Joseph Wilmot, or, The Memoirs of a Man-Servant — page 371: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

—_—— ~_—— — <a 358 JOSEPH WILMOT; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A MAN-SERVANT, for I saw that they pointed to my love for An-| to her mother that she reciprocates your love. nabel, and to nothing else: so that my amour with | Not for a moment do I intend to re-enact the Calanthe remained unknown and unsuspected,— | fatal part of a stern dictator where the soul’s best “Ob, sir!” I exclaimed, “ do not—do not with- | and purest affections are engaged. At the same draw your confidence from me, because FE dared | time, Joseph,” added Sir Matthew Heseltine hastily, not make a revelation which I was so fearful} as he beheld the animation of rapturous joy ex- would offend you !” panding upon my countenance, “do not think that As I thus spoke I fell upon my kEnees at Sir | I am going to be so foolish as to assent to your Matthew Heseltine’s feet; and taking his hand, | immediate union No, nor yet to your speedy pressed it fervently in my own. I felé his other | alliance with Annabel. Let me see—how old are hand touch my head: he patted it caressingly, and | you?” said in a low tremulous voice, “ Do not think I “Twenty and a half, sir,” was my response: am unmindful of all you have done for me.| and my heart was fluttering with powerful emos Through you I was brought to bestow forgiveness | tions—hope mingling with apprehension—but the upon a niece: through you I have had a daughter | former nevertheless predominating over the latter. restored to me: through you likewise I have been| “And that is just about Annabel’s own age,” made acquainted with a grandchild of whom any} resumed Sir Matthew Heseltine: and then he old man maybe proud. Do not therefore fear. too | shrieked forth im his old manner, “ Why, you are a much harshness at my hands, Joseph. There, | mere boy and girl, and must not dream of marriage there !—rise, my poor boy, and go and sit down.” | for the next two or three years !” I did as I was ordered; and as I raised my} These words confirmed all my hope, and banished eyes towards Sir Matthew’s countenance, I was| all my apprehension. They appeared to me to be struck by the change which had taken place im it. | tantamount to a promise that Annabel should It looked as it appeared at the moment when he | become my own,—with the stipulation however received his lonc-ignored daughter in his arms: it | that a certain interval of time must take place ere was as full of kindness and sympathy as that | the period of my erowning happiness. strange countenance could possibly express. The} “ Well, I do think that you are very much at. gun may shine upon the face of a rock, bathing it | tached to her,” proceeded Sir Matthew, in a calm in the softness of its mellowed lustre, and shedding | tone once more; “and I see also that you have a halo over the fissures, the crevices, and the; pretty well understood my meaning. Now listen, asperities which may be thereon :—so seemed the | Joseph—for the subject is serious, grave, and im- light of kindness upon the wrinkled and deep-lined | portant enough. You may aspire to the hand of countenance of Sir Matthew Heseltine. my granddaughter: but there are certain condi. “Your’s is a strange and eventful history, | tions which it is my purpose to impose. In the Joseph,” resumed Sir Matthew; “and while in| first place you are inexperienced in the ways of all respects you are to be pitied, in many you are | the world—you are too apt to follow the impulses to be praised. Everything that you did in respect | of your own heart without any other considera- to Sir Alexander Carrondale and the Chief of Inch | tions; and though hitherto they have led to the Methelin’s niece, shows real goodness of heart, | working out of much good, they might neverthe- and is akin to your proceedings in respect to my | less have just the contrary effect. Therefore you niece and her husband during their troubles and | must travel: you must mix in society—you musé misfortunes. Rest assured that my daughter Mrs. | study men and things—you must see the world. Lanover has not spoken to me in your disfayour: | For this purpose you shall be supplied with ample nor is your attachment for Annabel unknown to| means. And then, too, there must be a long sepa- me. Ah! by the bye, it is my resulve that hence- | ration between Annabel and yourself; so that you forth Annabel shall be known by her proper sur-| may both have leisure and opportunity to look name: the one she has hitherto borne, has become | down into your own hearts; and as your intellects for a thousand reasons hateful to me. ‘Would to| go on maturing, you will arrive at a satisfactory God that my daughter did not bear it!” eonclusion as to whether this is a mere transient The old man stopped short, and for some mo- | love—a boy-and-girl sentiment, inspired by mere ments appeared much moved. personal beauty, and therefore transient and un- *“Your parentage,” he presently continued, “ is | stable——” involved in the deepest mystery. I am not alto- “Oh, no, Sir Matthew!” I exclaimed, with ims | gether deficient in shrewdness: but for the life of | passioned enthusiasm: “it is on my part a love so me, I cannot comprehend why this villain Lanover | sincere—so profound a | should have so persecuted you. If I thought that} “Do not interrupt me, Joseph,” said the I could bribe him into a revelation of all his | Baronet, firmly though kindly; “I understand the motives, I would cheerfully make the attempt: | world better than you. Remember that it is the but inasmuch as he has evidently the strongest | welfare of my granddaughter which I am consider. reasons for concealing them, it were hopeless to | ino—that granddaughter whom I already love as expect the truth from his hips. He would take | if I had known her from her birth! And do not my bribe, and invent some precious tale of his | think, you young hot-head, that I am unmindful own—so that we should be no wiser than we are | of your own welfare. In short, if on the one hand now. Heavenalone can ordain and bring about | I am firmly resolved to play the tyrant no longer the elucidation of those mysteries which hang | in respect to the feelings of the heart,—yet on the around your birth,—thereby proving whether | other hand I will have no hasty marriages wherever Lanover has or has not a just claim to the title of | I have the power to interfere.” your uncle. But I now pass to another and| “You have given your consent, sir, to my scarcely less serious subject. You are‘attached to| eventual union with Annabel,’? I murmuringly | Annabel; and Annabel has frankly acknowledged responded; “and it is a happiness which hovers | eComicoookSs.c@©