第134章

"It will certainly not be enough for me. I will have nothing to do with so damnable a compact.""Damnable!"

"Yes; that is what I call it. That is what any man would call it -- and any woman too, who would speak her mind.""Then, Sir, perhaps you will be kind enough to make your proposition.

I have made mine, such as it is, and am sorry that it should not have been received at any rate with courtesy." But as she said this there was a gleam of a bright spirit in her eyes, such as he had not seen since first the name of Gertrude had been mentioned to her.

"Yes," said he. "You have made your proposition, and now it is only fair that I should make mine. Indeed, I made it already when I suggested that little place abroad. Let it be abroad or at home, or of what nature it may -- so that you shall be there, and I with you, it shall be enough for me. That is my proposition;and, if it be not accepted, then I shall return to Miss Tringle and all the glories of Lombard Street.""Frank -- " she said. Then, before she could speak another word, he had risen from his seat, and she was in his arms. "Frank,"she continued, pushing back his kisses, "how impossible it is that I should not be obedient to you in all things! I know --I know that I am agreeing to that which will cause you some day to repent.""By heavens, no!" said he. "I am changed in all that.""A man cannot change at once. Your heart is soft, but your nature remains the same. Frank, I could be so happy at this moment if I could forget the picture which my imagination points to me of your future life. Your love, and your generous words, and the look out of your dear eyes, are sweet to me now, as when I was a child, whom you first made so proud by telling her that she owned your heart. If I could only revel in the return of your affections -- ""It is no return," said he. "There has never been a moment in which my affections have not been the same.""Well, then -- in these permitted signs of your affection --if it were not that I cannot shut out the future! Do not press me to name any early day, because no period of my future life will be so happy to me as this.""Is there any reason why I should not intrude?" said Mrs Docimer, opening the door when the above conversation had been extended for perhaps another hour.

"Not in the least, as far as I'm concerned," said Frank. "A few words have been spoken between us, all of which may be repeated to you if Imogene can remember them.""Every one of them," said Imogene; "but I hardly think that Ishall repeat them."

"I suppose they have been very much a matter of course," said Mrs Docimer -- "the old story repeated between you two for the fourth or fifth time. Considering all things, do you think that I should congratulate you?""I ask for no congratulation," said Imogene.

"You may certainly congratulate me," said Frank. After that the conversation became tame, and the happy lover soon escaped from the house into the street. When there he found very much to occupy his mind. He had certainly made his resolution at last, and had done so in a manner which would now leave him no power of retrogression.

The whole theory of his life had -- with a vengeance -- been thrown to the winds. "The little place abroad," -- or elsewhere -- was now a settled certainty. He had nearly got the better of her. He had all but succeeded in putting down his own love and hers by a little gentle ridicule, and by a few half-wise phrases which she at the moment had been unable to answer; but she now had in truth vanquished him by the absolute sincerity of her love.