A Fair Barbarian | Page 6

they were asleep in their camp at night. It isn't a
very nice name, of course, but I'm not responsible for it; and besides,
now the place is growing, they are going to call it Athens or Magnolia
Vale. They tried L'Argentville for a while; but people would call it

Lodginville, and nobody liked it."
"I trust you never lived there," said Miss Belinda. "I beg your pardon
for being so horrified, but I really could not refrain from starting when
you spoke; and I cannot help hoping you never lived there."
"I live there now, when I am at home," Octavia replied. "The mines are
there; and father has built a house, and had the furniture brought on
from New York."
Miss Belinda tried not to shudder, but almost failed.
"Won't you take another muffin, my love?" she said, with a sigh. "Do
take another muffin."
"No, thank you," answered Octavia; and it must be confessed that she
looked a little bored, as she leaned back in her chair, and glanced down
at the train of her dress. It seemed to her that her simplest statement or
remark created a sensation.
Having at last risen from the tea-table, she wandered to the window,
and stood there, looking out at Miss Belinda's flower-garden. It was
quite a pretty flower-garden, and a good-sized one considering the
dimensions of the house. There were an oval grass-plot, divers gravel
paths, heart and diamond shaped beds aglow with brilliant annuals, a
great many rose-bushes, several laburnums and lilacs, and a trim hedge
of holly surrounding it.
"I think I should like to go out and walk around there," remarked
Octavia, smothering a little yawn behind her hand. "Suppose we go--if
you don't care."
"Certainly, my dear," assented Miss Belinda. "But perhaps," with a
delicately dubious glance at her attire, "you would like to make some
little alteration in your dress--to put something a little--dark over it."
Octavia glanced down also.

"Oh, no!" she replied: "it will do well enough. I will throw a scarf over
my head, though; not because I need it," unblushingly, "but because I
have a lace one that is very becoming."
She went up to her room for the article in question, and in three
minutes was down again. When she first caught sight of her, Miss
Belinda found herself obliged to clear her throat quite suddenly. What
Slowbridge would think of seeing such a toilet in her front garden,
upon an ordinary occasion, she could not imagine. The scarf truly was
becoming. It was a long affair of rich white lace, and was thrown over
the girl's head, wound around her throat, and the ends tossed over her
shoulders, with the most picturesque air of carelessness in the world.
"You look quite like a bride, my dear Octavia," said Miss Belinda. "We
are scarcely used to such things in Slowbridge."
But Octavia only laughed a little.
"I am going to get some pink roses, and fasten the ends with them,
when we get into the garden," she said.
She stopped for this purpose at the first rose-bush they reached. She
gathered half a dozen slender-stemmed, heavy-headed buds, and,
having fastened the lace with some, was carelessly placing the rest at
her waist, when Miss Belinda started violently.


CHAPTER IV.
LADY THEOBALD.
"Oh, dear!" she exclaimed nervously, "there is Lady Theobald."
Lady Theobald, having been making calls of state, was returning home
rather later than usual, when, in driving up High Street, her eye fell
upon Miss Bassett's garden. She put up her eyeglasses, and gazed

through them severely; then she issued a mandate to her coachman.
"Dobson," she said, "drive more slowly."
She could not believe the evidence of her own eyeglasses. In Miss
Bassett's garden she saw a tall girl, "dressed," as she put it, "like an
actress," her delicate dress trailing upon the grass, a white lace scarf
about her head and shoulders, roses in that scarf, roses at her waist.
"Good heavens!" she exclaimed: "is Belinda Bassett giving a party,
without so much as mentioning it to _me_?"
Then she issued another mandate.
"Dobson," she said, "drive faster, and drive me to Miss Bassett's."
Miss Belinda came out to the gate to meet her, quaking inwardly.
Octavia simply turned slightly where she stood, and looked at her
ladyship, without any pretence of concealing her curiosity.
Lady Theobald bent forward in her landau.
"Belinda," she said, "how do you do? I did not know you intended to
introduce garden-parties into Slowbridge."
"Dear Lady Theobald"--began Miss Belinda.
"Who is that young person?" demanded her ladyship.
"She is poor dear Martin's daughter," answered Miss Belinda. "She
arrived to-day--from Nevada, where--where it appears Martin has been
very fortunate, and owns a great many silver-mines"--
"A 'great many' silver-mines!" cried Lady Theobald.