"Call it prudence, if you please, Lindsay, or worldly wisdom, if you like, after all the best kind of wisdom; and I only wish you had more of it."
"That makes no difference in life," replied her husband, calmly, but severely; "as it is, you have enough, and more than enough for the whole family."
"But has Harry any hopes of success with Alice Goodwin," asked Charles, "because everything depends on that?"
"If he had not, you foolish boy, do you think I would be the first to break the ice by going to pay them a visit? The girl, I dare say, will make a very good wife, or if she does not, the property will not be a pound less in value on that account; that"s one comfort."
"And is it upon this hollow and treacherous principle that you are about to pay them a friendly visit?" asked her husband, with ill-repressed indignation.
"Lindsay," she replied, sharply, "I perceive you are rife for a quarrel now; but I beg to tell you, sir, that I will neither seek your approbation nor regard your authority. I must manage these people after my own fashion."
"Harry," said his step-father, turning abruptly, and with incredulous surprise to him, "surely it is not possible that you are a party to such a shameful imposture upon this excellent family?"
His brother Charles fastened his eyes upon him as if he would read his heart.
"I am sorry, sir," replied that gentleman, "that you should think it necessary to apply the word imposture to any" proceeding of mine. You ought to know my mother"s outspoken way, and that her heart is kinder than her language. The fact is, from the first moment I saw that beautiful girl I felt a warm interest in her, and I feel that interest increasing every day. I certainly am very anxious to secure her for her own sake, whilst I candidly admit that I am not wholly indifferent to the property. I am only a common man like others, and not above the world and its influences--who can be that lives in it? My mother, besides, will come to think better of Alice, and all of them, when she shall be enabled to call Alice daughter; won"t you, mother?"
The mother, who knew by the sentiments which he had expressed to her before on this subject, that he was now playing a game with the family, did not consider it prudent to contradict him; she consequently replied,--
"I don"t know, Harry; I cannot get their trick about the property out of my heart; but, perhaps, if I saw it once more where it ought to be, I might change. That"s all I can say at present."
"Well, come, Harry," said Lindsay--adverting to what he had just said--"I think you have spoken fairly enough; I do--it"s candid; you are not above this world; why should you be?--come, it is candid."
"I trust, sir, you will never find me un-candid, either on this or any other subject."
"No; I don"t think I shall, Harry. Well, be it so--setting your mother out of the question,--proceed with equal candor in your courtship. I trust you deserve her, and, if so, I hope you may get her."
"If he does not," said Maria, "he will never get such a wife."
"By the way, Harry," asked Charles, "has she given you an intimation of anything like encouragement?"
"Well, I rather think I am not exactly a fool, Charles, nor likely to undertake an enterprise without some prospect of success. I hope you deem me, at least, a candid man."
"Yes; but there is a cla.s.s of persons who frequently form too high an estimate of themselves, especially in their intercourse with women; and who very often mistake civility for encouragement."
"Very true, Charles--exceedingly just and true; but I hope I am not one of those either; my knowledge of life and the world will prevent me from that, I trust."
"I hope," continued Charles, "that if the girl is adverse to such a connection she will not be hara.s.sed or annoyed about it."
"I hope, Charles, I have too much pride to press any proposal that may be disagreeable to her; I rather think I have. But have you, Charles, any reason to suppose that she should not like me?"
"Why, from what you have already hinted, Harry, you ought to be the best judge of that yourself."
"Well, I think so, too. I am not in the habit of walking blindfold into any adventure, especially one so important as this. Trust to my address, my dear fellow," he added, with a confident smile, "and, believe me, you shall soon see her your sister-in-law."
"And I shall be delighted at it, Harry," said his sister; "so go on and prosper. If you get her you will get a treasure, setting her property out of the question."
"Her property!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mrs. Lindsay; "but no matter; we shall see. I can speak sweetly enough when I wish."
"I wish to G.o.d you would try it oftener, then," said her husband; "but I trust that during this visit of yours you will not give way to your precious temper and insult them at the outset. Don"t tie a knot with your tongue that you can"t unravel with your teeth. Be quiet, now; I didn"t speak to raise the devil and draw on a tempest--only let us have a gla.s.s of punch, till Charley and I drink success to Harry."
The next day Mrs. Lindsay ordered the car, and proceeded to pay her intended visit to the Goodwins. She had arrived pretty near the house, when two of Goodwin"s men, who were driving his cows to a grazing field on the other side of the road by which she was approaching, having noticed and recognized her, immediately turned them back and drove them into a paddock enclosed by trees, where they were completely out of her sight.
"Devil blow her, east and west!" said one of them. "What brings her across us now that we have the cattle wid us? and doesn"t all the world know that she"d lave them sick and sore wid one glance of her unlucky eye. I hope in G.o.d she didn"t see them, the thief o" the devil that she is."
"She can"t see them now, the cratures," replied the other; "and may the devil knock the light out of her eyes at any rate," he added, "for sure, they say it"s the light of h.e.l.l that"s in them."
"Well, when she goes there she"ll be able to see her way, and sure that"ll be one comfort," replied his companion; "but in the mane time, if anything happens the cows--poor bastes--we"ll know the rason of it."
"She must dale wid the devil," said the other, "and I hope she"ll be burned for a witch yet; but whisht, here she comes, and may the devil roast her on his toastin" iron the first time he wants a male!"
"Troth, an" he"d find her tough feedin"," said his comrade; "and.
barrin" he has strong tusks, as I suppose he has, he"d find it no every-day male wid him."
As they spoke, the object of their animadversion appeared, and turned upon them, so naturally, a sinister and sharp look, that it seemed to the men as if she had suspected the subject of their conversation.
"You are Mr. Goodwin"s laborers, are you not?"
"We are, ma"am," replied one of them, without, as usual, touching his hat however.
"You ill-mannered boor," she said, "why do you not touch your hat to a lady, when she condescends to speak to you?"
"I always touch my hat to a lady, ma"am," replied the man sharply.
"Come here, you other man," said she; "perhaps you are not such an insolent ruffian as this? Can you tell me if Mr. and Mrs. Goodwin are at home?"
"Are you goin" there?" asked the man, making a low bow.
"Yes, I am, my good man," she replied.
"Well, then, ma"am," he added, bowing again, "you"ll find that out when you go to the house;" and he made her another bow to wind up the information with all due politeness.
"Barney," said she to the servant, her face inflamed with rage, "drive on. I only wish I had those ruffianly scoundrels to deal with; I would teach them manners to their betters at all events; and you, sirra, why did you not use your whip and chastise them?"
"Faith, ma"am," replied our friend Barney Casey, "it"s aisier said than done wid some of us. Why, ma"am, they"re the two hardiest and best men in the parish; however, here"s Pugshy Ruah turnin" out o" the gate, and she"ll be able to tell you whether they are at home or not."
"O, that"s the woman they say is unlucky," observed his mistress--"unlucky to meet, I mean; I have often heard of her; indeed, it may be so, for I believe there are such persons; we shall speak to her, however. My good woman," she said, addressing Pugshy, "allow me to ask, have you been at Mr. Goodwin"s?"
Now Pugshy had all the legitimate characteristics of an "unlucky" woman; red-haired, had a game eye--that is to say, she squinted with one of them; Pugshy wore a caubeen hat, like a man; had on neither shoe nor stocking; her huge, brawny arms, uncovered almost to the shoulders, were brown with freckles, as was her face; so that, altogether, she would have made a bad subst.i.tute either for the Medicean Venus or the Apollo Belvidere.
"My good woman, allow me to ask if you have been at Mr. Goodwin"s."
Pugshy, who knew her well, stood for a moment, and closing the eye with which she did not squint, kept the game one fixed upon her very steadily for half a minute, and as she wore the caubeen rather rakishly on one side of her head, her whole figure and expression were something between the frightful and the ludicrous.
"Was I at Misther Goodwin"s, is it? Lord love you, ma"am, (and ye need it, _sotto voce_), an" maybe you"d give us a thrifle for the male"s mate; it"s hard times wid us this weader."
"I have no change; I never bring change out with me."