"Oh, Hannah, he is coming! he is coming!"
"Who is coming, my darling? I see no one!" said the elder sister, straining her eyes down the path.
"But I feel him coming! He is coming fast! He will be in sight presently! There! what did I tell you? There he is!"
And truly at that moment Herman Brudenell advanced from the thicket and walked rapidly up the path towards the hut.
Nora sank back in her seat, overcome, almost fainting.
Another moment and Herman Brudenell was in the room, clasping her form, and sobbing:
"Nora! Nora, my beloved! my beautiful! you have been ill and I knew it not! dying, and I knew it not! Oh! oh! oh!"
"Yes, but I am well, now that you are here!" gasped the girl, as she thrilled and trembled with returning life. But the moment this confession had been surprised from her she blushed fiery red to the very tips of her ears and hid her face in the pillows of her chair.
"My darling girl! My own blessed girl! do not turn your face away! look at me with your sweet eyes! See, I am here at your side, telling you how deep my own sorrow had been at the separation from you, and how much deeper at the thought that you also have suffered! Look at me! Smile on me! Speak to me, beloved! I am your own!"
These and many other wild, tender, pleading words of love he breathed in the ear of the listening, blushing, happy girl; both quite heedless of the presence of Hannah, who stood petrified with consternation.
At length, however, by the time Herman had seated himself beside Nora, Hannah recovered her presence of mind and power of motion; and she went to him and said:
"Mr. Brudenell! Is this well? Could you not leave her in peace?"
"No, I could not leave her! Yes, it is well, Hannah! The burden I spoke of is unexpectedly lifted from my life! I am a restored man. And I have come here to-day to ask Nora, in your presence, and with your consent, to be my wife!"
"And with your mother"s consent, Mr. Brudenell?"
"Hannah, that was unkind of you to throw a damper upon my joy. And look at me, I have not been in such robust health myself since you drove me away!"
As he said this, Nora"s hand, which he held, closed convulsively on his, and she murmured under her breath:
"Have you been ill? You are not pale!"
"No, love, I was only sad at our long separation; now you see I am flushed with joy; for now I shall see you every day!" he replied, lifting her hand to his lips.
Hannah was dreadfully disturbed. She was delighted to see life, and light, and color flowing back to her sister"s face; but she was dismayed at the very cause of this--the presence of Herman Brudenell. The instincts of her affections and the sense of her duties were at war in her bosom. The latter as yet was in the ascendency. It was under its influence she spoke again.
"But, Mr. Brudenell, your mother?"
"Hannah! Hannah! don"t be disagreeable! You are too young to play duenna yet!" he said gayly.
"I do not know what you mean by duenna, Mr. Brudenell, but I know what is due to your mother," replied the elder sister gravely.
"Mother, mother, mother; how tiresome you are, Hannah, everlastingly repeating the same word over and over again! You shall not make us miserable. We intend to be happy, now, Nora and myself. Do we not, dearest?" he added, changing the testy tone in which he had spoken to the elder sister for one of the deepest tenderness as he turned and addressed the younger.
"Yes, but, your mother," murmured Nora very softly and timidly.
"You too! Decidedly that word is infectious, like yawning! Well, my dears, since you will bring it on the tapis, let us discuss and dismiss it. My mother is a very fine woman, Hannah; but she is unreasonable, Nora. She is attached to what she calls her "order," my dears, and never would consent to my marriage with any other than a lady of rank and wealth."
"Then you must give up Nora, Mr. Brudenell," said Hannah gravely.
"Yes, indeed," a.s.sented poor Nora, under her breath, and turning pale.
"May the Lord give me up if I do!" cried the young man impetuously.
"You will never defy your mother," said Hannah.
"Oh, no! oh, no! I should be frightened to death," gasped Nora, trembling between weakness and fear.
"No, I will never defy my mother; there are other ways of doing things; I must marry Nora, and we must keep the affair quiet for a time."
"I do not understand you," said Hannah coldly.
"Nora does, though! Do you not, my darling?" exclaimed Herman triumphantly.
And the blushing but joyous face of Nora answered him.
"You say you will not defy your mother. Do you mean then to deceive her, Mr. Brudenell?" inquired the elder sister severely.
"Hannah, don"t be abusive! This is just the whole matter, in brief. I am twenty-one, master of myself and my estate. I could marry Nora at any time, openly, without my mother"s consent. But that would give her great pain. It would not kill her, nor make her ill, but it would wound her in her tenderest points--her love of her son, and her love of rank; it would produce an open rupture between us. She would never forgive me, nor acknowledge my wife."
"Then why do you speak at all of marrying Nora?" interrupted Hannah angrily.
Herman turned and looked at Nora. That mute look was his only answer, and it was eloquent; it said plainly what his lips forbore to speak: "I have won her love, and I ought to marry her; for if I do not, she will die."
Then he continued as if Hannah had not interrupted him:
"I wish to get on as easily as I can between these conflicting difficulties. I will not wrong Nora, and I will not grieve my mother.
The only way to avoid doing either will be for me to marry my darling privately, and keep the affair a secret until a fitting opportunity offers to publish it."
"A secret marriage! Mr. Brudenell! is that what you propose to my sister?"
"Why not, Hannah?"
"Secret marriages are terrible things!"
"Disappointed affections, broken hearts, early graves, are more terrible."
"Fudge!" was the word that rose to Hannah"s lips, as she looked at the young man; but when she turned to her sister she felt that his words might be true.
"Besides, Hannah," he continued, "this will not be a secret marriage.
You cannot call that a secret which will be known to four persons--the parson, you, Nora, and myself. I shall not even bind you or Nora to keep the secret longer than you think it her interest to declare it. She shall have the marriage certificate in her own keeping, and every legal protection and defense; so that even if I should die suddenly--"
Nora gasped for breath.
--"she would be able to claim and establish her rights and position in the world. Hannah, you must see that I mean to act honestly and honorably," said the young man, in an earnest tone.
"I see that you do; but, Mr. Brudenell, it appears to me that the fatal weakness of which you have already spoken to me--the "propensity to please"--is again leading you into error. You wish to save Nora, and you wish to spare your mother; and to do both these things, you are sacrificing--"