anything but a blessing in my house, ever since she came into it. If she is as good to you as she has been to me, you will have nothing left to ask for. But I grudge her to you!"
"I find that very pardonable," said Mr. Southwode with a smile.
"I was dreadfully set against you at first," Mrs. Mowbray went on, with a manner between seriousness and archness. "I tried hard to make out to my satisfaction that Rotha had accepted you only out of gratitude--in which case I should have made fight; but I found I had no ground to stand on."
Here Rotha made a diversion. She came, as Mrs. Mowbray finished her speech, and kneeled down on a cushion at her feet, laying one hand in her friend's hand.
"Mrs. Mowbray--_this_ vacation we shall not be there but next summer, if all's well, you will come and spend the whole time at Southwode?"
"Ah, my dear," said Mrs. Mowbray, "I never know a year beforehand what will become of me!"
"But I said, if all's well?"
"What Rotha petitions for, I petition for also, Mrs. Mowbray," Mr. Southwode added; "and this time with double urgency, for I ask on her account and on mine too."
"You will come," said Rotha. "And," she went on, laying her other hand on Mrs. Mowbray's shoulder,--"And some day, you know, you will give up schooling; and then--then--Mr. Southwode says, you must come and live the rest of your days with us. He says the house is big enough, and you shall have a separate establishment to yourself, if you like."
Mrs. Mowbray looked silently at the eager face so near her, and her eyes gathered a little moisture, a tendency which probably she repelled.
"I expect to die in harness,"--she said, while the two pair of eyes looked steadily into one another.
"In one way--but not in school harness! Don't say anything about it; but when you stop work--this work--your home is there."
The beautiful lips trembled a little, but Mrs. Mowbray would not give way.
"That would be a delightful dream!" she said. "Thank you, my dear. When I am tired out with people and things, I will think of this and be refreshed. Now will you bring Mr. Southwode in to tea?"
She rose and swept on before them, leading the way. Her self-command had been successful. Rotha was less in training, and several tears dropped from her eyes as she followed through the library. She was a little disappointed, and the girl's heart was full. Her eager affection had not got the answer it wanted. Rotha did not mistake her friend's manner; she did not think Mrs. Mowbray was without feeling because she would not shew feeling; nor that her appeal had not met a response due and full, because the response was not given in words. She knew that probably Mrs. Mowbray could not trust herself to put it in words. Nevertheless, she felt a little thrown back and disappointed, and "Monday" was near; and I suppose she felt what any girl feels at such a time, the want of a mother. Rotha had nobody but Mrs. Mowbray, and she was parting from her. Two or three tears fell before she could prevent it. And then Mr. Southwode, who had been watching her, and could read her feelings pretty well, stretched out his hand, took one of hers and drew it through his arm. It was a little thing, but done, as some people can do things, in a way that quite took it out of the category. There was in it, somehow, an assurance of mutual confidence, of understanding, and sympathy, and great tenderness. He had not looked at her, nor spoken, but Rotha's step grew lighter immediately; and in quiet content she followed Mrs. Mowbray up stairs and down and along passages and through one room after another. The tea table was not set in the great dining rooms; they too were sweet with fresh matting, and lay in summer coolness and emptiness, giving a long dusky vista towards the front windows, where the blinds shaded the light and muslin curtains shielded from the dust of the streets. But in the smaller end room at the back the great windows were open, and the sea breeze came in fitfully, and the colours of the evening sky were discernible, and there the table was prepared. What a table! Mrs. Mowbray had gathered all sorts of delicacies together; cold birds, and fruit, and dainty India sweetmeats, and rich cheese of best English make, and a cold ham; together with some very delicate warm tea cakes, which I am afraid Mr. Southwode, being an Englishman, did not appreciate properly.
"Do not think this is our usual and ordinary tea!" Rotha said laughing. "All this extreme luxury is on your account."
"Rotha and I dine early, these summer days," said Mrs. Mowbray; "and I did not wish to starve you when I asked you to stay to tea. This is not dinner, nor any meal that deserves a name--but perhaps you will kindly put up with it, in place of dinner."
"Dinner!" said Mr. Southwode. "This looks festive!"
"O we are always festive in vacation time," said Rotha joyously. "In other houses people call in numbers to help them make merry; here we are merry when the people go!"
They were softly merry round that board. Rotha had got back her gayety, and Mrs. Mowbray was the most charming of hostesses. No one could take such care of her guests; no one could make the time pass so pleasantly; no one had such store of things to tell or to talk of, that were worth the while, and that at the same time were not within the reach of most people; no one had a more beautiful skill to give the conversation a turn that might do somebody good, without in the least allowing it to droop in interest. To-day there was no occasion for this particular blessed faculty to be called into exercise; she could let the talk run as it would; and it ran delightfully. In general society Mr. Southwode was very apt to play a rather quiet part; keeping the ball going indeed, but doing it rather by apt suggestion and incentive applied to other people; this evening he came out and talked, as Rotha was accustomed to hear him; seconding Mrs. Mowbray fully, and making, which I suppose was partly his purpose, an engrossing entertainment for Rotha.
Following a little pause which occurred in the conversation, Mrs. Mowbray broke out,--
"What are you going to do about Mrs. Busby?"
The question was really addressed to Rotha; but as Rotha did not immediately answer, Mr. Southwode took it up, and asked "in what respect?"
"Is she to be invited?"
"I was just talking to Mr. Southwode about it," said Rotha. "Why should she be invited? It would be no pleasure to any one."
"It would be a pleasure to her."
"I do not think it, Mrs. Mowbray! O yes, she would like to come; but _pleasure_--it would be pleasure to nobody. I know she wants to come."
"Well, my dear, and she is your mother's sister. Always keep well with your relations. Blood is thicker than water."
"I do not think so!" cried Rotha. "I do not feel it so. If she were not my mother's sister, I would not care; she would be nothing to me, one way or another; it is _because_ she is my mother's sister that she is so exceedingly disagreeable. If people who are your relations are disagreeable, it is infinitely worse than if they were not relations. It is the relationship that puts them at such an unapproachable distance. You are near to me, Mrs. Mowbray, and my aunt Serena is a thousand miles away."
"It is best the world should not know that, my dear. Do you not agree with me, Mr. Southwode?"
"Better still, that there should be nothing to know," he answered somewhat evasively.
"Yes!" said Rotha; "and if I could have been good and gentle and sweet when I first went to her, things might have been different; but I was not. I suppose I was provoking."
"Cannot you make up the breach now?"
"I have not the wish, Mrs. Mowbray. I see no change in aunt Serena; and unless she could change, I can only wish she were not my mother's sister. I have forgiven her; O I have forgiven her!--but love and kinship are another thing."
"My dear, it would not hurt you, much, to let her come. I know she would feel it a gratification."
"I know that well enough."
"Always gratify people when you can innocently."
"How far?" said Rotha, laughing now in the midst of a little vexation. "I know they are just aching for an invitation to Southwode. There has been enough said to let me see that."
"That must be as your hu
sband pleases."
"_That_ must be as my wife pleases," said Mr. Southwode with a smile.
Poor Rotha passed both hands hastily over her face, as if she would wipe away the heat and the colour; then letting them fall, turned her face full to the last speaker.
"Mr. Southwode, you do not want to see them there!"
"Miss Rotha, I do not. But--if you do, I do."
"That throws all the responsibility upon me."
"My dear," said Mrs. Mowbray, "that is what men always like to do--get rid of responsibility--if they can find somebody else to put it on."
"Ever since Adam's day--" Mr. Southwode added.
"Is there any possible reason why aunt Serena, and Mr. Busby and Antoinette, should be asked to come to Southwode? If there is any _reason_ for it, I have no more to say; but I do not see the reason."
"She is your mother's sister--" Mrs. Mowbray repeated.
"And that fact it is, which puts her so far from me. Just that fact."
"Maybe it will do her good," suggested Mrs. Mowbray.
Rotha laughed a short, impatient laugh. "How should it?" she asked.
"You never can tell how. My dear, it is not good to have breaches in families. Always heal them up, if you can."
Rotha turned in despair to Mr. Southwode.
"Mrs. Mowbray is right, in principle," he said. "I entirely agree with her. The only question is, whether a breach which remains a breach by the will of the offending party alone, ought to be covered over and condoned by the action of the injured party."
"You must forgive,--" said Mrs. Mowbray.
"Yes; and forgiveness implies a readiness to have the breach bridged over and forgotten. I think it does not command or advise that the offender be treated as if he had repented, so long as he does not repent."
"I have no doubt Mrs. Busby repents," said Mrs. Mowbray.
"I have no doubt she is sorry."
"I know she is," said Rotha; "but she would do it again to-morrow."
"What has she done, after all? My dear, human nature is weak."
"I know it is," said Rotha eagerly; "and if I thought it would do her the least bit of good, as far as I am concerned, I would be quite willing to ask her to Southwode. I do not at all wish to give her what I think she deserves."
"I am afraid I do," said Mr. Southwode; "and that is a disposition not to be indulged. Let us give her the chance of possible good, and ask her, Rotha."
"Then I must ask her here Monday."
"I suppose I can stand that."
There was a little pause.
"Well," said Rotha, "if you think it is better, I do not care. It will be a punishment to her,--but perhaps it would be a worse punishment to stay away."
"Now," said Mrs. Mowbray, "there is another thing. Don't you think Rotha ought to wear a veil?"
Mrs. Mowbray was getting mischievous. Her sweet blue eyes looked up at Mr. Southwode with a sparkle in them.
"Why should I wear a veil?" said Rotha.
"It is the custom."
"But I do not care in the least for custom. It's a nonsensical custom, too."
"Brides are supposed to want a shield between them and the world," Mrs. Mowbray went on. She loved to tease, yet she never teased Rotha; one reason for which, no doubt, was that Rotha never could be teased. She could laugh at the fun of a suggestion, without at all making it a personal matter. But now her cheeks shewed her not quite unconcerned.
"The world will not be here," she replied. "I understand, in a great crowd it might be pleasant, and as part of a pageant it is pretty; but here there will be no crowd and no pageant; and I do not see why there should be a veil."
"It is becoming--" suggested Mrs. Mowbray.
"But one cannot continue to wear a veil; and why should one try to look preternaturally well just for five minutes?"
"They are five minutes to be remembered," said Mrs. Mowbray, while both Rotha's hearers were amused.
"I would rather they should be remembered to my advantage than to my disadvantage," the latter persisted. "It would be pitiful, to set up a standard which in all my life after I never could reach again."
"It is a very old institution"--Mrs. Mowbray went on, while the mischief in her eyes increased and her lips began to wreathe in lines of loveliest archness; Rotha's cheeks the while growing more and more high-coloured. "Rebecca, you know, when she saw her husband from a distance, got down respectfully from her camel and put on her veil."
"That was after her marriage," said Rotha. "That was not at the wedding ceremony."
"I fancy there was nothing that we could call a wedding ceremony," Mr. Southwode remarked. "Perhaps we may say she was married by proxy, when her family sent her away with blessings and good wishes. Her putting on her veil at the sight of Isaac shewed that she recognized him for her husband."
"Yes," said Mrs. Mowbray; "it was the old sign of the woman's being under subjection."
"And under protection--" added Mr. Southwode.
"But it does not mean anything _now_," Rotha said quickly. Mrs. Mowbray laughed, and Mr. Southwode could not prevent a smile, at the naive energy of her utterance.
"You need not think I am afraid of it," Rotha said, facing them bravely. "When I was only a little girl, and very wayward, I never wanted to do anything that would displease Mr. Digby. It is not likely I should begin now."
"My dear," said Mrs. Mowbray, with every feature in a quiver of mischief,--"do you think you have given over being wayward?" And Rotha's earnest gravity broke into laughter.
"I think after all," said Mr. Southwode demurely, "all that old meekness was because in your conscience you thought I was right."
"N--o," said Rotha slowly, looking at him,--"I do not think it was."
"And you would fight me now, if I tried to make you do something you thought was wrong."
"Would I?" Rotha said. But her eyes' swift glance said more, which he alone got the benefit of; an innocent glance of such trust and love and such utter scorn of the suggested possibility, that Mr. Southwode did not for a minute or two know very well what he or anybody else was doing.
"We have wandered away from the question," said Mrs. Mowbray.
"What is the question?" he asked.
"Why, the veil! I believe in the value of symbols, for keeping up the ideas of the things symbolized. Don't you?"
"Unquestionably."
"Well--don't you propose, Mr. Southwode, to maintain the Biblical idea of subjection in your family?"
"As well without the veil as with it."
"I see!" said Mrs. Mowbray. "I shall have to succumb; and Rotha will have her own way. But I did want to see her in a veil. We have had a great deal of trouble over that dress, Rotha and I!"
To Rotha's relief however, Mr. Southwode did not ask why or how, but let the conversation drift on to other subjects.
As they were returning through the long course of rooms and passages to the library, Mrs. Mowbray as before leading the way; in one of the lower rooms, dimly lighted, Rotha's steps lingered. She came close to her companion's side and spoke in a lowered tone, timidly.
"Digby--will _you_ ask aunt Serena to come to Southwode?"
"No, my darling," said he, drawing her up to him;--"I will not."
"Then--I?"
"You, and no other. And without my name coming in at all."
"It will not hold for half as much."
"It must. You are the mistress of the house. And besides,--it may be very well that you, who have been injured, should shew your forgiveness; but I am under no such necessity."
"You, who have not been injured, do _not_ forgive her?" said Rotha, laughing a little.
"Yes, I forgive her; but I do not propose to reward her."
"You like me to do it?"
"I like you to do it."
They stood still a moment.
"Digby," said Rotha again, with a breath of anxiety, "_do_ you care how I am dressed Monday?"
"Do I?--Yes."
He had both arms round her now, and was looking down into her changing face.
"You do not think it need be costly, do you? Mrs. Mowbray has a notion that it ought to be rich."
"Will you let me choose it?"
Rotha hesitated, looked down and looked up.
"It is all yours--" she said, somewhat vaguely, but he understood her. "Only, remember that I am a poor girl, and it _ought_ not to be costly."
"Mrs. Digby Southwode will not be a poor girl," he said, with caresses which shewed Rotha how sweet the words were to him.
"But you know our principle," said Rotha. "I had a mind to wear just my travelling dress; but Mrs. Mowbray said you would not like that, and I must be in white."
"I think I would like you to be in white," he said.
_________
And everybody declared that was a pretty wedding; the prettiest, some said, that ever was seen. There were not many indeed to say anything about it; the Busbys were there, and one or two of Rotha's school