"My dear, in the grave all things are forgiven."

She could not help saying so; but, feeling as if she had been cruel, she added, "I mean, while he is so ill, we cannot enter on such a matter. I am very sorry for you," proceeded she, still arranging for Laura"s ease; then kissing her, hoped she would sleep, and left her.

Sympathy was a matter of necessity to Mrs. Edmonstone; and as her husband was out, she went at once to Charles, with a countenance so disturbed, that he feared some worse tidings had come from Italy.

"No, no, nothing of that sort; it is poor Laura."

"Eh?" said Charles, with a significant though anxious look, that caused her to exclaim,--

"Surely you had no suspicion!"

Charlotte, who was reading in the window, trembled lest she should be seen, and sent away.

"I suspected poor Laura had parted with her heart. But what do you mean?

What has happened?"

"Could you have guessed? but first remember how ill he is; don"t be violent, Charlie. Could you have guessed that they have been engaged, ever since the summer we first remarked them?"

She had expected a great storm; but Charles only observed, very coolly, "Oh! it is come out at last!"

"You don"t mean that you knew it?"

"No, indeed, you don"t think they would choose me for their confidant!"

"Not exactly," said Mrs. Edmonstone, with the odd sort of laugh with which even the most sensitive people, in the height of their troubles, reply to anything ludicrous; "but really," she continued, "every idea of mine is so turned upside-down, that I don"t know what to think of anybody."

"We always knew Laura to be his slave and automaton. He is so infallible in her eyes, that no doubt she thought her silence an act of praiseworthy resolution."

"She was a mere child, poor dear," said her mother; "only eighteen! Yet Amy was but a year older last summer. How unlike! She must have known what she was doing."

"Not with her senses surrendered to him, without volition of her own. I wonder by what magnetism he allowed her to tell?"

"She has gone through a great deal, poor child, and I am afraid there is much more for her to suffer, whether he recovers or not."

"He will recover" said Charles, with the decided manner in which people prophesy the restoration of those they dislike, probably from a feeling that they must not die, till there is more charity in their opinion of them.

"Your father will be so grieved."

"Well, I suppose we must begin to make the best of it," said Charles.

"She has been as good as married to him these four years, for any use she has been to us; it has been only the name of the thing, so he had better--"

"My dear Charlie, what are you talking of? You don"t imagine they can marry?"

"They will some time or other, for a.s.suredly neither will marry any one else. You will see if Guy does not take up the cause, and return Philip"s meddling--which, by the bye, is now shown to have been more preposterous still--by setting their affairs in order for them."

"Dear Guy, it is a comfort not to have been deceived in him!"

"Except when you believed Philip," said Charles.

"Could anything have been more different?" proceeded Mrs. Edmonstone; "yet the two girls had the same training."

"With an important exception," said Charles; "Laura is Philip"s pupil, Amy mine; and I think her little ladyship is the best turned out of hand."

"How shocked Amy will be! If she was but here, it would be much better, for she always had more of Laura"s confidence than I. Oh, Charlie, there has been the error!" and Mrs. Edmonstone"s eyes were full of tears.

"What fearful mistake have I made to miss my daughter"s confidence!"

"You must not ask me, mother," said Charles, face and voice full of affectionate emotion. "I know too well that I have been exacting and selfish, taking too much advantage of your anxieties for me, and that if you were not enough with my sisters when they were young girls, it was my fault as much as my misfortune. But, after all, it has not hurt Amy in the least; nor do I think it will hurt Charlotte."

Charlotte did not venture to give way to her desire to kiss her mother, and thank Charles, lest she should be exiled as an intruder.

"And," proceeded Charles, serious, though somewhat roguish, "I suspect that no attention would have made much difference. You were always too young, and Laura too much addicted to the physical sciences to get on together."

"A weak, silly mother, sighed Mrs. Edmonstone.

This was too much for Charlotte, who sprang forward, and flung her arms round her neck, sobbing out,--

"Mamma! dear mamma! don"t say such horrid things! No one is half so wise or so good,--I am sure Guy thinks so too!"

At the same time Bustle, perceiving a commotion, made a leap, planted his fore-feet on Mrs. Edmonstone"s lap, wagging his tail vehemently, and trying to lick her face. It was not in human nature not to laugh; and Mrs. Edmonstone did so as heartily as either of the young ones; indeed, Charlotte was the first to resume her gravity, not being sure of her ground, and being hurt at her impulse of affection being thus reduced to the absurd. She began to apologize,--

"Dear mamma, I could not help it. I thought you knew I wad in the room."

"My dear child," and her mother kissed her warmly, "I don"t want to hide anything from you. You are my only home-daughter now." Then recollecting her prudence, she proceeded,--"You are old enough to understand the distress this insincerity of poor Laura"s has occasioned,--and now that Amy is gone, we must look to you to comfort us."

Did ever maiden of fourteen feel more honoured, and obliged to be very good and wise than Charlotte, as she knelt by her mother"s side? Happily tact was coming with advancing years, and she did not attempt to mingle in the conversation, which was resumed by Charles observing that the strangest part of the affair was the incompatibility of so novelish and imprudent a proceeding with the cautious, thoughtful character of both parties. It was, he said, a.n.a.logous to a pentagon flirting with a hexagon; whereas Guy, a knight of the Round Table, in name and nature, and Amy, with her little superst.i.tions, had been attached in the most matter-of-fact, hum-drum way, and were in a course of living very happy ever after, for which nature could never have designed them. Mrs.

Edmonstone smiled, sighed, hoped they were prudent, and wondered whether camphor and chloride of lime were attainable at Recoara.

Laura came down no more that day, for she was worn out with agitation, and it was a relief to be sufficiently unwell to be excused facing her father and Charles. She had little hope that Charlotte had not heard all; but she might seem to believe her ignorant, and could, therefore, endure her waiting on her, with an elaborate kindness and compa.s.sion, and tip-toe silence, far beyond the deserts of her slight indisposition.

In the evening, Charles and his mother broke the tidings to Mr.

Edmonstone as gently as they could, Charles feeling bound to be the cool, thinking head in the family. Of course Mr. Edmonstone stormed, vowed that he could not have believed it, then veered round, and said he could have predicted it from the first. It was all mamma"s fault for letting him be so intimate with the girls--how was a poor lad to be expected not to fall in love? Next he broke into great wrath at the abuse of his confidence, then at the interference with Guy, then at the intolerable presumption of Philip"s thinking of Laura. He would soon let him know what he thought of it! When reminded of Philip"s present condition, he muttered an Irish imprecation on the fever for interfering with his anger, and abused the "romantic folly" that had carried Guy to nurse him at Recoara. He was not so much displeased with Laura; in fact he thought all young ladies always ready to be fallen in love with, and hardly accountable for what their lovers might make them do, and he pitied her heartily, when he heard of her sitting up all night. Anything of extravagance in love met with sympathy from him, and there was no effort in his hearty forgiveness of her. He vowed that she should give the fellow up, and had she been present, would have tried to make her do so at a moment"s warning; but in process of time he was convinced that he must not persecute her while Philip was in extremity, and though, like Charles, he scorned the notion of his death, and, as if it was an additional crime, p.r.o.nounced him to be as strong as a horse, he was quite ready to put off all proceedings till his recovery, being glad to defer the evil day of making her cry.

So when Laura ventured out, she met with nothing harsh; indeed, but for the sorrowful kindness of her family towards her, she could hardly have guessed that they knew her secret.

Her heart leapt when Amabel"s letter was silently handed to her, and she saw the news of Philip"s amendment, but a sickening feeling succeeded, that soon all forbearance would be at an end, and he must hear that her weakness had betrayed his secret. For the present, however, nothing was said, and she continued in silent dread of what each day might bring forth, till one afternoon, when the letters had been fetched from Broadstone, Mrs. Edmonstone, with an exclamation of dismay, read aloud:--

"Recoara, September 8th.

"DEAREST MAMMA,--Don"t be very much frightened when I tell you that Guy has caught the fever. He has been ailing since Sunday, and yesterday became quite ill; but we hope it will not be so severe an illness as Philip"s was. He sleeps a great deal, and is in no pain, quite sensible when he is awake. Arnaud is very useful, and so is Anne; and he is so quiet at night, that he wants no one but Arnaud, and will not let me sit up with him. Philip is better.

"Your most affectionate, "A.F.M."

The reading was followed by a dead silence, then Mr. Edmonstone said he had always known how it would be, and what would poor Amy do?

Mrs. Edmonstone was too unhappy to answer, for she could see no means of helping them. Mr. Edmonstone was of no use in a sick-room, and she had never thought it possible to leave Charles. It did not even occur to her that she could do so till Charles himself suggested that she must go to Amy.