Shirley

this little task. The last flower attended to was a rose-tree, which bloomed in a quiet green nook at the back of the house. This plant had received the refreshing shower: she was now resting a minute. Near the wall stood a fragment of sculptured stone – a monkish relic; once, perhaps, the base of a cross: she mounted it, that she might better command the view. She had still the watering-pot in one hand; with the other, her pretty dress was held lightly aside, to avoid trickling drops: she gazed over the wall, along some lonely fields; beyond three dusk trees, rising side by side against the sky; beyond a solitary thorn, at the head of a solitary lane far off: she surveyed the dusk moors, where bonfires were kindling: the summer evening was warm; the bell-music was joyous; the blue smoke of the fires looked soft; their red flame bright: above them, in the sky whence the sun had vanished, twinkled a silver point – the Star of Love.
    Caroline was not unhappy that evening; far otherwise: but as she gazed she sighed, and as she sighed a hand circled her, and rested quietly on her waist. Caroline thought she knew who had drawn near: she received the touch unstartled.
    »I am looking at Venus, mamma: see, she is beautiful. How white her lustre is, compared with the deep red of the bonfires!«
    The answer was a closer caress; and Caroline turned, and looked, not into Mrs. Pryor's matron face, but up at a dark manly visage. She dropped her watering-pot, and stepped down from the pedestal.
    »I have been sitting with ›mamma‹ an hour,« said the intruder. »I have had a long conversation with her. Where, meantime, have you been?«
    »To Fieldhead. Shirley is as naughty as ever, Robert: she will neither say Yes nor No to any question put. She sits alone: I cannot tell whether she is melancholy or nonchalant: if you rouse her, or scold her, she gives you a look half wistful, half reckless, which sends you away as queer and crazed as herself. What Louis will make of her, I cannot tell: for my part, if I were a gentleman, I think I would not dare undertake her.«
    »Never mind them: they were cut out for each other. Louis, strange to say, likes her all the better for these freaks: he will manage her, if any one can. She tries him, however: he has had a stormy courtship for such a calm character; but you see it all ends in victory for him. Caroline, I have sought you to ask an audience. Why are those bells ringing?«
    »For the repeal of your terrible law; the Orders you hate so much. You are pleased, are you not?«
    »Yesterday evening at this time, I was packing some books for a sea-voyage: they were the only possessions, except some clothes, seeds, roots, and tools, which I felt free to take with me to Canada. I was going to leave you.«
    »To leave me? To leave
me?
«
    Her little fingers fastened on his arm: she spoke and looked affrighted.
    »Not now – not now. Examine my face; yes, look at me well: is the despair of parting legible thereon?«
    She looked into an illuminated countenance, whose characters were all beaming, though the page itself was dusk: this face, potent in the majesty of its traits, shed down on her hope, fondness, delight.
    »Will the repeal do you good;
much
good –
immediate
good?« she inquired.
    »The repeal of the Orders in Council saves me. Now I shall not turn bankrupt; now I shall not give up business; now I shall not leave England; now I shall be no longer poor; now I can pay my debts; now all the cloth I have in my warehouses will be taken off my hands, and commissions given me for much more: this day lays for my fortunes a broad, firm foundation; on which, for the first time in my life, I can securely build.«
    Caroline devoured his words: she held his hand in hers; she drew a long breath.
    »You are saved? Your heavy difficulties are lifted?«
    »They are lifted: I breathe: I can act.«
    »At last! Oh! Providence is kind. Thank Him, Robert.«
    »I do thank Providence.«
    »And I also, for your sake!« She looked up devoutly.
    »Now, I can take more workmen; give better wages; lay wiser and more liberal plans; do some good; be less selfish:
now,
Caroline, I can have a house – a home which I can truly call mine – and
now
–«
    He paused; for his deep voice was checked.
    »And
now,
« he resumed – »now I can think of marriage;
now
I can seek a wife.«
    This was no moment for her to speak: she did not speak.
    »Will Caroline, who meekly hopes to be forgiven as she forgives –