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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Fair Barbarian, by Francis Hodgson Burnett
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+Title: A Fair Barbarian
+
+Author: Francis Hodgson Burnett
+
+Release Date: December, 2005 [EBook #9487]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on October 5, 2003]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: ASCII
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A FAIR BARBARIAN ***
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+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan and PG Distributed Proofreaders
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+
+                            A FAIR BARBARIAN
+
+                       BY FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT
+
+                                 1881
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+      I. MISS OCTAVIA BASSETT
+
+     II. "AN INVESTMENT, ANYWAY"
+
+    III. L'ARGENTVILLE
+
+     IV. LADY THEOBALD
+
+      V. LUCIA
+
+     VI. ACCIDENTAL
+
+    VII. "I SHOULD LIKE TO SEE MORE OF SLOWBRIDGE"
+
+   VIII. SHARES LOOKING UP
+
+     IX. WHITE MUSLIN
+
+      X. ANNOUNCING MR. BAROLD
+
+     XI. A SLIGHT INDISCRETION
+
+    XII. AN INVITATION
+
+   XIII. INTENTIONS
+
+    XIV. A CLERICAL VISIT
+
+     XV. SUPERIOR ADVANTAGES
+
+    XVI. CROQUET
+
+   XVII. ADVANTAGES
+
+  XVIII. CONTRAST
+
+    XIX. AN EXPERIMENT
+
+     XX. PECULIAR TO NEVADA
+
+    XXI. LORD LANSDOWNE
+
+   XXII. "YOU HAVE MADE IT LIVELIER"
+
+  XXIII. "MAY I GO?"
+
+   XXIV. THE GARDEN PARTY
+
+    XXV. "SOMEBODY ELSE"
+
+   XXVI. "JACK"
+
+
+
+
+A FAIR BARBARIAN.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+MISS OCTAVIA BASSETT.
+
+
+Slowbridge had been shaken to its foundations.
+
+It may as well be explained, however, at the outset, that it would not
+take much of a sensation to give Slowbridge a great shock. In the first
+place, Slowbridge was not used to sensations, and was used to going on
+the even and respectable tenor of its way, regarding the outside world
+with private distrust, if not with open disfavor. The new mills had been
+a trial to Slowbridge,--a sore trial. On being told of the owners' plan
+of building them, old Lady Theobald, who was the corner-stone of the
+social edifice of Slowbridge, was said, by a spectator, to have turned
+deathly pale with rage; and, on the first day of their being opened in
+working order, she had taken to her bed, and remained shut up in her
+darkened room for a week, refusing to see anybody, and even going so far
+as to send a scathing message to the curate of St. James, who called in
+fear and trembling, because he was afraid to stay away.
+
+"With mills and mill-hands," her ladyship announced to Mr. Laurence, the
+mill-owner, when chance first threw them together, "with mills and
+mill-hands come murder, massacre, and mob law." And she said it so loud,
+and with so stern an air of conviction, that the two Misses Briarton, who
+were of a timorous and fearful nature, dropped their buttered muffins (it
+was at one of the tea-parties which were Slowbridge's only dissipation),
+and shuddered hysterically, feeling that their fate was sealed, and that
+they might, any night, find three masculine mill-hands secreted under
+their beds, with bludgeons. But as no massacres took place, and the
+mill-hands were pretty regular in their habits, and even went so far as
+to send their children to Lady Theobald's free school, and accepted the
+tracts left weekly at their doors, whether they could read or not,
+Slowbridge gradually recovered from the shock of finding itself forced to
+exist in close proximity to mills, and was just settling itself to
+sleep--the sleep of the just--again, when, as I have said, it was shaken
+to its foundations.
+
+It was Miss Belinda Bassett who received the first shock. Miss Belinda
+Bassett was a decorous little maiden lady, who lived in a decorous little
+house on High Street (which was considered a very genteel street in
+Slowbridge). She had lived in the same house all her life, her father had
+lived in it, and so also had her grandfather. She had gone out, to take
+tea, from its doors two or three times a week, ever since she had been
+twenty; and she had had her little tea-parties in its front parlor as
+often as any other genteel Slowbridge entertainer. She had risen at
+seven, breakfasted at eight, dined at two, taken tea at five, and gone to
+bed at ten, with such regularity for fifty years, that to rise at eight,
+breakfast at nine, dine at three, and take tea at six, and go to bed at
+eleven, would, she was firmly convinced, be but "to fly in the face of
+Providence," as she put it, and sign her own death-warrant. Consequently,
+it is easy to imagine what a tremor and excitement seized her when, one
+afternoon, as she sat waiting for her tea, a coach from the Blue Lion
+dashed--or, at least, _almost_ dashed--up to the front door, a young lady
+got out, and the next minute the handmaiden, Mary Anne, threw open the
+door of the parlor, announcing, without the least preface,--
+
+"Your niece, mum, from 'Meriker."
+
+Miss Belinda got up, feeling that her knees really trembled beneath her.
+
+In Slowbridge, America was not approved of--in fact, was almost entirely
+ignored, as a country where, to quote Lady Theobald, "the laws were
+loose, and the prevailing sentiments revolutionary." It was not
+considered good taste to know Americans,--which was not unfortunate, as
+there were none to know; and Miss Belinda Bassett had always felt a
+delicacy in mentioning her only brother, who had emigrated to the United
+States in his youth, having first disgraced himself by the utterance of
+the blasphemous remark that "he wanted to get to a place where a fellow
+could stretch himself, and not be bullied by a lot of old tabbies." From
+the day of his departure, when he had left Miss Belinda bathed in tears
+of anguish, she had heard nothing of him; and here upon the threshold
+stood Mary Anne, with delighted eagerness in her countenance,
+repeating,--
+
+"Your niece, mum, from 'Meriker!"
+
+And, with the words, her niece entered.
+
+Miss Belinda put her hand to her heart.
+
+The young lady thus announced was the prettiest, and at the same time the
+most extraordinary-looking, young lady she had ever seen in her life.
+Slowbridge contained nothing approaching this niece. Her dress was so
+very stylish that it was quite startling in its effect; her forehead was
+covered down to her large, pretty eyes themselves, with curls of
+yellow-brown hair; and her slender throat was swathed round and round
+with a grand scarf of black lace.
+
+She made a step forward, and then stopped, looking at Miss Belinda. Her
+eyes suddenly, to Miss Belinda's amazement, filled with tears.
+
+"Didn't you," she said,--"oh, dear! _Didn't_ you get the letter?"
+
+"The--the letter!" faltered Miss Belinda. "What letter, my--my dear?"
+
+"Pa's," was the answer. "Oh! I see you didn't."
+
+And she sank into the nearest chair, putting her hands up to her face,
+and beginning to cry outright.
+
+"I--am Octavia B-bassett," she said. "We were coming to surp-prise you,
+and travel in Europe; but the mines went wrong, and p-pa was obliged to
+go back to Nevada."
+
+"The mines?" gasped Miss Belinda.
+
+"S-silver-mines," wept Octavia. "And we had scarcely landed when Piper
+cabled, and pa had to turn back. It was something about shares, and he
+may have lost his last dollar."
+
+Miss Belinda sank into a chair herself.
+
+"Mary Anne," she said faintly, "bring me a glass of water."
+
+Her tone was such that Octavia removed her handkerchief from her eyes,
+and sat up to examine her.
+
+"Are you frightened?" she asked, in some alarm.
+
+Miss Belinda took a sip of the water brought by her handmaiden, replaced
+the glass upon the salver, and shook her head deprecatingly.
+
+"Not exactly frightened, my dear," she said, "but so amazed that I find
+it difficult to--to collect myself."
+
+Octavia put up her handkerchief again to wipe away a sudden new gush of
+tears.
+
+"If shares intended to go down," she said, "I don't see why they couldn't
+go down before we started, instead of waiting until we got over here, and
+then spoiling every thing."
+
+"Providence, my dear"--began Miss Belinda.
+
+But she was interrupted by the re-entrance of Mary Anne.
+
+"The man from the Lion, mum, wants to know what's to be done with the
+trunks. There's six of 'em, an' they're all that 'eavy as he says he
+wouldn't lift one alone for ten shilling."
+
+"Six!" exclaimed Miss Belinda. "Whose are they?"
+
+"Mine," replied Octavia. "Wait a minute. I'll go out to him."
+
+Miss Belinda was astounded afresh by the alacrity with which her niece
+seemed to forget her troubles, and rise to the occasion. The girl ran to
+the front door as if she was quite used to directing her own affairs, and
+began to issue her orders.
+
+"You will have to get another man," she said. "You might have known that.
+Go and get one somewhere."
+
+And when the man went off, grumbling a little, and evidently rather at a
+loss before such peremptory coolness, she turned to Miss Belinda.
+
+"Where must he put them?" she asked.
+
+It did not seem to have occurred to her once that her identity might be
+doubted, and some slight obstacles arise before her.
+
+"I am afraid," faltered Miss Belinda, "that five of them will have to be
+put in the attic."
+
+And in fifteen minutes five of them _were_ put into the attic, and the
+sixth--the biggest of all--stood in the trim little spare chamber, and
+pretty Miss Octavia had sunk into a puffy little chintz-covered
+easy-chair, while her newly found relative stood before her, making the
+most laudable efforts to recover her equilibrium, and not to feel as if
+her head were spinning round and round.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+"AN INVESTMENT, ANYWAY."
+
+
+The natural result of these efforts was, that Miss Belinda was moved to
+shed a few tears.
+
+"I hope you will excuse my being too startled to say I was glad to see
+you," she said. "I have not seen my brother for thirty years, and I was
+very fond of him."
+
+"He said you were," answered Octavia; "and he was very fond of you too.
+He didn't write to you, because he made up his mind not to let you hear
+from him until he was a rich man; and then he thought he would wait until
+he could come home, and surprise you. He was awfully disappointed when he
+had to go back without seeing you."
+
+"Poor, dear Martin!" wept Miss Belinda gently. "Such a journey!"
+
+Octavia opened her charming eyes in surprise.
+
+"Oh, he'll come back again!" she said. "And he doesn't mind the journey.
+The journey is nothing, you know."
+
+"Nothing!" echoed Miss Belinda. "A voyage across the Atlantic nothing?
+When one thinks of the danger, my dear"--
+
+Octavia's eyes opened a shade wider.
+
+"We have made the trip to the States, across the Isthmus, twelve times,
+and that takes a month," she remarked. "So we don't think ten days much."
+
+"Twelve times!" said Miss Belinda, quite appalled. "Dear, dear, dear!"
+
+And for some moments she could do nothing but look at her young relative
+in doubtful wonder, shaking her head with actual sadness.
+
+But she finally recovered herself, with a little start.
+
+"What am I thinking of," she exclaimed remorsefully, "to let you sit here
+in this way? Pray excuse me, my dear. You see I am so upset."
+
+She left her chair in a great hurry, and proceeded to embrace her young
+guest tenderly, though with a little timorousness. The young lady
+submitted to the caress with much composure.
+
+"Did I upset you?" she inquired calmly.
+
+The fact was, that she could not see why the simple advent of a relative
+from Nevada should seem to have the effect of an earthquake, and result
+in tremor, confusion, and tears. It was true, she herself had shed a tear
+or so, but then her troubles had been accumulating for several days; and
+she had not felt confused yet.
+
+When Miss Belinda went down-stairs to superintend Mary Anne in the
+tea-making, and left her guest alone, that young person glanced about her
+with a rather dubious expression.
+
+"It is a queer, nice little place," she said. "But I don't wonder that pa
+emigrated, if they always get into such a flurry about little things. I
+might have been a ghost."
+
+Then she proceeded to unlock the big trunk, and attire herself.
+
+Down-stairs, Miss Belinda was wavering between the kitchen and the
+parlor, in a kindly flutter.
+
+"Toast some muffins, Mary Anne, and bring in the cold roast fowl," she
+said. "And I will put out some strawberry-jam, and some of the preserved
+ginger. Dear me! Just to think how fond of preserved ginger poor Martin
+was, and how little of it he was allowed to eat! There really seems a
+special Providence in my having such a nice stock of it in the house when
+his daughter comes home."
+
+In the course of half an hour every thing was in readiness; and then Mary
+Anne, who had been sent up-stairs to announce the fact, came down in a
+most remarkable state of delighted agitation, suppressed ecstasy and
+amazement exclaiming aloud in every feature.
+
+"She's dressed, mum," she announced, "an' 'll be down immediate," and
+retired to a shadowy corner of the kitchen passage, that she might lie in
+wait unobserved.
+
+Miss Belinda, sitting behind the tea-service, heard a soft, flowing,
+silken rustle sweeping down the staircase, and across the hall, and then
+her niece entered.
+
+"Don't you think I've dressed pretty quick?" she said, and swept across
+the little parlor, and sat down in her place, with the calmest and most
+unconscious air in the world.
+
+There was in Slowbridge but one dressmaking establishment. The head of
+the establishment--Miss Letitia Chickie--designed the costumes of every
+woman in Slowbridge, from Lady Theobald down. There were legends that she
+received her patterns from London, and modified them to suit the
+Slowbridge taste. Possibly this was true; but in that case her labors as
+modifier must have been severe indeed, since they were so far modified as
+to be altogether unrecognizable when they left Miss Chickie's
+establishment, and were borne home in triumph to the houses of her
+patrons. The taste of Slowbridge was quiet,--upon this Slowbridge prided
+itself especially,--and, at the same time, tended toward economy. When
+gores came into fashion, Slowbridge clung firmly, and with some pride, to
+substantial breadths, which did not cut good silk into useless strips
+which could not be utilized in after-time; and it was only when, after a
+visit to London, Lady Theobald walked into St. James's one Sunday with
+two gores on each side, that Miss Chickie regretfully put scissors into
+her first breadth. Each matronly member of good society possessed a
+substantial silk gown of some sober color, which gown, having done duty
+at two years' tea-parties, descended to the grade of "second-best," and
+so descended, year by year, until it disappeared into the dim distance of
+the past. The young ladies had their white muslins and natural flowers;
+which latter decorations invariably collapsed in the course of the
+evening, and were worn during the latter half of any festive occasion in
+a flabby and hopeless condition. Miss Chickie made the muslins,
+festooning and adorning them after designs emanating from her fertile
+imagination. If they were a little short in the body, and not very
+generously proportioned in the matter of train, there was no rival
+establishment to sneer, and Miss Chickie had it all her own way; and, at
+least, it could never be said that Slowbridge was vulgar or overdressed.
+
+Judge, then, of Miss Belinda Bassett's condition of mind when her fair
+relative took her seat before her.
+
+What the material of her niece's dress was, Miss Belinda could not have
+told. It was a silken and soft fabric of a pale blue color; it clung to
+the slender, lissome young figure like a glove; a fan-like train of great
+length almost covered the hearth-rug; there were plaitings and frillings
+all over it, and yards of delicate satin ribbon cut into loops in the
+most recklessly extravagant manner.
+
+Miss Belinda saw all this at the first glance, as Mary Anne had seen it,
+and, like Mary Anne, lost her breath; but, on her second glance, she saw
+something more. On the pretty, slight hands were three wonderful,
+sparkling rings, composed of diamonds set in clusters: there were great
+solitaires in the neat little ears, and the thickly-plaited lace at the
+throat was fastened by a diamond clasp.
+
+"My dear," said Miss Belinda, clutching helplessly at the teapot, "are
+you--surely it is a--a little dangerous to wear such--such priceless
+ornaments on ordinary occasions."
+
+Octavia stared at her for a moment uncomprehendingly.
+
+"Your jewels, I mean, my love," fluttered Miss Belinda. "Surely you don't
+wear them often. I declare, it quite frightens me to think of having such
+things in the house."
+
+"Does it?" said Octavia. "That's queer."
+
+And she looked puzzled for a moment again.
+
+Then she glanced down at her rings.
+
+"I nearly always wear these," she remarked. "Father gave them to me. He
+gave me one each birthday for three years. He says diamonds are an
+investment, anyway, and I might as well have them. These," touching the
+ear-rings and clasp, "were given to my mother when she was on the stage.
+A lot of people clubbed together, and bought them for her. She was a
+great favorite."
+
+Miss Belinda made another clutch at the handle of the teapot.
+
+"Your mother!" she exclaimed faintly. "On the--did you say, on the"--
+
+"Stage," answered Octavia. "San Francisco. Father married her there. She
+was awfully pretty. I don't remember her. She died when I was born. She
+was only nineteen."
+
+The utter calmness, and freedom from embarrassment, with which these
+announcements were made, almost shook Miss Belinda's faith in her own
+identity. Strange to say, until this moment she had scarcely given a
+thought to her brother's wife; and to find herself sitting in her own
+genteel little parlor, behind her own tea-service, with her hand upon her
+own teapot, hearing that this wife had been a young person who had been
+"a great favorite" upon the stage, in a region peopled, as she had been
+led to suppose, by gold-diggers and escaped convicts, was almost too much
+for her to support herself under. But she did support herself bravely,
+when she had time to rally.
+
+"Help yourself to some fowl, my dear," she said hospitably, even though
+very faintly indeed, "and take a muffin."
+
+Octavia did so, her over-splendid hands flashing in the light as she
+moved them.
+
+"American girls always have more things than English girls," she
+observed, with admirable coolness. "They dress more. I have been told so
+by girls who have been in Europe. And I have more things than most
+American girls. Father had more money than most people; that was one
+reason; and he spoiled me, I suppose. He had no one else to give things
+to, and he said I should have every thing I took a fancy to. He often
+laughed at me for buying things, but he never said I shouldn't buy them."
+
+"He was always generous," sighed Miss Belinda. "Poor, dear Martin!"
+
+Octavia scarcely entered into the spirit of this mournful sympathy. She
+was fond of her father, but her recollections of him were not pathetic or
+sentimental.
+
+"He took me with him wherever he went," she proceeded. "And we had a
+teacher from the States, who travelled with us sometimes. He never sent
+me away from him. I wouldn't have gone if he had wanted to send me--and
+he didn't want to," she added, with a satisfied little laugh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+L'ARGENTVILLE.
+
+
+Miss Belinda sat, looking at her niece, with a sense of being at once
+stunned and fascinated. To see a creature so young, so pretty, so
+luxuriously splendid, and at the same time so simply and completely at
+ease with herself and her surroundings, was a revelation quite beyond her
+comprehension. The best-bred and nicest girls Slowbridge could produce
+were apt to look a trifle conscious and timid when they found themselves
+attired in the white muslin and floral decorations; but this slender
+creature sat in her gorgeous attire, her train flowing over the modest
+carpet, her rings flashing, her ear-pendants twinkling, apparently
+entirely oblivious of, or indifferent to, the fact that all her
+belongings were sufficiently out of place to be startling beyond measure.
+
+Her chief characteristic, however, seemed to be her excessive frankness.
+She did not hesitate at all to make the most remarkable statements
+concerning her own and her father's past career. She made them, too, as
+if there was nothing unusual about them. Twice, in her childhood, a
+luckless speculation had left her father penniless; and once he had taken
+her to a Californian gold-diggers' camp, where she had been the only
+female member of the somewhat reckless community.
+
+"But they were pretty good-natured, and made a pet of me," she said;
+"and we did not stay very long. Father had a stroke of luck, and we
+went away. I was sorry when we had to go, and so were the men. They made
+me a present of a set of jewelry made out of the gold they had got
+themselves. There is a breastpin like a breastplate, and a necklace like
+a dog-collar: the bracelets tire my arms, and the ear-rings pull my ears;
+but I wear them sometimes--gold girdle and all."
+
+"Did I," inquired Miss Belinda timidly, "did I understand you to say, my
+dear, that your father's business was in some way connected with
+silver-mining?"
+
+"It _is_ silver-mining," was the response. "He owns some mines, you
+know"--
+
+"Owns?" said Miss Belinda, much fluttered; "owns some silver-mines? He
+must be a very rich man,--a very rich man. I declare, it quite takes my
+breath away."
+
+"Oh! he is rich," said Octavia; "awfully rich sometimes. And then again
+he isn't. Shares go up, you know; and then they go down, and you don't
+seem to have any thing. But father generally comes out right, because he
+is lucky, and knows how to manage."
+
+"But--but how uncertain!" gasped Miss Belinda: "I should be perfectly
+miserable. Poor, dear Mar"--
+
+"Oh, no, you wouldn't!" said Octavia: "you'd get used to it, and wouldn't
+mind much, particularly if you were lucky as father is. There is every
+thing in being lucky, and knowing how to manage. When we first went to
+Bloody Gulch"--
+
+"My dear!" cried Miss Belinda, aghast. "I--I beg of you"--
+
+Octavia stopped short: she gazed at Miss Belinda in bewilderment, as she
+had done several times before.
+
+"Is any thing the matter?" she inquired placidly.
+
+"My dear love," explained Miss Belinda innocently, determined at least to
+do her duty, "it is not customary in--in Slowbridge,--in fact, I think I
+may say in England,--to use such--such exceedingly--I don't want to wound
+your feelings, my dear,--but such exceedingly strong expressions! I
+refer, my dear, to the one which began with a B. It is really considered
+profane, as well as dreadful beyond measure."
+
+"'The one which began with a B,'" repeated Octavia, still staring at her.
+"That is the name of a place; but I didn't name it, you know. It was
+called that, in the first place, because a party of men were surprised
+and murdered there, while they were asleep in their camp at night. It
+isn't a very nice name, of course, but I'm not responsible for it; and
+besides, now the place is growing, they are going to call it Athens or
+Magnolia Vale. They tried L'Argentville for a while; but people would
+call it Lodginville, and nobody liked it."
+
+"I trust you never lived there," said Miss Belinda. "I beg your pardon
+for being so horrified, but I really could not refrain from starting when
+you spoke; and I cannot help hoping you never lived there."
+
+"I live there now, when I am at home," Octavia replied. "The mines are
+there; and father has built a house, and had the furniture brought on
+from New York."
+
+Miss Belinda tried not to shudder, but almost failed.
+
+"Won't you take another muffin, my love?" she said, with a sigh. "Do take
+another muffin."
+
+"No, thank you," answered Octavia; and it must be confessed that she
+looked a little bored, as she leaned back in her chair, and glanced down
+at the train of her dress. It seemed to her that her simplest statement
+or remark created a sensation.
+
+Having at last risen from the tea-table, she wandered to the window, and
+stood there, looking out at Miss Belinda's flower-garden. It was quite a
+pretty flower-garden, and a good-sized one considering the dimensions of
+the house. There were an oval grass-plot, divers gravel paths, heart and
+diamond shaped beds aglow with brilliant annuals, a great many
+rose-bushes, several laburnums and lilacs, and a trim hedge of holly
+surrounding it.
+
+"I think I should like to go out and walk around there," remarked
+Octavia, smothering a little yawn behind her hand. "Suppose we go--if you
+don't care."
+
+"Certainly, my dear," assented Miss Belinda. "But perhaps," with a
+delicately dubious glance at her attire, "you would like to make some
+little alteration in your dress--to put something a little--dark over
+it."
+
+Octavia glanced down also.
+
+"Oh, no!" she replied: "it will do well enough. I will throw a scarf over
+my head, though; not because I need it," unblushingly, "but because I
+have a lace one that is very becoming."
+
+She went up to her room for the article in question, and in three minutes
+was down again. When she first caught sight of her, Miss Belinda found
+herself obliged to clear her throat quite suddenly. What Slowbridge would
+think of seeing such a toilet in her front garden, upon an ordinary
+occasion, she could not imagine. The scarf truly was becoming. It was a
+long affair of rich white lace, and was thrown over the girl's head,
+wound around her throat, and the ends tossed over her shoulders, with the
+most picturesque air of carelessness in the world.
+
+"You look quite like a bride, my dear Octavia," said Miss Belinda. "We
+are scarcely used to such things in Slowbridge."
+
+But Octavia only laughed a little.
+
+"I am going to get some pink roses, and fasten the ends with them, when
+we get into the garden," she said.
+
+She stopped for this purpose at the first rose-bush they reached. She
+gathered half a dozen slender-stemmed, heavy-headed buds, and, having
+fastened the lace with some, was carelessly placing the rest at her
+waist, when Miss Belinda started violently.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+LADY THEOBALD.
+
+
+"Oh, dear!" she exclaimed nervously, "there is Lady Theobald."
+
+Lady Theobald, having been making calls of state, was returning home
+rather later than usual, when, in driving up High Street, her eye fell
+upon Miss Bassett's garden. She put up her eyeglasses, and gazed through
+them severely; then she issued a mandate to her coachman.
+
+"Dobson," she said, "drive more slowly."
+
+She could not believe the evidence of her own eyeglasses. In Miss
+Bassett's garden she saw a tall girl, "dressed," as she put it, "like an
+actress," her delicate dress trailing upon the grass, a white lace scarf
+about her head and shoulders, roses in that scarf, roses at her waist.
+
+"Good heavens!" she exclaimed: "is Belinda Bassett giving a party,
+without so much as mentioning it to _me_?"
+
+Then she issued another mandate.
+
+"Dobson," she said, "drive faster, and drive me to Miss Bassett's."
+
+Miss Belinda came out to the gate to meet her, quaking inwardly. Octavia
+simply turned slightly where she stood, and looked at her ladyship,
+without any pretence of concealing her curiosity.
+
+Lady Theobald bent forward in her landau.
+
+"Belinda," she said, "how do you do? I did not know you intended to
+introduce garden-parties into Slowbridge."
+
+"Dear Lady Theobald"--began Miss Belinda.
+
+"Who is that young person?" demanded her ladyship.
+
+"She is poor dear Martin's daughter," answered Miss Belinda. "She arrived
+to-day--from Nevada, where--where it appears Martin has been very
+fortunate, and owns a great many silver-mines"--
+
+"A 'great many' silver-mines!" cried Lady Theobald. "Are you mad, Belinda
+Bassett? I am ashamed of you. At your time of life too!"
+
+Miss Belinda almost shed tears.
+
+"She said 'some silver-mines,' I am sure," she faltered; "for I remember
+how astonished and bewildered I was. The fact is, that she is such a very
+singular girl, and has told me so many wonderful things, in the
+strangest, cool way, that I am quite uncertain of myself. Murderers, and
+gold-diggers, and silver-mines, and camps full of men without women,
+making presents of gold girdles and dog-collars, and ear-rings that drag
+your ears down. It is enough to upset any one."
+
+"I should think so," responded her ladyship. "Open the carriage-door,
+Belinda, and let me get out."
+
+She felt that this matter must be inquired into at once, and not allowed
+to go too far. She had ruled Slowbridge too long to allow such
+innovations to remain uninvestigated. She would not be likely to be
+"upset," at least. She descended from her landau, with her most rigorous
+air. Her stout, rich black _moire-antique_ gown rustled severely; the
+yellow ostrich feather in her bonnet waved majestically. (Being a
+brunette, and Lady Theobald, she wore yellow.) As she tramped up the
+gravel walk, she held up her dress with both hands, as an example to
+vulgar and reckless young people who wore trains and left them to
+take care of themselves. Octavia was arranging afresh the bunch of
+long-stemmed, swaying buds at her waist, and she was giving all her
+attention to her task when her visitor first addressed her.
+
+"How do you do?" remarked her ladyship, in a fine, deep voice.
+
+Miss Belinda followed her meekly.
+
+"Octavia," she explained, "this is Lady Theobald, whom you will be very
+glad to know. She knew your father."
+
+"Yes," returned my lady, "years ago. He has had time to improve since
+then. How do you do?"
+
+Octavia's limpid eyes rested serenely upon her.
+
+"How do you do?" she said, rather indifferently.
+
+"You are from Nevada?" asked Lady Theobald.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"It is not long since you left there?"
+
+Octavia smiled faintly.
+
+"Do I look like that?" she inquired.
+
+"Like what?" said my lady.
+
+"As if I had not long lived in a civilized place. I dare say I do,
+because it is true that I haven't."
+
+"You don't look like an English girl," remarked her ladyship.
+
+Octavia smiled again. She looked at the yellow feather and stout _moire
+antique_ dress, but quite as if by accident, and without any mental
+deduction; then she glanced at the rosebuds in her hand.
+
+"I suppose I ought to be sorry for that," she observed. "I dare say I
+shall be in time--when I have been longer away from Nevada."
+
+"I must confess," admitted her ladyship, and evidently without the
+least regret or embarrassment, "I must confess that I don't know where
+Nevada is."
+
+"It isn't in Europe," replied Octavia, with a soft, light laugh. "You
+know that, don't you?"
+
+The words themselves sounded to Lady Theobald like the most outrageous
+impudence; but when she looked at the pretty, lovelock-shaded face, she
+was staggered the look it wore was such a very innocent and undisturbed
+one. At the moment, the only solution to be reached seemed to be that
+this was the style of young people in Nevada, and that it was ignorance
+and not insolence she had to do battle with--which, indeed, was
+partially true.
+
+"I have not had any occasion to inquire where it is situated, so far,"
+she responded firmly. "It is not so necessary for English people to know
+America as it is for Americans to know England."
+
+"Isn't it?" said Octavia, without any great show of interest. "Why not?"
+
+"For--for a great many reasons it would be fatiguing to explain," she
+answered courageously. "How is your father?"
+
+"He is very sea-sick now," was the smiling answer,--"deadly sea-sick. He
+has been out just twenty-four hours."
+
+"Out? What does that mean?"
+
+"Out on the Atlantic. He was called back suddenly, and obliged to leave
+me. That is why I came here alone."
+
+"Pray do come into the parlor, and sit down, dear Lady Theobald,"
+ventured Miss Belinda. "Octavia"--
+
+"Don't you think it is nicer out here?" said Octavia.
+
+"My dear," answered Miss Belinda. "Lady Theobald"--She was really quite
+shocked.
+
+"Ah!" interposed Octavia. "I only thought it was cooler."
+
+She preceded them, without seeming to be at all conscious that she was
+taking the lead.
+
+"You had better pick up your dress, Miss Octavia," said Lady Theobald
+rather acidly.
+
+The girl glanced over her shoulder at the length of train sweeping the
+path, but she made no movement toward picking it up.
+
+"It is too much trouble, and one has to duck down so," she said. "It is
+bad enough to have to keep doing it when one is on the street. Besides,
+they would never wear out if one took too much care of them."
+
+When they went into the parlor, and sat down, Lady Theobald made
+excellent use of her time, and managed to hear again all that had tried
+and bewildered Miss Belinda. She had no hesitation in asking questions
+boldly; she considered it her privilege to do so: she had catechised
+Slowbridge for forty years, and meant to maintain her rights until Time
+played her the knave's trick of disabling her.
+
+In half an hour she had heard about the silver-mines, the gold-diggers,
+and L'Argentville; she knew that Martin Bassett was a millionnaire, if
+the news he had heard had not left him penniless; that he would return to
+England, and visit Slowbridge, as soon as his affairs were settled. The
+precarious condition of his finances did not seem to cause Octavia much
+concern. She had asked no questions when he went away, and seemed quite
+at ease regarding the future.
+
+"People will always lend him money, and then he is lucky with it," she
+said.
+
+She bore the catechising very well. Her replies were frequently rather
+trying to her interlocutor, but she never seemed troubled, or ashamed of
+any thing she had to say; and she wore, from first to last, that
+inscrutably innocent and indifferent little air.
+
+She did not even show confusion when Lady Theobald, on going away, made
+her farewell comment:--
+
+"You are a very fortunate girl to own such jewels," she said, glancing
+critically at the diamonds in her ears; "but if you take my advice, my
+dear, you will put them away, and save them until you are a married
+woman. It is not customary, on this side of the water, for young girls to
+wear such things--particularly on ordinary occasions. People will think
+you are odd."
+
+"It is not exactly customary in America," replied Octavia, with her
+undisturbed smile. "There are not many girls who have such things.
+Perhaps they would wear them if they had them. I don't care a very great
+deal about them, but I mean to wear them."
+
+Lady Theobald went away in a dudgeon.
+
+"You will have to exercise your authority, Belinda, and _make_ her put
+them away," she said to Miss Bassett. "It is absurd--besides being
+atrocious."
+
+"Make her!" faltered Miss Bassett.
+
+"Yes, 'make her'--though I see you will have your hands full. I never
+heard such romancing stories in my life. It is just what one might expect
+from your brother Martin."
+
+When Miss Bassett returned, Octavia was standing before the window,
+watching the carriage drive away, and playing absently with one of her
+ear-rings as she did so.
+
+"What an old fright she is!" was her first guileless remark.
+
+Miss Belinda quite bridled.
+
+"My dear," she said, with dignity, "no one in Slowbridge would think of
+applying such a phrase to Lady Theobald."
+
+Octavia turned around, and looked at her.
+
+"But don't you think she is one?" she exclaimed. "Perhaps I oughtn't to
+have said it; but you know we haven't any thing as bad as that, even out
+in Nevada--really!"
+
+"My dear," said Miss Belinda, "different countries contain different
+people; and in Slowbridge _we_ have our standards,"--her best cap
+trembling a little with her repressed excitement.
+
+But Octavia did not appear overwhelmed by the existence of the standards
+in question. She turned to the window again.
+
+"Well, anyway," she said, "I think it was pretty cool in her to order me
+to take off my diamonds, and save them until I was married. How does she
+know whether I mean to be married, or not? I don't know that I care
+about it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+LUCIA.
+
+
+In this manner Slowbridge received the shock which shook it to
+its foundations, and it was a shock from which it did not recover for
+some time. Before ten o'clock the next morning, everybody knew of the
+arrival of Martin Bassett's daughter.
+
+The very boarding-school (Miss Pilcher's select seminary for young
+ladies, "combining the comforts of a home," as the circular said,
+"with all the advantages of genteel education") was on fire with it,
+highly colored versions of the stories told being circulated from
+the "first class" downward, even taking the form of an Indian princess,
+tattooed blue, and with difficulty restrained from indulging in
+war-whoops,--which last feature so alarmed little Miss Bigbee, aged
+seven, that she retired in fear and trembling, and shed tears under the
+bedclothes; her terror and anguish being much increased by the stirring
+recitals of scalping-stories by pretty Miss Phipps, of the first
+class--a young person who possessed a vivid imagination, and delighted in
+romances of a tragic turn.
+
+"I have not the slightest doubt," said Miss Phipps, "that when she is at
+home she lives in a wampum."
+
+"What is a wampum?" inquired one of her admiring audience.
+
+"A tent," replied Miss Phipps, with some impatience. "I should
+think any goose would know that. It is a kind of tent hung with
+scalps and--and--moccasins, and--lariats--and things of that sort."
+
+"I don't believe that is the right name for it," put in Miss Smith, who
+was a pert member of the third class.
+
+"Ah!" commented Miss Phipps, "that was Miss Smith who spoke, of course.
+We may always expect information from Miss Smith. I trust that I may be
+allowed to say that I _think_ I _have_ a brother"--
+
+"He doesn't know much about it, if he calls a wigwam a wampum,"
+interposed Miss Smith, with still greater pertness. "I have a brother who
+knows better than that, if I am only in the third class." For a moment
+Miss Phipps appeared to be meditating. Perhaps she was a trifle
+discomfited; but she recovered herself after a brief pause, and returned
+to the charge.
+
+"Well," she remarked, "perhaps it is a wigwam. Who cares if it is? And
+at any rate, whatever it is, I haven't the slightest doubt that she
+lives in one."
+
+This comparatively tame version was, however, entirely discarded when the
+diamonds and silver-mines began to figure more largely in the reports.
+Certainly, pretty, overdressed, jewel-bedecked Octavia gave Slowbridge
+abundant cause for excitement.
+
+After leaving her, Lady Theobald drove home to Oldclough Hall, rather
+out of humor. She had been rather out of humor for some time, having
+never quite recovered from her anger at the daring of that cheerful
+builder of mills, Mr. John Burmistone. Mr. Burmistone had been one
+innovation, and Octavia Bassett was another. She had not been able to
+manage Mr. Burmistone, and she was not at all sure that she had managed
+Octavia Bassett.
+
+She entered the dining-room with an ominous frown on her forehead.
+
+At the end of the table, opposite her own seat, was a vacant chair, and
+her frown deepened when she saw it.
+
+"Where is Miss Gaston?" she demanded of the servant.
+
+Before the man had time to reply, the door opened, and a girl came in
+hurriedly, with a somewhat frightened air.
+
+"I beg pardon, grandmamma dear," she said, going to her seat quickly. "I
+did not know you had come home."
+
+"We have a dinner-hour," announced her ladyship, "and _I_ do not
+disregard it."
+
+"I am very sorry," faltered the culprit.
+
+"That is enough, Lucia," interrupted Lady Theobald; and Lucia dropped her
+eyes, and began to eat her soup with nervous haste. In fact, she was glad
+to escape so easily.
+
+She was a very pretty creature, with brown eyes, a soft white skin, and
+a slight figure with a reed-like grace. A great quantity of brown hair
+was twisted into an ugly coil on the top of her delicate little head;
+and she wore an ugly muslin gown of Miss Chickie's make. For some time
+the meal progressed in dead silence; but at length Lucia ventured to
+raise her eyes.
+
+"I have been walking in Slowbridge, grandmamma," she said, "and I met Mr.
+Burmistone, who told me that Miss Bassett has a visitor--a young lady
+from America."
+
+Lady Theobald laid her knife and fork down deliberately.
+
+"Mr. Burmistone?" she said. "Did I understand you to say that you stopped
+on the roadside to converse with Mr. Burmistone?"
+
+Lucia colored up to her delicate eyebrows and above them.
+
+"I was trying to reach a flower growing on the bank," she said, "and he
+was so kind as to stop to get it for me. I did not know he was near at
+first. And then he inquired how you were--and told me he had just heard
+about the young lady."
+
+"Naturally!" remarked her ladyship sardonically. "It is as I anticipated
+it would be. We shall find Mr. Burmistone at our elbows upon all
+occasions. And he will not allow himself to be easily driven away. He is
+as determined as persons of his class usually are."
+
+"O grandmamma!" protested Lucia, with innocent fervor. "I really do not
+think he is--like that at all. I could not help thinking he was very
+gentlemanly and kind. He is so much interested in your school, and so
+anxious that it should prosper."
+
+"May I ask," inquired Lady Theobald, "how long a time this generous
+expression of his sentiments occupied? Was this the reason of your
+forgetting the dinner-hour?"
+
+"We did not"--said Lucia guiltily: "it did not take many minutes. I--I do
+not think that made me late."
+
+Lady Theobald dismissed this paltry excuse with one remark,--a remark
+made in the deep tones referred to once before.
+
+"I should scarcely have expected," she observed, "that a granddaughter of
+mine would have spent half an hour conversing on the public road with the
+proprietor of Slowbridge Mills."
+
+"O grandmamma!" exclaimed Lucia, the tears rising in her eyes: "it was
+not half an hour."
+
+"I should scarcely have expected," replied her ladyship, "that a
+granddaughter of mine would have spent five minutes conversing on the
+public road with the proprietor of Slowbridge Mills."
+
+To this assault there seemed to be no reply to make. Lady Theobald had
+her granddaughter under excellent control. Under her rigorous rule, the
+girl--whose mother had died at her birth--had been brought up. At
+nineteen she was simple, sensitive, shy. She had been permitted to have
+no companions, and the greatest excitements of her life had been the
+Slowbridge tea-parties. Of the late Sir Gilbert Theobald, the less said
+the better. He had spent very little of his married life at Oldclough
+Hall, and upon his death his widow had found herself possessed of a
+substantial, gloomy mansion, an exalted position in Slowbridge society,
+and a small marriage-settlement, upon which she might make all the
+efforts she chose to sustain her state. So Lucia wore her dresses a much
+longer time than any other Slowbridge young lady: she was obliged to mend
+her little gloves again and again; and her hats were retrimmed so often
+that even Slowbridge thought them old-fashioned. But she was too simple
+and sweet-natured to be much troubled, and indeed thought very little
+about the matter. She was only troubled when Lady Theobald scolded her,
+which was by no means infrequently. Perhaps the straits to which, at
+times, her ladyship was put to maintain her dignity imbittered her
+somewhat.
+
+"Lucia is neither a Theobald nor a Barold," she had been heard to say
+once, and she had said it with much rigor.
+
+A subject of much conversation in private circles had been Lucia's
+future. It had been discussed in whispers since her seventeenth year, but
+no one had seemed to approach any solution of the difficulty. Upon the
+subject of her plans for her granddaughter, Lady Theobald had preserved
+stern silence. Once, and once only, she had allowed herself to be
+betrayed into the expression of a sentiment connected with the matter.
+
+"If Miss Lucia marries"--a matron of reckless proclivities had remarked.
+
+Lady Theobald turned upon her, slowly and majestically.
+
+"_If_ Miss Gaston marries," she repeated. "Does it seem likely that Miss
+Gaston will _not_ marry?"
+
+This settled the matter finally. Lucia was to be married when Lady
+Theobald thought fit. So far, however, she had not thought fit: indeed,
+there had been nobody for Lucia to marry,--nobody whom her grandmother
+would have allowed her to marry, at least. There were very few young men
+in Slowbridge; and the very few were scarcely eligible according to Lady
+Theobald's standard, and--if such a thing should be mentioned--to
+Lucia's, if she had known she had one, which she certainly did not.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+ACCIDENTAL.
+
+
+When dinner was over, Lady Theobald rose, and proceeded to the
+drawing-room, Lucia following in her wake. From her very babyhood Lucia
+had disliked the drawing-room, which was an imposing apartment of great
+length and height, containing much massive furniture, upholstered in
+faded blue satin. All the girl's evenings, since her fifth year, had been
+spent sitting opposite her grandmother, in one of the straightest of the
+blue chairs: all the most scathing reproofs she had received had been
+administered to her at such times. She had a secret theory, indeed, that
+all unpleasant things occurred in the drawing-room after dinner.
+
+Just as they had seated themselves, and Lady Theobald was on the point of
+drawing toward her the little basket containing the gray woollen mittens
+she made a duty of employing herself by knitting each evening, Dobson,
+the coachman, in his character of footman, threw open the door, and
+announced a visitor.
+
+"Capt. Barold."
+
+Lady Theobald dropped her gray mitten, the steel needles falling upon the
+table with a clink. She rose to her feet at once, and met half-way the
+young man who had entered.
+
+"My dear Francis," she remarked, "I am exceedingly glad to see you at
+last," with a slight emphasis upon the "at last."
+
+"Tha-anks," said Capt. Barold, rather languidly. "You're very good, I'm
+sure."
+
+Then he glanced at Lucia, and Lady Theobald addressed her:--
+
+"Lucia," she said, "this is Francis Barold, who is your cousin."
+
+Capt. Barold shook hands feebly.
+
+"I have been trying to find out whether it is third or fourth," he said.
+
+"It is third," said my lady.
+
+Lucia had never seen her display such cordiality to anybody. But Capt.
+Francis Barold did not seem much impressed by it. It struck Lucia that he
+would not be likely to be impressed by any thing. He seated himself near
+her grandmother's chair, and proceeded to explain his presence on the
+spot, without exhibiting much interest even in his own relation of facts.
+
+"I promised the Rathburns that I would spend a week at their place; and
+Slowbridge was on the way, so it occurred to me I would drop off in
+passing. The Rathburns' place, Broadoaks, is about ten miles farther on;
+not far, you see."
+
+"Then," said Lady Theobald, "I am to understand that your visit is
+accidental."
+
+Capt. Barold was not embarrassed. He did not attempt to avoid her
+ladyship's rather stern eye, as he made his cool reply.
+
+"Well, yes," he said. "I beg pardon, but it is accidental, rather."
+
+Lucia gave him a pretty, frightened look, as if she felt that, after such
+an audacious confession, something very serious must happen; but nothing
+serious happened at all. Singularly enough, it was Lady Theobald herself
+who looked ill at ease, and as though she had not been prepared for such
+a contingency.
+
+During the whole of the evening, in fact, it was always Lady Theobald
+who was placed at a disadvantage, Lucia discovered. She could hardly
+realize the fact at first; but before an hour had passed, its truth was
+forced upon her.
+
+Capt. Barold was a very striking-looking man, upon the whole. He was
+large, gracefully built, and fair: his eyes were gray, and noticeable for
+the coldness of their expression, his features regular and aquiline, his
+movements leisurely.
+
+As he conversed with her grandmother, Lucia wondered at him privately. It
+seemed to her innocent mind that he had been everywhere, and seen every
+thing and everybody, without caring for or enjoying his privileges. The
+truth was, that he had seen and experienced a great deal too much. As an
+only child, the heir to a large property, and heir prospective to one of
+the oldest titles in the country, he had exhausted life early. He saw in
+Lady Theobald, not the imposing head and social front of Slowbridge
+social life, the power who rewarded with approval and punished with a
+frown, but a tiresome, pretentious old woman, whom his mother had asked
+him, for some feminine reason, to visit. "She feels she has a claim upon
+us, Francis," she had said appealingly.
+
+"Well," he had remarked, "that is rather deuced cool, isn't it? We have
+people enough on our hands without cultivating Slowbridge, you know."
+
+His mother sighed faintly.
+
+"It is true we have a great many people to consider; but I wish you would
+do it, my dear."
+
+She did not say any thing at all about Lucia: above all, she did not
+mention that a year ago she herself had spent two or three days at
+Slowbridge, and had been charmed beyond measure by the girl's innocent
+freshness, and that she had said, rather absently, to Lady Theobald,--
+
+"What a charming wife Lucia would make for a man to whom gentleness and a
+yielding disposition were necessary! We do not find such girls in society
+nowadays, my dear Lady Theobald. It is very difficult of late years to
+find a girl who is not spoken of as 'fast,' and who is not disposed to
+take the reins in her own hands. Our young men are flattered and courted
+until they become a little dictatorial, and our girls are spoiled at
+home. And the result is a great deal of domestic unhappiness
+afterward--and even a great deal of scandal, which is dreadful to
+contemplate. I cannot help feeling the greatest anxiety in secret
+concerning Francis. Young men so seldom consider these matters until it
+is too late."
+
+"Girls are not trained as they were in my young days, or even in yours,"
+said Lady Theobald. "They are allowed too much liberty. Lucia has been
+brought up immediately under my own eye."
+
+"I feel that it is fortunate," remarked Mrs. Barold, quite incidentally,
+"that Francis need not make a point of money."
+
+For a few moments Lady Theobald did not respond; but afterward, in the
+course of the conversation which followed, she made an observation which
+was, of course, purely incidental.
+
+"If Lucia makes a marriage which pleases her great-uncle, old Mr. Dugald
+Binnie, of Glasgow, she will be a very fortunate girl. He has intimated,
+in his eccentric fashion, that his immense fortune will either be hers,
+or will be spent in building charitable asylums of various kinds. He is a
+remarkable and singular man."
+
+When Capt. Barold had entered his distinguished relative's drawing-room,
+he had not regarded his third cousin with a very great deal of interest.
+He had seen too many beauties in his thirty years to be greatly moved by
+the sight of one; and here was only a girl who had soft eyes, and looked
+young for her age, and who wore an ugly muslin gown, that most girls
+could not have carried off at all.
+
+"You have spent the greater part of your life in Slowbridge?" he
+condescended to say in the course of the evening.
+
+"I have lived here always," Lucia answered. "I have never been away more
+than a week at a time."
+
+"Ah?" interrogatively. "I hope you have not found it dull."
+
+"No," smiling a little. "Not very. You see, I have known nothing gayer."
+
+"There is society enough of a harmless kind here," spoke up Lady Theobald
+virtuously. "I do not approve of a round of gayeties for young people: it
+unfits them for the duties of life."
+
+But Capt. Barold was not as favorably impressed by these remarks as might
+have been anticipated.
+
+"What an old fool she is!" was his polite inward comment. And he resolved
+at once to make his visit as brief as possible, and not to be induced to
+run down again during his stay at Broadoaks. He did not even take the
+trouble to appear to enjoy his evening. From his earliest infancy, he had
+always found it easier to please himself than to please other people. In
+fact, the world had devoted itself to endeavoring to please him, and win
+his--toleration, we may say, instead of admiration, since it could not
+hope for the latter. At home he had been adored rapturously by a large
+circle of affectionate male and female relatives; at school his tutors
+had been singularly indulgent of his faults and admiring of his talents;
+even among his fellow-pupils he had been a sort of autocrat.
+
+Why not, indeed, with such birthrights and such prospects? When he had
+entered society, he had met with even more amiable treatment from
+affectionate mothers, from innocent daughters, from cordial paternal
+parents, who voted him an exceedingly fine fellow. Why should he bore
+himself by taking the trouble to seem pleased by a stupid evening with an
+old grenadier in petticoats and a badly dressed country girl?
+
+Lucia was very glad when, in answer to a timidly appealing glance, Lady
+Theobald said,--
+
+"It is half-past ten. You may wish us good-night, Lucia."
+
+Lucia obeyed, as if she had been half-past ten herself, instead of nearly
+twenty; and Barold was not long in following her example.
+
+Dobson led him to a stately chamber at the top of the staircase, and left
+him there. The captain chose the largest and most luxurious chair, sat
+down in it, and lighted a cigar at his leisure.
+
+"Confoundedly stupid hole!" he said with a refined vigor one would
+scarcely have expected from an individual of his birth and breeding. "I
+shall leave to-morrow, of course. What was my mother thinking of? Stupid
+business from first to last."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+"I SHOULD LIKE TO SEE MORE OF SLOWBRIDGE."
+
+
+When he announced at breakfast his intention of taking his departure on
+the midday train, Lucia wondered again what would happen; and again, to
+her relief, Lady Theobald was astonishingly lenient.
+
+"As your friends expect you, of course we cannot overrule them," she
+said. "We will, however, hope to see something of you during your stay at
+Broadoaks. It will be very easy for you to run down and give us a few
+hours now and then."
+
+"Tha-anks," said Capt. Barold.
+
+He was decently civil, if not enthusiastic, during the few remaining
+hours of his stay. He sauntered through the grounds with Lucia, who took
+charge of him in obedience to her grandmother's wish. He did not find her
+particularly troublesome when she was away from her ladyship's side. When
+she came out to him in her simple cotton gown and straw hat, it occurred
+to him that she was much prettier than he had thought her at first. For
+economical reasons she had made the little morning-dress herself, without
+the slightest regard for the designs of Miss Chickie; and as it was not
+trimmed at all, and had only a black-velvet ribbon at the waist, there
+was nothing to place her charming figure at a disadvantage. It could not
+be said that her shyness and simplicity delighted Capt. Barold, but, at
+least, they did not displease him; and this was really as much as could
+be expected.
+
+"She does not expect a fellow to exert himself, at all events," was his
+inward comment; and he did not exert himself.
+
+But, when on the point of taking his departure, he went so far as to make
+a very gracious remark to her.
+
+"I hope we shall have the pleasure of seeing you in London for a season,
+before very long," he said: "my mother will have great pleasure in taking
+charge of you, if Lady Theobald cannot be induced to leave Slowbridge."
+
+"Lucia never goes from home alone," said Lady Theobald; "but I should
+certainly be obliged to call upon your mother for her good offices, in
+the case of our spending a season in London. I am too old a woman to
+alter my mode of life altogether."
+
+In obedience to her ladyship's orders, the venerable landau was brought
+to the door; and the two ladies drove to the station with him.
+
+It was during this drive that a very curious incident occurred,--an
+incident to which, perhaps, this story owes its existence, since, if it
+had not taken place, there might, very possibly, have been no events of a
+stirring nature to chronicle. Just as Dobson drove rather slowly up the
+part of High Street distinguished by the presence of Miss Belinda
+Bassett's house, Capt. Barold suddenly appeared to be attracted by some
+figure he discovered in the garden appertaining to that modest structure.
+
+"By Jove!" he exclaimed, in an undertone, "there is Miss Octavia."
+
+For the moment he was almost roused to a display of interest. A faint
+smile lighted his face, and his cold, handsome eyes slightly brightened.
+
+Lady Theobald sat bolt upright.
+
+"That is Miss Bassett's niece, from America," she said. "Do I understand
+you know her?"
+
+Capt. Barold turned to confront her, evidently annoyed at having allowed
+a surprise to get the better of him. All expression died out of his face.
+
+"I travelled with her from Framwich to Stamford," he said. "I suppose we
+should have reached Slowbridge together, but that I dropped off at
+Stamford to get a newspaper, and the train left me behind."
+
+"O grandmamma!" exclaimed Lucia, who had turned to look, "how very pretty
+she is!"
+
+Miss Octavia certainly was amazingly so this morning. She was standing by
+a rosebush again, and was dressed in a cashmere morning-robe of the
+finest texture and the faintest pink: it had a Watteau plait down the
+back, _jabot_ of lace down the front, and the close, high frills of lace
+around the throat which seemed to be a weakness with her. Her hair was
+dressed high upon her head, and showed to advantage her little ears and
+as much of her slim white neck as the frills did not conceal.
+
+But Lady Theobald did not share Lucia's enthusiasm.
+
+"She looks like an actress," she said. "If the trees were painted canvas
+and the roses artificial, one might have some patience with her. That
+kind of thing is scarcely what we expect in Slowbridge."
+
+Then she turned to Barold.
+
+"I had the pleasure of meeting her yesterday, not long after she
+arrived," she said. "She had diamonds in her ears as big as peas, and
+rings to match. Her manner is just what one might expect from a young
+woman brought up among gold-diggers and silver-miners."
+
+"It struck me as being a very unique and interesting manner," said Capt.
+Barold. "It is chiefly noticeable for a _sang-froid_ which might be
+regarded as rather enviable. She was good enough to tell me all about her
+papa and the silver-mines, and I really found the conversation
+entertaining."
+
+"It is scarcely customary for English young women to confide in their
+masculine travelling companions to such an extent," remarked my lady
+grimly.
+
+"She did not confide in me at all," said Barold. "Therein lay her
+attraction. One cannot submit to being 'confided in' by a strange young
+woman, however charming. This young lady's remarks were flavored solely
+with an adorably cool candor. She evidently did not desire to appeal to
+any emotion whatever."
+
+And as he leaned back in his seat, he still looked at the picturesque
+figure which they had passed, as if he would not have been sorry to see
+it turn its head toward him.
+
+In fact, it seemed that, notwithstanding his usual good fortune, Capt.
+Barold was doomed this morning to make remarks of a nature objectionable
+to his revered relation. On their way they passed Mr. Burmistone's mill,
+which was at work in all its vigor, with a whir and buzz of machinery,
+and a slight odor of oil in its surrounding atmosphere.
+
+"Ah!" said Mr. Barold, putting his single eyeglass into his eye, and
+scanning it after the manner of experts. "I did not think you had any
+thing of that sort here. Who put it up?"
+
+"The man's name," replied Lady Theobald severely, "is Burmistone."
+
+"Pretty good idea, isn't it?" remarked Barold. "Good for the place--and
+all that sort of thing."
+
+"To my mind," answered my lady, "it is the worst possible thing which
+could have happened."
+
+Mr. Francis Barold dropped his eyeglass dexterously, and at once lapsed
+into his normal condition--which was a condition by no means favorable
+to argument.
+
+"Think so?" he said slowly. "Pity, isn't it, under the circumstances?"
+
+And really there was nothing at all for her ladyship to do but preserve a
+lofty silence. She had scarcely recovered herself when they reached the
+station, and it was necessary to say farewell as complacently as
+possible.
+
+"We will hope to see you again before many days," she said with dignity,
+if not with warmth.
+
+Mr. Francis Barold was silent for a second, and a slightly reflective
+expression flitted across his face.
+
+"Thanks, yes," he said at last. "Certainly. It is easy to come down, and
+I should like to see more of Slowbridge."
+
+When the train had puffed in and out of the station, and Dobson was
+driving down High Street again, her ladyship's feelings rather got the
+better of her.
+
+"If Belinda Bassett is a wise woman," she remarked, "she will take my
+advice, and get rid of this young lady as soon as possible. It appears to
+me," she continued, with exalted piety, "that every well-trained English
+girl has reason to thank her Maker that she was born in a civilized
+land."
+
+"Perhaps," suggested Lucia softly, "Miss Octavia Bassett has had no one
+to train her at all; and it may be that--that she even feels it deeply."
+
+The feathers in her ladyship's bonnet trembled.
+
+"She does not feel it at all!" she announced. "She is an
+impertinent--minx!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+SHARES LOOKING UP.
+
+
+There were others who echoed her ladyship's words afterward, though they
+echoed them privately, and with more caution than my lady felt necessary.
+It is certain that Miss Octavia Bassett did not improve as time
+progressed, and she had enlarged opportunities for studying the noble
+example set before her by Slowbridge.
+
+On his arrival in New York, Martin Bassett telegraphed to his daughter
+and sister, per Atlantic cable, informing them that he might be detained
+a couple of months, and bidding them to be of good cheer. The arrival of
+the message in its official envelope so alarmed Miss Belinda, that she
+was supported by Mary Anne while it was read to her by Octavia, who
+received it without any surprise whatever. For some time after its
+completion, Slowbridge had privately disbelieved in the Atlantic cable,
+and, until this occasion, had certainly disbelieved in the existence of
+people who received messages through it. In fact, on first finding that
+she was the recipient of such a message, Miss Belinda had made immediate
+preparations for fainting quietly away, being fully convinced that a
+shipwreck had occurred, which had resulted in her brother's death, and
+that his executors had chosen this delicate method of breaking the news.
+
+"A message by Atlantic cable?" she had gasped. "Don't--don't read it, my
+love. L-let some one else do that. Poor--poor child! Trust in Providence,
+my love, and--and bear up. Ah, how I wish I had a stronger mind, and
+could be of more service to you!"
+
+"It's a message from father," said Octavia. "Nothing is the matter. He's
+all right. He got in on Saturday."
+
+"Ah!" panted Miss Belinda. "Are you _quite_ sure, my dear--are you quite
+sure?"
+
+"That's what he says. Listen."
+
+"Got in Saturday. Piper met me. Shares looking up. May be kept here two
+months. Will write. Keep up your spirits. MARTIN BASSETT."
+
+"Thank Heaven!" sighed Miss Belinda. "Thank Heaven!"
+
+"Why?" said Octavia.
+
+"Why?" echoed Miss Belinda. "Ah, my dear, if you knew how terrified I
+was! I felt sure that something had happened. A _cable_ message, my dear!
+I never received a telegram in my life before, and to receive a _cable_
+message was really a _shock_."
+
+"Well, I don't see why," said Octavia. "It seems to me it is pretty much
+like any other message."
+
+Miss Belinda regarded her timidly.
+
+"Does your papa _often_ send them?" she inquired. "Surely it must be
+expensive."
+
+"I don't suppose it's cheap," Octavia replied, "but it saves time and
+worry. I should have had to wait twelve days for a letter."
+
+"Very true," said Miss Belinda, "but"--
+
+She broke off with rather a distressed shake of the head. Her simple
+ideas of economy and quiet living were frequently upset in these times.
+She had begun to regard her niece with a slight feeling of awe; and yet
+Octavia had not been doing any thing at all remarkable in her own eyes,
+and considered her life pretty dull.
+
+If the elder Miss Bassett, her parents and grandparents, had not been so
+thoroughly well known, and so universally respected; if their social
+position had not been so firmly established, and their quiet lives not
+quite so highly respectable,--there is an awful possibility that
+Slowbridge might even have gone so far as not to ask Octavia out to tea
+at all. But even Lady Theobald felt that it would not do to slight
+Belinda Bassett's niece and guest. To omit the customary state teas
+would have been to crush innocent Miss Belinda at a blow, and place
+her--through the medium of this young lady, who alone deserved
+condemnation--beyond the pale of all social law.
+
+"It is only to be regretted," said her ladyship, "that Belinda Bassett
+has not arranged things better. Relatives of such an order are certainly
+to be deplored."
+
+In secret Lucia felt much soft-hearted sympathy for both Miss Bassett and
+her guest. She could not help wondering how Miss Belinda became
+responsible for the calamity which had fallen upon her. It really did not
+seem probable that she had been previously consulted as to the kind of
+niece she desired, or that she had, in a distinct manner, evinced a
+preference for a niece of this description.
+
+"Perhaps, dear grandmamma," the girl ventured, "it is because Miss
+Octavia Bassett is so young that"--
+
+"May I ask," inquired Lady Theobald, in fell tones, "how old you are?"
+
+"I was nineteen in--in December."
+
+"Miss Octavia Bassett," said her ladyship, "was nineteen last October,
+and it is now June. I have not yet found it necessary to apologize for
+you on the score of youth."
+
+But it was her ladyship who took the initiative, and set an evening for
+entertaining Miss Belinda and her niece, in company with several other
+ladies, with the best bohea, thin bread and butter, plum-cake, and
+various other delicacies.
+
+"What do they do at such places?" asked Octavia. "Half-past five is
+pretty early."
+
+"We spend some time at the tea-table, my dear," explained Miss Belinda.
+"And afterward we--we converse. A few of us play whist. I do not. I feel
+as if I were not clever enough, and I get flurried too easily by--by
+differences of opinion."
+
+"I should think it wasn't very exciting," said Octavia. "I don't fancy
+I ever went to an entertainment where they did nothing but drink tea,
+and talk."
+
+"It is not our intention or desire to be exciting, my dear," Miss Belinda
+replied with mild dignity. "And an improving conversation is frequently
+most beneficial to the parties engaged in it."
+
+"I'm afraid," Octavia observed, "that I never heard much improving
+conversation."
+
+She was really no fonder of masculine society than the generality of
+girls; but she could not help wondering if there would be any young men
+present, and if, indeed, there were any young men in Slowbridge who might
+possibly be produced upon festive occasions, even though ordinarily kept
+in the background. She had not heard Miss Belinda mention any masculine
+name so far, but that of the curate of St. James's; and, when she had
+seen him pass the house, she had not found his slim, black figure, and
+faint, ecclesiastic whiskers, especially interesting.
+
+It must be confessed that Miss Belinda suffered many pangs of anxiety in
+looking forward to her young kinswoman's first appearance in society. A
+tea at Lady Theobald's house constituted formal presentation to the
+Slowbridge world. Each young lady within the pale of genteel society,
+having arrived at years of discretion, on returning home from
+boarding-school, was invited to tea at Oldclough Hall. During an entire
+evening she was the subject of watchful criticism. Her deportment was
+remarked, her accomplishments displayed, she performed her last new
+"pieces" upon the piano, she was drawn into conversation by her hostess;
+and upon the timid modesty of her replies, and the reverence of her
+listening attitudes, depended her future social status. So it was very
+natural indeed that Miss Belinda should be anxious.
+
+"I would wear something rather quiet and--and simple, my dear Octavia,"
+she said. "A white muslin perhaps, with blue ribbons."
+
+"Would you?" answered Octavia. Then, after appearing to reflect upon the
+matter a few seconds, "I've got one that would do, if it's warm enough
+to wear it. I bought it in New York, but it came from Paris. I've never
+worn it yet."
+
+"It would be nicer than any thing else, my love," said Miss Belinda,
+delighted to find her difficulty so easily disposed of. "Nothing is so
+charming in the dress of a young girl as pure simplicity. Our Slowbridge
+young ladies rarely wear any thing but white for evening. Miss Chickie
+assured me, a few weeks ago, that she had made fifteen white-muslin
+dresses, all after one simple design of her own."
+
+"I shouldn't think that was particularly nice, myself," remarked Octavia
+impartially. "I should be glad one of the fifteen didn't belong to me. I
+should feel as if people might say, when I came into a room, 'Good
+gracious, there's another!'"
+
+"The first was made for Miss Lucia Gaston, who is Lady Theobald's niece,"
+replied Miss Belinda mildly. "And there are few young ladies in
+Slowbridge who would not emulate her example."
+
+"Oh!" said Octavia, "I dare say she is very nice, and all that; but I
+don't believe I should care to copy her dresses. I think I should draw
+the line there."
+
+But she said it without any ill-nature; and, sensitive as Miss Belinda
+was upon the subject of her cherished ideals, she could not take offence.
+
+When the eventful evening arrived, there was excitement in more than one
+establishment upon High Street and the streets in its vicinity. The
+stories of the diamonds, the gold-diggers, and the silver-mines, had been
+added to, and embellished, in the most ornate and startling manner. It
+was well known that only Lady Theobald's fine appreciation of Miss
+Belinda Bassett's feelings had induced her to extend her hospitalities to
+that lady's niece.
+
+"I would prefer, my dear," said more than one discreet matron to her
+daughter, as they attired themselves,--"I would much prefer that you
+would remain near me during the earlier part of the evening, before we
+know how this young lady may turn out. Let your manner toward her be
+kind, but not familiar. It is well to be upon the safe side."
+
+What precise line of conduct it was generally anticipated that this
+gold-digging and silver-mining young person would adopt, it would be
+difficult to say: it is sufficient that the general sentiments regarding
+her were of a distrustful, if not timorous, nature.
+
+To Miss Bassett, who felt all this in the very air she breathed, the
+girl's innocence of the condition of affairs was even a little touching.
+With all her splendor, she was not at all hard to please, and had quite
+awakened to an interest in the impending social event. She seemed in good
+spirits, and talked more than was her custom, giving Miss Belinda graphic
+descriptions of various festal gatherings she had attended in New York,
+when she seemed to have been very gay indeed, and to have worn very
+beautiful dresses, and also to have had rather more than her share of
+partners. The phrases she used, and the dances she described, were all
+strange to Miss Belinda, and tended to reducing her to a bewildered
+condition, in which she felt much timid amazement at the intrepidity of
+the New-York young ladies, and no slight suspicion of the "German"--as a
+theatrical kind of dance, involving extraordinary figures, and an
+extraordinary amount of attention from partners of the stronger sex.
+
+It must be admitted, however, that by this time, notwithstanding the
+various shocks she had received, Miss Belinda had begun to discover in
+her young guest divers good qualities which appealed to her
+affectionate and susceptible old heart. In the first place, the girl
+had no small affectations: indeed, if she had been less unaffected she
+might have been less subject to severe comment. She was good-natured,
+and generous to extravagance. Her manner toward Mary Anne never ceased
+to arouse Miss Belinda to interest. There was not any condescension
+whatever in it, and yet it could not be called a vulgarly familiar
+manner: it was rather an astonishingly simple manner, somehow
+suggestive of a subtile recognition of Mary Anne's youth, and ill-luck
+in not having before her more lively prospects. She gave Mary Anne
+presents in the shape of articles of clothing at which Slowbridge
+would have exclaimed in horror if the recipient had dared to wear them;
+but, when Miss Belinda expressed her regret at these indiscretions,
+Octavia was quite willing to rectify her mistakes.
+
+"Ah, well!" she said, "I can give her some money, and she can buy some
+things for herself." Which she proceeded to do; and when, under her
+mistress's direction, Mary Anne purchased a stout brown merino, she took
+quite an interest in her struggles at making it.
+
+"I wouldn't make it so short in the waist and so full in the skirt, if I
+were you," she said. "There's no reason why it shouldn't fit, you know,"
+thereby winning the house-maiden's undying adoration, and adding much to
+the shapeliness of the garment.
+
+"I am sure she has a good heart," Miss Belinda said to herself, as the
+days went by. "She is like Martin in that. I dare say she finds me very
+ignorant and silly. I often see in her face that she is unable to
+understand my feeling about things; but she never seems to laugh at me,
+nor think of me unkindly. And she is very, very pretty, though perhaps I
+ought not to think of that at all."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+WHITE MUSLIN.
+
+
+As the good little spinster was arraying herself on this particular
+evening, having laid upon the bed the greater portion of her modest
+splendor, she went to her wardrobe, and took therefrom the scored bandbox
+containing her best cap. All the ladies of Slowbridge wore caps; and all
+being respectfully plagiarized from Lady Theobald, without any reference
+to age, size, complexion, or demeanor, the result was sometimes a little
+trying. Lady Theobald's head-dresses were of a severe and bristling
+order. The lace of which they were composed was induced by some ingenious
+device to form itself into aggressive quillings, the bows seemed lined
+with buckram, the strings neither floated nor fluttered.
+
+"To a majestic person the style is very appropriate," Miss Belinda had
+said to Octavia that very day; "but to one who is not so, it is rather
+trying. Sometimes, indeed, I have _almost_ wished that Miss Chickie would
+vary a _little_ more in her designs."
+
+Perhaps the sight of the various articles contained in two of the five
+trunks had inspired these doubts in the dear old lady's breast: it is
+certain, at least, that, as she took the best cap up, a faint sigh
+fluttered upon her lips.
+
+"It is very large for a small person," she said. "And I am not at all
+sure that amber is becoming to me."
+
+And just at that moment there came a tap at the door, which she knew was
+from Octavia.
+
+She laid the cap back, in some confusion at being surprised in a moment
+of weakness.
+
+"Come in, my love," she said.
+
+Octavia pushed the door open, and came in. She had not dressed yet, and
+had on her wrapper and slippers, which were both of quilted gray silk,
+gayly embroidered with carnations. But Miss Belinda had seen both wrapper
+and slippers before, and had become used to their sumptuousness: what she
+had not seen was the trifle the girl held in her hand. "See here," she
+said. "See what I have been making for you!"
+
+She looked quite elated, and laughed triumphantly.
+
+"I did not know I could do it until I tried," she said. "I had seen some
+in New York, and I had the lace by me. And I have enough left to make
+ruffles for your neck and wrists. It's Mechlin."
+
+"My dear!" exclaimed Miss Belinda. "My dear!"
+
+Octavia laughed again.
+
+"Don't you know what it is?" she said. "It isn't like a Slowbridge cap;
+but it's a cap, nevertheless. They wear them like this in New York, and I
+think they are ever so much prettier."
+
+It was true that it was not like a Slowbridge cap, and was also true that
+it was prettier. It was a delicate affair of softly quilled lace, adorned
+here and there with loops of pale satin ribbon.
+
+"Let me try it on," said Octavia, advancing; and in a minute she had done
+so, and turned Miss Bassett about to face herself in the glass. "There!"
+she said. "Isn't that better than--well, than emulating Lady Theobald?"
+
+It was so pretty and so becoming, and Miss Belinda was so touched by the
+girl's innocent enjoyment, that the tears came into her eyes.
+
+"My--my love," she faltered, "it is so beautiful, and so expensive,
+that--though indeed I don't know how to thank you--I am afraid I should
+not dare to wear it."
+
+"Oh!" answered Octavia, "that's nonsense, you know. I'm sure there's no
+reason why people shouldn't wear becoming things. Besides, I should be
+awfully disappointed. I didn't think I could make it, and I'm real proud
+of it. You don't know how becoming it is!"
+
+Miss Belinda looked at her reflection, and faltered. It was becoming.
+
+"My love," she protested faintly, "real Mechlin! There is really no such
+lace in Slowbridge."
+
+"All the better," said Octavia cheerfully. "I'm glad to hear that. It
+isn't one bit too nice for you."
+
+To Miss Belinda's astonishment, she drew a step nearer to her, and gave
+one of the satin loops a queer, caressing little touch, which actually
+seemed to mean something. And then suddenly the girl stooped, with a
+little laugh, and gave her aunt a light kiss on her cheek.
+
+"There!" she said. "You must take it from me for a present. I'll go and
+make the ruffles this minute; and you must wear those too, and let people
+see how stylish you can be."
+
+And, without giving Miss Bassett time to speak, she ran out of the room,
+and left the dear old lady warmed to the heart, tearful, delighted,
+frightened.
+
+A coach from the Blue Lion had been ordered to present itself at a
+quarter past five, promptly; and at the time specified it rattled up to
+the door with much spirit,--with so much spirit, indeed, that Miss
+Belinda was a little alarmed.
+
+"Dear, dear!" she said. "I hope the driver will be able to control the
+horse, and will not allow him to go too fast. One hears of such terrible
+accidents."
+
+Then Mary Anne was sent to announce the arrival of the equipage to Miss
+Octavia, and, having performed the errand, came back beaming with smiles.
+
+"Oh, mum," she exclaimed, "you never see nothin' like her! Her gownd is
+'evingly. An' lor'! how you do look yourself, to be sure!"
+
+Indeed, the lace ruffles on her "best" black silk, and the little cap on
+her smooth hair, had done a great deal for Miss Bassett; and she had only
+just been reproaching herself for her vanity in recognizing this fact.
+But Mary Anne's words awakened a new train of thought.
+
+"Is--is Miss Octavia's dress a showy one, Mary Anne?" she inquired. "Dear
+me, I do hope it is not a showy dress!"
+
+"I never see nothin' no eleganter, mum," said Mary Anne: "she wants
+nothin' but a veil to make a bride out of her--an' a becominer thing she
+never has wore."
+
+They heard the soft sweep of skirts at that moment, and Octavia came in.
+
+"There!" she said, stopping when she had reached the middle of the room.
+"Is that simple enough?" Miss Belinda could only look at her helplessly.
+The "white muslin" was composed almost entirely of Valenciennes lace; the
+blue ribbons were embroidered with field-daisies; the air of delicate
+elaborateness about the whole was something which her innocent mind could
+not have believed possible in orthodox white and blue.
+
+"I don't think I should call it exactly simple," she said. "My love, what
+a quantity of lace!"
+
+Octavia glanced down at her _jabots_ and frills complacently.
+
+"There _is_ a good deal of it," she remarked; "but then, it is nice, and
+one can stand a good deal of nice Valenciennes on white. They said Worth
+made the dress. I hope he did. It cost enough. The ribbon was embroidered
+by hand, I suppose. And there is plenty of it cut up into these bows."
+
+There was no more to be said. Miss Belinda led the way to the coach,
+which they entered under the admiring or critical eyes of several most
+respectable families, who had been lying in wait behind their
+window-curtains since they had been summoned there by the sound of
+the wheels.
+
+As the vehicle rattled past the boarding-school, all the young ladies in
+the first class rushed to the window. They were rewarded for their zeal
+by a glimpse of a cloud of muslin and lace, a charmingly dressed
+yellow-brown head, and a pretty face, whose eyes favored them with a
+frank stare of interest.
+
+"She had diamonds in her ears!" cried Miss Phipps, wildly excited. "I saw
+them flash. Ah, how I should like to see her without her wraps! I have no
+doubt she is a perfect blaze!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+ANNOUNCING MR. BAROLD.
+
+
+Lady Theobald's invited guests sat in the faded blue drawing-room,
+waiting. Everybody had been unusually prompt, perhaps because
+everybody wished to be on the ground in time to see Miss Octavia
+Bassett make her entrance.
+
+"I should think it would be rather a trial, even to such a girl as she is
+said to be," remarked one matron.
+
+"It is but natural that she should feel that Lady Theobald will regard
+her rather critically, and that she should know that American manners
+will hardly be the thing for a genteel and conservative English country
+town."
+
+"We saw her a few days ago," said Lucia, who chanced to hear this
+speech, "and she is very pretty. I think I never saw any one so very
+pretty before."
+
+"But in quite a theatrical way, I think, my dear," the matron replied, in
+a tone of gentle correction.
+
+"I have seen so very few theatrical people," Lucia answered sweetly,
+"that I scarcely know what the theatrical way is, dear Mrs. Burnham. Her
+dress was very beautiful, and not like what we wear in Slowbridge; but
+she seemed to me to be very bright and pretty, in a way quite new to me,
+and so just a little odd."
+
+"I have heard that her dress is most extravagant and wasteful," put in
+Miss Pilcher, whose educational position entitled her to the
+condescending respect of her patronesses. "She has lace on her morning
+gowns, which"--
+
+"Miss Bassett and Miss Octavia Bassett," announced Dobson, throwing
+open the door.
+
+Lady Theobald rose from her seat. A slight rustle made itself heard
+through the company, as the ladies all turned toward the entrance; and,
+after they had so turned, there were evidences of a positive thrill.
+Before the eyes of all, Belinda Bassett advanced with rich ruffles of
+Mechlin at her neck and wrists, with a delicate and distinctly novel cap
+upon her head, her niece following her with an unabashed face, twenty
+pounds' worth of lace on her dress, and unmistakable diamonds in her
+little ears.
+
+"There is not a _shadow_ of timidity about her," cried Mrs. Burnham under
+her breath. "This is actual boldness."
+
+But this was a very severe term to use, notwithstanding that it was born
+of righteous indignation. It was not boldness at all: it was only the
+serenity of a young person who was quite unconscious that there was any
+thing to fear in the rather unimposing party before her. Octavia was
+accustomed to entering rooms full of strangers. She had spent several
+years of her life in hotels, where she had been stared out of countenance
+by a few score new people every day. She was even used to being, in some
+sort, a young person of note. It was nothing unusual for her to know that
+she was being pointed out. "That pretty blonde," she often heard it said,
+"is Martin Bassett's daughter: sharp fellow, Bassett,--and lucky fellow
+too; more money than he can count."
+
+So she was not at all frightened when she walked in behind Miss Belinda.
+She glanced about her cheerfully, and, catching sight of Lucia, smiled at
+her as she advanced up the room. The call of state Lady Theobald had made
+with her grand-daughter had been a very brief one; but Octavia had taken
+a decided fancy to Lucia, and was glad to see her again.
+
+"I am glad to see you, Belinda," said her ladyship, shaking hands. "And
+you also, Miss Octavia."
+
+"Thank you," responded Octavia.
+
+"You are very kind," Miss Belinda murmured gratefully.
+
+"I hope you are both well?" said Lady Theobald with majestic
+condescension, and in tones to be heard all over the room.
+
+"Quite well, thank you," murmured Miss Belinda again. "_Very_ well
+indeed;" rather as if this fortunate state of affairs was the result of
+her ladyship's kind intervention with the fates.
+
+She felt terribly conscious of being the centre of observation, and
+rather overpowered by the novelty of her attire, which was plainly
+creating a sensation. Octavia, however, who was far more looked at, was
+entirely oblivious of the painful prominence of her position. She
+remained standing in the middle of the room, talking to Lucia, who had
+approached to greet her. She was so much taller than Lucia, that she
+looked very tall indeed by contrast, and also very wonderfully dressed.
+Lucia's white muslin was one of Miss Chickie's fifteen, and was, in a
+"genteel" way, very suggestive of Slowbridge. Suspended from Octavia's
+waist by a long loop of the embroidered ribbon, was a little round fan,
+of downy pale-blue feathers, and with this she played as she talked; but
+Lucia, having nothing to play with, could only stand with her little
+hands hanging at her sides.
+
+"I have never been to an afternoon tea like this before," Octavia said.
+"It is nothing like a kettle-drum."
+
+"I am not sure that I know what a kettle-drum is," Lucia answered. "They
+have them in London, I think; but I have never been to London."
+
+"They have them in New York," said Octavia; "and they are a crowded sort
+of afternoon parties, where ladies go in carriage-toilet, not evening
+dress. People are rushing in and out all the time."
+
+Lucia glanced around the room and smiled.
+
+"That is very unlike this," she remarked.
+
+"Well," said Octavia, "I should think that, after all, this might be
+nicer."
+
+Which was very civil.
+
+Lucia glanced around again--this time rather stealthily--at Lady
+Theobald. Then she glanced back at Octavia.
+
+"But it isn't," she said, in an undertone.
+
+Octavia began to laugh. They were on a new and familiar footing from
+that moment.
+
+"I said 'it might,'" she answered.
+
+She was not afraid, any longer, of finding the evening stupid. If there
+were no young men, there was at least a young woman who was in sympathy
+with her. She said,--
+
+"I hope that I shall behave myself pretty well, and do the things I am
+expected to do."
+
+"Oh!" said Lucia, with a rather alarmed expression, "I hope so. I--I am
+afraid you would not be comfortable if you didn't."
+
+Octavia opened her eyes, as she often did at Miss Belinda's remarks, and
+then suddenly she began to laugh again.
+
+"What would they do?" she said disrespectfully. "Would they turn me out,
+without giving me any tea?"
+
+Lucia looked still more frightened.
+
+"Don't let them see you laughing," she said. "They--they will say you
+are giddy."
+
+"Giddy!" replied Octavia. "I don't think there is any thing to make me
+giddy here."
+
+"If they say you are giddy," said Lucia, "your fate will be sealed; and,
+if you are to stay here, it really will be better to try to please them
+a little."
+
+Octavia reflected a moment.
+
+"I don't mean to _dis_please them," she said, "unless they are very
+easily displeased. I suppose I don't think very much about what people
+are saying of me. I don't seem to notice."
+
+"Will you come now and let me introduce Miss Egerton and her sister?"
+suggested Lucia hurriedly. "Grandmamma is looking at us."
+
+In the innocence of her heart Octavia glanced at Lady Theobald, and
+saw that she was looking at them, and with a disapproving air. "I
+wonder what that's for?" she said to herself; but she followed Lucia
+across the room.
+
+She made the acquaintance of the Misses Egerton, who seemed rather
+fluttered, and, after the first exchange of civilities, subsided into
+monosyllables and attentive stares. They were, indeed, very anxious to
+hear Octavia converse, but had not the courage to attempt to draw her
+out, unless a sudden query of Miss Lydia's could be considered such an
+attempt.
+
+"Do you like England?" she asked.
+
+"Is this England?" inquired Octavia.
+
+"It is a part of England, of course," replied the young lady, with calm
+literalness.
+
+"Then, of course, I like it very much," said Octavia, slightly waving her
+fan and smiling.
+
+Miss Lydia Egerton and Miss Violet Egerton each regarded her in dubious
+silence for a moment. They did not think she looked as if she were
+"clever;" but the speech sounded to both as if she were, and as if she
+meant to be clever a little at their expense.
+
+Naturally, after that they felt slightly uncomfortable, and said less
+than before; and conversation lagged to such an extent that Octavia was
+not sorry when tea was announced.
+
+And it so happened that tea was not the only thing announced. The ladies
+had all just risen from their seats with a gentle rustle, and Lady
+Theobald was moving forward to marshal her procession into the
+dining-room, when Dobson appeared at the door again.
+
+"Mr. Barold, my lady," he said, "and Mr. Burmistone."
+
+Everybody glanced first at the door, and then at Lady Theobald. Mr.
+Francis Barold crossed the threshold, followed by the tall,
+square-shouldered builder of mills, who was a strong, handsome man, and
+bore himself very well, not seeming to mind at all the numerous eyes
+fixed upon him.
+
+"I did not know," said Barold, "that we should find you had guests. Beg
+pardon, I'm sure, and so does Burmistone, whom I had the pleasure of
+meeting at Broadoaks, and who was good enough to invite me to return with
+him." Lady Theobald extended her hand to the gentleman specified.
+
+"I am glad," she said rigidly, "to see Mr. Burmistone."
+
+Then she turned to Barold.
+
+"This is very fortunate," she announced. "We are just going in to take
+tea, in which I hope you will join us. Lucia"--
+
+Mr. Francis Barold naturally turned, as her ladyship uttered her
+granddaughter's name in a tone of command. It may be supposed that his
+first intention in turning was to look at Lucia; but he had scarcely done
+so, when his attention was attracted by the figure nearest to her,--the
+figure of a young lady, who was playing with a little blue fan, and
+smiling at him brilliantly and unmistakably.
+
+The next moment he was standing at Octavia Bassett's side, looking rather
+pleased, and the blood of Slowbridge was congealing, as the significance
+of the situation was realized.
+
+One instant of breathless--of awful--suspense, and her ladyship
+recovered herself.
+
+"We will go in to tea," she said. "May I ask you, Mr. Burmistone, to
+accompany Miss Pilcher?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+A SLIGHT INDISCRETION.
+
+
+During the remainder of the evening, Miss Belinda was a prey to
+wretchedness and despair. When she raised her eyes to her hostess, she
+met with a glance full of icy significance; when she looked across the
+tea-table, she saw Octavia seated next to Mr. Francis Barold,
+monopolizing his attention, and apparently in the very best possible
+spirits. It only made matters worse, that Mr. Francis Barold seemed to
+find her remarks worthy of his attention. He drank very little tea, and
+now and then appeared much interested and amused. In fact, he found Miss
+Octavia even more entertaining than he had found her during their
+journey. She did not hesitate at all to tell him that she was delighted
+to see him again at this particular juncture.
+
+"You don't know how glad I was to see you come in," she said.
+
+She met his rather startled glance with the most open candor as she
+spoke.
+
+"It is very civil of you to say so," he said; "but you can hardly expect
+me to believe it, you know. It is too good to be true."
+
+"I thought it was too good to be true when the door opened," she answered
+cheerfully. "I should have been glad to see _anybody_, almost"--
+
+"Well, that," he interposed, "isn't quite so civil."
+
+"It is not quite so civil to"--
+
+But there she checked herself, and asked him a question with the most
+_naive_ seriousness.
+
+"Are you a great friend of Lady Theobald's?" she said.
+
+"No," he answered. "I am a relative."
+
+"That's worse," she remarked.
+
+"It is," he replied. "Very much worse."
+
+"I asked you," she proceeded, with an entrancing little smile of
+irreverent approval, "because I was going to say that my last speech was
+not quite so civil to Lady Theobald."
+
+"That is perfectly true," he responded. "It wasn't civil to her at all."
+
+He was passing his time very comfortably, and was really surprised to
+feel that he was more interested in these simple audacities than he had
+been in any conversation for some time. Perhaps it was because his
+companion was so wonderfully pretty, but it is not unlikely that there
+were also other reasons. She looked him straight in the eyes, she
+comported herself after the manner of a young lady who was enjoying
+herself, and yet he felt vaguely that she might have enjoyed herself
+quite as much with Burmistone, and that it was probable that she would
+not think a second time of him, or of what she said to him.
+
+After tea, when they returned to the drawing-room, the opportunities
+afforded for conversation were not numerous. The piano was opened, and
+one after another of the young ladies were invited to exhibit their
+prowess. Upon its musical education Slowbridge prided itself. "Few
+towns," Miss Pilcher frequently remarked, "could be congratulated upon
+the possession of _such_ talent and _such_ cultivation." The Misses
+Egerton played a duet, the Misses Loftus sang, Miss Abercrombie
+"executed" a sonata with such effect as to melt Miss Pilcher to tears;
+and still Octavia had not been called upon. There might have been a
+reason for this, or there might not; but the moment arrived, at length,
+when Lady Theobald moved toward Miss Belinda with evidently fell intent.
+
+"Perhaps," she said, "perhaps your niece, Miss Octavia, will favor us."
+
+Miss Belinda replied in a deprecatory and uncertain murmur.
+
+"I--am not sure. I really don't know. Perhaps--Octavia, my dear."
+
+Octavia raised a smiling face.
+
+"I don't play," she said. "I never learned."
+
+"You do not play!" exclaimed Lady Theobald. "You do not play at all!"
+
+"No," answered Octavia. "Not a note. And I think I am rather glad of it;
+because, if I tried, I should be sure to do it worse than other people. I
+would rather," with unimpaired cheerfulness, "let some one else do it."
+
+There were a few seconds of dead silence. A dozen people seated around
+her had heard. Miss Pilcher shuddered; Miss Belinda looked down; Mr.
+Francis Barold preserved an entirely unmoved countenance, the general
+impression being that he was very much shocked, and concealed his disgust
+with an effort.
+
+"My dear," said Lady Theobald, with an air of much condescension and some
+grave pity, "I should advise you to try to learn. I can assure you that
+you would find it a great source of pleasure."
+
+"If you could assure me that my friends would find it a great source of
+pleasure, I might begin," answered the mistaken young person, still
+cheerfully; "but I am afraid they wouldn't."
+
+It seemed that fate had marked her for disgrace. In half an hour from
+that time she capped the climax of her indiscretions.
+
+The evening being warm, the French windows had been left open; and, in
+passing one of them, she stopped a moment to look out at the brightly
+moonlit grounds.
+
+Barold, who was with her, paused too.
+
+"Looks rather nice, doesn't it?" he said.
+
+"Yes," she replied. "Suppose we go out on the terrace."
+
+He laughed in an amused fashion she did not understand.
+
+"Suppose we do," he said. "By Jove, that's a good idea!"
+
+He laughed as he followed her.
+
+"What amuses you so?" she inquired.
+
+"Oh!" he replied, "I am merely thinking of Lady Theobald."
+
+"Well," she commented, "I think it's rather disrespectful in you to
+laugh. Isn't it a lovely night? I didn't think you had such moonlight
+nights in England. What a night for a drive!"
+
+"Is that one of the things you do in America--drive by moonlight?"
+
+"Yes. Do you mean to say you don't do it in England?"
+
+"Not often. Is it young ladies who drive by moonlight in America?"
+
+"Well, you don't suppose they go alone, do you?" quite ironically. "Of
+course they have some one with them."
+
+"Ah! Their papas?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Their mammas?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Their governesses, their uncles, their aunts?"
+
+"No," with a little smile.
+
+He smiled also.
+
+"That is another good idea," he said. "You have a great many nice ideas
+in America."
+
+She was silent a moment or so, swinging her fan slowly to and fro by its
+ribbon, and appearing to reflect.
+
+"Does that mean," she said at length, "that it wouldn't be considered
+proper in England?"
+
+"I hope you won't hold me responsible for English fallacies," was his
+sole answer.
+
+"I don't hold anybody responsible for them," she returned with some
+spirit. "I don't care one thing about them."
+
+"That is fortunate," he commented. "I am happy to say I don't, either. I
+take the liberty of pleasing myself. I find it pays best."
+
+"Perhaps," she said, returning to the charge, "perhaps Lady Theobald will
+think _this_ is improper."
+
+He put his hand up, and stroked his mustache lightly, without replying.
+
+"But it is _not_," she added emphatically: "it is _not!_"
+
+"No," he admitted, with a touch of irony, "it is not!"
+
+"Are _you_ any the worse for it?" she demanded.
+
+"Well, really, I think not--as yet," he replied.
+
+"Then we won't go in," she said, the smile returning to her lips again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+AN INVITATION.
+
+
+In the mean time Mr. Burmistone was improving his opportunities within
+doors. He had listened to the music with the most serious attention; and
+on its conclusion he had turned to Mrs. Burnham, and made himself very
+agreeable indeed. At length, however, he arose, and sauntered across the
+room to a table at which Lucia Gaston chanced to be standing alone,
+having just been deserted by a young lady whose mamma had summoned her.
+She wore, Mr. Burmistone regretted to see, as he advanced, a troubled and
+anxious expression; the truth being that she had a moment before remarked
+the exit of Miss Belinda's niece and her companion. It happened oddly
+that Mr. Burmistone's first words touched upon the subject of her
+thought. He began quite abruptly with it.
+
+"It seems to me," he said, "that Miss Octavia Bassett"--
+
+Lucia stopped him with a courage which surprised herself.
+
+"Oh, if you please," she implored, "don't say any thing unkind about
+her!"
+
+Mr. Burmistone looked down into her soft eyes with a good deal of
+feeling.
+
+"I was not going to say any thing unkind," he answered. "Why should I?"
+
+"Everybody seems to find a reason for speaking severely of her," Lucia
+faltered. "I have heard so many unkind things tonight, that I am quite
+unhappy. I am sure--I am _sure_ she is very candid and simple."
+
+"Yes," answered Mr. Burmistone, "I am sure she is very candid and
+simple."
+
+"Why should we expect her to be exactly like ourselves?" Lucia went on.
+"How can we be sure that our way is better than any other? Why should
+they be angry because her dress is so expensive and pretty? Indeed, I
+only wish I had such a dress. It is a thousand times prettier than any we
+ever wear. Look around the room, and see if it is not. And as to her not
+having learned to play on the piano, or to speak French--why should she
+be obliged to do things she feels she would not be clever at? I am not
+clever, and have been a sort of slave all my life, and have been scolded
+and blamed for what I could not help at all, until I have felt as if I
+must be a criminal. How happy she must have been to be let alone!"
+
+She had clasped her little hands, and, though she spoke in a low
+voice, was quite impassioned in an unconscious way. Her brief girlish
+life had not been a very happy one, as may be easily imagined; and a
+glimpse of the liberty for which she had suffered roused her to a
+sense of her own wrongs.
+
+"We are all cut out after the same pattern," she said. "We learn the same
+things, and wear the same dresses, one might say. What Lydia Egerton has
+been taught, I have been taught; yet what two creatures could be more
+unlike each other, by nature, than we are?"
+
+Mr. Burmistone glanced across the room at Miss Egerton. She was a fine,
+robust young woman, with a high nose and a stolid expression of
+countenance.
+
+"That is true," he remarked.
+
+"We are afraid of every thing," said Lucia bitterly. "Lydia Egerton is
+afraid--though you might not think so. And, as for me, nobody knows what
+a coward I am but myself. Yes, I am a coward! When grandmamma looks at
+me, I tremble. I dare not speak my mind, and differ with her, when I know
+she is unjust and in the wrong. No one could say that of Miss Octavia
+Bassett."
+
+"That is perfectly true," said Mr. Burmistone; and he even went so far as
+to laugh as he thought of Miss Octavia trembling in the august presence
+of Lady Theobald.
+
+The laugh checked Lucia at once in her little outburst of eloquence. She
+began to blush, the color mounting to her forehead.
+
+"Oh!" she began, "I did not mean to--to say so much. I"--
+
+There was something so innocent and touching in her sudden timidity and
+confusion, that Mr. Burmistone forgot altogether that they were not very
+old friends, and that Lady Theobald might be looking.
+
+He bent slightly forward, and looked into her upraised, alarmed eyes.
+
+"Don't be afraid of _me_" he said; "don't, for pity's sake!"
+
+He could not have hit upon a luckier speech, and also he could not have
+uttered it more feelingly than he did. It helped her to recover herself,
+and gave her courage.
+
+"There," she said, with a slight catch of the breath, "does not that
+prove what I said to be true? I was afraid, the very moment I ceased to
+forget myself. I was afraid of you and of myself. I have no courage at
+all."
+
+"You will gain it in time," he said.
+
+"I shall try to gain it," she answered. "I am nearly twenty, and it is
+time that I should learn to respect myself. I think it must be because I
+have no self-respect that I am such a coward."
+
+It seemed that her resolution was to be tried immediately; for at that
+very moment Lady Theobald turned, and, on recognizing the full
+significance of Lucia's position, was apparently struck temporarily dumb
+and motionless. When she recovered from the shock, she made a majestic
+gesture of command.
+
+Mr. Burmistone glanced at the girl's face, and saw that it changed color
+a little. "Lady Theobald appears to wish to speak to you," he said.
+
+Lucia left her seat, and walked across the room with a steady air. Lady
+Theobald did not remove her eye from her until she stopped within three
+feet of her. Then she asked a rather unnecessary question:--
+
+"With whom have you been conversing?"
+
+"With Mr. Burmistone."
+
+"Upon what subject?"
+
+"We were speaking of Miss Octavia Bassett."
+
+Her ladyship glanced around the room, as if a new idea had occurred to
+her, and said,--
+
+"Where _is_ Miss Octavia Bassett?"
+
+Here it must be confessed that Lucia faltered.
+
+"She is on the terrace with Mr. Barold."
+
+"She is on"--
+
+Her ladyship stopped short in the middle of her sentence. This was too
+much for her. She left Lucia, and crossed the room to Miss Belinda.
+
+"Belinda," she said, in an awful undertone, "your niece is out upon the
+terrace with Mr. Barold. Perhaps it would be as well for you to
+intimate to her that in England it is not customary--that--Belinda, go
+and bring her in."
+
+Miss Belinda arose, actually looking pale. She had been making such
+strenuous efforts to converse with Miss Pilcher and Mrs. Burnham, that
+she had been betrayed into forgetting her charge. She could scarcely
+believe her ears. She went to the open window, and looked out, and then
+turned paler than before.
+
+"Octavia, my dear," she said faintly.
+
+"Francis!" said Lady Theobald, over her shoulder.
+
+Mr. Francis Barold turned a rather bored countenance toward them; but it
+was evidently not Octavia who had bored him.
+
+"Octavia," said Miss Belinda, "how imprudent! In that thin dress--the
+night air! How could you, my dear, how could you?"
+
+"Oh! I shall not catch cold," Octavia answered. "I am used to it. I have
+been out hours and hours, on moonlight nights, at home."
+
+But she moved toward them.
+
+"You must remember," said Lady Theobald, "that there are many things
+which may be done in America which would not be safe in England."
+
+And she made the remark in an almost sepulchral tone of warning.
+
+How Miss Belinda would have supported herself if the coach had not been
+announced at this juncture, it would be difficult to say. The coach was
+announced, and they took their departure. Mr. Barold happening to make
+his adieus at the same time, they were escorted by him down to the
+vehicle from the Blue Lion.
+
+When he had assisted them in, and closed the door, Octavia bent forward,
+so that the moonlight fell full on her pretty, lace-covered head, and the
+sparkling drops in her ears.
+
+"Oh!" she exclaimed, "if you stay here at all, you must come and see
+us.--Aunt Belinda, ask him to come and see us."
+
+Miss Belinda could scarcely speak.
+
+"I shall be most--most happy," she fluttered, "Any--friend of dear Lady
+Theobald's, of course"--
+
+"Don't forget," said Octavia, waving her hand.
+
+The coach moved off, and Miss Belinda sank back into a dark corner.
+
+"My dear," she gasped, "what will he think?"
+
+Octavia was winding her lace scarf around her throat.
+
+"He'll think I want him to call," she said serenely. "And I do."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+INTENTIONS.
+
+
+The position in which Lady Theobald found herself placed, after these
+occurrences, was certainly a difficult and unpleasant one. It was Mr.
+Francis Barold's caprice, for the time being, to develop an intimacy with
+Mr. Burmistone. He had, it seemed, chosen to become interested in him
+during their sojourn at Broadoaks. He had discovered him to be a
+desirable companion, and a clever, amiable fellow. This much he
+condescended to explain incidentally to her ladyship's self.
+
+"I can't say I expected to meet a nice fellow or a companionable fellow,"
+he remarked, "and I was agreeably surprised to find him both. Never says
+too much or too little. Never bores a man."
+
+To this Lady Theobald could make no reply. Singularly enough, she had
+discovered early in their acquaintance that her wonted weapons were
+likely to dull their edges upon the steely coldness of Mr. Francis
+Barold's impassibility. In the presence of this fortunate young man,
+before whom his world had bowed the knee from his tenderest infancy, she
+lost the majesty of her demeanor. He refused to be affected by it: he was
+even implacable enough to show openly that it bored him, and to insinuate
+by his manner that he did not intend to submit to it. He entirely ignored
+the claim of relationship, and acted according to the promptings of his
+own moods. He did not feel it at all incumbent upon him to remain at
+Oldclough Hall, and subject himself to the time-honored customs there
+in vogue. He preferred to accept Mr. Burmistone's invitation to become
+his guest at the handsome house he had just completed, in which he lived
+in bachelor splendor. Accordingly he installed himself there, and thereby
+complicated matters greatly.
+
+Slowbridge found itself in a position as difficult as, and far more
+delicate than, Lady Theobald's. The tea-drinkings in honor of that
+troublesome young person, Miss Octavia Bassett, having been inaugurated
+by her ladyship, must go the social rounds, according to ancient custom.
+But what, in discretion's name, was to be done concerning Mr. Francis
+Barold? There was no doubt whatever that he must not be ignored; and, in
+that case, what difficulties presented themselves!
+
+The mamma of the two Misses Egerton, who was a nervous and easily
+subjugated person, was so excited and overwrought by the prospect before
+her, that, in contemplating it when she wrote her invitations, she was
+affected to tears.
+
+"I can assure you, Lydia," she said, "that I have not slept for three
+nights, I have been so harassed. Here, on one hand, is Mr. Francis
+Barold, who must be invited; and on the other is Mr. Burmistone, whom we
+cannot pass over; and here is Lady Theobald, who will turn to stone the
+moment she sees him,--though, goodness knows, I am sure he seems a very
+quiet, respectable man, and said some of the most complimentary things
+about your playing. And here is that dreadful girl, who is enough to give
+one cold chills, and who may do all sorts of dreadful things, and is
+certainly a living example to all respectable, well-educated girls. And
+the blindest of the blind could see that nothing would offend Lady
+Theobald more fatally than to let her be thrown with Francis Barold;
+and how one is to invite them into the same room, and keep them apart,
+I'm sure I don't know how. Lady Theobald herself could not do it, and how
+can we be expected to? And the refreshments on my mind too; and Forbes
+failing on her tea-cakes, and bringing up Sally Lunns like lead."
+
+That these misgivings were equally shared by each entertainer in
+prospective, might be adduced from the fact that the same afternoon Mrs.
+Burnham and Miss Pilcher appeared upon the scene, to consult with Mrs.
+Egerton upon the subject.
+
+Miss Lydia and Miss Violet being dismissed up-stairs to their practising,
+the three ladies sat in the darkened parlor, and talked the matter over
+in solemn conclave.
+
+"I have consulted Miss Pilcher, and mentioned the affair to Mrs. Gibson,"
+announced Mrs. Burnham. "And, really, we have not yet been able to arrive
+at any conclusion."
+
+Mrs. Egerton shook her head tearfully.
+
+"Pray don't come to me, my dears," she said,--"don't, I beg of you! I
+have thought about it until my circulation has all gone wrong, and Lydia
+has been applying hot-water bottles to my feet all the morning. I gave it
+up at half-past two, and set Violet to writing invitations to one and
+all, let the consequences be what they may."
+
+Miss Pilcher glanced at Mrs. Burnham, and Mrs. Burnham glanced at Miss
+Pilcher.
+
+"Perhaps," Miss Pilcher suggested to her companion, "it would be as well
+for you to mention your impressions."
+
+Mrs. Burnham's manner became additionally cautious. She bent forward
+slightly.
+
+"My dear," she said, "has it struck you that Lady Theobald has
+any--intentions, so to speak?"
+
+"Intentions?" repeated Mrs. Egerton.
+
+"Yes," with deep significance,--"so to speak. With regard to Lucia."
+
+Mrs. Egerton looked utterly helpless.
+
+"Dear me!" she ejaculated plaintively. "I have never had time to think of
+it. Dear me! With regard to Lucia!"
+
+Mrs. Burnham became more significant still.
+
+"_And_" she added, "Mr. Francis Barold."
+
+Mrs. Egerton turned to Miss Pilcher, and saw confirmation of the fact in
+her countenance.
+
+"Dear, dear!" she said. "That makes it worse than ever."
+
+"It is certain," put in Miss Pilcher, "that the union would be a
+desirable one; and we have reason to remark that a deep interest in Mr.
+Francis Barold has been shown by Lady Theobald. He has been invited to
+make her house his home during his stay in Slowbridge; and, though he has
+not done so, the fact that he has not is due only to some inexplicable
+reluctance upon his own part. And we all remember that Lady Theobald once
+plainly intimated that she anticipated Lucia forming, in the future, a
+matrimonial alliance."
+
+"Oh!" commented Mrs. Egerton, with some slight impatience, "it is all
+very well for Lady Theobald to have intentions for Lucia; but, if the
+young man has none, I really don't see that her intentions will be likely
+to result in any thing particular. And I am sure Mr. Francis Barold is
+not in the mood to be influenced in that way now. He is more likely to
+entertain himself with Miss Octavia Bassett, who will take him out in the
+moonlight, and make herself agreeable to him in her American style."
+
+Miss Pilcher and Mrs. Burnham exchanged glances again.
+
+"My dear," said Mrs. Burnham, "he has called upon her twice since Lady
+Theobald's tea. They say she invites him herself, and flirts with him
+openly in the garden."
+
+"Her conduct is such," said Miss Pilcher, with a shudder, "that the
+blinds upon the side of the seminary which faces Miss Bassett's garden
+are kept closed by my orders. I have young ladies under my care whose
+characters are in process of formation, and whose parents repose
+confidence in me."
+
+"Nothing but my friendship for Belinda Bassett," remarked Mrs. Burnham,
+"would induce me to invite the girl to my house." Then she turned to Mrs.
+Egerton. "But--ahem--have you included them _all_ in your invitations?"
+she observed.
+
+Mrs. Egerton became plaintive again.
+
+"I don't see how I could be expected to do any thing else," she said.
+"Lady Theobald herself could not invite Mr. Francis Barold from Mr.
+Burmistone's house, and leave Mr. Burmistone at home. And, after all, I
+must say it is my opinion nobody would have objected to Mr. Burmistone,
+in the first place, if Lady Theobald had not insisted upon it."
+
+Mrs. Burnham reflected.
+
+"Perhaps that is true," she admitted cautiously at length. "And it must
+be confessed that a man in his position is not entirely without his
+advantages--particularly in a place where there are but few gentlemen,
+and those scarcely desirable as"--
+
+She paused there discreetly, but Mrs. Egerton was not so discreet.
+
+"There are a great many young ladies in Slowbridge," she said, shaking
+her head,--"a great many! And with five in a family, all old enough to be
+out of school, I am sure it is flying in the face of Providence to
+neglect one's opportunities."
+
+When the two ladies took their departure, Mrs. Burnham seemed reflective.
+Finally she said,--"Poor Mrs. Egerton's mind is not what it was, and it
+never was remarkably strong. It must be admitted, too, that there is a
+lack of--of delicacy. Those great plain girls of hers must be a trial to
+her."
+
+As she spoke they were passing the privet hedge which surrounded Miss
+Bassett's house and garden; and a sound caused both to glance around. The
+front door had just been opened; and a gentleman was descending the
+steps,--a young gentleman in neat clerical garb, his guileless
+ecclesiastical countenance suffused with mantling blushes of confusion
+and delight. He stopped on the gravel path to receive the last words of
+Miss Octavia Bassett, who stood on the threshold, smiling down upon him
+in the prettiest way in the world.
+
+"Tuesday afternoon," she said. "Now don't forget; because I shall ask Mr.
+Barold and Miss Gaston, on purpose to play against us. Even St. James
+can't object to croquet."
+
+"I--indeed, I shall be _most_ happy and--and delighted," stammered her
+departing guest, "if you will be so kind as to--to instruct me, and
+forgive my awkwardness."
+
+"Oh! I'll instruct you," said Octavia. "I have instructed people before,
+and I know how."
+
+Mrs. Burnham clutched Miss Pilcher's arm.
+
+"Do you see who _that_ is?" she demanded. "Would you have believed it?"
+
+Miss Pilcher preserved a stony demeanor.
+
+"I would believe any thing of Miss Octavia Bassett," she replied. "There
+would be nothing at all remarkable, to my mind, in her flirting with the
+bishop himself! Why should she hesitate to endeavor to entangle the
+curate of St. James?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+A CLERICAL VISIT.
+
+
+It was indeed true that the Rev. Arthur Poppleton had spent the greater
+part of his afternoon in Miss Belinda Bassett's front parlor, and that
+Octavia had entertained him in such a manner that he had been beguiled
+into forgetting the clerical visits he had intended to make, and had
+finally committed himself by a promise to return a day or two later to
+play croquet. His object in calling had been to request Miss Belinda's
+assistance in a parochial matter. His natural timorousness of nature had
+indeed led him to put off making the visit for as long a time as
+possible. The reports he had heard of Miss Octavia Bassett had inspired
+him with great dread. Consequently he had presented himself at Miss
+Belinda's front door with secret anguish.
+
+"Will you say," he had faltered to Mary Anne, "that it is Mr. Poppleton,
+to see _Miss_ Bassett--Miss _Belinda_ Bassett?"
+
+And then he had been handed into the parlor, the door had been closed
+behind him, and he had found himself shut up entirely alone in the room
+with Miss Octavia Bassett herself.
+
+His first impulse was to turn, and flee precipitately: indeed, he even
+went so far as to turn, and clutch the handle of the door; but somehow a
+second thought arrived in time to lead him to control himself.
+
+This second thought came with his second glance at Octavia.
+
+She was not at all what he had pictured her. Singularly enough, no one
+had told him that she was pretty; and he had thought of her as a gaunt
+young person, with a determined and manly air. She struck him, on the
+contrary, as being extremely girlish and charming to look upon. She wore
+the pale pink gown; and as he entered he saw her give a furtive little
+dab to her eyes with a lace handkerchief, and hurriedly crush an open
+letter into her pocket. Then, seeming to dismiss her emotion with
+enviable facility, she rose to greet him.
+
+"If you want to see aunt Belinda," she said, "perhaps you had better sit
+down. She will be here directly." He plucked up spirit to take a seat,
+suddenly feeling his terror take wing. He was amazed at his own courage.
+
+"Th-thank you," he said. "I have the pleasure of"--There, it is true, he
+stopped, looked at her, blushed, and finished somewhat disjointedly.
+"Miss Octavia Bassett, I believe."
+
+"Yes," she answered, and sat down near him.
+
+When Miss Belinda descended the stairs, a short time afterward, her ears
+were greeted by the sound of brisk conversation, in which the Rev. Arthur
+Poppleton appeared to be taking part with before-unheard-of spirit. When
+he arose at her entrance, there was in his manner an air of mild buoyancy
+which astonished her beyond measure. When he re-seated himself, he seemed
+quite to forget the object of his visit for some minutes, and was thus
+placed in the embarrassing position of having to refer to his note-book.
+
+Having done so, and found that he had called to ask assistance for the
+family of one of his parishioners, he recovered himself somewhat. As he
+explained the exigencies of the case, Octavia listened.
+
+"Well," she said, "I should think it would make you quite uncomfortable,
+if you see things like that often."
+
+"I regret to say I do see such things only too frequently," he answered.
+
+"Gracious!" she said; but that was all.
+
+He was conscious of being slightly disappointed at her apathy; and
+perhaps it is to be deplored that he forgot it afterward, when Miss
+Belinda had bestowed her mite, and the case was dismissed for the time
+being. He really did forget it, and was beguiled into making a very long
+call, and enjoying himself as he had never enjoyed himself before.
+
+When, at length, he was recalled to a sense of duty by a glance at the
+clock, he had already before his eyes an opening vista of delights,
+taking the form of future calls, and games of croquet played upon Miss
+Belinda's neatly-shaven grass-plat. He had bidden the ladies adieu in the
+parlor, and, having stepped into the hall, was fumbling rather excitedly
+in the umbrella-stand for his own especially slender clerical umbrella,
+when he was awakened to new rapture by hearing Miss Octavia's tone again.
+
+He turned, and saw her standing quite near him, looking at him with
+rather an odd expression, and holding something in her hand.
+
+"Oh!" she said. "See here,--those people."
+
+"I--beg pardon," he hesitated. "I don't quite understand."
+
+"Oh, yes!" she answered. "Those desperately poor wretches, you know, with
+fever, and leaks in their house, and all sorts of disagreeable things the
+matter with them. Give them this, won't you?"
+
+"This" was a pretty silk purse, through whose meshes he saw the gleam of
+gold coin.
+
+"That?" he said. "You don't mean--isn't there a good deal--I beg
+pardon--but really"--
+
+"Well, if they are as poor as you say they are, it won't be too much,"
+she replied. "I don't suppose they'll object to it: do you?"
+
+She extended it to him as if she rather wished to get it out of her
+hands.
+
+"You'd better take it," she said. "I shall spend it on something I don't
+need, if you don't. I'm always spending money on things I don't care for
+afterward."
+
+He was filled with remorse, remembering that he had thought her
+apathetic.
+
+"I--I really thought you were not interested at all," he burst forth.
+"Pray forgive me. This is generous indeed."
+
+She looked down at some particularly brilliant rings on her hand, instead
+of looking at him.
+
+"Oh, well!" she said, "I think it must be simply horrid to have to do
+without things. I can't see how people live. Besides, I haven't denied
+myself any thing. It would be worth talking about if I had, I suppose.
+Oh! By the by, never mind telling any one, will you?"
+
+Then, without giving him time to reply, she raised her eyes to his face,
+and plunged into the subject of the croquet again, pursuing it until the
+final moment of his exit and departure, which was when Mrs. Burnham and
+Miss Pilcher had been scandalized at the easy freedom of her adieus.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+SUPERIOR ADVANTAGES.
+
+
+When Mr. Francis Barold called to pay his respects to Lady Theobald,
+after partaking of her hospitality, Mr. Burmistone accompanied him; and,
+upon almost every other occasion of his presenting himself to her
+ladyship, Mr. Burmistone was his companion.
+
+It may as well be explained at the outset, that the mill-owner of
+Burmistone Mills was a man of decided determination of character, and
+that, upon the evening of Lady Theobald's tea, he had arrived at the
+conclusion that he would spare no effort to gain a certain end he felt it
+would add to his happiness to accomplish.
+
+"I stand rather in awe of Lady Theobald, as any ordinary man would," he
+had said dryly to Barold, on their return to his house. "But my awe of
+her is not so great yet that I shall allow it to interfere with any of
+my plans."
+
+"Have you any especial plan?" inquired Barold carelessly, after a pause.
+
+"Yes," answered Mr. Burmistone,--"several. I should like to go to
+Oldclough rather often."
+
+"I feel it the civil thing to go to Oldclough oftener than I like. Go
+with me."
+
+"I should like to be included in all the invitations to tea for the next
+six months."
+
+"I shall be included in all the invitations so long as I remain here; and
+it is not likely you will be left out in the cold. After you have gone
+the rounds once, you won't be dropped."
+
+"Upon the whole, it appears so," said Mr. Burmistone. "Thanks."
+
+So, at each of the tea-parties following Lady Theobald's, the two men
+appeared together. The small end of the wedge being inserted into the
+social stratum, the rest was not so difficult. Mrs. Burnham was at once
+surprised and overjoyed by her discoveries of the many excellences of the
+man they had so hastily determined to ignore. Mrs. Abercrombie found Mr.
+Burmistone's manner all that could be desired. Miss Pilcher expressed the
+highest appreciation of his views upon feminine education and "our duty
+to the young in our charge." Indeed, after Mrs. Egerton's evening, the
+tide of public opinion turned suddenly in his favor.
+
+Public opinion did not change, however, as far as Octavia was concerned.
+Having had her anxiety set at rest by several encouraging paternal
+letters from Nevada, she began to make up her mind to enjoy herself, and
+was, it is to be regretted, betrayed by her youthful high spirits into
+the committing of numerous indiscretions. Upon each festal occasion she
+appeared in a new and elaborate costume: she accepted the attentions of
+Mr. Francis Barold, as if it were the most natural thing in the world
+that they should be offered; she joked--in what Mrs. Burnham designated
+"her Nevada way"--with the Rev. Arthur Poppleton, who appeared more
+frequently than had been his habit at the high teas. She played croquet
+with that gentleman and Mr. Barold day after day, upon the grass-plat,
+before all the eyes gazing down upon her from the neighboring windows;
+she managed to coerce Mr. Burmistone into joining these innocent orgies;
+and, in fact, to quote Miss Pilcher, there was "no limit to the
+shamelessness of her unfeminine conduct."
+
+Several times much comment had been aroused by the fact that Lucia Gaston
+had been observed to form one of the party of players. She had indeed
+played with Barold, against Octavia and Mr. Poppleton, on the memorable
+day upon which that gentleman had taken his first lesson.
+
+Barold had availed himself of the invitation extended to him by Octavia,
+upon several occasions, greatly to Miss Belinda's embarrassment. He had
+dropped in the evening after the curate's first call.
+
+"Is Lady Theobald very fond of you?" Octavia had asked, in the course of
+this visit.
+
+"It is very kind of her, if she is," he replied with languid irony.
+
+"Isn't she fond enough of you to do any thing you ask her?" Octavia
+inquired.
+
+"Really, I think not," he replied. "Imagine the degree of affection it
+requires! I am not fond enough of any one to do any thing they ask me."
+
+Octavia bestowed a long look upon him.
+
+"Well," she remarked, after a pause, "I believe you are not. I shouldn't
+think so."
+
+Barold colored very faintly.
+
+"I say," he said, "is that an imputation, or something of that character?
+It sounds like it, you know."
+
+Octavia did not reply directly. She laughed a little.
+
+"I want you to ask Lady Theobald to do something," she said.
+
+"I am afraid I am not in such favor as you imagine," he said, looking
+slightly annoyed.
+
+"Well, I think she won't refuse you this thing," she went on. "If she
+didn't loathe me so, I would ask her myself."
+
+He deigned to smile.
+
+"Does she loathe you?" he inquired.
+
+"Yes," nodding. "She would not speak to me if it weren't for aunt
+Belinda. She thinks I am fast and loud. Do _you_ think I am fast and
+loud?"
+
+He was taken aback, and not for the first time, either. She had startled
+and discomposed him several times in the course of their brief
+acquaintance; and he always resented it, priding himself in private, as
+he did, upon his coolness and immobility. He could not think of the right
+thing to say just now, so he was silent for a second.
+
+"Tell me the truth," she persisted. "I shall not care--much."
+
+"I do not think you would care at all."
+
+"Well, perhaps I shouldn't. Go on. Do you think I am fast?"
+
+"I am happy to say I do not find you slow."
+
+She fixed her eyes on him, smiling faintly.
+
+"That means I am fast," she said. "Well, no matter. Will you ask Lady
+Theobald what I want you to ask her?"
+
+"I should not say you were fast at all," he said rather stiffly. "You
+have not been educated as--as Lady Theobald has educated Miss Gaston, for
+instance."
+
+"I should rather think not," she replied. Then she added, very
+deliberately, "She has had what you might call very superior advantages,
+I suppose."
+
+Her expression was totally incomprehensible to him. She spoke with the
+utmost seriousness, and looked down at the table. "That is derision, I
+suppose," he remarked restively.
+
+She glanced up again.
+
+"At all events," she said, "there is nothing to laugh at in Lucia Gaston.
+Will you ask Lady Theobald? I want you to ask her to let Lucia Gaston
+come and play croquet with us on Tuesday. She is to play with you against
+Mr. Poppleton and me."
+
+"Who is Mr. Poppleton?" he asked, with some reserve. He did not exactly
+fancy sharing his entertainment with any ordinary outsider. After all,
+there was no knowing what this little American might do.
+
+"He is the curate of the church," she replied, undisturbed. "He is very
+nice, and little, and neat, and blushes all over to the toes of his
+boots. He came to see aunt Belinda, and I asked him to come and be
+taught to play."
+
+"Who is to teach him?"
+
+"I am. I have taught at least twenty men in New York and San Francisco."
+
+"I hope he appreciates your kindness."
+
+"I mean to try if I can make him forget to be frightened," she said, with
+a gay laugh.
+
+It was certainly nettling to find his air of reserve and displeasure met
+with such inconsequent lightness. She never seemed to recognize the
+subtle changes of temperature expressed in his manner. Only his sense of
+what was due to himself prevented his being very chilly indeed; but as
+she went on with her gay chat, in utter ignorance of his mood, and
+indulged in some very pretty airy nonsense, he soon recovered himself,
+and almost forgot his private grievance.
+
+Before going away, he promised to ask Lady Theobald's indulgence in the
+matter of Lucia's joining them in their game. One speech of Octavia's,
+connected with the subject, he had thought very pretty, as well as kind.
+
+"I like Miss Gaston," she said. "I think we might be friends if Lady
+Theobald would let us. Her superior advantages might do me good. They
+might improve me," she went on, with a little laugh, "and I suppose I
+need improving very much. All my advantages have been of one kind."
+
+When he had left her, she startled Miss Belinda by saying,--
+
+"I have been asking Mr. Barold if he thought I was fast; and I believe he
+does--in fact, I am sure he does."
+
+"Ah, my dear, my dear!" ejaculated Miss Belinda, "what a terrible thing
+to say to a gentleman! What will he think?"
+
+Octavia smiled one of her calmest smiles.
+
+"Isn't it queer how often you say that!" she remarked. "I think I should
+perish if I had to pull myself up that way as you do. I just go right on,
+and never worry. I don't mean to do any thing queer, and I don't see why
+any one should think I do."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+CROQUET.
+
+
+Lucia was permitted to form one of the players in the game of croquet,
+being escorted to and from the scene by Francis Barold. Perhaps it
+occurred to Lady Theobald that the contrast of English reserve and
+maidenliness with the free-and-easy manners of young women from Nevada
+might lead to some good result.
+
+"I trust your conduct will be such as to show that you at least have
+resided in a civilized land," she said. "The men of the present day may
+permit themselves to be amused by young persons whose demeanor might
+bring a blush to the cheek of a woman of forty, but it is not their habit
+to regard them with serious intentions."
+
+Lucia reddened. She did not speak, though she wished very much for the
+courage to utter the words which rose to her lips. Lately she had found
+that now and then, at times when she was roused to anger, speeches of
+quite a clever and sarcastic nature presented themselves to her mind. She
+was never equal to uttering them aloud; but she felt that in time she
+might, because of course it was quite an advance in spirit to think them,
+and face, even in imagination, the probability of astounding and striking
+Lady Theobald dumb with their audacity.
+
+"It ought to make me behave very well," she was saying now to herself,
+"to have before me the alternative of not being regarded with serious
+intentions. I wonder if it is Mr. Poppleton or Francis Barold who might
+not regard me seriously. And I wonder if they are any coarser in America
+than we can be in England when we try."
+
+She enjoyed the afternoon very much, particularly the latter part of it,
+when Mr. Burmistone, who was passing, came in, being invited by Octavia
+across the privet hedge. Having paid his respects to Miss Belinda, who
+sat playing propriety under a laburnum-tree, Mr. Burmistone crossed the
+grass-plat to Lucia herself. She was awaiting her "turn," and laughing at
+the ardent enthusiasm of Mr. Poppleton, who, under Octavia's direction,
+was devoting all his energies to the game: her eyes were bright, and she
+had lost, for the time being, her timid air of feeling herself somehow in
+the wrong.
+
+"I am glad to see you here," said Mr. Burmistone.
+
+"I am glad to be here," she answered. "It has been such a happy
+afternoon. Every thing has seemed so bright and--and different!"
+
+"'Different' is a very good word," he said, laughing.
+
+"It isn't a very bad one," she returned, "and it expresses a good deal."
+
+"It does indeed," he commented.
+
+"Look at Mr. Poppleton and Octavia," she began.
+
+"Have you got to 'Octavia'?" he inquired.
+
+She looked down and blushed.
+
+"I shall not say 'Octavia' to grandmamma."
+
+Then suddenly she glanced up at him.
+
+"That is sly, isn't it?" she said. "Sometimes I think I am very sly,
+though I am sure it is not my nature to be so. I would rather be open
+and candid."
+
+"It would be better," he remarked.
+
+"You think so?" she asked eagerly.
+
+He could not help smiling.
+
+"Do you ever tell untruths to Lady Theobald?" he inquired. "If you do, I
+shall begin to be alarmed."
+
+"I act them," she said, blushing more deeply. "I really do--paltry sorts
+of untruths, you know; pretending to agree with her when I don't;
+pretending to like things a little when I hate them. I have been trying
+to improve myself lately, and once or twice it has made her very angry.
+She says I am disobedient and disrespectful. She asked me, one day, if it
+was my intention to emulate Miss Octavia Bassett. That was when I said I
+could not help feeling that I had wasted time in practising."
+
+She sighed softly as she ended.
+
+In the mean time Octavia had Mr. Poppleton and Mr. Francis Barold upon
+her hands, and was endeavoring to do her duty as hostess by both of them.
+If it had been her intention to captivate these gentlemen, she could not
+have complained that Mr. Poppleton was wary or difficult game. His first
+fears allayed, his downward path was smooth, and rapid in proportion.
+When he had taken his departure with the little silk purse in his
+keeping, he had carried under his clerical vest a warmed and thrilled
+heart. It was a heart which, it must be confessed, was of the most
+inexperienced and susceptible nature. A little man of affectionate and
+gentle disposition, he had been given from his earliest youth to
+indulging in timid dreams of mild future bliss,--of bliss represented by
+some lovely being whose ideals were similar to his own, and who preferred
+the wealth of a true affection to the glitter of the giddy throng. Upon
+one or two occasions, he had even worshipped from afar; but as on each of
+these occasions his hopes had been nipped in the bud by the union of
+their object with some hollow worldling, his dream had, so far, never
+attained very serious proportions. Since he had taken up his abode in
+Slowbridge, he had felt himself a little overpowered by circumstances. It
+had been a source of painful embarrassment to him, to find his innocent
+presence capable of producing confusion in the breasts of young ladies
+who were certainly not more guileless than himself. He had been conscious
+that the Misses Egerton did not continue their conversation with freedom
+when he chanced to approach the group they graced; and he had observed
+the same thing in their companions,--an additional circumspection of
+demeanor, so to speak, a touch of new decorum, whose object seemed to be
+to protect them from any appearance of imprudence.
+
+"It is almost as if they were afraid of me," he had said to himself once
+or twice. "Dear me! I hope there is nothing in my appearance to lead
+them to"--
+
+He was so much alarmed by this dreadful thought, that he had ever
+afterward approached any of these young ladies with a fear and trembling
+which had not added either to his comfort or their own; consequently his
+path had not been a very smooth one.
+
+"I respect the young ladies of Slowbridge," he remarked to Octavia that
+very afternoon. "There are some very remarkable young ladies here,--very
+remarkable indeed. They are interested in the church, and the poor, and
+the schools, and, indeed, in every thing, which is most unselfish and
+amiable. Young ladies have usually so much to distract their attention
+from such matters."
+
+"If I stay long enough in Slowbridge," said Octavia, "I shall be
+interested in the church, and the poor, and the schools."
+
+It seemed to the curate that there had never been any thing so delightful
+in the world as her laugh and her unusual remarks. She seemed to him so
+beautiful, and so exhilarating, that he forgot all else but his
+admiration for her. He enjoyed himself so much this afternoon, that he
+was almost brilliant, and excited the sarcastic comment of Mr. Francis
+Barold, who was not enjoying himself at all.
+
+"Confound it!" said that gentleman to himself, as he looked on. "What did
+I come here for? This style of thing is just what I might have expected.
+She is amusing herself with that poor little cad now, and I am left in
+the cold. I suppose that is her habit with the young men in Nevada."
+
+He had no intention of entering the lists with the Rev. Arthur Poppleton,
+or of concealing the fact that he felt that this little Nevada flirt was
+making a blunder. The sooner she knew it, the better for herself; so he
+played his game as badly as possible, and with much dignity.
+
+But Octavia was so deeply interested in Mr. Poppleton's ardent efforts
+to do credit to her teaching, that she was apparently unconscious of
+all else. She played with great cleverness, and carried her partner to
+the terminus, with an eager enjoyment of her skill quite pleasant to
+behold. She made little darts here and there, advised, directed, and
+controlled his movements, and was quite dramatic in a small way when he
+made a failure.
+
+Mrs. Burnham, who was superintending the proceeding, seated in her own
+easy-chair behind her window-curtains, was roused to virtuous indignation
+by her energy.
+
+"There is no repose whatever in her manner," she said. "No dignity. Is a
+game of croquet a matter of deep moment? It seems to me that it is almost
+impious to devote one's mind so wholly to a mere means of recreation."
+
+"She seems to be enjoying it, mamma," said Miss Laura Burnham, with a
+faint sigh. Miss Laura had been looking on over her parent's shoulder.
+"They all seem to be enjoying it. See how Lucia Gaston and Mr. Burmistone
+are laughing. I never saw Lucia look like that before. The only one who
+seems a little dull is Mr. Barold."
+
+"He is probably disgusted by a freedom of manner to which he is not
+accustomed," replied Mrs. Burnham. "The only wonder is that he has not
+been disgusted by it before."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+ADVANTAGES.
+
+
+The game over, Octavia deserted her partner. She walked lightly, and with
+the air of a victor, to where Barold was standing. She was smiling, and
+slightly flushed, and for a moment or so stood fanning herself with a gay
+Japanese fan.
+
+"Don't you think I am a good teacher?" she asked at length.
+
+"I should say so," replied Barold, without enthusiasm. "I am afraid I am
+not a judge."
+
+She waved her fan airily.
+
+"I had a good pupil," she said. Then she held her fan still for a moment,
+and turned fully toward him. "I have done something you don't like," she
+said. "I knew I had."
+
+Mr. Francis Barold retired within himself at once. In his present mood
+it really appeared that she was assuming that he was very much interested
+indeed.
+
+"I should scarcely take the liberty upon a limited acquaintance," he
+began.
+
+She looked at him steadily, fanning herself with slow, regular movements.
+
+"Yes," she remarked. "You're mad. I knew you were."
+
+He was so evidently disgusted by this observation, that she caught at the
+meaning of his look, and laughed a little.
+
+"Ah!" she said, "that's an American word, ain't it? It sounds queer to
+you. You say 'vexed' instead of 'mad.' Well, then, you are vexed."
+
+"If I have been so clumsy as to appear ill-humored," he said, "I beg
+pardon. Certainly I have no right to exhibit such unusual interest in
+your conduct."
+
+He felt that this was rather decidedly to the point, but she did not seem
+overpowered at all. She smiled anew.
+
+"Anybody has a right to be mad--I mean vexed," she observed. "I should
+like to know how people would live if they hadn't. I am mad--I mean
+vexed--twenty times a day."
+
+"Indeed?" was his sole reply.
+
+"Well," she said, "I think it's real mean in you to be so cool about it
+when you remember what I told you the other day."
+
+"I regret to say I don't remember just now. I hope it was nothing very
+serious."
+
+To his astonishment she looked down at her fan, and spoke in a slightly
+lowered voice:--
+
+"I told you that I wanted to be improved."
+
+It must be confessed that he was mollified. There was a softness in her
+manner which amazed him. He was at once embarrassed and delighted. But,
+at the same time, it would not do to commit himself to too great a
+seriousness.
+
+"Oh!" he answered, "that was a rather good joke, I thought."
+
+"No, it wasn't," she said, perhaps even half a tone lower. "I was
+in earnest."
+
+Then she raised her eyes.
+
+"If you told me when I did any thing wrong, I think it might be a good
+thing," she said.
+
+He felt that this was quite possible, and was also struck with the idea
+that he might find the task of mentor--so long as he remained entirely
+non-committal--rather interesting. Still, he could not afford to descend
+at once from the elevated stand he had taken.
+
+"I am afraid you would find it rather tiresome," he remarked.
+
+"I am afraid _you_ would," she answered. "You would have to tell me of
+things so often."
+
+"Do you mean seriously to tell me that you would take my advice?" he
+inquired.
+
+"I mightn't take all of it," was her reply; "but I should take
+some--perhaps a great deal."
+
+"Thanks," he remarked. "I scarcely think I should give you a great deal."
+
+She simply smiled.
+"I have never had any advice at all," she said. "I don't know that I
+should have taken it if I had--just as likely as not I shouldn't; but I
+have never had any. Father spoiled me. He gave me all my own way. He said
+he didn't care, so long as I had a good time; and I must say I have
+generally had a good time. I don't see how I could help it--with all my
+own way, and no one to worry. I wasn't sick, and I could buy any thing I
+liked, and all that: so I had a good time. I've read of girls, in books,
+wishing they had mothers to take care of them. I don't know that I ever
+wished for one particularly. I can take care of myself. I must say, too,
+that I don't think some mothers are much of an institution. I know girls
+who have them, and they are always worrying."
+
+He laughed in spite of himself; and though she had been speaking with the
+utmost seriousness and _naivete_, she joined him.
+
+When they ceased, she returned suddenly to the charge.
+
+"Now tell me what I have done this afternoon that isn't right," she
+said,--"that Lucia Gaston wouldn't have done, for instance. I say
+that, because I shouldn't mind being a little like Lucia Gaston--in
+some things."
+
+"Lucia ought to feel gratified," he commented.
+
+"She does," she answered. "We had a little talk about it, and she was as
+pleased as could be. I didn't think of it in that way until I saw her
+begin to blush. Guess what she said."
+
+"I am afraid I can't."
+
+"She said she saw so many things to envy in me, that she could scarcely
+believe I wanted to be at all like her."
+
+"It was a very civil speech," said Barold ironically. "I scarcely thought
+Lady Theobald had trained her so well."
+
+"She meant it," said Octavia. "You mayn't believe it, but she did. I know
+when people mean things, and when they don't."
+
+"I wish I did," said Barold.
+
+Octavia turned her attention to her fan.
+
+"Well, I am waiting," she said.
+
+"Waiting?" he repeated.
+
+"To be told of my faults."
+
+"But I scarcely see of what importance my opinion can be."
+
+"It is of some importance to me--just now."
+
+The last two words rendered him really impatient, and, it may be, spurred
+him up.
+
+"If we are to take Lucia Gaston as a model," he said, "Lucia Gaston would
+possibly not have been so complaisant in her demeanor toward our clerical
+friend."
+
+"Complaisant!" she exclaimed, opening her lovely eyes. "When I was
+actually plunging about the garden, trying to teach him to play. Well, I
+shouldn't call that being complaisant."
+
+"Lucia Gaston," he replied, "would not say that she had been 'plunging'
+about the garden."
+
+She gave herself a moment for reflection.
+
+"That's true," she remarked, when it was over: "she wouldn't. When I
+compare myself with the Slowbridge girls, I begin to think I must say
+some pretty awful things."
+
+Barold made no reply, which caused her to laugh a little again.
+
+"You daren't tell me," she said. "Now, do I? Well, I don't think I want
+to know very particularly. What Lady Theobald thinks will last quite a
+good while. Complaisant!"
+
+"I am sorry you object to the word," he said.
+
+"Oh, I don't!" she answered. "I like it. It sounds so much more polite
+than to say I was flirting and being fast."
+
+"Were you flirting?" he inquired coldly.
+
+He objected to her ready serenity very much.
+
+She looked a little puzzled.
+
+"You are very like aunt Belinda," she said.
+
+He drew himself up. He did not think there was any point of resemblance
+at all between Miss Belinda and himself.
+
+She went on, without observing his movement.
+
+"You think every thing means something, or is of some importance. You
+said that just as aunt Belinda says, 'What will they think?' It never
+occurs to me that they'll think at all. Gracious! Why should they?"
+
+"You will find they do," he said.
+
+"Well," she said, glancing at the group gathered under the laburnum-tree,
+"just now aunt Belinda thinks we had better go over to her; so, suppose
+we do it? At any rate, I found out that I was too complaisant to Mr.
+Poppleton."
+
+When the party separated for the afternoon, Barold took Lucia home, and
+Mr. Burmistone and the curate walked down the street together.
+
+Mr. Poppleton was indeed most agreeably exhilarated. His expressive
+little countenance beamed with delight.
+
+"What a very charming person Miss Bassett is!" he exclaimed, after they
+had left the gate. "What a very charming person indeed!"
+
+"Very charming," said Mr. Burmistone with much seriousness. "A
+prettier young person I certainly have never seen; and those wonderful
+gowns of hers"--
+
+"Oh!" interrupted Mr. Poppleton, with natural confusion, "I--referred to
+Miss Belinda Bassett; though, really, what you say is very true. Miss
+Octavia Bassett--indeed--I think--in fact, Miss Octavia Bassett is
+_quite_, one might almost say even _more_, charming than her aunt."
+
+"Yes," admitted Mr. Burmistone; "perhaps one might. She is less ripe, it
+is true; but that is an objection time will remove."
+
+"There is such a delightful gayety in her manner!" said Mr. Poppleton;
+"such an ingenuous frankness! such a--a--such spirit! It quite carries me
+away with it,--quite."
+
+He walked a few steps, thinking over this delightful gayety and ingenuous
+frankness; and then burst out afresh,--
+
+"And what a remarkable life she has had too! She actually told me, that,
+once in her childhood, she lived for months in a gold-diggers' camp,--the
+only woman there. She says the men were kind to her, and made a pet of
+her. She has known the most extraordinary people."
+
+In the mean time Francis Barold returned Lucia to Lady Theobald's safe
+keeping. Having done so, he made his adieus, and left the two to
+themselves. Her ladyship was, it must be confessed, a little at a loss to
+explain to herself what she saw, or fancied she saw, in the manner and
+appearance of her young relative. She was persuaded that she had never
+seen Lucia look as she looked this afternoon. She had a brighter color in
+her cheeks than usual, her pretty figure seemed more erect, her eyes had
+a spirit in them which was quite new. She had chatted and laughed gayly
+with Francis Barold, as she approached the house; and after his departure
+she moved to and fro with a freedom not habitual to her.
+
+"He has been making himself agreeable to her," said my lady, with grim
+pleasure. "He can do it if he chooses; and he is just the man to please a
+girl,--good-looking, and with a fine, domineering air."
+
+"How did you enjoy yourself?" she asked.
+
+"Very much," said Lucia; "never more, thank you."
+
+"Oh!" ejaculated my lady. "And which of her smart New York gowns did Miss
+Octavia Bassett wear?"
+
+They were at the dinner-table; and, instead of looking down at her soup,
+Lucia looked quietly and steadily across the table at her grandmother.
+
+"She wore a very pretty one," she said: "it was pale fawn-color, and
+fitted her like a glove. She made me feel very old-fashioned and
+badly dressed."
+
+Lady Theobald laid down her spoon.
+
+"She made you feel old-fashioned and badly dressed,--you!"
+
+"Yes," responded Lucia: "she always does. I wonder what she thinks of the
+things we wear in Slowbridge." And she even went to the length of smiling
+a little.
+
+"What _she_ thinks of what is worn in Slowbridge!" Lady Theobald
+ejaculated. "She! may I ask what weight the opinion of a young woman from
+America--from Nevada--is supposed to have in Slowbridge?"
+
+Lucia took a spoonful of soup in a leisurely manner.
+
+"I don't think it is supposed to have any; but--but I don't think she
+minds that. I feel as if I shouldn't if I were in her place. I have
+always thought her very lucky."
+
+"You have thought her lucky!" cried my lady. "You have envied a Nevada
+young woman, who dresses like an actress, and loads herself with jewels
+like a barbarian? A girl whose conduct toward men is of a character
+to--to chill one's blood!"
+
+"They admire her," said Lucia simply, "more than they admire Lydia
+Egerton, and more than they admire me."
+
+"Do _you_ admire her?" demanded my lady.
+
+"Yes, grandmamma," replied Lucia courageously. "I think I do."
+
+Never had my lady been so astounded in her life. For a moment she could
+scarcely speak. When she recovered herself she pointed to the door.
+
+"Go to your room," she commanded. "This is American freedom of speech, I
+suppose. Go to your room."
+
+Lucia rose obediently. She could not help wondering what her ladyship's
+course would be if she had the hardihood to disregard her order. She
+really looked quite capable of carrying it out forcibly herself. When the
+girl stood at her bedroom window, a few minutes later, her cheeks were
+burning and her hands trembling.
+
+"I am afraid it was very badly done," she said to herself. "I am sure it
+was; but--but it will be a kind of practice. I was in such a hurry to try
+if I were equal to it, that I didn't seem to balance things quite
+rightly. I ought to have waited until I had more reason to speak out.
+Perhaps there wasn't enough reason then, and I was more aggressive than I
+ought to have been. Octavia is never aggressive. I wonder if I was at all
+pert. I don't think Octavia ever means to be pert. I felt a little as if
+I meant to be pert. I must learn to balance myself, and only be cool and
+frank."
+
+Then she looked out of the window, and reflected a little.
+
+"I was not so very brave, after all," she said, rather reluctantly. "I
+didn't tell her Mr. Burmistone was there. I daren't have done that. I am
+afraid I _am_ sly--that sounds sly, I am sure."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+CONTRAST.
+
+
+"Lady Theobald will put a stop to it," was the general remark. "It will
+certainly not occur again."
+
+This was said upon the evening of the first gathering upon Miss Belinda's
+grass-plat, and at the same time it was prophesied that Mr. Francis
+Barold would soon go away.
+
+But neither of the prophecies proved true. Mr. Francis Barold did _not_
+return to London; and, strange to say, Lucia was seen again and again
+playing croquet with Octavia Bassett, and was even known to spend
+evenings with her.
+
+Perhaps it might be that an appeal made by Miss Belinda to her ladyship
+had caused her to allow of these things. Miss Belinda had, in fact, made
+a private call upon my lady, to lay her case before her.
+
+"I feel so very timid about every thing," she said, almost with tears,
+"and so fearful of trusting myself, that I really find it quite a trial.
+The dear child has such a kind heart--I assure you she has a kind heart,
+dear Lady Theobald,--and is so innocent of any intention to do wrong--I
+am sure she is innocent,--that it seems cruel to judge her severely. If
+she had had the benefit of such training as dear Lucia's. I am convinced
+that her conduct would have been most exemplary. She sees herself that
+she has faults: I am sure she does. She said to me only last night, in
+that odd way of hers,--she had been sitting, evidently thinking deeply,
+for some minutes,--and she said, 'I wonder if I shouldn't be nicer if I
+were more like Lucia Gaston.' You see what turn her mind must have taken.
+She admires Lucia so much."
+
+"Yesterday evening at dinner," said Lady Theobald severely, "Lucia
+informed me that _she_ admired your niece. The feeling seems to be
+mutual."
+
+Miss Belinda colored, and brightened visibly.
+
+"Did she, indeed?" she exclaimed. "How pleased Octavia will be to hear
+it! Did she, indeed?" Then, warned by a chilliness, and lack of response,
+in her ladyship's manner, she modified her delight, and became apologetic
+again. "These young people are more--are less critical than we are," she
+sighed. "Octavia's great prettiness"--
+
+"I think," Lady Theobald interposed, "that Lucia has been taught to feel
+that the body is corruptible, and subject to decay, and that mere beauty
+is of small moment."
+
+Miss Belinda sighed again.
+
+"That is very true," she admitted deprecatingly; "very true indeed."
+
+"It is to be hoped that Octavia's stay in Slowbridge will prove
+beneficial to her," said her ladyship in her most judicial manner. "The
+atmosphere is wholly unlike that which has surrounded her during her
+previous life."
+
+"I am sure it will prove beneficial to her," said Miss Belinda eagerly.
+"The companionship of well-trained and refined young people cannot fail
+to be of use to her. Such a companion as Lucia would be, if you would
+kindly permit her to spend an evening with us now and then, would
+certainly improve and modify her greatly. Mr. Francis Barold is--is, I
+think, of the same opinion; at least, I fancied I gathered as much from a
+few words he let fall."
+
+"Francis Barold?" repeated Lady Theobald. "And what did Francis Barold
+say?"
+
+"Of course it was but very little," hesitated Miss Belinda; "but--but I
+could not help seeing that he was drawing comparisons, as it were.
+Octavia was teaching Mr. Poppleton to play croquet; and she was rather
+exhilarated, and perhaps exhibited more--freedom of manner, in an
+innocent way,--quite in an innocent, thoughtless way,--than is exactly
+customary; and I saw Mr. Barold glance from her to Lucia, who stood near;
+and when I said, 'You are thinking of the contrast between them,' he
+answered, 'Yes, they differ very greatly, it is true;' and of course I
+knew that my poor Octavia could not have the advantage in his eyes. She
+feels this herself, I know. She shocked me the other day, beyond
+expression, by telling me that she had asked him if he thought she was
+really fast, and that she was sure he did. Poor child! she evidently did
+not comprehend the dreadful significance of such terms."
+
+"A man like Francis Barold does understand their significance," said Lady
+Theobald; "and it is to be deplored that your niece cannot be taught what
+her position in society will be if such a reputation attaches itself to
+her. The men of the present day fight shy of such characters."
+
+This dread clause so impressed poor Miss Belinda by its solemnity, that
+she could not forbear repeating it to Octavia afterward, though it is to
+be regretted that it did not produce the effect she had hoped.
+
+"Well, I must say," she observed, "that if some men fought a little shyer
+than they do, I shouldn't mind it. You always _do_ have about half a
+dozen dangling around, who only bore you, and who will keep asking you to
+go to places, and sending you bouquets, and asking you to dance when they
+can't dance at all, and only tear your dress, and stand on your feet. If
+they would 'fight shy,' it would be splendid."
+
+To Miss Belinda, who certainly had never been guilty of the indecorum of
+having any member of the stronger sex "dangling about" at all, this was
+very trying.
+
+"My dear," she said, "don't say 'you always have;' it--it really seems to
+make it so personal."
+
+Octavia turned around, and fixed her eyes wonderingly upon her blushing
+countenance. For a moment she made no remark, a marvellous thought
+shaping itself slowly in her mind.
+
+"Aunt Belinda," she said at length, "did nobody ever"--
+
+"Ah, no, my dear! No, no, I assure you!" cried Miss Belinda, in the
+greatest possible trepidation. "Ah, dear, no! Such--such things
+rarely--very rarely happen in--Slowbridge; and, besides, I couldn't
+possibly have thought of it. I couldn't, indeed!"
+
+She was so overwhelmed with maidenly confusion at the appalling thought,
+that she did not recover herself for half an hour at least. Octavia,
+feeling that it would not be safe to pursue the subject, only uttered one
+word of comment,--
+
+"Gracious!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+AN EXPERIMENT.
+
+
+Much to her own astonishment, Lucia found herself allowed new liberty.
+She was permitted to spend the afternoon frequently with Octavia; and on
+several occasions that young lady and Miss Bassett were invited to
+partake of tea at Oldclough in company with no other guest than Francis
+Barold.
+
+"I don't know what it means, and I think it must mean something," said
+Lucia to Octavia; "but it is very pleasant. I never was allowed to be so
+intimate with any one before."
+
+"Perhaps," suggested Octavia sagely, "she thinks, that, if you see me
+often enough, you will get sick of me, and it will be a lesson to you."
+
+"The more I see of you," answered Lucia with a serious little air, "the
+fonder I am of you. I understand you better. You are not at all like what
+I thought you at first, Octavia."
+
+"But I don't know that there's much to understand in me."
+
+"There is a great deal to understand in you," she replied. "You are a
+puzzle to me often. You seem so frank, and yet one knows so little about
+you after all. For instance," Lucia went on, "who would imagine that you
+are so affectionate?"
+
+"Am I affectionate?" she asked.
+
+"Yes," answered Lucia: "I am sure you are very affectionate. I have found
+it out gradually. You would suffer things for any one you loved."
+
+Octavia thought the matter over.
+
+"Yes," she said at length, "I would."
+
+"You are very fond of Miss Bassett," proceeded Lucia, as if arraigning
+her at the bar of justice. "You are _very_ fond of your father; and I am
+sure there are other people you are very fond of--_very_ fond of indeed."
+
+Octavia pondered seriously again.
+
+"Yes, there are," she remarked; "but no one would care about them here,
+and so I'm not going to make a fuss. You don't want to make a fuss over
+people you l-like."
+
+"_You_ don't," said Lucia. "You are like Francis Barold in one way, but
+you are altogether different in another. Francis Barold does not wish to
+show emotion; and he is so determined to hedge himself around, that one
+can't help suspecting that he is always guarding himself against one. He
+seems always to be resenting any interference; but you do not appear to
+care at all, and so it is not natural that one should suspect you. I did
+not suspect you."
+
+"What do you suspect me of now?"
+
+"Of thinking a great deal," answered Lucia affectionately. "And of being
+very clever and very good."
+
+Octavia was silent for a few moments.
+
+"I think," she said after the pause,--"I think you'll find out that it's
+a mistake."
+
+"No, I shall not," returned Lucia, quite glowing with enthusiasm. "And I
+know I shall learn a great deal from you."
+
+This was such a startling proposition that Octavia felt decidedly
+uncomfortable. She flushed rosy red.
+
+"I'm the one who ought to learn things, I think," she said. "I'm always
+doing things that frighten aunt Belinda, and you know how the rest
+regard me."
+
+"Octavia," said Lucia, very naively indeed, "suppose we try to help each
+other. If you will tell me when I am wrong, I will try to--to have the
+courage to tell you. That will be good practice for me. What I want most
+is courage and frankness, and I am sure it will take courage to make up
+my mind to tell you of your--of your mistakes."
+
+Octavia regarded her with mingled admiration and respect.
+
+"I think that's a splendid idea," she said.
+
+"Are you sure," faltered Lucia, "are you sure you won't mind the
+things I may have to say? Really, they are quite little things in
+themselves--hardly worth mentioning"--
+
+"Tell me one of them, right now," said Octavia, point-blank.
+
+"Oh, no!" exclaimed Lucia, starting. "I'd rather not--just now."
+
+"Well," commented Octavia, "that sounds as if they must be pretty
+unpleasant. Why don't you want to? They will be quite as bad to-morrow.
+And to refuse to tell me one is a bad beginning. It looks as if you were
+frightened; and it isn't good practice for you to be frightened at such a
+little thing."
+
+Lucia felt convicted. She made an effort to regain her composure.
+
+"No, it is not," she said. "But that is always the way. I am continually
+telling myself that I _will_ be courageous and candid; and, the first
+time any thing happens, I fail. I _will_ tell you one thing."
+
+She stopped short here, and looked at Octavia guiltily.
+
+"It is something--I think I would do if--if I were in your place," Lucia
+stammered. "A very little thing indeed."
+
+"Well?" remarked Octavia anxiously.
+
+Lucia lost her breath, caught it again, and proceeded cautiously, and
+with blushes at her own daring.
+
+"If I were in your place," she said, "I think--that, perhaps--only
+perhaps, you know--I would not wear--my hair--_quite_ so low down--over
+my forehead."
+
+Octavia sprang from her seat, and ran to the pier-glass over the mantle.
+She glanced at the reflection of her own startled, pretty face, and
+then, putting her hand up to the soft blonde "bang" which met her brows,
+turned to Lucia.
+
+"Isn't it becoming?" she asked breathlessly.
+
+"Oh, yes!" Lucia answered. "Very."
+
+Octavia started.
+
+"Then, why wouldn't you wear it?" she cried. "What do you mean?"
+
+Lucia felt her position truly a delicate one. She locked her hands, and
+braced herself; but she blushed vividly.
+
+"It may sound rather silly when I tell you why, Octavia," she said; "but
+I really do think it is a sort of reason. You know, in those absurd
+pictures of actresses, bangs always seem to be the principal feature. I
+saw some in the shop-windows when I went to Harriford with grandmamma.
+And they were such dreadful women,--some of them,--and had so very few
+clothes on, that I can't help thinking I shouldn't like to look like
+them, and"--
+
+"Does it make me look like them?"
+
+"Oh, very little!" answered Lucia; "very little indeed, of course; but"--
+
+"But it's the same thing after all," put in Octavia. "That's what you
+mean."
+
+"It is so very little," faltered Lucia, "that--that perhaps it isn't
+a reason."
+
+Octavia looked at herself in the glass again.
+
+"It isn't a very good reason," she remarked, "but I suppose it will do."
+
+She paused, and looked Lucia in the face.
+
+"I don't think that's a little thing," she said. "To be told you look
+like an _opera bouffe_ actress."
+
+"I did not mean to say so," cried Lucia, filled with the most poignant
+distress. "I beg your pardon, indeed--I--oh, dear! I was afraid you
+wouldn't like it. I felt that it was taking a great liberty."
+
+"I don't like it," answered Octavia; "but that can't be helped. I didn't
+exactly suppose I should. But I wasn't going to say any thing about
+_your_ hair when _I_ began," glancing at poor Lucia's coiffure, "though I
+suppose I might."
+
+"You might say a thousand things about it!" cried Lucia piteously. "I
+know that mine is not only in bad taste, but it is ugly and unbecoming."
+"Yes," said Octavia cruelly, "it is."
+
+"And yours is neither the one nor the other," protested Lucia. "You know
+I told you it was pretty, Octavia."
+
+Octavia walked over to the table, upon which stood Miss Belinda's
+work-basket, and took therefrom a small and gleaming pair of scissors,
+returning to the mantle-glass with them.
+
+"How short shall I cut it?" she demanded.
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Lucia, "don't, don't!"
+
+For answer, Octavia raised the scissors, and gave a snip. It was a savage
+snip, and half the length and width of her love-locks fell on the mantle;
+then she gave another snip, and the other half fell.
+
+Lucia scarcely dared to breathe.
+
+For a moment Octavia stood gazing at herself, with pale face and dilated
+eyes. Then suddenly the folly of the deed she had done seemed to reveal
+itself to her.
+
+"Oh!" she cried out. "Oh, how diabolical it looks!"
+
+She turned upon Lucia.
+
+"Why did you make me do it?" she exclaimed. "It's all your fault--every
+bit of it;" and, flinging the scissors to the other end of the room, she
+threw herself into a chair, and burst into tears.
+
+Lucia's anguish of mind was almost more than she could bear. For at least
+three minutes she felt herself a criminal of the deepest dye; after the
+three minutes had elapsed, however, she began to reason, and called to
+mind the fact that she was failing as usual under her crisis.
+
+"This is being a coward again," she said to herself. "It is worse than to
+have said nothing. It is true that she will look more refined, now one
+can see a little of her forehead; and it is cowardly to be afraid to
+stand firm when I really think so. I--yes, I will say something to her."
+
+"Octavia," she began aloud, "I am sure you are making a mistake again."
+This as decidedly as possible, which was not very decidedly. "You--you
+look very much--nicer."
+
+"I look _ghastly_!" said Octavia, who began to feel rather absurd.
+
+"You do not. Your forehead--you have the prettiest forehead I ever saw,
+Octavia," said Lucia eagerly; "and your eyebrows are perfect. I--wish you
+would look at yourself again."
+
+Rather to her surprise, Octavia began to laugh under cover of her
+handkerchief: reaction had set in, and, though the laugh was a trifle
+hysterical, it was still a laugh. Next she gave her eyes a final little
+dab, and rose to go to the glass again. She looked at herself, touched up
+the short, waving fringe left on her forehead, and turned to Lucia, with
+a resigned expression.
+
+"Do you think that any one who was used to seeing it the other way
+would--would think I looked horrid?" she inquired anxiously.
+
+"They would think you prettier,--a great deal," Lucia answered earnestly.
+"Don't you know, Octavia, that nothing could be really unbecoming to you?
+You have that kind of face."
+
+For a few seconds Octavia seemed to lose herself in thought of a
+speculative nature.
+
+"Jack always said so," she remarked at length.
+
+"Jack!" repeated Lucia timidly.
+
+Octavia roused herself, and smiled with candid sweetness.
+
+"He is some one I knew in Nevada," she explained. "He worked in father's
+mine once."
+
+"You must have known him very well," suggested Lucia, somewhat awed.
+
+"I did," she replied calmly. "Very well."
+
+She tucked away her pocket-handkerchief in the jaunty pocket at the back
+of her basque, and returned to her chair. Then she turned again to Lucia.
+
+"Well," she said, "I think you have found out that you _were_ mistaken,
+haven't you, dear? Suppose you tell me of something else."
+
+Lucia colored.
+
+"No," she answered: "that is enough for to-day."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+PECULIAR TO NEVADA.
+
+
+Whether, or not, Lucia was right in accusing Octavia Bassett of being
+clever, and thinking a great deal, is a riddle which those who are
+interested in her must unravel as they read; but, whether the surmise was
+correct or incorrect, it seemed possible that she had thought a little
+after the interview. When Barold saw her next, he was struck by a slight
+but distinctly definable change he recognized in her dress and coiffure.
+Her pretty hair had a rather less "professional" appearance: he had the
+pleasure of observing, for the first time, how very white her forehead
+was, and how delicate the arch of her eyebrows; her dress had a novel air
+of simplicity, and the diamond rings were nowhere to be seen.
+
+"She's better dressed than usual," he said to himself. "And she's always
+well dressed,--rather too well dressed, fact is, for a place like this.
+This sort of thing is in better form, under the circumstances." It was
+so much "better form," and he so far approved of it, that he quite
+thawed, and was very amiable and very entertaining indeed.
+
+Octavia was entertaining too. She asked several most interesting
+questions.
+
+"Do you think," she inquired, "that it is bad taste to wear diamonds?"
+
+"My mother wears them--occasionally."
+
+"Have you any sisters?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Any cousins--as young as I am?"
+
+"Ya-as."
+
+"Do they wear them?"
+
+"I must admit," he replied, "that they don't. In the first place, you
+know, they haven't any; and, in the second, I am under the impression
+that Lady Beauchamp--their mamma, you know--wouldn't permit it if they
+had."
+
+"Wouldn't permit it!" said Octavia. "I suppose they always do as she
+tells them?"
+
+He smiled a little.
+
+"They would be very courageous young women if they didn't," he remarked.
+
+"What would she do if they tried it?" she inquired. "She couldn't beat
+them."
+
+"They will never try it," he answered dryly. "And though I have never
+seen her beat them, or heard their lamentations under chastisement, I
+should not like to say that Lady Beauchamp could not do any thing. She is
+a very determined person--for a gentlewoman."
+
+Octavia laughed.
+
+"You are joking," she said.
+
+"Lady Beauchamp is a serious subject for jokes," he responded. "My
+cousins think so, at least."
+
+"I wonder if she is as bad as Lady Theobald," Octavia reflected aloud.
+"She says I have no right to wear diamonds at all until I am married. But
+I don't mind Lady Theobald," she added, as a cheerful afterthought. "I am
+not fond enough of her to care about what she says."
+
+"Are you fond of any one?" Barold inquired, speaking with a languid air,
+but at the same time glancing at her with some slight interest from under
+his eyelids.
+
+"Lucia says I am," she returned, with the calmness of a young person who
+wished to regard the matter from an unembarrassed point of view. "Lucia
+says I am affectionate."
+
+"Ah!" deliberately. "Are you?"
+
+She turned, and looked at him serenely.
+
+"Should _you_ think so?" she asked.
+
+This was making such a personal matter of the question, that he did not
+exactly enjoy it. It was certainly not "good form" to pull a man up in
+such cool style.
+
+"Really," he replied, "I--ah--have had no opportunity of judging."
+
+He had not the slightest intention of being amusing, but to his infinite
+disgust he discovered as soon as he spoke that she was amused. She
+laughed outright, and evidently only checked herself because he looked so
+furious. In consideration for his feelings she assumed an air of mild but
+preternatural seriousness.
+
+"No," she remarked, "that is true: you haven't, of course."
+
+He was silent. He did not enjoy being amusing at all, and he made no
+pretence of appearing to submit to the indignity calmly.
+
+She bent forward a little.
+
+"Ah!" she exclaimed, "you are mad again--I mean, you are vexed. I am
+always vexing you."
+
+There was a hint of appeal in her voice, which rather pleased him; but he
+had no intention of relenting at once.
+
+"I confess I am at a loss to know why you laughed," he said.
+
+"Are you," she asked, "really?" letting her eyes rest upon him anxiously
+for a moment. Then she actually gave vent to a little sigh. "We look at
+things so differently, that's it," she said.
+
+"I suppose it is," he responded, still chillingly.
+
+In spite of this, she suddenly assumed a comparatively cheerful aspect. A
+happy thought occurred to her.
+
+"Lucia would beg your pardon," she said. "I am learning good manners from
+Lucia. Suppose I beg your pardon."
+
+"It is quite unnecessary," he replied.
+
+"Lucia wouldn't think so," she said. "And why shouldn't I be as
+well-behaved as Lucia? I beg your pardon."
+
+He felt rather absurd, and yet somewhat mollified. She had a way of
+looking at him, sometimes, when she had been unpleasant, which rather
+soothed him. In fact, he had found of late, a little to his private
+annoyance, that it was very easy for her either to soothe or disturb him.
+
+And now, just as Octavia had settled down into one of the prettiest and
+least difficult of her moods, there came a knock at the front door,
+which, being answered by Mary Anne, was found to announce the curate of
+St. James.
+
+Enter, consequently, the Rev. Arthur Poppleton,--blushing, a trifle
+timorous perhaps, but happy beyond measure to find himself in Miss
+Belinda's parlor again, with Miss Belinda's niece.
+
+Perhaps the least possible shade of his joyousness died out when he
+caught sight of Mr. Francis Barold, and certainly Mr. Francis Barold was
+not at all delighted to see him.
+
+"What does the fellow want?" that gentleman was saying inwardly. "What
+does he come simpering and turning pink here for? Why doesn't he go and
+see some of his old women, and read tracts to them? That's _his_
+business." Octavia's manner toward her visitor formed a fresh
+grievance for Barold. She treated the curate very well indeed. She
+seemed glad to see him, she was wholly at her ease with him, she made no
+trying remarks to him, she never stopped to fix her eyes upon him in
+that inexplicable style, and she did not laugh when there seemed nothing
+to laugh at. She was so gay and good-humored that the Rev. Arthur
+Poppleton beamed and flourished under her treatment, and forgot to
+change color, and even ventured to talk a good deal, and make divers
+quite presentable little jokes.
+
+"I should like to know," thought Barold, growing sulkier as the others
+grew merrier,--"I should like to know what she finds so interesting in
+him, and why she chooses to treat him better than she treats me; for she
+certainly does treat him better."
+
+It was hardly fair, however, that he should complain; for, at times, he
+was treated extremely well, and his intimacy with Octavia progressed
+quite rapidly. Perhaps, if the truth were told, it was always himself who
+was the first means of checking it, by some suddenly prudent instinct
+which led him to feel that perhaps he was in rather a delicate position,
+and had better not indulge in too much of a good thing. He had not been
+an eligible and unimpeachable desirable _parti_ for ten years without
+acquiring some of that discretion which is said to be the better part of
+valor. The matter-of-fact air with which Octavia accepted his attentions
+caused him to pull himself up sometimes. If he had been Brown, or Jones,
+or even Robinson, she could not have appeared to regard them as more
+entirely natural. When--he had gone so far, once or twice--he had deigned
+to make a more than usually agreeable speech to her, it was received with
+none of that charming sensitive tremor to which he was accustomed.
+Octavia neither blushed, nor dropped her eyes.
+
+It did not add to Barold's satisfaction to find her as cheerful and ready
+to be amused by a mild little curate, who blushed and stammered, and was
+neither brilliant, graceful, nor distinguished. Could not Octavia see the
+wide difference between the two? Regarding the matter in this light, and
+watching Octavia as she encouraged her visitor, and laughed at his jokes,
+and never once tripped him up by asking him a startling question, did
+not, as already has been said, improve Mr. Francis Barold's temper; and,
+by the time his visit was over, he had lapsed into his coldest and most
+haughty manner. As soon as Miss Belinda entered, and engaged Mr.
+Poppleton for a moment, he rose, and crossed the little room to Octavia's
+side.
+
+"I must bid you good-afternoon," he said.
+
+Octavia did not rise.
+
+"Sit down a minute, while aunt Belinda is talking about red-flannel
+nightcaps and lumbago," she said. "I wanted to ask you something. By the
+way, what _is_ lumbago?"
+
+"Is that what you wished to ask me?" he inquired stiffly.
+
+"No. I just thought of that. Have you ever had it? and what is it like?
+All the old people in Slowbridge have it, and they tell you all about it
+when you go to see them. Aunt Belinda says so. What I wanted to ask you
+was different"--
+
+"Possibly Miss Bassett might be able to tell you," he remarked.
+
+"About the lumbago? Well, perhaps she might. I'll ask her. Do you think
+it bad taste in _me_ to wear diamonds?"
+
+She said this with the most delightful seriousness, fixing her eyes upon
+him with her very prettiest look of candid appeal, as if it were the most
+natural thing in the world that she should apply to him for information.
+He felt himself faltering again. How white that bit of forehead was! How
+soft that blonde, waving fringe of hair! What a lovely shape her eyes
+were, and how large and clear as she raised them!
+
+"Why do you ask _me_?" he inquired.
+
+"Because I think you are an unprejudiced person. Lady Theobald is not. I
+have confidence in you. Tell me."
+
+There was a slight pause.
+
+"Really," he said, after it, "I can scarcely believe that my opinion can
+be of any value in your eyes. I am--can only tell you that it is hardly
+customary in--an--in England for young people to wear a profusion of
+ornament."
+
+"I wonder if I wear a profusion."
+
+"You don't need any," he condescended. "You are too young, and--all that
+sort of thing."
+
+She glanced down at her slim, unringed hands for a moment, her expression
+quite thoughtful.
+
+"Lucia and I almost quarrelled the other day," she said--"at least, I
+almost quarrelled. It isn't so nice to be told of things, after all. I
+must say I don't like it as much as I thought I should."
+
+He kept his seat longer than, he had intended; and, when he rose to go,
+the Rev. Arthur Poppleton was shaking hands with Miss Belinda, and so it
+fell out that they left the house together.
+
+"You know Miss Octavia Bassett well, I suppose," remarked Barold, with
+condescension, as they passed through the gate. "You clergymen are
+fortunate fellows."
+
+"I wish that others knew her as well, sir," said the little gentleman,
+kindling. "I wish they knew her--her generosity and kindness of heart and
+ready sympathy with misfortune!"
+
+"Ah!" commented Mr. Barold, twisting his mustache with somewhat of an
+incredulous air. This was not at all the sort of thing he had expected to
+hear. For his own part, it would not have occurred to him to suspect her
+of the possession of such desirable and orthodox qualities.
+
+"There are those who--misunderstand her," cried the curate, warming with
+his subject, "who misunderstand, and--yes, and apply harsh terms to her
+innocent gayety and freedom of speech: if they knew her as I do, they
+would cease to do so."
+
+"I should scarcely have thought"--began Barold.
+
+"There are many who scarcely think it,--if you will pardon my
+interrupting you," said the curate. "I think they would scarcely believe
+it if I felt at liberty to tell them, which I regret to say I do not. I
+am almost breaking my word in saying what I cannot help saying to
+yourself. The poor under my care are better off since she came, and there
+are some who have seen her more than once, though she did not go as a
+teacher or to reprove them for faults; and her way of doing what she did
+was new to them, and perhaps much less serious than they were accustomed
+to, and they liked it all the better."
+
+"Ah!" commented Barold again. "Flannel under-garments, and--that sort
+of thing."
+
+"No," with much spirit, "not at all, sir; but what, as I said, they liked
+much better. It is not often they meet a beautiful creature who comes
+among them with open hands, and the natural, ungrudging way of giving
+which she has. Sometimes they are at a loss to understand, as well as the
+rest. They have been used to what is narrower and more--more exacting."
+
+"They have been used to Lady Theobald," observed Barold, with a faint
+smile.
+
+"It would not become me to--to mention Lady Theobald in any disparaging
+manner," replied the curate: "but the best and most charitable among us
+do not always carry out our good intentions in the best way. I dare say
+Lady Theobald would consider Miss Octavia Bassett too readily influenced
+and too lavish."
+
+"She is as generous with her money as with her diamonds perhaps," said
+Barold. "Possibly the quality is peculiar to Nevada. We part here, Mr.
+Poppleton, I believe. Good-morning."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+LORD LANSDOWNE.
+
+
+One morning in the following week Mrs. Burnham attired herself in her
+second-best black silk, and, leaving the Misses Burnham practising
+diligently, turned her steps toward Oldclough Hall. Arriving there, she
+was ushered into the blue drawing-room by Dobson, in his character of
+footman; and in a few minutes Lucia appeared.
+
+When Mrs. Burnham saw her, she assumed a slight air of surprise.
+
+"Why, my dear," she said, as she shook hands, "I should scarcely have
+known you."
+
+And, though this was something of an exaggeration, there was some excuse
+for the exclamation. Lucia was looking very charming, and several changes
+might be noted in her attire and appearance. The ugly twist had
+disappeared from her delicate head; and in its place were soft, loose
+waves and light puffs; she had even ventured on allowing a few ringed
+locks to stray on to her forehead; her white morning-dress no longer wore
+the trade-mark of Miss Chickie, but had been remodelled by some one of
+more taste.
+
+"What a pretty gown, my dear!" said Mrs. Burnham, glancing at it
+curiously. "A Watteau plait down the back--isn't it a Watteau plait?--and
+little ruffles down the front, and pale pink bows. It is quite like some
+of Miss Octavia Bassett's dresses, only not so over-trimmed."
+
+"I do not think Octavia's dresses would seem over-trimmed if she wore
+them in London or Paris," said Lucia bravely. "It is only because we are
+so very quiet, and dress so little in Slowbridge, that they seem so."
+
+"And your hair!" remarked Mrs. Burnham. "You drew your idea of that from
+some style of hers, I suppose. Very becoming, indeed. Well, well! And how
+does Lady Theobald like all this, my dear?"
+
+"I am not sure that"--Lucia was beginning, when her ladyship interrupted
+her by entering.
+
+"My dear Lady Theobald," cried her visitor, rising, "I hope you are well.
+I have just been complimenting Lucia upon her pretty dress, and her new
+style of dressing her hair. Miss Octavia Bassett has been giving her the
+benefit of her experience, it appears. We have not been doing her
+justice. Who would have believed that she had come from Nevada to improve
+us?"
+
+"Miss Octavia Bassett," said my lady sonorously, "has come from Nevada to
+teach our young people a great many things,--new fashions in duty, and
+demeanor, and respect for their elders. Let us hope they will be
+benefited."
+
+"If you will excuse me, grandmamma," said Lucia, speaking in a soft,
+steady voice, "I will go and write the letters you wished written."
+
+"Go," said my lady with majesty; and, having bidden Mrs. Burnham
+good-morning, Lucia went.
+
+If Mrs. Burnham had expected any explanation of her ladyship's evident
+displeasure, she was doomed to disappointment. That excellent and
+rigorous gentlewoman had a stern sense of dignity, which forbade her
+condescending to the confidential weakness of mere ordinary mortals.
+Instead of referring to Lucia, she broached a more commonplace topic.
+
+"I hope your rheumatism does not threaten you again, Mrs. Burnham,"
+she remarked.
+
+"I am very well, thank you, my dear," said Mrs. Burnham; "so well, that I
+am thinking quite seriously of taking the dear girls to the garden-party,
+when it comes off."
+
+"To the garden-party!" repeated her ladyship. "May I ask who thinks of
+giving a garden-party in Slowbridge?"
+
+"It is no one in Slowbridge," replied this lady cheerfully. "Some one who
+lives a little out of Slowbridge,--Mr. Burmistone, my dear Lady Theobald,
+at his new place."
+
+"Mr. Burmistone!"
+
+"Yes, my dear; and a most charming affair it is to be, if we are to
+believe all we hear. Surely you have heard something of it from Mr.
+Barold."
+
+"Mr. Barold has not been to Oldclough for several days."
+
+"Then, he will tell you when he comes; for I suppose he has as much to do
+with it as Mr. Burmistone."
+
+"I have heard before," announced my lady, "of men of Mr. Burmistone's
+class securing the services of persons of established position in society
+when they wished to spend their money upon entertainments; but I should
+scarcely have imagined that Francis Barold would have allowed himself to
+be made a party to such a transaction."
+
+"But," put in Mrs. Burnham rather eagerly, "it appears that Mr.
+Burmistone is not such an obscure person, after all. He is an Oxford man,
+and came off with honors: he is quite a well-born man, and gives this
+entertainment in honor of his friend and relation, Lord Lansdowne."
+
+"Lord Lansdowne!" echoed her ladyship, sternly.
+
+"Son of the Marquis of Lauderdale, whose wife was Lady Honora Erroll."
+
+"Did Mr. Burmistone give you this information?" asked Lady Theobald with
+ironic calmness.
+
+Mrs. Burnham colored never so faintly.
+
+"I--that is to say--there is a sort of acquaintance between one of my
+maids and the butler at the Burmistone place; and, when the girl was
+doing Lydia's hair, she told her the story. Lord Lansdowne and his father
+are quite fond of Mr. Burmistone, it is said."
+
+"It seems rather singular to my mind that we should not have known of
+this before."
+
+"But how should we learn? We none of us know Lord Lansdowne, or even the
+marquis. I think he is only a second or third cousin. We are a
+little--just a little _set_ in Slowbridge, you know, my dear: at least, I
+have thought so sometimes lately."
+
+"I must confess," remarked my lady, "that _I_ have not regarded the
+matter in that light."
+
+"That is because you have a better right to--to be a little set than the
+rest of us," was the amiable response.
+
+Lady Theobald did not disclaim the privilege. She felt the sentiment an
+extremely correct one. But she was not very warm in her manner during the
+remainder of the call; and, incongruous as such a statement may appear,
+it must be confessed that she felt that Miss Octavia Bassett must have
+something to do with, these defections on all sides, and that
+garden-parties, and all such swervings from established Slowbridge
+custom, were the natural result of Nevada frivolity and freedom of
+manners. It may be that she felt remotely that even Lord Lansdowne and
+the Marquis of Lauderdale were to be referred to the same reprehensible
+cause, and that, but for Octavia Bassett, Mr. Burmistone would not have
+been educated at Oxford and have come off with honors, and have turned
+out to be related to respectable people, but would have remained in
+appropriate obscurity.
+
+"I suppose," she said afterward to Lucia, "that your friend Miss Octavia
+Bassett is in Mr. Burmistone's confidence, if no one else has been
+permitted to have that honor. I have no doubt _she_ has known of this
+approaching entertainment for some weeks."
+
+"I do not know, grandmamma," replied Lucia, putting her letters together,
+and gaining color as she bent over them. She was wondering, with inward
+trepidation, what her ladyship would say if she knew the whole truth,--if
+she knew that it was her granddaughter, and not Octavia Bassett, who
+enjoyed Mr. Burmistone's confidence.
+
+"Ah!" she thought, "how could I ever dare to tell her?"
+
+The same day Francis Barold sauntered up to pay them a visit; and then,
+as Mrs. Burnham had prophesied, Lady Theobald heard all she wished to
+hear, and, indeed, a great deal more.
+
+"What is this I am told of Mr. Burmistone, Francis?" she inquired.
+"That he intends to give a garden-party, and that Lord Lansdowne is to
+be one of the guests, and that he has caused it to be circulated that
+they are cousins."
+
+"That Lansdowne has caused it to be circulated--or Burmistone?"
+
+"It is scarcely likely that Lord Lansdowne"--
+
+"Beg pardon," he interrupted, fixing his single glass dexterously in his
+right eye, and gazing at her ladyship through it. "Can't see why
+Lansdowne should object. Fact is, he is a great deal fonder of Burmistone
+than relations usually are of each other. Now, I often find that kind of
+thing a bore; but Lansdowne doesn't seem to. They were at school
+together, it seems, and at Oxford too; and Burmistone is supposed to have
+behaved pretty well towards Lansdowne at one time, when he was rather a
+wild fellow--so the father and mother say. As to Burmistone 'causing it
+to be circulated,' that sort of thing is rather absurd. The man isn't a
+cad, you know."
+
+"Pray don't say 'you know,' Francis," said her ladyship. "I know very
+little but what I have chanced to see, and I must confess I have not
+been prepossessed in Mr. Burmistone's favor. Why did he not choose to
+inform us"--
+
+"That he was Lord Lansdowne's second cousin, and knew the Marquis of
+Lauderdale, grandmamma?" broke in Lucia, with very pretty spirit. "Would
+that have prepossessed you in his favor? Would you have forgiven him for
+building the mills, on Lord Lansdowne's account? I--I wish I was related
+to a marquis," which was very bold indeed.
+
+"May I ask," said her ladyship, in her most monumental manner, "when
+_you_ became Mr. Burmistone's champion?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+"YOU HAVE MADE IT LIVELIER."
+
+
+When she had become Mr. Burmistone's champion, indeed! She could scarcely
+have told when, unless, perhaps, she had fixed the date at the first time
+she had heard his name introduced at a high tea, with every politely
+opprobrious epithet affixed. She had defended him in her own mind then,
+and felt sure that he deserved very little that was said against him, and
+very likely nothing at all. And, the first time she had seen and spoken
+to him, she had been convinced that she had not made a mistake, and that
+he had been treated with cruel injustice. How kind he was, how manly, how
+clever, and how well he bore himself under the popular adverse criticism!
+She only wondered that anybody could be so blind and stupid and wilful as
+to assail him.
+
+And if this had been the case in those early days, imagine what she felt
+now, when--ah, well!--when her friendship had had time and opportunity to
+become a much deeper sentiment. Must it be confessed that she had seen
+Mr. Burmistone even oftener than Octavia and Miss Belinda knew of? Of
+course it had all been quite accidental; but it had happened that now and
+then, when she had been taking a quiet walk in the lanes about Oldclough,
+she had encountered a gentleman, who had dismounted, and led his horse by
+the bridle, as he sauntered by her side. She had always been very timid
+at such times, and had felt rather like a criminal; but Mr. Burmistone
+had not been timid at all, and would, indeed, as soon have met Lady
+Theobald as not, for which courage his companion admired him more than
+ever. It was not very long before to be with this hero re-assured her,
+and made her feel stronger and more self-reliant. She was never afraid to
+open her soft little heart to him, and show him innocently all its
+goodness, and ignorance of worldliness. She warmed and brightened under
+his kindly influence, and was often surprised in secret at her own simple
+readiness of wit and speech.
+
+"It is odd that I am such a different girl when--when I am with you," she
+said to him one day. "I even make little jokes. I never should think of
+making even the tiniest joke before grandmamma. Somehow, she never seems
+quite to understand jokes. She never laughs at them. You always laugh,
+and I am sure it is very kind of you to encourage me so; but you must not
+encourage me too much, or I might forget, and make a little joke at
+dinner, and I think, if I did, she would choke over her soup."
+
+Perhaps, when she dressed her hair, and adorned herself with pale pink
+bows and like appurtenances, this artful young person had privately in
+mind other beholders than Mrs. Burnham, and other commendation than that
+to be bestowed by that most excellent matron.
+
+"Do you mind my telling you that you have put on an enchanted garment?"
+said Mr. Burmistone, the first time they met when she wore one of the
+old-new gowns. "I thought I knew before how"--
+
+"I don't mind it at all," said Lucia, blushing brilliantly. "I rather
+like it. It rewards me for my industry. My hair is dressed in a new way.
+I hope you like that too. Grandmamma does not."
+
+It had been Lady Theobald's habit to treat Lucia severely from a sense of
+duty. Her manner toward her had always rather the tone of implying that
+she was naturally at fault, and yet her ladyship could not have told
+wherein she wished the girl changed. In the good old school in which my
+lady had been trained, it was customary to regard young people as weak,
+foolish, and, if left to their own desires, frequently sinful. Lucia had
+not been left to her own desires. She had been taught to view herself as
+rather a bad case, and to feel that she was far from being what her
+relatives had a right to expect. To be thrown with a person who did not
+find her silly or dull or commonplace, was a new experience.
+
+"If I had been clever," Lucia said once to Mr. Burmistone,--"if I had
+been clever, perhaps grandmamma would have been more satisfied with me. I
+have often wished I had been clever."
+
+"If you had been a boy," replied Mr. Burmistone rather grimly, "and had
+squandered her money, and run into debt, and bullied her, you would have
+been her idol, and she would have pinched and starved herself to supply
+your highness's extravagance."
+
+When the garden-party rumor began to take definite form, and there was no
+doubt as to Mr. Burmistone's intentions, a discussion arose at once, and
+went on in every genteel parlor. Would Lady Theobald allow Lucia to go?
+and, if she did not allow her, would not such a course appear very
+pointed indeed? It was universally decided that it would appear pointed,
+but that Lady Theobald would not mind that in the least, and perhaps
+would rather enjoy it than otherwise; and it was thought Lucia would not
+go. And it is very likely that Lucia would have remained at home, if it
+had not been for the influence of Mr. Francis Barold.
+
+Making a call at Oldclough, he found his august relative in a very
+majestic mood, and she applied to him again for information.
+
+"Perhaps," she said, "you may be able to tell me whether it is true that
+Belinda Bassett--_Belinda Bassett_," with emphasis, "has been invited by
+Mr. Burmistone to assist him to receive his guests."
+
+"Yes, it is true," was the reply: "I think I advised it myself.
+Burmistone is fond of her. They are great friends. Man needs a woman at
+such times."
+
+"And he chose Belinda Bassett?"
+
+"In the first place, he is on friendly terms with her, as I said before,"
+replied Barold; "in the second, she's just what he wants--well-bred,
+kind-hearted, not likely to make rows, _et caetera_." There was a slight
+pause before he finished, adding quietly, "He's not the man to submit to
+being refused--Burmistone."
+
+Lady Theobald did not reply, or raise her eyes from her work: she knew he
+was looking at her with calm fixedness, through the glass he held in its
+place so cleverly; and she detested this more than any thing else,
+perhaps because she was invariably quelled by it, and found she had
+nothing to say.
+
+He did not address her again immediately, but turned to Lucia, dropping
+the eyeglass, and resuming his normal condition.
+
+"You will go, of course?" he said.
+
+Lucia glanced across at my lady.
+
+"I--do not know. Grandmamma"--
+
+"Oh!" interposed Barold, "you must go. There is no reason for your
+refusing the invitation, unless you wish to imply something
+unpleasant--which is, of course, out of the question."
+
+"But there may be reasons"--began her ladyship.
+
+"Burmistone is my friend," put in Barold, in his coolest tone; "and I am
+your relative, which would make my position in his house a delicate one,
+if he has offended you."
+
+When Lucia saw Octavia again, she was able to tell her that they had
+received invitations to the _fete_, and that Lady Theobald had accepted
+them.
+
+"She has not spoken a word to me about it, but she has accepted them,"
+said Lucia. "I don't quite understand her lately, Octavia. She must be
+very fond of Francis Barold. He never gives way to her in the least, and
+she always seems to submit to him. I know she would not have let me go,
+if he had not insisted on it, in that taking-it-for-granted way of his."
+
+Naturally Mr. Burmistone's _fete_ caused great excitement. Miss Chickie
+was never so busy in her life, and there were rumors that her feelings
+had been outraged by the discovery that Mrs. Burnham had sent to
+Harriford for costumes for her daughters.
+
+"Slowbridge is changing, mem," said Miss Chickie. with brilliant sarcasm.
+"Our ladies is led in their fashions by a Nevada young person. We're
+improving most rapid--more rapid than I'd ever have dared to hope. Do you
+prefer a frill, or a flounce, mem?"
+
+Octavia was in great good spirits at the prospect of the gayeties in
+question. She had been in remarkably good spirits for some weeks. She had
+received letters from Nevada, containing good news she said. Shares had
+gone up again; and her father had almost settled his affairs, and it
+would not be long before he would come to England. She looked so
+exhilarated over the matter, that Lucia felt a little aggrieved. "Will
+you be so glad to leave us, Octavia?" she asked. "We shall not be so glad
+to let you go. We have grown very fond of you."
+
+"I shall be sorry to leave you, and aunt Belinda is going with us. You
+don't expect me to be very fond of Slowbridge, do you, and to be sorry I
+can't take Mrs. Burnham--and the rest?"
+
+Barold was present when she made this speech, and it rather rankled.
+
+"Am I one of 'the rest'?" he inquired, the first time he found himself
+alone with her. He was sufficiently piqued to forget his usual _hauteur_
+and discretion.
+
+"Would you like to be?" she said.
+
+"Oh! Very much--very much--naturally," he replied severely.
+
+They were standing near a rose-bush in the garden; and she plucked a
+rose, and regarded it with deep interest.
+
+"Well," she said, next, "I must say I think I shouldn't have had such a
+good time if you hadn't been here. You have made it livelier."
+
+"Tha-anks," he remarked. "You are most kind."
+
+"Oh!" she answered, "it's true. If it wasn't, I shouldn't say it. You and
+Mr. Burmistone and Mr. Poppleton have certainly made it livelier."
+
+He went home in such a bad humor that his host, who was rather happier
+than usual, commented upon his grave aspect at dinner.
+
+"You look as if you had heard ill news, old fellow," he said. "What's
+up?"
+
+"Oh, nothing!" he was answered sardonically; "nothing whatever--unless
+that I have been rather snubbed by a young lady from Nevada."
+
+"Ah!" with great seriousness: "that's rather cool, isn't it?"
+
+"It's her little way," said Barold. "It seems to be one of the customs
+of Nevada."
+
+In fact, he was very savage indeed. He felt that he had condescended a
+good deal lately. He seldom bestowed his time on women; and when he did
+so, at rare intervals, he chose those who would do the most honor to his
+taste at the least cost of trouble. And he was obliged to confess to
+himself that he had broken his rule in this case. Upon analyzing his
+motives and necessities, he found, that, after all, he must have extended
+his visit simply because he chose to see more of this young woman from
+Nevada, and that really, upon the whole, he had borne a good deal from
+her. Sometimes he had been much pleased with her, and very well
+entertained; but often enough--in fact, rather too often--she had made
+him exceedingly uncomfortable. Her manners were not what he was
+accustomed to: she did not consider that all men were not to be regarded
+from the same point of view. Perhaps he did not put into definite words
+the noble and patriotic sentiment that an Englishman was not to be
+regarded from the same point of view as an American, and that, though all
+this sort of thing might do with fellows in New York, it was scarcely
+what an Englishman would stand. Perhaps, as I say, he had not put this
+sentiment into words; but it is quite certain that it had been uppermost
+in his mind upon more occasions than one. As he thought their
+acquaintance over, this evening, he was rather severe upon Octavia. He
+even was roused so far as to condescend to talk her over with Burmistone.
+
+"If she had been well brought up," he said, "she would have been a
+different creature."
+
+"Very different, I have no doubt," said Burmistone thoughtfully. "When
+you say well brought up, by the way, do you mean brought up like your
+cousin, Miss Gaston?"
+
+"There is a medium," said Barold loftily. "I regret to say Lady Theobald
+has not hit upon it."
+
+"Well, as you say," commented Mr. Burmistone, "I suppose there is a
+medium."
+
+"A charming wife she would make, for a man with a position to maintain,"
+remarked Barold, with a short and somewhat savage laugh.
+
+"Octavia Bassett?" queried Burmistone. "That's true. But I am afraid she
+wouldn't enjoy it--if you are supposing the man to be an Englishman,
+brought up in the regulation groove."
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Barold impatiently: "I was not looking at it from her
+point of view, but from his."
+
+Mr. Burmistone slipped his hands in his pockets, and jingled his keys
+slightly, as he did once before in an earlier part of this narrative.
+
+"Ah! from his," he repeated. "Not from hers. His point of view would
+differ from hers--naturally."
+
+Barold flashed a little, and took his cigar from his mouth to knock off
+the ashes.
+
+"A man is not necessarily a snob," he said, "because he is cool enough
+not to lose his head where a woman is concerned. You can't marry a woman
+who will make mistakes, and attract universal attention by her conduct."
+
+"Has it struck you that Octavia Bassett would?" inquired Burmistone.
+
+"She would do as she chose," said Barold petulantly. "She would do things
+which were unusual; but I was not referring to her in particular. Why
+should I?"
+
+"Ah!" said Burmistone. "I only thought of her because it did not strike
+me that one would ever feel she had exactly blundered. She is not easily
+embarrassed. There is a _sang-froid_ about her which carries things off."
+
+"Ah!" deigned Barold: "she has _sang-froid_ enough and to spare."
+
+He was silent for some time afterward, and sat smoking later than usual.
+When he was about to leave the room for the night, he made an
+announcement for which his host was not altogether prepared.
+
+"When the _fete_ is over, my dear fellow," he said, "I must go back to
+London, and I shall be deucedly sorry to do it."
+
+"Look here!" said Burmistone, "that's a new idea, isn't it?"
+
+"No, an old one; but I have been putting the thing off from day to day.
+By Jove! I did not think it likely that I should put it off, the day I
+landed here."
+
+And he laughed rather uneasily.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+"MAY I GO?"
+
+
+The very day after this, Octavia opened the fourth trunk. She had had it
+brought down from the garret, when there came a summons on the door, and
+Lucia Gaston appeared.
+
+Lucia was very pale; and her large, soft eyes wore a decidedly frightened
+look. She seemed to have walked fast, and was out of breath. Evidently
+something had happened.
+
+"Octavia," she said, "Mr. Dugald Binnie is at Oldclough."
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+"He is my grand-uncle," explained Lucia tremulously. "He has a great deal
+of money. Grandmamma"--She stopped short, and colored, and drew her
+slight figure up. "I do not quite understand grandmamma, Octavia," she
+said. "Last night she came to my room to talk to me; and this morning she
+came again, and--oh!" she broke out indignantly, "how could she speak to
+me in such a manner!"
+
+"What did she say?" inquired Octavia.
+
+"She said a great many things," with great spirit. "It took her a long
+time to say them, and I do not wonder at it. It would have taken me a
+hundred years, if I had been in her place. I--I was wrong to say I did
+not understand her: I did--before she had finished."
+
+"What did you understand?"
+
+"She was afraid to tell me in plain words.--I never saw her afraid
+before, but she was afraid. She has been arranging my future for me, and
+it does not occur to her that I dare object. That is because she knows I
+am a coward, and despises me for it--and it is what I deserve. If I make
+the marriage she chooses, she thinks Mr. Binnie will leave me his money.
+I am to run after a man who does not care for me, and make myself
+attractive, in the hope that he will condescend to marry me because Mr.
+Binnie may leave me his money. Do you wonder that it took even Lady
+Theobald a long time to say that?"
+
+"Well," remarked Octavia, "you won't do it, I suppose. I wouldn't worry.
+She wants you to marry Mr. Barold, I suppose."
+
+Lucia started.
+
+"How did you guess?" she exclaimed.
+
+"Oh! I always knew it. I didn't guess." And she smiled ever so faintly.
+"That is one of the reasons why she loathes me so," she added.
+
+Lucia thought deeply for a moment: she recognized, all at once, several
+things she had been mystified by before.
+
+"Oh, it is! It is!" she said. "And she has thought of it all the time,
+when I never suspected her."
+
+Octavia smiled a little again. Lucia sat thinking, her hands clasped
+tightly.
+
+"I am glad I came here," she said, at length. "I _am_ angry now, and I
+see things more clearly. If she had only thought of it because Mr. Binnie
+came, I could have forgiven her more easily; but she has been making
+coarse plans all the time, and treating me with contempt. Octavia," she
+added, turning upon her, with flushing cheeks and sparkling eyes, "I
+think that, for the first time in my life, I am in a passion,--a real
+passion. I think I shall never be afraid of her any more." Her delicate
+nostrils were dilated, she held her head up, her breath came fast. There
+was a hint of exultation in her tone. "Yes," she said, "I am in a
+passion. And I am not afraid of her at all. I will go home and tell her
+what I think."
+
+And it is quite probable that she would have done so, but for a trifling
+incident which occurred before she reached her ladyship.
+
+She walked very fast, after she left the house. She wanted to reach
+Oldclough before one whit of her anger cooled down; though, somehow, she
+felt quite sure, that, even when her anger died out, her courage would
+not take flight with it. Mr. Dugald Binnie had not proved to be a very
+fascinating person. He was an acrid, dictatorial old man: he contradicted
+Lady Theobald flatly every five minutes, and bullied his man-servant. But
+it was not against him that Lucia's indignation was aroused. She felt
+that Lady Theobald was quite capable of suggesting to him that Francis
+Barold would be a good match for her; and, if she had done so, it was
+scarcely his fault if he had accepted the idea. She understood now why
+she had been allowed to visit Octavia, and why divers other things had
+happened. She had been sent to walk with Francis Barold; he had been
+almost reproached when he had not called; perhaps her ladyship had been
+good enough to suggest to him that it was his duty to further her plans.
+She was as capable of that as of any thing else which would assist her to
+gain her point. The girl's cheeks grew hotter and hotter, her eyes
+brighter, at every step, because every step brought some new thought: her
+hands trembled, and her heart beat.
+
+"I shall never be afraid of her again," she said, as she turned the
+corner into the road. "Never! never!"
+
+And at that very moment a gentleman stepped out of the wood at her right,
+and stopped before her.
+
+She started back, with a cry.
+
+"Mr. Burmistone!" she said: "Mr. Burmistone!"
+
+She wondered if he had heard her last words: she fancied he had. He took
+hold of her shaking little hand, and looked down at her excited face.
+
+"I am glad I waited for you," he said, in the quietest possible tone.
+"Something is the matter."
+
+She knew there would be no use in trying to conceal the truth, and she
+was not in the mood to make the effort. She scarcely knew herself.
+
+She gave quite a fierce little laugh.
+
+"I am angry!" she said. "You have never seen me angry before. I am on my
+way to my--to Lady Theobald."
+
+He held her hand as calmly as before. He understood a great deal more
+than she could have imagined.
+
+"What are you going to say to her?" he asked. She laughed again.
+
+"I am going to ask her what she means. I am going to tell her she has
+made a mistake. I am going to prove to her that I am not such a coward,
+after all. I am going to tell her that I dare disobey her,--_that_ is
+what I am going to say to her," she concluded decisively.
+
+He held her hand rather closer.
+
+"Let us take a stroll in the copse, and talk it over," he said. "It is
+deliciously cool there."
+
+"I don't want to be cool," she said. But he drew her gently with him; and
+a few steps took them into the shade of the young oaks and pines, and
+there he paused.
+
+"She has made you very angry?" he said.
+
+And then, almost before she knew what she was doing, she was pouring
+forth the whole of her story, even more of it than she had told Octavia.
+She had not at all intended to do it; but she did it, nevertheless.
+
+"I am to marry Mr. Francis Barold, if he will take me," she said, with a
+bitter little smile,--"Mr. Francis Barold, who is so much in love with
+me, as you know. His mother approves of the match, and sent him here to
+make love to me, which he has done, as you have seen. I have no money of
+my own; but, if I make a marriage which pleases him, Dugald Binnie will
+probably leave me his--which it is thought will be an inducement to my
+cousin, who needs one. If I marry him, or rather he marries me, Lady
+Theobald thinks Mr. Binnie will be pleased. It does not even matter
+whether Francis is pleased or not, and of course I am out of the
+question; but it is hoped that it will please Mr. Binnie. The two ladies
+have talked it over, and decided the matter. I dare say they have offered
+me to Francis, who has very likely refused me, though perhaps he may be
+persuaded to relent in time,--if I am very humble, and he is shown the
+advantage of having Mr. Binnie's money added to his own,--but I have no
+doubt I shall have to be very humble indeed. That is what I learned from
+Lady Theobald last night, and it is what I am going to talk to her about.
+Is it enough to make one angry, do you think? Is it enough?"
+
+He did not tell her whether he thought it enough, or not. He looked at
+her with steady eyes.
+
+"Lucia," he said, "I wish you would let me go and talk with Lady
+Theobald."
+
+"You?" she said with a little start.
+
+"Yes," he answered. "Let me go to her. Let me tell her, that, instead of
+marrying Francis Barold, you will marry _me_. If you will say yes to
+that, I think I can promise that you need never be afraid of her any
+more." The fierce color died out of her cheeks, and the tears rushed to
+her eyes. She raised her face with a pathetic look.
+
+"Oh!" she whispered, "you must be very sorry for me. I think you have
+been sorry for me from the first."
+
+"I am desperately in love with you," he answered, in his quietest way. "I
+have been desperately in love with you from the first. May I go?"
+
+She looked at him for a moment, incredulously. Then she faltered,--
+
+"Yes."
+
+She still looked up at him; and then, in spite of her happiness, or
+perhaps because of it, she suddenly began to cry softly, and forgot she
+had been angry at all, as he took her into his strong, kind arms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE GARDEN-PARTY.
+
+
+The morning of the garden-party arose bright and clear, and Slowbridge
+awakened in a great state of excitement. Miss Chickie, having worked
+until midnight that all her orders might be completed, was so overpowered
+by her labors as to have to take her tea and toast in bed.
+
+At Oldclough varied sentiments prevailed. Lady Theobald's manner was
+chiefly distinguished by an implacable rigidity. She had chosen, as an
+appropriate festal costume, a funereal-black _moire antique_, enlivened
+by massive fringes and ornaments of jet; her jewelry being chains and
+manacles of the latter, which rattled as she moved, with a sound somewhat
+suggestive of bones.
+
+Mr. Dugald Binnie, who had received an invitation, had as yet amiably
+forborne to say whether he would accept it, or not. He had been out when
+Mr. Burmistone called, and had not seen him.
+
+When Lady Theobald descended to breakfast, she found him growling over
+his newspaper; and he glanced up at her with a polite scowl.
+
+"Going to a funeral?" he demanded.
+
+"I accompany my granddaughter to this--this entertainment," her ladyship
+responded. "It is scarcely a joyous occasion, to my mind."
+
+"No need to dress yourself like that, if it isn't," ejaculated Mr.
+Binnie. "Why don't you stay at home, if you don't want to go? Man's all
+right, isn't he? Once knew a man by the name of Burmistone, myself. One
+of the few decent fellows I've met. If I were sure this was the same man,
+I'd go myself. When I find a fellow who's neither knave nor fool, I stick
+to him. Believe I'll send to find out. Where's Lucia?"
+
+What his opinion of Lucia was, it was difficult to discover. He had an
+agreeable habit of staring at her over the top of his paper, and over his
+dinner. The only time he had made any comment upon her, was the first
+time he saw her in the dress she had copied from Octavia's. "Nice gown
+that," he blurted out: "didn't get it here, I'll wager."
+
+"It's an old dress I remodelled," answered Lucia somewhat alarmed. "I
+made it myself."
+
+"Doesn't look like it," he said gruffly.
+
+Lucia had touched up another dress, and was very happy in the prospect of
+wearing it at the garden-party.
+
+"Don't call on grandmamma until after Wednesday," she had said to Mr.
+Burmistone: "perhaps she wouldn't let me go. She will be very angry,
+I am sure."
+
+"And you are not afraid?"
+
+"No," she answered: "I am not afraid at all. I shall not be afraid
+again."
+
+In fact, she had perfectly confounded her ladyship by her demeanor. She
+bore her fiercest glance without quailing in the least, or making any
+effort to evade it: under her most scathing comments she was composed and
+unmoved. On the first occasion of my lady's referring to her plans for
+her future, she received a blow which fairly stunned her. The girl rose
+from her chair, and looked her straight in the face unflinchingly, and
+with a suggestion of _hauteur_ not easy to confront.
+
+"I beg you will not speak to me of that again," she said: "I will not
+listen." And turning about, she walked out of the room.
+
+"This," her ladyship had said in sepulchral tones, when she recovered her
+breath, "this is one of the results of Miss Octavia Bassett." And nothing
+more had been said on the subject since.
+
+No one in Slowbridge was in more brilliant spirits than Octavia herself
+on the morning of the _fete_. Before breakfast Miss Belinda was startled
+by the arrival of another telegram, which ran as follows:--
+
+"Arrived to-day, per 'Russia.' Be with you tomorrow evening. Friend with
+me.
+
+"MARTIN BASSETT."
+
+On reading this communication, Miss Belinda burst into floods of
+delighted tears.
+
+"Dear, dear Martin," she wept; "to think that we should meet again! _Why_
+didn't he let us know he was on the way? I should have been so anxious
+that I should not have slept at all."
+
+"Well," remarked Octavia, "I suppose that would have been an advantage."
+
+Suddenly she approached Miss Belinda, kissed her, and disappeared out of
+the room as if by magic, not returning for a quarter of an hour, looking
+rather soft and moist and brilliant about the eyes when she did return.
+
+Octavia was a marked figure upon the grounds at that garden-party.
+
+"Another dress, my dear," remarked Mrs. Burnham. "And what a charming
+color she has, I declare! She is usually paler. Perhaps we owe this to
+Lord Lansdowne."
+
+"Her dress is becoming, at all events," privately remarked Miss Lydia
+Burnham, whose tastes had not been consulted about her own.
+
+"It is she who is becoming," said her sister: "it is not the dress so
+much, though her clothes always have a _look_, some way. She's prettier
+than ever to-day, and is enjoying herself."
+
+She was enjoying herself. Mr. Francis Barold observed it rather gloomily
+as he stood apart. She was enjoying herself so much, that she did not
+seem to notice that he had avoided her, instead of going up to claim her
+attention. Half a dozen men were standing about her, and making
+themselves agreeable; and she was apparently quite equal to the
+emergencies of the occasion. The young men from Broadoaks had at once
+attached themselves to her train.
+
+"I say, Barold," they had said to him, "why didn't you tell us about
+this? Jolly good fellow you are, to come mooning here for a couple of
+months, and keep it all to yourself."
+
+And then had come Lord Lansdowne, who, in crossing the lawn to shake
+hands with his host, had been observed to keep his eye fixed upon one
+particular point.
+
+"Burmistone," he said, after having spoken his first words, "who is that
+tall girl in white?"
+
+And in ten minutes Lady Theobald, Mrs. Burnham, Mr. Barold, and divers
+others too numerous to mention, saw him standing at Octavia's side,
+evidently with no intention of leaving it.
+
+Not long after this Francis Barold found his way to Miss Belinda, who was
+very busy and rather nervous.
+
+"Your niece is evidently enjoying herself," he remarked.
+
+"Octavia is most happy to-day," answered Miss Belinda. "Her father will
+reach Slowbridge this evening. She has been looking forward to his coming
+with great anxiety."
+
+"Ah!" commented Barold.
+
+"Very few people understand Octavia," said Miss Belinda. "I'm not sure
+that I follow all her moods myself. She is more affectionate than people
+fancy. She--she has very pretty ways. I am very fond of her. She is not
+as frivolous as she appears to those who don't know her well."
+
+Barold stood gnawing his mustache, and made no reply. He was not very
+comfortable. He felt himself ill-used by Fate, and rather wished he had
+returned to London from Broadoaks, instead of loitering in Slowbridge. He
+had amused himself at first, but in time he had been surprised to find
+his amusement lose something of its zest. He glowered across the lawn at
+the group under a certain beech-tree; and, as he did so, Octavia turned
+her face a little and saw him. She stood waving her fan slowly, and
+smiling at him in a calm way, which reminded him very much of the time he
+had first caught sight of her at Lady Theobald's high tea.
+
+He condescended to saunter over the grass to where she stood. Once there,
+he proceeded to make himself as disagreeable as possible, in a silent and
+lofty way. He felt it only due to himself that he should. He did not
+approve at all of the manner in which Lansdowne kept by her.
+
+"It's deucedly bad form on his part," he said mentally. "What does he
+mean by it?"
+
+Octavia, on the contrary, did not ask what he meant by it. She chose to
+seem rather well entertained, and did not notice that she was being
+frowned down. There was no reason why she should not find Lord Lansdowne
+entertaining: he was an agreeable young fellow, with an inexhaustible
+fund of good spirits, and no nonsense about him.
+
+He was fond of all pleasant novelty, and Octavia was a pleasant novelty.
+He had been thinking of paying a visit to America; and he asked
+innumerable questions concerning that country, all of which Octavia
+answered.
+
+"I know half a dozen fellows who have been there," he said. "And they all
+enjoyed it tremendously."
+
+"If you go to Nevada, you must visit the mines at Bloody Gulch," she
+said.
+
+"Where?" he ejaculated. "I say, what a name! Don't deride my youth and
+ignorance, Miss Bassett."
+
+"You can call it L'Argentville, if you would rather," she replied.
+
+"I would rather try the other, thank you," he laughed. "It has a more
+hilarious sound. Will they despise me at Bloody Gulch, Miss Bassett? I
+never killed a man in my life."
+
+Barold turned, and walked away, angry, and more melancholy than he could
+have believed.
+
+"It is time I went back to London," he chose to put it. "The place begins
+to be deucedly dull."
+
+"Mr. Francis Barold seems rather out of spirits," said Mrs. Burnham to
+Lady Theobald. "Lord Lansdowne interferes with his pleasure."
+
+"I had not observed it," answered her ladyship. "And it is scarcely
+likely that Mr. Francis Barold would permit his pleasure to be interfered
+with, even by the son of the Marquis of Lauderdale."
+
+But she glared at Barold as he passed, and beckoned to him.
+
+"Where is Lucia?" she demanded.--
+
+"I saw her with Burmistone half an hour ago," he answered coldly. "Have
+you any message for my mother? I shall return to London to-morrow,
+leaving here early."
+
+She turned quite pale. She had not counted upon this at all, and it was
+extremely inopportune.
+
+"What has happened?" she asked rigidly.
+
+He looked slightly surprised.
+
+"Nothing whatever," he replied. "I have remained here longer than I
+intended."
+
+She began to move the manacles on her right wrist. He made not the
+smallest profession of reluctance to go. She said, at last, "If you will
+find Lucia, you will oblige me." She was almost uncivil to Miss Pilcher,
+who chanced to join her after he was gone. She had not the slightest
+intention of allowing her plans to be frustrated, and was only roused to
+fresh obstinacy by encountering indifference on one side and rebellion on
+the other. She had not brought Lucia up under her own eye for nothing.
+She had been disturbed of late, but by no means considered herself
+baffled. With the assistance of Mr. Dugald Binnie, she could certainly
+subdue Lucia, though Mr. Dugald Binnie had been of no great help so far.
+She would do her duty unflinchingly. In fact, she chose to persuade
+herself, that, if Lucia was brought to a proper frame of mind, there
+could be no real trouble with Francis Barold.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+"SOMEBODY ELSE."
+
+
+But Barold did not make any very ardent search for Lucia. He stopped to
+watch a game of lawn-tennis, in which Octavia and Lord Lansdowne had
+joined, and finally forgot Lady Theobald's errand altogether.
+
+For some time Octavia did not see him. She was playing with great spirit,
+and Lord Lansdowne was following her delightedly.
+
+Finally a chance of the game bringing her to him, she turned suddenly,
+and found Barold's eyes fixed upon her.
+
+"How long have you been there?" she asked.
+
+"Some time," he answered. "When you are at liberty, I wish to speak to
+you."
+
+"Do you?" she said.
+
+She seemed a little unprepared for the repressed energy of his manner,
+which, he strove to cover by a greater amount of coldness than usual.
+
+"Well," she said, after thinking a moment, "the game will soon be ended.
+I am going through the conservatories with Lord Lansdowne in course of
+time; but I dare say he can wait."
+
+She went back, and finished her game, apparently enjoying it as much as
+ever. When it was over, Barold made his way to her.
+
+He had resented her remaining oblivious of his presence when he stood
+near her, and he had resented her enjoyment of her surroundings; and now,
+as he led her away, leaving Lord Lansdowne rather disconsolate, he
+resented the fact that she did not seem nervous, or at all impressed by
+his silence.
+
+"What do you want to say to me?" she asked. "Let us go and sit down in
+one of the arbors. I believe I am a little tired--not that I mind it,
+though. I've been having a lovely time."
+
+Then she began to talk about Lord Lansdowne.
+
+"I like him ever so much," she said. "Do you think he will really go to
+America? I wish he would; but if he does, I hope it won't be for a year
+or so--I mean, until we go back from Europe. Still, it's rather uncertain
+when we _shall_ go back. Did I tell you I had persuaded aunt Belinda to
+travel with us? She's horribly frightened, but I mean to make her go.
+She'll get over being frightened after a little while."
+
+Suddenly she turned, and looked at him.
+
+"Why don't you say something?" she demanded. "What's the matter?"
+
+"It is not necessary for me to say any thing."
+
+She laughed.
+
+"Do you mean because I am saying every thing myself? Well, I suppose I
+am. I am--awfully happy to-day, and can't help talking. It seems to make
+the time go."
+
+Her face had lighted up curiously. There was a delighted excitement in
+her eyes, puzzling him.
+
+"Are you so fond of your father as all that?"
+
+She laughed again,--a clear, exultant laugh.
+
+"Yes," she answered, "of course I am as fond of him as all that. It's
+quite natural, isn't it?"
+
+"I haven't observed the same degree of enthusiasm in all the young ladies
+of my acquaintance," he returned dryly.
+
+He thought such rapture disproportionate to the cause, and regarded it
+grudgingly.
+
+They turned into an arbor; and Octavia sat down, and leaned forward on
+the rustic table. Then she turned her face up to look at the vines
+covering the roof.
+
+"It looks rather spidery, doesn't it?" she remarked. "I hope it isn't;
+don't you?"
+
+The light fell bewitchingly on her round little chin and white throat;
+and a bar of sunlight struck on her upturned eyes, and the blonde rings
+on her forehead.
+
+"There is nothing I hate more than spiders," she said, with a little
+shiver, "unless," seriously, "it's caterpillars--and caterpillars I
+loathe."
+
+Then she lowered her gaze, and gave her hat--a large white Rubens, all
+soft, curling feathers and satin bows--a charming tip over her eyes.
+
+"The brim is broad," she said. "If any thing drops, I hope it will drop
+on it, instead of on me. Now, what did you want to say?" He had not sat
+down, but stood leaning against the rustic wood-work. He looked pale, and
+was evidently trying to be cooler than usual.
+
+"I brought you here to ask you a question."
+
+"Well," she remarked, "I hope it's an important one. You look serious
+enough."
+
+"It is important,--rather," he responded, with a tone of sarcasm. "You
+will probably go away soon?"
+
+"That isn't exactly a question," she commented, "and it's not as
+important to you as to me."
+
+He paused a moment, annoyed because he found it difficult to go on;
+annoyed because she waited with such undisturbed serenity. But at length
+he managed to begin again.
+
+"I do not think you are expecting the question I am going to ask," he
+said. "I--do not think I expected to ask it myself,--until to-day. I do
+not know why--why I should ask it so awkwardly, and feel--at such a
+disadvantage. I brought you here to ask you--to marry me."
+
+He had scarcely spoken four words before all her airy manner had taken
+flight, and she had settled herself down to listen. He had noticed this,
+and had felt it quite natural. When he stopped, she was looking straight
+into his face. Her eyes were singularly large and bright and clear.
+
+"You did not expect to ask me to marry you?" she said. "Why didn't you?"
+
+It was not at all what he had expected. He did not understand her manner
+at all.
+
+"I--must confess," he said stiffly, "that I felt at first that there
+were--obstacles in the way of my doing so."
+
+"What were the obstacles?"
+
+He flushed, and drew himself up.
+
+"I have been unfortunate in my mode of expressing myself," he said. "I
+told you I was conscious of my own awkwardness."
+
+"Yes," she said quietly: "you have been unfortunate. That is a good way
+of putting it."
+
+Then she let her eyes rest on the table a few seconds, and thought a
+little.
+
+"After all," she said, "I have the consolation of knowing that you must
+have been very much in love with me. If you had not been very much in
+love with me, you would never have asked me to marry you. You would have
+considered the obstacles."
+
+"I am very much in love with you," he said vehemently, his feelings
+getting the better of his pride for once. "However badly I may have
+expressed myself, I am very much in love with you. I have been wretched
+for days."
+
+"Was it because you felt obliged to ask me to marry you?" she inquired.
+
+The delicate touch of spirit in her tone and words fired him to fresh
+admiration, strange to say. It suggested to him possibilities he had not
+suspected hitherto. He drew nearer to her.
+
+"Don't be too severe on me," he said--quite humbly, considering all
+things.
+
+And he stretched out his hand, as if to take hers.
+
+But she drew it back, smiling ever so faintly.
+
+"Do you think I don't know what the obstacles are?" she said. "I will
+tell you."
+
+"My affection was strong enough to sweep them away," he said, "or I
+should not be here."
+
+She smiled slightly again.
+
+"I know all about them, as well as you do," she said. "I rather laughed
+at them at first, but I don't now. I suppose I'm 'impressed by their
+seriousness,' as aunt Belinda says. I suppose they _are_ pretty
+serious--to you."
+
+"Nothing would be so serious to me as that you should let them interfere
+with my happiness," he answered, thrown back upon himself, and bewildered
+by her logical manner. "Let us forget them. I was a fool to speak as I
+did. Won't you answer my question?"
+
+She paused a second, and then answered,--
+
+"You didn't expect to ask me to marry you," she said. "And I didn't
+expect you to"--
+
+"But now"--he broke in impatiently.
+
+"Now--I wish you hadn't done it."
+
+"You wish"--
+
+"You don't want _me_," she said. "You want somebody meeker,--somebody
+who would respect you very much, and obey you. I'm not used to obeying
+people."
+
+"Do you mean also that you would not respect me?" he inquired bitterly.
+
+"Oh," she replied, "you haven't respected me much!"
+
+"Excuse me"--he began, in his loftiest manner.
+
+"You didn't respect me enough to think me worth marrying," she said. "I
+was not the kind of girl you would have chosen of your own will."
+
+"You are treating me unfairly!" he cried.
+
+"You were going to give me a great deal, I suppose--looking at it in your
+way," she went on; "but, if I _wasn't_ exactly what you wanted, I had
+something to give too. I'm young enough to have a good many years to
+live; and I should have to live them with you, if I married you. That's
+something, you know."
+
+He rose from his seat pale with wrath and wounded feeling.
+
+"Does this mean that you refuse me?" he demanded, "that your answer is
+'no'?"
+
+She rose, too--not exultant, not confused, neither pale nor flushed. He
+had never seen her prettier, more charming, or more natural.
+
+"It would have been 'no,' even if there hadn't been any obstacle,"
+she answered.
+
+"Then," he said, "I need say no more. I see that I have--humiliated
+myself in vain; and it is rather bitter, I must confess."
+
+"It wasn't my fault," she remarked.
+
+He stepped back, with a haughty wave of the hand, signifying that she
+should pass out of the arbor before him.
+
+She did so; but just as she reached the entrance, she turned, and stood
+for a second, framed in by the swinging vines and their blossoms.
+
+"There's another reason why it should be 'no,'" she said. "I suppose I
+may as well tell you of it. I'm engaged to somebody else."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+"JACK."
+
+
+The first person they saw, when they reached the lawn, was Mr. Dugald
+Binnie, who had deigned to present himself, and was talking to Mr.
+Burmistone, Lucia, and Miss Belinda.
+
+"I'll go to them," said Octavia. "Aunt Belinda will wonder where I have
+been."
+
+But, before they reached the group, they were intercepted by Lord
+Lansdowne; and Barold had the pleasure of surrendering his charge, and
+watching her, with some rather sharp pangs, as she was borne off to the
+conservatories.
+
+"What is the matter with Mr. Barold?" exclaimed Miss Pilcher. "Pray
+look at him."
+
+"He has been talking to Miss Octavia Bassett, in one of the arbors," put
+in Miss Lydia Burnham. "Emily and I passed them a few minutes ago, and
+they were so absorbed that they did not see us. There is no knowing what
+has happened."
+
+"Lydia!" exclaimed Mrs. Burnham, in stern reproof of such flippancy.
+
+But, the next moment, she exchanged a glance with Miss Pilcher.
+
+"Do you think"--she suggested. "Is it possible"--
+
+"It really looks very like it," said Miss Pilcher; "though it is scarcely
+to be credited. See how pale and angry he looks."
+
+Mrs. Burnham glanced toward him, and then a slight smile illuminated her
+countenance.
+
+"How furious," she remarked cheerfully, "how furious Lady Theobald will
+be!"
+
+Naturally, it was not very long before the attention of numerous other
+ladies was directed to Mr. Francis Barold. It was observed that he took
+no share in the festivities, that he did not regain his natural air of
+enviable indifference to his surroundings,--that he did not approach
+Octavia Bassett until all was over, and she was on the point of going
+home. What he said to her then, no one heard.
+
+"I am going to London to-morrow. Good-by."
+
+"Good-by," she answered, holding out her hand to him. Then she added
+quickly, in an under-tone, "You oughtn't to think badly of me. You won't,
+after a while."
+
+As they drove homeward, she was rather silent, and Miss Belinda remarked
+it.
+
+"I am afraid you are tired, Octavia," she said. "It is a pity that Martin
+should come, and find you tired."
+
+"Oh! I'm not tired. I was only--thinking. It has been a queer day."
+
+"A queer day, my dear!" ejaculated Miss Belinda. "I thought it a charming
+day."
+
+"So it has been," said Octavia, which Miss Belinda thought rather
+inconsistent.
+
+Both of them grew rather restless as they neared the house.
+
+"To think," said Miss Belinda, "of my seeing poor Martin again!"
+
+"Suppose," said Octavia nervously, as they drew up, "suppose they are
+here--already."
+
+"They?" exclaimed Miss Belinda. "Who"--but she got no farther. A cry
+burst from Octavia,--a queer, soft little cry. "They are here," she
+said: "they are! Jack--Jack!"
+
+And she was out of the carriage; and Miss Belinda, following her
+closely, was horrified to see her caught at once in the embrace of a
+tall, bronzed young man, who, a moment after, drew her into the little
+parlor, and shut the door.
+
+Mr. Martin Bassett, who was big and sunburned, and prosperous-looking,
+stood in the passage, smiling triumphantly.
+
+"M--M--Martin!" gasped Miss Belinda. "What--oh, what does this mean?"
+
+Martin Bassett led her to a seat, and smiled more triumphantly still.
+
+"Never mind, Belinda," he said. "Don't be frightened. It's Jack
+Belasys, and he's the finest fellow in the West. And she hasn't seen
+him for two years."
+
+"Martin," Miss Belinda fluttered, "it is not proper--it really isn't."
+
+"Yes, it is," answered Mr. Bassett; "for he's going to marry her before
+we go abroad."
+
+It was an eventful day for all parties concerned. At its close Lady
+Theobald found herself in an utterly bewildered and thunderstruck
+condition. And to Mr. Dugald Binnie, more than to any one else, her
+demoralization was due. That gentleman got into the carriage, in rather a
+better humor than usual.
+
+"Same man I used to know," he remarked. "Glad to see him. I knew him as
+soon as I set eyes on him."
+
+"Do you allude to Mr. Burmistone?"
+
+"Yes. Had a long talk with him. He's coming to see you to-morrow. Told
+him he might come, myself. Appears he's taken a fancy to Lucia. Wants to
+talk it over. Suits me exactly, and suppose it suits her. Looks as if it
+does. Glad she hasn't taken a fancy to some haw-haw fellow, like that
+fool Barold. Girls generally do. Burmistone's worth ten of him."
+
+Lucia, who had been looking steadily out of the carriage-window, turned,
+with an amazed expression. Lady Theobald had received a shock which made
+all her manacles rattle. She could scarcely support herself under it.
+
+"Do I"--she said. "Am I to understand that Mr. Francis Barold does not
+meet with your approval?" Mr. Binnie struck his stick sharply upon the
+floor of the carriage.
+
+"Yes, by George!" he said. "I'll have nothing to do with chaps like that.
+If she'd taken up with him, she'd never have heard from _me_ again. Make
+sure of that."
+
+When they reached Oldclough, her ladyship followed Lucia to her room. She
+stood before her, arranging the manacles on her wrists nervously.
+
+"I begin to understand now," she said. "I find I was mistaken in my
+impressions of Mr. Dugald Binnie's tastes--and in my impressions of
+_you_. You are to marry Mr. Burmistone. My rule is over. Permit me to
+congratulate you."
+
+The tears rose to Lucia's eyes.
+
+"Grandmamma," she said, her voice soft and broken, "I think I should have
+been more frank, if--if you had been kinder sometimes."
+
+"I have done my duty by you," said my lady.
+
+Lucia looked at her pathetically.
+
+"I have been ashamed to keep things from you," she hesitated. "And I have
+often told myself that--that it was sly to do it--but I could not help
+it."
+
+"I trust," said my lady, "that you will be more candid with Mr.
+Burmistone."
+
+Lucia blushed guiltily.
+
+"I--think I shall, grandmamma," she said.
+
+It was the Rev. Alfred Poppleton who assisted the rector of St. James to
+marry Jack Belasys and Octavia Bassett; and it was observed that he was
+almost as pale as his surplice.
+
+Slowbridge had never seen such a wedding, or such a bride as Octavia. It
+was even admitted that Jack Belasys was a singularly handsome fellow, and
+had a dashing, adventurous air, which carried all before it. There was a
+rumor that he owned silver-mines himself, and had even done something in
+diamonds, in Brazil, where he had spent the last two years. At all
+events, it was ascertained beyond doubt, that, being at last a married
+woman, and entitled to splendors of the kind, Octavia would not lack
+them. Her present to Lucia, who was one of her bridesmaids, dazzled all
+beholders. When she was borne away by the train, with her father and
+husband, and Miss Belinda, whose bonnet-strings were bedewed with tears,
+the Rev. Alfred Poppleton was the last man who shook hands with her. He
+held in his hand a large bouquet, which Octavia herself had given him out
+of her abundance. "Slowbridge will miss you, Miss--Mrs. Belasys," he
+faltered. "I--I shall miss you. Perhaps we--may even meet again. I have
+thought that, perhaps, I should like to go to America."
+
+And, as the train puffed out of the station and disappeared, he stood
+motionless for several seconds; and a large and brilliant drop of
+moisture appeared on the calyx of the lily which formed the centre-piece
+of his bouquet.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Fair Barbarian, by Francis Hodgson Burnett
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Fair Barbarian, by Francis Hodgson Burnett
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+Title: A Fair Barbarian
+
+Author: Francis Hodgson Burnett
+
+Release Date: December, 2005 [EBook #9487]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on October 5, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A FAIR BARBARIAN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+                            A FAIR BARBARIAN
+
+                       BY FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT
+
+                                 1881
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+      I. MISS OCTAVIA BASSETT
+
+     II. "AN INVESTMENT, ANYWAY"
+
+    III. L'ARGENTVILLE
+
+     IV. LADY THEOBALD
+
+      V. LUCIA
+
+     VI. ACCIDENTAL
+
+    VII. "I SHOULD LIKE TO SEE MORE OF SLOWBRIDGE"
+
+   VIII. SHARES LOOKING UP
+
+     IX. WHITE MUSLIN
+
+      X. ANNOUNCING MR. BAROLD
+
+     XI. A SLIGHT INDISCRETION
+
+    XII. AN INVITATION
+
+   XIII. INTENTIONS
+
+    XIV. A CLERICAL VISIT
+
+     XV. SUPERIOR ADVANTAGES
+
+    XVI. CROQUET
+
+   XVII. ADVANTAGES
+
+  XVIII. CONTRAST
+
+    XIX. AN EXPERIMENT
+
+     XX. PECULIAR TO NEVADA
+
+    XXI. LORD LANSDOWNE
+
+   XXII. "YOU HAVE MADE IT LIVELIER"
+
+  XXIII. "MAY I GO?"
+
+   XXIV. THE GARDEN PARTY
+
+    XXV. "SOMEBODY ELSE"
+
+   XXVI. "JACK"
+
+
+
+
+A FAIR BARBARIAN.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+MISS OCTAVIA BASSETT.
+
+
+Slowbridge had been shaken to its foundations.
+
+It may as well be explained, however, at the outset, that it would not
+take much of a sensation to give Slowbridge a great shock. In the first
+place, Slowbridge was not used to sensations, and was used to going on
+the even and respectable tenor of its way, regarding the outside world
+with private distrust, if not with open disfavor. The new mills had been
+a trial to Slowbridge,--a sore trial. On being told of the owners' plan
+of building them, old Lady Theobald, who was the corner-stone of the
+social edifice of Slowbridge, was said, by a spectator, to have turned
+deathly pale with rage; and, on the first day of their being opened in
+working order, she had taken to her bed, and remained shut up in her
+darkened room for a week, refusing to see anybody, and even going so far
+as to send a scathing message to the curate of St. James, who called in
+fear and trembling, because he was afraid to stay away.
+
+"With mills and mill-hands," her ladyship announced to Mr. Laurence, the
+mill-owner, when chance first threw them together, "with mills and
+mill-hands come murder, massacre, and mob law." And she said it so loud,
+and with so stern an air of conviction, that the two Misses Briarton, who
+were of a timorous and fearful nature, dropped their buttered muffins (it
+was at one of the tea-parties which were Slowbridge's only dissipation),
+and shuddered hysterically, feeling that their fate was sealed, and that
+they might, any night, find three masculine mill-hands secreted under
+their beds, with bludgeons. But as no massacres took place, and the
+mill-hands were pretty regular in their habits, and even went so far as
+to send their children to Lady Theobald's free school, and accepted the
+tracts left weekly at their doors, whether they could read or not,
+Slowbridge gradually recovered from the shock of finding itself forced to
+exist in close proximity to mills, and was just settling itself to
+sleep--the sleep of the just--again, when, as I have said, it was shaken
+to its foundations.
+
+It was Miss Belinda Bassett who received the first shock. Miss Belinda
+Bassett was a decorous little maiden lady, who lived in a decorous little
+house on High Street (which was considered a very genteel street in
+Slowbridge). She had lived in the same house all her life, her father had
+lived in it, and so also had her grandfather. She had gone out, to take
+tea, from its doors two or three times a week, ever since she had been
+twenty; and she had had her little tea-parties in its front parlor as
+often as any other genteel Slowbridge entertainer. She had risen at
+seven, breakfasted at eight, dined at two, taken tea at five, and gone to
+bed at ten, with such regularity for fifty years, that to rise at eight,
+breakfast at nine, dine at three, and take tea at six, and go to bed at
+eleven, would, she was firmly convinced, be but "to fly in the face of
+Providence," as she put it, and sign her own death-warrant. Consequently,
+it is easy to imagine what a tremor and excitement seized her when, one
+afternoon, as she sat waiting for her tea, a coach from the Blue Lion
+dashed--or, at least, _almost_ dashed--up to the front door, a young lady
+got out, and the next minute the handmaiden, Mary Anne, threw open the
+door of the parlor, announcing, without the least preface,--
+
+"Your niece, mum, from 'Meriker."
+
+Miss Belinda got up, feeling that her knees really trembled beneath her.
+
+In Slowbridge, America was not approved of--in fact, was almost entirely
+ignored, as a country where, to quote Lady Theobald, "the laws were
+loose, and the prevailing sentiments revolutionary." It was not
+considered good taste to know Americans,--which was not unfortunate, as
+there were none to know; and Miss Belinda Bassett had always felt a
+delicacy in mentioning her only brother, who had emigrated to the United
+States in his youth, having first disgraced himself by the utterance of
+the blasphemous remark that "he wanted to get to a place where a fellow
+could stretch himself, and not be bullied by a lot of old tabbies." From
+the day of his departure, when he had left Miss Belinda bathed in tears
+of anguish, she had heard nothing of him; and here upon the threshold
+stood Mary Anne, with delighted eagerness in her countenance,
+repeating,--
+
+"Your niece, mum, from 'Meriker!"
+
+And, with the words, her niece entered.
+
+Miss Belinda put her hand to her heart.
+
+The young lady thus announced was the prettiest, and at the same time the
+most extraordinary-looking, young lady she had ever seen in her life.
+Slowbridge contained nothing approaching this niece. Her dress was so
+very stylish that it was quite startling in its effect; her forehead was
+covered down to her large, pretty eyes themselves, with curls of
+yellow-brown hair; and her slender throat was swathed round and round
+with a grand scarf of black lace.
+
+She made a step forward, and then stopped, looking at Miss Belinda. Her
+eyes suddenly, to Miss Belinda's amazement, filled with tears.
+
+"Didn't you," she said,--"oh, dear! _Didn't_ you get the letter?"
+
+"The--the letter!" faltered Miss Belinda. "What letter, my--my dear?"
+
+"Pa's," was the answer. "Oh! I see you didn't."
+
+And she sank into the nearest chair, putting her hands up to her face,
+and beginning to cry outright.
+
+"I--am Octavia B-bassett," she said. "We were coming to surp-prise you,
+and travel in Europe; but the mines went wrong, and p-pa was obliged to
+go back to Nevada."
+
+"The mines?" gasped Miss Belinda.
+
+"S-silver-mines," wept Octavia. "And we had scarcely landed when Piper
+cabled, and pa had to turn back. It was something about shares, and he
+may have lost his last dollar."
+
+Miss Belinda sank into a chair herself.
+
+"Mary Anne," she said faintly, "bring me a glass of water."
+
+Her tone was such that Octavia removed her handkerchief from her eyes,
+and sat up to examine her.
+
+"Are you frightened?" she asked, in some alarm.
+
+Miss Belinda took a sip of the water brought by her handmaiden, replaced
+the glass upon the salver, and shook her head deprecatingly.
+
+"Not exactly frightened, my dear," she said, "but so amazed that I find
+it difficult to--to collect myself."
+
+Octavia put up her handkerchief again to wipe away a sudden new gush of
+tears.
+
+"If shares intended to go down," she said, "I don't see why they couldn't
+go down before we started, instead of waiting until we got over here, and
+then spoiling every thing."
+
+"Providence, my dear"--began Miss Belinda.
+
+But she was interrupted by the re-entrance of Mary Anne.
+
+"The man from the Lion, mum, wants to know what's to be done with the
+trunks. There's six of 'em, an' they're all that 'eavy as he says he
+wouldn't lift one alone for ten shilling."
+
+"Six!" exclaimed Miss Belinda. "Whose are they?"
+
+"Mine," replied Octavia. "Wait a minute. I'll go out to him."
+
+Miss Belinda was astounded afresh by the alacrity with which her niece
+seemed to forget her troubles, and rise to the occasion. The girl ran to
+the front door as if she was quite used to directing her own affairs, and
+began to issue her orders.
+
+"You will have to get another man," she said. "You might have known that.
+Go and get one somewhere."
+
+And when the man went off, grumbling a little, and evidently rather at a
+loss before such peremptory coolness, she turned to Miss Belinda.
+
+"Where must he put them?" she asked.
+
+It did not seem to have occurred to her once that her identity might be
+doubted, and some slight obstacles arise before her.
+
+"I am afraid," faltered Miss Belinda, "that five of them will have to be
+put in the attic."
+
+And in fifteen minutes five of them _were_ put into the attic, and the
+sixth--the biggest of all--stood in the trim little spare chamber, and
+pretty Miss Octavia had sunk into a puffy little chintz-covered
+easy-chair, while her newly found relative stood before her, making the
+most laudable efforts to recover her equilibrium, and not to feel as if
+her head were spinning round and round.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+"AN INVESTMENT, ANYWAY."
+
+
+The natural result of these efforts was, that Miss Belinda was moved to
+shed a few tears.
+
+"I hope you will excuse my being too startled to say I was glad to see
+you," she said. "I have not seen my brother for thirty years, and I was
+very fond of him."
+
+"He said you were," answered Octavia; "and he was very fond of you too.
+He didn't write to you, because he made up his mind not to let you hear
+from him until he was a rich man; and then he thought he would wait until
+he could come home, and surprise you. He was awfully disappointed when he
+had to go back without seeing you."
+
+"Poor, dear Martin!" wept Miss Belinda gently. "Such a journey!"
+
+Octavia opened her charming eyes in surprise.
+
+"Oh, he'll come back again!" she said. "And he doesn't mind the journey.
+The journey is nothing, you know."
+
+"Nothing!" echoed Miss Belinda. "A voyage across the Atlantic nothing?
+When one thinks of the danger, my dear"--
+
+Octavia's eyes opened a shade wider.
+
+"We have made the trip to the States, across the Isthmus, twelve times,
+and that takes a month," she remarked. "So we don't think ten days much."
+
+"Twelve times!" said Miss Belinda, quite appalled. "Dear, dear, dear!"
+
+And for some moments she could do nothing but look at her young relative
+in doubtful wonder, shaking her head with actual sadness.
+
+But she finally recovered herself, with a little start.
+
+"What am I thinking of," she exclaimed remorsefully, "to let you sit here
+in this way? Pray excuse me, my dear. You see I am so upset."
+
+She left her chair in a great hurry, and proceeded to embrace her young
+guest tenderly, though with a little timorousness. The young lady
+submitted to the caress with much composure.
+
+"Did I upset you?" she inquired calmly.
+
+The fact was, that she could not see why the simple advent of a relative
+from Nevada should seem to have the effect of an earthquake, and result
+in tremor, confusion, and tears. It was true, she herself had shed a tear
+or so, but then her troubles had been accumulating for several days; and
+she had not felt confused yet.
+
+When Miss Belinda went down-stairs to superintend Mary Anne in the
+tea-making, and left her guest alone, that young person glanced about her
+with a rather dubious expression.
+
+"It is a queer, nice little place," she said. "But I don't wonder that pa
+emigrated, if they always get into such a flurry about little things. I
+might have been a ghost."
+
+Then she proceeded to unlock the big trunk, and attire herself.
+
+Down-stairs, Miss Belinda was wavering between the kitchen and the
+parlor, in a kindly flutter.
+
+"Toast some muffins, Mary Anne, and bring in the cold roast fowl," she
+said. "And I will put out some strawberry-jam, and some of the preserved
+ginger. Dear me! Just to think how fond of preserved ginger poor Martin
+was, and how little of it he was allowed to eat! There really seems a
+special Providence in my having such a nice stock of it in the house when
+his daughter comes home."
+
+In the course of half an hour every thing was in readiness; and then Mary
+Anne, who had been sent up-stairs to announce the fact, came down in a
+most remarkable state of delighted agitation, suppressed ecstasy and
+amazement exclaiming aloud in every feature.
+
+"She's dressed, mum," she announced, "an' 'll be down immediate," and
+retired to a shadowy corner of the kitchen passage, that she might lie in
+wait unobserved.
+
+Miss Belinda, sitting behind the tea-service, heard a soft, flowing,
+silken rustle sweeping down the staircase, and across the hall, and then
+her niece entered.
+
+"Don't you think I've dressed pretty quick?" she said, and swept across
+the little parlor, and sat down in her place, with the calmest and most
+unconscious air in the world.
+
+There was in Slowbridge but one dressmaking establishment. The head of
+the establishment--Miss Letitia Chickie--designed the costumes of every
+woman in Slowbridge, from Lady Theobald down. There were legends that she
+received her patterns from London, and modified them to suit the
+Slowbridge taste. Possibly this was true; but in that case her labors as
+modifier must have been severe indeed, since they were so far modified as
+to be altogether unrecognizable when they left Miss Chickie's
+establishment, and were borne home in triumph to the houses of her
+patrons. The taste of Slowbridge was quiet,--upon this Slowbridge prided
+itself especially,--and, at the same time, tended toward economy. When
+gores came into fashion, Slowbridge clung firmly, and with some pride, to
+substantial breadths, which did not cut good silk into useless strips
+which could not be utilized in after-time; and it was only when, after a
+visit to London, Lady Theobald walked into St. James's one Sunday with
+two gores on each side, that Miss Chickie regretfully put scissors into
+her first breadth. Each matronly member of good society possessed a
+substantial silk gown of some sober color, which gown, having done duty
+at two years' tea-parties, descended to the grade of "second-best," and
+so descended, year by year, until it disappeared into the dim distance of
+the past. The young ladies had their white muslins and natural flowers;
+which latter decorations invariably collapsed in the course of the
+evening, and were worn during the latter half of any festive occasion in
+a flabby and hopeless condition. Miss Chickie made the muslins,
+festooning and adorning them after designs emanating from her fertile
+imagination. If they were a little short in the body, and not very
+generously proportioned in the matter of train, there was no rival
+establishment to sneer, and Miss Chickie had it all her own way; and, at
+least, it could never be said that Slowbridge was vulgar or overdressed.
+
+Judge, then, of Miss Belinda Bassett's condition of mind when her fair
+relative took her seat before her.
+
+What the material of her niece's dress was, Miss Belinda could not have
+told. It was a silken and soft fabric of a pale blue color; it clung to
+the slender, lissome young figure like a glove; a fan-like train of great
+length almost covered the hearth-rug; there were plaitings and frillings
+all over it, and yards of delicate satin ribbon cut into loops in the
+most recklessly extravagant manner.
+
+Miss Belinda saw all this at the first glance, as Mary Anne had seen it,
+and, like Mary Anne, lost her breath; but, on her second glance, she saw
+something more. On the pretty, slight hands were three wonderful,
+sparkling rings, composed of diamonds set in clusters: there were great
+solitaires in the neat little ears, and the thickly-plaited lace at the
+throat was fastened by a diamond clasp.
+
+"My dear," said Miss Belinda, clutching helplessly at the teapot, "are
+you--surely it is a--a little dangerous to wear such--such priceless
+ornaments on ordinary occasions."
+
+Octavia stared at her for a moment uncomprehendingly.
+
+"Your jewels, I mean, my love," fluttered Miss Belinda. "Surely you don't
+wear them often. I declare, it quite frightens me to think of having such
+things in the house."
+
+"Does it?" said Octavia. "That's queer."
+
+And she looked puzzled for a moment again.
+
+Then she glanced down at her rings.
+
+"I nearly always wear these," she remarked. "Father gave them to me. He
+gave me one each birthday for three years. He says diamonds are an
+investment, anyway, and I might as well have them. These," touching the
+ear-rings and clasp, "were given to my mother when she was on the stage.
+A lot of people clubbed together, and bought them for her. She was a
+great favorite."
+
+Miss Belinda made another clutch at the handle of the teapot.
+
+"Your mother!" she exclaimed faintly. "On the--did you say, on the"--
+
+"Stage," answered Octavia. "San Francisco. Father married her there. She
+was awfully pretty. I don't remember her. She died when I was born. She
+was only nineteen."
+
+The utter calmness, and freedom from embarrassment, with which these
+announcements were made, almost shook Miss Belinda's faith in her own
+identity. Strange to say, until this moment she had scarcely given a
+thought to her brother's wife; and to find herself sitting in her own
+genteel little parlor, behind her own tea-service, with her hand upon her
+own teapot, hearing that this wife had been a young person who had been
+"a great favorite" upon the stage, in a region peopled, as she had been
+led to suppose, by gold-diggers and escaped convicts, was almost too much
+for her to support herself under. But she did support herself bravely,
+when she had time to rally.
+
+"Help yourself to some fowl, my dear," she said hospitably, even though
+very faintly indeed, "and take a muffin."
+
+Octavia did so, her over-splendid hands flashing in the light as she
+moved them.
+
+"American girls always have more things than English girls," she
+observed, with admirable coolness. "They dress more. I have been told so
+by girls who have been in Europe. And I have more things than most
+American girls. Father had more money than most people; that was one
+reason; and he spoiled me, I suppose. He had no one else to give things
+to, and he said I should have every thing I took a fancy to. He often
+laughed at me for buying things, but he never said I shouldn't buy them."
+
+"He was always generous," sighed Miss Belinda. "Poor, dear Martin!"
+
+Octavia scarcely entered into the spirit of this mournful sympathy. She
+was fond of her father, but her recollections of him were not pathetic or
+sentimental.
+
+"He took me with him wherever he went," she proceeded. "And we had a
+teacher from the States, who travelled with us sometimes. He never sent
+me away from him. I wouldn't have gone if he had wanted to send me--and
+he didn't want to," she added, with a satisfied little laugh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+L'ARGENTVILLE.
+
+
+Miss Belinda sat, looking at her niece, with a sense of being at once
+stunned and fascinated. To see a creature so young, so pretty, so
+luxuriously splendid, and at the same time so simply and completely at
+ease with herself and her surroundings, was a revelation quite beyond her
+comprehension. The best-bred and nicest girls Slowbridge could produce
+were apt to look a trifle conscious and timid when they found themselves
+attired in the white muslin and floral decorations; but this slender
+creature sat in her gorgeous attire, her train flowing over the modest
+carpet, her rings flashing, her ear-pendants twinkling, apparently
+entirely oblivious of, or indifferent to, the fact that all her
+belongings were sufficiently out of place to be startling beyond measure.
+
+Her chief characteristic, however, seemed to be her excessive frankness.
+She did not hesitate at all to make the most remarkable statements
+concerning her own and her father's past career. She made them, too, as
+if there was nothing unusual about them. Twice, in her childhood, a
+luckless speculation had left her father penniless; and once he had taken
+her to a Californian gold-diggers' camp, where she had been the only
+female member of the somewhat reckless community.
+
+"But they were pretty good-natured, and made a pet of me," she said;
+"and we did not stay very long. Father had a stroke of luck, and we
+went away. I was sorry when we had to go, and so were the men. They made
+me a present of a set of jewelry made out of the gold they had got
+themselves. There is a breastpin like a breastplate, and a necklace like
+a dog-collar: the bracelets tire my arms, and the ear-rings pull my ears;
+but I wear them sometimes--gold girdle and all."
+
+"Did I," inquired Miss Belinda timidly, "did I understand you to say, my
+dear, that your father's business was in some way connected with
+silver-mining?"
+
+"It _is_ silver-mining," was the response. "He owns some mines, you
+know"--
+
+"Owns?" said Miss Belinda, much fluttered; "owns some silver-mines? He
+must be a very rich man,--a very rich man. I declare, it quite takes my
+breath away."
+
+"Oh! he is rich," said Octavia; "awfully rich sometimes. And then again
+he isn't. Shares go up, you know; and then they go down, and you don't
+seem to have any thing. But father generally comes out right, because he
+is lucky, and knows how to manage."
+
+"But--but how uncertain!" gasped Miss Belinda: "I should be perfectly
+miserable. Poor, dear Mar"--
+
+"Oh, no, you wouldn't!" said Octavia: "you'd get used to it, and wouldn't
+mind much, particularly if you were lucky as father is. There is every
+thing in being lucky, and knowing how to manage. When we first went to
+Bloody Gulch"--
+
+"My dear!" cried Miss Belinda, aghast. "I--I beg of you"--
+
+Octavia stopped short: she gazed at Miss Belinda in bewilderment, as she
+had done several times before.
+
+"Is any thing the matter?" she inquired placidly.
+
+"My dear love," explained Miss Belinda innocently, determined at least to
+do her duty, "it is not customary in--in Slowbridge,--in fact, I think I
+may say in England,--to use such--such exceedingly--I don't want to wound
+your feelings, my dear,--but such exceedingly strong expressions! I
+refer, my dear, to the one which began with a B. It is really considered
+profane, as well as dreadful beyond measure."
+
+"'The one which began with a B,'" repeated Octavia, still staring at her.
+"That is the name of a place; but I didn't name it, you know. It was
+called that, in the first place, because a party of men were surprised
+and murdered there, while they were asleep in their camp at night. It
+isn't a very nice name, of course, but I'm not responsible for it; and
+besides, now the place is growing, they are going to call it Athens or
+Magnolia Vale. They tried L'Argentville for a while; but people would
+call it Lodginville, and nobody liked it."
+
+"I trust you never lived there," said Miss Belinda. "I beg your pardon
+for being so horrified, but I really could not refrain from starting when
+you spoke; and I cannot help hoping you never lived there."
+
+"I live there now, when I am at home," Octavia replied. "The mines are
+there; and father has built a house, and had the furniture brought on
+from New York."
+
+Miss Belinda tried not to shudder, but almost failed.
+
+"Won't you take another muffin, my love?" she said, with a sigh. "Do take
+another muffin."
+
+"No, thank you," answered Octavia; and it must be confessed that she
+looked a little bored, as she leaned back in her chair, and glanced down
+at the train of her dress. It seemed to her that her simplest statement
+or remark created a sensation.
+
+Having at last risen from the tea-table, she wandered to the window, and
+stood there, looking out at Miss Belinda's flower-garden. It was quite a
+pretty flower-garden, and a good-sized one considering the dimensions of
+the house. There were an oval grass-plot, divers gravel paths, heart and
+diamond shaped beds aglow with brilliant annuals, a great many
+rose-bushes, several laburnums and lilacs, and a trim hedge of holly
+surrounding it.
+
+"I think I should like to go out and walk around there," remarked
+Octavia, smothering a little yawn behind her hand. "Suppose we go--if you
+don't care."
+
+"Certainly, my dear," assented Miss Belinda. "But perhaps," with a
+delicately dubious glance at her attire, "you would like to make some
+little alteration in your dress--to put something a little--dark over
+it."
+
+Octavia glanced down also.
+
+"Oh, no!" she replied: "it will do well enough. I will throw a scarf over
+my head, though; not because I need it," unblushingly, "but because I
+have a lace one that is very becoming."
+
+She went up to her room for the article in question, and in three minutes
+was down again. When she first caught sight of her, Miss Belinda found
+herself obliged to clear her throat quite suddenly. What Slowbridge would
+think of seeing such a toilet in her front garden, upon an ordinary
+occasion, she could not imagine. The scarf truly was becoming. It was a
+long affair of rich white lace, and was thrown over the girl's head,
+wound around her throat, and the ends tossed over her shoulders, with the
+most picturesque air of carelessness in the world.
+
+"You look quite like a bride, my dear Octavia," said Miss Belinda. "We
+are scarcely used to such things in Slowbridge."
+
+But Octavia only laughed a little.
+
+"I am going to get some pink roses, and fasten the ends with them, when
+we get into the garden," she said.
+
+She stopped for this purpose at the first rose-bush they reached. She
+gathered half a dozen slender-stemmed, heavy-headed buds, and, having
+fastened the lace with some, was carelessly placing the rest at her
+waist, when Miss Belinda started violently.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+LADY THEOBALD.
+
+
+"Oh, dear!" she exclaimed nervously, "there is Lady Theobald."
+
+Lady Theobald, having been making calls of state, was returning home
+rather later than usual, when, in driving up High Street, her eye fell
+upon Miss Bassett's garden. She put up her eyeglasses, and gazed through
+them severely; then she issued a mandate to her coachman.
+
+"Dobson," she said, "drive more slowly."
+
+She could not believe the evidence of her own eyeglasses. In Miss
+Bassett's garden she saw a tall girl, "dressed," as she put it, "like an
+actress," her delicate dress trailing upon the grass, a white lace scarf
+about her head and shoulders, roses in that scarf, roses at her waist.
+
+"Good heavens!" she exclaimed: "is Belinda Bassett giving a party,
+without so much as mentioning it to _me_?"
+
+Then she issued another mandate.
+
+"Dobson," she said, "drive faster, and drive me to Miss Bassett's."
+
+Miss Belinda came out to the gate to meet her, quaking inwardly. Octavia
+simply turned slightly where she stood, and looked at her ladyship,
+without any pretence of concealing her curiosity.
+
+Lady Theobald bent forward in her landau.
+
+"Belinda," she said, "how do you do? I did not know you intended to
+introduce garden-parties into Slowbridge."
+
+"Dear Lady Theobald"--began Miss Belinda.
+
+"Who is that young person?" demanded her ladyship.
+
+"She is poor dear Martin's daughter," answered Miss Belinda. "She arrived
+to-day--from Nevada, where--where it appears Martin has been very
+fortunate, and owns a great many silver-mines"--
+
+"A 'great many' silver-mines!" cried Lady Theobald. "Are you mad, Belinda
+Bassett? I am ashamed of you. At your time of life too!"
+
+Miss Belinda almost shed tears.
+
+"She said 'some silver-mines,' I am sure," she faltered; "for I remember
+how astonished and bewildered I was. The fact is, that she is such a very
+singular girl, and has told me so many wonderful things, in the
+strangest, cool way, that I am quite uncertain of myself. Murderers, and
+gold-diggers, and silver-mines, and camps full of men without women,
+making presents of gold girdles and dog-collars, and ear-rings that drag
+your ears down. It is enough to upset any one."
+
+"I should think so," responded her ladyship. "Open the carriage-door,
+Belinda, and let me get out."
+
+She felt that this matter must be inquired into at once, and not allowed
+to go too far. She had ruled Slowbridge too long to allow such
+innovations to remain uninvestigated. She would not be likely to be
+"upset," at least. She descended from her landau, with her most rigorous
+air. Her stout, rich black _moire-antique_ gown rustled severely; the
+yellow ostrich feather in her bonnet waved majestically. (Being a
+brunette, and Lady Theobald, she wore yellow.) As she tramped up the
+gravel walk, she held up her dress with both hands, as an example to
+vulgar and reckless young people who wore trains and left them to
+take care of themselves. Octavia was arranging afresh the bunch of
+long-stemmed, swaying buds at her waist, and she was giving all her
+attention to her task when her visitor first addressed her.
+
+"How do you do?" remarked her ladyship, in a fine, deep voice.
+
+Miss Belinda followed her meekly.
+
+"Octavia," she explained, "this is Lady Theobald, whom you will be very
+glad to know. She knew your father."
+
+"Yes," returned my lady, "years ago. He has had time to improve since
+then. How do you do?"
+
+Octavia's limpid eyes rested serenely upon her.
+
+"How do you do?" she said, rather indifferently.
+
+"You are from Nevada?" asked Lady Theobald.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"It is not long since you left there?"
+
+Octavia smiled faintly.
+
+"Do I look like that?" she inquired.
+
+"Like what?" said my lady.
+
+"As if I had not long lived in a civilized place. I dare say I do,
+because it is true that I haven't."
+
+"You don't look like an English girl," remarked her ladyship.
+
+Octavia smiled again. She looked at the yellow feather and stout _moire
+antique_ dress, but quite as if by accident, and without any mental
+deduction; then she glanced at the rosebuds in her hand.
+
+"I suppose I ought to be sorry for that," she observed. "I dare say I
+shall be in time--when I have been longer away from Nevada."
+
+"I must confess," admitted her ladyship, and evidently without the
+least regret or embarrassment, "I must confess that I don't know where
+Nevada is."
+
+"It isn't in Europe," replied Octavia, with a soft, light laugh. "You
+know that, don't you?"
+
+The words themselves sounded to Lady Theobald like the most outrageous
+impudence; but when she looked at the pretty, lovelock-shaded face, she
+was staggered the look it wore was such a very innocent and undisturbed
+one. At the moment, the only solution to be reached seemed to be that
+this was the style of young people in Nevada, and that it was ignorance
+and not insolence she had to do battle with--which, indeed, was
+partially true.
+
+"I have not had any occasion to inquire where it is situated, so far,"
+she responded firmly. "It is not so necessary for English people to know
+America as it is for Americans to know England."
+
+"Isn't it?" said Octavia, without any great show of interest. "Why not?"
+
+"For--for a great many reasons it would be fatiguing to explain," she
+answered courageously. "How is your father?"
+
+"He is very sea-sick now," was the smiling answer,--"deadly sea-sick. He
+has been out just twenty-four hours."
+
+"Out? What does that mean?"
+
+"Out on the Atlantic. He was called back suddenly, and obliged to leave
+me. That is why I came here alone."
+
+"Pray do come into the parlor, and sit down, dear Lady Theobald,"
+ventured Miss Belinda. "Octavia"--
+
+"Don't you think it is nicer out here?" said Octavia.
+
+"My dear," answered Miss Belinda. "Lady Theobald"--She was really quite
+shocked.
+
+"Ah!" interposed Octavia. "I only thought it was cooler."
+
+She preceded them, without seeming to be at all conscious that she was
+taking the lead.
+
+"You had better pick up your dress, Miss Octavia," said Lady Theobald
+rather acidly.
+
+The girl glanced over her shoulder at the length of train sweeping the
+path, but she made no movement toward picking it up.
+
+"It is too much trouble, and one has to duck down so," she said. "It is
+bad enough to have to keep doing it when one is on the street. Besides,
+they would never wear out if one took too much care of them."
+
+When they went into the parlor, and sat down, Lady Theobald made
+excellent use of her time, and managed to hear again all that had tried
+and bewildered Miss Belinda. She had no hesitation in asking questions
+boldly; she considered it her privilege to do so: she had catechised
+Slowbridge for forty years, and meant to maintain her rights until Time
+played her the knave's trick of disabling her.
+
+In half an hour she had heard about the silver-mines, the gold-diggers,
+and L'Argentville; she knew that Martin Bassett was a millionnaire, if
+the news he had heard had not left him penniless; that he would return to
+England, and visit Slowbridge, as soon as his affairs were settled. The
+precarious condition of his finances did not seem to cause Octavia much
+concern. She had asked no questions when he went away, and seemed quite
+at ease regarding the future.
+
+"People will always lend him money, and then he is lucky with it," she
+said.
+
+She bore the catechising very well. Her replies were frequently rather
+trying to her interlocutor, but she never seemed troubled, or ashamed of
+any thing she had to say; and she wore, from first to last, that
+inscrutably innocent and indifferent little air.
+
+She did not even show confusion when Lady Theobald, on going away, made
+her farewell comment:--
+
+"You are a very fortunate girl to own such jewels," she said, glancing
+critically at the diamonds in her ears; "but if you take my advice, my
+dear, you will put them away, and save them until you are a married
+woman. It is not customary, on this side of the water, for young girls to
+wear such things--particularly on ordinary occasions. People will think
+you are odd."
+
+"It is not exactly customary in America," replied Octavia, with her
+undisturbed smile. "There are not many girls who have such things.
+Perhaps they would wear them if they had them. I don't care a very great
+deal about them, but I mean to wear them."
+
+Lady Theobald went away in a dudgeon.
+
+"You will have to exercise your authority, Belinda, and _make_ her put
+them away," she said to Miss Bassett. "It is absurd--besides being
+atrocious."
+
+"Make her!" faltered Miss Bassett.
+
+"Yes, 'make her'--though I see you will have your hands full. I never
+heard such romancing stories in my life. It is just what one might expect
+from your brother Martin."
+
+When Miss Bassett returned, Octavia was standing before the window,
+watching the carriage drive away, and playing absently with one of her
+ear-rings as she did so.
+
+"What an old fright she is!" was her first guileless remark.
+
+Miss Belinda quite bridled.
+
+"My dear," she said, with dignity, "no one in Slowbridge would think of
+applying such a phrase to Lady Theobald."
+
+Octavia turned around, and looked at her.
+
+"But don't you think she is one?" she exclaimed. "Perhaps I oughtn't to
+have said it; but you know we haven't any thing as bad as that, even out
+in Nevada--really!"
+
+"My dear," said Miss Belinda, "different countries contain different
+people; and in Slowbridge _we_ have our standards,"--her best cap
+trembling a little with her repressed excitement.
+
+But Octavia did not appear overwhelmed by the existence of the standards
+in question. She turned to the window again.
+
+"Well, anyway," she said, "I think it was pretty cool in her to order me
+to take off my diamonds, and save them until I was married. How does she
+know whether I mean to be married, or not? I don't know that I care
+about it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+LUCIA.
+
+
+In this manner Slowbridge received the shock which shook it to
+its foundations, and it was a shock from which it did not recover for
+some time. Before ten o'clock the next morning, everybody knew of the
+arrival of Martin Bassett's daughter.
+
+The very boarding-school (Miss Pilcher's select seminary for young
+ladies, "combining the comforts of a home," as the circular said,
+"with all the advantages of genteel education") was on fire with it,
+highly colored versions of the stories told being circulated from
+the "first class" downward, even taking the form of an Indian princess,
+tattooed blue, and with difficulty restrained from indulging in
+war-whoops,--which last feature so alarmed little Miss Bigbee, aged
+seven, that she retired in fear and trembling, and shed tears under the
+bedclothes; her terror and anguish being much increased by the stirring
+recitals of scalping-stories by pretty Miss Phipps, of the first
+class--a young person who possessed a vivid imagination, and delighted in
+romances of a tragic turn.
+
+"I have not the slightest doubt," said Miss Phipps, "that when she is at
+home she lives in a wampum."
+
+"What is a wampum?" inquired one of her admiring audience.
+
+"A tent," replied Miss Phipps, with some impatience. "I should
+think any goose would know that. It is a kind of tent hung with
+scalps and--and--moccasins, and--lariats--and things of that sort."
+
+"I don't believe that is the right name for it," put in Miss Smith, who
+was a pert member of the third class.
+
+"Ah!" commented Miss Phipps, "that was Miss Smith who spoke, of course.
+We may always expect information from Miss Smith. I trust that I may be
+allowed to say that I _think_ I _have_ a brother"--
+
+"He doesn't know much about it, if he calls a wigwam a wampum,"
+interposed Miss Smith, with still greater pertness. "I have a brother who
+knows better than that, if I am only in the third class." For a moment
+Miss Phipps appeared to be meditating. Perhaps she was a trifle
+discomfited; but she recovered herself after a brief pause, and returned
+to the charge.
+
+"Well," she remarked, "perhaps it is a wigwam. Who cares if it is? And
+at any rate, whatever it is, I haven't the slightest doubt that she
+lives in one."
+
+This comparatively tame version was, however, entirely discarded when the
+diamonds and silver-mines began to figure more largely in the reports.
+Certainly, pretty, overdressed, jewel-bedecked Octavia gave Slowbridge
+abundant cause for excitement.
+
+After leaving her, Lady Theobald drove home to Oldclough Hall, rather
+out of humor. She had been rather out of humor for some time, having
+never quite recovered from her anger at the daring of that cheerful
+builder of mills, Mr. John Burmistone. Mr. Burmistone had been one
+innovation, and Octavia Bassett was another. She had not been able to
+manage Mr. Burmistone, and she was not at all sure that she had managed
+Octavia Bassett.
+
+She entered the dining-room with an ominous frown on her forehead.
+
+At the end of the table, opposite her own seat, was a vacant chair, and
+her frown deepened when she saw it.
+
+"Where is Miss Gaston?" she demanded of the servant.
+
+Before the man had time to reply, the door opened, and a girl came in
+hurriedly, with a somewhat frightened air.
+
+"I beg pardon, grandmamma dear," she said, going to her seat quickly. "I
+did not know you had come home."
+
+"We have a dinner-hour," announced her ladyship, "and _I_ do not
+disregard it."
+
+"I am very sorry," faltered the culprit.
+
+"That is enough, Lucia," interrupted Lady Theobald; and Lucia dropped her
+eyes, and began to eat her soup with nervous haste. In fact, she was glad
+to escape so easily.
+
+She was a very pretty creature, with brown eyes, a soft white skin, and
+a slight figure with a reed-like grace. A great quantity of brown hair
+was twisted into an ugly coil on the top of her delicate little head;
+and she wore an ugly muslin gown of Miss Chickie's make. For some time
+the meal progressed in dead silence; but at length Lucia ventured to
+raise her eyes.
+
+"I have been walking in Slowbridge, grandmamma," she said, "and I met Mr.
+Burmistone, who told me that Miss Bassett has a visitor--a young lady
+from America."
+
+Lady Theobald laid her knife and fork down deliberately.
+
+"Mr. Burmistone?" she said. "Did I understand you to say that you stopped
+on the roadside to converse with Mr. Burmistone?"
+
+Lucia colored up to her delicate eyebrows and above them.
+
+"I was trying to reach a flower growing on the bank," she said, "and he
+was so kind as to stop to get it for me. I did not know he was near at
+first. And then he inquired how you were--and told me he had just heard
+about the young lady."
+
+"Naturally!" remarked her ladyship sardonically. "It is as I anticipated
+it would be. We shall find Mr. Burmistone at our elbows upon all
+occasions. And he will not allow himself to be easily driven away. He is
+as determined as persons of his class usually are."
+
+"O grandmamma!" protested Lucia, with innocent fervor. "I really do not
+think he is--like that at all. I could not help thinking he was very
+gentlemanly and kind. He is so much interested in your school, and so
+anxious that it should prosper."
+
+"May I ask," inquired Lady Theobald, "how long a time this generous
+expression of his sentiments occupied? Was this the reason of your
+forgetting the dinner-hour?"
+
+"We did not"--said Lucia guiltily: "it did not take many minutes. I--I do
+not think that made me late."
+
+Lady Theobald dismissed this paltry excuse with one remark,--a remark
+made in the deep tones referred to once before.
+
+"I should scarcely have expected," she observed, "that a granddaughter of
+mine would have spent half an hour conversing on the public road with the
+proprietor of Slowbridge Mills."
+
+"O grandmamma!" exclaimed Lucia, the tears rising in her eyes: "it was
+not half an hour."
+
+"I should scarcely have expected," replied her ladyship, "that a
+granddaughter of mine would have spent five minutes conversing on the
+public road with the proprietor of Slowbridge Mills."
+
+To this assault there seemed to be no reply to make. Lady Theobald had
+her granddaughter under excellent control. Under her rigorous rule, the
+girl--whose mother had died at her birth--had been brought up. At
+nineteen she was simple, sensitive, shy. She had been permitted to have
+no companions, and the greatest excitements of her life had been the
+Slowbridge tea-parties. Of the late Sir Gilbert Theobald, the less said
+the better. He had spent very little of his married life at Oldclough
+Hall, and upon his death his widow had found herself possessed of a
+substantial, gloomy mansion, an exalted position in Slowbridge society,
+and a small marriage-settlement, upon which she might make all the
+efforts she chose to sustain her state. So Lucia wore her dresses a much
+longer time than any other Slowbridge young lady: she was obliged to mend
+her little gloves again and again; and her hats were retrimmed so often
+that even Slowbridge thought them old-fashioned. But she was too simple
+and sweet-natured to be much troubled, and indeed thought very little
+about the matter. She was only troubled when Lady Theobald scolded her,
+which was by no means infrequently. Perhaps the straits to which, at
+times, her ladyship was put to maintain her dignity imbittered her
+somewhat.
+
+"Lucia is neither a Theobald nor a Barold," she had been heard to say
+once, and she had said it with much rigor.
+
+A subject of much conversation in private circles had been Lucia's
+future. It had been discussed in whispers since her seventeenth year, but
+no one had seemed to approach any solution of the difficulty. Upon the
+subject of her plans for her granddaughter, Lady Theobald had preserved
+stern silence. Once, and once only, she had allowed herself to be
+betrayed into the expression of a sentiment connected with the matter.
+
+"If Miss Lucia marries"--a matron of reckless proclivities had remarked.
+
+Lady Theobald turned upon her, slowly and majestically.
+
+"_If_ Miss Gaston marries," she repeated. "Does it seem likely that Miss
+Gaston will _not_ marry?"
+
+This settled the matter finally. Lucia was to be married when Lady
+Theobald thought fit. So far, however, she had not thought fit: indeed,
+there had been nobody for Lucia to marry,--nobody whom her grandmother
+would have allowed her to marry, at least. There were very few young men
+in Slowbridge; and the very few were scarcely eligible according to Lady
+Theobald's standard, and--if such a thing should be mentioned--to
+Lucia's, if she had known she had one, which she certainly did not.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+ACCIDENTAL.
+
+
+When dinner was over, Lady Theobald rose, and proceeded to the
+drawing-room, Lucia following in her wake. From her very babyhood Lucia
+had disliked the drawing-room, which was an imposing apartment of great
+length and height, containing much massive furniture, upholstered in
+faded blue satin. All the girl's evenings, since her fifth year, had been
+spent sitting opposite her grandmother, in one of the straightest of the
+blue chairs: all the most scathing reproofs she had received had been
+administered to her at such times. She had a secret theory, indeed, that
+all unpleasant things occurred in the drawing-room after dinner.
+
+Just as they had seated themselves, and Lady Theobald was on the point of
+drawing toward her the little basket containing the gray woollen mittens
+she made a duty of employing herself by knitting each evening, Dobson,
+the coachman, in his character of footman, threw open the door, and
+announced a visitor.
+
+"Capt. Barold."
+
+Lady Theobald dropped her gray mitten, the steel needles falling upon the
+table with a clink. She rose to her feet at once, and met half-way the
+young man who had entered.
+
+"My dear Francis," she remarked, "I am exceedingly glad to see you at
+last," with a slight emphasis upon the "at last."
+
+"Tha-anks," said Capt. Barold, rather languidly. "You're very good, I'm
+sure."
+
+Then he glanced at Lucia, and Lady Theobald addressed her:--
+
+"Lucia," she said, "this is Francis Barold, who is your cousin."
+
+Capt. Barold shook hands feebly.
+
+"I have been trying to find out whether it is third or fourth," he said.
+
+"It is third," said my lady.
+
+Lucia had never seen her display such cordiality to anybody. But Capt.
+Francis Barold did not seem much impressed by it. It struck Lucia that he
+would not be likely to be impressed by any thing. He seated himself near
+her grandmother's chair, and proceeded to explain his presence on the
+spot, without exhibiting much interest even in his own relation of facts.
+
+"I promised the Rathburns that I would spend a week at their place; and
+Slowbridge was on the way, so it occurred to me I would drop off in
+passing. The Rathburns' place, Broadoaks, is about ten miles farther on;
+not far, you see."
+
+"Then," said Lady Theobald, "I am to understand that your visit is
+accidental."
+
+Capt. Barold was not embarrassed. He did not attempt to avoid her
+ladyship's rather stern eye, as he made his cool reply.
+
+"Well, yes," he said. "I beg pardon, but it is accidental, rather."
+
+Lucia gave him a pretty, frightened look, as if she felt that, after such
+an audacious confession, something very serious must happen; but nothing
+serious happened at all. Singularly enough, it was Lady Theobald herself
+who looked ill at ease, and as though she had not been prepared for such
+a contingency.
+
+During the whole of the evening, in fact, it was always Lady Theobald
+who was placed at a disadvantage, Lucia discovered. She could hardly
+realize the fact at first; but before an hour had passed, its truth was
+forced upon her.
+
+Capt. Barold was a very striking-looking man, upon the whole. He was
+large, gracefully built, and fair: his eyes were gray, and noticeable for
+the coldness of their expression, his features regular and aquiline, his
+movements leisurely.
+
+As he conversed with her grandmother, Lucia wondered at him privately. It
+seemed to her innocent mind that he had been everywhere, and seen every
+thing and everybody, without caring for or enjoying his privileges. The
+truth was, that he had seen and experienced a great deal too much. As an
+only child, the heir to a large property, and heir prospective to one of
+the oldest titles in the country, he had exhausted life early. He saw in
+Lady Theobald, not the imposing head and social front of Slowbridge
+social life, the power who rewarded with approval and punished with a
+frown, but a tiresome, pretentious old woman, whom his mother had asked
+him, for some feminine reason, to visit. "She feels she has a claim upon
+us, Francis," she had said appealingly.
+
+"Well," he had remarked, "that is rather deuced cool, isn't it? We have
+people enough on our hands without cultivating Slowbridge, you know."
+
+His mother sighed faintly.
+
+"It is true we have a great many people to consider; but I wish you would
+do it, my dear."
+
+She did not say any thing at all about Lucia: above all, she did not
+mention that a year ago she herself had spent two or three days at
+Slowbridge, and had been charmed beyond measure by the girl's innocent
+freshness, and that she had said, rather absently, to Lady Theobald,--
+
+"What a charming wife Lucia would make for a man to whom gentleness and a
+yielding disposition were necessary! We do not find such girls in society
+nowadays, my dear Lady Theobald. It is very difficult of late years to
+find a girl who is not spoken of as 'fast,' and who is not disposed to
+take the reins in her own hands. Our young men are flattered and courted
+until they become a little dictatorial, and our girls are spoiled at
+home. And the result is a great deal of domestic unhappiness
+afterward--and even a great deal of scandal, which is dreadful to
+contemplate. I cannot help feeling the greatest anxiety in secret
+concerning Francis. Young men so seldom consider these matters until it
+is too late."
+
+"Girls are not trained as they were in my young days, or even in yours,"
+said Lady Theobald. "They are allowed too much liberty. Lucia has been
+brought up immediately under my own eye."
+
+"I feel that it is fortunate," remarked Mrs. Barold, quite incidentally,
+"that Francis need not make a point of money."
+
+For a few moments Lady Theobald did not respond; but afterward, in the
+course of the conversation which followed, she made an observation which
+was, of course, purely incidental.
+
+"If Lucia makes a marriage which pleases her great-uncle, old Mr. Dugald
+Binnie, of Glasgow, she will be a very fortunate girl. He has intimated,
+in his eccentric fashion, that his immense fortune will either be hers,
+or will be spent in building charitable asylums of various kinds. He is a
+remarkable and singular man."
+
+When Capt. Barold had entered his distinguished relative's drawing-room,
+he had not regarded his third cousin with a very great deal of interest.
+He had seen too many beauties in his thirty years to be greatly moved by
+the sight of one; and here was only a girl who had soft eyes, and looked
+young for her age, and who wore an ugly muslin gown, that most girls
+could not have carried off at all.
+
+"You have spent the greater part of your life in Slowbridge?" he
+condescended to say in the course of the evening.
+
+"I have lived here always," Lucia answered. "I have never been away more
+than a week at a time."
+
+"Ah?" interrogatively. "I hope you have not found it dull."
+
+"No," smiling a little. "Not very. You see, I have known nothing gayer."
+
+"There is society enough of a harmless kind here," spoke up Lady Theobald
+virtuously. "I do not approve of a round of gayeties for young people: it
+unfits them for the duties of life."
+
+But Capt. Barold was not as favorably impressed by these remarks as might
+have been anticipated.
+
+"What an old fool she is!" was his polite inward comment. And he resolved
+at once to make his visit as brief as possible, and not to be induced to
+run down again during his stay at Broadoaks. He did not even take the
+trouble to appear to enjoy his evening. From his earliest infancy, he had
+always found it easier to please himself than to please other people. In
+fact, the world had devoted itself to endeavoring to please him, and win
+his--toleration, we may say, instead of admiration, since it could not
+hope for the latter. At home he had been adored rapturously by a large
+circle of affectionate male and female relatives; at school his tutors
+had been singularly indulgent of his faults and admiring of his talents;
+even among his fellow-pupils he had been a sort of autocrat.
+
+Why not, indeed, with such birthrights and such prospects? When he had
+entered society, he had met with even more amiable treatment from
+affectionate mothers, from innocent daughters, from cordial paternal
+parents, who voted him an exceedingly fine fellow. Why should he bore
+himself by taking the trouble to seem pleased by a stupid evening with an
+old grenadier in petticoats and a badly dressed country girl?
+
+Lucia was very glad when, in answer to a timidly appealing glance, Lady
+Theobald said,--
+
+"It is half-past ten. You may wish us good-night, Lucia."
+
+Lucia obeyed, as if she had been half-past ten herself, instead of nearly
+twenty; and Barold was not long in following her example.
+
+Dobson led him to a stately chamber at the top of the staircase, and left
+him there. The captain chose the largest and most luxurious chair, sat
+down in it, and lighted a cigar at his leisure.
+
+"Confoundedly stupid hole!" he said with a refined vigor one would
+scarcely have expected from an individual of his birth and breeding. "I
+shall leave to-morrow, of course. What was my mother thinking of? Stupid
+business from first to last."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+"I SHOULD LIKE TO SEE MORE OF SLOWBRIDGE."
+
+
+When he announced at breakfast his intention of taking his departure on
+the midday train, Lucia wondered again what would happen; and again, to
+her relief, Lady Theobald was astonishingly lenient.
+
+"As your friends expect you, of course we cannot overrule them," she
+said. "We will, however, hope to see something of you during your stay at
+Broadoaks. It will be very easy for you to run down and give us a few
+hours now and then."
+
+"Tha-anks," said Capt. Barold.
+
+He was decently civil, if not enthusiastic, during the few remaining
+hours of his stay. He sauntered through the grounds with Lucia, who took
+charge of him in obedience to her grandmother's wish. He did not find her
+particularly troublesome when she was away from her ladyship's side. When
+she came out to him in her simple cotton gown and straw hat, it occurred
+to him that she was much prettier than he had thought her at first. For
+economical reasons she had made the little morning-dress herself, without
+the slightest regard for the designs of Miss Chickie; and as it was not
+trimmed at all, and had only a black-velvet ribbon at the waist, there
+was nothing to place her charming figure at a disadvantage. It could not
+be said that her shyness and simplicity delighted Capt. Barold, but, at
+least, they did not displease him; and this was really as much as could
+be expected.
+
+"She does not expect a fellow to exert himself, at all events," was his
+inward comment; and he did not exert himself.
+
+But, when on the point of taking his departure, he went so far as to make
+a very gracious remark to her.
+
+"I hope we shall have the pleasure of seeing you in London for a season,
+before very long," he said: "my mother will have great pleasure in taking
+charge of you, if Lady Theobald cannot be induced to leave Slowbridge."
+
+"Lucia never goes from home alone," said Lady Theobald; "but I should
+certainly be obliged to call upon your mother for her good offices, in
+the case of our spending a season in London. I am too old a woman to
+alter my mode of life altogether."
+
+In obedience to her ladyship's orders, the venerable landau was brought
+to the door; and the two ladies drove to the station with him.
+
+It was during this drive that a very curious incident occurred,--an
+incident to which, perhaps, this story owes its existence, since, if it
+had not taken place, there might, very possibly, have been no events of a
+stirring nature to chronicle. Just as Dobson drove rather slowly up the
+part of High Street distinguished by the presence of Miss Belinda
+Bassett's house, Capt. Barold suddenly appeared to be attracted by some
+figure he discovered in the garden appertaining to that modest structure.
+
+"By Jove!" he exclaimed, in an undertone, "there is Miss Octavia."
+
+For the moment he was almost roused to a display of interest. A faint
+smile lighted his face, and his cold, handsome eyes slightly brightened.
+
+Lady Theobald sat bolt upright.
+
+"That is Miss Bassett's niece, from America," she said. "Do I understand
+you know her?"
+
+Capt. Barold turned to confront her, evidently annoyed at having allowed
+a surprise to get the better of him. All expression died out of his face.
+
+"I travelled with her from Framwich to Stamford," he said. "I suppose we
+should have reached Slowbridge together, but that I dropped off at
+Stamford to get a newspaper, and the train left me behind."
+
+"O grandmamma!" exclaimed Lucia, who had turned to look, "how very pretty
+she is!"
+
+Miss Octavia certainly was amazingly so this morning. She was standing by
+a rosebush again, and was dressed in a cashmere morning-robe of the
+finest texture and the faintest pink: it had a Watteau plait down the
+back, _jabot_ of lace down the front, and the close, high frills of lace
+around the throat which seemed to be a weakness with her. Her hair was
+dressed high upon her head, and showed to advantage her little ears and
+as much of her slim white neck as the frills did not conceal.
+
+But Lady Theobald did not share Lucia's enthusiasm.
+
+"She looks like an actress," she said. "If the trees were painted canvas
+and the roses artificial, one might have some patience with her. That
+kind of thing is scarcely what we expect in Slowbridge."
+
+Then she turned to Barold.
+
+"I had the pleasure of meeting her yesterday, not long after she
+arrived," she said. "She had diamonds in her ears as big as peas, and
+rings to match. Her manner is just what one might expect from a young
+woman brought up among gold-diggers and silver-miners."
+
+"It struck me as being a very unique and interesting manner," said Capt.
+Barold. "It is chiefly noticeable for a _sang-froid_ which might be
+regarded as rather enviable. She was good enough to tell me all about her
+papa and the silver-mines, and I really found the conversation
+entertaining."
+
+"It is scarcely customary for English young women to confide in their
+masculine travelling companions to such an extent," remarked my lady
+grimly.
+
+"She did not confide in me at all," said Barold. "Therein lay her
+attraction. One cannot submit to being 'confided in' by a strange young
+woman, however charming. This young lady's remarks were flavored solely
+with an adorably cool candor. She evidently did not desire to appeal to
+any emotion whatever."
+
+And as he leaned back in his seat, he still looked at the picturesque
+figure which they had passed, as if he would not have been sorry to see
+it turn its head toward him.
+
+In fact, it seemed that, notwithstanding his usual good fortune, Capt.
+Barold was doomed this morning to make remarks of a nature objectionable
+to his revered relation. On their way they passed Mr. Burmistone's mill,
+which was at work in all its vigor, with a whir and buzz of machinery,
+and a slight odor of oil in its surrounding atmosphere.
+
+"Ah!" said Mr. Barold, putting his single eyeglass into his eye, and
+scanning it after the manner of experts. "I did not think you had any
+thing of that sort here. Who put it up?"
+
+"The man's name," replied Lady Theobald severely, "is Burmistone."
+
+"Pretty good idea, isn't it?" remarked Barold. "Good for the place--and
+all that sort of thing."
+
+"To my mind," answered my lady, "it is the worst possible thing which
+could have happened."
+
+Mr. Francis Barold dropped his eyeglass dexterously, and at once lapsed
+into his normal condition--which was a condition by no means favorable
+to argument.
+
+"Think so?" he said slowly. "Pity, isn't it, under the circumstances?"
+
+And really there was nothing at all for her ladyship to do but preserve a
+lofty silence. She had scarcely recovered herself when they reached the
+station, and it was necessary to say farewell as complacently as
+possible.
+
+"We will hope to see you again before many days," she said with dignity,
+if not with warmth.
+
+Mr. Francis Barold was silent for a second, and a slightly reflective
+expression flitted across his face.
+
+"Thanks, yes," he said at last. "Certainly. It is easy to come down, and
+I should like to see more of Slowbridge."
+
+When the train had puffed in and out of the station, and Dobson was
+driving down High Street again, her ladyship's feelings rather got the
+better of her.
+
+"If Belinda Bassett is a wise woman," she remarked, "she will take my
+advice, and get rid of this young lady as soon as possible. It appears to
+me," she continued, with exalted piety, "that every well-trained English
+girl has reason to thank her Maker that she was born in a civilized
+land."
+
+"Perhaps," suggested Lucia softly, "Miss Octavia Bassett has had no one
+to train her at all; and it may be that--that she even feels it deeply."
+
+The feathers in her ladyship's bonnet trembled.
+
+"She does not feel it at all!" she announced. "She is an
+impertinent--minx!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+SHARES LOOKING UP.
+
+
+There were others who echoed her ladyship's words afterward, though they
+echoed them privately, and with more caution than my lady felt necessary.
+It is certain that Miss Octavia Bassett did not improve as time
+progressed, and she had enlarged opportunities for studying the noble
+example set before her by Slowbridge.
+
+On his arrival in New York, Martin Bassett telegraphed to his daughter
+and sister, per Atlantic cable, informing them that he might be detained
+a couple of months, and bidding them to be of good cheer. The arrival of
+the message in its official envelope so alarmed Miss Belinda, that she
+was supported by Mary Anne while it was read to her by Octavia, who
+received it without any surprise whatever. For some time after its
+completion, Slowbridge had privately disbelieved in the Atlantic cable,
+and, until this occasion, had certainly disbelieved in the existence of
+people who received messages through it. In fact, on first finding that
+she was the recipient of such a message, Miss Belinda had made immediate
+preparations for fainting quietly away, being fully convinced that a
+shipwreck had occurred, which had resulted in her brother's death, and
+that his executors had chosen this delicate method of breaking the news.
+
+"A message by Atlantic cable?" she had gasped. "Don't--don't read it, my
+love. L-let some one else do that. Poor--poor child! Trust in Providence,
+my love, and--and bear up. Ah, how I wish I had a stronger mind, and
+could be of more service to you!"
+
+"It's a message from father," said Octavia. "Nothing is the matter. He's
+all right. He got in on Saturday."
+
+"Ah!" panted Miss Belinda. "Are you _quite_ sure, my dear--are you quite
+sure?"
+
+"That's what he says. Listen."
+
+"Got in Saturday. Piper met me. Shares looking up. May be kept here two
+months. Will write. Keep up your spirits. MARTIN BASSETT."
+
+"Thank Heaven!" sighed Miss Belinda. "Thank Heaven!"
+
+"Why?" said Octavia.
+
+"Why?" echoed Miss Belinda. "Ah, my dear, if you knew how terrified I
+was! I felt sure that something had happened. A _cable_ message, my dear!
+I never received a telegram in my life before, and to receive a _cable_
+message was really a _shock_."
+
+"Well, I don't see why," said Octavia. "It seems to me it is pretty much
+like any other message."
+
+Miss Belinda regarded her timidly.
+
+"Does your papa _often_ send them?" she inquired. "Surely it must be
+expensive."
+
+"I don't suppose it's cheap," Octavia replied, "but it saves time and
+worry. I should have had to wait twelve days for a letter."
+
+"Very true," said Miss Belinda, "but"--
+
+She broke off with rather a distressed shake of the head. Her simple
+ideas of economy and quiet living were frequently upset in these times.
+She had begun to regard her niece with a slight feeling of awe; and yet
+Octavia had not been doing any thing at all remarkable in her own eyes,
+and considered her life pretty dull.
+
+If the elder Miss Bassett, her parents and grandparents, had not been so
+thoroughly well known, and so universally respected; if their social
+position had not been so firmly established, and their quiet lives not
+quite so highly respectable,--there is an awful possibility that
+Slowbridge might even have gone so far as not to ask Octavia out to tea
+at all. But even Lady Theobald felt that it would not do to slight
+Belinda Bassett's niece and guest. To omit the customary state teas
+would have been to crush innocent Miss Belinda at a blow, and place
+her--through the medium of this young lady, who alone deserved
+condemnation--beyond the pale of all social law.
+
+"It is only to be regretted," said her ladyship, "that Belinda Bassett
+has not arranged things better. Relatives of such an order are certainly
+to be deplored."
+
+In secret Lucia felt much soft-hearted sympathy for both Miss Bassett and
+her guest. She could not help wondering how Miss Belinda became
+responsible for the calamity which had fallen upon her. It really did not
+seem probable that she had been previously consulted as to the kind of
+niece she desired, or that she had, in a distinct manner, evinced a
+preference for a niece of this description.
+
+"Perhaps, dear grandmamma," the girl ventured, "it is because Miss
+Octavia Bassett is so young that"--
+
+"May I ask," inquired Lady Theobald, in fell tones, "how old you are?"
+
+"I was nineteen in--in December."
+
+"Miss Octavia Bassett," said her ladyship, "was nineteen last October,
+and it is now June. I have not yet found it necessary to apologize for
+you on the score of youth."
+
+But it was her ladyship who took the initiative, and set an evening for
+entertaining Miss Belinda and her niece, in company with several other
+ladies, with the best bohea, thin bread and butter, plum-cake, and
+various other delicacies.
+
+"What do they do at such places?" asked Octavia. "Half-past five is
+pretty early."
+
+"We spend some time at the tea-table, my dear," explained Miss Belinda.
+"And afterward we--we converse. A few of us play whist. I do not. I feel
+as if I were not clever enough, and I get flurried too easily by--by
+differences of opinion."
+
+"I should think it wasn't very exciting," said Octavia. "I don't fancy
+I ever went to an entertainment where they did nothing but drink tea,
+and talk."
+
+"It is not our intention or desire to be exciting, my dear," Miss Belinda
+replied with mild dignity. "And an improving conversation is frequently
+most beneficial to the parties engaged in it."
+
+"I'm afraid," Octavia observed, "that I never heard much improving
+conversation."
+
+She was really no fonder of masculine society than the generality of
+girls; but she could not help wondering if there would be any young men
+present, and if, indeed, there were any young men in Slowbridge who might
+possibly be produced upon festive occasions, even though ordinarily kept
+in the background. She had not heard Miss Belinda mention any masculine
+name so far, but that of the curate of St. James's; and, when she had
+seen him pass the house, she had not found his slim, black figure, and
+faint, ecclesiastic whiskers, especially interesting.
+
+It must be confessed that Miss Belinda suffered many pangs of anxiety in
+looking forward to her young kinswoman's first appearance in society. A
+tea at Lady Theobald's house constituted formal presentation to the
+Slowbridge world. Each young lady within the pale of genteel society,
+having arrived at years of discretion, on returning home from
+boarding-school, was invited to tea at Oldclough Hall. During an entire
+evening she was the subject of watchful criticism. Her deportment was
+remarked, her accomplishments displayed, she performed her last new
+"pieces" upon the piano, she was drawn into conversation by her hostess;
+and upon the timid modesty of her replies, and the reverence of her
+listening attitudes, depended her future social status. So it was very
+natural indeed that Miss Belinda should be anxious.
+
+"I would wear something rather quiet and--and simple, my dear Octavia,"
+she said. "A white muslin perhaps, with blue ribbons."
+
+"Would you?" answered Octavia. Then, after appearing to reflect upon the
+matter a few seconds, "I've got one that would do, if it's warm enough
+to wear it. I bought it in New York, but it came from Paris. I've never
+worn it yet."
+
+"It would be nicer than any thing else, my love," said Miss Belinda,
+delighted to find her difficulty so easily disposed of. "Nothing is so
+charming in the dress of a young girl as pure simplicity. Our Slowbridge
+young ladies rarely wear any thing but white for evening. Miss Chickie
+assured me, a few weeks ago, that she had made fifteen white-muslin
+dresses, all after one simple design of her own."
+
+"I shouldn't think that was particularly nice, myself," remarked Octavia
+impartially. "I should be glad one of the fifteen didn't belong to me. I
+should feel as if people might say, when I came into a room, 'Good
+gracious, there's another!'"
+
+"The first was made for Miss Lucia Gaston, who is Lady Theobald's niece,"
+replied Miss Belinda mildly. "And there are few young ladies in
+Slowbridge who would not emulate her example."
+
+"Oh!" said Octavia, "I dare say she is very nice, and all that; but I
+don't believe I should care to copy her dresses. I think I should draw
+the line there."
+
+But she said it without any ill-nature; and, sensitive as Miss Belinda
+was upon the subject of her cherished ideals, she could not take offence.
+
+When the eventful evening arrived, there was excitement in more than one
+establishment upon High Street and the streets in its vicinity. The
+stories of the diamonds, the gold-diggers, and the silver-mines, had been
+added to, and embellished, in the most ornate and startling manner. It
+was well known that only Lady Theobald's fine appreciation of Miss
+Belinda Bassett's feelings had induced her to extend her hospitalities to
+that lady's niece.
+
+"I would prefer, my dear," said more than one discreet matron to her
+daughter, as they attired themselves,--"I would much prefer that you
+would remain near me during the earlier part of the evening, before we
+know how this young lady may turn out. Let your manner toward her be
+kind, but not familiar. It is well to be upon the safe side."
+
+What precise line of conduct it was generally anticipated that this
+gold-digging and silver-mining young person would adopt, it would be
+difficult to say: it is sufficient that the general sentiments regarding
+her were of a distrustful, if not timorous, nature.
+
+To Miss Bassett, who felt all this in the very air she breathed, the
+girl's innocence of the condition of affairs was even a little touching.
+With all her splendor, she was not at all hard to please, and had quite
+awakened to an interest in the impending social event. She seemed in good
+spirits, and talked more than was her custom, giving Miss Belinda graphic
+descriptions of various festal gatherings she had attended in New York,
+when she seemed to have been very gay indeed, and to have worn very
+beautiful dresses, and also to have had rather more than her share of
+partners. The phrases she used, and the dances she described, were all
+strange to Miss Belinda, and tended to reducing her to a bewildered
+condition, in which she felt much timid amazement at the intrepidity of
+the New-York young ladies, and no slight suspicion of the "German"--as a
+theatrical kind of dance, involving extraordinary figures, and an
+extraordinary amount of attention from partners of the stronger sex.
+
+It must be admitted, however, that by this time, notwithstanding the
+various shocks she had received, Miss Belinda had begun to discover in
+her young guest divers good qualities which appealed to her
+affectionate and susceptible old heart. In the first place, the girl
+had no small affectations: indeed, if she had been less unaffected she
+might have been less subject to severe comment. She was good-natured,
+and generous to extravagance. Her manner toward Mary Anne never ceased
+to arouse Miss Belinda to interest. There was not any condescension
+whatever in it, and yet it could not be called a vulgarly familiar
+manner: it was rather an astonishingly simple manner, somehow
+suggestive of a subtile recognition of Mary Anne's youth, and ill-luck
+in not having before her more lively prospects. She gave Mary Anne
+presents in the shape of articles of clothing at which Slowbridge
+would have exclaimed in horror if the recipient had dared to wear them;
+but, when Miss Belinda expressed her regret at these indiscretions,
+Octavia was quite willing to rectify her mistakes.
+
+"Ah, well!" she said, "I can give her some money, and she can buy some
+things for herself." Which she proceeded to do; and when, under her
+mistress's direction, Mary Anne purchased a stout brown merino, she took
+quite an interest in her struggles at making it.
+
+"I wouldn't make it so short in the waist and so full in the skirt, if I
+were you," she said. "There's no reason why it shouldn't fit, you know,"
+thereby winning the house-maiden's undying adoration, and adding much to
+the shapeliness of the garment.
+
+"I am sure she has a good heart," Miss Belinda said to herself, as the
+days went by. "She is like Martin in that. I dare say she finds me very
+ignorant and silly. I often see in her face that she is unable to
+understand my feeling about things; but she never seems to laugh at me,
+nor think of me unkindly. And she is very, very pretty, though perhaps I
+ought not to think of that at all."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+WHITE MUSLIN.
+
+
+As the good little spinster was arraying herself on this particular
+evening, having laid upon the bed the greater portion of her modest
+splendor, she went to her wardrobe, and took therefrom the scored bandbox
+containing her best cap. All the ladies of Slowbridge wore caps; and all
+being respectfully plagiarized from Lady Theobald, without any reference
+to age, size, complexion, or demeanor, the result was sometimes a little
+trying. Lady Theobald's head-dresses were of a severe and bristling
+order. The lace of which they were composed was induced by some ingenious
+device to form itself into aggressive quillings, the bows seemed lined
+with buckram, the strings neither floated nor fluttered.
+
+"To a majestic person the style is very appropriate," Miss Belinda had
+said to Octavia that very day; "but to one who is not so, it is rather
+trying. Sometimes, indeed, I have _almost_ wished that Miss Chickie would
+vary a _little_ more in her designs."
+
+Perhaps the sight of the various articles contained in two of the five
+trunks had inspired these doubts in the dear old lady's breast: it is
+certain, at least, that, as she took the best cap up, a faint sigh
+fluttered upon her lips.
+
+"It is very large for a small person," she said. "And I am not at all
+sure that amber is becoming to me."
+
+And just at that moment there came a tap at the door, which she knew was
+from Octavia.
+
+She laid the cap back, in some confusion at being surprised in a moment
+of weakness.
+
+"Come in, my love," she said.
+
+Octavia pushed the door open, and came in. She had not dressed yet, and
+had on her wrapper and slippers, which were both of quilted gray silk,
+gayly embroidered with carnations. But Miss Belinda had seen both wrapper
+and slippers before, and had become used to their sumptuousness: what she
+had not seen was the trifle the girl held in her hand. "See here," she
+said. "See what I have been making for you!"
+
+She looked quite elated, and laughed triumphantly.
+
+"I did not know I could do it until I tried," she said. "I had seen some
+in New York, and I had the lace by me. And I have enough left to make
+ruffles for your neck and wrists. It's Mechlin."
+
+"My dear!" exclaimed Miss Belinda. "My dear!"
+
+Octavia laughed again.
+
+"Don't you know what it is?" she said. "It isn't like a Slowbridge cap;
+but it's a cap, nevertheless. They wear them like this in New York, and I
+think they are ever so much prettier."
+
+It was true that it was not like a Slowbridge cap, and was also true that
+it was prettier. It was a delicate affair of softly quilled lace, adorned
+here and there with loops of pale satin ribbon.
+
+"Let me try it on," said Octavia, advancing; and in a minute she had done
+so, and turned Miss Bassett about to face herself in the glass. "There!"
+she said. "Isn't that better than--well, than emulating Lady Theobald?"
+
+It was so pretty and so becoming, and Miss Belinda was so touched by the
+girl's innocent enjoyment, that the tears came into her eyes.
+
+"My--my love," she faltered, "it is so beautiful, and so expensive,
+that--though indeed I don't know how to thank you--I am afraid I should
+not dare to wear it."
+
+"Oh!" answered Octavia, "that's nonsense, you know. I'm sure there's no
+reason why people shouldn't wear becoming things. Besides, I should be
+awfully disappointed. I didn't think I could make it, and I'm real proud
+of it. You don't know how becoming it is!"
+
+Miss Belinda looked at her reflection, and faltered. It was becoming.
+
+"My love," she protested faintly, "real Mechlin! There is really no such
+lace in Slowbridge."
+
+"All the better," said Octavia cheerfully. "I'm glad to hear that. It
+isn't one bit too nice for you."
+
+To Miss Belinda's astonishment, she drew a step nearer to her, and gave
+one of the satin loops a queer, caressing little touch, which actually
+seemed to mean something. And then suddenly the girl stooped, with a
+little laugh, and gave her aunt a light kiss on her cheek.
+
+"There!" she said. "You must take it from me for a present. I'll go and
+make the ruffles this minute; and you must wear those too, and let people
+see how stylish you can be."
+
+And, without giving Miss Bassett time to speak, she ran out of the room,
+and left the dear old lady warmed to the heart, tearful, delighted,
+frightened.
+
+A coach from the Blue Lion had been ordered to present itself at a
+quarter past five, promptly; and at the time specified it rattled up to
+the door with much spirit,--with so much spirit, indeed, that Miss
+Belinda was a little alarmed.
+
+"Dear, dear!" she said. "I hope the driver will be able to control the
+horse, and will not allow him to go too fast. One hears of such terrible
+accidents."
+
+Then Mary Anne was sent to announce the arrival of the equipage to Miss
+Octavia, and, having performed the errand, came back beaming with smiles.
+
+"Oh, mum," she exclaimed, "you never see nothin' like her! Her gownd is
+'evingly. An' lor'! how you do look yourself, to be sure!"
+
+Indeed, the lace ruffles on her "best" black silk, and the little cap on
+her smooth hair, had done a great deal for Miss Bassett; and she had only
+just been reproaching herself for her vanity in recognizing this fact.
+But Mary Anne's words awakened a new train of thought.
+
+"Is--is Miss Octavia's dress a showy one, Mary Anne?" she inquired. "Dear
+me, I do hope it is not a showy dress!"
+
+"I never see nothin' no eleganter, mum," said Mary Anne: "she wants
+nothin' but a veil to make a bride out of her--an' a becominer thing she
+never has wore."
+
+They heard the soft sweep of skirts at that moment, and Octavia came in.
+
+"There!" she said, stopping when she had reached the middle of the room.
+"Is that simple enough?" Miss Belinda could only look at her helplessly.
+The "white muslin" was composed almost entirely of Valenciennes lace; the
+blue ribbons were embroidered with field-daisies; the air of delicate
+elaborateness about the whole was something which her innocent mind could
+not have believed possible in orthodox white and blue.
+
+"I don't think I should call it exactly simple," she said. "My love, what
+a quantity of lace!"
+
+Octavia glanced down at her _jabots_ and frills complacently.
+
+"There _is_ a good deal of it," she remarked; "but then, it is nice, and
+one can stand a good deal of nice Valenciennes on white. They said Worth
+made the dress. I hope he did. It cost enough. The ribbon was embroidered
+by hand, I suppose. And there is plenty of it cut up into these bows."
+
+There was no more to be said. Miss Belinda led the way to the coach,
+which they entered under the admiring or critical eyes of several most
+respectable families, who had been lying in wait behind their
+window-curtains since they had been summoned there by the sound of
+the wheels.
+
+As the vehicle rattled past the boarding-school, all the young ladies in
+the first class rushed to the window. They were rewarded for their zeal
+by a glimpse of a cloud of muslin and lace, a charmingly dressed
+yellow-brown head, and a pretty face, whose eyes favored them with a
+frank stare of interest.
+
+"She had diamonds in her ears!" cried Miss Phipps, wildly excited. "I saw
+them flash. Ah, how I should like to see her without her wraps! I have no
+doubt she is a perfect blaze!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+ANNOUNCING MR. BAROLD.
+
+
+Lady Theobald's invited guests sat in the faded blue drawing-room,
+waiting. Everybody had been unusually prompt, perhaps because
+everybody wished to be on the ground in time to see Miss Octavia
+Bassett make her entrance.
+
+"I should think it would be rather a trial, even to such a girl as she is
+said to be," remarked one matron.
+
+"It is but natural that she should feel that Lady Theobald will regard
+her rather critically, and that she should know that American manners
+will hardly be the thing for a genteel and conservative English country
+town."
+
+"We saw her a few days ago," said Lucia, who chanced to hear this
+speech, "and she is very pretty. I think I never saw any one so very
+pretty before."
+
+"But in quite a theatrical way, I think, my dear," the matron replied, in
+a tone of gentle correction.
+
+"I have seen so very few theatrical people," Lucia answered sweetly,
+"that I scarcely know what the theatrical way is, dear Mrs. Burnham. Her
+dress was very beautiful, and not like what we wear in Slowbridge; but
+she seemed to me to be very bright and pretty, in a way quite new to me,
+and so just a little odd."
+
+"I have heard that her dress is most extravagant and wasteful," put in
+Miss Pilcher, whose educational position entitled her to the
+condescending respect of her patronesses. "She has lace on her morning
+gowns, which"--
+
+"Miss Bassett and Miss Octavia Bassett," announced Dobson, throwing
+open the door.
+
+Lady Theobald rose from her seat. A slight rustle made itself heard
+through the company, as the ladies all turned toward the entrance; and,
+after they had so turned, there were evidences of a positive thrill.
+Before the eyes of all, Belinda Bassett advanced with rich ruffles of
+Mechlin at her neck and wrists, with a delicate and distinctly novel cap
+upon her head, her niece following her with an unabashed face, twenty
+pounds' worth of lace on her dress, and unmistakable diamonds in her
+little ears.
+
+"There is not a _shadow_ of timidity about her," cried Mrs. Burnham under
+her breath. "This is actual boldness."
+
+But this was a very severe term to use, notwithstanding that it was born
+of righteous indignation. It was not boldness at all: it was only the
+serenity of a young person who was quite unconscious that there was any
+thing to fear in the rather unimposing party before her. Octavia was
+accustomed to entering rooms full of strangers. She had spent several
+years of her life in hotels, where she had been stared out of countenance
+by a few score new people every day. She was even used to being, in some
+sort, a young person of note. It was nothing unusual for her to know that
+she was being pointed out. "That pretty blonde," she often heard it said,
+"is Martin Bassett's daughter: sharp fellow, Bassett,--and lucky fellow
+too; more money than he can count."
+
+So she was not at all frightened when she walked in behind Miss Belinda.
+She glanced about her cheerfully, and, catching sight of Lucia, smiled at
+her as she advanced up the room. The call of state Lady Theobald had made
+with her grand-daughter had been a very brief one; but Octavia had taken
+a decided fancy to Lucia, and was glad to see her again.
+
+"I am glad to see you, Belinda," said her ladyship, shaking hands. "And
+you also, Miss Octavia."
+
+"Thank you," responded Octavia.
+
+"You are very kind," Miss Belinda murmured gratefully.
+
+"I hope you are both well?" said Lady Theobald with majestic
+condescension, and in tones to be heard all over the room.
+
+"Quite well, thank you," murmured Miss Belinda again. "_Very_ well
+indeed;" rather as if this fortunate state of affairs was the result of
+her ladyship's kind intervention with the fates.
+
+She felt terribly conscious of being the centre of observation, and
+rather overpowered by the novelty of her attire, which was plainly
+creating a sensation. Octavia, however, who was far more looked at, was
+entirely oblivious of the painful prominence of her position. She
+remained standing in the middle of the room, talking to Lucia, who had
+approached to greet her. She was so much taller than Lucia, that she
+looked very tall indeed by contrast, and also very wonderfully dressed.
+Lucia's white muslin was one of Miss Chickie's fifteen, and was, in a
+"genteel" way, very suggestive of Slowbridge. Suspended from Octavia's
+waist by a long loop of the embroidered ribbon, was a little round fan,
+of downy pale-blue feathers, and with this she played as she talked; but
+Lucia, having nothing to play with, could only stand with her little
+hands hanging at her sides.
+
+"I have never been to an afternoon tea like this before," Octavia said.
+"It is nothing like a kettle-drum."
+
+"I am not sure that I know what a kettle-drum is," Lucia answered. "They
+have them in London, I think; but I have never been to London."
+
+"They have them in New York," said Octavia; "and they are a crowded sort
+of afternoon parties, where ladies go in carriage-toilet, not evening
+dress. People are rushing in and out all the time."
+
+Lucia glanced around the room and smiled.
+
+"That is very unlike this," she remarked.
+
+"Well," said Octavia, "I should think that, after all, this might be
+nicer."
+
+Which was very civil.
+
+Lucia glanced around again--this time rather stealthily--at Lady
+Theobald. Then she glanced back at Octavia.
+
+"But it isn't," she said, in an undertone.
+
+Octavia began to laugh. They were on a new and familiar footing from
+that moment.
+
+"I said 'it might,'" she answered.
+
+She was not afraid, any longer, of finding the evening stupid. If there
+were no young men, there was at least a young woman who was in sympathy
+with her. She said,--
+
+"I hope that I shall behave myself pretty well, and do the things I am
+expected to do."
+
+"Oh!" said Lucia, with a rather alarmed expression, "I hope so. I--I am
+afraid you would not be comfortable if you didn't."
+
+Octavia opened her eyes, as she often did at Miss Belinda's remarks, and
+then suddenly she began to laugh again.
+
+"What would they do?" she said disrespectfully. "Would they turn me out,
+without giving me any tea?"
+
+Lucia looked still more frightened.
+
+"Don't let them see you laughing," she said. "They--they will say you
+are giddy."
+
+"Giddy!" replied Octavia. "I don't think there is any thing to make me
+giddy here."
+
+"If they say you are giddy," said Lucia, "your fate will be sealed; and,
+if you are to stay here, it really will be better to try to please them
+a little."
+
+Octavia reflected a moment.
+
+"I don't mean to _dis_please them," she said, "unless they are very
+easily displeased. I suppose I don't think very much about what people
+are saying of me. I don't seem to notice."
+
+"Will you come now and let me introduce Miss Egerton and her sister?"
+suggested Lucia hurriedly. "Grandmamma is looking at us."
+
+In the innocence of her heart Octavia glanced at Lady Theobald, and
+saw that she was looking at them, and with a disapproving air. "I
+wonder what that's for?" she said to herself; but she followed Lucia
+across the room.
+
+She made the acquaintance of the Misses Egerton, who seemed rather
+fluttered, and, after the first exchange of civilities, subsided into
+monosyllables and attentive stares. They were, indeed, very anxious to
+hear Octavia converse, but had not the courage to attempt to draw her
+out, unless a sudden query of Miss Lydia's could be considered such an
+attempt.
+
+"Do you like England?" she asked.
+
+"Is this England?" inquired Octavia.
+
+"It is a part of England, of course," replied the young lady, with calm
+literalness.
+
+"Then, of course, I like it very much," said Octavia, slightly waving her
+fan and smiling.
+
+Miss Lydia Egerton and Miss Violet Egerton each regarded her in dubious
+silence for a moment. They did not think she looked as if she were
+"clever;" but the speech sounded to both as if she were, and as if she
+meant to be clever a little at their expense.
+
+Naturally, after that they felt slightly uncomfortable, and said less
+than before; and conversation lagged to such an extent that Octavia was
+not sorry when tea was announced.
+
+And it so happened that tea was not the only thing announced. The ladies
+had all just risen from their seats with a gentle rustle, and Lady
+Theobald was moving forward to marshal her procession into the
+dining-room, when Dobson appeared at the door again.
+
+"Mr. Barold, my lady," he said, "and Mr. Burmistone."
+
+Everybody glanced first at the door, and then at Lady Theobald. Mr.
+Francis Barold crossed the threshold, followed by the tall,
+square-shouldered builder of mills, who was a strong, handsome man, and
+bore himself very well, not seeming to mind at all the numerous eyes
+fixed upon him.
+
+"I did not know," said Barold, "that we should find you had guests. Beg
+pardon, I'm sure, and so does Burmistone, whom I had the pleasure of
+meeting at Broadoaks, and who was good enough to invite me to return with
+him." Lady Theobald extended her hand to the gentleman specified.
+
+"I am glad," she said rigidly, "to see Mr. Burmistone."
+
+Then she turned to Barold.
+
+"This is very fortunate," she announced. "We are just going in to take
+tea, in which I hope you will join us. Lucia"--
+
+Mr. Francis Barold naturally turned, as her ladyship uttered her
+granddaughter's name in a tone of command. It may be supposed that his
+first intention in turning was to look at Lucia; but he had scarcely done
+so, when his attention was attracted by the figure nearest to her,--the
+figure of a young lady, who was playing with a little blue fan, and
+smiling at him brilliantly and unmistakably.
+
+The next moment he was standing at Octavia Bassett's side, looking rather
+pleased, and the blood of Slowbridge was congealing, as the significance
+of the situation was realized.
+
+One instant of breathless--of awful--suspense, and her ladyship
+recovered herself.
+
+"We will go in to tea," she said. "May I ask you, Mr. Burmistone, to
+accompany Miss Pilcher?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+A SLIGHT INDISCRETION.
+
+
+During the remainder of the evening, Miss Belinda was a prey to
+wretchedness and despair. When she raised her eyes to her hostess, she
+met with a glance full of icy significance; when she looked across the
+tea-table, she saw Octavia seated next to Mr. Francis Barold,
+monopolizing his attention, and apparently in the very best possible
+spirits. It only made matters worse, that Mr. Francis Barold seemed to
+find her remarks worthy of his attention. He drank very little tea, and
+now and then appeared much interested and amused. In fact, he found Miss
+Octavia even more entertaining than he had found her during their
+journey. She did not hesitate at all to tell him that she was delighted
+to see him again at this particular juncture.
+
+"You don't know how glad I was to see you come in," she said.
+
+She met his rather startled glance with the most open candor as she
+spoke.
+
+"It is very civil of you to say so," he said; "but you can hardly expect
+me to believe it, you know. It is too good to be true."
+
+"I thought it was too good to be true when the door opened," she answered
+cheerfully. "I should have been glad to see _anybody_, almost"--
+
+"Well, that," he interposed, "isn't quite so civil."
+
+"It is not quite so civil to"--
+
+But there she checked herself, and asked him a question with the most
+_naive_ seriousness.
+
+"Are you a great friend of Lady Theobald's?" she said.
+
+"No," he answered. "I am a relative."
+
+"That's worse," she remarked.
+
+"It is," he replied. "Very much worse."
+
+"I asked you," she proceeded, with an entrancing little smile of
+irreverent approval, "because I was going to say that my last speech was
+not quite so civil to Lady Theobald."
+
+"That is perfectly true," he responded. "It wasn't civil to her at all."
+
+He was passing his time very comfortably, and was really surprised to
+feel that he was more interested in these simple audacities than he had
+been in any conversation for some time. Perhaps it was because his
+companion was so wonderfully pretty, but it is not unlikely that there
+were also other reasons. She looked him straight in the eyes, she
+comported herself after the manner of a young lady who was enjoying
+herself, and yet he felt vaguely that she might have enjoyed herself
+quite as much with Burmistone, and that it was probable that she would
+not think a second time of him, or of what she said to him.
+
+After tea, when they returned to the drawing-room, the opportunities
+afforded for conversation were not numerous. The piano was opened, and
+one after another of the young ladies were invited to exhibit their
+prowess. Upon its musical education Slowbridge prided itself. "Few
+towns," Miss Pilcher frequently remarked, "could be congratulated upon
+the possession of _such_ talent and _such_ cultivation." The Misses
+Egerton played a duet, the Misses Loftus sang, Miss Abercrombie
+"executed" a sonata with such effect as to melt Miss Pilcher to tears;
+and still Octavia had not been called upon. There might have been a
+reason for this, or there might not; but the moment arrived, at length,
+when Lady Theobald moved toward Miss Belinda with evidently fell intent.
+
+"Perhaps," she said, "perhaps your niece, Miss Octavia, will favor us."
+
+Miss Belinda replied in a deprecatory and uncertain murmur.
+
+"I--am not sure. I really don't know. Perhaps--Octavia, my dear."
+
+Octavia raised a smiling face.
+
+"I don't play," she said. "I never learned."
+
+"You do not play!" exclaimed Lady Theobald. "You do not play at all!"
+
+"No," answered Octavia. "Not a note. And I think I am rather glad of it;
+because, if I tried, I should be sure to do it worse than other people. I
+would rather," with unimpaired cheerfulness, "let some one else do it."
+
+There were a few seconds of dead silence. A dozen people seated around
+her had heard. Miss Pilcher shuddered; Miss Belinda looked down; Mr.
+Francis Barold preserved an entirely unmoved countenance, the general
+impression being that he was very much shocked, and concealed his disgust
+with an effort.
+
+"My dear," said Lady Theobald, with an air of much condescension and some
+grave pity, "I should advise you to try to learn. I can assure you that
+you would find it a great source of pleasure."
+
+"If you could assure me that my friends would find it a great source of
+pleasure, I might begin," answered the mistaken young person, still
+cheerfully; "but I am afraid they wouldn't."
+
+It seemed that fate had marked her for disgrace. In half an hour from
+that time she capped the climax of her indiscretions.
+
+The evening being warm, the French windows had been left open; and, in
+passing one of them, she stopped a moment to look out at the brightly
+moonlit grounds.
+
+Barold, who was with her, paused too.
+
+"Looks rather nice, doesn't it?" he said.
+
+"Yes," she replied. "Suppose we go out on the terrace."
+
+He laughed in an amused fashion she did not understand.
+
+"Suppose we do," he said. "By Jove, that's a good idea!"
+
+He laughed as he followed her.
+
+"What amuses you so?" she inquired.
+
+"Oh!" he replied, "I am merely thinking of Lady Theobald."
+
+"Well," she commented, "I think it's rather disrespectful in you to
+laugh. Isn't it a lovely night? I didn't think you had such moonlight
+nights in England. What a night for a drive!"
+
+"Is that one of the things you do in America--drive by moonlight?"
+
+"Yes. Do you mean to say you don't do it in England?"
+
+"Not often. Is it young ladies who drive by moonlight in America?"
+
+"Well, you don't suppose they go alone, do you?" quite ironically. "Of
+course they have some one with them."
+
+"Ah! Their papas?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Their mammas?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Their governesses, their uncles, their aunts?"
+
+"No," with a little smile.
+
+He smiled also.
+
+"That is another good idea," he said. "You have a great many nice ideas
+in America."
+
+She was silent a moment or so, swinging her fan slowly to and fro by its
+ribbon, and appearing to reflect.
+
+"Does that mean," she said at length, "that it wouldn't be considered
+proper in England?"
+
+"I hope you won't hold me responsible for English fallacies," was his
+sole answer.
+
+"I don't hold anybody responsible for them," she returned with some
+spirit. "I don't care one thing about them."
+
+"That is fortunate," he commented. "I am happy to say I don't, either. I
+take the liberty of pleasing myself. I find it pays best."
+
+"Perhaps," she said, returning to the charge, "perhaps Lady Theobald will
+think _this_ is improper."
+
+He put his hand up, and stroked his mustache lightly, without replying.
+
+"But it is _not_," she added emphatically: "it is _not!_"
+
+"No," he admitted, with a touch of irony, "it is not!"
+
+"Are _you_ any the worse for it?" she demanded.
+
+"Well, really, I think not--as yet," he replied.
+
+"Then we won't go in," she said, the smile returning to her lips again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+AN INVITATION.
+
+
+In the mean time Mr. Burmistone was improving his opportunities within
+doors. He had listened to the music with the most serious attention; and
+on its conclusion he had turned to Mrs. Burnham, and made himself very
+agreeable indeed. At length, however, he arose, and sauntered across the
+room to a table at which Lucia Gaston chanced to be standing alone,
+having just been deserted by a young lady whose mamma had summoned her.
+She wore, Mr. Burmistone regretted to see, as he advanced, a troubled and
+anxious expression; the truth being that she had a moment before remarked
+the exit of Miss Belinda's niece and her companion. It happened oddly
+that Mr. Burmistone's first words touched upon the subject of her
+thought. He began quite abruptly with it.
+
+"It seems to me," he said, "that Miss Octavia Bassett"--
+
+Lucia stopped him with a courage which surprised herself.
+
+"Oh, if you please," she implored, "don't say any thing unkind about
+her!"
+
+Mr. Burmistone looked down into her soft eyes with a good deal of
+feeling.
+
+"I was not going to say any thing unkind," he answered. "Why should I?"
+
+"Everybody seems to find a reason for speaking severely of her," Lucia
+faltered. "I have heard so many unkind things tonight, that I am quite
+unhappy. I am sure--I am _sure_ she is very candid and simple."
+
+"Yes," answered Mr. Burmistone, "I am sure she is very candid and
+simple."
+
+"Why should we expect her to be exactly like ourselves?" Lucia went on.
+"How can we be sure that our way is better than any other? Why should
+they be angry because her dress is so expensive and pretty? Indeed, I
+only wish I had such a dress. It is a thousand times prettier than any we
+ever wear. Look around the room, and see if it is not. And as to her not
+having learned to play on the piano, or to speak French--why should she
+be obliged to do things she feels she would not be clever at? I am not
+clever, and have been a sort of slave all my life, and have been scolded
+and blamed for what I could not help at all, until I have felt as if I
+must be a criminal. How happy she must have been to be let alone!"
+
+She had clasped her little hands, and, though she spoke in a low
+voice, was quite impassioned in an unconscious way. Her brief girlish
+life had not been a very happy one, as may be easily imagined; and a
+glimpse of the liberty for which she had suffered roused her to a
+sense of her own wrongs.
+
+"We are all cut out after the same pattern," she said. "We learn the same
+things, and wear the same dresses, one might say. What Lydia Egerton has
+been taught, I have been taught; yet what two creatures could be more
+unlike each other, by nature, than we are?"
+
+Mr. Burmistone glanced across the room at Miss Egerton. She was a fine,
+robust young woman, with a high nose and a stolid expression of
+countenance.
+
+"That is true," he remarked.
+
+"We are afraid of every thing," said Lucia bitterly. "Lydia Egerton is
+afraid--though you might not think so. And, as for me, nobody knows what
+a coward I am but myself. Yes, I am a coward! When grandmamma looks at
+me, I tremble. I dare not speak my mind, and differ with her, when I know
+she is unjust and in the wrong. No one could say that of Miss Octavia
+Bassett."
+
+"That is perfectly true," said Mr. Burmistone; and he even went so far as
+to laugh as he thought of Miss Octavia trembling in the august presence
+of Lady Theobald.
+
+The laugh checked Lucia at once in her little outburst of eloquence. She
+began to blush, the color mounting to her forehead.
+
+"Oh!" she began, "I did not mean to--to say so much. I"--
+
+There was something so innocent and touching in her sudden timidity and
+confusion, that Mr. Burmistone forgot altogether that they were not very
+old friends, and that Lady Theobald might be looking.
+
+He bent slightly forward, and looked into her upraised, alarmed eyes.
+
+"Don't be afraid of _me_" he said; "don't, for pity's sake!"
+
+He could not have hit upon a luckier speech, and also he could not have
+uttered it more feelingly than he did. It helped her to recover herself,
+and gave her courage.
+
+"There," she said, with a slight catch of the breath, "does not that
+prove what I said to be true? I was afraid, the very moment I ceased to
+forget myself. I was afraid of you and of myself. I have no courage at
+all."
+
+"You will gain it in time," he said.
+
+"I shall try to gain it," she answered. "I am nearly twenty, and it is
+time that I should learn to respect myself. I think it must be because I
+have no self-respect that I am such a coward."
+
+It seemed that her resolution was to be tried immediately; for at that
+very moment Lady Theobald turned, and, on recognizing the full
+significance of Lucia's position, was apparently struck temporarily dumb
+and motionless. When she recovered from the shock, she made a majestic
+gesture of command.
+
+Mr. Burmistone glanced at the girl's face, and saw that it changed color
+a little. "Lady Theobald appears to wish to speak to you," he said.
+
+Lucia left her seat, and walked across the room with a steady air. Lady
+Theobald did not remove her eye from her until she stopped within three
+feet of her. Then she asked a rather unnecessary question:--
+
+"With whom have you been conversing?"
+
+"With Mr. Burmistone."
+
+"Upon what subject?"
+
+"We were speaking of Miss Octavia Bassett."
+
+Her ladyship glanced around the room, as if a new idea had occurred to
+her, and said,--
+
+"Where _is_ Miss Octavia Bassett?"
+
+Here it must be confessed that Lucia faltered.
+
+"She is on the terrace with Mr. Barold."
+
+"She is on"--
+
+Her ladyship stopped short in the middle of her sentence. This was too
+much for her. She left Lucia, and crossed the room to Miss Belinda.
+
+"Belinda," she said, in an awful undertone, "your niece is out upon the
+terrace with Mr. Barold. Perhaps it would be as well for you to
+intimate to her that in England it is not customary--that--Belinda, go
+and bring her in."
+
+Miss Belinda arose, actually looking pale. She had been making such
+strenuous efforts to converse with Miss Pilcher and Mrs. Burnham, that
+she had been betrayed into forgetting her charge. She could scarcely
+believe her ears. She went to the open window, and looked out, and then
+turned paler than before.
+
+"Octavia, my dear," she said faintly.
+
+"Francis!" said Lady Theobald, over her shoulder.
+
+Mr. Francis Barold turned a rather bored countenance toward them; but it
+was evidently not Octavia who had bored him.
+
+"Octavia," said Miss Belinda, "how imprudent! In that thin dress--the
+night air! How could you, my dear, how could you?"
+
+"Oh! I shall not catch cold," Octavia answered. "I am used to it. I have
+been out hours and hours, on moonlight nights, at home."
+
+But she moved toward them.
+
+"You must remember," said Lady Theobald, "that there are many things
+which may be done in America which would not be safe in England."
+
+And she made the remark in an almost sepulchral tone of warning.
+
+How Miss Belinda would have supported herself if the coach had not been
+announced at this juncture, it would be difficult to say. The coach was
+announced, and they took their departure. Mr. Barold happening to make
+his adieus at the same time, they were escorted by him down to the
+vehicle from the Blue Lion.
+
+When he had assisted them in, and closed the door, Octavia bent forward,
+so that the moonlight fell full on her pretty, lace-covered head, and the
+sparkling drops in her ears.
+
+"Oh!" she exclaimed, "if you stay here at all, you must come and see
+us.--Aunt Belinda, ask him to come and see us."
+
+Miss Belinda could scarcely speak.
+
+"I shall be most--most happy," she fluttered, "Any--friend of dear Lady
+Theobald's, of course"--
+
+"Don't forget," said Octavia, waving her hand.
+
+The coach moved off, and Miss Belinda sank back into a dark corner.
+
+"My dear," she gasped, "what will he think?"
+
+Octavia was winding her lace scarf around her throat.
+
+"He'll think I want him to call," she said serenely. "And I do."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+INTENTIONS.
+
+
+The position in which Lady Theobald found herself placed, after these
+occurrences, was certainly a difficult and unpleasant one. It was Mr.
+Francis Barold's caprice, for the time being, to develop an intimacy with
+Mr. Burmistone. He had, it seemed, chosen to become interested in him
+during their sojourn at Broadoaks. He had discovered him to be a
+desirable companion, and a clever, amiable fellow. This much he
+condescended to explain incidentally to her ladyship's self.
+
+"I can't say I expected to meet a nice fellow or a companionable fellow,"
+he remarked, "and I was agreeably surprised to find him both. Never says
+too much or too little. Never bores a man."
+
+To this Lady Theobald could make no reply. Singularly enough, she had
+discovered early in their acquaintance that her wonted weapons were
+likely to dull their edges upon the steely coldness of Mr. Francis
+Barold's impassibility. In the presence of this fortunate young man,
+before whom his world had bowed the knee from his tenderest infancy, she
+lost the majesty of her demeanor. He refused to be affected by it: he was
+even implacable enough to show openly that it bored him, and to insinuate
+by his manner that he did not intend to submit to it. He entirely ignored
+the claim of relationship, and acted according to the promptings of his
+own moods. He did not feel it at all incumbent upon him to remain at
+Oldclough Hall, and subject himself to the time-honored customs there
+in vogue. He preferred to accept Mr. Burmistone's invitation to become
+his guest at the handsome house he had just completed, in which he lived
+in bachelor splendor. Accordingly he installed himself there, and thereby
+complicated matters greatly.
+
+Slowbridge found itself in a position as difficult as, and far more
+delicate than, Lady Theobald's. The tea-drinkings in honor of that
+troublesome young person, Miss Octavia Bassett, having been inaugurated
+by her ladyship, must go the social rounds, according to ancient custom.
+But what, in discretion's name, was to be done concerning Mr. Francis
+Barold? There was no doubt whatever that he must not be ignored; and, in
+that case, what difficulties presented themselves!
+
+The mamma of the two Misses Egerton, who was a nervous and easily
+subjugated person, was so excited and overwrought by the prospect before
+her, that, in contemplating it when she wrote her invitations, she was
+affected to tears.
+
+"I can assure you, Lydia," she said, "that I have not slept for three
+nights, I have been so harassed. Here, on one hand, is Mr. Francis
+Barold, who must be invited; and on the other is Mr. Burmistone, whom we
+cannot pass over; and here is Lady Theobald, who will turn to stone the
+moment she sees him,--though, goodness knows, I am sure he seems a very
+quiet, respectable man, and said some of the most complimentary things
+about your playing. And here is that dreadful girl, who is enough to give
+one cold chills, and who may do all sorts of dreadful things, and is
+certainly a living example to all respectable, well-educated girls. And
+the blindest of the blind could see that nothing would offend Lady
+Theobald more fatally than to let her be thrown with Francis Barold;
+and how one is to invite them into the same room, and keep them apart,
+I'm sure I don't know how. Lady Theobald herself could not do it, and how
+can we be expected to? And the refreshments on my mind too; and Forbes
+failing on her tea-cakes, and bringing up Sally Lunns like lead."
+
+That these misgivings were equally shared by each entertainer in
+prospective, might be adduced from the fact that the same afternoon Mrs.
+Burnham and Miss Pilcher appeared upon the scene, to consult with Mrs.
+Egerton upon the subject.
+
+Miss Lydia and Miss Violet being dismissed up-stairs to their practising,
+the three ladies sat in the darkened parlor, and talked the matter over
+in solemn conclave.
+
+"I have consulted Miss Pilcher, and mentioned the affair to Mrs. Gibson,"
+announced Mrs. Burnham. "And, really, we have not yet been able to arrive
+at any conclusion."
+
+Mrs. Egerton shook her head tearfully.
+
+"Pray don't come to me, my dears," she said,--"don't, I beg of you! I
+have thought about it until my circulation has all gone wrong, and Lydia
+has been applying hot-water bottles to my feet all the morning. I gave it
+up at half-past two, and set Violet to writing invitations to one and
+all, let the consequences be what they may."
+
+Miss Pilcher glanced at Mrs. Burnham, and Mrs. Burnham glanced at Miss
+Pilcher.
+
+"Perhaps," Miss Pilcher suggested to her companion, "it would be as well
+for you to mention your impressions."
+
+Mrs. Burnham's manner became additionally cautious. She bent forward
+slightly.
+
+"My dear," she said, "has it struck you that Lady Theobald has
+any--intentions, so to speak?"
+
+"Intentions?" repeated Mrs. Egerton.
+
+"Yes," with deep significance,--"so to speak. With regard to Lucia."
+
+Mrs. Egerton looked utterly helpless.
+
+"Dear me!" she ejaculated plaintively. "I have never had time to think of
+it. Dear me! With regard to Lucia!"
+
+Mrs. Burnham became more significant still.
+
+"_And_" she added, "Mr. Francis Barold."
+
+Mrs. Egerton turned to Miss Pilcher, and saw confirmation of the fact in
+her countenance.
+
+"Dear, dear!" she said. "That makes it worse than ever."
+
+"It is certain," put in Miss Pilcher, "that the union would be a
+desirable one; and we have reason to remark that a deep interest in Mr.
+Francis Barold has been shown by Lady Theobald. He has been invited to
+make her house his home during his stay in Slowbridge; and, though he has
+not done so, the fact that he has not is due only to some inexplicable
+reluctance upon his own part. And we all remember that Lady Theobald once
+plainly intimated that she anticipated Lucia forming, in the future, a
+matrimonial alliance."
+
+"Oh!" commented Mrs. Egerton, with some slight impatience, "it is all
+very well for Lady Theobald to have intentions for Lucia; but, if the
+young man has none, I really don't see that her intentions will be likely
+to result in any thing particular. And I am sure Mr. Francis Barold is
+not in the mood to be influenced in that way now. He is more likely to
+entertain himself with Miss Octavia Bassett, who will take him out in the
+moonlight, and make herself agreeable to him in her American style."
+
+Miss Pilcher and Mrs. Burnham exchanged glances again.
+
+"My dear," said Mrs. Burnham, "he has called upon her twice since Lady
+Theobald's tea. They say she invites him herself, and flirts with him
+openly in the garden."
+
+"Her conduct is such," said Miss Pilcher, with a shudder, "that the
+blinds upon the side of the seminary which faces Miss Bassett's garden
+are kept closed by my orders. I have young ladies under my care whose
+characters are in process of formation, and whose parents repose
+confidence in me."
+
+"Nothing but my friendship for Belinda Bassett," remarked Mrs. Burnham,
+"would induce me to invite the girl to my house." Then she turned to Mrs.
+Egerton. "But--ahem--have you included them _all_ in your invitations?"
+she observed.
+
+Mrs. Egerton became plaintive again.
+
+"I don't see how I could be expected to do any thing else," she said.
+"Lady Theobald herself could not invite Mr. Francis Barold from Mr.
+Burmistone's house, and leave Mr. Burmistone at home. And, after all, I
+must say it is my opinion nobody would have objected to Mr. Burmistone,
+in the first place, if Lady Theobald had not insisted upon it."
+
+Mrs. Burnham reflected.
+
+"Perhaps that is true," she admitted cautiously at length. "And it must
+be confessed that a man in his position is not entirely without his
+advantages--particularly in a place where there are but few gentlemen,
+and those scarcely desirable as"--
+
+She paused there discreetly, but Mrs. Egerton was not so discreet.
+
+"There are a great many young ladies in Slowbridge," she said, shaking
+her head,--"a great many! And with five in a family, all old enough to be
+out of school, I am sure it is flying in the face of Providence to
+neglect one's opportunities."
+
+When the two ladies took their departure, Mrs. Burnham seemed reflective.
+Finally she said,--"Poor Mrs. Egerton's mind is not what it was, and it
+never was remarkably strong. It must be admitted, too, that there is a
+lack of--of delicacy. Those great plain girls of hers must be a trial to
+her."
+
+As she spoke they were passing the privet hedge which surrounded Miss
+Bassett's house and garden; and a sound caused both to glance around. The
+front door had just been opened; and a gentleman was descending the
+steps,--a young gentleman in neat clerical garb, his guileless
+ecclesiastical countenance suffused with mantling blushes of confusion
+and delight. He stopped on the gravel path to receive the last words of
+Miss Octavia Bassett, who stood on the threshold, smiling down upon him
+in the prettiest way in the world.
+
+"Tuesday afternoon," she said. "Now don't forget; because I shall ask Mr.
+Barold and Miss Gaston, on purpose to play against us. Even St. James
+can't object to croquet."
+
+"I--indeed, I shall be _most_ happy and--and delighted," stammered her
+departing guest, "if you will be so kind as to--to instruct me, and
+forgive my awkwardness."
+
+"Oh! I'll instruct you," said Octavia. "I have instructed people before,
+and I know how."
+
+Mrs. Burnham clutched Miss Pilcher's arm.
+
+"Do you see who _that_ is?" she demanded. "Would you have believed it?"
+
+Miss Pilcher preserved a stony demeanor.
+
+"I would believe any thing of Miss Octavia Bassett," she replied. "There
+would be nothing at all remarkable, to my mind, in her flirting with the
+bishop himself! Why should she hesitate to endeavor to entangle the
+curate of St. James?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+A CLERICAL VISIT.
+
+
+It was indeed true that the Rev. Arthur Poppleton had spent the greater
+part of his afternoon in Miss Belinda Bassett's front parlor, and that
+Octavia had entertained him in such a manner that he had been beguiled
+into forgetting the clerical visits he had intended to make, and had
+finally committed himself by a promise to return a day or two later to
+play croquet. His object in calling had been to request Miss Belinda's
+assistance in a parochial matter. His natural timorousness of nature had
+indeed led him to put off making the visit for as long a time as
+possible. The reports he had heard of Miss Octavia Bassett had inspired
+him with great dread. Consequently he had presented himself at Miss
+Belinda's front door with secret anguish.
+
+"Will you say," he had faltered to Mary Anne, "that it is Mr. Poppleton,
+to see _Miss_ Bassett--Miss _Belinda_ Bassett?"
+
+And then he had been handed into the parlor, the door had been closed
+behind him, and he had found himself shut up entirely alone in the room
+with Miss Octavia Bassett herself.
+
+His first impulse was to turn, and flee precipitately: indeed, he even
+went so far as to turn, and clutch the handle of the door; but somehow a
+second thought arrived in time to lead him to control himself.
+
+This second thought came with his second glance at Octavia.
+
+She was not at all what he had pictured her. Singularly enough, no one
+had told him that she was pretty; and he had thought of her as a gaunt
+young person, with a determined and manly air. She struck him, on the
+contrary, as being extremely girlish and charming to look upon. She wore
+the pale pink gown; and as he entered he saw her give a furtive little
+dab to her eyes with a lace handkerchief, and hurriedly crush an open
+letter into her pocket. Then, seeming to dismiss her emotion with
+enviable facility, she rose to greet him.
+
+"If you want to see aunt Belinda," she said, "perhaps you had better sit
+down. She will be here directly." He plucked up spirit to take a seat,
+suddenly feeling his terror take wing. He was amazed at his own courage.
+
+"Th-thank you," he said. "I have the pleasure of"--There, it is true, he
+stopped, looked at her, blushed, and finished somewhat disjointedly.
+"Miss Octavia Bassett, I believe."
+
+"Yes," she answered, and sat down near him.
+
+When Miss Belinda descended the stairs, a short time afterward, her ears
+were greeted by the sound of brisk conversation, in which the Rev. Arthur
+Poppleton appeared to be taking part with before-unheard-of spirit. When
+he arose at her entrance, there was in his manner an air of mild buoyancy
+which astonished her beyond measure. When he re-seated himself, he seemed
+quite to forget the object of his visit for some minutes, and was thus
+placed in the embarrassing position of having to refer to his note-book.
+
+Having done so, and found that he had called to ask assistance for the
+family of one of his parishioners, he recovered himself somewhat. As he
+explained the exigencies of the case, Octavia listened.
+
+"Well," she said, "I should think it would make you quite uncomfortable,
+if you see things like that often."
+
+"I regret to say I do see such things only too frequently," he answered.
+
+"Gracious!" she said; but that was all.
+
+He was conscious of being slightly disappointed at her apathy; and
+perhaps it is to be deplored that he forgot it afterward, when Miss
+Belinda had bestowed her mite, and the case was dismissed for the time
+being. He really did forget it, and was beguiled into making a very long
+call, and enjoying himself as he had never enjoyed himself before.
+
+When, at length, he was recalled to a sense of duty by a glance at the
+clock, he had already before his eyes an opening vista of delights,
+taking the form of future calls, and games of croquet played upon Miss
+Belinda's neatly-shaven grass-plat. He had bidden the ladies adieu in the
+parlor, and, having stepped into the hall, was fumbling rather excitedly
+in the umbrella-stand for his own especially slender clerical umbrella,
+when he was awakened to new rapture by hearing Miss Octavia's tone again.
+
+He turned, and saw her standing quite near him, looking at him with
+rather an odd expression, and holding something in her hand.
+
+"Oh!" she said. "See here,--those people."
+
+"I--beg pardon," he hesitated. "I don't quite understand."
+
+"Oh, yes!" she answered. "Those desperately poor wretches, you know, with
+fever, and leaks in their house, and all sorts of disagreeable things the
+matter with them. Give them this, won't you?"
+
+"This" was a pretty silk purse, through whose meshes he saw the gleam of
+gold coin.
+
+"That?" he said. "You don't mean--isn't there a good deal--I beg
+pardon--but really"--
+
+"Well, if they are as poor as you say they are, it won't be too much,"
+she replied. "I don't suppose they'll object to it: do you?"
+
+She extended it to him as if she rather wished to get it out of her
+hands.
+
+"You'd better take it," she said. "I shall spend it on something I don't
+need, if you don't. I'm always spending money on things I don't care for
+afterward."
+
+He was filled with remorse, remembering that he had thought her
+apathetic.
+
+"I--I really thought you were not interested at all," he burst forth.
+"Pray forgive me. This is generous indeed."
+
+She looked down at some particularly brilliant rings on her hand, instead
+of looking at him.
+
+"Oh, well!" she said, "I think it must be simply horrid to have to do
+without things. I can't see how people live. Besides, I haven't denied
+myself any thing. It would be worth talking about if I had, I suppose.
+Oh! By the by, never mind telling any one, will you?"
+
+Then, without giving him time to reply, she raised her eyes to his face,
+and plunged into the subject of the croquet again, pursuing it until the
+final moment of his exit and departure, which was when Mrs. Burnham and
+Miss Pilcher had been scandalized at the easy freedom of her adieus.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+SUPERIOR ADVANTAGES.
+
+
+When Mr. Francis Barold called to pay his respects to Lady Theobald,
+after partaking of her hospitality, Mr. Burmistone accompanied him; and,
+upon almost every other occasion of his presenting himself to her
+ladyship, Mr. Burmistone was his companion.
+
+It may as well be explained at the outset, that the mill-owner of
+Burmistone Mills was a man of decided determination of character, and
+that, upon the evening of Lady Theobald's tea, he had arrived at the
+conclusion that he would spare no effort to gain a certain end he felt it
+would add to his happiness to accomplish.
+
+"I stand rather in awe of Lady Theobald, as any ordinary man would," he
+had said dryly to Barold, on their return to his house. "But my awe of
+her is not so great yet that I shall allow it to interfere with any of
+my plans."
+
+"Have you any especial plan?" inquired Barold carelessly, after a pause.
+
+"Yes," answered Mr. Burmistone,--"several. I should like to go to
+Oldclough rather often."
+
+"I feel it the civil thing to go to Oldclough oftener than I like. Go
+with me."
+
+"I should like to be included in all the invitations to tea for the next
+six months."
+
+"I shall be included in all the invitations so long as I remain here; and
+it is not likely you will be left out in the cold. After you have gone
+the rounds once, you won't be dropped."
+
+"Upon the whole, it appears so," said Mr. Burmistone. "Thanks."
+
+So, at each of the tea-parties following Lady Theobald's, the two men
+appeared together. The small end of the wedge being inserted into the
+social stratum, the rest was not so difficult. Mrs. Burnham was at once
+surprised and overjoyed by her discoveries of the many excellences of the
+man they had so hastily determined to ignore. Mrs. Abercrombie found Mr.
+Burmistone's manner all that could be desired. Miss Pilcher expressed the
+highest appreciation of his views upon feminine education and "our duty
+to the young in our charge." Indeed, after Mrs. Egerton's evening, the
+tide of public opinion turned suddenly in his favor.
+
+Public opinion did not change, however, as far as Octavia was concerned.
+Having had her anxiety set at rest by several encouraging paternal
+letters from Nevada, she began to make up her mind to enjoy herself, and
+was, it is to be regretted, betrayed by her youthful high spirits into
+the committing of numerous indiscretions. Upon each festal occasion she
+appeared in a new and elaborate costume: she accepted the attentions of
+Mr. Francis Barold, as if it were the most natural thing in the world
+that they should be offered; she joked--in what Mrs. Burnham designated
+"her Nevada way"--with the Rev. Arthur Poppleton, who appeared more
+frequently than had been his habit at the high teas. She played croquet
+with that gentleman and Mr. Barold day after day, upon the grass-plat,
+before all the eyes gazing down upon her from the neighboring windows;
+she managed to coerce Mr. Burmistone into joining these innocent orgies;
+and, in fact, to quote Miss Pilcher, there was "no limit to the
+shamelessness of her unfeminine conduct."
+
+Several times much comment had been aroused by the fact that Lucia Gaston
+had been observed to form one of the party of players. She had indeed
+played with Barold, against Octavia and Mr. Poppleton, on the memorable
+day upon which that gentleman had taken his first lesson.
+
+Barold had availed himself of the invitation extended to him by Octavia,
+upon several occasions, greatly to Miss Belinda's embarrassment. He had
+dropped in the evening after the curate's first call.
+
+"Is Lady Theobald very fond of you?" Octavia had asked, in the course of
+this visit.
+
+"It is very kind of her, if she is," he replied with languid irony.
+
+"Isn't she fond enough of you to do any thing you ask her?" Octavia
+inquired.
+
+"Really, I think not," he replied. "Imagine the degree of affection it
+requires! I am not fond enough of any one to do any thing they ask me."
+
+Octavia bestowed a long look upon him.
+
+"Well," she remarked, after a pause, "I believe you are not. I shouldn't
+think so."
+
+Barold colored very faintly.
+
+"I say," he said, "is that an imputation, or something of that character?
+It sounds like it, you know."
+
+Octavia did not reply directly. She laughed a little.
+
+"I want you to ask Lady Theobald to do something," she said.
+
+"I am afraid I am not in such favor as you imagine," he said, looking
+slightly annoyed.
+
+"Well, I think she won't refuse you this thing," she went on. "If she
+didn't loathe me so, I would ask her myself."
+
+He deigned to smile.
+
+"Does she loathe you?" he inquired.
+
+"Yes," nodding. "She would not speak to me if it weren't for aunt
+Belinda. She thinks I am fast and loud. Do _you_ think I am fast and
+loud?"
+
+He was taken aback, and not for the first time, either. She had startled
+and discomposed him several times in the course of their brief
+acquaintance; and he always resented it, priding himself in private, as
+he did, upon his coolness and immobility. He could not think of the right
+thing to say just now, so he was silent for a second.
+
+"Tell me the truth," she persisted. "I shall not care--much."
+
+"I do not think you would care at all."
+
+"Well, perhaps I shouldn't. Go on. Do you think I am fast?"
+
+"I am happy to say I do not find you slow."
+
+She fixed her eyes on him, smiling faintly.
+
+"That means I am fast," she said. "Well, no matter. Will you ask Lady
+Theobald what I want you to ask her?"
+
+"I should not say you were fast at all," he said rather stiffly. "You
+have not been educated as--as Lady Theobald has educated Miss Gaston, for
+instance."
+
+"I should rather think not," she replied. Then she added, very
+deliberately, "She has had what you might call very superior advantages,
+I suppose."
+
+Her expression was totally incomprehensible to him. She spoke with the
+utmost seriousness, and looked down at the table. "That is derision, I
+suppose," he remarked restively.
+
+She glanced up again.
+
+"At all events," she said, "there is nothing to laugh at in Lucia Gaston.
+Will you ask Lady Theobald? I want you to ask her to let Lucia Gaston
+come and play croquet with us on Tuesday. She is to play with you against
+Mr. Poppleton and me."
+
+"Who is Mr. Poppleton?" he asked, with some reserve. He did not exactly
+fancy sharing his entertainment with any ordinary outsider. After all,
+there was no knowing what this little American might do.
+
+"He is the curate of the church," she replied, undisturbed. "He is very
+nice, and little, and neat, and blushes all over to the toes of his
+boots. He came to see aunt Belinda, and I asked him to come and be
+taught to play."
+
+"Who is to teach him?"
+
+"I am. I have taught at least twenty men in New York and San Francisco."
+
+"I hope he appreciates your kindness."
+
+"I mean to try if I can make him forget to be frightened," she said, with
+a gay laugh.
+
+It was certainly nettling to find his air of reserve and displeasure met
+with such inconsequent lightness. She never seemed to recognize the
+subtle changes of temperature expressed in his manner. Only his sense of
+what was due to himself prevented his being very chilly indeed; but as
+she went on with her gay chat, in utter ignorance of his mood, and
+indulged in some very pretty airy nonsense, he soon recovered himself,
+and almost forgot his private grievance.
+
+Before going away, he promised to ask Lady Theobald's indulgence in the
+matter of Lucia's joining them in their game. One speech of Octavia's,
+connected with the subject, he had thought very pretty, as well as kind.
+
+"I like Miss Gaston," she said. "I think we might be friends if Lady
+Theobald would let us. Her superior advantages might do me good. They
+might improve me," she went on, with a little laugh, "and I suppose I
+need improving very much. All my advantages have been of one kind."
+
+When he had left her, she startled Miss Belinda by saying,--
+
+"I have been asking Mr. Barold if he thought I was fast; and I believe he
+does--in fact, I am sure he does."
+
+"Ah, my dear, my dear!" ejaculated Miss Belinda, "what a terrible thing
+to say to a gentleman! What will he think?"
+
+Octavia smiled one of her calmest smiles.
+
+"Isn't it queer how often you say that!" she remarked. "I think I should
+perish if I had to pull myself up that way as you do. I just go right on,
+and never worry. I don't mean to do any thing queer, and I don't see why
+any one should think I do."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+CROQUET.
+
+
+Lucia was permitted to form one of the players in the game of croquet,
+being escorted to and from the scene by Francis Barold. Perhaps it
+occurred to Lady Theobald that the contrast of English reserve and
+maidenliness with the free-and-easy manners of young women from Nevada
+might lead to some good result.
+
+"I trust your conduct will be such as to show that you at least have
+resided in a civilized land," she said. "The men of the present day may
+permit themselves to be amused by young persons whose demeanor might
+bring a blush to the cheek of a woman of forty, but it is not their habit
+to regard them with serious intentions."
+
+Lucia reddened. She did not speak, though she wished very much for the
+courage to utter the words which rose to her lips. Lately she had found
+that now and then, at times when she was roused to anger, speeches of
+quite a clever and sarcastic nature presented themselves to her mind. She
+was never equal to uttering them aloud; but she felt that in time she
+might, because of course it was quite an advance in spirit to think them,
+and face, even in imagination, the probability of astounding and striking
+Lady Theobald dumb with their audacity.
+
+"It ought to make me behave very well," she was saying now to herself,
+"to have before me the alternative of not being regarded with serious
+intentions. I wonder if it is Mr. Poppleton or Francis Barold who might
+not regard me seriously. And I wonder if they are any coarser in America
+than we can be in England when we try."
+
+She enjoyed the afternoon very much, particularly the latter part of it,
+when Mr. Burmistone, who was passing, came in, being invited by Octavia
+across the privet hedge. Having paid his respects to Miss Belinda, who
+sat playing propriety under a laburnum-tree, Mr. Burmistone crossed the
+grass-plat to Lucia herself. She was awaiting her "turn," and laughing at
+the ardent enthusiasm of Mr. Poppleton, who, under Octavia's direction,
+was devoting all his energies to the game: her eyes were bright, and she
+had lost, for the time being, her timid air of feeling herself somehow in
+the wrong.
+
+"I am glad to see you here," said Mr. Burmistone.
+
+"I am glad to be here," she answered. "It has been such a happy
+afternoon. Every thing has seemed so bright and--and different!"
+
+"'Different' is a very good word," he said, laughing.
+
+"It isn't a very bad one," she returned, "and it expresses a good deal."
+
+"It does indeed," he commented.
+
+"Look at Mr. Poppleton and Octavia," she began.
+
+"Have you got to 'Octavia'?" he inquired.
+
+She looked down and blushed.
+
+"I shall not say 'Octavia' to grandmamma."
+
+Then suddenly she glanced up at him.
+
+"That is sly, isn't it?" she said. "Sometimes I think I am very sly,
+though I am sure it is not my nature to be so. I would rather be open
+and candid."
+
+"It would be better," he remarked.
+
+"You think so?" she asked eagerly.
+
+He could not help smiling.
+
+"Do you ever tell untruths to Lady Theobald?" he inquired. "If you do, I
+shall begin to be alarmed."
+
+"I act them," she said, blushing more deeply. "I really do--paltry sorts
+of untruths, you know; pretending to agree with her when I don't;
+pretending to like things a little when I hate them. I have been trying
+to improve myself lately, and once or twice it has made her very angry.
+She says I am disobedient and disrespectful. She asked me, one day, if it
+was my intention to emulate Miss Octavia Bassett. That was when I said I
+could not help feeling that I had wasted time in practising."
+
+She sighed softly as she ended.
+
+In the mean time Octavia had Mr. Poppleton and Mr. Francis Barold upon
+her hands, and was endeavoring to do her duty as hostess by both of them.
+If it had been her intention to captivate these gentlemen, she could not
+have complained that Mr. Poppleton was wary or difficult game. His first
+fears allayed, his downward path was smooth, and rapid in proportion.
+When he had taken his departure with the little silk purse in his
+keeping, he had carried under his clerical vest a warmed and thrilled
+heart. It was a heart which, it must be confessed, was of the most
+inexperienced and susceptible nature. A little man of affectionate and
+gentle disposition, he had been given from his earliest youth to
+indulging in timid dreams of mild future bliss,--of bliss represented by
+some lovely being whose ideals were similar to his own, and who preferred
+the wealth of a true affection to the glitter of the giddy throng. Upon
+one or two occasions, he had even worshipped from afar; but as on each of
+these occasions his hopes had been nipped in the bud by the union of
+their object with some hollow worldling, his dream had, so far, never
+attained very serious proportions. Since he had taken up his abode in
+Slowbridge, he had felt himself a little overpowered by circumstances. It
+had been a source of painful embarrassment to him, to find his innocent
+presence capable of producing confusion in the breasts of young ladies
+who were certainly not more guileless than himself. He had been conscious
+that the Misses Egerton did not continue their conversation with freedom
+when he chanced to approach the group they graced; and he had observed
+the same thing in their companions,--an additional circumspection of
+demeanor, so to speak, a touch of new decorum, whose object seemed to be
+to protect them from any appearance of imprudence.
+
+"It is almost as if they were afraid of me," he had said to himself once
+or twice. "Dear me! I hope there is nothing in my appearance to lead
+them to"--
+
+He was so much alarmed by this dreadful thought, that he had ever
+afterward approached any of these young ladies with a fear and trembling
+which had not added either to his comfort or their own; consequently his
+path had not been a very smooth one.
+
+"I respect the young ladies of Slowbridge," he remarked to Octavia that
+very afternoon. "There are some very remarkable young ladies here,--very
+remarkable indeed. They are interested in the church, and the poor, and
+the schools, and, indeed, in every thing, which is most unselfish and
+amiable. Young ladies have usually so much to distract their attention
+from such matters."
+
+"If I stay long enough in Slowbridge," said Octavia, "I shall be
+interested in the church, and the poor, and the schools."
+
+It seemed to the curate that there had never been any thing so delightful
+in the world as her laugh and her unusual remarks. She seemed to him so
+beautiful, and so exhilarating, that he forgot all else but his
+admiration for her. He enjoyed himself so much this afternoon, that he
+was almost brilliant, and excited the sarcastic comment of Mr. Francis
+Barold, who was not enjoying himself at all.
+
+"Confound it!" said that gentleman to himself, as he looked on. "What did
+I come here for? This style of thing is just what I might have expected.
+She is amusing herself with that poor little cad now, and I am left in
+the cold. I suppose that is her habit with the young men in Nevada."
+
+He had no intention of entering the lists with the Rev. Arthur Poppleton,
+or of concealing the fact that he felt that this little Nevada flirt was
+making a blunder. The sooner she knew it, the better for herself; so he
+played his game as badly as possible, and with much dignity.
+
+But Octavia was so deeply interested in Mr. Poppleton's ardent efforts
+to do credit to her teaching, that she was apparently unconscious of
+all else. She played with great cleverness, and carried her partner to
+the terminus, with an eager enjoyment of her skill quite pleasant to
+behold. She made little darts here and there, advised, directed, and
+controlled his movements, and was quite dramatic in a small way when he
+made a failure.
+
+Mrs. Burnham, who was superintending the proceeding, seated in her own
+easy-chair behind her window-curtains, was roused to virtuous indignation
+by her energy.
+
+"There is no repose whatever in her manner," she said. "No dignity. Is a
+game of croquet a matter of deep moment? It seems to me that it is almost
+impious to devote one's mind so wholly to a mere means of recreation."
+
+"She seems to be enjoying it, mamma," said Miss Laura Burnham, with a
+faint sigh. Miss Laura had been looking on over her parent's shoulder.
+"They all seem to be enjoying it. See how Lucia Gaston and Mr. Burmistone
+are laughing. I never saw Lucia look like that before. The only one who
+seems a little dull is Mr. Barold."
+
+"He is probably disgusted by a freedom of manner to which he is not
+accustomed," replied Mrs. Burnham. "The only wonder is that he has not
+been disgusted by it before."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+ADVANTAGES.
+
+
+The game over, Octavia deserted her partner. She walked lightly, and with
+the air of a victor, to where Barold was standing. She was smiling, and
+slightly flushed, and for a moment or so stood fanning herself with a gay
+Japanese fan.
+
+"Don't you think I am a good teacher?" she asked at length.
+
+"I should say so," replied Barold, without enthusiasm. "I am afraid I am
+not a judge."
+
+She waved her fan airily.
+
+"I had a good pupil," she said. Then she held her fan still for a moment,
+and turned fully toward him. "I have done something you don't like," she
+said. "I knew I had."
+
+Mr. Francis Barold retired within himself at once. In his present mood
+it really appeared that she was assuming that he was very much interested
+indeed.
+
+"I should scarcely take the liberty upon a limited acquaintance," he
+began.
+
+She looked at him steadily, fanning herself with slow, regular movements.
+
+"Yes," she remarked. "You're mad. I knew you were."
+
+He was so evidently disgusted by this observation, that she caught at the
+meaning of his look, and laughed a little.
+
+"Ah!" she said, "that's an American word, ain't it? It sounds queer to
+you. You say 'vexed' instead of 'mad.' Well, then, you are vexed."
+
+"If I have been so clumsy as to appear ill-humored," he said, "I beg
+pardon. Certainly I have no right to exhibit such unusual interest in
+your conduct."
+
+He felt that this was rather decidedly to the point, but she did not seem
+overpowered at all. She smiled anew.
+
+"Anybody has a right to be mad--I mean vexed," she observed. "I should
+like to know how people would live if they hadn't. I am mad--I mean
+vexed--twenty times a day."
+
+"Indeed?" was his sole reply.
+
+"Well," she said, "I think it's real mean in you to be so cool about it
+when you remember what I told you the other day."
+
+"I regret to say I don't remember just now. I hope it was nothing very
+serious."
+
+To his astonishment she looked down at her fan, and spoke in a slightly
+lowered voice:--
+
+"I told you that I wanted to be improved."
+
+It must be confessed that he was mollified. There was a softness in her
+manner which amazed him. He was at once embarrassed and delighted. But,
+at the same time, it would not do to commit himself to too great a
+seriousness.
+
+"Oh!" he answered, "that was a rather good joke, I thought."
+
+"No, it wasn't," she said, perhaps even half a tone lower. "I was
+in earnest."
+
+Then she raised her eyes.
+
+"If you told me when I did any thing wrong, I think it might be a good
+thing," she said.
+
+He felt that this was quite possible, and was also struck with the idea
+that he might find the task of mentor--so long as he remained entirely
+non-committal--rather interesting. Still, he could not afford to descend
+at once from the elevated stand he had taken.
+
+"I am afraid you would find it rather tiresome," he remarked.
+
+"I am afraid _you_ would," she answered. "You would have to tell me of
+things so often."
+
+"Do you mean seriously to tell me that you would take my advice?" he
+inquired.
+
+"I mightn't take all of it," was her reply; "but I should take
+some--perhaps a great deal."
+
+"Thanks," he remarked. "I scarcely think I should give you a great deal."
+
+She simply smiled.
+"I have never had any advice at all," she said. "I don't know that I
+should have taken it if I had--just as likely as not I shouldn't; but I
+have never had any. Father spoiled me. He gave me all my own way. He said
+he didn't care, so long as I had a good time; and I must say I have
+generally had a good time. I don't see how I could help it--with all my
+own way, and no one to worry. I wasn't sick, and I could buy any thing I
+liked, and all that: so I had a good time. I've read of girls, in books,
+wishing they had mothers to take care of them. I don't know that I ever
+wished for one particularly. I can take care of myself. I must say, too,
+that I don't think some mothers are much of an institution. I know girls
+who have them, and they are always worrying."
+
+He laughed in spite of himself; and though she had been speaking with the
+utmost seriousness and _naiveté_, she joined him.
+
+When they ceased, she returned suddenly to the charge.
+
+"Now tell me what I have done this afternoon that isn't right," she
+said,--"that Lucia Gaston wouldn't have done, for instance. I say
+that, because I shouldn't mind being a little like Lucia Gaston--in
+some things."
+
+"Lucia ought to feel gratified," he commented.
+
+"She does," she answered. "We had a little talk about it, and she was as
+pleased as could be. I didn't think of it in that way until I saw her
+begin to blush. Guess what she said."
+
+"I am afraid I can't."
+
+"She said she saw so many things to envy in me, that she could scarcely
+believe I wanted to be at all like her."
+
+"It was a very civil speech," said Barold ironically. "I scarcely thought
+Lady Theobald had trained her so well."
+
+"She meant it," said Octavia. "You mayn't believe it, but she did. I know
+when people mean things, and when they don't."
+
+"I wish I did," said Barold.
+
+Octavia turned her attention to her fan.
+
+"Well, I am waiting," she said.
+
+"Waiting?" he repeated.
+
+"To be told of my faults."
+
+"But I scarcely see of what importance my opinion can be."
+
+"It is of some importance to me--just now."
+
+The last two words rendered him really impatient, and, it may be, spurred
+him up.
+
+"If we are to take Lucia Gaston as a model," he said, "Lucia Gaston would
+possibly not have been so complaisant in her demeanor toward our clerical
+friend."
+
+"Complaisant!" she exclaimed, opening her lovely eyes. "When I was
+actually plunging about the garden, trying to teach him to play. Well, I
+shouldn't call that being complaisant."
+
+"Lucia Gaston," he replied, "would not say that she had been 'plunging'
+about the garden."
+
+She gave herself a moment for reflection.
+
+"That's true," she remarked, when it was over: "she wouldn't. When I
+compare myself with the Slowbridge girls, I begin to think I must say
+some pretty awful things."
+
+Barold made no reply, which caused her to laugh a little again.
+
+"You daren't tell me," she said. "Now, do I? Well, I don't think I want
+to know very particularly. What Lady Theobald thinks will last quite a
+good while. Complaisant!"
+
+"I am sorry you object to the word," he said.
+
+"Oh, I don't!" she answered. "I like it. It sounds so much more polite
+than to say I was flirting and being fast."
+
+"Were you flirting?" he inquired coldly.
+
+He objected to her ready serenity very much.
+
+She looked a little puzzled.
+
+"You are very like aunt Belinda," she said.
+
+He drew himself up. He did not think there was any point of resemblance
+at all between Miss Belinda and himself.
+
+She went on, without observing his movement.
+
+"You think every thing means something, or is of some importance. You
+said that just as aunt Belinda says, 'What will they think?' It never
+occurs to me that they'll think at all. Gracious! Why should they?"
+
+"You will find they do," he said.
+
+"Well," she said, glancing at the group gathered under the laburnum-tree,
+"just now aunt Belinda thinks we had better go over to her; so, suppose
+we do it? At any rate, I found out that I was too complaisant to Mr.
+Poppleton."
+
+When the party separated for the afternoon, Barold took Lucia home, and
+Mr. Burmistone and the curate walked down the street together.
+
+Mr. Poppleton was indeed most agreeably exhilarated. His expressive
+little countenance beamed with delight.
+
+"What a very charming person Miss Bassett is!" he exclaimed, after they
+had left the gate. "What a very charming person indeed!"
+
+"Very charming," said Mr. Burmistone with much seriousness. "A
+prettier young person I certainly have never seen; and those wonderful
+gowns of hers"--
+
+"Oh!" interrupted Mr. Poppleton, with natural confusion, "I--referred to
+Miss Belinda Bassett; though, really, what you say is very true. Miss
+Octavia Bassett--indeed--I think--in fact, Miss Octavia Bassett is
+_quite_, one might almost say even _more_, charming than her aunt."
+
+"Yes," admitted Mr. Burmistone; "perhaps one might. She is less ripe, it
+is true; but that is an objection time will remove."
+
+"There is such a delightful gayety in her manner!" said Mr. Poppleton;
+"such an ingenuous frankness! such a--a--such spirit! It quite carries me
+away with it,--quite."
+
+He walked a few steps, thinking over this delightful gayety and ingenuous
+frankness; and then burst out afresh,--
+
+"And what a remarkable life she has had too! She actually told me, that,
+once in her childhood, she lived for months in a gold-diggers' camp,--the
+only woman there. She says the men were kind to her, and made a pet of
+her. She has known the most extraordinary people."
+
+In the mean time Francis Barold returned Lucia to Lady Theobald's safe
+keeping. Having done so, he made his adieus, and left the two to
+themselves. Her ladyship was, it must be confessed, a little at a loss to
+explain to herself what she saw, or fancied she saw, in the manner and
+appearance of her young relative. She was persuaded that she had never
+seen Lucia look as she looked this afternoon. She had a brighter color in
+her cheeks than usual, her pretty figure seemed more erect, her eyes had
+a spirit in them which was quite new. She had chatted and laughed gayly
+with Francis Barold, as she approached the house; and after his departure
+she moved to and fro with a freedom not habitual to her.
+
+"He has been making himself agreeable to her," said my lady, with grim
+pleasure. "He can do it if he chooses; and he is just the man to please a
+girl,--good-looking, and with a fine, domineering air."
+
+"How did you enjoy yourself?" she asked.
+
+"Very much," said Lucia; "never more, thank you."
+
+"Oh!" ejaculated my lady. "And which of her smart New York gowns did Miss
+Octavia Bassett wear?"
+
+They were at the dinner-table; and, instead of looking down at her soup,
+Lucia looked quietly and steadily across the table at her grandmother.
+
+"She wore a very pretty one," she said: "it was pale fawn-color, and
+fitted her like a glove. She made me feel very old-fashioned and
+badly dressed."
+
+Lady Theobald laid down her spoon.
+
+"She made you feel old-fashioned and badly dressed,--you!"
+
+"Yes," responded Lucia: "she always does. I wonder what she thinks of the
+things we wear in Slowbridge." And she even went to the length of smiling
+a little.
+
+"What _she_ thinks of what is worn in Slowbridge!" Lady Theobald
+ejaculated. "She! may I ask what weight the opinion of a young woman from
+America--from Nevada--is supposed to have in Slowbridge?"
+
+Lucia took a spoonful of soup in a leisurely manner.
+
+"I don't think it is supposed to have any; but--but I don't think she
+minds that. I feel as if I shouldn't if I were in her place. I have
+always thought her very lucky."
+
+"You have thought her lucky!" cried my lady. "You have envied a Nevada
+young woman, who dresses like an actress, and loads herself with jewels
+like a barbarian? A girl whose conduct toward men is of a character
+to--to chill one's blood!"
+
+"They admire her," said Lucia simply, "more than they admire Lydia
+Egerton, and more than they admire me."
+
+"Do _you_ admire her?" demanded my lady.
+
+"Yes, grandmamma," replied Lucia courageously. "I think I do."
+
+Never had my lady been so astounded in her life. For a moment she could
+scarcely speak. When she recovered herself she pointed to the door.
+
+"Go to your room," she commanded. "This is American freedom of speech, I
+suppose. Go to your room."
+
+Lucia rose obediently. She could not help wondering what her ladyship's
+course would be if she had the hardihood to disregard her order. She
+really looked quite capable of carrying it out forcibly herself. When the
+girl stood at her bedroom window, a few minutes later, her cheeks were
+burning and her hands trembling.
+
+"I am afraid it was very badly done," she said to herself. "I am sure it
+was; but--but it will be a kind of practice. I was in such a hurry to try
+if I were equal to it, that I didn't seem to balance things quite
+rightly. I ought to have waited until I had more reason to speak out.
+Perhaps there wasn't enough reason then, and I was more aggressive than I
+ought to have been. Octavia is never aggressive. I wonder if I was at all
+pert. I don't think Octavia ever means to be pert. I felt a little as if
+I meant to be pert. I must learn to balance myself, and only be cool and
+frank."
+
+Then she looked out of the window, and reflected a little.
+
+"I was not so very brave, after all," she said, rather reluctantly. "I
+didn't tell her Mr. Burmistone was there. I daren't have done that. I am
+afraid I _am_ sly--that sounds sly, I am sure."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+CONTRAST.
+
+
+"Lady Theobald will put a stop to it," was the general remark. "It will
+certainly not occur again."
+
+This was said upon the evening of the first gathering upon Miss Belinda's
+grass-plat, and at the same time it was prophesied that Mr. Francis
+Barold would soon go away.
+
+But neither of the prophecies proved true. Mr. Francis Barold did _not_
+return to London; and, strange to say, Lucia was seen again and again
+playing croquet with Octavia Bassett, and was even known to spend
+evenings with her.
+
+Perhaps it might be that an appeal made by Miss Belinda to her ladyship
+had caused her to allow of these things. Miss Belinda had, in fact, made
+a private call upon my lady, to lay her case before her.
+
+"I feel so very timid about every thing," she said, almost with tears,
+"and so fearful of trusting myself, that I really find it quite a trial.
+The dear child has such a kind heart--I assure you she has a kind heart,
+dear Lady Theobald,--and is so innocent of any intention to do wrong--I
+am sure she is innocent,--that it seems cruel to judge her severely. If
+she had had the benefit of such training as dear Lucia's. I am convinced
+that her conduct would have been most exemplary. She sees herself that
+she has faults: I am sure she does. She said to me only last night, in
+that odd way of hers,--she had been sitting, evidently thinking deeply,
+for some minutes,--and she said, 'I wonder if I shouldn't be nicer if I
+were more like Lucia Gaston.' You see what turn her mind must have taken.
+She admires Lucia so much."
+
+"Yesterday evening at dinner," said Lady Theobald severely, "Lucia
+informed me that _she_ admired your niece. The feeling seems to be
+mutual."
+
+Miss Belinda colored, and brightened visibly.
+
+"Did she, indeed?" she exclaimed. "How pleased Octavia will be to hear
+it! Did she, indeed?" Then, warned by a chilliness, and lack of response,
+in her ladyship's manner, she modified her delight, and became apologetic
+again. "These young people are more--are less critical than we are," she
+sighed. "Octavia's great prettiness"--
+
+"I think," Lady Theobald interposed, "that Lucia has been taught to feel
+that the body is corruptible, and subject to decay, and that mere beauty
+is of small moment."
+
+Miss Belinda sighed again.
+
+"That is very true," she admitted deprecatingly; "very true indeed."
+
+"It is to be hoped that Octavia's stay in Slowbridge will prove
+beneficial to her," said her ladyship in her most judicial manner. "The
+atmosphere is wholly unlike that which has surrounded her during her
+previous life."
+
+"I am sure it will prove beneficial to her," said Miss Belinda eagerly.
+"The companionship of well-trained and refined young people cannot fail
+to be of use to her. Such a companion as Lucia would be, if you would
+kindly permit her to spend an evening with us now and then, would
+certainly improve and modify her greatly. Mr. Francis Barold is--is, I
+think, of the same opinion; at least, I fancied I gathered as much from a
+few words he let fall."
+
+"Francis Barold?" repeated Lady Theobald. "And what did Francis Barold
+say?"
+
+"Of course it was but very little," hesitated Miss Belinda; "but--but I
+could not help seeing that he was drawing comparisons, as it were.
+Octavia was teaching Mr. Poppleton to play croquet; and she was rather
+exhilarated, and perhaps exhibited more--freedom of manner, in an
+innocent way,--quite in an innocent, thoughtless way,--than is exactly
+customary; and I saw Mr. Barold glance from her to Lucia, who stood near;
+and when I said, 'You are thinking of the contrast between them,' he
+answered, 'Yes, they differ very greatly, it is true;' and of course I
+knew that my poor Octavia could not have the advantage in his eyes. She
+feels this herself, I know. She shocked me the other day, beyond
+expression, by telling me that she had asked him if he thought she was
+really fast, and that she was sure he did. Poor child! she evidently did
+not comprehend the dreadful significance of such terms."
+
+"A man like Francis Barold does understand their significance," said Lady
+Theobald; "and it is to be deplored that your niece cannot be taught what
+her position in society will be if such a reputation attaches itself to
+her. The men of the present day fight shy of such characters."
+
+This dread clause so impressed poor Miss Belinda by its solemnity, that
+she could not forbear repeating it to Octavia afterward, though it is to
+be regretted that it did not produce the effect she had hoped.
+
+"Well, I must say," she observed, "that if some men fought a little shyer
+than they do, I shouldn't mind it. You always _do_ have about half a
+dozen dangling around, who only bore you, and who will keep asking you to
+go to places, and sending you bouquets, and asking you to dance when they
+can't dance at all, and only tear your dress, and stand on your feet. If
+they would 'fight shy,' it would be splendid."
+
+To Miss Belinda, who certainly had never been guilty of the indecorum of
+having any member of the stronger sex "dangling about" at all, this was
+very trying.
+
+"My dear," she said, "don't say 'you always have;' it--it really seems to
+make it so personal."
+
+Octavia turned around, and fixed her eyes wonderingly upon her blushing
+countenance. For a moment she made no remark, a marvellous thought
+shaping itself slowly in her mind.
+
+"Aunt Belinda," she said at length, "did nobody ever"--
+
+"Ah, no, my dear! No, no, I assure you!" cried Miss Belinda, in the
+greatest possible trepidation. "Ah, dear, no! Such--such things
+rarely--very rarely happen in--Slowbridge; and, besides, I couldn't
+possibly have thought of it. I couldn't, indeed!"
+
+She was so overwhelmed with maidenly confusion at the appalling thought,
+that she did not recover herself for half an hour at least. Octavia,
+feeling that it would not be safe to pursue the subject, only uttered one
+word of comment,--
+
+"Gracious!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+AN EXPERIMENT.
+
+
+Much to her own astonishment, Lucia found herself allowed new liberty.
+She was permitted to spend the afternoon frequently with Octavia; and on
+several occasions that young lady and Miss Bassett were invited to
+partake of tea at Oldclough in company with no other guest than Francis
+Barold.
+
+"I don't know what it means, and I think it must mean something," said
+Lucia to Octavia; "but it is very pleasant. I never was allowed to be so
+intimate with any one before."
+
+"Perhaps," suggested Octavia sagely, "she thinks, that, if you see me
+often enough, you will get sick of me, and it will be a lesson to you."
+
+"The more I see of you," answered Lucia with a serious little air, "the
+fonder I am of you. I understand you better. You are not at all like what
+I thought you at first, Octavia."
+
+"But I don't know that there's much to understand in me."
+
+"There is a great deal to understand in you," she replied. "You are a
+puzzle to me often. You seem so frank, and yet one knows so little about
+you after all. For instance," Lucia went on, "who would imagine that you
+are so affectionate?"
+
+"Am I affectionate?" she asked.
+
+"Yes," answered Lucia: "I am sure you are very affectionate. I have found
+it out gradually. You would suffer things for any one you loved."
+
+Octavia thought the matter over.
+
+"Yes," she said at length, "I would."
+
+"You are very fond of Miss Bassett," proceeded Lucia, as if arraigning
+her at the bar of justice. "You are _very_ fond of your father; and I am
+sure there are other people you are very fond of--_very_ fond of indeed."
+
+Octavia pondered seriously again.
+
+"Yes, there are," she remarked; "but no one would care about them here,
+and so I'm not going to make a fuss. You don't want to make a fuss over
+people you l-like."
+
+"_You_ don't," said Lucia. "You are like Francis Barold in one way, but
+you are altogether different in another. Francis Barold does not wish to
+show emotion; and he is so determined to hedge himself around, that one
+can't help suspecting that he is always guarding himself against one. He
+seems always to be resenting any interference; but you do not appear to
+care at all, and so it is not natural that one should suspect you. I did
+not suspect you."
+
+"What do you suspect me of now?"
+
+"Of thinking a great deal," answered Lucia affectionately. "And of being
+very clever and very good."
+
+Octavia was silent for a few moments.
+
+"I think," she said after the pause,--"I think you'll find out that it's
+a mistake."
+
+"No, I shall not," returned Lucia, quite glowing with enthusiasm. "And I
+know I shall learn a great deal from you."
+
+This was such a startling proposition that Octavia felt decidedly
+uncomfortable. She flushed rosy red.
+
+"I'm the one who ought to learn things, I think," she said. "I'm always
+doing things that frighten aunt Belinda, and you know how the rest
+regard me."
+
+"Octavia," said Lucia, very naively indeed, "suppose we try to help each
+other. If you will tell me when I am wrong, I will try to--to have the
+courage to tell you. That will be good practice for me. What I want most
+is courage and frankness, and I am sure it will take courage to make up
+my mind to tell you of your--of your mistakes."
+
+Octavia regarded her with mingled admiration and respect.
+
+"I think that's a splendid idea," she said.
+
+"Are you sure," faltered Lucia, "are you sure you won't mind the
+things I may have to say? Really, they are quite little things in
+themselves--hardly worth mentioning"--
+
+"Tell me one of them, right now," said Octavia, point-blank.
+
+"Oh, no!" exclaimed Lucia, starting. "I'd rather not--just now."
+
+"Well," commented Octavia, "that sounds as if they must be pretty
+unpleasant. Why don't you want to? They will be quite as bad to-morrow.
+And to refuse to tell me one is a bad beginning. It looks as if you were
+frightened; and it isn't good practice for you to be frightened at such a
+little thing."
+
+Lucia felt convicted. She made an effort to regain her composure.
+
+"No, it is not," she said. "But that is always the way. I am continually
+telling myself that I _will_ be courageous and candid; and, the first
+time any thing happens, I fail. I _will_ tell you one thing."
+
+She stopped short here, and looked at Octavia guiltily.
+
+"It is something--I think I would do if--if I were in your place," Lucia
+stammered. "A very little thing indeed."
+
+"Well?" remarked Octavia anxiously.
+
+Lucia lost her breath, caught it again, and proceeded cautiously, and
+with blushes at her own daring.
+
+"If I were in your place," she said, "I think--that, perhaps--only
+perhaps, you know--I would not wear--my hair--_quite_ so low down--over
+my forehead."
+
+Octavia sprang from her seat, and ran to the pier-glass over the mantle.
+She glanced at the reflection of her own startled, pretty face, and
+then, putting her hand up to the soft blonde "bang" which met her brows,
+turned to Lucia.
+
+"Isn't it becoming?" she asked breathlessly.
+
+"Oh, yes!" Lucia answered. "Very."
+
+Octavia started.
+
+"Then, why wouldn't you wear it?" she cried. "What do you mean?"
+
+Lucia felt her position truly a delicate one. She locked her hands, and
+braced herself; but she blushed vividly.
+
+"It may sound rather silly when I tell you why, Octavia," she said; "but
+I really do think it is a sort of reason. You know, in those absurd
+pictures of actresses, bangs always seem to be the principal feature. I
+saw some in the shop-windows when I went to Harriford with grandmamma.
+And they were such dreadful women,--some of them,--and had so very few
+clothes on, that I can't help thinking I shouldn't like to look like
+them, and"--
+
+"Does it make me look like them?"
+
+"Oh, very little!" answered Lucia; "very little indeed, of course; but"--
+
+"But it's the same thing after all," put in Octavia. "That's what you
+mean."
+
+"It is so very little," faltered Lucia, "that--that perhaps it isn't
+a reason."
+
+Octavia looked at herself in the glass again.
+
+"It isn't a very good reason," she remarked, "but I suppose it will do."
+
+She paused, and looked Lucia in the face.
+
+"I don't think that's a little thing," she said. "To be told you look
+like an _opéra bouffe_ actress."
+
+"I did not mean to say so," cried Lucia, filled with the most poignant
+distress. "I beg your pardon, indeed--I--oh, dear! I was afraid you
+wouldn't like it. I felt that it was taking a great liberty."
+
+"I don't like it," answered Octavia; "but that can't be helped. I didn't
+exactly suppose I should. But I wasn't going to say any thing about
+_your_ hair when _I_ began," glancing at poor Lucia's coiffure, "though I
+suppose I might."
+
+"You might say a thousand things about it!" cried Lucia piteously. "I
+know that mine is not only in bad taste, but it is ugly and unbecoming."
+"Yes," said Octavia cruelly, "it is."
+
+"And yours is neither the one nor the other," protested Lucia. "You know
+I told you it was pretty, Octavia."
+
+Octavia walked over to the table, upon which stood Miss Belinda's
+work-basket, and took therefrom a small and gleaming pair of scissors,
+returning to the mantle-glass with them.
+
+"How short shall I cut it?" she demanded.
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Lucia, "don't, don't!"
+
+For answer, Octavia raised the scissors, and gave a snip. It was a savage
+snip, and half the length and width of her love-locks fell on the mantle;
+then she gave another snip, and the other half fell.
+
+Lucia scarcely dared to breathe.
+
+For a moment Octavia stood gazing at herself, with pale face and dilated
+eyes. Then suddenly the folly of the deed she had done seemed to reveal
+itself to her.
+
+"Oh!" she cried out. "Oh, how diabolical it looks!"
+
+She turned upon Lucia.
+
+"Why did you make me do it?" she exclaimed. "It's all your fault--every
+bit of it;" and, flinging the scissors to the other end of the room, she
+threw herself into a chair, and burst into tears.
+
+Lucia's anguish of mind was almost more than she could bear. For at least
+three minutes she felt herself a criminal of the deepest dye; after the
+three minutes had elapsed, however, she began to reason, and called to
+mind the fact that she was failing as usual under her crisis.
+
+"This is being a coward again," she said to herself. "It is worse than to
+have said nothing. It is true that she will look more refined, now one
+can see a little of her forehead; and it is cowardly to be afraid to
+stand firm when I really think so. I--yes, I will say something to her."
+
+"Octavia," she began aloud, "I am sure you are making a mistake again."
+This as decidedly as possible, which was not very decidedly. "You--you
+look very much--nicer."
+
+"I look _ghastly_!" said Octavia, who began to feel rather absurd.
+
+"You do not. Your forehead--you have the prettiest forehead I ever saw,
+Octavia," said Lucia eagerly; "and your eyebrows are perfect. I--wish you
+would look at yourself again."
+
+Rather to her surprise, Octavia began to laugh under cover of her
+handkerchief: reaction had set in, and, though the laugh was a trifle
+hysterical, it was still a laugh. Next she gave her eyes a final little
+dab, and rose to go to the glass again. She looked at herself, touched up
+the short, waving fringe left on her forehead, and turned to Lucia, with
+a resigned expression.
+
+"Do you think that any one who was used to seeing it the other way
+would--would think I looked horrid?" she inquired anxiously.
+
+"They would think you prettier,--a great deal," Lucia answered earnestly.
+"Don't you know, Octavia, that nothing could be really unbecoming to you?
+You have that kind of face."
+
+For a few seconds Octavia seemed to lose herself in thought of a
+speculative nature.
+
+"Jack always said so," she remarked at length.
+
+"Jack!" repeated Lucia timidly.
+
+Octavia roused herself, and smiled with candid sweetness.
+
+"He is some one I knew in Nevada," she explained. "He worked in father's
+mine once."
+
+"You must have known him very well," suggested Lucia, somewhat awed.
+
+"I did," she replied calmly. "Very well."
+
+She tucked away her pocket-handkerchief in the jaunty pocket at the back
+of her basque, and returned to her chair. Then she turned again to Lucia.
+
+"Well," she said, "I think you have found out that you _were_ mistaken,
+haven't you, dear? Suppose you tell me of something else."
+
+Lucia colored.
+
+"No," she answered: "that is enough for to-day."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+PECULIAR TO NEVADA.
+
+
+Whether, or not, Lucia was right in accusing Octavia Bassett of being
+clever, and thinking a great deal, is a riddle which those who are
+interested in her must unravel as they read; but, whether the surmise was
+correct or incorrect, it seemed possible that she had thought a little
+after the interview. When Barold saw her next, he was struck by a slight
+but distinctly definable change he recognized in her dress and coiffure.
+Her pretty hair had a rather less "professional" appearance: he had the
+pleasure of observing, for the first time, how very white her forehead
+was, and how delicate the arch of her eyebrows; her dress had a novel air
+of simplicity, and the diamond rings were nowhere to be seen.
+
+"She's better dressed than usual," he said to himself. "And she's always
+well dressed,--rather too well dressed, fact is, for a place like this.
+This sort of thing is in better form, under the circumstances." It was
+so much "better form," and he so far approved of it, that he quite
+thawed, and was very amiable and very entertaining indeed.
+
+Octavia was entertaining too. She asked several most interesting
+questions.
+
+"Do you think," she inquired, "that it is bad taste to wear diamonds?"
+
+"My mother wears them--occasionally."
+
+"Have you any sisters?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Any cousins--as young as I am?"
+
+"Ya-as."
+
+"Do they wear them?"
+
+"I must admit," he replied, "that they don't. In the first place, you
+know, they haven't any; and, in the second, I am under the impression
+that Lady Beauchamp--their mamma, you know--wouldn't permit it if they
+had."
+
+"Wouldn't permit it!" said Octavia. "I suppose they always do as she
+tells them?"
+
+He smiled a little.
+
+"They would be very courageous young women if they didn't," he remarked.
+
+"What would she do if they tried it?" she inquired. "She couldn't beat
+them."
+
+"They will never try it," he answered dryly. "And though I have never
+seen her beat them, or heard their lamentations under chastisement, I
+should not like to say that Lady Beauchamp could not do any thing. She is
+a very determined person--for a gentlewoman."
+
+Octavia laughed.
+
+"You are joking," she said.
+
+"Lady Beauchamp is a serious subject for jokes," he responded. "My
+cousins think so, at least."
+
+"I wonder if she is as bad as Lady Theobald," Octavia reflected aloud.
+"She says I have no right to wear diamonds at all until I am married. But
+I don't mind Lady Theobald," she added, as a cheerful afterthought. "I am
+not fond enough of her to care about what she says."
+
+"Are you fond of any one?" Barold inquired, speaking with a languid air,
+but at the same time glancing at her with some slight interest from under
+his eyelids.
+
+"Lucia says I am," she returned, with the calmness of a young person who
+wished to regard the matter from an unembarrassed point of view. "Lucia
+says I am affectionate."
+
+"Ah!" deliberately. "Are you?"
+
+She turned, and looked at him serenely.
+
+"Should _you_ think so?" she asked.
+
+This was making such a personal matter of the question, that he did not
+exactly enjoy it. It was certainly not "good form" to pull a man up in
+such cool style.
+
+"Really," he replied, "I--ah--have had no opportunity of judging."
+
+He had not the slightest intention of being amusing, but to his infinite
+disgust he discovered as soon as he spoke that she was amused. She
+laughed outright, and evidently only checked herself because he looked so
+furious. In consideration for his feelings she assumed an air of mild but
+preternatural seriousness.
+
+"No," she remarked, "that is true: you haven't, of course."
+
+He was silent. He did not enjoy being amusing at all, and he made no
+pretence of appearing to submit to the indignity calmly.
+
+She bent forward a little.
+
+"Ah!" she exclaimed, "you are mad again--I mean, you are vexed. I am
+always vexing you."
+
+There was a hint of appeal in her voice, which rather pleased him; but he
+had no intention of relenting at once.
+
+"I confess I am at a loss to know why you laughed," he said.
+
+"Are you," she asked, "really?" letting her eyes rest upon him anxiously
+for a moment. Then she actually gave vent to a little sigh. "We look at
+things so differently, that's it," she said.
+
+"I suppose it is," he responded, still chillingly.
+
+In spite of this, she suddenly assumed a comparatively cheerful aspect. A
+happy thought occurred to her.
+
+"Lucia would beg your pardon," she said. "I am learning good manners from
+Lucia. Suppose I beg your pardon."
+
+"It is quite unnecessary," he replied.
+
+"Lucia wouldn't think so," she said. "And why shouldn't I be as
+well-behaved as Lucia? I beg your pardon."
+
+He felt rather absurd, and yet somewhat mollified. She had a way of
+looking at him, sometimes, when she had been unpleasant, which rather
+soothed him. In fact, he had found of late, a little to his private
+annoyance, that it was very easy for her either to soothe or disturb him.
+
+And now, just as Octavia had settled down into one of the prettiest and
+least difficult of her moods, there came a knock at the front door,
+which, being answered by Mary Anne, was found to announce the curate of
+St. James.
+
+Enter, consequently, the Rev. Arthur Poppleton,--blushing, a trifle
+timorous perhaps, but happy beyond measure to find himself in Miss
+Belinda's parlor again, with Miss Belinda's niece.
+
+Perhaps the least possible shade of his joyousness died out when he
+caught sight of Mr. Francis Barold, and certainly Mr. Francis Barold was
+not at all delighted to see him.
+
+"What does the fellow want?" that gentleman was saying inwardly. "What
+does he come simpering and turning pink here for? Why doesn't he go and
+see some of his old women, and read tracts to them? That's _his_
+business." Octavia's manner toward her visitor formed a fresh
+grievance for Barold. She treated the curate very well indeed. She
+seemed glad to see him, she was wholly at her ease with him, she made no
+trying remarks to him, she never stopped to fix her eyes upon him in
+that inexplicable style, and she did not laugh when there seemed nothing
+to laugh at. She was so gay and good-humored that the Rev. Arthur
+Poppleton beamed and flourished under her treatment, and forgot to
+change color, and even ventured to talk a good deal, and make divers
+quite presentable little jokes.
+
+"I should like to know," thought Barold, growing sulkier as the others
+grew merrier,--"I should like to know what she finds so interesting in
+him, and why she chooses to treat him better than she treats me; for she
+certainly does treat him better."
+
+It was hardly fair, however, that he should complain; for, at times, he
+was treated extremely well, and his intimacy with Octavia progressed
+quite rapidly. Perhaps, if the truth were told, it was always himself who
+was the first means of checking it, by some suddenly prudent instinct
+which led him to feel that perhaps he was in rather a delicate position,
+and had better not indulge in too much of a good thing. He had not been
+an eligible and unimpeachable desirable _parti_ for ten years without
+acquiring some of that discretion which is said to be the better part of
+valor. The matter-of-fact air with which Octavia accepted his attentions
+caused him to pull himself up sometimes. If he had been Brown, or Jones,
+or even Robinson, she could not have appeared to regard them as more
+entirely natural. When--he had gone so far, once or twice--he had deigned
+to make a more than usually agreeable speech to her, it was received with
+none of that charming sensitive tremor to which he was accustomed.
+Octavia neither blushed, nor dropped her eyes.
+
+It did not add to Barold's satisfaction to find her as cheerful and ready
+to be amused by a mild little curate, who blushed and stammered, and was
+neither brilliant, graceful, nor distinguished. Could not Octavia see the
+wide difference between the two? Regarding the matter in this light, and
+watching Octavia as she encouraged her visitor, and laughed at his jokes,
+and never once tripped him up by asking him a startling question, did
+not, as already has been said, improve Mr. Francis Barold's temper; and,
+by the time his visit was over, he had lapsed into his coldest and most
+haughty manner. As soon as Miss Belinda entered, and engaged Mr.
+Poppleton for a moment, he rose, and crossed the little room to Octavia's
+side.
+
+"I must bid you good-afternoon," he said.
+
+Octavia did not rise.
+
+"Sit down a minute, while aunt Belinda is talking about red-flannel
+nightcaps and lumbago," she said. "I wanted to ask you something. By the
+way, what _is_ lumbago?"
+
+"Is that what you wished to ask me?" he inquired stiffly.
+
+"No. I just thought of that. Have you ever had it? and what is it like?
+All the old people in Slowbridge have it, and they tell you all about it
+when you go to see them. Aunt Belinda says so. What I wanted to ask you
+was different"--
+
+"Possibly Miss Bassett might be able to tell you," he remarked.
+
+"About the lumbago? Well, perhaps she might. I'll ask her. Do you think
+it bad taste in _me_ to wear diamonds?"
+
+She said this with the most delightful seriousness, fixing her eyes upon
+him with her very prettiest look of candid appeal, as if it were the most
+natural thing in the world that she should apply to him for information.
+He felt himself faltering again. How white that bit of forehead was! How
+soft that blonde, waving fringe of hair! What a lovely shape her eyes
+were, and how large and clear as she raised them!
+
+"Why do you ask _me_?" he inquired.
+
+"Because I think you are an unprejudiced person. Lady Theobald is not. I
+have confidence in you. Tell me."
+
+There was a slight pause.
+
+"Really," he said, after it, "I can scarcely believe that my opinion can
+be of any value in your eyes. I am--can only tell you that it is hardly
+customary in--an--in England for young people to wear a profusion of
+ornament."
+
+"I wonder if I wear a profusion."
+
+"You don't need any," he condescended. "You are too young, and--all that
+sort of thing."
+
+She glanced down at her slim, unringed hands for a moment, her expression
+quite thoughtful.
+
+"Lucia and I almost quarrelled the other day," she said--"at least, I
+almost quarrelled. It isn't so nice to be told of things, after all. I
+must say I don't like it as much as I thought I should."
+
+He kept his seat longer than, he had intended; and, when he rose to go,
+the Rev. Arthur Poppleton was shaking hands with Miss Belinda, and so it
+fell out that they left the house together.
+
+"You know Miss Octavia Bassett well, I suppose," remarked Barold, with
+condescension, as they passed through the gate. "You clergymen are
+fortunate fellows."
+
+"I wish that others knew her as well, sir," said the little gentleman,
+kindling. "I wish they knew her--her generosity and kindness of heart and
+ready sympathy with misfortune!"
+
+"Ah!" commented Mr. Barold, twisting his mustache with somewhat of an
+incredulous air. This was not at all the sort of thing he had expected to
+hear. For his own part, it would not have occurred to him to suspect her
+of the possession of such desirable and orthodox qualities.
+
+"There are those who--misunderstand her," cried the curate, warming with
+his subject, "who misunderstand, and--yes, and apply harsh terms to her
+innocent gayety and freedom of speech: if they knew her as I do, they
+would cease to do so."
+
+"I should scarcely have thought"--began Barold.
+
+"There are many who scarcely think it,--if you will pardon my
+interrupting you," said the curate. "I think they would scarcely believe
+it if I felt at liberty to tell them, which I regret to say I do not. I
+am almost breaking my word in saying what I cannot help saying to
+yourself. The poor under my care are better off since she came, and there
+are some who have seen her more than once, though she did not go as a
+teacher or to reprove them for faults; and her way of doing what she did
+was new to them, and perhaps much less serious than they were accustomed
+to, and they liked it all the better."
+
+"Ah!" commented Barold again. "Flannel under-garments, and--that sort
+of thing."
+
+"No," with much spirit, "not at all, sir; but what, as I said, they liked
+much better. It is not often they meet a beautiful creature who comes
+among them with open hands, and the natural, ungrudging way of giving
+which she has. Sometimes they are at a loss to understand, as well as the
+rest. They have been used to what is narrower and more--more exacting."
+
+"They have been used to Lady Theobald," observed Barold, with a faint
+smile.
+
+"It would not become me to--to mention Lady Theobald in any disparaging
+manner," replied the curate: "but the best and most charitable among us
+do not always carry out our good intentions in the best way. I dare say
+Lady Theobald would consider Miss Octavia Bassett too readily influenced
+and too lavish."
+
+"She is as generous with her money as with her diamonds perhaps," said
+Barold. "Possibly the quality is peculiar to Nevada. We part here, Mr.
+Poppleton, I believe. Good-morning."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+LORD LANSDOWNE.
+
+
+One morning in the following week Mrs. Burnham attired herself in her
+second-best black silk, and, leaving the Misses Burnham practising
+diligently, turned her steps toward Oldclough Hall. Arriving there, she
+was ushered into the blue drawing-room by Dobson, in his character of
+footman; and in a few minutes Lucia appeared.
+
+When Mrs. Burnham saw her, she assumed a slight air of surprise.
+
+"Why, my dear," she said, as she shook hands, "I should scarcely have
+known you."
+
+And, though this was something of an exaggeration, there was some excuse
+for the exclamation. Lucia was looking very charming, and several changes
+might be noted in her attire and appearance. The ugly twist had
+disappeared from her delicate head; and in its place were soft, loose
+waves and light puffs; she had even ventured on allowing a few ringed
+locks to stray on to her forehead; her white morning-dress no longer wore
+the trade-mark of Miss Chickie, but had been remodelled by some one of
+more taste.
+
+"What a pretty gown, my dear!" said Mrs. Burnham, glancing at it
+curiously. "A Watteau plait down the back--isn't it a Watteau plait?--and
+little ruffles down the front, and pale pink bows. It is quite like some
+of Miss Octavia Bassett's dresses, only not so over-trimmed."
+
+"I do not think Octavia's dresses would seem over-trimmed if she wore
+them in London or Paris," said Lucia bravely. "It is only because we are
+so very quiet, and dress so little in Slowbridge, that they seem so."
+
+"And your hair!" remarked Mrs. Burnham. "You drew your idea of that from
+some style of hers, I suppose. Very becoming, indeed. Well, well! And how
+does Lady Theobald like all this, my dear?"
+
+"I am not sure that"--Lucia was beginning, when her ladyship interrupted
+her by entering.
+
+"My dear Lady Theobald," cried her visitor, rising, "I hope you are well.
+I have just been complimenting Lucia upon her pretty dress, and her new
+style of dressing her hair. Miss Octavia Bassett has been giving her the
+benefit of her experience, it appears. We have not been doing her
+justice. Who would have believed that she had come from Nevada to improve
+us?"
+
+"Miss Octavia Bassett," said my lady sonorously, "has come from Nevada to
+teach our young people a great many things,--new fashions in duty, and
+demeanor, and respect for their elders. Let us hope they will be
+benefited."
+
+"If you will excuse me, grandmamma," said Lucia, speaking in a soft,
+steady voice, "I will go and write the letters you wished written."
+
+"Go," said my lady with majesty; and, having bidden Mrs. Burnham
+good-morning, Lucia went.
+
+If Mrs. Burnham had expected any explanation of her ladyship's evident
+displeasure, she was doomed to disappointment. That excellent and
+rigorous gentlewoman had a stern sense of dignity, which forbade her
+condescending to the confidential weakness of mere ordinary mortals.
+Instead of referring to Lucia, she broached a more commonplace topic.
+
+"I hope your rheumatism does not threaten you again, Mrs. Burnham,"
+she remarked.
+
+"I am very well, thank you, my dear," said Mrs. Burnham; "so well, that I
+am thinking quite seriously of taking the dear girls to the garden-party,
+when it comes off."
+
+"To the garden-party!" repeated her ladyship. "May I ask who thinks of
+giving a garden-party in Slowbridge?"
+
+"It is no one in Slowbridge," replied this lady cheerfully. "Some one who
+lives a little out of Slowbridge,--Mr. Burmistone, my dear Lady Theobald,
+at his new place."
+
+"Mr. Burmistone!"
+
+"Yes, my dear; and a most charming affair it is to be, if we are to
+believe all we hear. Surely you have heard something of it from Mr.
+Barold."
+
+"Mr. Barold has not been to Oldclough for several days."
+
+"Then, he will tell you when he comes; for I suppose he has as much to do
+with it as Mr. Burmistone."
+
+"I have heard before," announced my lady, "of men of Mr. Burmistone's
+class securing the services of persons of established position in society
+when they wished to spend their money upon entertainments; but I should
+scarcely have imagined that Francis Barold would have allowed himself to
+be made a party to such a transaction."
+
+"But," put in Mrs. Burnham rather eagerly, "it appears that Mr.
+Burmistone is not such an obscure person, after all. He is an Oxford man,
+and came off with honors: he is quite a well-born man, and gives this
+entertainment in honor of his friend and relation, Lord Lansdowne."
+
+"Lord Lansdowne!" echoed her ladyship, sternly.
+
+"Son of the Marquis of Lauderdale, whose wife was Lady Honora Erroll."
+
+"Did Mr. Burmistone give you this information?" asked Lady Theobald with
+ironic calmness.
+
+Mrs. Burnham colored never so faintly.
+
+"I--that is to say--there is a sort of acquaintance between one of my
+maids and the butler at the Burmistone place; and, when the girl was
+doing Lydia's hair, she told her the story. Lord Lansdowne and his father
+are quite fond of Mr. Burmistone, it is said."
+
+"It seems rather singular to my mind that we should not have known of
+this before."
+
+"But how should we learn? We none of us know Lord Lansdowne, or even the
+marquis. I think he is only a second or third cousin. We are a
+little--just a little _set_ in Slowbridge, you know, my dear: at least, I
+have thought so sometimes lately."
+
+"I must confess," remarked my lady, "that _I_ have not regarded the
+matter in that light."
+
+"That is because you have a better right to--to be a little set than the
+rest of us," was the amiable response.
+
+Lady Theobald did not disclaim the privilege. She felt the sentiment an
+extremely correct one. But she was not very warm in her manner during the
+remainder of the call; and, incongruous as such a statement may appear,
+it must be confessed that she felt that Miss Octavia Bassett must have
+something to do with, these defections on all sides, and that
+garden-parties, and all such swervings from established Slowbridge
+custom, were the natural result of Nevada frivolity and freedom of
+manners. It may be that she felt remotely that even Lord Lansdowne and
+the Marquis of Lauderdale were to be referred to the same reprehensible
+cause, and that, but for Octavia Bassett, Mr. Burmistone would not have
+been educated at Oxford and have come off with honors, and have turned
+out to be related to respectable people, but would have remained in
+appropriate obscurity.
+
+"I suppose," she said afterward to Lucia, "that your friend Miss Octavia
+Bassett is in Mr. Burmistone's confidence, if no one else has been
+permitted to have that honor. I have no doubt _she_ has known of this
+approaching entertainment for some weeks."
+
+"I do not know, grandmamma," replied Lucia, putting her letters together,
+and gaining color as she bent over them. She was wondering, with inward
+trepidation, what her ladyship would say if she knew the whole truth,--if
+she knew that it was her granddaughter, and not Octavia Bassett, who
+enjoyed Mr. Burmistone's confidence.
+
+"Ah!" she thought, "how could I ever dare to tell her?"
+
+The same day Francis Barold sauntered up to pay them a visit; and then,
+as Mrs. Burnham had prophesied, Lady Theobald heard all she wished to
+hear, and, indeed, a great deal more.
+
+"What is this I am told of Mr. Burmistone, Francis?" she inquired.
+"That he intends to give a garden-party, and that Lord Lansdowne is to
+be one of the guests, and that he has caused it to be circulated that
+they are cousins."
+
+"That Lansdowne has caused it to be circulated--or Burmistone?"
+
+"It is scarcely likely that Lord Lansdowne"--
+
+"Beg pardon," he interrupted, fixing his single glass dexterously in his
+right eye, and gazing at her ladyship through it. "Can't see why
+Lansdowne should object. Fact is, he is a great deal fonder of Burmistone
+than relations usually are of each other. Now, I often find that kind of
+thing a bore; but Lansdowne doesn't seem to. They were at school
+together, it seems, and at Oxford too; and Burmistone is supposed to have
+behaved pretty well towards Lansdowne at one time, when he was rather a
+wild fellow--so the father and mother say. As to Burmistone 'causing it
+to be circulated,' that sort of thing is rather absurd. The man isn't a
+cad, you know."
+
+"Pray don't say 'you know,' Francis," said her ladyship. "I know very
+little but what I have chanced to see, and I must confess I have not
+been prepossessed in Mr. Burmistone's favor. Why did he not choose to
+inform us"--
+
+"That he was Lord Lansdowne's second cousin, and knew the Marquis of
+Lauderdale, grandmamma?" broke in Lucia, with very pretty spirit. "Would
+that have prepossessed you in his favor? Would you have forgiven him for
+building the mills, on Lord Lansdowne's account? I--I wish I was related
+to a marquis," which was very bold indeed.
+
+"May I ask," said her ladyship, in her most monumental manner, "when
+_you_ became Mr. Burmistone's champion?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+"YOU HAVE MADE IT LIVELIER."
+
+
+When she had become Mr. Burmistone's champion, indeed! She could scarcely
+have told when, unless, perhaps, she had fixed the date at the first time
+she had heard his name introduced at a high tea, with every politely
+opprobrious epithet affixed. She had defended him in her own mind then,
+and felt sure that he deserved very little that was said against him, and
+very likely nothing at all. And, the first time she had seen and spoken
+to him, she had been convinced that she had not made a mistake, and that
+he had been treated with cruel injustice. How kind he was, how manly, how
+clever, and how well he bore himself under the popular adverse criticism!
+She only wondered that anybody could be so blind and stupid and wilful as
+to assail him.
+
+And if this had been the case in those early days, imagine what she felt
+now, when--ah, well!--when her friendship had had time and opportunity to
+become a much deeper sentiment. Must it be confessed that she had seen
+Mr. Burmistone even oftener than Octavia and Miss Belinda knew of? Of
+course it had all been quite accidental; but it had happened that now and
+then, when she had been taking a quiet walk in the lanes about Oldclough,
+she had encountered a gentleman, who had dismounted, and led his horse by
+the bridle, as he sauntered by her side. She had always been very timid
+at such times, and had felt rather like a criminal; but Mr. Burmistone
+had not been timid at all, and would, indeed, as soon have met Lady
+Theobald as not, for which courage his companion admired him more than
+ever. It was not very long before to be with this hero re-assured her,
+and made her feel stronger and more self-reliant. She was never afraid to
+open her soft little heart to him, and show him innocently all its
+goodness, and ignorance of worldliness. She warmed and brightened under
+his kindly influence, and was often surprised in secret at her own simple
+readiness of wit and speech.
+
+"It is odd that I am such a different girl when--when I am with you," she
+said to him one day. "I even make little jokes. I never should think of
+making even the tiniest joke before grandmamma. Somehow, she never seems
+quite to understand jokes. She never laughs at them. You always laugh,
+and I am sure it is very kind of you to encourage me so; but you must not
+encourage me too much, or I might forget, and make a little joke at
+dinner, and I think, if I did, she would choke over her soup."
+
+Perhaps, when she dressed her hair, and adorned herself with pale pink
+bows and like appurtenances, this artful young person had privately in
+mind other beholders than Mrs. Burnham, and other commendation than that
+to be bestowed by that most excellent matron.
+
+"Do you mind my telling you that you have put on an enchanted garment?"
+said Mr. Burmistone, the first time they met when she wore one of the
+old-new gowns. "I thought I knew before how"--
+
+"I don't mind it at all," said Lucia, blushing brilliantly. "I rather
+like it. It rewards me for my industry. My hair is dressed in a new way.
+I hope you like that too. Grandmamma does not."
+
+It had been Lady Theobald's habit to treat Lucia severely from a sense of
+duty. Her manner toward her had always rather the tone of implying that
+she was naturally at fault, and yet her ladyship could not have told
+wherein she wished the girl changed. In the good old school in which my
+lady had been trained, it was customary to regard young people as weak,
+foolish, and, if left to their own desires, frequently sinful. Lucia had
+not been left to her own desires. She had been taught to view herself as
+rather a bad case, and to feel that she was far from being what her
+relatives had a right to expect. To be thrown with a person who did not
+find her silly or dull or commonplace, was a new experience.
+
+"If I had been clever," Lucia said once to Mr. Burmistone,--"if I had
+been clever, perhaps grandmamma would have been more satisfied with me. I
+have often wished I had been clever."
+
+"If you had been a boy," replied Mr. Burmistone rather grimly, "and had
+squandered her money, and run into debt, and bullied her, you would have
+been her idol, and she would have pinched and starved herself to supply
+your highness's extravagance."
+
+When the garden-party rumor began to take definite form, and there was no
+doubt as to Mr. Burmistone's intentions, a discussion arose at once, and
+went on in every genteel parlor. Would Lady Theobald allow Lucia to go?
+and, if she did not allow her, would not such a course appear very
+pointed indeed? It was universally decided that it would appear pointed,
+but that Lady Theobald would not mind that in the least, and perhaps
+would rather enjoy it than otherwise; and it was thought Lucia would not
+go. And it is very likely that Lucia would have remained at home, if it
+had not been for the influence of Mr. Francis Barold.
+
+Making a call at Oldclough, he found his august relative in a very
+majestic mood, and she applied to him again for information.
+
+"Perhaps," she said, "you may be able to tell me whether it is true that
+Belinda Bassett--_Belinda Bassett_," with emphasis, "has been invited by
+Mr. Burmistone to assist him to receive his guests."
+
+"Yes, it is true," was the reply: "I think I advised it myself.
+Burmistone is fond of her. They are great friends. Man needs a woman at
+such times."
+
+"And he chose Belinda Bassett?"
+
+"In the first place, he is on friendly terms with her, as I said before,"
+replied Barold; "in the second, she's just what he wants--well-bred,
+kind-hearted, not likely to make rows, _et caetera_." There was a slight
+pause before he finished, adding quietly, "He's not the man to submit to
+being refused--Burmistone."
+
+Lady Theobald did not reply, or raise her eyes from her work: she knew he
+was looking at her with calm fixedness, through the glass he held in its
+place so cleverly; and she detested this more than any thing else,
+perhaps because she was invariably quelled by it, and found she had
+nothing to say.
+
+He did not address her again immediately, but turned to Lucia, dropping
+the eyeglass, and resuming his normal condition.
+
+"You will go, of course?" he said.
+
+Lucia glanced across at my lady.
+
+"I--do not know. Grandmamma"--
+
+"Oh!" interposed Barold, "you must go. There is no reason for your
+refusing the invitation, unless you wish to imply something
+unpleasant--which is, of course, out of the question."
+
+"But there may be reasons"--began her ladyship.
+
+"Burmistone is my friend," put in Barold, in his coolest tone; "and I am
+your relative, which would make my position in his house a delicate one,
+if he has offended you."
+
+When Lucia saw Octavia again, she was able to tell her that they had
+received invitations to the _fête_, and that Lady Theobald had accepted
+them.
+
+"She has not spoken a word to me about it, but she has accepted them,"
+said Lucia. "I don't quite understand her lately, Octavia. She must be
+very fond of Francis Barold. He never gives way to her in the least, and
+she always seems to submit to him. I know she would not have let me go,
+if he had not insisted on it, in that taking-it-for-granted way of his."
+
+Naturally Mr. Burmistone's _fête_ caused great excitement. Miss Chickie
+was never so busy in her life, and there were rumors that her feelings
+had been outraged by the discovery that Mrs. Burnham had sent to
+Harriford for costumes for her daughters.
+
+"Slowbridge is changing, mem," said Miss Chickie. with brilliant sarcasm.
+"Our ladies is led in their fashions by a Nevada young person. We're
+improving most rapid--more rapid than I'd ever have dared to hope. Do you
+prefer a frill, or a flounce, mem?"
+
+Octavia was in great good spirits at the prospect of the gayeties in
+question. She had been in remarkably good spirits for some weeks. She had
+received letters from Nevada, containing good news she said. Shares had
+gone up again; and her father had almost settled his affairs, and it
+would not be long before he would come to England. She looked so
+exhilarated over the matter, that Lucia felt a little aggrieved. "Will
+you be so glad to leave us, Octavia?" she asked. "We shall not be so glad
+to let you go. We have grown very fond of you."
+
+"I shall be sorry to leave you, and aunt Belinda is going with us. You
+don't expect me to be very fond of Slowbridge, do you, and to be sorry I
+can't take Mrs. Burnham--and the rest?"
+
+Barold was present when she made this speech, and it rather rankled.
+
+"Am I one of 'the rest'?" he inquired, the first time he found himself
+alone with her. He was sufficiently piqued to forget his usual _hauteur_
+and discretion.
+
+"Would you like to be?" she said.
+
+"Oh! Very much--very much--naturally," he replied severely.
+
+They were standing near a rose-bush in the garden; and she plucked a
+rose, and regarded it with deep interest.
+
+"Well," she said, next, "I must say I think I shouldn't have had such a
+good time if you hadn't been here. You have made it livelier."
+
+"Tha-anks," he remarked. "You are most kind."
+
+"Oh!" she answered, "it's true. If it wasn't, I shouldn't say it. You and
+Mr. Burmistone and Mr. Poppleton have certainly made it livelier."
+
+He went home in such a bad humor that his host, who was rather happier
+than usual, commented upon his grave aspect at dinner.
+
+"You look as if you had heard ill news, old fellow," he said. "What's
+up?"
+
+"Oh, nothing!" he was answered sardonically; "nothing whatever--unless
+that I have been rather snubbed by a young lady from Nevada."
+
+"Ah!" with great seriousness: "that's rather cool, isn't it?"
+
+"It's her little way," said Barold. "It seems to be one of the customs
+of Nevada."
+
+In fact, he was very savage indeed. He felt that he had condescended a
+good deal lately. He seldom bestowed his time on women; and when he did
+so, at rare intervals, he chose those who would do the most honor to his
+taste at the least cost of trouble. And he was obliged to confess to
+himself that he had broken his rule in this case. Upon analyzing his
+motives and necessities, he found, that, after all, he must have extended
+his visit simply because he chose to see more of this young woman from
+Nevada, and that really, upon the whole, he had borne a good deal from
+her. Sometimes he had been much pleased with her, and very well
+entertained; but often enough--in fact, rather too often--she had made
+him exceedingly uncomfortable. Her manners were not what he was
+accustomed to: she did not consider that all men were not to be regarded
+from the same point of view. Perhaps he did not put into definite words
+the noble and patriotic sentiment that an Englishman was not to be
+regarded from the same point of view as an American, and that, though all
+this sort of thing might do with fellows in New York, it was scarcely
+what an Englishman would stand. Perhaps, as I say, he had not put this
+sentiment into words; but it is quite certain that it had been uppermost
+in his mind upon more occasions than one. As he thought their
+acquaintance over, this evening, he was rather severe upon Octavia. He
+even was roused so far as to condescend to talk her over with Burmistone.
+
+"If she had been well brought up," he said, "she would have been a
+different creature."
+
+"Very different, I have no doubt," said Burmistone thoughtfully. "When
+you say well brought up, by the way, do you mean brought up like your
+cousin, Miss Gaston?"
+
+"There is a medium," said Barold loftily. "I regret to say Lady Theobald
+has not hit upon it."
+
+"Well, as you say," commented Mr. Burmistone, "I suppose there is a
+medium."
+
+"A charming wife she would make, for a man with a position to maintain,"
+remarked Barold, with a short and somewhat savage laugh.
+
+"Octavia Bassett?" queried Burmistone. "That's true. But I am afraid she
+wouldn't enjoy it--if you are supposing the man to be an Englishman,
+brought up in the regulation groove."
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Barold impatiently: "I was not looking at it from her
+point of view, but from his."
+
+Mr. Burmistone slipped his hands in his pockets, and jingled his keys
+slightly, as he did once before in an earlier part of this narrative.
+
+"Ah! from his," he repeated. "Not from hers. His point of view would
+differ from hers--naturally."
+
+Barold flashed a little, and took his cigar from his mouth to knock off
+the ashes.
+
+"A man is not necessarily a snob," he said, "because he is cool enough
+not to lose his head where a woman is concerned. You can't marry a woman
+who will make mistakes, and attract universal attention by her conduct."
+
+"Has it struck you that Octavia Bassett would?" inquired Burmistone.
+
+"She would do as she chose," said Barold petulantly. "She would do things
+which were unusual; but I was not referring to her in particular. Why
+should I?"
+
+"Ah!" said Burmistone. "I only thought of her because it did not strike
+me that one would ever feel she had exactly blundered. She is not easily
+embarrassed. There is a _sang-froid_ about her which carries things off."
+
+"Ah!" deigned Barold: "she has _sang-froid_ enough and to spare."
+
+He was silent for some time afterward, and sat smoking later than usual.
+When he was about to leave the room for the night, he made an
+announcement for which his host was not altogether prepared.
+
+"When the _fête_ is over, my dear fellow," he said, "I must go back to
+London, and I shall be deucedly sorry to do it."
+
+"Look here!" said Burmistone, "that's a new idea, isn't it?"
+
+"No, an old one; but I have been putting the thing off from day to day.
+By Jove! I did not think it likely that I should put it off, the day I
+landed here."
+
+And he laughed rather uneasily.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+"MAY I GO?"
+
+
+The very day after this, Octavia opened the fourth trunk. She had had it
+brought down from the garret, when there came a summons on the door, and
+Lucia Gaston appeared.
+
+Lucia was very pale; and her large, soft eyes wore a decidedly frightened
+look. She seemed to have walked fast, and was out of breath. Evidently
+something had happened.
+
+"Octavia," she said, "Mr. Dugald Binnie is at Oldclough."
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+"He is my grand-uncle," explained Lucia tremulously. "He has a great deal
+of money. Grandmamma"--She stopped short, and colored, and drew her
+slight figure up. "I do not quite understand grandmamma, Octavia," she
+said. "Last night she came to my room to talk to me; and this morning she
+came again, and--oh!" she broke out indignantly, "how could she speak to
+me in such a manner!"
+
+"What did she say?" inquired Octavia.
+
+"She said a great many things," with great spirit. "It took her a long
+time to say them, and I do not wonder at it. It would have taken me a
+hundred years, if I had been in her place. I--I was wrong to say I did
+not understand her: I did--before she had finished."
+
+"What did you understand?"
+
+"She was afraid to tell me in plain words.--I never saw her afraid
+before, but she was afraid. She has been arranging my future for me, and
+it does not occur to her that I dare object. That is because she knows I
+am a coward, and despises me for it--and it is what I deserve. If I make
+the marriage she chooses, she thinks Mr. Binnie will leave me his money.
+I am to run after a man who does not care for me, and make myself
+attractive, in the hope that he will condescend to marry me because Mr.
+Binnie may leave me his money. Do you wonder that it took even Lady
+Theobald a long time to say that?"
+
+"Well," remarked Octavia, "you won't do it, I suppose. I wouldn't worry.
+She wants you to marry Mr. Barold, I suppose."
+
+Lucia started.
+
+"How did you guess?" she exclaimed.
+
+"Oh! I always knew it. I didn't guess." And she smiled ever so faintly.
+"That is one of the reasons why she loathes me so," she added.
+
+Lucia thought deeply for a moment: she recognized, all at once, several
+things she had been mystified by before.
+
+"Oh, it is! It is!" she said. "And she has thought of it all the time,
+when I never suspected her."
+
+Octavia smiled a little again. Lucia sat thinking, her hands clasped
+tightly.
+
+"I am glad I came here," she said, at length. "I _am_ angry now, and I
+see things more clearly. If she had only thought of it because Mr. Binnie
+came, I could have forgiven her more easily; but she has been making
+coarse plans all the time, and treating me with contempt. Octavia," she
+added, turning upon her, with flushing cheeks and sparkling eyes, "I
+think that, for the first time in my life, I am in a passion,--a real
+passion. I think I shall never be afraid of her any more." Her delicate
+nostrils were dilated, she held her head up, her breath came fast. There
+was a hint of exultation in her tone. "Yes," she said, "I am in a
+passion. And I am not afraid of her at all. I will go home and tell her
+what I think."
+
+And it is quite probable that she would have done so, but for a trifling
+incident which occurred before she reached her ladyship.
+
+She walked very fast, after she left the house. She wanted to reach
+Oldclough before one whit of her anger cooled down; though, somehow, she
+felt quite sure, that, even when her anger died out, her courage would
+not take flight with it. Mr. Dugald Binnie had not proved to be a very
+fascinating person. He was an acrid, dictatorial old man: he contradicted
+Lady Theobald flatly every five minutes, and bullied his man-servant. But
+it was not against him that Lucia's indignation was aroused. She felt
+that Lady Theobald was quite capable of suggesting to him that Francis
+Barold would be a good match for her; and, if she had done so, it was
+scarcely his fault if he had accepted the idea. She understood now why
+she had been allowed to visit Octavia, and why divers other things had
+happened. She had been sent to walk with Francis Barold; he had been
+almost reproached when he had not called; perhaps her ladyship had been
+good enough to suggest to him that it was his duty to further her plans.
+She was as capable of that as of any thing else which would assist her to
+gain her point. The girl's cheeks grew hotter and hotter, her eyes
+brighter, at every step, because every step brought some new thought: her
+hands trembled, and her heart beat.
+
+"I shall never be afraid of her again," she said, as she turned the
+corner into the road. "Never! never!"
+
+And at that very moment a gentleman stepped out of the wood at her right,
+and stopped before her.
+
+She started back, with a cry.
+
+"Mr. Burmistone!" she said: "Mr. Burmistone!"
+
+She wondered if he had heard her last words: she fancied he had. He took
+hold of her shaking little hand, and looked down at her excited face.
+
+"I am glad I waited for you," he said, in the quietest possible tone.
+"Something is the matter."
+
+She knew there would be no use in trying to conceal the truth, and she
+was not in the mood to make the effort. She scarcely knew herself.
+
+She gave quite a fierce little laugh.
+
+"I am angry!" she said. "You have never seen me angry before. I am on my
+way to my--to Lady Theobald."
+
+He held her hand as calmly as before. He understood a great deal more
+than she could have imagined.
+
+"What are you going to say to her?" he asked. She laughed again.
+
+"I am going to ask her what she means. I am going to tell her she has
+made a mistake. I am going to prove to her that I am not such a coward,
+after all. I am going to tell her that I dare disobey her,--_that_ is
+what I am going to say to her," she concluded decisively.
+
+He held her hand rather closer.
+
+"Let us take a stroll in the copse, and talk it over," he said. "It is
+deliciously cool there."
+
+"I don't want to be cool," she said. But he drew her gently with him; and
+a few steps took them into the shade of the young oaks and pines, and
+there he paused.
+
+"She has made you very angry?" he said.
+
+And then, almost before she knew what she was doing, she was pouring
+forth the whole of her story, even more of it than she had told Octavia.
+She had not at all intended to do it; but she did it, nevertheless.
+
+"I am to marry Mr. Francis Barold, if he will take me," she said, with a
+bitter little smile,--"Mr. Francis Barold, who is so much in love with
+me, as you know. His mother approves of the match, and sent him here to
+make love to me, which he has done, as you have seen. I have no money of
+my own; but, if I make a marriage which pleases him, Dugald Binnie will
+probably leave me his--which it is thought will be an inducement to my
+cousin, who needs one. If I marry him, or rather he marries me, Lady
+Theobald thinks Mr. Binnie will be pleased. It does not even matter
+whether Francis is pleased or not, and of course I am out of the
+question; but it is hoped that it will please Mr. Binnie. The two ladies
+have talked it over, and decided the matter. I dare say they have offered
+me to Francis, who has very likely refused me, though perhaps he may be
+persuaded to relent in time,--if I am very humble, and he is shown the
+advantage of having Mr. Binnie's money added to his own,--but I have no
+doubt I shall have to be very humble indeed. That is what I learned from
+Lady Theobald last night, and it is what I am going to talk to her about.
+Is it enough to make one angry, do you think? Is it enough?"
+
+He did not tell her whether he thought it enough, or not. He looked at
+her with steady eyes.
+
+"Lucia," he said, "I wish you would let me go and talk with Lady
+Theobald."
+
+"You?" she said with a little start.
+
+"Yes," he answered. "Let me go to her. Let me tell her, that, instead of
+marrying Francis Barold, you will marry _me_. If you will say yes to
+that, I think I can promise that you need never be afraid of her any
+more." The fierce color died out of her cheeks, and the tears rushed to
+her eyes. She raised her face with a pathetic look.
+
+"Oh!" she whispered, "you must be very sorry for me. I think you have
+been sorry for me from the first."
+
+"I am desperately in love with you," he answered, in his quietest way. "I
+have been desperately in love with you from the first. May I go?"
+
+She looked at him for a moment, incredulously. Then she faltered,--
+
+"Yes."
+
+She still looked up at him; and then, in spite of her happiness, or
+perhaps because of it, she suddenly began to cry softly, and forgot she
+had been angry at all, as he took her into his strong, kind arms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE GARDEN-PARTY.
+
+
+The morning of the garden-party arose bright and clear, and Slowbridge
+awakened in a great state of excitement. Miss Chickie, having worked
+until midnight that all her orders might be completed, was so overpowered
+by her labors as to have to take her tea and toast in bed.
+
+At Oldclough varied sentiments prevailed. Lady Theobald's manner was
+chiefly distinguished by an implacable rigidity. She had chosen, as an
+appropriate festal costume, a funereal-black _moire antique_, enlivened
+by massive fringes and ornaments of jet; her jewelry being chains and
+manacles of the latter, which rattled as she moved, with a sound somewhat
+suggestive of bones.
+
+Mr. Dugald Binnie, who had received an invitation, had as yet amiably
+forborne to say whether he would accept it, or not. He had been out when
+Mr. Burmistone called, and had not seen him.
+
+When Lady Theobald descended to breakfast, she found him growling over
+his newspaper; and he glanced up at her with a polite scowl.
+
+"Going to a funeral?" he demanded.
+
+"I accompany my granddaughter to this--this entertainment," her ladyship
+responded. "It is scarcely a joyous occasion, to my mind."
+
+"No need to dress yourself like that, if it isn't," ejaculated Mr.
+Binnie. "Why don't you stay at home, if you don't want to go? Man's all
+right, isn't he? Once knew a man by the name of Burmistone, myself. One
+of the few decent fellows I've met. If I were sure this was the same man,
+I'd go myself. When I find a fellow who's neither knave nor fool, I stick
+to him. Believe I'll send to find out. Where's Lucia?"
+
+What his opinion of Lucia was, it was difficult to discover. He had an
+agreeable habit of staring at her over the top of his paper, and over his
+dinner. The only time he had made any comment upon her, was the first
+time he saw her in the dress she had copied from Octavia's. "Nice gown
+that," he blurted out: "didn't get it here, I'll wager."
+
+"It's an old dress I remodelled," answered Lucia somewhat alarmed. "I
+made it myself."
+
+"Doesn't look like it," he said gruffly.
+
+Lucia had touched up another dress, and was very happy in the prospect of
+wearing it at the garden-party.
+
+"Don't call on grandmamma until after Wednesday," she had said to Mr.
+Burmistone: "perhaps she wouldn't let me go. She will be very angry,
+I am sure."
+
+"And you are not afraid?"
+
+"No," she answered: "I am not afraid at all. I shall not be afraid
+again."
+
+In fact, she had perfectly confounded her ladyship by her demeanor. She
+bore her fiercest glance without quailing in the least, or making any
+effort to evade it: under her most scathing comments she was composed and
+unmoved. On the first occasion of my lady's referring to her plans for
+her future, she received a blow which fairly stunned her. The girl rose
+from her chair, and looked her straight in the face unflinchingly, and
+with a suggestion of _hauteur_ not easy to confront.
+
+"I beg you will not speak to me of that again," she said: "I will not
+listen." And turning about, she walked out of the room.
+
+"This," her ladyship had said in sepulchral tones, when she recovered her
+breath, "this is one of the results of Miss Octavia Bassett." And nothing
+more had been said on the subject since.
+
+No one in Slowbridge was in more brilliant spirits than Octavia herself
+on the morning of the _fête_. Before breakfast Miss Belinda was startled
+by the arrival of another telegram, which ran as follows:--
+
+"Arrived to-day, per 'Russia.' Be with you tomorrow evening. Friend with
+me.
+
+"MARTIN BASSETT."
+
+On reading this communication, Miss Belinda burst into floods of
+delighted tears.
+
+"Dear, dear Martin," she wept; "to think that we should meet again! _Why_
+didn't he let us know he was on the way? I should have been so anxious
+that I should not have slept at all."
+
+"Well," remarked Octavia, "I suppose that would have been an advantage."
+
+Suddenly she approached Miss Belinda, kissed her, and disappeared out of
+the room as if by magic, not returning for a quarter of an hour, looking
+rather soft and moist and brilliant about the eyes when she did return.
+
+Octavia was a marked figure upon the grounds at that garden-party.
+
+"Another dress, my dear," remarked Mrs. Burnham. "And what a charming
+color she has, I declare! She is usually paler. Perhaps we owe this to
+Lord Lansdowne."
+
+"Her dress is becoming, at all events," privately remarked Miss Lydia
+Burnham, whose tastes had not been consulted about her own.
+
+"It is she who is becoming," said her sister: "it is not the dress so
+much, though her clothes always have a _look_, some way. She's prettier
+than ever to-day, and is enjoying herself."
+
+She was enjoying herself. Mr. Francis Barold observed it rather gloomily
+as he stood apart. She was enjoying herself so much, that she did not
+seem to notice that he had avoided her, instead of going up to claim her
+attention. Half a dozen men were standing about her, and making
+themselves agreeable; and she was apparently quite equal to the
+emergencies of the occasion. The young men from Broadoaks had at once
+attached themselves to her train.
+
+"I say, Barold," they had said to him, "why didn't you tell us about
+this? Jolly good fellow you are, to come mooning here for a couple of
+months, and keep it all to yourself."
+
+And then had come Lord Lansdowne, who, in crossing the lawn to shake
+hands with his host, had been observed to keep his eye fixed upon one
+particular point.
+
+"Burmistone," he said, after having spoken his first words, "who is that
+tall girl in white?"
+
+And in ten minutes Lady Theobald, Mrs. Burnham, Mr. Barold, and divers
+others too numerous to mention, saw him standing at Octavia's side,
+evidently with no intention of leaving it.
+
+Not long after this Francis Barold found his way to Miss Belinda, who was
+very busy and rather nervous.
+
+"Your niece is evidently enjoying herself," he remarked.
+
+"Octavia is most happy to-day," answered Miss Belinda. "Her father will
+reach Slowbridge this evening. She has been looking forward to his coming
+with great anxiety."
+
+"Ah!" commented Barold.
+
+"Very few people understand Octavia," said Miss Belinda. "I'm not sure
+that I follow all her moods myself. She is more affectionate than people
+fancy. She--she has very pretty ways. I am very fond of her. She is not
+as frivolous as she appears to those who don't know her well."
+
+Barold stood gnawing his mustache, and made no reply. He was not very
+comfortable. He felt himself ill-used by Fate, and rather wished he had
+returned to London from Broadoaks, instead of loitering in Slowbridge. He
+had amused himself at first, but in time he had been surprised to find
+his amusement lose something of its zest. He glowered across the lawn at
+the group under a certain beech-tree; and, as he did so, Octavia turned
+her face a little and saw him. She stood waving her fan slowly, and
+smiling at him in a calm way, which reminded him very much of the time he
+had first caught sight of her at Lady Theobald's high tea.
+
+He condescended to saunter over the grass to where she stood. Once there,
+he proceeded to make himself as disagreeable as possible, in a silent and
+lofty way. He felt it only due to himself that he should. He did not
+approve at all of the manner in which Lansdowne kept by her.
+
+"It's deucedly bad form on his part," he said mentally. "What does he
+mean by it?"
+
+Octavia, on the contrary, did not ask what he meant by it. She chose to
+seem rather well entertained, and did not notice that she was being
+frowned down. There was no reason why she should not find Lord Lansdowne
+entertaining: he was an agreeable young fellow, with an inexhaustible
+fund of good spirits, and no nonsense about him.
+
+He was fond of all pleasant novelty, and Octavia was a pleasant novelty.
+He had been thinking of paying a visit to America; and he asked
+innumerable questions concerning that country, all of which Octavia
+answered.
+
+"I know half a dozen fellows who have been there," he said. "And they all
+enjoyed it tremendously."
+
+"If you go to Nevada, you must visit the mines at Bloody Gulch," she
+said.
+
+"Where?" he ejaculated. "I say, what a name! Don't deride my youth and
+ignorance, Miss Bassett."
+
+"You can call it L'Argentville, if you would rather," she replied.
+
+"I would rather try the other, thank you," he laughed. "It has a more
+hilarious sound. Will they despise me at Bloody Gulch, Miss Bassett? I
+never killed a man in my life."
+
+Barold turned, and walked away, angry, and more melancholy than he could
+have believed.
+
+"It is time I went back to London," he chose to put it. "The place begins
+to be deucedly dull."
+
+"Mr. Francis Barold seems rather out of spirits," said Mrs. Burnham to
+Lady Theobald. "Lord Lansdowne interferes with his pleasure."
+
+"I had not observed it," answered her ladyship. "And it is scarcely
+likely that Mr. Francis Barold would permit his pleasure to be interfered
+with, even by the son of the Marquis of Lauderdale."
+
+But she glared at Barold as he passed, and beckoned to him.
+
+"Where is Lucia?" she demanded.--
+
+"I saw her with Burmistone half an hour ago," he answered coldly. "Have
+you any message for my mother? I shall return to London to-morrow,
+leaving here early."
+
+She turned quite pale. She had not counted upon this at all, and it was
+extremely inopportune.
+
+"What has happened?" she asked rigidly.
+
+He looked slightly surprised.
+
+"Nothing whatever," he replied. "I have remained here longer than I
+intended."
+
+She began to move the manacles on her right wrist. He made not the
+smallest profession of reluctance to go. She said, at last, "If you will
+find Lucia, you will oblige me." She was almost uncivil to Miss Pilcher,
+who chanced to join her after he was gone. She had not the slightest
+intention of allowing her plans to be frustrated, and was only roused to
+fresh obstinacy by encountering indifference on one side and rebellion on
+the other. She had not brought Lucia up under her own eye for nothing.
+She had been disturbed of late, but by no means considered herself
+baffled. With the assistance of Mr. Dugald Binnie, she could certainly
+subdue Lucia, though Mr. Dugald Binnie had been of no great help so far.
+She would do her duty unflinchingly. In fact, she chose to persuade
+herself, that, if Lucia was brought to a proper frame of mind, there
+could be no real trouble with Francis Barold.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+"SOMEBODY ELSE."
+
+
+But Barold did not make any very ardent search for Lucia. He stopped to
+watch a game of lawn-tennis, in which Octavia and Lord Lansdowne had
+joined, and finally forgot Lady Theobald's errand altogether.
+
+For some time Octavia did not see him. She was playing with great spirit,
+and Lord Lansdowne was following her delightedly.
+
+Finally a chance of the game bringing her to him, she turned suddenly,
+and found Barold's eyes fixed upon her.
+
+"How long have you been there?" she asked.
+
+"Some time," he answered. "When you are at liberty, I wish to speak to
+you."
+
+"Do you?" she said.
+
+She seemed a little unprepared for the repressed energy of his manner,
+which, he strove to cover by a greater amount of coldness than usual.
+
+"Well," she said, after thinking a moment, "the game will soon be ended.
+I am going through the conservatories with Lord Lansdowne in course of
+time; but I dare say he can wait."
+
+She went back, and finished her game, apparently enjoying it as much as
+ever. When it was over, Barold made his way to her.
+
+He had resented her remaining oblivious of his presence when he stood
+near her, and he had resented her enjoyment of her surroundings; and now,
+as he led her away, leaving Lord Lansdowne rather disconsolate, he
+resented the fact that she did not seem nervous, or at all impressed by
+his silence.
+
+"What do you want to say to me?" she asked. "Let us go and sit down in
+one of the arbors. I believe I am a little tired--not that I mind it,
+though. I've been having a lovely time."
+
+Then she began to talk about Lord Lansdowne.
+
+"I like him ever so much," she said. "Do you think he will really go to
+America? I wish he would; but if he does, I hope it won't be for a year
+or so--I mean, until we go back from Europe. Still, it's rather uncertain
+when we _shall_ go back. Did I tell you I had persuaded aunt Belinda to
+travel with us? She's horribly frightened, but I mean to make her go.
+She'll get over being frightened after a little while."
+
+Suddenly she turned, and looked at him.
+
+"Why don't you say something?" she demanded. "What's the matter?"
+
+"It is not necessary for me to say any thing."
+
+She laughed.
+
+"Do you mean because I am saying every thing myself? Well, I suppose I
+am. I am--awfully happy to-day, and can't help talking. It seems to make
+the time go."
+
+Her face had lighted up curiously. There was a delighted excitement in
+her eyes, puzzling him.
+
+"Are you so fond of your father as all that?"
+
+She laughed again,--a clear, exultant laugh.
+
+"Yes," she answered, "of course I am as fond of him as all that. It's
+quite natural, isn't it?"
+
+"I haven't observed the same degree of enthusiasm in all the young ladies
+of my acquaintance," he returned dryly.
+
+He thought such rapture disproportionate to the cause, and regarded it
+grudgingly.
+
+They turned into an arbor; and Octavia sat down, and leaned forward on
+the rustic table. Then she turned her face up to look at the vines
+covering the roof.
+
+"It looks rather spidery, doesn't it?" she remarked. "I hope it isn't;
+don't you?"
+
+The light fell bewitchingly on her round little chin and white throat;
+and a bar of sunlight struck on her upturned eyes, and the blonde rings
+on her forehead.
+
+"There is nothing I hate more than spiders," she said, with a little
+shiver, "unless," seriously, "it's caterpillars--and caterpillars I
+loathe."
+
+Then she lowered her gaze, and gave her hat--a large white Rubens, all
+soft, curling feathers and satin bows--a charming tip over her eyes.
+
+"The brim is broad," she said. "If any thing drops, I hope it will drop
+on it, instead of on me. Now, what did you want to say?" He had not sat
+down, but stood leaning against the rustic wood-work. He looked pale, and
+was evidently trying to be cooler than usual.
+
+"I brought you here to ask you a question."
+
+"Well," she remarked, "I hope it's an important one. You look serious
+enough."
+
+"It is important,--rather," he responded, with a tone of sarcasm. "You
+will probably go away soon?"
+
+"That isn't exactly a question," she commented, "and it's not as
+important to you as to me."
+
+He paused a moment, annoyed because he found it difficult to go on;
+annoyed because she waited with such undisturbed serenity. But at length
+he managed to begin again.
+
+"I do not think you are expecting the question I am going to ask," he
+said. "I--do not think I expected to ask it myself,--until to-day. I do
+not know why--why I should ask it so awkwardly, and feel--at such a
+disadvantage. I brought you here to ask you--to marry me."
+
+He had scarcely spoken four words before all her airy manner had taken
+flight, and she had settled herself down to listen. He had noticed this,
+and had felt it quite natural. When he stopped, she was looking straight
+into his face. Her eyes were singularly large and bright and clear.
+
+"You did not expect to ask me to marry you?" she said. "Why didn't you?"
+
+It was not at all what he had expected. He did not understand her manner
+at all.
+
+"I--must confess," he said stiffly, "that I felt at first that there
+were--obstacles in the way of my doing so."
+
+"What were the obstacles?"
+
+He flushed, and drew himself up.
+
+"I have been unfortunate in my mode of expressing myself," he said. "I
+told you I was conscious of my own awkwardness."
+
+"Yes," she said quietly: "you have been unfortunate. That is a good way
+of putting it."
+
+Then she let her eyes rest on the table a few seconds, and thought a
+little.
+
+"After all," she said, "I have the consolation of knowing that you must
+have been very much in love with me. If you had not been very much in
+love with me, you would never have asked me to marry you. You would have
+considered the obstacles."
+
+"I am very much in love with you," he said vehemently, his feelings
+getting the better of his pride for once. "However badly I may have
+expressed myself, I am very much in love with you. I have been wretched
+for days."
+
+"Was it because you felt obliged to ask me to marry you?" she inquired.
+
+The delicate touch of spirit in her tone and words fired him to fresh
+admiration, strange to say. It suggested to him possibilities he had not
+suspected hitherto. He drew nearer to her.
+
+"Don't be too severe on me," he said--quite humbly, considering all
+things.
+
+And he stretched out his hand, as if to take hers.
+
+But she drew it back, smiling ever so faintly.
+
+"Do you think I don't know what the obstacles are?" she said. "I will
+tell you."
+
+"My affection was strong enough to sweep them away," he said, "or I
+should not be here."
+
+She smiled slightly again.
+
+"I know all about them, as well as you do," she said. "I rather laughed
+at them at first, but I don't now. I suppose I'm 'impressed by their
+seriousness,' as aunt Belinda says. I suppose they _are_ pretty
+serious--to you."
+
+"Nothing would be so serious to me as that you should let them interfere
+with my happiness," he answered, thrown back upon himself, and bewildered
+by her logical manner. "Let us forget them. I was a fool to speak as I
+did. Won't you answer my question?"
+
+She paused a second, and then answered,--
+
+"You didn't expect to ask me to marry you," she said. "And I didn't
+expect you to"--
+
+"But now"--he broke in impatiently.
+
+"Now--I wish you hadn't done it."
+
+"You wish"--
+
+"You don't want _me_," she said. "You want somebody meeker,--somebody
+who would respect you very much, and obey you. I'm not used to obeying
+people."
+
+"Do you mean also that you would not respect me?" he inquired bitterly.
+
+"Oh," she replied, "you haven't respected me much!"
+
+"Excuse me"--he began, in his loftiest manner.
+
+"You didn't respect me enough to think me worth marrying," she said. "I
+was not the kind of girl you would have chosen of your own will."
+
+"You are treating me unfairly!" he cried.
+
+"You were going to give me a great deal, I suppose--looking at it in your
+way," she went on; "but, if I _wasn't_ exactly what you wanted, I had
+something to give too. I'm young enough to have a good many years to
+live; and I should have to live them with you, if I married you. That's
+something, you know."
+
+He rose from his seat pale with wrath and wounded feeling.
+
+"Does this mean that you refuse me?" he demanded, "that your answer is
+'no'?"
+
+She rose, too--not exultant, not confused, neither pale nor flushed. He
+had never seen her prettier, more charming, or more natural.
+
+"It would have been 'no,' even if there hadn't been any obstacle,"
+she answered.
+
+"Then," he said, "I need say no more. I see that I have--humiliated
+myself in vain; and it is rather bitter, I must confess."
+
+"It wasn't my fault," she remarked.
+
+He stepped back, with a haughty wave of the hand, signifying that she
+should pass out of the arbor before him.
+
+She did so; but just as she reached the entrance, she turned, and stood
+for a second, framed in by the swinging vines and their blossoms.
+
+"There's another reason why it should be 'no,'" she said. "I suppose I
+may as well tell you of it. I'm engaged to somebody else."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+"JACK."
+
+
+The first person they saw, when they reached the lawn, was Mr. Dugald
+Binnie, who had deigned to present himself, and was talking to Mr.
+Burmistone, Lucia, and Miss Belinda.
+
+"I'll go to them," said Octavia. "Aunt Belinda will wonder where I have
+been."
+
+But, before they reached the group, they were intercepted by Lord
+Lansdowne; and Barold had the pleasure of surrendering his charge, and
+watching her, with some rather sharp pangs, as she was borne off to the
+conservatories.
+
+"What is the matter with Mr. Barold?" exclaimed Miss Pilcher. "Pray
+look at him."
+
+"He has been talking to Miss Octavia Bassett, in one of the arbors," put
+in Miss Lydia Burnham. "Emily and I passed them a few minutes ago, and
+they were so absorbed that they did not see us. There is no knowing what
+has happened."
+
+"Lydia!" exclaimed Mrs. Burnham, in stern reproof of such flippancy.
+
+But, the next moment, she exchanged a glance with Miss Pilcher.
+
+"Do you think"--she suggested. "Is it possible"--
+
+"It really looks very like it," said Miss Pilcher; "though it is scarcely
+to be credited. See how pale and angry he looks."
+
+Mrs. Burnham glanced toward him, and then a slight smile illuminated her
+countenance.
+
+"How furious," she remarked cheerfully, "how furious Lady Theobald will
+be!"
+
+Naturally, it was not very long before the attention of numerous other
+ladies was directed to Mr. Francis Barold. It was observed that he took
+no share in the festivities, that he did not regain his natural air of
+enviable indifference to his surroundings,--that he did not approach
+Octavia Bassett until all was over, and she was on the point of going
+home. What he said to her then, no one heard.
+
+"I am going to London to-morrow. Good-by."
+
+"Good-by," she answered, holding out her hand to him. Then she added
+quickly, in an under-tone, "You oughtn't to think badly of me. You won't,
+after a while."
+
+As they drove homeward, she was rather silent, and Miss Belinda remarked
+it.
+
+"I am afraid you are tired, Octavia," she said. "It is a pity that Martin
+should come, and find you tired."
+
+"Oh! I'm not tired. I was only--thinking. It has been a queer day."
+
+"A queer day, my dear!" ejaculated Miss Belinda. "I thought it a charming
+day."
+
+"So it has been," said Octavia, which Miss Belinda thought rather
+inconsistent.
+
+Both of them grew rather restless as they neared the house.
+
+"To think," said Miss Belinda, "of my seeing poor Martin again!"
+
+"Suppose," said Octavia nervously, as they drew up, "suppose they are
+here--already."
+
+"They?" exclaimed Miss Belinda. "Who"--but she got no farther. A cry
+burst from Octavia,--a queer, soft little cry. "They are here," she
+said: "they are! Jack--Jack!"
+
+And she was out of the carriage; and Miss Belinda, following her
+closely, was horrified to see her caught at once in the embrace of a
+tall, bronzed young man, who, a moment after, drew her into the little
+parlor, and shut the door.
+
+Mr. Martin Bassett, who was big and sunburned, and prosperous-looking,
+stood in the passage, smiling triumphantly.
+
+"M--M--Martin!" gasped Miss Belinda. "What--oh, what does this mean?"
+
+Martin Bassett led her to a seat, and smiled more triumphantly still.
+
+"Never mind, Belinda," he said. "Don't be frightened. It's Jack
+Belasys, and he's the finest fellow in the West. And she hasn't seen
+him for two years."
+
+"Martin," Miss Belinda fluttered, "it is not proper--it really isn't."
+
+"Yes, it is," answered Mr. Bassett; "for he's going to marry her before
+we go abroad."
+
+It was an eventful day for all parties concerned. At its close Lady
+Theobald found herself in an utterly bewildered and thunderstruck
+condition. And to Mr. Dugald Binnie, more than to any one else, her
+demoralization was due. That gentleman got into the carriage, in rather a
+better humor than usual.
+
+"Same man I used to know," he remarked. "Glad to see him. I knew him as
+soon as I set eyes on him."
+
+"Do you allude to Mr. Burmistone?"
+
+"Yes. Had a long talk with him. He's coming to see you to-morrow. Told
+him he might come, myself. Appears he's taken a fancy to Lucia. Wants to
+talk it over. Suits me exactly, and suppose it suits her. Looks as if it
+does. Glad she hasn't taken a fancy to some haw-haw fellow, like that
+fool Barold. Girls generally do. Burmistone's worth ten of him."
+
+Lucia, who had been looking steadily out of the carriage-window, turned,
+with an amazed expression. Lady Theobald had received a shock which made
+all her manacles rattle. She could scarcely support herself under it.
+
+"Do I"--she said. "Am I to understand that Mr. Francis Barold does not
+meet with your approval?" Mr. Binnie struck his stick sharply upon the
+floor of the carriage.
+
+"Yes, by George!" he said. "I'll have nothing to do with chaps like that.
+If she'd taken up with him, she'd never have heard from _me_ again. Make
+sure of that."
+
+When they reached Oldclough, her ladyship followed Lucia to her room. She
+stood before her, arranging the manacles on her wrists nervously.
+
+"I begin to understand now," she said. "I find I was mistaken in my
+impressions of Mr. Dugald Binnie's tastes--and in my impressions of
+_you_. You are to marry Mr. Burmistone. My rule is over. Permit me to
+congratulate you."
+
+The tears rose to Lucia's eyes.
+
+"Grandmamma," she said, her voice soft and broken, "I think I should have
+been more frank, if--if you had been kinder sometimes."
+
+"I have done my duty by you," said my lady.
+
+Lucia looked at her pathetically.
+
+"I have been ashamed to keep things from you," she hesitated. "And I have
+often told myself that--that it was sly to do it--but I could not help
+it."
+
+"I trust," said my lady, "that you will be more candid with Mr.
+Burmistone."
+
+Lucia blushed guiltily.
+
+"I--think I shall, grandmamma," she said.
+
+It was the Rev. Alfred Poppleton who assisted the rector of St. James to
+marry Jack Belasys and Octavia Bassett; and it was observed that he was
+almost as pale as his surplice.
+
+Slowbridge had never seen such a wedding, or such a bride as Octavia. It
+was even admitted that Jack Belasys was a singularly handsome fellow, and
+had a dashing, adventurous air, which carried all before it. There was a
+rumor that he owned silver-mines himself, and had even done something in
+diamonds, in Brazil, where he had spent the last two years. At all
+events, it was ascertained beyond doubt, that, being at last a married
+woman, and entitled to splendors of the kind, Octavia would not lack
+them. Her present to Lucia, who was one of her bridesmaids, dazzled all
+beholders. When she was borne away by the train, with her father and
+husband, and Miss Belinda, whose bonnet-strings were bedewed with tears,
+the Rev. Alfred Poppleton was the last man who shook hands with her. He
+held in his hand a large bouquet, which Octavia herself had given him out
+of her abundance. "Slowbridge will miss you, Miss--Mrs. Belasys," he
+faltered. "I--I shall miss you. Perhaps we--may even meet again. I have
+thought that, perhaps, I should like to go to America."
+
+And, as the train puffed out of the station and disappeared, he stood
+motionless for several seconds; and a large and brilliant drop of
+moisture appeared on the calyx of the lily which formed the centre-piece
+of his bouquet.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Fair Barbarian, by Francis Hodgson Burnett
+
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