GO AND SEE HER.
Love's very pain is sweet.
Miss Churchill was not allowed to indulge long in the luxury of solitude. Her mother had scarcely left her before there was a well-known knock at the hall door, followed after a few moments' interval by a short, intimate tap at the door of the sitting-room, and Adèle rose from her sofa and held out both hands eagerly to greet her cousin.
Perhaps he did not respond with sufficient warmth to her impulsive welcome, for the light of pleasure died quickly out of her face, she sank languidly into a chair and plunged headlong into commonplaces. "Are you going to Lady C——'s to-night, Arthur?" she asked; "I hear there's to be some first-rate music."
"That means, I suppose, that you and Aunt Ellen want an escort."
"That means nothing of the kind, Arthur. Surely mamma is old enough to take care of herself and me without your assistance."
"Pray don't take offence at such a small thing, Adèle. They say, you know, that people who take offence lightly are in want of a real grievance."
"Heaven knows I needn't look far for a grievance when you are concerned," said Adèle bitterly.
"You are the most forbearing of your sex, my fair cousin," returned he with provoking coolness. "In humble emulation of your patience behold me a willing listener to this list of grievances."
He spoke with a half smile, then threw himself back in an arm-chair and assumed an appearance of rapt attention; but Adèle turned away to hide a treacherous tear. "I wonder how it is that we never meet without quarrelling now," she said plaintively.