Mulock_Hannah.txt topic ['13', '324', '378', '393']
times, but accepted at last. was very rich, if
not very clever or very wise.
" , she might have done worse. is a good fel-
low, and we all like the match, except, perhaps, ,
who speaks sharply about it sometimes ; but only
laughs at him, and says she shall please herself, in spite of
brothers-in-law."
. 305
looked keenly at while he spoke ; but
he did so in utter unsuspiciousness. he had
never guessed, in the smallest degree, the secret grief of
his sister , the canker of her married life, that jeal-
ousy of her sister, from which all the restrictions of the
law could not save her, no more than the terror of the -
vorce can save poor miserable souls to whom vice is
pleasanter than virtue. to this right-minded, honest
man, intrenched within the sacredness of a happy mar-
riage, the one idea would have been almost as untenable
as the other. was certain that, dearly as
loved her now, had lived, she might have come about
their house continually, and he would have had no sort of
feeling for her beyond the affectionate interest that a man
may justly take in his wife's sister, or cousin, or friend
the honorable, chivalric tenderness for all women which
only proves how deeply the one woman he has chosen is
enshrined in his heart.
what he had never once suspected she never told
him and no one else was ever likely to do so. 's
sufferings were buried with her. best.
" now," said , " must say good-by.
shall not see you again till we meet on board the
steamer to-morrow."
he had arranged already that she should go back
at once avoiding the very appearance of evil and re-
main with until he came to marry her,
which, if possible, should be in the spring.
" shall come, like , with the violets, and by
then we must have these thin cheeks rounded, and these
grave eyes looking as bright and merry as 's.
used to say, you knowj there was no telling which was
most of a baby. or . -the-bye, she must
cease to say * ' and learn to say ' mamma.' "
burst into tears.
" , there is one thing am not afraid of," said she,
when her full heart had a little relieved itself of its fe-
licity. " know shall be a good mother to your child.
306 .
am afraid of is whether shall be a sufficiently
good wife to you. might have married almost any
woman you liked young, rich, pretty; while look
here, ."
lifted up her hair, and showed him the long stripes
of gray already coming faster than ever since the trou-
ble of the last two years ; but he only kissed the place, re-
peating 's lines, which he reminded her they had
often read together in those long, quiet evenings which
would all come back again when the one deep and lasting
bliss of married life, companionship, would be theirs with-
out alloy companionship, which even in friendship alone,
without marriage, had been so sweet :
((
silver locks, once anbnm bright,
still as lovely to my sight
golden beams of orient light
.
" , ," he said, " am not afraid neither of our
new life nor of ourselves. know what a man marries a
woman for not for this beauty or that, this quality or
that peculiarity ; but because she suits him, sympathizes
with him, is able to make him a better man than he ever
was before as you have made me. had let you go,
should have been not only a coward, but a fool. take
you just as you are, * with all your imperfections on your
head,' as hope you will take me ?"
" ," she said, laughing, though the tears were in her
eyea
" well, then. us be content."
put his arms about her, and stood looking deep down
into her eyes. was much handsomer than she, bright-
er, and younger-looking ; yet there was something in -
nah's face which, with all its handsomeness, his had not
a certain spiritual charm, which, when a man once recog-
nizes it in a woman, is an attraction as mysterious as it is
irresistible makes him crave for her as the one necessity
of his existence, risk every thing in order to win her, and,
having won her, love her to the last with a passion that
. 307
survives all change, all decay. this charm was, prob-
ably himself could not have told ; but -
more, speaking of , once characterized it as being
" a combination of the angel and the child."
.
is a picture familiar to many, for it was in the
of 1851, and few stopped to look at it
without tears " of ," by
. a bit of a ship's side one of those emi-
grant ships such as are constantly seen at , or
other ports whence they sail with its long rows of dang-
ling cabbages, and its utter confusion of cargo and passen-
gers. , indifferent to all, and intently gazing on the
receding shore, sit two persons undoubtedly a man and
his wife emigrants and bidding adieu to home forever.
man is quite broken down ; but the woman, sad as she
looks, has hope and courage in her face. not ?
one hand she firmly clasps her husband's the other sup-
ports her sleeping babe. is not disconsolate, for she
carries her " home " with her.
the picture the man is not at all like , cer-
tainly, but the woman is exceedingly like in ex-
pression at least as she sat on the deck of the
steamer, taking her last look of dear old , with its
white cliffs glimmering in the moonlight fainter and faint-
er every minute across the long reach of
.
sat beside her ^but he too was very silent.
meant to go back again as soon as he had seen her and
and safely landed at ; but he knew
that to this farewell of her native land was, in all
human probability, a farewell " for good."
^for good ^in the fullest sense ; and she believed it
believed that they were both doing right, and that 's
bleasiog would follow them wherever they went; yet she
could uot choose but he a little sad, until ehe felt the touch
of the small, soft hand which now, as ever, was coDtinii-
ously creeping into 'e. she was content.
it had been 's will to give her no future of her own at
all, she could have rested happily in that of the child and
the child's father.
happened to be a most beautiful night for crossing
the sea calm as glass, and the air mild as summer, though
it was in the beginning of . could not
bear to go below, but with and occupied one
of those pleasant cabins upon deck sheltered on three
sides, open on the fourth. , wrapped in countless
rugs and shawls, being in an ecstasy at the idea of
going to bed in her clothes, "all under the tars" ("a" was
an impossible first consonant to the baby tongue), she
settled down for the night, with her child in her arms, and
her faithful servant at her feet.
made them all as comfortable .^nd as
as he could kissed his child, and too, in 's
presence. he liad himself informed the nurse ho*
matters stood, and told her that in his house she shonld
have a home for life, in a country where marriages such as
hers were considered honorable, natural, and right.
he bade them all good-night, and went to the cabin below.
could not sleep; but she rested quiet and hap-
py. happiness could not make her physically strong ;
but she left all her days to come in 's hands to be
many or few, as he thought best. others fell sound
asleep, one at her bosom, the other at her feet ; but she lay
wide awake, listening to the lap-lap of the water against
the boat, and watching the night sky, so thick with stars.
length the moon came too, and looked in upon them
like a sweet, calm face, resembling a dead face in its nn-
ehangeable peace ; so much so, that when dropped
at last into a confused doze, she dreamed it was the face of
her sister smiling down out of heaven upon them.
she woke it was no longer moonlight, but
light at least day-break; for she could discern the dark
outline of the man at the wheel, the only person on deck.
boat seemed to be passing, swiftly and silently, as a
phantom ship through a phantom ocean : she hardly knew
whether she was awake or asleep, dead or alive, till she
felt the soft breathing of the child in her arms, and, with a
passion of joy, remembered all.
few minutes after, , raising her head as high
as she could without disturbing , saw a sight which
she never saw before, and never in all her life may see
again, but will remember to the end of her days.
where sea and sky met was a long, broad line of
most brilliant amber, gradually widening and widening, as
the sun lifted himself out of the water and shot his rays,
in the form of a crown, right up into the still dark zenith.
, as he climbed higher, every floating cloud and the
horizon seemed full of them became of a brilliant rose-
hue, until the whole heaven blazed with color and light.
the midst of it all, dim as a dream, but with all these
lovely tints flitting over it, saw, far in the dis-
tance, the line of the shore.
was her welcome to her new country and new life
the life which was truly like being born again into anoth-
er world. accepted the omen, and, clasping her child
to her bosom, closed her eyes and praised .
this happened long ago, and and
de la have never returned to . still
inhabit the -teau de , beloved and honored
far and wide in the land of their adoption, and finding, af-
ter all, that the human heart beats much alike, whether
with blood or , and that there is something
wonderfully noble and lovable about that fine old
race which (as long delighted in im-
pressing upon her dear neighbors, and upon the many -
glish friends who visited them in their pleasant foreign
home) once came over and conquered, and civilized, xm
rude and .
310 .
the master and mistress of will
ever return to , or whether little , the eld-
est of their three sons ^Rosie is still the only daughter
will ever become not only the heir of their estates
and name, but one day of the
, remains to be proved. any rate, they mourn
little after that old home, being so thoroughly happy in
their new one as those deserve to be who have sacrificed
for one another almost every thing except what they felt
to be right. they are happy ^and what more can
they or any one desire ?