Page:Bleak House.djvu/330

 We were all startled by the fervor of this warning. Richard bit his lip and held his breath, and glanced at me, as if he felt, and knew that I felt too, how much he needed it.

“Ada, my dear,” said Mr. Jarndyce, recovering his cheerfulness, “these are strong words of advice; but I live in Bleak House, and have seen a sight here. Enough of that. All Richard had, to start him in the race of life, is ventured. I recommend to him and you, for his sake and your own, that he should depart from us with the understanding that there is no sort of contract between you. I must go further. I will be plain with you both. You were to confide freely in me, and I will confide freely in you. I ask you wholly to relinquish, for the present, any tie but your relationship.”

“Better to say at once, sir,” returned Richard, “that you renounce all confidence in me, and that you advise Ada to do the same.”

“Better to say nothing of the sort, Rick, because I don't mean it.”

“You think I have begun ill, sir,” retorted Richard. “I have, I know.”

“How I hoped you would begin, and how go on, I told you when we spoke of these things last,” said Mr. Jarndyce, in a cordial and encouraging manner. “You have not made that beginning yet; but there is a time for all things, and yours is not gone by—rather, it is just now fully come. Make a clear beginning altogether. You two (very young, my dears) are cousins. As yet, you are nothing more. What more may come, must come of being worked out, Rick; and no sooner.”

“You are very hard with me, sir,” said Richard. “Harder than I could have supposed you would be.”

“My dear boy,” said Mr. Jarndyce, “I am harder with myself when I do anything that gives you pain. You have your remedy in your own hands. Ada, it is better for him that he should be free, and that there should be no youthful engagement between you. Rick, it is better for her, much better; you owe it to her. Come! Each of you will do what is best for the other, if not what is best for yourselves.”

“Why is it best, sir?” returned Richard, hastily. “It was not, when we opened our hearts to you. You did not say so, then.”

“I have had experience since. I don't blame you, Rick—but I have had experience since.”

“You mean of me, sir.”

“Well! Yes, of both of you,” said Mr. Jarndyce, kindly. “The time is not come for your standing pledged to one another. It is not right, and I must not recognise it. Come, come, my young cousins, begin afresh! Byegones shall be byegones, and a new page turned for you to write your lives in.”

Richard gave an anxious glance at Ada, but said nothing.

“I have avoided saying one word to either of you, or to Esther,” said Mr. Jarndyce, “until now, in order that we might be open as the day, and all on equal terms. I now affectionately advise, I now most earnestly entreat, you two, to part as you came here. Leave all else to time, truth, and stedfastness. If you do otherwise, you will do wrong; and you win have made me do wrong, in ever bringing you together.”

A long silence succeeded.

“Cousin Richard," said Ada, then, raising her blue eyes tenderly to