"OFF WITH THE OLD LOVE, AND ON WITH THE NEW."
The next saw Mrs. Gibson in a much more of mind. She had and posted her letter, and the next thing was to keep Cynthia in what she called a state, or, in other words, to try and her into docility. But it was so much lost. Cynthia had already a from Mr. Henderson she came to breakfast,—a of love, a of marriage as clear as make it; together with an that, unable to wait for the slow of the post, he was going to her to Hollingford, and would arrive at the same time that she had done herself on the previous day. Cynthia said nothing about this to any one. She came late into the breakfast-room, after Mr. and Mrs. Gibson had the of the meal; but her was for by the that she had been all the night before. Molly was not as yet to up so early. Cynthia spoke, and did not touch her food. Mr. Gibson about his daily business, and Cynthia and her mother were left alone.
"My dear," said Mrs. Gibson, "you are not your as you should do. I am our very plain and to you after those in Hyde Park Street?"
"No," said Cynthia; "I'm not hungry, that's all."
"If we were as rich as your uncle, I should it to be a and a to keep an table; but limited means are a sad to one's wishes. I don't that, work as he will, Mr. Gibson can earn more than he at present; while the of the law are boundless. Lord Chancellor! Titles as well as fortune!"
Cynthia was almost too much in her own to reply, but she did say,—"Hundreds of barristers. Take the other side, mamma."
"Well; but I have noticed that many of these have private fortunes."
"Perhaps. Mamma, I Mr. Henderson will come and call this morning."
"Oh, my child! But how do you know? My Cynthia, am I to you?"
"No! I I must tell you. I have had a this from him, and he's by the 'Umpire' to-day."
"But he has offered? He surely must to offer, at any rate?"
Cynthia played with her she replied; then she looked up, like one from a dream, and the echo of her mother's question.
"Offered! yes, I he has."
"And you accept him? Say 'yes,' Cynthia, and make me happy!"
"I shan't say 'yes' to make any one happy myself, and the Russian has great for me." She said this to her mother, and Mrs. Gibson's of joy, it must be confessed; for her mind was well up. But it did not affect Mrs. Gibson, who less truth to it than there was. The idea of a in a new, country, among new, people, was not without to Cynthia.
"You always look nice, dear; but don't you think you had put on that silk?"
"I shall not a or a from what I have got on now."
"You dear, creature! you know you always look in you put on." So, her daughter, Mrs. Gibson left the room, on the which should Mr. Henderson at once with an idea of family refinement.
Cynthia to Molly; she was to tell her about Mr. Henderson, but she it to the naturally, so she left it to time to the as as it might. Molly was with a night; and her father, in his visit to his going out, had her to for the part of the morning, and to keep in her own room till after her early dinner, so Time had not a of telling her what he had in store in his budget. Mrs. Gibson sent an to Molly for not paying her her visit, and told Cynthia to give Mr. Henderson's as a for her downstairs. But Cynthia did no such thing. She Molly, and by her, her hand; till at length she jumped up, and said, "You shall be left alone now, little one. I want you to be very well and very this afternoon: so now." And Cynthia left her, and to her own room, locked the door, and to think.
Some one was about her at the same time, and it was not Mr. Henderson. Roger had from Mr. Gibson that Cynthia had come home, and he was to go to her at once, and have one strong, attempt to overcome the they might be—and of their nature he was not aware—that she had up against the of their relation to each other. He left his father—he left them all—and off into the woods, to be alone until the time came when he might his and over to put his to the touch. He was as as not to with the hours that were to him of old; but waiting was very hard work when he that she was so near, and the time so near at hand.
Yet he slowly, himself to and patience when he was once on the way to her.
"Mrs. Gibson at home? Miss Kirkpatrick?" he asked of the servant, Maria, who opened the door. She was confused, but he did not notice it.
"I think so—I'm not sure! Will you walk up into the drawing-room, sir? Miss Gibson is there, I know."
So he upstairs, all his nerves on the for the with Cynthia. It was either a or a disappointment, he was not sure which, to only Molly in the room:—Molly, on the in the bow-window which the garden; in soft white drapery, very white herself, and a half-handkerchief over her to save her from any of the air that in through the open window. He was so to speak to Cynthia that he what to say to any one else.
"I am you are not so well," he said to Molly, who sat up to him, and who to with emotion.
"I'm a little tired, that's all," said she; and then she was silent, that he might go, and yet somehow him to stay. But he took a chair and it near her, opposite to the window. He that surely Maria would tell Miss Kirkpatrick that she was wanted, and that at any moment he might her light quick on the stairs. He he ought to talk, but he not think of anything to say. The pink came out on Molly's cheeks; once or twice she was on the point of speaking, but again she of it; and the their longer and longer. Suddenly, in one of these pauses, the of happy voices in the garden came nearer and nearer; Molly looked more and more and flushed, and in of herself Roger's face. He see over her into the garden. A colour him, as if his had sent its blood out at full gallop. Cynthia and Mr. Henderson had come in sight; he talking to her as he to look into her face; she, her looks in shyness, was about some flowers, which she either would not give, or would not take. Just then, for the lovers had from the into public life, Maria was approaching; she had to Cynthia to her present admirer, and to go a steps to meet her to the message that Mr. Roger Hamley was there, and to speak to her. Roger see her gesture; she to say something to Mr. Henderson the house. Now Roger spoke to Molly—spoke hurriedly, spoke hoarsely.
Cynthia's Last Lover.
Cynthia's Last Lover.
Click to ENLARGE
"Molly, tell me! Is it too late for me to speak to Cynthia? I came on purpose. Who is that man?"
"Mr. Henderson. He only came to-day—but now he is her lover. Oh, Roger, me the pain!"
"Tell her I have been, and am gone. Send out word to her. Don't let her be interrupted."
And Roger ran at full speed, and Molly the of the door. He had left the house Cynthia entered the room, and resolute.
"Where is he?" she said, looking around, as if he might yet be hidden.
"Gone!" said Molly, very faint.
"Gone. Oh, what a relief! It to be my to be off with the old lover I am on with the new, and yet I did as as I could. Why, Molly, what's the matter?" for now Molly had away utterly. Cynthia to the bell, Maria, water, salts, wine, anything; and as soon as Molly, and miserable, again, she a little pencil-note to Mr. Henderson, him return to the "George," he had come in the morning, and saying that if he her at once, he might be allowed to call again in the evening, otherwise she would not see him till the next day. This she sent by Maria, and the unlucky man but that it was Miss Gibson's in the that had him of his charmer's company. He himself for the long by to tell all his friends of his happiness, and them uncle and aunt Kirkpatrick, who his by the same post as that of Mrs. Gibson's, which she had to as much as she wished, and no more.
"Was he very terrible?" asked Cynthia, as she with Molly in the of Mrs. Gibson's dressing-room.
"Oh, Cynthia, it was such pain to see him, he so!"
"I don't like people of feelings," said Cynthia, pouting. "They don't me. Why couldn't he let me go without this fuss? I'm not his for!"
"You have the happy gift of making people love you. Remember Mr. Preston,—he too wouldn't give up hope."
"Now I won't have you Roger Hamley and Mr. Preston together in the same sentence. One was as much too for me as the other is too good. Now I that man in the garden is the milieu,—I'm that myself, for I don't think I'm vicious, and I know I'm not virtuous."
"Do you like him to him?" asked Molly earnestly. "Do think, Cynthia. It won't do to go on your lovers off; you give pain that I'm sure you do not to do,—that you cannot understand."
"Perhaps I can't. I'm not offended. I set up for what I am not, and I know I'm not constant. I've told Mr. Henderson so—" She stopped, and at the recollection.
"You have! and what did he say?"
"That he liked me just as I was; so you see he's warned. Only he's a little afraid, I suppose,—for he wants me to be married very soon, almost directly, in fact. But I don't know if I shall give way,—you saw him, Molly,—but he's again to-night, and mind, I'll you if you don't think him very charming. I I for him when he offered all those months ago, but I to think I didn't; only sometimes I was so unhappy, I I must put an iron my to keep it from breaking, like the Faithful John of the German story,—do you remember, Molly?—how when his master came to his and his and his lady-love, after and disgraces, and was away from the church where he'd been married in a coach and six, with Faithful John behind, the happy three great in succession, and on inquiring, they were the iron-bands his heart, that Faithful John had all the time of his master's tribulation, to keep it from breaking."
In the Mr. Henderson came. Molly had been very to see him; and when she saw him she was not sure she liked him or not. He was handsome, without being conceited; gentlemanly, without being fine. He talked easily, and said a thing. He was perfectly well-appointed, yet to have a to his dress. He was good-tempered and kind; not without some of the of which to his age and profession, and which his age and are to take for wit. But he wanted something in Molly's eyes—at any rate, in this interview, and in her of she him commonplace. But of she said nothing of this to Cynthia, who was as happy as she be. Mrs. Gibson, too, was in the seventh of ecstasy, and spoke but little; but what she did say, the in the language. Mr. Gibson was not with them for long, but while he was there he was studying the Mr. Henderson with his dark eyes. Mr. Henderson as he ought to have done to everybody: to Mr. Gibson, to Mrs. Gibson, to Molly, to Cynthia.
The next time Mr. Gibson Molly alone, he began,—"Well! and how do you like the new relation that is to be?"
"It's difficult to say. I think he's very in all his bits, but—rather on the whole."
"I think him perfection," said Mr. Gibson, to Molly's surprise; but in an she saw that he had been speaking ironically. He on. "I don't wonder she him to Roger Hamley. Such scents! such gloves! And then his and his cravat!"
"Now, papa, you're not fair. He is a great more than that. One see that he had very good feeling; and he is very handsome, and very much to her."
"So was Roger. However, I must I shall be only too to have her married. She's a girl who'll always have some love-affair on hand, and will always be to through a man's if he doesn't look sharp; as I was saying to Roger—"
"You have him, then, since he was here?"
"Met him in the street."
"How was he?"
"I don't he'd been going through the thing in the world; but he'll over it long. He spoke with and resignation, and didn't say much about it; but one see that he was it sharply. He's had three months to think it over, remember. The Squire, I should guess, is more indignation. He is over, that any one should reject his son! The of the to have been to him till now, when he sees how Roger is by it. Indeed, with the of myself, I don't know one father; eh, Molly?"
Whatever else Mr. Henderson might be, he was an lover; he wanted to Cynthia directly—next week—the week after; at any the long vacation, so that they go at once. Trousseaux, and ceremonies, he gave to the winds. Mr. Gibson, as usual, called Cynthia a or two after her engagement, and put a hundred-pound note into her hands.
"There! that's to pay your to Russia and back. I you'll your obedient."
To his surprise, and to his discomfiture, Cynthia her arms his and him.
"You are the person I know," said she; "and I don't know how to thank you in words."
"If you my shirt-collars again in that way, I'll you for the washing. Just now, too, when I'm trying so hard to be and elegant, like your Mr. Henderson."
"But you do like him, don't you?" said Cynthia, pleadingly. "He so like you."
"Of course. We're all just now, and you're an arch-angel. I he'll wear as well as Roger."
Cynthia looked grave. "That was a very affair," she said. "We were two as people—"
"It has ended, and that's enough. Besides, I've no more time to waste; and there's your man here in all haste."
Mr. and Mrs. Kirkpatrick sent all manner of congratulations; and Mrs. Gibson, in a private letter, Mrs. Kirkpatrick that her ill-timed about Roger should be as private. For as soon as Mr. Henderson had his in Hollingford, she had a second letter, them not to to anything she might have said in her first; which she said was in such on the of her daughter's affections, that she had what she had said, and had some things, and others: all that she did know now was, that Mr. Henderson had just to Cynthia, and was accepted, and that they were as happy as the day was long, and ("excuse the of a mother,") a most couple. So Mr. and Mrs. Kirkpatrick an letter, Mr. Henderson, Cynthia, and congratulatory; into the that the marriage should take place from their house in Hyde Park Street, and that Mr. and Mrs. Gibson and Molly should all come up and pay them a visit. There was a little at the end. "Surely you do not the famous traveller, Hamley, about all our scientific men are so much excited. You speak of him as a Hamley, who to Africa. Answer this question, pray, for Helen is most to know." This P.S. being in Helen's handwriting. In her at the success of everything, and for sympathy, Mrs. Gibson read parts of this to Molly; the among the rest. It a on Molly than the of the visit to London.
There were some family consultations; but the end of them all was that the Kirkpatrick was accepted. There were many small for this, which were openly acknowledged; but there was one and wish to have the performed out of the of the two men Cynthia had previously—rejected; that was the word now to be to her of them. So Molly was ordered and and to as soon as possible, in order that her health might not prevent her the marriage; Mr. Gibson himself, though he it his to the of his wife and her daughter, being not at all to the of going to London, and half-a-dozen old friends, and many scientific exhibitions, of the very amount of which he had for his host, Mr. Kirkpatrick himself.
