The Rector of St. Marks | Page 7

took her, with others, within their range of vision,
and Fanny's black head nodded a quick nod of recognition. The
Hethertons and Mrs. Meredith were evidently friends, and in her
wonder at seeing them there, in stupid Hanover, the great lady forgot
for a while to read, but kept her eyes upon them all, especially upon the
fifth and last mentioned member of the party, the graceful little blonde,
whose eyes might have caught their hue from the deep blue of the
summer sky, and whose long, silken curls fell in a golden shower
beneath the fanciful French hat. She was a beautiful young creature,
and even Anna Ruthven leaned forward to look at her as she shook out
her airy muslin and dropped into her seat. For a moment the little
coquettish head bowed reverently, but at the first sound of the rector's
voice it lifted itself up quickly, and Anna saw the bright color which
rushed into her cheeks and the eager joy which danced in the blue eyes,
fixed so earnestly upon the rector, who, at sight of her, started suddenly
and paused an instant in his reading. Who was she, and what was she to
Arthur Leighton? Anna asked herself, while, by the fierce pang which
shot through her heart, as she watched the stranger and the clergyman,
she knew that she loved the rector of St. Mark's, even if she doubted it
before.
Anna was not an ill-tempered girl, but the sight of those gay city people

annoyed her, and when, at she sang the Jubilate Deo, she saw the soft
blue orbs of the blonde and the coal-black eyes of the brunette, turning
wonderingly toward her, she was conscious of returning their glance
with as much of scorn as it was possible for her to show. Anna tried to
ask forgiveness for that feeling in the prayers which followed; but,
when the services were over, and she saw a little figure in blue and
white flitting up the aisle to where Arthur, still in his robes, stood
waiting for her, an expression upon his face which she could not define,
she felt that she had prayed in vain; and, with a bitterness she had never
before experienced, she watched the meeting between them, growing
more and more bitter as she saw the upturned face, the wreathing of the
rosebud lips into the sweetest of smiles, and the tiny white hand, which
Arthur took and held while he spoke words she would have given much
to hear.
"Why do I care? It's nothing to me," she thought, and, with a proud step,
she was leaving the church, when her aunt, who was shaking hands
with the Hethertons, signed for her to join her.
The blonde was now coming down the aisle with Mr. Leighton, and
joined the group just as Anna was introduced as "My niece, Miss Anna
Ruthven."
"Oh, you are the Anna of whom I have heard so much from Ada Fuller.
You were at school together in Troy," Miss Fanny said, her searching
eyes taking in every point as if she were deciding how far her new
acquaintance was entitled to the praise she had heard bestowed upon
her.
"I know Miss Fuller--yes;" and Anna bowed haughtily, turning next to
the blonde, Miss Lucy Harcourt, who was telling Colonel Hetherton
how she had met Mr. Leighton first among the Alps, and afterwards
traveled with him until the party returned to Paris, where he left them
for America.
"I was never so surprised in my life as I was to find him here. Why, it
actually took my breath for a moment," she went on, "and I greatly fear
that, instead of listening to his sermon, I have been roaming amid that

Alpine scenery and basking again in the soft moonlight of Venice. I
heard you singing, though," she said, when Anna was presented to her,
"and it helped to keep up the illusion--it was so like the music heard
from a gondola that night, when Mr. Leighton and myself made a
voyage through the streets of Venice. Oh, it was so beautiful," and the
blue eyes turned to Mr. Leighton for confirmation of what the lips had
uttered.
"Which was beautiful?--Miss Ruthven's singing or that moonlight night
in Venice?" young Bellamy asked, smiling down upon the little lady
who still held Anna's hand, and who laughingly replied:
"Both, of course, though the singing is just now freshest in my memory.
I like it so much. You must have had splendid teachers," and she turned
again to Anna, whose face was suffused with blushes as she met the
rector's eyes, for to his suggestions and criticisms and teachings she
owed much of that cultivation which had so pleased and surprised the
stranger.
"Oh, yes, I