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I wished above all things to pull my hand away from him. "I, Basil, take thee, Barribel " he began formally. "I forbid this marriage. It mustn't go on," said a voice at the door. It sounded like the voice of my knight: but everything was so dream-like and unreal that I thought the voice was part of the unreality. It could not be his. But it was.
The largest table had a strip of rare Persian embroidery laid across it, and was graced rather than laden with novels, boxes of sweets, and silver bonbonnières. Evidently the maid who had come in advance had had her hands full! "I must have pretty things to give me a home feeling. Touring would be too horrid without that," she laughed. But first come here, Barribel. I want to look at you."
I wish I had lived in those days, and I wondered aloud if there were any girls named Barribel then. Donald Douglas said yes; it was a very ancient and well-loved Scottish name. Stupid people in 1835 tore down most of the tower where Queen Mary was imprisoned; but they were stopped before it was all gone, so luckily there is a corner left, with a few graceful carvings on the outer wall.
Bal's sitting-room, I found Somerled and Mrs. James gone. Barrie was alone with her newly found sister, and a more forlorn little figure than our young goddess it would be hard to imagine. Andromeda chained to her rock could not have looked more dismally deserted by her friends. A room had been taken for her, and she was now transformed into Miss Barribel Ballantree.
"Barribel, by your grandmother's permission, I've brought you some supper. Open your door and take in the tray." A voice answered from behind the panel, "I'll open the door if you will bring in the tray yourself." Miss Hepburn hesitated for a moment. In the dun gaslight of the corridor her sharp profile looked eager as the face of a hungry bird. She thought quickly. Mrs.
Her nose burned; and she hastened her departure lest Barribel should notice some undignified difference in manner or expression. "I shall see you again downstairs in a few minutes," she said hurriedly. Barrie did not answer, and Miss Hepburn softly shut the door. Instantly the girl began making a sandwich of the bread and cheese, which she wrapped up in a clean handkerchief.
"What is the meaning of this?" she inquired in her worst voice, which Barrie always thought like the turning of a key in an unoiled lock. "This, ma'am?" quavered Mrs. Muir, unused to the pangs of guilty fear, and bitterly ashamed of them. "Why, I'd been up here getting some more moth-balls out of the chemist's store-box, and while I was gone Miss Barribel "
"Oh, mother, it's I your daughter Barrie, come to find you," the girl faltered. "You know Barribel. You named me. I've run away from Grandma " "My goodness gracious!" gasped Mrs. Bal, her brown eyes immense. In her groping bewilderment, her blank amaze, she looked younger again, her rather full face very round, almost childish, her dimples deepening in the peachy flush of her cheeks.
And she stood two years of Grandma and this house!" "Barribel, you forget yourself." "If I do, it's because I'm thinking about my mother. Twenty twenty-one; that's what she was when she went away!" "She must have been. Of course, it is not my place to " "No, dear Heppie, I know it isn't, so don't, please.
Bal's success with men consists in knowing what kind of snubs they will meekly endure from a lovely spoiled woman, what kind they neither forget nor forgive. She sent word to Mr. Bennett that he might come in. He accepted the invitation promptly, and Barbara, with quick presence of mind, introduced him to her little "sister Barribel." "Barribel!
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