"You are quite too cute, Amey," she answered, rising slowly and taking
my arm affectionately, "in fact you are a genius my dear," she added
in a pompous tone.
"So they all tell me," I retorted quietly, "and yet I feel very much
like other people."
"Well, you are not like other people, indeed you are not!" she
exclaimed earnestly. "If you were I would never have liked you."
"Don't you like 'other people'?"
"Not generally, some other people I do, but not all _Mon Dieu! non pas
tous !_" she added, shaking her head emphatically and looking
abstractedly before her.
The current of her thought must have changed suddenly, for she raised
her face with a bright expression upon it now and said
"Let us do something--something to keep us alive--What shall it be?"
"We might drink your cod liver oil," I suggested; "it is recommended
for that purpose, is it not?"
"How smart you are Miss Hampden!" she exclaimed. "Well, I will leave
all that sport to yourself, it has no charm for me, I know," she then
cried, interrupting herself, "let us go to your room, and you will
show me all your pretty things. I have not seen anything since you
came, such a prisoner as I have been."
"I hope you will feel repaid," I said, putting one arm tenderly around
her frail waist, and leading her out, "but I have not much to show
you, Hortense."
We repaired to my room at the other end of the corridor, and Hortense,
seating herself on a pile of pillows on the floor, insisted on being
shown all the new jewellery and trinkets that had been bestowed on me
when I "came out.
Pages:
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187