Oh, Roger, forgive me the pain!' 'Tell her I have been, and am gone.Send out word to her.Don't let her be interrupted.' And Roger ran downstairs at full speed, and Molly heard the passionate clang of the outer door.He had hardly left the house before Cynthia entered the room, pale and resolute.'Where is he?' she said, looking around, as if he might yet be hidden.'Gone!' said Molly, very faint.'Gone.Oh, what a relief! It seems to be my fate never to be off with the old lover before I am on with the new, and yet I did write as decidedly as I could.Why, Molly, what's the matter?' for now Molly had fainted away utterly.Cynthia flew to the bell, summoned Maria, water, salts, wine, everything; and as soon as Molly, gasping and miserable, became conscious again, she wrote a little pencil-note to Mr Henderson, bidding him return to the "George," whence he had come in the morning, and saying that if he obeyed her at once, he might be allowed to call again in the evening, otherwise she would not see him till the next day.This she sent down by Maria, and the unlucky man never believed but that it was Miss Gibson's sudden indisposition in the first instance that had deprived him of his charmer's company.He comforted himself for the long solitary afternoon by writing to tell all his friends of his happiness, and amongst them uncle and aunt Kirkpatrick, who received his letter by the same post as that discreet epistle of Mrs Gibson's, which she had carefully arranged to reveal as much as she wished, and no more.'Was he very terrible?' asked Cynthia, as she sate with Molly in the stillness of Mrs Gibson's dressing-room.'Oh, Cynthia, it was such pain to see him, he suffered so!' 'I don't like people of deep feelings,' said Cynthia, pouting.'They don't suit me.Why could not he let me go without this fuss.I'm not worth his caring for!' 'You have the happy gift of making people love you.Remember Mr Preston, - he too would not give up hope.' 'Now I won't have you classing Roger Hamley and Mr Preston together in the same sentence.One was as much too bad for me, as the other is too good.Now I hope that maxi in the garden is the juste milieu , -I'm that myself, for I don't think I'm vicious, and I know I'm not virtuous.' 'Do you really like him enough to marry him?' asked Molly earnestly.'Do think, Cynthia.It won't do to go on throwing your lovers off; you give pain that I am sure you do not mean to do, - that you cannot understand.' 'Perhaps I can't.I'm not offended.I never set up for what I am not, and I know I'm not constant.I have told Mr Henderson so -- ' She stopped, blushing and smiling at the recollection.'You have! and what did he say?' 'That he liked me just as I was; so you see he's fairly warned.Only he is a little afraid, I suppose, - for he wants me to be married very soon, almost directly in fact.But I don't know if I shall give way, - you hardly saw him, Molly, - but he's coming again to-night, and mind, I'll never forgive you if you don't think him very charming.I believe I cared for him when he offered all those months ago, but I tried to think I didn't;only sometimes I really was so unhappy, I thought I must put an iron-band round my heart to keep it from breaking, like the Faithful John of the German story,' - do you remember, Molly? - how when his master came to his crown and his fortune, and his lady-love, after innumerable trials and disgraces, and was driving away from the church where he'd been married in a coach and six, with Faithful John behind, the happy couple heard three great cracks in succession, and on inquiring, they were the iron-bands round his heart, that Faithful John had worn all during the time of his master's tribulation, to keep it from breaking.' In the evening Mr Henderson came.Molly had been very curious to see him;and when she saw him she was not sure whether she liked him or not.He was handsome, without being conceited; gentlemanly, without being foolishly fine.He talked easily, and never said a silly thing.He was perfectly well-appointed, yet never seemed to have given a thought to his dress.
He was good-tempered and kind; not without some of the cheerful flippancy of repartee which belonged to his age and profession, and which his age and profession are apt to take for wit.But he wanted something in Molly's eyes, at any rate in this first interview, and in her heart of hearts she thought him rather commonplace.But of course she said nothing of this to Cynthia, who was evidently as happy as she could be.Mrs Gibson, too, was in the seventh heaven of ecstasy and spoke but little; but what she did say, expressed the highest sentiments in the finest language.Mr Gibson was not with them for long, but while he was there he was evidently studying the unconscious Mr Henderson with his dark penetrating eyes.Mr Henderson behaved exactly as he ought to have done to everybody; respectful to Mr Gibson, deferential to Mrs Gibson, friendly to Molly, devoted to Cynthia.
