"No! closer and closer shall my love draw us, beautiful one! until it compa.s.ses your hate and unites us forever!"
With a half-suppressed cry she wrung her hand from his grasp and answered, wildly:
"I sought your presence to entreat you--and to warn you! I have supplicated you, and you have turned a deaf ear to my prayer! Now I warn you! and disregard my warning, if you dare! despise it at your peril! I am going out of my wits, I think! I warn you that I may consent to become your wife! I have no persevering resistance in my nature. I cannot hold out forever against those I love. But I warn you, that if ever I consent, it will be under the undue influence of others!"
"Put your consent upon any ground you please, you delightful, you enchanting little creature. We will spare your blushes, charming as they are!" he exclaimed, surprised out of self-control and seizing both her hands.
Angrily she s.n.a.t.c.hed them from him.
"What have I said? Oh! what have I said? I believe I am going crazy! I tell you, Dr. Grimshaw, that if I ever yield, it will be only to the overwhelming force brought to bear upon me; and even then it will be only during a temporary fit of insanity! And I warn you--I warn you not to dare to take me at my word!"
"Will I not? You bewitching little sprite! do you do this to make me love you ten thousand times more than I do?"
Pa.s.sionately she broke forth in reply:
"You do not believe me! You do not see that I am in terrible earnest! I tell you, Dr. Grimshaw, that were I induced to consent to be your wife, you had better not take advantage of such a consent! It would be the most fatal day"s work you ever did for yourself in this world! You think I"m only a spoiled, petulant child! You do not know me! I do not know myself! I am full of evil! I feel it sensibly, when I am near you! You develop the worst of me! Should you marry me, the very demon would rise in my bosom! I should drive you to distraction!"
"You drive me to distraction now, you intoxicating little witch!" he exclaimed, laughing and darting towards her.
She started and escaped his hand, crying:
"Saints in heaven! What infatuation! What madness! It must be fate!
Avert the fate, man! Avert it! while there is yet time! Go get a mill-stone and tie it around your neck and cast yourself into the uttermost depths of the sea before ever you dare to marry me!" Her cheeks were blazing with color and her eyes with light! He saw only her transcendant beauty.
"Why, you little tragi-comic enchantress, you!--what do you mean? Come to my arms! Come, wild, bright bird! come to my bosom!" he said, stepping towards her and throwing his arms around her.
"Vampire!" she exclaimed, struggling to free herself for a moment; and then as his lips sought hers the color faded from her face and the light died in her eyes, and he hastily released her and set her in a chair lest she should swoon in his hated arms.
"Now, how am I expected to live with such a wife as this girl would make me? If it were not for the estate I should be tempted to give her up, and travel to forget her! How shall I overcome her repugnance? Not by courting her; that"s demonstrated. Only by being kind to her, and letting her alone." Such was the tenor of his thoughts as he stood a little behind her chair out of her sight.
But Jacquelina, when she found herself free, soon recovered, and arose and left the room.
Until a day or two before Christmas, when, in the evening, she glided in to her uncle"s room and sunk down by his side--so unlike herself; so like a spirit--that the old sinner impulsively shrank away from her, and put out his hand to ring for lights.
"No; don"t send for candles, uncle! Such a wretch as I am should tell her errand in the dark."
"What do you mean now, minx?"
"Uncle, in all your voyages around the world did you ever stop at Constantinople? And did you ever visit a slave mart there?"
"Yes; of course I have! What then? What the deuce are you dreaming of?"
"How much would such a girl as myself bring in the slave market of the Sultan"s city?"
"Are you crazy?" asked the commodore, opening his eyes to their widest extent.
"I don"t know. If I am, it can make little difference in your plans. But as there is method in my madness, please to answer my question. How much would I sell for in Constantinople?"
"You are mad; that"s certain! How do I know--where beauties sell for from five hundred to many thousand zechins. But you wouldn"t sell for much; you"re too small and too thin."
"Beauty sells by the weight, does it? Well, uncle, I see that you have been accustomed to the mart, for you know how to cheapen the merchandise! Save yourself the trouble, uncle! I shall not live long, and therefore I shall not have the conscience to ask a high price for myself!"
"Mad! Mad as a March hare! As sure as shooting she is!" said the commodore in dismay, staring at her until his great, fat eyes seemed bursting from their sockets.
"Not so mad as you think, uncle, either. I have come to make a bargain with you."
"What the foul fiend do you mean now? Do you want me to send you to Constantinople, pray?"
Jacquelina laughed, something like her old silvery laugh, as she answered:
"No, uncle; though if it were not for Mimmy, I really should prefer it to marrying Grim!"
"What do you mean, then? Speak!"
"This, then, uncle: By what I have heard, and what I have seen, and what I have surmised, I am already as deep in your secrets respecting Grim as you are yourself."
"You speak falsely, you little ----! No one knows anything about it but myself!" exclaimed the commodore, betraying himself through astonishment and indignation.
Without heeding the contradiction, except by a sly smile, Jacquelina went calmly on:
"And I know that you wish to make me a stalking-horse, to convey the estate to Grimshaw, only because you cannot give it to him in any other way but through his wife."
"What do you mean, you little diabolical ----! It is my own--why can I not give it to whom I please, I should like to know?"
"You can give it to any one in the world, uncle, except Dr. Grimshaw, or to one who bears the same relationship to you that he does; for to such a one you may not legally bequeath your landed estate, or--"
"You shocking, impudent little vixen! How dare you talk so?"
"Hear me out, uncle. I say, knowing such to be the case, I also know my own importance as a "stalking-horse," or sumpter-mule, or something of the sort, to bear upon my own shoulders the burden of this estate, which you wish to give by me to Dr. Grimshaw. Therefore, I shall not give myself away for nothing. I intend to sell myself for a price! Nothing on earth would induce me to consent to marry Dr. Grimshaw, were it not to secure peace and comfort to my mother"s latter days. Your threat of turning me out of doors would not compel me into such a marriage, for well I know that you would not venture to put that threat into execution. But I cannot bear to see my poor mother suffer so much as she does while here, dependent upon your uncertain protection. You terrify and distress her beyond her powers of endurance. You make the bread of dependence very, very bitter to her, indeed! And well I know that she will certainly die if she remains subjected to your powers of tormenting. I speak plainly to you, uncle, having nothing to conceal; to proceed, I a.s.sure you I will not meet your views in marrying Dr.
Grimshaw, unless it be to purchase for my poor mother a deliverance from bondage, and an independence for life. Therefore, I demand that you shall buy this place, "Locust Hill," which I hear can be bought for five thousand dollars, and settle it upon my mother; in return for which I will bestow my hand in marriage upon Dr. Grimshaw. And, mind, I do not promise with it either love, or esteem, or service--only my hand in civil marriage, and the estate it has the power of carrying with it! And the doc.u.ments that shall make my mother independent of the world must be drawn up or examined by a lawyer that she shall appoint, and must be placed in her hands on the same hour that gives my hand to Dr. Grimshaw.
Do you understand? Now, uncle, that is my ultimatum! For, please the heavens above us! come what may! do what you will! turn me and my mother out of doors, to freeze and starve--I will die, and see her die, before I will sell my hand for a less price than will make her independent and at ease for life! For, look you, I would rather see her dead, than leave her in your power! Think of this, uncle! There is time enough to-morrow and next day to make all the arrangements; only be sure I am in earnest!
Look in my face! Am I not in earnest?"
"I think you are, you little wretch! I could shake the life out of you!"
"That would be easy, uncle! There is not much to shake out. Only, in that case, you would have no stalking-horse to take the estate over to Dr. Grimshaw." And so saying, Jacquelina arose to leave the room.
"Come back here--you little vixen, you!"
Sans Souci returned.
"It"s well to "strike while the iron"s hot," and to bind you while you"re willing to be bound, for you are an uncertain little villain.
Though I don"t believe you"d break a solemn pledge once given--hey?"
"No, sir!"
"Pledge me your word of honor, now, that if I buy this little farm of Locust Hill, and settle it upon your mother, you will marry Dr. Grimshaw on this coming Christmas Eve?"