Imagination and Heart, Tales for Fifteen | Page 7

read the
volume he held in his hands; nor did he in any degree recover his
composure until Julia re-appeared on the landing of the stairs, moving
slowly towards their bottom, when, taking one long look at her lovely
face, which was glowing with youthful beauty, and if possible more
charming from the traces of tears in her eyes, he coolly pursued his
studies. Julia had recovered her composure, and Charles Weston felt
satisfied. Miss Emmerson and her niece took their seats quietly with
their work at an open window of the parlour, and order appeared to be
restored in some measure to the mansion. After pursuing their several
occupations for some minutes with a silence that had lately been a
stranger to them, the aunt observed--
"You appear to have something new in hand, my love. Surely you must
abound with trimmings, and yet you are working another already?"
"It is for Anna Miller," said Julia with a flush of feeling.
"I was in hopes you would perform your promise to your cousin
Katherine, now Miss Miller is gone, and make your portion of the
garments for the Orphan Asylum," returned Miss Emmerson gravely.
"Oh! cousin Katherine must wait. I promised this trimming to Anna to
remember me by, and I would not disappoint the dear girl for the
world."
"It is not your cousin Katherine, but the Orphans, who will have to wait;
and surely a promise to a relation is as sacred as one to an
acquaintance."
"Acquaintance, aunt!" echoed the niece with displeasure. "Do not, I
entreat you, call Anna an acquaintance merely. She is my friend--my
very best friend, and I love her as such."
"Thank you, my dear," said the aunt dryly.

"Oh! I mean nothing disrespectful to yourself, dear aunt," continued
Julia. "You know how much I owe to you, and ought to know that I
love you as a mother."
"And would you prefer Miss Miller to a mother, then?"
"Surely not in respect, in gratitude, in obedience; but still I may love
her, you know. Indeed, the feelings are so very different, that they do
not at all interfere with each other--in my heart at least."
"No!" said Miss Emmerson, with a little curiosity--"I wish you would
try and explain this difference to me, that I may comprehend the
distinctions that you are fond of making."
"Why, nothing is easier, dear aunt!" said Julia with animation. "You I
love because you are kind to me, attentive to my wants, considerate for
my good; affectionate, and--and--from habit--and you are my aunt, and
take care of me."
"Admirable reasons!" exclaimed Charles Weston, who had laid aside
his book to listen to this conversation.
"They are forcible ones I must admit," said Miss Emmerson, smiling
affectionately on her niece; "but now for the other kind of love."
"Why, Anna is my friend, you know," cried Julia, with eyes sparkling
with enthusiasm. "I love her, because she has feelings congenial with
my own; she has so much wit, is so amusing, so frank, so like a girl of
talents--so like--like every thing I admire myself."
"It is a pity that one so highly gifted cannot furnish herself with
frocks," said the aunt, with a little more than her ordinary dryness of
manner, "and suffer you to work for those who want them more."
"You forget it is in order to remember me," said Julia, in a manner that
spoke her own ideas of the value of the gift.
"One would think such a friendship would not require any thing to
remind one of its existence," returned the aunt.
"Why! it is not that she will forget me without it, but that she may have
something by her to remind her of me-----" said Julia rapidly, but
pausing as the contradiction struck even herself.
"I understand you perfectly, my child," interrupted the aunt, "merely as
an unnecessary security, you mean."
"To make assurance doubly sure," cried Charles Weston with a laugh.
"Oh! you laugh, Mr. Weston," said Julia with a little anger; "but I have
often said, you were incapable of friendship."

"Try me!" exclaimed the youth fervently. "Do not condemn me without
a trial."
"How can I?" said Julia, laughing in her turn. "You are not a girl."
"Can girls then only feel friendship?" inquired Charles, taking the seat
which Miss Emmerson had relinquished.
"I sometimes think so," said Julia, with her own good-humoured smile.
"You are too gross--too envious--in short, you never see such
friendships between men as exist between women."
"Between girls, I will readily admit," returned the youth. "But let us
examine this question after the manner of the courts--"
"Nay, if you talk law I shall quit you," interrupted the young lady gaily.
"Certainly one so learned in the subject need not dread