she asked, in alow tremulous voice.
'Was it something very wonderful, dear--or something as old as theworld we live in?'
'Not old to me, Mary--new and wonderful beyond all measure. I did notthink he cared for me--I had never dared to hope; for I have liked hima little for a long time, dear, though I don't suppose you ever thoughtso.'
'My dear girl, I have known it from the very beginning. There isnothing in the world more transparent than your thoughts about AngusEgerton have been to me.'
'O Mary, how could you! And I have been so careful to say nothing!' shecried reproachfully. 'But he loves me, dear. He has loved me for a longtime, he says; and he has asked me to be his wife.'
'What, after all those protestations about never asking a woman toshare his poverty?'
'Yes, Mary; and he meant what he said. He told me that if I had been apenniless girl, he should have proposed to me ever so long ago. And heis to see papa to-morrow.'
'Do you think Mr. Darrell will ever consent to such a marriage, Milly?'I asked gravely.
'Why should he not? He cannot go on thinking badly of Angus when everyone else thinks so well of him. You must have seen how he has softenedtowards him since they met. Mr. Egerton's old family and position arequite an equivalent for my money, whatever that may be. O Mary, I don'tthink papa can refuse his consent.'
'I am rather doubtful about that, Milly. It's one thing to like Mr.Egerton very well as a visitor--quite another to accept him as ason-in-law. Frankly, my dearest, I fear your father will be against thematch.'
'Mary,' cried Milly reproachfully, 'I can see what it is--you areprejudiced against Mr. Egerton.'
'I am only anxious for your welfare, darling. I like Mr. Egerton verymuch. It is difficult for any one to avoid liking him. But I confessthat I cannot bring myself to put entire trust in him.'
'Why not?'
I did not like to tell her the chief reason for my distrust--thatmysterious relation between Angus Egerton and Mrs. Darrell. The subjectwas a serious--almost a dangerous--one; and I had no positive evidenceto bring forward in proof of my fancy. It was a question of looks andwords that had been full of significance to me, but which might seem toMilly to mean very little.
'We cannot help our instinctive doubts, dear. But if you can trust Mr.Egerton, and if your father can trust him, my fancies can matter verylittle. I cannot stand between you and your love, dear--I know that.'
'But you can make me very unhappy by your doubts, Mary,' she answered.
I kissed her, and did my best to console her; but she was not easily tobe comforted, and left me in a half-sorrowful, half-angry mood. I haddisappointed her, she told me--she had felt so sure of my sympathy; andinstead of sharing her happiness, I had made her miserable by myfanciful doubts and gloomy forebodings. After she had gone, I sat bythe window for a long time, thinking of her disconsolately, and feelingmyself very guilty. But I had a fixed conviction that Mr. Darrell wouldrefuse to receive Angus Egerton as his daughter's suitor, and that thecourse of this love-affair was not destined to be a smooth one.
The result proved that I had been right. Mr. Egerton had a longinterview with Mr. Darrell in the library next morning, during whichhis proposal was most firmly rejected. Milly and I knew that he was inthe house, and my poor girl walked up and down our sitting-room withnervously clasped hands and an ashy pale face all the time those twowere together down-stairs.
She turned to me with a little piteous look when she heard AngusEgerton ride away from the front of the house.
'O Mary, what is my fate to be?' she asked. 'I think he has beenrejected. I do not think he would have gone away without seeing me ifthe interview had ended happily.'
A servant came to summon us both to the library. We went down together,Milly's cold hand clasped in mine.
Mr. Darrell was not alone. His wife was sitting with her back to thewindow, very pale, and with an angry brightness in her eyes.
'Sit down, Miss Crofton,' Mr. Darrell said very coldly; 'and you,Milly, come here.'
She went towards him with a slow faltering step, and sank down into thechair to which he pointed, looking at him all the time in an eagerbeseeching way that I think must have gone to his heart. He wasstanding with his back to the empty fireplace, and remained standingthroughout the interview.
'I think you know that I love you, Milly,' he began, 'and that yourhappiness is the chief desire of my mind.'
'I'm sure of that, papa.'
'And yet you have deceived me.'
'Deceived you? O papa, in what way?'
'By encouraging the hopes of a man whom you must have known I wouldnever receive as your husband; by suffering your feelings to becomeengaged, without one word of warning to me, and in a manner that youmust have known could not fail to be most obnoxious to me.'
'O papa, I did not know; it was only yesterday that Mr. Egerton spokefor the first time. There has been nothing hidden from you.'
'Nothing? Do you call your intimate acquaintance with this man nothing?He may have delayed any actual declaration until my return--with anartful appearance of consideration for me; but some kind of love-affairmust have been going on between you all the time.'
'No, indeed, papa; until yesterday there was never anything but themost ordinary acquaintance. Mary knows--'
'Pray don't appeal to Miss Crofton,' her father interrupted sternly.'Miss Crofton has done very wrong in encouraging this affair. MissCrofton heard my opinion of Angus Egerton a long time ago.'
'Mary has done nothing to encourage our acquaintance. It has beenaltogether a matter of accident from first to last. What have you saidto Mr. Egerton, papa? Tell me at once, please.'
She said this with a quiet firmness, looking bravely up at him all thewhile.
'I have told him that nothing would induce me to consent to such amarriage. I have forbidden him ever to see you again.'
'That seems very hard, papa.'
'I thought you knew my opinion of Mr. Egerton.'
'It would change if you knew more of him.'
'Never. I might like him very well as a member of society; I couldnever approve of him as a son-in-law. Besides, I have other views foryou--long-cherished views--which I hope you will not disappoint.'
'I don't know what you mean by that, papa; but I know that I can nevermarry any one except Mr. Egerton. I may never marry at all, if yourefuse to change your decision upon this subject; but I am quite sure Ishall never be the wife of any one else.'
Her father looked at her angrily. That hard expression about the lowerpart of the face, which I had noticed in his portrait and in himselffrom the very first, was intensified to-day. He looked a stern resoluteman, whose will was not to be moved by a daughter's pleading.
'We shall see about that by and by,' he said. 'I am not going to havemy plans defeated by a girl's folly. I have been a very indulgentfather, but I am not a weak or yielding one. You will have to obey me,Milly, or you will find yourself a substantial sufferer by and by.'
'If you mean that you will disinherit me, papa, I am quite willing thatyou should do that,' Milly answered resolutely. 'Perhaps you think Mr.Egerton cares for my fortune. Put him to the test, papa. Tell him thatyou will give me nothing, and that he may take me on that condition.'
Augusta Darrell turned upon her stepdaughter with a sudden look in herface that was almost like a flame.
'Do you think him so disinterested?' she asked. 'Have you such supremeconfidence in his affection?'
'Perfect confidence.'
'And you do not believe that mercenary considerations have any weightwith him? You do not think that he is eager to repair his shatteredfortunes? You think him all truth and devotion? He, a _blase_ man ofthe world, of three-and-thirty; a man who has outlived the possibilityof anything like a real attachment; a man who lavished his whole stockof feeling upon the one attachment of his youth.'
She said all this very quietly, but with a suppressed bitterness. Ithink it needed all her powers of restraint to keep her from somepassionate outb
urst that would have betrayed the secret of her life. Iwas now more than ever convinced that she had known Angus Egerton inthe past, and that she had loved him.
'You see, I am not afraid of his being put to the test,' Milly saidproudly. 'I know he loved some one very dearly, a long time ago. Hespoke of that yesterday. He told me that his old love had died out ofhis heart years ago.'
'He told you a lie,' cried Mrs. Darrell. 'Such things never die. Theysleep, perhaps--like the creatures that hide themselves in the groundand lie torpid all the winter--but with one breath of the past theyflame into life again.'
'I am not going to make any such foolish trial of your lover's
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