"Never mind what it would appear," said Alick, who was evidently in such
a ferment as his usually passive demeanour would have seemed incapable
of.
"If the appearance would entirely baffle the purpose, it must be
considered," said the Colonel; "and in this case it could only lead to
estrangement, which would be a lasting evil. I conclude that you have
remonstrated with your sister."
"As much as she gave me time for; but of course that is breath spent in
vain."
"Your uncle had the same means of judging as yourself."
"No, Colonel, he could do nothing! In the first place, there can be no
correspondence with him; and next, he is so devotedly fond of Bessie,
that he would no more believe anything against her than Lady Temple
would. I have tried that more than once."
"Then, Alick, there is nothing for it but to let it take its course;
and even upon your own view, your sister will be much safer married than
single."
"I had very little expectation of your saying anything else, but in
common honesty I felt bound to let you know."
"And now the best thing to be done is to forget all you have said."
"Which you will do the more easily as you think it an amiable delusion
of mine. Well, so much the better. I dare say you will never think
otherwise, and I would willingly believe that my senses went after my
fingers' ends."
The Colonel almost believed so himself. He was aware of the miserably
sensitive condition of shattered nerve in which Alick had been sent
home, and of the depression of spirits that had ensued on the news of
his father's death; and he thought it extremely probable that his weary
hours and solicitude for his gay young sister might have made molehills
into mountains, and that these now weighed on his memory and conscience.
At least, this seemed the only way of accounting for an impression so
contrary to that which Bessie Keith made on every one else, and, by
his own avowal, on the uncle whom he so much revered. Every other voice
proclaimed her winning, amiable, obliging, considerate, and devoted
to the service of her friends, with much drollery and shrewdness of
perception, tempered by kindness of heart and unwillingness to give
pain; and on that sore point of residence with the blind uncle, it
was quite possibly a bit of Alick's exaggerated feeling to imagine the
arrangement so desirable--the young lady might be the better judge.
On the whole, the expostulation left Colonel Keith more uncomfortable on
Alick's account than on that of his brother.