The parson listened with a mild and thoughtful brow, which expanded into a more cheerful expression as Leonard closed his story.
“I see no reason to despond,” said Mr. Dale. “You fear that Miss Digby does not return your attachment; you dwell upon her reserve, her distant, though kindly manner. Cheer up! All young ladies are under the influence of what phrenologists call the organ of Secretiveness, when they are in the society of the object of their preference. Just as you describe Miss Digby’s manner to you, was my Carry’s manner to myself.”
The parson here indulged in a very appropriate digression upon female modesty, which he wound up by asserting that that estimable virtue became more and more influenced by the secretive organ, in proportion as the favoured suitor approached near and nearer to a definite proposal. It was the duty of a gallant and honourable lover to make that proposal in distinct and orthodox form, before it could be expected that a young lady should commit herself and the dignity of her sex by the slightest hint as to her own inclinations.
“Next,” continued the parson, “you choose to torment yourself by contrasting your own origin and fortunes with the altered circumstances of Miss Digby,—the ward of Lord L’Estrange, the guest of Lady Lansmere. You say that if Lord L’Estrange could have countenanced such a union, he would have adopted a different tone with you,—sounded your heart, encouraged your hopes, and so forth. I view things differently. I have reason to do so; and from all you have told me of this nobleman’s interest in your fate, I venture to make you this promise, that if Miss Digby would accept your hand, Lord L’Estrange shall ratify her choice.”
“My dear Mr. Dale,” cried Leonard, transported, “you make me that promise?”
“I do,—from what you have said, and from what I myself know of Lord L’Estrange. Go, then, at once to Knightsbridge, see Miss Digby, show her your heart, explain to her, if you will, your prospects, ask her permission to apply to Lord L’Estrange (since he has constituted himself her guardian); and if Lord L’Estrange hesitate,—which, if your happiness be set on this union, I think he will not,—let me know, and leave the rest to me.”
Leonard yielded himself to the parson’s persuasive eloquence. Indeed, when he recalled to mind those passages in the manuscripts of the ill-fated Nora, which referred to the love that Harley had once borne to her,—for he felt convinced that Harley and the boy suitor of Nora’s narrative were one and the same; and when all the interest that Harley had taken in his own fortunes was explained by his relationship to her (even when Lord L’Estrange had supposed it less close than he would now discover it to be), the young man, reasoning by his own heart, could not but suppose that the noble Harley would rejoice to confer happiness upon the son of her, so beloved by his boyhood.
“And to thee, perhaps, O my mother!” thought Leonard, with swimming eyes—“to thee, perhaps, even in thy grave, I shall owe the partner of my life, as to the mystic breath of thy genius I owe the first pure aspirations of my soul.”
It will be seen that Leonard had not confided to the parson his discovery of Nora’s manuscripts, nor even his knowledge of his real birth; for the proud son naturally shrank from any confidence that implicated Nora’s fair name, until at least Harley, who, it was clear from those papers, must have intimately known his father, should perhaps decide the question which the papers themselves left so terribly vague,—namely, whether he were the offspring of a legal marriage, or Nora had been the victim of some unholy fraud.
While the parson still talked, and while Leonard still mused and listened, their steps almost mechanically took the direction towards Knightsbridge, and paused at the gates of Lord Lansmere’s house.