Volume I Part 14 (1/2)
”Were you not together?” said Mrs. Carleton. - ”Where were you, Guy?”
”Following the sport another way, Ma'am; I had very good success, too.”
”What's the total?” said Mr. Evelyn. ”How much game did you bag?”
”Really, Sir, I didn't count. I can only answer for a bagful.”
”Ladies and gentlemen!” cried Rossitur, bursting forth, ?
”What will you say when I tell you that Mr. Carleton deserted me and the sport in a most unceremonious manner, and that he, ? the cynical philosopher, the reserved English gentleman, the gay man of the world, ? you are all of 'em by turns, aren't you, Carleton? ? _he!_ ? has gone and made a very cavaliero servente of himself to a piece of rusticity, and spent all to- day in helping a little girl pick up chestnuts.”
”Mr. Carleton would be a better man if he were to spend a good many more days in the same manner,” said that gentleman, drily enough. But the entrance of dinner put a stop to both laughter and questioning for a time, all of the party being well disposed to their meat.
When the pickerel from the lakes, and the poultry and half- kept joints had had their share of attention, and a pair of fine wild ducks were set on the table, the tongues of the party found something to do besides eating.
”We have had a very satisfactory day among the Shakers, Guy,”
said Mrs. Carleton; ”and we have arranged to drive to Kenton to-morrow ? I suppose you will go with us?”
”With pleasure, mother, but that I am engaged to dinner about five or six miles in the opposite direction.”
”Engaged to dinner! ? what with this old gentleman where you went last night? And you too, Mr. Rossitur?”
”I have made no promise, Ma'am; but I take it I must go.”
”Vexatious! Is the little girl going with us, Guy?”
”I don't know yet ? I half apprehend, yes; there seems to be a doubt in her grandfather's mind, not whether he can let her go, but whether he can keep her, and that looks like it.”
”Is it your little cousin who proved the successful rival of the woodc.o.c.k to-day, Charlton?” said Mrs. Evelyn. ”What is she?”
”I don't know, Ma'am, upon my word. I presume Carleton will tell you she is something uncommon and quite remarkable.”
”Is she, Mr. Carleton?”
”What, Ma'am?”
”Uncommon?”
”Very.”
”Come? That _is_ something, from _you_,” said Rossitur's brother officer, Lieut. Thorn.
”What's the uncommonness?” said Mrs. Thorn, addressing herself rather to Mr. Rossitur as she saw Mr. Carleton's averted eye; ? ”Is she handsome, Mr. Rossitur?”
”I can't tell you, I am sure, Ma'am. I saw nothing but a nice child enough, in a calico frock, just such as one would see in any farm-house. She rushed into the room when she was first called to see us, from somewhere in distant regions, with an immense iron ladle a foot and a half long in her hand, with which she had been performing unknown feats of housewifery; and they had left her head still encircled with a halo of kitchen smoke. If, as they say, 'coming events cast their shadows before,' she was the shadow of supper.”
”O, Charlton, Charlton!” said Mrs. Evelyn, but in a tone of very gentle and laughing reproof, ? ”for shame! What a picture! and of your cousin!”
”Is she a pretty child, Guy?” said Mrs. Carleton, who did not relish her son's grave face.
”No, Ma'am ?something more than that.”