Ariana’s face was radiant with smiles when she descended to the dining-room. Her gayety, however, quickly disappeared when Arthur, who sat next to her at the table, asked abruptly, “Have you any commands for my friend, Lee? I am going this afternoon to Allendale, to remain with him for a few weeks.”
Luckily for Ariana, Jane immediately exclaimed, “What, going to run away from us so soon. How will the children get along without you?”
“Please don’t go, sir!” said Archie, mournfully. “I cannot finish my new bow without your help.”
“I will show you about it,” said the judge, kindly, “and take you to ride on horseback behind me, just as Arthur has done.”
By this time Ariana had recovered her composure, and said, with an attempt at gayety, “What a delightful time we ladies shall have with none to molest or make us afraid. The only fear will be, that I shall quite forget my saucy ways if I have no one to practice them upon.”
“Suppose you should make me a target for your wit,” said the judge, playfully.
“My weapons would only rebound upon myself, with so invulnerable a mark,” she replied, in a respectful tone.
A conversation, in which evident constraint was visible, followed, and every one glad when the meal was at last over. An hour afterward Arthur’s horse was brought round to the door, and with an air of extreme embarrassment, he bade Mrs. Daley and Ariana a hasty farewell. The assumed indifference of the latter was so well counterfeited, that her lover rode away with the full conviction that his absence was considered as a relief.
The next morning, Judge Grayson was obliged to leave Castleton to attend a court at a neighboring village, and the ladies were left in sole possession of the mansion.
“How dull it is here to-day,” said Ariana, to her sister, as they were _tête-à-tête_, while Mrs. Grayson was occupied with domestic affairs. “I just saw a pair of boots at the door of the opposite chamber, and it was actually a delightful sight. I really think that everlasting overcoat of Madison’s would be a pleasant addition to our prospect in this dearth of mankind.”
Jane was delighted at a chance to revenge herself for all Ariana’s attacks upon the odd ways of the professor. “What ails you,” she said, “to make such strange remarks? They come very unexpectedly from such a professed man-hater. Why I have heard you say, that Eden could not be a Paradise to you, if men were allowed to enter it.”