Cornelia came timidly close to him. “Pray, be explicit!”
“Yes; but what--there is something to escape from.”
Wilfrid deliberately replied: “There is no doubt of the Pater's intentions with regard to Mrs. Chump.”
“Well, of course, he cuts me out. There--there! forgive me: but what can I do?”
“Do you conspire--Wilfrid, is it possible?--are you an accomplice in the degradation of our house?”
Cornelia had regained her courage, perforce of wrath. Wilfrid's singular grey eyes shot an odd look at her. He is to be excused for not perceiving the grandeur of the structure menaced; for it was invisible to all the world, though a real fabric.
“If Mrs. Chump were poor, I should think the Pater demented,” he said. “As it is--! well, as it is, there's grist to the mill, wind to the organ. You must be aware” (and he leaned over to her with his most suspicious gentleness of tone) “you are aware that all organs must be fed; but you will make a terrible mistake if you suppose for a moment that the human organ requires the same sort of feeding as the one in Hillford Church.”
“Good-night,” said Cornelia, closing her lips, as if for good.
Wilfrid pressed her hand. As she was going, the springs of kindness in his heart caused him to say “Forgive me, if I seemed rough.”
“Yes, dear Wilfrid; even brutality, rather than your exultation over the wreck of what was noble in you.”
With which phrase Cornelia swept from the room.
“Seen Wilfrid?” was Mr. Pole's first cheery call to his daughters, on his return. An answer on that head did not seem to be required by him, for he went on: “Ah the boy's improved. That place over there, Stornley, does him as much good as the Army did, as to setting him up, you know; common sense, and a ready way of speaking and thinking. He sees a thing now. Well, Martha, what do you,--eh? what's your opinion?”
Mrs. Chump was addressed. “Pole,” she said, fanning her cheek with vehement languor, “don't ask me! my heart's gone to the young fella.”
In pursuance of a determination to which the ladies of Brookfield had come, Adela, following her sprightly fancy, now gave the lead in affability toward Mrs. Chump.
“Has the conqueror run away with it to bury it?” she laughed.
“Och! won't he know what it is to be a widde!” cried Mrs. Chump. “A widde's heart takes aim and flies straight as a bullet; and the hearts o' you garls, they're like whiffs o' tobacca, curlin' and wrigglin' and not knowin' where they're goin'. Marry 'em, Pole! marry 'em!” Mrs. Chump gesticulated, with two dangling hands. “They're nice garls; but, lord! they naver see a man, and they're stuputly contented, and want to remain garls; and, don't ye see, it was naver meant to be? Says I to Mr. Wilfrud (and he agreed with me), ye might say, nice sour grapes, as well as nice garls, if the creatures think o' stoppin' where they are, and what they are. It's horrud; and, upon my honour, my heart aches for 'm!”