At last Mr. Kenge came. He was not altered; but he was surprised to see how altered I was; and appeared quite pleased. 'As you are going to be the companion of the young lady who is now in the Chancellor's private room, Miss Summerson,' he said, 'we thought it well that you should be in attendance also. You will not be discomposed by the Lord Chancellor, I dare say?'
'No, sir,' I said, 'I don't think I shall.' Really not seeing, on consideration, why I should be.
So Mr. Kenge gave me his arm, and we went round the corner, under a colonnade, and in at a side door. And so we came, along a passage, into a comfortable sort of room, where a young lady and a young gentleman were standing near a great, loud-roaring fire. A screen was interposed between them and it, and they were leaning on the screen, talking.
They both looked up when I came in, and I saw in the young lady, with the fire shining upon her, such a beautiful girl! With such rich golden hair, such soft blue eyes, and such a bright, innocent, trusting face!
'Miss Ada,' said Mr. Kenge, 'this is Miss Summerson.'
She came to meet me with a smile of welcome and her hand extended, but seemed to change her mind in a moment, and kissed me. In short, she had such a natural, captivating, winning manner, that in a few minutes we were sitting in the window-seat, with the light of the fire upon us, talking together, as free and happy as could be.
What a load off my mind! It was so delightful to know that she could confide in me, and like me! it was so good of her, and so encouraging to me!
The young gentleman was her distant cousin, she told me, and his name Richard Carstone. He was a handsome youth, with an ingenuous face, and a most engaging laugh; and after she had called him up to where we sat, he stood by us, in the light of the fire too, talking gaily, like a light-hearted boy. He was very young; not more than nineteen then, if quite so much, but nearly two years older than she was. They were both orphans, and (what was very unexpected and curious to me) had never met before that day. Our all three coming together for the first time, in such an unusual place, was a thing to talk about; and we talked about it; and the fire, which had left off roaring, winked its red eyes at us – as Richard said – like a drowsy old Chancery lion.