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Rolleston, who was in nobody's confidence, and had the uneasy conviction that something was going desperately wrong, came into her room. Bluebell's state of repression could endure no longer. She began by entreating Mrs. Rolleston to accept Mrs.
Bluebell's modicum of sherry had to be tossed off at once in a tumbler, for the glasses were dancing a hornpipe on the table, plates required a restraining hand, and their contents to be conveyed to the mouth with as much accuracy of aim as was attainable.
"My, dear, as you are dressed so nicely, I dare say you are going 'on King, and so am I; so we can walk together." Consternation in Bluebell's face it was only a quarter to three. "I am going quite in the opposite direction," cried she, hurriedly, and, without waiting to see the effect of her words, abruptly fled.
"I am delighted you have put a stop to that folly," said the Colonel; "that boy dawdles over here every afternoon. I can't have Miss Bluebell's 'followers' everlastingly caterwauling in my house." An expression of extreme astonishment came over Cecil's face. "Bluebell doesn't care in the least for Jack Vavasour," said she. "You are evidently not in her confidence.
Jack, an old love of Bluebell's, Dutton, whom she had nursed through deadly peril, and Fane, only prevented being a declared suitor by systematic absence of reciprocity on her side. Well it was a mercy they all came in owl-light, scarcely dusk enough for candles, but pleasantly veiling countenances not too much under command.
"I know I am not very much use here," she began, "but still I shouldn't like to think I was of none, and, therefore, I really don't want to stay away more than a day or two." A sudden look of penetration came into Mrs. Rolleston's face, and, with more sarcasm in her voice than Bluebell's little speech appeared to justify, she said,
Bluebell, struggling for composure, tried to speak, but the effort only precipitated an irrepressible flood of tears, and Du Meresq, grieved and self-reproachful, in his attempts to console her, used the fatal words that Lola afterwards repeated to Cecil. The child escaped without her presence being detected. Bluebell's emotion had passed over like a storm that clears the atmosphere.
His presence seemed to break the lethargic spell that had bound her, while no small detail of appearance and dress escaped her, even that his hair was parted differently. Dutton, who had dreaded the first meeting, was relieved by Bluebell's manner, and saw at once they were more en rapport.
This was Bluebell's first acquaintance with a really grand English park, and, during the long drive through it, she gazed in wondering delight at the stately trees, heavy with summer foliage, the herds of deer, the calm lake, with kingly swans gliding over it. Perhaps her greatest surprise was that all this fair domain belonged to one individual.
Kate's admiration was still further excited next day as she listened to Bluebell's singing. "You never heard anything like it, mamma she could fill Covent Garden; and she composes too. I wonder if she has ever been on the stage?"
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