Part 58 (1/2)

She next tried Gorman, and here her success was complete. All those womanly prettinesses, which are so many modes of displaying graceful attraction of voice, look, gesture, or att.i.tude, were especially dear to him. Not only they gave beauty its chief charm, but they const.i.tuted a sort of game, whose address was quickness of eye, readiness of perception, prompt reply, and that refined tact that can follow out one thought in a conversation just as you follow a melody through a ma.s.s of variations.

Perhaps the young soldier did not yield himself the less readily to these captivations that Kate Kearney's manner towards him was studiously cold and ceremonious.

'The other girl is more like the old friend,' muttered he, as he chatted on with her about Rome, and Florence, and Venice, imperceptibly gliding into the language which the names of places suggested.

'If any had told me that I ever could have talked thus freely and openly with an Austrian soldier, I'd not have believed him,' said she at length, 'for all my sympathies in Italy were with the National party.'

[Ill.u.s.tration: He knelt down on one knee before her]

'But we were not the ”Barbari” in your recollection, mademoiselle,' said he. 'We were out of Italy before you could have any feeling for either party.'

'The tradition of all your cruelties has survived you, and I am sure, if you were wearing your white coat still, I'd hate you.'

'You are giving me another reason to ask for a longer leave of absence,'

said he, bowing courteously.

'And this leave of yours--how long does it last?'

'I am afraid to own to myself. Wednesday fortnight is the end of it; that is, it gives me four days after that to reach Vienna.'

'And presenting yourself in humble guise before your colonel, to say, ”_Ich melde mich gehorsamst_.”'

'Not exactly that--but something like it.'

'I'll be the Herr Oberst Lieutenant,' said she, laughing; 'so come forward now and clap your heels together, and let us hear how you utter your few syllables in true abject fas.h.i.+on. I'll sit here, and receive you.' As she spoke, she threw herself into an arm-chair, and a.s.suming a look of intense hauteur and defiance, affected to stroke an imaginary moustache with one hand, while with the other she waved a haughty gesture of welcome.

'I have outstayed my leave,' muttered Gorman, in a tremulous tone. 'I hope my colonel, with that bland mercy which characterises him, will forgive my fault, and let me ask his pardon.' And with this, he knelt down on one knee before her, and kissed her hand.

'What liberties are these, sir?' cried she, so angrily, that it was not easy to say whether the anger was not real.

'It is the latest rule introduced into our service,' said he, with mock humility.

'Is that a comedy they are acting yonder,' said Walpole, 'or is it a proverb?'

'Whatever the drama,' replied Kate coldly, 'I don't think they want a public.'

'You may go back to your duty, Herr Lieutenant,' said Nina proudly, and with a significant glance towards Kate. 'Indeed, I suspect you have been rather neglecting it of late.' And with this she sailed majestically away towards the end of the room.

'I wish I could provoke even that much of jealousy from the other,'

muttered Gorman to himself, as he bit his lip in pa.s.sion. And certainly, if a look and manner of calm unconcern meant anything, there was little that seemed less likely.

'I am glad you are going to the piano, Nina,' said Kate. 'Mr. Walpole has been asking me by what artifice you could be induced to sing something of Mendelssohn.'

'I am going to sing an Irish ballad for that Austrian patriot, who, like his national poet, thinks ”Ireland a beautiful country to live out of.”'

Though a haughty toss of her head accompanied these words, there was a glance in her eye towards Gorman that plainly invited a renewal of their half-flirting hostilities.

'When I left it, _you_ had not been here,' said he, with an obsequious tone, and an air of deference only too marked in its courtesy.

A slight, very faint blush on her cheek showed that she rather resented than accepted the flattery, but she appeared to be occupied in looking through the music-books, and made no rejoinder.