She gave him a bright little look. “Had you been with Miss Stuyvesant, and she had expressed herself as I have done, you would have said, ‘Miss Fairchild is to be envied,’ and you would have been nearer the truth than now. Cicely’s friendship is to mine what an unbroken mirror is to a little racing brook. It reflects but one image, while mine—” She could not go on. How could she explain to this stranger that Cicely’s heart was undivided in its regard, while hers owned allegiance to more than her bosom friend.
“If I were with Miss Stuyvesant now,” he declared, too absorbed in his own ideas to notice the break in hers, “I should still say in face of this friendship, ‘Miss Stuyvesant is to be envied.’ I have no mind for more than one thought to-day,” exclaimed he, with a look that made her tremble.
There are some men who never know in what field to stay the current of their impetuosity: Clarence Ensign did. He said no more than this of all that was seething in his mind and heart. He felt that he must prove himself a man, before he exercised a man’s privilege. Besides, his temperament was mercurial, and never remained long under the bondage of a severe thought, or an impressive tone of mind. He worshipped the lofty, but it was with tabor and cymbal and high-sounding lute. A climb over the stile at the foot of the hill was enough to restore him to himself. It was therefore with merry eyes and laughing lips that they approached the house and entered Miss Belinda’s presence.
There are some persons whose prerogative it is to carry sunshine with them wherever they go. Clarence Ensign was one of these. Without an effort, without any display of incongruous hilarity, he always succeeded by the mere joyousness of his own nature, in calling forth all that was bright and enjoyable in others. When therefore they stepped into the quaint old-fashioned parlor, all prepared to receive them, Paula was not surprised to perceive it brighten, and her aunts’ faces grow cheerful and smiling. Who could meet Clarence Ensign’s laughing eye and not smile? What did astonish her, however, was the sight of an elegant basket of hot-house lowers perched on a table in the centre of the room. It made her pause, and cast looks of inquiry at the demure countenance of Miss Abby, and the quietly satisfied expression of her more thoughtful aunt.
“A remembrance from the city!” said Mr. Ensign gracefully. “I thought it might help to recall some happy hours to you.”
With a swelling of the heart which she could not understand, she leaned over the ample cluster of roses and heliotrope. She felt as though she could embrace them; they were more than flowers, they were the visible emblem of all she had missed, and for which she had longed these many months.
“I seem to receive the whole in the part,” said she.
He may or may not have understood her, but he saw she was gratified, and that was sufficient. The afternoon flew by on wings of light. Miss Belinda, who was not accustomed to holidays, but who thoroughly appreciated them when they came, entered into the conversation with zest; while Miss Abby’s unconscious expressions of pleasure were too naïve not to add to, rather than detract from the general enjoyment. The twilight, with its good-bye, came all too soon.
“I have a request to make before I go,” said Mr. Ensign. He was standing alone with Paula in the embrasure of the window, a few moments before his departure. “When we see a flower nodding on a ledge above our heads, we long for it; I have heard you talk of friendship, and a great desire has seized me. Miss Fairchild will you be my friend?”
She gave him a startled glance that, however, soon settled into a mellow radiant look of sympathy and pleasure.