'Who?' said Rachel, dreamily.
'Why, Colonel Keith, my dear,' said good Mrs. Curtis, conceiving that her pronominal speech had 'broken' her intelligence; 'it seems we were mistaken in him all this time.'
'What, about Miss Williams?' said Rachel, perceiving how the land lay; 'how did you hear it?'
'You knew it, my dear child,' cried her mother in accents of extreme relief.
'Only this afternoon, from Bessie Keith.'
'And Fanny knew it all this time,' continued Mrs. Curtis. 'I cannot imagine how she could keep it from me, but it seems Miss Williams was resolved it should not be known. Colonel Keith said he felt it was wrong to go on longer without mentioning it, and I could not but say that it would have been a great relief to have known it earlier.'
'As far as Fanny was concerned it would,' said Rachel, looking into the fire, but not without a sense of rehabilitating satisfaction, as the wistful looks and tone of her mother convinced her that this semi-delusion had not been confined to herself.
'I could not help being extremely sorry for him when he was telling me,' continued Mrs. Curtis, as much resolved against uttering the idea as Rachel herself could be. 'It has been such a very long attachment, and now he says he has not yet been able to overcome her scruples about accepting him in her state. It is quite right of her, I can't say but it is, but it is a very awkward situation.'
'I do not see that,' said Rachel, feeling the need of decision in order to reassure her mother; 'it is very sad and distressing in some ways, but no one can look at Miss Williams without seeing that his return has done her a great deal of good; and whether they marry or not, one can only be full of admiration and respect for them.'
'Yes, yes,' faltered Mrs. Curtis; 'only I must say I think it was due to us to have mentioned it sooner.'
'Not at all, mother. Fanny knew it, and it was nobody's concern but hers. Pray am I to have Owen's 'Palaeontology'?'
'No, Colonel Keith bought that, and some more of the solid books. My dear, he is going to settle here; he tells me he has actually bought that house he and his brother are in.'
'Bought it!'
'Yes; he says, any way, his object is to be near Miss Williams. Well, I cannot think how it is to end, so near the title as he is, and her sister a governess, and then that dreadful business about her brother, and the little girl upon her hands. Dear me, I wish Fanny had any one else for a governess.'
'So do not I,' said Rachel. 'I have the greatest possible admiration for Ermine Williams, and I do not know which I esteem most, her for her brave, cheerful, unrepining unselfishness, or him for his constancy and superiority to all those trumpery considerations. I am glad to have the watching of them. I honour them both.'
Yes, and Rachel honoured herself still more for being able to speak all this freely and truly out of the innermost depths of her candid heart.
CHAPTER XIV. THE GOWANBRAE BALL.
'Your honour's pardon, I'd rather have my wounds to heal again, Than hear say how I got them.'-- Coriolanus.
'Yes, I go the week after next.'
'So soon? I thought you were to stay for our ball.'
'Till this time next year! No, no, I can't quite do that, thank you.'
'This very winter.'
'Oh, no--no such thing! Why, half the beauty and fashion of the neighbourhood is not come into winter quarters yet. Besides, the very essence of a military ball is that it should be a parting--the brightest and the last. Good morning.'
And Meg's head, nothing loth, was turned away from the wide view of the broad vale of the Avon, with the Avoncester Cathedral towers in the midst, and the moors rising beyond in purple distance. The two young lieutenants could only wave their farewells, as Bessie cantered merrily over the soft smooth turf of the racecourse, in company with Lord Keith, the Colonel, and Conrade.
'Do you not like dancing?' inquired Lord Keith, when the canter was over, and they were splashing through a lane with high hedges.
'I'm not so unnatural,' returned Bessie, with a merry smile, 'but it would never do to let the Highlanders give one now. Alick has been telling me that the expense would fall seriously on a good many of them.'
'True,' said Colonel Keith, 'too many fetes come to be a heavy tax.'
'That is more consideration than is common in so young a lad,' added Lord Keith.
'Yes, but dear Alick is so full of consideration,' said the sister, eagerly. 'He does not get half the credit for it that he deserves, because, you know, he is so quiet and reserved, and has that unlucky ironical way with him that people don't like; especially rattlepates like those,' pointing with her whip in the direction of the two young officers.
'It is a pity,' said the Colonel, 'it lessens his influence. And it is strange I never perceived it before his return to England.'
'Oh! there's much owing to the habitual languor of that long illness. That satirical mumble is the only trouble he will take to lift up his testimony, except when a thing is most decidedly his duty, and then he does it as England expects.'
'And he considered it his duty to make you decline this ball?' said Lord Keith.
'Oh, not his more than mine,' said Bessie. 'I don't forget that I am the Colonel's daughter.'
No more was said on that occasion, but three days after cards were going about the county with invitations from Lord Keith to an evening party, with 'Dancing.' Lord Keith averred, with the full concurrence of his brother, that he owed many civilities to the ladies of the neighbourhood, and it was a good time to return them when he could gratify the young kinswoman who had showed such generous forbearance about the regimental ball. It was no unfavourable moment either, when he had his brother to help him, for the ordering of balls had been so much a part of Colin's staff duties, that it came quite naturally to him, especially with Coombe within reach to assist. There was some question whether the place should be the public rooms or Gowanbrae, but Bessie's vote decided on the latter, in consideration of the Colonel's chest. She was rather shocked, while very grateful, at the consequences of the little conversation on the hill top, but she threw herself into all the counsels with bright, ardent pleasure, though carefully refraining from any presumption that she was queen of the evening.
Lady Temple received an invitation, but never for one moment thought of going, or even supposed that any one could imagine she could. Indeed, if she had accepted it, it would have been a decisive encouragement to her ancient suitor, and Colin saw that he regarded her refusal, in its broad black edges, as a further clenching of the reply to his addresses.
Bessie was to be chaperoned by Mrs. Curtis. As to Rachel, she had resolved against youthful gaieties for this winter and all others, but she felt that to show any reluctance to accept the Keith invitation might be a contradiction to her indifference to the Colonel, and so construed by her mother, Grace, and Bessie. So all she held out for was, that as she had no money to spend upon adornments, her blue silk dinner dress, and her birthday wreath, should and must do duty; and as to her mother's giving her finery, she was far too impressive and decided for Mrs. Curtis to venture upon such presumption. She was willing to walk through her part for an evening, and indeed the county was pretty well accustomed to Miss Rachel Curtis's ball-room ways, and took them as a matter of course.
Gowanbrae had two drawing-rooms with folding doors between, quite practicable for dancing, and the further one ending in a conservatory, that likewise extended along the end of the entrance hall and dining-room. The small library, where Colonel Keith usually sat, became the cloak-room, and contained, when Mrs. Curtis and her daughters arrived, so large a number of bright cashmere cloaklets, scarlet, white, and blue, that they began to sigh prospectively at the crowd which, Mrs. Curtis would have encountered with such joyful valour save for that confidence on the way home from the book club.
They were little prepared for the resources of a practised staff- officer. Never had a ball even to them looked so well arranged, or in such thorough style, as a little dexterous arrangement of flowers, lights, and sofas, and
