Volume I Part 15 (1/2)
”Yes, that is the plea,” Mr. de Burgh coldly replied.
”But,” Mary continued, after a pause, and without having been struck by any peculiar emphasis her cousin might have placed upon these latter words, ”Olivia, I think, told me at the same time, that this misfortune was purely accidental, that at least there was no hereditary evil of the kind existing in the family.”
”Oh, none whatever; most perfectly accidental, I believe,” was Mr. de Burgh's apparently careless rejoinder, as he stood looking out of the window, as he had done on Mary's entrance. And here the conversation ended, except that Mary, before leaving the room, approached her cousin, saying in an affectionate tone:
”And now, before I go, Louis, you will wish me joy, I am sure.”
”Most certainly, dear Mary,” he replied, as he fervently wrung her proffered hand, ”all possible joy and happiness that heaven and earth can bestow upon you.”
”Thank you very much, dear Louis,” Mary replied, ”and I may write,” she added, more timidly, ”and tell him that he may come; I would not let him do so again, till I had informed you of our engagement.”
”Oh yes, write of course if you like, most certainly.”
And Mary, again thanking him, left the library, and returned to the drawing-room.
CHAPTER XVI.
She watch'd for him at dawn, and she watched for him at noon, Tho' well she knew she could not hope to see him come so soon; She could not rest, but peeping thro' her cas.e.m.e.nt's leafy screen, She watched the spot where she was told his form would first be seen.
HAYNES BAYLEY.
Mrs. de Burgh looked with some anxiety, and Mrs. Trevyllian, who was also present, with some curiosity, into the face of Mary as she entered the apartment; but whatever signs of recent excitement or agitation might be discerned thereupon, there was a happy smile trembling on her lips, which told that all was peace and contentment now, and when Mrs.
de Burgh, on contriving to draw her apart, eagerly enquired as to the issue of her interview, Mary answered:
”Oh, all is right! Louis is very kind, and he has given me leave to write immediately to Eugene, and bid him come here.” She was sufficiently satisfied to ask no more questions for the present, and Mary went upstairs to write her letter.
When she returned to the drawing-room, Mr. de Burgh had joined the party, and was standing with his back to the fire, looking rather cross, while Mrs. de Burgh was smiling with some evidently suppressed triumph.
”I suppose,” she said, with careless ease, ”that we may send a servant on horseback with Mary's letter.”
”Oh, certainly! if Mary wishes it; but I think there is no such particular hurry, and that it might very well wait till to-morrow. The horses and servants have had, and are likely to have, plenty to do, with all this scampering to and fro, between this and Montrevor.”
Mrs. de Burgh remarked that she never knew anything so ill-natured as he was. Mrs. Trevyllian even looked astonished at such a show of ungraciousness on the part of the handsome Mr. de Burgh; but Mary said good humouredly that the post would do quite as well for her letter, and dropped it quietly into the letter-box on her way to luncheon.
It was--as it turned out--”quite as well,” for Trevor was engaged at some county meeting that evening--and had been from home, which prevented his going to Silverton the following day till a short time before dinner.
It was no use now for Mary to take her summer place by the window, and watch for her lover's arrival, for the shades of the October evening had almost closed over the scene before the happy time arrived; but the noise of wheels, along with the quick, sharp sound of the horse's hoofs gladly saluted her ears, and she was down stairs to meet him ere he had many minutes reached the drawing-room.
They were standing together on the hearth-rug when Mr. de Burgh made his appearance.
He shook hands with Eugene Trevor with the most perfect cordiality, and having first rang the bell for dinner, stood beside him conversing in his usual manner on indifferent subjects, Mary, on his entrance, having retreated a little into the back-ground, to talk to the children; and they were thus all spirits and good humour, when Mrs. de Burgh joined them, accompanied by Mrs. Trevyllian, who had been induced to make one of the dinner-party, in order that she might be introduced to, and have an opportunity of beholding Mr. Trevor; she having been--of course in the strictest confidence--enlightened by Mrs. de Burgh as to the position of affairs between that gentleman and Miss Seaham.
At dinner everything went on _a merveille_, sociably and agreeably in the extreme, and as the two gentlemen left the dining-room, the cheerful laugh which was heard proceeding from Eugene Trevor's lips told that if the _great_ subject had been discussed during the _tete-a-tete_ to which he and Mr. de Burgh had been subjected, nothing but good humour and friendliness, had been the issue.