I was ten years younger all of a sudden, and my
heart was all a-glow with chivalrous devotion for this beautiful
stranger. I reasoned with myself, and ridiculed my madness, and yet
yielded like the veriest craven to the sweet intoxication. I gave the
driver of the Hansom five shillings. Had I not a right to pay him a
trifle extra for driving me through fairy-land?
"What had we for dinner that day? I have a vague idea that I ate cherry
tart and roast veal, fried soles, boiled custard, and anchovy sauce, all
mixed together. I know that the meal seemed to endure for the abnormal
period of half-a-dozen hours or so; and yet it was only seven o'clock
when we adjourned to the drawing-room, and Miss Wentworth was not due
until half-past seven. My niece was all in a flutter of expectation, and
ran out of the drawing-room window every now and then to see if the new
governess was coming. She need not have had that trouble, poor child,
had I been inclined to give her information; since, from the chair in
which I had seated myself to read the evening papers, I could see the
road along which Miss Wentworth must come. My eyes wandered very often
from the page before me, and fixed themselves upon this dusty suburban
road; and presently I saw a parasol, rather a shabby one, and then a
slender figure coming quickly towards our gate, and then the face, which
I am weak enough to think the most beautiful face in Christendom.
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