"Do I not respect him?"
"I hope so. But perhaps you may not show it best by loving him."
"As to that, it is a matter in which one can, perhaps, hardly control oneself. If asked for love it will come from you like water from a fountain. Unless it be so, then it cannot come at all."
"That surely is a dangerous doctrine for a young woman."
"Young women, I think, are compa.s.sed by many dangers," said Marion; "and I know but one way of meeting them."
"What way is that, dear?"
"I will tell you, if I can find how to tell it, to-morrow."
"There is one point, Marion, on which I feel myself bound to warn you, as I endeavoured also to warn him. To him my words seemed to have availed nothing; but you, I think, are more reasonable. Unequal marriages never make happy either the one side or the other."
"I hope I may do nothing to make him unhappy."
"Unhappy for a moment you must make him;--for a month, perhaps, or for a year; though it were for years, what would that be to his whole life?"
"For years?" said Marion. "No, not for years. Would it be more than for days, do you think?"
"I cannot tell what may be the nature of the young man"s heart;--nor can you. But as to that, it cannot be your duty to take much thought.
Of his lasting welfare you are bound to think."
"Oh, yes; of that certainly;--of that above all things."
"I mean as to this world. Of what may come afterwards to one so little known we here can hardly dare to speak,--or even to think. But a girl, when she has been asked to marry a man, is bound to think of his welfare in this life."
"I cannot but think of his eternal welfare also," said Marion.
"Unequal marriages are always unhappy," said Mrs. Roden, repeating her great argument.
"Always?"
"I fear so. Could you be happy if his great friends, his father, and his stepmother, and all those high-born lords and ladies who are connected with him,--could you be happy if they frowned on you?"
"What would their frowns be to me? If he smiled I should be happy. If the world were light and bright to him, it would certainly be light and bright to me."
"I thought so once, Marion. I argued with myself once just as you are arguing now."
"Nay, Mrs. Roden, I am hardly arguing."
"It was just so that I spoke to myself, saying that the joy which I took in a man"s love would certainly be enough for my happiness. But oh, alas! I fell to the ground. I will tell you now more of myself than I have told any one for many a year, more even than I have told George. I will tell you because I know that I can trust your faith."
"Yes; you can trust me," said Marion.
"I also married greatly; greatly, as the world"s honours are concerned. In mere rank I stood as a girl higher perhaps than you do now. But I was lifted out of my own degree, and in accepting the name which my husband gave me I a.s.sured myself that I would do honour to it, at any rate by my conduct. I did it no dishonour;--but my marriage was most unfortunate."
"Was he good?" asked Marion.
"He was weak. Are you sure that Lord Hampstead is strong? He was fickle-hearted. Can you be sure that Lord Hampstead will be constant amidst the charms of others whose manners will be more like his own than yours can be?"
"I think he would be constant," said Marion.
"Because you are ready to worship him who has condescended to step down from his high pedestal and worship you. Is it not so?"
"It may be that it is so," said Marion.
"Ah, yes, my child. It may be that it is so. And then, think of what may follow,--not only for him, but for you also; not only for you, but for him also. Broken hearts, crushed ambitions, hopes all dead, personal dislikes, and perhaps hatred."
"Not hatred; not hatred."
"I lived to be hated;--and why not another?" Then she was silent, and Marion rising from her seat kissed her, and went away to her home.
She had very much to think of. Though she had declared that she had almost expected this offer from her lover, still it could not be that the Quaker girl, the daughter of Zachary Fay, Messrs. Pogson and Littlebird"s clerk, should not be astounded by having such an offer from such a suitor as Lord Hampstead. But in truth the glory of the thing was not very much to her. It was something, no doubt. It must be something to a girl to find that her own personal charms have sufficed to lure down from his lofty perch the topmost bird of them all. That Marion was open to some such weakness may be acknowledged of her. But of the coronet, of the diamonds, of the lofty t.i.tle, and high seats, of the castle, and the parks, and well-arranged equipages, of the rich dresses, of the obsequious servants, and fawning world that would be gathered around her, it may be said that she thought not at all. She had in her short life seen one man who had pleased her ear and her eye, and had touched her heart; and that one man had instantly declared himself to be all her own. That made her bosom glow with some feeling of triumph!
That same evening she abruptly told the whole story to her father.
"Father," she said, "Lord Hampstead was here to-day."
"Here, in this house?"
"Not in this house. But I met him at our friend"s, whom I went to see, as is my custom almost daily."
"I am glad he came not here," said the Quaker.
"Why should you be glad?" To this the Quaker made no answer.
"His purpose was to have come here. It was to see me that he came."
"To see thee?"
"Father, the young lord has asked me to be his wife."
"Asked thee to be his wife!"
"Yes, indeed. Have you not often heard that young men may be infatuated? It has chanced that I have been the Cinderella for his eyes."
"But thou art no princess, child."
"And, therefore, am unfit to mate with this prince. I could not answer him at once, father. It was too sudden for me to find the words. And the place was hardly fitting. But I have found them now."
"What words, my child?"
"I will tell him with all respect and deference,--nay, I will tell him with some love, for I do love him,--that it will become him to look for his wife elsewhere."
"Marion," said the Quaker, who was somewhat moved by those things which had altogether failed with the girl herself; "Marion, must it be so?"
"Father, it must certainly be so."