Love Me Little, Love Me Long Part 15

Talboys shrugged his shoulders; he was but half convinced. "Her enthusiasm when the cub sc.r.a.ped the fiddle went beyond mere politeness."

"Beyond other people's, you mean. Nothing on earth ever went beyond hers--ha! ha! ha! To-morrow night, if you like, we will have my gardener, Jack Absolom, in to tea."

"No, I thank you. I have no wish to go beyond Mr. and Miss Dodd."

"Oh, only for an experiment. The first minute Jack will be wretched, and want to sink through the floor; but in five minutes you will fancy Lucy will have made Jack Absolom at home in my drawing-room. He will be laying down the law about Jonquilles, and she all sweetness, curiosity, and enthusiasm outside--_ennui_ in."

"Can her eyes glisten out of politeness?" inquired Talboys, with a subdued sneer.

"Why not?"

"They could shed tears, perhaps, for the same motive?" said Talboys, with crus.h.i.+ng irony.

"Well! Hum! I'd back them at four to seven."

Mr. Talboys was silent, and his manner showed that he was a little mortified at a subject turning to joke which he had commenced seriously. He must stop this annoyance. He said severely, "It is time to come to an understanding with you."

At these words, and, above all, at their solemn tone, the senior p.r.i.c.ked his ears and prepared his social diplomacy.

"I have visited very frequently at your house, Mr. Fountain."

"Never without being welcome, my dear sir."

"You have, I think, divined one reason of my very frequent visits here."

"I have not been vain enough to attribute them entirely to my own attractions."

"You approve the homage I render to that other attraction?"

"Unfeignedly."

"Am I so fortunate as to have her suffrage, too?"

"I have no better means of knowing than you have."

"Indeed! I was in hopes you might have sounded her inclinations."

"I have scrupulously avoided it," replied the veteran. "I had no right to compromise you upon mere conjecture, however reasonable. I awaited your authority to take any move in so delicate a matter. Can you blame me? On one side my friend's dignity, on the other a young lady's peace of mind, and that young lady my brother's daughter."

"You were right, my dear sir; I see and appreciate your reserve, your delicacy, though I am about to remove its cause. I declare myself to you your niece's admirer; have I your permission to address her?"

"You have, and my warmest wishes for your success."

"Thank you. I think I may hope to succeed, provided I have a fair chance afforded me."

"I will take care you shall have that."

"I should prefer not to have others buzzing about the lady whose affection I am just beginning to gain."

"You pay this poor sailor an amazing compliment," said Mr. Fountain, a little testily; "if he admires Lucy it can only be as a puppy is struck with the moon above. The moon does not respond to all this wonder by descending into the whelp's jaws--no more will my niece. But that is neither here nor there; you are now her declared suitor, and you have a right to stipulate; in short, you have only to say the word, and 'exeunt Dodds,' as the play-books say."

"Dodds? I have no objection to the lady. Would it not be possible to invite her to tea alone?"

"Quite possible, but useless. She would not stir out without her brother."

"She seems a little person likely to give herself airs. Well, then, in that case, though as you say I am no doubt raising Mr. Dodd to a false importance, still--"

"Say no more; we should indulge the whims of our friends, not attack them with reasons. You will see the Dodds no more in my house."

"Oh, as to that, just as you please. Perhaps they would be as well out of it," said Talboys, with a sudden affectation of carelessness. "I must not take you too far. Good-night."

"Go-o-d night!"

Poor David. He was to learn how little real hold upon society has the man who can only instruct and delight it.

Mr. Fountain bustled home, rubbing his hands with delight. "Aha!"

thought he; "jealous! actually jealous! absurdly jealous! That is a good sign. Who would have thought so proud a man could be jealous of a sailor? I have found out your vulnerable point, my friend. I'll tell Lucy; how she will laugh. David Dodd! Now we know how to manage him, Lucy and I. If he freezes back again, we have but to send for David Dodd and his fiddle." He bustled home, and up into the drawing-room to tell Lucy Mr. Talboys had at last declared himself. His heart felt warm. He would settle six thousand pounds on Mrs. Talboys during his life and his whole fortune after his death.

He found the drawing-room empty. He rang the bell. "Where is Miss Fountain?" John didn't know, but supposed she had gone to her room.

"You don't know? You never know anything. Send her maid to me."

The maid came and courtesied demurely at the door.

"Tell your mistress I want to speak to her directly--before she undresses."

The maid went out, and soon returned to say that her mistress had retired to rest; but that, if he pleased, she would rise, and just make a demi-toilet, and come to him. This smooth and fair-sounding proposal was not, I grieve to say, so graciously received as offered.

"Much obliged," snapped old Fountain. "Her _demi-toilette_ will keep me another hour out of my bed, and I get no sleep after dinner now _among you._ Tell her to-morrow at breakfast time will do."

CHAPTER IV.

DAVID DODD was so radiant and happy for a day or two that Eve had not the heart to throw cold water on him again.

Three days elapsed, and no invitation to Font Abbey; on this his happiness cooled of itself. But when day after day rolled by, and no Font Abbey, he was dashed, uneasy, and, above all, perplexed. What could be the reason? Had he, with his rough ways, offended her? Had she been too dignified to resent it at the time? Was he never to go to Font Abbey again? Eve's first feeling was unmixed satisfaction. We have seen already that she expected no good from this rash attachment.

For a single moment her influence and reasons had seemed to wean David from it; but his violent agitation and joy at two words of kindly curiosity from Miss Fountain, and the instant unreasonable revival of love and hope, showed the strange power she had acquired over him. It made Eve tremble.

But now the Fountains were aiding her to cure this folly. She had read them right, had described them to David aright. A wind of caprice had carried him and her into Font Abbey; another such wind was carrying them out. No event had happened. Mr. and Miss Fountain had been seen more than once in the village of late. "They have dropped us, and thank Heaven!" said Eve, in her idiomatic way.

She pitied David deeply, and was kinder and kinder to him now, to show him she felt for him; but she never mentioned the Font Abbey people to him either to praise or blame them, though it was all she could do to suppress her satisfaction at the turn their insolent caprice had taken.

That satisfaction was soon clouded. This time, instead of rousing himself and his pride, David sank into a moody despondency; varied by occasional fretfulness. His appet.i.te went, and his bright color, and his elastic step. This silent sadness was so new in him, such a contrast to his natural temperature, large, genial, and ever cheerful, that Eve could not bear it. "I must shake him out of this, at all hazards," thought she: yet she put off the experiment, and put it off, partly in hopes that David would speak first, partly because she saw the wound she would probe was deep, and she winced beforehand for her patient.

Meantime, prolonged doubt and suspense now goaded with their intolerable stings the active spirit that chill misgivings had at first benumbed. Spurred into action by these torments, David had already watched several days in the neighborhood of Font Abbey, determined to speak to Miss Fountain, and find out whether he had given her offense; for this was still his uppermost idea. Having failed in this attempt at an interview with her, he was now meditating a more resolute course, and he paced the little gravel-walk at home debating in himself the pros and cons. Raising his head suddenly, he saw his sister walking slowly at the other end of the path. She was coming toward him, but her eyes were bent thoughtfully on the ground.

David slipped behind some bushes, not to have his unhappiness and his meditations interrupted. The lover and the lunatic have points in common.

He had been there some time when a grave little voice spoke quietly to him from the lawn. "David, I want to speak to you." David came out.