Then he let go her hand, and patiently turned his eyes to the next
comer; but not with the same expression--Missy was sure of that. She
walked on after her father in a kind of daze. The whole thing had
taken scarcely a second; but, oh! what can be encompassed in a
second!
Missy was very silent during the homeward journey; she intensely
wanted to be silent. Once father said:
"Well, the man's certainly magnetic--but he seems a decent kind of
fellow. I suppose a lot has been exaggerated." He chuckled. "But
I'll bet some of the Cherryvale ladies are a little disappointed."
"Oh, that!" Missy felt a hot flame of indignation flare up inside
her. "He wouldn't act that way! anybody could tell. I think it's a
crime to talk so about him!"
Father gave another chuckle, very low; but Missy was too engrossed
with her resentment and with other vague, jumbled emotions to notice
it.
That night she had difficulty in getting to sleep. And, for the
first time in weeks, visions of Commencement failed to waft her off
to dreams. She was hearing over and over, in a kind of lullaby, a
deep, melodious voice: "Your daughter?--you're a man to be envied,
sir!"--was seeing a pair of dark bright eyes, smiling into her own
with a beam of kinship ineffable.
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