A Pair of Patient Lovers | Page 6

he got home, and, as Mrs.
Bentley never writes letters, Miss Bentley had the hard task of
answering him. This led to a correspondence."
"And to her moving heaven and earth to get him to Gormanville. I see!
Of course she did it so that no one knew what she was about!"
"Apparently. Glendenning himself was not in the secret. The Bentleys
were in Europe last summer, and he did not know that they had a place
at Gormanville till he came to live there. Another proof that Miss
Bentley got him there is the fact that she and her mother are Unitarians,
and that they would naturally be able to select the rector of the
Episcopal church."
"Go on," said Mrs. March, not the least daunted.
"Oh, there's nothing more. He is simply rector of St. Michael's at
Gormanville; and there is not the slightest proof that any young lady
had a hand in getting him there."
"As if I cared in the least whether she had! I suppose you will allow
that she had something to do with getting engaged to him, and that is
the great matter."
"Yes, I must allow that, if we are to suppose that young ladies have
anything to do with young men getting engaged to them; it doesn't
seem exactly delicate. But the novel phase of this great matter is the
position of the young lady's mother in regard to it. From what I could

make out she consents to the engagement of her daughter, but she don't
and won't consent to her marriage." My wife glared at me with so little
speculation in her eyes that I felt obliged to disclaim all responsibility
for the fact I had reported. "Thou canst not say I did it. They did it, and
Miss Bentley, if any one, is to blame. It seems, from what Glendenning
says, that the young lady and he wrote to each other while she was
abroad, and that they became engaged by letter. Then the affair was
broken off because of her mother's opposition; but since they have met
at Gormanville, the engagement has been renewed. So much they've
managed against the old lady's will, but apparently on condition that
they won't get married till she says."
"Nonsense! How could she stop them?"
"She couldn't, I dare say, by any of the old romantic methods of a
convent or disinheritance; but she is an invalid; she wants to keep her
daughter with her, and she avails with the girl's conscience by being
simply dependent and obstructive. The young people have carried their
engagement through, and now such hope as they have is fixed upon her
finally yielding in the matter of their marriage, though Glendenning
was obliged to confess that there was no sign of her doing so. They
agree--Miss Bentley and he--that they cannot get married as they got
engaged, in spite of her mother--it would be unclerical if it wouldn't be
unfilial--and they simply have to bide their time."
My wife asked abruptly, "How many chambers are there in the Conwell
place?"
I said, and then she asked, "Is there a windmill or a force-pump?" I
answered proudly that in Gormanville there was town water, but that if
this should give out there were both a windmill and a force-pump on
the Conwell place.
"It is very complete," she sighed, as if this had removed all hope from
her, and she added, "I suppose we had better take it."
V.

We certainly did not take it for the sake of being near the Bentleys,
neither of whom had given us particular reason to desire their further
acquaintance, though the young lady had agreeably modified herself
when apart from her mother. In fact, we went to Gormanville because it
was an exceptional chance to get a beautiful place for a very little
money, where we could go early and stay late. But no sooner had we
acted from this quite personal, not to say selfish, motive than we were
rewarded with the sweetest overtures of neighborliness by the Bentleys.
They waited, of course, till we were settled in our house before they
came to call upon Mrs. March, but they had been preceded by several
hospitable offerings from their garden, their dairy, and their hen-house,
which were very welcome in the days of our first uncertainty as to
trades-people. We analyzed this hospitality as an effect of that sort of
nature in Mrs. Bentley which can equally assert its superiority by
blessing or banning. Evidently, since chance had again thrown us in her
way, she would not go out of it to be offensive, but would continue in it,
and make the best of us.
No doubt Glendenning had talked us into the Bentleys; and this my
wife said she