‘And has he been constant to her all these years? How nice!’ cried Mysie.
‘After a fashion,’ said Lady Merrifield. ‘He made me the receptacle of a good deal of youthful despair.’
‘All the lads did,’ said her husband.
‘But he got over it, and it seemed to have passed out of his life. However, he asked after the Whites as soon as we met him in London; and now he tells me that he never forgot Kalliope—her face always came between him and any one whom his mother threw in his way; and he came down here, knowing her history, and with the object of seeing her again.’
‘And he has not, till now?’
‘No. Besides the absolute need of keeping her quiet, it would not exactly do for him to visit her while she is alone with Maura at Cliff House, and I wished him first to see her casually amongst us, for I dreaded her not fulfilling his ideal.’
‘Oh!’
‘When I think of her at fourteen or fifteen, with that exquisite bloom and the floating wavy hair, I see a very different creature from what she is now.’
‘Peach or ivory carving,’ said Sir Jasper.
‘Yes; she is nobler, finer altogether, and has gained in countenance greatly; but he may not think so, and I should like her to be looking a little less ill.’