Part 4 (1/2)
”You will like it too. You were lonely last winter.”
”Ah, Camelia was not here; but I was not lonely, Michael; you were too kind for that; and I had Mary. You don't think Camelia looks thin, Michael?” She had always called the family friend by his Christian name.
Perior had Irish ancestry. ”She has been doing so much all spring--all winter too; I can't understand how a delicate girl can press so many things into her life--and studying with it too; she must keep up with everything.”
”Ahead of everything,” Perior smiled.
”Yes, she is really so intellectual, Michael. You don't think she looks badly?”
”She is as pretty a little pagan as ever,” said Perior, glancing at Miss Paton.
”A pagan!” Lady Paton looked rather alarmed. ”You mean it, Michael? I have been troubled, but Camelia comes to church with me. It is you who are the pagan, Michael,” she added, finding the gentle retort with evident relief.
”Oh, I wasn't speaking literally. I have no doubt that Camelia is a staunch church-woman,” he smiled to himself. Camelia was a brazen little conformist, when conformity was of service.
”No, not that. I don't quite know. I have heard her talk of religion, with Mr. Ballenden, who writes those books, you know, scientific, atheistic books, and Camelia seemed quite to overpower him; the illusions of science, the claims of authority.” Lady Paton spoke with some little vagueness. ”I did not quite follow it all; but he became very much excited. Controversial religion does not interest me, it confuses me. It is the inner change of heart, Michael,” she added with a mild glance of affection, ”the reliance on the higher will that guides us, that has revealed itself to us.”
Perior looked somewhat gloomily on the ground. The thought of Lady Paton's religion, and Camelia's deft juggling with negatives, jarred upon him.
”You don't agree with me, Michael?” Lady Paton asked timidly.
”Of course I do,” he said, looking up at her, ”that is the only definition needful. We may interpret differently, from different points of view.”
”You would find, I think, greater peace in mine, Michael. May you come to it in time!”
They were both silent for a moment, and both looked presently at Camelia.
”She is so much admired, and so unspoiled by it. So frank, so unaffected. She is found so clever.”
”So she tells me,” Perior could not repress.
”And so humorous,” Lady Paton added, taking his smile in its kindest sense, ”she says the most amusing things.”
”Mr. Perior,” said Camelia, turning rather abruptly, ”if Mamma is singing my praises I give you leave to repress her sternly.” She joined them, standing behind Lady Paton's chair, and, over her head, looking at Perior. ”I know how trying such praises are, heard outside the family circle.”
”In which I hope I may include myself. I enjoy Lady Paton's interpretation.”
”Mamma would not believe the biting intention of that speech. Cuff!
cuff! cuff! _Il me fait des miseres_, Mamma!”
Lady Paton's smile went from one to the other.
”You have always teased Michael, Camelia, and he has always been so patient with you.”
”Every one is patient with me, because I am a good girl. 'Be good, sweet maid--' I believe in a moral universe,” and Camelia over her mother's head wrinkled up her nose roguishly as she made the edifying statement.
”Mamma,” she added, ”where is my flock this morning? I fancied that you were shepherding some of them. I want to trot them out before Mr.
Perior. I want to study his expression as Sir Harry and Mr. Merriman present themselves. Sir Harry the mere superlative of Mr. Merriman's fatuity. I imagine that by some biological adaptation of function they use their brains for digestive purposes, since I am sure they never think with them.”
Lady Paton took refuge from a painful recognition of the inhospitable nature of these remarks in a vague smile. Lady Paton had a faculty for misunderstanding when either misunderstanding or disapproval was necessary. If Camelia hoped by her brisk personalities to shock her former preceptor she failed signally, for laughing appreciatively he asked, ”And for what purpose were these latest sports of evolution imported?”