“For him, do you mean?” she asked, in a low voice.
Lady Bell stared at her, and her color came and went amusedly.
“What a strange child it is! For him? No, for me! And—yes, for him too. What right has he to pretend to be invincible? Do you think I shall succeed?”
Una looked at her with an aching heart.
“Yes,” she answered; “I think you will succeed.”
“What a flatterer it is!” said Lady Bell, playfully. “Hush! here he comes; half tamed already. Now for the first lesson,” and, to Una’s surprise she glided from the recess and was instantly lost in the crowd. A moment after Una saw her dancing with the duke.
She drew back into the shadow and watched Jack. He came along slowly, the ice in his hand, and looked around for Lady Bell, with astonishment and something like anger in his face for a moment. Then he saw her dancing with the duke in the center of the room, looked round for some place to put the ice down, and, seeing none convenient, gently pitched it, plate and all, into a fountain, to the considerable astonishment of the gold fish.
Then he sat down and thrusting his hands into his pockets, seemed lost in thought; his head thrown back, almost touched Una’s arm, and she wondered whether he would be glad or sorry, or simply indifferent, if she rose and stood before him, or called him by name.
Yes, there he sat, within reach of her hand. She had often dreamed of him as being near her, but it was no dream now.
An infinite longing to touch, to speak to him, possessed her, and if he would but turn and look at her as he had looked that morning by the lake!