Emmeline Part 69

'And how,' enquired G.o.dolphin, 'did you accomplish it?'

'Why my Lord Westhaven, to whom I applied at Paris, protested that he did not know; so remembering the name of le Marquis de Montreville, I wrote to him to know where I might wait on Mademoiselle Mowbray.

Monseigneur le Marquis being at his country house, did not immediately answer my letter. At length I had a card from him, which he had the complaisance to send by a gentleman, un Monsieur--Monsieur _Croff_, who invited me to his house, and introduced me to Milady _Croff_, his wife, who is daughter to Milor Montreville. _Mon Dieu! que cette femme la, est vive, aimable; qu'elle a l'air du monde, et de la bonne compagnie._'[40]

'You think Lady Frances Crofts, then, handsomer than her sister?' asked G.o.dolphin.

'_Mais non--elle n'est pas peut-etre si belle--mais elle a cependant un certain air. Enfin--je la trouve charmante._'[41]

G.o.dolphin then continuing to question him, found that the Crofts' had invited Bellozane with an intention of getting from him the purpose of his journey, and what his business was with Emmeline; and finding that it was his gallantry only brought him over, and that he knew nothing of the late Mr. Mowbray's affairs, had no longer made any attempt to oppose his seeing her.

G.o.dolphin, tho' he believed Emmeline not only indifferent but averse to him, was yet much disquieted at finding she was likely again to be exposed to his importunities. He trembled least if he discovered her intentions of going to East Cliff, he should follow her thither; for which his relations.h.i.+p to Lady Adelina would furnish him with a pretence; and desirous of getting him away as soon as possible, he asked if he would dine with him at his lodgings.

Bellozane answered that he was already engaged to Mr. Crofts'; and then turning to Emmeline, offered to take her hand; and enquired whether she had a softer heart than when she left Besancon?

Emmeline drew away her hand; and very gravely entreated him to say no more on a subject already so frequently discussed, and on which her sentiments must ever be the same. Bellozane gaily protested that he had been too long a soldier to be easily repulsed. That he would wait on her the next day, and doubted not but he should find her more favourably disposed. '_Je reviendrai demain vous offrir encore mon hommage. Adieu!

nymphe belle et cruelle. La chaine que je porte fera toute ma gloire._'[42] He then s.n.a.t.c.hed her hand, which in spite of her efforts he kissed, and with his usual gaiety went away, accompanied by G.o.dolphin.

Hardly had Emmeline time to recollect her dissipated spirits after the warm and serious address of G.o.dolphin, and to feel vexation and disgust at the presumptuous forwardness of Bellozane, from which she apprehended much future trouble, before a note was brought from Mrs. Stafford, to inform her, that after waiting some hours at the house of the attorney she employed, the people who were to meet her had disappointed her, and that there was no prospect of her getting her business done till a late hour in the evening; she therefore desired Emmeline to dine without her, and not to expect her till ten or eleven at night.

As it was now between four and five, she ordered up her dinner, and was sitting down to it alone, when G.o.dolphin again entered the room.

Vexation was marked in his countenance: he seemed hurried; and having apologized for again interrupting her, tho' he did not account for his return, he sat down.

'Surely,' cried Emmeline, alarmed, 'you have heard nothing unpleasant from France?'

'Nothing, upon my honour,' answered he. 'The account the Chevalier gives is indeed far from satisfactory, yet I am persuaded there is nothing particularly amiss, or we should have heard.'

'It is that consideration only which has made me tolerably easy. Yet it is strange I have no letter from Lady Westhaven. Will you dine with me?'

added Emmeline. It was indeed hardly possible to avoid asking him, as Le Limosin at that moment brought up the dinner.

'Where is Mrs. Stafford?' said he.

'Detained in the city.'

'And you dine alone, and will allow me the happiness of dining with you?'

'Certainly,' replied Emmeline, blus.h.i.+ng, 'if you will favour me with your company.'

G.o.dolphin then placed himself at the end of the table; and in the pleasure of being with her, thus unmarked by others, and considering her invitation as an a.s.surance that his declaration of the morning was favourably received, he forgot the chagrin which hung upon him at his first entrance, and thought only of the means by which he might perpetuate the happiness he now possessed.

Emmeline tried to shake off, in common conversation, her extreme embarra.s.sment. But when dinner was over, and Le Limosin left the room, in whose presence she felt a sort of protection, she foresaw that she must again hear G.o.dolphin, and that it would be almost impossible to evade answering him.

She now repented of having asked him to dine with her; then blamed herself for the reserve and coldness with which she had almost always treated a man, who, deserving all her affections, had so long possessed them.

But the idea of poor Delamere--of his sadness, his despair, arose before her, and was succeeded by yet more frightful images of the consequences that might follow his frantic pa.s.sions. And impressed at once with pity and terror, she again resolved to keep, if it were possible, the true state of her heart from the knowledge of G.o.dolphin.

'I have seldom seen one of my relations with so little pleasure,' said he, after the servant had withdrawn, 'as I to day met my volatile cousin de Bellozane. I hoped he would have persecuted you no farther with a pa.s.sion to which I think you are not disposed to listen.'

'I certainly never intend it.'

'Pardon me then, dearest Miss Mowbray, if I solicit leave to renew the conversation his abrupt entrance broke off. You had the goodness to say you had some esteem for my character--Ah! tell me, if on that esteem I may presume to build those hopes which alone can give value to the rest of my life?'

Emmeline, who saw he expected an answer, attempted to speak; but the half-formed words died away on her lips. It was not thus she was used to receive the addresses of Delamere: her heart then left her reason and her resolution at liberty, but now the violence of it's sensations deprived her of all power of uttering sentiments foreign to it, or concealing those it really felt.

G.o.dolphin drew from this charming confusion a favourable omen.--'You hear me not with anger, lovely Emmeline!' cried he--'You allow me, then, to hope?'

'I can only repeat, Sir,' said Emmeline, in a voice hardly audible, 'that until I am of age, I have resolved to hear nothing on this subject.'

'And why not? Are you not now nearly as independant as you will be then?'

'Alas!' said Emmeline, 'I am indeed!--for my uncle concerns not himself about me, and it is doubtful whether he will do me even the justice to acknowledge me.'

'He must, he shall!' replied G.o.dolphin warmly--'Ah! entrust me with your interest; let me, in the character of the fortunate man whom you allow to hope for your favour--let me apply to him for justice.'

'That any one should make such an application, except Lord Westhaven, is what I greatly wish to avoid. I shall most reluctantly appeal to the interference of friends; and still more to that of _law_. The last is, you know, very uncertain. And instead of the heiress to the estate of my father, as I have lately been taught to believe myself, I may be found still to be the poor dest.i.tute orphan, so long dependant on the bounty of my uncle.'

'And as such,' cried G.o.dolphin, greatly animated, 'you will be dearer to me than my existence! Yes! Emmeline; whether you are mistress of thousands, or friendless, portionless and deserted, your power over this heart is equally absolute--equally fixed! Ah! suffer not any consideration that relates to the uncertainty of your situation, to delay a moment the permission you must, you will give me, to avow my long and ardent pa.s.sion.'

'It must not be, Mr. G.o.dolphin!' (and tears filled her eyes as she spoke) 'Indeed it must not be! It is not now _possible_, at least it is very _improper_, for me to listen to you. Ah! do not then press it. I have indeed already suffered you to say too much on such a topic.'

G.o.dolphin then renewed his warm entreaties that he might be permitted openly to profess himself her lover: but she still evaded giving way to them, by declaring that 'till she was of age she would not marry. 'Had I no other objections,' continued she, 'the singularity of my circ.u.mstances is alone sufficient to determine me. I cannot think of accepting the honour you offer me, while my very _name_ is in some degree doubtful; it would, I own, mortify me to take any advantage of your generosity; and should I fail of obtaining from Lord Montreville that to which I am now believed to have a claim, his Lords.h.i.+p, irritated at the attempt, will probably withdraw what he has. .h.i.therto allowed me--scanty support, and occasional protection.'

'Find protection with your lover, with your husband!' exclaimed he--'And may that happy husband, that adoring lover, be G.o.dolphin! May Adelina forget her own calamities in contemplating the felicity of her brother; and may her beauteous, her benevolent friend, become her sister indeed, as she has long been the sister of her heart.'

'You will oblige me, Sir,' said Emmeline, feeling that notwithstanding all her attempts to conceal it the truth trembled in her eyes and faultered in her accents--'you will oblige me if you say no more of this.'

'I will obey you, if you will only tell me I may hope.'

'How can I say so, Sir, when so long a time must intervene before I shall think of fixing myself for life.'

'Yet surely you know, the generous, the candid Miss Mowbray knows, whether her devoted G.o.dolphin is agreeable to her, or whether, if every obstacle which exists in her timid imagination were removed, he would be judged wholly unworthy of pretending to the honour of her hand?'

'Certainly not unworthy,' tremblingly said Emmeline.

'Let me then, thus encouraged, go farther--and ask if I have a place in your esteem?'

'Do not ask me--indeed I cannot tell--Nay I beg, I entreat,' added she, trying to disengage her hands from him, 'that you will desist--do not force me to leave you.'

'Ah! talk not, think not of leaving me; think rather of confirming those fortunate presages I draw from this lovely timidity. I cannot go till I know your thoughts of me--till I know what place I hold in that soft bosom.'

'I think of you as an excellent brother; as a generous and disinterested friend; for such I have found you; as a man of great good sense, of n.o.ble principles, of exalted honour!'

'As one then,' said G.o.dolphin, vehemently interrupting her, 'not unworthy of being entrusted with your happiness; who may hope to be honoured with a deposit so inestimable, as the confidence and tenderness of that gentle and generous heart?'

'I do indeed think very highly of you.--I cannot, if I would, deny it.'

'And you allow me, then, to go instantly to Lord Montreville?'

'Oh! no! no!--surely nothing I have said implied such a consent.'