Furrey is?"
Mrs. Belding assented, and Miss Alice laughed heartily, and his mind
was set at rest for the moment.
They passed a long time together. At first Mrs. Belding and Arthur
"made the expenses" of the conversation; but she soon dropped away, and
Alice, under the influence of the night and the moonlight and Farnham's
frank and gentle provocation, soon found herself talking with as much
freedom and energy as if it were a girls' breakfast. With far more,
indeed,--for nature takes care of such matters, and no girl can talk to
another as she can to a man, under favoring stars. The conversation
finally took a personal turn, and Alice, to her own amazement, began to
talk of her life at school, and with sweet and loving earnestness sang
the praises of Madame de Veaudrey.
"I wish you could know her," she said to Farnham, with a sudden impulse
of sympathy. He was listening to her intently, and enjoying her eager,
ingenuous speech as much as her superb beauty, as the moon shone full
on her young face, so vital and so pure at once, and played, as if glad
of the privilege, about the curved lips, the flashing teeth, the soft
eyes under their long lashes, and the hair over the white forehead,
gleaming as crisply brilliant as fine-spun wire of gold.
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