So the best course had seemed to be to send the fugitive packing, and nip this love-affair in the bud. And that was what Foxwell had supposed would result from the alternative offers. In any reasonable issue of the matter, there must have been separation for the lovers and sorrow for Georgiana. Would that sorrow be ultimately greater for the postponement, and for the probable deepening of the attachment between the lovers? Perhaps; but Foxwell had not looked for this outcome. The cruelty of his little experiment upon the human passions, then, consisted in his exposing the young lover’s heart, and playing upon it, for the amusement of onlookers. The cruelty of the intention was not lessened by the fact that Everell himself, wholly concerned as to his fate and his love, did not at the time see himself as a man exhibited and played upon.
Perhaps Foxwell and his friends underwent some self-reproach. However that be, it is certain they had the delicacy to refrain from spying or intruding upon the lovers during the week for which Everell had so devotedly bargained. The party of four went their way, and the party of two, attended by the faithful Prudence, went theirs, both parties meeting twice or thrice each day at meals. On these occasions, a pleasant courtesy prevailed, and there was no rallying of the lovers, no inquisitive observation of them. Indeed it is doubtful if the feelings of young lovers were ever more nicely considered. The two found themselves always favoured by that conspiracy which good-natured people customarily form for the benefit of a young lady and her favoured suitor. Everell found that he was not even expected to remain at the table with the other gentlemen after the ladies had gone, nor was it required that he and Georgiana should join the latter at the tea-table or at cards. The lovers’ chief place of resort within the house was the library, a room quite neglected by the others, who preferred only the newest plays, poems, and magazines for their reading. In good weather the lovers sat in the old garden, or strolled in the park, Foxwell and his visitors going farther afield for their outdoor amusements, and receiving no company from the neighbourhood. Thus the young couple, from their meeting at breakfast to their parting at night, passed all the hours together, in a singular freedom from observant eyes.
We shall imitate Foxwell and his friends in this abstention from prying; not because the love-making of the two young people is sacred from us, but because such love-making, interesting as it is to the participants, is sadly tedious to the spectator. The love-stories of actual people are interesting for the events that give rise to their love, and to which their love gives rise; not (excepting the critical moments of the awakening, the unintentional disclosure, the first confession, and such) for the regular course of its own manifestation. The reader who has dreaded the slow account of a week’s love-making—the sighs, the gazes, the silences, the hand-holdings, the poutings, the forgivings, and all the rest—may breathe freely. The peculiar pathos of the situation of these young lovers—a pathos as yet perceptible only to Everell—did not much alter their conduct from that of other young lovers. For Everell made fair shift to put the future out of sight, to regard only the day: he was resolved not to look forward till the last hour of his term should arrive. As long as he was with Georgiana, he could keep to this: ’twas only when he had retired to his own chamber that visions of the approaching end would harass him in the darkness; only then would he count the hours that yet remained.
On the eventful night of his capture, and after Georgiana had retired, Everell had obtained Foxwell’s permission to communicate with John Tarby by means of the keeper, who, as he had learned from Tarby himself, was privately on excellent terms with the poacher. By this medium, then, Everell had taken leave of his former host with due expressions of thanks, both in words and in gold, and had obtained the cloak-bag containing his travelling equipment. Tarby had been left under the impression that the young gentleman, after being sheltered secretly for a time at Foxwell Court, was to proceed upon his journey.
That indeed was the impression of the servants at Foxwell Court, and of Georgiana herself. Everell did not tell her how long or short was to be his visit, and she, glad enough to postpone all thought of his departure, never broached the subject. Only once did he hint at the probability of his leaving her before many days. It was when, on Saturday evening, she spoke of going to church next day. “Nay,” he pleaded, with a sudden alarm in his eyes, “you will have Sundays enough for church-going, when I am not here.” It was not necessary to say more; but he had to feign excessive lightness of heart to quiet the vague apprehension his own earnestness had raised in her mind.
Foxwell and his friends appeared at church that Sunday without Georgiana. Her absence was noted by one important person, at least, for, after the service, Squire Thornby accosted Foxwell outside the church porch, with a lack of preliminary salutation, blurting out:
“How now, neighbour Foxwell, ’tis no illness, I hope, keeps Miss Foxwell home such a fine day?”
“No illness, thank you,” replied Foxwell, mildly; “nothing of consequence, that is: my niece slept rather badly last night, because of the wind.”
“I’m glad ’tis nothing serious. Tell her I said so, with my best compliments. Tell her she was missed. We could better ’a’ spared you, Foxwell,—and that’s a true word spoken in jest, if ever there was one.”
This pleasantry was accompanied by a smile of such confident insolence that the onlookers set their ears for the piercing retort they thought sure to come. It was on the tip of Foxwell’s tongue; but he checked it, dropped his eyes, and sought refuge in a feebly counterfeited laugh. His enemy looked around triumphantly, and walked off. Foxwell, who saw nothing in the Squire’s concern for Georgiana but a pretext for rudeness to himself, digested his chagrin in silence, though aware of the surprised glances of Rashleigh and the ladies, to whom he had mentioned his former method of dealing with this booby.