of her remonstrances, all of which he had referred to her maternal dislike of his absence, rather than to his association with the Principal, a writer whose articles she kept out of reach of Armine and Barbara.
The matter had become irrevocable and beyond discussion, as he intended, before his return to Belforest, which he only notified by the post of the morning before he walked into luncheon. By that time it was a fait accompli, and there was nothing to be done but to enter on a lively discussion on the polite manners and customs of the two- sworded nation and the wonderful volcanoes he hoped to explore.
Perhaps one reason that his notice was so short was that there might be the less time for Kencroft to be put on its guard. Thus, when, by accident of course, he strolled towards the lodge, he found his cousin Esther in the wood, with no guardians but the three youngest children, who had coaxed her, in spite of the heat, to bring them to the slopes of wood strawberries on their weekly half-holiday.
He had seen nothing, but had only been guided by the sound of voices to the top of the sloping wooded bank, where, under the shade of the oak-trees, looking over the tall spreading brackens, he beheld Essie in her pretty gipsy hat and holland dress, with all her bird-like daintiness, kneeling on the moss far below him, threading the scarlet beads on bents of grass, with the little ones round her.
'I heard a chattering,' he said, as, descending through the fern, he met her dark eyes looking up like those of a startled fawn; 'so I came to see whether the rabbits had found tongues. How many more are there? No, thank you,' as Edmund and Lina answered his greeting with an offer of very moist-looking fruit, and an ungrammatical 'Only us.'
'Then _us_ run away. They grow thick up that bank, and I've got a prize here for whoever keeps away longest. No, you shan't see what it is. Any one who comes asking questions will lose it. Run away, Lina, you'll miss your chance. No, no, Essie, you are not a competitor.'
'I must, Robert; indeed I must.'
'Can't you spare me a moment when I am come down for my last farewell visit?'
'But you are not going for a good while yet.'
'So you call it, but it will seem short enough. Did you ever hear of minutes seeming like diamond drops meted out, Essie?'
'But, you know, it is your own doing,' said Essie.
'Yes, and why, Essie? Because misfortune has made such an exile as this the readiest mode of ceasing to be a burden to my mother.'
'Papa said he was glad of it,' said Esther, 'and that you were quite right. But it is a terrible way off!'
'True! but there is one consideration that will make up to me for everything.'
'That it is for Aunt Caroline!'
'Partly, but do you not know the hope which makes all work sweet to me?' And the look of his eyes, and his hand seeking hers, made her say,
'Oh don't, Robert, I mustn't.'
'Nay, my queen, you were too duteous to hearken to me when I was rich and prosperous. I would not torment you then, I meant to be patient; but now I am poor and going into banishment, you will be generous and compassionate, and let me hear the one word that will make my exile sweet.'
'I don't think I ought,' said the poor child under her breath. '0, Robert, don't you know I ought not.'
'Would you if that ugly cypher of an ought did not stand in the way?'
'Oh don't ask me, Robert; I don't know.'
'But I do know, my queen,' said he. 'I know my little Essie better than she knows herself. I know her true heart is mine, only she dares not avow it to herself; and when hearts have so met, Esther, they owe one another a higher duty than the filial tie can impose.'
'I never heard that before,' she said, puzzled, but not angered.
'No, it is not a doctrine taught in schoolrooms, but it is true and universal for all that, and our fathers and mothers acted on it in their day, and will give way to it now.'
Esther had never been told all her father's objections to her cousin. Simple prohibition had seemed to her parents sufficient for the gentle, dutiful child. Bobus had always been very kind to her, and her heart went out enough to him in his trouble to make coldness impossible to her. Tears welled into her eyes with perplexity at the new theory, and she could only falter out-
'That doesn't seem right for me.'
'Say one word and trust to me, and it shall be right. Yes, Esther, say the word, and in it I shall be strong to overcome everything, and win the consent you desire. Say only that, with it, you would love me.'
'If?' said Esther.
It was an interrogative _if,_ and she did not mean it for 'the one word,' but Bobus caught at it as all he wanted. He meant it for the fulcrum on which to rest the strong lever of his will, and before Esther could add any qualification, he was overwhelming her with thanks and assurances so fervent that she could interpose no more doubts, and yielded to the sweetness of being able to make any one so happy, above all the cousin whom most people thought so formidably clever.
Edmund interrupted them by rushing up, thus losing the prize, which was won by the last comer, and proved to be a splendid bonbon; but there was consolation for the others, since Bobus had laid in a supply as a means of securing peace.
He would fain have waited to rivet his chains before manifesting them, but he knew Essie too well to expect her to keep the interview a secret; and he had no time to lose if, as he intended, though he had not told her so, he was to take her to Japan with him.
So he stormed the castle without delay, walked to Kencroft with the strawberry gatherers, found the Colonel superintending the watering of his garden, and, with effrontery of which Essie was unconscious, led her up, and announced their mutual love, as though secure of an ardent welcome.
He did, mayhap, expect to surprise something of the kind out of his slowly-moving uncle, but the only answer was a strongly accentuated 'Indeed! I thought I had told you both that I would have none of this foolery. Esther, I am ashamed of you. Go in directly.'
The girl repaired to her own room to weep floods of tears over her father's anger, and the disobedience that made itself apparent as soon as she was beyond the spell of that specious tongue. There were a few fears too for his disappointment; but when her mother came up in great displeasure, the first words were-
'O, mamma, I could not help it!'
'You could not prevent his accosting you, but you might have prevented his giving all this trouble to papa. You know we should never allow it.'
'Indeed I only said if!'
'You had no right to say anything. When a young lady knows a man is not to be encouraged, she should say nothing to give him an advantage. You could never expect us to let you go to a barbarous place at the other end of the world with a man of as good as no religion at all.'
'He goes to church,' said Essie, too simple to look beyond.
'Only here, to please his mother. My dear, you must put this out of your head. Even if he were very different, we should never let you marry a first cousin, and he knows it. It was very wrong in him to have spoken to you.'
'Please don't let him do it again,' said Esther, faintly.
'That's right, my dear,' with a kiss of forgiveness. 'I am sure you are too good a girl really to care for him.'
'I wish he would not care for me,' sighed poor Essie, wearily. 'He always was so kind, and now they are in trouble I couldn't vex him.'
'Oh, my dear, young men get over things of this sort half a dozen times in their lives.'
Essie was not delighted with this mode of consolation, and when her mother tenderly smoothed back her hair, and bade her bathe her face and dress for dinner, she clung to her and said-
'Don't let me see him again.'
It was a wholesome dread, which Mrs. Brownlow encouraged, for both she and her husband were annoyed and perplexed by Robert's cool reception of their refusal. He quietly declared that he could allow for their prejudices, and that it was merely a matter of time, and he was provokingly calm and secure, showing neither anger nor disappointment. He did not argue, but having once shown that his salary warranted his offer, that the climate was
