第43章 Volume 2(7)

To expect on my cousin's part anything like delicacy or consideration for me,was out of the question.I saw that he had set his heart upon my property,and that he was not likely easily to forego such an acquisition--possessing what might have been considered opportunities and facilities almost to compel my compliance.

I now keenly felt the unreasonableness of my father's conduct in placing me to reside with a family of all whose members,with one exception,he was wholly ignorant,and I bitterly felt the helplessness of my situation.I determined,however,in case of my cousin's persevering in his addresses,to lay all the particulars before my uncle,although he had never in kindness or intimacy gone a step beyond our first interview,and to throw myself upon his hospitality and his sense of honour for protection against a repetition of such scenes.

My cousin's conduct may appear to have been an inadequate cause for such serious uneasiness;but my alarm was caused neither by his acts nor words,but entirely by his manner,which was strange and even intimidating to excess.At the beginning of the yesterday's interview there was a sort of bullying swagger in his air,which towards the end gave place to the brutal vehemence of an undisguised ruffian--a transition which had tempted me into a belief that he might seek even forcibly to extort from me a consent to his wishes,or by means still more horrible,of which Iscarcely dared to trust myself to think,to possess himself of my property.

I was early next day summoned to attend my uncle in his private room,which lay in a corner turret of the old building;and thither I accordingly went,wondering all the way what this unusual measure might prelude.When I entered the room,he did not rise in his usual courteous way to greet me,but simply pointed to a chair opposite to his own.This boded nothing agreeable.I sat down,however,silently waiting until he should open the conversation.

'Lady Margaret,'at length he said,in a tone of greater sternness than I thought him capable of using,'I have hitherto spoken to you as a friend,but I have not forgotten that I am also your guardian,and that my authority as such gives me a right to control your conduct.I shall put a question to you,and I expect and will demand a plain,direct answer.Have I rightly been informed that you have con-temptuously rejected the suit and hand of my son Edward?'

I stammered forth with a good deal of trepidation:

'I believe--that is,I have,sir,rejected my cousin's proposals;and my coldness and discouragement might have convinced him that I had determined to do so.'

'Madam,'replied he,with suppressed,but,as it appeared to me,intense anger,'I have lived long enough to know that COLDNESS and discouragement,and such terms,form the common cant of a worthless coquette.You know to the full,as well as I,that COLDNESS AND DISCOURAGEMENTmay be so exhibited as to convince their object that he is neither distasteful or indifferent to the person who wears this manner.You know,too,none better,that an affected neglect,when skilfully managed,is amongst the most formidable of the engines which artful beauty can employ.

I tell you,madam,that having,without one word spoken in discouragement,permitted my son's most marked attentions for a twelvemonth or more,you have no right to dismiss him with no further explanation than demurely telling him that you had always looked coldly upon him;and neither your wealth nor your LADYSHIP'

(there was an emphasis of scorn on the word,which would have become Sir Giles Overreach himself)'can warrant you in treating with contempt the affectionate regard of an honest heart.'

I was too much shocked at this undisguised attempt to bully me into an acquiescence in the interested and unprincipled plan for their own aggrandisement,which I now perceived my uncle and his son to have deliberately entered into,at once to find strength or collectedness to frame an answer to what he had said.At length Ireplied,with some firmness:

'In all that you have just now said,sir,you have grossly misstated my conduct and motives.Your information must have been most incorrect as far as it regards my conduct towards my cousin;my manner towards him could have conveyed nothing but dislike;and if anything could have added to the strong aversion which Ihave long felt towards him,it would be his attempting thus to trick and frighten me into a marriage which he knows to be revolting to me,and which is sought by him only as a means for securing to himself whatever property is mine.'

As I said this,I fixed my eyes upon those of my uncle,but he was too old in the world's ways to falter beneath the gaze of more searching eyes than mine;he simply said:

'Are you acquainted with the provisions of your father's will?'

I answered in the affirmative;and he continued:

'Then you must be aware that if my son Edward were--which God forbid--the unprincipled,reckless man you pretend to think him'--(here he spoke very slowly,as if he intended that every word which escaped him should be registered in my memory,while at the same time the expression of his countenance underwent a gradual but horrible change,and the eyes which he fixed upon me became so darkly vivid,that I almost lost sight of everything else)--'if he were what you have described him,think you,girl,he could find no briefer means than wedding contracts to gain his ends?'twas but to gripe your slender neck until the breath had stopped,and lands,and lakes,and all were his.'