The Temptation! CHAPTER 5
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"And now, brother, what have you to say to me?" was the interrogation of Kate, as she took a seat beside Sidney Markland, about ten o'clock the next morning. Her face wore a serious expression.
"I wish to talk to you about Margaretta Algeron, sis."
"Well. What of her?"
"In a word, then, I love her."
"You are not the man to make a girl like Margaretta happy," was the firm reply of the sister, who was older than Sidney by several years.
"The devil, I am not!"
"No, brother, seriously, you are not. Your habits of life and your general estimate of our gender must be radically changed — before you can make any sensitive, pure-minded, confiding woman happy. I speak earnestly and seriously, because I feel so. Though you are my brother, I must say, that you are not a man capable, at present, of loving as she needs to be loved — a girl like Margaretta. You would break her heart in a year!"
"How madly you talk, Kate!" exclaimed Sidney, impatiently rising and taking two or three rapid turns upon the floor. "Do you think me utterly depraved? Is there no good in me? I can bear such a judgment from the world. But to be estimated so meanly by my own sister, who ought to know me better — I feel to be unkind, indeed."
"Sidney!" replied Kate, rising and walking by his side. "You are my brother, and, as such, I love you. But I am not, and do not wish to be, blind to your faults. I have shed many a bitter tear on your account. Your irregular habits, your unsettled principles, your impatience of just restraint — have cost me many a sorrowful hour. For a sister to bear all this, is hard — but how much more so for a wife? Especially if she is so young, so gentle, so confiding, so pure-minded as Margaretta Algeron. Sidney! I would rather see that sweet maiden in her burial-clothes, than decked in bridal garments — if you were the one about to lead her to the sacrificial altar!"
"Surely you are beside yourself, Kate!" the brother replied, with ill-restrained impatience. "I love Margaretta tenderly — as I never loved any living creature before — and I can and will make her happy."
"Does she know of this?"
"She does."
"How?"
"From my own lips."
"Where, and when?"
The young man hesitated, and for a moment looked confused, while his sister regarded him with a steady eye and compressed lips.
"Did you tell her so, in her father's house?"
"No."
"Did you address her, with her father's consent?"
"No! Had I waited for that, I never would have addressed her. He is strongly prejudiced against me."
"Too justly, alas!" was the sad response of Kate, her voice slightly broken.
"From my own sister, I had hoped for a less severe judgment," the young man returned, in a tone that showed him to be a good deal hurt.
"Your sister can only love you sincerely and truly for your virtues, Sidney. Your vices, she hopes ever to detest. Would you have my words only from the teeth outward? Would you be flattered by my lips, while my heart judges you with a harsh judgment? I trust not! Be a man! Let the truth come to you, even if it divides the very bones and marrow of your moral being."
"I have nothing to hope from you, I see," the brother said, after musing for some time. "I had hoped differently. Margaretta Algeron must and shall be mine, in spite of all opposition!"
"Will you ask her of her father?" inquired Kate.
"I will."
"And if he does not give his consent?"
"I will take her in spite of it!"
This was said with a half-angry determination of manner, which left the sister little to hope for, in regard to her influence over him. She did not attempt to question him further, or to make any more appeals to him. He walked the floor in deep thought for some time, and then turned abruptly away, and left the house.
He came and went as usual for several days, maintaining towards Kate a rigid silence in regard to the subject of their late interview. During that time, he had spent a large portion of each day in walking Chestnut Street, in the hope of meeting Margaretta. But this hope was disappointed. On the evening of the fifth day, he called at the house of Mr. Algeron, and asked an interview with that gentleman. As soon as he met him, and had been received with the most cold and formal politeness, he said —
"I come, Mr. Algeron, to ask the privilege of formally addressing your daughter."
"Strange that you should not thought of doing this before!" replied Mr. Algeron with ill-concealed irony.
"I do not understand you, sir!"
"Why did you not come frankly and openly, like a man, and say this to me before — instead of meeting my child clandestinely, and endeavoring to steal away her young affections?"
"On what authority do you charge me with such conduct, sir?" the young man asked in a firm and decided tone.
"On the authority of those who have seen you walking with her, almost daily — while I had not the remotest suspicion of the fact!"
"Was there harm in walking a few squares with your daughter, if I happened to meet her in the street? If so, I am not alone in this offence against you — nor are you the only father I have sinned against."
"Well, well! To bring this matter to a close at once," said Mr. Algeron, impatiently, "you cannot have my consent to address Margaretta! In this I am decided."
"It will then, I suppose, be useless for me to urge reasons why you ought to change your mind?"
"Entirely so! I am in earnest in what I say!"
Sidney Markland arose at this, bowed formally, and left the house.
From that time Margaretta was guarded with the utmost vigilance, at the same time that the appearance of leaving her in freedom was preserved as far as it was possible to do so under the circumstances. She was never permitted to go out alone. At first she was greatly distressed; and did little else but sit alone in her room and weep. This continued for some weeks, when there was a gradual change for the better. She grew more cheerful, and mingled, as she had formerly done, with the family. Still, there was an abstract and dreamy manner about her, that troubled the hearts of her parents. It was too evident that she was not happy.
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