“Who told you I was to be married?” simpered Becky.
“I didn’t have to be told,” Lettice replied teasingly; “it is a self-evident fact. Are we to have a dance? So we are. With pleasure, Tyler.” And leaving Becky, Lettice was led out upon the floor. She longed, yet hesitated, to ask her partner when he had heard from his cousin, and where was he? But all of a sudden her heart stood still, for there in close converse with her father stood her comrade in many a perilous hour. He looked grave and was talking earnestly. Lettice, so confused that she forgot her steps, turned the wrong person, to the amusement of her friends. “Who could ever suppose that Lettice Hopkins would forget a dance?” cried one. So she recovered herself and took better heed to the figures of the Cauliflower, and at the end of the dance was led back to her seat, her eager little heart beating fast. Why did he not come and speak to her? And O dear, why should her father detain him? Did he mean that when he was separated from her but by the distance of a few feet, he was still to keep his promise to avoid her? Common politeness would forbid that. Surely they were talking longer than was necessary, and accounts of battles and such things would keep till another time. Yet, perhaps it was she of whom they were talking, and the thought made her heart beat even faster.
Presently her father looked over to where she sat and smiled at her; then he spoke a few words to his companion and both came toward her.
“I have been thanking this young gentleman for his several services done my daughter,” said Mr. Hopkins. “I was fortunate in having the opportunity.” Lettice looked up with a lovely smile and murmured a few conventional words of greeting.
“Lettice, my love,” said her father, gravely, “do you know that Mr. Baldwin is the same who helped our poor Tom to escape from the British ship? Mr. Baldwin did not know him as the same, under his assumed name, and, strange as it may seem, I never connected Mr. Ellicott Baldwin with the young lieutenant who came so nobly to Tom’s defence, and I promised Tom that if ever I had the chance I would try to pay his debt of gratitude; so, Mr. Baldwin, will you give my daughter your hand—for this dance?” The start and blush which followed these words caused Mr. Hopkins to smile.
“Would it tax your generosity beyond its limit to ask you to grant my request for a dance, Miss Lettice?” said Mr. Baldwin, looking at her with all his soul in his eyes.
She arose immediately, and for the rest of the evening she was enveloped in an atmosphere of joy. She forgot that she had not seen her lover, nor heard from him, in all these months. She was aware only of a new gladness, of how delightful it was to have him near her. She did not know she could be so glad. Once Betty whispered as she passed them, “You look as happy as the bride herself, Letty.”
Lettice for answer made a little mouth at her. She felt all her youth and buoyancy returning to her, as she found herself once more in the company of this beloved one and surrounded by the merry friends of her childhood. To all who knew her she was the old Lettice of the days before the war, and her pretty, innocent coquetries but added to her charm.
“Shall you remain long in the neighborhood?” Mr. Baldwin asked.
“No, we only came down for the wedding. I do not know what Brother William and Betty will do; Uncle Tom wants them to stay at Sylvia’s Ramble till their new home is built, but I shall probably go back to town with my father. I have not heard his plans; we have been so busy with the wedding. Is not Patsey a sweet bride, and does not Cousin Joe look as if he were in the seventh heaven? They have been such a devoted pair of lovers that every one is the more interested in them, especially as we came so near to losing Cousin Joe.”