brother, that Rachel, spite of herself, was absolutely fascinated by this novel form of endearment. An answer was spared her by Miss Keith's rapture at the sight of some soldiers in the uniform of her father's old regiment.
'Have a care, Bessie; Miss Curtis will despise you,' said her brother.
'Why should you think so?' exclaimed Rachel, not desirous of putting on a forbidding aspect to this bright creature.
'Have I not been withered by your scorn!'
'I--I--' Rachel was going to say something of her change of opinion with regard to military society, but a sudden consciousness set her cheeks in a flame and checked her tongue; while Bessie Keith, with ease and readiness, filled up the blank.
'What, Alick, you have brought the service into disrepute! I am ashamed of you!'
'Oh, no!' said Rachel, in spite of her intolerable blushes, feeling the necessity of delivering her confession, like a cannon-ball among skirmishers; 'only we had been used to regard officers as necessarily empty and frivolous, and our recent experience has--has been otherwise.' Her period altogether failed her.
'There, Alick, is that the effect of your weight of wisdom? I shall be more impressed with it than ever. It has redeemed the character of your profession. Captain Keith and the army.'
'I am afraid I cannot flatter myself,' said Alick; and a sort of reflection of Rachel's burning colour seemed to have lighted on his cheek, 'its reputation has been in better hands.'
'0 Colonel Colin! Depend upon it, he is not half as sage as you, Alick. Why, he is a dozen years older!--What, don't you know, Miss Curtis, that the older people grow the less sage they get?'
'I hope not,' said Rachel.
'Do you! A contrary persuasion sustains me when I see people obnoxiously sage to their fellow- creatures.'
'Obnoxious sageness in youth is the token that there is stuff behind,' said Alick, with eagerness that set his sister laughing at him for fitting on the cap; but Rachel had a sort of odd dreamy perception that Bessie Keith had unconsciously described her (Rachel's) own aspect, and that Alick was defending her, and she was silent and confused, and rather surprised at the assumption of the character by one who she thought could never even exert himself to be obnoxious. He evidently did not wish to dwell on the subject, but began to inquire after Avonmouth matters, and Rachel in return asked for Mr. Clare.
'Very well,' was the answer; 'unfailing in spirits, every one agreed that he was the youngest man at the wedding.'
'Having outgrown his obnoxious sageness,' said Bessie.
'There is nothing he is so adroit at as guessing the fate of a croquet-ball by its sound.'
'Now Bessie,' exclaimed Alick.
'I have not transgressed, have I?' asked Bessie; and in the exclamations that followed, she said, 'You see what want of confidence is. This brother of mine no sooner saw you in the carriage than he laid his commands on me not to ask after your croquet-ground all the way home, and the poor word cannot come out of my mouth without--'
'I only told you not to bore Miss Curtis with the eternal subject, as she would think you had no more brains than one of your mallets,' he said, somewhat energetically.
'And if we had begun to talk croquet, we should soon have driven him outside.'
'But suppose I could not talk it,' said Rachel, 'and that we have no ground for it.'
'Why, then,'--and she affected to turn up her eyes,--'I can only aver that the coincidence of sentiments is no doubt the work of destiny.'
'Bessie!' exclaimed her brother.
'Poor old fellow! you had excuse enough, lying on the sofa to the tune of tap and click; but for a young lady in the advanced ranks of civilization to abstain is a mere marvel.'
'Surely it is a great waste of time,' said Rachel.
'Ah! when I have converted you, you will wonder what people did with themselves before the invention.'
'Woman's mission discovered ' quoth her brother.
'Also man's, unless he neglects it,' returned Miss Elizabeth; 'I wonder, now, if you would play if Miss Curtis did.'
'Wisdom never pledges itself how it will act in hypothetical circumstances,' was the reply.
'Hypothetical,' syllabically repeated Bessie Keith; 'did you teach him that word, Miss Curtis? Well, if I don't bring about the hypothetical circumstances, you may call me hyperbolical.'
So they talked, Rachel in a state of bewilderment, whether she were teased or enchanted, and Alexander Keith's quiet nonchalance not concealing that he was in some anxiety at his sister's reckless talk, but, perhaps, he hardly estimated the effect of the gay, quaint manner that took all hearts by storm, and gave a frank careless grace to her nonsense. She grew graver and softer as she came nearer Avonmouth, and spoke tenderly of the kindness she had received at the time of her mother's death at the Cape, when she had been brought to the general's, and had there remained like a child of the house, till she had been sent home on the removal of the regiment to India.
'I remember,' she said, 'Mrs. Curtis kept great order. In fact, between ourselves, she was rather a dragon; and Lady Temple, though she had one child then, seemed like my companion and playfellow. Dear little Lady Temple, I wonder if she is altered!'
'Not in the least,' returned both her companions at once, and she was quite ready to agree with them when the slender form and fair young face met her in the hall amid a cloud of eager boys. The meeting was a full renewal of the parting, warm and fond, and Bessie so comported herself on her introduction to the children, that they all became enamoured of her on the spot, and even Stephana relaxed her shyness on her behalf. That sunny gay good-nature could not be withstood, and Rachel, again sharing Fanny's first dinner after an arrival, no longer sat apart despising the military atmosphere, but listening, not without amusement, to the account of the humours of the wedding, mingled with Alick Keith's touches of satire.
'It was very stupid,' said Bessie, 'of none of those girls to have Uncle George to marry them. My aunt fancied he would be nervous, but I know he did marry a couple when Mr. Lifford was away; I mean him to marry me, as I told them all.'
'You had better wait till you know whether he will,' observed Alick.
'Will? Oh, he is always pleased to feel he can do like other people,' returned Bessie, and I'll undertake to see that he puts the ring on the right--I mean the left finger. Because you'll have to give me away, you know, Alick, so you can look after him.'
'You seem to have arranged the programme pretty thoroughly,' said Rachel.
'After four weddings at home, one can't but lay by a little experience for the future,' returned Bessie; 'and after all, Alick need not look as if it must be for oneself. He is quite welcome to profit by it, if he has the good taste to want my uncle to marry him.'
'Not unless I were very clear that he liked my choice,' said Alick, gravely.
'Oh, dear! Have you any doubts, or is that meant for a cut at poor innocent me, as if I could help people's folly, or as if he was not gone to Rio Janeiro,' exclaimed Bessie, with a sort of meek simplicity and unconsciousness that totally removed all the unsatisfactoriness of the speech, and made even her brother smile while he looked annoyed; and Lady Temple quietly changed the conversation. Alick Keith was obliged to go away early, and the three ladies sat long in the garden outside the window, in the summer twilight, much relishing the frank-hearted way in which this engaging girl talked of herself and her difficulties to Fanny as to an old friend, and to Rachel as belonging to Fanny.
'I am afraid that I was very naughty,' she said, with a hand laid on Lady Temple's, as if to win pardon; 'but I never can resist plaguing that dear anxious brother of mine, and he did so dreadfully take to heart the absurdities of that little Charlie Carleton, as if any one with brains could think him good for anything but a croquet partner, that I could not help giving a little gentle titillation. I saw you did not like it, dear Lady Temple, and I am sorry for it.'
'I hope I did not vex you,' said Fanny, afraid of having been severe.
'Oh, no, indeed; a little check just makes one feel one is cared for,' and they kissed affectionately: 'you see when one has a very wise brother, plaguing him is irresistible. How little Stephana will plague hers, in self-defence, with so many to keep her in order.'
'They all spoil her.'
