“sister lizzie, i want to talk to you. it is not your regular bed time by an hour or more yet. can you be real steady, and thoughtful, and loving, for just a little while?”
“i can try, dear brother frank. if i fail, why, scold me,” said sweet lizzie legare, as she went arm-in-arm with her brother back into the house, after having seen hattie and mr. w—— off in the carriage.
“well, we will go to your boudoir, lizzie. i want to see you alone and to ask your advice.”
so they went to the little gem of a room, carpeted in velvet, with flowers in every corner, curtains of lace, chairs, ottomans, and a tete-a-tete all covered with damask silk, and there they sat down, and frank commenced with a sigh—a long and heavy sigh, and such a woe-begone look that lizzie demurely asked:
“are you sick, dear brother?”
“no, but i’m worse off, lizzie. i’m in love!”
“so am i.”
“i’m in love with hattie butler! there now!”
“so am i. there now!” and lizzie laughed till tears ran from her eyes, for she had imitated his desperate “there now” like an echo.
“it isn’t anything to laugh at. i never was more serious in my life,” he said, rather tartly, for he thought she was making fun of him.
“well, brother, you know i must either laugh or cry all the time. but, seriously, if i was you i could[123] not help loving that sweet, beautiful girl, and i believe that, like you, i would forget that she was a poor working girl. but, brother, what would the fellows in your club, the fast, nobby fellows you are always talking to me about, say if you married a shop-girl?”
frank answered with a shiver—not a word did he speak. but he kept up a terrible thinking, and lizzie sat still and watched him.
at last he sprang to his feet.
“the fellows in the club can go to halifax or anywhere else they want to. if she’ll have me, and father will consent, i’ll marry her inside of a week.”
“inside of a church would be better, brother dear. but those two provisos were well put in—the first especially. when a gentleman wants to marry one of our sex, the first and most necessary thing to find out is will she have him. and i don’t believe you have given her the first hint on the subject.”
“no,” said frank.
“nor even taken the trouble to find out whether she either admires or cares in the least for you?” continued lizzie.
“that’s a fact.”
and frank sighed while he made the admission.
“don’t you think a little courting, as they call it, in this case would be advisable before you talk of marrying a girl whom you have seen but twice in your life?”
“sis, you are a philosopher in petticoats.”
“oh, frank, aren’t you ashamed to say so.”
“no, sister, for it is the truth. you are learning me to be reasonable in this matter, and i thank you for it. it proves the truth of the old adage that two heads are better than one.”
[124]
“if one is a sheep’s head. why didn’t you quote the entire saying, frank?”
“because my little sister has a wise head, and though i often tease her in my carelessness, i always go to her for advice when i can’t see my own way clear. i shall go to bed, darling, with a cooler brain and a lighter heart, and if miss butler comes often to our house to see aunt louisa, i’ll do just the prettiest little bit of courting that you ever saw done.”
“good! it will be like a play to me.”
“good-night, dear lizzie.”
“good-night, my darling brother.”
and thus for the night they parted.
frank went into the library to ask the doctor, who was there with his father, how his aunt louisa was doing.
he learned that she was better, and sleeping under the influence of an opiate. the doctor asked of him, as he just had inquired of his father, whether anything had occurred to particularly excite or agitate mrs. emory when her attack came on.
but, as we know, neither father nor son had taken notice of what she was doing or saying at the time, the scream from lizzie’s lips, and the exclamation from miss butler, being the first warning that they had when the lady fainted.
“i will be here early in the morning,” said the doctor, as he arose to take his leave.
