“All right,” answered the farmer, “but come in now and have something to eat. I fear it is too late to go down to the stables.”
“I will come over to-morrow and see the mare,” said John; “but thanks, very much, I can not go in now. Good-night Miss Churchill.”
Mr. Churchill hospitably pressed him to go into the house and have supper with them, but John declined. He felt somehow that he could not eat. He was too much excited, and those brief moments with May had moved him deeply. He had realized for the first time how dear she was to him; he knew now that he felt for her what he had never felt for any woman before.
They shook hands and parted, and John walked home alone in the moonlight. There was a delicious sense of life and love in his heart, and he smiled softly as he went on.
“I think she likes me,” he was thinking; “my little country sweetheart—my country sweetheart.”
He repeated these words to himself again and again. And again and again also he mentally saw the girl’s lovely profile on which the moonlight glimmered as she stood in the window. It was a picture in his mind’s eye which never again faded away. There are such pictures that Time’s hand can not touch. And this was one of them to John Temple; the sweet girlish face glorified by the pale white beams.
When he reached the Hall dinner was over, but we may be sure the heir was not allowed to suffer by this. The butler speedily spread a tempting repast before him, but John did not feel hungry still. He lit a cigar and went out on the terrace, and there his excitement sobered down. Other scenes rose up before him; other hours of passion and love.
“I am a fool,” he reflected; “a girl’s beautiful face has made me feel like a boy.”
In the meanwhile the girl with the beautiful face was receiving a very unpleasant surprise. She had gone into the house to order her father’s supper with a new feeling of joy and radiant hope glowing in her heart.
“He loves me,” was the sweet thought that flushed her smooth cheeks, and made her bright eyes sparkle. May never doubted this after those brief moments in the moonlight. And she felt a modest pride in the thought. That this good-looking well-born gentleman should care for her made her very happy. He was the first man also that she had really liked. So pretty a girl, of course, got admirers on every side. But admiration does not necessarily win love. A woman may feel flattered when her heart is totally untouched.