Again his eyes lifted and looked into
hers. He meant it--she knew that.
Then suddenly a terrible shriek- it could not be
hers, she could not scream like that- came from the bedroom.
Once I ventured gently to chaff
her about this religiosity of
hers.
But I was the architect of
her fortunes -- the publisher, so to speak, of
her book -- and, if anything, I am underpaid.
Sir Walter, indeed, though he had no affection for Anne, and no vanity flattered, to make him really happy on the occasion, was very far from thinking it a bad match for
her. On the contrary, when he saw more of Captain Wentworth, saw him repeatedly by daylight, and eyed him well, he was very much struck by his personal claims, and felt that his superiority of appearance might be not unfairly balanced against
her superiority of rank; and all this, assisted by his well-sounding name, enabled Sir Walter at last to prepare his pen, with a very good grace, for the insertion of the marriage in the volume of honour.
He slipped an arm through
hers, as Eady had done, and fancied it was faintly pressed against
her side.
She looked up into his face to see smiling lips above
hers and brave eyes, untouched by terror, drinking deeply of
her own.
As she talked, Billy followed
her solemnly, his eyes steadily turned on
hers.
Lastly, she pictured to herself how this same little sister of
hers would, in the after-time, be herself a grown woman; and how she would keep, through all
her riper years, the simple and loving heart of
her childhood: and how she would gather about
her other little children, and make THEIR eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long ago: and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering
her own child-life, and the happy summer days.
Farebrother in the morning, she had promised to go and dine at the parsonage on
her return from Freshitt.
If he continued to believe that the child had been
hers, so much safer would be the real Jack wherever he might be.
Louisa, taking down the hand that would have embraced
her in another moment, held it in one of
hers, and answered: