Mabel's Mistake Part 42

"The General shrugged his shoulders.

"'Your spoiled Zillah is seldom contented,' he said, pleasantly enough.

"'Just read the letter,' Mrs. Harrington said, placing it in his hands.

'I am sure you will be sorry for her--she says she feels like a poor little Italian grey-hound left out in the cold.'

"The General read the letter and returned it to his wife, saying--

"'I suppose she is lonely, and since she is well enough to travel, of course she had better come on at once--she can be of service to you, I dare say, even if she is not strong enough to resume her old duties.'

"'I really want to see her, pretty creature,' Mrs. Harrington said, glancing over portions of the letter again.

"'I feel quite lost without her caprices and bad temper--besides, she always knows exactly what is to be done for me, and does it in the best way.'

"'Only, thanks to Miss Mabel's kindness, you have not had time to miss her,' the General said.

"'Oh, there never was such a nurse as Mabel,' cried she, 'but then I can't quite make a servant of her, willing as she is to sacrifice herself to my whims.'

"'I scarcely thought you regarded the girl Zillah quite as a servant,'

said James, speaking for the first time. There was something so bitter in his voice, that I wondered they did not notice it.

"'Indeed I do not,' Mrs. Harrington replied. 'She is faithful and loving, and so handsome that it is like having some exotic flower about me.'

"'Mrs. Harrington never forgets what is due herself or others, James, whether they may be dependent or friends,' the General said, in a more reproving tone than I ever before heard him employ towards his wife's son.

"Again James' dark eyes flashed upon him that strange look of anger and defiance.

"'May I see the letter, mother?' he asked, quickly.

"'Certainly,' Mrs. Harrington said, stretching out her hand over the back of the sofa.

"As James took the letter, the General said--

"'Zillah is not likely to have any important secrets to write to your mother.'

"I might--perhaps it was fancy, caused by the suspicion that was in my own mind--but I thought he slightly emphasized the words 'your mother.'

No, I am sure it was not fancy, for James' lips shut together in the compressed way they did when he was angry, and a frown gathered on his forehead--he had caught the peculiar tone as I did."

CHAPTER XLIX.

THE GENERAL PROPOSES A TRIP TO CADIZ.

"While James was reading the letter, the General said to his wife--

"'I find that I shall be obliged to go back to Cadiz, so I will bring Zillah home.'

"James crumpled the letter in his hand, and called out in so loud and agitated a voice that Mrs. Harrington absolutely started--

"'I will go back for Zillah, mother.'

"The General turned a little in his chair, glanced at me, then regarded James--his eyebrows slightly raised with an expression of surprise.

"'Upon my word,' said he, pleasantly as ever, 'I scarcely see the necessity for your playing _preux chevalier_ in this case, James.'

"'Not the slightest,' said Mrs. Harrington. 'But James is always thoughtful for others.'

"'Always,' the General said.

"'I have nothing to detain me here--I have seen Seville thoroughly, and shall be glad to make this journey,' James said, without paying attention to what had pa.s.sed.

"I felt my cheeks tingling with impatience and indignation. What did this eagerness and solicitude mean? Did he forget how unbecoming it was--did he not remember how this strange, pa.s.sionate, ill-regulated creature, in spite of her beauty, her marvelous eyes, and her bewitching voice, belonged to a race separated from us by all natural laws! Did he forget that she was a menial--a slave?

"The General was smiling still, and smoothing a long curl of his wife's hair that had broken loose from the comb and fell over the cus.h.i.+on in a s.h.i.+ning wave.

"'James is so full of his scheme of becoming a modern Don Quixote, that he did not even hear me say that I would bring Zillah on here,' he said.

"'It strikes me that you are inclined to do Don Quixote yourself, sir,'

exclaimed James, and his voice was sharp and harsh.

"'Excuse me--you misunderstand,' replied the General, in a rather drawling, sarcastic tone; 'if I were inclined to emulate Cervantes, here I think my taste is sufficiently patrician for me to display it in some other quarter than toward my wife's domestic.'

"The tone was somewhat sneering, and the speech was a little affected and fatuous, but I knew he said it as a reproof to James, and he deserved it well.

"'I am sure the courier seems the proper person to send back,' Mrs.

Harrington said, a little disturbed by this unusual tone between her husband and son. 'Why should'nt he go, General?'

"'You are right, my treasure, as you always are,' he replied. 'But as I began to tell you, I am obliged to return to Cadiz myself.'

"'If you have business there I can transact it for you,' persisted James.

"'Thanks! I have the utmost confidence in your judgment, but this is a matter that I feel inclined to take in my own hands.'

"'Business in Cadiz!' muttered James, ironically.

"His mother did not catch the words, but the General and I did. The General only smiled--he looked a little contemptuous now.

"'Why do you have to go back, dear?' his wife asked.

"'Simply because I got a letter this morning from that stupid banker, Henriquez. He has made a muddle of buying those three pictures we wanted, and that Englishman who was so crazy about them will get the lot after all, unless I go on myself.'

"'Oh, I wouldn't lose that Cano for the world,' cried Mrs. Harrington; 'I have set my heart on having it in my bed room at home.'

"'Precisely the reason I made up my mind to go, dear lady,' said the General, lifting her pretty hand to his lips with exquisite gallantry.

'I am a foolish man, and I cannot bear to have you disappointed in anything--be it of importance or the veriest trifle.'