Mrs.Bell rose from her chair, and tried to look grave.Aaron glancing round the room saw that Susan was not there.He walked straight up to the widow, and offered her his hand, which she took.
It might be that Susan had not thought fit to tell, and in such case it would not be right for him to compromise her; so he said never a word.
But the subject was too important to the mother to allow of her being silent when the young man stood before her."Oh, Mr.Dunn,"said she, "what is this you have been saying to Susan?""I have asked her to be my wife," said he, drawing himself up and looking her full in the face.Mrs.Bell's heart was almost as soft as her daughter's, and it was nearly gone; but at the moment she had nothing to say but, "Oh dear, oh dear!""May I not call you mother?" said he, taking both her hands in his.
"Oh dear--oh dear! But will you be good to her? Oh, Aaron Dunn, if you deceive my child!"In another quarter of an hour, Susan was kneeling at her mother's knee, with her face on her mother's lap; the mother was wiping tears out of her eyes; and Aaron was standing by holding one of the widow's hands.
"You are my mother too, now," said he.What would Hetta and Mr.
Beckard say, when they came back? But then he surely was not a wolf!
There were four or five days left for courtship before Hetta and Mr.
Beckard would return; four or five days during which Susan might be happy, Aaron triumphant, and Mrs.Bell nervous.Days I have said, but after all it was only the evenings that were so left.Every morning Susan got up to give Aaron his breakfast, but Mrs.Bell got up also.Susan boldly declared her right to do so, and Mrs.Bell found no objection which she could urge.
But after that Aaron was always absent till seven or eight in the evening, when he would return to his tea.Then came the hour or two of lovers' intercourse.
But they were very tame, those hours.The widow still felt an undefined fear that she was wrong, and though her heart yearned to know that her daughter was happy in the sweet happiness of accepted love, yet she dreaded to be too confident.Not a word had been said about money matters; not a word of Aaron Dunn's relatives.So she did not leave them by themselves, but waited with what patience she could for the return of her wise counsellors.
And then Susan hardly knew how to behave herself with her accepted suitor.She felt that she was very happy; but perhaps she was most happy when she was thinking about him through the long day, assisting in fixing little things for his comfort, and waiting for his evening return.And as he sat there in the parlour, she could be happy then too, if she were but allowed to sit still and look at him,--not stare at him, but raise her eyes every now and again to his face for the shortest possible glance, as she had been used to do ever since he came there.
But he, unconscionable lover, wanted to hear her speak, was desirous of being talked to, and perhaps thought that he should by rights be allowed to sit by her, and hold her hand.No such privileges were accorded to him.If they had been alone together, walking side by side on the green turf, as lovers should walk, she would soon have found the use of her tongue,--have talked fast enough no doubt.
Under such circumstances, when a girl's shyness has given way to real intimacy, there is in general no end to her power of chatting.
But though there was much love between Aaron and Susan, there was as yet but little intimacy.And then, let a mother be ever so motherly--and no mother could have more of a mother's tenderness than Mrs.Bell--still her presence must be a restraint.Aaron was very fond of Mrs.Bell; but nevertheless he did sometimes wish that some domestic duty would take her out of the parlour for a few happy minutes.Susan went out very often, but Mrs.Bell seemed to be a fixture.
Once for a moment he did find his love alone, immediately as he came into the house."My own Susan, you do love me? do say so to me once." And he contrived to slip his arm round her waist."Yes,"she whispered; but she slipped like an eel from his hands, and left him only preparing himself for a kiss.And then when she got to her room, half frightened, she clasped her hands together, and bethought herself that she did really love him with a strength and depth of love which filled her whole existence.Why could she not have told him something of all this?
And so the few days of his second sojourn at Saratoga passed away, not altogether satisfactorily.It was settled that he should return to New York on Saturday night, leaving Saratoga on that evening; and as the Beckards--Hetta was already regarded quite as a Beckard--were to be back to dinner on that day, Mrs.Bell would have an opportunity of telling her wondrous tale.It might be well that Mr.
Beckard should see Aaron before his departure.
On that Saturday the Beckards did arrive just in time for dinner.
It may be imagined that Susan's appetite was not very keen, nor her manner very collected.But all this passed by unobserved in the importance attached to the various Beckard arrangements which came under discussion.Ladies and gentlemen circumstanced as were Hetta and Mr.Beckard are perhaps a little too apt to think that their own affairs are paramount.But after dinner Susan vanished at once, and when Hetta prepared to follow her, desirous of further talk about matrimonial arrangements, her mother stopped her, and the disclosure was made.
"Proposed to her!" said Hetta, who perhaps thought that one marriage in a family was enough at a time.
"Yes, my love--and he did it, I must say, in a very honourable way, telling her not to make any answer till she had spoken to me;--now that was very nice; was it not, Phineas?" Mrs.Bell had become very anxious that Aaron should not be voted a wolf.
"And what has been said to him since?" asked the discreet Phineas.
"Why--nothing absolutely decisive." Oh, Mrs.Bell! "You see I know nothing as to his means.""Nothing at all," said Hetta.
