Rosamond; or, The Youthful Error | Page 5

Peters
told me I might," she added, hastily, as she saw his look of surprise,
and mistook it for displeasure.
"I am perfectly willing," he said; "but what have you read? Tell me."
Rosamond was interested at once, and while her cheeks glowed and her
eyes sparkled, she replied--"Oh, I've read Shakespeare's Historical
Plays, every one of them--and Childe Harold, and Watts on the Mind,
and Kenilworth, and now I'm right in the middle of the Lady of the
Lake. Wasn't Fitz-James the King? I believe he was. When I am older I
mean to write a book just like that."
Mr. Browning could not forbear a smile at her enthusiasm, but without
answering her question, he said,--"What do you intend to do until you

are old enough?"
Rosamond's countenance fell, and after tapping her foot upon the carpet
awhile, she said, "Mrs. Peters will get me a place by-and-by, and I
s'pose I'll have to be a milliner."
"Do you wish to be one?"
"Why, no; nor mother didn't either, but after father died she had to do
something. Father was a kind of a lawyer, and left her poor."
"Do you wish to go away from here, Rosamond?"
There were tears on the long-fringed eye-lashes as the young girl
replied, "No, sir; I'd like to live here always, but there's nothing for me
to do."
"Unless you go to school. How would you like that?"
"I have no one to pay the bills," and the curly head shook mournfully.
"But I have money, Rosamond, and suppose I say that you shall stay
here and go to school?"
"Oh, sir, will you say so? May I live with you always?" and forgetting
her fear of him in her great joy, Rosamond Leyton crossed over to
where he sat, and laying both her hands upon his shoulder,
continued--"Are you in earnest, Mr. Browning? May I stay? Oh, I'll be
so good to you when you are old and sick!"
It seemed to her that he was old enough to be her father, then, and it
almost seemed so to him. Giving her a very paternal look, he answered,
"Yes, child, you shall stay as long as you like and now go, or Mrs.
Peters will be wondering what keeps you."
Rosamond started to leave the room, but ere she reached the door she
paused, and turning to Mr. Browning, said, "You have made me so
happy, and I like you so much, I wish you'd let me kiss your hand--may
I?"

It was a strange question, and it sent the blood tingling to the very tips
of Mr. Browning's fingers.
"Why, ye-es,--I don't know. What made you think of that?" he said, and
Rosamond replied,--"I always kissed father when he made me very
happy. It was all I could do."
"But I am not your father," stammered Mr. Browning; "I shall not be
twenty-five until November. Still you can do as you please."
"Not twenty-five yet," repeated Rosamond;--"why, I thought you were
nearer forty. I don't believe I'd better, though I like you just as well.
Good night."
He heard her go through the hall, up the stairs, through the upper hall,
and then all was still again.
"What a strange little creature she is," he thought; "so childlike and
frank, but how queer that she should ask to _kiss me!_ Wouldn't Susan
be shocked if she knew it, and won't she be horrified when I tell her I
am going to educate the girl. I shouldn't have thought of it but for her.
And suppose Ben does fall in love with her. If he knew a little more, it
would not be a bad match. Somebody must keep up our family, or it
will become extinct. Susan and I are the only ones left, and _I_"--here
he paused, and starting to his feet, he paced the floor hurriedly,
nervously, as if seeking to escape from some pursuing evil. "It is
terrible," he whispered, "but I can bear it and will," and going to his
room he sought his pillow to dream strange dreams of tresses black,
and ringlets brown,--of fierce, dark eyes, and shining orbs, whose
owner had asked to kiss his hand, and mistaken him for her sire.
CHAPTER III.
BEN'S VISIT.
The next morning, as Mrs. Van Vechten was slowly making her toilet
alone, there came a gentle rap at her door, and Rosamond Leyton
appeared, her face fresh and blooming as a rose-bud, her curls brushed

back from her forehead, and her voice very respectful, as she said--"I
have come to ask your pardon for my roughness yesterday. I can do
better, and if you will let me wait on you while you stay, I am sure I
shall please you."
Mrs. Van Vechten could not resist that appeal,