As Mrs. Poynsett said, she could expect nothing better of him. “It is quite clear,” she said, “that poor Lena is right, that Frank must not set up housekeeping with him. Even if he were certain to be proof against temptation, it would be as bad a connection as could be. I never thought of his being with them; but I suppose there is nothing else to be done with him.”
“Frank ought not to be exposed to the trial. The old man has a certain influence over him.”
“Though I should have thought such a hoary old wreck was nothing but a warning. It has been a most unhappy affair from first to last; but Lena is a good, unselfish girl, and nothing else will give Frank a chance of happiness. Waiting will do them no harm, they are young enough, and have no great sum to marry upon, so if you can bring her to me to-morrow, Julius, I will ask her to grant my poor boy leave to wait till she can see her way to marrying.”
Julius ventured to write down, ‘Hope on!’
To this Frank replied with rather a fiery look, “Mind, I will not have her persuaded or worked on. It must be all her own doing. Yes,” answering a look of his brother, “I see what you are about. You want to tell her it is a superstition about her vow and not using me fairly. So it may be in some points of view; but the fact remains. She thought she might trust to my good sense and principle, and it proved that she was wrong. After that it is not right to force myself on her. I don’t dare to do it, Julius. I have not been shut up with myself all these weeks for nothing. I know now how unworthy I ever was to think of her as mine. If I can ever prove my repentance she might in time forgive me; but for her to be driven to take me out of either supposed justice or mercy, I will not stand! A wretched deaf being like me! It is not fitting, and I will not have it done!”
Julius wrote—“She is suffering greatly. She nearly fainted at church, and I had to take her out.”
Frank’s face worked, and he put his hand over it as he said, “You are all torturing her; I shall write a letter and settle it myself.”
Frank did write the letter that very night, and when Julius next saw Eleonora her eyes were swollen with weeping, and she said—
“Take me to him! I must comfort him!”
“You have heard from him?”