"We've been thinking ever so much about going," she pursued;"but it seems as if we couldn't. Of course Daisy--she wants to go round. But there's a lady here--I don't know her name--she says she shouldn't think we'd want to go to see castles HERE; she should think we'd want to wait till we got to Italy. It seems as if there would be so many there,"continued Mrs. Miller with an air of increasing confidence.
"Of course we only want to see the principal ones.
We visited several in England," she presently added.
"Ah yes! in England there are beautiful castles," said Winterbourne.
"But Chillon here, is very well worth seeing.""Well, if Daisy feels up to it--" said Mrs. Miller, in a tone impregnated with a sense of the magnitude of the enterprise.
"It seems as if there was nothing she wouldn't undertake.""Oh, I think she'll enjoy it!" Winterbourne declared.
And he desired more and more to make it a certainty that he was to have the privilege of a tete-a-tete with the young lady, who was still strolling along in front of them, softly vocalizing.
"You are not disposed, madam," he inquired, "to undertake it yourself?"Daisy's mother looked at him an instant askance, and then walked forward in silence. Then--"I guess she had better go alone,"she said simply. Winterbourne observed to himself that this was a very different type of maternity from that of the vigilant matrons who massed themselves in the forefront of social intercourse in the dark old city at the other end of the lake.
But his meditations were interrupted by hearing his name very distinctly pronounced by Mrs. Miller's unprotected daughter.
"Mr. Winterbourne!" murmured Daisy.
"Mademoiselle!" said the young man.
"Don't you want to take me out in a boat?"
"At present?" he asked.
"Of course!" said Daisy.
"Well, Annie Miller!" exclaimed her mother.
"I beg you, madam, to let her go," said Winterbourne ardently;for he had never yet enjoyed the sensation of guiding through the summer starlight a skiff freighted with a fresh and beautiful young girl.
"I shouldn't think she'd want to," said her mother.
"I should think she'd rather go indoors."
"I'm sure Mr. Winterbourne wants to take me," Daisy declared.
"He's so awfully devoted!"
"I will row you over to Chillon in the starlight.""I don't believe it!" said Daisy.
"Well!" ejaculated the elder lady again.
"You haven't spoken to me for half an hour," her daughter went on.
"I have been having some very pleasant conversation with your mother," said Winterbourne.
"Well, I want you to take me out in a boat!" Daisy repeated. They had all stopped, and she had turned round and was looking at Winterbourne.
Her face wore a charming smile, her pretty eyes were gleaming, she was swinging her great fan about. No; it's impossible to be prettier than that, thought Winterbourne.
"There are half a dozen boats moored at that landing place," he said, pointing to certain steps which descended from the garden to the lake.
"If you will do me the honor to accept my arm, we will go and select one of them."Daisy stood there smiling; she threw back her head and gave a little, light laugh. "I like a gentleman to be formal!" she declared.
"I assure you it's a formal offer."
"I was bound I would make you say something," Daisy went on.
"You see, it's not very difficult," said Winterbourne.
"But I am afraid you are chaffing me."
"I think not, sir," remarked Mrs. Miller very gently.
"Do, then, let me give you a row," he said to the young girl.
"It's quite lovely, the way you say that!" cried Daisy.
"It will be still more lovely to do it."
"Yes, it would be lovely!" said Daisy. But she made no movement to accompany him; she only stood there laughing.
"I should think you had better find out what time it is,"interposed her mother.
"It is eleven o'clock, madam," said a voice, with a foreign accent, out of the neighboring darkness; and Winterbourne, turning, perceived the florid personage who was in attendance upon the two ladies.
He had apparently just approached.
"Oh, Eugenio," said Daisy, "I am going out in a boat!"Eugenio bowed. "At eleven o'clock, mademoiselle?""I am going with Mr. Winterbourne--this very minute.""Do tell her she can't," said Mrs. Miller to the courier.
"I think you had better not go out in a boat, mademoiselle," Eugenio declared.
Winterbourne wished to Heaven this pretty girl were not so familiar with her courier; but he said nothing.
"I suppose you don't think it's proper!" Daisy exclaimed.
"Eugenio doesn't think anything's proper."
"I am at your service," said Winterbourne.
"Does mademoiselle propose to go alone?" asked Eugenio of Mrs. Miller.
"Oh, no; with this gentleman!" answered Daisy's mamma.
The courier looked for a moment at Winterbourne--the latter thought he was smiling--and then, solemnly, with a bow, "As mademoiselle pleases!" he said.
"Oh, I hoped you would make a fuss!" said Daisy.
"I don't care to go now."
"I myself shall make a fuss if you don't go," said Winterbourne.
"That's all I want--a little fuss!" And the young girl began to laugh again.
"Mr. Randolph has gone to bed!" the courier announced frigidly.
"Oh, Daisy; now we can go!" said Mrs. Miller.
Daisy turned away from Winterbourne, looking at him, smiling and fanning herself. "Good night," she said;"I hope you are disappointed, or disgusted, or something!"He looked at her, taking the hand she offered him.
"I am puzzled," he answered.
"Well, I hope it won't keep you awake!" she said very smartly;and, under the escort of the privileged Eugenio, the two ladies passed toward the house.
Winterbourne stood looking after them; he was indeed puzzled.
He lingered beside the lake for a quarter of an hour, turning over the mystery of the young girl's sudden familiarities and caprices.
But the only very definite conclusion he came to was that he should enjoy deucedly "going off" with her somewhere.
Two days afterward he went off with her to the Castle of Chillon.