CHAPTER XLI.
“But come here! come here, sir! by the window, and
let me look at you!” cried Mr. Lennox. “What! Harry!
It is not possible. I have a son left, then! But
you're very much altered.”
“I told you you would come back a man,” said his
mother, gazing at him.
“Ah, my dear mother! I did not know what it was
to be a man then.”
“And, upon my word, you're a pretty one,” said
Mary.
“But how you're altered!” repeated Mr. Lennox.
“And now, how is it with you all?” demanded
-- 203 --
[figure description] Page 203.[end figure description]
Harry, in a low voice. “You had many things to tell me.
Are they good or bad?”
“Good, my boy,” replied his father. “I'm well, in
the first place, and we've had changes a plenty; but all
has come right at last, and—”
“And we've sold our house and Rose Hill,” cried
Mary, with a very mischievous look.
“But bought them again,” added Mrs. Lennox.
“And how are all friends?”
“All friends are well,” said Mary. “I presume by
`all friends' you mean Miss Elton!”
“Mary!” said her mother, reprovingly. “The same
girl, you see!”
“And we've had a wedding since you left, sir,” added
Mary.
“Mrs. Elton,” exclaimed Simon, throwing open the
door, and Mrs. Elton flew into Harry's arms and kissed
his forehead with the tenderest affection, her eyes full
of tears, and talking all the while exactly as if she
hadn't left off since he went away (and probably she
hadn't!). Behind her, very pale, with her eyes cast
down, stood Fanny, changed from a lovely girl into a
still lovelier woman, and preceded by a maid, carrying
one of the prettiest little babies that ever was seen.
The pang which this sight gave Harry taught him what
a tender and profound love he had continued to cherish
for her, and the hopes, false as air, which, despite all
he had heard and seen, had still kept possession of his
bosom. For a moment anguish and indignation contended
within him, for he was suffering one of the
keenest pangs he had ever experienced. He recovered
himself, however, immediately, and advanced to meet
her with very much the same manner as that in which
he had bade her farewell.
“I am happy to see you,” said he, scarcely touching
the hand tremblingly extended to him.
He was interrupted by the sudden awakening of the
baby, who began to cry—of course! But, what by no
means appeared so natural a consequence, he perceived,
with new astonishment, that tears had suddenly gushed
into the eyes of its mother, which, after vainly endeavouring
to repress, she was striving to hide with her
hands, and by turning away her face, upon which, to
say the truth, he had scarcely dared to look. The
-- 204 --
[figure description] Page 204.[end figure description]
incident occurred while everybody else was talking, and
perhaps was not generally observed.
In the midst of this little mystery a new comer presented
himself—a tall, very handsome, very well-dressed,
very graceful young man, with a pair of whiskers,
becomingly trimmed within the modesty of nature—and,
stretching forth his hand, he grasped Harry's with a
warmth which astonished the latter, although it did not
appear to have that effect upon anybody else.
“Confess at once,” said the stranger, “you don't—
you know—you don't know me.”
“Frankly,” replied Harry, in a respectful manner;
“but for these witnesses, I should say I had never—
stop!” he added, as if seized with a faint recollection,
“but no—and yet—it is not possible!—I'm not speaking
to little Seth?”
“The same,” cried Seth; “and, what is more, this
saucy one has dared, without your leave or knowledge,
to—”
Harry's surprise was not diminished by what followed,
for Seth, seizing the hand of Mary, raised it passionately
to his lips, and implanted upon the same a
first-rate, full-sized, unequivocal kiss.
“And the great traveller is grown too proud to take
the least notice of his little nephew,” cried Mary.
“What!” exclaimed Harry, starting up. “The baby,
then, isn't—”
“Isn't what?” demanded Mr. Lennox. “What do
you mean, sir?”
A sudden peal of laughter announced their discovery
of his mistake, which was made more perceptible by
the joyful enthusiasm with which he instantly hastened
to the side of Miss Elton, and, extending his hand,
said,
“Fanny, tell me the truth! Are we friends or enemies?”
“As you please,” said Fanny, with a very bad attempt
at perfect indifference.
“Well, I please to be friends; but—you are not married?”
“I!—married!” echoed Miss Elton, with an astonishment
too obvious to leave much doubt on that delicate
point.
“Nor going to be?”
-- 205 --
[figure description] Page 205.[end figure description]
“You good-for-nothing young dog!” cried Mr. Lennox,
“the girl has refused a dozen of the best matches
in town for you!”
“Is that true, Fanny?” demanded Harry, in an agitation
he did not even try to repress.
She was silent, and once more turned away her head;
but her distress, her blushes, her tears, revealed in a
moment the interesting fact.
“And Emmerson, then?” cried Harry, bewildered.
“Is a rascal!” said Lennox, sternly.
“Emmerson!” exclaimed Harry.
“I knew—I was sure it was that Mr. Emmerson's doings,”
said Mary.
“Fanny,” said Harry, with more calmness, “in the
presence of all these beloved ones, hear me declare that,
from the first moment I knew you, I loved you. I have
never ceased to love you. What error has been between
us I cannot say; but I have been given to understand—”
He stopped.
“And I,” said Fanny, “was informed—”
And she stopped.
“And I suppose you were both laid under a promise
of secrecy when the sly calumniator whispered his
poison,” said Mary.
“Didn't I always tell you he was a deceitful, selfish
fellow?” said Seth. “You were going to horsewhip
me, you know, sir, for saying so, once upon a time.”
“And I'll horsewhip you now if you say the contrary!”
exclaimed Mr. Lennox.
Fay, Theodore S. (Theodore Sedgwick), 1807-1898 [1843], A romance of New York volume 2 (Harper & Brothers, New York) [word count] [eaf099v2].
