Volume II Part 27 (1/2)
”Indeed, I ary, and so is my friend Mr Auchester”
”He always looks so, Mademoiselle!” replied the Chevalier, h to tell otten to do so in his elish, French, or German,--Italian, Greek, or Hebrew”
”I am called Clara Benette, sir; that is my name”
”It is not Benette,--La Benetta benedetta! Carloratulate you, Madeht to be so naifts it has been bestowed, nor for that genius which is alone of the possessor, but for that goodness which I now experience, and feel to have been truly ascribed to you”
He stood to her and held out his hand; calravely smiled
”Sir, I thank you the more because I _know_ your na without your breakfast”
He laughed again, and again sat down; but his h of that playful courtliness, was quite drawn out to her He scarcely looked at Laura; I did not even believe that he are of her presence, nor was _I_ aware of the power of his own upon her After ten minutes Thone entered and went up to Clara She motioned to us all then, and we arose; but as she looked at Seraphael first, he took her out and into the dining-room The table was snoith damask; floere heaped up in the centre,--a bowl of honeysuckles and heartsease; the dishes here hite bread, brown bread, golden butter, new-laid eggs in a nest of moss, the freshest cream, the earliest strawberries; and before the chair which Clara took, stood a silver chocolate-jug foa, and coffee above a day-pale spirit-laarnished meat, and poultry already carved, the decanters, and still ic, and unutterably te at that hour of the day Clara asked no questions of her chief guest, but pouring out both chocolate and coffee, offered the of a chicken which Thone brought, nor the bread which Clara asked me to cut I was perfectly astounded; she had helped herself also, and was eating so quietly, after adht of speaking At last Starwood, by one of those unfortunate chances that befall ti his eyes forthwith, though he only said, ”I never saw the Chevalier eat so much” Clara answered, with her fork in her di drive; it always raises the appetite to come out of London into the country You cannot eat too much here”
”Do you think I shall find a house that will holdat Starwood his slight finger, ”and a servant or two?”
”If you like to send my servant, sir, she will find out for you”
”No, perhaps you will not dislike to drive a little ith us I know Carl will be so glad!”
”We shall be h there was that in his expression which ht easily have fluttered her I could not at all account for this eflish h I had been witness to freaks and fantasies in my boy days Never had I seen his presence affect any one so little as Clara Had she not been of a loveliness so peculiarly genial, I should have called her cold; as it was, I felt he had never ht While, having graciously deferred to her the proposal for an instant search, he sauntered out into the little front garden, she went for her bonnet, and came down in it,--a white straith a white-satin ribbon and lining, and a little white veil of her oork, as I could tell directly I caught her face through its wavering and web-like tracery Seraphael placed her in the carriage, and then looked back
”Oh, Laura--that is, Miss Le,” observed Miss Benette; this did not strike ement, and off we drove Fritz, Seraphael's own man, was on the box,--a perfect German, of very reserved deportment, who, however, one could see, would have allowed Seraphael to walk upon him His heavy demonstrations about situations and suitabilities h, as they were met by Seraphael's ard answers and skittish sallies We had a very long round, and then went back to dinner with our lady; but Seraphael, by the ti ecstasies with a very old-fashi+oned tenee, because it suddenly, in the silver shi+ne, reminded him of his own house in Gere that two persons arden-wall
The invitation of Miss Lawrence I could not forget, even through the intenser fascination spread about ain to the country; he having thither reht bulk, they consisting almost entirely of scored and other compositions, which were safely deposited in a little e house he had chosen This room he and Starwood and I soon made fit to be seen and inhabited, by our distribution of all odd furniture over it, and all the conveniences of the story Three large country scented bed-rooh for three chevaliers in each, and two drawing-rooms, were all that we cared for besides Seraphael was only like a child that night that is preparing for a whole holiday: he wandered from room to room; he shut himself into pantry, wine-cellar, and china-closet; he danced like a day-bea-chaarden when he saw it out of theIt was the wildest place,--the walks all soith grass, an orchard on a bank all reat white lilies in ranks all round the close-fringed lawn; all old-fashi+oned flowers in their favorite soils, a fountain and a grotto, and no end of weeping-ashes, arbors bent from s, and arcades of nut and filbert trees The back of the house was veiled with a spreading vine--too luxuriant--that shut out all but fresh green light from the upper bed-rooms; but Seraphael would not have a spray cut off, nor did he express the slightest dissatisfaction at being overlooked by the chie, which peeped above the hedge The late inhabitant and present owner of the house, an eccentric gentlewoe should pass upon her tene her absence for a sea-side summer; even the enormous mastiff, chained in the yard to his own house, was to re as he listed; and ere rather alarmed, Starwood and I, to discover that Seraphael had let his of the housekeeper, who rustled her scant black-silk skirts against the doorstep in anger and in dread I was about towas fiercely strong and of a tremendous expression indeed, but he only lay down before the Chevalier and licked the leather of his boots, afterwards following him over the whole place until darkness caain until Seraphael carried hientle master retired to rest, and his candle-fla o to bed I can never describe the satisfaction, if not the cale and that haunted mansion
CHAPTER XIII
Seraphael had desiredI intended to give up s on the road to Miss Lawrence's square, or rather out of the road When I came downstairs into the sun-lit breakfast-roo to his father, but no Chevalier Nor was he in his own rooh the vine-shade on the tossed bed-clothes, and the door and ere both open as I descended Starwood said that he had gone to walk in the garden, and that ere not to wait for him ”What! without his breakfast?” said I But Starwood s smile that I was astonished, and could only sit down
We ate and drank, but neither of us spoke I was anxious to be off, and Star to finish his letter; though as we both arose and were still alone, he yet looked naughty I would not pretend to understand hi friend of h people rather too soon, construing their intentions before they inform experience
I could not littering road, through eh the mediant chaos of brick-fields and dust-heaps I entered the dense halo surrounding London,--”smoke the tiara of commerce,” as a pearl of poets has called it The square looked positively lifeless when I came there I almost shrank from my expedition, not because of any fear I had on ht have been asleep behind the glaze of their many s
I was ad-rooht and splendid in the early sun All was noiseless, too, within; an air of affluent calrouped furniture, the piano closed, the stools withdrawn I was not kept twoout her hand I was instantly at horandest persons I ever saw She accepted her, and to a room which appeared to form one of a suite; for a curtain extended across one whole side,--a curtain as before an oratory in a dwelling-house
Breakfast was outspread here; on the walls, a pale sea-green, shone delectable pictures in dead-gold frames,--pictures even to an inexperienced eye pure relics of art The s had no curtains, only a broad gold cornice; the chairs were daround It was evidently a retreat of the lesser art,--it could not be called a boudoir; neither ornament nor mirror, vase nor book-stand, broke the prevalent array I said I had breakfasted, but she made me sit by her and told me,--
”I have not, and I am sure you will excuse me One must eat, and I am not so capable to exist upon little as you are Yet you shall not sit, if you would rather see the pictures, because there are not too ether is a worse mistake than too few”
I arose immediately, but I took opportunity to examine my entertainer in pauses as I moved from picture to picture She wore black brocaded silk this , with a Venetian chain and her watch, and a collar all lace; her hair, the blackest I had ever seen except Maria's, was coiled in snake-like wreaths to her head so small behind while it arched so broadly and benevolently over her noble eyes She was older than I had iined, and may have been forty at that ti that her gathered years had but served to soften every crudity of an extreanization, and to croisdom with refinement