General Harrington spent the entire
day at home. After the rather uncomfortable breakfast
we have already described, he went to his library,
discontented and moody. All day he was disposed
to be restless and dissatisfied with his books, as
he had been with the appointments of his morning meal.
Indignant with his whole household, for not being on
the alert to amuse him, he declined going down to dinner;
but ordering some choicely cooked birds and a bottle
of champagne in his own room, amused his rather fastidious
appetite with these delicacies, while he luxuriated
in his dressing-gown, and read snatches from a new
book of poems that had interested him for the moment.
This rather pleasant occupation wiled
away an hour, when he was interrupted by a knock at
the door. Lifting his eyes from the book, the
General said, “Come in,” rather hastily,
for the knock had broken into one of the finest passages
of the poem, and General Harrington detested interruptions
of any kind, either in a mental or sensual enjoyment.
“Come in!”
The General was a good deal astonished
when his son Ralph opened the door, and stood before
him with an air of awkward constraint, that would
certainly have secured him a reprimand had he not been
the first to speak.
“Father!”
General Harrington gave an impatient wave of the hand.
“Young gentleman,” he
said, “how often am I to remind you that the
use of the paternal title after childhood is offensive.
Can’t you call me General Harrington, sir, as
other people do? A handsome young fellow six
feet high should learn to forget the nursery.
Sit down, sir, sit down and converse like a gentleman,
if you have anything to say.”
The blood rose warmly in Ralph’s
face, not that he was angry or surprised, but it seemed
impossible to open his warm heart to the man before
him.
“Well then, General,”
he said, with a troubled smile, “I I’ve
been getting into into ”
“Not into debt, I trust,”
said the General, folding the skirts of the Turkish
dressing-gown over his knees, and smoothing the silken
fabric with his hand, but speaking with a degree of
genuine bitterness, “because, if that’s
it, you had better go to James at once he
is the millionaire. I am not much better than
his pensioner myself!”
“It is not that,” answered
Ralph, with an effort which sent the blood crimsoning
to his temples, “though money may have something
to do with it in time. The truth is, General,
I have been in love with Lina all my life, and never
found it out till yesterday.”
General Harrington gave the youth
a look from under his bent brows, that made the young
man shrink back in his chair, but in a moment the
unpleasant expression went off, and a quiet smile stole
over the old man’s lip.
“Oh, you will get over that,
Ralph. It isn’t worth being angry about.
Of course, you will get over it. I think this
is a first love, hey!”
“The first and last with me, fath General.”
“Yes, yes, of course I
think I remember feeling a little in the same way
at your age. It won’t be serious these
things never are!”
“But I am very serious.
I have told her all about it. My honor is pledged.”
The young man who, by the
way, really seemed a mere boy yet to his father was
going on with some vehemence, but he was coldly cut
short by the General, who sat regarding his enthusiasm
with a most provoking smile.
“Of course, I supposed so eternal
constancy and devotion on both sides! Very well,
what can I do about it?”
“Oh, father, I beg your pardon but
you can do everything. Your free, hearty consent
is all I ask and if you would be so kind
as to exert a little influence with mother.”
“Then you have told this to
her, before coming to me,” said the General,
and his brow darkened.
“No, sir, I have spoken to no
one but Lina. It was my duty to come to you first,
and I am here.”
“That is better; but how do
you know that Mrs. Harrington will disapprove of your
caprice for her protege, if no one has spoken to her
on the subject?”
“I believe, sir, that Lina said
something about it; but before she could be very definite,
my mother fainted. This frightened my I
mean, it terrified poor Lina, and she had no courage
to go on; so we were in hopes, sir, that you would
be so good.”
The General sat gazing upon the handsome
face of his son, with the air of a person revolving
some thought rapidly in his mind. At last, his
cold eyes brightened, and a smile crept over his mouth.
“It was very right to come here
first, Ralph, and remember your duty goes no farther.
I will only consent to your marrying this girl at all,
on condition that you, neither of you, ever speak on
the subject to any one. You are both very young,
and a year or two hence will be time enough for a
decision; but I will have no gossip about the matter.
Above all, my son James must be left entirely uncommitted.
I only consent to let this fancy have a proper trial.
If it proves serious, of course the whole family will
be informed; but till then I must have your promise
not to speak of it to any one not already informed.”
The young man drew close to his father,
and taking his hand, kissed it.
“I promise, father!”
The General was pleased with the homage
and grace of this action, and rising placed a hand
on Ralph’s shoulder, more cordially than he had
done for years.
“Are you sure she cares for
you, Ralph? I have seen nothing to suggest the
idea.”
“I think, indeed I am quite
certain that she does not like any one else near so
much,” answered the young man, reluctant to compromise
Lina’s delicacy by a broader confession.
“Young men are always confident,”
said the General with a bland smile. “I
think that faith in woman was the first delusion that
I gave up. Still it is pleasant while it lasts.
Heaven forbid that I should brush the bloom from your
grapes, my boy. So you really think that mamma’s
little protege knows her own mind, and that my son
knows his?”
A pang came to the ardent heart of
the youth as he listened. Another golden thread
snapped under the cold-blooded worldliness of that
crafty old man.
General Harrington looked in his face,
and analyzed the play of those handsome features,
exactly as he had tasted the game-birds and champagne
a half hour before. The same relish was in both
enjoyments, only one was the epicureanism of a mind
that found pleasure in dissecting a young heart, and
the other, quite as important to him, was a delicious
sensuality.
And Ralph stood under this scrutiny
with a cloud on his fine brow and a faint quiver of
the lip. It was agony to think of Lina without
perfect confidence in her affection for himself.
Yet he was so young, and his father had seen so much.
If he found no evidence of Lina’s attachment
to himself, it might be that all was a delusion.
The old man read these thoughts, and
took upon himself a gentle air of composure.
“These things often happen when
young people are thrown together in the same house,
Ralph. It is a pleasant dream. Both parties
wake up, and there is no harm done. Don’t
take the thing to heart, it isn’t worth while.”
“Then you think, sir, she really does not care
for me?”
With all his worldliness, the old
man could hardly withstand the appeal of those magnificent
eyes, for Ralph possessed the beautiful charm of deep
feeling, without a particle of self-conceit. He
began to wonder how Lina ever could have fancied him,
and to grieve over the delusion.
“It is strange,” said
the General, as if musing with himself, “it is
strange, but these very young creatures seldom do give
their first preferences to persons of corresponding
age. Girls love to look up to men with reverence.
It is really wonderful.”
The young man started, fire flashed
into his eyes, and for an instant he was breathless.
“You you cannot mean
that, Lina my Lina loves some one
else!” he said, speaking rapidly “Who
has she known but me, and and ?”
He stopped short, looking wistfully at his father.
“You and my son James? No one, certainly,
no one.”
“Brother James! oh, father.”
“But you are satisfied that
she loves you, and that is enough,” answered
the General, waving his hand as if tired of the discussion.
“It is decided that this whole subject rests
between ourselves. Come to me a year, nay, six
months from now, and if you desire it, then, I will
not be hard with you.”
The General seated himself as he spoke,
and resumed his book with a gentle wave of the hand.
Ralph bent his head partly in submission, partly to
conceal the flush that suppressed tears left about
his eyes and went out, leaving the first pure jewel
of his heart in that old man’s hands.
The twilight had crept on during this
conversation. General Harrington rang the bell
for a servant to remove the silver tray on which his
dinner had been served, and consumed considerable time
in directing how the lamp should be placed, in order
to protect his eyes as he read. When once more
alone, he cast a thought back to his son.
“It will do him good. I
wonder now if I, General Harrington, ever was so confiding,
so rash, so generous, for the boy is generous.
My son, on whom so much depends, married to that girl!
I was almost tempted into a scene with the first mention
of it.”
With these thoughts floating through
his brain, the General leaned back in his chair more
discomposed than usual by his late interview, for
though his reflections were all worldly and commonplace,
they had a deeper and unexpressed importance hardly
recognized by himself.
Again there was a low knock at the
door, and again the General bade the intruder come
in, rather hastily, for he was in no humor for company!
“Miss Barker; Miss Agnes Barker,” he said,
as that girl presented herself and softly closed the
door, “you are too kind I only regret
that this pleasant surprise detects me en deshabille.”
“General Harrington is always
General Harrington in any dress besides,
I have a preference for this sort of orientalism.”
“You are kind to forgive me,
and kinder to allow me the happiness of your presence.
Sit down!”
“No,” answered the governess,
with a look from her black almond-shaped eyes that
brought a glow into the old man’s cheek deeper
than the wine had left. “I found the book
open upon Mrs. Harrington’s desk. She must
have forgotten it there after her fainting fit this
morning. I am sure she has no secrets from her
husband, and so bring it to you, as it may excite
her to be disturbed, and I have no key to her desk.”
The General reached forth his hand,
struck by the vellum binding and jewelled clasp, for
he was a connoisseur in such matters, and the effect
pleased him.
“What is it?” he said,
opening the book and leaning towards the light, “some
illuminated missal, I fancy, or rare manuscript.
Oh ha, my lady’s journal let
us see.”
He had opened the book at random,
and with a gratified smile, but directly the expression
of his face hardened, and his lips parted with surprise.
He turned the open volume toward Agnes, who stood leaning
upon the table opposite; placed his finger sternly
upon a passage of the writing, and demanded whether
she had read it.
“You insult me with the question,”
said the lady, drawing herself up, “I did not
expect this,” and before he could speak Agnes
glided from the room.