The Midnight Queen [46]
friend, and I
have a dislike to extremes. There is a middle course, between
hating and loving. Suppose I take that?"
"I will have no middle courses - either hating or loving it must
be! Leoline! Leoline!" (bending over her, and imprisoning both
hands this time) "do say you love me!"
"I am captive in your hands, so I must, I suppose. Yes, Sir
Norman, I do love you!"
Every man hearing that for the first time from a pair of loved
lips is privileged to go mad for a brief season, and to go
through certain manoeuvers much more delectable to the enjoyers
than to society at large. For fully ten minutes after Leoline's
last speech, there was profound silence. But actions sometimes
speak louder than words; and Leoline was perfectly convinced that
her declaration had not fallen on insensible ears. At the end of
that period, the space between them on the couch had so greatly
diminished, that the ghost of a zephyr would have been crushed to
death trying to get between them; and Sir Norman's face was
fairly radiant. Leoline herself looked rather beaming; and she
suddenly, and without provocation, burst into a merry little peal
of laughter.
"Well, for two people who were perfect strangers to each other
half an hour ago, I think we have gone on remarkably well. What
will Mr. Ormiston and Prudence say, I wonder, when they hear
this?"
"They will say what is the truth - that I am the luckiest man in
England. O Leoline! I never thought it was in me to love any
one as I do you."'
"I am very glad to hear it; but I knew that it was in me long
before I ever dreamed of knowing you. Are you not anxious to
know something about the future Lady Kingsley's past history?"
"It will all come in good time; it is not well to have a surfeit
of joy in one night.
"I do not know that this will add to your joy; but it had better
be told and be done with, at once and forever. In the first
place, I presume I am an orphan, for I have never known father or
mother, and I have never had any other name but Leoline."
"So Ormiston told me."
"My first recollection is of Prudence; she was my nurse and
governess, both in one; and we lived in a cottage by the sea - I
don't know where, but a long way from this. When I was about ten
years old, we left it, and came to London, and lived in a house
in Cheapside, for five or six years; and then we moved here. And
all this time, Sir Norman you will think it strange - but I never
made any friends or acquaintances, and knew no one but Prudence
and an old Italian professor, who came to our lodgings in
Cheapside, every week, to give me lessons. It was not because I
disliked society, you must know; but Prudence, with all her
kindness and goodness - and I believe she truly loves me - has
been nothing more or less all my life than my jailer."
She paused to clasp a belt of silver brocade, fastened by a pearl
buckle, close around her little waist, and Sir Norman fixed his
eyes upon her beautiful face, with a powerful glance.
"Knew no one - that is strange, Leoline! Not even the Count
L'Estrange?"
"Ah! you know him?" she cried eagerly, lifting her eyes with a
bright look; "do - do tell me who he is?"
"Upon my honor, my dear," said Sir Norman, considerably taken
aback, "it strikes me you are the person to answer that question.
If I don't greatly mistake, somebody told me you were going to
marry him."
"Oh, so I was," said Leoline, with the utmost simplicity. "But I
don't know him, for all that; and more than that, Sir Norman, I
do not believe his name is Count L'Estrange, any more than mine
in!"
"Precisely my opinion; but why, in the name of - no, I'll not
swear; but why were you going to marry him, Leoline?"
Leoline half pouted, and shrugged her pretty pink satin
shoulders.
"Because I couldn't help it - that's why. He coaxed, and coaxed;
and I
have a dislike to extremes. There is a middle course, between
hating and loving. Suppose I take that?"
"I will have no middle courses - either hating or loving it must
be! Leoline! Leoline!" (bending over her, and imprisoning both
hands this time) "do say you love me!"
"I am captive in your hands, so I must, I suppose. Yes, Sir
Norman, I do love you!"
Every man hearing that for the first time from a pair of loved
lips is privileged to go mad for a brief season, and to go
through certain manoeuvers much more delectable to the enjoyers
than to society at large. For fully ten minutes after Leoline's
last speech, there was profound silence. But actions sometimes
speak louder than words; and Leoline was perfectly convinced that
her declaration had not fallen on insensible ears. At the end of
that period, the space between them on the couch had so greatly
diminished, that the ghost of a zephyr would have been crushed to
death trying to get between them; and Sir Norman's face was
fairly radiant. Leoline herself looked rather beaming; and she
suddenly, and without provocation, burst into a merry little peal
of laughter.
"Well, for two people who were perfect strangers to each other
half an hour ago, I think we have gone on remarkably well. What
will Mr. Ormiston and Prudence say, I wonder, when they hear
this?"
"They will say what is the truth - that I am the luckiest man in
England. O Leoline! I never thought it was in me to love any
one as I do you."'
"I am very glad to hear it; but I knew that it was in me long
before I ever dreamed of knowing you. Are you not anxious to
know something about the future Lady Kingsley's past history?"
"It will all come in good time; it is not well to have a surfeit
of joy in one night.
"I do not know that this will add to your joy; but it had better
be told and be done with, at once and forever. In the first
place, I presume I am an orphan, for I have never known father or
mother, and I have never had any other name but Leoline."
"So Ormiston told me."
"My first recollection is of Prudence; she was my nurse and
governess, both in one; and we lived in a cottage by the sea - I
don't know where, but a long way from this. When I was about ten
years old, we left it, and came to London, and lived in a house
in Cheapside, for five or six years; and then we moved here. And
all this time, Sir Norman you will think it strange - but I never
made any friends or acquaintances, and knew no one but Prudence
and an old Italian professor, who came to our lodgings in
Cheapside, every week, to give me lessons. It was not because I
disliked society, you must know; but Prudence, with all her
kindness and goodness - and I believe she truly loves me - has
been nothing more or less all my life than my jailer."
She paused to clasp a belt of silver brocade, fastened by a pearl
buckle, close around her little waist, and Sir Norman fixed his
eyes upon her beautiful face, with a powerful glance.
"Knew no one - that is strange, Leoline! Not even the Count
L'Estrange?"
"Ah! you know him?" she cried eagerly, lifting her eyes with a
bright look; "do - do tell me who he is?"
"Upon my honor, my dear," said Sir Norman, considerably taken
aback, "it strikes me you are the person to answer that question.
If I don't greatly mistake, somebody told me you were going to
marry him."
"Oh, so I was," said Leoline, with the utmost simplicity. "But I
don't know him, for all that; and more than that, Sir Norman, I
do not believe his name is Count L'Estrange, any more than mine
in!"
"Precisely my opinion; but why, in the name of - no, I'll not
swear; but why were you going to marry him, Leoline?"
Leoline half pouted, and shrugged her pretty pink satin
shoulders.
"Because I couldn't help it - that's why. He coaxed, and coaxed;
and I