A Life for a Life, Volume 1 (of 3)Craik, Dinah Maria Mulock
General
A Life for a Life, Volume 1 (of 3)
Craik, Dinah Maria Mulock
Fiction
Mr. Johnston--I am learning to write the name without hesitation--is not
a man of many words. His character appears to me of that type which
I have generally found associated with those specially delicate and
regular features; shrinking from anything painful or distasteful,
putting it aside, forgetting it, if possible, but anyhow trying to
get rid of it. Thus, when I had delivered Sir William Treherne's most
cordial and gentlemanly letter, and explained his thorough consent to
the marriage, the lady's father took it much more indifferently than I
had expected.
He said, "that he had never interfered with his daughters' choice
in such matters, nor should he now; he had no objection to see them
settled; they would have no protector when he was gone." And here he
paused.
I answered, it was a very natural parental desire, and I trusted Captain
Treherne would prove a good brother to the Misses Johnston, as well as a
good son to himself.
"Yes--yes," he said, hastily, and then asked me a few questions as to
Treherne's prospects, temper, and moral character, which I was glad to
be able to answer as I did. "Harum-scarum" as I call him--few young men
of fortune can boast a more stainless life, and so I told Mr. Johnston.
He seemed satisfied, and ended our interview by saying, "that he should
be happy to see the young gentleman to-morrow."
So I departed, declining his invitation to re-enter the drawing-room,
for it seemed that, at the present crisis in their family history, there
was an indelicacy in any strangers breaking in upon that happy
circle. Otherwise, I would have liked well another peep at the pretty
home-picture, which, in walking to the camp through a pelting rain,
flitted before my eyes again and again.
Treherne was waiting in my hut. He looked up, fevered with anxiety.
"Where the devil have you been gone to, Doctor? Nobody has known
anything about you for the last two days. And I wanted you to write to
the governor, and--"
"I have seen the "governor," as you will persist in calling the best of
fathers--"
"Seen him!"
"And the Rockmount father too. Go in and win, my boy; the coast's all
clear. Mind you ask me to the wedding."
Truly there is a certain satisfaction in having had ar hand in making
young folks happy. The sight does not happen often enough to afford my
smiling even at the demonstrations of that poor lad on this memorable
evening.
Since then, I have left him to his own devices, and followed mine, which
have little to do with happy people. Once or twice, I have had business
with Mr. Granton, who does not seem to suffer acutely at Miss Lisabel's
marriage. He need not cause a care, even to that tender-hearted damsel,
who besought me so pitifully to take him in hand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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