"If she should refuse?"
Again he could not command an instant answer, but when it came it was a fair one. "It isn"t for me to say what I shall do," he replied gravely.
"Or, if it is, I can only say that I will do whatever you wish."
"Do _you_ wish nothing?"
"Nothing but your happiness."
"Nothing but my happiness!" she retorted. "What is my happiness to me?
Have I ever sought it?"
"I can"t say," he answered; "but if I did not think you would find it--"
"I shall find it, if ever I find it, in yours," she interrupted. "And what shall you do if my mother will not consent to our engagement?"
The experienced and sophisticated man--for that in no ill way was what Colville was--felt himself on trial for his honour and his manhood by this simple girl, this child. He could not endure to fall short of her ideal of him at that moment, no matter what error or calamity the fulfilment involved. "If you feel sure that you love me, Imogene, it will make no difference to me what your mother says. I would be glad of her consent; I should hate to go counter to her will; but I know that I am good enough man to be true and keep you all my life the first in all my thoughts, and that"s enough for me. But if you have any fear, any doubt of yourself, now is the time--"
Imogene rose to her feet as in some turmoil of thought or emotion that would not suffer her to remain quiet.
"Oh, keep still!" "Don"t get up yet!" "Hold on a minute, please!" came from the artists in different parts of the theatre, and half a dozen imploring pencils were waved in the air.
"They are sketching you," said Colville, and she sank compliantly into her seat again.
"I have no doubt for myself--no," she said, as if there had been no interruption.
"Then we need have no anxiety in meeting your mother," said Colville, with a light sigh, after a moment"s pause. "What makes you think she will be unfavourable?"
"I don"t think that; but I thought--I didn"t know but--"
"What?"
"Nothing, now." Her lips were quivering; he could see her struggle for self-control, but he could not see it unmoved.
"Poor child!" he said, putting out his hand toward her.
"Don"t take my hand; they"re all looking," she begged.
He forbore, and they remained silent and motionless a little while, before she had recovered herself sufficiently to speak again.
"Then we are promised to each other, whatever happens," she said.
"Yes."
"And we will never speak of this again. But there is one thing. Did Mrs.
Bowen ask you to tell Mr. Morton of our engagement?"
"She said that I ought to do so."
"And did you say you would?"
"I don"t know. But I suppose I ought to tell him."
"I don"t wish you to!" cried the girl.
"You don"t wish me to tell him?"
"No; I will not have it!"
"Oh, very well; it"s much easier not. But it seems to me that it"s only fair to him."
"Did you think of that yourself?" she demanded fiercely.
"No," returned Colville, with sad self-recognition. "I"m afraid I"m not apt to think of the comforts and rights of other people. It was Mrs.
Bowen who thought of it."
"I knew it!"
"But I must confess that I agreed with her, though I would have preferred to postpone it till we heard from your family." He was thoughtfully silent a moment; then he said, "But if their decision is to have no weight with us, I think he ought to be told at once."
"Do you think that I am flirting with him?"
"Imogene!" exclaimed Colville reproachfully.
"That"s what you imply; that"s what she implies."
"You"re very unjust to Mrs. Bowen, Imogene."
"Oh, you always defend her! It isn"t the first time you"ve told me I was unjust to her."
"I don"t mean that you are willingly unjust, or could be so, to any living creature, least of all to her. But I--we--owe her so much; she has been so patient."
"What do we owe her? How has she been patient?"
"She has overcome her dislike to me."
"Oh, indeed!"
"And--and I feel under obligation to her for--in a thousand little ways; and I should be glad to feel that we were acting with her approval; I should like to please her."
"You wish to tell Mr. Morton?"
"I think I ought."
"To please Mrs. Bowen! Tell him, then! You always cared more to please her than me. Perhaps you stayed in Florence to please her!"
She rose and ran down the broken seats and ruined steps so recklessly and yet so sure-footedly that it seemed more like a flight than a pace to the place where Mrs. Bowen and Mr. Morton were talking together.
Colville followed as he could, slowly and with a heavy heart. A good thing develops itself in infinite and unexpected shapes of good; a bad thing into manifold and astounding evils. This mistake was whirling away beyond his recall in hopeless mazes of error. He saw this generous young spirit betrayed by it to ign.o.ble and unworthy excess, and he knew that he and not she was to blame.