John Halifax, Gentleman Part 94

I pointed to her accustomed chair.

"No, I can't sit down. I must say good-night." Then, coming at once to the point--"Phineas, you are always up first in the morning. Will you--John thinks it had better be you--will you give a message from us to--Maud's governess?"

"Yes. What shall I say?"

"Merely, that we request she will not leave Beechwood until we have seen her."

If Miss Silver had overheard the manner and tone of that "request," I doubt if it would not have hastened rather than delayed her departure.

But, G.o.d help the poor mother! her wounds were still fresh.

"Would it not be better," I suggested, "if you were to write to her?"

"I can't; no, I can't,"--spoken with the sharpness of exceeding pain.

Soon after, as in faint apology, she added, "I am so tired; we are very late to-night."

"Yes; it is almost morning. I thought you were both in bed."

"No; we have been sitting talking in Guy's room. His father thought it would be better."

"And is all settled?"

"Yes."

Having told me this, and having as it were by such a conclusion confessed it was right the question should be thus "settled," Guy's mother seemed more herself.

"Yes," she repeated; "John thinks it ought to be. At least, that she should know Guy's--the feeling with which Guy regards her. If, after the probation of a year, it still remains, and he is content to begin life on a small income, we have given our consent to our son's marriage."

It struck me how the mother's mind entirely dwelt on the one party in this matter--"Guy's feelings"--"Our son's marriage"--and so on. The other side of the question, or the possibility of any hindrance there, never seemed to enter her imagination. Perhaps it would not, even into mine, for I shared the family faith in its best-beloved Guy; but for Mrs. Halifax's so entirely ignoring the idea that any consent except her son's and his parents' was necessary to this marriage.

"It will not part him from us so very much, you see, Phineas," she said, evidently trying to view the bright side--"and she has no relatives living--not one. For income--Guy will have the entire profit of the Norton Bury mills; and they might begin, as we did, in the old Norton Bury house--the dear old house."

The thought of her own young days seemed to come, soothingly and sweet, taking the sting out of her pain, showing her how it was but right and justice that Nature's holy law should be fulfilled--that children, in their turn, should love, and marry, and be happy, like their parents.

"Yes," she answered, as I gently hinted this; "I know you are right; all is quite right, and as it should be, though it was a shock at first. No matter: John esteems her--John likes her. For me--oh, I shall make a capital--what is it?--a capital MOTHER-IN-LAW--in time!"

With that smile, which was almost cheerful, she bade me good-night--rather hastily, perhaps, as if she wished to leave me while her cheerfulness lasted. Then I heard her step along the pa.s.sage, pausing once--most likely at Guy's room door; her own closed, and the house was in silence.

I rose early in the morning;--not one whit too early, for I met Miss Silver in the hall, bonneted and shawled, carrying down with her own hands a portion of her chattels. She evidently contemplated an immediate departure. It was with the greatest difficulty that, without betraying my reasons, which, of course, was impossible, I could persuade her to change her determination.

Poor girl! last night's events had apparently shaken her from that indifference which she seemed to think the best armour of a helpless, proud governess against the world. She would scarcely listen to a word. She was in extreme agitation; half-a-dozen times she insisted on leaving, and then sat down again.

I had not given her credit for so much wholesome irresolution--so much genuine feeling. Her manner almost convinced me of a fact which every one else seemed to hold as certain, but which I myself should have liked to see proved; namely, that Guy, in asking her love, would have--what in every right and happy marriage a man ought to have--the knowledge that the love was his before he asked for it.

Seeing this, my heart warmed to the girl. I respected her brave departure--I rejoiced that it was needless. Willingly I would have quieted her distress with some hopeful, ambiguous word, but that would have been trenching, as no one ever ought to trench, on the lover's sole right. So I held my tongue, watching with an amused pleasure the colour hovering to and fro over that usually impa.s.sive face. At last, at the opening of the study-door--we stood in the hall still--those blushes rose up to her forehead in one involuntary tide.

But it was only Edwin, who had lately taken to a habit of getting up very early,--to study mathematics. He looked surprised at seeing me with Miss Silver.

"What is that box? She is not going?"

"No; I have been entreating her not. Add your persuasions, Edwin."

For Edwin, with all his quietness, was a lad of much wisdom, great influence, and no little penetration. I felt inclined to believe that though as yet he had not been let into the secret of last night, he guessed it pretty well already.

He might have done, by the peculiar manner in which he went up to the governess and took her hand.

"Pray stay; I beg of you."

She made no more ado, but stayed.

I left her with Edwin, and took my usual morning walk, up and down the garden, till breakfast-time.

A strange and painful breakfast it was, even though the most important element in its painfulness, Guy, was happily absent. The rest of us kept up a fragmentary, awkward conversation, every one round the table looking as indeed one might have expected they would look--with one exception.

Miss Silver, who, from her behaviour last night, and her demeanour to me this morning, I had supposed would now have gathered up all her haughtiness to resist Guy's parents--as, ignorant both of his feelings and their intentions towards her, a young lady of her proud spirit might well resist--was, to my astonishment, as mild and meek as this soft spring morning. Nay, like it, seemed often on the very verge of the melting mood. More than once her drooping eyelashes were gemmed with tears. And when, the breakfast-table being quickly deserted--Edwin, indeed, had left it almost immediately--she, sitting absently in her place, was gently touched by Mrs. Halifax, she started up, with the same vivid rush of colour that I had before noticed. It completely altered the expression of her face; made her look ten years younger--ten years happier, and, being happier, ten times more amiable.

This expression--I was not the only one to notice it--was, by some intuition, reflected on the mother's. It made softer than any speech of hers to Miss Silver--the few words--

"My dear, will you come with me into the study?"

"To lessons? Yes. I beg your pardon! Maud--where is Maud?"

"Never mind lessons just yet. We will have a little chat with my son.

Uncle Phineas, you'll come? Will you come, too, my dear?"

"If you wish it." And with an air of unwonted obedience, she followed Mrs. Halifax.

Poor Guy!--confused young lover!--meeting for the first time after his confession the acknowledged object of his preference--I really felt sorry for him! And, except that women have generally twice as much self-control in such cases as men--and Miss Silver proved it--I might even have been sorry for her. But then her uncertainties would soon be over. She had not to make--all her family being aware she was then and there making it--that terrible "offer of marriage," which, I am given to understand, is, even under the most favourable circ.u.mstances, as formidable as going up to the cannon's mouth.

I speak of it jestingly, as we all jested uneasily that morning, save Mrs. Halifax, who scarcely spoke a word. At length, when Miss Silver, growing painfully restless, again referred to "lessons," she said:

"Not yet. I want Maud for half an hour. Will you be so kind as to take my place, and sit with my son the while?"

"Oh, certainly!"

I was vexed with her--really vexed--for that ready a.s.sent; but then, who knows the ins and outs of women's ways? At any rate, for Guy's sake this must be got over--the quicker the better. His mother rose.

"My son, my dear boy!" She leant over him, whispering--I think she kissed him--then slowly, quietly, she walked out of the study. I followed. Outside the door we parted, and I heard her go up-stairs to her own room.

It might have been half an hour afterwards, when Maud and I, coming in from the garden, met her standing in the hall. No one was with her, and she was doing nothing; two very remarkable facts in the daily life of the mother of the family.

Maud ran up to her with some primroses.

"Very pretty, very pretty, my child."

"But you don't look at them--you don't care for them--I'll go and show them to Miss Silver."

"No," was the hasty answer. "Come back, Maud--Miss Silver is occupied."

Making some excuse, I sent the child away, for I saw that even Maud's presence was intolerable to her mother. That poor mother, whose suspense was growing into positive agony.