“I think, indeed I am sure,” answered her mother, “that he would like your marriage to be this summer.”
“This summer; oh, mother! It is only three months since Charlie died,” said Cicely, her voice quivering. “Mother, I tried to be cheerful at that time, because I knew you had enough on your mind, but, oh! I have missed him so! Don’t send me away from you yet. Six months hence perhaps I shall have a different feeling, and it does seem a sudden change. A few months ago there was no thought of my being married this year. I don’t understand it.”
“But I have explained it to you, dear; it is quite easy to understand. Are you sure you understand yourself, Cicely? You speak of wishing you had difficulties and obstacles to face, but yet you shrink from any change in your life?”
“It is different,” said Cicely. “There will be no scope for my energies, mother, in my new life. Living at Lingthurst will be ever so much smoother and more luxurious than here even! I shall have no house-keeping, no responsibilities. Of course I shall try to be like a daughter to Trevor’s parents, but I shall always be wishing they were you and papa, and fancying you want me. We shall be so dreadfully rich! I wish Trevor had his way to make, and that we were going to live in a little house of our own!”
Mrs. Methvyn sighed. There had been a time in her life when she had known what it was not to be “dreadfully rich,” when poverty had destroyed much of the charm even of “a little house of her own.”
“But then in my case there were worse troubles than poverty,” she reflected. She had been so anxious for Cicely’s happiness, surely it was not all to turn out a mistake.
Cicely heard the sigh and it grieved her.
“Mother,” she exclaimed hastily, “I am wrong to speak so. I am foolish and discontented. Of course, I know it is right for Trevor to live at Lingthurst, and I dare say I shall find plenty of interests. But, mother, it must not be just yet. Not for six months. Will you tell my father what I say. He will not be vexed; it will not do him harm or trouble him, will it?”
“No, I think not. Not, at least if it is really definitely fixed for six months hence. I hope the Fawcetts will not be disappointed.”
“What does Trevor expect? Did he go away this afternoon under the impression that it was all going to be settled to be at once? As if I were a doll without any feelings of my own!” said Cicely with some bitterness, again.