"Did the gentlemen dance--and blow--indiscriminately?" inquired Miss Kennedy with a curl of her lips.
"No, no!--how you do tell things, Josephine!" said Miss Burr.
"Two gentlemen for each chair,--and whichever of the two put the candle out, he danced with the lady."
"Kitty had four or five round her chair"--said Josephine.
"And couldn"t the lady help herself?" inquired Primrose, in a tone of voice which called forth a universal burst of laughter.
"Why we _did_," said Josephine. "If you don"t like a man, you hold the candle up out of his reach."
"You couldn"t baffle everybody so," remarked Mr. Kingsland.
Several gentlemen had come up during the talk, closing in round Miss Kennedy.
"Mr. Rollo is right about one thing," said Miss Burr; "n.o.body has seen the German who has not seen it led by Kitty Fisher.
You should see her dance it, Miss Kennedy."
"Yes, you should," echoed Mr. May, "I had rather look on than be in it, for my part."
"What do you think she did at Catskill the other day?" said Miss Burr. "She took a piece of ice between her teeth, and went round the piazza asking all the gentlemen to take a bite."
"Clever Kitty! She"ll work that up into a new figure--see if she dont,"--said Mr. Kingsland.
"To be called the _noli me tangere!_" said Mr. May. "Partners secured at the melting point." The other gentlemen laughed.
"I see you and Kitty are at swords" points yet," said Miss Burr.
"No," put in Rollo--"she likes a foil better than a rapier."
"Certainly it does not sound as if she was like you, Primrose," observed Wych Hazel.
"Like Miss Maryland!--Hardly," said Mr. May. "Nor like any one your thoughts could even imagine," he added softly.
It was growing late now, and the moon gradually pa.s.sing along behind the trees, found a clear s.p.a.ce at this point, and looked down full at the little party to see what they were about. Just then, from the distance, came a stir and a murmur and sound of laughing voices.
"She"s coming this minute!" said Mr. Kingsland. " "Talk about angels"!--Your curiosity will soon be fed, Miss Kennedy,--and may, perchance, like other things, grow by what it feeds on.
Here comes the redoubtable Kitty herself!--Miss Fisher!--my poor eyes have seen nothing since they last beheld you!"
"Don"t see much in ordinary," said a gay voice; and a young lady,--too young, alas, for the part she was playing!--swept into the circle. A very handsome girl, with a coronet of fair hair, from which strayed braids and curls and crinkles and puffs and bands and flowers and ribbands; her dress in the extremest extremity of the fashion, very long, very low; with puffs and poufs innumerable; the whole borne up by the highest and minutest pair of heels that ever a beguiling shoemaker sent forth. She nodded, laughing, and held out her hands right and left.
"How d"ye do, Stephen?--Mr. Richard May!"--with a profound reverence. "And if there isn"t our Norwegian back again! Glad to see you, Mr. Rollo. Have you leaned how to spell your name yet?"
But to this lady Rollo gave one of his Spanish salutations; while Phinny Powder jumped up and exclaimed with pleasure, and Primrose uttered from behind them her quiet "how d"ye do Kitty?" Wych Hazel on her part had risen too--drawing a little back from the front, in the sudden desire for a distant view first.
"I see," Miss Fisher went on, speaking to Rollo.--"The e in the middle as usual, and the i and the g to keep it there. Why, Prim, my dear child!--you here? Among all these black coats of unclerical order?--How do you do?"--with an embrace. "And how is my uncle?--But where is Miss Kennedy? I am dying to see Miss Kennedy!--and they told me she was here."
"The time to die is--_after_ you have seen Miss Kennedy," said Mr. Kingsland.
"To my face!" said Kitty. "Well!--That is she, I know, behind Mr. May. Introduce us Richard, please."
Mr. May stepped aside, and with extreme formality presented Miss Fisher to the lady of Chickaree. Kitty touched hands,--and paused, forgetting to take her own away. The young "unwonted"
face was certainly a novelty to her. And a surprise.
"We shall all be jealous of her for her little mouth," was her first remark. "Don"t everybody generally kiss you, child, that comes near enough?"
Wych Hazel withdrew her hand, stepping back again in her astonishment, and surveying Miss Fisher.
"People do not--generally--come near enough," she said, as well as it could be said.
There was a little round of applause from the gentlemen at that. Kitty Fisher nodded, not at all displeased.
"She"ll do," she said. "I was afraid she was nothing but a milksop,--all strawberries and cream. I vow she"s handsome!"
"Handsome is that handsome does," said Rollo. "Miss Kitty, will you sit down and take things calmly?"--offering a chair.
"Yes, I"ll take the chair; and Miss Kennedy and I"ll divide the civil speech between us," said Kitty Fisher, placing herself close by Hazel. "It"s awfully nice here. What are you all about?"
"Just unable to get on for want of Miss Fisher," said Stuart.
"Calling for you, in fact."
"Echo answering "Where?" and all that," said Kitty.
"Not at all. Echo said you were coming."
"No dancing to-night?--awfully slow, isn"t it? Beg pardon, Phinny; but you think just so yourself. Go off and start up the band into a waltz, and we"ll have it out before the old lady gets the idea into her head. Come?"
Phinny started off on the instant with such energy and goodwill to her errand, that in a few minutes the burst of a waltz air in the immediate neighbourhood of the parties requiring it, said that Miss Josephine had been successful.
And she said it herself.
"There!" she exclaimed; "we"ve got it. Mamma"ll never care, if she hears, nor know, if she sees. Come! Here are enough of us."
One and another couple sailed off from the group. Stuart offered his hand to Wych Hazel. "You waltz?" he said.
She gave hers readily. The music had put her on tiptoe. And presently the little green was full of flying footsteps and fluttering draperies. As many as there was room for took the ground; but there was good room, and the waltz was spirited.
Some stood and looked on; some beat time with their feet. In a shadow of the corner where they had been talking, stood Prim and Rollo; _not_ beating time. Prim put her hand on his arm, but neither spoke a word.
"Shall we take a tangent,--and finish our stroll?" whispered Stuart, when they had whirled round the circle several times.
"If you like,--one is ready for anything in such a night," said Hazel gleefully. She had gone round much like a thistledown, with a child"s face and movement of pleasure. So, suddenly and silently, as they were pa.s.sing one of the alleys that led out from the little green, Stuart and his partner disappeared from the eyes of the spectators. It was certainly a pleasant night for a stroll. The light made such new combinations of old things, took and gave such new views; the pleasure of looking for them and finding them was ensnaring. Then the air was very sweet and soft, and--so was Stuart"s conversation.
Gliding on from one thing to another, even as their footsteps went,--mingling fun and fancy and common-place and flattery in a very agreeable sort of _pot-pourri_,--so they followed down one alley of the shrubbery and up another; winding about and about, but keeping at a distance from other people. Until, much too soon for Stuart"s intent, they were suddenly and quietly joined at a fork of the paths by Rollo, with Miss Fisher on his arm.
As the waltz ceased, Rollo had secured without difficulty the companionship of Miss Fisher for a walk; and Miss Fisher never knew how peculiar a walk it was, nor imagined that her cavalier was following a very fixed and definite purpose of his own. Nothing seemed less purposeful than the course they took; it was no course; from one path diverging into another, changing from one direction to another; a hunted hare would scarce make more doublings, or anything else, except the dog in chase of the hare. Kitty only knew that she was very well amused; her companion never left that doubtful, nor allowed her much leisure to make inconvenient observations; and, in short, Kitty did not care where they went!--and Rollo did care.
So it fell out, that quite suddenly, and as much to his companion"s surprise as anybody"s, quite easily and naturally they stepped out of one walk into another just as Wych Hazel and her attendant came to the same spot.
"Your old proverbs are all stuff," Kitty was saying to her companion. "I do think she"s the prettiest thing I ever saw.
Only she don"t know her tools. Just wait till I"ve had her in training a while!"
"Miss Kennedy," said Rollo, "how would you like to be in training?" They had somehow joined company with Stuart and Wych Hazel, not by the former"s good will, but he could not manage to help it.