‘Yes,’ said Albinia, saucily, ‘when that is what you go into society for.’
‘You have me there,’ he said, smiling; ‘but I must own how much I enjoyed coming back from the parsonage by myself. I am glad we brought that little Genevieve; she seems to be so perfectly in her element. I saw her amusing a set of little children in the prettiest, most animated way; and afterwards, when the young people were playing at some game, her gestures were so sprightly and graceful, that no one could look at the English girls beside her. Indeed I think she was making quite a sensation; your cousin seemed to admire her very much. If she were but in another station, she would shine anywhere.’
‘How much you have seen, Edmund!’
‘I have been a spectator, you an actor,’ he said, smiling.
Her quiescence did not long continue, for the poor people had begun to assemble on the gravel road before the front door to see the fireworks, and she hurried away to renew her acquaintance with her village friends, guessing at them in the dark, asking after old mothers and daughters at service, inquiring the names of new babies, and whether the old ones were at school, and excusing herself for having become ‘quite a stranger.’
In the midst—whish—hiss, with steady swiftness, up shot in the dark purple air the first rocket, bursting and scattering a rain of stars. There was an audible gasp in the surrounding homely world, a few little cries, and a big boy clutched tight hold of her arm, saying, ‘I be afeard.’ She was explaining away his alarms, when she heard her brother’s voice, and found her arm drawn into his.
‘Here you are, then,’ he said; ‘I thought I heard your voice.’
‘Oh! Maurice, I have hardly seen you. Let us have a nice quiet turn in the park together.’
He resisted, saying, ‘I don’t approve of parents and guardians losing themselves. What have you done with all your children?’
‘What have you done with yours?’ retorted she.