“I am continually mistaking you for the bride, Lady Wyndover,” he said; “and, really, this has been so successful a performance that I am almost tempted to arrange a repetition for my own benefit. Would you be very much shocked if I were to propose to you after they have all gone?”
“Take care,” she retorted, with a delighted laugh; “I may hold you to your words. What would you do then?”
“Live happy ever afterward, of course,” he said, with his bland smile. “This sort of thing is terribly contagious. Look at Trafford and Esmeralda. Are they not enough to make any man and woman go and do likewise?”
“Ah, yes!” she sighed, gazing at them with a touch of envy; “but they are so young.”
“I think you are not too young to follow their example,” he said, blandly.
“Get your blushes ready, Esmeralda,” said Trafford. “There are going to be some speeches, and they are an awful ordeal. Look at poor Ffoulkes! I can see his hand trembling from here. He will upset that glass if he does not take care.”
The speeches were, fortunately, not long, and everybody declared them to be most brilliant efforts, from the few words spoken by the duke, in his thin, aristocratic voice, slightly quivering with emotion, to the stammering and broken sentences of the agonized Lord Ffoulkes, who was trembling with nervousness, though he had led a forlorn hope in one of our little wars without a tremor.
There was much laughter, more applause, and a delightful thrill of excitement, and then Lady Wyndover looked significantly at Esmeralda, and she and the bride-maids went to change the magnificent bridal-dress for a traveling costume.
More champagne flowed when the bride had left the room, and the laughter and talking grew louder; but Norman Druce, who had been as joyous as any one, suddenly became quiet and thoughtful. He sat for a few minutes staring vacantly at the table, and answering the remarks of the pretty girl beside him at random, until at last she said:
“I don’t believe you’re listening to a word I’m saying, Lord Druce. What is the matter? If you are really very much in love and can only think of her, whoever she may be, I will let you alone and talk to the bishop.”