第76章 A MERE INTERLUDE(3)

'Then we shan't see anything more of you on the mainland?'inquired the schoolmaster.

'O,I don't know about that,'said Miss Trewthen.

'Here endeth the career of the belle of the boarding-school your father was foolish enough to send you to.A "general merchant's"

wife in the Lyonesse Isles.Will you sell pounds of soap and pennyworths of tin tacks,or whole bars of saponaceous matter,and great tenpenny nails?'

'He's not in such a small way as that!'she almost pleaded.'He owns ships,though they are rather little ones!''O,well,it is much the same.Come,let us walk on;it is tedious to stand still.I thought you would be a failure in education,'he continued,when she obeyed him and strolled ahead.'You never showed power that way.You remind me much of some of those women who think they are sure to be great actresses if they go on the stage,because they have a pretty face,and forget that what we require is acting.

But you found your mistake,didn't you?'

'Don't taunt me,Charles.'It was noticeable that the young schoolmaster's tone caused her no anger or retaliatory passion;far otherwise:there was a tear in her eye.'How is it you are at Pen-zephyr?'she inquired.

'I don't taunt you.I speak the truth,purely in a friendly way,as I should to any one I wished well.Though for that matter I might have some excuse even for taunting you.Such a terrible hurry as you've been in.I hate a woman who is in such a hurry.'

'How do you mean that?'

'Why--to be somebody's wife or other--anything's wife rather than nobody's.You couldn't wait for me,O,no.Well,thank God,I'm cured of all that!''How merciless you are!'she said bitterly.'Wait for you?What does that mean,Charley?You never showed--anything to wait for--anything special towards me.'

'O come,Baptista dear;come!'

'What I mean is,nothing definite,'she expostulated.'I suppose you liked me a little;but it seemed to me to be only a pastime on your part,and that you never meant to make an honourable engagement of it.''There,that's just it!You girls expect a man to mean business at the first look.No man when he first becomes interested in a woman has any definite scheme of engagement to marry her in his mind,unless he is meaning a vulgar mercenary marriage.However,I DID at last mean an honourable engagement,as you call it,come to that.'

'But you never said so,and an indefinite courtship soon injures a woman's position and credit,sooner than you think.''Baptista,I solemnly declare that in six months I should have asked you to marry me.'She walked along in silence,looking on the ground,and appearing very uncomfortable.Presently he said,'Would you have waited for me if you had known?'To this she whispered in a sorrowful whisper,'Yes!'They went still farther in silence--passing along one of the beautiful walks on the outskirts of the town,yet not observant of scene or situation.Her shoulder and his were close together,and he clasped his fingers round the small of her arm--quite lightly,and without any attempt at impetus;yet the act seemed to say,'Now Ihold you,and my will must be yours.'

Recurring to a previous question of hers he said,'I have merely run down here for a day or two from school near Trufal,before going off to the north for the rest of my holiday.I have seen my relations at Redrutin quite lately,so I am not going there this time.How little I thought of meeting you!How very different the circumstances would have been if,instead of parting again as we must in half-an-hour or so,possibly for ever,you had been now just going off with me,as my wife,on our honeymoon trip.Ha--ha--well--so humorous is life!'She stopped suddenly.'I must go back now--this is altogether too painful,Charley!It is not at all a kind mood you are in to-day.''I don't want to pain you--you know I do not,'he said more gently.

'Only it just exasperates me--this you are going to do.I wish you would not.'

'What?'

'Marry him.There,now I have showed you my true sentiments.'

'I must do it now,'said she.

'Why?'he asked,dropping the off-hand masterful tone he had hitherto spoken in,and becoming earnest;still holding her arm,however,as if she were his chattel to be taken up or put down at will.'It is never too late to break off a marriage that's distasteful to you.

Now I'll say one thing;and it is truth:I wish you would marry me instead of him,even now,at the last moment,though you have served me so badly.'

'O,it is not possible to think of that!'she answered hastily,shaking her head.'When I get home all will be prepared--it is ready even now--the things for the party,the furniture,Mr.Heddegan's new suit,and everything.I should require the courage of a tropical lion to go home there and say I wouldn't carry out my promise!'

'Then go,in Heaven's name!But there would be no necessity for you to go home and face them in that way.If we were to marry,it would have to be at once,instantly;or not at all.I should think your affection not worth the having unless you agreed to come back with me to Trufal this evening,where we could be married by licence on Monday morning.And then no Mr.David Heddegan or anybody else could get you away from me.''I must go home by the Tuesday boat,'she faltered.'What would they think if I did not come?''You could go home by that boat just the same.All the difference would be that I should go with you.You could leave me on the quay,where I'd have a smoke,while you went and saw your father and mother privately;you could then tell them what you had done,and that I was waiting not far off;that I was a school-master in a fairly good position,and a young man you had known when you were at the Training College.Then I would come boldly forward;and they would see that it could not be altered,and so you wouldn't suffer a lifelong misery by being the wife of a wretched old gaffer you don't like at all.

Now,honestly;you do like me best,don't you,Baptista?''Yes.'

'Then we will do as I say.'

She did not pronounce a clear affirmative.But that she consented to the novel proposition at some moment or other of that walk was apparent by what occurred a little later.