CHAPTER LIV
'TO ONE THING CONSTANT NEVER'
'I am the very child of caprice,'said Waverley to himself, as he boltedthe door of his apartment and paced it with hasty steps. 'What is it tome that Fergus Mac-Ivor should wish to marry Rose Bradwardine? I loveher not; I might have been loved by her perhaps; but rejected hersimple, natural, and affecting attachment, instead of cherishing itinto tenderness, and dedicated myself to one who will never love mortalman, unless old Warwick, the King-maker, should arise from the dead TheBaron too--I would not have cared about his estate, and so the namewould have been no stumbling-block. The devil might have taken thebarren moors and drawn off the royal caligae for anything I would haveminded. But, framed as she is for domestic affection and tenderness,for giving and receiving all those kind and quiet attentions whichsweeten life to those who pass it together, she is sought by FergusMac-Ivor. He will not use her ill, to be sure; of that he is incapable.But he will neglect her after the first month; he will be too intent onsubduing some rival chieftain or circumventing some favourite at court,on gaining some heathy hill and lake or adding to his bands some newtroop of caterans, to inquire what she does, or how she amuses herself.
And then will canker sorrow eat her bud, And chase the native beauty from her cheek; And she will look as hollow as a ghost, And dim and meagre as an ague fit, And so she'll die.
And such a catastrophe of the most gentle creature on earth might havebeen prevented if Mr. Edward Waverley had had his eyes! Upon my word, Icannot understand how I thought Flora so much, that is, so very much,handsomer than Rose. She is taller indeed, and her manner more formed;but many people think Miss Bradwardine's more natural; and she iscertainly much younger. I should think Flora is two years older than Iam. I will look at them particularly this evening.'
And with this resolution Waverley went to drink tea (as the fashion wasSixty Years Since) at the house of a lady of quality attached to thecause of the Chevalier, where he found, as he expected, both theladies. All rose as he entered, but Flora immediately resumed her placeand the conversation in which she was engaged. Rose, on the contrary,almost imperceptibly made a little way in the crowded circle for hisadvancing the corner of a chair. 'Her manner, upon the whole, is mostengaging,' said Waverley to himself.
A dispute occurred whether the Gaelic or Italian language was mostliquid, and best adapted for poetry; the opinion for the Gaelic, whichprobably might not have found supporters elsewhere, was here fiercelydefended by seven Highland ladies, who talked at the top of theirlungs, and screamed the company deaf with examples of Celtic euphonia.Flora, observing the Lowland ladies sneer at the comparison, producedsome reasons to show that it was not altogether so absurd; but Rose,when asked for her opinion, gave it with animation in praise ofItalian, which she had studied with Waverley's assistance. "She has amore correct ear than Flora, though a less accomplished musician," saidWaverley to himself. 'I suppose Miss Mac-Ivor will next compareMac-Murrough nan Fonn to Ariosto!'
Lastly, it so befell that the company differed whether Fergus should beasked to perform on the flute, at which he was an adept, or Waverleyinvited to read a play of Shakspeare; and the lady of the housegood-humouredly undertook to collect the votes of the company forpoetry or music, under the condition that the gentleman whose talentswere not laid under contribution that evening should contribute them toenliven the next. It chanced that Rose had the casting vote. Now Flora,who seemed to impose it as a rule upon herself never to countenance anyproposal which might seem to encourage Waverley, had voted for music,providing the Baron would take his violin to accompany Fergus. 'I wishyou joy of your taste, Miss Mac-Ivor,' thought Edward, as they soughtfor his book. 'I thought it better when we were at Glennaquoich; butcertainly the Baron is no great performer, and Shakspeare is worthlistening to.'
'Romeo and Juliet' was selected, and Edward read with taste, feeling,and spirit several scenes from that play. All the company applaudedwith their hands, and many with their tears. Flora, to whom the dramawas well known, was among the former; Rose, to whom it was altogethernew, belonged to the latter class of admirers. 'She has more feelingtoo,' said Waverley, internally.
The conversation turning upon the incidents of the play and upon thecharacters, Fergus declared that the only one worth naming, as a man offashion and spirit, was Mercutio. 'I could not,' he said, 'quite followall his old-fashioned wit, but he must have been a very pretty fellow,according to the ideas of his time.'
'And it was a shame,' said Ensign Maccombich, who usually followed hisColonel everywhere, 'for that Tibbert, or Taggart, or whatever was hisname, to stick him under the other gentleman's arm while he was reddingthe fray.'
The ladies, of course, declared loudly in favour of Romeo, but thisopinion did not go undisputed. The mistress of the house and severalother ladies severely reprobated the levity with which the herotransfers his affections from Rosalind to Juliet. Flora remained silentuntil her opinion was repeatedly requested, and then answered, shethought the circumstance objected to not only reconcilable to nature,but such as in the highest degree evinced the art of the poet. 'Romeois described,' said she, 'as a young man peculiarly susceptible of thesofter passions; his love is at first fixed upon a woman who couldafford it no return; this he repeatedly tells you,--
From love's weak, childish bow she lives unharmed,
and again--
She hath forsworn to love.
Now, as it was impossible that Romeo's love, supposing him a reasonablebeing, could continue to subsist without hope, the poet has, with greatart, seized the moment when he was reduced actually to despair to throwin his way an object more accomplished than her by whom he had beenrejected, and who is disposed to repay his attachment. I can scarceconceive a situation more calculated to enhance the ardour of Romeo'saffection for Juliet than his being at once raised by her from thestate of drooping melancholy in which he appears first upon the sceneto the ecstatic state in which he exclaims--
--come what sorrow can, It cannot countervail the exchange of joy That one short moment gives me in her sight.'
'Good now, Miss Mac-Ivor,' said a young lady of quality, 'do you meanto cheat us out of our prerogative? will you persuade us love cannotsubsist without hope, or that the lover must become fickle if the ladyis cruel? O fie! I did not expect such an unsentimental conclusion.'
'A lover, my dear Lady Betty,' said Flora, 'may, I conceive, perseverein his suit under very discouraging circumstances. Affection can (nowand then) withstand very severe storms of rigour, but not a long polarfrost of downright indifference. Don't, even with YOUR attractions, trythe experiment upon any lover whose faith you value. Love will subsiston wonderfully little hope, but not altogether without it.'
'It will be just like Duncan Mac-Girdie's mare,' said Evan, 'if yourladyships please, he wanted to use her by degrees to live without meat,and just as he had put her on a straw a day the poor thing died!'
Evan's illustration set the company a-laughing, and the discourse tooka different turn. Shortly afterwards the party broke up, and Edwardreturned home, musing on what Flora had said. 'I will love my Rosalindno more,' said he; 'she has given me a broad enough hint for that; andI will speak to her brother and resign my suit. But for a Juliet--wouldit be handsome to interfere with Fergus's pretensions? though it isimpossible they can ever succeed; and should they miscarry, what then?why then alors comme alors.' And with this resolution of being guidedby circumstances did our hero commit himself to repose.