“Oh, such as I never--never saw! How shall I get Pearl and Audrey to get even a notion of it? Grandpapa will guess in a moment! Oh, and the sea, all shine with a path of--of glory! Oh, daddy, there are things more beautiful than anybody could ever dream of!”
“Go and dream then, my sprite. Try to be as still as you can, even if you do go on feeling the yacht, and seeing the sparks when you shut your eyes. For you see my head is bad, and I do want a chance of sleep.”
“Poor daddy! I’ll try, even if the music goes on in my head. Good-night.”
“That will keep him quieter than anything,” said Lance; “but I would not give much for the chance of his not seeing the dawn.”
“Or you either, I fear,” said Geraldine. “Have you slept since the discovery?”
“I shall make my sleep up at home, now I have had the whole out. Who comes now?”
“Gentle wishes long subdued, Subdued and cherished long.”
Mr. Bramshaw had brought her to the door, and no doubt she and he had had a quiet, restful time of patient planning; but the not finding Francie soon filled her with great alarm and self-reproach for having let herself be drawn away from the party, when all had stood together on Miss Mohun’s lawn. She wanted to start off at once in search of her sister, and was hardly pacified by finding that Gerald was still to come. Then, however, Gerald did come, and alone. He said he had just seen the Clipstone party off. No, he had not seen Francie there; but he added, rather as if recovering from a bewilderment, as Sophy was asking him to come out with her again, “Oh, never fear. Lord Ivinghoe was there somewhere!”
“No, he said the yacht got in too late for the train. Never mind, Sophy, depend upon it she is all right.”
None of the ladies present felt equally pleased, but in a minute or two more in came a creature, bright, lovely, and flushed, with two starry eyes, gleaming like the blue lights on the ships.
“Oh, Cousin Marilda, have I kept you waiting? I am so sorry!”
“Only on the cliff walk. Lord Ivinghoe took me to see the place where his father had the accident, and we watched the fireworks from there. Oh, it was so nice, and still more beautiful when the strange lights were out and the people gone, and only the lovely quiet moon shining on the sea, and a path of light from Venus.”