"Tut, tut! fie, fie! what's all this?" he exclaimed, searching
sedulously for his double eyeglass--which all the while he held between
his finger and thumb. "Now, young people, you must not occupy my time
any longer. Harry, see this self-willed little lady into a cab; and you
need not return until the afternoon. If you are in time to find me
before I leave, that will do quite well. Good-bye, Miss Helena."
I did not take his hint, though. Failing to find a cab--perhaps for want
of looking for one--I ventured to walk with my beautiful companion up
Regent Street as far as Oxford Circus.
Through what enchanted ground we passed in that short distance, how
can I ever hope to tell! It was all like a story of fairyland, with
Helena for Queen of Unreality. But it was real enough. Ah! my dear,
you knew your own mind, as I, after years and years of wedded
happiness, can testify.
Next day, Mr. Craven started off to the west of England. He did not tell
me where he was going; indeed, I never knew he had been to see my uncle
until long afterwards.
What he told that gentleman, what he said of me and Helena, of my poor
talents and her beauty, may be gathered from the fact that the old
admiral agreed first to buy me a partnership in some established firm,
and then swore a mighty oath, that if the heiress was, at the end of
twelve months, willing to marry his nephew, he would make him his heir.
"I should like to have you with me, Patterson," said Mr. Craven, when we
were discussing my uncle's proposal, which a few weeks after took me
greatly by surprise; "but, if you remain here, Miss Blake will always
regard you as a clerk. I know of a good opening; trust me to arrange
everything satisfactorily for you."
Whether Miss Blake, even with my altered fortunes, would ever have
become reconciled to the match, is extremely doubtful, had the _beau
monde_ not turned a very decided cold-shoulder to the Irish patriot.
Helena, of course, everyone wanted, but Miss Blake no one wanted; and
the fact was made very patent to that lady.
"They'll be for parting you and me, my dear," said the poor creature one
day, when society had proved more than usually cruel. "If ever I am let
see you after your marriage, I suppose I shall have to creep in at the
area-door, and make believe I am some faithful old nurse wanting to have
a look at my dear child's sweet face."
"No one shall ever separate me from you, dear, silly aunt," said my
charmer, kissing first one of her relative's high cheek-bones, and then
the other.
"We'll have to jog on, two old spinsters together, then, I am thinking,"
replied Miss Blake.
"No," was the answer, very distinctly spoken. "I am going to marry Mr.
Henry Patterson, and he will not ask me to part from my ridiculous,
foolish aunt."
"Patterson! that conceited clerk of William Craven's? Why, he has not
darkened our doors for fifteen months and more."
"Quite true," agreed her niece; "but, nevertheless, I am going to marry
him. I asked him to marry me a year ago."
"You don't mane that, Helena!" said poor Miss Blake. "You should not
talk like an infant in arms."
"We are only waiting for your consent," went on my lady fair.
"Then that you will never have. While I retain my powers of speech
you shall not marry a pauper who has only asked you for the sake of
your money."
"He did not ask me; I asked him," said Helena, mischievously; "and he is
not a beggar. His uncle has bought him a partnership, and is going to
leave him his money; and he will be here himself to-morrow, to tell you
all about his prospects."
At first, Miss Blake refused to see me; but after a time she relented,
and, thankful, perhaps, to have once again anyone over whom she could
tyrannise, treated her niece's future husband--as Helena declared--most
shamefully.
"But you two must learn to agree, for there shall be no quarrelling in
our house," added the pretty autocrat.
"You needn't trouble yourself about that, Helena," said her aunt.
"He'll be just like all the rest. If he's civil to me before marriage,
he won't be after. He will soon find out there is no place in the house,
or, for that matter, in the world, for Susan Blake"; and my enemy, for
the first time in my memory, fairly broke down and began to whimper.
"Miss Blake," I said, "how can I convince you that I never dreamt, never
could dream of asking you and Helena to separate?"
"See that, now, and he calls you Helena already," said the lady,
reproachfully.
"Well, he must begin sometime. And that reminds me the sooner he begins
to call you aunt, the better."
I did not begin to do so then, of that the reader may be quite certain;
but there came a day when the word fell quite naturally from my lips.
For a long period ours was a hollow truce, but, as time passed on, and I
resolutely refused to quarrel with Miss Blake, she gradually ceased
trying to pick quarrels with me.
Our home is very dear to her. All the household management Helena from
the first hour took into her own hands; but in the nursery Miss Blake
reigns supreme.
She has always a grievance, but she is thoroughly happy. She dresses now
like other people, and wears over her gray hair caps of Helena's
selection.
Time has softened some of her prejudices, and age renders her
eccentricities less noticeable; but she is still, after her fashion,
unique, and we feel in our home, as we used to feel in the office--that
we could better spare a better man.
The old house was pulled down, and not a square, but a fine terrace
occupied its site. Munro lives in one of those desirable tenements, and
is growing rich and famous day by day. Mr. Craven has retired from
practice, and taken a place in the country, where he is bored to death
though he professes himself charmed with the quiet.
Helena and I have always been town-dwellers. Though the Uninhabited
House is never mentioned by either of us, she knows I have still a
shuddering horror of lonely places.
My experiences in the Uninhabited House have made me somewhat nervous.
Why, it was only the other night--
"What are you doing, making all that spluttering on your paper?" says an
interrupting voice at this juncture, and, looking up, I see Miss Blake
seated by the window, clothed and in her right mind.
"You had better put by that writing," she proceeds, with the manner of
one having authority, and I am so amazed, when I contrast Miss Blake as
she is, with what she was, that I at once obey!