“What do you mean?” asked Anna, while Mrs. Livingstone’s angry frown bade her son keep silence,
Filial obedience, however, was not one of John Jr.’s cardinal virtues, and in a few words, he repeated what Aunt Milly had told him, adding aside to Durward, “This explains the extreme rosiness which so much offended your lordship. When next you see her, you’ll change your mind.”
Suddenly remembering that his grandmother had not been introduced, he now presented her to Durward. The Noble’s blood had long been forgotten, but grandma was never at a loss for a subject, and she commenced talking notwithstanding Carrie’s efforts to keep her still.
“Now I think on’t, Car’line,” said she at last, turning to her granddaughter, “now I think on’t, what made you propose to have my dinner sent up to my room. I hain’t et there but once this great while, and that was the day General Fontaine’s folks were here, and Matilda thought I warn’t able to come down.”
Durward’s half-concealed smile showed that he understood it all, while John Jr., in his element when his grandmother was talking, managed, to lead her on, until she reached her favorite theme—Nancy Scovandyke. Here a look from her son silenced her, and as dinner was just then over, Durward missed of hearing that remarkable lady’s history.
Late in the afternoon, as the family were sitting upon the piazza, ’Lena joined them. Her headache had passed away, leaving her face a shade whiter than usual. The flush was gone from her forehead and nose, but mindful of Durward’s remark, the roses deepened on her cheek, which only increased her loveliness.
“I acknowledge that I was wrong—your cousin is beautiful,” whispered Durward to Carrie, who, mentally hating the beauty which had never before struck her so forcibly, replied in her softest tones, “I knew you would, and I hope you’ll be equally ready to forgive her for winning hearts only to break them, for with that face how can she help it?”
“A handsome face is no excuse for coquetry,” answered Durward; “neither can I think Miss Rivers guilty of it. At all events, I mean to venture a little nearer,” and before Carrie could frame a reasonable excuse for keeping him at her side, he had crossed ever and taken a seat by ’Lena, with whom he was soon in the midst of an animated conversation, his surprise each moment increasing at the depth of intellect she displayed, for the beauty of her mind was equal to that of her person. Had it not been for the remembrance of Carrie’s insinuations, his admiration would have been complete. But anything like coquetry he heartily despised, and one great secret of his liking for Carrie, was her evident freedom from that fault. As yet he had seen nothing to condemn in ’Lena’s conduct. Wholly unaffected, she talked with him as she would have talked with any stranger, and still there was in her manner a certain coldness for which he could not account.
“Perhaps she thinks me not worth the winning,” thought he, and in spite of his principles, he erelong found himself exerting all his powers to please and interest her.
About tea-time, Captain Atherton rode into the yard, and simultaneously with his arrival, Mr. Everett came also. Immediately remembering what he had heard, Durward, in his eagerness to watch ’Lena, failed to note the crimson flush on Anna’s usually pale cheek, as Malcolm bent over her with his low-spoken, tender words of welcome, and when the phthisicky captain, claiming the privilege of an old friend, kissed the blushing Anna, Durward in his blindness attributed the scornful expression of ’Lena’s face to a feeling of unwillingness that any save herself should share the attentions even of the captain! And in this impression he was erelong confirmed.