""Nor even Repton?"
""Not once."
""That, at least, is more dignified; and if any accident should bring us together in county business--"
""Which is not likely."
""How so?" asked I.
""They are going away soon."
""Going away--to leave Cro" Martin--and for any time?"
""My Lady speaks of the Continent, and that, of course, implies a long absence."
""And has this miserable election squabble led to this resolve? Is the neighborhood to be deprived of its chief ornament--the people of their best friend--just for the sake of a petty party triumph?"
""It is fortunate Mr. Ma.s.singbred"s const.i.tuents cannot hear him," said she, laughing.
""But be serious, and tell me how far am I the cause of all this."
""The whole cause of it,--at least, so far as present events can reveal."
""How they must abhor me!" said I, half involuntarily.
""_Avec les circonstances attenuantes_," said she, smiling again.
""How so?--what do you mean?"
""Why, that my Lady is thankful at heart for a good excuse to get away,--such a pretext as Mr. Martin himself cannot oppose. Repton, the Grand Vizier, counsels economy, and, like all untravelled people, fancies France and Italy cheap to live in; and Miss Mary is, perhaps, not sorry with the prospect of the uncontrolled management of the whole estate."
""And is she to live here alone?"
""Yes; she is to be sole mistress of Cro" Martin, and without even a governess, since Miss Henderson is to accompany her Ladyship as private secretary, minister of the household, and, in fact, any other capacity you may please in flattery to a.s.sign her. And now, Mr. Ma.s.singbred, that I have, not over-discreetly, perhaps, adventured to talk of family arrangements to a stranger, will you frankly ac-knowledge that your pride, or self-love, or any other quality of the same nature, is rather gratified than otherwise at all the disturbance you have caused here?
Don"t you really feel pleased to think that you have revolutionized a little neighborhood, broken up a society, severed the ties that bound proprietor and peasant, and, in fact, made a very pretty chaos, out of which may come anything or everything?"
""When you address such a question as this to me, you don"t expect an answer. Indeed, the query itself is its own reply," said I.
""Well said, sir, and with consummate temper, too. Certainly, Mr.
Ma.s.singbred, you possess one great element of success in public life."
""Which is--"
""To bear with equanimity and cool forbearance the impertinences of those you feel to be your inferiors."
""But it is not in this light I regard Miss Henderson, be a.s.sured," said I, with earnestness; "and if I have not replied to her taunts, it is not because I have not felt them."
"I thought I detected a very faint flush on her cheek as I said this, and certainly her features a.s.sumed a more serious expression than before.
""Will you let me speak to you of what is far nearer my heart?" said I, in a low voice,--"far nearer than all this strife and war of politics?
And will you deign to believe that what I say is prompted by whatever I know in myself of good or hopeful?"
""Say on,--that is, if I ought to hear it," said she, coldly.
"Deterred a second or two by her manner, I rallied quickly, and with an ardor of which I cannot convey an impression, much less explain,--one of those moments of rhapsody, _you "d_ call it,--poured forth a warm declaration of love. Aye, Harry, sincere, devoted love!--a pa.s.sion which, in mastering all the common promptings of mere worldly advantage and self-interest, had really inspired me with n.o.ble thoughts and high aspirations.
"A judge never listened to a pleading with more dignified patience than she did to my appeal. She even waited when I had concluded, as it were to allow of my continuing, had I been so minded; when, seeing that I had closed my argument, she quietly turned about, and facing the road we had just been travelling, pointed to the bleak, bare mountain on which Barnagheela stood. "It was yonder, then, that you caught up this lesson, sir. The admirable success of Mr. Magennis"s experiment has seduced you!"
""Good heavens! Kate," cried I--
""Sir," said she, drawing herself proudly up, "you are continuing the parallel too far."
""But Miss Henderson cannot for a moment believe--"
""I can believe a great deal, sir, of what even Mr. Ma.s.singbred would cla.s.s with the incredible; but, sir, there are certain situations in life which exact deference, from the very fact of their humility. Mine is one of these, and I am aware of it."
""Will you not understand me aright?" cried I, eagerly. "In offering to share my fortune in life with you--"
""Pray, sir, let this stop here. Poor Joan, I have no doubt, felt all the grandeur of _her_ elevation, and was grateful even in her misery.
But _I_ should not do so. I am one of those who think that the cruellest share in a _mesalliance_ is that of the humbler victim. To brave such a fate, there should be all the hopeful, sanguine sense of strong affection; and, as a reserve to fall back on in reverses, there should be an intense conviction of the superiority over others of him from whom we accept our inferiority. Now, in my case, these two conditions are wanting. I know you like frankness, and I am frank."
""Even to cruelty," said I.
""We are very near Cro" Martin, sir, and I think we ought to part," said she, calmly.
""And is it thus you would have us separate? Have I nothing to hope from time,--from the changes that may come over your opinions of me?"
""Calculate rather on the alterations in your own sentiments, Mr.
Ma.s.singbred; and perhaps the day is not very distant when you will laugh heartily at yourself for the folly of this same morning,--a folly which might have cost you dearly, sir, for I might have said, Yes."
""Would that you had!"
""Good-bye, sir," said she, not noticing my interruption, "and remember that, if I should ever need it, I have a strong claim on your grat.i.tude.
Good-bye!"
"She did not give me her hand at parting, but waved it coldly towards me as she went. And so she pa.s.sed the little wicket, and entered the dark woods of the demesne, leaving me in a state wherein the sense of bewilderment alone prevailed over all else.
"I have given you this narrative, Harry, as nearly as I can remember, every step of it; but I do not ask you to understand it better than I do, which means, not at all! Nor will I worry you with the thousand-and-one attempts I have made to explain to myself what I still confess to be inexplicable. I mean to leave this at once. Would that I had never come here! Write to me soon; but no bantering, Harry. Not even my friendship for _you_--oldest and best of all my friends--could stand any levity on this theme. This girl knows me thoroughly, since she comprehends that there is no so certain way to engage my affections as to defy them!
"Write to me, I entreat. Address me at my father"s, where I shall be, probably, within a week. Were I to read over what I have just written, the chances are I should burn the letter; and so, _sans adieu_,
"Yours ever,
"Jack Ma.s.singbred."