Waverley; Or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since

by Walter Scott

  CHAPTER LIV

  'TO ONE THING CONSTANT NEVER'

  'I am the very child of caprice,' said Waverley to himself, as he boltedthe door of his apartment, and paced it with hasty steps.--'What is itto me that Fergus Mac-Ivor should wish to marry Rose Bradwardine?--Ilove her not.--I might have been loved by her, perhaps; but I rejectedher simple, natural, and affecting attachment, instead of cherishing itinto tenderness, and dedicated myself to one who will never love mortalman, unless old Warwick, the King-maker, should arise from the dead.The Baron, too--I would not have cared about his estate, and so thename would have been no stumbling-block, The devil might have taken thebarren moors, and drawn off the royal CALIGAE, for anything I would haveminded. But, framed as she is for domestic affection and tenderness, forgiving and receiving all those kind and quiet attentions which sweetenlife to those who pass it together, she is sought by Fergus Mac-Ivor. Hewill not use her ill, to be sure--of that he is incapable--but he willneglect her after the first month; he will be too intent on subduingsome rival chieftain, or circumventing some favourite at court, ongaining some heathy hill and lake, or adding to his bands some new troopof caterans, to inquire what she does, or how she amuses herself.

  And then will canker sorrow eat her bud, And chase the native beauty from her cheek; And she will look as hollow as a ghost, And dim and meagre as an ague fit, And so she'll die.

  And such a catastrophe of the most gentle creature on earth might havebeen prevented, if Mr. Edward Waverley had had his eyes! Upon my word,I cannot understand how I thought Flora so much--that is, so verymuch--handsomer than Rose. She is taller, indeed, and her manner moreformed; but many people think Miss Bradwardine's more natural; and sheis certainly much younger. I should think Flora is two years older thanI am--I will look at them particularly this evening.'

  And with this resolution Waverley went to drink tea (as the fashion wasSixty Years since) at the house of a lady of quality attached to thecause of the Chevalier, where he found, as he expected, both the ladies.All rose as he entered, but Flora immediately resumed her place, andthe conversation in which she was engaged. Rose, on the contrary, almostimperceptibly, made a little way in the crowded circle for his advancingthe corner of a chair. 'Her manner, upon the whole, is most engaging,'said Waverley to himself.

  A dispute occurred whether the Gaelic or Italian language was mostliquid, and best adapted for poetry; the opinion for the Gaelic, whichprobably might not have found supporters elsewhere, was here fiercelydefended by seven Highland ladies, who talked at the top of their lungs,and screamed the company deaf, with examples of Celtic EUPHONIA. Flora,observing the Lowland ladies sneer at the comparison, produced somereasons to show that it was not altogether so absurd; but Rose, whenasked for her opinion, gave it with animation in praise of Italian,which she had studied with Waverley's assistance. 'She has a morecorrect ear than Flora, though a less accomplished musician,' saidWaverley to himself. 'I suppose Miss Mac-Ivor will next compareMac-Murrough nan Fonn to Ariosto!'

  Lastly, it so befell that the company differed whether Fergus shouldbe asked to perform on the flute, at which he was an adept, or Waverleyinvited to read a play of Shakespeare; and the lady of the housegood-humouredly undertook to collect the votes of the company for poetryor music, under the condition, that the gentleman whose talents were notlaid under contribution that evening, should contribute them to enliventhe next. It chanced that Rose had the casting vote. Now Flora, whoseemed to impose it as a rule upon herself never to countenance anyproposal which might seem to encourage Waverley, had voted for music,providing the Baron would take his violin to accompany Fergus. 'I wishyou joy of your taste, Miss Mac-Ivor,' thought Edward, as they soughtfor his book. 'I thought it better when we were at Glennaquoich; butcertainly the Baron is no great performer, and Shakespeare is worthlistening to.'

  ROMEO AND JULIET was selected, and Edward read with taste, feeling, andspirit, several scenes from that play. All the company applauded withtheir hands, and many with their tears. Flora, to whom the drama waswell known, was among the former; Rose, to whom it was altogether new,belonged to the latter class of admirers. 'She has more feeling, too,'said Waverley, internally.

  The conversation turning upon the incidents of the play, and upon thecharacters, Fergus declared that the only one worth naming, as a man offashion and spirit, was Mercutio. 'I could not,' he said, 'quite followall his old-fashioned wit, but he must have been a very pretty fellow,according to the ideas of his time.'

  'And it was a shame,' said Ensign Maccombich, who usually followed hisColonel everywhere, 'for that Tibbert, or Taggart, or whatever was hisname, to stick him under the other gentleman's arm while he was reddingthe fray.'

  The ladies, of course, declared loudly in favour of Romeo; but thisopinion did not go undisputed. The mistress of the house, and severalother ladies, severely reprobated the levity with which the herotransfers his affections from Rosalind to Juliet. Flora remained silentuntil her opinion was repeatedly requested, and then answered, shethought the circumstance objected to not only reconcilable to nature,but such as in the highest degree evinced the art of the poet. 'Romeois described,' said she, 'as a young man, peculiarly susceptible ofthe softer passions; his love is at first fixed upon a woman who couldafford it no return; this he repeatedly tells you,--

  From love's weak childish bow she lives unharmed;

  and again,--

  She hath forsworn to love.

  Now, as it was impossible that Romeo's love, supposing him a reasonablebeing, could continue to subsist without hope, the poet has, with greatart, seized the moment when he was reduced actually to despair, to throwin his way an object more accomplished than her by whom he had beenrejected, and who is disposed to repay his attachment. I can scarceconceive a situation more calculated to enhance the ardour of Romeo'saffection for Juliet, than his being at once raised by her from thestate of drooping melancholy in which he appears first upon the scene,to the ecstatic state in which he exclaims--

  --come what sorrow can, It cannot countervail the exchange of joy That one short moment gives me in her sight.'

  'Good, now, Miss Mac-Ivor,' said a young lady of quality, 'do you meanto cheat us out of our prerogative? will you persuade us love cannotsubsist-without hope, or that the lover must become fickle if the ladyis cruel? Oh, fie! I did not expect such an unsentimental conclusion.'

  'A lover, my dear Lady Betty,' said Flora, 'may, I conceive, perseverein his suit under very discouraging circumstances. Affection can (nowand then) withstand very severe storms of rigour, but not a long polarfrost of downright indifference. Don't, even with YOUR attractions, trythe experiment upon any lover whose faith you value. Love will subsiston wonderfully little hope, but not altogether without it.'

  'It will be just like Duncan Mac-Girdie's mare,' said Evan, 'if yourladyships please; he wanted to use her by degrees to live without meat,and just as he had put her on a straw a day, the poor thing died!'

  Evan's illustration set the company a-laughing, and the discourse tooka different turn. Shortly afterwards the party broke up, and Edwardreturned home, musing on what Flora had said. 'I will love my Rosalindno more,' said he: 'she has given me a broad enough hint for that; andI will speak to her brother, and resign my suit. But for a Juliet--wouldit be handsome to interfere with Fergus's pretensions?--though itis impossible they can ever succeed: and should they miscarry, whatthen?--why then ALORS COMME ALORS.' And with this resolution, of beingguided by circumstances, did our hero commit himself to repose.