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Page 10
With what a fresh charm, with what new sweet suggestions of complaisance
that kiss had invested every line and curve of her, from hat-plume to
boot-tip! A delicious tremulous sense of proprietorship tinged his every
thought of her. He touched the swing-rope as fondly as if it were an
electric chain that could communicate the caress to her. Tom Longman,
having done all the work that offered itself, had been wandering about in
a state of acute embarrassment, not daring to join himself to any of the
groups, much less accost a young lady who might be alone. As he drifted
near the swing, Madeline said to Henry--
"You may stop swinging me now. I think I'd like to go out rowing." The
young man's cup seemed running over. He could scarcely command his voice
for delight as he said--
"It will be jolly rowing just now. I'm sure we can get some pond-lilies."
"Really," she replied, airily, "you take too much for granted. I was
going to ask Tom Longman to take me out."
She called to Tom, and as he came up, grinning and shambling, she
indicated to him her pleasure that be should row her upon the river. The
idea of being alone in a small boat for perhaps fifteen minutes with the
belle of Newville, and the object of his own secret and distant
adoration, paralysed Tom's faculties with an agony of embarrassment. He
grew very red, and there was such a buzzing in his ears that he could not
feel sure he heard aright, and Madeline had to repeat herself several
times before he seemed to fully realize the appalling nature of the
proposition. As they walked down to the shore she chatted with him, but
he only responded with a profusion of vacant laughs. When he had pulled
out on the river, his rowing, from his desire to make an excuse for not
talking, was so tremendous that they cheered him from the shore, at the
same time shouting--
"Keep her straight! You're going into the bank!"
The truth was, that Tom could not guide the boat because he did not dare
to look astern for fear of meeting Madeline's eyes, which, to judge from
the space his eyes left around her, he must have supposed to fill at
least a quarter of the horizon, like an aurora, in fact. But, all the
same, he was having an awfully good time, although perhaps it would be
more proper to say he would have a good time when he came to think it
over afterward. It was an experience which would prove a mine of gold in
his memory, rich enough to furnish for years the gilding to his modest
day-dreams. Beauty, like wealth, should make its owners generous. It is a
gracious thing in fair women at times to make largesse of their beauty,
bestowing its light more freely on tongue-tied, timid adorers than on
their bolder suitors, giving to them who dare not ask. Their beauty never
can seem more precious to women than when for charity's sake they
brighten with its lustre the eyes of shy and retiring admirers.
As Henry was ruefully meditating upon the uncertainty of the sex, and
debating the probability that Madeline had called him to swing her for
the express purpose of getting a chance to snub him, Ida Lewis came to
him, and said--
"Mr. Burr, we're getting up a game of croquet. Won't you play?"
"If I can be on your side," he answered, civilly.
He knew the girl's liking for him, and was always kind to her. At his
answer her face flushed with pleasure, and she replied shyly--
"If you'd like to, you may."
Henry was not in the least a conceited fellow, but it was impossible that
he should not understand the reason why Ida, who all the morning had
looked forlorn enough, was now the life of the croquet-ground, and full
of smiles and flushes. She was a good player, and had a corresponding
interest in beating, but her equanimity on the present occasion was not
in the least disturbed by the disgraceful defeat which Henry's
awkwardness and absence of mind entailed on their aide.
But her portion of sunshine for that day was brief enough, for Madeline
soon returned from her boat-ride, and Henry found an excuse for leaving
the game and joining her where she sat on the ground between the knees of
a gigantic oak sorting pond-lilies, which the girls were admiring. As he
came up, she did not appear to notice him. As soon as he had a chance
to speak without being overheard, he said, soberly--
"Tom ought to thank me for that boat-ride, I suppose."
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