'Tis time you found your proper element. I can't help confessing it;
'tis due to you I should confess it--though alas for us whom you leave
in New York!"
She looked at him for a moment, with a slight curling of the lip;
witnessed his recovery from the fear that she might throw herself upon
his care; saw his comfort at being relieved of a possible burden he
was not prepared to assume; and then said, very quietly:
"I think Mrs. Russell is coming. You had best go."
With a look of gallant adoration, he made to kiss her hand first. But
she drew it away, and put her finger to her lip, as if to bid him
depart unheard. When he had left the house, she fell upon the sofa and
wept, but only for wounded vanity, for chagrin that she had exposed
her heart to one of those gentry who will adore a woman until there is
danger of her becoming an embarrassment.
Before long, she arose, and dried her eyes, and went up-stairs to pack
her trunks. Thus ended this very light affair of the heart; which had
so heavy consequences for so many people.
But Captain Falconer's inward serenity was not to escape with this
unexpectedly easy ordeal. When he reached his room, he found me
awaiting him, as the representative of Tom Faringfield. I had, in
obedience to my sense of duty, put forth a few conventional
dissuasions against Tom's fighting the captain; and had presumed to
hint that I was nearer to him in years and experience than Tom was.
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