The Daltons; Or, Three Roads In Life. Volume II. Lever Charles James

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ I, Frank?” said she, pressing him down to a seat beside her, while, with hands interclasped, they sat gazing on each other.

      “I am only beginning to remember you,” said he, slowly. “You never used to wear your hair in long ringlets thus. Even your figure is changed; you are taller, Kate.”

      “It is the mere difference of dress, Frank,” said she, blushing with conscious pride.

      “No, no; you are quite changed. Even as I sit here beside you, I feel I know not what of shame at my daring to be so near – ”

      “So great a lady, you would say, dear Frank,” said she, laughing. “Poor boy, if you knew – ” She stopped, and then, throwing her arms around his neck, went on rapidly: “But, my own dear brother, tell me of yourself: are you happy; do you like the service; are they kind to you; is Uncle Stephen as we hoped he should be?”

      “My story is soon told, Kate,” said he; “I am where I was the day I entered the army. I should have been made a corporal – ”

      “A corporal!” cried Kate, laughing.

      “A good thing it is, too,” said the youth. “No guards to mount, no fatigue duty, neither night patrol nor watch, and four kreutzers extra pay.”

      “Poor dear boy!” cried she, kissing his forehead, while she gazed on him with a compassionate affection that spoke a whole world of emotion.

      “But tell me of yourself, Kate. Why do they call you the Princess?”

      “Because I am married, Frank, – that is, I am betrothed, and will soon be married.”

      “And when did this occur? Tell me everything,” cried he, impatiently.

      “You shall know all, dearest Frank. Yoo have heard how Lady Hester Onslow carried me away with her to Italy. Nelly has told you how we were living in Florence, – in what splendor and festivity; our palace frequented by all the great and distinguished of every country, – French and German, and Spanish and Russian.”

      “I hate the Russians; but go on,” said the boy, hastily.

      “But why hate the Russians, Frank?” asked she, reddening as she spoke.

      “They are false-hearted and treacherous. See how they have driven the Circassians into a war, to massacre them; look how they are goading on the Poles to insurrection. Ay, they say that they have emissaries at this moment in Hungary on the same errand. I detest them.”

      “This may be their state policy, Frank; but individually – ”

      “They are no better; Walstein knows them well.”

      “And who is Walstein, Frank?”

      “The finest fellow in the service; the one I would have wished you married to, Kate, above all the world. Think of a colonel of hussars at eight-and-twenty, so handsome, so brave, and such a rider. You shall see him, Kate!”

      “But it’s too late, Frank,” said she, laughing; “You forget it’s too late!”

      “Ah! so it is,” sighed the boy, seriously. “I often feared this,” muttered he, after a pause. “Nelly’s letters told me as much, and I said to myself, ‘It will be too late.’”

      “Then Nelly has told you all, perhaps?” said she.

      “Not everything, nor, indeed, anything at all very distinctly. I could only make out what seemed to be her own impressions, for they appeared mere surmises.”

      “And of what sort were they?” asked Kate, curiously.

      “Just what you would suspect from her. Everlasting fears about temptations and trials, and so forth, continually praying that your heart might resist all the flatteries about you. The old story about humility. I thought to myself, ‘If the lesson be not more needful to Kate than to me, she runs no great risk, after all!’ for I was also warned about the seductions of the world! a poor cadet, with a few kreutzers a day, told not to be a Sybarite! Returning wet through from a five hours’ patrol, to burnish accoutrements in a cold, damp barrack, and then exhorted against the contamination of low society, when all around me were cursing the hardships they lived in, and execrating the slavery of the service!”

      “Our dearest Nelly knows so little of the world,” said Kate, as she threw a passing glance at herself in the mirror, and arranged the fall of a deep fringe of gold lace which was fastened in her hair.

      “She knows nothing of it,” said the boy, adjusting his sword-knot. “She thought our hussars wore white dolmans, and carried straight swords like the cuirassiers.”

      “And the dear, simple creature asked me, in one of her letters, if I ever wore wild-flowers in my hair now, as I used to do long ago,” said Kate, stealing another glance at the glass. “Flowers are pretty things in the head when rubies make the pinks, and the dewdrops are all diamonds.”

      Frank looked at her as she said this, and for the first time saw the proud elation her features assumed when excited by a theme of vanity.

      “You are greatly changed, dearest Kate,” said he, thoughtfully.

      “Is it for the worse, Frank?” said she, half coquettishly.

      “Oh! as to beauty, you are a thousand times handsomer,” cried the boy, with enthusiasm. “I know not how, but every expression seems heightened, every feature more elevated; your air and gesture, your very voice, that once I thought was music itself, is far sweeter and softer.”

      “What a flatterer!” said she, patting his cheek.

      “But then, Kate,” said he, more gravely, “have these fascinations cost nothing? Is your heart as simple? Are your affections as pure? Ah! you sigh – and what a heavy sigh, too! Poor, poor Kate!”

      And she laid her head upon his shoulder, while the heaving swell of her bosom told what sorrow the moment was costing her.

      “Nelly, then, told you of my betrothal?” whispered she, in a weak, faint voice.

      “No; I knew nothing of that. She told me all about the life you were leading; the great people with whom you were intimate; and bit by bit, a hint, some little allusion, would creep out as to the state of your heart. Perhaps she never meant it, or did not know it; but I remarked, in reading her letters over and over, – they were the solace of many a weary hour, – that one name recurred so often in connection with yours, you must have frequently referred to him yourself, for in each extract from your letters I saw the name.”

      “This was strange. It must have been through inadvertence,” said she, musingly. “I thought I had scarcely spoken of him.”

      “See how your hand told truth, even against your consciousness,” said he, smiling.

      Kate made no reply, but sat deep in thought.

      “And is he here? When shall I see him?” asked Frank, impatiently.

      “No, Frank. He is in Italy; he was detained there by business of importance. Besides, it is not etiquette that we should travel together. When the Emperor’s permission has been obtained – ”

      “What Emperor?” asked Frank, in astonishment.

      “Our СКАЧАТЬ