Part 27 (1/2)
and the laughing Irish eyes met hers quizzically.
”Oh, I never meant t.i.tles people earn themselves, Mr. Doctor, for--”
”Then that puts the Judge and Col. Kenneth and myself on the outside of your fence, does it? Arrah now! I'll be looking up my pedigree in hopes of unearthing a king--every true Irishman has a traditional chance of being the descendant of rulers who ran barefoot, and carried a club to teach the court etiquette.”
She made a mutinous little grimace and refused to discuss his probable ancestors.
”Does not the presence of a French Marquise show how Europe sides with us?” she demanded, triumphantly. ”Quant.i.ties of n.o.blemen have been the guests of the South lately, and isn't General Wolseley, the most brilliant officer of the British Army, with our General Lee now? I reckon all _that_ shows how we are estimated. And now the ladies of t.i.tle are coming over. Oh, tell me all about her; is she very grand, very pretty?”
”Grand enough for a queen over your new monarchy,” replied Delaven, who derived considerable enjoyment from teasing the girl about affairs political--”and pretty? No, she's not that; she's just Beauty's self, entirely.”
”And you knew her well in Paris?” asked Evilena, with a hesitating suspicion as to why he had not announced such a wonderful acquaintance before--this woman who was Beauty's self, and a widow. She wondered if she had appeared crude compared with those grand dames he had known and forgotten to mention.
”Oh, yes, I knew her while the old Marquise was living, that was when your mother and Col. Kenneth met her, but afterwards she took to travel for a change, and has evidently taken your South on her way. It will be happiness to see her again.”
”And brother Ken knew her, too?” asked the girl, with wide-open eyes; ”and _he_ never mentioned her, either--well!”
”The rascal!--to deprive you of an account of all the lovely ladies he met! But you were at school when they returned, were you not?--and Ken started off hot foot for the West and Indian fighting, so you see there were excuses.”
”And Kenneth does not know you are here still, and will not know the beautiful Marquise is here. Won't he be surprised to see you all?”
”I doubt if I cause him such a shock,” decided Delaven; ”when he gets sight of Judithe, Marquise de Caron, he will naturally forget at once whether I am in America or Ireland.”
”Indeed, then, I never knew Kenneth to slight a friend,” said the girl, indignantly.
”But maybe you never saw him face to face with such a temptation to make a man forget the universe.”
”Sh--h!” she whispered, softly. Gertrude had come out on the veranda looking for the Judge. Seeing him down at the landing she walked leisurely in that direction.
”You do say such wild, extravagant things,” continued Evilena, ”that I just had to stop you until Gertrude was out of hearing. I suppose you know she and Kenneth are paired off for matrimony.”
”Are they, now? Well, he's a lucky fellow; when are we to dance at the wedding?”
”Oh, they never tell me anything about serious things like that,”
complained Evilena. ”There's Aunt Sajane; she can tell us, if any one can; everybody confides love affairs to her.”
”Do they, now? Might I ask how you know?”
”Yes, sir; you may _ask_!” Then she dropped that subject and returned to the first one. ”Aunt Sajane, when do you reckon we can dance at Kenneth's wedding--his and Gertrude's? Doctor Delaven and I want to dance.”
”Evilena--honey!” murmured Aunt Sajane, chidingly, the more so as Matthew Loring had just crept slowly out with the help of his cane, and a negro boy. His alert expression betrayed that he had overheard the question.
”You know,” she continued, ”folks have lots to think of these days without wedding dances, and it isn't fair to Gertrude to discuss it, for _I_ don't know that there really has been any settled engagement; only it would seem like a perfect match and both families seem to favor it.” She glanced inquiringly at Loring, who nodded his head decidedly.
”Of course, of course, a very sensible arrangement. They've always been friends and it's been as good as settled ever since they were children.”
”Settled by the families?” asked Delaven.
”Exactly--a good old custom that is ignored too often these days,”
said Mr. Loring, promptly. ”Who is so fit to decide such things for children as their parents and guardians? That boy's father and me talked over this affair before the children ever knew each other. Of course he laughed over the question at the time, but when he died and suggested me as the boy's guardian, I knew he thought well of it and depended on me, and it will come off right as soon as this war is over--all right.”