Part 13 (1/2)
”Aha!” thought Eve, exulting, ”we have driven him away.”
Judge her mortification when Lucy, after shutting the piano, joined her uncle and Mr. Talboys. Eve whispered David: ”Gone to smooth him down: the high and mighty gentleman wasn't made enough of.”
”Every one in their turn,” said David, calmly; ”that is manners. Look!
it is the old gentleman she is being kind to. She could not be unkind to anyone, however.”
Eve put her lips to David's ear: ”She will be unkind to you if you are ever mad enough to let her see what I see,” said she, in a cutting whisper.
”What do you see? More than there is to see, I'll wager,” said David, looking down.
”Ah! that is the way with young men, the moment they take a fancy; their sister is nothing to them, their best friend loses their confidence.”
”Don't ye say that, Eve--now don't say that!”
”No, no, David, never mind me. I am cross. And if you saw a sore heart in store for anyone you had a regard for, wouldn't you be cross? Young men are so stupid, they can't read a girl no more than Hebrew. If she is civil and affable to them, oh, they are the man directly, when, instead of that, if it was so, she would more likely be shy and half afraid to come near them. David, you are in a fool's paradise. In company, and even in flirtation, all sorts meet and part again; but it isn't so with marriage. There 'it is beasts of a kind that in one are joined, and birds of a feather that came together.' Like to like, David. She is a fine lady and she will marry a fine gentleman, and nothing else, with a large income. If she knew what has been in your head this month past, she would open her eyes and ask if the man was mad.”
”She has a right to look down on me, I know,” murmured David, humbly; ”but” (his eye glowing with sudden rapture) ”she doesn't--she doesn't.”
”Look down on you! You are better company than she is, or anyone she can get in this-out-of-the-way place; it is her interest to be civil to you. I am too hard upon her. She is a lady--a perfect lady--and that is why she is above giving herself airs. No, David, she is not the one to treat us with disrespect, if we don't forget ourselves. But if ever you let her see that you are in love with her, you will get an affront that will make your cheek burn and my heart smart--so I tell you.”
”Hus.h.!.+ I never told you I was in love with her.”
”Never told me? Never told me? Who asked you to tell me? I have eyes, if you have none.”
”Eve,” said David imploringly, ”I don't hear of any lover that she has. Do you?”
”No,” said Eve carelessly. ”But who knows? She pa.s.ses half the year a hundred miles from this, and there are young men everywhere. If she was a milkmaid, they'd turn to look at her with such a face and figure as that, much more a young lady with every grace and every charm. She has more than one after her that we never see, take my word.”
Eve had no sooner said this than she regretted it, for David's face quivered, and he sighed like one trying to recover his breath after a terrible blow.
What made this and the succeeding conversation the more trying and peculiar was, that the presence of other persons in the room, though at a considerable distance, compelled both brother and sister, though anything but calm, to speak _sotto voce._ But in the history of mankind more strange and incongruous matter has been dealt with in an undertone, and with artificial and forced calmness.
”My poor David!” said Eve sorrowfully; ”you who used to be so proud, so high-spirited, be a man! Don't throw away such a treasure as your affection. For my sake, dear David, your sister's sake, who does love you so very, very dearly!”
”And I love you, Eve. Thank you. It was hard lines. Ah! But it is wholesome, no doubt, like most bitters. Yes. Thank you, Eve. I do admire her v-very much,” and his voice faltered a little. ”But I am a man for all that, and I'll stand to my own words. I'll never be any woman's slave.”
”That is right, David.”
”I will not give hot for cold, nor my heart for a smile or two. I can't help admiring her, and I do hope she will be--happy--ah!--whoever she fancies. But, if I am never to command her, I won't carry a willow at my mast-head, and drift away from reason and manhood, and my duty to you, and mother, and myself.”
”Ah! David, if you could see how n.o.ble you look now. Is it a promise, David? for I know you will keep your word if once you pa.s.s it.”
”There is my hand on it, Eve.”
The brother and sister grasped hands, and when David was about to withdraw his, Eve's soft but vigorous little hand closed tighter and kept it firmer, and so they sat in silence.
”Eve.”
”My dear!”
”Now don't you be cross.”