Confidence

“You did n’t recognize me,” he said, “and your not recognizing me made me—made me hesitate.”

For a moment she said nothing, and then—

“You are more timid than you used to be!” she answered.

He could hardly have said what expression he had expected to find in her face; his apprehension had, perhaps, not painted her obtrusively pale and haughty, aggressively cold and stern; but it had figured something different from the look he encountered. Miss Vivian was simply blushing—that was what Bernard mainly perceived; he saw that her surprise had been extreme—complete. Her blush was re-assuring; it contradicted the idea of impatient resentment, and Bernard took some satisfaction in noting that it was prolonged.

“Yes, I am more timid than I used to be,” he said.

In spite of her blush, she continued to look at him very directly; but she had always done that—she always met one’s eye; and Bernard now instantly found all the beauty that he had ever found before in her pure, unevasive glance.

“I don’t know whether I am more brave,” she said; “but I must tell the truth—I instantly recognized you.”

“You gave no sign!”

“I supposed I gave a striking one—in getting up and going away.”

“Ah!” said Bernard, “as I say, I am more timid than I was, and I did n’t venture to interpret that as a sign of recognition.”

“It was a sign of surprise.”

“Not of pleasure!” said Bernard. He felt this to be a venturesome, and from the point of view of taste perhaps a reprehensible, remark; but he made it because he was now feeling his ground, and it seemed better to make it gravely than with assumed jocosity.

“Great surprises are to me never pleasures,” Angela answered; “I am not fond of shocks of any kind. The pleasure is another matter. I have not yet got over my surprise.”

“If I had known you were here, I would have written to you beforehand,” said Bernard, laughing.

Miss Vivian, beneath her expanded parasol, gave a little shrug of her shoulders.

“Even that would have been a surprise.”

“You mean a shock, eh? Did you suppose I was dead?”

Now, at last, she lowered her eyes, and her blush slowly died away.

“I knew nothing about it.”

“Of course you could n’t know, and we are all mortal. It was natural that you should n’t expect—simply on turning your head—to find me lying on the pebbles at Blanquais-les-Galets. You were a great surprise to me, as well; but I differ from you—I like surprises.”

“It is rather refreshing to hear that one is a surprise,” said the girl.

“Especially when in that capacity one is liked!” Bernard exclaimed.

“I don’t say that—because such sensations pass away. I am now beginning to get over mine.”

The light mockery of her tone struck him as the echo of an unforgotten air. He looked at her a moment, and then he said—

“You are not changed; I find you quite the same.”

“I am sorry for that!” And she turned away.

“What are you doing?” he asked. “Where are you going?”

She looked about her, without answering, up and down the little terrace. The Casino at Blanquais was a much more modest place of reunion than the Conversation-house at Baden-Baden. It was a small, low structure of brightly painted wood, containing but three or four rooms, and furnished all along its front with a narrow covered gallery, which offered a delusive shelter from the rougher moods of the fine, fresh weather. It was somewhat rude and shabby—the subscription for the season was low—but it had a simple picturesqueness. Its little terrace was a very convenient place for a stroll, and the great view of the ocean and of the marble-white crags that formed the broad gate-way of the shallow bay, was a sufficient compensation for the absence of luxuries. There were a few people sitting in the gallery, and a few others scattered upon the terrace; but the pleasure-seekers of Blanquais were, for the most part, immersed in the salt water or disseminated on the grassy downs.

“I am looking for my mother,” said Angela Vivian.

“I hope your mother is well.”

“Very well, thank you.”

“May I help you to look for her?” Bernard asked.

Her eyes paused in their quest, and rested a moment upon her companion.

“She is not here,” she said presently. “She has gone home.”

“What do you call home?” Bernard demanded.

“The sort of place that we always call home; a bad little house that we have taken for a month.”

“Will you let me come and see it?”

“It ‘s nothing to see.”

Bernard hesitated a moment.

“Is that a refusal?”

“I should never think of giving it so fine a name.”

“There would be nothing fine in forbidding me your door. Don’t think that!” said Bernard, with rather a forced laugh.

It was difficult to know what the girl thought; but she said, in a moment—

“We shall be very happy to see you. I am going home.”

“May I walk with you so far?” asked Bernard.

“It is not far; it ‘s only three minutes.” And Angela moved slowly to the gate of the Casino.

CHAPTER XX

Bernard walked beside her, and for some moments nothing was said between them. As the silence continued, he became aware of it, and it vexed him that she should leave certain things unsaid. She had asked him no question—neither whence he had come, nor how long he would stay, nor what had happened to him since they parted. He wished to see whether this was intention or accident. He was already complaining to himself that she expressed no interest in him, and he was perfectly aware that this was a ridiculous feeling. He had come to speak to her in order to tell her that he was going away, and yet, at the end of five minutes, he had asked leave to come and see her. This sudden gyration of mind was grotesque, and Bernard knew it; but, nevertheless, he had an immense expectation that, if he should give her time, she would manifest some curiosity as to his own situation. He tried to give her time; he held his tongue; but she continued to say nothing. They passed along a sort of winding lane, where two or three fishermen’s cottages, with old brown nets suspended on the walls and drying in the sun, stood open to the road, on the other side of which was a patch of salt-looking grass, browsed by a donkey that was not fastidious.

“It ‘s so long since we parted, and we have so much to say to each other!” Bernard exclaimed at last, and he accompanied this declaration with a laugh much more spontaneous than the one he had given a few moments before.

It might have gratified him, however, to observe that his companion appeared to see no ground for joking in the idea that they should have a good deal to say to each other.