Mrs. Ellmother looked into the parlor. “I told you Mr. Mirabel would
call again,” she announced. “Here he is.”
“Has he asked to see me?”
“He leaves it entirely to you.”
For a moment, and a moment only, Emily was undecided. “Show him in,” she
said.
Mirabel’s embarrassment was visible the moment he entered the room.
For the first time in his life--in the presence of a woman--the
popular preacher was shy. He who had taken hundreds of fair hands with
sympathetic pressure--he who had offered fluent consolation, abroad and
at home, to beauty in distress--was conscious of a rising color, and was
absolutely at a loss for words when Emily received him. And yet, though
he appeared at disadvantage--and, worse still, though he was aware of
it himself--there was nothing contemptible in his look and manner. His
silence and confusion revealed a change in him which inspired respect.
Love had developed this spoiled darling of foolish congregations, this
effeminate pet of drawing-rooms and boudoirs, into the likeness of a
Man--and no woman, in Emily’s position, could have failed to see that it
was love which she herself had inspired.
Equally ill at ease, they both took refuge in the commonplace phrases
suggested by the occasion. These exhausted there was a pause. Mirabel
alluded to Cecilia, as a means of continuing the conversation.
“Have you seen Miss Wyvil?” he inquired.
“She was here last night; and I expect to see her again to-day before
she returns to Monksmoor with her father. Do you go back with them?”
“Yes--if _you_ do.”
“I remain in London.”
“Then I remain in London, too.”
The strong feeling that was in him had forced its way to expression
at last. In happier days--when she had persistently refused to let him
speak to her seriously--she would have been ready with a light-hearted
reply. She was silent now. Mirabel pleaded with her not to misunderstand
him, by an honest confession of his motives which presented him under a
new aspect. The easy plausible man, who had hardly ever seemed to be in
earnest before--meant, seriously meant, what he said now.
“May I try to explain myself?” he asked.
“Certainly, if you wish it.”
“Pray, don’t suppose me capable,” Mirabel said earnestly, “of presuming
to pay you an idle compliment. I cannot think of you, alone and in
trouble, without feeling anxiety which can only be relieved in one
way--I must be near enough to hear of you, day by day. Not by repeating
this visit! Unless you wish it, I will not again cross the threshold
of your door. Mrs. Ellmother will tell me if your mind is more at ease;
Mrs. Ellmother will tell me if there is any new trial of your fortitude.
She needn’t even mention that I have been speaking to her at the
door; and she may be sure, and you may be sure, that I shall ask no
inquisitive questions. I can feel for you in your misfortune, without
wishing to know what that misfortune is. If I can ever be of the
smallest use, think of me as your other servant. Say to Mrs. Ellmother,
‘I want him’--and say no more.”
Where is the woman who could have resisted such devotion as
this--inspired, truly inspired, by herself? Emily’s eyes softened as she
answered him.
“You little know how your kindness touches me,” she said.
“Don’t speak of my kindness until you have put me to the proof,” he
interposed. “Can a friend (such a friend as I am, I mean) be of any
use?”
“Of the greatest use if I could feel justified in trying you.”
“I entreat you to try me!”
“But, Mr. Mirabel, you don’t know what I am thinking of.”
“I don’t want to know.”
“I may be wrong. My friends all say I _am_ wrong.”
“I don’t care what your friends say; I don’t care about any earthly
thing but your tranquillity. Does your dog ask whether you are right or
wrong? I am your dog. I think of You, and I think of nothing else.”
She looked back through the experience of the last few days. Miss
Ladd--Mrs. Ellmother--Doctor Allday: not one of them had felt for her,
not one of them had spoken to her, as this man had felt and had spoken.
She remembered the dreadful sense of solitude and helplessness which
had wrung her heart, in the interval before Mirabel came in. Her father
himself could hardly have been kinder to her than this friend of a few
weeks only. She looked at him through her tears; she could say nothing
that was eloquent, nothing even that was adequate. “You are very good to
me,” was her only acknowledgment of all that he had offered. How poor it
seemed to be! and yet how much it meant!
He rose--saying considerately that he would leave her to recover
herself, and would wait to hear if he was wanted.
“No,” she said; “I must not let you go. In common gratitude I ought
to decide before you leave me, and I do decide to take you into my
confidence.” She hesitated; her color rose a little. “I know how
unselfishly you offer me your help,” she resumed; “I know you speak to
me as a brother might speak to a sister--”
He gently interrupted her. “No,” he said; “I can’t honestly claim to do
that. And--may I venture to remind you?--you know why.”
She started. Her eyes rested on him with a momentary expression of
reproach.
“Is it quite fair,” she asked, “in my situation, to say that?”
“Would it have been quite fair,” he rejoined, “to allow you to deceive
yourself? Should I deserve to be taken into your confidence, if I
encouraged you to trust me, under false pretenses? Not a word more of
those hopes on which the happiness of my life depends shall pass my
lips, unless you permit it. In my devotion to your interests, I promise
to forget myself. My motives may be misinterpreted; my position may be
misunderstood. Ignorant people may take me for that other happier man,
who is an object of interest to you--”
“Stop, Mr. Mirabel! The person to whom you refer has no such claim on me
as you suppose.”
“Dare I say how happy I am to hear it? Will you forgive me?”
“I will forgive you if you say no more.”
Their eyes met. Completely overcome by the new hope that she had
inspired, Mirabel was unable to answer her. His sensitive nerves
trembled under emotion, like the nerves of a woman; his delicate
complexion faded away slowly into whiteness. Emily was alarmed--he
seemed to be on the point of fainting. She ran to the window to open it
more widely.
“Pray don’t trouble yourself,” he said, “I am easily agitated by any
sudden sensation--and I am a little overcome at this moment by my own
happiness.”
“Let me give you a glass of wine.”
“Thank you--I don’t need it indeed.”
“You really feel better?”
“I feel quite well again--and eager to hear how I can serve you.”
“It’s a long story, Mr. Mirabel--and a dreadful story.”
“Dreadful?”
“Yes! Let me tell you first how you can serve me. I am in search of
a man who has done me the cruelest wrong that one human creature can
inflict on another. But the chances are all against me--I am only
a woman; and I don’t know how to take even the first step toward
discovery.”
“You will know, when I guide you.”
He reminded her tenderly of what she might expect from him, and was
rewarded by a grateful look. Seeing nothing, suspecting nothing, they
advanced together nearer and nearer to the end.
“Once or twice,” Emily continued, “I spoke to you of my poor father,
when we were at Monksmoor--and I must speak of him again. You could have
no interest in inquiring about a stranger--and you cannot have heard how
he died.”
“Pardon me, I heard from Mr. Wyvil how he died.”
“You heard what I had told Mr. Wyvil,” Emily said: “I was wrong.”
“Wrong!” Mirabel exclaimed, in a tone of courteous surprise. “Was it not
a sudden death?”
“It _was_ a sudden death.”
“Caused by disease of the heart?”
“Caused by no disease. I have been deceived about my father’s death--and
I have only discovered it a few days since.”
At the impending moment of the frightful shock which she was innocently
about to inflict on him, she stopped--doubtful whether it would be best
to relate how the discovery had been made, or to pass at once to the
result. Mirabel supposed that she had paused to control her agitation.
He was so immeasurably far away from the faintest suspicion of what was
coming that he exerted his ingenuity, in the hope of sparing her.
“I can anticipate the rest,” he said. “Your sad loss has been caused by
some fatal accident. Let us change the subject; tell me more of that man
whom I must help you to find. It will only distress you to dwell on your
father’s death.”
“Distress me?” she repeated. “His death maddens me!”
“Oh, don’t say that!”
“Hear me! hear me! My father died murdered, at Zeeland--and the man you
must help me to find is the wretch who killed him.”
She started to her feet with a cry of terror. Mirabel dropped from his
chair senseless to the floor.