“Silvia,” he said, gently, “I commenced this interview
by saying that I had been to see Mr. Fantish.”

“You did, sir!”

“If, unhappily, we had not fallen into this discussion—”

“Say this quarrel, sir!”

“No; I have not quarreled with you, and will not. If,
I say, we had not been betrayed into this melancholy discussion,
I would have explained to you at once the purpose
of my visit.

“Well, sir, you can do so now.”

“I will proceed to do so; and if any word of mine is
worth your attention, let me beseech you not to load me
with those reproaches and bitter speeches, which you seem
to think—”

“You deserve, sir! Is that your meaning?”

“No, Silvia,” he said, sadly.

“Well, sir, I will endeavor to forget the causes of
complaint I have against you, and listen calmly.”

She looked so dignified as she spoke thus, and assumed
an expression of so much injured innocence that it might
have made a great actress envy her.

[figure description] Page 332.[end figure description]

“I called on Mr. Fantish this morning,” said Mr. Incledon,
“and informed him that I had heard all the details
of these unhappy matters.”

“Indeed, sir!”

“Yes.”

“No doubt he was entertained by your visit!”

“How scornful you are, Silvia.”

“Because you compel me to be, sir.”

“I would not.”

“You do.”

“I deeply regret that my very voice should have this
effect upon you then: but let me proceed.”

“I listen, sir.”

“I informed Mr. Fantish of our relationship—”

“Which he knew already.”

“Yes—and that made it a greater trial.”

“Indeed, sir!”

“Yes; an insult to a gentleman's friend may anger
him—an insult to his cousin cuts him like a sword.”

“I am flattered at hearing you retain so much brotherly
regard for me!”

“Ah, Silvia! Silvia! how you wound me. You are
not content to hear that my interview with Mr. Fantish
was a great trial—”

“You brought it upon yourself by your own act, I
believe, sir! Did Mr. Fantish request the interview?”

Mr. Incledon shok his head sadly, and gave up the
discussion without further words.

“I said, Silvia,” he continued, “that Mr. Fantish was
cognizant of the fact of our relationship throughout the

[figure description] Page 333.[end figure description]

interview—and, at the risk of exciting your feelings, I
must add that he knew of the charge which your father
gave me.”

“The charge—”

“Yes, Silvia.”

“Of your lordship's quality of guardian!”

Arrested incessantly thus by these bitter and scornful
taunts, Mr. Incledon nevertheless did not lose his temper.

“I informed Mr. Fantish,” he said, calmly, “that I had
called in right of my relationship, and in further right of
my charge from your father, to say that the continuance
of the jest in relation to yourself, Silvia, would make it
necessary for you to abandon the city.”

“You presumed to threaten that!” cried Miss Incledon,
in a perfect rage.

“Yes,” was the reply, “it was my only course, Silvia.”

“You presumed, sir, to say that my movements would
be coerced by yourself, in case—”

He went on thus: “Yes, Silvia, that is what I felt it
my duty to say to Mr. Fantish, though not precisely that.”

And Mr. Incledon gazed sadly at the countenance,
whose beauty had all fallen away, and been swallowed up
in the storm of passion.

For a time Miss Incledon glared at him—one can find
no other word—as though she would have struck him to
the earth with her eyes. Then finding her speech, she
cried passionately:

“You are most brave, sir! most courageous! You
are exceedingly chivalric and disinterested! How I
admire and respect you, and look up to you for your

[figure description] Page 334.[end figure description]

noble and devoted courage! I despise you, sir!” she
cried, losing her affected irony, and yielding to a mad
rage. “I call you a dishonored gentleman! I say you have
not one spark of that honor which your family expected
of you—that it is a taint to be connected with you as I
am, sir! You would run away with me, forsooth, sir!
You would take me away! try it, sir! Yes, sir, you
have acted nobly! You say that my honor required this
visit—you say that Mr. Fantish has uttered slanders
against me, which is false!—you say that I will be the
laughing-stock of society, if something is not done in this
terrible and dreadful emergency! Did it not occur to
you, sir, that there was something possible besides running
away—besides threatening to carry me away, a
threat, sir, which you will not dare to perform!—did it
never strike you, sir, when you went to see Mr. Fantish,
that if you are a gentleman, and possess a spark of
courage, there is the ordinary means of gentlemen, to
right your honor and my own! No, sir! I will answer
for you! You never thought of it! you shrunk from the
thought of meeting Mr. Fantish!—you know he would
shoot you, sir, and you have an especial regard for your
life! You refused to meet these charges, if they existed,
like a gentleman, and you now wish to carry me away,
and go yourself!—you will not take the pistol which a
brave gentleman offers to you!—in a word, you are a
coward, sir,—a craven! I despise you from the bottom
of my heart!”

There are moments when the calmest man becomes
heated—times when the coldest blood boils up—the

[figure description] Page 335.[end figure description]

palest cheek flushes—the most quiet eyes flash like
lightning.

It was this change which took place in Mr. Incledon's
appearance:—these evidences of emotion were visible
upon his face as he rose to his full height, and looked
down on the woman who was thus guilty of the unpardonable
and degrading offence of offering insult to a
gentleman. All this man's old nature, which had been
the very echo of chivalric sentiment, recoiled before the
corroding flood of insult poured upon him—and with
flashing eyes, heaving bosom, and haughty attitude, he
stood for a moment, grinding his nails into his hands and
shuddering with rage.

The expression of his face awed the young woman, and
in presence of a nature stronger and more largely moulded
than her own, she drew back, and half wished she had
never uttered what excited this terrible emotion.

She looked half fearfully at the man she had insulted,
and saw his countenance pass rapidly from rage to deep
contempt—and then her anger flushed back to her face,
and every nerve was braced to meet the trial—the
rebound.

The rebound never came.

Mr. Incledon's passion was no match for his vast self-control;
and like the waves of a troubled sea after a
storm, his rage and contempt grew gradually less; and
holding down the least evidence of adverse feeling, his
countenance settled into repose.

He tried to speak, but no words issued from his lips; and
standing thus dumb before the young woman, whom he

[figure description] Page 336.[end figure description]

looked down upon from the height of his collected calmness,
Mr. Incledon presented an appearance of such
grandeur and nobility, that the eyes of the weak woman
sank again before him, and the sullen words she was
about to utter, died upon her lips.

It was in the middle of this silence, so profound that
the fall of a leaf might have been heard, that Mr. Incledon
again spoke.

His voice was not yet under his command, but it
gathered strength as he proceeded, and grew perfectly
calm at last.

“Silvia,” he said, “the words which you have just
uttered, are such as no lady, even under any circumstances,
should be led to address to a gentleman. I do not say
this angrily, as you may see by looking at my face; and
not as a reply to your own bitter and unpardonable speech.
I say it that you may never in future address such words
to a gentleman—for nothing will more completely ruin
you in every honorable person's estimation, nothing will
be instrumental in causing so much bloodshed as a habit
so terrible as this. Had you spoken thus to me, some
years since, the result would have been unfortunate to some
one of your family, or to myself:—I should have made
you a low bow and taken my departure; but blood would
have flowed to wash out these expressions. Of course it
is irrational, ludicrous, and monstrous, that your brother's
blood should flow for words you have uttered—but I tell
you, Silvia, that nothing arouses in a certain class of men,
the devil of blood, more certainly than just such words as
you have spoken, only a few minutes since, to me! You

[figure description] Page 337.[end figure description]

will not disregard my advice, even coming as it does from
one whom you heartily despise. A few words more, however,
before I go—they are proper, even necessary. I
will not refer to your imputations upon my courage—imputations
which were worded with such bitterness, that my
old nervous temper carried me away at first—you saw it;
I will not speak of this, further than to say, that you are
quite correct in thinking that I would not send a challenge,
to fight a duel, to Mr. Fantish. He offered me a pistol
already loaded, and I refused it—would not take my position.
That is the simple fact. The interview was quite
peaceable—few criminations were exchanged—and I have
only to regret that I came away with the certainty that
Mr. Fantish will continue to abuse your name, and possibly—
it may be—even add to his offence from hatred to
myself. I have only to say then, that I shall this evening
do what I am driven to do by my sense of honor, by my
sacred promise, and by my absolute conviction of my simple
duty,—I shall write to Runland, telling Mr. Incledon, my
uncle and your father, that his presence is needed here, on
business of importance. He will come at once, and then
I shall be freed from this responsibility, and it will lie
with him. You start! Why should you? Surely, if I
have been foolishly sensitive in this affair, and Mr. Fantish
is the model of propriety you think him—surely, you
cannot fear to tell your father, Silvia, everything.”

And with perfect calmness, Mr. Incledon, bowed put
on his hat, and went toward the door.

p506-345

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