“Poor little man, what can be the matter?” wondered Jane, and she leaned a little farther out so that she could hear some of the conversation.
“No, dear Miss Lambert—I feel that I must go,” he was saying in sincerely miserable accents. “You cannot—I must not flatter myself that you can feel what this parting means to me. Indeed, desiring your happiness above all things, I earnestly hope that you are untouched by my wretchedness! I have come to-night to say farewell to you and your charming family for whom I could not feel a deeper affection were it my own.”
“Oh, Mr. Montgomery—surely you don’t mean that you are going for good?” cried Elise.
He drew a heavy sigh. And then, letting his head droop pathetically, said,
“Miss Lambert, that must be for you to decide. And yet I cannot allow you—even though my dearest hopes were to be realized thereby—to make any decision. Miss Lambert, I think you may have guessed my feelings. How deep and sincere they are I can only prove by my readiness to disregard them. In short, dear Miss Lambert, I feel my unworthiness to aspire to the happiness—” here he swallowed his words completely so that Jane found it impossible to make out what he was saying.
“But where are you going, Mr. Montgomery?” stammered Elise, evidently on the point of tears again. Her concern and emotion affected P. Hyacinth deeply and rapidly. Taking a step closer to her, he looked into her eyes;
“Are these tears, Miss Lambert—Elise? Is it possible that my departure is not wholly indifferent to you?” he cried, casting his hat recklessly on the ground and seizing both her hands.
“Oh, Mr. Montgomery, you know—that it is not,” murmured Elise, freeing one hand in order to dry her eyes.
“Then,” declared Hyacinth heroically, “I shall—I shall seek an interview with your parent to-night—”
“You may have an interview immediately, if you want,” announced a bass voice from the dining-room doorway.