THE RESULT.
Verty looked at Miss Sallianna, and sighed more deeply than he
had ever sighed before. The lady's face was full of the tenderest
interest; it seemed to say, that with its possessor all secrets were
sacred, and that nothing but the purest friendship, and a desire to
serve unhappy personages, influenced her.
Who wonders, therefore, that Verty began to think that it would be a
vast relief to him to have a confidant--that his inexperience needed
advice and counsel--that the lady who now offered to guide him through
the maze in which he was confounded and lost, knew all about the
labyrinths, and from the close association with the object of his
love, could adapt her counsel to the peculiar circumstances, better
than any one else in the wide world? Besides, Verty was a lover, and
when did lover yet fail to experience the most vehement desire to pour
into the bosom of some sympathizing friend--of either sex--the story
of his feelings and his hopes? It is no answer to this, that, in the
present instance, the lover was almost ignorant of the fact, that
he loved, and had no well-defined hopes of any description. That is
nothing to your true Corydon. Not in the least. Will he not discourse
with rising and kindling eloquence upon everything connected with his
Phillis? Will not the ribbons on her bodice, and the lace around her
neck, become the most important and delightful objects of discursive
commentary?--the very fluttering rosettes which burn upon her little
instep, and the pearls which glitter in her powdered hair, be of more
interest than the fall of thrones? So Corydon, the lover, dreams, and
dreams--and if you approach him in the forest-glade, he sighs and
talks to you, till evening reddens in the west, about Phillis, only
Phillis. And as the old Arcady lives still, and did at the time of our
history, so Corydons were ready to illustrate it, and our young friend
Verty felt the old pastoral desire to talk about his shepherdess, and
embrace Miss Sallianna's invitation to confide his sorrows to her
respective bosom.
"Come now, my dear Mr. Verty," repeated that lady, "tell me what all
this means--are you in love, can it be--not with Reddy?"
"Yes, ma'am, I believe I am," said Verty, yielding to his love. "Oh,
I know I am. I would die for her whenever she wanted me to--indeed I
would."
"Hum!" said Miss Sallianna.
"You know she is so beautiful and good--she's the best and dearest
girl that ever lived, and I was so happy before she treated me coldly
this morning! I'll never be happy any more!"
"Cannot you banish her false image?"
"False! she's as true as the stars! Oh, Redbud is not false! she is
too good and kind!"
Miss Sallianna shook her head.
"You have too high an opinion of the sex at large, I fear, Mr. Verty,"
she said; "some of them are very inconstant; you had better not trust
Redbud."
"Not trust her!"
"Be careful, I mean."
"How can I!" cried Verty.
"Easily."
"Be careful? I don't know what you mean, Miss Sallianna; but I suppose
what you say is for my good."
"Oh yes, indeed."
"But I can't keep still, and watch and listen, and spy out about
anybody I love so much as Redbud--for I'm certain now that I love her.
Oh, no! I must trust her--trust her in everything! Why should I not? I
have known her, Miss Sallianna, for years, and years--we were brought
up together, and we have gone hand in hand through the woods,
gathering flowers, and down by the run to play, and she has showed me
how to read and write, and she gave me a Bible; and everything which I
recollect has something in it about Redbud--only Redbud--so beautiful,
and kind, and good. Oh, Miss Sallianna, how could I be careful, and
watch, and think Redbud's smiles were not here! I could not--I would
rather die!"
And Verty's head sank upon his hands which covered the ingenuous
blushes of boyhood and first love. In this advanced age of the world,
we can pity and laugh at this romantic nonsense--let us be thankful.
Miss Sallianna listened with great equanimity to this outburst, and
smiling, and gently fanning Verty, said, when he had ceased speaking:
"Don't agitate yourself, my dear friend. I suspected this.
You misunderstand my paternal counsel in suggesting to you a
suspicionative exemplification of dear little Reddy. Darling child!
she is very good; but remember that we cannot always control our
feelings."
Verty raised his head, inquiringly.
"You do not understand?"
"No, ma'am," he said; "I mean, Miss--"
"No matter--you'll get into the habit," said the lady, with a
languishing smile; "I meant to observe, my dear friend, that Reddy
might be very good, and I suppose she is--and she might have had a
great and instructive affection for you at one period; but you know we
cannot control our sentiments, and Reddy has probably fancied herself
in love with somebody else."
Verty started, and half rose.
"In love with somebody else?" he cried.
"Yes," said the lady, smiling.
"Oh, no, no!" murmured the young man, falling again into his seat.
Miss Sallianna nodded.
"Mind now--I do not assert it," she said; "I only say that these
children--I mean young girls at Reddy's age--are very apt to take
fancies; and then they get tired of the youths they have known well,
and will hardly speak to them. Human nature is of derisive and
touching interest, Mr. Verty," sighed the lady, "you must not expect
to find Reddy an exception. She is not perfect."
"Oh yes, she is!" murmured poor Verty, thinking of Redbud's dreadful
change, and yet battling for her to the last with the loyal
extravagance of a true lover; "she would not--she could not--deceive
me."
"I do not say she would."
"But--"
"I know what you are about to observe, sir; but, remember that the
heart is not in our power entirely"--here Miss Sallianna sighed, and
threw a languishing glance upon Verty. "No doubt Reddy loved you;
indeed, at the risk of deeming to flatter you, Mr. Verty--though I
never flatter--I must say, that it would have been very extraordinary
if Reddy had _not_ fallen in love with you, as you are so smart and
handsome. Recollect this is not flattery. I was going on to say, that
Reddy _must_ have loved you, but that does not show that she loves you
now. We cannot compress our sentiments; and Diana, Mr. Verty, the god
of love, throws his darts when we are not looking--ah!"
Which last word of Miss Sallianna's speech represents a sigh she
uttered, as, after the manner of Diana, she darted a fatal arrow from
her eyes, at Verty. It did not slay him, however, and he only murmured
wofully,
"Do you mean Reddy has changed, then, ma'am? Oh, what will become of
me--what shall I do!"
Miss Sallianna threw a glance, so much more languishing than the
former, upon her companion, that had his heart not been wrapped in
Redbud, it certainly would have been pierced.
"Follow her example," simpered Miss Sallianna, looking down with
blushing cheeks, and picking at her fan with an air of girlish
innocence. "Could you not do as she has done--and--choose--another
object yourself?"
And Miss Sallianna raised her eyes, bashfully, to Verty's face, then
cast them with maidenly modesty upon the carpet.
"No, ma'am," said Verty, thoughtfully, and quite ignorant of the
deadly attack designed by the fair lady upon his heart--"I don't think
I could change."
In these simple words the honest Verty answered all.
"Why not?" simpered the lady.
"Because I don't think Redbud is in love with anybody else," he said;
"I know she is not!"
"Why, then, has she treated you so badly?" said Miss Sallianna,
gradually forgetting her bashfulness, and reassuming her languishing
air and manner--"there must be some laborious circumstance, Mr.
Verty."
Verty pressed his head with his hand, and was silent. All at once
a brighter light illumined the fair lady's face, and she addressed
herself to speak, first uttering a modest cough--
"Suppose I suggest a plan of finding out, sir," she said; "we might
find easily."
"Oh, ma'am! how?"
"Will you follow my advice?"
"Yes, ma'am--of course. I mean if it's right. Excuse me, I did not
mean--what was your advice, ma'am?" stammered Verty.
The lady smiled, and did not seem at all offended at Verty's
qualification.
"It may appear singular to you at first," Miss Sallianna said; "but
my advice is, that you appear to make love--to pay attentions
to--somebody else for a short time."
"Attentions, ma'am?"
"Seem to like some other lady better than Redbud."
"Oh, but that would not be right."
"Why?"
"Because I don't."
Miss Sallianna smiled.
"I don't want you to change at all, Mr. Verty," she said; "only to
take this _modus addendi_, which is the Greek for _way_,--to take this
way to find out. I would not advise it, of course, if it was wrong,
and it is the best thing you could do, indeed."
Verty strongly combated this plan, but was met at every turn, by Miss
Sallianna, with ready logic; and the result, as is almost always the
case when men have the temerity to argue with ladies, was a total
defeat. Verty was convinced, or _talked obtuse_ upon the subject, and
with many misgivings, acquiesced in Miss Sallianna's plan.
That lady then went on in a sly and careful manner--possibly
_diplomatic_ would be the polite word--to suggest herself as the most
proper object of Verty's experiment. He might make love to her if he
wished--she would not be offended. He might even kiss her hand, and
kneel to her, and perform any other gallant ceremony he fancied--she
would make allowances, and not become angry if he even proceeded so
far as to write her billet-doux, and ask her hand in a matrimonial
point of view. Miss Sallianna wound up by saying, that it would be an
affair of rare and opprobrious interest; and, as a comedy, would be
positively deleterious, which was probably a _lapsus linguae_ for
"delicious."
So when Verty rose to take his departure, he was a captive to Miss
Sallianna's bow and spear; or more accurately, to her fan and tongue:
and had promised to come on the very next day, after school hours, and
commence the amusing trial of Reddy's affections. The lady tapped him
with her fan, smiled languidly, and rolled up her eyes--Verty bowed,
and took his leave of her.
He mounted Cloud, and calling Longears, took his way sadly toward
town. Could he not look back and see those tender eyes following him
from the lattice of Redbud's room--and blessing him?