Page:The Yellow Book - 07.djvu/174

 out, in fact. This is the first dinner they've given since her engagement, and"

There was a sound of laughter and voices outside, and the usual little stir and flutter in the room as the men came in.

"Ah, he's speaking to her. How splendid they look together," exclaimed Mrs. Yeo, who was taking more than her usual interest in the engagement. The girl looked up with a quick start as the door opened, and hastily withdrew her foot from the fender, as though she had been guilty of some impropriety. She straightened herself, and hurriedly smoothed her dress, while her hand tightened mechanically on the fan she was holding.

A close observer might have thought the movement almost a shrinking one, and in the little fleeting smile with which she greeted her lover's approach, there was perhaps as much nervousness us pleasure.

She looked very young when she raised her eyes, which were clear blue, and at first sight, singularly childlike. But their expression was puzzling; it almost seemed—and Mrs. Yeo was more interested than ever when she noticed this—as though a new nature was struggling in them tentatively, and in a half frightened way, for life and utterance. It was this uncertain air about the girl altogether, which Mrs. Yeo felt, and which appealed to her as pathetic. "She wants some one to be very kind to her just now," thought the tender-hearted little lady, as she watched the girl's face.

The man lingered a few moments beside her, leaning over the back of her chair, but at the first soft notes of a song, he turned towards the piano, and in the girl's attitude there was a faint suggestion of relief, though her eyes followed him rather wistfully.

The singer was a slim girl, with a somewhat striking face, and