"My dear child, you may trust me. I have no intention of giving you up, all the archbishops in Lower Canada shall not deprive my boy of his wife. Now, be sensible, for once! Go back to your room, and I will do my best for you."
And poor Adéline, like a naughty child, went upstairs to her room.
That day Amelia had a long letter to write. She liked letter-writing, for she imagined she had a talent for affairs, and this is what she wrote:
"Long Branch.
"My Dear Madame Rouget,
"I have been so startled this morning by the totally undreamt of appearance of your daughter in company with my boy Randolph. They informed me that they stopped over at New York and were married, and have now come on here to favour me with a visit during their honeymoon. I am powerless, therefore, to separate them, as otherwise I would. I hasten to inform you of this, judging from my own feelings that you will be thankful to learn that your daughter, on her disappearance, has fallen into good hands. At the same time, permit me to assure you, dear Madame Rouget, that this--I scarcely know how to express my feelings on the subject--this elopement is none of my devising. I neither instigated, assisted, nor approve it. The children are of different faiths, and I fear poor Adéline has no fortune, and no prospect of ever having any. She has come here claiming my maternal care, and, actually, she has not a gown fit to appear at breakfast in. I have recommended her to keep her room, and, if you are the reasonable person I have believed you, I shall see that she stays there till she has received her mother's forgiveness for this very foolish step. Indeed, it is superabundantly foolish, and you may assure M. Rouget, from me, that I deplore it far more than he possibly can. To think that my cherished son should have married a French woman, and without dot. It is mortifying. When there are differences of religion there ought to be compensation. M. Rouget will reply that it is owing to Randolph's father that his daughter is not suitably dowered. Perhaps so; I shall not express an opinion; but, for myself, I feel untrammelled by such a consideration. When I was married myself, my dearest father saw that I did not go to my husband penniless. He availed himself of our admirable Lower Canada law, and I was séparée des biens. I have my own income, which no one can touch, and my own house at St. Euphrase, bought with my own money. If La Hache--what is left of it--were settled on your daughter in the same way, it might prove a blessing some day.
"And this brings me to my purpose in writing you. Dear Madame Rouget, had we not better make a virtue of necessity and accept an accomplished fact? It would be better, surely, to have our children properly married in a church than merely for them to have been buckled together by a Yankee magistrate. My boy insists that M. Rouget shall assure him on this point before he returns to Canada. His wife, as he calls her, being under legal age, if any difficulty is made, he threatens to continue living in this country, which I am sure you would regret as much as I shall. As to their plans, the young people can live with me till some employment is found for Randolph. The Minister of Drainage and Irrigation should be able to find him something.
"As to their religion, they have already settled that question for themselves, having adopted civil marriage. Had Randolph's suit progressed, as was at one time contemplated, it is probable that, as he is no bigot, he might have acquiesced in any wishes of his fiancée or her family; but now they have forbidden the match, and yet it has taken place. I will not consent to any disrespect being now shown to our venerable Church of England, and, indeed, I have never been able to understand how one section of the Catholic Church can claim superiority over another. No doubt when the present difficulty shall have been arranged, the young couple, who appear devotedly attached to each other, will grow into each other's views, and both be of the same communion. Meanwhile, I am aware that in your church there are difficulties connected with mixed marriages; but his grace the archbishop, as I have been informed, holds discretionary power to grant a dispensation for sufficient reason. I am confident his grace will see such reasons in the present case, as otherwise our hapless children will be condemned to remain in this most undevout republic, and may become the prey of no one knows what pernicious sect.
"Assuring you of my entire sympathy, and begging that you will not defer your reply, for in truth the hotel bills at Lone Branch for a party of three are enough to make one shudder, believe me,
"Dear Madame Rouget,