"You did not wish me to refuse, Alick," said she, struck by his grave
countenance, when she found him lying on the slope of the lawn shortly
after, in deep thought.
"No, not at all," he replied; "it is likely to be a pleasant affair, and
my uncle will be delighted to have us with him. No," he added, seeing
that she still looked at him inquisitively, "it is the old story. My
sister! Poor little thing! I always feel as though I wore more unkind
and unjust to her than any one else, and yet we are never together
without my feeling as if she was deceiving herself and me; and yet it
is all so fair and well reasoned that one is always left in the wrong.
I regretted this marriage extremely at first, and I am not the less
disposed to regret it now."
"Indeed! Every one says how attentive she is to him, and how nicely they
go on together."
"Pshaw, Rachel! that is just the way. A few words and pretty ways pass
with her and all the world for attention, when she is wherever her fancy
calls her, all for his good. It is just the attention she showed my
uncle. And now it is her will and pleasure to queen it here among her
old friends, and she will not open her eyes to see the poor old man's
precarious state."
"Do you think him so very ill, Alick?"
"I was shocked when I saw him yesterday. As to sciatica, that is all
nonsense; the blow in his side has done some serious damage, and if it
is not well looked-to, who knows what will be the end of it! And then, a
gay young widow with no control over her--I hate to think of it."
"Indeed," said Rachel, "she is so warm and bright, and really earnest in
her kindness, that she will be sure to see her own way right at home. I
don't think we can guess how obstinate Lord Keith may be in refusing to
take advice."
"He cut me off pretty short," said Alick. "I am afraid he will see no
one here; and, as Bessie says, the move to Scotland would not be easy
just now. As I said, she leaves one in the wrong, and I don't like the
future. But it is of no use to talk of it; so let us come and see if my
uncle wants to go anywhere."
It was Alick's fate never to meet with sympathy in his feeling of his
sister's double-mindedness. Whether it were that he was mistaken, or
that she really had the gift of sincerity for the moment in whatever
she was saying, the most candid and transparent people in the
world--his uncle and his wife--never even succeeded in understanding his
dissatisfaction with Bessie's doings, but always received them at
her own valuation. Even while he had been looking forward, with hope
deferred, to her residence with him as the greatest solace the world
could yet afford him, Mr. Clare had always been convinced that her
constant absence from his Rectory, except when his grand neighbours
were at home, had been unavoidable, and had always credited the outward
tokens of zealous devotion to his church and parish, and to all that was
useful or good elsewhere. In effect there was a charm about her which no
one but her brother ever resisted, and even he held out by an exertion
that made him often appear ungracious.