The sunshine of Adeline's countenance on hearing this vanished: to be sure, she was accustomed to such speeches; but the moment before she had felt happy, for the first time, for years. She, however, replied not; but hurrying Editha to bed, ordering the reluctant tawny boy into the kitchen, and setting Berrendale's chair, as usual, in the warmest place, she ventured in a faint voice to ask, what had brought him home so early.
'More early than welcome,' replied Berrendale, 'if I may judge from the bustle I have occasioned.'
'It is very true,' replied Adeline, 'that, had I expected you, I should have been better prepared for your reception; and then you, perhaps, would have spoken more kindly to me.'
'There—there you go again.—If I say but a word to you, then I am called unkind, though I never speak without just provocation: and, I declare, I came home in the best humour possible, to tell you what may turn out of great profit to us both:—but when a man has an uncomfortable home to come to, it is enough to put him out of humour.'
The mulatto, who was staying to gather up the cards which had fallen, turned herself round on hearing this, and exclaimed, 'Home was very comfortable till you come;' and then with a look of the most angry contempt she left the room, and threw the door to with great violence.
'But what is this good news, my dear?' said Adeline, eager to turn Berrendale's attention from Savanna's insolent reply.
'I have received a letter,' he replied, 'which, by the by, I ought to have had some weeks ago, from my father-in-law in Jamaica, authorizing me to draw on his banker for £900, and inviting me to come over to him; as he feels himself declining, and wishes to give me the care of his estate, and of my son, to whom all his fortune will descend: and of whose interest, he properly thinks, no one can be so likely to take good care as his own father.'
'And do you mean that I and Editha should go with you?' said Adeline turning pale.
'No, to be sure not,' eagerly replied Berrendale; 'I must first see how the land lies. But if I go—as the old man no doubt will make a handsome settlement on me—I shall be able to remit to you a very respectable annuity.'
Adeline's heart, spite of herself, bounded with joy at this discovery; but she had resolution to add,—and if duplicity can ever be pardonable, this was,—'So then the good news which you had to impart to me was, that we were going to be separated!' But as she said this, the consciousness that she was artfully trying to impress Berrendale with an idea of her feeling a sorrow which was foreign to her heart, overcame her; and affected also at being under the necessity of rejoicing at the departure of that being who ought to be the source of her comfort, she vainly struggled to regain composure, and burst into an agony of tears.