"No, I never could do that," and the possible life with
Arthur which the maiden had more than once imagined began to look very
dreary, when, suddenly, a shadow darkened the door, and Lucy knew
before she turned her head that the rector was standing at her back,
the blood tingling through her veins with a delicious feeling; as,
laying both hands upon her shoulders, and bending over her so that she
felt his breath upon her brow he said:
"What, my Lady Lucy here? I hardly expected to find two ministering
angels, though I was almost sure of one," and his fine eyes rested on
Anna with a strange, wistful look of tenderness, which neither she nor
Lucy saw.
"Then you knew she was coming," Lucy said, an uneasy thought flashing
across her mind as she remembered the picnic, and the scene she had
stumbled upon.
But Arthur's reply, "I did not know she was coming, I only knew it was
like her," reassured her for a time, making her resolve to emulate the
virtues which Arthur seemed to prize so highly. What a difference his
presence made in that wretched room! She did not mind the poverty now,
or care if her dress was stained with the molasses left in the chair,
and the inquisitive child with tattered gown and bare brown legs was
welcome to examine and admire the bright plaid ribbons as much as she
chose.
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