'How do you do, Mr. Ducie?' she said. 'It is quite an age since I have seen you!'
'I have much to tell you, Miss Gilchrist,' I replied. 'May I sit down?'
For the artful girl, by sitting near the door, and the judicious use of her shawl, had contrived to keep a chair empty by her side.
She made room for me, as a matter of course, and the youths had the discretion to melt before us. As soon as I was once seated her fan flew out, and she whispered behind it:
'Are you mad?'
'Madly in love,' I replied; 'but in no other sense.'
'I have no patience! You cannot understand what I am suffering!' she said. 'What are you to say to Ronald, to Major Chevenix, to my aunt?'
Your aunt?' I cried, with a start. 'Peccavi! is she here?'
'She is in the card-room at whist,' said Flora.
'Where she will probably stay all the evening?' I suggested.
'She may,' she admitted; 'she generally does!'
'Well, then, I must avoid the card-room,' said I, 'which is very much what I had counted upon doing. I did not come here to play cards, but to contemplate a certain young lady to my heart's content--if it can ever be contented!--and to tell her some good news.'
'But there are still Ronald and the Major!' she persisted. 'They are not card-room fixtures! Ronald will be coming and going. And as for Mr. Chevenix, he--'
'Always sits with Miss Flora?' I interrupted. 'And they talk of poor St. Ives? I had gathered as much, my dear; and Mr. Ducie has come to prevent it! But pray dismiss these fears! I mind no one but your aunt.'
'Why my aunt?'
'Because your aunt is a lady, my dear, and a very clever lady, and, like all clever ladies, a very rash lady,' said I. 'You can never count upon them, unless you are sure of getting them in a corner, as I have got you, and talking them over rationally, as I am just engaged on with yourself! It would be quite the same to your aunt to make the worst kind of a scandal, with an equal indifference to my danger and to the feelings of our good host!'
'Well,' she said, 'and what of Ronald, then? Do you think HE is above making a scandal? You must know him very little!'
'On the other hand, it is my pretension that I know him very well!' I replied. 'I must speak to Ronald first--not Ronald to me--that is all!'
'Then, please, go and speak to him at once!' she pleaded. He is there--do you see?--at the upper end of the room, talking to that girl in pink.'
'And so lose this seat before I have told you my good news?' I exclaimed. 'Catch me! And, besides, my dear one, think a little of me and my good news! I thought the bearer of good news was always welcome! I hoped he might be a little welcome for himself! Consider! I have but one friend; and let me stay by her! And there is only one thing I care to hear; and let me hear it!'
'Oh, Anne,' she sighed, 'if I did not love you, why should I be so uneasy? I am turned into a coward, dear! Think, if it were the other way round--if you were quite safe and I was in, oh, such danger!'
She had no sooner said it than I was convicted of being a dullard. 'God forgive me, dear!' I made haste to reply. 'I never saw before that there were two sides to this!' And I told her my tale as briefly as I could, and rose to seek Ronald. 'You see, my dear, you are obeyed,' I said.
She gave me a look that was a reward in itself; and as I turned away from her, with a strong sense of turning away from the sun, I carried that look in my bosom like a caress. The girl in pink was an arch, ogling person, with a good deal of eyes and teeth, and a great play of shoulders and rattle of conversation. There could be no doubt, from Mr. Ronald's attitude, that he worshipped the very chair she sat on. But I was quite ruthless. I laid my hand on his shoulder, as he was stooping over her like a hen over a chicken.
'Excuse me for one moment, Mr. Gilchrist!' said I.
He started and span about in answer to my touch, and exhibited a face of inarticulate wonder.
'Yes!' I continued, 'it is even myself! Pardon me for interrupting so agreeable a tete-a-tete, but you know, my good fellow, we owe a first duty to Mr.