“Oh, by Jove! I know I' m very slow sort of fellow as a ladies' man; have none of the small talents of those foreigners; couldn't tell Mozart from Verdi; nor, though I can see when a woman is well togged, could I tell you the exact name of any one part of her dress.”
“If you really did know all these, and talked of them, I might have found you very tiresome,” said she, in that half-careless voice she used when seeming to think aloud. “And you,” asked she, suddenly, as she turned her eyes fully upon him,—“and you, are you to be emancipated then,—are you going to leave us?”
“As to that,” replied he, in deep embarrassment, “there 'a a sort of hitch in it I ought, if I did the right thing, to be on my way to Italy now, to see Lackington,—my brother, I mean. I came abroad for that; but Gr—your father, I should say—induced me to join him, and so, with one thing and the other, here I am, and that's really all I know about it.”
“What a droll way to go through life!” said she, with one of her low, soft laughs.
“If you mean that I have n't a will of my own, you 're all wrong,” said he, in some irritation. “Put me straight at my fence, and see if I won't take it. Just say, 'A. B., there's the winning-post,' and mark whether I won't get my speed up.”
What a strange glance was that which answered this speech! It implied no assent; as little did it mean the reverse. It was rather the look of one who, out of a maze of tangled fancies, suddenly felt recalled to life and its real interests. To poor Beecher's apprehension it simply seemed a sort of half-compassionate pity, and it made his cheek tingle with wounded pride.
“I know,” muttered he to himself, “that she thinks me a confounded fool; but I ain't. Many a fellow in the ring made that mistake, and burned his fingers for it after.”
“Well,” said she, after a moment or so of thought, “I am ready; at least, I shall be ready very soon. I 'll tell Annette to pack up and prepare for the road.”
“I wish I could get you to have some better opinion of me, Miss Lizzy,” said he, seriously. “I'd give more than I 'd like to say, that you 'd—you 'd—”
“That I'd what?” asked she, calmly.