Volume Ii Part 5 (2/2)
”Your officers say as much.”
”I know from what quarter that came,” said he; and his bronzed face grew a shade deeper. ”That dilettante soldier, young Conyers, has given me this character; but I 'd rather talk of you than myself. Tell me all about your life. Is it as delightful as everything around would bespeak it? Are these trees and flowers, this sunny bank, this perfumed sward, true emblems of the existence they embellish, or is Paradise only a cheat?”
”I don't think so. I think Paradise is very like what it looks, not but I own that the garden is pleasanter with guests in it than when only Adam and Eve were there. Mr. Withering is charming, and you can be very agreeable.”
”I would I knew how to be so,” said he, seriously, ”just at this moment; for I am going away from Ireland, and I am very desirous of leaving a good impression behind me.”
”What could it signify to you how you were thought of in this lonely spot?”
”More than you suspect,--more than you would, perhaps, credit,” said he, feelingly.
There was a little pause, during which they walked along side by side.
”What are you thinking of?” said she, at last
”I was thinking of a strange thing,--it was this: About a week ago there was no effort I was not making to obtain the command of my regiment. I wanted to be Lieutenant-Colonel; and so bent was I on gaining my object, that if giving away three or four years of that life that I may hope for would have done it, I 'd have closed the bargain; and now the ambition is gone, and I am speculating whether I 'll not take the cottage of your friend Major M'Cormick,--he offered it to me last night,--and become your neighbor. What say _you_ to the project?”
”For us the exchange will be all a gain.”
”I want your opinion,--your own,” said he, with a voice reduced to a mere whisper.
”I'd like it of all things; although, if I were your sister or your daughter, I'd not counsel it.”
”And why not, if you were my sister?” said he, with a certain constraint in his manner.
”I'd say it was inglorious to change from the n.o.ble activity of a soldier's life to come and dream away existence here.”
”But what if I have done enough for this same thing men call fame?
I have had my share of campaigning, and as the world looks there is wondrous little prospect of any renewal of it. These peace achievements suit your friend Conyers better than me.”
”I think you are not just to him. If I read him aright, he is burning for an occasion to distinguish himself.”
A cold shrug of the shoulders was his only acknowledgment of this speech, and again a silence fell between them.
”I would rather talk of _you_, if you would let me,” said he, with much significance of voice and manner. ”Say would you like to have me for your neighbor?”
”It would be a pleasant exchange for Major M'Cormick,” said she, laughing.
”I want you to be serious now. What I am asking you interests me too deeply to jest over.”
”First of all, is the project a serious one?”
”It is.”
”Next, why ask advice from one as inexperienced as I am?”
”Because it is not counsel I ask,--it is something more. Don't look surprised, and, above all, don't look angry, but listen to me. What I have said now, and what more I would say, might more properly have been uttered when we had known each other longer; but there are emergencies in life which give no time for slow approaches, and there are men, too, that they suit not. Imagine such now before you,--I mean, both the moment and the man. Imagine one who has gone through a great deal in life, seen, heard, and felt much, and yet never till now, never till this very morning, understood what it was to know one whose least word or pa.s.sing look was more to him than ambition, higher than all the rewards of glory.”
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