The combination of art and sincerity was too much for the guileless and inexperienced Zoe. She was grieved at the pain she had given, and rose to retire, for she felt they were both on dangerous ground; but, as she turned away, she made a little, deprecating gesture, and said, softly, "Forgive me."That soft tone gave Severne courage, and that gesture gave him an opportunity. He seized her hand, murmured, "Angel of goodness!" and bestowed a long, loving kiss on her hand that made it quiver under his lips.
"Oh!" cried Miss Maitland, bursting into the room at the nick of time, yet feigning amazement.
Fanny heard the ejaculations, and whipped away from Harrington into the window. Zoe, with no motive but her own coyness, had already snatched her hand away from Severne.
But both young ladies were one moment too late. The eagle eye of a terrible old maid had embraced the entire situation, and they saw it had.
Harrington Vizard, Esq., smoked on, with his back to the group. But the rest were a picture--the mutinous face and keen eyes of Fanny Dover, bristling with defense, at the window; Zoe blushing crimson, and newly started away from her too-enterprising wooer; and the tall, thin, grim old maid, standing stiff, as sentinel, at the bedroom door, and gimleting both her charges alternately with steel-gray orbs; she seemed like an owl, all eyes and beak.
When the chaperon had fixed the situation thoroughly, she stalked erect into the room, and said, very expressively, "I am afraid I disturb you."Zoe, from crimson, blushed scarlet, and hung her head; but Fanny was ready.
"La! aunt," said she, ironically, and with pertness infinite, "you know you are always welcome. Where ever have you been all this time? We were afraid we had lost you."Aunt fired her pistol in reply: "I was not far off--most fortunately."Zoe, finding that, even under crushing circumstances, Fanny had fight in her, glided instantly to her side, and Aunt Maitland opened battle all round.
"May I ask, sir," said she to Severne, with a horrible smile, "what you were doing when I came in?"Zoe clutched Fanny, and both awaited Mr. Severne's reply for one moment with keen anxiety.
"My dear Miss Maitland," said that able young man, very respectfully, yet with a sort of cheerful readiness, as if he were delighted at her deigning to question him, "to tell you the truth, I was admiring Miss Vizard's diamond ring."Fanny tittered; Zoe blushed again at such a fib and such _aplomb._"Oh, indeed," said Miss Maitland; "you were admiring it very close, sir.""It is like herself--it will bear inspection."This was wormwood to Miss Maitland. "Even in our ashes live their wonted fires;" and, though she was sixty, she disliked to hear a young woman praised. She bridled, then returned to the attack.
"Next time you wish to inspect it, you had better ask her _to take it off,_ and show you.""May I, Miss Maitland?" inquired the ingenuous youth. "She would not think that a liberty?"His mild effrontery staggered her for a moment, and she glared at him, speechless, but soon recovered, and said, bitterly, "Evidently _not."_With this she turned her back on him rather ungraciously, and opened fire on her own ***.
"Zoe!" (sharply).
"Yes, aunt " (faintly).
"Tell your brother--if he can leave off smoking--I wish to speak to him."Zoe hung her head, and was in no hurry to bring about the proposed conference.
While she deliberated, says Fanny, with vast alacrity, "I'll tell him, aunt.""Oh, Fanny!" murmured Zoe, in a reproachful whisper.
"All right!" whispered Fanny in reply, and whipped out on to the balcony.
"Here's Aunt Maitland wants to know if you ever leave off smoking;" and she threw a most aggressive manner into the query.
The big man replied, composedly, "Tell her I do--at meals and prayers;but I always _sleep_ with a pipe in my mouth--heavily insured!""Well, then, you mustn't; for she has something very particular to say to you when you've done smoking.""Something particular! That means something disagreeable. Tell her Ishall be smoking all day to-day."
Fanny danced into the room and said, "He says he shall be smoking all day, _under the circumstances."_Miss Maitland gave this faithful messenger the look of a basilisk, and flounced to her own room. The young ladies instantly stepped out on the balcony, and got one on each side of Harrington, with the feminine instinct of propitiation; for they felt sure the enemy would tell, soon or late.
"What does the old cat want to talk to me about?" said Harrington, lazily, to Fanny.
It was Zoe who replied:
"Can't you guess, dear?" said she, tenderly--"our misconduct." Then she put her head on his shoulder, as much as to say, "But we have a more lenient judge here.""As if I could not see _that_ without her assistance!" said Harrington Vizard. (Puff!) At which comfortable reply Zoe looked very rueful, and Fanny burst out laughing.
Soon after this Fanny gave Zoe a look, and they retired to their rooms;and Zoe said she would never come out again, and Fanny must stay with her. Fanny felt sure _ennui_ would thaw that resolve in a few hours; so she submitted, but declared it was absurd, and the very way to give a perfect trifle importance.
"Kiss your hand!" said she, disdainfully--"that is nothing. If I was the man, I'd have kissed both your cheeks long before this.""And I should have boxed your ears and made you cry," said Zoe, with calm superiority.
So she had her way, and the deserted Severne felt dull, but was too good a general to show it. He bestowed his welcome company on Mr. Vizard, walked with him, talked with him, and made himself so agreeable, that Vizard, who admired him greatly, said to him, "What a good fellow you are, to bestow your sunshine on me. I began to be afraid those girls had got you, and tied you to their apron-strings altogether.""Oh, no!" said Severne: "they are charming; but, after all, one can't do without a male friend: there are so few things that interest ladies.