Beulah - Page 94/348

"And why not? Germany is par excellence the land of book-making, and

book-reading; why not of bookkeeping?"

"German proficiency is not the question, sir."

Dr. Hartwell smiled, and, passing his fingers through his hair,

replied: "You intend to annihilate that plebeian project of his, then?"

"His own will must govern him, sir; over that I have no power."

"Still you will use your influence in favor of a learned

profession?"

"Yes, sir; if I have any."

"Take care your ambitious pride does not ruin you both. There is the

buggy. Be so good as to give me my fur gauntlets out of the drawer

of my desk. That will do; come."

The ride was rather silent. Beulah spoke several times, but was

answered in a manner which informed her that her guardian was in a

gloomy mood and did not choose to talk. He was to her as

inexplicable as ever. She felt that the barrier which divided them,

instead of melting away with long and intimate acquaintance, had

strengthened and grown impenetrable. Kind but taciturn, she knew

little of his opinions on any of the great questions which began to

agitate her own mind. For rather more than three years they had

spent their evenings together; she in studying, he in reading or

writing. Of his past life she knew absolutely nothing, for no

unguarded allusion to it ever escaped his lips. As long as she had

lived in his house, he had never mentioned his wife's name, and but

for his sister's words she would have been utterly ignorant of his

marriage. Whether the omission was studied, or merely the result of

abstraction, she could only surmise. Once, when sitting around the

fire, a piece of crape fell upon the hearth from the shrouded

portrait. He stooped down, picked it up, and, without glancing at

the picture, threw the fragment into the grate. She longed to see

the covered face, but dared not unfasten the sable folds, which had

grown rusty with age. Sometimes she fancied her presence annoyed

him; but if she absented herself at all during the evening he

invariably inquired the cause. He had most scrupulously avoided all

reference to matters of faith; she had endeavored several times to

direct the conversation to religious topics, but he adroitly eluded

her efforts, and abstained from any such discussion; and though on

Sabbath she generally accompanied Mrs. Watson to church, he never

alluded to it. Occasionally, when more than ordinarily fatigued by

the labors of the day, he had permitted her to read aloud to him

from some of his favorite volumes, and these brief glimpses had

given her an intense longing to pursue the same paths of

investigation. She revered and admired him; nay, she loved him; but

it was more earnest gratitude than genuine affection. Love casteth

out fear, and most certainly she feared him. She had entered her

seventeenth year, and, feeling that she was no longer a child, her

pride sometimes rebelled at the calm, commanding manner he

maintained toward her.