Читать книгу Edith Percival. A Novel онлайн

47 страница из 61

While he still stood absorbed in gloomy thought, he was suddenly aroused by a hearty slap on the shoulder. He looked up haughtily, and Gus met the full light of his fiery eye.

"Fred!" he exclaimed, without heeding his evident anger, "you're the luckiest dog in creation! Guess whom you've saved?"

"Who?" was the eager inquiry.

"My cousin Edith, the eldest daughter of my uncle, Major Percival."

ssss1

ssss1

"Where is the heart that has not bowed

A slave, eternal love, to thee?

Look on the cold, the gay, the proud—

And is there one among them free?"

—Landon.

It was a dark, unpleasant night—nearly a fortnight after the adventure of the burning ship. The privateer was still cruising about in quest of "Britishers," whom the captain was particularly anxious to "send to thunder!"—as he himself elegantly expressed it. During this time, Fred's acquaintance with Miss Percival hardly progressed as rapidly as Gus had prophesied it would. There was a sort of embarrassment, a coldness, a reserve, in her manner toward him, that offended his sensitive pride; and their intercourse now generally consisted of a bow, when they met, and a formal "good day." Though she spent the greater part of each day with Gus, on deck, she seemed to shrink from meeting him; and Fred, seeing this, studiously avoided her. Yet sometimes, suddenly raising his head, he would find those soft blue eyes wandering wistfully over to where he stood, yet always dropping before his; while her rising color and averted head betokened emotions she would fain have concealed.