But when I made known to her my intention, the surprise was all
my own. The communication did not seemed to distress her at all.
Surprise her it did, but the surprise seemed a pleasant one. It
spoke out in a sudden flashing of the eye, a gentle smiling of the
mouth, which was equally unexpected and grate ful to my heart.
"I am delighted with the idea!" she exclaimed, putting her arms
about my neck. "I think we shall be so happy there. I long to get
away from this place."
"Indeed! But are you serious?"
"To be sure."
"I was apprehensive it might distress you."
"Oh! no! no! I have been dull and tired here, for a long while; and
I thought, when you told me that Mr. Kingsley had gone to Alabama,
how delightful it would be if we could go too."
"But you never told me that."
"No."
"Nor even looked it, Julia."
"Surely not--I should have been loath to have you think, while
your business was so prosperous, and you seemed so well satisfied
here, that I had any discontent."
"I satisfied!" I said this rather to myself than her.
"Yes, were you not? I had no reason to think otherwise. Nay, I
feared you were too well satisfied, for I have seen so little of
you of late. I'm sure I wished we were anywhere, so that you could
find your home more to your liking."
"And have such notions really filled your brain Julia?"
"Really."
"And you have found me a stranger--you have missed me?"
"Ah! do you not know it, Edward?"
"You shall have no need to reproach me hereafter. We will go
to Alabama, and live wholly for one another. I shall leave you in
business time only, and hurry back as soon as I can"
"Ah, promise me that?"
"I do!"
"We shall be so happy then. Then we shall take our old rambles,
Edward, though in new regions, and will resume the pencil, if you
wish it."
This was said timidly.
"To be sure I wish it. But why do you say, 'resume'? Have you not
been painting all along?"
"No! I have scarcely smeared canvass the last two months"
"But you have been sketching?"
"No!"
"What employed you then in the studio? How have you passed your
mornings?"
This inquiry was made abruptly, but it did not disturb her. Her
answer was strangely satisfactory.
"I have scarcely looked in upon the studio in all that time."
I longed to ask what Edgerton had done with himself, and whether he
had been suffered to employ himself alone, in his morning visits,
but my tongue faltered--I somehow dared not. Still, it was something
to have her assurance that she had not found her attractions in
that apartment in which my jealous fancy had assumed that she took
particular delight. She had spoken with the calmness of innocence,
and I was too happy to believe her. I put my arms about her waist.