"Did you think so?"
"Heaven forbid! but judging from my own heart, I wish, indeed—indeed——"
"What?"
"That you were as humble and as poor as the beggar-maid whom King Cophetua loved."
"Thank you, a very odd wish!" she said, with a low musical laugh.
"Oh, do not mock me!" he exclaimed bitterly—for no lover likes his heroics to be made a jest of; but no mockery was in the girl's heart; she felt as if dreaming; she only felt and knew that her lover was beside her, looking more manly and handsome, and more fascinating, than the first day they met; but she thought of her father and his lofty pride, and said with apparent firmness, yet with a gasp in her slender white throat,—
"I do not mock you—oh, never, never think that of me; but for pity's sake, talk no more in this strain; and do pull the boat in shore, for I see Miss Sampler is making signals of impatience."
Though her long lashes imparted a dreamy depth to the young girl's eyes, there were in the low, broad brow, firm lips, and clearly-cut nostrils, evidence of force of character and strength of resolution.
Derval understood the situation; he sighed, shipped his sculls, and pulled in silently, feeling that he had said enough to show that he loved her, and that she chid him not, he resigned her to her chaperone, and betook him, full of anxious thoughts, to the solitude of his room at the hotel; yet each felt that they must meet again, or that henceforward life would be a blank to them; and eye said this to eye as they parted on the shore.
It was rather a source of exasperation to Mrs. Hampton in her stately villa, that Derval should be so intimate with Lord Oakhampton and his daughter, while she and her son were not—were ignored, in fact; and this, with Derval's protracted residence at the hotel, caused no speculation among her friends and the gossips of the new settlement or watering-place; and, incited to mischief by his mother, Rookleigh Hampton began to scheme revenge; nor were Patty Fripp's ample and exulting expatiations on the rare beauty of Miss Hampton, and the great glory of Derval's boating expeditions with her, wanting as a spur on this occasion.