'But,' argued Swithin, 'there are cases in which the woman does give the
notices, and so on; that is to say, when the man is absolutely hindered
from doing so; and ours is such a case. The seeming is nothing; I know
the truth, and what does it matter? You do not refuse--retract your word
to be my wife, because, to avoid a sickening delay, the formalities
require you to attend to them in place of me?' She did not refuse, she said. In short she agreed to his entreaty.
They had, in truth, gone so far in their dream of union that there was no
drawing back now. Whichever of them was forced by circumstances to be
the protagonist in the enterprise, the thing must be done. Their
intention to become husband and wife, at first halting and timorous, had
accumulated momentum with the lapse of hours, till it now bore down every
obstacle in its course.
'Since you beg me to,--since there is no alternative between my going and
a long postponement,' she said, as they stood in the dark porch of
Welland House before parting,--'since I am to go first, and seem to be
the pioneer in this adventure, promise me, Swithin, promise your
Viviette, that in years to come, when perhaps you may not love me so
warmly as you do now--' 'That will never be.' 'Well, hoping it will not, but supposing it should, promise me that you
will never reproach me as the one who took the initiative when it should
have been yourself, forgetting that it was at your request; promise that
you will never say I showed immodest readiness to do so, or anything
which may imply your obliviousness of the fact that I act in obedience to
necessity and your earnest prayer.' Need it be said that he promised never to reproach her with that or any other thing as long as they should live? The few details of the reversed
arrangement were soon settled, Bath being the place finally decided on.
Then, with a warm audacity which events had encouraged, he pressed her to
his breast, and she silently entered the house. He returned to the
homestead, there to attend to the unexpected duties of repairing the
havoc wrought by the gale.
* * * * *
That night, in the solitude of her chamber, Lady Constantine reopened and
read the subjoined letter--one of those handed to her by St. Cleeve:-"--- STREET, PICCADILLY,
October 15, 18--.
'DEAR VIVIETTE,--You will be surprised to learn that I am in England,
and that I am again out of harness--unless you should have seen the
latter in the papers. Rio Janeiro may do for monkeys, but it won't do
for me. Having resigned the appointment I have returned here, as a
preliminary step to finding another vent for my energies; in other
words, another milch cow for my sustenance. I knew nothing whatever
of your husband's death till two days ago; so that any letter from you
on the subject, at the time it became known, must have miscarried.
Hypocrisy at such a moment is worse than useless, and I therefore do
not condole with you, particularly as the event, though new to a
banished man like me, occurred so long since. You are better without
him, Viviette, and are now just the limb for doing something for
yourself, notwithstanding the threadbare state in which you seem to
have been cast upon the world. You are still young, and, as I imagine
(unless you have vastly altered since I beheld you), good-looking:
therefore make up your mind to retrieve your position by a match with
one of the local celebrities; and you would do well to begin drawing
neighbouring covers at once. A genial squire, with more weight than
wit, more realty than weight, and more personalty than realty
(considering the circumstances), would be best for you. You might
make a position for us both by some such alliance; for, to tell the
truth, I have had but in-and-out luck so far. I shall be with you in
little more than a fortnight, when we will talk over the matter
seriously, if you don't object.--Your affectionate brother, LOUIS.' It was this allusion to her brother's coming visit which had caught her
eye in the tower staircase, and led to a modification in the wedding
arrangement.