'Good Heavens!' replied Adeline, 'Do you think I would deign to owe such a man a pecuniary obligation?—No, indeed; I threw it with proud indignation on the floor.'
'What madness!' returned Berrendale: 'you had much better have put it in your pocket.'
'Mr Berrendale,' cried Adeline gravely, and with a look bordering on contempt, 'I trust that you are not in earnest: for if these are your sentiments,—if this is your delicacy, sir—'
'Say no more, dearest of women,' replied Berrendale pretending to laugh, alarmed at the seriousness with which she spoke: 'how could you for one moment suppose me in earnest? Insolent coxcomb!—I wish I had been there.'
'I wish you had,' said Adeline, 'for then no one would have dared to insult me:' and Berrendale, delighted at this observation, listened to the rest of her story with a spirit of indignant knight-errantry which he never experienced before; and at the end of her narration he felt supremely happy; for Adeline assured him that the next week she would make him her protector for life:—and this assurance opened his heart so much, that he vowed he would not condescend to claim of the heir-at-law the pitiful sum which he might think proper to withhold.
To be brief.—Adeline kept her word: and resolutely struggling with her feelings, she became the next week the wife of Berrendale.
For the first six months the union promised well. Adeline was so assiduous to anticipate her husband's wishes, and contrived so many dainties for his table, which she cooked with her own hands, that Berrendale, declaring himself completely happy for the first time in his life, had not a thought or a wish beyond his own fireside; while Adeline, happy because she conferred happiness, and proud of the name of wife, which she had before despised, began to hope that her days would glide on in humble tranquillity.
It was natural enough that Adeline should be desirous of imparting this change in her situation to Mrs Pemberton, whose esteem she was eager to recover, and whose kind intentions towards her, at a moment when she was incapable of appreciating them, Savanna had, with great feeling, expatiated upon. She therefore wrote to her according to the address which Mrs Pemberton had left for her, and received a most friendly letter in return. In a short time Adeline had again an expectation of being a mother; and though she could not yet entertain for her husband more than cold esteem, she felt that as the father of her child he would insensibly become more dear to her.
But Berrendale awoke from his dream of bliss, on finding to what a large sum the bills for the half-year's housekeeping amounted. Nor was he surprised without reason. Adeline, more eager to gratify Berrendale's palate than considerate as to the means, had forgotten that she was no longer at the head of a liberal establishment like her mother's, and had bought for the supply of the table many expensive articles.
In consequence of this terrible discovery Berrendale remonstrated very seriously with Adeline; who meekly answered, 'My dear friend, good dinners cannot be had without good ingredients, and good ingredients cannot be had without money.'