Dwell Deep | Page 3

and self-engrossed.'
I saw that his quick eyes had already noted my Bible, and was vexed to feel my cheeks flushing.
'Miss Thorn's appearance is certainly not morbid,' said Captain Gates good-naturedly; and as I looked up at him I met a frank, kindly glance from his dark eyes.
'No, I am not morbid,' I said; 'I am very happy.'
'Ah!' put in Kenneth with a mock sigh, 'you are looking out at life with inexperienced eyes at present, and everything has a roseate hue to you. Your experience has yet to come!'
For some little time longer they stayed there with me laughing and talking, and then we all went back to the house together, and my quiet time was over. I liked Kenneth better than his brother Hugh, who seemed to me to be too sarcastic and supercilious for any one to be comfortable in his presence; but there was a look of mischief in Kenneth's eyes which puzzled me, as again and again this afternoon his glance met mine.
At dinner I was enlightened. It was a merry home party that night. Captain Gates and another man, a Mr. Stroud by name, had come to stay for a few days' shooting, and they certainly proved lively additions to our gathering. In the midst of a buzz of conversation and laughter, there was, as so often happens, a sudden lull, and then Kenneth from the other side of the table suddenly broke the silence:
'Miss Thorn, Nell here wants to know the name of the book you were studying so deeply this afternoon in the corn-field?'
My cheeks flushed a little; for one moment I hesitated, and every one seemed to be waiting for my answer; then I said in a tolerably steady voice,
'It was my Bible.'
I felt, rather than saw, the astonishment depicted on the faces of those at the table.
Nelly, who was always overflowing with fun, burst out laughing:
'You don't mean to say that you are religious?' she said; but her mother hushed her rather sharply, and changed the subject at once.
I felt I had difficult times coming. Later on in the evening, when music was going on, Captain Gates came over to me as I sat looking out into the dusky garden by one of the long French windows, and said,
'I see you have no difficulty in showing your colours, Miss Thorn.'
I looked up at him gravely. 'I ought to have no difficulty,' I said; 'it is nothing to be ashamed of.'
He smiled, and leaning against the half-open window seemed to regard me with some amusement.
'Is it a rude question to ask with whom you have been living before you came here?'
I told him, and then he said reflectively,
'It's a strange thing why the Bible should be thought so out of place sometimes; but I wonder now if you read it out of pure pleasure, or only from a sense of duty?'
'Why, I love it!' I exclaimed; then a little impulsively I added,
'I don't mind telling you, Captain Gates, or any one else, for that matter, it is only just lately that I have felt so differently about it. I used to think it dull and tedious, but it has changed now, or rather, I have changed, and there is nothing I like better than getting away alone somewhere and having a nice read all by myself.'
'You will not find much quiet time in this house,' he rejoined. 'We are always on the go here; you have come into a different life. I fancy your Bible reading will soon be a thing of the past.'
'Never, I hope!' I said a little warmly. 'I don't mean to lead a gay life, Captain Gates; I don't care for those kind of things now!'
He laughed. 'Perhaps you have never tried it?'
'I never mean to.'
Our conversation was interrupted here, and for the rest of the evening I said very little to any one; but a short time after I had been in my bedroom that night Nelly, knocked at my door.
'I'm coming in for a talk,' she said; 'I'm very curious about you. Do you know that we have all been discussing you downstairs?'
'I dare say,' I said, laughing. Somehow, I felt very much drawn to Nelly; she seemed such a pleasant, outspoken girl. Constance, the eldest of them, though full of life and spirits, was rather cold and distant in manner towards me. In fact, she had given me the impression that my arrival had not been welcome to her.
Nelly seated herself in a low rocking-chair, and scanned me rather mischievously before she proceeded:
'You are such a pretty, bright little thing to look at, that Bible reading seems so incongruous! Of course, I read my Bible in the evening when I go to bed--at least, when I am not too tired--but that's a different matter. Mother