第151章

"Let me see, it was the 17th of October.""Why, that was the very day I left England.""How odd! Why did you not stay another week? Gentlemen are so impatient.

Never mind, that is an old story now. Here we are; those are the cottages. The workmen are at dinner. Ten to one the enthusiast is there:

this is her time. You stay here. I'll go and see."She went off on tiptoe, and peeped and pried here and there, like a young witch. Presently she took a few steps toward him, with her finger mysteriously to her lips, and beckoned him. He entered into the pantomime--she seemed so earnest in it--and came to her softly.

"Do just take a peep in at that opening for a door," said she, "then you'll see her; her back is turned. She is lovely; only, you know, she has been ill, and I don't think she is very happy."Uxmoor thought this peeping at enthusiasts rather an odd proceeding, but Miss Gale had primed his curiosity, and he felt naturally proud of a female pupil. He stepped up lightly, looked in at the door, and, to his amazement, saw Zoe Vizard sitting on a carpenter's bench, with her lovely head in the sun's rays. He started, then gazed, then devoured her with his eyes.

What! was this his pupil?

How gentle and sad she seemed! All his stoicism melted at the sight of her. She sat in a sweet, pensive attitude, pale and drooping, but, to his fancy, lovelier than ever. She gave a little sigh. His heart yearned. She took out a letter, read it slowly, and said, softly and slowly, "Poor fellow!" He thought he recognized his own handwriting, and could stand no more. He rushed, in, and was going to speak to her; but she screamed, and no conjurer ever made a card disappear quicker than she did that letter, as she bounded away like a deer, and stood, blushing scarlet, and palpitating all over.

Uxmoor was ashamed of his _brusquerie._ "What a brute I am to frighten you like this!" said he. "Pray forgive me; but the sight of you, after all these weary months--and you said 'Poor fellow!'""Did I?" said Zoe, faintly, looking scared.

"Yes, sweet Zoe, and you were reading a letter."No reply.

"I thought the poor fellow might be myself. Not that I am to be pitied, if you think of me still.""I do, then--very often. Oh, Lord Uxmoor, I want to go down on my knees to you.""That is odd, now; for it is exactly what I should like to do to you.""What for? It is I who have behaved so ill.""Never mind that; I love you."

"But you mustn't. You must love some worthy person.""Oh, you leave that to me. I have no other intention. But may I just see whose letter you were reading?""Oh, pray don't ask me."

"I insist on knowing."

"I will not tell you. There it is." She gave it to him with a guilty air, and hid her face.

"Dear Zoe, suppose I were to repeat the offer I made here?""I advise you not," said she, all in a flurry.

"Why?"

"Because. Because--I might say 'Yes.'"

"Well, then I'll take my chance once more. Zoe, will you try and love me?""Try? I believe I do love you, or nearly. I think of you very often.""Then you will do something to make me happy.""Anything; everything."

"Will you marry me?"

"Yes, that I will," said Zoe, almost impetuously; "and then," with a grand look of conscious beauty, "I can _make_ you forgive me."Uxmoor, on this, caught her in his arms, and kissed her with such fire that she uttered a little stifled cry of alarm; but it was soon followed by a sigh of complacency, and she sunk, resistless, on his manly breast.

So, after two sieges, he carried that fair citadel by assault.

Then let not the manly heart despair, nor take a mere brace of "Noes"from any woman. Nothing short of three negatives is serious.

They walked out in arm-in-arm and very close to each other; and he left her, solemnly engaged.

Leaving this pair to the delights of courtship, and growing affection on Zoe's side--for a warm attachment of the noblest kind did grow, by degrees, out of her penitence, and esteem, and desire to repair her fault--I must now take up the other thread of this narrative, and apologize for having inverted the order of events; for it was, in reality, several days after this happy scene that Mademoiselle Klosking sent for Miss Gale.