Her Mother's Secret Part 11

But how should he justify himself to his host for having taken advantage of opportunity and abused hospitality by seeking the affections of the young daughter of his host, when he knew that her father cherished other matrimonial intentions for her, in which she also had perfectly coincided, until allured from her fidelity by the trusted guest of the house?

Ay! how should he explain all this to Mr. Force?

Not so very easily; but, then, Col. Anglesea was a very plausible person, and Mr. Force was one of the least suspicious among men.

Anglesea, walking up and down the porch, and puffing away at his cigar, resolved to put on an air of blunt, soldierly frankness; tell Mr.

Force--what he chose to call--the state of the case, and leave the affair in her father's hands, to be dealt with as he should see fit--knowing full well what the event would be.

Now that the girl's consent to the marriage was secured, and her lips were sealed as to her own feelings on the subject, Col. Anglesea had no fears of the final result; nor was he in such special haste as to think it necessary to trouble Mr. Force with his suit on this same night, when the good gentleman should return, weary from his day's attendance at court.

Therefore he resolved to defer the important interview until the next morning, when his own method of procedure might also be more matured.

Mr. Force, in fact, came home rather late that evening. Tea had been kept waiting for him so long that it was nearly nine o'clock when the family a.s.sembled around the table.

There were Mr. and Mrs. Force, Col. Anglesea, Miss Meeke, Wynnette and Elva; but there was one absentee.

"Where is Odalite?" inquired her father, looking around the table.

"She has gone to bed with a nervous headache," replied her mother.

"Nothing serious, I hope," said the father, uneasily.

"Oh, no, nothing at all serious," answered the mother.

"I never knew Odalite to have a headache in her life before," said Mr.

Force.

"No, but then--

"'Such things must begin, some day,'"

quoted the lady, with a forced smile.

Col. Anglesea engaged Mr. Force in conversation to draw off his attention from Mrs. Force, who seemed to have some difficulty in maintaining her self-possession.

After tea his host proposed a game of whist, and the party of four grown people sat down to a rubber.

Col. Anglesea and Mrs. Force played against Mr. Force and Miss Meeke.

The colonel and the hostess beat the rubber. And soon afterward the circle separated and retired to rest.

It was just after breakfast the next morning when Col. Anglesea said to his host:

"Force, can you give me a few moments private conversation before you go away this morning?"

"Certainly. Come in here," said the master of the house, leading the way to the vacant drawing room, and wondering much what Anglesea could possibly have to say to him in private.

"You will be very much surprised, and, I fear, very much displeased at what I am about to say to you; and yet, Force, I must say it. No other course is open to me, as a man of honor!" began Col. Anglesea, when the key was turned in the door and both men were seated.

"Whatever can you have to say to me that requires such deep solemnity of introduction?" demanded Mr. Force, with a light laugh, and yet with some uneasiness.

"It is this, then. Do not be offended. But I cannot help it--I love your daughter!" said the colonel, with that affectation of bluntness he had determined upon.

Mr. Force, with hands on knees, bent forward and stared at the speaker.

"You--love--my--daughter!" he slowly repeated.

"Yes! I cannot help it. If it be a crime, I cannot help it! If I were to be shot for it, I could not help it!"

"But, man alive! she is only sixteen, and you must be near forty! Quite old enough to be her father!"

"Yes, quite! You are right, and that is the worst of it! And doubtless I am a fool! But there! I love her! I cannot help it, I say!"

"But, dear me, Anglesea, you know it is of no sort of use your loving Odalite. She is to marry her cousin, you know."

"Yes, I know."

"I am very sorry for this, Anglesea."

"If it were only myself that is concerned I pledge you my word of honor that I would go away at once and bear my disappointment like a man. But, oh! Force, it is not only myself. I am not the only one whose happiness is at stake in this matter," said the colonel, solemnly.

Mr. Force stared at him uneasily.

"You do not mean--you do not mean---- What do you mean, man?" he demanded at length.

"Let me be perfectly frank with you, Mr. Force. Nothing was further from my--from our--intention than that which has happened. We drifted into this. When I discovered that my heart was irrevocably given to your daughter, and remembered that you had other views for her than my poor alliance, I was shocked and disgusted with myself, and I would have finished my long visit here, and would have gone away to distract my sorrow in extended travel; but when, too late, I also discovered that--well, it seems strange--but there is no accounting for such occurrences."

"In a word, what do you mean?" demanded Mr. Force, more and more disturbed.

"I mean that this attachment is reciprocal; that your lovely daughter returns my affection. Seeing that--as a man of honor, not to say a man in love--what could I do? I have made your daughter an offer of my hand, subject to your approval. She bids me say to you that her happiness is dependent on your consent to our marriage, and then to give the matter entirely in your hands, where I now place it, and leave it."

"Good heavens, Anglesea! this is a great shock to me! a very great shock!"

exclaimed Mr. Force.

"I am sorry for it--very sorry. We place ourselves absolutely at your disposal, and submit ourselves to your will. We can do no more."

"How long has this been going on?"

"I think I must have begun to love your daughter from the first hour in which I saw her; but I think the growth of the interest was so gradual that I was not conscious of it until it was too late."

"When you put it to me as a hypothetical case, whether, if my daughter's happiness were involved in some other marriage, I would consent to forego my cherished plan of marrying her to her cousin, had you this case of yours and hers in view?"

"Not consciously. But we are such 'self-deceivers ever' that I may have had this at the bottom of my heart."

"My girl has been looking ill and out of spirits lately. Poor child!" said the father, reflectively. "Now, is her loss of bloom and cheerfulness caused by this affair between you?"

"I will tell you as truly as I can what has been on her mind," said the colonel, with a show of the most perfect candor. "She is struggling between her sense of duty to you and her affection for me. She thinks she ought to marry the young mids.h.i.+pman because you have set your heart on her doing so; and yet she does not wish to marry any one except your unworthy servant here present. This terrible struggle has been too much for her.

Yesterday I proposed that we should end it all by coming to you, making a full confession for both of us, and leaving our fate in your hands."