‘I see! a jealous toad! I heard him telling her that you reminded him of her in old times. The spiteful vixen! Well, Phœbe, if you cut her out, I bargain for board and lodging at Acton Manor. This will be no place for a quiet, meek soul like me!’
Phœbe tried to laugh, but looked distressed, uncomprehending, and far from wishing to comprehend. She could not escape, for Mervyn had penned her up, and went on: ‘You don’t pretend that you don’t see how it is! That unlucky fellow is heartily sick of his bargain, but you see he was too soft to withstand her throwing herself right at his head, and doing the “worm in the bud,” and the cruel father, green and yellow melancholy, &c., ever since they were inhumanly parted.’
‘For shame, Mervyn. You don’t really believe it is all out of honour.’
‘I should never have believed a man of his years could be so green; but some men get crotchets about honour in the army, especially if they get elderly there.’
‘It is very noble, if it be right, and he can take those vows from his heart,’ moralized Phœbe. ‘But no, Mervyn, she cannot think so. No woman could take any one on such terms.’
‘Wouldn’t she, though?’ sneered her brother. ‘She’d have him if grim death were hanging on to his other hand. People aren’t particular, when they are nigh upon their third ten.’
‘Don’t tell me such things! I don’t believe them; but they ought never to be suggested.’
‘You ought to thank me for teaching you knowledge of the world.’
He was called off, but heavy at her heart lay the text, ‘The knowledge of wickedness is not wisdom.’
Mervyn’s confidences were serious troubles to Phœbe. Gratifying as it was to be singled out by his favour, it was distressing to be the repository of what she knew ought never to have been spoken, prompted by a coarse tone of mind, and couched in language that, though he meant it to be restrained, sometimes seemed to her like the hobgoblins’ whispers to Christian. Oh! how unlike her other brother! Robert had troubles, Mervyn grievances, and she saw which were the worst to bear. It was a pleasing novelty to find a patient listener, and he used it to the utmost, while she often doubted whether to hear without remonstrance were not undutiful, yet found opposition rather increased the evil by the storm of ill-temper that it provoked.