University of Virginia Library

31. CHAPTER XXXI.

“Argus,” said Sebastian, at the breakfast table
the next morning, “I must speak with you seriously.”

“The devil! Have you thought it necessary
hitherto to approach me with a joke?”

Roxalana, supposing Tempe was to be discussed,
slipped out, and joined Chloe in the kitchen.

“Marsy, Missis Gates,” said Chloe, “what is the
matter, that should make you gum your eyes on
that crack in the wall? Is it growing bigger?
What ails you, Missis Gates?”

“Hush, Chloe, not a word. I have lost my
pocket-handherchief. I hardly know where I am.”

“I hope you haven't lost anything else,” Chloe
muttered. “And as for not knowing where you are,
that's no new idee; you never did know, once out
of your chair. I hope and trust,” speaking louder,
“that you are not going to sign any deed; I am
against women's signing deeds.”

“Chloe, you are idiotic this morning.”

“May be; but the Lord made me.”

This skirmish ended, Chloe went to work furiously,
remarking that she was going to work off a dreadful
dream she had had. Before night came she said

that she had not dreamed for nothing, and that she
knew it all along.

Sebastian looked thoughtfully at Argus, and said
he did not know how to venture with him.

“Serious, serious—mind,” Argus replied, with a
cool smile. “What if I begin the talk at the
bottom instead of the top, and tell you the prowl I
had last night? I went to see Squire Perkins.”

“What is that?”

“An old gentleman who lives at Boyd's Hill; he
is a Justice of Peace, and can marry people. To-day,
provided I send him word, he is to stick up the
banns at Black's Four Corners,—a small settlement,
fifteen miles distant, consisting of a meeting-house,
a grog shop, and a saw mill. By banns, I mean a
proclamation of marriage.”

“Yes,” replied Sebastian, with surprise, but
adopting the lead, “I intended to open with Miss
Brande's message, though I see it is not necessary.
But why banns? they may bring you into trouble.”

“Because of the law, and I expect a tempest
thereby. What was her message?”

Sebastian repeated it, and mentioned his visit to
Mr. Brande's.

“I was prepared for it; but whether she will have
nerve enough to violate her own ideas of duty and
propriety remains to be seen. Several days ago,
Sebastian, after a considerable debate, I offered myself
to Virginia, and her message I take as
acceptance.”

“You can act then, after all?”

“My pace has been slow towards this event;
partly for her sake, more for my own. It has been
naturally retarded by my idiosyncracies, as you
must know.”

“How will you dispose of them in the face of this
change?”

`You may help me to manage them, and divert
them from her observation.”

“Do you advise me to remain on that account?”

“Remain for me, and make me happier.”

“So I shall, and I shall marry Tempe.”

“What for?”

“The various reasons which induce men to
experiment with themselves. How else could I bear
to contemplate Virginia as your wife? She is too
lovely for me, a man more properly her mate, than
you are,—to live under the same roof, an objectless,
isolated being.”

Argus winced.

“For more than three years, my boy, by precept
and example, have I not inculcated the fact of age,
poverty, and general unfitness?”

“I see it all,” said Sebastian hotly, “it is a case
of infatuation. She is one of those intricate women,
who make love an immolation, and a spiritual
ecstasy.”

“I can't explain it; but be polite to me, or I'll
not warn you about Tempe. Yet why should I
warn you, since you live in her presence?”

“It was for me to warn you, my friend, and I
have done so.”

“Having done so then, stay, Sebastian. Are you
not a regular Spanish Don? I understand your
punctilio, and can trust to it, for in you it is principle.
In my late conclusions I have settled it that
she should be surrounded by friendship. She is
beautiful, and I can no longer resist her,—especially
since the ground which I thought steadfast has
rolled from under me. I can bestow happiness on
no woman; ought I not then to allow the existence
of all other sentiments?”

“Fallacious idea, even stupid! Do you imagine
a woman will content herself with the shelter of a
cool, shady tree, when she has chosen that a vine
should entwine her? It is your damnable coolness,
your iron-bound nature, that dares you to venture
on this step; not because you understand women.”

“Shall I silence you with my experiences, at your
age? Or shall I laugh with that patience men feel,
when those experiences are impossible?”

“You are a terrible man; but if you are past
loving, you are about to commit a crime.”

Argus smiled bitterly.

“Who will heed it? Since you know women so
well, tell me, have you asked them if the world is
peopled by love?”

He rose and walked round the room, lifting here
and there one of the chairs with a thumb and finger,
and dropping it like a ball.

“I loved my wife with a different strength,” he
continued, resuming his seat, “because I was a boy.
I lost her when I was a boy; and if she is an

immortal, as my moods sometimes intimate, I
indulge the idea that I may be a boy again,—when
we meet.”

“This is very sad,” said Sebastian mournfully.

“Sad! Everything looks sad, when we go to the
portcullis which hangs over the gateway between us
and the problem of existence, to get a glimpse into the
labyrinth! Happily, we cannot penetrate it, and so
turn back to be comfortable in our mean and narrow
ways. I thought there was nothing better for me
than the life you found me in, and was passively
grateful for it; I cumbered the ground for no one,
allowing none to approach me with service, and,
consequently burdening none with obligation.
Sebastian, it passed away the night I sprained my
shoulder on the White Flat, and laid you under an
eternal obligation. There must have been witches
abroad that night.”

Sebastian shuddered,, sprang up, and averted his
face.

“The spell was broken then,” continued Argus,
“for both of us. My life has not been the same, and
I regret that I did not sooner adapt myself to new
circumstances.”

Sebastian turned, and caught Argus under his
elbows, and held him firmly, drawing his face close
to his own furious, glittering eyes.

“I knew it,” he cried, “and you denied! it Was
she dead round my neck?”

Argus nodded.

“She is out there on the White Flat.”

“I buried her. And now you would marry my
niece. Well, I wish to marry Virginia, with whom
you offer me—what?”

“The same, if you could promise us that we
should be left in everlasting rest together.”

Argus turned deadly pale, and said, “It will not
profit us to talk farther. I am, in fact, carried
beyond myself.”

Sebastian extended his hand to Argus in extreme
agitation, and Argus taking it, continued: “Something
beyond me, as I said, urges me on with you.
Once more, Sebastian, I love you, and the thought
of parting with you is not to be borne.”

“Things must be as I proposed then, Argus. By
my soul I love you, also. Yes, by my faithless, lost
soul, with or without the millstone round my neck,
or any purpose or desire in my heart, I love you,
and recognize you as my master.”

“Not so bad as that,” said Argus, gently. “But
let me hope I have conquered.”