"Dearest Marion," he said to her, as the quadrille came to a close, "it is an your power to make me so happy,--so perfectly happy.""But then people have such different ideas of happiness," she replied. "They can't all see with the same eyes, you know." And so they parted.
But during the early part of the evening she was sufficiently discreet; she did waltz with Lieutenant Graham, and polk with Captain Ewing, but she did so in a tamer manner than was usual with her, and she made no emulous attempts to dance down other couples. When she had done she would sit down, and then she consented to stand up for two quadrilles with two very tame gentlemen, to whom no lover could object.
"And so, Marian, your wings are regularly clipped at last," said Julia Davis coming up to her.
"No more clipped than your own," said Marian.
"If Sir Rue won't let you waltz now, what will he require of you when you're married to him?""I am just as well able to waltz with whom I like as you are, Julia;and if you say so in that way, I shall think it's envy.""Ha--ha--ha; I may have envied you some of your beaux before now; Idare say I have. But I certainly do not envy you Sir Rue." And then she went off to her partner.
All this was too much for Marian's weak strength, and before long she was again whirling round with Captain Ewing. "Come, Miss Leslie,"said he, "let us see what we can do. Graham and Julia Davis have been saying that your waltzing days are over, but I think we can put them down."Marian as she got up, and raised her arm in order that Ewing might put his round her waist, caught Maurice's eye as he leaned against a wall, and read in it a stern rebuke. "This is too bad," she said to herself. "He shall not make a slave of me, at any rate as yet." And away she went as madly, more madly than ever, and for the rest of the evening she danced with Captain Ewing and with him alone.
There is an intoxication quite distinct from that which comes from strong drink. When the judgment is altogether overcome by the spirits this species of drunkenness comes on, and in this way Marian Leslie was drunk that night. For two hours she danced with Captain Ewing, and ever and anon she kept saying to herself that she would teach the world to know--and of all the world Mr. Cumming especially--that she might be lead, but not driven.
Then about four o'clock she went home, and as she attempted to undress herself in her own room she burst into violent tears and opened her heart to her sister-- "Oh, Fanny, I do love him, I do love him so dearly! and now he will never come to me again!"Maurice stood still with his back against the wall, for the full two hours of Marian's exhibition, and then he said to his aunt before he left--"I hope you have now seen enough; you will hardly mention her name to me again." Miss Jack groaned from the bottom of her heart but she said nothing. She said nothing that night to any one; but she lay awake in her bed, thinking, till it was time to rise and dress herself. "Ask Miss Marian to come to me," she said to the black girl who came to assist her. But it was not till she had sent three times, that Miss Marian obeyed the summons.
At three o'clock on the following day Miss Jack arrived at her own hall door in Spanish Town. Long as the distance was she ordinarily rode it all, but on this occasion she had provided a carriage to bring her over as much of the journey as it was practicable for her to perform on wheels. As soon as she reached her own hall door she asked if Mr. Cumming was at home. "Yes," the servant said. "He was in the small book-room, at the back of the house, up stairs."Silently, as if afraid of being heard, she stepped up her own stairs into her own drawing-room; and very silently she was followed by a pair of feet lighter and smaller than her own.
Miss Jack was usually somewhat of a despot in her own house, but there was nothing despotic about her now as she peered into the book-room. This she did with her bonnet still on, looking round the half-opened door as though she were afraid to disturb her nephew, he sat at the window looking out into the verandah which ran behind the house, so intent on his thoughts that he did not hear her.
"Maurice," she said, "can I come in?"
"Come in? oh yes, of course;" and he turned round sharply at her. "Itell you what, aunt; I am not well here and I cannot stay out the session. I shall go back to Mount Pleasant.""Maurice," and she walked close up to him as she spoke, "Maurice, Ihave brought some one with me to ask your pardon."His face became red up to the roots of his hair as he stood looking at her without answering. "You would grant it certainly," she continued, "if you knew how much it would be valued.""Whom do you mean? who is it?" he asked at last.
"One who loves you as well as you love her--and she cannot love you better. Come in, Marian." The poor girl crept in at the door, ashamed of what she was induced to do, but yet looking anxiously into her lover's face. "You asked her yesterday to be your wife," said Miss Jack, "and she did not then know her own mind. Now she has had a lesson. You will ask her once again; will you not, Maurice?"What was he to say? how was he to refuse, when that soft little hand was held out to him; when those eyes laden with tears just ventured to look into his face?
"I beg your pardon if I angered you last night," she said.
In half a minute Miss Jack had left the room, and in the space of another thirty seconds Maurice had forgiven her. "I am your own now, you know," she whispered to him in the course of that long evening.
"Yesterday, you know--," but the sentence was never finished.
It was in vain that Julia Davis was ill-natured and sarcastic, in vain that Ewing and Graham made joint attempt upon her constancy.
From that night to the morning of her marriage--and the interval was only three months--Marian Leslie was never known to flirt.
End
