"Why do you go with averted face?Have I offended you?"She trembled violently."Please do not look at me so,"she said,falteringly."I cannot endure it.Pity my weakness."His hand tightened in its warm grasp,and the expression of his face grew more ardent.
She looked up with a sudden flash in her eyes,and said,almost sternly:
"You must not look at me in that way,or else even friendship will be impossible and we must become strangers.Perhaps,after all,this will be the wisest course for us both,"she added,in a gentler tone.
He dropped her hand,but said firmly,"No,Miss Jennie,you have given me the right to call you my friend,and I have seen friendship in your eyes,and friends at least we shall be till the end of time.
I shall not say good-night.I shall not let you go away and brood by yourself.I have learned that cheering others is the very elixir of your life;so,come into the parlor.I will find Stanton and our friend with the soprano voice,and the guests of the house shall again bless the stars that sent you to us,as I do daily."She smiled faintly and said:
"I'll join you there after a little while,"and she flitted out into the darkening hall-way,and sought her room by a side stair.
A few moments later Stanton,finding the object of his thoughts did not appear among the guests who sought to escape the sultriness of the evening on the wide piazzas or in the large,spacious parlor,began to wander restlessly in a half-unconscious search.A servant was just lighting the gas in the small and remote reception-room as he glanced in.The apartment was empty,and no echoes of the words just spoken were lingering.
A little later Miss Burton came down the main stair-way in her breezy,cheery manner,and his jealous fears were quieted.
He joined her at once,saying that it was the unanimous wish that she should give them some music again that evening.
She would join with him and others,she said;and her manner was so perfectly frank and cordial,so like her bearing towards a lady friend to whom she next spoke,that he fairly groaned in despair of touching a heart that seemed to overflow with kindness toward all.
Van Berg soon appeared,but Miss Burton,on this occasion,managed that the singing should be maintained by quite a large group about the piano,and on account of the sultriness of the evening the service of song was brief.
While Van Berg was leading a hymn that had been asked for by one of the guests,Miss Burton found the opportunity of saying,"Mr.
Stanton,I wish to thank you for your chivalric defence to-day of one who is poor and orphaned.Mr.Van Berg told me of your generous and friendly course.Thus far I can believe that your conduct has been inspired by the truest and most manly impulses.But if in any way you again have aught to do with Mr.Sibley,I shall feel deeply wounded and humiliated.I refuse to be associated with that man,even in the remotest degree.Your delicate sense of honor will teach you that if any further trouble grows out of this affair no effort on your part can separate my name from it.The world rarely distinguishes between a gentlemanly quarrel and a vulgar brawl,especially where one of the parties is essentially vulgar.As a gentleman you will surely shield me from any such associations."Stanton,remembering his appointment with Sibley,bowed low to hide his confusion.
"I would gladly shield you with my life from anything that could cause you pain,"he said,earnestly.
"I do not make any such vast and tragic demands,"she replied,smilingly,and holding out her hand;"only simple and prosaic self-control,when tipsy,vulgar men act according to their nature.
Good-night."
He was about to kiss her hand,when she gently withdrew it,remarking:
"We plain people of New England are not descended from the Cavaliers,remember."He watched until in despair of her appearing again that evening,and then strolled out into the night,feeling in his despondency that no star in the summer sky was more unattainable than the poor and orphaned girl,the impress of whose warm clasp still seemed within his hand.