“What is your name?” he asked.
She tried to utter it, but, failing to make herself understood, the mother helped her to say, “Clara Aylesford Berwick.”
“Aylesford!” said Vance, thoughtfully. Then, gazing in the child’s face, he rejoined: “How strange! Her eyes are dissimilar. One is a decided gray, the other a blue.”
“Yes,” said Berwick; “she gets the handsome eye from me; the other from her mamma.”
“Conceited man! cease your trifling!” interposed the lady.
Vance picked up from the deck a little sleeve-button of gold and coral. It had been dropped in the child’s fall.
“This must belong to Miss Clara,” said Vance, “for it bears the initials C. A. B.”
The mother took it and fixed it in the little dimity pelisse which the child wore.
Hattie now offered to receive Miss Clara from Vance’s arms; but, with an utterance and gesture of remonstrance, the child signified she did not choose to be parted without a kiss; so he bent down and kissed her, while she threw her little arms about his neck. Then seeing the boy, who felt like a culprit for chasing her, she called him to her and gave him absolution by the same token. Thanking Vance for his service, Mr. Berwick walked away with Leonora.
“That’s a noble boy of yours, sir,” said Vance, addressing himself to Mr. Onslow.