“Shall I ring for mamma and Cary? they are dressing, I know, but will be quite annoyed if you go before they come down.”
“You must not inconvenience them on my account,” said Roland, eagerly. “I'm certain,” added he, smiling, “you are not afraid to receive me alone.”
She hung down her head, and partly averting it, murmured a scarcely audible “No.”
Cashel, who had evidently never calculated on his careless remark being taken thus seriously, looked silly and uncomfortable for a few seconds. There is a terrible perversity sometimes in our natures; we are disposed to laugh occasionally at times when nothing could be more ill-timed or unsuitable; and so, at moments when we would give anything in the world for some commonplace theme to hang phrases on, we cannot, for the life of us, originate one.
“You've not ridden out, I think, since we came?” said Roland, at last, but with an air of sudden despair at his own stupidity.
“No. We have driven out once or twice; but—but—”
“Pray finish,” said he, with a persuasive look as he spoke.
“I was going to say that your horses are so spirited, that I was really afraid to trust myself, and the more so as Miss Meek is so wild and so reckless.”
“Never think of riding with her, Let me be your chaperon,—shall we say to-morrow? I 've got the gentlest creature that was ever mounted.”
“Oh, I know her; that sweet white Arab I saw the groom exercising yesterday?”