'I should like to know them,' said Miss Alston. 'Oh! they are both very nice-looking girls.'
'There, that is Laura--Miss Edmonstone,' said Guy, 'that tall young lady, with the beautiful hair and jessamine wreath.'
He spoke as if he was proud of her, and had a property in her. The tone did not escape Philip, who at that moment was close to them, with Amy on his arm; and, knowing the Alstons slightly, stopped and spoke, and introduced his cousin, Miss Amabel Edmonstone. At the same time Guy took one of the Miss Alstons away to get some tea.
'So you knew my cousin at Oxford?' said Philip, to the brother.
'Yes, slightly. What an amusing fellow he is!'
'There is something very bright, very unlike other people about him,' said Miss Alston.
'How does he get on? Is he liked?'
'Why, yes, I should say so, on the whole; but it is rather as my sister says, he is not like other people.'
'In what respect?'
'Oh I can hardly tell. He is a very pleasant person, but he ought to have been at school. He is a man of crotchets.'
'Hard-working?'
'Very; he makes everything give way to that. He is a capital companion when he is to be had, but he lives very much to himself. He is a man of one friend, and I don't see much of him.'
Another dance began, Mr. Alston went to look for his partner, Philip and Amy moved on in search of ice. 'Hum!' said Philip to himself, causing Amy to gaze up at him, but he was musing too intently for her to venture on a remark. She was thinking that she did not wonder that strangers deemed Guy crotchety, since he was so difficult to understand; and then she considered whether to take him to see King Charles, in the library, and concluded that she would wait, for she felt as if the martyr king's face would look on her too gravely to suit her present tone.
Philip helped her to ice, and brought her back to her mother's neighbourhood without many more words. He then stood thoughtful for some time, entered into conversation with one of the elder gentlemen, and, when that was interrupted, turned to talk to his aunt.
Lady Eveleen and her two cousins were for a moment together. 'What is the matter, Eva?' said Amy, seeing a sort of dissatisfaction on her bright face.
'The roc's egg?' said Laura, smiling. 'The queen of the evening can't be content--'