Here and at church were the only places where the friends had
met during these months, except one or two short visits to the
little house in the lane when Christie devoted herself to Mrs.
Sterling.
David was quite unchanged, though once or twice Christie fancied he
seemed ill at ease with her, and immediately tormented herself with
the idea that some alteration in her own manner had perplexed or
offended him. She did her best to be as frank and cordial as in the
happy old days; but it was impossible, and she soon gave it up,
assuming in the place of that former friendliness, a grave and quiet
manner which would have led a wiser man than David to believe her
busied with her own affairs and rather indifferent to every thing
else.
If he had known how her heart danced in her bosom, her eyes
brightened, and all the world became endurable, the moment he
appeared, he would not have been so long in joining her, nor have
doubted what welcome awaited him.
As it was, he stopped to speak to his host; and, before he
reappeared, Christie had found the excitement she had been longing
for.
"Now some bore will keep him an hour, and the evening is so short,"
she thought, with a pang of disappointment; and, turning her eyes
away from the crowd which had swallowed up her heart's desire, they
fell upon a gentleman just entering, and remained fixed with an
expression of unutterable surprise; for there, elegant, calm, and
cool as ever, stood Mr.
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