It had never been Mr. Wallingford's intention to give up the practice of law. He believed it better for every man to have some regular business; and to endeavor to excel in it. Early in the spring, therefore, he had written Mr. Van Husen, requesting that gentleman to purchase him a handsome residence in a pleasant and healthy location. This was to be their winter home, where Gertrude and her boy would always be welcomed as part of the family. A wing, thrown out on the West side of Rose Cottage, would give ample accommodations to the two families in summer.
Under these circumstances, it is not strange that the lawyer should feel drawn toward his native land; nor that he should consider the caution of his medical adviser, to remain abroad until June, entirely needless.
The last days of February found them slowly making their way, in company with Mr. Radcliffe, the English nobleman, above mentioned, through France, pausing for a few days at Nice, where they had made some agreeable friends; and then crossing that country to England.
Reaching London the middle of March, they passed a month in making the tour of Great Britain, by which time Mr. Wallingford assured his sister, it was quite safe for him to embark for home. So without waiting to announce to their friends that they were about to anticipate the time of sailing, they took passage in the Steamship China, the last week in April, instead of waiting till the first of June.
There was one circumstance which decided Mrs. Wallingford not to oppose her brother leaving England sooner than the date they had written home. But in order to explain this, I must go back a little to their residence in Rome.
Sir Jones Radcliffe, from his first introduction to Gertrude, was charmed with the sweet gentleness of her manners; and the enthusiasm with which she conversed on literary and religious subjects. At that time he supposed her to be the wife of Mr. Wallingford; and remarked frankly to a friend who had often joked him upon his fastidiousness with regard to ladies:
"At last I have met one who is my beau ideal of what a wife should be; with beauty, accomplishments, and a mind enriched by culture; all softened by the pearl of meekness, and Christian principle."
Soon after he heard her address Edward as her brother; and the violent beating of his heart, showed him how easy it would be to surrender it to her keeping. From this hour, by the most constant, delicate attentions, he sought to win her affections; and nothing but her increasing reserve of manner, when she suspected his object, deterred him from making proposals for her hand.
When about to leave Rome she was rather annoyed to find that her brother had consented to the wish of Sir Jones, and allowed him to join their party to England. He proved a most agreeable travelling companion; and now that his whole heart was enlisted in her favor, he tried his utmost to excel in the powers of conversation for which he had long been distinguished. In the freedom of their intercourse he discovered that Gertrude had a son nearly six years of age; and that his image was scarcely ever absent from the mother's memory. This fact he turned to good account, leading her on to talk of his infantile ways, to tell of his wise sayings, and at last even to read from Marion's letters some of his childish messages. Before this Sir Jones thought he could not love her more than he did; but now he found his mistake. When talking of little Paul, the mother-light that beamed from her eyes and dimpled her mouth so enhanced his affection, that he determined to risk all, by a confession.
At home Gertrude had received proposals of marriage from several gentlemen of worth and distinction in her native state; but she had always shrunk from a new tie as an impossibility as long as Paul was alive. Now that she had seen him, who had once been her husband, under circumstances so affecting, she was more resolute in her former opinion than before.