picture, as she turned it in such a way that a strong light fell on the
recoiling figure of Captain Jarvis. The resemblance was wonderful.
Denbigh thought he would have known it, had he seen it in the Academy
itself. The noise of some one approaching closed the portfolio; it was
only a servant, yet Emily did not resume her pencil. Denbigh watched her
motions, as she put the picture carefully in a private drawer of the
secretary, reopened the blind, replaced the screen, and laid the
handkerchief, the last thing on his face, with a movement almost
imperceptible to himself.
"It is later than I thought," said Denbigh, looking at his watch; "I owe
an apology, Miss Moseley, for making so free with your parlor; but I was
too lazy to move."
"Apology! Mr. Denbigh," cried Emily, with a color varying with every
word she spoke, and trembling at what she thought the nearness of
detection, "you have no apology to make for your present debility; and
surely, surely, least of all to me!"
"I understand from Mr. Moseley," continued Denbigh, with a smile, "that
our obligation is at least mutual; to your perseverance and care, Miss
Moseley, after the physicians had given me up, I believe I am, under
Providence, indebted for my recovery."
Emily was not vain, and least of all addicted to a display of any of her
acquirements; very few even of her friends knew she ever held a pencil
in her hand; yet did she now unaccountably throw open her portfolio, and
offer its contents to the examination of her companion. It was done
almost instantaneously, and with great freedom, though not without
certain flushings of the face and heavings of the bosom, that would have
eclipsed Grace Chatterton in her happiest moments of natural flattery.
Whatever might have been the wishes of Mr. Denbigh to pursue a subject
which had begun to grow extremely interesting, both from its import and
the feelings' of the parties, it would have been rude to decline viewing
the contents of a lady's portfolio. The drawings were, many of them,
interesting, and the exhibitor of them now appeared as anxious to remove
them in haste, as she had but the moment before been to direct his
attention to her performances. Denbigh would have given much to dare to
ask for the paper so carefully secreted in the private drawer; but
neither the principal agency he had himself in the scene, nor delicacy
to his companion's wish for concealment, would allow of the request.
"Doctor Ives! how happy I am to see you," said Emily, hastily closing
her portfolio, and before Denbigh had gone half through its contents;
"you have become almost a stranger to us since Clara left us."
"No, no, my little friend, never a stranger, I hope, at Moseley Hall,"
cried the doctor, pleasantly; "George, I am happy to see you look so
well--you have even a color--there is a letter for you, from Marian."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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