Part 24 (1/2)

”I think I ought to know you.”

”Yes, please you, Mr Harry; and maybe you remember the trip you took in the _Nancy_ with my good man here.”

”Ah, how fares it with you, my friend?” he said, shaking Adam by the hand. ”I remember the trip right well.”

”You have pretty nigh grown out of remembrance, but I am right glad to see you, Mr Harry,” answered Adam.

”Maybe you recollect, sir, saving our Maiden May from a wild bull?” said the dame, looking towards May, who blushed as she spoke, for Harry glanced up, and her eyes met his fixed on her lovely countenance with an unmistakable expression of admiration.

”I was very glad, I know, to have been of service, though I suspect I ran very little personal risk in performing the exploit,” said Harry, still looking at May, and wondering at the delicate beauty and refined manner of the fisherman's daughter.

”I suspect that I was too young to have thanked you for the service you rendered me as I ought to have done,” she said, ”for my mother has since told me that had it not been for you I might have been killed by the fierce creature.”

”All I did I remember was to throw your red cloak at the animal, and that required no great exertion of courage or strength,” answered Harry, smiling. ”I then ran off with you, and lifted you over the gate. I can only feel thankful, now you bring the circ.u.mstance to my recollection, that I came up at the moment to save you,” answered Harry. ”But are you not going to join the dancers?”

”I promised some kind friends with whom I live to avoid mixing with the crowd,” answered May; ”and they would especially object to my dancing.

Indeed, I confess that I have never danced in my life.”

”Very strange,” said Harry. ”Who are they, may I ask?”

”The Miss Pembertons,” answered May. ”You surely, Mr Castleton, remember them, and they desired mother and me to express their great wish to see you again.”

”Oh, yes, my good cousins, of course I do. Pray tell them that I will call upon them to-morrow, or the first day I possibly can. I am not surprised that they do not quite approve of dancing; but have they actually prohibited you? We shall form some fresh sets shortly nearer the house, which my sister and other ladies will join, and can you not be tempted to come too? You would have no difficulty, as the figures are not intricate, and you need only move through them as you see others do.”

May smiled, but shook her head.

”No,” she said, ”the Miss Pembertons made no exception with respect to those with whom I might dance, and I fear that they would object as much to my dancing in a quiet set as they would to my joining those who are rus.h.i.+ng up and down so energetically out there;” and May looked towards the spot where a country dance of rustics was going on, the swains dragging their partners along at no small risk of pulling off their arms, though sometimes the case was reversed, and the damsels were engaged in hauling on their more awkward partners. ”I must say that I have no reason to regret not being among them,” she added, with her eyes full of laughter as she watched the vehement movements of the dancers to which she had called Harry's attention.

”Oh, but we shall move much more quietly in the dance I ask you to join, and I am sure it will suit your taste better,” he said.

Still May declined firmly, though gently. Harry was convinced that she was not to be persuaded. Had he consulted his own inclination he would have stopped and talked to her as long as she remained, but he remembered that he had numerous duties to perform.

”Are you likely to be walking about the grounds, or do you intend to remain where you are?” he asked.

May turned to the dame for the answer.

”While this sort of fun goes on I do not think we can be better off than where we are,” answered the dame.

”I will see you again,” said Harry, who admired the manner in which she obeyed her friends' wishes, and hesitated to repeat his request.

”Perhaps my sister would like to send a message to our cousins. Pray tell them that she regards them with the same feeling she has always done.”

”I will gladly carry the message to the Miss Pembertons,” said May.

”Thank you,” said Harry. ”I will try to get my sister to give it you herself,” and he tore himself away.

”What a lovely creature that little girl with the blue eyes has grown into,” Harry thought to himself. ”I remember she was a sweet child, and now she is as near perfection as I can fancy any human being. I wonder if I should think so if I saw her dressed as a young lady in a ball room. Yes, I am sure of it--any dress would become her. I must get Julia to see her. And yet I do not know, she might possibly say something I should not like. Maiden May, what a pretty name. She spoke, too, of living with our cousins. Can she be their servant? Yet she does not speak or look like one. Her manner and tone of voice is perfectly that of a young lady. But I must not think too much about her, or I shall forget what I have to do.”

Harry hurried on, trying to collect his thoughts, which the vision of Maiden May had scattered.

He had now to set a troop of boys running races, now to arrange another rustic dance.