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"Daughter," said the Venus Annodomini. "She's been out for a year at Home already, and I want her to see a little of India. She is nineteen and a very sensible, nice girl I believe." "Very Young" Gayerson, who was a short twenty-two years old, nearly fell out of his chair with astonishment; for he had persisted in believing, against all belief, in the youth of the Venus Annodomini.
She, with her back to the curtained window, watched the effect of her sentences and smiled. "Very Young" Gayerson's papa came up twelve days later, and had not been in Simla four and twenty hours, before two men, old acquaintances of his, had told him how "Very Young" Gayerson had been conducting himself. "Young" Gayerson laughed a good deal, and inquired who the Venus Annodomini might be.
Presently, he heard the Venus Annodomini saying: "Do you know that your son is one of my most devoted admirers?" "I don't wonder," said "Young" Gayerson. Here he raised his voice: "He follows his father's footsteps. Didn't I worship the ground you trod on, ever so long ago, Kitty and you haven't changed since then. How strange it all seems!" "Very Young" Gayerson said nothing.
Men rode up to Simla, and stayed, and went away and made their name and did their life's work, and returned again to find the Venus Annodomini exactly as they had left her. She was as immutable as the Hills. But not quite so green.
Perhaps he thought her five and twenty, or perhaps she told him that she was this age. "Very Young" Gayerson would have forded the Gugger in flood to carry her lightest word, and had implicit faith in her. Every one liked him, and every one was sorry when they saw him so bound a slave of the Venus Annodomini.
Every one, too, admitted that it was not her fault; for the Venus Annodomini differed from Mrs. Hauksbee and Mrs. Reiver in this particular she never moved a finger to attract any one; but, like Ninon de l'Enclos, all men were attracted to her. One could admire and respect Mrs. Hauksbee, despise and avoid Mrs. Reiver, but one was forced to adore the Venus Annodomini.
"Certainly," said "Very Young" Gayerson. "I am going down to-morrow morning. My ponies are at your service, Sir." The Venus Annodomini looked at him across the half-light of the room, and her big gray eyes filled with moisture. She rose and shook hands with him. "Good-bye, Tom," whispered the Venus Annodomini. Little Blind Fish, thou art marvellous wise, Little Blind Fish, who put out thy eyes?
All that a girl of eighteen could do in the way of riding, walking, dancing, picnicking and over-exertion generally, the Venus Annodomini did, and showed no sign of fatigue or trace of weariness. Besides perpetual youth, she had discovered, men said, the secret of perpetual health; and her fame spread about the land.
He was exacting, and, therefore, the Venus Annodomini repressed him. He worried himself nearly sick in a futile sort of way over her; and his devotion and earnestness made him appear either shy or boisterous or rude, as his mood might vary, by the side of the older men who, with him, bowed before the Venus Annodomini. She was sorry for him.
His conversation with the daughter of the Venus Annodomini was, through the rest of the call, fragmentary and disjointed. "At five, to-morrow then," said the Venus Annodomini. "And mind you are punctual." "At five punctual," said "Young" Gayerson. "You can lend your old father a horse I dare say, youngster, can't you? I'm going for a ride tomorrow afternoon."
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