“Let me take you in to supper,” said the rector, approaching with his arm held out.
And then Mrs. Shanks felt that there was compensation in all things. She was taken in one of the first, she said afterwards; not the very first--she could not expect that, with Mrs. Barry of Northcote present, and General Skelton’s wife. The army and the landed gentry naturally were first. But Miss Mildmay did not follow till long after--till the doctor found her still standing in a corner, with that grim look of suppressed scorn and satirical spectatorship with which the proud neglected watch the vulgar stream pressing before them.
“Have you not been _in_ yet?” the doctor said.
“No,” said Miss Mildmay. “You see, I am not young to go with the girls, nor married to go with the ladies who are at the head of society. I only stand and look on.”
“That is just my case,” said Dr. Burnet. “I am not young to go with the girls, nor married to disport myself with Mrs. Barry or such magnates. Let us be jolly together, for we are both in the same box.”
“Don’t you let that girl slip through your fingers,” said Miss Mildmay solemnly, as she went “in” on his arm.
“Will she ever come within reach of my fingers?” the doctor said, shaking his head.
“You are not old, like that Stanley man; you’ve got no family dragging you back. I should not stand by if I were you, and let her be seduced into this house as the stepmother!” said Miss Mildmay with energy.
“Don’t talk like that in the man’s house. He is a good man, and we are just going to eat his sandwiches.”
“If there are any left,” Miss Mildmay said.
Thus it will be seen that Katherine’s new position as the only daughter of her father was altogether like a new beginning of life, though she had been familiar with the place and the people for years. Stella had been the leader in everything, as has been said. When she went to a party at the Rectory, she turned it into a dance or a romp at once, and kept the Drawing Union and the Mutual Improvement Society quite in the background. Even the books which for a year or two back the rector would have liked to show Katherine privately, beguiling her into separate talks, had been thrust aside necessarily when Katherine was imperiously demanded for Sir Roger de Coverley or a round game. Therefore these more studious and elevated occupations of the little community came upon her now with the force of a surprise. Her own home was changed to her also in the most remarkable way. Stella was not a creature whom anyone fully approved of, not even her sister. She was very indifferent to the comfort and wishes of others; she loved her own amusement by whatever way it could be best obtained. She was restrained by no scruples about the proprieties, or the risk--which was one of Katherine’s chief terrors--of hurting other people’s feelings. She did what she liked, instantaneously, recklessly, at any risk. And her father himself, though he chuckled and applauded and took a certain pride in her cleverness even when she cheated and defied him, did not pretend to approve of Stella; but she carried her little world with her all the same. There was a current, a whirl of air about her rapid progress. The stiller figures were swept on with her whether they liked it or not; and, as a matter of fact, they generally did like it when fairly afloat upon that quick-flowing, rippling, continuous stream of youth and life.