Part 3 (1/2)
”But I thaw it,” was the answer.
”Saw it?” said Adelina; then added severely, ”you saw nothing.”
”I did thee he wanted to mawwy oo,” sobbed the child, ”'tause he looked happy.”
Adelina found herself floundering in a sea of difficulties, so for answer, only kissed the child; and, to put an end decisively to further argument, said:
”Pet, dear, let us see if Ralph has goodies in his pocket.”
The little one understood. Whatever wrong she had committed was forgiven. She glanced at Ralph, for it never occurred to her that Adelina's suggestion might prove fallacious. Her implicit confidence in another's word gave evidence of the training received; that the child was not accustomed to being deceived in trifles was obvious. When it was found that Ralph could produce the desired sweetmeats, Adelina asked, teasingly:
”Have you never overcome your boyish weakness?”
”Fortunately for you I have not. Your veracity was at stake. It would have served you right if I had refused to resign the desired articles, after your putting an abrupt terminus to an absorbing topic, ingeniously introduced.”
Such audacity in referring to the subject Adelina fondly thought she had brought to an ignominious end quite took away her breath.
”Yes,” pursued Ralph reflectively, ”that child is a genius; added to that is the perseverance requisite to complete success.”
”Those two are incorrigible,” murmured Adelina.
”No, we're not,” objected the irrepressible Pet, ”we're in chair. Tan't oo thee uth?” She had all of the child's impatience of incorrect statements.
Ralph shook with laughter at this naive utterance.
”I'm doin' home,” said Pet, waiting, however, with the expectation of an invitation to remain.
As her elders vouchsafed no reply, she repeated the information, and slid off Ralph's knee.
Ralph who felt that he had probably gone far enough, simply expressed a desire to have her return very soon.
”I will tome,” she promptly answered. Then, waiting to be kissed by both, she ran off, calling back sweetly:
”I'll not tell papa if oo don't want me to.”
CHAPTER V.
MISUNDERSTANDINGS ARISE.
That night was a restless night for Adelina. There were mysteries she could not unravel. She could not reconcile Ralph's lapse of memory with the perfect self-poise subsequently evinced. She knew that a single instance of forgetfulness would not have been perceived by her with such readiness had it not been for antecedent knowledge of mental derangement. Memory had not proved treacherous regarding any other fact, however trivial, which had been mentioned in his hearing. There was another thing which troubled Adelina--Ralph's a.s.sumption that Harold and Mary were the benefactors, not of himself, but of the brother whom neither had seen. She had not wanted to talk the matter over again with her friends. It would only accentuate the sad feelings of each. She wanted time (of which commodity she soon had a sufficiency) to think it all over in the solitude of her own room. Once there, she found it equally as difficult to arrive at any just estimate of the truth. She dreamed that Ralph appeared with his brother, and commanded her sternly to choose between them.
She awoke with a shudder to find the sun s.h.i.+ning brightly in her window, as if to beseech her to come out and enjoy his glories. She quickly responded to the manifest entreaty, only too thankful to discover that the long night--a night of troubled thought and dreams, was over. When at intervals of consciousness, she had tried to concentrate her vagrant thoughts to some purpose, she could only vaguely feel that there was something she was incapable of adverting; and so, when morning came at last, she was determined to accept such diversion as was offered.
Accordingly, arrayed in one of her most becoming gowns, she descended the stairs, and walked out on the veranda. It was characteristic of her, that when she was inwardly troubled she invariably took the greatest care in making her toilet, perhaps feeling that her spirits might ultimately a.s.sume the nature of her garb.
Adelina was soon joined by Ralph, who looked radiantly happy. He evidently thought that her propinquity was enough for the present, let the future bring what it might. He had so long been denied a sight of her, that it is to be doubted whether he even gave that future a thought. His buoyancy could not be otherwise than infectious; added to that were Adelina's strenuous efforts to shake off the unwelcome thoughts of the preceding night, to which she knew that she would succ.u.mb if left to herself--without the incentive of trying to appear cheerful before others. Those imbued with such altruism have some recompense even in this world, where reward so seldom seems to come for right doing--that of submerging their own woes in the happiness or reverses of others.
It was later in the morning that Adelina had further cause for sorrow.
She had gone to her room for a volume of poems in order to find a quotation which Ralph had laughingly insisted she had misquoted.