From Jest to Earnest | Page 7

like a
suppressed whirlwind.
"The young people of my day were more decorous," soliloquized the
lady, complacently. "But then the De Forrests have French blood in
them, and what else could you expect? It's he that sets them off."
The sound of approaching sleigh-bells hastened the young people's
toilets, and when they descended the stairs, this time like a funeral
procession, a tall figure, with one side that had been to the windward
well sifted over with snow, was just entering the hall.
Mrs. Marchmont welcomed him with as much warmth as she ever
permitted herself to show. She was a good and kind lady at heart, only
she insisted upon covering the natural bloom and beauty of her nature
with the artificial enamel of mannerism and conventionality. During the
unwrapping process the young people stood in the background, but
Lottie watched the emergence from overcoat and muffler of the
predestined victim of her wiles with more than ordinary curiosity.
The first thing that impressed her was his unusual height, and the next a
certain awkwardness and angularity. When he came to be formally
presented, his diffidence and lack of ease were quite marked. Bel
greeted him with a distant inclination of her head, De Forrest also
vouchsafed merely one of his slightest bows, while Harcourt stood so
far away that he was scarcely introduced at all; but Lottie went

demurely forward and put her warm hand in his great cold one, and
said, looking up shyly, "I think we are sort of cousins, are we not?"
He blushed to the roots of his hair and stammered that he hoped so.
Indeed, this exquisite vision appearing from the shadows of the hall,
and claiming kinship, might have disconcerted a polished society man;
and the conspirators retired into the gloom to hide their merriment.
As the stranger, in his bashful confusion, did not seem to know for the
moment what to do with her hand, and was inclined to keep it, for in
fact it was warming, or, rather, electrifying him, she withdrew it,
exclaiming, "How cold you are! You must come with me to the fire at
once."
He followed her with a rather bewildered expression, but his large gray
eyes were full of gratitude for her supposed kindness, even if his
unready tongue was slow in making graceful acknowledgment.
"Supper will be ready in a few moments, Frank," said his aunt,
approaching them and rather wondering at Lottie's friendliness.
"Perhaps you had better go at once to your room and prepare. You will
find it warm," and she glanced significantly at his rumpled hair and
general appearance of disorder, the natural results of a long journey.
He started abruptly, blushed as if conscious of having forgotten
something, and timidly said to Lottie, "Will you excuse me?"
"Yes," she replied sweetly, "for a little while."
He again blushed deeply and for a second indulged in a shy glance of
curiosity at the "cousin" who spoke so kindly. Then, as if guilty of an
impropriety, he seized a huge carpet-bag as if it were a lady's reticule.
But remembering that her eyes were upon him, he tried to cross the hall
and mount the stairs with dignity. The great leathern bag did not
conduce to this, and he succeeded in appearing awkward in the extreme,
and had a vague, uncomfortable impression that such was the case.
Mrs. Marchmont having disappeared into the dining-room, the young
people went off into silent convulsions of laughter, in which even Bel
joined, though she said she knew it was wrong.
"He is just the one of all the world on whom to play such a joke," said
Lottie, pirouetting into the parlor.
"It was capital!" chimed in De Forrest. "Lottie, you would make a star
actress."
"He has an intelligent eye," continued she, a little more thoughtfully.

"He may be able to see more than we think. I insist that you all be very
careful. Aunt will suspect something, if he doesn't, and may put him on
his guard."
Mr. Hemstead soon returned, for it was plain that his toilets were
exceedingly simple. The elegance wanting in his manners was still
more clearly absent from his dress. The material was good, but had
evidently been put together by a country tailor, who limped a long way
behind the latest mode. What was worse, his garments were scarcely
ample enough for his stalwart form. Altogether he made in some
externals a marked contrast to the city exquisite, who rather enjoyed
standing beside him that this contrast might be seen.
To Lottie he appeared excessively comical as he stalked in and around,
trying vainly to appear at ease. And yet the thought occurred to her, "If
he only knew what to do with his colossal proportions--knew how to
manage