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Page 14
'I do not quite understand you,' he answered, after a pause. 'I fear you
are a little high-flown.' And then, while the evening was still early,
they walked back to the parsonage almost without another word.
Captain Broughton at this time had only one more full day to remain at
Oxney Colne. On the afternoon following that he was to go as far as
Exeter, and thence return to London. Of course it was to be expected,
that the wedding day would be fixed before he went, and much had been
said about it during the first day or two of his engagement. Then he had
pressed for an early time, and Patience, with a girl's usual diffidence,
had asked for some little delay. But now nothing was said on the
subject; and how was it probable that such a matter could be settled
after such a conversation as that which I have related? That evening,
Miss Le Smyrger asked whether the day had been fixed. 'No,' said Captain
Broughton harshly; 'nothing has been fixed.' 'But it will be arranged
before you go.' 'Probably not,' he said; and then the subject was
dropped for the time.
'John,' she said, just before she went to bed, 'if there be anything
wrong between you and Patience, I conjure you to tell me.'
'You had better ask her,' he replied. 'I can tell you nothing.'
On the following morning he was much surprised by seeing Patience on the
gravel path before Miss Le Smyrger's gate immediately after breakfast.
He went to the door to open it for her, and she, as she gave him her
hand, told him that she came up to speak to him. There was no hesitation
in her manner, nor any look of anger in her face. But there was in her
gait and form, in her voice and countenance, a fixedness of purpose
which he had never seen before, or at any rate had never acknowledged.
'Certainly,' said he. 'Shall I come out with you, or will you come
upstairs?'
'We can sit down in the summer-house,' she said; and thither they both
went.
'Captain Broughton,' she said--and she began her task the moment that
they were both seated--'You and I have engaged ourselves as man and
wife, but perhaps we have been over rash.'
'How so?' said he.
'It may be--and indeed I will say more--it is the case that we have made
this engagement without knowing enough of each other's character.'
'I have not thought so.'
'The time will perhaps come when you will so think, but for the sake of
all that we most value, let it come before it is too late. What would be
our fate--how terrible would be our misery, if such a thought should
come to either of us after we have linked our lots together.'
There was a solemnity about her as she thus spoke which almost repressed
him,--which for a time did prevent him from taking that tone of
authority which on such a subject he would choose to adopt. But he
recovered himself. 'I hardly think that this comes well from you,' he
said.
'From whom else should it come? Who else can fight my battle for me;
and, John, who else can fight that same battle on your behalf? I tell
you this, that with your mind standing towards me as it does stand at
present you could not give me your hand at the altar with true words and
a happy conscience. Is it not true? You have half repented of your
bargain already. Is it not so?'
He did not answer her; but getting up from his seat walked to the front
of the summer-house, and stood there with his back turned upon her. It
was not that he meant to be ungracious, but in truth he did not know how
to answer her. He had half repented of his bargain.
'John,' she said, getting up and following him so that she could put her
hand upon his arm, 'I have been very angry with you.'
'Angry with me!' he said, turning sharp upon her.
'Yes, angry with you. You would have treated me like a child. But that
feeling has gone now. I am not angry now. There is my hand;--the hand of
a friend. Let the words that have been spoken between us be as though
they had not been spoken. Let us both be free.'
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