'Then would you not have it so, sir?' asked Aurelia, in a bewildered voice of perplexity. 'Oh!' as again one of those echoes startled her, 'tell me what it all means.'
'Hush! listen to me,' said Mr. Belamour, in a voice that added to her undefined alarm by what seemed to her imperious displeasure as uncalled for as it was unusual; but the usual fatherly gentleness immediately prevailed, 'My child, I should never have entertained the thought for a moment but for-but for Lady Belamour. This sounds like no compliment,' he added, catching himself up, and manifesting a certain embarrassment and confusion very unlike his usual calm dignity of demeanour, and thus adding to the strange fright that was growing upon Aurelia. 'But you must understand that I would not-even in semblance-have dreamt of your being apparently linked to age, sorrow, and infirmity, save that-strange as it may seem-Lady Belamour has herself put into my hands the best means of protecting you, and finally, as I trust, securing your happiness.'
'You are very good, sir,' she continued to breathe out, amid the flutterings of her heart, and the reply produced a wonderful outburst of ardour in a low but fervent voice. 'You will! You will! You sweetest of angels, you will be mine!'
There was something so irresistibly winning in the sound, that it drew forth an answer from the maiden's very heart. 'Oh! yes, indeed-' and before she could utter another word she was snatched into a sudden, warm, vehement embrace, from which she was only partly released, as-near, but still not so near as she would have expected-this extraordinary suitor seemed to remonstrate with his ardent self, saying, 'Now! now! that will do! So be it then, my child,' he continued. 'Great will be the need of faith, patience, trust, ay, and of self- restraint, but let these be practised for a little space, and all will be well.'
She scarcely heard the latter words. The sense of something irrevocable and unfathomable was overpowering her. The mystery of these sudden alterations of voice, now near, now far off, was intolerable. Here were hands claiming her, fervent, eager breathings close upon her, and that serious, pensive voice going on all that time. The darkness grew dreadful to her, dizziness came over her; she dashed aside the hands, started up with a scream, and amid the strange noises and flashes of a swoon, knew no more till she heard Mrs. Aylward's voice over her, found the horrid smell of burnt feathers under her nose, and water trickling down her face, dim candlelight was round her, and she perceived that she was on a low settee in the lobby.
'There, she is coming round. You may tell your master, Jumbo, 'twas nothing but the mince pies.'
'Oh, no-' began Aurelia, but her own voice seemed to come from somewhere else, and being inexperienced in fainting, she was frightened.
'That is right, you are better. Now, a drop of strong waters.'
Aurelia choked, and put them aside, but was made to swallow the draught, and revived enough to ask, 'How came I here?'
'Jumbo must have carried you out, ma'am, and laid you here before ever he called any one,' said Mrs. Aylward. 'Dear, dear, to think of your being taken like that. But the tins of those mince-pies are over large! You must halve one next time.'
Aurelia was sensible enough to the reproof of greediness to begin to protest against the mince-pie theory, but she recollected that she could not account for her swoon, and thereupon became as red as she had been pale, thus confirming the housekeeper's opinion. A sound of footsteps made her start up and cry, 'What's that?' in nervous fright; but Mrs. Aylward declared it was fancy, and as she was by this time able to walk, she was conducted to her own room. There she was examined on her recent diet, and was compelled to allow the housekeeper to ascribe her illness to neglect of autumnal blood- letting and medicine; and she only stave off the send for the barber and his lancet the next morning by promising to swallow a dose compounded of all that was horrible.
She was altogether much shaken, she dreamed strange dreams by night, was capable of little by day, was declared by the children to be cross, and was much inclined to plead indisposition as an excuse for not visiting that alarming room in the evening. Indeed for the greater part of the day she felt as if she must avail herself of the pretext, and as if she neither could nor would encounter that strange double creature in the dark; but somehow she had been as much fascinated as terrified, and, in spite of her resolve, she found herself mechanically following Jumbo, shuddering all over and as cold as ice.
The dark chambers were warmed by German stoves, so that the atmosphere was always equable, and it seemed to revive her, while a kind, warm hand led her as usual to her seat, and it was the usual gentle, courteous, paternal tone that addressed her, 'How chill and trembling you are! My poor child, you were sadly alarmed last night.'
Aurelia murmured some excuse about being very foolish.
'It was not you who was foolish,' was the reply; and though her hand was retained it was evidently for the sake of warming it, and comforting her, not of caressing it in the startling mode of yesterday. There was a pause, during which her composure began to be restored, and some inquiries whether she were quite recovered; to which she replied with eager affirmatives, feeling indeed quite herself again, now that all was in its familiar state around her. Then this strange suitor spoke again. 'It is a hard and cruel fate that my Lady has sought to impose on you.'
'Oh, do not say so, sir I-'
'No,' he interrupted somewhat hastily, 'do not try to deny it, my child; I know better than you can what it would amount to. Believe me, I only lend myself to her arrangement because I know no better means of guarding you and preserving you for better days.'
'I know how kind you are, sir.'
'And you trust me?'
'Indeed I do.'
'That is all I ask. I shall never be a husband to you more than in name, Aurelia, nor ask of you more than you give me now, namely, your sweet presence for a few hours in the evening, without seeing me. Can you bear thus to devote your young life, for a time at least?'
'You know, sir, how glad I always am to be with you,' said Aurelia, relieved yet half regretting that strange fervour. 'I will do my very best to please you.'
'Ah! sweet child,' he began, with a thrill of deep feeling in his voice; but checking himself he continued, 'All I ask is patience and trust for a time-for a time-you promise it!'
'With all my heart,' said Aurelia.
'I will use my best endeavours to requite that trust, my child,' he said. 'Is not the Christian watchword faith, not sight? It must be yours likewise.'
'I hope so,' she said, scarcely understanding.
He then interrogated her somewhat closely as to the letters which had prepared her for the proposal; and as Aurelia was far too simple to conceal anything under cross-examination, Mr. Belamour soon found out what her Ladyship's threats and promises had been.
'The Manor House?' he said. 'That is the original nucleus of the property which had hitherto gone to the heir male?'
'So my sister told me,' said Aurelia.
'That letter, which Dr. Godfrey read to me, spoke of my poor brother's discomfort in holding it. It is well if thus tardily she refund it, though not as your price, my poor child. It should have been as matter of justice, if not by her husband's dying wish. So this is the alternative set before you! Has it been set before your father likewise?'
'Almost certainly she will have threatened to dismiss him if he do not consent. It was that which made my sister decide on sending me here, or what would become of him and Eugene? But I should think my Lady knew my father better than to seem to offer any kind of price, as you call it, for me.'
'Precisely. You have heard from this maternal sister of yours? Does he then give his consent?'
'They say they will not have my inclinations forced, and that they had rather undergo anything than that I should be driven to-to-'
'To be as much a sacrifice as Iphigenia,' he concluded the sentence.
'Indeed, sir,' said Aurelia, quite restored, 'I cannot see why they should imagine me to have such objections, or want me to be so cautious and considerate. I shall write to my papa that it is not at all repugnant to me, for that you are very, very good to me; and if I can make your time pass ever so little more pleasantly, it is a delight to me. I am sure I shall like you better than if-'
'Stay, stay, child,' he said, half laughing; 'remember, it is as a father that I ask you to love and trust the old recluse.'
