IN WHICH THE RECTOR COMES HOME, AND LILY SPEAKS HER MIND, AND TIME
GLIDES ON, AND AUNT REBECCA CALLS AT THE ELMS.
Next morning, punctual at the early breakfast-hour of those days, the
cheery voice of the old rector was heard at the garden rails that
fronted the house, and out ran Tom Clinton, from the stable-yard, and
bid his 'raverence,' with homely phrase, and with a pleasant grin,
'welcome home,' and held his bridle and stirrup, while the parson, with
a kind smile, and half a dozen enquiries, and the air of a man who,
having made a long journey and a distant sojourn, expands on beholding
old faces and the sights of home again; he had been away, to be sure,
only one night and a part of a day, but his heart clave to his home and
his darling; and Lilias ran to the garden gate to meet him, with her old
smile and greeting, it seemed fonder and more tender than ever, and then
they kissed and hugged and kissed again, and he patted her cheek and
thought she looked a little pale, but would not say anything just then
that was not altogether cheerful; and so they stepped up the two or
three yards of gravel walk--she at his right side, with her right hand
in his and her left clinging by his arm, and nestling close by his side,
and leading him up to the house like a beloved captive.
And so at breakfast he narrated all his adventures, and told who were at
the dinner party, and described two fine ladies' dresses--for the doctor
had skill in millinery, though it was as little known as Don Quixote's
talent for making bird-cages and tooth-picks, confided, as we remember,
in one of his conversations with honest Sancho, under the cork trees. He
told her his whole innocent little budget of gossip, in his own simple,
pleasant way; and his little Lily sat looking on her beloved old man,
and smiling, but saying little, and her eyes often filling with tears;
and he looked, when he chanced to see it--wistfully and sadly for an
instant, but he made no remark.
And sometime after, as she happened to pass the study-door, he called
her--'Little Lily, come here.' And in she came; and there was the
doctor, all alone and erect before his bookshelves, plucking down a
volume here, and putting up one there, and--
'Shut the door, little Lily,' said he gently and cheerily, going on with
his work. 'I had a letter yesterday evening, my darling, from Captain
Devereux, and he tells me that he's very much attached to you; and I
don't wonder at his being in love with little Lily--he could not help
it.' And he laughed fondly, and was taking down a volume that rather
stuck in its place, so he could not turn to look at her; for, the truth
was, he supposed she was blushing, and could not bear to add to her
confusion; and he, though he continued his homely work, and clapped the
sides of his books together, and blew on their tops, and went so simply
and plainly to the point, was flushed and very nervous himself; for,
though he thought of her marriage at some time or another as a thing
that was to be, still it had seemed a long way off. And now, now it was
come, and little Lily was actually going to be married--going away--and
her place would know her no more; and her greeting and her music would
be missed in the evening, and the garden lonely, and the Elms dark,
without Lily.
'And he wants to marry my little Lily, if she'll have him. And what does
my darling wish me to say to him?' and he spoke very cheerily.
'My darling, _you're_ my darling; and your little Lily will never, never
leave you. She'll stay.' And here the little speech stopped, for she was
crying, with her arms about his neck; and the old man cried, too, and
smiled over her, and patted her gracious head, with a little trembling
laugh, and said, 'God bless you, my treasure.'
'Well, little Lily, will you have him?' he said, after a little pause.
'No, my darling, no!' she answered, still crying.
'You _won't_ have him?'
'No--no--never!'
'Well, little Lily, I won't answer his letter to-day; there's no hurry,
you know. And, if you are of the same mind to-morrow, you can just say
you wish me to write.'
'Change, I can't; my answer will always be the same--always the same.'
And she kissed him again, and went toward the door; but she turned back,
drying her eyes, with a smile, and said--
'No, your little Lily will stay with her darling old man, and be a
pleasant old maid, like Aunt Becky: and I'll play and sing your
favourite airs, and Sally and I will keep the house; and we'll be
happier in the Elms, I'm determined, than ever we were--and won't you
call me, darling, when you're going out?'
So little Lily ran away, and up stairs; and as she left the study and
its beloved tenant, at every step the air seemed to darken round her,
and her heart to sink. And she turned the key in her door, and threw
herself on the bed; and, with her face to the pillow, cried as if her
heart would break.
So the summer had mellowed into autumn, and the fall of the leaf, and
Devereux did not return; and, it was alleged in the club, on good
authority, that he was appointed on the staff of the Commander of the
Forces; and Puddock had a letter from him, dated in England, with little
or no news in it; and Dr. Walsingham had a long epistle from Malaga,
from honest Dan Loftus, full of Spanish matter for Irish history, and
stating, with many regrets, that his honourable pupil had taken ill of a
fever. And this bit of news speedily took wind, and was discussed with a
good deal of interest, and some fun, at the club; and the odds were
freely given and taken upon the event.
The politics of Belmont were still pretty much in the old position. The
general had not yet returned, and Aunt Rebecca and Gertrude fought
pitched battles, as heretofore, on the subject of Dangerfield. That
gentleman had carried so many points in his life by simply waiting, that
he was nothing daunted by the obstacles which the caprice of the young
lady presented to the immediate accomplishment of his plans. And those
which he once deliberately formed, were never abandoned for trifles.
So when Aunt Becky and Miss Gertrude at length agreed on an
armistice--the conditions being that the question of Mr. Dangerfield's
bliss or misery was to stand over for judgment until the general's
return, which could not now be deferred more than two or three
weeks--the amorous swain, on being apprised of the terms by Aunt
Rebecca, acquiesced with alacrity, in a handsome, neat, and gallant
little speech, and kissed Aunt Rebecca's slender and jewelled hand, with
a low bow and a grim smile, all which she received very graciously.
Of course, Dangerfield knew pretty well how matters stood; he was not a
man to live in a dream; facts were his daily bread. He knew to a month
how old he was, and pretty exactly how time had dealt with his personal
charms. He had a very exact and cynical appreciation of the terms on
which Miss Chattesworth would--if at all--become and continue to be his
wife. But he wanted her--she suited him exactly, and all he needed to
make his kingdom sure, when he had obtained her, was his legal rights.
He was no Petruchio; neither was it his theory to rule by love. He had a
different way. Without bluster, and without wheedling, he had the art of
making those who were under his rule perfectly submissive; sooner or
later they all came to fear him as a child does a spectre. He had no
misgivings about the peace of his household.
In the meantime Gertrude grew happier and more like herself, and Aunt
Rebecca had her own theories about the real state of that young lady's
affections, and her generally unsuspected relations with others.
Aunt Rebecca called at the Elms to see Lilias Walsingham, and sat down
beside her on the sofa.
'Lily, child, you're not looking yourself. I'll send you some drops. You
must positively nurse yourself. I'm almost sorry I did not bring Dr.
Toole.'
'Indeed I'm glad you did not, Aunt Becky; I take excellent care of
myself. I have not been out for three whole days.'
'And you must not budge, darling, while this east wind continues. D'ye
mind? And what do you think, my dear, I do believe I've discovered the
secret reason of Gertrude's repugnance to Mr. Dangerfield's most
advantageous offer.'
'Oh, indeed!' said Lily, becoming interested.
'Well, I suppose you suspected she _had_ a secret?' said Aunt Rebecca.
'I can only say, dear Aunt Becky, she has not told it to _me_.'
'Now, listen to me, my dear,' said Aunt Becky, laying her fan upon
Lily's arm. 'So sure as you sit there, Gertrude likes somebody, and I
think I shall soon know who he is. Can you conjecture, my dear?' And
Aunt Rebecca paused, looking, Lilias thought, rather pale, and with a
kind of smile too.
'No,' said Lilias; 'no, I really can't.'
'Well, maybe when I tell you I've reason to think he's one of our
officers here. Eh? Can you guess?' said Aunt Becky, holding her fan to
her mouth, and looking straight before her.
It was now Lily's turn to look pale for a moment, and then to blush so
much that her ears tingled, and her eyes dropped to the carpet. She had
time to recover, though, for Aunt Becky, as I've said, was looking
straight before her, a little pale, awaiting the result of Lily's
presumed ruminations. A moment satisfied her it could not be Devereux,
and she was soon quite herself again.
'An officer! no, Aunt Becky--there certainly is Captain Cluffe, who
always joins your party when you and Gertrude go down to hear the band,
and Lieutenant Puddock, too, who does the same--but you know--'
'Well, my dear, all in good time. Gertrude's very secret, and proud too;
but I shall know very soon. I've ascertained, my dear, that an officer
came under the window the other evening, and sang a verse of a French
chanson, from the meadow, in a cloak, if you please, with a guitar. I
could name his name, my dear--'
'Do pray tell me,' said Lily, whose curiosity was all alive.
'Why--a--not yet, my dear,' answered Aunt Becky, looking down; 'there
are--there's a reason--but the affair, I may tell you, began, in
earnest, on the very day on which she refused Mr. Mervyn. But I forgot
you did not know _that_ either--however, you'll never mention it.' And
she kissed her cheek, calling her 'my wise little Lily.'
'And my dear, it has been going on so regularly ever since, with, till
very lately, so little disguise, that I only wonder everybody doesn't
see it as plain as I do myself; and Lily, my dear,' continued Aunt
Rebecca, energetically, rising from the sofa, as some object caught her
eye through the glass-door in the garden, 'your beautiful roses are all
trailing in the mud. What on earth is Hogan about? and there, see, just
at the door, a boxful of nails!--I'd nail his ear to the wall if he were
mine,' and Aunt Rebecca glanced sharply through the glass, this way and
that, for the offending gardener, who, happily, did not appear. Then
off went Aunt Becky to something else; and in a little time remembered
the famous academy in Martin's-row, and looking at her watch, took her
leave in a prodigious hurry, and followed by Dominick, in full livery,
and two dogs, left Lilias again to the society of her own sad thoughts.