[CHAPTER XV.]
DID A SHADOW FROM THE FUTURE FALL OVER THAT YOUNG, DREAMING HEART?
"Like the changeful month of spring
Is my love, my lady-love;
Sunshine beams and glad birds sing,
Then a rain-cloud floats above:
So your moods change with the wind,
April-tempered lady-love;
All the sweeter to my mind,
You're a riddle, lady-love."
As Earle Winans took his seat by Ladybird in his elegant little phaeton, she stole a quick glance at his dark, handsome face, and wondered at the gravity of his thoughtful eyes. She did not know of the scene with Aura that afternoon, or she would have understood his mood.
He did not look at her nor speak to her for several minutes, and suddenly he heard a low, half-suppressed sob.
He turned to her quickly, exclaiming:
"What is the matter, Ladybird? You are not ill from your wetting?"
But a tempest of anger was swelling in the little beauty's breast, and her first words showed him the cause.
"You wouldn't care if I died, you great big coward!" she sobbed, and a pearly tear dropped from her long eyelash and splashed upon her cheek.
"Ladybird!" indignantly.