Heartsease | Page 6

in.'

'Very well. I'll send up my card,' said he, entering, and the man as he
took it, said, with emphasis, and a pleading look, 'She is a very nice
young lady, sir,' then opened a room door.
He suddenly announced, 'Mr. Martindale,' and that gentleman
unexpectedly found himself in the presence of a young girl, who rose in
such confusion that he could not look at her as he shook her by the
hand, saying, 'Is Arthur near home?'
'Yes--no--yes; at least, he'll come soon,' was the reply, as if she hardly
knew what her words were.
'Were you going out?' he asked, seeing a bonnet on the sofa.
'No, thank you,--at least I mean, I'm just come in. He went to speak to
some one, and I came to finish my letter. He'll soon come,' said she,
with the rapid ill-assured manner of a school-girl receiving her
mamma's visitors.
'Don't let me interrupt you,' said he, taking up a book.
'O no, no, thank you,' cried she, in a tremor lest she should have been
uncivil. 'I didn't mean--I've plenty of time. 'Tis only to my home, and
they have had one by the early post.'
He smiled, saying, 'You are a good correspondent.'
'Oh! I must write. Annette and I were never apart before.'
'Your sister?'
'Yes, only a year older. We always did everything together.'
He ventured to look up, and saw a bright dew on a soft, shady pair of
dark eyes, a sweet quivering smile on a very pretty mouth, and a glow
of pure bright deep pink on a most delicately fair skin, contrasted with
braids of dark brown hair. She was rather above the ordinary height,
slender, and graceful, and the childish beauty of the form or face and
features surprised him; but to his mind the chief grace was the shy,

sweet tenderness, happy and bright, but tremulous with the recent pain
of the parting from home. With a kindly impulse, he said, 'You must
tell me your name, Arthur has not mentioned it.'
'Violet;' and as he did not appear at once to catch its unusual sound, she
repeated, 'Violet Helen; we most of us have strange names.'
'Violet Helen,' he repeated, with an intonation as if struck, not
unpleasingly, by the second name. 'Well, that is the case in our family.
My sister has an uncommon name.'
'Theodora,' said Violet, pausing, as if too timid to inquire further.
'Have you only this one sister?' he said.
'Six, and one brother,' said she, in a tone of exulting fondness. A short
silence, and then the joyful exclamation, 'There he is!' and she sprang to
the door, leaving it open, as her fresh young voice announced, full of
gratulation, 'Here's your brother.'
'Guileless and unconscious of evil, poor child!' thought the brother; 'but
I wonder how Arthur likes the news.'
Arthur entered, a fine-looking young man, of three-and-twenty, dark,
bright complexioned, tall, and robust. He showed not the least
consciousness of having offended, and his bride smiled freely as if at
rest from all embarrassment now that she had her protector.
'Well, John,' was his greeting, warmly spoken. 'You here? You look
better. How is the cough?'
'Better, thank you.'
'I see I need not introduce you,' said Arthur, laying his hand on the arm
of his blushing Violet, who shrank up to him as he gave a short laugh.
'Have you been here long?'
'Only about five minutes.'

'And you are come to stay?'
'Thank you, if you can take me in for a day or two.'
'That we can. There is a tolerable spare room, and James will find a
place for Brown. I am glad to see you looking so much better. Have
you got rid of the pain in your side?'
'Entirely, thank you, for the last few weeks.'
'How is my mother?'
'Very well. She enjoyed the voyage extremely.'
'She won't concoct another Tour?'
'I don't think so,' said John, gravely.
'There has SHE,' indicating his wife, been thinking it her duty to read
the old Italian one, which I never opened in my life. I declare it would
take a dictionary to understand a page. She is scared at the variety of
tongues, and feels as if she was in Babel.'
John was thinking that if he did not know this rattling talk to be a form
of embarrassment, he should take it for effrontery.
'Shall I go and see about the room?' half-whispered Violet.
'Yes, do;' and he opened the door for her, exclaiming, almost before she
was fairly gone, 'There! you want no more explanation.'
She is very lovely!' said John, in a tone full of cordial admiration.
'Isn't she?' continued Arthur, triumphantly. 'Such an out-of-the-way
style;--the dark eyes and hair, with that exquisite complexion, ivory