United States or Belgium ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
It was agreed that for the present, at any rate, Picotee should remain. Then a visit was made to Mrs. Chickerel's room, where the remainder of the evening was passed; and harmony reigned in the household. Picotee's heart was fitfully glad.
Julian that the injured gentleman was possibly Lord Mountclere, and that he was coming here? said Ethelberta. 'I made no remark at all I did not think of him till afterwards. The inquiry was hardly necessary, for Picotee's words would dry away like a brook in the sands when she held conversation with Christopher. As they had anticipated, the sufferer was no other than their intending visitor.
This was altogether to Picotee's surprise, for she had expected a round rating at least, in her freshness hardly being aware that this reserve of feeling was an acquired habit of Ethelberta's, and that civility stood in town for as much vexation as a tantrum represented in Wessex.
However, it was on a space higher up that Picotee's eyes and thoughts were fixed. In the great mirror above the middle ledge she could see reflected the upper part of the dining-room, and this suggested to her that she might see Ethelberta and the other guests reflected in the same way by standing on a chair, which, quick as thought, she did.
It seemed all right and natural to their respective moods and the tone of the moment that free old Wessex manners should prevail, and Christopher stooped and dropped upon Picotee's cheek likewise such a farewell kiss as he had imprinted upon Ethelberta's. 'Care for us both equally! said Ethelberta. 'I will, said Christopher, scarcely knowing what he said.
Picotee's face was rosed over with the brilliance of some excitement. 'What do you think I have to tell you, Berta? she said. 'I have no idea, said her sister. 'Surely, she added, her face intensifying to a wan sadness, 'Mr. Julian has not been here? 'Yes, said Picotee.
They were standing at the bottom of the steps, saying a few parting words about Picotee's visit to see the dinner, when a female figure appeared by the railing above, slipped in at the gate, and flew down the steps past the father and daughter. At the moment of passing she whispered breathlessly to him, 'Is that you, Mr. Chickerel? 'Yes, said the butler.
She had known for some time that Picotee once had a lover, or something akin to it, and that he had disappointed her in a way which had never been told. No stranger, save in the capacity of the one beloved, could wound a woman sufficiently to make her weep, and it followed that Christopher was the man of Picotee's choice.
Tears were in Ethelberta's eyes now, and she was heartfull of many emotions. Placing her arm round Picotee's waist, who had never lifted her eyes from the carpet, she drew the slight girl forward, and whispered quickly to him 'Kiss her, too. She is my sister, and I am yours.
Christopher looked on at her for some time before she noticed him, and dimly perceived how vastly differed her homely suit and unstudied contour painfully unstudied to fastidious eyes from Ethelberta's well-arranged draperies, even from Picotee's clever bits of ribbon, by which she made herself look pretty out of nothing at all.
Word Of The Day