CHAPTER XXXI 458
" Do you think you shall like Morton ?" she asked of me , with a direct and naive simplicity of tone and manner , pleasing , if child-like .
" I hope I shall . I have many inducements to do so ." " Did you find your scholars as attentive as you expected ?" " Quite ." " Do you like your house ?" " Very much ." " Have I furnished it nicely ?" " Very nicely , indeed ." " And made a good choice of an attendant for you in Alice Wood ?"
" You have indeed . She is teachable and handy ." ( This then , I thought , is Miss Oliver , the heiress ; favoured , it seems , in the gifts of fortune , as well as in those of nature ! What happy combination of the planets presided over her birth , I wonder ?)
" I shall come up and help you to teach sometimes ," she added . " It will be a change for me to visit you now and then ; and I like a change . Mr . Rivers , I have been SO gay during my stay at S- . Last night , or rather this morning , I was dancing till two o ' clock . The -th regiment are stationed there since the riots ; and the officers are the most agreeable men in the world : they put all our young knife-grinders and scissor merchants to shame ."
It seemed to me that Mr . St . John ' s under lip protruded , and his upper lip curled a moment . His mouth certainly looked a good deal compressed , and the lower part of his face unusually stern and square , as the laughing girl gave him this information . He lifted his gaze , too , from the daisies , and turned it on her . An unsmiling , a searching , a meaning gaze it was . She