My Terminal Moraine | Page 8

myself in her
place as I selected the paper-hangings and the materials with which to
cover the furniture.

Sometimes, while thus employed selecting ornaments or useful articles
for my house, and using as far as was possible the taste and judgment
of another instead of my own, the idea came to me that perhaps Agnes
had never heard of my miraculous good fortune. Certainly her father
would not be likely to inform her, and perhaps she still thought of me,
if she thought at all, as the poor young man from whom she had been
obliged to part because he was poor.
But whether she knew that I was growing rich, or whether she thought I
was becoming poorer and poorer, I thought only of the day when I
could go to her father and tell him that I was able to take his daughter
and place her in a home as beautiful as that in which she now lived, and
maintain her with all the comforts and luxuries which he could give
her.
One day I asked my faithful cook, who also acted as my housekeeper
and general supervisor, to assist me in making out a list of china which
I intended to purchase.
"Are you thinking of buying china, sir?" she asked. "We have now
quite as much as we really need."
"Oh, yes," said I, "I shall get complete sets of everything that can be
required for a properly furnished household."
Susan gave a little sigh. "You are spendin' a lot of money, sir, and some
of it for things that a single gentleman would be likely not to care very
much about; and if you was to take it into your head to travel and stay
away for a year or two, there's a good many things you've bought that
would look shabby when you come back, no matter how careful I
might be in dustin' 'em and keepin' 'em covered."
"But I have no idea of traveling," said I. "There's no place so pleasant
as this to me."
Susan was silent for a few moments, and then she said: "I know very
well why you are doing all this, and I feel it my bounden duty to say to
you that there's a chance of its bein' no use. I do not speak without good

reason, and I would not do it if I didn't think that it might make trouble
lighter to you when it comes."
"What are you talking about, Susan; what do you mean?"
"Well, sir, this is what I mean: It was only last night that my daughter
Jane was in Mr. Havelot's dining-room after dinner was over, and Mr.
Havelot and a friend of his were sitting there, smoking their cigars and
drinking their coffee. She went in and come out again as she was busy
takin' away the dishes, and they paid no attention to her, but went on
talkin' without knowing, most likely, she was there. Mr. Have-lot and
the gentleman were talkin' about you, and Jane she heard Mr. Havelot
say as plain as anything, and she said she couldn't be mistaken, that
even if your nonsensical ice-mine proved to be worth anything, he
would never let his daughter marry an ice-man. He spoke most
disrespectful of ice-men, sir, and said that it would make him sick to
have a son-in-law whose business it was to sell ice to butchers, and
hotels, and grog-shops, and pork-packers, and all that sort of people,
and that he would as soon have his daughter marry the man who
supplied a hotel with sausages as the one who supplied it with ice to
keep those sausages from spoiling. You see, sir, Mr. Havelot lives on
his property as his father did before him, and he is a very proud man,
with a heart as hard and cold as that ice down under your land; and it's
borne in on me very strong, sir, that it would be a bad thing for you to
keep on thinkin' that you are gettin' this house all ready to bring Miss
Havelot to when you have married her. For if Mr. Havelot keeps on
livin', which there's every chance of his doin', it may be many a weary
year before you get Miss Agnes, if you ever get her. And havin' said
that, sir, I say no more, and I would not have said this much if I hadn't
felt it my bounden duty to your father's son to warn him that most
likely he was workin' for what he might never get, and so keep him
from breakin' his heart when he found out the truth all of a sudden."
With that Susan left me, without offering any assistance in making out
a list of china.