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She always behaved to them, of course, with perfect propriety; never refused any small request; never showed resentment when blamed never felt any, for she did not care enough to be angry or sorry that father or mother should disapprove. On the other hand, Lady Margaret saw great improvement in her daughter. To the maternal eye, jealous for perfection, Hesper's carriage was at length satisfactory.
"Foolish girl! you think to tease me by pretending indifference!" "How can a fact be pretended, mamma? Why should I care what passes in the study? I was never welcome there. But, if you wish, I will pretend. What important matter was settled in the study this morning?" "Hesper, you provoke me with your affectation!" Hesper's eyes began to flash. Otherwise she was still silent not a feature moved.
To him, horses were the final peak of creation or if not the horses, the coachman, whose they are masters and mistresses the merest parasitical adjuncts. He got them home in good time for luncheon, notwithstanding more to Lady Margaret's than Hesper's satisfaction. Mr.
God's world even she despised, because men called it nature, and spoke of its influences. But Mary did go up to see her now and then. Very different she seemed from the time when first they were at work together over Hesper's twilight dress! Ever since Mary had made the acquaintance of her brother, she seemed to have changed toward her.
They have to lay their account with that, and must get used to it. How was I to know? We can not read each other's hearts." "Not where there is no heart in the reader." Hesper's face flushed, but she did her best not to lose her temper. Not that it would have been any great loss if she had, for there is as much difference in the values of tempers as in those who lose them.
This was far more difficult, of course, when she had no longer a voice in the matter of Hesper's dress, and when the loving skill of the new maid presented her rival to her individual best. Mary would have been glad to help her as well, but Sepia drew back as from a hostile nature, and they made no approximation.
For one moment, and one only, the repose of Hesper's faultless upper lip gave way; one writhing movement of scorn passed along its curves, and left them for a moment straightened out to return presently to a grander bend than before. In a tone that emulated, and more than equaled, the indifference of her mother's, she answered: "And papa?"
Searching now again Hesper's jewel-case, Mary found a fine bracelet of the true, the Oriental topaz, the old chrysolite of that clear yellow of the sunset-sky that looks like the 'scaped spirit of miser-smothered gold: this she clasped upon one arm; and when she had fastened a pair of some ancient Mortimer's garnet buckles in her shoes, which she had insisted should be black, and taken off all the rings that Hesper had just put on, except a certain glorious sapphire, she led her again to the mirror; and, if there Hesper was far more pleased with herself than was reasonable or lovely, my reader needs not therefore fear a sermon from the text, "Beauty is only skin-deep," for that text is out of the devil's Bible.
No! he had nothing worse than the sins of the young egoist to answer for, though he afterwards came to feel those pitiful and mean enough. Another noticeable feature of Hesper's face was an ever-present sadness not as of a dull grief, but as of some shining sorrow, a quality which gave her face much arresting interest. It seemed one great, rich tear.
Ignorance is one of the many things of which a lady of position is never ashamed; wherein she is, it may be, more right than most of my readers will be inclined to allow; for ignorance is not the thing to be ashamed of, but neglect of knowledge. That a young person in Mary's position should know a certain thing, was, on the other hand, a reason why a lady in Hesper's position should not know it!
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