Part 5 (1/2)
The other looked down at her with simple fearlessness.
”'For it was founded upon a rock!'” she repeated softly; yet the exultant ring of her accent vibrated upon the ear like a joyous challenge.
Rosa's fretful movement was involuntary.
”Mine would drag in the sand at every turn of the tide, every rise of the wind, if I were to follow your advice, and say 'yes' to the pertinacious Alfred,” she said reproachfully.
”Don't say advice, dear!” corrected the other. ”I only endeavored to convince you that there must be latent tenderness beneath your sufferance of Mr. Branch's devotion; that if you really were averse to the thought of marrying him, you could not take pleasure in his society or enjoy the marks of his attachment which are apparent to you and to everybody else.”
”Can't you understand,” said the beauty, petulantly, ”that it is one thing to flirt with a man in public, and another to cherish his image in private? There is no better touchstone of affection than the holiness and calm of an hour like this. If Frederic were with you, the scene would be the fairer, the season more sacred for its a.s.sociation with thoughts of him and his love. Whereas, my Alfred's adoring plat.i.tudes would disgust me with the sunset, with the world, and with myself, for permitting him to haunt my presence and hang upon my smile--foppish barnacle that he is! If you knew how I despise myself sometimes!”
”Dear Rosa! I shall never try again to persuade that you care for him as a woman should for the man G.o.d intended her to marry. But why not act worthily of yourself--justly to him, and reject him decidedly?”
”Because”--her face shrewd and wilful as it had been sorrowful just now--”I am by no means certain that I can do better than to marry him.
He is rich, good-looking (so people say!), well-born, gentlemanly, and pleasant of temper. An imposing array of advantages, you see! I might go further, and fare very much worse. We shall not expect to pa.s.s our days in gazing at sunsets and walking in the moonlight, you know. It is not every woman who can marry the man she loves best. While the right to select and to woo is usurped by the masculine portion of the community, it must, perforce, be Hobson's choice with an uncountable majority of feminines. I should not complain. The stall allotted to me by Hobson--alias Fate--might hold a worse-conditioned animal than my wors.h.i.+pping swain.”
”What a wicked rattle you are!” Mabel said, affecting to box her ears.
”I could not love you if I believed you to be in earnest. As to your figure of the stabled steed--this disapproving customer has the consolation that she need not accept him, unless she wishes to do so.
She has the invaluable privilege of saying 'no' as often and obstinately as she pleases.”
”I deny it,” said Rosa, perversely. ”Parents, in this age, do not make a custom of locking up refractory daughters in nunneries or garrets until they consent to wed Baron Buncombe or my Lord Nozoo, but there are, nevertheless, compulsory marriages in plenty. Society warns me to make a creditable match, upon penalty, if I decline, of being pointed out to the succeeding--and a fast-succeeding generation it is! as a disappointed old maid--pa.s.see belle, who squandered her capital of fascinations, and has become a pauper upon public toleration, while my mother, sisters, and brothers are growing impatient at my many and profitless flirtations, and anxious to see me 'settled.' My mother's pet text, since I was sixteen, has been her prayerful desire that I, the last of her nestlings, should make choice of a tenable bough and helpful partner, and set up a separate establishment before she dies. When that event occurs, I shall be, in effect, homeless--a boarder around upon my rebukeful relatives, who 'always thought how my trifling would end,' and who will be forever scribbling 'vanitas vanitatum,' upon the tombstone of my departed youth--my day of beaux and offers. You may shake your head and look heroic with all your might! You are no better off than I, should your brother see cause to refuse his consent to your marriage with Mr. Chilton. He could, and probably would, coerce you into another alliance before you were twenty-one. There are so many ways of letting the life out of a woman's heart, when it is already faint from disappointment! The spirit is oftener broken by unyielding, but not seemingly cruel pressure, than by outrageous violence. And Winston would show himself an adept in such arts, if occasion offered.”
”Rosa Tazewell! you are speaking of my brother, my friend and benefactor! one of the best, n.o.blest, most disinterested creatures Heaven ever made!” cried Mabel, erect and indignant. ”You have no warrant--I shall never give you the right--to asperse him in my presence. He is incapable of cruelty or unfairness. It is my duty to obey him, but it is no less a pleasure, for he is a hundred-fold wiser and better than I am--knows far more truly what is for my real advantage. As to his conduct in this affair of Frederic and myself, you cannot deny that it has been generous and consistent throughout. He has been cautious--never hars.h.!.+”
”So!” said Rosa, scrutinizing the flushed countenance of the other, her own full of intense meaning, ”you HAVE had your misgivings!”
Mabel reddened more warmly.
”Misgivings! What do you mean?”
”That the uncalled-for vehemence of your defence is a proof of disturbed confidence, of wanting belief in the infallibility of your semi-deity.
The trailing robes of divinity have been blown aside by a chance breath of suspicion, and you had a glimpse of the clay feet. I am glad of it. Scepticism is the parent of rebellion, and the time is coming when fealty to your betrothed may demand disloyalty to the power that now is.”
Mabel's smile was meant to be careless, but it was only uneasy, and gave the lie direct to her a.s.severation.
”I have no apprehensions of such a conflict. Winston's word is as good as another man's oath. It is pledged to my marriage with Frederic Chilton, in the event of the prosperous issue of his inquiries into his, Frederic's, character and prospects. That these will be answered favorably, I have the word of another, who is every whit as trustworthy.
Where is there room for doubt?”
The brunette shook her head--unconvinced.
”Have your own way! I can afford to abide the showing of the logic of events.”
”And I!” retorted Mabel, hastily, turning from her, without attempting to dissemble her chagrin, to answer a knock at the door.
It was a servant, with two letters. The annoyance pa.s.sed from her brow, like the sheerest mist, as she read the superscriptions--one in her brother's handwriting, the other in Frederic's.
Rosa interfered to prevent the breaking of the seals.
”I am going to leave you to the undisturbed enjoyment of your feast,”
she said, in her most winsome manner. ”But--won't it taste the sweeter if your antepast is the delight of forgiveness? Say you are not angry with me--mia cara!”
”You are a ridiculous child!” Mabel bent to kiss the pleading lips, then the great, melting eyes. ”Who could be out of temper with you for half a minute at a time? You did try my patience with your nonsense, but since it WAS nonsense, I have forgotten it all, and love you none the less for your prankish humor--you gypsy!”