Kept in the Dark | Page 4

are taken and must be taken in the
position they frame for themselves. Mrs. Green was Cecilia Holt's
humble friend, and as such was expected to be humble. When,
therefore, she volunteered a little advice to Cecilia about her lover, it
was not taken altogether in good part. "My dear Cecilia," she said, "I do
really think that you ought to say something to Sir Francis."
"Say something!" answered Cecilia sharply. "What am I to say? I say
everything to him that comes in my way."
"I think, my dear, he is just a little inattentive. I have gone through it all,
and of course know what it means. It is not that he is deficient in love,
but that he allows a hundred little things to stand in his way."
"What nonsense you do talk!"
"But, my dear, you see I have gone through it all myself, and I do know
what I am talking about."
"Mr. Green--! Do you mean to liken Mr. Green to Sir Francis?"
"They are both gentlemen," said Mrs. Green with a slight tone of anger.
"And though Sir Francis is a baronet, Mr. Green is a clergyman."
"My dear Bessie, you know that is not what I meant. In that respect
they are both alike. But you, when you were engaged, were about three
years younger than the man, and I am nearly twenty years younger than
Sir Francis. You don't suppose that I can put myself altogether on the
same platform with him as you did with your lover. It is absurd to
suppose it. Do you let him go his way, and me go mine. You may be
sure that not a word of reproach will ever fall from my lips."--"Till we
are married," Cecilia had intended to say, but she did not complete the
sentence.

But the words of her comforters had their effect, as no doubt was the
case with Job. She had complained to no one, but everybody had seen
her condition. Her poor dear old mother, who would have put up with a
very moderate amount of good usage on the part of such a lover as Sir
Francis, had been aware that things were not as they should be. Her
three friends, to whom she had not opened her mouth in the way of
expressing her grievance, had all seen her trouble. That Maude
Hippesley and Miss Altifiorla had noticed it did not strike her with
much surprise, but that Mrs. Green should have expressed herself so
boldly was startling. She could not but turn the matter over in her own
mind and ask herself whether she were ill-treated. And it was not only
those differences which the ladies noticed which struck her as ominous,
but a certain way which Sir Francis had when talking to herself which
troubled her. That light tone of contempt if begun now would certainly
not be dropped after their marriage. He had assumed an easy way of
almost laughing at her, of quizzing her pursuits, and, worse still, of
only half listening to her, which she felt to promise very badly for her
future happiness. If he wanted his liberty he should have it,--now and
then. She would never be a drag on her husband's happiness. She had
resolved from the very first not to be an exigeant wife. She would care
for all his cares, but she would never be a troublesome wife. All that
had been matter of deep thought to her. And if he were not given to
literary tastes in earnest,--for in the first days of their love-making there
had been, as was natural, a little pretence,--she would not harass him by
her pursuits. And she would sympathise with his racing and his
shooting. And she would interest herself, if possible, about
Newmarket,--as to which place she found he had a taste. And, joined to
all the rest, there came a conviction that his real tastes did take that
direction. She had never before heard that he had a passion for the turf;
but if it should turn out that he was a gambler! Had any of her friends
mentioned such an idea to her a week ago, how she would have
rebuked that friend! But now she added this to her other grievances,
and began to tell herself that she had become engaged to a man whom
she did not know and whom she already doubted.
Then there came a week of very troubled existence,--of existence the
more troubled because she had no one to whom to tell her trouble. As

to putting confidence in her mother,--that idea never occurred to her.
Her mother among her friends was the humblest of all. To tell her
mother that she was going to be married was a matter of