So meditated the doctor as he road along, with only too true a knowledge of human nature. Ah! it was impossible, quite impossible that Mary should be indifferent. She had never been indifferent since Frank had uttered his first half-joking word of love. Such things are more important to women than they are to men, to girls than they are to boys. When Frank had first told her that he loved her; aye, months before that, when he merely looked his love, her heart had received the whisper, had acknowledged the glance, unconscious as she was herself, and resolved as she was to rebuke his advances. When, in her hearing, he had said soft nothings to Patience Oriel, a hated, irrepressible tear had gathered in her eye. When he had pressed in his warm, loving grasp the hand which she had offered in him in token of mere friendship, her heart had forgiven him the treachery, nay, almost thanked him for it, before her eyes or her words had been ready to rebuke him. When the rumour of his liaison with Miss Dunstable reached her ears, when she heard of Miss Dunstable's fortune, she had wept, wept outright, in her chamber--wept, as she said to herself, to think that he could be so mercenary; but she had wept, as she should have said to herself, at finding that he was so faithless. Then, when she knew at last that this rumour was false, when she found that she was banished from Greshamsbury for his sake, when she was forced to retreat with her friend Patience, how could she but love him, in that he was not mercenary? How could she not love him in that was so faithful?
It was impossible that she should not love him. Was he not the brightest and the best of men that she had ever seen, or was like to see?--that she could possibly ever see, she would have said to herself, could she have brought herself to own the truth? And then, when she heard how true he was, how he persisted against father, mother, and sisters, how could it be that that should not be a merit in her eyes which was so great a fault in theirs? When Beatrice, with would-be solemn face, but with eyes beaming with feminine affection, would gravely talk of Frank's tender love as a terrible misfortune, as a misfortune to them all, to Mary herself as well as others, how could Mary do other than love him? 'Beatrice is his sister,' she would say within her own mind, 'otherwise she would never talk like this; were she not his sister, she could not but know the value of such love as this.' Ah! yes; Mary did love him; love him with all the strength of her heart; and the strength of her heart was very great. And now by degrees, in those lonely donkey-rides at Boxall Hill, in those solitary walks, she was beginning to own to herself the truth.
And now that she did own it, what should be her course? What should she do, how should she act if this loved one persevered in his love?
And, ah! what should she do, how should she act if he did not persevere? Could it be that there should be happiness in store for her? Was it not too clear that, let the matter go how it would, there was no happiness in store for her? Much as she might love Frank Gresham, she could never consent to be his wife unless the squire would smile on her as his daughter-in-law. The squire had been all that was kind, all that was affectionate. And then, too, Lady Arabella! As she thought of the Lady Arabella a sterner form of thought came across her brow. Why should Lady Arabella rob her of her heart's joy? What was Lady Arabella that she, Mary Thorne, need quail before her? Had Lady Arabella stood only in her way, Lady Arabella, flanked by the De Courcy legion, Mary felt that she could have demanded Frank's hand as her own before them all without a blush of shame or a moment's hesitation.
Thus, when her heart was all but ready to collapse within her, would she gain some little strength by thinking of the Lady Arabella.
'Please, my lady, here be young squire Gresham,' said one of the untutored servants at Boxall Hill, opening Lady Scatcherd's little parlour door as her ladyship was amusing herself by pulling down and turning, and re-folding, and putting up again, a heap of household linen which was kept in a huge press for the express purpose of supplying her with occupation.
Lady Scatcherd, holding a vast counterpane in her arms, looked back over her shoulders and perceived that Frank was in the room. Down went the counterpane on the ground, and Frank soon found himself in the very position which that useful article had so lately filled.
'Oh! Master Frank! oh, Master Frank!' said her ladyship, almost in an hysterical fit of joy; and then she hugged and kissed him as she had never kissed and hugged her own son since that son had first left the parent nest.
Frank bore it patiently and with a merry laugh. 'But, Lady Scatcherd,' said he, 'what will they all say? you forget I am a man now,' and he stooped his head as she again pressed her lips upon his forehead.
'I don't care what none of 'em say,' said her ladyship, quite going back to her old days; 'I will kiss my own boy; so I will. Eh, but Master Frank, this is good on you. A sight of you is good for sore eyes; and my eyes have been sore enough since I saw you;' and she put her apron up to wipe a tear away.
'Yes,' said Frank, gently trying to disengage himself, but not successfully: 'yes, you have had a great loss, Lady Scatcherd. I was so sorry when I heard of your grief.'
'You always had a soft, kind heart, Master Frank; so you had. God's blessing on you! What a fine man you have grown! Deary me! Well, it seems as though it were only just t'other day like.' And she pushed him a little from her, so that she might look the better into his face.
'Well. Is it all right? I suppose you would hardly know me again now I've got a pair of whiskers?'
'Know you! I should know you well if I saw but the heel of your foot.
