“I’ll read a chapter every day—by Jove, I will,” resolved William, in the grateful sense of his deliverance. “It’s only decent—it’s only the old custom. It may make me good some day, and hit or miss, it never did any man harm.”
So he turned over the leaves, and lighted on an open sheet of note paper. It was written over in poor Miss Perfect’s hand, with a perceptible tremble; and he read the following lines, bearing date only two days before her death:—
“Dear Willie,
“To-day I am not quite so, but trust to be better; and wish you to know, that having convers much with doctor, my friend, the rector, I make for future the Bible my only guide, and you are not to mind what I said about waiting five—only do all things—things—with prayer, and marry whenever you see good, seeking first God’s blessing by pra⸺.
“So, lest anything should happen, to remove from your mind all anxiet, writes
“Your poor old fond
“Auntie.”
Thus ended the note, which William, with a strange mixture of feelings, kissed again and again, with a heart at once saddened and immensely relieved.
CHAPTER LXVIII.
SOME SMALL EVENTS AND PLANS
William Maubray heard from Trevor, who affected boisterous spirits and the intensest enjoyment of his town life, though there was not a great deal doing just then to amuse anybody. He had been thinking of running over to Paris to the Sourburys, who had asked him to join their party, but thought he must go first to Kincton for a week or two, as the ladies insisted on a sort of promise he had made, and would not let him off. He hinted, moreover, that there was a perfectly charming Lady Louisa Sourbury, of whom he spoke in a rapture; and possibly all this, and a great deal more in the same vein, was intended to reach the ear of Miss Violet Darkwell, who was to learn that “there are maidens in Scotland more lovely by far, who would gladly,” &c., &c., and also, that young Lochinvar was treading his measures and drinking his cups of wine with remarkable hilarity, notwithstanding the little scene which had taken place.
But Vane Trevor was not a topic which William would have cared to introduce, and it was in relation to quite other subjects that he was always thinking of Violet Darkwell.