"I think she has left off her long words," said Rose.
"She is not a civilian now," said Conrade, quite unconscious of Ermine's
amusement at his confidences as he pushed behind her. "I did think it
a most benighted thing to marry her, but that's what it is. Military
discipline has made her conformable." Having placed the chair on a spot
which commanded the scene, the boy and girl rushed off to take their
part in the sport, leaving Ermine looking down a steep bank at the huge
ring of performers, with linked hands, advancing and receding to the
measure of a chanted verse round a figure in the centre, who made
gesticulations, pursued and caught different individuals in the ring,
and put them through a formula which provoked shouts of mirth. Ermine
much enjoyed the sight, it was pretty to watch the 'prononce' dresses
of the parish children, interspersed with the more graceful forms of the
little gentry, and here and there a taller lady. Then Ermine smiled to
recognise Alison as usual among her boys, and Lady Temple's soft greys
and whites, and gentle floating movements, as she advanced and receded
with Stephana in one hand, and a shy infant-school child in the other.
But Ermine's eye roamed anxiously, for though Rachel's animated,
characteristic gestures were fully discernible, and her little Una's
arch toss of the head marked her out, yet the companion whom she had
beguiled away, and who had become more to Ermine than any other of the
frisking little ones of the flock, was neither with her not with his
chief protector, Rose. In a second or two, however, the step that to
her had most "music in't" of all footfalls that ever were trodden, was
sounding on the path that led circuitously up the path, and the Colonel
appeared with the little runaway holding his hand.
"Why, baby, you are soon come away!"
"I did not like it,--sit on mamma's knee," said the little fellow,
scrambling to his place then as one who felt it his own nest and throne.
"He was very soon frightened," said the Colonel; "it was only that
little witch Una who could have deluded him into such a crowd, and, as
soon as she saw a bigger boy to beguile, she instantly deserted Keith,
so I relieved Rachel of him."
"See Rachel now; Mr. Clare is interrogating her. How she is making them
laugh! I did not think she could ever have so entered into fun."
"Alick must have made it a part of her education. When the Invalid
has time for another essay, Ermine, it should be on the Benefits of
Ridicule."
"Against Clever Womanhood? But then the subject must have Rachel's
perfect good humour."
"And the weapon must be in the most delicately skilful hands," added
the Colonel. "Properly wielded, it saves blunting the superior weapon by
over-frequent use. Here the success is complete."