He saw, too, how Geoffrey’s countenance lighted, how his eyes glowed as he turned to look down upon that fair, upturned face, while the glad smile that wreathed his handsome mouth, told something of the joy which this meeting afforded him also.
Everet Mapleson read these signs as plainly as he would have read a printed page, and he knew that the young man loved the fair girl with all the strength of his manly nature, and the knowledge made him grind his teeth in silent rage.
But Mr. Huntress spoke to him just then, and he was obliged to turn his glance away from those two central figures, which were now moving out of the room together, and answer him.
Mr. Huntress was more and more impressed every moment that there must be kindred blood in the veins of these two young men, and he was resolved to learn the truth.
But he was destined to be disappointed, for Everet Mapleson repeated about the same story, with some additions, that he had already told Gladys, and there seemed no possibility of there being any relationship between them.
“My father was a colonel in the Confederate Army during the war,” Everet said, in reply to his companion’s query, “and my home, with the exception of a short residence abroad, has always been in the South.”
“And is your mother also a Southerner?”
Everet smiled, for he knew well enough what these questions meant.
“Oh, yes; she and my father were second cousins, and they were married in 1853.”
“Ah! in ’53,” remarked Mr. Huntress, reflectively; “and was that Colonel Mapleson’s first marriage?”