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_ CHAPTER XV
TO-MORROW Lucy had agreed to sail, and in the boat Mr. Talboys was to
ask and win her band. But from the first Mr. Fountain had never a
childlike confidence in the scheme, and his understanding kept
rebelling more and more.
"'The man that means to pop, pops," said he; "one needn't go to
sea--to pop. Terra firma is poppable on, if it is nothing else. These
young fellows are like novices with a gun: the bird must be in a
position or they can't shoot it--with their pop-guns. The young sparks
in my day could pop them down flying. We popped out walking, popped
out riding, popped dancing, popped psalm-singing. Talboys could not
pop on horseback, because the lady's pony fidgeted, not his. Well, it
will be so to-morrow. The boat will misbehave, or the wind will be
easterly, and I shall be told southerly is the popping wind. The truth
is, he is faint-hearted. His sires conquered England, and he is afraid
of a young girl. I'll end this nonsense. He shall pop by proxy."
In pursuance of this resolve, seeing his niece pass through the hall
with her garden hat on, he called to her that he would get his hat and
join her. They took one turn together almost in silence. Fountain was
thinking how he should best open the subject, and Lucy waiting after
her own fashion, for she saw by the old man's manner he had something
to say to her.
"Lucy, my dear, I leave you in a day or two."
"So soon, uncle."
"And it depends on you whether I am to go away a happy or a
disappointed old man."
At these words, to which she was too cautious to reply in words, Lucy
wore a puzzled air; but underneath it a keen observer might have
noticed her cheek pale a little, a very little, and a quiver of
suppressed agitation pass over her like a current of air in summer
over a smooth lake.
Receiving no answer, Mr. Fountain went on to remind her that he was
her only kinsman, Mrs. Bazalgette being her relation by half-blood
only; and told her that, looking on himself as her father, he had
always been anxious to see her position in life secured before his own
death.
"I have been ambitious for you, my dear," said he, "but not more so
than your beauty and accomplishments, and your family name entitle us
to be. Well, my ambition for you and my affection for you are both
about to be gratified; at least, it now rests with you to gratify
them. Will you be Mrs. Talboys?"
Lucy looked down, and said demurely, "What a question for a third
person to put!"
"Should I put it if I had not a right?"
"I don't know."'
"You ought to know, Lucy."
"Mr. Talboys has authorized you, dear?"
"He has."'
"Then this is a formal proposal from Mr. Talboy's?"
"Of course it is," said the old gentleman, fearlessly, for Lucy's
manner of putting these questions was colorless; nobody would have
guessed what she was at.
She now drew her arm round her uncle's neck, and kissed him, which
made him exult prematurely.
"Then, dear uncle," said she lovingly, "you must tell Mr. Talboys that
I thank him for the honor he does me, and that I decline."
"Accept, you mean?"
"No I don't--ha! ha!"
Her laugh died rapidly away at sight of the effect of her words. Mr.
Fountain started, and his face turned red and pale alternately.
"Refuse my friend--refuse Talboys in that way? Thoughtless girl, you
don't know what you are doing. His family is all but noble. What am I
saying? noble? why, half the House of Peers is sprung from the dregs
of the people, and got there either by pettifogging in the courts of
law, or selling consciences in the Lower House; and of the other half,
that are gentlemen of descent, not two in twenty can show a pedigree
like Talboys. And with that name a princely mansion--antiquity stamped
on it--stands in its own park, in the middle of its vast estates, with
title-deeds in black-letter, girl."
"But, uncle, all this is encumbered--"
"It is false, whoever told you so. There is not a mortgage on any part
of it--only a few trifling copyholds and pepper-corn rents."
"You misunderstand me; I was going to say, it is encumbered with a
gentleman for whom I could never feel affection, because he does not
inspire me with respect."
"Nonsense! he inspires universal respect."
"It must be by his estates, then, not his character. You know, uncle,
the world is more apt to ask, 'What _has_ he, then what _is_
he?'"
"He _is_ a polished gentleman."
"But not a well-bred one."
"The best bred I ever saw.
"Then you never looked in a glass, dear. No, dear uncle, I will tell
you. Mr. Talboys has seen the world, has kept good society, is at his
ease (a great point), and is perfect in externals. But his good
manners are--what shall I say?--coat deep. His politeness is not proof
against temptation, however petty. The reason is, it is only a
spurious politeness. Real politeness is founded and built on the
golden rule, however delicate and artificial its superstructure may
be. But, leaving out of the question the politeness of the heart, he
has not in any sense the true art of good-breeding; he has only the
common traditions. Put him in a novel situation, with no rules and
examples to guide him, he would be maladroit as a school-boy. He is
just the counterpart of Mr. Dodd in that respect. Poor Mr. Dodd is
always shocking one by violating the commonest rules of society; but
every now and then he bursts out with a flash of natural courtesy so
bright, so refined, so original, yet so worthy of imitation, that you
say to yourself this is genius--the genius of good-breeding."
Mr. Fountain chafed with impatience during this tirade, in which he
justly suspected an attempt to fritter away a serious discussion.
"Come off your hobby, Lucy," cried he, "and speak to me like a woman
and like my niece. If this is your objection, overcome it for my
sake."
"I would, dear," said Lucy, "but it is only one of my objections, and
by no means the most serious."
On being invited to come at once to the latter, Lucy hesitated. "Would
not that be unamiable on my part? Mr. Talboys has just paid me the
highest compliment a gentleman can pay a lady; it is for me to decline
him courteously, not abuse him to his friend and representative."
"No humbug, Lucy, if you please; I am in no humor for it."
"We should all be savages without a _little_ of it."
"I am waiting."
"Then pledge me your word of honor no word of what I now say to the
disadvantage of poor Mr. Talboys shall ever reach him."
"You may take your oath of that."
"Then he is a detractor, a character I despise."
"Who does he detract from? I never heard him."
"From all his superiors--in other words, from everybody he meets. Did
you ever know him fail to sneer at Mr. Hardie?"
"Oh, that is the offense, is it?"
"No, it is the same with others; there, the other day, Mr. Dodd joined
us on horseback. He did not dress for the occasion. He had no straps
on. He came in a hurry to have our society, not to cut a dash. But
there was Mr. Talboys, who can only do this one thing well, and who,
thanks to his servant, had straps on, sneering the whole time at Mr.
Dodd, who has mastered a dozen far more difficult and more honorable
accomplishments than putting on straps and sitting on horses. But he
is always backbiting and sneering; he admires nothing and nobody."
"He has admired you ever since he saw you."
"What! has he never sneered at me?"
"Never! ungrateful girl, never."
"How humiliating! He takes me for his inferior. His superiors he
always sneers at. If he had seen anything good or spirited in me, he
could not have helped detracting from me. Is not this a serious
reason--that I despise the person who now solicits my love, honor and
obedience? Well, then, there is another--a stronger still. But perhaps
you will call it a woman's reason."
"I know. You don't like him--that is, you fancy you don't, and can't."
"No, uncle, it is not that I don't like him. It is that I HATE HIM."
"You hate him?" and Mr. Fountain looked at her to see if it was his
niece Lucy who was uttering words so entirely out of character.
"I am but a poor hater. I have but little practice; but, with all the
power of hating I do possess, I hate that Mr. Talboys. Oh, how
delicious it is to speak one's mind out nice and rudely. It is a
luxury I seldom indulge in. Yes, uncle," said Lucy, clinching her
white teeth, "I hate that man, and I did hope his proposal would come
from himself; then there would have been nothing to alloy my quiet
satisfaction at mortifying one who is so ready to mortify others. But
no, he has bewitched you; and you take his part, and you look vexed;
so all my pleasure is turned to pain."
"It is all self-deception," gasped Fountain, in considerable
agitation; "you girls are always deceiving yourselves: you none of you
hate any man--unless you love him. He tells me you have encouraged him
of late. You had better tell me that is a lie."
"A lie, uncle; what an expression! Mr. Talboys is a gentleman; he
would not tell a falsehood, I presume."
"Aha! it is true, then, you have encouraged him?"
"A little."
"There, you see; the moment we come from the generalities to facts,
what a simpleton you are proved to be. Come, now, did you or did you
not agree to go in a boat with him?"
"I did, dear."
"That was a pretty strong measure, Lucy."
"Very strong, I think. I can tell you I hesitated."
"Now you see how you have mistaken your own feelings."
Lucy hung her head. "Oh uncle, you call me simple--and look at you!
fancy not seeing why I agreed to go--_dans cette galere._ It was
that Mr. Talboys might declare himself, and so I might get rid of him
forever. I saw that if I could not bring him to the point, he would
dangle about me for years, and perhaps, at last, succeed in irritating
me to rudeness. But now, of course, I shall stay on shore with my
uncle to-morrow. _Qu'irais je faire dana cette galere?_ you have
done it all for me. Oh, my dear, dear uncle, I am so grateful to you!"
She showed symptoms of caressing Mr. Fountain, but he recoiled from
her angrily. "Viper! but no, this is not you. There is a deeper hand
than you in all this. This is that Mrs. Bazalgette's doings."
"No, indeed, uncle."
"Give me a proof it is not."
"With pleasure; any proof that is in my power."
"Then promise me not to marry Mr. Hardie."
"My dear uncle, Mr. Hardie has never asked me."
"But he will."
"What right have I to say so? What right have I to constitute Mr.
Hardie my admirer? I would not for all the world put it into any
gentleman's power to say, 'Why say "no," Miss Fountain, before I have
asked you to say "yes"?' Oh!"
And, with this, Lucy put her face into her hands, but they were not
large enough to hide the deep blush that suffused her whole face at
the bare idea of being betrayed into an indelicacy of this sort.
"How could he say that? how could he know?" said Mr. Fountain,
pettishly.
"Uncle, I cannot, I dare not. You and my aunt hate one another; so you
might be tempted to tell her, and she would be sure to tell him.
Besides, I cannot; my very instinct revolts from it. It would not be
modest. I love you, uncle. Let me know your wishes, and have some
faith in my affection, but pray do not press me further. Oh, what have
I done, to be spoken of with so many gentlemen!"
Lucy was in evident agitation, and the blushes glowed more and more
round her snowy hands and between her delicate fingers; and there is
something so sacred about the modesty alarmed of an intelligent young
woman--it is a feeling which, however fantastical, is so genuine in
her, and so manifestly intense beyond all we can ourselves feel of the
kind, that no man who is not utterly stupid or depraved can see it
without a certain awe. Even Mr. Fountain, who looked on Lucy's
distress as transcendent folly with a dash of hypocrisy, could not go
on making her cheek burn so. "There! there!" cried he, "don't torment
yourself, Lucy. I will spare your fanciful delicacy, though you have
no pity on me--on your poor old uncle, whose heart you will break if
you decline this match."
At these words, and the old man's change from anger to sadness, Lucy
looked up in dismay, and the vivid color died, like a retiring wave,
out of her cheek.
"You look surprised, Lucy. What! do you think this will not be a
heartbreaking disappointment to me? If you knew how I have schemed for
it--what I have done and endured to bring it about! To quarter the
arms of Fontaine and Talboys! I put by the 5,000 pounds directly, and
as much more of my own, that you should not go into that noble family
without a proper settlement. It was the dream of my heart; I could
have died contented the next hour. More fool I to care for anybody but
myself. Your selfish people escape these bitter disappointments. Well,
it is a lesson. From this hour I will live for myself and care for
nobody, for nobody cares for me."
These words, uttered with great agitation, and, I believe, with
perfect sincerity, on his own unselfishness and hard fate, were
terrible to Lucy. She wreathed her arms suddenly round him.
"Oh, uncle," she cried, despairingly, "kill me! send me to Heaven!
send me to my mother, but don't stab me with such bitter words;" and
she trembled with an emotion so much more powerful and convulsing than
his, in which temper had a large share, that she once more cowed him.
"There! there!" he muttered, "I don't want to kill you, child, God
knows, or to hurt you in any way."
Lucy trembled, and tried to smile. The good nature, which was the
upper crust of this man's character, got the better of him.
"There! there! don't distress yourself so. I know who I have to thank
for all this."
"She has not the power," said Lucy, in a faint voice, "to make me
ungrateful to you."
Mind is more rapid than lightning. At this moment, in the middle of a
sentence, it flashed across Lucy that her aunt had convinced her, sore
against her will, that there was a strong element of selfishness in
Mr. Fountain. "But it is that he deceives himself," thought Lucy. "He
would sacrifice my happiness to his hobby, and think he has done it
for love of me." Enlightened by this rapid reflection, she did not say
to him as one of his own sex would, "Look in your own heart, and you
will see that all this is not love of me, but of your own schemes."
Oh, dear, no, that would not have been the woman. She took him round
the neck, and, fixing her sapphire eyes lovingly on his, she said, "It
is for love of me you set your heart on this great match? You wish to
see me well settled in the world, and, above all, happy?"
"Of course it is. I told you so. What other object can I have?"
"Then, if you saw me wretched, and degraded in my own eyes, your heart
would bleed for your poor niece--too late. Well, uncle, I love you,
too, and I save you this day from remorse. Oh, think what it must be
to hate and despise a man, and link yourself body and soul to that man
for life. Oh, think and shudder with me. I have a quick eye. I have
seen your lip curl with contempt when that fool has been talking--ah!
you blush. You are too much his superior in everything but fortune not
to despise him at heart. See the thing as it is. Speak to me as you
would if my mother stood here beside us, uncle, and to speak to me,
you must look her in the face. Could you say to me before her, 'I love
you; marry a man we both despise!'?"
Mr. Fountain made no answer. He was disconcerted. Nothing is so easy
to resist as logic solo. We see it, as a general rule, resisted with
great success in public and private every day; but when it comes in
good company, a voice of music, an angel face, gentle, persuasive
caresses, and imploring eyes, it ceases to revolt the understanding.
And so, caught in his own trap, foiled, baffled, soothed, caressed,
all in one breath, Mr. Fountain hung his head, and could not
immediately reply.
Lucy followed up her advantage. "No," cried she; "say to me, 'I love
you, Lucy; marry nobody; stay with your uncle, and find your happiness
in contributing to his comfort.'"
"What is the use my saying that, when I have got Mother Bazalgette
against me, and her shopkeeper?"
"Never mind, uncle, you say it, and time will show whether your
influence is small with me, and my affections small for you"; and she
looked in his face with glistening eyes.
"Well, then," said he, "I do say it, and I suppose that means I must
urge you no more about poor Talboys."
A shower of kisses descended upon him that moment. Moral: Lose no time
in sealing a good bargain.
"Come, now, Lucy, you must do me a favor."
"Oh, thank you! thank you! what is it?"
"Ah! but it is about Talboys too."
"Never mind," faltered Lucy, "if it is anything short of--" (full
stop).
"It is a long way short of that. Look here, Lucy, I must tell you the
truth. He intends to ask your hand himself: he confided this to me,
but he never authorized me to commit him as I have done, so that this
conversation cannot be acted on: it must be a secret between you and
me."
"Oh, dear! and I thought I had got rid of him so nicely."
"Don't be alarmed," groaned Fountain; "such matches as this can always
be dropped; the difficulty is to bring them on. All I ask of you,
then, is not to make mischief between me and my friend, the proudest
man in England. If you don't value his friendship, I do. You must not
let him know I have got him insulted by a refusal. For instance, you
had better go out sailing with him to-morrow as if nothing had passed.
Will your affection for me carry you as far as that?"
The proposal was wormwood to Lucy. So she smiled and said eagerly: "Is
that all? Why, I will do it with pleasure, dear. It is not like being
in the same boat with him for life, you know. Can you give me nothing
more than that to do for you?"
"No; it does not do to test people's affection too severely. You have
shown me that. Go on with your walk, Lucy. I shall go in."
"May I not come with you?"
"No; my head aches with all this; if I don't mind I shall eat no
dinner. Agitation and vexation, don't agree with me. I have carefully
avoided them all my life. I must go in and lie down for an hour"; and
he left her rather abruptly.
She looked after him; her subtle eye noticed directly that he walked a
little more feebly than usual. She ascribed this to his
disappointment, justly perhaps, for at his age the body has less
elastic force to resist a mental blow. The sight of him creeping away
disappointed, and leaning heavier than usual on his stick, knocked at
her cool but affectionate heart. She began to cry bitterly. When he
was quite out of sight, she turned and paced the gravel slowly and
sadly. It was new to her to refuse her uncle anything, still more
strange to have to refuse him a serious wish. She was prepared,
thoroughly prepared, for the proposal, but not to find the old man's
heart so deeply set upon it. A wild impulse came over her to call him
back and sacrifice herself; but the high spirit and intelligence that
lay beneath her tenderness and complaisance stood firm. Yet she felt
almost guilty, and very, very unhappy, as we call it at her age. She
kept sighing; "Poor uncle!" and paced the gravel very slowly, hanging
her sweet head, and crying as she went.
At the end of the walk David Dodd stood suddenly before her. He came
flurried on his own account, but stopped thunder-struck at her tears.
"What is the matter, Miss Lucy?"' said he, anxiously.
"Oh, nothing, Mr. Dodd;" and they flowed afresh.
"Can I do anything for you, Miss Lucy?"
"No, Mr. Dodd."
"Won't you tell me what is the matter? Are you not friends with me
to-day?"
"I was put out by a very foolish circumstance, Mr. Dodd, and it is one
with which I shall not trouble you, nor any person of sense. I prefer
to retain your sympathy by not revealing the contemptible cause of my
babyish-- There!" She shook her head proudly, as if tears were to be
dispersed like dewdrops. "There!" she repeated; and at this second
effort she smiled radiantly.
"It is like the sun coming out after a shower," cried David
rapturously.
"That reminds me I must be _going_ in, Mr. Dodd."
"Don't say that, Miss Lucy. What for?"
"To arrange another shower, one of pearls, on a dress I am to wear
to-night."
David sighed. "Ah! Miss Lucy, at sight of me you always make for the
hall door."
Lucy colored. "Oh, do I? I really was not aware of that. Then I
suppose I am afraid of you. Is that what you would insinuate? "'
"No, Miss Lucy, you are not afraid of me; but I sometimes fear--" and
he hesitated.
"It must blow very hard that day," said Lucy, with a world of
politeness. Her tongue was too quick for him. He found it so, and
announced the fact after his fashion. "I can't tack fast enough to
follow you," said he despondently.
"But you are not required to follow me," replied this amiable eel,
with hypocritical benignity; "I am going to my aunt's room to do what
I told you. I leave you in charge of the quarter-deck." So saying, she
walked slowly up the steps, and left David standing sorrowfully on the
gravel. At the top step Miss Lucy turned and inquired gently when he
was to sail. He told her the ship was expected to anchor off the fort
to-morrow, but she would not sail till she had got all her passengers
on board.
"Oh!" said Lucy, with an air of reflection. She then leaned in an easy
posture against the wall, and, whether it was that she relented a
little, or that, having secured her retreat, she was now indifferent
to flight, certain it is that she did after her own fashion what many
a daughter of Eve has done before her, and many a duchess and many a
dairymaid will do after La Fountain and I are gone from earth. A
minute ago it had been, "She must go directly." The more opposition to
her departure, the more inexorable the necessity for her going;
opposition withdrawn, and the door open, she stayed no end.
Full twenty minutes did that young lady stand there unsolicited, and
chat with David Dodd in the kindest, sweetest, most amicable way
imaginable.
She little knew she had an auditor--a female auditor, keen as a lynx.
All this day Reginald George Bazalgette, Esq., might have been defined
"a pest in search of a playmate." Tom had got a holiday. Lucy only
came out of her workshop to be seized by Mr. Fountain. David, who was
waiting in the garden for Lucy, begged Reginald to excuse him for
once. The young gentleman had recourse as a _pis aller_ to his
mamma. He invaded her bedroom, and besought her piteously to play at
battledoor. That lady, sighing deeply at being taken from her dress,
consented. Her soul not being in it, she played very badly. Her cub
did not fail to tell her so. "Why, I can keep up a hundred with Mr.
Dodd," said he.
"Oh, we all know Mr. Dodd is perfection," said the lady with a sneer.
She was piqued with David. He had gone and left her in a brutal way,
to make his apologies to Lucy.
"No, he is not," said Reginald. "I have found him out. He is as unjust
as the rest of them."
"Dear me! and, pray, what has he done?"
"I will tell you, mamma, if you will promise not to tell papa, because
he told me not to listen, and I didn't listen, mamma, because, you
know, a gentleman always keeps his word; but they talked so loud the
words would come into my ear; I could not keep them out. Mamma, are
there any naughty ladies here?"
"No, my dear."
"Then what did papa mean, warning Mr. Dodd against one?"
Mrs. Bazalgette began to listen as he wished.
"Oh, he called her all the names. He said she was a statue of
flirtation."
"Who? Lucy?"
"Lucy? no! the naughty lady--the one that had twelve husbands. He kept
warning him, and warning him, and then Mr. Dodd and papa they began to
quarrel almost, because Mr. Dodd said the naughty lady was quite
young, and papa said she was ever so old. Mr. Dodd said she was
twenty-one. But papa told him she must be more than that, because she
had a child that would be fifteen years old; only it died. How old
would sister Emily be if she was alive, mamma? La, mamma, how pretty
you are: you have got red cheeks like Lucy--redder, oh, ever so much
redder--and in general they are so pale before dinner. Let me kiss
you, mamma. I do love the ladies when their cheeks are red."
"There! there! now go on, dear; tell me some more."
"It is very interesting, isn't it, dear mamma?"
"It is amusing, at all events."
"No, it is not amusing--at least, what came after, isn't: it is
wicked, it is unjust, it is abominable."
"Tell me, dear."
"It turned out it wasn't the naughty lady Mr. Dodd was in love for,
and who do you think he is in love of?"
"I have not an idea."
"MY LUCY!!!"
"Nonsense, child."
"No, no, mamma, it is not. He owned it plump."
"Are you quite sure, love?"
"Upon my honor."
"What did they say next?"
"Oh, next papa began to talk his fine words that I don't know what the
meaning of them is one bit. But Mr. Dodd, he could make them out, I
suppose, for he said, 'So, then, the upshot is--' There, now, what is
upshot? I don't know. How stupid grown-up people are; they keep using
words that one doesn't know the meaning of."
"Never mind, love! tell me. What came _after_ upshot?" said Mrs.
Bazalgette, soothingly, with great apparent calmness and flashing eye.
"How kind you are to-day, mamma! That is twice you have called me
love, and three times dear; only think. I should love you if you were
always so kind, and your cheeks as red as they are now."
"Never mind my cheeks. What did Mr. Dodd say? Try and
remember--come--'The upshot was--'"
"The upshot was--what was the upshot? I forget. No, I remember; the
upshot was, if Lucy said 'yes,' papa would not say 'no;' that meant to
marry him. Now didn't you promise me her ever so long ago--the day you
and I agreed if I went a whole day without being naughty once I should
have her for ever and ever? and I did go."
"Go to Lucy's room, and tell her to come to me," said Mrs. Bazalgette,
in a stern, thoughtful voice, which startled poor Reginald, coming so
soon after the _calinerie._ However, he told her it was no use
his going to Lucy's room, for she was out in the garden; he had seen
her there walking with Mr. Fountain. Reginald then ran to the window
which commanded the garden, to look for Lucy. He had scarcely reached
it when he began to squeak wildly, "Come here! come here! come here!"
Mrs. Bazalgette was at the window in a moment, and lo! at the end of
the garden, walking slowly side by side, were Lucy and Mr. Dodd.
Ridiculous as it may appear, a pang of jealousy shot through the
married flirt's heart that made her almost feel sick. This was
followed at the interval of half a second by as pretty a flame of
hatred as ever the _spretoe injuria formoe_ lighted up in a
coquette's heart. Doubt drove in its smaller sting besides, and at
sight of the couple she resolved to have better evidence than
Reginald's, especially as to Lucy's sentiments. The plan she hit upon
was effective, but vulgar, and must not be witnessed by a boy of
inconvenient memory and mistimed fluency. She got rid of him with
high-principled dexterity. "Reginald," said she, sadly, "you are a
naughty boy, a disobedient boy, to listen when your papa told you not,
and to tell me a pack of falsehoods. I must either tell your papa, or
I must punish you myself; I prefer to do it myself, he would whip you
so"; with this she suddenly opened her dressing-room door, and pushed
the terrible infant in, and locked the door. She then told him through
the keyhole he had better cease yelling, because, if he kept quiet,
his punishment would only last half an hour, and she flew downstairs.
There was a large hot-house with two doors, one of which came very
near to the house door that opened into the garden. Mrs. Bazalgette
entered the hothouse at the other end, and, hidden by the exotic trees
and flowers, made rapidly for the door Lucy and David must pass. She
found it wide open. She half shut it, and slipped behind it, listening
like a hare and spying like a hawk through the hinges. And, strange as
it may appear, she had an idea she should make a discovery. As the
finished sportsman watches a narrow ride in the wood, not despairing
by a snap-shot to bag his hare as she crosses it, though seen but for
a moment, so the Bazalgette felt sure that, as the couple passed her
ambush, something, either in the two sentences they might utter, or,
more probably, in their tones and general manner, would reveal to one
of her experience on what footing they were.
A shrewd calculation! But things will be things. They take such turns,
I might without exaggeration say twists, that calculation is baffled,
and prophecy dissolved into pitch and toss. This thing turned just as
not expected. _Primo,_ instead of getting only a snap-shot, Mrs.
Bazalgette heard every word of a long conversation; and,
_secundo,_ when she had heard it she could not tell for certain
on what footing the lady and gentleman were. At first, from their
familiarity, she inclined to think they were lovers; but, the more she
listened, the more doubtful she seemed. Lucy was the chief speaker,
and what she said showed an undisguised interest in her companion; but
the subject accounted in great measure for that; she was talking of
his approaching voyage, of the dangers and hardships of his
profession, and of his return two years hence, his chances of
promotion, etc. But here was no proof positive of love; they were
acquaintances of some standing. Then Lucy's manner struck her as
rather amicable than amorous. She was calm, kind, self-possessed, and
almost voluble. As for David, he only got in a word here and there.
When he did, there was something so different in his voice from
anything he had ever bestowed on _her,_ that she hated him, and
longed to stick scissors into him from the rear, unseen. At last Lucy
suddenly recollected, or seemed to recollect, she was busy, and
retired hastily--so hastily that David saw too late his opportunity
lost. But the music of her voice had so charmed him that he did not
like to interrupt it even to speak of that which was nearest his
heart. David sighed deeply, standing there alone.
Mrs. Bazalgette clinched her little fists and looked round for the
means of vengeance. David went down on his knees. La Bazalgette glared
through the crack, and wondered what on earth he was at now. Oh! he
was praying. "He loves her: he is eccentricity itself; so he is
praying for her, and on _my_ doorsteps" (the householder wounded
as well as the flirt). It was lucky she had not "a thunderbolt in her
eye"--Shakespeare, or a celestial messenger of the wrong sort would
have descended on the devout mariner. It was more than Mrs. Bazalgette
could bear: she had now and then, not often, unladylike impulses. One
of them had set her crouching behind the door of an outhouse, and
listening through a crack; and now she had another, an irresistible
one: it was, to take that empty flower-pot, fling it as hard as ever
she could at the devotee, then shut the door quick, fly out at the
other door, and leave her faithless swain in the agony of knowing
himself detected and exposed by some unknown and undiscoverable enemy.
For a vengeance extemporized in less than half a second this was very
respectable. Well, she clawed the flower-pot noiselessly, put her
other hand on the door, cast a hasty glance at the means of retreat,
and--things took another twist: she heard the rustle of a coming gown,
and drew back again, and out came Lucy, and nearly ran over David, who
was not on his knees after all, but down on his nose, prostrate
Orientally. The fact is, Lucy, among her other qualities, good and
bad, was a born housewife, and solicitously careful of certain odds
and ends called property. She found she had dropped one of her gloves
in the garden, and she came back in a state of disproportionate
uneasiness to find it, and nearly ran over David Dodd.
"What _are_ you doing, Mr. Dodd?"
David arose from his Oriental position, and, being a young man whose
impulse always was to tell the simple truth, replied, "I was kissing
the place where you stood so long."
He did not feel he had done anything extraordinary, so he gave her
this information composedly; but her face was scarlet in an instant;
and he, seeing that, began to blush too. For once Lucy's tact was
baffled; she did not know what on earth to say, and she stood blushing
like a girl of fifteen.
Then she tried to turn it off.
"Mr. Dodd, how can you be so ridiculous?" said she, affecting humorous
disdain.
But David was not to be put down now; he was launched.
"I am not ridiculous for loving and worshiping you, for you are worthy
of even more love than any human heart can hold."
"Oh, hush, Mr. Dodd. I must not hear this."
"Miss Lucy, I can't keep it any longer--you must, you shall hear me.
You can despise my love if you will, but you _shall_ know it
before you reject it."
"Mr. Dodd, you have every right to be heard, but let me persuade you
not to insist. Oh, why did I come back?"
"The first moment I saw you, Miss Lucy, it was a new life to me. I
never looked twice at any girl before. It is not your beauty only--oh,
no! it is your goodness--goodness such as I never thought was to be
found on earth. Don't turn your head from me; I know my defects; could
I look on you and not see them? My manners are blunt and rude--oh, how
different from yours! but you could soon make me a fine gentleman, I
love you so. And I am only the first mate of an Indiaman; but I should
be a captain next voyage, Miss Lucy, and a sailor like me has no
expenses; all he has is his wife's. The first lady in the land will
not be petted as you will, if you will look kindly on me. Listen to
me," trying to tempt her. "No, Miss Lucy, I have nothing to offer you
worth your acceptance, only my love. No man ever loved woman as I love
you; it is not love, it is worship, it is adoration! Ah! she is going
to speak to me at last!"
Lucy presented at this moment a strange contrast of calmness and
agitation. Her bosom heaved quickly, and she was pale, but her voice
was calm, and, though gentle, decided.
"I know you love me, Mr. Dodd, and I feared this. I have tried to save
you the mortification of being declined by one who, in many things, is
your inferior. I have even been rude and unkind to you. Forgive me for
it. I meant it kindly. I regret it now. Mr. Dodd, I thank you for the
honor you do me, but I cannot accept your love." There was a pause,
but David's tongue seemed glued to the roof of his mouth. He was not
surprised, yet he was stupefied when the blow came.
At last he gasped out, "You love some other man?"
Lucy was silent.
"Answer me, for pity's sake; give me something to help me."
"You have no right to ask me such a question, but--I have no
attachment, Mr. Dodd."
"Ah! then one word more. Is it because you cannot love me, or because
I am poor, and only first mate of an Indiaman?"
"_That_ I will not answer. You have no right to question a lady
why she--Stay! you wish to despise me. Well, why not, if that will
cure you of this unfortunate-- Think what you please of me, Mr. Dodd,"
murmured Lucy, sadly.
"Ah! you know I can't," cried David, despairingly.
"I know that you esteem me more than I deserve. Well, I esteem you,
Mr. Dodd. Why, then, can we not be friends? You have only to promise
me you will never return to this subject--come!"
"Me promise not to love you! What is the use? Me be your friend, and
nothing more, and stand looking on at the heaven that is to be
another's, and never to be mine? It is my turn to decline. Never.
Betrothed lovers or strangers, but nothing between! It would drive me
mad. Away from you, and out of sight of your sweet face, I may make
shift to live, and go through my duty somehow, for my mother's and
sister's sake."
"You are wiser than I was, Mr. Dodd. Yes, we must part."
"Of course we must. I have got my answer, and a kinder one than I
deserve; and now what is the polite thing for me to do, I wonder?"
David said this with terrible bitterness.
"You frighten me," sighed Lucy.
"Don't you be frightened, sweet angel; there! I have been used to obey
orders all my life, and I am like a ship tossed in the breakers, and
you are calm--calm as death. Give me my orders, for God's sake."
"It is not for me to command you, Mr. Dodd. I have forfeited that
right. But listen to her who still asks to be your friend, and she
will tell you what will be best for you, and kindest and most generous
to her."
"Tell me about that last; the other is a waste of words."
"I will, then. Your sister is somewhere in the neighborhood."
"She is at ----; how did you know?"
"I saw her on your arm. I am glad she is so near--Oh, so glad! Bid my
uncle and aunt good-by; make some excuse. Go to your sister at once.
_She_ loves you. She is better than I am, if you will but see us
as we really are. Go to her at once," faltered Lucy, who disliked Eve,
and Eve her.
"I will! I will! I have thought too little of my own flesh and blood.
Shall I go now?"
"Yes," murmured Lucy softly, trying to disarm the fatal word. "Forget
me--and--forgive me!" and, with this last word scarce audible, she
averted her face, and held out her hand with angelic dignity, modesty
and pity.
The kind words and the gentle action brought down the stout heart that
had looked death in the face so often without flinching. "Forgive you,
sweet angel!" he cried; "I pray Heaven to bless you, and to make you
as happy as I am desolate for your sake. Oh, you show me more and more
what I lose this day. God bless you! God bless--" and David's heart
filled to choking, and he burst out sobbing despairingly, and the hot
tears ran suddenly from his eyes over her hand as he kissed and kissed
it. Then, with an almost savage feeling of shame (for these were not
eyes that were wont to weep), he uttered one cry of despair and ran
away, leaving her pale and panting heavily.
She looked piteously at her hand, wet with a hero's tears, and for the
second time to-day her own began to gush. She felt a need of being
alone. She wanted to think on what she had done. She would hide in the
garden. She ran down the steps; lo! there was Mr. Hardie coming up the
gravel-walk. She uttered a little cry of impatience, and dashed
impetuously into the hot-house, driving the half-open door before her
with her person as well as her arm.
A scream of terror and pain issued from behind it, with a crash of
pottery.
Lucy wheeled round at the sound, and there was her aunt, flattened
against the flower-frame.
Lucy stood transfixed.
But soon her look of surprise gave way to a frown; ay! and a somber
one. _
Read next: Chapter 16
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