“Oh, Charlie, dear, what you did just now was so nice, and has made me feel so queer; do find an early opportunity of telling me all about it.”
Very few minutes sufficed to finish my toilet and bring me to the breakfast table.
“Why, Charlie,” broke out my mother, “what is this horrid dream?”
“I can hardly tell you, my dear mother, it was so confused; but I was threatened to be murdered by horrid-looking men, and at last taken to high rocks and thrown down. The agony and fright awoke me, screaming, and all over perspiration. I could not sleep for hours after, even though I hid my head under the clothes.”
“Poor child,” said Mrs. Benson, who was quietly eating her breakfast. “What a fright you must have had.”
“Yes, ma’am, and at the same time, as I awoke with a scream, I was afraid I might have disturbed you, for all at once I remembered I was no longer in mamma’s room, but next door to you. I hope I did not wake you?”
“Oh, no, my dear boy; I never heard you, or I should have got up to see what was the matter.”
So it passed off, and no further observation was made about it, but I once caught Mrs. Benson’s eye, and the expression and a slight nod was a sign of approval of my story. After breakfast we went as usual to the schoolroom. I thought Miss Evelyn was kinder in her manner to me than usual. She made me stand close to her when saying my lessons, occasionally letting her left arm fall round my neck, while she pointed to my book with the finger of the right, and there was always a certain pressure before raising her arm again. These little caresses were frequently repeated, as if she were wishing either to accustom me or herself to a habit of it, so as, doubtless, gradually to increase them to something more definite. I could not help feeling what a different effect these endearments would have had twenty-four hours earlier; but now, momentarily satisfied passions, and the new love that had seized me for Mrs. B., prevented at first the inevitable cockstand that would otherwise have been produced by these approaches of Miss Evelyn. Not that I had given up all desire to possess her. On the contrary, my last night’s instruction only made me more anxious to have Miss Evelyn too. Therefore, I by no means repulsed her present caresses, but looked up innocently in her face, and smiled affectionately. In the afternoon she was more expansive, and drew me to her by her arm round my waist, and pressed me gently to her person, saying how well I was attending to my lessons, and how sorry she was to have been obliged to punish me so severely the week before.
“You will be a good boy in future, will you not, dear Charlie?”
“Oh, yes; as long as you are so kind to me. I love you so much, and you are so beautiful when you speak so kindly to me.”