“How thankful I am to have Cherry restored to me I cannot say, and I do not feel convinced that there may not be care at hand with Gerald. The boy is in a reserved mood, very civil and amiable, but clearly holding back from confidence.”
“Does she see it?”
“Yes; but she fancies he bestows his confidence on Dolores Mohun, the girl from New Zealand, and resigns herself to be set aside. It is pretty well time that we went to meet her.”
For there was to be a dress rehearsal in the pavilion, to which certain spectators were to be admitted, chiefly as critics.
“Do you walk up the hill, Clem?”
“Yes, as long as I don’t go too fast. Go on if you are wanted, and I will follow. Cherry has sent the carriage for an invalid who cannot venture to be there all the day.”
“Let them wait. A walk with you is not to be wasted. Run on, Fely, tell them we are coming,” he added to his little Ariel, who had got lost in Jungle Beasts.
As they went up the hill together, Clement not sorry to lean on his brother’s arm, a dark woman of striking figure and countenance, though far from young, came up with them, accompanied by a stout, over-dressed man.
“That’s the cigar-shop woman,” said Lance, “the mother of our pretty little Miranda.”
“I wonder she chooses to show herself after her conviction,” said Clement.