"I cannot help it, papa. You know how obedient I have always been to
you; but in this case I really cannot give way."
"Yes, yes, yes, Rhoda! you obey me in a thousand unimportant things, but
now there is something upon which a great deal of our future turns you
refuse."
"I cannot--I never could love Mr Tregenna, papa."
"He is a thorough gentleman, is he not?"
"Yes--oh, yes!"
"And handsome, and well-informed, and clever. A thoroughly polished--
there, quite a ladies' man."
"Ladies' man!" exclaimed Rhoda, in tones of disgust. "Handsome and
well-informed, of course, papa."
"Well then, my dear," said Mr Penwynn, ignoring Rhoda's peculiar look.
"What more do you want?"
"Papa! do you think I want to marry a ladies' man?" said Rhoda,
scornfully.
Mr Penwynn looked at the bright flushed face, and felt as proud as he
did vexed. He was seated at a writing-table, and the blotting-paper
before him bore testimony to his annoyance, for it was covered with the
initials of unpleasant words, which he kept dotting down to relieve his
feelings--a habit in which he indulged sometimes at the office, as Mr
Chynoweth was well aware. He nearly spoiled a new quill pen in dashing
down another letter, and then went on,--
"No, no, of course not, Rhody; but Tregenna is not a silly dandy.
Besides, as I have before told you, he is very useful to me, and an
alliance with him would be most valuable. There, there--you must think
the matter over."
"I cannot, papa. I have told Mr Tregenna plainly that he must not
hope."
"Nonsense, my dear; take time. Let the matter rest awhile. Be friends
with him, and in a few months you will be ready to regret this hasty
decision."
"No, papa," said Rhoda, decidedly. "Mr Tregenna can never be more to
me than an acquaintance."
"You have not heard any thing--any serious--there, any scandal?"
"I, papa? I have heard that he is too attentive--there, it is not
that."
"Then try not to be so foolish, my dear. I am going down to the office,
and I shall see Tregenna again to-day. Let me tell him that he is not
to look upon the matter as finally closed. Poor fellow! I never saw a
man look so dejected. I could not have believed that he would take it
so to heart."
"Papa," said Rhoda, impetuously, "I have promised Mr Tregenna that we
should continue friends. If you lead him to believe that he is to
persevere with his suit, I shall absolutely hate him."
Mr Penwynn turned upon her angrily, but as she stood before him, with
heightened colour and flashing eyes, gazing full in his face, he felt
that she was no weak girl to be subdued by a burst of parental anger,
and forced into a course against which her spirit rebelled. For some
reason or other she evidently felt an intense repugnance to Tregenna,
and, though he would gladly have gained the day, and made the solicitor
his ally, he felt that at present there was not the slightest chance for
such a consummation of his plans. He knew his child's character only
too well, and seeing how hopeless it was at present to persevere, he
made a virtue of necessity and gave way.
"Well, well, my dear," he said, quietly, "God knows that I would not
force on this affair against your prospects of happiness. There,
there," he continued, taking her in his arms, "we must not fall out,
Rhody. I can't afford to have clouds come between us. Wicked tyrant,"
he said, laughing, "and oppressor of the poor as you think me, Rhody, I
want your love, my child, and I must have it."
"Papa, papa!" she cried, clinging to him, "pray forgive me. I could not
love Mr Tregenna. And why should you wish to rob yourself? I have
only enough love for you, dear," she continued, taking his face between
her hands, and kissing him passionately. "If I reproach you sometimes
about the poor people, it is because I am so jealous of my father's good
name, and it cuts me to the heart to think that the people should not
look up to, and venerate him as I do myself."
"Tut-tut-tut! my darling. If I were a saint they would still talk. Am
I not working for you? I want you to be rich, and to stand as high in
the world as I can contrive."
"Yes, yes, I know, dear," she said, with her hand playing about his face
and caressing his grey hair; "but I would rather be poor than lose the
people's respect."
"Well, well, Rhody, my darling," he said, smiling, "we'll be rich and
respectable as well. There, there, I must go. John Tregenna must get
some one else to cure his broken heart. Good-by, my dear, good-by."
"And you are not angry with me, papa?"
"Not a bit, Rhody," he said, kissing her affectionately, and looking at
her with eyes suffused, but full of pride. "Angry? no! God bless you,
my dear! I'm disappointed, but I don't know but what I like you all the
better for your spirit."
He hurried away to hide his weakness, for his love for his child was the
one soft spot in his nature.
"I'm glad, and yet I'm sorry," he said. "Tregenna would have been a
powerful friend, and now what I have to hope is that he will not prove
to be a bitter enemy. I must fight it out, I suppose, just as I have
fought out far worse troubles."
"Any one been, Chynoweth?" he said to his confidential clerk, as he
entered his office.
"Mr Tregenna's waiting to see you, sir."
"Humph! so soon," muttered Mr Penwynn, who was somewhat taken aback;
but he put a good face upon it, entered his private room, and shook
hands with the solicitor, whose eyes were fixed upon him inquiringly.
"Well," he said, "what news?"
"Bad," replied Mr Penwynn, quietly.
"You have had a long talk with her?"
"Yes--a very long talk."
"What does she say?"
"She is immovable." John Tregenna's face grew very dark, and he rose
from his chair to walk excitedly up and down the office.
"Did you--did you ask for time?" he said hoarsely.
"I did indeed, Tregenna."
"Did you tell her that I was your best friend?"
"I did, Tregenna. I pleaded your cause as hard as if it had been my
own; but she is as firm as so much granite. My dear fellow, I am very
sorry, but I am afraid you must give it up."
"It's a lie--a cursed lie!" roared Tregenna, who could not control his
rage and disappointment. "You have been fighting against me all along,
and it is by your orders that she throws me over. I see it all now.
You have been playing a cursed, double-faced, traitorous part, and I was
a fool to trust to your smooth tongue. But mark my words, Penwynn--"
"John Tregenna," said Mr Penwynn, rising and speaking with dignity,
"you are now in a passion, produced by what is, of course, a bitter
disappointment; but pray in what manner have I failed towards you that
you should make such an unfair charge?"
"What have you done?" cried Tregenna, grinding his white teeth. "Did
you not lead me on for your own ends to believe that she would accept
me, and submit me to the humiliation of this second refusal, which I
feel sure now was at your instigation."
"Mr Tregenna," said the banker, quietly, but with anger striving for
the mastery, "will you have the goodness to go now. Some other time
when you are cool I shall be willing to talk to you. We cannot discuss
the matter now, for it would be better that we two should not come to an
open quarrel."
Tregenna snatched up his hat, darted a fierce look at the speaker, and
strode towards the door, passed out, but in the act of banging it after
him he recovered the mastery over his maddened brain.
He came back, closed the door after him softly, threw himself into a
chair, and sat down with his forehead resting upon his hands.
Mr Penwynn stood by the table, with one hand in his breast, watching
him, and for a time there was an impressive silence in the room.
At the end of a few minutes Tregenna drew a long, deep breath, and rose
with his face calm, and a saddened look softening his eyes. He let fall
his hands, rose, and advanced towards Rhoda's father.
"Forgive me, Penwynn," he said, humbly. "Let me apologise for what I
said just now. Forgive me. You cannot tell the agony I suffered, nor
conceive the utter feeling of despair and disappointment, nor the rage
which seemed to force me to speak as I did. It is over," he said, as if
to himself, "over now. But you will forgive me, Penwynn?"
"Yes," said the banker, quietly, "I forgive you, Tregenna."
"My words," continued the latter, "were as false and cruel as they were
undeserved, and I cannot reproach myself enough for my mad folly. Can I
apologise more humbly, Penwynn?" he added, with a sad smile.
"You acknowledge, then, that I did my best for you?" said Mr Penwynn.
"I do," cried Tregenna, eagerly; "and I believe that you acted in all
sincerity. Penwynn, you and I must not quarrel. As to Rhoda--Miss
Penwynn--if I am not to have her love, let me enjoy her friendship and
esteem."
Mr Penwynn looked at the speaker coldly and searchingly for a few
moments, but he could see nothing to indicate that the man before him
was not perfectly sincere, and ready to say and do any thing in
reparation of the past outbreak.
"You don't believe me, Penwynn," cried Tregenna, bitterly. "For
heaven's sake, have a little feeling for a man. Here am I thrown in an
instant from a state of hope that I might realise my fondest wishes into
a state of utter, abject despair. I am not an angel, man, that I can
bear such a disappointment unmoved."
Mr Penwynn still continued his scrutiny.
"It is a bitter--a cruel overthrow," continued Tregenna, "and a few
moments back I feel as if I must have been mad--I was mad. I could have
said and done any thing. Even how I can hardly keep calm. Have some
pity on me."
"My dear Tregenna," said the banker, laying his hand upon the other's
shoulder, "I do indeed sympathise with you in your disappointment, but I
want you to believe that I have been perfectly straightforward and
honourable."
"Yes, yes," cried Tregenna, excitedly, "I do believe it."
"You know what Rhoda--Miss Penwynn--is. I ask you, is she like an
ordinary weak girl?"
"No, you are right. She is not," said Tregenna, mournfully. "If she
were, I should not worship her as I do."
"She has a will of her own," continued the banker, "and she can be very
firm. At your request I tried to soften her determination--asked her
for time, asked her to let you continue your visits as a friend, and
renew your proposal six months hence; but it was in vain, and I know her
too well not to see that if you continue to press your suit you will not
only lose all chance of her intimacy, but excite her dislike."
"Did she say that?" asked Tregenna, with glittering eyes.
"Well, well, not exactly."
"But she said that if I pressed my suit she should dislike me."
"Oh, no!--not so explicit as that. I think not. I--"
"Speak out plainly, Penwynn," said Tregenna, sharply. "Don't play with
me."
"Well, it was something of that sort; but she was greatly excited, for I
had pressed her home."
Tregenna was silent, and turned away his face, which was slightly
convulsed. But he soon mastered his emotion, and at the end of a minute
turned back to face Mr Penwynn.
"It is over now," he said, in a low, hoarse voice. "Forgive me my
anger, Penwynn. It was very hard to bear, but you see now that I was
sincere. You are right--she is very different to other girls. But it
would have been the pride of my life to have won her, and whoever does
win her I shall hate from the very bottom of my heart."
"Upon my word, Tregenna, I believe that your hatred will die in the
bottom of your heart," said the banker, wringing his visitor's hand,
"for it will never be called forth. I don't believe that there is a man
living who can rouse any love in Rhoda's heart save one."
"And who's that?" cried Tregenna, with flashing eyes.
"Your humble servant," said the other, smiling. "She loves me
devotedly--God bless her! And I think that I, too, shall be ready to
hate any one who robs me of the slightest smile or look."
"I shall not be jealous of you, Penwynn," said Tregenna, with a strange
gleam in his eyes. "There, I'll go now and have a walk on the cliff, so
as to get my nerves back in tone. We are friends still?"
"Of course--of course!" said Mr Penwynn, warmly.
"I may call just as usual?"
"Call? My dear Tregenna, if you will take my advice, you will drop in
just as of old, after drawing a line between the events of the past few
days' proceedings and those which are to come. Bury it all, and forget
it as soon as ever you can."
"I will--I will!" cried Tregenna, holding tightly by the banker's hand.
"It will be best. If I am a little strange at first, you must both look
over it."
"Of course! To be sure. Come soon, and let her see that it is all
over."
"I will!" exclaimed Tregenna; and, after shaking hands once more, he
left the room.
"Thank goodness," said Mr Penwynn, with a sigh of relief, "that's over.
I should not have cared to make an enemy of Tregenna."
"Damn him!" cried Tregenna, as soon as he was alone, and he ground his
teeth savagely. "Give her up? Yes, some day, perhaps: a proud,
cold-blooded jilt. Wait a little, my proud beauty, for if I do not some
day have you in the dust at my feet, my name's not John Tregenna."
He strode on rapidly by the track on the cliff side, leaving Wheal
Carnac and the promontory to the left, and making straight for the
unused mine on the path to Gwennas Cove.
He was alone now, as he thought, and, in spite of his self-command, he
began gesticulating fiercely and talking to himself, without noticing
that there was already some one on the track, who drew aside and walked
into the unused engine-house to let him pass, and then stood uneasily
watching him as he went towards Prawle's cottage.
"Forget it, and give her up. Let it all be as a something of the past--
eh, Master Penwynn? Yes, when Rhoda has been mine for some months--wife
or mistress, we'll see which. Not till then."
He went on muttering more and more angrily to himself, and the figure
that watched limped out to follow; but on seeing Tregenna encounter the
rugged old man, Bessie's father, and enter into conversation, he calmly
limped away along the path.
"The old man will take care of her," he muttered; "and I don't believe
that Bess would listen to him even if she won't listen to me. But he's
a bad one--one as wouldn't stop at any thing to have his will, and I
don't know as I'd feel very comfortable if I was him as stood in his
way."