Aram now seemed relapsing into one of his more abstracted moods; he ceased to speak aloud, but his lips moved, and his eyes grew fixed in reverie on the ground. Walter gazed at him for some moments with mixed and contending sensations. Once more, resentment and the bitter wrath of jealousy had faded back into the remoter depths of his mind, and a certain interest for his singular rival, despite of himself, crept into his breast. But this mysterious and fitful nature, was it one in which the devoted Madeline would certainly find happiness and repose?would she never regret her choice? This question obtruded itself upon him, and while he sought to answer it, Aram, regaining his composure, turned abruptly and offered him his hand. Walter did not accept it, he bowed with a cold respect. I cannot give my hand without my heart, said he; we were foes just now; we are not friends yet. I am unreasonable in this, I know, but
Be it so, interrupted Aram; I understand you. I press my good will on you no more. When this pang is forgotten, when this wound is healed, and when you will have learned more of him who is now your rival, we may meet again with other feelings on your side.
Thus they parted, and the solitary lamp which for weeks past had been quenched at the wholesome hour in the Students home, streamed from the casement throughout the whole of that night; was it a witness of the calm and learned vigil, or of the unresting heart?
CHAPTER XI.
THE FAMILY SUPPER.THE TWO SISTERS IN THEIR CHAMBER.
A MISUNDERSTANDING FOLLOWED BY A CONFESSION.WALTERS
APPROACHING DEPARTURE AND THE CORPORALS BEHAVIOUR THEREON.
THE CORPORALS FAVOURITE INTRODUCED TO THE READER.THE
CORPORAL PROVES HIMSELF A SUBTLE DIPLOMATIST
So we grew together
Like to a double cherry, seeming parted,
But yet an union in partition.
The Corporal had not taken his measures so badly in this stroke of artilleryship.
Tristram Shandy.It was late that evening when Walter returned home, the little family were assembled at the last and lightest meal of the day; Ellinor silently made room for her cousin beside herself, and that little kindness touched Walter. Why did I not love her? thought he, and he spoke to her in a tone so affectionate, that it made her heart thrill with delight. Lester was, on the whole, the most pensive of the group, but the old and young man exchanged looks of restored confidence, which, on the part of the former, were softened by a pitying tenderness.
When the cloth was removed, and the servants gone, Lester took it on himself to break to the sisters the intended departure of their cousin. Madeline received the news with painful blushes, and a certain self-reproach; for even where a woman has no cause to blame herself, she, in these cases, feels a sort of remorse at the unhappiness she occasions. But Ellinor rose suddenly and left the room.