|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 13
'Aunt Penelope, as Patience is to be my wife and not yours, I must claim
permission to speak to her on such subjects as may seem suitable to me.'
And then they parted--not in the best humour with each other.
On the following day Captain Broughton and Miss Woolsworthy did not meet
till the evening. She had said, before those few ill-omened words had
passed her lover's lips, that she would probably be at Miss Le
Smyrger's house on the following morning. Those ill-omened words did
pass her lover's lips, and then she remained at home. This did not come
from sullenness, nor even from anger, but from a conviction that it
would be well that she should think much before she met him again. Nor
was he anxious to hurry a meeting. His thought--his base thought--was
this; that she would be sure to come up to the Colne after him; but she
did not come, and therefore in the evening he went down to her, and
asked her to walk with him.
They went away by the path that led by Helpholme, and little was said
between them till they had walked some mile together. Patience, as she
went along the path, remembered almost to the letter the sweet words
which had greeted her ears as she came down that way with him on the
night of his arrival; but he remembered nothing of that sweetness then.
Had he not made an ass of himself during these last six months? That was
the thought which very much had possession of his mind.
'Patience,' he said at last, having hitherto spoken only an indifferent
word now and again since they had left the parsonage, 'Patience, I hope
you realize the importance of the step which you and I are about to
take?'
'Of course I do,' she answered: 'what an odd question that is for you to
ask!'
'Because,' said he, 'sometimes I almost doubt it. It seems to me as
though you thought you could remove yourself from here to your new home
with no more trouble than when you go from home up to the Colne.'
'Is that meant for a reproach, John?'
'No, not for a reproach, but for advice. Certainly not for a reproach.'
'I am glad of that.'
'But I should wish to make you think how great is the leap in the world
which you are about to take.' Then again they walked on for many steps
before she answered him.
'Tell me, then, John,' she said, when she had sufficiently considered
what words she would speak;--and as she spoke a dark bright colour
suffused her face, and her eyes flashed almost with anger. 'What leap do
you mean? Do you mean a leap upwards?'
'Well, yes; I hope it will be so.'
'In one sense, certainly, it would be a leap upwards. To be the wife of
the man I loved; to have the privilege of holding his happiness in my
hand; to know that I was his own--the companion whom he had chosen out
of all the world--that would, indeed, be a leap upward; a leap almost to
heaven, if all that were so. But if you mean upwards in any other
sense--'
'I was thinking of the social scale.'
'Then, Captain Broughton, your thoughts were doing me dishonour.'
'Doing you dishonour!'
'Yes, doing me dishonour. That your father is, in the world's esteem, a
greater man than mine is doubtless true enough. That you, as a man, are
richer than I am as a woman is doubtless also true. But you dishonour
me, and yourself also, if these things can weigh with you now.'
'Patience,--I think you can hardly know what words you are saying to
me.'
'Pardon me, but I think I do. Nothing that you can give me--no gifts of
that description--can weigh aught against that which I am giving you. If
you had all the wealth and rank of the greatest lord in the land, it
would count as nothing in such a scale. If--as I have not doubted--if in
return for my heart you have given me yours, then--then--then, you have
paid me fully. But when gifts such as those are going, nothing else can
count even as a make-weight.'
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|