“Tush, sirrah! tush! If I be young, I am neither quite a child, nor absolutely a fool. You meant to get me into your power, and you have got yourself into mine. Now listen to me, I know you for a very shrewd rascal, Peter Verity, and for one who knows right well what to say, and what not to say. Now, as I told you, I am about this very evening to make known my marriage with the lady whom you saw me wed. You will be asked, doubtless, a thousand questions on the subject by all sorts of persons. Now, mark me, you will answer so as to let all who ask understand that I am married, and that you have known all about it from the first; but you will do this in such a manner that no one shall be able to assert that you have asserted any thing; and further, that, if need should be hereafter, you may be able to deny point blank your having said aught, or known aught on the subject. I hope you will remember what I am desiring you to do correctly, Peter Verity; for, of a truth, if you make the slightest blunder, I shall carry this document, which you have stolen from the church-register, to the nearest justice of the peace, and make my deposition against you.”
“I understand perfectly, your honor, and will do your bidding correctly,” said the fellow, not a little embarrassed at finding how much his position had altered, since he entered the library, as he thought, well nigh the young heir’s master.
“So you shall do well,” replied Jasper. “Now get you gone. Let them give you some ale in the buttery, but when I send word to have the people collected in the great hall, make yourself scarce. It is not desirable that you should be there when I address them;” and lighting a hand-lamp as he ceased speaking, for it had grown dark already during the conversation, he turned his back on the discomfited sexton, and went up by a private staircase to what was called the ladies’ withdrawing room, an apartment which, having been shut up since the death of his own mother, had been reopened on Theresa’s joining the family.
“The sexton of the church has been with you, Jasper,” she said, eagerly, as her husband entered the room; “what should have brought him hither?”
“He was here, you know, dearest, at the sad ceremonial; and I had desired him to bring up a copy of the record of our marriage. He wished to deliver it to me in person.”
“How good of you, dear Jasper, and how thoughtful,” she replied, casting her fair white arms about his neck, and kissing his forehead tenderly, “that you may show it to the people, and prove to them that I am indeed your wife.”
“Show it to the people! Prove that you are my wife!” he answered impetuously, and with indignation in his every tone. “I should like to see the person ask me to show it, or doubt that you are my wife. No, indeed, dear Theresa, your very thought shows how young you are, and ignorant of the world. To do what you suggest, would but create the doubt, not destroy it. No, when they have done supper, I shall cause the whole household to be collected in the great stone hall; and when they are there, I shall merely lead you in upon my arm, tell them we have been married in private these three months past, and desire them to respect you as my dear wife, and their honored mistress. That, and your being introduced to all friends and visiters as Mistress St. Aubyn, is all that can be needed; and, in cases such as ours, believe me, the less eclat given to the circumstances, the better it will be for all parties. And do not you, I pray you, dearest, suffer the servant girls to ask you any questions on the subject, or answer them if they do. But inform me of it forthwith.”
“They would not dream of doing so, Jasper,” she replied, gently. “And you are quite right, I am certain, and I will do all that you wish. Oh! I am so happy! so immeasurably happy, Jasper, even when I should be mournful at your good father’s death, who was so kind to me; but I cannot—I cannot—this joy completely overwhelms me. I am too, too happy.”
“Wherefore, so wondrous happy all on a sudden, sweet one?” asked the boy, with a playful smile, laying his hand, as he spoke, affectionately on her soft, rounded shoulder.
“That I need fear no longer to let the whole world know how dearly, how devotedly I love my husband.”