第178章

"I've been talking with the lad; and, on comparing his dreams with my dreams, his feelings with my feelings, and his wishes with my wishes, I fear we think too much alike consarning you for both of us to be very happy.""Pathfinder, you forget; you should remember that we are betrothed!" said Mabel hastily, and in a voice so low that it required acute attention in the listeners to catch the syllables.Indeed the last word was not quite intel-ligible to the guide, and he confessed his ignorance by the usual, --"Anan?"

"You forget that we are to be married; and such allu-sions are improper as well as painful."

"Everything is proper that is right, Mabel; and every-thing is right that leads to justice and fair dealing; though it _is painful_ enough, as you say, as I find on trial, I do.

Now, Mabel, had you known that Eau-douce thinks of you in this way, maybe you never would have consented to be married to one as old and as uncomely as I am.""Why this cruel trial, Pathfinder? To what can all this lead? Jasper Western thinks no such thing: he says nothing he feels nothing.""Mabel!" burst from out of the young man's lips, in a way to betray the uncontrollable nature of his emotions, though he uttered not another syllable.

Mabel buried her face in both her hands; and the two sat like a pair of guilty beings, suddenly detected in the commission of some crime which involved the happiness of a common patron.At that instant, perhaps, Jasper himself was inclined to deny his passion, through an ex-treme unwillingness to grieve his friend; while Mabel, on whom this positive announcement of a fact that she had rather unconsciously hoped than believed, came so unex-pectedly, felt her mind momentarily bewildered; and she scarcely knew whether to weep or to rejoice.Still she was the first to speak; since Eau-douce could utter naught that would be disingenuous, or that would pain his friend.

"Pathfinder," said she, "you talk wildly.Why mention this at all?""Well, Mabel, if I talk wildly, I _am_ half wild, you know, by natur', I fear, as well as by habit." As he said this, he endeavored to laugh in his usual noiseless way, but the effect produced a strange and discordant sound; and it appeared nearly to choke him."Yes, I _must_ be wild; I'll not attempt to deny it.""Dearest Pathfinder! my best, almost my only friend!

you _cannot, do not_ think I intended to say that!" inter-rupted Mabel, almost breathless in her haste to relieve his mortification."If courage, truth, nobleness of soul and conduct, unyielding principles, and a hundred other excel-lent qualities can render any man respectable, esteemed, or beloved, your claims are inferior to those of no other human being.""What tender and bewitching voices they have, Jasper!"resumed the guide, now laughing freely and naturally.

"Yes, natur' seems to have made them on purpose to sing in our ears, when the music of the woods is silent.But we must come to a right understanding, we must.I ask you again, Mabel, if you had known that Jasper Western loves you as well as I do, or better perhaps, though that is scarcely possible; that in his dreams he sees your face in the water of the lake; that he talks to you, and of you, in his sleep; fancies all that is beautiful like Mabel Dunham, and all that is good and virtuous; believes he never knowed happiness until he knowed you; could kiss the ground on which you have trod, and forgets all the joys of his call-ing to think of you and the delight of gazing at your beauty and in listening to your voice, would you then have consented to marry me?"Mabel could not have answered this question if she would; but, though her face was buried in her hands, the tint of the rushing blood was visible between the open-ings, and the suffusion seemed to impart itself to her very fingers.Still nature asserted her power, for there was a single instant when the astonished, almost terrified girl stole a glance at Jasper, as if distrusting Pathfinder's his-tory of his feelings, read the truth of all he said in that furtive look, and instantly concealed her face again, as if she would hide it from observation for ever.

"Take time to think, Mabel," the guide continued, "for it is a solemn thing to accept one man for a husband while the thoughts and wishes lead to another.Jasper and Ihave talked this matter over, freely and like old friends, and, though I always knowed that we viewed most things pretty much alike, I couldn't have thought that we re-garded any particular object with the very same eyes, as it might be, until we opened our minds to each other about you.Now Jasper owns that the very first time he beheld you, he thought you the sweetest and winningestest crea-tur' he had ever met; that your voice sounded like mur-muring water in his ears; that he fancied his sails were your garments fluttering in the wind; that your laugh haunted him in his sleep; and that ag'in and ag'in has he started up affrighted, because he has fancied some one wanted to force you out of the _Scud_, where he imagined you had taken up your abode.Nay, the lad has even acknowledged that he often weeps at the thought that you are likely to spend your days with another, and not with him.""Jasper!"