It worries you to find Nelly
teasing him as she does; that mad hoiden will never be quiet; she
provokes you excessively: and yet she is a dear creature; there is no
meeting those laughing blue eyes of hers without a smile and an embrace!
It pleases you however to see the winning frankness with which Madge
always receives Will. And with a little of your old vanity of
observation you trace out the growth of their dawning attachment. It
provokes you to find Nelly breaking up their quiet _tete-a-tetes_ with
her provoking sallies, and drawing away Will to some saunter in the
garden, or to some mad gallop over the hills.
At length upon a certain summer's day Will asks to see you. He
approaches with a doubtful and disturbed look; you fear that wild Nell
has been teasing him with her pranks. Yet he wears not so much an
offended look as one of fear. You wonder if it ever happened to you to
carry your hat in just that timid manner, and to wear such a shifting
expression of the eye, as poor Will wears just now? You wonder if it
ever happened to you to begin to talk with an old friend of your
father's in just that abashed way? Will must have fallen into some sad
scrape.
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