a climax is reached.
when edgar berrington discovered the cottage by the sea, and ascertained that miss pritty was within, he gave his name, and was ushered into the snug little room under the name of mr briggington. aileen gave a particularly minute, but irrepressible and quite inaudible scream; mr hazlit sat bolt up in his chair, as if he had seen a ghost; and miss pritty—feeling, somehow, that her diplomacy had not become a brilliant success—shrank within herself, and wished it were to-morrow.
their various expressions, however, were as nothing compared with edgar’s blazing surprise.
“mr hazlit,” he stammered, “pray pardon my sudden intrusion at so unseasonable an hour; but, really, i was not aware that—did you not get my telegram, aunt?”
he turned abruptly to miss pritty.
“why ye–es, but i thought that you—in fact—i could not imagine that—”
“never mind explanations just now,” said mr hazlit, recovering himself, and rising with a bland smile, “you are welcome, mr berrington; no hour is unseasonable for one to whom we owe so much.”
they shook hands and laughed; then edgar shook hands with aileen and blushed, no doubt because she blushed, then he saluted his aunt, and took refuge in being very particular about her receipt of the telegram. this threw miss pritty into a state of unutterable confusion, because of her efforts to tell the truth and conceal the truth at one and the same time. after this they spent a very happy evening together, during the course of which mr hazlit took occasion to ask edgar to accompany him into a little pigeon-hole of a room which, in deference to a few books that dwelt there, was styled the library.
“mr berrington,” he said, sitting down and pointing to a chair, “be seated. i wish to have a little private conversation with you. we are both practical men, and know the importance of thoroughly understanding each other. when i saw you last—now about two years ago—you indicated some disposition to—to regard—in fact to pay your addresses to my daughter. at that time i objected to you on the ground that you were penniless. whether right or wrong in that objection is now a matter of no importance, because it turns out that i was right on other grounds, as i now find that you did not know your own feelings, and did not care for her—”
“did not care for her?” interrupted edgar, in sudden amazement, not unmingled with indignation.
“of course,” continued mr hazlit, with undisturbed calmness, “i mean that you did not care for her sufficiently; that you did not regard her with that unconquerable affection which is usually styled ‘love’, and without which no union can be a happy one. the proof to me that your feeling towards her was evanescent, lies in the fact that you have taken no notice either of her or of me for two years. had you gained my daughter’s affections, this might have caused me deep regret, but as she has seldom mentioned your name since we last saw you, save when i happened to refer to you, i perceive that her heart has been untouched—for which i feel exceedingly thankful, knowing as i do, only too well, that we cannot command our affections.”
mr hazlit paused a moment, and edgar was so thunderstruck by the unexpected nature of his host’s discourse, that he could only stare at him in mute surprise and unbelief in the evidence of his own ears.
“now,” resumed mr hazlit, “as things stand, i shall be very happy indeed that we should return to our old intimacy. i can never forget the debt of obligation we owe to you as our rescuer from worse than death—from slavery among brutalised men, and i shall be very happy indeed that you should make my little cottage by the sea—as aileen loves to style it—your abode whenever business or pleasure call you to this part of the country.”
the merchant extended his hand with a smile of genuine urbanity. the youth took it, mechanically shook it, let it fall, and continued to stare in a manner that made mr hazlit feel quite uneasy. suddenly he recovered, and, looking the latter earnestly in the face, said:—
“mr hazlit, did you not, two years ago, forbid me to enter your dwelling?”
“true, true,” replied the other somewhat disconcerted; “but the events which have occurred since that time warranted your considering that order as cancelled.”
“but you did not say it was cancelled. moreover your first objection still remained, for i was nearly penniless then, although, in the good providence of god, i am comparatively rich now. i therefore resolved to obey your injunctions, sir, and keep away from your house and from your daughter’s distracting influence, until i could return with a few of those pence, which you appear to consider so vitally important.”
“mr berrington,” exclaimed the old gentleman, who was roused by this hit, “you mistake me. my opinions in regard to wealth have been considerably changed of late. but my daughter does not love you, and if you were as rich as croesus, sir, you should not have her hand without her heart.”
mr hazlit said this stoutly, and, just as stoutly, edgar replied:—
“if i were as rich as croesus, sir, i would not accept her hand without her heart; but, mr hazlit, i am richer than croesus!”
“what do you mean, sir?”
“i mean that i am rich in the possession of that which a world’s wealth could not purchase—your daughter’s affections.”
“impossible! mr berrington, your passion urges you to deceive yourself.”
“you will believe what she herself says, i suppose?” asked edgar, plunging his hand into a breast-pocket.
“of course i will.”
“well then, listen,” said the youth, drawing out a small three-cornered note. “a good many months ago, when i found my business to be in a somewhat flourishing condition, i ventured to write to aileen, telling her of my circumstances, of my unalterable love, and expressing a wish that she would write me at least one letter to give me hope that the love, which she, allowed me to understand was in her breast before you forbade our intercourse, still continued. this,” he added, handing the three-cornered note to the old gentleman, “is her reply.”
mr hazlit took the note, and, with a troubled countenance, read:—
“dear mr berrington,—i am not sure that i am right in replying to you without my father’s knowledge, and only prevail on myself to do so because i intend that our correspondence shall go no further, and what i shall say will, i know, be in accordance with his sentiments. my feelings towards you remain unchanged. we cannot command feelings, but i consider the duty i owe to my dear father to be superior to my feelings, and i am resolved to be guided by his expressed wishes as long as i remain under his roof. he has forbidden me to have any intercourse with you: i will therefore obey until he sanctions a change of conduct. even this brief note should not have been written were it not that it would be worse than rude to take no notice of a letter from one who has rendered us such signal service, and whom i shall never forget.—yours sincerely, aileen hazlit.”
the last sentence—“and whom i shall never forget”—had been carefully scribbled out, but edgar had set himself to work, with the care and earnest application of an engineer and a lover, to decipher the words.
“dear child!” exclaimed mr hazlit, in a fit of abstraction, kissing the note; “this accounts for her never mentioning him;” then, recovering himself, and turning abruptly and sternly to edgar, he said:— “how did you dare, sir, to write to her after my express prohibition?”
“well,” replied edgar, “some allowance ought to be made for a lover’s anxiety to know how matters stood, and i fully intended to follow up my letter to her with one to you; but i confess that i did wrong—”
“no, sir, no,” cried mr hazlit, abruptly starting up and grasping edgar’s hand, which he shook violently, “you did not do wrong. you did quite right, sir. i would have done the same myself in similar circumstances.”
so saying, mr hazlit, feeling that he was compromising his dignity, shook edgar’s hand again, and hastened from the room. he met aileen descending the staircase. brushing past her, he went into his bed-room, and shut and locked the door.
much alarmed by such an unwonted display of haste and feeling, aileen ran into the library.
“oh! mr berrington, what is the matter with papa?”
“if you will sit down beside me, aileen,” said edgar, earnestly, tenderly, and firmly, taking her hand, “i will tell you.”
aileen blushed, stammered, attempted to draw back, but was constrained to comply. edgar, on the contrary, was as cool as a cucumber. he had evidently availed himself of his engineering knowledge, and fitted extra weights of at least seven thousand tons to the various safety-valves of his feelings.
“your father,” he began, looking earnestly into the girl’s down-cast face, “is—”
but hold! reader; we must not go on. if you are a boy, you won’t mind what followed; if a girl, you have no right to pry into such matters. we therefore beg leave at this point to shut the lids of our dexter eye, and drop the curtain.
