“So much the better, dear sir. Let us not lose a moment; let me fly and throw myself at her feet, and implore her pardon.”
“For what, my good boy?”
“For believing that any social stake can equal that which a man feels in the nearest, dearest ties of earth!”
The excellent rector smiled, but he wished to curb my impatience.
“You have already every stake in society, Sir John Goldencalf,” he answered—assuming the air which human beings have, by a general convention, settled shall be dignified—“that any reasonable man can desire. The large fortune left by your late father, raises you, in this respect, to the height of the richest in the land; and now that you are a baronet, no one will dispute your claim to participate in the councils of the nation. It would perhaps be better, did your creation date a century or two nearer the commencement of the monarchy; but, in this age of innovations, we must take things as they are, and not as we might wish to have them.”
I rubbed my forehead, for the doctor had incidentally thrown out an embarrassing idea.
“On your principle, my dear sir, society would be obliged to begin with its great-grandfathers to qualify itself for its own government.”
“Pardon me, Jack, if I have said anything disagreeable—no doubt all will come right in heaven. Anna will be uneasy at our delay.”
This suggestion drove all recollection of the good rector’s social-stake system, which was exactly the converse of the social-stake system of my late ancestor, quite out of my head. Springing forward, I gave him reason to see that he would have no farther trouble in changing the subject. When we had passed an antechamber, he pointed to a door, and admonishing me to be prudent, withdrew.
My hand trembled as it touched the door-knob, but the lock yielded. Anna was standing in the middle of the room (she had heard my footsteps), an image of womanly loveliness, womanly faith, and womanly feeling. By a desperate effort, she was, however, mistress of her emotions. Though her pure soul seemed willing to fly to meet me, she obviously restrained the impulse, in order to spare my nerves.