“Alice, it is getting late, and I beg leave to bid you good night. _I_
will wait for Clara.”
“She said no one need wait for her,” replied Alice, “and you are tired
to-night, I know. I beg you will not sit up.”
“It will be dreary for her, and I can very well sit up: I shall be
writing to my mother--good night, love.”
Mrs. Gregory’s letter was finished, and the last “Graham” read before
her solitude was disturbed. At length, as she stood looking out into the
starlight, footsteps and mirthful voices broke the stillness. The
loitering footsteps draw near, and halt at the door. The mirthful voices
subside into the low, earnest hum of conversation. Then the light
“Adieu!” and the two part.
A smile still lingered on Clara’s face as she entered and--without
observing that the room was occupied--threw herself down beside the
fire, whose warmth was no unwelcome thing in the chill April night, and
slowly pulled off her gloves. Mrs. Gregory still stood at the window,
half hidden by the folds of the curtain. She thought she had rarely seen
a more beautiful face than was Clara’s at that moment. Joyous words
seemed to tremble on her lips, and laughing fancies to peep out through
the long lashes of her eyes, so roguishly! Then, when the little white
hands untied the bonnet and took it off, dropping it on the carpet, and
let the rich, clustering hair flow about the bright face,
“Ah, she is very charming!” thought her mother, while she said--
“You have passed a delightful evening, Clara.”
Clara started and looked up. The radiant smile instantly died away, and
replying coldly--
“Very passable, I thank you,” she rose, and taking a light from the
table, left the room.
Mrs. Gregory sighed deeply; and, leaning her forehead against the cold
window-pane, stood lost in painful thought, till many stars were set,
and the embers on the hearth grew white and cold.
She for whom she thus sorrowed, meanwhile, flew to her chamber and,
wrapping her shawl about her, sat down to her writing-desk and scribbled
these lines--
“A word with thee, dearest Bel, before I sleep. Oh! if you could have
been with me to-night! A little select party at Mrs. Hall’s, and such a
delectable evening! All our choice spirits were there, and one entirely
new star. A “real, live” star, too, Bel, unquestionably the most elegant
man that ever wore a mustache. Oh, you should see him! So _distingué_!
Neither M----, nor Monsieur de V---- is a _circumstance_ to him! I
cannot conceive where Mrs. Hall found him; but she is always the first
to introduce strangers--the only polite woman in town, I think. I
suspect, however, that he is a friend of Frank, who has just returned
from his winter’s residence in the south.
“They kept me at the piano half the evening; and this exquisite ‘_Don
Whiskerando_’ accompanied me--so sweetly!--with the flute. Under a
perfect cannonade of entreaties he consented to sing, too; although he
would be persuaded to nothing but a _duett_ with your humble friend. The
richest barytone.
“He will be here to-morrow, and I would give the world if my Bel might
be here also! Oh! I forgot to tell you my hero’s name is Brentford--did
you ever hear it before?
“Do you not think Ellen Morgan an envious thing? Good night, love--dream
of your Clara!
“Oh, one word more. Don’t you think _ma chére mère_ must have an active
mind to keep her up till this time, to observe my arrival? Oh, Eve, thou
art undone!
“I hope all she saw and heard was satisfactory to her. I suppose she
expected that I should continue the conversation after I came in, for
she kept so whist, that I was not aware of her presence till she
discovered herself by the sagacious observation--
“‘You have had a charming evening, dear,’ in such an insinuating tone!
Aweel!”