“No, or you would not have had so many op- portunities of paying them.”
“They have occasioned you no anxiety or un- easiness, then, sir?”
“Nay, your own honour is my warrant against that, and I have the collateral security of her prudence.”
“May I, then, without offence, inquire whither your observations tend, and why you have intro- duced the subject?”
“In the first instance, simply for want of some- thing else to talk about; but, now we are upon the subject, it may be as well to know your views in paying the attentions to which I have refer- red.”
“When I tell you honestly that I love your daughter, you will not, with the confidence you are pleased to place in my honour, have any diffi- culty in guessing them.”
“Guessing is not my forte, and therefore I ever hated riddles; they puzzle the understanding without improving it. Speak out.”
“Why, sir, with your sanction, to make her my wife.”
“Then you will do a very foolish thing; that is, always supposing that my daughter has no ob- jection to your scheme; and we, both.of us, ap- pear to have left her pretty much out of the ar- gument. Pray, is she aware at all of the prefer- ence with which you are pleased to honour her?”
“I have never told her, because I know not how she would receive the declaration; and I prize your daughter’s good opinion too dearly to desire to look like a simpleton before her.”
“Well, there’s some sense in that. By the way, Alvarez, without any particular reference to the subject we are discussing, let me exhort you, whenever you make a declaration of your love to a woman, never do it upon your knees.”
“Why not, sir?”
“Because it is the most inconvenient position possible for marching off the field; and, in the event of a repulse, the sooner a man quits it the better.”
“But, sir, I maintain, and I speak it under fa- vour, and with all deference to the sex, that the man who exposes himself to the humiliation of a refusal richly merits it.”
“As how?”
“Because he must be blind, if he cannot, with- in a reasonable period, find out whether his suit be acceptable or not, and a fool: if he declares himself before.”
“You think so,do you? Then be so good as to push over that plate of olives; and, as I said before, in reference to your matrimonial project, I think it a very foolish one.”
“In what respect, sir, may I ask?”
“In the first place, it is the custom in England for a man and his wife to go to church together; and you were born a Catholic.”
“Only half a one, sir; my mother was a Pro- testant,”*
“And a heretic.”
“No, sir; my.sainted mother was a Christian.”
“You do not mean to call yourself a Protestant?
“I do, indeed, sir.”
“Then, let me tell you that. your religion is the most unfashionable in all Lisbon, and somewhat dangerous withal.”
‘“Have you found it so?”
“Nay; I am of a country which is given to resent as a nation an injury done to an individual of it; and as a British fleet:in the bay of Lisbon would not be the most agreeable sight to the good folk of this Catholic city, I presume I may pro- fess what religion I please, without incurring any personal risk; but you have no such safeguard; and, although my daughter might have no great objection to your goodly person as it is, she might not relish it served up as a grill, according to the approved method, in this most orthodox country, of freeing the spirit from its earthly impurities."
“You talk very coolly, my dear sir, upon a rather warm subject; but I assure you I am under no apprehensions on that score.”
“Well, admitting that you are justified in con- sidering yourself safe, do you think that an alli- ance with the daughter of a merchant, and a fo- reigner, would be otherwise than obnoxious to your family?”
“Why, as to that, my affectionate brothers-in- law, not reckoning upon the pleasure of my so- ciety in the next world, have not been at much pains to cultivate it in this; and therefore I ap- prehend I am not bound to consult their wishes in the matter.”
The conversation was here interrupted by the entrance of Miss Wentworth, and the subject was of course changed.
The explanation which had taken place be- tween the merchant and Alvarez was followed by an equally good understanding between the latter and the young lady; and it was finally ar-- ranged among them that Mr. Wentworth, who had been eminently successful in his commercial pursuits in Lisbon, should only remain to close his accounts, and convert his large property into bills and specie, for the purpose of remitting it to London, when the whole party, Alvarez him- self having no ties to bind him to his own country, should embark for England, where the union of the young people was to take place.
But, alas! “the course of true love never did run smooth;” and scarcely had the preliminary arrangements been completed when the merehant was seized with an inflammatory fe: :r which terminated in his death, leaving his daughter, who loved him to a degree of enthus.asm which such a parent might well inspire, overwhelmed by sorrow, a stranger ina foreign land, and with- out a friend in the world but Alvarez, whose ability to protect her fell infinitely short of his zeal and devotion to herservice. Still, however, he could comfort and advise with her; and she looked up to him with all that confiding affection which the noble qualities of his heart, and the honourable tenor of his conduct, could not fail to create. But ever he, her only stay, was shortly taken from her. The Holy Office, having gained
