“I was summoned as a witness. I was obliged to testify.”
Overton said nothing. Then Sir Thomas, taking snuff with his usual
grace, remarked,--
“I listened with attention to one lawbreaker praying for another
lawbreaker. Of course, you know, this meeting of yours is
seditious--and many a man has been stood in the pillory for it.”
“And one Man,” replied Overton, “Jesus Christ, was crucified for it.”
He turned, and with me, took the path back to the tavern. I heard, as
we went on, an altercation behind me, and involuntarily, after we had
gone some distance, I looked back. Lady Arabella was struggling in the
grasp of Sir Thomas Vernon, while Mrs. Whitall looked on, and wrung her
hands. Sir Thomas, however, was no match for Arabella’s young strength.
She broke away from him, and, running after us, caught up, panting and
breathless, with us, as we entered the little grove. And then I saw an
almost exact representation of the scene when Giles Vernon had insanely
and with unmanly groveling and violence pleaded with Arabella for her
love,--so she pleaded with Philip Overton. She held him by the arms,
when he would have thrown her off.
“Philip! Philip!” she cried. “I did it for you! I determined to make
you rich, great, even if you refused my fortune. Sir Thomas can not
live long. Surely, _you_ can not reproach me, if all the world does.
The stupid, stupid world thinks I did it under the influence of Sir
Thomas Vernon; but no, it was not hate for Giles Vernon, it was my love
for you, Philip Overton, that made me appear at the York Assizes.”
“Remember yourself,” said Overton to her sternly. “Others, besides
myself, see your degradation!”
“It is no degradation to love truly, to love as I do. Speak but one
word to me, and I will become a Methodist like yourself. I, too, will
go among the poor, and serve and love them; and I will even love God
for your sake!”
The awful grotesqueness of this, the blasphemy of it, was altogether
unknown to her. She continued wildly,--
“Does not my soul need saving as much as those clods you have been
praying with?”
“You blaspheme!” replied Overton, casting her off.
And, to make the resemblance between her own unwomanly conduct and
the unmanly conduct of Giles Vernon the more singular, she recovered
herself, as he had done, in a single moment of time. She laid her hand
on Overton’s arm, and looked keenly into his eyes. Her glance seemed
to enchain him, and to set her free. She breathed a long sigh, and,
turning, gazed about her, like a person awaking from a nightmare. Then,
with perfect self-possession, she dropped a curtsey to us both, and
said, in her natural, playful manner,--
“Mr. Overton, I see I have been mistaken. I should have tried to
cheat the law by not appearing when I was summoned; or, I should have
testified falsely. And for my indiscreet conduct just now, let me tell
you, for seven years I have been under a spell. It is now broken for
ever. Titania once loved Bottom the weaver; but not always. I bid you
good day, Captain Philip Overton, and you, Mr. Richard Glyn. And I
trust Giles Vernon’s life may be saved, if only to keep you, Captain
Overton, as poor as you deserve to be. For myself, I shall shortly
marry,--perhaps, Sir Thomas Vernon,--then, neither of you will get the
estates. Good morning!”
And she was gone, flying along the field, with a white mantle streaming
after her, and her flight as rapid as the swallows in spring.