“I dare say,” said Frances, “that Edmund was in the secret, and that he just came on before to be a part of the surprise.”
Julia looked at him to see if this were true, but the question her eyes had intended to ask was forgotten, something in the expression of his producing a sad confusion of ideas just at the moment.
“I am sure he surprised me in a most especial manner,” drawled out Lady Morven. “And quite astounded me,” said Graham, in exactly the same tone. “Forgetting, I was not the fortunate tenant of a repose chair, I had a narrow escape of falling through this jessamine, and going over the immeasurable cliff!”
“Fye, don’t talk so, you creature,” said Lady Morven.
“I was more surprised than any one else, I am sure,” said Miss Morven; “if I had not caught hold of this rose bush, and pricked all my fingers, I should certainly have gone over!”
“And I, if it had not been for this sweet-briar, that has scratched all the back of my neck!”
“And I, only for this honeysuckle, though one branch broke off, and frightened me so!”
“And I, I’m sure, if Mr. Gordon had not just put out his arm and saved me!” Thus had all the Misses Morven escaped. “The ladies mean, that Captain Montgomery is the most agreeable part of the surprise,” said the Earl, good humouredly. The Misses Morven tittered assent. Frances questioned him as to how his joining them had really happened.
He gave as circumstantial an account of his morning adventure as the flutter of his spirits would permit. When he described the situation of his late couche, and how he had started to his feet, without remembering where he was, Lady Arandale seriously reprimanded him for his thoughtlessness. All the Misses Morven were clamorous; Lady Morven said he might really have fallen on the centre of the luncheon table, and frightened them all to death! Frances scolded him with tears in her eyes. Julia alone did not speak, but she looked round, became pale, and the next moment red. The blood rushed from and to the heart of Edmund with a corresponding ebb and flow. After a pause, as though to change the too engrossing subject, thus implied by the silence of both, he asked her abruptly, if she had sung since she had been at the Craigs? One song had been attempted, at Lady Arandale’s particular request, to try the effect of an echo.
Luncheon ended, the whole party proceeded towards the handsome castellated mansion already mentioned, to view the fine collection of pictures it contained.