"It would be ridiculous, sir," said she, at length, with sudden spirit and dignity, "to affect ignorance of your meaning and intentions; but may I venture to ask what conduct of mine--what single act of mine--or word--or look--has ever induced you to imagine--for one moment to indulge so insane"----

"Alas, madam, that which you could not conceal or control--your incomparable excellence--your beauty--loveliness--Madam! madam! the mere sight of your transcendent charms--my soul sank prostrate before you the first moment that I ever saw you"----

All this was uttered by Gammon in a very low tone, and with pa.s.sionate fervor of manner. Miss Aubrey trembled visibly, and had grown very cold.

A little vinaigrette stood beside her--and its stinging stimulating powers were infinitely serviceable, and at length aided her in making head against her rebellious feelings.

"I certainly ought to feel flattered, sir," said she, rapidly recovering herself--"by the high terms in which you are pleased to speak of me--of one who has not the slightest claim upon your good opinion. I really cannot conceive what conduct of mine can have led you to imagine that such an--an--_application_--as this could be successful--or received otherwise than with astonishment--and, if persisted in--_displeasure_, Mr. Gammon." This she said in her natural manner, and very pointedly.

"Miss Aubrey--permit me"----said Mr. Gammon, pa.s.sionately.

"I cannot, sir--I have heard already too much; and I am sure, that when a lady requests a _gentleman_ to desist from conduct which pains and shocks her--sir," she added hastily and peremptorily--"I beg you will at once desist from addressing me in so very improper a strain and manner!"

"Indulge my agonized feelings for one moment, Miss Aubrey," said Gammon, with desperate energy--"alas! I had suspected--I had feared--that our respective positions in society would lead you to despise so comparatively humble and obscure a person in point of station and circ.u.mstances"----

"_Sir!_" exclaimed Kate, magnificently, drawing up her figure to its utmost height--her manner almost petrifying Gammon, whose last words she had most unaccountably imagined, at the moment, to amount to a bitter sarcastic allusion to their fallen fortunes, and diminished personal consequence in society; but she was quickly undeceived, as he proceeded fervently--"Yes, madam--your birth--your family connections--your transcendent mental and personal qualities, shining all the brighter in the gloom of adversity"----

"I--I--I beg your pardon, sir--I misunderstood you," said Kate, discovering her error, and coloring violently--"but it is even more painful to me to listen to the language you are addressing to me. Since you urge me to it, I beg you to understand, sir, that if by what you have been saying to me, I am to gather that you are making me an offer of your addresses--I decline them at once, most peremptorily, as a thing quite out of the question." The tone and manner in which this was said--the determination and hauteur perceptible in her striking and expressive features--blighted all the nascent hopes of Gammon; who turned perfectly pale, and looked the very image of misery and despair.

The workings of his strongly marked features told of the agony of his feelings. Neither he nor Miss Aubrey spoke for a few moments. "Alas!

madam," at length he inquired in a tremulous voice, "am I presumptuous, if I intimate a fear--which I dare hardly own to myself even--that I am too late--that there _is some more fortunate_"----Miss Aubrey blushed scarlet.

"Sir," said she, with quick indignant energy, "_I should_ certainly consider such inquiries--most--_presumptuous_--most offensive--most unwarrantable!"--and indeed her eye quite shone with indignation. Gammon gazed at her with piercing intensity, and spoke not.

"You cannot but be aware, sir, that you are greatly taxing my forbearance--nay, sir, I feel that you are taking a very great liberty in making any such inquiries or suggestions," continued Miss Aubrey, proudly, but more calmly; "but, as your manner is un.o.bjectionable and respectful, I have no difficulty in saying, sir, most unhesitatingly, that the reason you hint at, is not in the least concerned in the answer I have given. I have declined your proposals, sir, simply because I _choose_ to decline them--because I have not, nor ever could have, the least disposition to entertain them."

Gammon could not, at the moment, determine whether she really had or had not a pre-engagement.

"Madam, you would bear with me did you but know the exquisite suffering your words occasion me! Your hopeless tone and manner appear to my soul to consign it to perdition--to render me perfectly careless about life,"

said Gammon, with irresistible pathos; and Miss Aubrey, as she looked and listened, in spite of herself pitied him. "I might, perhaps, establish _some_ claim to your favor, were I at liberty to recount to you my long unwearied exertions to shield your n.o.ble-spirited brother--nay, all of you--from impending trouble and danger--to avert it from you."

"We are indeed deeply sensible of your kindness towards us, Mr. Gammon,"

replied Miss Aubrey, with her usual sweetness and fascinating frankness of manner which _now_ he could not bear to behold.

"Suffer me, Miss Aubrey, but one word more," he continued eagerly, apprehensive that she was about to check him. "Were you but aware of the circ.u.mstances under which I come to throw myself at your feet--myself, and all I have--nor is that little, for I am independent of the world as far as fortune is concerned--I shall soon be in the House of Commons"--Miss Aubrey exhibited still more unequivocal symptoms of impatience--"and forever have abandoned the hateful walk in life to which for the last few years"----

"I suppose I _must_ listen to you, sir, however uselessly to yourself and disagreeable and painful to me. If, after all I have said, you choose to persevere," said Miss Aubrey, with calm displeasure----

But Gammon proceeded--"I say, Miss Aubrey, that could you but catch a glimpse--one momentary glimpse--of the troubles--the dangers which lurk around you all--infinitely greater than any which you have even yet experienced, severe and terrible though these have been--which are every day coming nearer and nearer to you"----

"What _do_ you mean, Mr. Gammon?" interrupted Miss Aubrey, alarmedly.

"--And which, eager and anxious as may, and shall be, my efforts, I may be unable any longer to avert from you--you would at least appreciate the pure and disinterested motives with which I set out upon my truly disastrous mission."

"Once more, Mr. Gammon, I a.s.sure you that I feel--that we all of us feel--a lively grat.i.tude towards you for the great services you have rendered us; but how _can_ that possibly vary my resolution? Surely, Mr.

Gammon, you will not require me to enter again upon a most unpleasant"----Gammon heaved a profound sigh--"With regard to your intimation of the danger which menaces us--alas! we have seen much trouble--and Providence may design us to see much more--I own, Mr.

Gammon, that I am disturbed by what you have said to me on that subject."

"I have but one word more to say, madam," said Gammon, in a low impa.s.sioned tone, evidently preparing to sink upon one knee, and to a.s.sume an imploring att.i.tude; on which Miss Aubrey rose from her chair, and, stepping back a pace or two, said with great resolution, and in an indignant manner--"If you do not instantly resume your seat, sir, I shall ring the bell; for you are beginning to take advantage of my present defenceless position--you are _persecuting_ me, and I will not suffer it.--Sir, resume your seat, or I summon the servant into the room--a humiliation I could have wished to spare you."

Her voice was not half so imperative as was her eye. He felt that his cause was hopeless--he bowed profoundly, and said in a low tone--"I obey you, madam."

Neither of them spoke for some moments. At length--"I am sure, sir,"

said Miss Aubrey, looking at her watch, "you will forgive me for reminding you that when you entered I was engaged writing letters"--and she glanced at her desk--"for which purpose alone it is that I am not now accompanying my sister and the children."

"I feel too painfully, madam, that I am intruding; but I shall soon cease to trouble you. Every one has some great bitterness to pa.s.s through at some time or other of his life--and I have this instant pa.s.sed through mine," replied Gammon, gloomily. "I will not say that _the bitterness of death is past_; but I feel that life has henceforth, as far as I am concerned, nothing worth pursuing."--Miss Aubrey remained silent while he spoke.--"Before we part, Miss Aubrey, and close, as far as I--nay, as far, it may be, as both of us are concerned--a very memorable interview, I have yet one communication to make, to which you will listen with absorbing interest. It will be made to you in such confidence as, having heard it, you may consider yourself at liberty conscientiously to keep from every person upon earth; and I shall leave it to produce such effect upon you as it may."

"I shall not disguise from you, sir, that your demeanor and your language alarm me terribly," said Miss Aubrey, peculiarly struck by the sinister expression of his eye--one quite inconsistent with the sad, subdued, gentle tone and manner of his address. "I am not _anxious_ to receive so dark and mysterious a communication as you hint at; and, if you think proper to make it, I shall use my own discretion as to keeping it to myself, or mentioning it to any one whom I may choose--of _that_ I distinctly apprise you, sir. You see that I am agitated; I own it," she added, dropping her voice, and pressing her left hand against her side; "but I am prepared to hear anything you may choose to tell me--that I _ought_ to hear.--Have mercy, sir," she added in a melting voice, "on a woman whose nerves you have already sufficiently shaken!"

Gammon gazed at her with a bright and pa.s.sionate eye that would have drunk her very soul. After a moment's pause--"Madam, it is this," said he, in a very low tone: "I have the means--I declare in the presence of Heaven, and on the word and honor of a man"--[Oh, Gammon! Gammon!

Gammon! have you forgotten what occurred between you and your friend t.i.tmouse one short week ago? Strange, infatuated man! what can you mean?

What if she should take you at your word?]--"_of restoring to your brother all that he has lost_--THE YATTON PROPERTY, Miss Aubrey--immediately--permanently--without fear of future disturbance--by due process of law--openly and most honorably."

"You are trifling with me, sir," gasped Miss Aubrey, faintly, very faintly--her cheek blanched, and her eye riveted upon that of Gammon.

"Before G.o.d, madam, I speak the truth," replied Gammon, solemnly.

Miss Aubrey seemed struggling ineffectually to heave a deep sigh, and pressed both hands upon her left side, over her heart.

"You are ill, very ill, Miss Aubrey," said Gammon, with alarm, rising from his chair. She also arose, rather hastily; turned towards the window, and with feeble trembling hands tried to open it, as if to relieve her faintness by the fresh air. But it was too late; poor Kate had been at length overpowered, and Gammon reached her just in time to receive her inanimate figure, which sank into his arms. Never in his life had he been conscious of the feelings he that moment experienced, as he felt her pressure against his arm and knee, and gazed upon her beautiful but death-like features. He felt as though he had been brought into momentary contact with an angel. Every fibre within him thrilled.

She moved not; she breathed not. He dared not kiss her lip, her cheek, her forehead, but raised her soft white hand to his lips, and kissed it with indescribable tenderness and reverence. Then, after a moment's pause of irresolution, he gently drew her to the sofa, and laid her down, supporting her head and applying her vinaigrette, till a deep-drawn sigh evidenced returning consciousness. Before she had opened her eyes, or could have become aware of the a.s.sistance he had rendered her, he had withdrawn to a respectful distance, and was gazing at her with deep anxiety. It was several minutes before her complete restoration--which, however, the fresh air entering through the windows, which Gammon hastily threw open, added to the incessant use of her vinaigrette, greatly accelerated.

"I hardly know, sir," she commenced in a very low and faint tone of voice, and looking languidly at him, "whether I really heard you say, or only dreamed that I heard you say, something most extraordinary about Yatton?"

"I pray you, madam, to wait till you are completely restored; but it was indeed no dream--it was my voice which you heard utter the words you allude to; and when you can bear it, I am ready to repeat them as the words, indeed, of truth and soberness."

"I am ready now, sir--I beg you will say quickly what you have to say,"

replied Miss Aubrey, with returning firmness of tone and calmness of manner; at the same time pa.s.sing her snowy handkerchief feebly over her forehead.

He repeated what he had said before. She listened with increasing excitement of manner; her emotions at length overmastered her, and she burst into tears, and wept for some moments unrestrainedly.

Gammon gazed at her in silence; and then, unable to bear the sight of her sufferings, turned aside his head, and gazed towards the opposite corner of the room. How little he thought, that the object on which his eyes accidentally settled, a most splendid harp, had been, only a few days before, presented to Miss Aubrey by Mr. Delamere!

"What misery, Miss Aubrey, has the sight of your distress occasioned me!" said Gammon, at length; "and yet why should my communication have distressed you?"

"I cannot doubt, Mr. Gammon, the truth of what you have so solemnly told me," she replied in a tremulous voice; "but will you not tell my unfortunate, my high-minded, my almost broken-hearted brother?" Again she burst into a fit of weeping.

"Must I--_dare_ I--say it, Miss Aubrey," presently inquired Gammon, in a broken voice; "can I say it without occasioning what I dread more than I can express--your displeasure? The use to be made of my power _rests with you alone_."

She shook her head bitterly and despairingly, and hid her face in her handkerchief while he proceeded.

"One word--one blessed word from your lips--and before this very day shall have pa.s.sed away, I strike down the wretched puppet that at present defiles Yatton--replace your n.o.ble-minded brother there--restore you all to its delicious shades--Oh, Miss Aubrey, how you will love them! A thousand times dearer than ever! Every trace of the wretched idiot now there shall vanish; and let all this come to pa.s.s _before_ I presume to claim"----

"It is impossible, sir," replied Miss Aubrey, with the calmness of despair, "even were you to place my brother on the throne of England. Is it not cruel--shocking--that if you know my brother is really ent.i.tled--nay, it is monstrous injustice!--What maybe the means at your command I know not--I shall not inquire; if to be purchased only on the terms you mention"--she involuntarily shuddered--"be it so--I cannot help it; and if my brother and his family must perish because I reject your addresses"----

"Say not that word, Miss Aubrey! Do not shut out _all_ hope--Recall it!

For G.o.d's sake consider the consequences to your brother--to his family!

I tell you that malice and rapacity are at this moment gleaming like wild wolves within a few paces of you--ready to rush upon you. Did you but see them as distinctly as I do, you would indeed shudder and shrink"----

"I do, sir; but we trust in a merciful Providence," replied Miss Aubrey, clasping together her hands, "and resign ourselves to the will of Heaven."