14. XIV.
THE NEXT MORNING.
YOU must have eaten a heavy supper, sir,” said
Lord Fairfax coldly, as at breakfast the young
man related his strange vision; “Greenway
Court is not ancient enough to possess a ghost,
and your dreams took a singular direction.”
“True, my lord,” returned Falconbridge, thoughtfully,
“but I could almost swear I was not asleep.”
“Not asleep!” said the Earl, with grave surprise.
“At least I think so. But plainly, I am mistaken. Yet
'tis strange! I seem to have seen really those lurid eyes
full of pain and yearning—unhappy eyes!”
And Falconbridge leaned back in his chair and sighed.
“There, comrade!” said Captain Wagner, with his mouth
full, “stop that groaning, or you'll make me melancholy.
Luckily my appetite is proof against everything—but come,
laugh!”
Falconbridge smiled. The sonorous voice of the soldier
aroused him; and his constitutional spirits gradually returned.
“You are right, Captain,” he said; “this is idle, and I
am carried away by sickly fancies. And yet I could have
sworn! but enough. I fear I've terrified you by my ghost!”
he added, turning with a brilliant smile to Miss Argal; “I
trust your own dreams were more pleasant.
“Very pleasant,” was the low reply; and George caught
in its passage, a quick glance, which seemed to say, “I
dreamed of you.”
The breakfast soon afterward terminated; and Falconbridge
requested the Earl to have his horse and Miss
Argal's brought up. The young lady replied to his lordship's
hospitable invitation to remain, that she feared her
father was uneasy on her account; and this excuse was conclusive.
So they departed; Falconbridge making an appointment
with the Earl to visit him on the next day; and soon afterward
George, too, mounted his horse and left Greenway.
Was it to look at the country, or make surveys? If so,
the youth evidently preferred the region of the Fort Mountain;
for in an hour or two he had crossed the river, and
was galloping along the road to the house of Cannie.
