Bildungsromans; Communities -- Juvenile fiction; First loves -- Juvenile fiction; Pittsburgh (Pa.) -- History -- Juvenile fiction
"That was my father likely. Grandfather is quite an old man."
"And figured in the--what shall we call it--_émeute_?"
Captain Forbes laughed. "That was about it. Yet at one time I was a
good deal afraid there would be a fierce struggle. Better counsels
prevailed, however. When the army arrived those who had not really
dared to say the government was right so far as obedience was
concerned came out on the right side. A thousand or so soldiers
carried weight," with a half sarcastic laugh.
Andsdell stole furtive glances at the girl the other side of Forbes.
What a graceful, spirited walk she had; just what one would expect
with that well poised figure.
Then she stopped suddenly and the captain paused in his talk as she
half turned.
"There's father," she exclaimed with a smile that Andsdell thought
enchanting.
He had met the Englishman before and greeted him politely. After a
little talk he slipped his daughter's arm through his and said mostly
to her--"I am ready now."
She made her adieu with a kind of nonchalant grace in which there was
not a particle of coquetry. He followed her with his eyes until they
had turned the corner of the bastion. Then again he saw her as they
were going out.
"I should think that girl would have half the men in the town at her
feet," he said.
"Oh, Miss Carrick?" as if he was not quite certain. Then with a half
smile--"Do you think so? Well, she hasn't."
"She is very lovely."
"In a certain way, yes. I believe our people like more color, more
dash and spirit. We are not up on a very high round, pioneers seldom
are. It takes a generation or so to do the hard work, then comes the
embellishment. They are rather dignified and have some French ways.
An old grandfather, the fourth generation back, might have stood for a
portrait of the grand Marquis. It is on the mother's side."
"She doesn't favor the French."
"No, but the boy does, a bright, handsome fellow, wild as a deer and
full of pranks. It will be hard to tell what race we do favor most. A
hundred years hence we will be going back with a sort of pride,
hunting up ancestors. At present there is too much to do."
Andsdell went his way presently. He was comfortably well lodged. He
had a bountiful supper and then he went out for a walk. There was a
young moon over in the west just light enough to bring out the silvery
beech trunks and touch the tips of the grasses. The woodthrush still
gave his long sweet call at intervals. This path led into the town. He
would not go that way. He wished he knew just where these Carricks
lived. He fancied her sitting on the porch drinking in the loveliness
of the evening.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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