The Lovels of Arden | Page 4

arsenal, and took out a lamp, which he lighted
in a rapid dexterous manner, though without the faintest appearance of
haste, and fixed with a brass apparatus of screws and bolts to the arm of

Clarissa's seat. Then he brought her a pile of magazines, which she
received in her lap, not a little embarrassed by this unexpected attention.
He had called her suddenly from strange vague dreams of the future,
and it was not easy to come altogether back to the trivial commonplace
present.
She thanked him graciously for his politeness, but she had not smiled
yet.
"Never mind," the traveller said to himself; "that will come in good
time."
He had the easiest way of taking all things in life, this gentleman; and
having established Clarissa with her lamp and books, sank lazily back
into his corner, and gave himself up to a continued contemplation of
the fair young face, almost as calmly as if it had been some masterpiece
of the painter's art in a picture gallery.
The magazines were amusing to Miss Lovel. They beguiled her away
from those shapeless visions of days to come. She began to read, at first
with very little thought of the page before her, but, becoming interested
by degrees, read on until her companion grew tired of the silence.
He looked at his watch--the prettiest little toy in gold and enamel, with
elaborate monogram and coat of arms--a watch that looked like a
woman's gift. They had been nearly three hours on their journey.
"I do not mean to let you read any longer," he said, changing his seat to
one opposite Clarissa. "That lamp is very well for an hour or so, but
after that time the effect upon one's eyesight is the reverse of beneficial.
I hope your book is not very interesting."
"If you will allow me to finish this story," Clarissa pleaded, scarcely
lifting her eyes from the page. It was not particularly polite, perhaps,
but it gave the stranger an admirable opportunity for remarking the dark
thick lashes, tinged with the faintest gleam of gold, and the perfect
curve of the full white eyelids.

"Upon my soul, she is the loveliest creature I ever saw," he said to
himself; and then asked persistently, "Is the story a long one?"
"Only about half-dozen pages more; O, do please let me finish it!"
"You want to know what becomes of some one, or whom the heroine
marries, of course. Well, to that extent I will be a party to the possible
injury of your sight."
He still sat opposite to her, watching her in the old lazy way, while she
read the last few pages of the magazine story. When she came to the
end, a fact of which he seemed immediately aware, he rose and
extinguished the little reading lamp, with an air of friendly tyranny.
"Merciless, you see," he said, laughing. "O, la jeunesse, what a
delicious thing it is! Here have I been tossing and tumbling those
unfortunate books about for a couple of hours at a stretch, without
being able to fix my attention upon a single page; and here are you so
profoundly absorbed in some trivial story, that I daresay you have
scarcely been conscious of the outer world for the last two hours. O,
youth and freshness, what pleasant things they are while we can keep
them!"
"We were not allowed to read fiction at Madame Marot's," Miss Lovel
answered simply. "Anything in the way of an English story is a treat
when one has had nothing to read but Racine and Télémaque for about
six years of one's life."
"The Inimical Brothers, and Iphigenia; Athalie, as performed before
Louis Quatorze, by the young ladies of St. Cyr, and so on. Well, I
confess there are circumstances under which even Racine might
become a bore; and Télémaque has long been a synonym for dreariness
and dejection of mind. You have not seen Rachel? No, I suppose not.
She was a great creature, and conjured the dry bones into living
breathing flesh. And Madame Marot's establishment, where you were
so hardly treated, is a school, I conclude?"
"Yes, it is a school at Belforêt, near Paris. I have been there a long time,

and am going home now to keep house for papa."
"Indeed! And is your journey a long one? Are we to be travelling
companions for some time to come?"
"I am going rather a long way--to Holborough."
"I am very glad to hear that, for I am going farther myself, to the outer
edge of Yorkshire, where I believe I am to do wonderful execution
upon the birds. A fellow I know has taken a shooting-box yonder, and
writes me most flourishing accounts of the sport. I know Holborough a
little,