When Maria had retired, the company were silent for a time. Devereux at length addressed De Lancaster, and said—How much I hold your character in honour for what you have related to us, I cannot tell you; but I am convinced the proper use of the advantages, that affluence gives us (and therein I agree with my Maria) is, to procure that lasting happiness, which a well-chosen partnership for life is of all chances, that this world can give us, the likeliest to ensure to us. Some aspire to raise their families to rank and title; and it would be a laudable ambition, if nobler principles, superior wisdom and sublimer virtues were interwoven with our pedigrees, and descended to our posterity with the patents of our peerages, and entail of our estates: but these are not the expectations, neither are they the motives, that induce ambitious parents to betray their children into those fatal and delusive marriages, which only elevate them to become conspicuous objects of disgrace and scorn. I have been long persuaded, that the controul of parents over the affections and attachments of their children should, by the laws of nature and of reason, be only exercised for the prevention of ill-advised, unworthy, indiscreet connections, which cannot fail to lead to ruin and repentance. A dissipated profligate, a vain fool, a gamester, a disbeliever, libertines without principle and conceited puppies without employ have been known to catch the eyes of an unthinking girl, but ’tis the parent’s duty to repulse them; so is it not his duty, but the abuse of it, when he refuses to bestow her fortune upon the worthy man, whom she has honourably singled out, and wisely chosen, not by the eye, but heart, to be the sharer of her happiness. The children, Heaven hath blessed me with, are fitted by understanding, and fully able by the ample means, which of right they possess, to carve out for themselves their future lot in life, without regard to what the objects of their choice may be unprovided with, and which they abound in—worldly property. Each of them have enough, whereon to live in ease and affluence so long as they can live in harmony and peace—And now I have tired you with a long harangue, but I would wish to have it understood by all here present as my rule of practice; so with your leave, good friends, we will break up this court of conscience, and remove our cause into another, where we can have the counsel and assistance of the lady, who there is left in solitary expectation of our company over her tea and coffee.
The proposal was instantly complied with, and the gentlemen adjourned to another room, where Maria was present, and did the honours of her tea-table. When this business was dispatched, she produced the chess-board, and offered a challenge, which Major Wilson gallantly accepted. Parties, that devote themselves to that dull monopolizing game, seem for a time to be so absolutely excluded from society, and so wedded to their own manœuvres, that it is perfectly fair and lawful to consider them as absentees, and accordingly the gentlemen, who were at liberty to follow their own amusements, walked out to enjoy the breeze, that every evening visits the banks of the Tagus from the northward, and qualifies the else insufferable heat.
It was some time before the contending parties perceived that they had no spectators, and not even a solitary second to appeal to in a case of controversy, if such had arisen, or should arise, in the course of their engagement.
You are too strong for me, said Maria, and as I cannot make any impression on your defences, I give up the contest. You are absolutely a professor, and I am a mere novice, more fit to be your disciple than your antagonist: besides, you mask your game, whilst I lay myself open to you, and (which is more provoking still) when you have me in your power, and might check-mate me by a single move, you always mischievously contrive to leave some loop-hole for me to escape, on purpose to postpone a victory, which you are indifferent about securing and seem to consider as below your notice.
If I do this, he said, I’m sure you cannot seriously suppose my reasons to be those, which you assign. Could you not find some motive for my hesitation more natural, and less impossible, than indifference? May not the consciousness of what I am, instruct me almost to distrust my senses, though the divinity, whom I adore, should condescend to me her humble worshipper with looks so gracious, kindness so alluring, as seem to say—Approach me, and be blest?—but how to approach, when I compute the distance, that throws me off, and awes me from the attempt, is indeed a question, that staggers and confounds me.
At this she smiled, and with a look, that spoke encouragement, which could not be mistaken, I suppose, she said, the scale, on which you measure distances between us, is a certain thing called money, which though you yourself disinterestedly hold in no respect, you think perhaps that I have not the spirit to treat with the same contempt as you do. Therein you do me no wrong. Were those eventual and mean advantages, which I possess, transferred from me to you, I solemnly declare they would not be a feather in your scale, as I should weigh it; why then should you suffer them to give a false preponderance to mine? When Owen laid his fortune at my feet, I had no knowledge of his character; he had the address to keep it out of sight, his manners were polite, his temper placid, in point of person nature had rather favoured him than not. My father left me free to make my choice, and I had made it; therefore I refused him. Now do you understand me, do you know me? need I be more explicit? No; the privilege of truth can go no further; sincerity itself must stop me here.
Now, now you throw me on my knees for ever, the enraptured lover cried: now I look up to you as to a being, exalted above all that I conceived of human excellence: your nobleness of soul is now a charm beyond what nature has bestowed upon you, and my admiration of your beauty is almost lost whilst I adore your goodness. When happy fortune threw me in the way to save you, and receive you in my arms upon that memorable day, I had marked you out and fixed my eyes upon you in the charge; I knew you as the daughter of the wealthiest man in Portugal, and honour tied my tongue, though even then I struggled with a passion which tempted me to tell you—That your rich father amidst all his treasures had but one recompence that I would take; which being far above what I could merit, or dare aspire to, I was proudly silent, and studied rather to avoid than seek your presence, conscious that every time I looked upon you I should find fresh occasion to admire you, and, as love sunk the deeper in my heart, the deeper I should sink into despair.
Now then, she said, I am understood at last, and it is not the first proof I have received how slowly merit finds that secret out, which impudence and vanity pretend at the first glance to see through, and interpret in their own favour. You are a soldier, and modesty of mind is ever found with manliness and valour: you must be still a soldier: I’ll not ask you to sacrifice your honour and your occupation: ’tis for your country’s service you were born; that is your character; in that you shine, to that you must adhere, and never for an instant fly your post, but when you fly to save a fellow creature, as you did me. If you suspect me weak enough to sigh for any honours greater than to share your fortune, any pleasures beyond those, which your approving smile will ever give me, any self-consequence above the honest pride, that I shall feel to hear your praises, you mistake me wholly. Don’t think that I will borrow from my father’s stores to dazzle you with diamonds; no; not one, had he a mine, would I consent to wear, unless by your command, and that I think will never be your wish to lay upon me, whilst there are nobler graces and adornments within my reach far more becoming of a soldier’s wife.
What answer Major Wilson made to this, how the dialogue was carried on during the time the lovers were alone, as likewise how much shorter, or how much longer, that time seemed to them to be than it really was, must be left as matter of conjecture, which the imagination of the reader will readily supply without referring to the chess board to fill it up, as there is authority to say that game was not by either party proposed to be renewed. Happiness sanctioned by paternal authority, and virtuous love unchecked by the demurs of honour, filled the brave heart of Wilson with delight, and he heard an early day announced by Devereux for the sure tying of that sacred knot, which nothing but the hand of death should sever, though in too many cases it has proved a slip knot in the fingers of the law.