`Just as you please, my dear,' said the amiable Mr.Ablewhite.He took a chair.The rest of them looked at his face--as if they expected it, after seventy years of worldly training, to speak the truth.I looked at the top of his bald head; having noticed on other occasions that the temper which was really in him had a habit of registering itself there.
`Some weeks ago,' pursued the old gentleman, `my son informed me that Miss Verinder had done him the honour to engage herself to marry him.Is it possible, Rachel, that he can have misinterpreted--or presumed upon--what you really said to him?'
`Certainly not,' she replied.`I did engage myself to marry him.'
`Very frankly answered!' said Mr.Ablewhite.`And most satisfactory, my dear, so far.In respect to what happened some weeks since, Godfrey has made no mistake.The error is evidently in what he told me yesterday.
I begin to see it now.You and he have had a lovers' quarrel--and my foolish son has interpreted it seriously.Ah! I should have known better than that at his age.'
The fallen nature in Rachel--the mother Eve, so to speak--began to chafe at this.
`Pray let us understand each other, Mr.Ablewhite,' she said.`Nothing in the least like a quarrel took place yesterday between your son and me.
If he told you that I proposed breaking off our marriage engagement, and that he agreed on his side--he told you the truth.'
The self-registering thermometer at the top of Mr.Ablewhite's bald head began to indicate a rise of temper.His face was more amiable than ever--but there was the pink at the top of his face, a shade deeper already!
`Come, come, my dear!' he said, in his most soothing manner,`now don't be angry, and don't be hard on poor Godfrey! He has evidently said some unfortunate thing.He was always clumsy from a child--but he means well, Rachel, he means well!'
`Mr.Ablewhite, I have either expressed myself very badly, or you are purposely mistaking me.Once for all, it is a settled thing between your son and myself that we remain, for the rest of our lives, cousins and nothing more.Is that plain enough?'
The tone in which she said those words made it impossible, even for old Mr.Ablewhite, to mistake her any longer.His thermometer went up another degree, and his voice when he next spoke ceased to be the voice which is appropriate to a notoriously good-natured man.
`I am to understand, then,' he said, `that your marriage engagement is broken off?'
`You are to understand that, Mr.Ablewhite, if you please.'
`I am also to take it as a matter of fact that the proposal to withdraw from the engagement came, in the first instance, from you ?'
`It came, in the first instance, from me.And it met, as I have told you, with your son's consent and approval.'
The thermometer went up to the top of the register.I mean, the pink changed suddenly to scarlet.
`My son is a mean-spirited hound!' cried this furious old worldling.
`In justice to myself as his father--not in justice to him --I beg to ask you, Miss Verinder, what complaint you have to make of Mr.Godfrey Ablewhite?'
Here Mr.Bruff interfered for the first time.
`You are not bound to answer that question,' he said to Rachel.Old Mr.Ablewhite fastened on him instantly.
`Don't forget, sir,' he said, `that you are a self-invited guest here.
Your interference would have come with a better grace if you had waited until it was asked for.'
Mr.Bruff took no notice.The smooth varnish on his wicked old face never cracked.Rachel thanked him for the advice he had given to her, and then turned to old Mr.Ablewhite--preserving her composure in a manner which (having regard to her age and her ***) was simply awful to see.
`Your son put the same question to me which you have just asked,' she said.`I had only one answer for him, and I have only one answer for you.
I proposed that we should release each other, because reflection had convinced me that I should best consult his welfare and mine by retracting a rash promise, and leaving him free to make his choice elsewhere.'
`What has my son done?' persisted Mr.Ablewhite.`I have a right to know that.What has my son done?'
She persisted just as obstinately on her side.
`You have had the only explanation which I think it necessary to give to you, or to him,' she answered.
`In plain English, it's your sovereign will and pleasure, Miss Verinder, to jilt my son?'
Rachel was silent for a moment.Sitting close behind her, I heard her sigh.Mr.Bruff took her hand, and gave it a little squeeze.She recovered herself, and answered Mr.Ablewhite as boldly as ever.
`I have exposed myself to worse misconstruction than that,' she said.
`And I have borne it patiently.The time has gone by, when you could mortify me by calling me a jilt.'
She spoke with a bitterness of tone which satisfied me that the scandal of the Moonstone had been in some way recalled to her mind.`I have no more to say,' she added, wearily, not addressing the words to anyone in particular, and looking away from us all, out of the window that was nearest to her.
Mr.Ablewhite got upon his feet, and pushed away his chair so violently that it toppled over and fell on the floor.
`I have something more to say on my side,' he announced, bringing down the flat of his hand on the table with a bang.`I have to say that if my son doesn't feel this insult, I do!'
Rachel started, and looked at him in sudden surprise.
`Insult?' she repeated.`What do you mean?'