CHAPTER VIII.
A SUDDEN BETROTHAL.
"As for myself," continued Mark Felt, "I stood crushed, and after thefirst torrent of emotion had swept by, lifted my head like a drowningman and looked wildly about, as if, in the catastrophe which overwhelmedme, all nature must have changed, and I should find myself in a strangeplace. The sight of the door through which Marah Leighton had passedstung me into tortured existence again. With a roar of passion and hateI sprang toward it, burst it open, and passed in. Instantly silence andsemi-darkness fell upon me, through which I felt her presence exhalingits wonted perfume, though I could see nothing but the dim shapes ofunaccustomed articles of furniture grouped against a window that wasalmost completely closed from the light of day.
"Advancing, I gazed upon chair after chair. They were all empty, and nottill I reached the further corner did I find her, thrown at full lengthupon a couch, with her head buried in her arms, and motionless as anystone. Confused, appalled even, for I had never seen her otherwise thanerect and mocking, I stumbled back, and would have fled, but that shesuddenly arose, and flinging back her head, gave me one look, which Ifelt rather than saw, and bursting into a peal of laughter, called me toaccount for disturbing the first minute of rest she had known that day.
"I was dumfounded. If she had consulted all her wiles, and sought forthe one best way to silence me, she could not have chanced on one surerthan this. I gazed at her quite helpless, and forgot--actuallyforgot--what had drawn me into her presence, and only asked to get agood glimpse of her face, which, in the dim light, was more like that ofa spirit than of a woman--a mocking spirit, in whom no love could lodge,whatever my fancy might have pictured in the delirium of the moment thathad just passed.
"She seemed to comprehend my mood, for she flung back the curtain anddrew herself up to her full height before me.
"'Did you think I was playing the coquette?' she asked. 'Well, perhaps Iwas; women like me must have their amusements; but--'
"Oh! the languishment in that _but_. I shut my eyes as I heard it. Icould neither bear its sound, nor the sight of her face.
"'You listened to him. He was making love to you--he, the promisedhusband of another; and you--'
"She forced me to open my eyes.
"'And I?' she repeated, with an indescribable emphasis that called upthe blushes to my cheek.
"'And you,' I went on, answering her demand without hesitation, 'thebeloved of an honest man who would die to keep you true, and will die ifyou play him false!'
"She sighed. Softness took the place of scorn; she involuntarily heldout her hand.
"I was amazed; she had never done so much before. I seized that hand, Ipressed it wildly, hungrily, and with lingering fondness.
"'Do you not know that you are everything to me?' I asked. 'That to winyou I am ready to do everything, barter anything, suffer anything butshame! You are my fate, Marah; will you not let me be yours?'
"She was silent; she had drawn her hand from mine and had locked it inits fellow, and now stood with them hanging down before her, fixed as astatue, in a reverie I could neither fathom nor break.
"'You are beautiful,' I went on, 'too beautiful for me; but I love you.You are proud, also, and would grace the noblest palaces of the oldworld; but they are far away, and my home is near and eager to welcomeyou. You are dainty and have never taught your hands to toil, or yourfeet to walk our common earth; but there are affections that sweetenlabor, and under my roof you will be so honored, so aided and sobeloved, that you will soon learn there are pleasures of the firesidethat can compensate for its cares, and triumphs of the affections thatare beyond the dignities of outside life.'
"Her lip curled and her hands parted. She lifted one rosy palm andlooked at it, then she glanced at me.
"'I shall never work,' she said.
"My heart contracted, but I could not give her up. Madness as it was toput faith and life in the grasp of such a woman, I was too little of aman or too much of a one to turn my back upon a hope which, even in itsrealization, could bring me nothing but pain.
"'You shall not work,' I declared. And I meant it. If I died she shouldnot handle anything harsher than rose leaves in her new home.
"'You want me?' She breathed it. I stood in a gasp of hope and fear.
"'More than I want heaven! Or, rather, you are my heaven.'
"'We will be married before Honora,' she murmured. And gliding from myside before I had recovered from the shock of a promise so unexpected, abliss so unforeseen and immediate, she vanished from my sight, andnothing but the perfume which lingered behind her remained to tell methat it was not all a dream, and I the most presumptuous being alive.
"And so the hour that opened in disaster ended in joy; and from theheart of what I deemed an irredeemable disaster rose a hope that forseveral days put wings to my feet. Then something began to tarnish mydelight, an impalpable dread seized me, and though I worked with loveand fury upon my house, which I had begun adorning for my bride, I beganto question if she had played the coquette in smiling upon EdwinUrquhart, and whether in the mockery of the laugh with which she haddismissed my accusations there had not been some regret for a love shedared not entertain, but yet suffered to lose. The memory of the glow inher eyes, as she turned away from him at my step, returned with growingpower, and I decided that if this were coquetry, it were sweeter thanlove, and longed to ask her to play the coquette with me. But she neverdid, and though she did not smile upon him again in my presence, I feltthat her beauty was more bewildering, her voice more enchanting, when hewas in the room with us than when chance or my purpose found us alone.To settle my doubts, I left watching her and began to watch him, andwhen I found that he betrayed nothing, I turned my attention from themboth and bestowed it upon Miss Dudleigh."
The Forsaken Inn: A Novel Page 8
