_.

THE next few days passed like a happy dream. Our little party remained
the same, no tidings being heard of any of the absentees, save a note
from Freddy, saying how much he was annoyed at being detained in town,
and begging me to await his return at Elm Lodge, or he would never
forgive me. Mrs. Coleman's sprain, though not very severe, was yet
sufficient to confine her to her own room till after breakfast, and to
a sofa in the boudoir during the rest of the day; and, as a necessary
consequence, Miss Saville and I were chiefly dependent on each other for
society and amusement. We walked together, read Italian (Petrarch
too, of all the authors we could have chosen, to beguile us with his
picturesque and glowing love conceits), played chess, and, in short,
tried in turn the usual expedients for killing time in a country-house,
and found them all very "pretty pastimes" indeed. As the young lady's
shyness wore off, and by degrees she allowed the various excellent
qualities of her head and heart to appear, I recalled Lucy Markham's
assertion, that "she was as good and amiable as she was pretty," and
acknowledged that she had only done her justice. Still, although her
manner was generally lively and animated, and at times even gay, I could
perceive that her mind was not at ease; and whenever she was silent,
and her features were in repose, they were marked by an expression of
hopeless dejection which it grieved me to behold. If at such moments
she perceived any one was observing her, she would rouse herself with
a sudden start, and join in the conversation with a degree of wild
vehemence and strange, unnatural gaiety, which to me had in it something
shocking. Latterly, however, as we became better acquainted, and felt
more at ease in ~273~~ each other's society, these wild bursts of
spirits grew less frequent, or altogether disappeared, and she would
meet my glance with a calm melancholy smile, which seemed to say, "I am
not afraid to trust you with the knowledge that I am unhappy--you will
not betray me". Yet, though she seemed to find pleasure in discussing
subjects which afforded opportunity for expressing the morbid and
desponding views she held of life, she never allowed the conversation to
take a personal turn, always skilfully avoiding the possibility of her
words being applied to her own case: any attempt to do so invariably
rendering her silent, or eliciting from her some gay piquant remark,
which served her purpo