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Page 12
'Not a word,' said Miss Le Smyrger. And then nothing more was said upon
the subject.
On that afternoon he went down and received the parson's benediction and
congratulations with a good grace. Patience said very little on the
occasion, and indeed was absent during the greater part of the
interview. The two lovers then walked up to Oxney Colne, and there were
more benedictions and more congratulations. 'All went merry as a
marriage bell', at any rate as far as Patience was concerned. Not a word
had yet fallen from that dear mouth, not a look had yet come over that
handsome face, which tended in any way to mar her bliss. Her first day
of acknowledged love was a day altogether happy, and when she prayed for
him as she knelt beside her bed there was no feeling in her mind that
any fear need disturb her joy.
I will pass over the next three or four days very quickly, merely saying
that Patience did not find them so pleasant as that first day after her
engagement. There was something in her lover's manner--something which
at first she could not define--which by degrees seemed to grate against
her feelings. He was sufficiently affectionate, that being a matter on
which she did not require much demonstration; but joined to his
affection there seemed to be--; she hardly liked to suggest to herself a
harsh word, but could it be possible that he was beginning to think that
she was not good enough for him? And then she asked herself the
question--was she good enough for him? If there were doubt about that,
the match should be broken off, though she tore her own heart out in the
struggle. The truth, however, was this,--that he had begun that teaching
which he had already found to be so necessary. Now, had any one essayed
to teach Patience German or mathematics, with that young lady's free
consent, I believe that she would have been found a meek scholar. But it
was not probable that she would be meek when she found a self-appointed
tutor teaching her manners and conduct without her consent.
So matters went on for four or five days, and on the evening of the
fifth day, Captain Broughton and his aunt drank tea at the parsonage.
Nothing very especial occurred; but as the parson and Miss Le Smyrger
insisted on playing backgammon with devoted perseverance during the
whole evening, Broughton had a good opportunity of saying a word or two
about those changes in his lady-love which a life in London would
require--and some word he said also--some single slight word, as to the
higher station in life to which he would exalt his bride. Patience bore
it--for her father and Miss Le Smyrger were in the room--she bore it
well, speaking no syllable of anger, and enduring, for the moment, the
implied scorn of the old parsonage. Then the evening broke up, and
Captain Broughton walked back to Oxney Colne with his aunt. 'Patty,' her
father said to her before they went to bed, 'he seems to me to be a most
excellent young man.' 'Dear papa,' she answered, kissing him. 'And
terribly deep in love,' said Mr. Woolsworthy. 'Oh, I don't know about
that,' she answered, as she left him with her sweetest smile. But though
she could thus smile at her father's joke, she had already made up her
mind that there was still something to be learned as to her promised
husband before she could place herself altogether in his hands. She
would ask him whether he thought himself liable to injury from this
proposed marriage; and though he should deny any such thought, she would
know from the manner of his denial what his true feelings were.
And he, too, on that night, during his silent walk with Miss Le Smyrger,
had entertained some similar thoughts. 'I fear she is obstinate', he had
said to himself, and then he had half accused her of being sullen also.
'If that be her temper, what a life of misery I have before me!'
'Have you fixed a day yet?' his aunt asked him as they came near to her
house.
'No, not yet; I don't know whether it will suit me to fix it before I
leave.'
'Why, it was but the other day you were in such a hurry.'
'Ah--yes-I have thought more about it since then.'
'I should have imagined that this would depend on what Patty thinks,'
said Miss Le Smyrger, standing up for the privileges of her sex. 'It is
presumed that the gentleman is always ready as soon as the lady will
consent.'
'Yes, in ordinary cases it is so; but when a girl is taken out of her
own sphere--'
'Her own sphere! Let me caution you, Master John, not to talk to Patty
about her own sphere.'
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