“Oh, but I love waiting upon people!” There was no denying that this praiseworthy ejaculation was uttered chiefly because its author hoped that it might advance her in the good graces of her benefactress, but it was also accidentally and incidentally true. Bonnybell was one of those born obliging and serviable; and her terrible education had at least had the merit of developing these qualities in her. She added humbly, “But if it fidgets you—either of you—to see me capering round, please say so, and I will try to sit still and be waited on.”
She was rewarded by a look that was almost benign.
“Is it so difficult to you to sit still?”
Edward smiled slightly too, a sudden senseless warmth, for which he at once chid himself, about his heart at these signs that his womenkind were beginning to “get on.”
“I used to wait hand and foot upon——”
She broke off, looking down; and Camilla’s conscience—always too painfully active for her own or her surroundings’ comfort—gave her a smart stab.
The poor child was—thanks to her, Camilla’s, severity—afraid to mention her own mother. She made her amends at once; but even the suavity of Camilla was gruff, and her “It is a fault on the right side, but to night I think I had rather you would keep quiet!” though received with the pretty gratitude of one led by rosy chains into the way she had been seeking provoked in the young stranger’s mind the inward comment, “What a surly old camel it is! I always heard that they were odious-tempered animals.” But her meek face gave no slightest indication of this reflection; and she sat down docilely, nor made any further protest against the host’s ministrations, beyond an occasional glance of deprecating gratitude when he offered her anything particularly appetizing, followed by a furtive peep at Mrs. Tancred, to ensure her not having noticed and thought too affectionate this proof of thankfulness.
The evening was halfway towards bedtime, and Bonnybell, lulled in a false security, was capering down the long morning-room with biscuit held aloft, in tantalizing education of Jock, pleased and pleasing, when the topic she had been dreading broke upon her ear.
“I hear that you paid the Dower House a visit this afternoon?”
The slender whiteness of the raised arm dropped to its owner’s side, and with a surprised and dishonest grab Jock mastered a practically “unearned increment.”