Strengthening myself with a powerful
resolution to extricate myself from the bewitching influence which had
surrounded me, I arose, and went straightway to the parlor. Could it be
that a flash of pleasure beamed on Miss Tarlingford's face? or was I a
deluded gosling? The latter suggestion seemed the more credible, so I
cheerfully adopted it.
"We have missed you, Mr. Plovins," said the fair enslaver; "I hope you
have not been unwell?"
"Unwell?--oh, no, no!"
"You have not been near me--us, today," (reprovingly,) "not even at
dinner; and the trout were superb."
A sudden hope mounted within me.
"Miss Tarlingford, pray, excuse me,--your first name, may I ask what it
is?"
"Arabella is my name, and" (whisperingly) "you may use it, if you
like."
"Oh, hideous horror! And this is what they call flirtation," I thought.
And the hope which had risen blazing, like a rocket, went down
fuliginous, like the stick.
"Mr. Plovins, I will say you are very--very inconstant, to be absent
all day, thus."
"Miss Tarlingford, it is not inconstancy, it is billiards.
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