During luncheon, Mrs. Gower, seeing that her companions seem too full of busy thought to be talkative, exerts herself keeping up a constant flow of little nothings, requiring no replies; her spirits became less depressed by the effort to keep sorrow at bay, her pleasant walk to town has really been a tonic to her. And now the knowledge that the Coles may come in at any moment; that a handsome face, so full of power and sympathy with herself, will be here also; with the meeting by the Smyths and herself of the wife of their old friend Charlie Cole; all this is a powerful stimulant to her, as well as the little surprise and excitement for the quiet, fair-haired girl, with tear-stained cheeks, on her left.
"Would you like a trip down to Florida with me, Miss Crew. Orange groves and outdoor blossoms would be as a glimpse of Paradise, with one's eyes full of snow flakes."
"Yes; I should like to go anywhere with you, Mrs. Gower; that is," she adds, glancing, timidly, at Mr. Dale, already now he knows her history, turning to him as a child to a parent; "that is, if it would be best for me."
"Do you really contemplate this trip; if so, and you do not leave for a few days, I think it would be the very thing for Miss—, for this little lady," he says; thinking she is merely running away to escape the remainder of the winter.
"I do really intend going," she said, slowly, and with an unconscious sigh.
He looks at her earnestly, thinking there is some latent reason, when his wife, making a moue at him, accompanied by an almost imperceptible shake of the head, when, Mrs. Gower, changing the subject, says: "Did you see how Professor Herkomer has been lauding the Americans, Mr. Dale?"
"I did; but I only agree with him in part."
"Not so with me; I am at one with him, to the echo; but I should tell you I have only seen extracts from his expressed views, in which he says, 'he was impressed by their keen, nervous temperament, keen intelligence and ambition to excel;' and when he says America will become a leader of art in the nations as of nearly everything else."
"I don't go with him that length," he said, shaking his head; "give me the Old World for art in the present, as well as in the future."
"In the present, I agree with you, I think; but their very ambition to excel, their-go-ahead-ness, to coin a word, will, I feel convinced, gain them first place in the future."