“That’s just what I said to my friend Standish,” cried Vibert; “for, as you know, I’m desperately eager in pursuit of scientific knowledge. ‘I’ll lend you mine,’ said the colonel; ‘it has prodigious magnifying power. It was my travelling companion when I journeyed northward, in a sledge, with only an Eskimo guide, and reached the high latitude of’—I really don’t remember the latitude that Standish mentioned, but it was something that would make our Arctic explorers stare.”
“Perhaps it was degree one hundred and one,” said Bruce sarcastically. “I suspect that the colonel’s telescope is not with him the only instrument that has high magnifying power.”
“You are always sneering at Standish,” cried Vibert angrily; “you give him credit for nothing, simply, I believe, because he has chosen me for his friend. But others appreciate him better,” continued the youth, addressing his conversation to Emmie. “Standish had grand news to-day from Washington; he has only been waiting at S—— till he should know how his suit in America has prospered.”
“A law-suit?” inquired Mr. Trevor.
“Oh no; a suit more interesting by far than any regarding field-boundaries or dye-works!” laughed Vibert. “Standish is an illustration of the proverb, ‘None but the brave deserve the fair.’ He has wooed and won the greatest belle in the West, a cousin of the president of the United States, a lady with a dowry of half a million of dollars!” Vibert glanced triumphantly at Bruce, and raising a glass of claret, pledged the health of the colonel’s destined bride.
“I suppose that as the lady is in Washington, the colonel will not remain long in Wiltshire,” observed Mr. Trevor, who had no wish for his longer stay.
“That’s the worst part of the business,—at least for me,” replied Vibert, setting down the glass, which he had drained. “Standish leaves England almost directly. He has already secured his passage in an American steamer, and has only now to get what he wants to take with him, amongst other things wedding-gifts for his bride. Standish is prodigiously liberal as well as enormously rich; so the fair lady will have her caskets of diamonds and ‘ropes of pearl,’ such as a duchess might envy. The colonel asked me to-day what London jeweller I would recommend,” continued the youth with a self-complacency which made his auditors smile, “and I told him that our family had dealt for twenty years with Messrs. Golding. I showed Standish the watch, studs, and signet-ring which I had bought at their shop, and he declared that he had never seen anything in the jewellery line more tasteful.” It was evident that the boy’s vanity had been tickled by his being consulted on such a matter by one who was the accepted suitor of a president’s cousin. “But here am I talking about these sublunary affairs, when the eclipse will be beginning,” cried Vibert. “It is quarter past seven now,”—he glanced at his watch as he spoke; “the night is splendid, not a breath of wind is stirring, while moonlight is silvering the snow. Who will come out with me and look at the queen of night under a shadow? Emmie, you will certainly make one of the party; we all know your taste for the beautiful and sublime.”
“My girl must be well wrapped up if she venture out in the snow,” observed Mr. Trevor.
“We’ll case her in fur like a squirrel!” cried Vibert. “Come, Emmie, or we shall be late.”
Emmie rose from her seat at table; her life at Myst Court afforded so little variety, that the sight of an eclipse on a clear wintry night was not one that she would willingly miss.