“I am about to tell you, if you will quietly listen to me.”
“Well! well! Yes, ma’am! I beg your pardon—I am all attention.”
“Carolyn, I am sure, already regrets her hasty violence of temper.”
“Yes! that she does! It’s easy to see that!”
“And Archer, who is slower to anger and slower to repentance—though deeper and stronger in both for being slow—Archer, in a very few days, will bitterly repent the step he has taken, more especially as being on his Western march, it will be impossible to retrace it. Under these circumstances, this is what you must say to the assembled company to-night:—You must tell them, that last night a peremptory order arrived for Captain Clifton to join his regiment immediately; and that the marriage is deferred for the present. Let the company then enjoy themselves as at a ball. And all will go off well, and without scandal. I will be present myself, as the representative of our side of the house. I sent for you, Mr. Clifton, to give you this advice, and to suggest this plan of action in meeting the embarrassing difficulties of this evening. I should not propose this, if I were not sure that the marriage is only deferred—that if the parties live, it will assuredly take place. I am certain it will, Mr. Clifton! I am willing to pledge my own truth and honor on it, and become responsible for it! The plan I propose to you for meeting the guests this evening, is truest, wisest and best—think of it!”
“I do not think of it at all! I see its excellence at a glance. I spring to meet it! I embrace it! I hug it to my heart! Oh, Mrs. Clifton, you are our deliverer! Oh, Mrs. Clifton! you are the great-grand-daughter of Oliver Cromwell, the general, the conqueror, the deliverer, the statesman, the politician, the diplomatist, the everything at an emergency!—You’ll see how gloriously I’ll execute your orders! You’ll make me Lieutenant-General when you are Lady Protector of the Commonwealth!” exclaimed the old man, starting up and clapping his hat upon his head, and joking like a boy, for very joy that his difficulty was smoothed. He shook hands with Mrs. Clifton, begging her not to be late, as he should want the encouragement of her presence in order to enable him to make his speech. Then he mounted his horse, and rode rapidly away down the mountain-path to Clifton. When he arrived at home, he found the lawn already covered with carriages, horses and servants, and the piazza, halls, and all the first floor rooms, thronged with company. He passed through them all, bowing right and left and hastened to his daughter’s room. Mr. Clifton had some doubts about getting his proud daughter to consent to the wise plan suggested by his sister-in-law. But he meant to carry his consent by a coup-de-main. So he pushed open her door, burst into her chamber, and threw himself, puffing, blowing, and perspiring, into the nearest chair, exclaiming—
“He’s gone, Carolyn! He’s clear gone, confound him!”
Carolyn drew nearer her father, and gazed into his face, to read there the confirmation of what she scarcely could believe. The old man wiped his streaming face with his handkerchief, and stuffed it again into his pocket, exclaiming—
“Yes! he’s gone! gone! gone! gone!” Then opening wide his arms, he murmured, “But never mind, my dear child! you’ve got your old father left to love you, and to avenge you, too, if needful! Don’t grieve! Come to my bosom! Don’t grieve!”
“‘Grieve,’ sir!” exclaimed the imperious girl, elevating her queenly head, “we do not grieve for a traitor! We pronounce sentence on him, and execute it!”