He learned from Roderick that she was the
daughter of a country minister, a far-away cousin of his mother,
settled in another part of the State; that she was one of a half-a-dozen
daughters, that the family was very poor, and that she had come a couple
of months before to pay his mother a long visit. "It is to be a very
long one now," he said, "for it is settled that she is to remain while I
am away."
The fermentation of contentment in Roderick's soul reached its climax a
few days before the young men were to make their farewells. He had been
sitting with his friends on Cecilia's veranda, but for half an hour past
he had said nothing. Lounging back against a vine-wreathed column and
gazing idly at the stars, he kept caroling softly to himself with that
indifference to ceremony for which he always found allowance, and which
in him had a sort of pleading grace. At last, springing up: "I want to
strike out, hard!" he exclaimed. "I want to do something violent, to let
off steam!"
"I 'll tell you what to do, this lovely weather," said Cecilia. "Give a
picnic. It can be as violent as you please, and it will have the merit
of leading off our emotion into a safe channel, as well as yours.
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