“AND YOU WILL BE MY WIFE!”
The events contained in the last two chapters Brownie related in
substance to Adrian, as they sat together upon the rock where he had
first discovered who she was the night previous.
“I suppose you know Miss Isabel is engaged to Sir Charles Randal,”
Adrian said, when she had concluded.
“Sir Charles Randal! No!” replied Brownie, growing pale at the
intelligence.
“What! you have been an inmate of their family so long, and not know of
this important circumstance.”
“I saw but very little of the family while I was at their house in
London. I was with Lady Ruxley constantly, and scarcely went out until
we came down to West Malling, which we did a month before the family at
the Hall; and we have not seen much of them since, but live very quietly
and pleasantly at the villa.”
“It is too bad, for Charles really deserves a better fate,” said Adrian,
with a clouded brow.
“By the way,” and Brownie glanced up mischievously, “do you know that
that honor was intended for you?”
“I surmised as much from certain circumstances which came to my
knowledge,” he replied, with a scornful curl of his fine lips. “But,” he
added, a moment after, as he gathered her close in his arms, “she will
find that there was one who could look beneath the surface. My
darling—my darling—my pure little pearl! what is she compared with you?”
“Lady Ruxley will be very much disappointed, Adrian.”
“I presume so; I should be somewhat surprised if she was not. But is
Lady Ruxley of more consequence than some one else whom you know?” the
young man asked, as, placing one finger beneath her chin, he raised the
blushing face so that he could look into the lovely eyes.
“No; oh, no—but——” with a little smile.
“But what, dear?” questioned her lover, tenderly, as he saw the
sensitive lips quivering.
“But, Adrian, I may as well say it first as last—I shrink from the
ordeal which I know must come.”
“What ordeal?” he asked, very gravely.
“I have heard that you are allied to a noble house—that you are some
time to inherit great possessions and a title, though just what that
title is I know not; and I fear that your proud kinsmen will scorn the
idea of a poor, friendless waif like me becoming your wife!”
“Who informed you that I was heir to such ‘great expectations,’” he
asked, with a quiet smile.
“It was spoken of often by Mrs. Coolidge and her daughter.”
“And do you deem yourself unworthy to be my wife on account of your
poverty?”
“No!” and the bright head was lifted proudly now, the lovely eyes glowed
with a fire which told that, despite her lack of wealth and position,
she considered herself the equal of the proudest in the land.
“What then? Suppose you and I were suddenly to change places, would you
deem me to be unworthy to be your husband because I had lost my wealth?”
“No! I should be proud——”
He stopped her lips with tender kisses.
“And I, my darling, should be proud to call you my wife were you the
lowliest-born in all England. But you are not; you are my equal in birth
and station, and it is only an accident which has placed you where any
one is liable to be. A man often misses his expectations, and I am only
plain Adrian Dredmond as yet; surely you are not afraid of me, if you
are of those whom you choose to term my high-born kinsmen.”
Brownie nestled closer to him as she replied, with dignity:
“I am afraid of no one, yet one naturally shrinks from bringing contempt
upon one whom one loves, and you know the ways of the world, Adrian.”
“You never can bring contempt upon me. The world may say what it
pleases—and I warn you it will not dare say very much, and since I am of
age, and capable of choosing my own wife, I think we will call no one
else into the consultation,” he said, decisively.
Brownie laughed at his way of settling the matter.
“You have not answered me yet, darling,” he added, a moment after; “you
have given yourself to me?”
“Yes, Adrian, I am proud to give myself to you.”
“And you will be my wife?” drawing her closer.
“Yes.”
“Whenever I say?”
She lifted her eyes again to read his, but their light dazzled her, and
with her own lashes drooping shyly upon her crimson cheeks, she
murmured:
“Whenever you will, dear.”
“Then, my Brownie, with your permission, I will see Lady Ruxley
immediately, after which I shall wish to introduce you to those
high-born kinsmen of mine.”
“Not to-day, Adrian, please. I cannot bear you to speak to Lady Ruxley
to-day. I have hardly got used to my own happiness yet. Let it rest
until we go back to the villa, and then I will not say you nay,” pleaded
the young girl, earnestly.
Her joy was something so new and sacred that she felt unwilling to
impart the knowledge of it yet to any one.
“Very well, darling, let it be as you wish. That will not be very long
to wait, and meantime I shall call the high and mighty ones into
counsel,” he replied, with a sly laugh, which brought the ever-ready
color into her cheeks again.