The Path Of Duty | Page 8

I came up behind a lady and gentleman who were
walking their horses, close to each other, side by side In a moment I
recognized her, but not before seeing that nothing could have been
more benevolent than the way Ambrose Tester was bending over his
future wife. If he struck me as a lover at that moment, of course he
struck her so. But that is n't the way they ride to-day.

IV.
One day, about the end of June, he came in to see me when I had two or
three other visitors; you know that even at that season I am almost
always at home from six to seven. He had not been three minutes in the
room before I saw that he was different,--different from what he had
been the last time, and I guessed that something had happened in
relation to his marriage. My visitors did n't, unfortunately, and they
stayed and stayed until I was afraid he would have to go away without
telling me what, I was sure, he had come for. But he sat them out; I
think that by exception they did n't find him pleasant. After we were
alone he abused them a little, and then he said, "Have you heard about
Vandeleur? He 's very ill. She's awfully anxious." I had n't heard, and I
told him so, asking a question or two; then my inquiries ceased, my
breath almost failed me, for I had become aware of something very
strange. The way he looked at me when he told me his news was a full
confession,--a confession so full that I had needed a moment to take it
in. He was not too strong a man to be taken by surprise,--not so strong
but that in the presence of an unexpected occasion his first movement
was to look about for a little help. I venture to call it help, the sort of
thing he came to me for on that summer afternoon. It is always help
when a woman who is not an idiot lets an embarrassed man take up her
time. If he too is not an idiot, that does n't diminish the service; on the
contrary his superiority to the average helps him to profit. Ambrose

Tester had said to me more than once, in the past, that he was capable
of telling me things, because I was an American, that he would n't
confide to his own people. He had proved it before this, as I have
hinted, and I must say that being an American, with him, was
sometimes a questionable honor. I don't know whether he thinks us
more discreet and more sympathetic (if he keeps up the system: he has
abandoned it with me), or only more insensible, more proof against
shocks; but it is certain that, like some other Englishmen I have known,
he has appeared, in delicate cases, to think I would take a
comprehensive view. When I have inquired into the grounds of this
discrimination in our favor, he has contented himself with saying, in
the British-cursory manner, "Oh, I don't know; you are different!" I
remember he remarked once that our impressions were fresher. And I
am sure that now it was because of my nationality, in addition to other
merits, that he treated me to the confession I have just alluded to. At
least I don't suppose he would have gone about saying to people in
general, "Her husband will probably die, you know; then why should
n't I marry Lady Vandeleur?"
That was the question which his whole expression and manner asked of
me, and of which, after a moment, I decided to take no notice. Why
shouldn't he? There was an excellent reason why he should n't It would
just kill Joscelind Bernardstone; that was why he should n't? The idea
that he should be ready to do it frightened me, and independent as he
might think my point of view, I had no desire to discuss such
abominations. It struck me as an abomination at this very first moment,
and I have never wavered in my judgment of it. I am always glad when
I can take the measure of a thing as soon as I see it; it 's a blessing to
feel what we think, without balancing and comparing. It's a great rest,
too, and a great luxury. That, as I say, was the case with the feeling
excited in me by this happy idea of Ambrose Tester's. Cruel and
wanton I thought it then, cruel and wanton I thought it later, when it
was pressed upon me. I knew there were many other people that did n't
agree with me, and I can only hope for them that their conviction was