The next day, when the visitors had been driven back by the Reverend
Arthur, his sister met him upon the step, and taking his arm, led him
down the garden to the vine-house.
"Let us go in here, Arthur," she said. "It is such a good place to talk
in; there is no fear of being overheard."
"Yes, it is a quiet retired place," he said thoughtfully.
"I hope you were careful in driving, and had no accident, Arthur?"
"N-no; I had no accident, only I drove one wheel a little up the bank in
Sandrock Lane."
"How was that? You surely did not try to pass another carriage in that
narrow part?"
"N-no," hesitated the Reverend Arthur. "Let me see, how was it? Oh, I
remember. Miss Perowne had made some remark to me, and I was thinking
of my answer."
"And nearly upset them," cried Miss Rosebury. "Oh! Arthur--Arthur, you
grow more rapt and dreamy every day; What is coming to you I want to
know?"
The Reverend Arthur started guiltily, and gazed at his sister.
"Oh! Arthur," she cried, shaking a warning finger at him, "you are
neglecting your garden and your natural history pursuits to try and make
yourself a cavalier of dames, and it will not do. There--there, I won't
scold you; but I am beginning to think that it will be a very good thing
when our visitors have gone for good."
The Reverend Arthur sighed, and half turned away to snip off two or
three tendrils from a vine-shoot above his head.
"I want to talk to you very seriously, Arthur," said the little lady,
whose cheeks began to flush slightly with excitement; and she felt
relieved as she saw her brother turn a little more away.
"I want to talk to you very seriously indeed," said Miss Rosebury.
"I am listening," he said hoarsely; but she did not notice it in her
excitement.
There was a minute's pause, during which the Rev Arthur broke off the
young vine-shoot by accident, and then stood trying to replace it again.
At last Miss Rosebury spoke.
"Arthur," she said--and her brother started and seemed to shiver, though
she saw it not--"Arthur, Henry Bolter has asked me to be his wife!"
The Reverend Arthur turned round now in his astonishment, with his face
deadly white and the tiny beads of perspiration upon his forehead.
"Asked you to be his wife?" he said. "Yes, dear."
"I am astonished," cried the Reverend Arthur. "No, I am not," he added
thoughtfully. "He seemed to like you very much, Mary."
"And I like him very much, Arthur, for I think him a truly good,
amiable, earnest man."
"He is my dear Mary--he is indeed; but--but--"
"But what, Arthur? Were you going to say that you could not spare me?"
"I--I hardly know what I was about to say, Mary, you took me so by
surprise. It would be very strange, though, to be here without you."
"And you will not be, Arthur. I felt that I must tell you. I have
nothing that I keep from you; but I have refused him."
"You have refused him," he said thoughtfully. "Yes, I felt that it
would not be right to let a comparative stranger come in here and break
up at once our happy little home. No, Arthur, this must all be like
some dream. You and I, dear brother, are fast growing into elderly
people; and love such as that is the luxury of the young."
"Love such as that," said the Reverend Arthur, softly, "is the luxury of
the young!"
"Yes, dear brother, it would be folly in me to give way to such
feelings!"
"Do you like Harry?" he exclaimed, suddenly.
"Yes," she said, quietly. "I have felt day by day, Arthur, that I liked
him more and more. It was and is a wonder to me at my age; but I should
not be honest if I did not own that I liked him."
"It is very strange, Mary," said the curate, softly.
"Yes, it is very strange," she said; "and as I think of it all, I am
obliged to own to myself, that after all I should have liked to be
married. It is such a revival of the past."
The curate nodded his head several times as he let himself sink down
upon the greenhouse steps, resting his hands upon his knees.
"But it is all past now, Arthur," said the lady, quickly, and the tears
were in her eyes, "we are both too old, my dear brother; and as soon as
these visitors are gone, we will forget all disturbing influences, and
go back to our happy old humdrum life."
She could not trust herself to say more, but hurried off to her room,
leaving the Reverend Arthur gazing fixedly at the red-brick floor.
"We are too old," he muttered softly, from time to time; and as he said
those words there seemed to stand before him the tall, well-developed
figure of a dark-eyed, beauteous woman, who was gazing at him softly
from between her half-closed, heavily-fringed lids.
"We are too old," he said again; and then he went on dreaming of that
day's drive, and Helen's gentle farewell--of the walks they had had in
his garden--the flowers she had taken from his hand. Lastly, of his
sister's words respecting disturbing influences, and then settling down
to their own happy humdrum life once again.
"It is fate!" he said, at last--"fate. Can we bring back the past?"
He felt that he could not, even as his sister felt just then, as she
knelt beside one of the chairs in her own sweet-scented room, and asked
for strength, as she termed it, to fight against this temptation.
"No," she cried, at last; "I cannot--I will not! For Arthur's sake I
will be firm."