Volume Ii Part 12 (2/2)

”Thank you, my darling,” said he, when she was done. ”I 've no doubt that the song is a fine one, and that you sung it well, but I can't follow the words, nor appreciate the air. I like something that touches me either with an old recollection, or by some suggestion for the future; and if you 'd try and remember the 'Meeting of the Waters,' or 'Where's the Slave so lowly'--”

”I 'm afraid, sir, I cannot gratify you,” said she; and it was all she could do to get out of the room before he heard her sobbing.

”What's the matter, Jemi,” said he, ”did I say anything wrong? Is Molly angry with me?”

”Will you tell me,” said I, ”when you ever said anything right? Or do you do anything from morning till night but hurt the feelings and dance upon the tenderest emotions of your whole family? I've submitted to it so long,” said I, ”that I have no heart left in me to complain; but now that you drive me to it, I 'll tell you my mind;” and so I did, Molly, till he jumped up at last, put on his hat, and rushed downstairs into the street. After which I went to my room, and cried till bedtime! As poor Mary Anne said to me, ”There was a refined cruelty in that request of papa's I can never forget;” nor is it to be expected she should!

The next morning at breakfast he was in a better humor, for the table was covered with delicacies of every kind, fruit and liqueurs besides.

”Not dear at eightpence, Jemi,” he 'd say, at every time he filled his plate. ”Just think the way one is robbed by servants, when you see what can be had for a 'zwanziger;'” and he made Cary take down a list of the things, just to send to the ”Times,” and show how the English hotels were cheating the public.

We saw that this was a fine opportunity to tell him about James, and so Mary Anne undertook the task. ”And so he never went to London at all,”

he kept repeating all the while. No matter what she said about the Countess, and her fortune, and her great connections; nothing came out of his lips but the same words.

”Don't you perceive,” said I, at last, for I could n't bear it any longer, ”that he did better,--that the boy took a shorter and surer road in life than a shabby place under the Crown!”

”May be so,” said he, with a deep sigh,--”may be so! but I ought to be excused if I don't see at a glance how any man makes his fortune by marriage!”

I knew that he meant that for a provocation, Molly, but I bit my lips and said nothing.

We then explained to him that we had sent off a note to the Countess, asking her to pa.s.s a few weeks with us, and were in hourly expectation of her arrival.

He gave another heavy sigh, and drank off a gla.s.s of Curaoa.

Mary Anne went on about our good luck in finding such a capital hotel, so cheap and in such a sweet retired spot,--just the very thing the Countess would like.

”Never went to London at all!” muttered K. I., for he could n't get his thoughts out of the old track. And, indeed, though we were all talking to him for more than an hour afterwards, it was easy to see that he was just standing still on the same spot as before. I don't ever remember pa.s.sing a day of such anxiety as that, for every distant noise of wheels, every crack of a postilion's whip, brought us to the window to see if they were coming. We delayed dinner till seven o'clock, and put K. I.'s watch back, to persuade him it was only five; we loitered and lingered over it as long as we could, but no sight nor sound was there of their coming.

”Tell Paddy to fetch my slippers, Molly,” said K. I., as we got into the drawing-room.

”Oh, papa! impossible,” said she; ”the Countess may arrive at any moment.”

”Think of his never going to London at all,” said he, with a groan.

I almost cried with spite, to see a man so lost to every sentiment of proper pride, and even dead to the prospects of his own children!

”Don't you think I might have a cigar?” said he.

”Is it here, papa?” said Mary Anne. ”The smell of tobacco would certainly disgust the Countess.”

”He thinks it would be more flattering to receive her into all the intimacy of the family,” said I, ”and see us without any disguise.”

”Egad, then,” said he, bitterly, ”she's come too late for _that_; she should have made our acquaintance before we began vagabondizing over Europe, and pretending to fifty things we 've no right to!”

”Here she is,--here they are!” screamed Mary Anne at this moment; and, with a loud noise like thunder, the heavy carriage rolled under the arched gateway, while crack--crack--crack went the whips, and the big bell of the ball began ringing away furiously.

”_I'm_ off, at all events,” said K. I.; and s.n.a.t.c.hing one of the candles off the table, he rushed out of the room as hard as he could go.

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