CHAPTER XIV.
QUIMBY ACCEPTS THE SITUATION.
When Quimby rushed out into the street, it was with some wild andindefinite intention of flying to the ends of the earth, but recalled tohis senses by the stares of the passers-by, he concluded he had betterfirst return and get his hat. When he reached his own room, where Clemwas thoughtfully pacing the floor, he flung himself face downwards uponthe bed, groaning and kicking his feet spasmodically.
"What is the matter?" Clem inquired.
"I've done it now! I've done it now!" was all the answer Quimby gavehim.
"Has she rejected you?" asked Clem, his mind going back to theirmorning's conversation.
"No! no! she has accepted me!" wailed Quimby, with a prodigious kick.
"_What!_" shouted Clem, stopping short in his promenade.
"She has! Oh, she has!" moaned the wretched victim of mistakes. "I amengaged! Oh, heavens! engaged!"
"Do you mean to tell me that Miss Rogers has accepted you?" inquiredClem harshly.
This name completely unmanned poor Quimby, and he began to cry like aschool-boy.
"Miss Rogers!--No! never--never! but _she_--Celeste!"
"Celeste!" echoed Clem; "Celeste!"
"Yes! I--oh!--I made a mistake, you know!" explained Quimby, wiping hiseyes on the bedspread.
An irresistible smile, but quickly suppressed, curved Clem's lips as heasked,
"But how could you possibly make such a mistake as that? Come, cheer up,my boy, tell me, and let me help you out!"
Quimby looked at him mournfully.
"It--it was dark," he answered dejectedly, "she sat in the chair--thelost Nattie I mean, it was she, for she spoke to me! Why did I not seizethe chance then? But no! I left her to--to rehearse a little first, andwhen I returned--Oh!--it was still dark, and I did not know atransformation had been effected--I burst forth in eloquence,and--oh!--it was Celeste, you know! I fled--she followed,--caught andhugged me in the hall! Her father saw--roared 'Marry her' and I--therewas no escape, you know!"
"But, my dear fellow," remonstrated Clem, "you can explain the mistake!you are not obliged to marry Celeste because you accidentally proposedto her!"
Quimby shook his head hopelessly.
"She--she--would sue me for breach of promise you know, and takeall--all my little property! And her terrific father--I don't know whathe would not do to me! Only one thing could make me brave all!--If MissRogers--Nattie, would say it might have been, had not this fearfulmistake occurred, I would face even old Fishblate and break all bonds."
"Dear old fellow, I am afraid she--Nattie would have rejected you, inany case. She is--a flirt!" said Clem, somewhat savagely. "She leadspeople on, for the sake of dropping them, when it suits herconvenience!"
"I--now really, I--I cannot think that; even though she had rejected me,I could not think _that!_" said Quimby, loyally; then with suddendecision, "I will settle it now! If I had not put it off before, as Idid, I might not have blundered into this awful fix, you know! I hearthem in Cyn's room now; Cyn and Nattie; come with me! I--I will havewitnesses, and no mistakes this time, you know!"
"What are you going to do?" asked Clem, following his excited friend,rather reluctantly.
"I am going to find out if she--Nattie--likes me, you know! if she does,I will brave Celeste--her fierce father--the law! if not--why then, Imust be a martyr anyway, you know, and I don't care how big a one I am!"
So saying, Quimby went across to Cyn's room, Clem, not exactly likingthe position thrust upon him, but unwilling to refuse, accompanying him.
Meanwhile, Nattie had pounced upon Cyn, the moment she returned,exclaiming,
"Oh! Cyn! such a dreadful thing has happened!"
"What? how? when?" asked Cyn, while, from the effects of the melodramashe had just been witnessing, visions of Clem, with a dozen bullets inhis head, danced before her eyes.
"Quimby! poor Quimby! I have ruined him!" was Nattie's remorseful andunintelligible answer.
"Well, my dear, if you could possibly be a trifle lucid, perhaps I couldunderstand the plot of the piece," said Cyn, decidedly relieved of herfirst surmise.
Upon which Nattie, half laughing and half crying, explained. But theludicrous side was too much for Cyn, and she could only laugh.
"What a farce it would make!" she said, as soon as she could speak.
"Oh, Cyn!" Nattie said, reproachfully. "Think how dreadful it is forQuimby, and for me, the un-meaning instrument of it all!"
"Nonsense, my dear," said Cyn, more seriously, and bringing herphilosophy to bear on the subject, "It was not your fault! she wasdetermined to have him in any case! Had it been you, as he supposed, youwould of course have declined the proffered honor, and she would havecaught him in the rebound! If he has spirit enough, he can get out ofmarrying her in some way. If not--she will make him a good wife enough.Men, you know, as she says, prefer to marry women who don't know toomuch; so it is all right!"
And with this Nattie was fain to be content. But she felt great pity forthe poor fellow; perhaps because of the unhappiness in her own heart.
It is only from the depths of our own sorrows that we learn to feel forthat of others.
As Quimby and Clem entered, both Nattie and Cyn looked surprised andcurious, but Quimby, so excited now that his usual nervous bashfulnesswas forgotten, said immediately,
"I--I beg pardon, I am sure, for calling so late, but my business willnot wait, and I wanted Clem as witness--he and Cyn--so as to make nomistake now!" then turning to the astonished Nattie, he went on,
"Nattie, I--I--my feelings for you have long been of--of adoration--no,please, hear me--" as she made a gesture to interrupt him. "To-night, inthis room, I addressed another--Celeste--" here he groaned, butrecovered himself and went on, "in the dark, you know, with wordsintended for you. I want to know now, what, had I not been so deceived,you would have said?"
"But what difference can it make now?" asked Nattie, hesitating, andwishing to spare him, as he paused for a reply.
"Every difference!" said Quimby, wildly. "I beg you to--to answer metruly, in order that I may know what course to take!"
"Then since you wish," replied Nattie, with a pitying glance, "I willtell you that as a friend I think very highly of you, and always shall.But, that is all."
"Then come on, Celeste!" exclaimed Quimby, in a burst of despair."She--she says, she loves me, and I--I may get used to it in time! allbut her teeth," he added, in his strict honesty, "to those I never can!"
Cyn felt a mischievous desire to hint that time might relieve him of hisobjection, but restrained herself and said,
"But you can explain the matter to her, you know!"
"Just what I have been telling him," said Clem. "No woman would forceherself on a man under such circumstances!"
"She would, I feel it!" answered the unconvinced Quimby. "MissRogers--Nattie, I--I thank you, I--I shall always remember you assomething unattainable and dear, and hope somebody more worthy may be toyou what I would have been if I could. But I--I was born to makemistakes, you know, and I--I am used to it--and ought to be thankful itwas not Miss Kling!"
"I am very, very sorry!" murmured Nattie, and Clem saw there were tearsin her eyes.
"Moral--never make love in the dark!" said Cyn, looking with solemnwarning at Clem.
"Be sure that all--all the gas in the room is lighted if ever youpropose!" added Quimby, miserably, to his friend.
"I will remember," said Clem, glancing at Nattie. "There are worsemistakes made in the dark than on the wire, it seems!"
"Far--far worse!" groaned Quimby, as Nattie hastily turned her headaside.
"But now, really, Quimby!" urged Cyn, seriously, "do be sensible. Do notbe foolish enough to marry a woman you do not want, because you cannothave the one you do!"
But Quimby, with the fear of old Fishblate, and a breach of promisesuit, and a dread of explanations in his mind--moreover, having firmlydecided that a little more or less of misery did not matter, could notbe pe
rsuaded to take any steps himself, or allow them to be taken, tofree himself from the result of his latest mistake.
Therefore, it came about, to the surprise of those not in the secret,and the unconcealed exultation of one of the parties immediatelyconcerned, that the engagement of Quimby and Celeste was announced.
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