“You can go in now, Miss Isa,” he said. And Isa found herself in the presence of her uncle before she had been two minutes under the roof. In the meantime Ernest Heine, her father, had said not a word, and Herbert knew that something very special must be about to occur.
“Well, my bonny bird,” said Uncle Hatto, “and what do you want at the bank?” Cheery words, such as these, were by no means uncommon with Uncle Hatto; but Isa knew very well that no presage could be drawn from them of any special good nature or temporary weakness on his part.
“Uncle Hatto,” she began, rushing at once into the middle of her affair, “you know, I believe, that I am engaged to marry Herbert Onslow?”
“I know no such thing,” said he. “I thought I understood your father specially to say that there had been no betrothal.”
“No, Uncle Hatto, there has been no betrothal; that certainly is true; but, nevertheless, we are engaged to each other.”
“Well,” said Uncle Hatto, very sourly; and now there was no longer any cheery tone, or any calling of pretty names.
“Perhaps you may think all this very foolish,” said Isa, who, in spite of her resolves to do so, was hardly able to look up gallantly into her uncle’s face as she thus talked of her own love affairs.
“Yes, I do,” said Uncle Hatto. “I do think it foolish for young people to hold themselves betrothed before they have got anything to live on, and so I have told your father. He answered me by saying that you were not betrothed.”
“Nor are we. Papa is quite right in that.”
“Then, my dear, I would advise you to tell the young man that, as neither of you have means of your own, the thing must be at an end. It is the only step for you to take. If you agreed to wait, one of you might die, or his money might never be forthcoming, or you might see somebody else that you liked better.”
“I don’t think I shall do that.”
“You can’t tell. And if you don’t, the chances are ten to one that he will.”
This little blow, which was intended to be severe, did not hit Isa at all hard. That plan of a Rose Bradwardine she herself had proposed in good faith, thinking that she could endure such a termination to the affair without flinching. She was probably wrong in this estimate of her power; but, nevertheless, her present object was his release from unhappiness and doubt, not her own.
“It might be so,” she said.
“Take my word for it, it would. Look all around. There was Adelaide Schropner—but that was before your time, and you would not remember.” Considering that Adelaide Schropner had been for many years a grandmother, it was probable that Isa would not remember.
“But, Uncle Hatto, you have not heard me. I want to say something to you, if it will not take too much of your time.” In answer to which, Uncle Hatto muttered something which was unheeded, to signify that Isa might speak.
“I also think that a long engagement is a foolish thing, and so does Herbert.”
“But he wants to marry at once.”
“Yes, he wants to marry—perhaps not at once, but soon.”
“And I suppose you have come to say that you want the same thing.”
Isa blushed ever so faintly as she commenced her answer. “Yes, uncle, I do wish the same thing. What he wishes, I wish.”
“Very likely—very likely.”
“Don’t be scornful to me, uncle. When two people love each other, it is natural that each should wish that which the other earnestly desires.”
“Oh, very natural, my dear, that you should wish to get married!”
“Uncle Hatto, I did not think that you would be unkind to me, though I knew that you would be stern.”
“Well, go on. What have you to say? I am not stern; but I have no doubt you will think me unkind. People are always unkind who do not do what they are asked.”
“Papa says that Herbert Onslow is some day to become a partner in the bank.”
“That depends on certain circumstances. Neither I nor your papa can say whether he will or no.”
But Isa went on as though she had not heard the last reply. “I have come to ask you to admit him as a partner at once.”
“Ah, I supposed so;—just as you might ask me to give you a new ribbon.”
“But uncle, I never did ask you to give me a new ribbon. I never asked you to give me anything for myself; nor do I ask this for myself.”
“Do you think that if I could do it—which of course I can’t—I would not sooner do it for you, who are my own flesh and blood, than for him, who is a stranger?”
“Nay; he is no stranger. He has sat at your desk and obeyed your orders for nearly four years. Papa says that he has done well in the bank.”
“Humph! If every clerk that does well—pretty well, that is—wanted a partnership, where should we be, my dear? No, my dear, go home and tell him when you see him in the evening that all this must be at an end. Men’s places in the world are not given away so easily as that. They must either be earned or purchased. Herbert Onslow has as yet done neither, and therefore he is not entitled to take a wife. I should have been glad to have had a wife at his age—at least I suppose I should, but at any rate I could not afford it.”
But Isa had by no means as yet done. So far the interview had progressed exactly as she had anticipated. She had never supposed it possible that her uncle would grant
