"How can you expect me to say that," exclaims he, mournfully, "when you know your wedding-day must part us?"
"Indeed it never shall!" cries she, vehemently; and then, overcome by the emotion of the past hour, and indeed of the whole day, she gives way and bursts into tears. "Papa, how can you say that? To be parted from you! We must be the same to each other always: my wedding-day would be a miserable one indeed if it separated me from you."
Then he comforts her, fondly caressing the pretty brown head that lies upon his heart, as it had lain in past years, when the slender girl of to-day was a little lisping motherless child. He calls her by all the endearing names he had used to her then, until her sobs cease, and only a sigh, now and again, tells of the storm just past.
"When is it to be?" he asks her, after a little while. "Not too soon, my pet, I hope?"
"Not for a whole year. He said something about November, but I could not leave you in such a hurry. We must have one more Christmas all to ourselves."
"You thought of that," he says, tenderly. "Oh, Clarissa, I hope this thing is for your good. Think of it seriously, earnestly, while you have time. Do not rush blindly into a compact that must be binding on you all your life."
"I hope it _will be_ for all my life," returns she, gravely. "To be parted from Horace would be the worst thing that could befall me.
Always remember that, papa. I am bound to him with all my heart and soul."
"So be it!" says George Peyton, solemnly. A sigh escapes him.
For some time neither speaks. The twilight is giving place to deeper gloom, the night is fast approaching, yet they do not stir. What the girl"s thoughts may be at this moment, who can say? As for her father, he is motionless, except that his lips move, though no sound comes from them. He is secretly praying, perhaps, for the welfare of his only child, to her mother in heaven, who at this time must surely be looking down upon her with tenderest solicitude. Clarissa puts her lips softly to his cheek.
"Our engagement will be such a long one, that we think--"
"Yes?"
"We should like it keep it secret. You will say nothing about it to any one?"
"Not until you give me leave. You have acted wisely, I think, in putting off your marriage for a while." Almost unconsciously he is telling himself how time changes all things, and how many plans and affections can be altered in twelve months.
"But surely you will tell James Scrope," he goes on, after a while: "that will not be making it public. He has known you and been fond of you ever since you were a baby; and it seems uncivil and unfriendly to keep him in the dark."
"Then tell him; but no one else now, papa. I quite arranged for James, he is such an old friend, and so nice in every way."
Here she smiles involuntarily, and, after a little bit, laughs outright, in spite of herself, as though at some ridiculous recollection.
"Do you know," she says, "when I told Horace I thought I should like Sir James to know of our engagement, I really think he felt a little jealous! At least, he didn"t half like it. How absurd!--wasn"t it?
Fancy being jealous of dear old Jim?"
"Old!--old! He is a long way off that. Why, all you silly little girls think a man past twenty-nine to be hovering on the brink of the grave. He can not be more than thirty-three, or so."
"He is very dreadfully old, for all that," says Miss Peyton, wilfully.
"He is positively ancient; I never knew any one so old. He is so profound, and earnest, and serious, and----"
"What on earth has he done to you, that you should call him all these terrible names?" says Mr. Peyton, laughing.
"He scolds me," says Clarissa, "he lectures me, and tells me I should have an aim in life. You have been my aim, darling, and I have been very devoted to it, haven"t I?"
"You have, indeed. But now I shall be out in the cold, of course." His tone is somewhat wistful. "That is all one gains by lavishing one"s affection upon a pretty child and centring one"s every thought and hope upon her."
"No, you are wrong there; it must be something to gain love that will last for ever." She tightens her arm around his neck. "What a horrid little speech! I could almost fancy James dictated it to you. He is a sceptic, an unbeliever, and you have imbibed his notions. Cynical people are a bore. You wouldn"t, for example, have me fall in love with James, would you?"
"Indeed I would," says George Peyton, boldly. "He is just the one man I would choose for you,--"not Launcelot, nor another." He is so genuine, so thorough in every way. And then the estates join, and that. I really wish you had fallen in love with Scrope."
"I love you dearly,--dearly," says Miss Peyton; "but you are a dreadful goose! James is the very last man to grow sentimental about any one,--least of all, me. He thinks me of no account at all, and tells me so in very polite language occasionally. So you see what a fatal thing it would have been if I had given my heart to him. He would have broken it, and I should have died, and you would have put up a touching, and elaborate tablet to my memory, and somebody would have planted snowdrops on my grave. There would have been a tragedy in Pullingham, with Jim for its hero."
"You take a different view of the case from mine. I believe there would have been no broken heart, and no early grave, and you would have been happy ever after."
"That is a more comfortable theory, certainly for _me_. But think what a miserable life _he_ would have had with me forever by his side."
"A very perfect life, I think," says Mr. Peyton, looking with pardonable pride upon the half-earnest, half-laughing, and wholly lovely face so near him. "I don"t know what more a fellow could expect."
"You see I was right. I said you were a goose," says Miss Peyton, irreverently. But she pats his hand, in the very sweetest manner possible, as she says it. Then she goes on:
"Horace said he would come up to-morrow to speak to you."
"Very well, dear. That is the usual thing, I suppose. I hope he won"t be long-winded, or lachrymose, or anything that way. When a thing is done it is done, and discussion is so unnecessary."
"Promise me to be very, very kind to him."
"I shan"t eat him, if you mean that," says Mr. Peyton, half irritably.
"What do you think I am going to say to him? "Is thy father an ogre, that he should do this thing?" But have you quite made up your mind to this step? Remember there will be no undoing it."
"I know that; but I feel no fear." She has grown pale again. "I love him. How should I know regret when with him? I believe in him, and trust him; and I know he is worthy of all my trust."
Mr. Peyton sighs. Some words come to his memory, and he repeats them,--slowly, beneath his breath,--
"There are no tricks in plain and simple faith!"
Truly, her faith is pure and simple, and free from thought of guile.
"I wonder what James Scrope will say to it all?" he says, presently.
"He never says very much on any subject, does he? If you are going over to the Hall, will you tell him about it?"
"No; tell him yourself," says her father, in a curious tone.
"There is the dressing bell," says Clarissa getting up lazily. "I don"t feel a bit like eating my dinner, do you know?"
"Nonsense! The love-sick _role_ won"t suit you. And people who don"t eat dinner get pale, and lose all their pretty looks. Run away, now, and don"t be long. I feel it would be injudicious to put cook into a tantrum again to-night, after last night"s explosion. So go and make yourself lovely."
"I"ll do my best," says Clarissa, modestly.
CHAPTER XI
"I cannot but remember such things were, That were most precious to me.