Cummings.—"I think my friend is right, and that when he is gone"—
General Wyatt.—"Well, sir! well, sir! It may be the best way. I think it is the best. We will venture upon it. Sir,"—to Bartlett,—"may I have the honour of taking your hand?" Bartlett lays down his burden on the piano, and gives his hand. "Thank you, thank you! You will not regret this goodness. God bless you! May you always prosper!"
Bartlett.—"Good-bye; and say to Miss Wyatt"—At these words he pauses, arrested by an incomprehensible dismay in General Wyatt's face, and turning about he sees Cummings transfixed at the apparition of Miss Wyatt advancing directly toward himself, while her mother coming behind her exchanges signals of helplessness and despair with the General. The young girl's hair, thick and bronze, has been heaped in hasty but beautiful masses on her delicate head; as she stands with fallen eyes before Bartlett, the heavy lashes lie dark on her pale cheeks, and the blue of her eyes shows through their transparent lids. She has a fan with which she makes a weak pretence of playing, and which she puts to her lips as if to hide the low murmur that escapes from them as she raises her eyes to Bartlett's face.
VIII.
Constance, Mrs. Wyatt, and the others.
Constance, with a phantom-like effort at hauteur.—"I hope you have been able to forgive the annoyance we caused you, and that you won't let it drive you away." She lifts her eyes with a slow effort, and starts with a little gasp as they fall upon his face, and then remains trembling before him while he speaks.
Bartlett, reverently.—"I am to do whatever you wish. I have no annoyance—but the fear that—that"—
Constance, in a husky whisper.—"Thanks!" As she turns from him to go back to her mother, she moves so frailly that he involuntarily puts out his hand.