It was near morning when the party broke up. Celeste—who always shared Gipsy's room when at the Hall—sought her couch, and soon closed her weary blue eyes in blissful slumbers.
That night, in the dreams of Louis, the dark, resplendent face of Minnette was forgotten for a white-robed vision with a haunting pair of blue eyes. And Minnette—in the calm light of the stars, she trod up and down her apartment until morning broke over the hill-tops, with a wild anguish at her heart she had never before known.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
"THE OLD, OLD STORY."
"I have loved thee, thou gentlest, from a child,
And borne thine image with me o'er the sea—
Thy soft voice in my soul! Speak! oh, yet live for me!"
Hemans.
gay party gathered around the breakfast-table at Sunset Hall the next morning.
There was Mrs. Oranmore—fair, fragile, but still pretty; then Mrs. Gower, over-shadowing the rest with her large proportions until they all shrank into skeletons beside her, with the exception of the squire, who was in a state of roaring good humor. There was Mrs. Doctor Nicholas Wiseman—our own little Gipsy—as usual, all life, bustle and gayety, keeping up a constant fire of repartee—laughing and chatting unceasingly, poor little elf! to drown thought.