The Argosy — page 101: what you’re looking at

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88 The White Witch. .. nodded. The farmer touched his hat in response and ‘his companion smiled. P| Mrs. Mayne was sitting back in her corner. “Mr. Wilding, I think,” she carelessly remarked. ‘‘ Who was that with him?” “His daughter,” replied Godfrey. ‘‘ Jane: the eldest of them all.” ‘‘T have never seen her about with them.” “Oh, she does not live at home. She came here on a short visit a few days back, and has been laid up ever since with a sore throat. Rather bad luck for her! She has not been at home for over three years, and she leaves again in a day or two.” ‘‘ Where does she live, then ?” “In Wales. She is maid to a Mrs. Carradoc. The old lady goes on the Continent for months at a time, and Jane goes with her.” ‘Why is she in black? The Wildings are not.” “For some near relative of her mistress.” **'You seem to be on very good terms with them, Godfrey!” ‘“Why, of courseIam. I have been running in to the farmhouse at will since I was a little chap no higher than my knee.’ When Godfrey was by himself that evening, thinking over the incidents of the day, a new and disagreeable idea struck him: all these difficulties put in the way of Miss Dixon’s coming might be but so many artifices of her mother to arouse his own interest, with the view of securing him as a husband for her insipid and unattractive daughter. As his own character for ‘“‘ turning round and going the other way ” was well known, and Mrs. Mayne was avowedly capable of resorting to stratagem for a daughter’s benefit, this explanation of the matter was not outside the bounds of probability. On the following afternoon, it was the feeling that she would have preferred to see him start for the agricultural show at Langskirk with his father which prompted this perverse young man to stay at home, and to saunter into the drawing-room soon after he heard the arrival of Elspeth Thornhill, and condescend to do his best to prove to his step-mother that he was anything but unsociable when he chose. It is true that it did not require much effort to amuse little Elspeth ; her timid laugh came readily enough in acknowledgment of the very feeblest effort of wit on the part of the idle young man ir the chair by her side. Neither was there, perhaps, any great merit in the obliging readiness he showed to pick up her knitting-cotton when she let the ball roll along the floor, or in his insensibility to fatigue while holding the skein on his fingers for her to wind. For her simple, perhaps even silly, face was very young and fair, her soft hair looked golden where the sunlight fell on it; her blue eyes were very inno- cent, and her mouth, however much it might pout in the serene but not enlivening atmosphere of home, was all smiles at the attentions of the brilliant Godfrey. When Mr. Mayne returned from Langskirk and the delighted girl was pressed to stay for dinner, Godfrey supported the further infliction Gomichbooks.co