The writing of that letter was the result of a long and entirely unreserved conversation which had taken place between Lady Davyntry and her brother, after the last-recorded interview between the former and Margaret.
So entirely confident was Eleanor of Mr. Baldwin's feelings and intentions, that she no longer hesitated to speak to him on the matter nearest her heart from any apprehension5 of defeating her own purpose by precipitation.
In the doubts and fears, in the passionate6 and painful burst of reminiscence which had given her added insight into Margaret's nature. Lady Davyntry had seen, far more plainly than Margaret,--or at least than ever she had confessed to herself,--that a new love, a fresh hope, had come to her. The very strife7 of feeling which she confessed and described betrayed her to the older woman, whose wisdom, though rather of the heart than of the understanding, was true in this case.
"It will never do to let her brood over this sort of thing," said Lady Davyntry to herself with decision. "The more time she has to think over it, the more danger there is of her working herself up into a morbid9 state of mind, persuading herself that she ought to sacrifice her own happiness, and make Fitz wretched, because she had the misfortune to be married to a villain10, and associated, through him, with some very bad people--the more she will tax her memory and torture her feelings, by trying to recall and realise all the past. I can see that nature and her youth are helping11 her to forget it all, and would do so, no doubt, if Fitz never existed; but she is trying to resist the influence of nature, and to train herself to a state of mind which is simply ruinous and absurd."
So Lady Davyntry spoke12 to her brother that evening, and had the satisfaction of finding that she had acted wisely in so doing. '"Don't speak to her, Fitz," she said, towards the conclusion of their conversation; "don't give her the chance of being impelled13 by such feelings as she has acknowledged to me, to say no,--let her have time to think about it."
It was a position in which few men would have failed to look silly, that of talking over a love affair, in the ante-proposal stage, with a sister. But Mr. Baldwin was one of those men who never can be made to look silly, who have about them an inborn15 dignity and entire singleness of purpose which are effectual preservatives16 against the faintest touch of the ridiculous in their words or actions.
He had spoken frankly17 of his hopes, and of his grounds for entertaining them, but the account his sister gave of Margaret's state of mind troubled him sorely. Here Lady Davyntry again proved her possession of sounder sense than many who knew her only slightly would have believed she possessed18.
"It won't last," she assured her brother; "it is a false, phantasmal state of feeling, and though it might grow more and more strong if nothing were opposed to it, it will disappear before a true and powerful feeling--rely upon it she will wonder at herself some day, and be hardly able to realise that she ever gave way to this sort of thing."
Mr. Baldwin wrote the letter, the answer to which was to mean so much to him; and Lady Davyntry enclosed it in a cover directed by herself.
"I don't think my darling Margaret can have much doubt about how I should regard this affair," she said, as she sealed the envelope with such a lavish19 use of sealing wax in the enthusiasm of the moment, that it swelled20 up all round the seal like liliputian pie-crust; "but whatever she may have teased herself with fancying, she will know it is all right when she sees that I enclose your letter. Some women might take it into their heads to be annoyed because you had spoken to another person of your feelings; but Margaret is too high-minded for anything of that sort, and, rely upon it, she will be none the less happy, if she promises to become your wife, that she will make me as happy in proportion as yourself by the promise."
At this stage, the impulsive21 Eleanor gave vent22 to her emotion by hugging her brother heartily23, and accompanying the embrace with a shower of tears.
Margaret remained where James Dugdale had left her standing8 with Mr. Baldwin's letter in her hand. She did not break the seal, she did not move, for several minutes,--then she picked up Lady Davyntry's envelope, which had fluttered to the ground, and went into the house.
Any one not so innocently absentminded as Mr. Carteret, or so cheerfully full of harmless self-content of youth, health, and unaccustomed leisure as Haldane Carteret, could hardly have failed to notice that there was something strange in the looks and manner of two of the little party who sat down that day to the dinner table at Chayleigh, shorn of much of its formality since Mrs. Carteret had ceased to preside over it.
Margaret was paler than usual, but not with the pallor of ill-health--the clear skin had no sallowness in its tint24.
To one accustomed to read the countenance25 which had acquired of late so much new expression, and such a softening26 of the old one, the indication of strong emotion would have been plain, in the pale cheek, the lustrous27, downcast eye, the occasional trembling of the small lips, the absent, preoccupied28 gaze, the sudden recall of her attention to the present scene, the forced smile when her father spoke to her, and the unusual absence of interest and pleasure in Haldane's jokes, which were sometimes good, but always numerous.
James Dugdale sat at the table, quite silent, and did not even make any attempt to eat. Margaret, with the superior powers of hypocrisy29 observable in the female, affected30, unnecessarily, to have a very good appetite. The meal was a painful probation31 for them.
It was so far from unusual for James to be ill and depressed32, that when Haldane had commented upon his silence and his want of appetite in his usual off-hand fashion, and Mr. Carteret had lamented33 those misfortunes, and digressed into speculation34 whether James had not better have his dinner just before going to bed, because wild beasts gorge35 themselves with food, and go to sleep immediately afterwards,--no further notice was taken.
It never occurred to Mr. Carteret or to Haldane that anything except illness could ail14 James. Neither did it occur to one or the other to notice that Margaret, usually so observant of James, so kind in her attention to him, so sympathetic, who understood his "good days" and his "bad days" so well, did not make the slightest remark herself, and suffered theirs to pass without comment.
She never once addressed James during dinner, nor did her glance encounter his. Why?
It had been Margaret's custom of late to sit with her father in his study during the evening. Mr. Carteret and she would adjourn36 thither37 immediately after dinner, and James and Haldane usually joined them after a while.
Margaret did not depart from her usual practice on this particular evening, but she was not inclined to talk to her father. She settled him into his particular chair, in his inevitable38 corner, and began to read aloud to him, with more than her usual promptness.
But somehow the reading was not successful, her voice was husky and uncertain, and her inattention so obvious that it soon became infectious, and Mr. Carteret found the effort of listening beyond him. An unusually prolonged and unmistakable yawn, for which he hastened to apologise, made the fact evident to Margaret.
"I think we are both disinclined for reading to-night, papa," she said as she laid aside her book, and took a low seat by her father's side. "We will talk now for a while."
"Very well, my dear," said the acquiescent39 Mr. Carteret. But Margaret did not seem inclined to follow up her own proposition actively40. She sat still, dreamily silent, and her fingers played idly with the fringe which bordered the chintz cover of her father's chair. At length she said:
"Papa, what do you think of Mr. Baldwin?"
"What do I think of Mr. Baldwin, my dear?" repeated Mr. Carteret slowly. "I think very highly of him indeed: a most accomplished41 young man I consider him, and excessively obliging, I'm sure. I don't flatter myself, you know, Margaret, with any notion that I am a particularly delightful42 companion for any one; indeed, since our great loss, I am best alone I think, or with you--with you, my dear," and her father patted Margaret's head just as he had been used to pat it when she was a little child; "and still, he seems to like being with me, and takes the greatest interest in my collection. Excessively liberal he is, too, and I can assure you very few collectors, however rich they may be, are that. He has shared his magnificent specimens43 of lepidoptera with me, and I have not another friend in the world who would do that. Think of him?" said Mr. Carteret again, returning to Margaret's question. "I think most highly of him. But why do you ask me? Don't you think well of him yourself?"
Margaret looked up hastily, dropped her eyes again, and said:
"O yes, papa; I--I do, indeed; but I wanted to ask you, because----" A quick tapping at the window interrupted her. Haldane stood outside, and his sister left her seat and went to him.
"Come out for a walk, Madge," he said. "James is queer this evening, and says he will just give the governor half-an-hour, and then go to bed. You don't want them both, do you, sir?" Haldane asked the question with his head inside, and his body outside the window. "I thought not. Here's James now." At that moment Mr. Dugdale entered the room. "Come on; you can get your bonnet44 and shawl; the door is open."
Margaret had not turned her face from the window, and she now stepped out into the verandah. She had not seen the expression on James Dugdale's face. Instinct caused her to avoid him. She had not yet faced the subject in her own mind, she had not yet reckoned with herself about it.
"Has she written to him? Is he coming here? How is it?"
These were the questions which repeated themselves in James's brain, as he tried to talk to Mr. Carteret, and tried not to follow the footsteps of the woman whose way was daily deviating45 more and more widely from his.
The brother and sister walked down the terrace, and into the pleasaunce together.
Haldane had been exposed to the fascinations46 of the eldest47 Miss Crofton for the last ten days or so, and, being rather defenceless under such circumstances, though not, as he said of himself, "lady's man," he was very likely to capitulate, unless some providential occurrence furnished him with a change of occupation, and thus diverted his mind.
At present the eldest Miss Crofton--her papa, her mamma, her little brother, a wonderfully clever child, and particularly fond of being "taken round the lawn" on Haldane's horse, with only Haldane on one side and his sister on the other to hold him on--her housekeeping science, and her equestrian48 feats49, afforded Haldane topics of conversation of which Margaret showed no weariness. Her attention certainly did wander a little, but Haldane did not perceive it.
They had passed through the gate into the fields which bordered on Davyntry, and Haldane had just pleaded for a little more time out, the evening was so beautiful--adding his conviction that every woman in the world was greedy about her tea, and that Margaret would not be half so pale if she drank less of that pernicious decoction--when she started so violently that he could not fail to perceive it.
"What's the matter? he asked, in surprise.
"Nothing," said Margaret. "There's--there's some one coming."
"So there is," said Haldane, looking at a figure advancing quickly towards them from the direction of Davyntry; "and it is Baldwin."
The blood rushed violently into Margaret's cheeks, her feet were rooted to the ground for a moment, as she felt the whole scene around her grow indistinct; the next, she was meeting Mr. Baldwin with composure which far surpassed his own, and in the first glance of her candid50 eyes, which looked up at him shyly, but entirely with their owner's will, he read the answer to his letter.
"If you will take Margaret home to this important and ever-recurring tea, Baldwin," said Haldane Carteret, "I will go on a little farther, and smoke my cigar."
He went away from them quickly, and saying to himself, "It is to be, I think."
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1
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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retrospect
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| n.回顾，追溯；v.回顾，回想，追溯 | |
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anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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strife
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| n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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morbid
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| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
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villain
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| n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因 | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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impelled
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| v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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ail
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| v.生病，折磨，苦恼 | |
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inborn
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| adj.天生的，生来的，先天的 | |
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preservatives
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| n.防腐剂( preservative的名词复数 ) | |
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frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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lavish
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| adj.无节制的；浪费的；vt.慷慨地给予，挥霍 | |
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swelled
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| 增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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impulsive
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| adj.冲动的，刺激的；有推动力的 | |
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vent
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| n.通风口，排放口；开衩；vt.表达，发泄 | |
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heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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tint
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| n.淡色，浅色；染发剂；vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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softening
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| 变软，软化 | |
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lustrous
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| adj.有光泽的；光辉的 | |
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preoccupied
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| adj.全神贯注的，入神的；被抢先占有的；心事重重的v.占据（某人）思想，使对…全神贯注，使专心于( preoccupy的过去式) | |
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hypocrisy
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| n.伪善，虚伪 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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probation
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| n.缓刑(期)，(以观后效的)察看；试用(期) | |
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depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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lamented
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| adj.被哀悼的，令人遗憾的v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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gorge
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| n.咽喉，胃，暴食，山峡；v.塞饱，狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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adjourn
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| v.（使）休会，（使）休庭 | |
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thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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acquiescent
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| adj.默许的，默认的 | |
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actively
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| adv.积极地，勤奋地 | |
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accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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44
bonnet
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| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
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45
deviating
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| v.偏离，越轨( deviate的现在分词 ) | |
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fascinations
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| n.魅力( fascination的名词复数 )；有魅力的东西；迷恋；陶醉 | |
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eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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48
equestrian
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| adj.骑马的；n.马术 | |
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49
feats
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| 功绩，伟业，技艺( feat的名词复数 ) | |
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candid
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| adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的 | |
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