AT THE LOCK-HOUSE.
Miss Pew had argued rightly that the process of packing would not be a
long one with Ida Palliser. The girl had come to Mauleverer with the
smallest number of garments compatible with decency; and her stock had
been but tardily and scantily replenished during her residence in that
manorial abode. It was to her credit that she had contrived still to be
clean, still to be neat, under such adverse conditions; it was Nature's
royal gift that she had looked grandly beautiful in the shabbiest gowns
and mantles ever seen at Mauleverer.
She huddled her poor possessions into her solitary trunk--a battered hair
trunk which had done duty ever since she came as a child from India. She
put a few necessaries into a convenient morocco bag, which the girls in
her class had clubbed their pocket-money to present to her on her last
birthday; and then she washed the traces of angry tears from her face,
put on her hat and jacket, and went downstairs, carrying her bag and
umbrella.
One of the housemaids met her in the hall, a buxom, good-natured country
girl.
'Is it true that you are going to leave us, miss?' she asked.
'What! you all know it already?' exclaimed Ida.
'Everybody is talking about it, miss. The young ladies are all on your
side; but they dare not speak up before Miss Pew.'
'I suppose not. Yes, it is quite true; I am expelled, Eliza; sent out
into the world without a character, because I allowed Mr. Wendover to
walk and talk with the Fräulein and me for half an hour or so in the
river-meadow! Mr. Wendover, my best, my only friend's first cousin.
Rather hard, isn't it?'
Hard? it's shameful,' cried the girl. 'I should like to see old Pew
turning me off for keeping company with my young man. But she daren't do
it. Good servants are hard to get nowadays; or any servants, indeed, for
the paltry wages she gives.'
'And governesses are a drug in the market,' said Ida, bitterly.
'Good-bye, Eliza.'
'Where are you going, miss? Home?'
'Yes; I suppose so.'
The reckless tone, the careless words alarmed the good-hearted housemaid.
'Oh, miss, pray go home, straight home--wherever your home is. You are
too handsome to be going about alone among strangers. It's a wicked
world, miss--wickeder than you know of, perhaps. Have you got money
enough to get you home comfortable?'
'I'll see,' answered Ida, taking out Miss Cobb's fat little purse and
looking into it.
There were two sovereigns and a good deal of silver--a tremendous fortune
for a schoolgirl; but then it was said that Cobb Brothers coined money by
the useful art of brewing.
'Yes; I have plenty of money for my journey,' said Ida.
'Are you certain sure, now, miss?' pleaded the housemaid; 'for if you
ain't, I've got a pound laid by in my drawer ready to put in the Post
Office Savings Bank, and you're as welcome to it as flowers in May, if
you'll take it off me.'
'God bless you, Eliza. If I were in any want of money, I'd gladly borrow
your sovereign; but Miss Cobb has lent me more than I want. Good-bye.'
Ida held out her hand, which the housemaid, after wiping her own paw upon
her apron, clasped affectionately.
'God bless you, Miss Palliser,' she said fervently; 'I shall miss the
sight of your handsome face when I waits at table.'
A minute more and Ida stood in the broad carriage sweep, with her back to
the stately old mansion which had sheltered her so long, and in which,
despite her dependency and her poverty, she had known some light-hearted
hours. Now, where was she to go? and what was she to do with her life?
She stood with the autumn wind blowing about her--the fallen chestnut
leaves drifting to her feet--pondering that question.
Was she or was she not Brian Wendover's affianced wife? How far was she
to trust in him, to lean upon him, in this crucial hour of her life?
There had been so much playfulness in their love-making, his tone had
been for the most part so light and sportive, that now, when she stood,
as it were, face to face with destiny, she hardly knew how to think of
him, whether as a rock that she might lean upon, or as a reed that would
give way at her touch. Rock or reed, womanly instinct told her that it
was not to this fervent admirer she must apply for aid or counsel yet
awhile. Her duty was to go home at once--to get across the Channel, if
possible, as quickly as Miss Pew's letter to her father.
Intent on doing this, she walked along the dusty high road by the river,
in the direction of the railway station. This station was more than two
miles distant, a long, straight walk by the river, and then a mile or so
across fields and by narrow lanes to an arid spot, where some newly-built
houses were arising round a hopeless-looking little loop-line station in
a desert of agricultural land.
She had walked about three-quarters of a mile, when she heard the rapid
dip of oars, as if in pursuit of her, and a familiar voice calling to
her.
It was Brian, who almost lived in his boat, and who had caught sight of
her in the distance, and followed at racing speed.
'What are you doing?' he asked, coming up close to the bank, and standing
up in his boat. 'Where are you going at such a pace? I don't think I ever
saw a woman walk so fast.'
'Was I walking fast?' she asked, unconscious of the impetus which
excitement had given to her movements.
She knew in her heart of hearts that she did not love him--that love--the
passion which she had read of in prose and poetry was still a stranger to
her soul: but just at this moment, galled and stung by Miss Pew's
unkindness, heart-sick at her own absolute desolation, the sound of his
voice was sweet in her ears, the look of the tall slim figure, the
friendly face turned towards her, was pleasant to her eyes. No, he was
not a reed, he was a rock. She felt protected and comforted by his
presence.
'Were you walking fast! Galloping like a three-year-old--_quæ velut
latis equa trima campis_,' quoted Brian. 'Are you running away from
Mauleverer Manor?'
'I am going away,' she answered calmly. 'I have been expelled.'
'Ex--what?' roared Brian.
'I have been expelled--sent away at a minute's notice--for the
impropriety of my conduct in allowing you to talk to me in the
river-meadow.'
Brian had been fastening his boat to a pollard willow as he talked. He
leapt on to the bank, and came close to Ida's side.
'My darling, my dearest love, what a burning shame! What a villainous old
hag that Pew woman must be! Bessie told me she was a Tartar, but this
beats everything. Expelled! Your conduct impeached because you let me
talk to you--I, Bessie's cousin, a man who at the worst has some claim to
be considered a gentleman, while you have the highest claim to be
considered a lady. It is beyond all measure infamous.'
'It was rather hard, was it not?' said Ida quietly.
'Abominable, insufferable! I--well. I'll call upon the lady this
afternoon, and make her acquainted with my sentiments upon the subject.
The wicked old harridan.'
'Please don't,' urged Ida, smiling at his wrath; 'it doesn't give me any
consolation to hear you call her horrid names.'
'Did you tell her that I had asked you to be my wife?'
'I said something to that effect--in self-defence--not from any wish to
commit you: and she told me that a man in your position, who intended to
marry a girl in my position, would act in a very different manner from
the way in which you have acted.'
'Did she? She is a wise judge of human nature--and of a lover's nature,
above all. Well, Ida, dearest, we have only one course open to us, and
that is to give her the lie at once--by our conduct. Deeds, not words,
shall be our argument. You do care for me--just a little--don't you, pet?
just well enough to marry me? All the rest will come after?'
'Whom else have I to care for?' faltered Ida, with downcast eyes and
passionately throbbing heart. 'Who else has ever cared for me?'
'I am answered. So long as I am the only one I will confide all the rest
to Fate. We will be married to-morrow.'
'To-morrow! No, no, no.'
'Yes, yes, yes. What is there to hinder our immediate marriage? And what
can be such a crushing answer to that old Jezebel! We will be married at
the little church where I saw you last Sunday night, looking like St.
Cecilia when you joined in the Psalms. We have been both living in the
same parish for the last fortnight. I will run up to Doctors' Commons
this afternoon, bring back the licence, interview the parson, and have
everything arranged for our being married at ten o'clock to-morrow
morning.'
'No, no, not for the world.'
For some time the girl was firm in her refusal of such a hasty union. She
would not marry her lover except in the face of the world, with the full
consent of his friends and her own. Her duty was to go by the first train
and boat that would convey her to Dieppe, and to place herself in her
father's care.
'Do you think your father would object to our marriage?' asked Brian.
'No, I am sure he would not object,' she answered, smiling within herself
at the question.
As if Captain Palliser, living upon his half-pay, and the occasional
benefactions of a rich kinsman, could by any possibility object to a
match that would make his daughter mistress of Wendover Abbey!
'Then why delay our marriage, in order to formally obtain a consent which
you are sure of beforehand! As for my friends, Bessie's people are the
nearest and dearest, and you know what their feelings are on your
behalf.'
'Bessie likes me as her friend. I don't know how she might like me as her
cousin's wife,' said Ida.
'Then I will settle your doubts by telling you a little secret. Bessie
sent me here to try and win you for my wife. It was her desire as well as
mine.'
More arguments followed, and against the lover's ardent pleading there
was only a vague idea of duty in the girl's mind, somewhat weakened by an
instinctive notion that her father would think her an arrant fool for
delaying so grand a triumph as her marriage with a man of fortune and
position. Had he not often spoken to her wistfully of her beauty, and the
dim hope that her handsome face might some day win her a rich husband?
'It's a poor chance at the best,' he told her. 'The days of the Miss
Gunnings have gone by. The world has grown commercial. Nowadays money
marries money.'
And this chance, which her father had speculated upon despondently as a
remote contingency, was now at her feet. Was she to spurn it, and then go
back to the shabby little villa near Dieppe, and expect to be praised for
her filial duty?
While she wavered, Brian urged every argument which a lover could bring
to aid his suit. To-morrow they might be married, and in the meanwhile
Ida could be safely and comfortably housed with the good woman at the
lock-house. Brian would give up his lodgings to her, and would stay at
the hotel at Chertsey. Ida listened, and hesitated: before her lay the
dry, dusty road, the solitary journey by land and sea, the doubtful
welcome at home. And here by her side stood the wealthy lover, the very
embodiment of protecting power--is not every girl's first lover in her
eyes as Olympian Jove?--eager to take upon himself the burden of her
life, to make her footsteps easy.
'Step into the boat, dearest,' he said; 'I know your heart has decided
for me. You are not afraid to trust me, Ida?'
'Afraid? no,' she answered, frankly, looking at him with heavenly
confidence in her large dark eyes; 'I am only afraid of doing wrong.'
'You can do no wrong with me by your side, your husband to-morrow,
responsible for all the rest of your existence.'
'True, after to-morrow I shall be accountable to no one but you,' she
said, thoughtfully. 'How strange it seems!'
'At the worst, I hope you will find me better than old Pew,' answered
Brian, lightly.
'You are too good--too generous,' she said; 'but I am afraid you are
acting too much from impulse. Have you considered what you are going to
do? have you thought what it is to marry a penniless girl, who can give
you none of the things which the world cares for in exchange for your
devotion?'
'I have thought what it is to marry the woman I fondly love, the
loveliest girl these eyes ever looked upon. Step into my boat, Ida; I
must row you up to the lock, and then start for London by the first train
I can catch. I don't know how early the licence-shop closes.'
She obeyed him, and sank into a seat in the stern of the cockle-shell
craft, exhausted, mentally and physically, by the agitation of the last
two hours, She felt an unspeakable relief in sitting quietly in the boat,
the water rippling gently past, like a lullaby, the rushes and willows
waving in the mild western breeze. Henceforth she had little to do in
life but to be cared for and cherished by an all-powerful lord and
master. Wealth to her mind meant power; and this devoted lover was rich.
Fate had been infinitely kind to her.
It was a lovely October morning, warm and bright as August. The river
banks still seemed to wear their summer green, the blue bright water
reflected the cloudless blue above. The bells were ringing for a
saint's-day service as Brian's boat shot past the water-side village,
with its old square-towered church. All the world had a happy look, as if
it smiled at Ida and her choice.
They moved with an easy motion past the pastoral banks, here and there a
villa garden, here and there a rustic inn, and so beneath Chertsey's
wooded heights to the level fields beyond, and to a spot where the Thames
and the Abbey River made a loop round a verdant little marshy island; and
here was the silvery weir, brawling noisily in its ceaseless fall, and
the lockhouse, where Mr. Wendover had lodgings.
The proprietress of that neat abode had just been letting a boat through
the lock, and stood leaning lazily against the woodwork, tasting the
morning air. She was a comfortable, well-to-do person, who rented a
paddock or two by the towing-path, and owned cows. Her little garden was
gay with late geraniums and many-coloured asters.
'Mrs. Topman, I have brought you a young lady to take care of for the
next twenty-four hours,' said Brian, coolly, as he handed Ida out of the
boat. 'Miss Palliser and I are going to be married to-morrow morning;
and, as her friends all live abroad, I want you to take care of her, in a
nice, motherly way, till she and I are one. You can give her my rooms,
and I can put up at the inn.'
Mrs. Topman curtseyed, and gazed admiringly at Ida.
'I shall be proud to wait upon such a sweet young lady,' she said. 'But
isn't it rather sudden? You told me there was a young lady in the case,
but I never knowed you was going to be married off-hand like this.'
'I never knew it myself till an hour ago, Mrs. Topman, answered Brian,
gaily. 'I knew that I was to be one of the happiest of men some day; but
I did not know bliss was so near me. And now I am off to catch the next
train from Chertsey. Be sure you give Miss Palliser some breakfast; I
don't think she has had a very comfortable one.'
He dashed into the cottage, and came out again five minutes afterwards,
having changed his boating clothes for a costume more appropriate to the
streets of London. He clasped Ida's hand, murmured a loving good-bye, and
then ran with light footsteps along the towing-path, while Ida stood
leaning against the lock door looking dreamily down at the water.
How light-hearted he was! and how easily he took life! This marriage,
which was to her an awful thing, signifying fate and the unknown future,
seemed to him as a mere whim of the hour, a caprice, a fancy. And yet
there could be no doubt of his affection for her. Even if his nature was
somewhat shallow, as she feared it must be, he was at least capable of a
warm and generous attachment. To her in her poverty and her disgrace he
had proved himself nobly loyal.
'I ought to be very grateful to him,' she said to herself; and then in
her schoolgirl phrase she added, 'and he is very nice.'
Mrs. Topman was in the house, tidying and smartening that rustic
sitting-room, which had not been kept too neatly during Mr. Wendover's
occupation. Presently came the clinking of cups and saucers, and anon
Mrs. Topman appeared on the doorstep, and announced that breakfast was
ready.
What a luxurious breakfast it seemed to the schoolgirl after a month of
the Mauleverer bread and scrape! Frizzled bacon, new laid eggs, cream,
marmalade, and a dainty little cottage loaf, all served with exquisite
cleanliness. Ida was too highly strung to do justice to the excellent
fare, but she enjoyed a cup of strong tea, and ate one of the eggs, to
oblige Mrs. Topman, who waited upon her assiduously, palpably panting
with friendly curiosity.
'Do take off your hat, miss,' she urged; 'you must be very tired after
your journey--a long journey, I daresay. Perhaps you would like me to
send a boy with a barrow for your luggage directly after breakfast. I
suppose your trunks are at the station?'
'No; Mr. Wendover will arrange about my trunk by-and-by,' faltered Ida;
and then looking down at her well-worn gray cashmere gown, she thought
that it was hardly a costume in which to be married. Yet how was she to
get her box from Mauleverer Manor without provoking dangerous inquiries?
And even if she had the box its contents would hardly solve the question
of a wedding gown. Her one white gown would be too cold for the season;
her best gown was black. Would Brian feel very much ashamed of her, she
wondered, if she must needs be married in that shabby gray cashmere?
And then it occurred to her that possibly Brian, while procuring the
licence, might have a happy thought about a wedding gown, and buy her one
ready made at a London draper's. He, to whom money was no object, could
so easily get an appropriate costume. It would be only for him to go into
a shop and say, 'I want a neat, pretty travelling dress for a tall, slim
young lady,' and the thing would be packed in a box and put into his cab
in a trice. Everything in life is made so easy for people with ample
means.
It was some time before Mrs. Topman would consent to leave her new
lodger. She was so anxious to be of use to the sweet young lady, and
threw out as many feelers as an octopus in the way of artfully-devised
conjectures and suppositions calculated to extract information. But Miss
Palliser was not communicative.
'You _must_ be tired after your journey. Those railways are so hot and so
dusty,' said Mrs. Topman, with a despairing effort to discover whence her
unexpected guest had come that morning.
'I am rather tired,' admitted Ida; 'I think, if you don't mind, I'll take
a book and lie down on that comfortable sofa for an hour or two.'
'Do miss. You'll find some books of Mr. Wendover's on the cheffonier. But
perhaps you'll be glad to take a little nap. Shall I draw down the blind
and darken the room for you?'
'No, thanks; I like the sunshine.'
Mrs. Topman unwillingly withdrew, and Ida was alone in the sitting-room
which her lover had occupied for the last fortnight.
Much individuality can hardly be expected in a temporary lodging--a mere
caravansary in life's journey; and yet, even in the brief space of a
fortnight, a room takes some colour from the habits and ideas of the
being who has lived in it.
Ida looked round curiously, wondering whether she would discover any
indications of her lover's character in Mrs. Topman's parlour. The room,
despite its open casements, smelt strongly of tobacco. That was a small
thing, for Ida knew that her lover smoked. She had seen him several times
throw away the end of his cigar as he sprang from his boat by the river
meadow. But that array of various pipes and cigar-holders--that cedar
cigar box--that brass tobacco jar on the mantelpiece, hinted at an ardent
devotion to the nymph Nicotina such as is rarely pleasing to woman.
'I am sorry he is so wedded to his pipes,' thought Ida with a faint sigh.
And then she turned to the cheffonier to inspect her lover's stock of
literature.
A man who loves his books never travels without a few old
favourites--Horace or Montaigne, Elia, an odd volume of De Quincey, a
battered Don Juan, a worn-out Faust, a shabby Shelley, or a ponderous
Burton in his threadbare cloth raiment.
But there was not one such book among Mr. Wendover's possessions. His
supply of mental food consisted of a half a dozen shilling magazines, the
two last numbers of _Punch_, and three or four sporting papers. Ida
turned from them with bitter disappointment. She seemed to take the
measure of Brian Wendover's mind in that frivolous collection, and she
was deeply pained at the idea of his shallowness.
'What has he done with himself in the long evenings?' she asked herself.
'Has he done nothing but smoke and read those magazines?'
She took up the _Cornhill_, and found its graver essays uncut. It was the
same with the other magazines. Only the most frivolous articles had been
looked at. Mr. Wendover was evidently anything but a reading man.
'No wonder he does not like the Abbey,' she thought. 'The country must
always seem dull to a man who does not care for books.'
And then she reminded herself remorsefully of his generous affection, his
single-minded devotion to her, and how much gratitude she owed him.
She read all that was worth reading in the magazines, she laughed at all
that was laughable in _Punch,_ and the long, slow day wore on somehow.
Mrs. Topman brought her lunch, and consulted her about dinner.
'You will not dine until Mr. Wendover comes back, I suppose, miss? You
and he can have a nice little dinner together at seven.'
Ida blushed at the mere notion of hobnobbing alone with a gentleman in
that water-side lodging.
'No thanks; this will be my dinner,' she answered quietly. 'Please don't
get anything more for me. No doubt Mr. Wendover will dine at the hotel,
if he has not dined in London. I shall want nothing more except a cup of
tea.'
After luncheon Ida went out and strolled by the river, that river of
which no one ever seems to grow weary. She wandered about the level
meadows, where the last of the wild-flowers were blooming, or she sat on
the bank, watching the ripple of the water, the slow smooth passage of
pleasure-boat or barge, and the day was long but not dreary. It was so
new to her to be idle, to be able to fold her hands and watch the stream,
and not to fear reproof because she had ceased from toil. At Mauleverer,
at this tranquil afternoon hour, while those rooks were sailing so calmly
high above her head--yonder belated butterfly fluttering so happily over
the feathery grasses--all nature so full of rest--they were grinding away
in the hot schoolroom, grinding at the weekly geography lesson, addling
their brains with feeble efforts to repeat by rote dry-as-dust
explanations about the equator and the torrid zone, latitude, longitude,
winds and tides, the height of mountains, the population of towns,
manufactures, creeds; not trying in the least to understand, or caring to
remember; only intent on getting over to-day's trouble and preparing in
some wise to meet the debts of to-morrow.
'Oh, thank God, to have got away from that treadmill,' said Ida, looking
up at the bright blue sky; 'can I ever be sufficiently grateful to
Providence, and to the man whose love has rescued me?'
Her deliverer came strolling across the fields in quest of her presently,
tired and dusty, but delighted to be with her again. He sat down by her
side, and put his arm round her waist for the first time in his life.
'Don't,' he said, as she instinctively recoiled from him; 'you are almost
my own now. I have got the licence, I have seen the parson, and he is
quite charmed at the idea of marrying us to-morrow morning. He had heard
of your little escapade, it seems, and he thinks we are doing quite the
wisest thing possible.'
'He had heard--already!' exclaimed Ida, deeply mortified. 'Has Miss Pew
been calling out my delinquencies from the house-top? Oh, no,--I
understand. Tuesday is Mr. Daly's afternoon for Bible class, and he has
been at the school.'
'Exactly; and Miss Pew unburdened her mind to him.'
'Did he think me a dreadful creature?'
'He thinks you charming, but that I ought to have gone to the hall-door
when I courted you; as I should have done, dearest, only I wanted to be
sure of you first. He was all kindness, and will marry us quietly at nine
o'clock to-morrow, just after Matins, when there will be nobody about to
stare at us; and he has promised to say nothing about our marriage until
we give him leave to make the fact public.'
'I am glad of that,' said Ida, looking at her shabby gown. 'Do you think
it will matter much--will you be very much ashamed of me, if I am married
in this threadbare old cashmere?'
She had a faint hope that he would exclaim, 'My love, I have brought you
a wedding dress from Regent Street; come and see it.' But he only smiled
at her tenderly, and said--
'The gown does not matter a jot; you are lovelier in your shabby frock
than any other bride in satin and pearls. And some of these days you
shall have smart frocks.'
He said it hopefully, but as if it were a remote contingency.
He spoke very much as her impecunious father might have spoken. He, the
master of Wendover Abbey, to whom the possession of things that money
could buy must needs be a dead certainty. But it was evidently a part of
his character to make light of his wealth; assuredly a pleasant
idiosyncrasy.
They dawdled about on the bank for half an hour or so, talking somewhat
listlessly, for Ida was depressed and frightened by the idea of that
fateful event, giving a new colour to all her life to come, which was so
soon to happen. Brian was very kind, very good to her; she wished with
all her heart that she had loved him better; yet it seemed to her that
she did love him--a little. Surely this feeling was love, this keen sense
of obligation, this warm admiration for his generous and loyal conduct.
Yes, this must be love. And why, loving him, should she feel this
profound melancholy at the idea of a marriage which satisfied her
loftiest ambition?
Perhaps the cause of her depression lay in the strangeness of this sudden
union, its semi-clandestine character, her loneliness at a crisis in life
when most girls are surrounded by friends. Often in her reckless talk
with Bessie Wendover she had imagined her marriage. She would marry for
money. Yes, the soap-boiler, the candlestick maker--anybody. It should be
a splendid wedding--a dozen of the prettiest girls at Mauleverer for her
bridesmaids, bells ringing, flowers strewn upon her pathway, carriage and
four, postilions in blue jackets and white favours, all the world and his
wife looking on and wondering at her high fortune. This is how fancy
had painted the picture when Ida discoursed of her future in the
butterfly-room at Mauleverer; Miss Rylance listening and making sarcastic
comments; Bessie in fits of smothered laughter at all the comic touches
in the description; for did not true-hearted Bessie know that the thing
was a joke, and that her noble Ida would never so degrade herself as to
marry for money? And now Ida was going to do this thing, scarcely knowing
why she did it, not at all secure in her own mind of future happiness;
not with unalloyed pride in her conquest, but yielding to her lover
because he was the first who had ever asked her; because he was warm and
true when all else in life seemed cold and false; and because the
alternative--return to the poor home--was so dreary.
The conversation flagged as the lovers walked in the twilight. The sun
was sinking behind the low hedge of yonder level meadow. Far away in
mountainous regions the same orb was setting in rocky amphitheatres,
distant, unapproachable. Here in this level land he seemed to be going
down into a grave behind that furthest hedge.
It was a lovely evening--orange and rosy lights reflected on the glassy
river, willows stirred with a murmurous movement by faintest zephyrs--a
wind no louder than a sigh. Brian proposed that they should go on the
river; his boat was there ready, it was only to step into the light
skiff, and drift lazily with the stream.
They got into the Abbey river, among water-lilies whose flowers had all
died long ago, face downwards. The season of golden flowers, buttercup,
marsh-mallow, was over. The fields were grayish-green, with ruddy tinges
here and there. The year was fading.
Ida sat in dead silence watching the declining light, one listless hand
dipping in the river.
Brian was thoughtful, more thoughtful than she had known him in any
period of their acquaintance.
'Where shall we go for our honeymoon? he asked abruptly, jingling some
loose coins in his pocket.
'Oh, that is for you to decide. I--I know what I should like best,'
faltered Ida.
'What is that?'
'I should like you to take me to Dieppe, where we could see my father,
and explain everything to him.'
'Did you write to him to-day?'
'No; I thought I would tell him nothing till after our marriage. You
might change your mind at the last.'
'Cautious young party,' said Brian, laughing. 'There is no fear of that.
I am too far gone in love for that. For good or ill I am your faithful
slave. Yes, we will go to Dieppe if you like. It is late in the year for
a place of that kind; but what do we care for seasons? Do you think your
father and I will be able to get on?'
'My father is the soul of good nature. He would get on with anyone who
is a gentleman, and I am sure he will like you very much. My stepmother
is--well, she is rather vulgar. But I hope you won't mind that. She is
very warm-hearted.'
'Vulgarians generally are, I believe,' answered Brian lightly. 'At least,
one is always told as much. It is hard that the educated classes should
monopolize all the cold hearts. Vulgar but warm-hearted--misplaces her
aspirates--but affectionate! That is the kind of thing one is told when
Achilles marries a housemaid. Never mind, Ida, dearest, I feel sure I
shall like your father; and for his sake I will try to make myself
agreeable to his wife. And your little brother is perfection. I have
heard enough about him from those dear lips of yours.'
'He is a darling little fellow, and I long to see him again. How I wish
they could all be with me to-morrow!'
'It would make our wedding more domestic, but don't you think it would
vulgarize it a little?' said Brian. 'There is something so sweet to me in
the idea of you and me alone in that little church, with no witnesses but
the clerk and the pew-opener.'
'And God!' said Ida, looking upward.
'Did you ever read the discourses of Colonel Bob Ingersoll?' asked Brian,
smiling at her.
'No; what has that to do with it?'
'He has curious ideas of omnipotence; and I fancy he would say that the
Infinite Being who made every shining star is hardly likely to be on the
look-out for our wedding.'
'He cares for the lilies and the sparrows.'
'That's a gospel notion. Colonel Bob is not exactly a gospel teacher,'
'Then don't you learn of him, Brian,' said Ida, earnestly.