“Mind it, dear lady?” cried the young man. “I delight in it. It ‘s just what I like.”
“Ah, she ‘s very peculiar!” sighed Mrs. Vivian.
“She is strange—yes. But I think I understand her a little.”
“You must come back to-morrow, then.”
“I hope to have many to-morrows!” cried Bernard as he took his departure.
CHAPTER XXIII
And he had them in fact. He called the next day at the same hour, and he found the mother and the daughter together in their pretty salon. Angela was very gentle and gracious; he suspected Mrs. Vivian had given her a tender little lecture upon the manner in which she had received him the day before. After he had been there five minutes, Mrs. Vivian took a decanter of water that was standing upon a table and went out on the balcony to irrigate her flowers. Bernard watched her a while from his place in the room; then she moved along the balcony and out of sight. Some ten minutes elapsed without her re-appearing, and then Bernard stepped to the threshold of the window and looked for her. She was not there, and as he came and took his seat near Angela again, he announced, rather formally, that Mrs. Vivian had passed back into one of the other windows.
Angela was silent a moment—then she said—
“Should you like me to call her?”