Nora sighed; it might have been from fatigue. Several country beaus
approached, eagerly contending, now that the coast was clear, for the
honor of the beauty's hand in the dance. But Nora refused one and all.
She should dance no more this evening, she said. Supper came on, and
Reuben, with one sister on each arm, led them out to the great tent
where it was spread. There was a rush. The room was full and the table
was crowded; but Reuben made good places for the sisters, and stood
behind their chairs to wait on them. Hannah, like a happy, working,
practical young woman in good health, who had earned an appetite, did
ample justice to the luxuries placed before them. Nora ate next to
nothing. In vain Hannah and Reuben offered everything to her in turn;
she would take nothing. She was not hungry, she said; she was tired and
wanted to go home.
"But wouldn't you rather stay and see the fireworks, Nora?" inquired
Reuben Gray, as they arose from the table to give place to someone else.
"I don't know. Will--will Mr.--I mean Mrs. Brudenell and the young
ladies come out to see them, do you think?"
"No, certainly, they will not; these delicate creatures would never
stand outside in the night air for that purpose."
"I--I don't think I care about stopping to see the fireworks, Reuben,"
said Nora.
"But I tell you what, John said how the young heir, the old madam, the
young ladies, and the quality folks was all a-going to see the fireworks
from the upper piazza. They have got all the red-cushioned settees and
arm-chairs put out there for them to sit on."
"Reuben, I--I think I will stop and see the fireworks; that is, if
Hannah is willing," said Nora musingly.
And so it was settled.
The rustics, after having demolished the whole of the plentiful supper,
leaving scarcely a bone or a crust behind them, rushed out in a body,
all the worse for a cask of old rye whisky that had been broached, and
began to search for eligible stands from which to witness the exhibition
of the evening.
Reuben conducted the sisters to a high knoll at some distance from the
disorderly crowd, but from which they could command a fine view of the
fireworks, which were to be let off in the lawn that lay below their
standpoint and between them and the front of the dwelling-house. Here
they sat as the evening closed in. As soon as it was quite dark the
whole front of the mansion-house suddenly blazed forth in a blinding
illumination. There were stars, wheels, festoons, and leaves, all in
fire. In the center burned a rich transparency, exhibiting the arms of
the Brudenells.