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"Have you heard anything of the Mayfords lately?" said Jim. "You know Ellen is married?" said Sam. "No! Is she?" I said. "And pray to whom?" "The Squire of Monkspool," he answered. "A very fine young fellow, and clever withal." "Did old Mrs. Mayford," asked Jim, "ever recover her reason before she died?" "Never, poor soul," said Sam.
Plenty frightened this fellow." No answer. No sign of Mrs. Mayford or Ellen. They must have escaped then. We will try to hope so. The black boy peered into one chamber after another, but saw no signs of them, only the stillness of death over all. Let us leave this accursed house, lest, prying too closely, we may find crouching in some dark corner a Gorgon, who will freeze us into stone.
"Why, my beauty," he said, "who has been making you cry?" She put her head on his shoulder and began sobbing louder than ever. "Cecil Mayford," she said in a whisper. "Well, and what the d l has he been at?" said Jim, in a rather startling tone. "Wants to marry me," she answered, in a whisper, and hid her face in his coat. "The deuce doubt he does," said Jim; "who does not? What did you tell him?"
Mayford, when they were alone together, "that she had never seen such beauty and such charming domestic grace combined, and that he would be a lucky young fellow who got her for a wife." "Well, yes, I should be inclined to say so too," answered Mrs. Mayford. "Rather much of the boarding-school as yet, but that will wear off, I dare say.
The latter, however, like Dr. Mulhaus' geological lecture, has the merit of being one of the best pieces of prose the author ever wrote, and gives Sam Buckley and Cecil Mayford an opportunity for a dramatic settlement of the order of their suit for the hand of Alice Brentwood. In the main narrative the periods of 'dull prosperity' are expressly avoided.
But Cecil Mayford, having made excuse to stay at home, had been making himself in many ways agreeable to Alice, and at last had attended her on a ride, and on his return had been rewarded with a rose, as we saw. The first thing Sam caught sight of when he came home was Alice and Cecil walking up and down the garden very comfortably together, talking and laughing. He did not like to see this.
One holiday the Doctor and the Major were sitting in the verandah after breakfast, when Sam entered to them, and, clambering on to his father as his wont was, said, "See here, father! Harry is getting in some young beasts at the stockyard hut, and Cecil Mayford is coming over to see if any of theirs are among them; may I go out and meet him?" "To be sure, my boy; why not?"
There was Mary Hawker, looking rather older, and a little worn; and there was her son Charles sitting beside pretty Ellen Mayford, and carrying on a terrible flirtation with that young lady, in spite of her fat jolly-looking mother, who sat with folded hands beside her.
I don't think the young lady will go very long without an offer. Pray, have you remarked anything, my dear madam?" Yes, Mrs. Buckley had remarked something on her arrival the day before yesterday. And on seeing Alice she had said to herself, "That will do." But all this was not what Mrs. Mayford meant, in fact, these two good ladies were at cross-purposes. "Well, I thought I did," replied Mrs.
Buckley, referring to Sam. "But one must not be premature. They are both very young, and may not know their own minds." "They seem as if they did," said Mrs. Mayford. "Look there!" Outside the window they saw something which gave Mrs. Buckley a sort of pang, and made Mrs. Mayford laugh.
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