Not Pretty, but Precious | Page 9

faint pressure on my face emphasized the joke--'who
are come to see you. I cannot understand all they mean, except that you
have been behaving badly, making these good people's daughter
believe you meant to marry her, when of course you were only going to
marry your little, ugly Percy. Oh, my bad boy, what shall I ever do with
you? Oh the hearts you have broken while you have been waiting for
me! Ah! dear, bad boy!'--and, as if overcome with tenderness, she laid
her cheek down on mine. I clasped my arms about her--the first and last
time I've had a chance, by George!--but she sprang away with a laugh:
'No, you shall not be petted for being bad. Why, Ross, these dear
people came to take you and marry you to their beautiful daughter, for I
know she's a beauty, since her mother is still so handsome.'
"Oh, it was gorgeous, to see the Rollins standing there in all her
Cleopatra-like splendor, utterly upset and put down by my little brown
berry! And the impossibility of correcting such a mistake without
putting herself in an absurd position actually stopped the Rollins speech,
and--Lord help me!--I thought that mouth could only be closed by
bon-bons and a man's kisses--any man's, par exemple. And her poor old
catspaw of a pater stood helpless before my little hurricane--a very reed
shaken by the wind. Then my sea-breeze spoke again: 'But the doctor
will shed vials of wrath upon me for letting you see strangers.' (It must
have cut the Rollins sore to be called a stranger to me!) 'But these kind
friends could not realize your being ill, so I was fain to let them see my
Apollo in his box; but we will go now if you please;' and she positively
ushered them out in wordless dismay, bidding them good-bye at once,
and seeing them no more. I thought she would have rushed back to
laugh the scene over with me, but that shows how little I know her.
When, in the course of an hour, she did come, it was with such an utter
ignoring of having done a smart thing, waving aside my admiration of
her finesse, that I was taken aback. She said sadly, 'I am unused to
falsehood, and finesse of any sort is distasteful to me. I quenched this

woman this time, but, in spite of her bad, hard face, I pity her very
much. You, and such men as you, have, I suppose, made her what she
is, God help her!' So by this good little girl's management I am rid of
my troubles. I declare I'll do just what she wishes, and be thankful my
follies have worked me no more harm."
Then he began to wish she'd come in, and to feel aggrieved and
neglected because she did not come--to feel an eager desire to see her
and talk the matter of the letter over with her. But he had read it
through again twice ere she appeared, and then, to his dismay, equipped
for a journey, and saying, in the most matter-of-fact, nonchalant
manner possible, "Ross, Mrs. Keller has come to say good-bye. I am
going with her to Newport, where she makes the only perilous part of
the trip--the, to her, dreadful change from cars to boat. So I shall be
away all night, of course."
Then Mrs. Keller came forward with--"I hope you don't mind my
taking her off, Mr. Norval?"
"But I do mind it deucedly, madam," he said. "Why, Percy, I don't like
your traveling alone this way at all. Why can't James go with Mrs.
Keller?"
"Not for the world, Ross, thank you. I'm used to taking care of myself,
and of Mrs. Keller too, for that matter. I'm not much of a traveler,
because I have not had much of a chance--none, indeed, except what
she's given me--but somehow I always manage to come out right. You
are very kind to offer to spare James, but he's your necessity. I have
told him about the medicines, and how to loosen the bandages at night.
So I expect to find you better than usual when I get back. He knows
your ways so much better than I, and I sha'n't be here to interfere;" and
she went about arranging little matters as she spoke, and not looking at
him.
But Mrs. Keller saw the look of annoyance upon his face, and said,
"But, Percy, Mr. Norval dislikes your going, and you're bound to stay."
"Oh, nonsense, Mrs. Keller! Of course he don't care particularly, as I

am going to be away but one night, and he's got to spend all my life
with me;" and her face saddened, he thought. "I'm sure to come back
to-morrow: my