‘So much that I should hardly dare tell him if you had refused. He could not bear another indignity heaped on her, and a wound from you would cut deeper than from any one else. You should remember in judging him that he had no parent to disobey, and there was generosity in taking on him the risk rather than leave her to a broken heart and your tender mercy.’
‘I fear his tender mercy has turned out worse than mine; but I am sorry for all he has brought on himself, poor lad!’
‘Shall I try whether he can see you?’
‘No, no; I had rather not. You say young Fulmort attends to him, and I could not speak to him with patience. Five o’clock, Saturday?’
‘Yes; but that is not all. That poor child—Robert Fulmort, you, and I must be sponsors.’
‘Cilla, Cilla, how can I answer how it will be brought up?’
‘Some one must. Its father talks of leaving England, and it will be my charge. Will you not help me? you who always have helped me. My father’s grandson; you cannot refuse him, Mr. Pendy,’ said she, using their old childish name for him.
He yielded to the united influence of his rector’s daughter and the memory of his rector. Though no weak man, those two appeals always swayed him; and Lucilla’s air, spirited when she defended, soft when she grieved, was quite irresistible; so she gained her point, and felt restored to herself by the exercise of power, and by making her wonted impression. Since one little dog had wagged his little tail, she no longer doubted ‘If I be I;’ yet this only rendered her more nervously desirous of obtaining the like recognition from the other, and she positively wearied after one of Robert’s old wistful looks.
A téte-à-téte with him was necessary on many accounts, and she lay in wait to obtain a few moments alone with him in the study. He complied neither eagerly nor reluctantly, bowed his head without remark when she told him about the funeral, and took the sponsorship as a matter of course. ‘Very well; I suppose there is no one else to be found. Is it your brother’s thought?’
‘I told him.’