CHAPTER XL ROSALIE. "Imagine something purer far, And if thy lip for love like this No mortal word can frame, Go ask of angels what it is, And call it by that name."-Moore. ROSALIE VIVIAN and Robert Bloomfield reached home just as the carriage containing Colonel Ashley rolled into the yard. The old gentleman alighted, greeted the young people with a most cheerful and kindly smile, and with unusual vigour and lightness tripped up stairs into the house. His servant, laden with packets of newspapers and letters, followed. "You may take my word for it, Rosalie, that the Colonel has received some excellent news by this morning's mail! And now just observe the power of the soul over the body! Joyful news will so reju venate infirm old age, that it will skip about, elastic as youth. Witness Colonel Ashley, who stepped up those stairs more lightly than I ever saw him move in my life; while disappointment and sorrow will so enfeeble youth that it will move about drooping like paralytic age. Witness me ready to drop from my saddle with exhaustion-from your unkindness, Rosalie!" "I am not unkind, nor do you look very much prostrated, let me say, Robert! But will you not come in ?" "No," mournfully replied the young man, assisting her to alight. "You had better-we have strawberries for the first time this spring." air. "Nonsense!" exclaimed Robert, with an offended "Strawberries from uncle's premium conservatory, and cream from my own premium dairy; you had better think it over!" "Nonsense!" exclaimed Robert, contemptuously. "Oh, then, there's no more to be said, of course!" "Good morning, Rosalie!" "Good morning, Robert; but won't you shake hands. with me?" she asked, offering her hand. He seized that little hand, and squeezed it and pressed it to his lips, and with an expression of curiously-blended deprecation and reproach, dropped it, mounted his horse, and galloped away. Mrs. Vivian was standing dawdling with a white rose in the piazza. She came forward, with tender care, to meet Rosalie. "Did you ride far-are you tired, love?" "Not very." "But you look pale and wearied." "A moment's rest will restore me, dear mamma." "Come in and sit down, while I take off your things," said the kind little lady, leading her stepchild into the parlour. She sat her down in a deepcushioned chair, rang the bell, ordered a cordial, and then removed her hat and riding skirt. When she had made Rosalie take a cracker and a little glass of anise-seed cordial, and when the salver was removed, and they were left alone, Rosalie reclining upon the sofa, Valeria sitting in the easy chair near her, the lady inquired "Why did not Robert come in ?" "I do not know, unless it was because he did not wish to do so." "Have you quarrelled?" "Quarrelled! Dear mamma, I never had a quarrel with any one in all my life, and never expect to have one with anybody-least of all with Bob." "That is no reason you should not have a lover's quarrel-they befall the most amiable pair. Is it so ?" "What, mamma ?" "Have you and Robert had a 'lover's quarrel?' "' "No, indeed-I assure you." "Yet Robert went away offended-'in dudgeon,' as uncle would say." Rosalie looked distressed. The lady eyed her searchingly. "Rosalie, will you let me speak to you frankly, and ask you a few questions ?" แ Certainly, dear mamma; I would turn my heart inside out, and show you its most hidden secret, if it had any secrets." "Well, then, are you and Robert engaged?" "No, mamma." "He has not yet proposed, then ?" "I scarcely know, mamma, whether I ought to re veal poor Robert's confidences." "Well?" "Well, mamma!" "You did not reject him?" "Yes, madam." "I'm astonished! How long ago has this been?” "Dear mamma, twelve months ago Robert first did me the honour of offering his hand, and I gratefully declined it." "Yet continued to keep his company! Oh, Rosalie! Well, has he ever renewed his proposals?" "Yes, mamma, several times." "And you have continued to reject them?" "Of course, mamma." "And yet you still accept his attentions! Oh, Rosalie !" Was I-am I wrong, mamma?" asked Rosalie, looking up from where she reclined upon the sofa. The lady sat with her hands clasped upon her knees, in a simple attitude, with her eyes fixed in sorrowful doubt upon her child. "Do you ever mean to review your decision, and accept him, Rosalie ?" "Never, mamma, I assure you!" "Are you very certain, Rosalie ?" "Certain, dear mamma, beyond all possibility of doubt." "If I could believe it" "Dear mamma, you may rest assured of it! Why, if I thought it was to be my fate to marry Robert Bloomfield, well as I like him, I think I should die of grief!" "And yet you keep his company! Oh! Rosalie, I am surprised." "Is it not right, mamma?" "What a simple question! Oh, child! if it were not you, I should say it is unprincipled !" "Mamma, you distress and alarm me! Why must I not keep poor Robert's company, when he takes so much comfort in my society?" "Comfort! Does he take comfort-do you call it comfort? No, Rosalie, it is a feverish, consuming hope that keeps him at your side; a wasting, baleful hope, which, since you do not intend to realize to him, it is your bounden duty to extinguish forever!" "Mamma! I do not quite understand you. I am sorry, very sorry, that I cannot return Robert's regard". "Oh!" exclaimed the lady, interrupting her, "I am not sorry for that: as to that, I am very glad you are not engaged to him, nor ever likely to be; but". "But why add to the grief of rejection the bitterness of ingratitude and coldness?" "To refuse his attentions, to deny him your company, would not be either the one or the other, and it is your duty." "When poor Robert has no consolation in the world but my company". "To say he has no other intoxication, would be nearer the truth. Rosalie, you are so young, so delicate, so spirituelle, so inexperienced. Rosalie, there is a kindness that is cruel, and that is what you have been showing 'poor Robert' all this time. And there is a cruelty that is kind, and that is what you must show him now." "Mamma, if you think it wrong, I will never ride with him again." "And avoid him as much as possible, Rosalie." |