Part 22 (2/2)

(Greek pa.s.sage) Anacreon.

See, youth, the nymph who charms your eyes; Watch, lest you lose the willing prize.

As queen of flowers the rose you own, And her of maids the rose alone.

While light, fire, mirth, and music were enlivening the party within the close-drawn curtains, without were moonless night and thickly-falling snow; and the morning opened on one vast expanse of white, mantling alike the lawns and the trees, and weighing down the wide-spreading branches. Lord Curryfin, determined not to be baulked of his skating, sallied forth immediately after breakfast, collected a body of labourers, and swept clear an ample surface of ice, a path to it from the house, and a promenade on the bank. Here he and Miss Niphet amused themselves in the afternoon, in company with a small number of the party, and in the presence of about the usual number of spectators. Mr.

Falconer was there, and contented himself with looking on.

Lord Curryfin proposed a reel, Miss Niphet acquiesced, but it was long before they found a third. At length one young gentleman, of the plump and rotund order, volunteered to supply the deficiency, and was soon deposited on the ice, where his partners in the ice-dance would have tumbled over him if they had not antic.i.p.ated the result, and given him a wide berth. One or two others followed, exhibiting several varieties in the art of falling ungracefully. At last the lord and the lady skated away on as large a circuit as the cleared ice permitted, and as they went he said to her--

'If you were the prize of skating, as Atalanta was of running, I should have good hope to carry you off against all compet.i.tors but yourself.'

She answered, 'Do not disturb my thoughts, or I shall slip.'

He said no more, but the words left their impression. They gave him as much encouragement as, under their peculiar circ.u.mstances, he could dare to wish for, or she could venture to intimate.

Mr. Falconer admired their 'poetry of motion' as much as all the others had done. It suggested a remark which he would have liked to address to Miss Gryll, but he looked round for her in vain. He returned to the house in the hope that he might find her alone, and take the opportunity of making his peace.

He found her alone, but it seemed that he had no peace to make. She received him with a smile, and held out her hand to him, which he grasped fervently. He fancied that it trembled, but her features were composed. He then sat down at the table, on which the old edition of Bojardo was lying open as before. He said, 'You have not been down to the lake to see that wonderful skating.' She answered, 'I have seen it every day but this. The snow deters me to-day. But it is wonderful.

Grace and skill can scarcely go beyond it.'

He wanted to apologise for the mode and duration of his departure and absence, but did not know how to begin. She gave him the occasion. She said, 'You have been longer absent than usual--from our rehearsals.

But we are all tolerably perfect in our parts. But your absence was remarked--by some of the party. You seemed to be especially missed by _Lord Curryfin._ He asked the reverend doctor every morning if he thought you would return that day.'

_Algernon._ And what said the doctor?

_Morgana._ He usually said, 'I hope so.' But one morning he said something more specific.

_Algernon._ What was it?

_Morgana._ I do not know that I ought to tell you.

_Algernon._ Oh, pray do.

_Morgana._ He said, 'The chances are against it.' 'What are the odds?'

said _Lord Curryfin._ 'Seven to one,' said the doctor. 'It ought not to be so,' said Lord Curryfin, 'for here is a whole Greek chorus against seven vestals.' The doctor said, 'I do not estimate the chances by the mere balance of numbers.'

_Algernon._ He might have said more as to the balance of numbers.

_Morgana._ He might have said more, that the seven outweighed the one.

_Algernon._ He could not have said that

_Morgana._ It would be much for the one to say that the balance was even.

_Algernon._ But how if the absentee himself had been weighed against another in that one's own balance?

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