These preparations completed, all gathered on the porch and sat there, the gentlemen reading, the ladies crocheting or merely chatting to pass away the time till the dinner-bell should summon them to the table. But a carriage was seen approaching from the direction of the town.
“I wonder, now, if it isn’t our party,” said Calhoun, and even as he spoke it drove up and stopped before the gate; seeing which he, Harold, and Herbert sprang up and hastened forward to assist the travellers to alight; for it was indeed the expected party of relatives from the South.
The gentlemen were all well and in fine spirits, but Marian was much exhausted and glad to be taken directly to bed. The doctor seemed very careful of his patient, the other two equally solicitous for her comfort; as were Mrs. Dinsmore, Elsie, and Violet, all of whom were ready to do for her anything in their power.
All she wanted, however, was a little light nourishment, then a long sound sleep, and the next morning she was able to occupy a hammock swung upon the porch, where she passed her time listening to reading, generally by the doctor, who rarely left her long for the first day or two, chatting with the cousins or sleeping; weakness and the sea-air having somewhat the effect of an opiate.
But both the air and the sleep did her great good, so that in a few days she was able to take short drives and even walks along the beach with the support of the arm of one or another of the gentlemen, oftener that of Arthur than any other. He watched over her with the care and tenderness of a mother, noticed the first sign of exhaustion, and it was always he who helped her up the stairs to her bedroom, not infrequently half-carrying her there.
All the older members of the family noticed his devotion and quietly remarked upon it among themselves.
“He is really in love with her, I think, but it seems to me the disparity of years is too great,” remarked Herbert one day when the matter was under discussion.
“Perhaps, laddie, when you come to be of his age you may see such matters in a different light,” said Mr. Lilburn in a fatherly tone and with a kindly smile at his young relative.
“As his mother did before him,” added Elsie, laying her hand affectionately in that of Herbert, who was as usual close at her side.
“Ah, mamma dear, I quite forgot at the moment that you had married one so much older than yourself. But my father was no common man.”