Part 32 (2/2)

”I am too late, I suppose!” he said, as it seemed to me, rather spitefully. As he was too late, it was no use to tell him he could never have been early enough. I was silent; and we walked on unenjoyingly. Vexation was working in his countenance, and a trace of that same spite; I was glad when we came to the end of our way and the other members of our party closed up and joined us.

As I cared nothing for the house they had come to see, I excused myself from going any nearer, and sat down upon the bank at a little distance while they gratified their curiosity. The view of the lake and lake sh.o.r.es here was very lovely; enough to satisfy any one for a long while; but now, my thoughts only rested there for a minute, to make a spring clear across the Atlantic. Mr. Thorold was very close to me, and I was very far from him; that was the burden of my heart.

So close to me he had been, that I had never dreamed any one could think of taking his place. I saw I had been a simpleton.

Up to that day I had no suspicion that Mr. De Saussure liked me more than would be convenient; and indeed I had no fear now of his heart being broken; but I saw that his unlucky suit made a complication in my affairs that they certainly did not need. - Mamma approved it; yes, I had no doubt of that. I knew of a plantation of his, Briery Bank, only a few miles distant from Magnolia and reputed to be very rich in its incomings.

And, no doubt Mr. De Saussure would have liked the neighbourhood of Magnolia, and to add its harvest to his own.

And all the while I belonged to Mr. Thorold, and n.o.body else could have me. My thoughts came back to that refrain with a strong sense of pain and gladness. However, the gladness was the strongest. How lovely the lake was, with its sunlit hills!

In the midst of my musings, Hugh Marshall came and threw himself on the ground at my side. I welcomed him with a smile; for I liked him; he was a friend; and I thought, - This one does not want me at any rate. I was a great simpleton, I suppose.

”I was afraid you had deserted me to-day,” he said.

”I am sure, it is I who might rather have thought that of you,” I answered; and indeed I had wished for his company more than once.

”You could not have thought it!” he said.

”Have you satisfied your curiosity with Eugene Sue's house?”

”I do not care to look at anything that you don't like,” he replied.

”Cigars? -” I suggested.

”No indeed. If you disapprove of them, I shall have no more fellows.h.i.+p with them.”

”That is going quite too far, Mr. Marshall. A man should never give up anything that he does not disapprove of himself.”

”Not to please somebody he wishes to please?”

”Of course,” I said, thinking of Mr. Thorold, - ”there might be such cases. But in general.”

”This is one of the cases. I wish to please you.”

”Thank you,” I said earnestly. ”But indeed, I should be more pleased to have you follow your own sense of right than any notion of another, even of myself.”

”You are not like any other woman I ever saw,” he said smiling. ”Do you know, they all have a pa.s.sion for command?

There are De Saussure's mother and sisters, - they do not leave him a moment's peace, because he is not at home fighting.”

I was silent, and hoped that Mr. De Saussure's friends might now perhaps get him away from Geneva at least.

”You think with them, that he ought to go?” Hugh Marshall said presently with a shadow, I thought, on his words.

”I would not add one more to the war,” I answered.

”Your mother does not think so.”

”No.”

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