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Page 22
She had been walking some quarter of an hour, attended by her
two cavaliers, and responding in a tone of very childish gaiety,
as it seemed to Winterbourne, to the pretty speeches
of Mr. Giovanelli, when a carriage that had detached
itself from the revolving train drew up beside the path.
At the same moment Winterbourne perceived that his friend
Mrs. Walker--the lady whose house he had lately left--
was seated in the vehicle and was beckoning to him.
Leaving Miss Miller's side, he hastened to obey her summons.
Mrs. Walker was flushed; she wore an excited air.
"It is really too dreadful," she said. "That girl must not do
this sort of thing. She must not walk here with you two men.
Fifty people have noticed her."
Winterbourne raised his eyebrows. "I think it's a pity to make
too much fuss about it."
"It's a pity to let the girl ruin herself!"
"She is very innocent," said Winterbourne.
"She's very crazy!" cried Mrs. Walker. "Did you ever see
anything so imbecile as her mother? After you had all left
me just now, I could not sit still for thinking of it.
It seemed too pitiful, not even to attempt to save her.
I ordered the carriage and put on my bonnet, and came here
as quickly as possible. Thank Heaven I have found you!"
"What do you propose to do with us?" asked Winterbourne, smiling.
"To ask her to get in, to drive her about here for half an hour,
so that the world may see she is not running absolutely wild,
and then to take her safely home."
"I don't think it's a very happy thought," said Winterbourne;
"but you can try."
Mrs. Walker tried. The young man went in pursuit of Miss Miller,
who had simply nodded and smiled at his interlocutor in the carriage
and had gone her way with her companion. Daisy, on learning
that Mrs. Walker wished to speak to her, retraced her steps
with a perfect good grace and with Mr. Giovanelli at her side.
She declared that she was delighted to have a chance to present this
gentleman to Mrs. Walker. She immediately achieved the introduction,
and declared that she had never in her life seen anything so lovely
as Mrs. Walker's carriage rug.
"I am glad you admire it," said this lady, smiling sweetly.
"Will you get in and let me put it over you?"
"Oh, no, thank you," said Daisy. "I shall admire it much more as I see you
driving round with it."
"Do get in and drive with me!" said Mrs. Walker.
"That would be charming, but it's so enchanting just as I am!"
and Daisy gave a brilliant glance at the gentlemen on either
side of her.
"It may be enchanting, dear child, but it is not the custom here,"
urged Mrs. Walker, leaning forward in her victoria, with her
hands devoutly clasped.
"Well, it ought to be, then!" said Daisy. "If I didn't walk
I should expire."
"You should walk with your mother, dear," cried the lady
from Geneva, losing patience.
"With my mother dear!" exclaimed the young girl. Winterbourne saw that she
scented interference. "My mother never walked ten steps in her life.
And then, you know," she added with a laugh, "I am more than five years old."
"You are old enough to be more reasonable. You are old enough,
dear Miss Miller, to be talked about."
Daisy looked at Mrs. Walker, smiling intensely. "Talked about?
What do you mean?"
"Come into my carriage, and I will tell you."
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