Dodd"; and then Niobized again, partly, I
believe, with regret that she was behaving so discourteously.
"It is very natural," said David, kindly, "but we shall soon see them
all again, you know."
Presently she looked in his radiant face, with wet eyes, but a
half-smile. "You amaze me; you don't seem the least terrified at what
we have done."
"Not a bit," cried David, like a cheerful horn: "I have been in worse
peril than this, and so have you. Our troubles are all over; I see
nothing but happiness ahead." He then drew a sunny picture of their
future life, to all which she listened demurely; and, in short, he
treated her little feminine distress as the summer sun treats a mist
that tries to vie with it. He soon dried her up, and when they reached
their journey's end she was as bright as himself.
CHAPTER XXXI.
THEY had been married a week. A slight change, but quite distinct to
an observer of her sex, bloomed in Lucy's face and manner. A new
beauty was in her face--the blossom of wifehood. Her eyes, though not
less modest, were less timid than before; and now they often met
David's full, and seemed to sip affection at them. When he came near
her, her lovely frame showed itself conscious of his approach. His
queen, though he did not know it, was his vassal. They sat at table at
a little inn, twenty miles from Harrowden, for they were on their
return to Mrs. Wilson. Lucy went to the window while David settled the
bill. At the window it is probable she had her own thoughts, for she
glided up behind David, and, fanning his hair with her cool, honeyed
breath, she said, in the tone of a humble inquirer seeking historical
or antiquarian information, "I want to ask you a question, David: are
you happy _too?"_
David answered promptly, but inarticulately; so his reply is lost to
posterity.
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