A WET WOOING.
Bessie and Fox walked side by side, but without speaking, as long as
they were in the street of Tavistock, with houses on both sides. Here
there were, perhaps, more mud, more numerous puddles, than outside the
town. Moreover, the water that fell on the roofs dripped or shot in
streams down on the heads of such as ventured to walk near the walls,
and the only escape from these cataracts and douches was in the
well-worn midst of the street where the dirt was deepest because the
roadway was there most trampled. The douching from the descending shoots
of water, the circumventing of the pools, caused the walk of the two to
be no more than approximately side by side. No walk could be direct, but
must consist of a series of festoons and loops; but on passing the last
house, Fox came boldly up to the side of Elizabeth Cleverdon, and said:
"Bessie, I am at a disadvantage; who can be the lover in such weather,
and how can I lay myself at thy feet when the road is ankle-deep in
mire? I should sink into the slough of despond and the mud close over my
head and back or ever I had an answer from thee."
"There can and will be no romance in the matter," answered Elizabeth.
"It is to me a sad and serious business, for if there be truth in what
you say--that you have cared for me, then I am sorry to disappoint you;
but, on my honour as a maid, Fox, I never suspected it."
"That may well be, for thou art so modest," replied Fox Crymes. "Yet I
do assure thee the attachment has been of a long time, and has thrown
its roots through my heart. Even now--or now least of all, would I have
held my tongue had not thy father encouraged me to speak."
"Why least of all now?"
"Because now, Bessie, that thy brother Anthony is out of favour thou art
an heiress with great prospects; and neither would I seem to make my
suit to thee because of these prospects, nor to step into the place and
profits that should have belonged to Anthony."
Bessie looked round at him gratefully.
"I am glad you think of Anthony," she said.
"Of course I think of him. He is my friend. None have mourned more than
I at his estrangement from his father. It has affected him in many ways.
Not only is he cut off from Hall and his father, but disappointment has
soured him, and I do not believe he is happy with his wife."
"What!--Anthony not happy with his wife!" Bessie sighed and hung her
head. She remembered the dance at the Cakes, Anthony's neglect of Urith,
and the attention he paid to Julian. No doubt this had occasioned a
quarrel when he reached his home. Poor Anthony! Poor Anthony!
"And now," said Bessie, gently--"now that we are quite alone together,
let me assure you that, though I am thankful to you for the honour you
have done me by asking for me, that yet I must beg you to desist from
pressing a suit that must be unsuccessful. I can--after what you have
said, and after the good feeling you have shown--I will, respect you. I
can do no more."
"You have given your heart to another?" half-asked Fox, with a leer that
she did not notice.
"No--no one has my heart, for no one has thought it worth his while to
ask for it, except you; and, alas! to you I cannot give it."
"But, if it is still free, may I not put in a claim for it?"
"No--it can never be yours."
"I will not take such a refusal. At bob-apple any boy may jump for the
fruit, till it is carried away. Your heart is hung up to be jumped for,
and I will not be thrust aside, and refused permission to try my luck
along with the rest."
"No one else will think of coming forward."
"There you are mistaken, Bess. Consider what you are now--at all events
what you are esteemed to be. You will inherit Hall and all your father's
savings. Your father has made no secret of his determination to
disinherit Anthony. He has told several persons that he has made his
will anew, and constituted you his heiress, your husband to take the
name of Cleverdon. This is known and talked about everywhere. Do you
suppose that with such a prospect there will not be a score of aspirants
ready to cast off their names and become at once the husband of the most
charming girl anywhere in South Devon, and a rich Squire Cleverdon of
Hall?"
Bessie was infinitely hurt and shocked. She to rob her brother of his
birthright! God forbid!
"Fox," she said, "this can never be. If I should at any time become
owner of Hall, I would give it up immediately to dear Anthony."
"But," said Fox, with a mocking laugh on his face, "is it not likely
that your father knows what you would do, and will take precautions
against it, by settling the estate through your husband on your eldest
son? You could not, were the estate so settled, do as you propose."
Bessie was silent, looking down into the mud, and forgetting to pick her
way among the puddles. The rain had formed drops along the eave of her
hood, and there were drops within on the fringes of her eyes.
"You will be persecuted by suitors," Fox continued, "and I ask you is
there any you know about here whom you would prefer to me?"
She did not answer him, she was thinking, with her hood drawn by one
hand very close about her face, that no one approaching, nor Fox, should
see her distress.
"Do not speak of others," said Bessie, at length; "sufficient to let
things be till they come. I am, and you need not pretend it is not so--I
am but a plain homely girl, and that will dampen the ardour of most
young men who sigh for pretty faces."
"You do yourself injustice, Bessie. For my part I look to the qualities
of the heart and understanding, and you have a generous and noble heart,
and a clear and sound understanding. Beauty withers, such qualities
ripen. I never was one to be taken with the glitter of tinsel. I look to
and love sterling metal. It was your good qualities which attracted my
admiration, and, 'fore Heaven, Bess, I think you uncommon comely."
"I pray you," urged Bessie, "desist from your suit. I have told thee it
is fruitless."
"But I will not desist without a reason. Give me a reason, and I am
silent. Without one, I will press on. I have a better right than any of
the unknown who will come about thee like horseflies after awhile."
"I do not love thee. Is not that a reason?"
"None at all. I do not see why thou mayest not come to like me."
Bessie walked on some way in silence.
Presently she said, in a plaintive, low voice: "I will give thee, then,
a reason; and, after that, turn on thy heel and leave me in peace. I
have--" Her voice failed her, and she stepped on some paces before she
could recover it. "I tell thee this, Fox, only because thou hast been
frank with me, and hast shown me a generous heart. My reason is
this--and, Fox, there must, I reckon, be some confidence between two
situated as we are--it is this, that long, long ago I did dearly love
another, and I love him still."
"Now, Bessie!" exclaimed Fox, standing still in the road, and she halted
also, "you assured me that you had given your heart to none."
"I have given it to none, for none asked it of me."
"I do not understand. You speak riddles."
"Not at all. Cannot a poor, ugly girl love a man--noble, wise and
good--and never let him know it, and never expect that it will be
returned? I have heard a tale of a Catholic saint, that he wore a chain
of barbed iron about his body, under his clothing, where it ate into his
flesh and cankered his blood; but none suspected it. He went about his
daily tasks, and laughed with the merry-makers; yet all the while the
barbs were working deeper into him, and he suffered. There may be many
poor, ill-favoured--ay, and well-favoured--wenches like that saint. They
have their thorny braids about their hearts, and hide them under gay
bodices, that none suspect aught. But--God forgive me," said Bessie,
humbly, with soft, faltering voice--"God pardon me that I spoke of this
as a chain of iron barbs, festering the blood. It is not so. There is no
iron there at all, and no fester whatsoever--only very long-drawn pains,
and now and then, a little pure, honest blood runs from the wound.
There, Fox, I have shown this only to thee. No one else knows thereof,
and I have shown it thee only as a reason why I cannot love thee."
Fox Crymes made a grimace.
Bessie stepped along her way. Fox followed.
Presently she turned, hearing his steps, with a gesture of surprise, and
said, "What, not gone yet?"
"No, Bessie, I admire thee the more, and I do not even now give over
the pursuit. I would yet learn, hast thou any thought that he whom thou
lovest will be thine."
"No! no! never; I do not desire it."
"Not desire it?"
"Nay, for he has loved another; he has never given me a thought. I must
not say that. Kind and good he has ever been--a friend; but he can and
will be nothing more."
"There you mistake, Bessie. When he learns that you are the heiress to
Hall his eyes will be wonderfully opened to your charms, and he will
come and profess he ever loved thee." He spoke bitterly, laying bare his
own base motives in so doing. But Bessie was too guileless to suspect
him. She reared herself up; his words conveyed such a slight on the
honor of Luke that she could not endure it.
"Never! never!" she said, and her eyes flashed through her tears. "Oh,
Fox! if you knew who he was you would never have said that."
"But if he should come and solicit thy hand?"
"He cannot. He has told me that he loved another."
She resumed her walk.
Fox continued to attend her, in silence. He was puzzled what line to
adopt. What she had told him had surprised and discomfited him. That
Bessie--the ordinary, plain-faced, methodical Bessie--should have had
her romance was to him a surprise.
How little do we know of what passes under our very feet. Who dreamed of
magnetic currents till the magnetometer registered their movements?
Waves roll through the solid crust of earth without making it tremble at
all; magnetic storms rage around us without causing a disturbance in the
heavens, and but for the unclosing of our eyes through the scientific
instrument we should know nothing about them--have laughed at the
thought of their existence.
"I must needs walk on with thee," said Fox; "for I cannot leave thee
till thy father come and overtake thee. And if I walk at thy side,
well--we must talk, at all events I must, for my tongue has not the
knack of lying still behind my teeth."
Fox was at heart angry at his ill-success; he had hoped to have made a
great impression on Bessie by the declaration of his love. She was but
an ordinarily-favoured girl, as he knew well enough had never been
sought by young men, always thrust aside, accustomed to see others
preferred to herself--at a dance to be left against the wall without a
partner, after church to be allowed to accompany her father home,
without any lad seeking to attach himself to her and disengage her from
the old man. To a girl so generally disregarded his addresses ought to
have come as a surprise, and have been accepted with eagerness. He was
in a rage with her for the emphatic and resolute manner in which she
refused him.
"Let us talk of Anthony," said he.
"With all my heart," she replied, with a sigh of relief.
"Do you see any way in which your brother can be received again into
favour?" he inquired.
She shook her head. "Nothing that I can say has any effect on my father.
He will not permit me to go near Willsworthy."
"Then I can say what is the only way in which peace and good will may be
brought back into the family. It lies in your hands to build a bridge
between your father and Tony. I am certain that in his heart the old
Squire is discontented that things should remain as they are, but he has
spoken the word, and he is too proud to withdraw it. If it could have
come to pass that you took my hand, then I do not believe that your
father would resist our united persuasion. See how much weight we could
have brought to bear on him, how we could have watched our
opportunities, how--if it should happen at any time that Tony should
have a child, we might have brought it to the old man, set it on his
knees, and then together have taken the right moment to plead for
Anthony."
Bessie drew a long breath.
"I would do a great deal, almost anything, to bring about what you speak
of, but this means is beyond my power. It cannot be. I know now how good
and faithful a friend you are to my dear, dear brother Anthony. I must
again speak very plainly. I do desire, Fox, in all ways to spare you a
wound, but you will take no refusal. You said, 'Let us talk of Anthony,'
and you work it round to the same point. I shall never marry; I cannot
marry you; I shall take no one else. I pray you desist from your
pursuit. You heard what Aunt Magdalen said, that my father, if he
persisted, would drive me to run away, as did Anthony. It will be so. If
my father will not accept my refusal, then I must go. I shall go to
Anthony and his wife, or to my aunt. I could not swear what is false to
you or to any one else. Before the minister of God I would not promise
love, and love to my husband only, knowing that I could not love, for my
love was elsewhere. No," added Bessie, shaking her head, "I must be
true, always true, to myself, and before God."
As she spoke, both heard the clatter of horse's hoofs. They halted,
parted, one on each side of the road, and looked back. A man was
galloping along with his head down against the rain, he did not look up,
but remained bowed as he approached.
"Father!" called Bessie, for she recognised both the horse and the
rider. He did not draw rein, apparently he did not hear her. Certainly
he saw neither her nor Fox. Wrapped in his own thoughts, forgetful of
his daughter, of his promise to take her up, he galloped past, and sent
the mud flying from his horse's hoofs, bespattering her as he passed.