Apparently they
were absorbed in each other, but, when opposite, Clancy turned and looked
her full in the face. She gave no sign of recognition nor did he. That
mutual and unobserved encounter of their eyes set its seal on their last
interview. They were strangers.
"There goes a pair, billing and cooing," said Ella with a laugh.
"Mara, don't you feel well?" asked the captain anxiously. "You look very
pale."
"I felt the heat very much to-day," she replied evasively. "I am longing
for August and rest."
"Oh, Mara! let us shut up shop at once," cried Ella. "Papa is at leisure
now and we can make little expeditions down the bay, out to Summerville
and elsewhere."
"No," Mara replied, "I would rather do just what we agreed upon. It's only
a few days now."
"You are as sot as the everlasting hills."
Mara was silent, and glad indeed that her quiet face gave no hint of the
tumult in her heart.
Mrs. Hunter's eyes were angrily following Clancy and Miss Ainsley. "Well,"
she said, with a scornful laugh, "that renegade Southerner has found his
proper match in that Yankee coquette. I doubt whether he gets her though,
if a man ever does get a born flirt. When she's through with Charleston
she'll be through with him, if all I hear of her is true."
"Oh, you're mistaken, Mrs. Hunter," Ella answered. "She fairly dotes on
him, and if he don't marry her he's a worse flirt than she is.
Pages:
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338