“Garnet! darling Nettie!” said Hugh tenderly; “if you were suddenly bereft of your enchanting beauty, my love would be strong enough to bear the change; for the heart and soul that I loved most would live for me unaltered. But smirch not the fairness of your soul, Garnet, for I will not wed moral deformity.”
“This is weakness! This is miserable driveling!” exclaimed Miss Seabright, starting from her resting-place upon his bosom, and dashing the tears from her flashing eyes. “I am no mendicant for your love, sir! No! nor will I purchase it at too high a price, either!” she added bitterly, throwing off his deprecating hand, and hurrying from him into the house.
Hugh looked after her in deep thought; then said to himself:
“The flow and ebb of ocean’s tide is nothing to the waving forth and back of her mind in its present phase. How strong—how terrible is the death-agony of her ambition! If the contest were simply between ambition and love, ambition would triumph in a high, proud nature like hers; but justice sides with love, and together they are invincible. I would the battle were over, though.”
He did not see her again during the day. She did not appear even at the supper-table.
I have no time to tell you how Garnet Seabright spent that night, how the battle in her soul was fought and won. I have only time left for results.
In the gray of the morning Hugh Hutton came downstairs, booted, great-coated, and laden with his saddle-bags, preparatory to mounting his horse to set forth on his journey. He found Garnet Seabright in the great hall, apparently waiting for him. She stood at the foot of the stairs and leaned for support against the balustrades. She was looking very haggard, as from loss of rest and anxiety; yet, through all the physical weariness there radiated the light of a calm joy. He lifted his hat and bowed, intending to pass her, when she raised her hand, and by an adjuring gesture, stayed him, murmuring very low:
“Dr. Hutton, was it really your intention to leave me this morning?”
“It was, Miss Seabright,” he replied, in a deep, constrained voice.
“‘It was,’ and is it?” she added, in a low tone, gently moving from her position.