n intention of humour, but with an effect that was almost
comical.
"You would if you didn't hide yourself away. Are you not going into the
other room to hear the speech? Everything is prepared."
"I am going when I am notified--when I am invited."
There was considerable majesty in her tone, and Ransom saw that
something was wrong, that she felt neglected. To see that she was as
ticklish with others as she had been with him made him feel forgiving,
and there was in his manner a perfect disposition to forget their
differences as he said, "Oh, there is plenty of time; the place isn't
half full yet."
She made no direct rejoinder to this, but she asked him about his mother
and sisters, what news he received from the South. "Have they any
happiness?" she inquired, rather as if she warned him to take care not
to pretend they had. He neglected her warning to the point of saying
that there was one happiness they always had--that of having learned not
to think about it too much, and to make the best of their circumstances.
She listened to this with an air of great reserve, and apparently
thought he had wished to give her a lesson; for she suddenly broke out,
"You mean that you have traced a certain line for them, and that that's
all you know about it!"
Ransom stared at her, surprised; he felt, now, that she would always
surprise him. "Ah, don't be rough with me," he said, in his soft
Southern voice; "don't you remember how you knocked me about when I
called on you in Boston?"
"You hold us in chains, and then, when we writhe in our agony, you say
we don't behave prettily!" These words, which did not lessen Ransom's
wonderment, were the young lady's answer to his deprecatory speech. She
saw that he was honestly bewildered and that in a moment more he would
laugh at her, as he had done a year and a half before (she remembered it
as if it had been yesterday); and to stop that off, at any cost, she
went on hurriedly--"If you listen to Miss Tarrant, you will know what I
mean."
"Oh, Miss Tarrant--Miss Tarrant!" And Basil Ransom's laughter came.
She had not escaped that mockery, after all, and she looked at him
sharply now, her embarrassment having quite cleared up. "What do you
know about her? What observation have you had?"
Ransom met her eye, and for a moment they scrutinised each other. Did
she know of his interview with Verena a month before, and was her
reserve simply the wish to place on him the burden of declar
|