The Soldier's Wife — page 74: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

3 THE SOLDIER’S WIFE. CHAPTER XVI. — - THE FUGITIVES. A quarter of an hour after this meeting, the lovers might have been observed wending their way through some fields in the vicinage of Cov- entry, and speeding towards a grove, where they could screen themselves from pursuit and enter into those mutual explanations which were so much longed for. Hand in hand did they press onward, exchanging but a few words, pe these of love and tenderness—but bend- 61 terribly coercive means t 1at he adopted to ren- der you pliant and yielding?” Miss Davis felt her confidence revive as her lover thus spoke; and when she looked calmly at that terrible sceue which had ere now taken place with her father, she felt assured that Frederick must be right. She now entered iuto the fullest explanations, tell-ng him all that had occurred in respect to Gerald Redburn during their separation, and wherefore she had sp- prcesed in her letters all allusion to the subject She likewise explained how she han been be guiled into this journey to Coventry— how she ing upen each other looks that spoke the feel-/had entertained her misgivings—and how tkey ings of their hearts ten thousand times more|were for the moment strengthened by the sinis- elogue: ly than even the few words thus|/ter aspect of Bates standing upon the thresh- spoken. : old of his shop; but how-at the same time she The reader will perhaps be surprised to Jearn| was unacquainted with any particulars to éna- that.Lonsdale appeared most respectably attired|ble her to associate that individual with her in a good suit of clothes—not of fustian nor of|sire’s treacherous proceedings. She described working-class materials, but of broad cloth ;/the fearful scene which had taken place between and although his looks were wretchedly hag- yin and careworn, and he was evidently suf- ering from the effects of immense physical fa- tizue and mental anxiety, he nevertheless had an air of superiority above his condition amount- her father and herself,—frankly admitting that in a moment of the sowl’s consternation, stupor, and bewilderment, she had breathed the word yes,—but adding, with endearing looks thrown upon her lover, that the instant she became ing almost to gentility, which even in the hurry|mistress of her thoughts and actions once more, ‘and excitement of her thoughts Lucy could not|she had allowed but one idea to sway her— help noticing. In a few minutes regi they plunged into its s and that was the troth she had plighted to reached the grove:!him. 1ade—they sought its} Often during Lucy’s recital, did Frederick _ depths; and there, upon the huge trunk of a/express by his looks and his caresses the feel- tree which had been cut down, did they seat themselves side by side—and again did they indulge in a fond embrace. But now for the first time since she had fled so precipitately from the hotel, did a horrible thought recur with frightful‘vividness to the young damsel’s mind. ‘That threat which her. father had ut- tered—a threat which he had indeed made so deliberately, and with such stern solemnity,— the threat of self-destruction! Frederick per- ceived that a species of mortal terror suddenly fastened itself upon his well-beloved: she grew pale as death, and was sinking back as if about to faint, had he not sustained her in his arms. The excited eagerness with which he besought her to tell him what ailed her, recalled her to herself; and in a few rapid but explicit words she gave him to understand what her father had threatened, and the reminiscence of -which had so suddenly smit her with a feeling like that of death. But Frederick hastened to re- assure her. — “1 think, my beloved Lucy,” he replied, “that I understand your father’s character much bet- ter than you do. Gj with a hope in the truthfulness of which I Believe me,—and in s0 s0- lemn and grave amatter I would not buoy you ings that the several points of her narrative excited within him. Those’ looks and those caresses indicated all the gratitude he felt for her delicate forbearance in suppressing every allusion in her letters to Gerald Redburn— all the admiration he experienced for her de voted constancy—all the sympathy that swelled in his heart for her sufferings and persecutions —and all the indignation that inspired him at the treacherous intents to which she was te have been made the victim. He then entered upon his own narrative— telling her how the discovery of Bates’s letter to Sergeant Langley had mindte him acquainted with the whole plot. Lucy now indeed com- prehended why it was that the barber had worn so sardonic a look as he stood upon his threshhold: but her thoughts were speedily diverted, and most painfully so, into another channel, when Frederick proceeded in melan- choly candor to reveal to her that he was not absent from his regiment with leave, but that he was a deserter! Fortunately for the poor girl she knew not the dread consequences to which he had rendered himself hable: yet at the same time she was sufficiently acquainted with the subject to perceive that he had taken experienced no confidence,—but believe me, 1|a most serious step, and one-which would draw say, when I assure you that he is the last man|down upon him at least some punishment... But in existence to carry such a threat into execu-|all her interest was quickly absorbed in the tion. No, dearest Lucy,—it is not the cold,|narrative which Frederick gave of the fatigues ea‘culating, worldly-minded man of his naturejand the privations he had suffered during his that voluntarily puts a period to his life for|immense journey of one uundred and sixty-two such a disappointment as this. - His first im-'miles, accomplished in exactly fifty hours. The pulse on discovering your flight, will have been greater portion of his journey he had performed to search for you; and in the excitement of the|on foot,—until at last he had been compelled porec ong he will forget his threat. Besides,|through fear of not reaching Coventry in t'me, 0 you not see, Lucy, that it was but one of the to give all the money he had in his pocket fos Kor 5 ei GO MmiGcboo SS (EO)