"Only by fair means. But don"t, papa, question me so! It is torture."
"I will only say one word more," he replied. "Have you met him?"
"I have not. I can a.s.sure you that at the present moment there is no more of an understanding between me and the young man you so much disliked than between him and you. You told me to forget him; and I have forgotten him."
"Oh, well; though you did not obey me in the beginning, you are a good girl, Elfride, in obeying me at last."
"Don"t call me "good," papa," she said bitterly; "you don"t know--and the less said about some things the better. Remember, Mr. Knight knows nothing about the other. Oh, how wrong it all is! I don"t know what I am coming to."
"As matters stand, I should be inclined to tell him; or, at any rate, I should not alarm myself about his knowing. He found out the other day that this was the parish young Smith"s father lives in--what puts you in such a flurry?"
"I can"t say; but promise--pray don"t let him know! It would be my ruin!"
"Pooh, child. Knight is a good fellow and a clever man; but at the same time it does not escape my perceptions that he is no great catch for you. Men of his turn of mind are nothing so wonderful in the way of husbands. If you had chosen to wait, you might have mated with a much wealthier man. But remember, I have not a word to say against your having him, if you like him. Charlotte is delighted, as you know."
"Well, papa," she said, smiling hopefully through a sigh, "it is nice to feel that in giving way to--to caring for him, I have pleased my family.
But I am not good; oh no, I am very far from that!"
"None of us are good, I am sorry to say," said her father blandly; "but girls have a chartered right to change their minds, you know. It has been recognized by poets from time immemorial. Catullus says, "Mulier cupido quod dicit amanti, in vento--" What a memory mine is! However, the pa.s.sage is, that a woman"s words to a lover are as a matter of course written only on wind and water. Now don"t be troubled about that, Elfride."
"Ah, you don"t know!"
They had been standing on the lawn, and Knight was now seen lingering some way down a winding walk. When Elfride met him, it was with a much greater lightness of heart; things were more straightforward now. The responsibility of her fickleness seemed partly shifted from her own shoulders to her father"s. Still, there were shadows.
"Ah, could he have known how far I went with Stephen, and yet have said the same, how much happier I should be!" That was her prevailing thought.
In the afternoon the lovers went out together on horseback for an hour or two; and though not wishing to be observed, by reason of the late death of Lady Luxellian, whose funeral had taken place very privately on the previous day, they yet found it necessary to pa.s.s East Endelstow Church.
The steps to the vault, as has been stated, were on the outside of the building, immediately under the aisle wall. Being on horseback, both Knight and Elfride could overlook the shrubs which screened the church-yard.
"Look, the vault seems still to be open," said Knight.
"Yes, it is open," she answered
"Who is that man close by it? The mason, I suppose?"
"Yes."
"I wonder if it is John Smith, Stephen"s father?"
"I believe it is," said Elfride, with apprehension.
"Ah, and can it be? I should like to inquire how his son, my truant protege", is going on. And from your father"s description of the vault, the interior must be interesting. Suppose we go in."
"Had we better, do you think? May not Lord Luxellian be there?"
"It is not at all likely."
Elfride then a.s.sented, since she could do nothing else. Her heart, which at first had quailed in consternation, recovered itself when she considered the character of John Smith. A quiet una.s.suming man, he would be sure to act towards her as before those love pa.s.sages with his son, which might have given a more pretentious mechanic airs. So without much alarm she took Knight"s arm after dismounting, and went with him between and over the graves. The master-mason recognized her as she approached, and, as usual, lifted his hat respectfully.
"I know you to be Mr. Smith, my former friend Stephen"s father," said Knight, directly he had scanned the embrowned and ruddy features of John.
"Yes, sir, I b"lieve I be."
"How is your son now? I have only once heard from him since he went to India. I daresay you have heard him speak of me--Mr. Knight, who became acquainted with him some years ago in Exonbury."
"Ay, that I have. Stephen is very well, thank you, sir, and he"s in England; in fact, he"s at home. In short, sir, he"s down in the vault there, a-looking at the departed coffins."
Elfride"s heart fluttered like a b.u.t.terfly.
Knight looked amazed. "Well, that is extraordinary." he murmured. "Did he know I was in the parish?"
"I really can"t say, sir," said John, wishing himself out of the entanglement he rather suspected than thoroughly understood.
"Would it be considered an intrusion by the family if we went into the vault?"
"Oh, bless ye, no, sir; scores of folk have been stepping down. "Tis left open a-purpose."
"We will go down, Elfride."
"I am afraid the air is close," she said appealingly.
"Oh no, ma"am," said John. "We white-limed the walls and arches the day "twas opened, as we always do, and again on the morning of the funeral; the place is as sweet as a granary.
"Then I should like you to accompany me, Elfie; having originally sprung from the family too."
"I don"t like going where death is so emphatically present. I"ll stay by the horses whilst you go in; they may get loose."
"What nonsense! I had no idea your sentiments were so flimsily formed as to be perturbed by a few remnants of mortality; but stay out, if you are so afraid, by all means."
"Oh no, I am not afraid; don"t say that."
She held miserably to his arm, thinking that, perhaps, the revelation might as well come at once as ten minutes later, for Stephen would be sure to accompany his friend to his horse.
At first, the gloom of the vault, which was lighted only by a couple of candles, was too great to admit of their seeing anything distinctly; but with a further advance Knight discerned, in front of the black ma.s.ses lining the walls, a young man standing, and writing in a pocket-book.
Knight said one word: "Stephen!"
Stephen Smith, not being in such absolute ignorance of Knight"s whereabouts as Knight had been of Smith"s instantly recognized his friend, and knew by rote the outlines of the fair woman standing behind him.
Stephen came forward and shook him by the hand, without speaking.
"Why have you not written, my boy?" said Knight, without in any way signifying Elfride"s presence to Stephen. To the essayist, Smith was still the country lad whom he had patronized and tended; one to whom the formal presentation of a lady betrothed to himself would have seemed incongruous and absurd.
"Why haven"t you written to me?" said Stephen.
"Ah, yes. Why haven"t I? why haven"t we? That"s always the query which we cannot clearly answer without an unsatisfactory sense of our inadequacies. However, I have not forgotten you, Smith. And now we have met; and we must meet again, and have a longer chat than this can conveniently be. I must know all you have been doing. That you have thriven, I know, and you must teach me the way."
Elfride stood in the background. Stephen had read the position at a glance, and immediately guessed that she had never mentioned his name to Knight. His tact in avoiding catastrophes was the chief quality which made him intellectually respectable, in which quality he far transcended Knight; and he decided that a tranquil issue out of the encounter, without any harrowing of the feelings of either Knight or Elfride, was to be attempted if possible. His old sense of indebtedness to Knight had never wholly forsaken him; his love for Elfride was generous now.