“Oh, I’d rather walk; but it is not necessary for you to go with me. The Adams live next to us. I can go with them.”
“I’d laugh,” was Herbert’s answer, while Fred turned away without a word, and Louie did not see him again until the party was over and the carriages taking the city guests to the station were rolling down the avenue, and the other people were saying good-night.
As the son of the house, Herbert felt obliged to wait until the last guest was gone, so that it was after twelve o’clock when Louie was making her adieus, with Herbert at her side, ready to accompany her home.
“I thought you came in my carriage. Why don’t it take you home?” the judge asked, not quite pleased that his son should be the escort, on a half-mile walk, to this girl, who, if she had been instrumental in saving his bank, was still the daughter of Tom Grey, and far beneath him in the social scale.
“She prefers to walk, and so do I,” Herbert replied, taking Louie’s arm and leading her to the door, where they found Fred Lansing.
Offering his hand to Louie, he said: “I hope you will feel no bad effects from all the excitement and dissipation. If I may, I will call in the afternoon to inquire how you are. Good-by, and pleasant dreams. I rather envy you the walk. It is what one needs after hours of heat and exertion.”
“Why don’t you come, too?” sprang to Louie’s lips, but she repressed it as something unmaidenly; but her eyes had in them a wistful look as she raised them to Fred, who did not quite understand the expression, or know why he stood outside, watching the little figure in the white dress and cloak until it disappeared among the trees in the avenue.
CHAPTER X
ON THE GREY PIAZZA
When Herbert left the house for that moonlight walk with Louie, he had no idea of doing what he finally did do. He felt elated that he had outwitted Fred, who he was sure had intended seeing Louie home, in the carriage, most likely, if he did say the walk was what one needed after so much heat and excitement. He might have added dancing, too, and such dancing—more like a bear than a man, Herbert thought, and wondered how Louie liked it.
She was very silent, while he, too, did not care to talk much at first. He was satisfied to have Louie to himself, away from all the cads who had dangled after her, and, more than all, away from Fred, who, he believed, had shown her more attention than he had shown in his life to all the girls he had known.