Then I
followed the rest into the hall, and found there a jolly, handsome,
brown-faced sailor, evidently a son of the house. The old man received
him with tears in his eyes, and the children with shouts of joy. The
maiden escaped in the confusion, just in time to save herself from
fainting. We crowded about the lamp to hide her retreat, and nearly put
it out; and the butler could not get it to burn up before she had
glided into her place again, relieved to find the room so dark. The
sailor only had seen her go, and now he sat down beside her, and,
without a word, got hold of her hand in the gloom. When we all
scattered to the walls and the corners, and the lamp blazed up again,
he let her hand go.
"During the rest of the dinner the old man watched the two, and saw
that there was something between them, and was very angry. For he was
an important man in his own estimation, and they had never consulted
him. The fact was, they had never known their own minds till the sailor
had gone upon his last voyage, and had learned each other's only this
moment.--We found out all this by watching them, and then talking
together about it afterwards.--The old gentleman saw, too, that his
favourite, who was under such obligation to him for loving her so much,
loved his son better than him; and he grew by degrees so jealous that
he overshadowed the whole table with his morose looks and short
answers. That kind of shadowing is very different from ours; and the
Christmas dessert grew so gloomy that we Shadows could not bear it, and
were delighted when the ladies rose to go to the drawing-room.
Pages:
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73