“Did he do that? He didn’t mean it; he was only teasing. Law me, Rhoda, he’s teased me nearly to death ever since I was born. There never was such a tease, nor such a dear boy, so all the girls say. No one can stay angry with him very long. He would be distressed to death if he thought he had really hurt your feelings. I never can stay angry with him.”
“I can.”
“Oh, well, I’ll ride back and tell him. Becky Lowe will be glad enough that you are not going. I will stop by for Becky, and we can all go together.”
She again mounted her horse, calling back as she rode off: “Better change your mind. You’ll miss a lot of fun.” At the gate which a little darkey scrambled to open for her, she stopped and called again, “Rhoda, Rhoda, come to the steps.” Rhoda hesitated, but came slowly forward. “Somebody said she’d bet a sixpence that you wouldn’t go with James,” Lettice said.
“Who was it?”
“Becky Lowe.” And Lettice rode off, leaving Rhoda half angry, and wholly uncertain as to whether she did not regret her decided refusal.
Within the next half-hour she was sure that she did regret it. There was something very fascinating in this pleasure-seeking life of these care-free Marylanders, who gave little thought for the morrow, and gathered their delights without any compunctions, and never questioned whether, for the sake of practising self-denial, it was a duty to stay at home from any entertainment which might offer. “No one will care whether I stay or not,” Rhoda told herself. “They will call me stiff and unsociable, and will be glad they are rid of me, perhaps; but—I needn’t have had much to say to James if I had gone, and indeed, I might have found a way to punish him.” She sighed, and sat with rather a melancholy expression, looking out upon the sparkling blue waters of the bay.
Her revery was broken in upon by a voice saying cheerily, “Hurry up, Miss Rhoda, I’m afraid I’m late, but I had to go around by the mill.”
Rhoda arose. “Didn’t Lettice tell you?” she asked in some confusion.
“That you didn’t mean to go? Yes, but I knew you wouldn’t be so hard-hearted as to cheat me out of an evening’s pleasure, not but that it would be a very great pleasure to stay here with you.”