ of the first water. That "life is th.o.r.n.y, and youth is vain" has not as yet occurred to either of these two. Nay, more, were you even to name this thought to them, they would rank it as flat blasphemy, and you a false prophet--love and laughter being, up to this, the burden of their song.
Yet after a moment or two the smile fades from Mona"s mobile lip that ever looks as if, in the words of the old song, "some bee had stung it newly," and a pensive expression takes its place.
"I think I"d like to see myself in a regular evening gown," she say, wistfully.
"So should I," says Rodney, eagerly, but incorrectly; "at least, not myself, but you,--in something handsome, you know, open at the neck, and with your pretty arms bare, as they were the first day I saw you."
"How you remember that, now!" says Mona, with a heavenly smile, and a faint pressure of the fingers that still rest in his. "Yes, I should like to be sure before I marry you that--that--fashionable clothes would become me. But of course," regretfully, "you will understand I haven"t a gown of that sort. I once sat in Lady Crighton"s room while her maid dressed her for dinner: so I know all about it."
She sighs, then looks at the sky, and--sighs again.
"And do you know," she says, with charming _naivete_, not looking at him, but biting a blade of gra.s.s in a distractingly pretty and somewhat pensive fashion, "do you know her neck and arms are not a patch on mine?"
"You needn"t tell me that. I"m positive they couldn"t be named in the same day," says Geoffrey, enthusiastically, who never in his life saw Lady Crighton, or her neck or arms.
"No, they are not. Geoffrey, people look much better when they are beautifully dressed, don"t they?"
"Well, on the principle that fine feathers make fine birds, I suppose they do," acknowledges Geoffrey, reluctantly.
At this she glances with scorn upon the quakerish and somewhat quaint gray gown in which she is clothed, and in which she is looking far sweeter than she knows, for in her face lie "love enshrined and sweet attractive grace."
"Yet, in spite of all the fine feathers, no one ever crept into my heart but my own Mona," says the young man, putting his hand beneath her chin, which is soft and rounded as a baby"s, and turning her face to his. He hates to see the faint chagrin that lingers on it for a moment; for his is one of those tender natures that cannot bear to see the thing it loves endure the smallest torment.
"Some women in the great world overdo it," he goes on, "and choose things and colors utterly unsuited to their style. They are slaves to fashion. But
""_My_ love in her attire doth show her wit; It doth so well become her.""
"Ah, how you flatter!" says Mona. Nevertheless, being a woman, and the flattery being directed to herself, she takes it kindly.
"No, you must not think that. To wear anything that becomes you must be the perfection of dressing. Why wear a Tam O"Shanter hat when one looks hideous in it? And then too much study spoils effect: you know what Herrick says:--
""A careless shoe-string in whose tie I see a wild civility, Does more bewitch me than when art Is too precise in every part.""
"How pretty that is! Yet I should like you to see me, if only for once, as you have seen others," says Mona.
"I should like it too. And it could be managed, couldn"t it? I suppose I could get you a dress."
He says this quickly, yet fearfully. If she should take his proposal badly, what shall he do? He stares with flattering persistency upon a distant donkey that adorns a neighboring field, and calmly awaits fate.
It is for once kind to him. Mona, it is quite evident, fails to see any impropriety in his speech.
"Could you?" she says hopefully. "How?"
Mr. Rodney, basely forsaking the donkey, returns to his mutton. "There must be a dressmaker in Dublin," he says, "and we could write to her.
Don"t you know one?"
"_I_ don"t, but I know Lady Mary and Miss Blake always get their things from a woman called Manning."
"Then Manning it shall be," says Geoffrey, gayly. "I"ll run up to Dublin, and if you give me your measure I"ll bring a gown back to you."
"Oh, no, don"t," says Mona, earnestly. Then she stops short, and blushes a faint sweet crimson.
"But why?" demands he, dense as men will be at times. Then, as she refuses to enlighten his ignorance, slowly the truth dawns upon him.
"Do you mean that you would really miss me if I left you for only one day?" he asks, delightedly. "Mona, tell me the truth."
"Well, then, sure you know I would," confesses she, shyly but honestly.
Whereupon rapture ensues that lasts for a full minute.
"Very well, then; I shan"t leave you; but you shall have that dress all the same," he says. "How shall we arrange about it?"
"I can give you the size of my waist and my shoulders, and my length,"
says Mona, thoughtfully, yet with a touch of inspiration.
"And what color becomes you? Blue? that would suit your eyes, and it was blue you used to wear last month."
"Yes, blue looks very nice on me. Geoffrey, if Uncle Brian hears of this, will he be angry?"
"We needn"t risk it. And it is no harm, darling, because you will soon be my wife, and then I shall give you everything. When the dress comes I"ll send it up to you by my man, and you must manage the rest."
"I"ll see about it. And, oh, Geoffrey, I do hope you will like me in it, and think me pretty," she says, anxiously, half fearful of this gown that is meant to transform a "beggar maid" into a queen fit for "King Cophetua." At least such is her reading of the part before her.
And so it is arranged. And that evening Geoffrey indites a letter to Mrs. Manning, Grafton Street, Dublin, that brings a smile to the lips of that cunning modiste.
CHAPTER IX.
HOW GEOFFREY AND MONA DILIGENTLY WORK UP THE TRANSFORMATION SCENE; AND HOW SUCCESS CROWNS THEIR EFFORTS.
In due course the wonderful gown arrives, and is made welcome at the farm, where Geoffrey too puts in an appearance about two hours later.
Mona is down at the gate waiting for him, evidently brimful of information.
"Well have you got it?" asks he, in a whisper. Mystery seems to encircle them and to make heavy the very air they breathe. In truth, I think it is the veil of secrecy that envelops their small intrigue that makes it so sweet to them. They might be children, so delighted are they with the success of their scheme.