Ravenshoe. Henry Kingsley

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      "Adelaide, I am going home to-morrow."

      "Are you really? Are you going so suddenly?"

      "I am, positively. I got a letter from home to-day. Are you very sorry or very glad?"

      "I am very sorry, Charles. You are the only friend I have in the world to whom I can speak as I like. Make me a promise."

      "Well?"

      "This is the last night we shall be together. Promise that you won't be rude and sarcastic as you are sometimes—almost always, now, to poor me—but talk kindly, as we used to do."

      "Very well," said Charles. "And you promise you won't be taking such a black view of the state of affairs as you do in general. Do you remember the conversation we had the day the colt was tried?"

      "I remember."

      "Well, don't talk like that, you know."

      "I won't promise that. The time will come very soon when we shall have no more pleasant talks together."

      "When will that be?"

      "When I am gone out for a governess."

      "What wages will you get? You will not get so much as some girls, because you are so pretty and so wilful, and you will lead them such a deuce of a life."

      "Charles, you said you wouldn't be rude."

      "I choose to be rude. I have been drinking wine, and we are in the dark, and aunt is asleep and snoring, and I shall say just what I like."

      "I'll wake her."

      "I should like to see you. What shall we talk about? What an old Roman Lord Saltire is. He talked about his son who was killed, to me to-day, just as I should talk about a pointer dog."

      "Then he thought he had been showing some signs of weakness. He always speaks of his son like that when he thinks he has been betraying some feeling."

      "I admire him for it," said Charles.—"So you are going to be a governess, eh?"

      "I suppose so."

      "Why don't you try being barmaid at a public-house? Welter would get you a place directly; he has great influence in the licensed victualling way. You might come to marry a commercial traveller, for anything you know."

      "I would not have believed this," she said, in a fierce, low voice. "You have turned against me and insult me, because——Unkind, unjust, ungentlemanlike."

      He heard her passionately sobbing in the dark, and the next moment he had her in his arms, and was covering her face with kisses.

      "Lie there, my love," he said; "that is your place. All the world can't harm or insult my Adelaide while she is there. Why did you fly from me and repulse me, my darling, when I told you I was your own true love?"

      "Oh, let me go, Charles," she said, trying, ever so feebly, to repulse him. "Dear Charles, pray do; I am frightened."

      "Not till you tell me you love me, false one."

      "I love you more than all the world."

      "Traitress! And why did you repulse me and laugh at me?"

      "I did not think you were in earnest."

      "Another kiss for that wicked, wicked falsehood. Do you know that this rustication business has all come from the despair consequent on your wicked behaviour the other day?"

      "You said Welter caused it, Charles. But oh, please let me go."

      "Will you go as a governess now?"

      "I will do nothing but what you tell me."

      "Then give me one, your own, own self, and I will let you go."

      Have the reader's feelings of horror, indignation, astonishment, outraged modesty, or ridicule, given him time to remember that all this went on in the dark, within six feet of an unconscious old lady? Such, however, was the case. And scarcely had Adelaide determined that it was time to wake her, and barely had she bent over her for that purpose, when the door was thrown open, and—enter attendants with lights. Now, if the reader will reflect a moment, he will see what an awful escape they had; for the chances were about a thousand to one in favour of two things having happened: 1st, the groom of the chambers might have come into the room half a minute sooner; and 2nd, they might have sat as they were half a minute longer; in either of which cases, Charles would have been discovered with his arm round Adelaide's waist, and a fearful scandal would have been the consequence. And I mention this as a caution to young persons in general, and to remind them that, if they happen to be sitting hand in hand, it is no use to jump apart and look very red just as the door opens, because the incomer can see what they have been about as plain as if he had been there. On this occasion, also, Charles and Adelaide set down as usual to their own sagacity what was the result of pure accident.

      Adelaide was very glad to get away after tea, for she felt rather guilty and confused. On Charles's offering to go, however, Lady Ascot, who had been very silent and glum all tea-time, requested him to stay, as she had something serious to say to him. Which set the young gentleman speculating whether she could possibly have been awake before the advent of candles, and caused him to await her pleasure with no small amount of trepidation.

      Her ladyship began by remarking that digitalis was invaluable for palpitation, and that she had also found camomile, combined with gentle purgatives, efficient for the same thing, when suspected to proceed from the stomach. She opined that, if this weather continued, there would be heavy running for the Cambridgeshire, and Commissioner would probably stand as well as any horse. And then, having, like a pigeon, taken a few airy circles through stable-management, theology, and agriculture, she descended on her subject, and frightened Charles out of his five wits by asking him if he didn't think Adelaide a very nice girl.

      Charles decidedly thought she was a very nice girl; but he rather hesitated, and said—"Yes, that she was charming."

      "Now, tell me, my dear," said Lady Ascot, manœuvring a great old fan, "for young eyes are quicker than old ones. Did you ever remark anything between her and Welter?"

      Charles caught up one of his legs, and exclaimed, "The devil!"

      "What a shocking expression, my dear! Well, I agree with you. I fancy I have noticed that they have entertained a decided preference for one another. Of course, Welter will be throwing himself away, and all that sort of thing, but he is pretty sure to do that. I expect, every time he comes home, that he will bring a wife from behind the bar of a public-house. Now, Adelaide—"

      "Aunt! Lady Ascot! Surely you are under a mistake. I never saw anything between them."

      "H'm."

      "I assure you I never did. I never heard Welter speak of her in that sort of way, and I don't think she cares for him."

      "What reason have you for thinking that?"

      "Well—why, you know it's hard to say. The fact is, I have rather a partiality for Adelaide myself, and I have watched her in the СКАЧАТЬ