"
"Nothing of the kind--yes, it was, though, by his coloring up. La!
David, dear boy!"
"What is a man alongside for but to keep a girl out of mischief?" said
David, bruskly.
"Pray convert all your sex to that view," laughed Lucy.
So now they were going. Then Mr. Fountain thanked David for the
pleasant evening he had given them; then David blushed and stammered.
He had a veneration for old age--another of his superstitions.
Her uncle's lead gave Lucy an opportunity she instantly seized. "Mr.
Dodd, you have taken us into a new world of knowledge; we never were
so interested in our lives." At this pointblank praise David blushed,
and was anything but comfortable, and began to back out of it all with
a curt bow. Then, as the ladies can advance when a man of merit
retreats, Lucy went the length of putting out her hand with a sweet,
grateful smile; so he took it, and, in the ardor of encouraging so
much spirit and modesty, she unconsciously pressed it. On this
delicious pressure, light as it was, he raised his full brown eye, and
gave her such a straightforward look of manly admiration and pleasure
that she blushed faintly and drew back a little in her turn.
"Well, Davy, dear, how do you like the Fountains?"
"Eve, she is a clipper!"
"And the old gentleman?"
"He was very friendly. What do _you_ think of her?"
"She is an out-and-out woman of the world, and very agreeable, as
insincere people generally are. I like her because she was so polite
to you.
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