"Of course I shall be at home on Tuesday at two. Am I not at home every day at all hours? Mrs. Roden shall not be there as you do not wish it, though Mrs. Roden has always been your friend. Of course I shall be alone. Papa is always in the City. Good to you! Of course I shall be good to you! How can I be bad to the one being that I love better than all the world? I am always thinking of you; but I do wish that you would not think so much of me. A man should not think so much of a girl,--only just at his spare moments. I did not think that it would be like that when I told you that you might love me."
All that Tuesday morning, before he left home, he was not only thinking of her, but trying to marshal in order what arguments he might use,--so as to convince her at last. He did not at all understand how utterly fruitless his arguments had been with her.
When Mrs. Roden had told him of Marion"s strength he had only in part believed her. In all matters concerning the moment Marion was weak and womanly before him. When he told her that this or the other thing was proper and becoming, she took it as Gospel because it came from him. There was something of the old awe even when she looked up into his face. Because he was a great n.o.bleman, and because she was the Quaker"s daughter, there was still, in spite of their perfect love, something of superiority, something of inferiority of position. It was natural that he should command,--natural that she should obey.
How could it be then that she should not at last obey him in this great thing which was so necessary to him? And yet hitherto he had never gone near to prevailing with her. Of course he marshalled all his arguments.
Gentle and timid as she was, she had made up her mind to everything, even down to the very greeting with which she would receive him. His first warm kiss had shocked her. She had thought of it since, and had told herself that no harm could come to her from such tokens of affection,--that it would be unnatural were she to refuse it to him.
Let it pa.s.s by as an incident that should mean nothing. To hang upon his neck and to feel and to know that she was his very own,--that might not be given to her. To hear his words of love and to answer him with words as warm,--that could be allowed to her. As for the rest, it would be better that she should let it so pa.s.s by that there need be as little of contention as possible on a matter so trivial.
When he came into the room he took her at once, pa.s.sive and unresisting, into his arms. "Marion," he said. "Marion! Do you say that you are ill? You are as bright as a rose."
"Rose leaves soon fall. But we will not talk about that. Why go to such a subject?"
"It cannot be helped." He still held her by the waist, and now again he kissed her. There was something in her pa.s.sive submission which made him think at the moment that she had at last determined to yield to him altogether. "Marion, Marion," he said, still holding her in his embrace, "you will be persuaded by me? You will be mine now?"
Gradually,--very gently,--she contrived to extricate herself. There must be no more of it, or his pa.s.sion would become too strong for her. "Sit down, dearest," she said. "You flurry me by all this. It is not good that I should be flurried."
"I will be quiet, tame, motionless, if you will only say the one word to me. Make me understand that we are not to be parted, and I will ask for nothing else."
"Parted! No, I do not think that we shall be parted."
"Say that the day shall come when we may really be joined together; when--"
"No, dear; no; I cannot say that. I cannot alter anything that I have said before. I cannot make things other than they are. Here we are, we two, loving each other with all our hearts, and yet it may not be.
My dear, dear lord!" She had never even yet learned another name for him than this. "Sometimes I ask myself whether it has been my fault."
She was now sitting, and he was standing over her, but still holding her by the hand.
"There has been no fault. Why should either have been in fault?"
"When there is so great a misfortune there must generally have been a fault. But I do not think there has been any here. Do not misunderstand me, dear. The misfortune is not with me. I do not know that the Lord could have sent me a greater blessing than to have been loved by you,--were it not that your trouble, your grief, your complainings rob me of my joy."
"Then do not rob me," he said.
"Out of two evils you must choose the least. You have heard of that, have you not?"
"There need be no evil;--no such evil as this." Then he dropped her hand, and stood apart from her while he listened to her, or else walked up and down the room, throwing at her now and again a quick angry word, as she went on striving to make clear to him the ideas as they came to her mind.
"I do not know how I could have done otherwise," she said, "when you would make it so certain to me that you loved me. I suppose it might have been possible for me to go away, and not to say a word in answer."
"That is nonsense,--sheer nonsense," he said.
"I could not tell you an untruth. I tried it once, but the words would not come at my bidding. Had I not spoken them, you would read the truth in my eyes. What then could I have done? And yet there was not a moment in which I have not known that it must be as it is."
"It need not be; it need not be. It should not be."
"Yes, dear, it must be. As it is so why not let us have the sweet of it as far as it will go? Can you not take a joy in thinking that you have given an inexpressible brightness to your poor Marion"s days; that you have thrown over her a heavenly light which would be all glorious to her if she did not see that you were covered by a cloud? If I thought that you could hold up your head with manly strength, and accept this little gift of my love, just for what it is worth,--just for what it is worth,--then I think I could be happy to the end."
"What would you have me do? Can a man love and not love?"
"I almost think he can. I almost think that men do. I would not have you not love me. I would not lose my light and my glory altogether.
But I would have your love to be of such a nature that it should not conquer you. I would have you remember your name and your family--"
"I care nothing for my name. As far as I am concerned, my name is gone."
"Oh, my lord!"
"You have determined that my name shall go no further."
"That is unmanly, Lord Hampstead. Because a poor weak girl such as I am cannot do all that you wish, are you to throw away your strength and your youth, and all the high hopes which ought to be before you?
Would you say that it were well in another if you heard that he had thrown up everything, surrendered all his duties, because of his love for some girl infinitely beneath him in the world"s esteem?"
"There is no question of above and beneath. I will not have it. As to that, at any rate we are on a par."
"A man and a girl can never be on a par. You have a great career, and you declare that it shall go for nothing because I cannot be your wife."
"Can I help myself if I am broken-hearted? You can help me."
"No, Lord Hampstead; it is there that you are wrong. It is there that you must allow me to say that I have the clearer knowledge. With an effort on your part the thing may be done."
"What effort? What effort? Can I teach myself to forget that I have ever seen you?"
"No, indeed; you cannot forget. But you may resolve that, remembering me, you should remember me only for what I am worth. You should not buy your memories at too high a price."
"What is it that you would have me do?"
"I would have you seek another wife."
"Marion!"
"I would have you seek another wife. If not instantly, I would have you instantly resolve to do so."
"It would not hurt you to feel that I loved another?"
"I think not. I have tried myself, and now I think that it would not hurt me. There was a time in which I owned to myself that it would be very bitter, and then I told myself, that I hoped,--that I hoped that you would wait. But now, I have acknowledged to myself the vanity and selfishness of such a wish. If I really love you am I not bound to want what may be best for you?"
"You think that possible?" he said, standing over her, and looking down upon her. "Judging from your own heart do you think that you could do that if outward circ.u.mstances made it convenient?"
"No, no, no."
"Why should you suppose me to be harder-hearted than yourself, more callous, more like a beast of the fields?"
"More like a man is what I would have you."
"I have listened to you, Marion, and now you may listen to me. Your distinctions as to men and women are all vain. There are those, men and women both, who can love and do love, and there are those who neither do nor can. Whether it be for good or evil,--we can, you and I, and we do. It would be impossible to think of giving yourself to another?"
"That is certainly true."
"It is the same with me,--and will ever be so. Whether you live or die, I can have no other wife than Marion Fay. As to that I have a right to expect that you shall believe me. Whether I have a wife or not you must decide."