University of Virginia Library

16. CHAPTER XVI.
Our hero determines on a voyage.

There never was a man, or woman either, that
found such difficulty in keeping silence on what was
uppermost in their hearts, as Mr. Lee, or who had
more ingenious ways of giving side hits, and uttering
wicked inuendos. He never on any occasion
missed an opportunity of launching out against addle
pated rhymesters; boys that thought themselves
wiser than their betters; and girls who talked sentiment
and forgot their duty. If Goshawk uttered a
word of azure, he cried “Pish!” if Lucia talked
sentiment, he ejaculated some other epithet of mortal
contempt; and if Highfield said any thing about
honour or independence, he called him a puppy.

In the mean time matters were growing worse and
worse every day. Goshawk ventured to hint pretty
distinctly the nature and object of his mysterious
sorrows; Lucia treated her cousin with increasing
coolness and Highfield looked paler and paler.
Unable to bear his situation any longer, he one
morning—it was the day after Lucia had given the
watch chain, she had promised him, to Goshawk,
before his very eyes—he one morning took the opportunity

of being left alone with his uncle, to announce
to him, that being now sufficiently recovered
from his indisposition, it was his intention to visit his
relatives in the south, and spend some time with them.
“Perhaps indeed I may not return at all,” said he.

Mr. Lee was struck dumb for a moment; but
whenever this happens to people, it is pretty certain
they will make themselves ample amends for their
silence, as soon after as possible.

“Not come back at all!” at length roared the
old gentleman; “did you say that, boy?”

“I did, sir,” said Highfield, firmly; “my situation
here is becoming intolerable. I am harassed
with anxieties; depressed by a sense of degrading
dependence; and cut to the soul by perceiving
every day new reasons to believe my cousin knows
and despises my presumption.”

“May I speak?” cried Mr. Lee, gasping for
breath.

“Hear me out first, my dear and honoured sir,”
said the other. “When you first proposed this
union to me, I considered the subject deeply. I
reflected that though poor and dependent on your
bounty, still, next to your daughter, I was your
nearest relative; my cousin was rich enough to
make it immaterial that I was poor; she was lovely,
amiable, and intelligent, such a being as, when held
up to the hopes and wishes of youth, could not but
prove irresistible. I therefore consented to try my
chance for this glorious prize by every means becoming

a man of spirit and honour placed in such a
delicate situation. You see the result, sir. Lucia
not only feels indifferent to me, but there is every
appearance that she prefers another. I am too poor
and too proud to persecute or see her persecuted;
and, let me add, too much attached to my cousin to
remain and see her united to another man. It is
therefore my settled determination, to leave you the
day after to-morrow. My passage is taken.”

Mr. Lee was struck dumb again; but the fit did
not last long.

“May I speak now—do you release me from my
promise?” cried he, his eyes starting almost out of
his head.

As respects myself, sir, say what you will; but
for my cousin, I claim your promise that she shall
suffer no persecution on my account.”

“And so, sir, I must not speak to my own child?”

“I claim your promise, sir. Let her remain for
ever ignorant of my motives for leaving you.”

“Charles,” said the old man, taking his hand
with tears in his eyes, “are you determined to abandon
me in my old age?”

“My dear uncle, my benefactor, any thing but
this! I cannot stay to be murdered by inches, and
stand in the way of my cousin's happiness. I must
go. But wherever I do go, whatever my lot may
be, my last breath of life will be all gratitude for
your past kindness. I wish it were otherwise; but,
for some time at least, we must part.”

“Charles! Charles! my boy!” cried the warm
hearted old man, as he put his arms about his neck
and wept on his shoulder. At this moment Lucia
entered, and inquired anxiously what was the matter?

“The matter! you, you are the matter,” exclaimed
Mr. Lee in a fury.

“Recollect your word of honour, sir,” whispered
Highfield to his uncle, as he left the room. The old
gentleman cast a most terrible look at his daughter,
and followed. Lucia remained pondering for some
time on the scene that had just passed; and it was
not till she learned that Highfield was on the point
of leaving home for a long while, that her perplexity
became absorbed in another and more powerful
feeling.