“I understand perfectly, your honor, and will do your bidding correctly,” said the fellow, not a little embarrassed at finding how much his position had altered, since he entered the library, as he thought, well nigh the young heir’s master.
“So you shall do well,” replied Jasper. “Now get you gone. Let them give you some ale in the buttery, but when I send word to have the people collected in the great hall, make yourself scarce. It is not desirable that you should be there when I address them;” and lighting a hand-lamp as he ceased speaking, for it had grown dark already during the conversation, he turned his back on the discomfited sexton, and went up by a private staircase to what was called the ladies’ withdrawing room, an apartment which, having been shut up since the death of his own mother, had been reopened on Theresa’s joining the family.
“The sexton of the church has been with you, Jasper,” she said, eagerly, as her husband entered the room; “what should have brought him hither?”
“He was here, you know, dearest, at the sad ceremonial; and I had desired him to bring up a copy of the record of our marriage. He wished to deliver it to me in person.”
“How good of you, dear Jasper, and how thoughtful,” she replied, casting her fair white arms about his neck, and kissing his forehead tenderly, “that you may show it to the people, and prove to them that I am indeed your wife.”
“_Show_ it to the people! _Prove_ that you are my wife!” he answered impetuously, and with indignation in his every tone. “I should like to see the person ask me to show it, or doubt that you are my wife. No, indeed, dear Theresa, your very thought shows how young you are, and ignorant of the world. To do what you suggest, would but create the doubt, not destroy it. No, when they have done supper, I shall cause the whole household to be collected in the great stone hall; and when they are there, I shall merely lead you in upon my arm, tell them we have been married in private these three months past, and desire them to respect you as my dear wife, and their honored mistress. That, and your being introduced to all friends and visiters as Mistress St. Aubyn, is all that can be needed; and, in cases such as ours, believe me, the less eclat given to the circumstances, the better it will be for all parties. And do not you, I pray you, dearest, suffer the servant girls to ask you any questions on the subject, or answer them if they do. But inform me of it forthwith.”