"But he always has that expression when anything pleases him very much," said Miss Elizabeth.
"Yes, I know. But just then, it was quite extraordinary--there's something almost childlike--"
"If you go on about Mr. Brinsley in this way much longer, you'll all have a fit," observed Fanny Trehearne.
"My dear," answered Cordelia, gravely, "do you know what a 'fit' means? Really, sometimes, you do exaggerate--"
"A fit means convulsions--what babies have, you know. They used to say it was brought on by looking at the moon."
Lawrence felt a strong inclination to laugh at this moment, but he controlled it, and only smiled. Then, to his considerable embarrassment, they all appealed to him, probably in the hope of more praise for Brinsley.
"Do tell us how he strikes you, Mr. Lawrence," said Cordelia.
"Oh, please do!" cried Augusta, at the same moment.
"I should be curious to know what you think of him," said Fanny Trehearne.
"Well, really," stammered the unfortunate young man, "I've hardly seen him--I've not had time to form an opinion--you must know him, and you all like him, and--it seems to me--that settles it. Doesn't it?"
While Lawrence was speaking, Miss Cordelia stooped and picked something up from the floor. He noticed that it was the leafless stem of the flower which Brinsley had been twisting in his fingers. She did not throw it away, but her hand closed over it, and Lawrence did not see it again.
Louis Lawrence had not been at Bar Harbour a week before he became fully aware--if indeed there had previously been any doubt on the subject in his mind--that he was very much in love with Fanny Trehearne. It became clear to him that, although he had believed himself to be in love once or twice before then, he had been mistaken, and that he had never known until the present time exactly what love meant. He was not even sure that he was pleased with the passion, or, at least, with the form in which it attacked him. Sensitive as he was, it 'took him hard,' as the saying is, and he felt that it had the better of him at every turn, and disposed of him in spite of himself at every hour of the day.
When he was alone he wondered why he had been asked to the house, and whether Mr. and Mrs. Trehearne, who were abroad, knew anything about it. He was a modest man, and was inclined to underestimate himself, so that it could never have occurred to him that Fanny Trehearne might have been strongly attracted by him during their acquaintance in town, and might have insisted that he should be asked to come and pass a fortnight. Moreover, Fanny lost no opportunity of impressing upon him that he was a great favourite with the three Miss Miners, and she managed to convey the impression that he had been asked chiefly to please them, though she never said so.