Helene was the first to recover the faculty of speech. "Why, you are a
regular little brier rose!" she exclaimed laughingly, wheeling her
horse about so as to remove what appeared to be the larger part of a
blackberry bush from her friend's habit, and improving the opportunity
to insert a pin in the ragged edges of a dreadful looking rent, which
the premature removal of the blackberry bush had revealed.
Edward introduced his friend to Rose with a gravity which was too
evidently born of the belief that she had never before presented quite
so disreputable an appearance. Allan knew his goddess under this
quaint disguise, and his heart beat a loud recognition. The cool
graceful black and white propriety of Helene DeBerczy was barren of
significance compared with the slightest strand of yellow wilful hair
that blew about the pink-shamed face of his friend's sister.
With renewed expressions of good-feeling and the promise, by Allan, of
an early visit to Pine Towers, the young men separated, the riding
party moving off in the same order as before, Helene and Edward going
first, leaving Rose and Flip to follow at their own discretion.
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