Instead, he merely nodded his head understandingly, and kept silence,
feeling that here was a nature not to be approached, except with care
and reverence, first putting off the dust-soiled shoes of custom and
worldly prudence, as unfit to enter there. After a little more talk he
rose reluctantly.
"Our good Mrs. Updyke will be scandalized to see a light here after
half-past nine," he remarked lightly. "Have you any word to send to Aunt
Felicie?"
"Always my love and reverence," said Sara, with a touch of the old-
fashioned manner that Robert thought one of her greatest charms. "And,
if you think I may trouble her, I will write what there is to tell,
though even Miss Prue does not know all the dreams I have had for the
future."
"Why should she?" asked the young man jealously. "My aunt may not be so
old a friend, but I am sure she is as good a one."
"She's more than kind! I can't understand," with a little burst of
confidence, "why you are all so good to a poor fisherman's daughter like
me?" They had risen, and he had shaken himself into his fur-trimmed
great-coat; now he turned, hat in hand, and looked down upon her, for,
though Sara was tall for a girl of eighteen, he towered well above her.
"You ask why?" he began in a quick, eager tone, then something in her
calm face seemed to alter his mind, or at least speech, for he added
more carelessly, "Do you think it so queer? But you forget you are a
princess!" laughing lightly.
Pages:
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130