“Thank you, Mrs. Nor—Mainwaring, no; we have had a hasty cup of tea in Dublin. But if it will not be troublesome, I should like to go to bed for a time.”
Mrs. Mainwaring flew out of the room, and called Nancy Gallaher. “Nancy, prepare a bed immediately for this lady; her maid, too, will probably require rest. Prepare a bed for both.”
She was half in and half out of the room as she spoke; then returning with a bunch of keys dangling from her finger, she glanced at Miss Gourlay with that slight but delicate and considerate curiosity which arises only from a friendly warmth of feeling—but said nothing.
“My dear Mrs. Mainwaring,” said Lucy, who understood her look, “I feel that I have acted very wrong. I have fled from my father's house, and I have taken refuge with you. I am at present confused and exhausted, but when I get some rest, I will give you an explanation. At present, it is sufficient to say that papa has taken my marriage with that odious Lord Dunroe so strongly into his head, that nothing short of my consent will satisfy him. I know he loves me, and thinks that rank and honor, because they gratify his ambition, will make me happy. I know that that ambition is not at all personal to himself, but indulged in and nurtured on my account, and for my advancement in life. How then can I blame him?”
“Well, my child, no more of that at present; you want rest.”
“Yes, Mrs. Mainwaring, I do; but I am very wretched and unhappy. Alas! you know not, my dear friend, the delight which I have always experienced in obeying papa in everything, with the exception of this hateful union; and now I feel something like remorse at having abandoned him.”
She then gave a brief account to her kind-hearted friend of her journey to Dublin by the “Fly,” in the first instance, suppressing one or two incidents; and of her second to Mrs. Mainwaring's, who, after hearing that she had not slept at all during the night, would permit no further conversation on that or any other subject, but hurried her to bed, she herself acting as her attendant. Having seen her comfortably settled, and carefully tucked her up with her own hands, she kissed the fair girl, exclaiming, “Sleep, my love; and may God bless and protect you from evil and unhappiness, as I feel certain He will, because you deserve it.”
She then left her to sepose, and in a few minutes Lucy was fast asleep.
Whilst this little dialogue between Lucy and Mrs. Mainwaring was proceeding in the parlor of Summerfield cottage, another was running parallel with it between the two servants in the kitchen.
“God bless me,” said Nancy Gallaher, addressing Alley, “you look shockin' bad afther so early a journey! I'll get you a cup o' tay, to put a bloom in your cheek.”