THE BETROTHAL.
Mrs. Alexander smiled at the young lover’s ardor, while she regarded his
handsome, earnest face with a look almost of affection.
“Mr. Hamilton,” she said, as he concluded, “to be frank with you, I must
tell you that I have been expecting a request of this nature from you.”
Rupert looked a trifle surprised at this declaration.
“A mother’s eyes are very sharp,” the lady resumed, “and it has not
required much penetration to see that you were learning to regard my
Virgie with more than friendly affection; besides, Mr. Knight told me of
the conversation that he had with you at San Jose, and warned me of what
I might expect when you returned to New York. And now I will confess to
you freely that I was very much opposed to the idea of having Virgie
become the wife of an Englishman. I had reason for the prejudice, which
I will explain to you some other time; and I resolved you two should not
meet again if I could help it. I did help it, as you know; that was the
reason why I left New York so early; but only to be overreached by fate,
which decreed that we should all come aboard at the same time. The
moment Virgie introduced you to me, on board the Cephalonia, I felt that
I was powerless, and so resigned myself to the inevitable. I must admit,
however,” Mrs. Alexander added, with a genial smile, “that I was
disarmed of my prejudices before I had known you many hours, and as I
became better acquainted with you, I could but acknowledge with Mr.
Knight, who, by the way, is a strong champion in your favor, that I
should be proud to give my daughter to so true a man; and so, Mr.
Hamilton, you have my full and free permission to win my darling if you
can, and——”
“Oh, thank you!” Rupert cried, seizing his companion’s hand in his
gratitude, his face luminous with joy; “you have made me the happiest
man in London.”
“I like to see young people happy,” Mrs. Alexander replied, still
smiling, but with a little sigh; “and I imagine it is safe to tell you I
think you have no cause for fear. But now tell me something about
yourself and your family; I should not like to make inquiries about you
of other people.”
“There is not very much to tell,” Rupert said. “I am an orphan; my
mother died when I was an infant; my father was a major in her majesty’s
service, and the only relatives I have living are an uncle and his
family, by the name of Shaftonsbury, so my home has been with my
guardian in Hampshire County——”
“Ah! Hampshire! Who is your guardian?” hastily asked Mrs. Alexander,
paling a little at the familiar name.
“He was my father’s dearest friend, Sir——” began Rupert, but before he
could speak the name the door opened, and Virgie, looking flushed and
beautiful from her exercise in the open air, stood upon the threshold,
and the young man, forgetting both question and answer, sprang forward
to greet her.
The conversation became general then for a little while; but by and by
Mrs. Alexander excused herself, saying she had letters to write, and
left the young couple alone.
Rupert’s eyes had been seeing a great deal ever since Virgie came in; so
much that she could not meet them without her color coming and going
with tell-tale consciousness; and when, the moment the door closed after
her mother, he arose and came to her side, she knew instinctively what
was trembling on his lips.
“My darling,” he said, in a low, earnest tone, “I have just told your
mother that I love you, and she has given me leave to win you if I can.
Virgie, I have loved you ever since those delightful days that we spent
together on the way to California. I might have told you of it even
then, had not Mr. Knight and my own sense of what was right warned me
against it. But now, dearest, there are no barriers, unless you yourself
raise one between us, and my heart bids me hope that you will not. Tell
me, dear, that you love me—that you will be my wife.”
He knelt by her side and gathered the two small hands that lay upon her
lap into his, while he searched the lovely downcast face with his eager
eyes.
She did not repulse him; she made no effort even to release her hands
from his clasp. She cast one shy, sweet glance into his face, a little
smile of love and joy trembled on her lips, while rosy blushes surged up
to the waves of bright hair lying on her forehead, and Rupert needed no
other answer to assure him of his heart’s desire.
“You do love me, my darling!” he cried, drawing her into his arms. “I
read it in your dear face, in your beautiful eyes; but let me hear it
from your lips. I am selfish enough not to be satisfied with anything
less. Virgie, you will give yourself to me?”
“Yes,” she whispered, her head drooping until her hair almost mingled
with his; “you _made_ me love you on that journey.”
“Oh, if I had known it then I fear I could not have held my peace,” he
interrupted, laying his lips fondly against her forehead. “I had, in
fact, to run away from you at San Jose lest I should violate all bonds
and betray myself in spite of the caution of Mr. Knight, who said I must
wait until you were safely back with your mother.”
“Did Mr. Knight suspect?” faltered Virgie, growing crimson again.
“Indeed he did. He is a very observing old gentleman, and took me to
task for monopolizing you so much. He was right, too, dear, for it would
have been rash and imprudent for me to have tried to win you then, and I
honored him for restraining me, though it required a terrible wrench for
me to tear myself away from you; but I knew my only safety was in
flight. I resolved, however, that I would settle the question when I
returned to New York; but I was very miserable when I came back in May
and could not find you.”
“And I, too, Rupert,” Virgie confessed. “I thought it is very hard when
the doctor ordered mamma away just at the very time when I was looking
for you; but of course I could not say a word, for her health was of
more importance than anything else, while——”
“While what, Virgie?” her lover asked, as she stopped in confusion.
“While I was not sure but that I was nourishing a delusion; and, taking
it all in all, I was very wretched.”
“Ah! and you have been loving me all this time?” Rupert breathed, as he
bent to kiss the lips that had confessed so much. “And I have been
fearing that you might send me away hopeless.”
“I could not send you away, Rupert.”
“Oh, Virgie, I hope I shall not wake to find this all a dream,” he
breathed, as he folded her closer in his arms, and drew her head upon
his breast.
“Do not fear,” the young girl returned, looking archly up into his eyes.
“I assure you I have ample evidence that you are very much awake now,
and, if you please, it won’t do to disarrange my hair _too_ much, for
Grace Huntington is coming back in an hour to help me plan for Lady
Dunforth’s ball that is to occur next week.”
Rupert laughed, but released her, smoothing very tenderly the tresses
that he had disarranged; then seating himself on the sofa beside her, he
asked:
“How will it be, my Virgie—can you be content to remain in England, or
are you such a stanch American that you will pine for your native land?”
“It is said that ‘home is where the heart is,’ and if _you_ are to live
in England, I am afraid that America would not seem very home-like to
me, even though it was my birthplace,” Virgie confessed, with a shy
smile that was very bewildering.
“Then you will not mind becoming an English matron?” Rupert observed,
with a caress that again endangered the glossy tresses.
“Yes, I think I shall mind it very much,” Virgie retorted; “so much that
I should be unhappy to be anything else. Besides,” she added, more
gravely, “my father was an Englishman.”
“Is it possible? But I do not think that Alexander is an English name,”
Rupert returned. “Of what portion of England was he a native?”
“I do not know, Rupert,” Virgie said, looking troubled. “I imagine there
is something about my father that mamma has never been willing to tell
me. She always grows so sad and pale whenever I speak of him that I have
not the heart to question her, although, as I have grown older, I have
been very desirous of knowing more concerning him.”
“Do you remember him?”
“Oh, no; I never saw him. He was called home to England a few weeks
before my birth, and was lost.”
“Lost at sea! How sad! Mrs. Alexander must have been very young.”
“Yes, she was only a little over twenty.”
“You will probably visit your father’s home now that you are here,”
Rupert remarked.
“I asked mamma that one day, and she grew so white that I was
frightened. She remarked that that was one object she had in coming
abroad, but it was chiefly for my sake; and then she shivered as if
there was something about it that she regarded with great dread. But
hush! she is coming back to us.”
Mrs. Alexander entered at that moment, and smiled as she saw the happy
faces of the two young lovers, although Virgie was sure that there was a
suspicious redness about her eyes, as if she had been weeping.
“I have won her, Mrs. Alexander,” Rupert said, taking Virgie by the hand
and leading her to her mother. “This dear girl has promised to be my
wife, and I am sure you will give us your blessing and congratulations.”
“Indeed I will,” she responded, heartily, though she appeared greatly
agitated as she drew Virgie into her arms and tenderly kissed her
blushing cheek; “and I give her to you very willingly, because I feel
sure that you are worthy of her, and I am confident that you will make
each other happy. Still,” she added, a little sadness in her voice, “it
is not an easy thing for a mother to give away her only child, or to
feel that she has been supplanted in her affections.”
“Not supplanted, mamma—do not say that!” cried Virgie, clinging to her;
“it could not be! I could never love you less, even though I——”
“Even though you love Rupert more,” interposed her mother, archly. “I
expect that, of course, and would not have it otherwise. I wish you to
be all in all to each other, and,” her voice growing husky with emotion,
“may no cloud ever dim your happiness; may nothing ever come between you
to mar your confidence in each other. Oh, my darling!” she cried, in a
voice of agony, as she folded the lovely girl almost convulsively to her
heart, and seeming to forget for the moment where she was, “I would
rather lay you away in your grave to-day than to have you live to suffer
what I have suffered.”
“Mamma,” cried Virgie, looking up anxiously into the almost convulsed
face bending over her, “what can you mean? I have never seen you so
unnerved before. Surely if you are in trouble, you should not hide it
from me.”
“Forgive me, love, for casting a shadow upon your joy at this time,”
said her mother, recovering herself with an effort; “but your happiness
brought back all my own early hopes—hopes that were most cruelly
blighted—so vividly that I forgot myself. Do not mind me, Virgie; your
future looks very bright, and I have done wrong even to allude to
anything to distress you on this day of all others.”
Virgie stood back and looked gravely into her mother’s face.
“Mamma,” she said, with a seriousness that was new to her, “I fear that
you have been hiding something from me all my life. I have often
suspected it, and your excessive agitation this morning proves it. If
you have known any great trouble in the past; if, as I surmise, it is
connected with my father, I feel that you ought to confide it to me, and
let me at least sympathize with, if I cannot alleviate, your sorrow.”
Mrs. Alexander grew very thoughtful at these words. For a moment she
stood irresolute, then a look of resolve overspread her face, and she
said:
“Sit down, my children, and listen to me. I believe the time has come
when I should open my heart to you, my Virgie, and since Rupert is now
one of us it will be just as well for him to hear the story that I have
to tell you at the same time; it will save a repetition, and I am not
strong enough to review the past many times. Perhaps, too,” she added,
turning to the young man, who, in obedience to her request, had drawn
his betrothed back to her seat upon the sofa, “you may be able to give
me some advice regarding a duty which I have soon to perform.”
She sat down near the lovers as she ceased speaking, but looking more
like a statue of wax than a living being, for it seemed almost like
going to her own execution to confess the wrongs which had been the
death-blow to all the hopes of her own youth.