recover this intrusion: this cowardly and indefensible outrage on your feelings: with all possible dispatch; and smile again."
"You have nothing more to say?" enquired the old man, laying his hand with unusual earnestness on Mr. Pecksniff's sleeve.
Mr. Pecksniff would not say what rose to his lips. For reproaches, he observed, were useless.
"You have nothing at all to urge? You are sure of that? If you have; no matter what it is; speak freely. I will oppose nothing that you ask of me," said the old man.
The tears rose in such abundance to Mr. Pecksniff's eyes at this proof of unlimited confidence on the part of his friend, that he was fain to clasp the bridge of his nose convulsively before he could at all compose himself. When he had the power of utterance again, he said, with great emotion, that he hoped he should live to deserve this; and added, that he had no other observation whatever to make.
For a few moments the old man sat looking at him, with that blank and motionless expression which is not uncommon in the faces of those whose faculties are on the wane, in age. But he rose up firmly too, and walked towards the door, from which Mark withdrew to make way for him.
The obsequious Mr. Pecksniff proffered his arm. The old man took it. Turning at the door, he said to Martin, waving him off with his hand,
"You have heard him. Go away. It is all over. Go!"
Mr. Pecksniff murmured certain cheering expressions of sympathy and encouragement as they retired; and Martin, awakening from the stupor into which the closing portion of this scene had plunged him, to the opportunity afforded by their departure, caught the innocent cause of all in his embrace, and pressed her to his heart.
"Dear girl!" said Martin. "He has not changed you. Why, what an impotent and harmless knave the fellow is!"
"You have restrained yourself so nobly! You have borne so much!"
"Restrained myself!" cried Martin, cheerfully. "You were by, and were unchanged, I knew. What more advantage did I want? The sight of me was such bitterness to the dog, that I had my triumph in his being forced to endure it. But tell me, love—for the few hasty words we can exchange now, are precious—what is this, which has been rumoured to me? Is it true that you are persecuted by this knave's addresses."
"I was, dear Martin, and to some extent am now; but my chief source of unhappiness has been anxiety for you. Why did you leave us in such terrible suspense?'
"Sickness, distance; the dread of hinting at our real condition, the impossibility of concealing it except in perfect silence; the knowledge that the truth would have pained you infinitely more than uncertainty and doubt," said Martin, hurriedly; as indeed everything else was done and said, in those few hurried moments, "were the causes of my writing only once. But Pecksniff? You needn't fear to tell me the whole tale: for you saw me with him face to face, hearing him speak, and not taking him by the throat: what is the history of hi» pursuit of you? Is it known to my grandfather?"
