Volume Ii Part 34 (2/2)
”To-morrow morning.”
”That is too sudden a notice, Captain Rossitur,” said Mrs.
Evelyn. ”Fleda will hurry herself out of her colour, and then your mother will say there is something in sea-breezes that isn't good for her; and then she will never trust her within reach of them again ? which I am sure Miss Ringgan would be sorry for.”
Fleda took her note to the window, half angry with herself that a kind of banter, in which certainly there was very little wit, should have power enough to disturb her. But though the shaft might be a slight one, it was winged with a will; the intensity of Mrs. Evelyn's enjoyment in her own mischief gave it all the force that was wanting. Fleda's head was in confusion; she read her aunt's note three times over before she had made up her mind on any point respecting it.
”MY DEAREST FLEDA,
”Charlton is coming home for a day or two ? hadn't you better take the opportunity to return with him? I feel as if you had been long away, my dear child ? don't you feel so too? Your uncle is very desirous of seeing you; and as for Hugh and me, we are but half ourselves. I would not still say a word about your coming home if it were for your good to stay; but I fancy from something in Mrs. Evelyn's letter, that Queechy air will by this time do you good again; and opportunities of making the journey are very uncertain. My heart has grown lighter since I gave it leave to expect you. ? Yours, my darling,
R.
”P. S. ? I will write to Mrs. E. soon.”
”What string has pulled these wires that are twitching me home?” thought Fleda, as her eyes went over and over the words which the feeling of the lines of her face would alone have told her were unwelcome. And why unwelcome? ? ”One likes to be moved by fair means and not by foul,” was the immediate answer. ”And, besides, it is very disagreeable to be taken by surprise. Whenever in any matter of my staying or going, did aunt Lucy have any wish but my pleasure?” Fleda mused a little while; and then, with a perfect understanding of the machinery that had been at work, though an extremely vague and repulsed notion of the spring that had moved it, she came quietly out from her window and told Charlton she would go with him.
”But not to-morrow?” said Mrs. Evelyn, composedly. ”You will not hurry her off so soon as that Captain Rossitur?”
”Furloughs are the stubbornest things in the world, Mrs.
Evelyn; there is no spirit of accommodation about them. Mine lies between to-morrow morning, and one other morning some two days thereafter; and you might as soon persuade Atlas to change his place. Will you be ready, coz?”
”I will be ready,” said Fleda; and her cousin departed.
”Now, my dear Fleda,”' said Mrs. Evelyn, but it was with that funny face, as she saw Fleda standing thoughtfully before the fire; ”you must be very careful in getting your things together ?”
”Why, Mrs. Evelyn?”
”I am afraid you will leave something behind you, my love.”
”I will take care of that, Ma'am, and that I may, I will go and see about it at once.”
Very busy till dinner-time; she would not let herself stop to think about anything. At dinner, Mr. Evelyn openly expressed his regrets for her going, and his earnest wishes that she would at least stay till the holidays were over.
”Don't you know Fleda better, Papa,” said Florence, ”than to try to make her alter her mind? When she says a thing is determined upon, I know there is nothing to do but to submit with as good a grace as you can.”
”I tried to make Captain Rossitur leave her a little longer,”
said Mrs. Evelyn; ”but he says furloughs are immovable, and his begins to-morrow morning ? so he was immovable too. I should keep her notwithstanding, though, if her aunt Lucy hadn't sent for her.”
”Well, see what she wants, and come back again,” said Mr.
Evelyn.
”Thank you, Sir,” said Fleda, smiling gratefully; ”I think not this winter.”
”There are two or three of my friends that will be confoundedly taken aback,” said Mr. Evelyn, carefully helping himself to gravy.
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