“Yes, I suppose so; but I dare say you’ll laugh, Mr. Toosypegs, but it never seems so. I dream sometimes of the strangest things.” And Erminie’s soft violet eyes grew misty and dreamy as she spoke, as though gazing on something afar off.
“Good gracious! what do you dream, Miss Minnie? I’m sure I haven’t the least notion of laughing at all. I feel as serious as anything,” said Mr. Toosypegs, in all sincerity.
But Erminie, child as she was, shrunk from telling any one of the sweet, beautiful face of the lady who came to her so often in her dreams; and so, blushing slightly, she bent over her work in silence.
“Doesn’t young Germaine know who your father and mother were?” asked Mr. Toosypegs, after a while, seeing Erminie was not going to tell him about her dreams.
“No, Ray doesn’t know, either. Grandmother won’t tell, but he thinks I’m his cousin; I guess I am, too,” said Erminie, adopting the belief with the careless confidence of childhood.
“Well, you were born in England, anyway,” said Mr. Toosypegs, “for you were only a little baby, the size of that, when you left it,” holding his hand about an inch and a half above the floor. “Most likely you’re a gipsy, though—she’s a gipsy, you know,” added Mr. Toosypegs, in a mysterious whisper, pointing to the ceiling.
“Yes, I know,” said Erminie, with an intelligent nod; “I heard her tell Ray so; she used to tell him a good many things, but she never tells me anything. I guess she thinks I don’t love her, but I do. Did you ever see that Lord De Courcy?”
“No; but I saw his son, Lord Villiers, and his wife, Lady Maude. My gracious!” exclaimed Mr. Toosypegs, with an unexpected outburst of enthusiasm, “she was the handsomest woman in the world! I can’t begin to tell you how good-looking she was! If all the handsome women ever you saw were melted into one, they wouldn’t be near so good-looking as Lady Maude!”
“How I should like to see her!” said little Erminie, laying down her work with a wistful sigh. “Tell me about her, Mr. Toosypegs.”
“Well, she had long black curls, not like Miss Pet’s, you know, but long and soft; and the most splendid black eyes—go right straight through a fellow, easy! She was pale and sweet; I always used to think of white cream-candy whenever I saw her, Miss Minnie; and then her smile, it was just like an angel’s—not that I ever saw an angel, Miss Minnie,” said Mr. Toosypegs, qualifying his admission, reluctantly, “but they must have looked like her.”