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Page 37
They were silent a moment, then Sandal turned and looked westward. "It
is mizzling already, Charlotte; the snow will turn into rain, and we
shall have a downpour. Had we not better go home?"
But Charlotte painted in such glowing colors Ducie's fireside, and the
pipe, and the cosey, quiet dinner they would be sure to get there, that
the squire could not resist the temptation. "For all will be at sixes
and sevens at home," he commented, "and no peace for anybody, with
greens and carols and what not. Eh? What?"
"And very likely, as it is Christmas Eve, you may be asked to give
Sophia away. So a nice dinner, and a quiet smoke, and an hour's nap will
help you through to-night." And the thought in each heart, beyond this
one, was "Perhaps Harry will be at home."
Nobody missed the fugitives. Mrs. Sandal was sure Harry would come, and
she was busy preparing his room with her own hands. The brightest fire,
the gayest greens, the whitest and softest and best of every thing, she
chose for Harry's room.
Certainly they were not missed by Julius and Sophia. They were far too
much interested in themselves and in their own affairs. From the first
hour of his return to Seat-Sandal, Sophia had understood that Julius was
her lover, and that the time for his declaration rested in the main with
herself. When the Christmas bells were ringing, when the house was
bright with light and evergreens, and the very atmosphere full of
happiness, she had determined to give him the necessary encouragement.
But the clock of Fate cannot be put back. When the moment arrives, the
word is spoken or the deed done. Both of them were prepared for the
moment, and yet not just then prepared; for Love still holds his great
surprise somewhat in reserve.
They were in the drawing-room. The last vase had been filled, the last
wreath hung; and Sophia looked at her beautiful hands, marked with the
rim of the scissors, and stained with leaves and berries, in a little
affected distress. Julius seated himself on the sofa beside her. She
trembled, but he looked at her almost triumphantly. Over Sophia's heart
he knew his power. With the questioning, unwinking gaze of love his eyes
sought hers, and he tenderly spoke her name, "_Sophia_." She could
answer only by her conscious silence.
"My wife! Mine in lives long forgotten."
"O Julius!"
"Always mine; missed in some existences, recovered in others, but
bringing into every life with you my mark of ownership. See here."
Then he lifted her hand, and opening its palm upward, he placed his own
in the same attitude beside it. "Look into them both, Sophia, and see
how closely our line of fortune is alike. That is something, but
behold." And he showed her a singular mark, which had in his own palm
its precise counterpart.
"Is it not also in Charlotte's palm? In others?"
"No, indeed. Among all the women on earth, only yours has this facsimile
of my own. It is the soul mark upon the body. Every educated Hindoo can
trace it; and all will tell you, that, if two individuals have it
precisely alike, they are twin souls, and nothing can prevent their
union."
"Did they explain it to you, Julius?"
"An Oriental never explains. They apprehend what is too subtle for
words. They know best just what they have never been told. Sophia, this
hand of yours fits mine. It is the key to it; the interpreter of my
fate. Give me my own, darling."
To Charlotte he would never have spoken in such a tone. She would have
resented its claim and authority, and perceived that it was likely to be
the first encroachment of a tyranny she did not intend to bow to. But
Sophia was easily deceived on this ground. She liked the mystical air it
gave to the event; the gray sanction of unknown centuries to the love of
to-day.
They speculated and supposed, and were supremely happy. The usual lover
wanders in the dreams of the future: they sought each other through the
phantom visions of the past. And they were so charmed with the
occupation, that they quite forgot the exigencies and claims of the
present existence until the rattle of wheels, the stamping of feet, and
a joyful cry from Mrs. Sandal recalled them to it.
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