Part 14 (2/2)
”Does he not?” I replied. ”I think he appears more as though he has a young lady now than he did during my previous knowledge of him.”
”Well, I don't know how you see it,” she said, as she tore down her pretty hair.
”What!” I e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed in feigned consternation. ”He has not been making love to you, has he, Dawn? I always had such faith in his manliness.”
”Well, he doesn't _say_ anything,” said Dawn, with a blush. ”But he glares at me in the way men do, and when I mention anything I like or want, he wants to get it for me, and all that sort of business.”
”Perhaps he's falling in love unawares. Young men are often stupid, and do not recognise their distemper till it is very ripe. He ought to be removed from danger.”
”Well, if I ever had a lover, and he liked another girl better, I'd be pretty sure he hadn't cared for me, and would not want him any more,”
she said off-handedly.
”But would it not be better to let him go away and be happy with the maid who loves him than to spoil his life by wasting his affection on you, when you only think him a great pug-looking creature that you'd be ashamed to be seen with?”
”Yes, I don't care for him,” she said still more off-handedly; ”but he doesn't look so queer now I've got used to him. I suppose any one who liked him wouldn't think him such a horror.”
”No; I for one think him handsome.”
”Handsome?”
”Yes, _handsome_.”
”Well, I'll go to bed after that and think how some people's tastes differ.”
”Well, take care you don't think about Ernest.”
”Thank you; I don't want the nightmare,” she retorted, tossing her head.
THIRTEEN.
VARIOUS EVENTS.
The following day was eventful. To begin with, after Andrew had discharged his early morning duties, he was to appear before his grandma for the execution of the sentence she had pa.s.sed upon him the night before. I was a.s.sisting him to dry the parts of the cream-separator, a task which had become chronic with me, when Carry shouted from the kitchen, where she was putting in her week--
”Your grandma says not to be long; she's waiting for you.”
Andrew unburdened his soul to me.
”Lord, ain't I just in for it! I'll hear how me grandma rared me since I was born! I'm dead sick of this born and rared business. It would give a bloke the pip. I didn't make meself born, nor want any one else to do it; there ain't much in bein' alive,” he said with that pessimism which, like measles and whooping-cough, is indigenous to extreme youth.
”How could I help being rared? I didn't ask 'em to rare me. I didn't make meself a little baby that couldn't help itself, and they needn't have rared me unless they liked. Goodness knows, I'd have rather died like a little pup before his eyes were opened,” he continued so tragically that I took the opportunity of smiling behind his back as he threw out the dish-water.
”Hurry up! your grannie is waiting!” called Carry once more.
”Blow you! you'll have to wait till I'm done,” retorted the boy in a tone the reverse of genial.
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