Through Devious Ways, Chapter I-III [pp. 550-564]

TArougk Devious Ways. 555
"Desolate and melancholy as ever," "Fred, you are unconscionable.
he said cheerfully, and the sound of Mr. Moray knows you as well as r
his happy voice made me desperate. do, no doubt, and weighs your veraSuddenly, involuntarily, I might say, city proportionately. You don't adI found myself answering him, mire Shelley, Mr. Moray?" interro "I am tired of being desolate and gatively, as I turned over the pages
melancholy though;" then carelessly, of a richly bound edition of that au"What if we saunter down to Miss thor which lay upon a little table near
Foster's?" me.
Fred was all willingness, while sur- "No; and yet I do not look at
prised at my change of mood. We him from the same point of view as
walked leisurely along. When we you probably would. I think he was
reached the house, Fred remarked crazy. You, I suppose, would pass a
that the shutters were closed, and more merciless judgment."
that there was some probability of "Let us be charitable;" she said,
the young lady being out. I said "and hope that he was insane. But
nothing, but made a solemn compact unhappily his was a species of insaniwith myself while we waited. "If she ty of which there are but too many
is not at home," I thought, "that vow instances."
shall be registered and kept; if she is, After that, the talk fell upon books
che sera sera." generally. The hours slipped by, and
Miss Helen was at home, the ser- eleven o'clock had struck before we
vant said. She reproached me for took leave. Before I left her that
not having called in such a length of night, I had thrown down the barriers
time, and wondered if the revelation crumbling so long; I had seen and
made at our last meeting had not recognized a true, womanly woman,
helped to keep me away. Then turn- and, all unknown to her, had accepting, to her cousin she said laughingly, ed what I knew to be the inevitable.
"Mr. Moray was horrified the other After this I went often to the enday, to hear of my being a Catholic." chanted castle. My f~tiry princess
"The other day?" I answered. "It was nearly always accessible, but so
is fully three months ago, and I have she was to tire rest of the world as
not yet been able to reconcile my well. How could I hope to be the
mind to the fact." favored knight, when her smiles were
"It is a fact though, lSd," said Ar- bestowed on all so generously? She
mitage; "and greatly as I deplored the was invariably kind and cordial;
calamity when it happened four years sometimes slightly sarcastic and critiago, I must confess that Helen has cal, but never moody or sad. I often
changed for the better in the interval. wondered froin what source she drew
You see, she was most irrepressible, her abundant cheeffulness, and how
some time since-before her conver- she managed to preserve it.
as she calls it-doing every thing Never by word or look had I intiby fits and starts, and holding every mated my own feelings toward her;
one under the severest of despotisms; something told me to linger at the
but I actually believe this little devo- gate of paradise, content to see the
tion she has~ this habit of confessing, rose~blooming without daring to venhas toned her down and made her the ture in. I felt that a suspicion once
rational creature we see her. That's aroused in her mind would change
how you account for the change, isn't our relations completely; and I had
it, coz?" not begun to hope.