"I bid thee hail, not as in former days,
Not as my chosen only, but my bride,
My very bride, coming to make my house
A glorious temple." A. H. HALLAM.
"Timber End,
Littleworthy,
September 10th.
"Dear Miss Williams,--I must begin by entreating your forgiveness for
addressing you in a manner for which perhaps you may be unprepared; but
I trust you have always been aware, that any objections that I may have
offered to my brother Colin's attachment to yourself have never been
personal, or owing to anything but an unfortunate complication of
circumstances. These difficulties are, as no doubt he will explain to
you, in great measure removed by the present condition of my family,
which will enable me to make such settlements as I could wish in the
ease of one so nearly connected with me; so that I am enabled to entreat
of you at length to reward the persevering constancy so well deserved.
I have a further, and a personal cause for wishing that the event
should not be deferred, as regard for my feelings might have led you to
propose. You are aware of the present state of my health, and that
it has become expedient to make immediate arrangements for the future
guardianship of my little boy. His uncles are of course his natural
guardians, and I have unbounded confidence in both; but Alexander
Keith's profession renders it probable that he may not always be at
hand, and I am therefore desirous of being able to nominate yourself,
together with my brother, among the personal guardians. Indeed, I
understand from Alexander Keith, that such was the express wish of his
sister. I mention this as an additional motive to induce you to consent.
For my own part, even without so stringent a cause, all that I have
ever seen or known of yourself would inspire me with the desire that you
should take a mother's place towards my son. But you must be aware that
such an appointment could only be made when you are already one of the
family, and this it is that leads me to entreat you to overlook any
appearance of precipitancy on my brother's part, and return a favourable
reply to the request, which with my complete sanction, he is about to
address to you.
"Yes, Ermine Williams, forgive all that is past, and feel for an old,
it may be, a dying man, and for a motherless infant. There is much to
forget, but I trust to your overcoming any scruples, and giving me all
the comfort in your power, in thinking of the poor child who has come
into the world under such melancholy circumstances.
"Yours most truly, "Keith of Gowanbrae"
"Poor Keith, he has given me his letter open, his real anxiety has been
too much at last for his dignity; and now, my Ermine, what do you say to
his entreaty? The state of the case is this. How soon this abscess may
be ready for the operation is still uncertain, the surgeons think it
will be in about three weeks, and in this interval he wishes to complete
all his arrangements. In plain English, his strongest desire is to
secure the poor little boy from falling into Menteith's hands. Now, mine
is a precarious life, and Alick and Rachel may of course be at the ends
of the earth, so the point is that you shall be 'one of the family,'
before the will is signed. Alick's leave has been extended to the 1st of
October, no more is possible, and he undertakes to nurse poor Keith
for a fortnight from to-morrow, if you will consent to fulfil this same
request within that time. After the 1st, I should have to leave you, but
as soon as Keith is well enough to bear the journey, he wishes to return
to Edinburgh, where he would be kindly attended to by Alick and Rachel
all the winter. There, Ermine, your victory is come, your consent has
been entreated at last by my brother, not for my sake, but as a personal
favour to himself, because there is no woman in the world of whom he
thinks so highly. For myself I say little. I grieve that you should be
thus hurried and fluttered, and if Ailie thinks it would harm you, she
must telegraph back to me not to come down, and I will try to teach
myself patience by preaching it to Keith, but otherwise you will see me
by four o'clock to-morrow. Every time I hear Rachel's name, I think it
ought to have been yours, and surely in this fourteenth year, lesser
objections may give way. But persuasions are out of the question, you
must be entirely led by your own feeling. If I could have seen you in
July, this should not have come so suddenly at last. "Yours, more than
ever, decide as you may, "Colin A Keith.