In my confidences with my dear girl I had told her neither the nature of my mission in Yorkshire, nor the fact that I was bound to leave Huxter’s Cross immediately upon an exploring expedition to nowhere in particular, in search of the archives of the Meynells. How could I bring myself to tell her that I must leave her? — how much less could I bring myself to do it?
Rendered desperately unmindful of the universe by reason of my all-absorbing happiness, I determined on giving myself a holiday boldly, in defiance of Sheldon and the Sheldonian interests.
“Am I a bounden slave?” I asked myself, “that I should go here or there at any man’s bidding, for the pitiful stipend of twenty shillings a week?”
It is to be observed that the rate of hire makes all the difference in these cases; and while it is ignominious for a lawyer’s clerk to hasten to and fro in the earning of his weekly wage, it is in no way dishonourable for the minister of state to obey the call of his chief, and hurry hither and thither in abnegation of all his own predilections, and to the aggravation of his chronic gout.
I wrote to my Sheldon, and told him that I had met with friends in the neighbourhood of Huxter’s Cross, and that I intended to give myself a brief holiday; after which I would resume my labours, and do my uttermost to make up for wasted time. I had still the remnant of my borrowed thirty pounds, and amongst these northern hills I felt myself a millionaire.
Three thousand pounds at five per cent — one hundred and fifty pounds a year. I felt that with such an income assured to us, and the fruits of my industry, Charlotte and I might be secure from all the storms of life. Ah, what happiness it would be to work for her! And I am not too old to begin life afresh; not too old for the bar; not too old to make some mark as a writer on the press; not too old to become a respectable member of society.
After having despatched my letter to Sheldon, I made off for Newhall farm with all speed. I had received a sort of general invitation from the kindest of uncles and aunts, but I contrived with becoming modesty to arrive after Mr. Mercer’s dinner-hour. I found Charlotte alone in the dear old-fashioned parlour, aunt Dorothy being engaged in some domestic operations in the kitchen, and uncle Joseph making his usual after-dinner rounds amongst the pig-styes and the threshing-machines. I discovered afterwards that it was Miss Halliday’s wont to accompany her kind kinsman in this afternoon investigation; but to-day she had complained of a headache and preferred to stay at home. Yet there were few symptoms of the headache when I found her standing in the bow-window, watching the path by which I came, and the face of Aurora herself could scarcely be brighter or fresher than my darling’s innocent blushes when I greeted her with the privileged kiss of betrothal.
We sat in the bow-window talking till the twilight shadows crept over the greensward, and the sheep were led away to their fold, with cheerful jingling of bells and barking of watchful dog. My dearest girl told me that our secret had already been discovered by the penetrating eyes of aunt Dorothy and uncle Joseph. They had teased her unmercifully, it seemed, all that day, but were graciously pleased to smile upon my suit, like a pair of imprudent Arcadians as they are.
“They like you very much indeed,” my Lotta said joyously; “but I believe they think I have known you much longer than I really have, and that you are very intimate with my stepfather. It seems almost like deceiving them to allow them to think so, but I really haven’t the courage to tell the truth. How foolish and bold they would think me if they knew how very short a time I have known you!”
“Twenty times longer than Juliet had known Romeo when they met in the Friar’s cell to be married,” I urged.
“Yes, but that was in a play,” replied Charlotte, “where everything is obliged to be hurried; and at Hyde Lodge we all of us thought that Juliet was a very forward young person.”
“The poets all believe in love at first sight, and I’ll wager our dear uncle Joe fell over head and ears in love with aunt Dorothy after having danced with her two or three times at an assize ball,” said I. After this we became intensely serious, and I told my darling girl that I hoped very soon to be in possession of a small fixed income, and to have begun a professional career. I told her how dear an incentive to work she had given me, and how little fear I had for the future.
I reminded her that Mr. Sheldon had no legal power to control her actions, and that, as her father’s will had left her entirely to her mother’s guardianship, she had only her mother’s pleasure to consult.
“I believe poor mamma would let me marry a crossing-sweeper, if I cried and declared it would make me miserable not to marry him,” said Charlotte; “but then, you see, mamma’s wishes mean Mr. Sheldon’s wishes; she is sure to think whatever he tells her to think; and if he is strongly against our marriage —”
“As I am sure he will be,” I interjected.
“He will work upon poor mamma in that calm, persistent, logical way of his till he makes her as much against it as himself.”
“But even your mamma has no legal power to control your actions, my love. Were you not of age on your last birthday?”
My darling replied in the affirmative.
“Then of course you are free to marry whom you please; and as I am thankful to say you don’t possess a single sixpence in your own right, there need be no fuss about settlements or pin-money. We can marry any fine morning that my dear girl pleases to name, and defy all the stern stepfathers in creation.”
“How I wish I had a fortune, for your sake!” she said with a sigh.
“Be glad for my sake that you have none,” I answered. “You cannot imagine the miserable complications and perplexities which arise in this world from the possession of money. No slave so tightly bound as the man who has what people call ‘a stake in the country’ and a balance at his banker’s. The true monarch of all he surveys is the penniless reprobate who walks down Fleet-street with his whole estate covered by the seed............