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'‘I cannot allow this harmless person, Sir, who has been asked here, in
some girlish frolic, to take upon himself, in a very noble manner, the
fault (if fault it is) which I am guilty of, and am ready to avow. I love
your daughter, sir; and I came here for the purpose of meeting her.’
'
Old Lobbs opened his eyes very wide at this, but not wider than
Nathaniel Pipkin.
'
'
'
'
'
‘You did?’ said Lobbs, at last finding breath to speak.
‘I did.’
‘And I forbade you this house, long ago.’
‘You did, or I should not have been here, clandestinely, to-night.’
I am sorry to record it of old Lobbs, but I think he would have struck
the cousin, if his pretty daughter, with her bright eyes swimming in
tears, had not clung to his arm.
'‘Don't stop him, Maria,’ said the young man; ‘if he has the will to
strike me, let him. I would not hurt a hair of his gray head, for the
riches of the world.’
'The old man cast down his eyes at this reproof, and they met those of
his daughter. I have hinted once or twice before, that they were very
bright eyes, and, though they were tearful now, their influence was by
no means lessened. Old Lobbs turned his head away, as if to avoid
being persuaded by them, when, as fortune would have it, he
encountered the face of the wicked little cousin, who, half afraid for
her brother, and half laughing at Nathaniel Pipkin, presented as
bewitching an expression of countenance, with a touch of slyness in
it, too, as any man, old or young, need look upon. She drew her arm
coaxingly through the old man's, and whispered something in his ear;
and do what he would, old Lobbs couldn't help breaking out into a
smile, while a tear stole down his cheek at the same time. 'Five
minutes after this, the girls were brought down from the bedroom with
a great deal of giggling and modesty; and while the young people were
making themselves perfectly happy, old Lobbs got down the pipe, and
smoked it; and it was a remarkable circumstance about that
particular pipe of tobacco, that it was the most soothing and delightful
one he ever smoked.
'Nathaniel Pipkin thought it best to keep his own counsel, and by so
doing gradually rose into high favour with old Lobbs. who taught him
to smoke in time; and they used to sit out in the garden on the fine
evenings, for many years afterwards, smoking and drinking in great
state. He soon recovered the effects of his attachment, for we find his
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