"She told me--shall I repeat it?"
"Yes, do; that I may laugh you out of it?"
"She told me I should break the heart of the person I loved best; and that I should die young."
"She was an idiot!" said Mr. Haveloc.
"Ah! my mother. Shall I not break her heart," said Aveline, with a sudden burst of tears.
"Never; you are in ill-health, and attach a meaning to words you would laugh at, if you were stronger. I do believe the worst suffering in illness is the dejection it causes. You should not allow yourself to be so weighed down."
"But if I die--"
"But do not think so. The woman saw you looked delicate, and thought she could turn her warning to a good account. I wish I--" Aveline seized his hand. A gipsy woman was advancing towards them from the other end of the terrace. He was at a loss what to do; he feared to leave Aveline for a single moment, lest she should faint; and still more he feared to let the woman come within speaking distance.
"Have no fears for me. She can say nothing that I do not know," said Aveline.
"Will you have your fortune told, my pretty lady and gentleman," said the woman advancing with the insinuating gestures of her tribe.
"No, there's money for you," said Mr. Haveloc, throwing the woman his purse heavy with gold, "there is more than you could earn. Go now, quickly, the lady is ill."
"Would she like," said the gipsy.
"No, I tell you. Go at once. You have no business here!"
The gipsy made a sign in the air with her hand which filled him with horror; it seemed to him as if she traced the outline of a coffin:--then laughed, turned, and vanished.
"It is the same," said Aveline, trembling.
"It is the gipsy of the Campagna," he said at the same moment.
"What do you think of it?" said Aveline as he helped her to dismount, and supported her to the sofa. "Is it not as if she came to watch the fulfilment of her prediction?"
"On the contrary. She came knowing it was easier to frighten than to beg money out of people," said he taking a chair beside her. "But your man ought to keep better watch."
"It is not his fault. Remember the terrace is open at one end; but the cliff is so rugged that we always consider it safe. Here comes mamma--let us tell her of it."
Aveline seemed more cheerful again. The supper-table was drawn to the sofa. She related the appearance of the gipsy in a laughing manner, and tried to make it appear that Mr. Haveloc had been very much frightened.
"Confess," said Aveline, "that she put you into bodily fear."
"I own it," he replied. "You will never say again of me that I do not know what fear is."
Mrs. Fitzpatrick gave him a grateful smile. She could easily understand on whose account he had been alarmed.
"I am afraid you were by no means _quitte pour le peur_," said Aveline helping herself to salad. "Only think, mamma, of his throwing the wretch his purse. So extravagant."
"Very wrong, indeed," said Mrs. Fitzpatrick.
"But when one gets frightened," said he, laughing, "what is to be done?
When my servant asks me what has become of my purse, I must say I was stopped by a foot-pad."
"Will your servant call you to account?" asked Aveline, opening wide her large eyes at the idea of any one taking Mr. Haveloc to task.
"I should not wonder. He is a very old servant, and says and does pretty much what he pleases."
"How I should like to hear you go on together," said Aveline with a smile.
"Oh! it seldom amounts to a duet. He generally unburdens his mind at night; and when I am tired of saying yes, and no, I fall asleep, and so escape the end of the lecture."
"I should like to know, if it was not indiscreet, what the lectures were about?"
"Generally financial. If he thinks I have paid more for a horse than it is worth, it is a long time before he gets over it. He was very much shocked when I bought that plague of a yacht; and at Rome he was a perpetual torment. I could hardly look at a picture, or a cameo, without his hinting that I should end my career in the Queen's Bench."
"But that shows a great deal of attachment," said Aveline; "one sees too little of that feeling in these days. But we are very fortunate. Mrs.
Grant was a treasure."
"Shall I come to-morrow, Mrs. Fitzpatrick?" said Mr. Haveloc rising.
"Miss Fitzpatrick meets with nothing but misfortunes when I have the charge of her."
"Oh, come!" said Aveline, "by all means; and leave the pony here. Mark said he could accommodate him, and it will be something for me to pet. I shall feed myself to-morrow."
"There Aveline, you must not sit up any longer," said Mrs. Fitzpatrick.
"I am all obedience," said Aveline rising. "Good night, Mr. Haveloc, I hope you will not meet our gipsy on your way home."
CHAPTER IX.
Our joys are kin to griefs--in time shall cease The term of soundest health: disease Dwells in our house, and opes to death a door.
Oft amid favouring gales and summer skies Destruction's breakers madly rise And wreck our hopes upon the rocky shore.
AGAMEMNON.
If Mr. Haveloc had not been entirely engrossed by his affection for Margaret, it would have been almost impossible to have been thrown so much in the society of Aveline, and under circumstances of such touching interest, without becoming warmly attached to her.
Her understanding was more matured, her fancy brighter, her acquirements larger than those of Margaret. She had not been to a boarding-school; and she had gained from her mother's thoughtful mind, more education than from all her masters. She was less beautiful than Margaret--less graceful, but more elegant; there was more of style about her appearance, and less of simplicity. Therefore she looked older than she was, and Margaret younger. And in the details of domestic life, she was perhaps more formed than Margaret, to interest the fancy and excite the attention.
She was accustomed to make all those little demands upon the sympathy and assistance of those around her, which you see so constantly in French women, and which are generally attractive to men in this country, perhaps from their contrast to the more quiet and independent habits of English women in general.
If she wished to give little Jane a bonnet and cloak, Mr. Haveloc and her mamma were summoned to the table, and were obliged to look over the patterns the servant had brought from the neighbouring town, and discuss the colour and fashion of the garments. And Mr. Haveloc was desired to walk down to Brand's cottage, and look at the child to see whether red or blue would suit her best; and to inquire after Mrs.
Brand's health, and to ask the best of the two Toms, whether he had yet been able to find that specimen of sea-weed that Miss Fitzpatrick wanted to complete her orders of Cryptogamia.
Those persons who spend their lives in wandering from place to place, little know how much of interest they forfeit in not having a settled place of abode. So many little elegant trifles accumulate in a home that can never be packed up and carried from one hired residence to another.