farewell! god knows when we shall meet again.
i have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins,
that almost freezes up the heat of life.
romeo and juliet.
isabella arose at her usual hour the next morning, and after breakfast walked into the garden, from a sort of unacknowledged hope and wish that she might soon be joined by the young american, who had occupied her thoughts, both sleeping and waking, since she had parted with him on the beach the evening previous. at the sound of every horse's feet she started, and her heart beat quicker. but he came not that day, and as evening approached, her disappointment became almost insupportable; she tried to frame excuses for him; he had never been to the house; perhaps he had, by a very natural mistake, gone to her uncle's house in town, instead of that where she now was, and which was rather more than a mile from st. blas, and whither the family came regularly to lodge, though they spent most of the time at their town residence; perhaps he was detained on board by his duties; or he might be sick.
"and why," said the weeping girl to herself, "why should i wish to see him again? alas! i have already seen him too often, for my future peace of mind. he is going home to his parents, his relatives, his friends, his home, and perhaps to his wife;" and this last thought crossed her mind with a feeling of peculiar anguish; "but no, when he spoke of his friends and parents, he said nothing of his wife; but he is going, and in a few short months he will forget that he has ever seen me, or that such an unhappy being has ever existed."
with these painful and self-tormenting reflections she passed the evening, and much of the night; but youthful hope, that cheers the heart with flattering and deceitful promises, never sufficiently well defined to resemble certainty, but always brilliant; hope, whose elasticity raises the sinking heart, soothed and composed her spirits, and she sank into sound and refreshing slumbers, to wake to a brighter and more flattering day; but at the same time, to sink deeper and more irrevocably into that bewitching, bewildering passion, whose existence she could not now avoid acknowledging.
as she was sitting in the garden the next day, she was suddenly startled by the approach of her two cousins in full chat, and close behind them, morton. isabella seemed rooted to her seat, the light swam before her eyes, her tongue was paralyzed, and her limbs were unable to raise or support her. the young seaman approached, and in broken, incoherent, and unintelligible accents, attempted to express the delight he felt at once more seeing her. perhaps, if the two cousins had been out of the way; he would have acquitted himself better, perhaps not so well. "iron sharpeneth iron," saith solomon; "so doth a man the countenance of his friend." it may be so in some cases, but i doubt whether any man can make love so glibly, so off hand, before half a dozen spectators, especially females, as he can "all alone by himself;" on the other hand, there is something absolutely awful in being alone with a pretty and modest woman, and being compelled to "look one another in the face," like the two bullying kings of judah and jerusalem. it is much like "watching with a corpse," a ceremony derived, i believe, from the orientals, and still prevalent in good old new england.
the parties were soon relieved from their embarrassment; the two cousins, after asking a thousand questions, and only waiting to hear two hundred and fifty of the answers, bounced off into the house, leaving the two lovers, for such they were now most decidedly, to the luxury of their own thoughts and conversation. we have no time, inclination, nor ability, to describe the steps by which they advanced from mere acquaintance to the can't-live-without-each-other and hopeless state of deep and incurable love.
perhaps morton was not grieved or angry when it was declared, after a thorough survey by captain hazard, coffin, and himself, to be absolutely necessary to procure a new foremast and bowsprit for the ship before she sailed--the first being rotten, and the other badly sprung. as captain hazard placed the most implicit confidence in morton's capacity to purchase and superintend the making of the requisite spars, the latter, to his great joy, was requested to take charge of the shore department. by this arrangement his opportunities of seeing his beloved isabella occurred several times each day.
though there had been no formal declaration of love between them, they were each conscious that they loved and were beloved in return; the most unreserved confidence existed between them, and morton, who felt most keenly for isabella's unpleasant situation, had repeatedly hinted at the happiness she was sure to enjoy in a more favored country, if she would leave her uncle's house, and take passage in the orion for new england. she affected, at first, not to understand him; but when it became impossible to avoid perceiving his meaning, she only answered, "no, no--i cannot--i dare not;" but the answer was always accompanied with a sigh and a tear; and as from day to day he informed her of the progress the ship made in her repairs, her negative became fainter and less resolutely expressed.
owing to the necessity of making some repairs in his country residence, the governor and his family had latterly resided altogether in st. blas; and as the puppy don gregorio watched with a suspicious and malignant eye, the frequent visits of morton, the lovers had generally met at the house of dame juanita, the front of which was occupied as a shop, with a little parlor back of it, to which isabella had access by passing out of the gate in the rear of her uncle's house, without going through the street.
with all the glowing eloquence of young love, and hope, and confidence, morton detailed to her the thousand and one schemes that his fertile imagination suggested; isabella could see but one hideous feature in them all--the dreadful fate that awaited him if unsuccessful.
"listen to me," said he one day to her, as she had been urging to him the terrible risk he encountered--for she seemed to have no eyes for the certain immuring in a convent that awaited her--"listen to me, dearest isabella; the ship is now nearly ready; she will sail in three or four days at farthest, and will sail at ten or eleven o'clock at night, to take advantage of the land-breeze. i will have my boat at the quay, and horses here in town; in the dusk of evening, and with a little disguise, you will not be recognised; there is no guarda-costa here now, and before the sun rises we shall be out of sight of land, and beyond the reach of pursuit."
she made no reply, but sat pale as marble; the images of her kind and affectionate aunt and cousins, and even of her much-feared but still much-loved uncle, floated before her eyes, and seemed reproaching her with unkindness and ingratitude; while, on the other hand, her fancy painted her the wife of the man she loved, and without whom she felt life would be wretched: she saw herself surrounded by enlightened and polished society, such as her sainted mother had graced before her; she saw herself moving in a new sphere, and fulfilling new duties: then imagination placed before her bewildered mind the sinfulness of deserting the station in which heaven had placed her. she sighed deeply as she almost determined to refuse, when a glimpse of her abhorred lover, don gregorio, caused a sudden and violent revulsion of feeling, and to morton's repeated entreaties, "speak to me, dear isabella; say yes, love," she at length murmured a scarcely audible or articulate consent. the delighted seaman caught her in his arms, and pressed kiss after kiss upon the lips of the struggling, blushing girl.
"remember, love," said he, as they parted, "be punctual here three nights hence. i will have horses ready at the end of the street, and before day dawns you shall be safe."
there was still one thing to be done, and that was to obtain the consent of captain hazard, who, though an excellent, kind-hearted man in the main, had some rather old-fashioned notions of propriety, especially in outward form, and would, as morton knew full well, have very serious objections to advance against such a mad scrape; but he trusted to the fondness of the good old seaman towards him, and his own upright and honorable intentions, to overthrow all the veteran's scruples.
