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Updated: June 23, 2025
Yet he could not, would not, believe anything except that perhaps during his long absence she had grown to think less kindly of him. She had promised to be his wife, and let come what might, he would make her keep her word. So he said, and Hugh Fernely meant it. His whole life was centered in her and he would not tamely give her up.
"If we had some one here who could talk in that way," she said to herself, "the Elms would not be quite so insupportable." Two days afterward, Beatrice, wandering on the sands, met Hugh Fernely. She saw the startled look of delight on his face, and smiled at his pleasure. "Pray forgive me," he said. "I I can not pass you without one word.
He resolved to try. He dared not look that future in the face which should take her from him. The time drew near; the day was settled on which the "Seagull" was to set sail, and yet Hugh Fernely had won no promise from Beatrice Earle. One morning Hugh met her at the stile leading from the field into the meadow lane the prettiest spot in Knutsford.
Do not delay my heart hungers and thirsts for one glance of your peerless face. Appoint an hour soon. How shall I live until it comes? Until then think of me as "Your devoted lover, Hugh Fernely. "Address Post Office, Brookfield." She read every word carefully and then slowly turned the letter over and read it again. Her white lips quivered with indignant passion. How dared he presume so far?
Once, and once only, a woman's white hand, thrown up, as it were, in agonizing supplication, cleft the dark water, and then all was over; the wind blew the ripples more strongly; they washed upon the grass, and the stir of the deep waters subsided! Hugh Fernely did not plunge into the lake after Beatrice it was too late to save her; still, he might have tried.
"My sister is very unhappy," she said, bravely; "so unhappy that I do not think she can bear much more; it will kill her or drive her mad." "It is killing me," he interrupted. "You do not look cruel, Mr. Fernely," continued Lillian. "Your face is good and true I would trust you. Release my sister. She was but a foolish, impetuous child when she made you that promise.
She was soon seated at her little desk, where she speedily wrote the following cold letter, that almost drove Hugh Fernely mad: "My dear Hugh, Have you really returned? I thought you were lost in the Chinese Seas, or had forgotten the little episode at Knutsford. I can not see you just yet. As you have heard, Lord Earle has peculiar notions I must humor them.
Ah, and before Hugh Fernely had been many days and nights upon the wide ocean, she ended by growing rather ashamed of the matter, and trying to think of it as little as she could! Once she half tried to tell Lillian; but the look of horror on the sweet, pure face startled her, and she turned the subject by some merry jest. Then there came a letter from Mrs. Vyvian announcing her return.
She had been nervous and half frightened when it came, starting and turning deathly pale at the sound of the bell or of rapid footsteps. She laughed at herself when the day ended. How was it likely he would find her? What was there in common between the beautiful daughter of Lord Earle and Hugh Fernely, the captain of a trading vessel?
Even at the very worst, if Hubert and she were once married, she would not fear; if she confessed all to him, he would forgive her. He might be very angry, but he would pardon his wife. If he knew all about it before marriage, there was no hope for her. She must temporize with Fernely write in a style that would convey nothing, and tell him that he must wait. He could not refuse.
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