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"I'm not very sure, but I rather think I'm in love with you a little, little bit, you know." "And I'm sure I'm in love with you, Ruperta." "Over head an' ears?" "Yes." "Then I love you to distraction. Bother the gate! If it wasn't for that, I could run in the meadow with you; and marry you perhaps, and so gather cowslips together for ever and ever." "Let us open it." "You can't." "Let us try."
Ruperta spoke first. She gave a final gulp, and said, "I will go and speak to her, and thank her." "Oh, Miss Ruperta, we shall be too late for tea," suggested the maid. "Tea!" said Ruperta. "Our souls are before our tea! I must speak to her, or else my heart will choke me and kill me. I will go and so will Compton." "Oh, yes!" said Compton. And they hurried after the preacher.
The grateful husband wrote to Bassett, and now acknowledged his obligation. A civil, mock-modest reply from Richard Bassett. From this things went on step by step, till at last Compton and Ruperta, at eighteen years of age, were formally betrothed. Thus the children's love wore out the father's hate.
I'll answer the letter for you." "No!" said Mrs. Bassett. Richard was amazed: Ruperta ditto. The little woman had never dealt in "Noes," least of all to her husband; and besides this was such a plump "No." It came out of her mouth like a marble. I think the sound surprised even herself a little, for she proceeded to justify it at once. "I have been a better wife than a Christian this many years.
His face brightened at the sight of her; for he was extremely fond and proud of this girl, for whom he would not have the bells rung when she was born. She came and hung round his neck a little, and kissed him, and said softly, "Dear papa, I have something to tell you. I have had a proposal." Richard Bassett stared. "What, of marriage?" Ruperta nodded archly. "To a child like you? Scandalous!
This honest burst, from a meek lady who never talked nonsense, to be sure, but seldom went into eloquence, staggered Richard Bassett, and enraptured Ruperta so, that she flung both arms round her mother's neck, and cried, "Oh, mamma! I always thought you were the best woman in England, and now I know it."
Staveleigh. First innings, a hundred and forty-eight runs. Huntercombe eighty-eight. Staveleigh. Second innings, sixty runs, and only one wicket down; and Johnson and Wright, two of their best men, well in, and masters of the bowling. This being communicated to Ruperta, she became excited, and her soul in the game.
His mind, therefore, made a clear leap from Rhoda Somerset, the vixen of Hyde Park and Mayfair, to this preacher, and he could not help smiling; than which a worse frame for receiving unpalatable truths can hardly be conceived. And so the elders were obdurate. But Compton and Ruperta had no armor of old age, egotism, or prejudice to turn the darts of honest eloquence.
Compton started the moment he hit, and, running with prodigious velocity, caught the ball descending, within a few yards of Ruperta; but, to get at it, he was obliged to throw himself forward into the air; he rolled upon the grass, but held the ball in sight all the while. Mr. Johnson was out, and loud acclamations rent the sky. Compton rose, and saw Ruperta clapping her hands close by.
Ruperta cried, "Oh, mamma!" and in a moment had one long arm round her mother's neck, while the other hand seized the letter, and she read it aloud, cheek to cheek; but, before she got to an end, her mother's tears infected her, and she must whimper too. "Here are a couple of geese," said Richard Bassett. "Can't you write a civil reply to a civil letter without sniveling?
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