"The girl has not dared to refuse you -- to refuse her father's best friend?"Pathfinder turned his face away to conceal the look of anguish that consciousness told him was passing athwart it, but he continued the discourse in his own quiet, manly tones.
"Mabel is too kind to refuse anything, or to utter harsh words to a dog.I have not put the question in a way to be downright refused, Sergeant.""And did you expect my daughter to jump into your arms before you asked her? She would not have been her mother's child had she done any such thing, nor do I think she would have been mine.The Dunhams like plain dealing as well as the king's majesty; but they are no jumpers.Leave me to manage this matter for you, Path-finder, and there shall be no unnecessary delay.I'll speak to Mabel myself this very evening, using your name as principal in the affair.""I'd rather not, I'd rather not, Sergeant.Leave the matter to Mabel and me, and I think all will come right in the ind.Young girls are like timorsome birds; they do not over-relish being hurried or spoken harshly to nither.
Leave the matter to Mabel and me."
"On one condition I will, my friend; and that is, that you will promise me, on the honor of a scout, that you will put the matter plainly to Mabel the first suitable oppor-tunity, and no mincing of words."
"I will ask her, Sergeant, on condition that you promise not to meddle in the affair -- yes, I will promise to ask Mabel whether she will marry me, even though she laugh in my face at my doing so, on that condition."Sergeant Dunham gave the desired promise very cheer-fully; for he had completely wrought himself up into the belief that the man he so much esteemed himself must be acceptable to his daughter.He had married a woman much younger than himself, and he saw no unfitness in the respective years of the intended couple.Mabel was edu-cated so much above him, too, that he was not aware of the difference which actually existed between the parent and child in this respect.It followed that Sergeant Dun-ham was not altogether qualified to appreciate his daugh-ter's tastes, or to form a very probable conjecture what would be the direction taken by those feelings which oftener depend on impulses and passion than on reason.
Still, the worthy soldier was not so wrong in his estimate of the Pathfinder's chances as might at first appear.Know-ing all the sterling qualities of the man, his truth, integ-rity of purpose, courage, self-devotion, disinterestedness, it was far from unreasonable to suppose that qualities like these would produce a deep impression on any female heart;and the father erred principally in fancying that the daughter might know as it might be by intuition what he himself had acquired by years of intercourse and adventure.
As Pathfinder and his military friend descended the hill to the shore of the lake, the discourse did not flag.The latter continued to persuade the former that his diffidence alone prevented complete success with Mabel, and that he had only to persevere in order to prevail.Pathfinder was much too modest by nature, and had been too plainly, though so delicately, discouraged in the recent interview to believe all he heard; still the father used so many argu-inents which seemed plausible, and it was so grateful to fancy that the daughter might yet be his, that the reader is not to be surprised when he is told that this unsophis-ticated being did not view Mabel's recent conduct in pre-cisely the light in which he may be inclined to view it himself.He did not credit all that the Sergeant told him, it is true; but he began to think virgin coyness and igno-rance of her own feelings might have induced Mabel to use the language she had.
"The Quartermaster is no favorite," said Pathfinder in answer to one of his companion's remarks."Mabel will never look on him as more than one who has had four or five wives already.""Which is more than his share.A man may marry twice without offence to good morals and decency, I allow!
but four times is an aggravation."
"I should think even marrying once what Master Cap calls a circumstance," put in Pathfinder, laughing in his quiet way, for by this time his spirits had recovered some of their buoyancy.
"It is, indeed, my friend, and a most solemn circum-stance too.If it were not that Mabel is to be your wife, I would advise you to remain single.But here is the girl herself, and discretion is the word.""Ah's me, Sergeant, I fear you are mistaken!"
