Part 3 (1/2)

”That was my magpie,” cries Molly, with a merry laugh: ”he always comes pecking at that hour, naughty fellow. Oh, what a tame ending to your romance! Your beautiful ghost come to visit you from unknown regions, clad in white and rustling garments, has resolved itself into a lame bird, rather poverty-stricken in the matter of feathers.”

”I take it rather hardly that your dependent should come to disturb _me_,” says Luttrell, reproachfully. ”What have I done to him, or how have I ingratiated myself, that he should forsake you for me? I did not think even a meagre bird could have shown such _outre_ taste.

What fancy has he for _my_ window?”

”_Your_ window?” says Molly, quickly; then as quickly recollecting, she stops short, blus.h.i.+ng a warm and lovely crimson. ”Oh, of course,--yes, it was odd,” she says, and, breaking down under the weight of her unhappy blush, busies herself eagerly with her flowers.

”Have I taken your bedroom?” asks he, anxiously, watching with cruel persistency the soft roses that bloom again at his words. ”Yes, I see I have. That is too bad; and any room would have been good enough for a soldier. Are you sure you don't hate me for all the inconvenience I have caused you?”

”I can't be sure,” says Molly, ”_yet_. Give me time. But this I do know, that John will quarrel with us if we remain out here any longer, as breakfast must be quite ready by this. Come.”

”When you spoke of my chamber as being haunted, a little time ago,”

says Luttrell, walking beside her on the gravel path, his hands clasped behind his back, ”you came very near the truth. After what you have just told me, how shall I keep from dreaming about you?”

”Don't keep from it,” says she, sweetly; ”go on dreaming about me as much as ever you like. _I_ don't mind.”

”But I might,” says Luttrell, ”when it was too late.”

”True,” murmurs Molly, innocently: ”so you might. John says all dreams arise from indigestion.”

CHAPTER IV.

”As through the land at eve we went.”

--Tennyson.

Seven long blissful summer days have surrendered themselves to the greedy past. It is almost July. To-day is Wednesday,--to-morrow June will be no more.

”Molly,” says Mr. Ma.s.sereene, with the laudable intention of rousing Molly's ire, ”this is the day for which we have accepted Lady Barton's invitation to go to the Castle, to meet Lord and Lady Rossmere.”

”'This is the cat that killed the rat, that did something or other in the house that Jack built,'” interrupts Molly, naughtily.

”And on this occasion you have not been invited,” goes on John, serenely, ”which shows she does not think you respectable,--not quite fit for polite society; so you must stay at home, like the bold little girl, and meditate on your misdemeanors.”

”Lady Barton is a very intelligent person, who fully understands my abhorrence of old fogies,” says Miss Ma.s.sereene, with dignity.

”Sour grapes,” says John. ”But, now that you have given such an unfair turn to Lady Barton's motives, I feel it my duty to explain the exact truth to Luttrell. When last, my dear Tedcastle, Molly was invited to meet the Rossmeres, she behaved so badly and flirted so outrageously with his withered lords.h.i.+p, that he became perfectly imbecile toward the close of the entertainment, and his poor old wife was reduced almost to the verge of tears. I blushed for her; I did indeed.”

”Oh, John! how can you say such things before Mr. Luttrell? If he is foolish enough to believe you, think what a dreadful opinion he will have of me!” With a lovely smile at Luttrell across the bowl of flowers that ornaments the breakfast-table. ”And with such a man, too! A terrible old person who has forgotten his native language and can only mumble, and who has not got one tooth in his mouth or one hair on his head, and no flesh at all to speak of.”

”What a fetching description!” says Luttrell. ”You excite my curiosity.

He is not 'on view,' is he?”

”Not yet,” says Molly, with an airy laugh. ”Probably when he dies they will embalm him, and forward him to the British Museum, as a remarkable species of his kind; and then we shall all get the full value of one s.h.i.+lling. I myself would walk to London to see that.”

”So would I,” says Luttrell, ”if you would promise to tell me the day you are going.”

”Let.i.tia, I feel myself _de trop_, whatever you may,” exclaims John, rising. ”And see how time flies; it is almost half-past ten.