Part 45 (1/2)

”Margaret,” exclaimed Mr Maguire, ”will you not come to me?”

”What do you mean, Mr Maguire?” said she, still standing aloof from him, and retreating somewhat nearer to the door.

”The gentleman says that you are engaged to marry him,” said Lady Ball.

Margaret, looking again into her aunt's face, saw the smile of triumph that sat there, and resolved at once to make good her ground.

”If he has said that, he has told an untruth,--an untruth both unmanly and unmannerly. You hear, sir, what Lady Ball has stated. Is it true that you have made such an a.s.sertion?”

”And will you contradict it, Margaret? Oh, Margaret! Margaret! you cannot contradict it.”

The reader must remember that this clergyman no doubt thought and felt that he had a good deal of truth on his side. Gentlemen when they make offers to ladies, and are told by ladies that they may come again, and that time is required for consideration, are always disposed to think that the difficulties of the siege are over. And in nine cases out of ten it is so. Mr Maguire, no doubt, since the interview in question, had received letters from the lady which should at any rate have prevented him from uttering any such a.s.sertion as that which he had now made; but he looked upon those letters as the work of the enemy, and chose to go back for his authority to the last words which Margaret had spoken to him. He knew that he was playing an intricate game,--that all was not quite on the square; but he thought that the enemy was playing him false, and that falsehood in return was therefore fair. This that was going on was a robbery of the Church, a spoiling of Israel, a touching with profane hands of things that had already been made sacred.

”But I do contradict it,” said Margaret, stepping forward into the room, and almost exciting admiration in Lady Ball's breast by her demeanour. ”Aunt,” said she, ”as this gentleman has chosen to come here with such a story as this, I must tell you all the facts.”

”Has he ever been engaged to you?” asked Lady Ball.

”Never.”

”Oh, Margaret!” again exclaimed Mr Maguire.

”Sir, I will ask you to let me tell my aunt the truth. When I was at Littlebath, before I knew that my fortune was not my own,”--as she said this she looked hard into Mr Maguire's face--”before I had become penniless, as I am now,”--then she paused again, and still looking at him, saw with inward pleasure the elongation of her suitor's face, ”this gentleman asked me to marry him.”

”He did ask you?” said Lady Ball.

”Of course I asked her,” urged Mr Maguire. ”There can be no denying that on either side.”

He did not now quite know what to do. He certainly did not wish to impoverish the Church by marrying Miss Mackenzie without any fortune.

But might it not all be a trick? That she had been rich he knew, and how could she have become poor so quickly?

”He did ask me, and I told him that I must take a fortnight to consider of it.”

”You did not refuse him, then?” said Lady Ball.

”Not then, but I have done so since by letter. Twice I have written to him, telling him that I had nothing of my own, and that there could be nothing between us.”

”I got her letters,” said Mr Maguire, turning round to Lady Ball. ”I certainly got her letters. But such letters as those, if they are written under dictation--”

He was rather anxious that Lady Bell should quarrel with him. In the programme which he had made for himself when he came to the house, a quarrel to the knife with the Ball family was a part of his tactics.

His programme, no doubt, was disturbed by the course which events had taken, but still a quarrel with Lady Ball might be the best for him.

If she were to quarrel with him, it would give him some evidence that this story about the loss of the money was untrue. But Lady Ball would not quarrel with him. She sat still and said nothing. ”n.o.body dictated them,” said Margaret. ”But now you are here, I will tell you the facts. The money which I thought was mine, in truth belongs to my cousin, Mr John Ball, and I--”

So far she spoke loudly, With her face raised, and her eyes fixed upon him. Then as she concluded, she dropped her voice and eyes together. ”And I am now engaged to him as his wife.”

”Oh, indeed!” said Mr Maguire.

”That statement must be taken for what it is worth,” said Lady Ball, rising from her seat. ”Of what Miss Mackenzie says now, I know nothing. I sincerely hope that she may find that she is mistaken.”