"O near ones, dear ones! you in whose right hands
Our own rests calm, whose faithful hearts all day,
Wide open, wait till back from distant lands
Thought, the tired traveller, wends his homeward way."
"Of course, since Miss Seyton insists, and you say you wish it, I come
home for my marriage in October," said Alvar.
"You don't understand," replied Cheriton vehemently, "and you are unfair
to Virginia. She is as kind as she can be. Go and show her that you
really care for her as she deserves, and it will all come right. If
anything could make matters worse for me, it would be to think I had
been the excuse for a break between you!"
Alvar was standing in the library window, leaning back against the
shutter. He looked perfectly unmoved and impervious to argument, his
mouth shut firm and his eyebrows a little contracted. Cheriton, on the
other hand, half lying on the window-seat, was flushed and eager as if
he had been pleading for himself, not for another.
"No," said Alvar obstinately. "Miss Seyton has dismissed me. She tells
me that I do not content her. Well, then, I will go."
"Why make yourself wretched for a mere misunderstanding?"
"I? I shall not be wretched. I hope I can take my dismissal from a
lady. She finds that I do not suit her, so I withdraw," said Alvar in a
tone of indescribable haughtiness.
"Perhaps she knows best," said Cherry, "and is right in thinking you
indifferent to her."
"No--but I will be so soon," said Alvar coolly.
"It is no good to _say_ so," said Cherry; then, starting up, he came and
put his hand on Alvar's arm. "Don't do this thing," he said
imploringly, "you don't know what it will cost you."
The two faces clear against the sky were a contrast for a painter;
Alvar's with its rich dark colouring, and calm impassive look just a
little sullen, and Cheriton's delicate, sharpened outlines, the eyes all
on fire and the colour varying with excitement.
Perhaps the two natures sympathised as little as the faces. Alvar's
look softened, however, as he put Cherry back on the cushions.
"Lie still," he said; "why do you care so much? You will be as ill as
you were yesterday. If I had known it, you should not have gone to
Elderthwaite."
"But," said Cherry, more quietly, "I felt sure that there had been a
misunderstanding. It was my fault. Of course I like best to have you
with me; but I could not consent to any indefinite putting off of your
marriage. My father would not agree to it either. And that is not
quite the point. Show Virginia that she is your first thought, and
everything can be put right."