THE INTRODUCTION.
It was a never-to-be-forgotten evening when Captain Langton reached
Darrell Court--an evening fair, bright, and calm. The sweet southern
wind bore the perfume of flowers; the faint ripples of the fountains,
the musical song of the birds, seemed almost to die away on the evening
breeze; the sun appeared unwilling to leave the sapphire sky, the
flowers unwilling to close. Pauline had lingered over her books until
she could remain in-doors no longer; then, by Miss Hastings' desire, she
dressed for dinner--which was delayed for an hour--and afterward went
into the garden.
Most girls would have remembered, as they dressed, that a handsome young
officer was coming; Miss Darrell did not make the least change in her
usual toilet. The thin, fine dress of crape fell in statuesque folds
round the splendid figure; the dark hair was drawn back from the
beautiful brow, and negligently fastened with her favorite silver arrow;
the white neck and fair rounded arms gleamed like white marble through
the thin folds of crape. There was not the least attempt at ornament;
yet no queen arrayed in royal robes ever looked more lovely.
Pauline was a great lover of the picturesque. With a single flower, a
solitary knot of ribbon, she could produce an effect which many women
would give all their jewels to achieve. Whatever she wore took a kind of
royal grace from herself which no other person could impart. Though her
dress might be made of the same material as that of others, it never
looked the same. On her it appeared like the robes of a queen.
As Pauline was passing through the corridor, Miss Hastings met her. The
governess looked scrutinizingly at the plain evening dress; it was the
same that she had worn yesterday. Evidently there was no girlish desire
to attract.
"Pauline, we shall have a visitor this evening," said Miss Hastings;
"you might add a few flowers to your dress."
She passed on, with a smile of assent. Almost the first thing that
caught her attention out of doors was a large and handsome fuchsia. She
gathered a spray of the rich purple and crimson flowers, and placed it
negligently in her hair. Many women would have stood before their mirror
for an hour without producing the same superb effect. Then she placed
another spray of the same gorgeous flowers in the bodice of her dress.
It was all done without effort, and she would have been the last in the
world to suspect how beautiful she looked. Then she went on to the
fountain, for the beautiful, calm evening had awakened all the poet's
soul within her. The grand, sensitive nature thrilled--the beautiful,
poetic mind reveled in this hour of nature's most supreme loveliness. A
thousand bright fancies surged through her heart and brain; a thousand
poetical ideas shaped themselves into words, and rose to her lips.
So time passed, and she was unconscious of it, until a shadow falling
over the great white lilies warned her that some one was near.
Looking up quickly, she saw a tall, fair, handsome young man gazing at
her with mingled admiration and surprise. Beside him stood Sir Oswald,
courtly, gracious, and evidently on the alert.
"Captain Langton," he said, "let me introduce you to my niece, Miss
Darrell."
Not one feature of the girl's proud, beautiful face moved, but there was
some little curiosity in her dark eyes. They rested for a minute on the
captain's face, and then, with a dreamy look, she glanced over the heads
of the white lilies behind him. He was not her ideal, not her hero,
evidently. In that one keen, quick glance, she read not only the face,
but the heart and soul of the man before her.
The captain felt as though he had been subjected to some wonderful
microscopic examination.
"She is one of those dreadfully shrewd girls that pretend to read
faces," he said to himself, while he bowed low before her, and replied
with enthusiasm to the introduction.
"My niece is quite a Darrell," said Sir Oswald, proudly. "You see she
has the Darrell face."
Again the gallant captain offered some flattering remark--a neatly
turned compliment, which he considered ought to have brought her down,
as a skillful shot does a bird--but the dark eyes saw only the lilies,
not him.
"She is proud, like all the Darrells," he thought; "my father always
said they were the proudest race in England."
"I hope," said Sir Oswald, courteously, "that you will enjoy your visit
here, Aubrey. Your father was my dearest friend, and it gives me great
delight to see you here."
"I am sure of it, Sir Oswald. I am equally happy; I cannot see how any
one could be dull for one minute in this grand old place."
Sir Oswald's face flushed with pleasure, and for the first time the dark
eyes slowly left the lilies and looked at the captain.
"I find not only one minute, but many hours in which to be dull," said
Pauline. "Do you like the country so well?"
"I like Darrell Court," he replied, with a bow that seemed to embrace
Sir Oswald, his niece, and all his possessions.
"You like it--in what way?" asked Pauline, in her terribly downright
manner. "It is your first visit, and you have been here only a few
minutes. How can you tell whether you like it?"
For a few moments Captain Langton looked slightly confused, and then he
rallied. Surely a man of the world was not to be defied by a mere girl.
"I have seen that at Darrell Court," he said, deferentially, "which will
make the place dear to me while I live."
She did not understand him. She was far too frank and haughty for a
compliment so broad. But Sir Oswald smiled.
"He is losing no time," thought the stately old baronet; "he is falling
in love with her, just as I guessed he would."
"I will leave you," said Sir Oswald, "to get better acquainted. Pauline,
you will show Captain Langton the aviary."
"Yes," she assented, carelessly. "But will you send Miss Hastings here?
She knows the various birds far better than I do."
Sir Oswald, with a pleased expression on his face, walked away.
"So you have an aviary at the Court, Miss Darrell. It seems to me there
is nothing wanting here. You do not seem interested; you do not like
birds?"
"Not caged ones," she replied. "I love birds almost as though they were
living friends, but not bright-plumaged birds in golden cages. They
should be free and wild in the woods and forests, filling the summer air
with joyous song. I love them well then."
"You like unrestricted freedom?" he observed.
"I do not merely like it, I deem it an absolute necessity. I should not
care for life without it."
The captain looked more attentively at her. It was the Darrell face,
surely enough--features of perfect beauty, with a soul of fire shining
through them.
"Yet," he said, musingly, cautiously feeling his way, "there is but
little freedom--true freedom--for women. They are bound down by a
thousand narrow laws and observances--caged by a thousand restraints."
"There is no power on earth," she returned, hastily, "that can control
thoughts or cage souls; while they are free, it is untrue to say that
there is no freedom."
A breath of fragrant wind came and stirred the great white lilies. The
gallant captain saw at once that he should only lose in arguments with
her.
"Shall we visit the aviary?" he asked.
And she walked slowly down the path, he following.
"She is like an empress," he thought. "It will be all the more glory for
me if I can win such a wife for my own."