Page:The Private Life, Lord Beaupré, The Visits (New York, Harper & Brothers, 1893).djvu/214

204 There I had a good look at my host's nephew and a longer talk with my friend's daughter, in regard to whom I had become conscious of a faint formless anxiety. I remember saying to her, gropingly, instinctively: "My dear child, can I do anything for you? I shall, perhaps, see your mother before you do. Can I, for instance, say anything to her from you?" This only made her blush and turn away; and it was not till too many days had passed that I guessed that what had looked out at me unwittingly in her little gazing trepidation was something like, "Oh, just take me away in spite of myself!" Superficially, conspicuously, there was nothing in the young man to take her away from. He was a person of the middle condition, and, save that he didn't look at all humble, might have passed for a poor relation. I mean that he had rather a seedy, shabby air, as if he were wearing out old clothes (he had on faded things that didn't match); and I formed vaguely the theory that he was a specimen of the numerous youthful class that goes to seek its fortune in the colonies, keeps