In spite, however, of our rector's fiery temperament, or
perhaps in consequence of it, he was remarkably susceptible
to the charms of beauty. We were constantly invited to
dinner and garden parties in the neighbourhood; nor was the
good rector slow to return the compliment. It must be
confessed that the pupil shared to the full the
impressibility of the tutor; and, as it happened, unknown to
both, the two were in one case rivals.
As the young lady afterwards occupied a very distinguished
position in Oxford society, it can only be said that she was
celebrated for her many attractions. She was then sixteen,
and the younger of her suitors but two years older. As far
as age was concerned, nothing could be more compatible. Nor
in the matter of mutual inclination was there any disparity
whatever. What, then, was the pupil's dismay when, after a
dinner party at the rectory, and the company had left, the
tutor, in a frantic state of excitement, seized the pupil by
both hands, and exclaimed: 'She has accepted me!'
'Accepted you?' I asked. 'Who has accepted you?'
'Who? Why, Miss -, of course! Who else do you suppose would
accept me?'
'No one,' said I, with doleful sincerity. 'But did you
propose to her? Did she understand what you said to her?
Did she deliberately and seriously say "Yes?"'
'Yes, yes, yes,' and his disordered jabot and touzled hair
echoed the fatal word.
'O Smintheus of the silver bow!' I groaned. 'It is the
woman's part to create delusions, and - destroy them! To
think of it! after all that has passed between us these -
these three weeks, next Monday! "Once and for ever." Did
ever woman use such words before? And I - believed them!'
'Did you speak to the mother?' I asked in a fit of
desperation.
'There was no time for that. Mrs. - was in the carriage, and
I didn't pop [the odious word!] till I was helping her on
with her cloak. The cloak, you see, made it less awkward.
My offer was a sort of OBITER DICTUM - a by-the-way, as it
were.'
'To the carriage, yes. But wasn't she taken by surprise?'
'Not a bit of it. Bless you! they always know. She
pretended not to understand, but that's a way they have.'
'And when you explained?'
'There wasn't time for more. She laughed, and sprang into
the carriage.'
'And that was all?'
'All! would you have had her spring into my arms?'
'God forbid! You will have to face the mother to-morrow,'
said I, recovering rapidly from my despondency.
