"It is," Kate replied, rising and watching Darrell as he removed her
wrap and prepared to escort her to the ball-room. His playful badinage
had not deceived her. As she took his arm she said, in a low tone,-"You affect to treat this matter rather lightly, but, all the same, you
have warned me against this man. 'Forewarned is forearmed,' you know,
and no man can ever attempt to harm me or mine with impunity!"
Darrell turned quickly in surprise; there was a quality in her tone
wholly unfamiliar.
"But I fear you exaggerate what I intended to convey," he said, hastily;
"I do not know that he would ever deliberately seek to harm you, but he
might render himself obnoxious in some way, as he did to-night."
She shook her head. "I was taken off guard to-night," she said; "but he
had best never attempt anything of the kind a second time!"
They were now waiting for the waltz to begin; she continued, in the same
low tone: "I have had a western girl's education. When I was a child this place
was little more than a rough mining camp, with plenty of desperate
characters. My father trained me as he would have trained a boy, and,"
she added, significantly, with a bright, proud smile, "I am just as
proficient now as I was then!"
Darrell scarcely heeded the import of her words, so struck was he by the
change in her face, which had suddenly grown wonderfully like her
father's,--stern, impassive, unrelenting. She smiled, and the look
vanished, and for the time he thought no more of it, but as the passing
cloud sometimes reveals features in a landscape unnoticed in the
sunlight, so it had disclosed a phase of character latent, unguessed
even by those who knew her best.
Two hours later the last carriage had gone; the guests from out of town
who were to remain at The Pines for the night had retired, and darkness
and silence had gradually settled over the house. A light still burned
in Mr. Underwood's private room, where he paced back and forth, his
brows knit in deep thought, but his stern face lighted with a smile of
intense satisfaction. Darrell, who had remained below to assist Mrs.
Dean in the performance of a few last duties, having accompanied her in
a final tour of the deserted rooms to make sure that all was safe, bade
her good-night and went upstairs. To his surprise, Kate's library was
still lighted, and through the open door he could see her at her desk
writing.
She looked up on hearing his step, and, as he approached, rose and came
to the door.
She had exchanged her evening gown for a dainty robe de chambre of
white cashmere and lace, and, standing there against the background of
mellow light, her hair coiled low on her neck, while numerous
intractable locks curled about her ears and temples, it was small wonder
that Darrell's eyes bespoke his admiration and love, even if his lips
did not.