Who that was inexperienced in deceit, and had a frank and youthful heart, could doubt the speaker"s truth--could doubt it too, whenthe voice that spoke, was like the faint echo of one she knew sowell, and so much loved to hear? She inclined her head, andstopping, cast her eyes upon the ground.
"A little more apart--among these trees. It is an old man"s hand,Miss Haredale; an honest one, believe me."
She put hers in it as he said these words, and suffered him to leadher to a neighbouring seat.
"You alarm me, sir," she said in a low voice. "You are not thebearer of any ill news, I hope?"
"Of none that you anticipate," he answered, sitting down besideher. "Edward is well--quite well. It is of him I wish to speak,certainly; but I have no misfortune to communicate."
She bowed her head again, and made as though she would have beggedhim to proceed; but said nothing.
"I am sensible that I speak to you at a disadvantage, dear MissHaredale. Believe me that I am not so forgetful of the feelings of my younger days as not to know that you are little disposed to viewme with favour. You have heard me described as cold-hearted,calculating, selfish--"
"I have never, sir,"--she interposed with an altered manner and afirmer voice; "I have never heard you spoken of in harsh ordisrespectful terms. You do a great wrong to Edward"s nature ifyou believe him capable of any mean or base proceeding."
"Pardon me, my sweet young lady, but your uncle--"
"Nor is it my uncle"s nature either," she replied, with aheightened colour in her cheek. "It is not his nature to stab inthe dark, nor is it mine to love such deeds."
She rose as she spoke, and would have left him; but he detained herwith a gentle hand, and besought her in such persuasive accents tohear him but another minute, that she was easily prevailed upon tocomply, and so sat down again.
"And it is," said Mr Chester, looking upward, and apostrophisingthe air; "it is this frank, ingenuous, noble nature, Ned, that youcan wound so lightly. Shame--shame upon you, boy!"
She turned towards him quickly, and with a scornful look andflashing eyes. There were tears in Mr Chester"s eyes, but hedashed them hurriedly away, as though unwilling that his weaknessshould be known, and regarded her with mingled admiration andcompassion.
"I never until now," he said, "believed, that the frivolous actionsof a young man could move me like these of my own son. I neverknew till now, the worth of a woman"s heart, which boys so lightlywin, and lightly fling away. Trust me, dear young lady, that Inever until now did know your worth; and though an abhorrence ofdeceit and falsehood has impelled me to seek you out, and wouldhave done so had you been the poorest and least gifted of your ***,I should have lacked the fortitude to sustain this interview couldI have pictured you to my imagination as you really are."
Oh! If Mrs Varden could have seen the virtuous gentleman as hesaid these words, with indignation sparkling from his eyes--if shecould have heard his broken, quavering voice--if she could havebeheld him as he stood bareheaded in the sunlight, and withunwonted energy poured forth his eloquence!
With a haughty face, but pale and trembling too, Emma regarded himin silence. She neither spoke nor moved, but gazed upon him asthough she would look into his heart.
"I throw off," said Mr Chester, "the restraint which naturalaffection would impose on some men, and reject all bonds but thoseof truth and duty. Miss Haredale, you are deceived; you aredeceived by your unworthy lover, and my unworthy son."
Still she looked at him steadily, and still said not one word.
"I have ever opposed his professions of love for you; you will dome the justice, dear Miss Haredale, to remember that. Your uncleand myself were enemies in early life, and if I had soughtretaliation, I might have found it here. But as we grow older, wegrow wiser--bitter, I would fain hope--and from the first, I haveopposed him in this attempt. I foresaw the end, and would havespared you, if I could."
"Speak plainly, sir," she faltered. "You deceive me, or aredeceived yourself. I do not believe you--I cannot--I should not."
"First," said Mr Chester, soothingly, "for there may be in your mind some latent angry feeling to which I would not appeal, praytake this letter. It reached my hands by chance, and by mistake,and should have accounted to you (as I am told) for my son"s notanswering some other note of yours. God forbid, Miss Haredale,"
said the good gentleman, with great emotion, "that there should bein your gentle breast one causeless ground of quarrel with him.
You should know, and you will see, that he was in no fault here."
There appeared something so very candid, so scrupulouslyhonourable, so very truthful and just in this course somethingwhich rendered the upright person who resorted to it, so worthy ofbelief--that Emma"s heart, for the first time, sunk within her.
She turned away and burst into tears.
"I would," said Mr Chester, leaning over her, and speaking in mildand quite venerable accents; "I would, dear girl, it were my taskto banish, not increase, those tokens of your grief. My son, myerring son,--I will not call him deliberately criminal in this, formen so young, who have been inconstant twice or thrice before, actwithout reflection, almost without a knowledge of the wrong theydo,--will break his plighted faith to you; has broken it even now.
Shall I stop here, and having given you this warning, leave it tobe fulfilled; or shall I go on?"
"You will go on, sir," she answered, "and speak more plainly yet,in justice both to him and me."
