'Nor ever will, Aunt Kitty. There are obstacles in the way. You must be granny, and mother, and sister and wife, and all my womankind, a little longer, if you please.' And he sat down fondly at her feet, on a footstool which had been his childish perch.
'Not distressed, you insensible boy?'
'Very happy about Isabel,' said he, turning to look at her with eyes dancing with merry mystification.
'A foolish girl not to like my Louis! I thought better of her; but I suppose my Lady has taught her to aim higher!'
'So she does,' said Louis, earnestly.
'Ungrateful girl! Why, Charlotte tells me you led her straight over the barricades, with cannon firing on you all the time!'
'But not Cupid.'
'Then, it is true! and you have really hurt yourself! And so pale! My poor boy—what is it? I must nurse you.'
'I had so little blood left, that a gnat of tolerable appetite could have made an end of me on Sunday, without more ado. But, instead of that, I had a good little Sister of Charity; and wasn't that alone worth getting a bullet through one's arm?'
Aunt Catharine was shuddering thankfully through the narration, when James came down, his brow unclouded, but his manner still agitated, as if a burthen had been taken away, and he hardly knew how to realize his freedom from the weight.