This sally was received in perfect silence, but Felix, who learned all things quickly, had already learned that the silences frequently observed among his new acquaintances were not necessarily restrictive or resentful.
It was, as one might say, the silence of expectation, of modesty.
They were all standing round his sister, as if they were expecting her to acquit herself of the exhibition of some peculiar faculty, some brilliant talent. Their attitude seemed to imply that she was a kind of conversational mountebank, attired, intellectually, in gauze and spangles.
This attitude gave a certain ironical force to Madame Munster's next words.
"Now this is your circle," she said to her uncle. "This is your salon.
These are your regular habitu; aaes, eh? I am so glad to see you all together."
"Oh," said Mr. Wentworth, "they are always dropping in and out.
You must do the same."
"Father," interposed Charlotte Wentworth, "they must do something more."
And she turned her sweet, serious face, that seemed at once timid and placid, upon their interesting visitor. "What is your name?" she asked.
"Eugenia-Camilla-Dolores," said the Baroness, smiling.
"But you need n't say all that."
"I will say Eugenia, if you will let me. You must come and stay with us."
The Baroness laid her hand upon Charlotte's arm very tenderly; but she reserved herself. She was wondering whether it would be possible to "stay" with these people.
"It would be very charming--very charming," she said; and her eyes wandered over the company, over the room.
She wished to gain time before committing herself.
Her glance fell upon young Mr. Brand, who stood there, with his arms folded and his hand on his chin, looking at her.
"The gentleman, I suppose, is a sort of ecclesiastic," she said to Mr. Wentworth, lowering her voice a little.
"He is a minister," answered Mr. Wentworth.
"A Protestant?" asked Eugenia.
"I am a Unitarian, madam," replied Mr. Brand, impressively.
"Ah, I see," said Eugenia. "Something new." She had never heard of this form of worship.
Mr. Acton began to laugh, and Gertrude looked anxiously at Mr. Brand.
"You have come very far," said Mr. Wentworth.
"Very far--very far," the Baroness replied, with a graceful shake of her head--a shake that might have meant many different things.
"That 's a reason why you ought to settle down with us," said Mr. Wentworth, with that dryness of utterance which, as Eugenia was too intelligent not to feel, took nothing from the delicacy of his meaning.
She looked at him, and for an instant, in his cold, still face, she seemed to see a far-away likeness to the vaguely remembered image of her mother. Eugenia was a woman of sudden emotions, and now, unexpectedly, she felt one rising in her heart.
She kept looking round the circle; she knew that there was admiration in all the eyes that were fixed upon her.
She smiled at them all.
"I came to look--to try--to ask," she said. "It seems to me I have done well. I am very tired; I want to rest."
There were tears in her eyes. The luminous interior, the gentle, tranquil people, the ******, serious life--the sense of these things pressed upon her with an overmastering force, and she felt herself yielding to one of the most genuine emotions she had ever known. "I should like to stay here," she said.
"Pray take me in."
Though she was smiling, there were tears in her voice as well as in her eyes.
"My dear niece," said Mr. Wentworth, softly. And Charlotte put out her arms and drew the Baroness toward her; while Robert Acton turned away, with his hands stealing into his pockets.