Part 9 (2/2)
”Oh, dear! the old, old excuse, 'The woman tempted me,' etc.”
”Forgive me, dear Charlotte. I was going to tell you that I had been very fortunate in Kendal, and next week I am going to Bradford to learn all about spinning and weaving and machinery. But what is success without you? If I make every dream come to pa.s.s, and have not Charlotte, my heart will keep telling me, night and day, '_All for nothing, all for nothing_.'”
”Do not be so impatient. You are making trouble, and forespeaking disappointment. Before you have learned all about manufacturing, and built your mill, before you are really ready to begin your life's work, many a change may have taken place in Sandal-Side. When Julius comes at Christmas I think he will ask Sophia to marry him, and I think Sophia will accept his offer. That marriage would open the way for our marriage.”
”Only partly I fear. I can see that squire Sandal has taken a dislike, and your mother was a little high with me when I saw her last.”
”Partly your own fault, sir. Why did you give up the ways of your fathers? The idea of mills and trading in these dales is such a new one.”
”But a man must move with his own age, Charlotte. There is no prospect of another Stuart rebellion. I cannot do the queen's service, and get rewarded as old Christopher Sandal did. And I want to go to Parliament, and can't go without money. And I can't make money quick enough by keeping sheep and planting wheat. But manufacturing means money, land, influence, power.”
”Father does not see these things as you do, Steve. He sees the peaceful dales invaded by white-faced factory-hands, loud-voiced, quarrelling, disrespectful. All the old landmarks and traditions will disappear; also simple ways of living, calm religion, true friends.h.i.+ps. Every good old sentiment will be gauged by money, will finally vanish before money, and what the busy world calls 'improvements.' It makes him fretful, jealous, and unhappy.”
”That is just the trouble, Charlotte. When a man has not the spirit of his age, he has all its unhappiness. But my greatest fear is, that you will grow weary of waiting for _our hour_.”
”I have told you that I shall not. There is an old proverb which says, 'Trust not the man who promises with an oath.' Is not my simple word, then, the best and the surest hope?”
Then she nestled close to his side, and began to talk of his plans and his journey, and to antic.i.p.ate the time when he would break ground upon Silver Beck, and build the many-windowed factory that had been his dream ever since he had began to plan his own career. The wind rose, the rain fell in a down-pour before they reached the park-gates; but there was a certain joy in facing the wet breeze, and although they did not loiter, yet neither did they hurry. In both their hearts there was a little fear of the squire, but neither spoke of it. Charlotte would not suppose or suggest any necessity for avoiding him, and Steve was equally sensitive on the subject.
When they arrived at Seat-Sandal the main entrance was closed, and Stephen stood with her on the threshold until a man-servant opened slowly its ponderous panels. There was a bright fire burning in the hall, and lights were in the sconces on the walls. Charlotte asked Steve to come in and rest a while. She tried to avoid showing either fear or hurry, and Steve was conscious of the same effort on his own part; but yet he knew that they both thought it well none of the family were aware of her return, or of his presence. She watched him descend the dripping steps into the darkness, and then went towards the fire. An unusual silence was in the house. She stood upon the hearthstone while the servant rebolted the door, and then asked,--
”Is dinner served, Noel?”
”It be over, Miss Charlotte.”
So she went to her own room. It was chilly and dreary. The fire had been allowed to die down, and had only just been replenished. It was smoking also, and the candles on her toilet-table burned dimly in the damp atmosphere. She hurriedly changed her gown, and was going down-stairs, when a movement in Sophia's room arrested her attention. It was very unusual for Sophia to be up-stairs at that hour, and the fact struck her significantly. She knocked at the door, and was told rather irritably to ”Come in.”
”Dear me, Sophia! what is the matter? It feels as if there were something wrong in the house.”
”I suppose there is something wrong. Father got a letter from Harry by the late post, and he left his dinner untouched; and mother is in her room crying, of course. I do think it is a shame that Harry is allowed to turn the house upside down whenever he feels like it.”
”Perhaps he is in trouble.”
”He is always in trouble, for he is always busy making trouble. His very amus.e.m.e.nts mean trouble for all who have the misfortune to have any thing to do with him. Julius told me that no man in the 'Cameronians'
had a worse name than Harry Sandal.”
”Julius! The idea of Julius talking badly about our Harry, and to you! I wonder you listened to him. It was a shabby thing to do; it was that.”
”Julius only repeated what he had heard, and he was very sorry to do so.
He felt it to be conscientiously his duty.”
”Bah! G.o.d save me from such a conscience! If Julius had heard any thing good of Harry, he would have had no conscientious scruples about silence; not he! I dare say Julius would be glad if poor Harry was out of his way.”
”Charlotte Sandal, you shall not say such very unladylike, such unchristianlike, things in my room. It is quite easy to see _whose_ company you have been in.”
”I have been with Ducie. Can you find me a sweeter or better soul?”
”Or a handsomer young man than her son?”
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