“Rosa,” replied Charley, fervently returning her gentle pressure; “I will honestly confess my folly. Those idle words of the poor Howlet have clung to my soul with a heaviness which I cannot shake off.”
“Idle words they were, indeed,” replied Rosa; “words idly uttered by the poor crazy creature in the delirium of starvation. But, idle or not, they boded no evil to me; and is it by Charley Stewart that they are to be grudged to me?”
“Think of their import, Rosa,” replied Charley, gravely; “and then you will see that I can scarcely be expected calmly to contemplate them.”
“What!” exclaimed Rosa, smiling—“that I am to be a landed lady? Is that a matter that should give thee pain to think of?”
“Reflect, Rosa, by what means it was said that thou art to become so,” replied Charley, with a sigh. “By marrying a man with a knight’s spurs at his heels! Ran not the old woman’s words so? And canst thou believe that I can coolly contemplate the probable accomplishment of any such prophecy?”
“Charley!” cried Rosa, with great feeling, whilst tears swelled from under her beautiful eyelids, “canst thou believe it possible that I should ever forget all I owe to thee? Canst thou believe that I can forget my often repeated vows? Canst thou believe that those infant affections which have grown up with me, strengthening as they grew, until they have now ripened with me in womanhood, can ever perish but with my life? My life is thine, for to thee I owe it. My soul is thine, for to thee I am indebted for that culture and expansion which may best fit it for heaven. My heart is thine, for it is to thee that I have been indebted for stocking it with its best and purest sympathies. Canst thou then doubt that I ever could be any other’s than thine?”
“May the Virgin ever bless thee for thy words, my love!” cried Charley, with ecstasy. “I am satisfied of the truth of thine affection. Yet had I been better pleased if that old woman had never given utterance to those idle dreams of hers. At such a time too!—So awful!—Just before her vexed and worn out spirit took its flight from its wretched earthly tenement!”
“It was awful, indeed!” said Rosa, solemnly. “But methinks,” added she, after a pause, and in a more cheerful tone—“Methinks the poor Howlet’s words might bear a more pleasing interpretation than thou wouldst seem inclined to put upon them; yea, and to my fancy, much more natural withal.”
“As how?” demanded Charley, eagerly.
“Marry, that thou mayest be the man with the knight’s spurs at his heels,” said Rosa, dropping her voice and her eyes, and blushing deeply.