The answer seemed to the poor ladies a long time in coming; as a matter of fact, it arrived very promptly. The Rector of St. Anne"s at Chicago regretted to inform his old friend and colleague the Rector of St. Mary"s, at Ba.s.sett Mills, that he had no good account to give of Paul Halleck, who had not long ago been dismissed from the choir of his church, and had left behind him in Chicago many debts and a bad reputation. The young man was believed to have, as the Rector added, genuine musical talent; but like many artists and musicians, he was morally irresponsible, dissipated and reckless.
The Rector of St. Mary"s repeated the verdict, as gently as he could, to the older ladies at the Homestead. They bore it better than he expected. There were compensations indeed in the very extent of its severity. Had Halleck been less evidently and irredeemably a black sheep, there might have been some doubts as to their own duty; but, as it was, they felt that they must break off the dreadful match at once, and at any cost.
Yet the heart of each sister misgave her as they sat in a solemn conclave, and summoned Elizabeth before it. She came, rosy, bright-eyed, fresh from talks with her lover and happy dreams of a brilliant future, which they were to share together. She stood listening in apparent indifference, while Miss Cornelia faltered out the painful result of their inquiries. And when the worst was told, she had turned perhaps a trifle pale, but otherwise she seemed unmoved.
"I don"t know why you tell me all this, auntie," she said, slowly.
"I--I am sorry to hear it, but it can make no difference."
"No difference!" Miss Cornelia repeated, stupefied. "No difference, Elizabeth?"
"No, it can"t change my love for him," she said, defiantly. "He told me that he has enemies at Chicago, and that you would probably unearth a lot of old scandals; and I promised that it should make no difference. Perhaps some of them are true; I don"t care. Auntie, I can"t--I can"t give him up," she went on with a sudden change of tone and clasping her hands appealingly. "I tried to once before, and--I couldn"t. If he were to go away now and leave me, I--I should die. I couldn"t bear to go on living without him." The girl"s face was flushed, her voice tremulous with feeling; it was evident that she fully meant--or thought that she meant--what she said. Her aunts looked at her in helpless perplexity.
"My darling," Miss Cornelia faltered at last, "think how much better it is to give him up now than to--to marry him and be unhappy. You don"t know--men are very bad;--one reads such things in the newspapers. If he were to ill-treat you, desert you."
"Ah, but he won"t," said Elizabeth, smiling incredulously. "You needn"t worry, Aunt Cornelia; we shall be very happy. But even if we were not," she concluded, with a sudden burst of defiance. "If I thought that he would beat me, treat me like a dog--I don"t care; I should marry him to-morrow."
And she thrust out her full under lip, and stood facing them, with a look of obstinacy on her fair, girlish face, that for the moment bore a strong resemblance to her father.
To Miss Cornelia"s mind there rose again, with startling vividness, the events of twenty years before. The recollection seemed to endow her with an unwonted and unnatural strength. She went over to where Elizabeth stood and took both the girl"s hot hands in hers.
"Elizabeth," she said, desperately, "you don"t know what you"re saying. You will be miserable if you marry that man. You don"t know what it is to live with a person who is beneath you, who--who drags you down. We know, my darling, we have seen it. Be warned by us, and give him up."
Miss Cornelia had never in all her gentle life spoken with so much vehemence. Elizabeth, in her astonishment, stood for a moment absolutely pa.s.sive. She stole a glance at Miss Joanna; she was weeping quietly. Elizabeth"s own face worked, her lip quivered. "I know whom you mean," she broke out, suddenly, in a quick hard voice. "You"re thinking of my mother." And then, in the dismayed pause that followed, she dragged her hands away from Miss Cornelia"s grasp and fled from the room.
The two older women looked at one another in silence.
"I didn"t know," Miss Joanna said at last in a low, awe-struck tone "that the child knew anything about--about poor Malvina."
_Chapter IX_
"And so you let all this nonsense influence you?" Halleck asked this bitterly, staring up with moody eyes into Elizabeth"s face. They were sitting under a wide-spreading tree, in a field not far from the Homestead. It was late afternoon and the shadows were long and peaceful. A ray from the sinking sun shot through the foliage overhead lighting up the red tints of Elizabeth"s hair. Halleck"s artistic eye rested upon them fascinated. He had never, as he told himself, been so much in love before.
"You give me up because of a little opposition?" he went on bitterly, roused to increased irritation by the thought of losing her.
"Why, what can I do?" The girl"s voice was weary, and she threw out her hands with a helpless gesture. "They will give in to me, I suppose, if I insist; but it makes them too unhappy. I believe it would kill them. If they were unkind, I shouldn"t care; but they only cry, and are so wretched, and I can"t stand it. It makes me feel so ungrateful."
"And yet," said Halleck, anxiously, "you think they will give in in the end?"
"Oh, yes, they"ll give in," said Elizabeth, wearily. "They"ll give in, if I insist; and that"s the very reason why I--what makes it so hard, you see."
"No, I don"t see," said Paul, bluntly. "If you think they will give in, why are you so unhappy? But I understand how it is" he went on, harshly, "you don"t love me. I"m too far beneath you--a Bohemian and an outcast. You are glad of an excuse to throw me over."
"Paul!" The indignant color flushed into Elizabeth"s face. "How can you say such things," she asked reproachfully. "You know they are not true. I told my aunts that I would never give you up; I told them that--that I would marry you to-morrow, if I could."
"You told them that?" Paul exclaimed exultantly. He put his arm around her and drew her towards him. "Then keep your word, darling," he said.
"Marry me to-morrow."
Elizabeth shrank away, startled. "Marry you," she repeated.
"To-morrow, how could I?"
"Why not," said Paul, quietly. "Come up to Cranston and we will be married. Then let them say what they please."
Elizabeth was very pale. "I couldn"t do that," she said in a low voice. "I don"t want to be married so soon; and besides--it would kill my aunts."
He laughed. "Nonsense! People soon resign themselves to what they can"t help. And then they needn"t know--yet awhile. Listen, darling, this is my plan. You know that I want to go abroad--well, I have had a letter offering me a position in an opera company in Munich. If I accept it I start this week."
He stopped as Elizabeth gave a little cry and stared up at him with reproachful eyes. "This week," she said. "You go away this week?"
"Why, I can"t stay here forever, you know," Paul said. "I"ve idled away my time unconscionably already--but that is your fault, Elizabeth. Now it is time I went to work. And that is why I say--marry me before I go. Then, while I am away, nothing can separate us."
Elizabeth, pale and thoughtful, seemed to ponder the suggestion.
"Marry you," she repeated, slowly. "Marry you--now at once?"
"Yes, to-morrow," said Paul, boldly.
"And--and keep it _secret_?" she went on, with a troubled look.
"Yes, for a little while," said Paul, "for a few months, till I come back. I shall have made my name and my fortune, darling, I hope, by that time, and your aunts will be quite reconciled to me."
"Then wouldn"t it be better," said Elizabeth, with much reason, "to wait till then?"
"Are you willing to wait--in uncertainty all this time?" he asked, reproachfully. "Ah, Elizabeth, it is evident that you don"t love me as I love you. Such an absence would be unbearable to me, if I felt that some lover was likely to come along at any time and take you from me."
Elizabeth could not help reflecting that the danger of such a catastrophe did not seem imminent, in the present condition of the Neighborhood; but she did not put the thought into words. She only said, with some dignity: "I don"t think that I am the sort of girl to change so easily."
"Ah, you can"t tell," said Paul. "Women are fickle beings. I don"t trust you, Elizabeth. I have a feeling that, if you don"t marry me now, you never will. And why should you hesitate?" he went on eagerly.
"It isn"t so much that I ask. I don"t even say--come abroad with me now; only give me the certainty that when I come back, I shall be able to claim you."
"You would have that certainty now," she still insisted. "I promise that I will marry you when you come back."
"Then why not marry me now," he asked, triumphantly.
Elizabeth could give no good reason to the contrary. The idea was vaguely alarming, yet it held for her a certain fascination. She sat listening in troubled uncertainty, while Paul discoursed with enthusiasm over the many advantages of his plan. He was exceedingly anxious, as he had said, to make sure of this beautiful girl, who was, he vaguely felt, a little above him--of a grade superior to that of the other girls whom he had known and made love to, for the s.p.a.ce of a fortnight perhaps. He had been true to Elizabeth, now, for more than double that time. He really believed that he should be true to her always. There were other things that attracted him besides her beauty.
The thought that Elizabeth was Miss Van Vorst of the Homestead was not unpleasant to him; the old house, the family silver, the family traditions, appealed to his artistic sense of fitness. And then though he was no fortune-hunter, and certainly would have made love to no girl whom he did not for the moment at least sincerely admire, he admitted to himself, frankly, that it was by no means inconvenient that Elizabeth should have a little money of her own and the prospect of more in the future. The Van Vorst property, while it was insignificant enough when measured by the standard of the Van Antwerps and other rich people in the Neighborhood, seemed by no means contemptible to Paul, who measured it by the standard of poverty-stricken Bohemia.
Elizabeth"s feelings were more complex, less frankly selfish, much more anxious and uncertain. The money question did not enter into them to any great extent, though she had an instinctive dread of poverty, and she was convinced that, if once married to Paul, she would not be able to have the pretty gowns, and other luxurious trifles, which had hitherto seemed a necessity of life. But she was young and romantic, and this thought did not weigh with her very much. What most distressed her, and made her feel in some way vaguely in the wrong, was the trouble this, her first love affair, seemed to bring to others; to her aunts, to Amanda. She loved her aunts, and hated to run counter to their wishes; she did not love Amanda, and yet the thought of having injured her, though unconsciously, brought with it an uncomfortable sense of guilt.
She had not seen her since that terrible interview, which she still could not recall without a feeling of humiliation; but she had seen her aunt, who told her that Amanda was ill with some low fever--typhoid malaria, probably; there was always a good deal of that at The Mills. It was not considered wise that Elizabeth should see her; and besides, Amanda was delirious, and did not recognize any one.
Elizabeth was more relieved than sorry to hear it. No doubt, she told herself, Amanda was already out of her head when she uttered that extraordinary outburst, and it was foolish to attach any importance to what she said in her feverish excitement. Still, Elizabeth did not like to think of it, much less of the promise she herself had given, voluntarily, in such forcible words. She had been so absolutely sincere in making it; she had broken it so completely within the hour.
The whole affair was unpleasant, and weighed upon her more than those more serious charges against Paul, which had fallen vaguely upon her ear, not seeming to make any deep impression. His conduct to Amanda was at its worst a mere trifle in comparison.
Still she could not give him up. That broken promise to Amanda only proved this the more strongly. She could not face the prospect of life without him. And yet she could not face without terrible misgivings the prospect of further tears and remonstrances from her aunts. The two claims struggled for the mastery; on the one hand, the claims of the women who had brought her up, whose every thought for twenty years had centred in her; on the other, the claims of the man who had loved her in his light way some five weeks. Under these circ.u.mstances, it was inevitable that the claims of the man should predominate. And yet Elizabeth longed to satisfy them both.
Paul"s plan seemed to suggest a compromise. And Elizabeth had not yet learned that compromise is never satisfactory to either side.