The Flower of the Flock, Volume 3 (of 3)Egan, Pierce
General
The Flower of the Flock, Volume 3 (of 3)
Egan, Pierce
Fiction
In the society of Charles Clinton she was a wholly different being. She
was elevated in her own estimation, for she saw that she was in his.
She could perceive by his words, his looks, his manner, how highly he
appreciated the affection she had displayed towards her sister
Helen, and how his zeal and his behaviour, still tempered by the most
respectful propriety towards her, increased. It was the first time she
had experienced the gratification of being held in high estimation by
any human creature. She was fascinated by it, and she desired heartily
to retain that estimation. The desire to learn Helen’s fate began to
be accompanied by the wish to learn it from no other lips than those of
Charles Clinton. The hope that she should eventually be able to discover
her sister and to reside with her, came to be interpenetrated by
anticipations that Charles through his sister might be an occasional
visitor at her new abode. His name, out of gratefulness for his
exertions, took its place in her prayers. The intervals between their
meetings grew fewer, and the term of the duration of the latter longer.
Even those intervals were broken by correspondence, though neither in
their interviews nor in their notes did one word of love arise.
Evangeline grew anxious and eager for the time of meeting after it
had been appointed, and loth to part with Charley when the moment for
separation arrived. She hung on his arm when they were about to part,
and with a strange pleasure suffered her hand to linger in his when the
word “farewell” was spoken; and as she felt his fingers tremble while
they held hers, she seemed to know intuitively that they did so out
of his great respect for her. A crimson hectic burned her cheek, as an
unbidden but ungratified prompting rose up in her breast to kiss them,
for their flattering testimony of his estimation of her.
Such was the position between Charles Clinton and Evangeline when he was
called upon to proceed to the mansion in the Regent’s Park, to execute
his--at all times unpleasant, and now from what had passed between him
and the gentle girl--most painful task.
The whole establishment was brilliantly lighted up. A splendid
dinner-party and rout was that evening to be given by the direction of
Mrs. Grahame.
Mr. Grahame had demurred, alleging that circumstances would render it
inconvenient to him; but as he had not revealed to his lady the true
reason for not wishing the entertainment to be given, the lady treated
his suggestions with contempt, and issued her invitations and her
instructions for the feast.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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