You see, Mr.Waverley, that I know all, and I assure you Iam deeply interested in the affair.But, my good young friend, you must put a more severe restraint upon your feelings.There are many here whose eyes can see as clearly as mine, but the prudence of whose tongues may not be equally trusted.''
So saying, he turned easily away, and joined a circle of officers at a few paces' distance, leaving Waverley to meditate upon his parting expression, which, though not intelligible to him in its whole purport, was sufficiently so in the caution which the last word recommended.Making, therefore, an effort to show himself worthy of the interest which his new master had expressed, by instant obedience to his recommendation, he walked up to the spot where Flora and Miss Bradwardine were still seated, and having made his compliments to the latter, he succeeded, even beyond his own expectation, in entering into conversation upon general topics.
If, my dear reader, thou hast ever happened to take post-horses at ------, or at ------ (one at least of which blanks, or more probably both, you will be able to fill up from an inn near your own residence), you must have observed, and doubtless with sympathetic pain, the reluctant agony with which the poor jades at first apply their galled necks to the collars of the harness.
But when the irresistible arguments of the post-boy have prevailed upon them to proceed a mile or two, they will become callous to the first sensation; and being _warm in the harness,_ as the said post-boy may term it, proceed as if their withers were altogether unwrung.This simile so much corresponds with the state of Waverley's feelings in the course of this memorable evening, that I prefer it (especially as being, I trust, wholly original) to any more splendid illustration, with which Byshe's Art of Poetry might supply me.
Exertion, like virtue, is its own reward; and our hero had, moreover, other stimulating motives for persevering in a display of affected composure and indifference to Flora's obvious unkindness.Pride, which supplies its caustic as a useful, though severe, remedy for the wounds of affection, came rapidly to his aid.Distinguished by the favour of a prince; destined, he had room to hope, to play a conspicuous part in the revolution which awaited a mighty kingdom; excelling, probably, in mental acquirements, and equalling, at least, in personal accomplishments, most of the noble and distinguished persons with whom he was now ranked; young, wealthy, and high-born---could he, or ought he to droop beneath the frown of a capricious beauty?
O nymph, unrelenting and cold as thou art, My bosom is proud as thine own.
With the feeling expressed in these beautiful lines (which, however, were not then written),<*> Waverley determined upon * They occur in Miss Seward's fine verses, beginning---*
* To thy rock, stormy Lannow, adieu.
convincing Flora that he was not to be depressed by a rejection, in which his vanity whispered that perhaps she did her own prospects as much injustice as his.And, to aid this change of feeling, there lurked the secret and unacknowledged hope, that she might learn to prize his affection more highly, when she did not conceive it to be altogether within her own choice to attract or repulse it.There was a mystic tone of encouragement, also, in the Chevalier's words, though he feared they only referred to the wishes of Fergus in favour of a union between him and his sister.But the whole circumstances of time, place, and incident, combined at once to awaken his imagination, and to call upon him for a manly and a decisive tone of conduct, leaving to fate to dispose of the issue.Should he appear to be the only one sad and disheartened on the eve of battle, how greedily would the tale be commented upon by the slander which had been already but too busy with his fame? Never, never, he internally resolved, shall my unprovoked enemies possess such an advantage over my reputation.
Under the influence of these mixed sensations, and cheered at times by a smile of intelligence and approbation from the Prince as he passed the group, Waverley exerted his powers of fancy, animation, and eloquence, and attracted the general admiration of the company.The conversation gradually assumed the tone best qualified for the display of his talents and acquisitions.The gaiety of the evening was exalted in character, rather than checked, by the approaching dangers of the morrow.All nerves were strung for the future, and prepared to enjoy the present.This mood of mind is highly favourable for the exercise of the powers of imagination, for poetry, and for that eloquence which is allied to poetry.