“Oh! and this is the gentle, tender creature whom I could reproach so fiercely—dog that I was!” said Le, who seemed to feel the necessity of confession to poor Odalite’s parents.
“You, Le?”
“Yes, I! When she made me understand that she had broken her engagement with me and had promised to marry that Englishman, I tell you, Uncle Abel, I went on at her like a raving maniac! Satan took possession of me! I—could bang out my own brains against the wall, when I think of it!”
“Don’t! It would spoil the paper, and do nobody any good but the coroner and the undertaker! It was inevitable that you should have gone into a passion, Le! Your provocation would have upset a doctor of divinity, if it had taken him by surprise. Think no more of it, my boy! I dare say she has forgiven it!”
“She! the blessed child! She never once resented it—that is what kills me! She never opened her lips in self-defense, or self-excuse! Oh, I could beat my——”
“Pray, don’t, I say! It would make a mess in a tidy parlor! I dare say she thought she was without any excuse for disappointing you and me of our pet plan, and all for the sake of that puncheon of an Englishman! But girls are weak vessels. I never knew one worth having, except my own noble wife! But perhaps she has spoiled me for appreciating any other woman, even my own daughter.”
“Yes, Aunt Elfrida is the most excellent of the earth, I do believe,” assented Le; but without the interest in the subject which the words might have implied.
“The most perfect woman in person, soul and spirit that ever was created!”
“Who is ‘the most perfect woman in person, soul and spirit that ever was created’?” inquired a voice behind them.
Mr. Force turned and saw Col. Anglesea approaching them.