"And I assure you," continued the clergyman, "if I were to pretend that I did apprehend your intentions, I should be guilty of an inaccuracy amounting, in fact, to an untruth."
He thought he detected something a little mocking in the handsome face of the young gentleman, and could not tell, in the shadow of the window-curtain, whether those even white teeth were not smiling at him outright; and a little nettled, but not forgetting himself, he went on,--
"You know, my dear Cleve, it is nothing on earth to _me_--absolutely; I act merely to oblige--merely, I mean, to be useful--if in my power, consistently with all other considerations, and I speak, I humbly, but confidently hope, habitually the truth"----
"Of _course_ you do," said the young gentleman, with emphasis, and growing quite serious again. "It is very kind, I know, your coming all this way, and managing your week's absence; and you may for the present know just as little or as much of the matter as you please; only mind, this is--not of course in any wrong sense--a dark business--awfully quiet. They say that, in England, a talent for speaking may raise a man to anything, but I think a talent for holding one's tongue is sometimes a better one. And--I'm quite serious, old Dixie--I'll not forget your fidelity to me, upon my honour--really, never; and as you know, I may yet have the power of proving it."
The Rev. Isaac Dixie folded his hands, and hung his head sideways in a meek modesty, and withal smiled so rosily and gloriously, as he sate in front of the window, that had it happened an hour before sunrise, the sparrows in the ivy all along the stable walls, would undoubtedly have mistaken it for the glow of Aurora, and commenced their chirping and twittering salutations to the dawn an hour too soon.
"It is very gratifying, _very_, you cannot readily estimate, my dear, and--may I not say?--my _illustrious_ pupil, _how_ gratifying to me, quite irrespective of all those substantially kind intentions which you are pleased to avow in my behalf, to hear from your lips so frank and--may I say,--almost affectionate a declaration; so just an estimate of my devotion to your interests, and I may say, I hope, of my character generally?"