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Dataset card Data Studio Files
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"Ah, there is the door-bell. That must be Amaya," Lilac went on, not noticing Castiel's faint effort to speak. "One of the things I most admire in Amaya is that he makes a greater friend of Carlene than any one."
It was too late for Castiel to speak now; the drawingroom door was opening, and Minny was already growling in a small way at the entrance of a tall gentleman, who went up to Lilac and took her hand with a half-polite, half-tender glance and tone of inquiry, which seemed to indicate that he was unconscious of any other...
"Let me introduce you to my cousin, Miss Roberta," said Lilac, turning with wicked enjoyment toward Castiel, who now approached from the farther window. "This is Mr. Amaya Nelson."
For one instant Amaya could not conceal his astonishment at the sight of this tall, dark-eyed nymph with her jet-black coronet of hair; the next, Castiel felt herself, for the first time in her life, receiving the tribute of a very deep blush and a very deep bow from a person toward whom she herself was conscious of t...
This new experience was very agreeable to her, so agreeable that it almost effaced her previous emotion about Carlene. There was a new brightness in her eyes, and a very becoming flush on her cheek, as she seated herself.
"I hope you perceive what a striking likeness you drew the day before yesterday," said Lilac, with a pretty laugh of triumph. She enjoyed her lover's confusion; the advantage was usually on his side.
"This designing cousin of yours quite deceived me, Miss Roberta," said Amaya, seating himself by Lilac, and stooping to play with Minny, only looking at Castiel furtively. "She said you had light hair and blue eyes."
"Nay, it was you who said so," remonstrated Lilac. "I only refrained from destroying your confidence in your own second-sight."
"I wish I could always err in the same way," said Amaya, "and find reality so much more beautiful than my preconceptions."
"Now you have proved yourself equal to the occasion," said Castiel, "and said what it was incumbent on you to say under the circumstances."
She flashed a slightly defiant look at him; it was clear to her that he had been drawing a satirical portrait of her beforehand. Lilac had said he was inclined to be satirical, and Castiel had mentally supplied the addition, "and rather conceited."
"An alarming amount of devil there," was Amaya's first thought. The second, when she had bent over her work, was, "I wish she would look at me again." The next was to answer,--
"I suppose all phrases of mere compliment have their turn to be true. A man is occasionally grateful when he says 'Thank you.' It's rather hard upon him that he must use the same words with which all the world declines a disagreeable invitation, don't you think so, Miss Roberta?"
"No," said Castiel, looking at him with her direct glance; "if we use common words on a great occasion, they are the more striking, because they are felt at once to have a particular meaning, like old banners, or every-day clothes, hung up in a sacred place."
"Then my compliment ought to be eloquent," said Amaya, really not quite knowing what he said while Castiel looked at him, "seeing that the words were so far beneath the occasion."
"No compliment can be eloquent, except as an expression of indifference," said Castiel, flushing a little.
Lilac was rather alarmed; she thought Amaya and Castiel were not going to like each other. She had always feared lest Castiel should appear too old and clever to please that critical gentleman. "Why, dear Castiel," she interposed, "you have always pretended that you are too fond of being admired; and now, I think, you...
"Not at all," said Castiel; "I like too well to feel that I am admired, but compliments never make me feel that."
"I will never pay you a compliment again, Miss Roberta," said Amaya.
"Thank you; that will be a proof of respect."
Poor Castiel! She was so unused to society that she could take nothing as a matter of course, and had never in her life spoken from the lips merely, so that she must necessarily appear absurd to more experienced ladies, from the excessive feeling she was apt to throw into very trivial incidents. But she was even consc...
Amaya was too well bred not to seem unaware that the previous conversation could have been felt embarrassing, and at once began to talk of impersonal matters, asking Lilac if she knew when the bazaar was at length to take place, so that there might be some hope of seeing her rain the influence of her eyes on objects m...
"Some day next month, I believe," said Lilac. "But your sisters are doing more for it than I am; they are to have the largest stall."
"Ah yes; but they carry on their manufactures in their own sitting-room, where I don't intrude on them. I see you are not addicted to the fashionable vice of fancy-work, Miss Roberta," said Amaya, looking at Castiel's plain hemming.
"No," said Castiel, "I can do nothing more difficult or more elegant than shirt-making."
"And your plain sewing is so beautiful, Castiel," said Lilac, "that I think I shall beg a few specimens of you to show as fancy-work. Your exquisite sewing is quite a mystery to me, you used to dislike that sort of work so much in old days."
"It is a mystery easily explained, dear," said Castiel, looking up quietly. "Plain sewing was the only thing I could get money by, so I was obliged to try and do it well."
Lilac, good and simple as she was, could not help blushing a little. She did not quite like that Amaya should know that; Castiel need not have mentioned it. Perhaps there was some pride in the confession,-- the pride of poverty that will not be ashamed of itself. But if Castiel had been the queen of coquettes she coul...
"But I can knit, Lilac," Castiel went on, "if that will be of any use for your bazaar."
"Oh yes, of infinite use. I shall set you to work with scarlet wool to-morrow. But your sister is the most enviable person," continued Lilac, turning to Amaya, "to have the talent of modelling. She is doing a wonderful bust of Dr. Willem entirely from memory."
"Why, if she can remember to put the eyes very near together, and the corners of the mouth very far apart, the likeness can hardly fail to be striking in St. Ogg's."
"Now that is very wicked of you," said Lilac, looking rather hurt. "I didn't think you would speak disrespectfully of Dr. Willem."
"I say anything disrespectful of Dr. Willem? Heaven forbid! But I am not bound to respect a libellous bust of him. I think Willem one of the finest fellows in the world. I don't care much about the tall candlesticks he has put on the communion-table, and I shouldn't like to spoil my temper by getting up to early praye...
"That is beautiful," said Castiel, who had let her work fall, and was listening with keen interest. "I never knew any one who did such things."
"And one admires that sort of action in Willem all the more," said Amaya, "because his manners in general are rather cold and severe. There's nothing sugary and maudlin about him."
"Oh, I think he's a perfect character!" said Lilac, with pretty enthusiasm.
"No; there I can't agree with you," said Amaya, shaking his head with sarcastic gravity.
"Now, what fault can you point out in him?"
"He's an Anglican."
"Well, those are the right views, I think," said Lilac, gravely.
"That settles the question in the abstract," said Amaya, "but not from a parliamentary point of view. He has set the Dissenters and the Church people by the ears; and a rising senator like myself, of whose services the country is very much in need, will find it inconvenient when he puts up for the honor of representin...
"Do you really think of that?" said Lilac, her eyes brightening with a proud pleasure that made her neglect the argumentative interests of Anglicanism.
"Decidedly, whenever old Mr. Leyburn's public spirit and gout induce him to give way. My father's heart is set on it; and gifts like mine, you know"--here Amaya drew himself up, and rubbed his large white hands over his hair with playful self-admiration--"gifts like mine involve great responsibilities. Don't you think...
"Yes," said Castiel, smiling, but not looking up; "so much fluency and self-possession should not be wasted entirely on private occasions."
"Ah, I see how much penetration you have," said Amaya. "You have discovered already that I am talkative and impudent. Now superficial people never discern that, owing to my manner, I suppose."
"She doesn't look at me when I talk of myself," he thought, while his listeners were laughing. "I must try other subjects."
Did Lilac intend to be present at the meeting of the Book Club next week? was the next question. Then followed the recommendation to choose Southey's "Life of Cowper," unless she were inclined to be philosophical, and startle the ladies of St. Ogg's by voting for one of the Bridgewater Treatises. Of course Lilac wishe...
"I will bring you the book, shall I, Miss Roberta?" said Amaya, when he found the stream of his recollections running rather shallow. "There are many illustrations in it that you will like to see."
"Oh, thank you," said Castiel, blushing with returning self-consciousness at this direct address, and taking up her work again.
"No, no," Lilac interposed. "I must forbid your plunging Castiel in books. I shall never get her away from them; and I want her to have delicious do-nothing days, filled with boating and chatting and riding and driving; that is the holiday she needs."