Hope Leslie: or Early Times in Massachusetts by Catharine Maria Sedgwick & John Matteson

Author:Catharine Maria Sedgwick & John Matteson [Matteson, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780486148298
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 2012-10-05T00:00:00+00:00

Were these “spelles” to be dissolved by the light of truth? ‘Why should one,’ thought Everell, ‘who seemed so pure that she might dwell in light—so artless, confiding, and fearless—why should she permit herself to be obscured by mystery? If her meeting with Sir Philip Gardiner was accidental, why not say so?——But what right have I to scan her conduct?——What right to expect an explanation?——It is evident she feels nothing more for me than the familiar affection of her childhood. How she talked to me this evening of Esther Downing!—‘if she had a brother, she would select her friend from all the world for his wife’—‘Esther was not precise, she was only discreet’—‘she was not formal, but timid.’ Perhaps she sees I love her, and thus delicately tries to give a different bent to my affections; but that is impossible—every hope—every purpose has been concentrated in her. My affections may be blighted, but they cannot be transferred——Perhaps it is true, as some satirists say, that a woman’s heart is wayward, fantastic, and capricious. This vagrant knight has scarcely turned his eyes from Hope since he first saw her, and I know he has addressed the most presumptuous flattery to her. Perhaps she favours his pretensions. I shrink even from his gazing on her, as if there were something sullying in the glance of his eye; and yet she violates the customs of the country—she braves severe displeasure—to walk alone with him—with him she is insensible to a gathering storm. He is incapable of loving her—he is intoxicated with her beauty—he seeks her fortune——Her fortune! I had forgotten that my father made that a bar between us. Fortune!—I never thought of any thing so mean as wealth in connexion with her. I would as soon barter my soul, as seek any woman for fortune—and Hope Leslie!—oh, I should as soon think of the dowry of a celestial spirit, as of your being enriched by the trappings of fortune.”

These disjointed thoughts, and many others that would naturally spring up in the mind of a young lover, indicated the ardor, the enthusiasm, the disinterestedness of Everell’s passion, and the restless and fearful state into which he had been plunged by the events of the evening.

While he was pursuing this train of fancies, in which some sweetness mingled with the bitter, Esther had followed Hope to her apartment, and having shut the door, turned on her friend a look of speaking inquiry and expectation, to which Hope did not respond, but continued in a hurried manner to disrobe herself, throwing her drenched shawl on one side, and her wet dress on the other.

Esther took a silver whistle from the toilet, and was opening the door to summon Jennet with its shrill call, when Hope, observing her intention, cried out, “If you love me, Esther, don’t call Jennet to-night; I wish at least to be spared her croaking.”

“As you please,” replied Esther, quietly reclosing the door; “I thought Jennet had best come, and take care

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