`Selfish!' cried Tom. `You have acted nobly. To love her as I am sure you do, and yet in consideration for her state of dependence, not even to disclose--'
`What are you talking about, Pinch?' said Martin pettishly: `don't make yourself ridiculous, my good fellow! What do you mean by not disclosing?'
`I beg your pardon,' answered Tom. `I thought you meant that, or I wouldn't have said it.'
`If I didn't tell her I loved her, where would be the use of my being in love?' said Martin: `unless to keep myself in a perpetual state of worry and vexation?'
`That's true,' Tom answered. `Well! I can guess what she said when you told her,' he added, glancing at Martin's handsome face.
`Why, not exactly, Pinch,' he rejoined, with a slight frown: `because she has some girlish notions about duty and gratitude, and all the rest of it, which are rather hard to fathom; but in the main you are right.
Her heart was mine, I found.'
`Just what I supposed,' said Tom. `Quite natural!' and, in his great satisfaction, he took a long sip out of his wine-glass.
`Although I had conducted myself from the first with the utmost circumspection,' pursued Martin, `I had not managed matters so well but that my grandfather, who is full of jealousy and distrust, suspected me of loving her. He said nothing to her, but straightway attacked me in private, and charged me with designing to corrupt the fidelity to himself (there you observe his selfishness), of a young creature whom he had trained and educated to be his only disinterested and faithful companion, when he should have disposed of me in marriage to his heart's content. Upon that, I took fire immediately, and told him that with his good leave I would dispose of myself in marriage, and would rather not be knocked down by him or any other auctioneer to any bidder whomsoever.'
Mr. Pinch opened his eyes wider, and looked at the fire harder than he had done yet.
`You may be sure,' said Martin, `that this nettled him, and that he began to be the very reverse of complimentary to myself. Interview succeeded interview; words engendered words, as they always do; and the upshot of it was, that I was to renounce her, or be renounced by him. Now you must bear in mind, Pinch, that I am not only desperately fond of her (for though she is poor, her beauty and intellect would reflect great credit on anybody, I don't care of what pretensions who might become her husband), but that a chief ingredient in my composition is a most determined--'
`Obstinacy,' suggested Tom in perfect good faith. But the suggestion was not so well received as he had expected; for the young man immediately rejoined, with some irritation, `What a fellow you are, Pinch!'
`I beg your pardon,' said Tom, `I thought you wanted a word.'
`I didn't want that word,' he rejoined. `I told you obstinacy was no part of my character, did I not? I was going to say, if you had given me leave, that a chief ingredient in my composition is a most determined firmness.'
`Oh!' cried Tom, screwing up his mouth, and nodding. `Yes, yes; I see!'
`And being firm,' pursued Martin, `of course I was not going to yield to him, or give way by so much as the thousandth part of an inch.'
`No, no,' said Tom.
`On the contrary, the more he urged, the more I was determined to oppose him.'
`To be sure!' said Tom.
`Very well,' rejoined Martin, throwing himself back in his chair, with a careless wave of both hands, as if the subject were quite settled, and nothing more could be said about it: `There is an end of the matter, and here am I!'
Mr. Pinch sat staring at the fire for some minutes with a puzzled look, such as he might have assumed if some uncommonly difficult conundrum had been proposed, which he found it impossible to guess. At length he said:
`Pecksniff, of course, you had known before?'
`Only by name. No, I had never seen him, for my grandfather kept not only himself but me, aloof from all his relations. But our separation took place in a town in the adjoining country. From that place I came to Salisbury, and there I saw Pecksniff's advertisement, which I answered, having always had some natural taste, I believe, in the matters to which it referred, and thinking it might suit me. As soon as I found it to be his, I was doubly bent on coming to him if possible, on account of his being--'
`Such an excellent man,' interposed Tom, rubbing his hands: `so he is.
You were quite right.'
`Why, not so much on that account, if the truth must be spoken' returned Martin, `as because my grandfather has an inveterate dislike to him, and after the old man's arbitrary treatment of me, I had a natural desire to run as directly counter to all his opinions as I could. Well! As I said before, here I am. My engagement with the young lady I have been telling you about is likely to be a tolerably long one; for neither her prospects nor mine are very bright; and of course I shall not think of marrying until I am well able to do so. It would never do, you know, for me to be plunging myself into poverty and shabbiness and love in one room up three pair of stairs, and all that sort of thing.'
`To say nothing of her,' remarked Tom Pinch, in a low voice.
`Exactly so,' rejoined Martin, rising to warm his back, and leaning against the chimney-piece. `To say nothing of her. At the same time, of course it's not very hard upon her to be obliged to yield to the necessity of the case: first, because she loves me very much; and secondly, because I have sacrificed a great deal on her account, and might have done much better, you know.'