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+Project Gutenberg's The Daltons, Volume I (of II), by Charles James Lever
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Daltons, Volume I (of II)
+       Or,Three Roads In Life
+
+Author: Charles James Lever
+
+Illustrator: Phiz.
+
+Release Date: April 19, 2010 [EBook #32061]
+Last Updated: February 27, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DALTONS, VOLUME I (OF II) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+THE DALTONS:
+
+OR,
+
+THREE ROADS IN LIFE
+
+
+By Charles James Lever
+
+
+With Illustrations By Phiz.
+
+
+In Two Volumes
+
+Vol. I.
+
+
+Boston: Little, Brown, And Company
+
+1895.
+
+
+
+To LORD METHUEN.
+
+
+MY DEAR METHUEN, Some idle folk have pretended that certain living
+characters have been depicted under the fictitious names of these
+volumes. There is, I assure you, but one personality contained in it,
+and that is of a right true-hearted Englishman, hospitable, and manly
+in all his dealings; and to him I wish to dedicate my book, in testimony
+not only of the gratitude which, in common with all his countrymen here,
+I feel to be his due, but in recognition of many happy hours passed in
+his society, and the honor of his friendship. The personality begins and
+ends with this dedication, which I beg you to accept of, and am
+
+Ever yours faithfully,
+
+CHARLES LEVER.
+
+PALAZZO CAPPONI, FLORENCE, Feb. 28, 1852.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+IF the original conception of this tale was owing to the story of an old
+and valued schoolfellow who took service in Austria, and rose to rank
+and honors there, all the rest was purely fictitious. My friend had made
+a deep impression on my mind by his narratives of that strange life,
+wherein, in the very midst of our modern civilization, an old-world
+tradition still has its influence, making the army of to-day the
+veritable sons and descendants of those who grouped around the bivouac
+fires in Wallenstein's camp. Of that more than Oriental submission that
+graduated deference to military rank that chivalrous devotion to the
+“Kaiser” whicli enter into the soldier heart of Austria, I have been
+unable to reproduce any but the very faintest outlines, and yet these
+were the traits which, pervaded all my friend's stories and gave them
+character and distinctiveness.
+
+Many of the other characters in this tale were drawn from the life, with
+such changes added and omitted features as might rescue them from any
+charge of personality. With all my care on this score, one or two have
+been believed to be recognizable; and if so I have only to hope that
+I have touched on peculiarities of disposition inoffensively, and
+only depicted such traits as may “point a moral,” without wounding the
+possessor.
+
+The last portion of the story includes some scenes from the Italian
+campaign, which had just come to a close while I was writing. If a
+better experience of Italy than I then possessed might modify some of
+the opinions I entertained at that time, and induce me to form some
+conclusions at least at variance with those I then expressed, I still
+prefer to leave the whole unaltered, lest in changing I might injure the
+impression under which the fulness of my once conviction had impelled me
+to pronounce.
+
+Writing these lines now, while men's hearts are throbbing anxiously for
+the tidings any day may produce, and when the earth is already tremulous
+under the march of distant squadrons, I own that even the faint, weak
+picture of that struggle in this story appeals to myself with a
+more than common interest. I have no more to add than my grateful
+acknowledgments to such as still hold me in their favor, and to write
+myself their devoted servant,
+
+CHARLES LEVER.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE DALTONS, OR THREE ROADS IN LIFE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I. BADEN OUT OF SEASON.
+
+A THEATRE by daylight, a great historical picture in the process of
+cleaning, a ballet-dancer of a wet day hastening to rehearsal, the
+favorite for the Oaks dead-lame in a straw-yard, are scarcely
+more stripped of their legitimate illusions than is a fashionable
+watering-place on the approach of winter. The gay shops and stalls of
+flaunting wares are closed; the promenades, lately kept in trimmest
+order, are weed-grown and neglected; the “sear and yellow leaves” are
+fluttering and rustling along the alleys where “Beauty's step was
+wont to tread.” Both music and fountains have ceased to play; the very
+statues are putting on great overcoats of snow, while the orange-trees
+file off like a sad funeral procession to hide themselves in dusky sheds
+till the coming spring.
+
+You see as you look around you that nature has been as unreal as art
+itself, and that all the bright hues of foliage and flower, all the
+odors that floated from bed and parterre, all the rippling flow of
+stream and fountain, have been just as artistically devised, and as much
+“got up,” as the transparencies or the Tyrolese singers, the fireworks
+or the fancy fair, or any other of those ingenious “spectacles” which
+amuse the grown children of fashion. The few who yet linger seem to have
+undergone a strange transmutation.
+
+The smiling landlord of the “Adler” we refer particularly to Germany
+as the very land of watering-places is a half-sulky, farmer-looking
+personage, busily engaged in storing up his Indian corn and his firewood
+and his forage, against the season of snows. The bland “croupier,” on
+whose impassive countenance no shade of fortune was able to mark even
+a passing emotion, is now seen higgling with a peasant for a sack of
+charcoal, in all the eagerness of avarice. The trim maiden, whose golden
+locks and soft blue eyes made the bouquets she sold seem fairer to look
+on, is a stout wench, whose uncouth fur cap and wooden shoes are the
+very antidotes to romance. All the transformations take the same sad
+colors. It is a pantomime read backwards.
+
+Such was Baden-Baden in the November of 182-. Some weeks of bad and
+broken weather had scattered and dispersed all the gay company. The
+hotels and assembly-rooms were closed for the winter. The ball-room,
+which so lately was alight with a thousand tapers, was now barricaded
+like a jail. The very post-office, around which each morning an eager
+and pressing crowd used to gather, was shut up, one small aperture alone
+remaining, as if to show to what a fraction all correspondence had been
+reduced. The Hotel de Russie was the only house open in the little town;
+but although the door lay ajar, no busy throng of waiters, no lamps,
+invited the traveller to believe a hospitable reception might await him
+within. A very brief glance inside would soon have dispelled any such
+illusion, had it ever existed. The wide staircase, formerly lined with
+orange-trees and camellias, was stripped of all its bright foliage;
+the marble statues were removed; the great thermometer, whose crystal
+decorations had arrested many a passing look, was now encased within a
+wooden box, as if its tell-tale face might reveal unpleasant truths, if
+left exposed.
+
+The spacious “Saal,” where some eighty guests assembled every day, was
+denuded of all its furniture, mirrors, and lustres; bronzes and pictures
+were gone, and nothing remained but a huge earthenware stove,
+within whose grating a faded nosegay left there in summer defied all
+speculations as to a fire.
+
+In this comfortless chamber three persons now paraded with that quick
+step and brisk motion that bespeak a walk for warmth and exercise; for
+dismal as it was within doors, it was still preferable to the scene
+without, where a cold incessant rain was falling, that, on the hills
+around, took the form of snow. The last lingerers at a watering-place,
+like those who cling on to a wreck, have usually something peculiarly
+sad in their aspect. Unable, as it were, to brave the waves like strong
+swimmers, they hold on to the last with some vague hope of escape, and,
+like a shipwrecked crew, drawing closer to each other in adversity than
+in more prosperous times, they condescend now to acquaintance, and
+even intimacy, where, before, a mere nod of recognition was alone
+interchanged. Such were the three who now, buttoned up to the chin,
+and with hands deeply thrust into side-pockets, paced backwards and
+forwards, sometimes exchanging a few words, but in that broken
+and discursive fashion that showed that no tie of mutual taste or
+companionship had bound them together.
+
+The youngest of the party was a small and very slightly made man of
+about five or six-and-twenty, whose face, voice, and figure were almost
+feminine, and, only for a very slight line of black moustache, might
+have warranted the suspicion of a disguise. His lacquered boots and
+spotless yellow gloves appeared somewhat out of season, as well as the
+very light textured coat which he wore; but Mr. Albert Jekyl had been
+accidentally detained at Baden, waiting for that cruel remittance which,
+whether the sin be that of agent or relative, is ever so slow of coming.
+That he bore the inconvenience admirably (and without the slightest show
+of impatience) it is but fair to confess; and whatever chagrin either
+the detention, the bad weather, or the solitude may have occasioned, no
+vestige of discontent appeared upon features where a look of practised
+courtesy, and a most bland smile, gave the predominant expression. “Who
+he was,” or, in other words, whence he came, of what family, with what
+fortune, pursuits, or expectations, we are not ashamed to confess our
+utter ignorance, seeing that it was shared by all those that tarried
+that season at Baden, with whom, however, he lived on terms of easy and
+familiar intercourse.
+
+The next to him was a bilious-looking man, somewhat past the middle of
+life, with that hard and severe cast of features that rather repels than
+invites intimacy. In figure he was compactly and stoutly built, his
+step as he walked, and his air as he stood, showed one whose military
+training had given the whole tone to his character. Certain strong lines
+about the mouth, and a peculiar puckering of the angles of the eyes,
+boded a turn for sarcasm, which all his instincts, and they were Scotch
+ones, could not completely repress. His voice was loud, sharp, and
+ringing, the voice of a man who, when he said a thing, would not brook
+being asked to repeat it. That Colonel Haggerstone knew how to be
+sapling as well as oak, was a tradition among those who had served with
+him; still it is right to add, that his more congenial mood was the
+imperative, and that which he usually practised. The accidental lameness
+of one of his horses had detained him some weeks at Baden, a
+durance which assuredly appeared to push his temper to its very last
+intrenchments.
+
+The third representative of forlorn humanity was a very tall, muscular
+man, whose jockey-cut green coat and wide-brimmed hat contrasted oddly
+with a pair of huge white moustaches, that would have done credit to
+a captain of the Old Guard. On features, originally handsome, time,
+poverty, and dissipation had left many a mark; but still the half-droll,
+half-truculent twinkle of his clear gray eyes showed him one whom no
+turn of fortune could thoroughly subdue, and who, even in the very
+hardest of his trials, could find heart to indulge his humor for Peter
+Dalton was an Irishman; and although many years an absentee, held the
+dear island and its prejudices as green in his memory as though he had
+left it but a week before.
+
+Such were the three, who, without one sympathy in common, without a
+point of contact in character, were now drawn into a chance acquaintance
+by the mere accident of bad weather. Their conversation if such it could
+be called showed how little progress could be made in intimacy by those
+whose roads in life lie apart. The bygone season, the company, the
+play-table and its adventures, were all discussed so often, that nothing
+remained but the weather. That topic, so inexhaustible to Englishmen,
+however, offered little variety now, for it had been uniformly bad for
+some weeks past.
+
+“Where do you propose to pass the winter, sir?” said Haggerstone to
+Jekyl, after a somewhat lengthy lamentation over the probable condition
+of all the Alpine passes.
+
+“I 've scarcely thought of it yet,” simpered out the other, with his
+habitual smile. “There's no saying where one ought to pitch his tent
+till the Carnival opens.”
+
+“And you, sir?” asked Haggerstone of his companion on the other side.
+
+“Upon my honor, I don't know then,” said Dalton; “but I would n't wonder
+if I stayed here, or hereabouts.”
+
+“Here! why, this is Tobolsk, sir! You surely couldn't mean to pass a
+winter here?”
+
+“I once knew a man who did it,” interposed Jekyl, blandly. “They cleaned
+him out at 'the tables;' and so he had nothing for it but to remain.
+He made rather a good thing of it, too; for it seems these worthy
+people, however conversant with the great arts of ruin, had never seen
+the royal game of thimble-rig; and Frank Mathews walked into them all,
+and contrived to keep himself in beet-root and boiled beef by his little
+talents.”
+
+“Was n't that the fellow who was broke at Kilmagund?” croaked
+Haggerstone.
+
+“Something happened to him in India; I never well knew what,” simpered
+Jekyl. “Some said he had caught the cholera; others, that he had got
+into the Company's service.”
+
+“By way of a mishap, sir, I suppose,” said the Colonel, tartly.
+
+“He would n't have minded it, in the least. For certain,” resumed the
+other, coolly, “he was a sharp-witted fellow; always ready to take the
+tone of any society.”
+
+The Colonel's cheek grew yellower, and his eyes sparkled with an angrier
+lustre; but he made no rejoinder.
+
+“That's the place to make a fortune, I'm told,” said Dalton. “I hear
+there's not the like of it all the world over.”
+
+“Or to spend one,” added Haggerstone, curtly.
+
+“Well, and why not?” replied Dalton. “I 'm sure it 's as pleasant as
+saving barring a man 's a Scotchman.”
+
+“And if he should be, sir? and if he were one that now stands before
+you?” said Haggerstone, drawing himself proudly up, and looking the
+other sternly in the face.
+
+“No offence no offence in life. I did n't mean to hurt your feelings.
+Sure, a man can't help where he 's going to be born.”
+
+“I fancy we'd all have booked ourselves for a cradle in Buckingham
+Palace,” interposed Jekyl, “if the matter were optional.”
+
+“Faith! I don't think so,” broke in Dalton. “Give me back
+Corrig-O'Neal, as my grandfather Pearce had it, with the whole barony
+of Kilmurray-O'Mahon, two packs of hounds, and the first cellar in
+the county, and to the devil I'd fling all the royal residences ever I
+seen.”
+
+“The sentiment is scarcely a loyal one, sir,” said Haggerstone, “and, as
+one wearing his Majesty's cloth, I beg to take the liberty of reminding
+you of it.”
+
+“Maybe it isn't; and what then?” said Dalton, over whose good-natured
+countenance a passing cloud of displeasure lowered.
+
+“Simply, sir, that it shouldn't be uttered in my presence,” said
+Haggerstone.
+
+“Phew!” said Dalton, with a long whistle, “is that what you 're at? See,
+now” here he turned fully round, so as to face the Colonel “see, now,
+I 'm the dullest fellow in the world at what is called 'taking a thing
+up;' but make it clear for me let me only see what is pleasing to the
+company, and it is n't Peter Dalton will balk your fancy.”
+
+“May I venture to remark,” said Jekyl, blandly, “that you are both in
+error, and however I may (the cold of the season being considered) envy
+your warmth, it is after all only so much caloric needlessly expended.”
+
+“I was n't choleric at all,” broke in Dalton, mistaking the word, and
+thus happily, by the hearty laugh his blunder created, bringing the
+silly altercation to an end.
+
+“Well,” said Haggerstone, “since we are all so perfectly agreed in our
+sentiments, we could n't do better than dine together, and have a bumper
+to the King's health.”
+
+“I always dine at two, or half-past,” simpered Jekyl; “besides, I'm on a
+regimen, and never drink wine.”
+
+“There 's nobody likes a bit of conviviality better than myself,”
+ said Dal ton; “but I 've a kind of engagement, a promise I made this
+morning.”
+
+There was an evident confusion in the way these words were uttered,
+which did not escape either of the others, who exchanged the most
+significant glances as he spoke.
+
+“What have we here?” cried Jekyl, as he sprang to the window and looked
+out. “A courier, by all that's muddy! Who could have expected such an
+apparition at this time?”
+
+“What can bring people here now?” said Haggerstone, as with his glass
+to his eye he surveyed the little well-fed figure, who, in his tawdry
+jacket all slashed with gold, and heavy jack-boots, was closely locked
+in the embraces of the landlord.
+
+Jekyl at once issued forth to learn the news, and, although not fully
+three minutes absent, returned to his companions with a full account of
+the expected arrivals.
+
+“It's that rich banker, Sir Stafford Onslow, with his family. They were
+on their way to Italy, and made a mess of it somehow in the Black
+Forest they got swept away by a torrent, or crushed by an avalanche, or
+something of the kind, and Sir Stafford was seized with the gout, and so
+they 've put back, glad even to make such a port as Baden.”
+
+“If it's the gout's the matter with him,” said Dalton, “I 've the finest
+receipt in the world. Take a pint of spirits poteen if you can get it
+beat up two eggs and a pat of butter in it; throw in a clove of garlic
+and a few scrapings of horseradish, let it simmer over the fire for a
+minute or two, stir it with a sprig of rosemary to give it a flavor, and
+then drink it off.”
+
+“Gracious Heaven! what a dose!” exclaimed Jekyl, in horror.
+
+“Well, then, I never knew it fail. My father took it for forty years,
+and there wasn't a haler man in the country. If it was n't that he gave
+up the horseradish for he did n't like the taste of it he 'd, maybe, be
+alive at this hour.”
+
+“The cure was rather slow of operation,” said Haggerstone, with a sneer.
+
+“'Twas only the more like all remedies for Irish grievances, then,”
+ observed Dal ton, and his face grew a shade graver as he spoke.
+
+“Who was it this Onslow married?” said the Colonel, turning to Jekyl.
+
+“One of the Headworths, I think.”
+
+“Ah, to be sure; Lady Hester. She was a handsome woman when I saw
+her first, but she fell off sadly; and indeed, if she had not, she 'd
+scarcely have condescended to an alliance with a man in trade, even
+though he were Sir Gilbert Stafford.”
+
+“Sir Gilbert Stafford!” repeated Dalton.
+
+“Yes, sir; and now Sir Gilbert Stafford Onslow. He took the name from
+that estate in Warwickshire; Skepton Park, I believe they call it.”
+
+“By my conscience, I wish that was the only thing he took,” ejaculated
+Dalton, with a degree of fervor that astonished the others, “for he
+took an elegant estate that belonged by right to my wife. Maybe you have
+heard tell of Corrig-O'Neal?”
+
+Haggerstone shook his head, while with his elbow he nudged his
+companion, to intimate his total disbelief in the whole narrative.
+
+“Surely you must have heard of the murder of Arthur Godfrey, of
+Corrig-O'Neal; was n't the whole world ringing with it?”
+
+Another negative sign answered this appeal.
+
+“Well, well, that beats all ever I heard! but so it is, sorrow bit they
+care in England if we all murdered each other! Arthur Godfrey, as I was
+saying, was my wife's brother, there were just the two of them, Arthur
+and Jane; she was my wife.”
+
+“Ah! here they come!” exclaimed Jekyl, not sorry for the event which so
+opportunely interrupted Dalton's unpromising history. And now a heavy
+travelling-carriage, loaded with imperials and beset with boxes, was
+dragged up to the door by six smoking horses. The courier and the
+landlord were immediately in attendance, and after a brief delay the
+steps were lowered, and a short, stout man, with a very red face and
+a very yellow wig, descended, and assisted a lady to alight. She was a
+tall woman, whose figure and carriage were characterized by an air of
+fashion. After her came a younger lady; and lastly, moving with great
+difficulty, and showing by his worn looks and enfeebled frame the
+suffering he had endured, came a very thin, mild-looking man of about
+sixty. Leaning upon the arm of the courier at one side, and of his stout
+companion, whom he called Doctor, at the other, he slowly followed the
+ladies into the house. They had scarcely disappeared when a caleche,
+drawn by three horses at a sharp gallop, drew up, and a young fellow
+sprang out, whose easy gestures and active movements showed that all
+the enjoyments of wealth and all the blandishments of fashion had not
+undermined the elastic vigor of body which young Englishmen owe to the
+practice of field sports.
+
+“This place quite deserted, I suppose,” cried he, addressing the
+landlord. “No one here?”
+
+“No one, sir. All gone,” was the reply.
+
+Haggerstone's head shook with a movement of impatience as he heard
+this remark, disparaging as it was, to his own importance; but he said
+nothing, and resumed his walk as before.
+
+“Our Irish friend is gone away, I perceive,” said Jekyl, as he looked
+around in vain for Dalton. “Do you believe all that story of the estate
+he told us?”
+
+“Not a syllable of it, sir. I never yet met an Irishman and it has been
+my lot to know some scores of them who had not been cheated out of a
+magnificent property, and was not related to half the peerage to boot.
+Now, I take it that our highly connected friend is rather out at elbows!”
+ And he laughed his own peculiar hard laugh, as though the mere fancy
+of another man's poverty was something inconceivably pleasant and
+amusing.
+
+“Dinner, sir,” said the waiter, entering and addressing the Colonel.
+
+“Glad of it,” cried he; “it's the only way to kill time in this cursed
+place;” and so saying, and without the ceremony of a good-bye to his
+companion, the Colonel bustled out of the room with a step intended to
+represent extreme youth and activity. “That gentleman dines at two?”
+ asked he of the waiter, as he followed him up the stairs.
+
+“He has not dined at all, sir, for some days back,” said the waiter. “A
+cup of coffee in the morning, and a biscuit, are all that he takes.”
+
+The Colonel made an expressive gesture by turning out the lining of his
+pocket.
+
+“Yes, sir,” replied the other, significantly; “very much that way, I
+believe.” And with that he uncovered the soup, and the Colonel arranged
+his napkin and prepared to dine.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II. AN HUMBLE INTERIOR
+
+WHEN Dalton parted from his companions at the “Russie,” it was to
+proceed by many an intricate and narrow passage to a remote part of the
+upper town, where close to the garden wall of the Ducal Palace stood,
+and still stands, a little solitary two-storied house, framed in wood,
+and the partitions displaying some very faded traces of fresco painting.
+Here was the well-known shop of a toy-maker; and although now closely
+barred and shuttered, in summer many a gay and merry troop of children
+devoured with eager eyes the treasures of Hans Roeckle.
+
+Entering a dark and narrow passage beside the shop, Dalton ascended the
+little creaking stairs which led to the second story. The landing place
+was covered with firewood, great branches of newly-hewn beech and oak,
+in the midst of which stood a youth, hatchet in hand, busily engaged
+in chopping and splitting the heavy masses around him. The flush of
+exercise upon his cheek suited well the character of a figure which,
+clothed only in shirt and trousers, presented a perfect picture of
+youthful health and symmetry.
+
+“Tired, Frank?” asked the old man, as he came up.
+
+“Tired, father! not a bit of it. I only wish I had as much more to split
+for you, since the winter will be a cold one.”
+
+“Come in and sit down, boy, now,” said the father, with a slight
+tremor as he spoke. “We cannot have many more opportunities of talking
+together. To-morrow is the 28th of November.”
+
+“Yes; and I must be in Vienna by the fourth, so Uncle Stephen writes.”
+
+“You must not call him uncle, Frank, he forbids it himself; besides, he
+is my uncle, and not yours. My father and he were brothers, but never
+saw each other after fifteen years of age, when the Count that 's what
+we always called him entered the Austrian service, so that we are all
+strangers to each other.”
+
+“His letter does n't show any lively desire for a closer intimacy,” said
+the boy, laughing. “A droll composition it is, spelling and all.”
+
+“He left Ireland when he was a child, and lucky he was to do so,” sighed
+Dalton, heavily. “I wish I had done the same.”
+
+The chamber into which they entered was, although scrupulously clean and
+neat, marked by every sign of poverty. The furniture was scanty and of
+the humblest kind; the table linen, such as used by the peasantry, while
+the great jug of water that stood on the board seemed the very climax of
+narrow fortune in a land where the very poorest are wine-drinkers.
+
+A small knapsack with a light travelling-cap on it, and a staff beside
+it, seemed to attract Dalton's eyes as he sat down. “It is but a poor
+equipment, that yonder. Frank,” said he at last, with a forced smile.
+
+“The easier carried,” replied the lad, gayly.
+
+“Very true,” sighed the other. “You must make the journey on foot.”
+
+“And why not, father? Of what use all this good blood, of which I have
+been told so often and so much, if it will not enable a man to compete
+with the low-born peasant. And see how well this knapsack sits,” cried
+he, as he threw it on his shoulder. “I doubt if the Emperor's pack will
+be as pleasant to carry.”
+
+“So long as you haven't to carry a heavy heart, boy,” said Dalton, with
+deep emotion, “I believe no load is too much.”
+
+“If it were not for leaving you and the girls, I never could be happier,
+never more full of hope, father. Why should not _I_ win my way upward as
+Count Stephen has done? Loyalty and courage are not the birthright of
+only one of our name!”
+
+“Bad luck was all the birthright ever I inherited,” said the old man,
+passionately; “bad luck in everything I touched through life! Where
+others grew rich, I became a beggar; where they found happiness, _I_ met
+misery and ruin! But it's not of this I ought to be thinking now,” cried
+he, changing his tone. “Let us see, where are the girls?” And so saying,
+he entered a little kitchen which adjoined the room, and where, engaged
+in the task of preparing the dinner, was a girl, who, though several
+years older, bore a striking resemblance to the boy. Over features that
+must once have been the very type of buoyant gayety, years of sorrow and
+suffering had left their deep traces, and the dark circles around the
+eyes betrayed how deeply she had known affliction. Ellen Dalton's figure
+was faulty for want of height in proportion to her size, but had another
+and more grievous defect in a lameness, which made her walk with the
+greatest difficulty. This was the consequence of an accident when
+riding, a horse having fallen upon her and fractured the hip-bone. It
+was said, too, that she had been engaged to be married at the time, but
+that her lover, shocked by the disfigurement, had broken off the match,
+and thus made this calamity the sorrow of a life long.
+
+“Where's Kate?” said the father, as he cast a glance around the chamber.
+
+Ellen drew near, and whispered a few words in his ear.
+
+“Not in this dreadful weather; surely, Ellen, you didn't let her go out
+in such a night as this?”
+
+“Hush!” murmured she, “Frank will hear you; and remember, father, it is
+his last night with us.”
+
+“Could n't old Andy have found the place?” asked Daiton; and as he
+spoke, he turned his eyes to a corner of the kitchen, where a little
+old man sat in a straw chair peeling turnips, while he croned a ditty to
+himself in a low singsong tone; his thin, wizened features, browned
+by years and smoke, his small scratch wig, and the remains of an old
+scarlet hunting-coat that he wore, giving him the strongest resemblance
+to one of the monkeys one sees in a street exhibition.
+
+“Poor Andy!” cried Ellen, “he'd have lost his way twenty times before he
+got to the bridge.”
+
+“Faith, then, he must be greatly altered,” said Dalton, “for I 've seen
+him track a fox for twenty miles of ground, when not a dog of the pack
+could come on the trace. Eh, Andy!” cried he, aloud, and stooping
+down so as to be heard by the old man, “do you remember the cover at
+Corralin?”
+
+“Don't ask him, father,” said Ellen, eagerly; “he cannot sleep for the
+whole night after his old memories have been awakened.”
+
+The spell, however, had begun to work; and the old man, letting fall
+both knife and turnip, placed his hands on his knees, and in a weak,
+reedy treble began a strange, monotonous kind of air, as if to remind
+himself of the words, which, after a minute or two, he remembered thus.
+
+     “There was old Tom Whaley,
+     And Anthony Baillie,
+     And Fitzgerald, the Knight of Glynn,
+     And Father Clare,
+     On his big brown mare,
+     That moruin' at Corralin!”
+
+“Well done, Andy! well done!” exclaimed Dalton. “You 're as fresh as a
+four-year-old.”
+
+“Iss!” said Andy, and went on with his song.
+
+     “And Miles O'Shea,
+     On his cropped tail bay,
+     Was soon seen ridin' in.
+     He was vexed and crossed
+     At the light hoar frost,
+     That mornin' at Corralin.”
+
+“Go on, Andy! go on, my boy!” exclaimed Dalton, in a rapture at the
+words that reminded him of many a day in the field and many a night's
+carouse. “What comes next?”
+
+“Ay!” cried Andy.
+
+     “Says he, 'When the wind
+     Laves no scent behind,
+     To keep the dogs out 's a sin;
+     I 'll be d--d if I stay,
+     To lose my day,
+     This mornin' at Corralin.'”
+
+But ye see he was out in his reck'nin'!” cried Andy; “for, as if
+
+     “To give him the lie,
+     There rose a cry,
+     As the hounds came yelpin' in;
+     And from every throat
+     There swelled one note,
+     That moruin' at Corralin.”
+
+A fit of coughing, brought on by a vigorous attempt to imitate the cry
+of a pack, here closed Andy's minstrelsy; and Ellen, who seemed to have
+anticipated some such catastrophe, now induced her father to return
+to the sitting-room, while she proceeded to use those principles of
+domestic medicine clapping on the back and cold water usually deemed of
+efficacy in like cases.
+
+“There now, no more singing, but take up your knife and do what I bade
+you,” said she, affecting an air of rebuke; while the old man, whose
+perceptions did not rise above those of a spaniel, hung down his head
+in silence. At the same moment the outer door of the kitchen opened, and
+Kate Dalton entered. Taller and several years younger than her sister,
+she was in the full pride of that beauty of which blue eyes and dark
+hair are the chief characteristics, and is deemed by many as peculiarly
+Irish. Delicately fair, and with features regular as a Grecian model,
+there was a look of brilliant, almost of haughty, defiance about her, to
+which her gait and carriage seemed to contribute; nor could the humble
+character of her dress, where strictest poverty declared itself,
+disguise the sentiment.
+
+“How soon you're back, dearest!” said Ellen, as she took off the
+dripping cloak from her sister's shoulders.
+
+“And only think, Ellen, I was obliged to go to Lichtenthal, where little
+Hans spends all his evenings in the winter season, at the 'Hahn!' And
+just fancy his gallantry! He would see me home, and would hold up
+the umbrella, too, over my head, although it kept his own arm at full
+stretch; while, by the pace we walked, I did as much for his legs. It is
+very ungrateful to laugh at him, for he said a hundred pretty things to
+me, about my courage to venture out in such weather, about my accent as
+I spoke German, and lastly, in praise of my skill as a sculptor. Only
+fancy, Ellen, what a humiliation for me to confess that these pretty
+devices were yours, and not mine; and that my craft went no further than
+seeking for the material which your genius was to fashion.”
+
+“Genius, Kate!” exclaimed Ellen, laughing. “Has Master Hans been giving
+you a lesson in flattery; but tell me of your success which has he
+taken?”
+
+“All everything!” cried Kate; “for although at the beginning the little
+fellow would select one figure and then change it for another, it was
+easy to see that he could not bring himself to part with any of them:
+now sitting down in rapture before the 'Travelling Student,' now gazing
+delightedly at the 'Charcoal-Burners,' but all his warmest enthusiasm
+bursting forth as I produced the 'Forest Maiden at the Well.' He did,
+indeed, think the 'Pedler' too handsome, but he found no such fault
+with the Maiden: and here, dearest, here are the proceeds, for I told
+him that we must have ducats in shining gold for Frank's new crimson
+purse; and here they are;” and she held up a purse of gay colors,
+through whose meshes the bright metal glittered.
+
+“Poor Hans!” said Ellen, feelingly. “It is seldom that so humble an
+artist meets so generous a patron.”
+
+“He's coming to-night,” said Kate, as she smoothed down the braids of
+her glossy hair before a little glass, “he's coming to say good-bye to
+Frank.”
+
+“He is so fond of Frank.”
+
+“And of Frank's sister Nelly; nay, no blushing, dearest; for myself,
+I am free to own admiration never comes amiss, even when offered by as
+humble a creature as the dwarf, Hans Roeckle.”
+
+“For shame, Kate, for shame! It is this idle vanity that stifles honest
+pride, as rank weeds destroy the soil for wholesome plants to live in.”
+
+“It is very well for you, Nelly, to talk of pride, but poor things like
+myself are fain to content themselves with the baser metal, and even put
+up with vanity! There, now, no sermons, no seriousness; I'll listen
+to nothing to-day that savors of sadness, and, as I hear pa and Frank
+laughing, I'll be of the party.”
+
+The glance of affection and admiration which Ellen bestowed upon her
+sister was not unmixed with an expression of painful anxiety, and the
+sigh that escaped her told with what tender interest she watched over
+her.
+
+The little dinner, prepared with more than usual care, at length
+appeared, and the family sat around the humble board with a sense of
+happiness dashed by one only reflection, that on the morrow Frank's
+place would be vacant.
+
+Still each exerted himself to overcome the sadness of that thought, or
+even to dally with it, as one suggestive of pleasure; and when Ellen
+placed unexpectedly a great flask of Margraer before them to drink the
+young soldier's health, the zest and merriment rose to the highest. Nor
+was old Andy forgotten in the general joy. A large bumper of wine was
+put before him, and the door of the sitting-room left open, as if to let
+him participate in the merry noises that prevailed there. How naturally,
+and instinctively, too, their hopes gave color to all they said, as they
+told each other that the occasion was a happy one! that dear Frank would
+soon be an officer, and of course distinguished by the favor of some
+one high in power; and lastly, they dwelt with such complacency on
+the affectionate regard and influence of “Count Stephen” as certain
+to secure the youth's advancement. They had often heard of the Count's
+great military fame, and the esteem in which he was held by the Court of
+Vienna; and now they speculated on the delight it would afford the old
+warrior who had never been married himself to have one like Frank, to
+assist by his patronage, and promote by his influence, and with such
+enthusiasm did they discuss the point, that at last they actually
+persuaded themselves that Frank's entering the service was a species of
+devotion to his relative's interest, by affording him an object worthy
+of his regard and affection.
+
+While Ellen loved to dwell upon the great advantages of one who should
+be like a father to the boy, aiding him by wise counsel, and guiding him
+in every difficulty, Kate preferred to fancy the Count introducing Frank
+into all the brilliant society of the splendid capital, presenting him
+to those whose acquaintance was distinction, and at once launching him
+into the world of fashion and enjoyment. The promptitude with which he
+acceded to their father's application on Frank's behalf, was constantly
+referred to as the evidence of his affectionate feeling for the family;
+and if his one solitary letter was of the very briefest and driest of
+all epistolary essays, they accounted for this very naturally by the
+length of time which had elapsed since he had either spoken or written
+his native language.
+
+In the midst of these self-gratulations and pleasant fancies the door
+opened, and Hans Roeckle appeared, covered from head to foot by a light
+hoar-frost, that made him look like the figure with which an ingenious
+confectioner sometimes decorates a cake. The dwarf stood staring at the
+signs of a conviviality so new and unexpected.
+
+“Is this Christmas time, or Holy Monday, or the Three Kings' festival,
+or what is it, that I see you all feasting?” cried Hans, shaking the
+snow off his hat, and proceeding to remove a cloak which he had draped
+over his shoulder in most artistic folds.
+
+“We were drinking Frank's health, Master Hans,” said Dalton, “before he
+leaves us. Come over and pledge him too, and wish him all success, and
+that he may live to be a good and valued soldier of the Emperor.”
+
+Hans had by this time taken off his cloak, which, by mounting on a
+chair, he contrived to hang up, and now approached the table with great
+solemnity, a pair of immense boots of Russian leather, that reached to
+his hips, giving him a peculiarly cumbrous and heavy gait; but these,
+as well as a long vest of rabbit skins that buttoned close to the neck,
+made his invariable costume in the winter.
+
+“I drink,” said the dwarf, as, filling a bumper, he turned to each of
+the company severally “I drink to the venerable father and the fair
+maidens, and the promising youth of this good family, and I wish them
+every blessing good Christians ought to ask for; but as for killing and
+slaying, for burning villages and laying waste cities, I 've no sympathy
+with these.”
+
+“But you are speaking of barbarous times, Master Hans,” said Kate, whose
+cheek mantled into scarlet as she spoke, “when to be strong was to be
+cruel, and when ill-disciplined hordes tyrannized over good citizens.”
+
+[Illustration:  040]
+
+“I am talking of soldiers, such as the world has ever seen them,” cried
+Hans, passionately; but of whose military experiences, it is but fair
+to say, his own little toyshop supplied all the source. “What are they?”
+ cried he, “but toys that never last, whether he who plays with them be
+child or kaiser! always getting smashed, heads knocked off here, arms
+and legs astray there; ay, and strangest of all, thought most of when
+most disabled! and then at last packed up in a box or a barrack, it
+matters not which, to be forgotten and seen no more! Hadst thou thought
+of something useful, boy some good craft, a Jager with a corkscrew
+inside of him, a tailor that turns into a pair of snuffers, a Dutch lady
+that makes a pin-cushion, these are toys people don't weary of but a
+soldier! to stand ever thus” and Hans shouldered the fire-shovel, and
+stood “at the present.” “To wheel about so walk ten steps here ten back
+there never so much as a glance at the pretty girl who is passing
+close beside you.” Here he gave a look of such indescribable tenderness
+towards Kate, that the whole party burst into a fit of laughter. “They
+would have drawn me for the conscription,” said Hans, proudly, “but I
+was the only son of a widow, and they could not.”
+
+“And are you never grieved to think what glorious opportunities of
+distinction have been thus lost to you?” said Kate, who, notwithstanding
+Ellen's imploring looks, could not resist the temptation of amusing
+herself with the dwarf's vanity.
+
+“I have never suffered that thought to weigh upon me,” cried Hans, with
+the most unsuspecting simplicity. “It is true, I might have risen to
+rank and honors; but how would they have suited me, or I them? Or
+how should I have made those dearest to me sharers in a fortune so
+unbecoming to us? Think of poor Hans's old mother, if her son were to
+ask her blessing with a coat all glittering with stars and crosses; and
+then think of her as I have seen her, when I go, as I do every year, to
+visit her in the Bregentzer Wald, when she comes out to meet me with our
+whole village, proud of her son, and yet not ashamed of herself. That is
+glory that is distinction enough for Hans Roeckle.”
+
+The earnestness of his voice, and the honest manliness of his
+sentiments, were more than enough to cover the venial errors of a vanity
+that was all simplicity. It is true that Hans saw the world only through
+the medium of his own calling, and that not a very exalted one; but
+still there went through all the narrowness of his views a tone of
+kindliness a hearty spirit of benevolence, that made his simplicity at
+times rise into something almost akin to wisdom. He had known the Dal
+tons as his tenants, and soon perceived that they were not like those
+rich English, from whom his countrymen derive such abundant gains. He
+saw them arrive at a season when all others were taking their departure,
+and detected in all their efforts at economy, not alone that they were
+poor, but, sadder still, that they were of those who seem never to
+accustom themselves to the privations of narrow fortune; for, while some
+submit in patience to their humble lot, with others life is one long and
+hard-fought struggle, wherein health, hope, and temper are expended in
+vain. That the Daltons maintained a distance and reserve towards others
+of like fortune did, indeed, puzzle honest Hans, perhaps it displeased
+him, too, for he thought it might be pride; but then their treatment
+of himself disarmed that suspicion, for they not only received him ever
+cordially, but with every sign of real affection; and what was he to
+expect such? Nor were these the only traits that fascinated him; for all
+the rugged shell the kernel was a heart as tender, as warm, and as
+full of generous emotions as ever beat within an ampler breast. The two
+sisters, in Hans's eyes, were alike beautiful; each had some grace
+or charm that he had never met with before, nor could he ever satisfy
+himself whether his fancy was more taken by Kate's wit or by Ellen's
+gentleness.
+
+If anything were needed to complete the measure of his admiration, their
+skill in carving those wooden figures, which he sold, would have been
+sufficient. These were in his eyes nor was he a mean connoisseur high
+efforts of genius; and Hans saw in them a poetry and a truthfulness to
+nature that such productions rarely, if ever, possess. To sell, such
+things as mere toys, he regarded as little short of a sacrilege, while
+even to part with them at all cost him a pang like that the gold-worker
+of Florence experienced when he saw some treasure of Benvenuto's chisel
+leave his possession. Not, indeed, that honest Hans had to struggle
+against that criminal passion which prompted the jeweller, even by deeds
+of assassination, to repossess himself of the coveted objects; nay, on
+the contrary, he felt a kindness and a degree of interest towards those
+in whose keeping they were, as if some secret sympathy united them to
+each other.
+
+Is it any wonder if poor Hans forgot himself in such pleasant company,
+and sat a full hour and a half longer than he ought? To him the little
+intervals of silence that were occasionally suffered to intervene were
+but moments of dreamy and delicious revery, wherein his fancy wandered
+away in a thousand pleasant paths; and when at last the watchman for
+remember, good reader, they were in that primitive Germany where customs
+change not too abruptly announced two o'clock, little Hans did not
+vouchsafe a grateful response to the quaint old rhyme that was chanted
+beneath the window.
+
+“That little chap would sit to the day of judgment, and never ask to wet
+his lips,” said Dal ton, as Frank accompanied the dwarf downstairs to
+the street door.
+
+“I believe he not only forgot the hour, but where he was, and everything
+else,” said Kate.
+
+“And poor Frank! who should have been in bed some hours ago,” sighed
+Nelly.
+
+“Gone at last, girls!” exclaimed Frank, as he entered, laughing. “If it
+hadn't been a gust of wind that caught him at the door, and carried
+him clean away, our leave-taking might have lasted till morning. Poor
+fellow! he had so many cautions to give me, such mountains of good
+counsel; and see, here is a holy medal he made me accept. He told me the
+'Swedes' would never harm me so long as I wore it; he still fancies
+that we are in the Thirty Years' War.”
+
+In a hearty laugh over Hans Roeckle's political knowledge, they wished
+each other an affectionate good-night, and separated. Frank was to have
+his breakfast by daybreak, and each sister affected to leave the care of
+that meal to the other, secretly resolving to be up and stirring first.
+
+Save old Andy, there was not one disposed to sleep that night. All were
+too full of their own cares. Even Dalton himself, blunted as were
+his feelings by a long life of suffering, his mind was tortured by
+anxieties; and one sad question arose again and again before him,
+without an answer ever occurring: “What is to become of the girls when
+I am gone? Without a home, they will soon be without a protector!”
+ The bright fancies, the hopeful visions in which the evening had been
+passed, made the revulsion to these gloomy thoughts the darker. He lay
+with his hands pressed upon his face, while the hot tears gushed from
+eyes that never before knew weeping.
+
+At moments he half resolved not to let Frank depart, but an instant's
+thought showed him how futile would be the change. It would be but
+leaving him to share the poverty, to depend upon the scanty pittance
+already too little for themselves. “Would Count Stephen befriend the
+poor girls?” he asked himself over and over; and in his difficulty he
+turned to the strange epistle in which the old general announced Frank's
+appointment as a cadet.
+
+The paper, the square folding, the straight, stiff letters, well suited
+a style which plainly proclaimed how many years his English had lain at
+rest. The note ran thus:
+
+     GRABEN-WIEN, Octobre 9, 18--
+
+     WORTHY SIR AND NEPHEW, Your kindly greeting, but long-time
+     on-the-road-coming letter is in my hands. It is to me
+     pleasure that I announce the appointment of your son as a
+     Cadet in the seventh battalion of the Carl-Franz Infanterie.
+     So with, let him in all speed of time report himself here at
+     Wien, before the War's Minister, bringing his Tauf schein
+     Baptism's sign as proof of Individualism.
+
+     I am yours, well to command, and much-loving kinsman,
+
+     GRAF DALTON VON AUERSBERG, Lieut.-General and
+     Feldzeugmeister, K.K.A.
+
+     To the high and well-born, the Freiherr v. Dalton, in Baden Baden.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III. THE FOREST ROAD.
+
+THIS dry epistle Dalton read and re-read, trying, if not to discover
+some touch of kindliness or interest, to detect, at least, some clew
+to its writer's nature; but to no use, its quaint formalism baffled all
+speculation, and he gave up the pursuit in despair. That “the Count”
+ was his father's only brother, and a “Dalton,” were the only grains of
+comfort he could extract from his meditations; but he had lived long
+enough in the world to know how little binding were the ties of kindred
+when once slackened by years and distance. The Count might, therefore,
+regard them in the light of intruders, and feel the very reverse of
+pleasure at the revival of a relationship which had slept for more than
+half a century. Dalton's pride or what he thought his pride revolted
+against this thought; for, although this same pride would not have
+withheld him from asking a favor of the Count, it would have assumed a
+most indignant attitude if refused, or even grudgingly accorded.
+
+When the thought first occurred to him of applying to his uncle in
+Frank's behalf, he never hesitated about the propriety of addressing
+a request to one with whom he had never interchanged a line in all his
+life; and now he was quite ready to take offence, if all the warmth
+of blood relationship should not fill the heart of him who had been an
+exile from home and family since his earliest boyhood.
+
+An easy, indolent selfishness had been the spirit of Dalton's whole
+life. He liked to keep a good house, and to see company about him;
+and this obtained for him the reputation of hospitality. He disliked
+unpopularity, and dreaded the “bad word” of the people; and hence he
+suffered his tenantry to fall into arrears and his estate into ruin. A
+vain rivalry with wealthier neighbors prevented retrenchment when
+his means were lessened. The unthinking selfishness of his nature was
+apparent even in his marriage, since it was in obedience to an old
+pledge extracted years before that Miss Godfrey accepted him, and parted
+in anger with her brother, who had ever loved her with the warmest
+affection. Mr. Godfrey never forgave his sister; and at his death, the
+mysterious' circumstances of which were never cleared up, his estate
+passed to a distant relative, the rick Sir Gilbert Stafford.
+
+Dalton, who long cherished the hope of a reconciliation, saw all
+prospect vanish when his wife died, which she did, it was said, of a
+broken heart. His debts were already considerable, and all the resources
+of borrowing and mortgage had been long since exhausted; nothing was
+then left for him but an arrangement with his creditors, which, giving
+him a pittance scarcely above the very closest poverty, enabled him to
+drag out life in the cheap places of the Continent; and thus, for nigh
+twenty years, had he wandered about from Dieppe to Ostend, to Bruges, to
+Dusseldorf, to Coblentz, and so on, among the small Ducal cities, till,
+with still failing fortune, he was fain to seek a residence for the
+winter in Baden, where house-rent, at least, would be almost saved to
+him.
+
+The same apathy that had brought on his ruin enabled him to bear it.
+Nothing has such a mock resemblance to wisdom as utter heartlessness;
+with all the seeming of true philosophy, it assumes a port and bearing
+above the trials of the world; holds on “the even tenor of its way,”
+ undeterred by the reverses which overwhelm others, and even meets the
+sternest frowns of fortune with the bland smile of equanimity.
+
+In this way Dalton had deceived many who had known him in better days,
+and who now saw him, even in his adversity, with the same careless,
+good-natured look, as when he took the field with his own hounds, or
+passed round the claret at his own table. Even his own children were
+sharers in this delusion, and heard him with wondering admiration, as he
+told of the life he used to lead, and the style he once kept up at Mount
+Dalton. These were his favorite topics; and, as he grew older, he
+seemed to find a kind of consolation in contrasting all the hard rubs of
+present adversity with his once splendor.
+
+Upon Ellen Dalton, who had known and could still remember her mother,
+these recitals produced an impression of profound grief, associated as
+they were with the sufferings of a sick-bed and the closing sorrows of a
+life; while, in the others, they served to keep up a species of pride of
+birth, and an assumption of superiority to others of like fortune,
+which their father gloried in, representing, as he used to say, “the old
+spirit of the Dal tons.”
+
+As for Kate, she felt it a compensation for present poverty to know that
+they were of gentle blood, and that if fortune, at some distant future,
+would deal kindly by them, to think that they should not obtrude
+themselves like upstarts on the world, but resume, as it were, the place
+that was long their own.
+
+In Frank the evil had taken a deeper root. Taught from his earliest
+infancy to believe himself the heir of an ancient house, pride of birth
+and station instilled into his mind by old Andy, the huntsman, the only
+dependant, whom, with characteristic wisdom, they had carried with
+them from Ireland, he never ceased to ponder on the subject, and wonder
+within himself if he should live to have “his own” again.
+
+Such a hold had this passion taken of him, that, even as a child, he
+would wander away for days long into lonely and unfrequented spots,
+thinking over the stories he had heard, and trying to conjure up before
+his eyes some resemblance to that ancient house and venerable domain
+which had been so long in his family. It was no part of his teaching to
+know by what spendthrift and reckless waste, by what a long career of
+folly, extravagance, and dissipation, the fortune of his family had been
+wrecked; or rather, many vague and shadowy suspicions had been left
+to fester in his mind of wrongs and injuries done them; of severe laws
+imposed by English ignorance or cruelty; of injustice, on this hand
+heartless indifference of friends on the other; the unrelenting anger
+of his uncle Godfrey filling up the measure of their calamities. Frank
+Dalton's education went very little further than this; but, bad as it
+was, its effect was blunted by the natural frankness and generosity of
+his character, its worst fruits being an over-estimate of himself and
+his pretensions, errors which the world has always the watchful kindness
+to correct in those who wear threadbare coats and patched boots.
+
+He was warmly and devotedly attached to his father and sisters, and
+whatever bitterness found its way into his heart was from seeing them
+enduring the many trials of poverty.
+
+All his enthusiasm for the service in which he was about to enter was,
+therefore, barely sufficient to overcome the sorrow of parting with
+those, whom alone of all the world he loved; and when the moment drew
+nigh for his departure, he forgot the bright illusions by which he had
+so often fed his hopes, and could only think of the grief of separation.
+
+His candle had burned down nearly to the socket, when he arose and
+looked at his watch. It was all dark as midnight without, although nigh
+six o'clock. He opened the window, and a thin snowdrift came slanting
+in, borne on a cutting north wind; he closed it hastily, and shuddered
+as he thought of the long and lonely march before him. All was silent
+in the house as he dressed himself and prepared for the road. With
+noiseless step he drew near his father's door and listened; everything
+was still. He could not bring himself to disturb him, so he passed on
+to the room where his sisters slept. The door lay ajar, and a candle was
+burning on the table. Frank entered on tiptoe and drew near the bed, but
+it was empty and had not been lain in. As he turned round he beheld Kate
+asleep in a chair, dressed as he had last seen her. She had never lain
+down, and the prayer-book, which had dropped from her hand, told how her
+last waking moments were passed.
+
+He kissed her twice, but even the hot tears that fell from his eyes upon
+her cheek did not break her slumber. He looked about him for some token
+to leave, that might tell he had been there, but there was nothing, and,
+with a low sigh, he stole from the room.
+
+As he passed out into the kitchen, Ellen was there. She had already
+prepared his breakfast, and was spreading the table when he entered.
+
+“How good of you how kind, Ellen,” said he, as he passed his arm around
+her neck.
+
+“Hush, Frank, they are both sleeping. Poor papa never closed his eyes
+till half an hour ago, and Kate was fairly overcome ere she yielded.”
+
+“You will say that I kissed them, Nelly, kissed them twice,” said he,
+in a low, broken voice, “and that I could n't bear to awake them.
+Leave-taking is so sorrowful. Oh, Ellen, if I knew that you were all
+happy, that there were no hardships before you, when I 'm away!”
+
+“And why should we not, Frank?” said she, firmly. “There is no dishonor
+in this poverty, so long as there are no straits to make it seem other
+than it is. Let us rather pray for the spirit that may befit any lot we
+are thrown in, than for a fortune to which we might be unsuited.”
+
+“Would you forget who we are, Ellen?” said he, half reproachfully.
+
+“I would remember it, Frank, in a temper less of pride than humility.”
+
+“I do not see much of the family spirit in all this,” rejoined he,
+almost angrily.
+
+“The family spirit,” echoed she, feelingly. “What has it ever done for
+us, save injury? Has it suggested a high=bearing courage against the
+ills of narrow fortune? Has it told us how to bear poverty with dignity,
+or taught us one single lesson of patience and submission? Or has it, on
+the contrary, been ever present to whisper the changes in our condition
+how altered our lot making us ashamed of that companionship which our
+station rendered possible for us, and leaving us in the isolation of
+friendlessness for the sake of I blush to abuse the word our Pride! Oh,
+Frank, my dear, dear brother, take it not ill of me, that in our last
+moments together, perhaps for years, I speak what may jar upon your ears
+to hear; but remember that I am much older, that I have seen far more
+of the world, at least of its sorrows and cares, than you have. I have
+indeed known affliction in many ways, but have never found a poorer
+comforter in its troubles than what we call our Pride!”
+
+“You would have me forget I am a Dalton, then?” said the boy, in a tone
+of sorrowful meaning.
+
+“Never! when the recollection could prompt a generous or a noble action,
+a manly ambition, or a high-hearted thought; but the name will have
+no spell in it, if used to instil an imperious, discontented spirit,
+a regretful contrast of what we are, with what we might have been, or
+what, in a worldly sense, is more destructive still, a false reliance on
+the distinction of a family to which we have contributed nothing.”
+
+
+[Illustration:    050]
+
+“You do not know, Nelly dearest, of what a comfort you have robbed me,”
+ said Frank, sorrowfully.
+
+“Do not say so, my dearest brother,” cried she, passing her arm around
+him; “a deception, a mere illusion, is unworthy of that name. Look above
+the gratification of mere vanity, and you will become steeled against
+the many wounds self-love is sure to receive in intercourse with the
+world. I cannot tell how, or with what associates, you are about to
+live, but I feel certain that in every station a man of truth and honor
+will make himself respected. Be such, dearest Frank. If family pride if
+the name of Dalton have value in your eyes, remember that upon you it
+rests to assert its right to distinction. If, as I would fondly hope,
+your heart dwells here with us, bethink ye what joy what holy gratitude
+you will diffuse around our humble hearth to know that our brother is a
+good man.”
+
+It was some moments ere either could speak again. Emotions, very
+different ones, perhaps, filled their hearts, and each was too deeply
+moved for words. Frank's eyes were full of tears, and his cheek
+quivering, as he threw his knapsack on his shoulder.
+
+“You will write from Innspruck, Frank; but how many days will it take
+ere you reach that city?”
+
+“Twelve or fourteen at least, if I go on foot. There, Nelly, do not help
+me, dearest; I shall not have you tomorrow to fasten these straps.”
+
+“This is not to be forgotten, Frank; it's Kate's present. How sorry she
+will be not to have given it with her own hands!” And so saying, she
+gave him the purse her sister had worked.
+
+“But there is gold in it,” said the boy, growing pale with emotion.
+
+“Very little, Frank dearest,” replied she, smiling. “A cadet must always
+have gold in his purse, so little Hans tells us; and you know how wise
+he is in all these matters.”
+
+“And is it from a home like this that I am to take gold away!” cried he,
+passionately.
+
+“Nay, Frank, you must not persuade us that we are so very poor. I
+will not consent to any sense of martyrdom, I promise you.” It was not
+without difficulty she could overcome his scruples; nor, perhaps, had
+she succeeded at all, if his thoughts had not been diverted into another
+channel by a light tapping at the door. It was Hans Roeckle come to
+awake him.
+
+Again and again the brother and sister embraced; and in a very agony of
+tears Frank tore himself away, and hastened down the stairs. The next
+moment the heavy house door banged loudly, and he was gone.
+
+Oh, the loneliness of mind in which he threaded his way through the dark
+and narrow streets, where the snow already lay deeply! With what sinking
+of the heart he turned to look for the last time at the window where the
+light the only one to be seen still glimmered. How little could all the
+promptings of hope suffice against the sad and dark reality that he was
+leaving all he loved, and all who loved him, to adventure upon a world
+where all was bleak and friendless!
+
+But not all his dark forebodings could equal hers from whom he had just
+parted. Loving her brother with an affection more like that of mother
+than sister, she had often thought over the traits of his character,
+where, with many a noble gift, the evil seeds of wrong teaching had
+left, like tall weeds among flowers, the baneful errors of inordinate
+self-esteem and pride. Ignorant of the career on which he was about to
+enter, Ellen could but speculate vaguely how such a character would be
+esteemed, and whether his native frankness and generosity would cover
+over, or make appear as foibles, these graver faults. Their own narrow
+fortunes, the very straits and privations of poverty, with all their
+cruel wounds to honest pride, and all their sore trials of temper, she
+could bear up against with an undaunted courage. She had learned her
+lesson in the only school wherein it is taught, and daily habit had
+instilled its own powers of endurance; but, for Frank, her ambition
+hoped a higher and brighter destiny, and now, in her solitude, and with
+a swelling heart, she knelt down and prayed for him. And, oh! if the
+utter ings of such devotion never rise to Heaven or meet acceptance
+there, they at least bring balm to the spirit of him who syllables
+them, building up a hope whose foundations are above the casualties of
+humanity, and giving a courage that mere self-reliance never gave.
+
+Little Hans not only came to awaken Frank, but to give him companionship
+for some miles of his way, a thoughtful kindness, for which the youth's
+deep preoccupation seemed to offer but a poor return. Indeed, Frank
+scarcely knew that he was not travelling in utter solitude, and all the
+skilful devices of the worthy dwarf to turn the channel of his thoughts
+were fruitless. Had there been sufficient light to have surveyed the
+equipment of his companion, it is more than probable that the sight
+would have done more to produce this diversion of gloom than any
+arguments which could have been used. Master Roeckle, whose mind was
+a perfect storehouse of German horrors, earthly and unearthly, and who
+imagined that a great majority of the human population of the globe were
+either bandits or witches, had surrounded himself with a whole museum
+of amulets and charms of various kinds. In his cap he wore the tail of
+a black squirrel, as a safeguard against the “Forest Imp;” a large dried
+toad hung around his neck, like an order, to protect him from the evil
+eye; a duck's foot was fastened to the tassel of his boot, as a talisman
+against drowning; while strings of medals, coins, precious stones,
+blessed beads, and dried insects, hung round and about him in every
+direction. Of all the portions of his equipment, however, what seemed
+the most absurd was a huge pole-axe of the fifteenth century, and which
+he carried as a defence against mere mortal foes, but which, from its
+weight and size, appeared far more likely to lay its bearer low than
+inflict injury upon others. It had been originally stored up in the Rust
+Kammer, at Prague, and was said to be the identical weapon with which
+Conrad slew the giant at Leutmeritz, a fact which warranted Hans in
+expending two hundred florins in purchasing it; as, to use his own
+emphatic words, “it was not every day one knew where to find the weapon
+to bring down a giant.”
+
+As Hans, encumbered by his various adjuncts, trotted along beside his
+stalwart companion, he soon discovered that all his conversational
+ability to exert which cost him so dearly was utterly unattended to;
+he fell into a moody silence, and thus they journeyed for miles of way
+without interchanging a word. At last they came in sight of the little
+village of Hernitz Kretschen, whence by a by road Frank was to reach
+the regular line that leads through the Hohlen Thai to the Lake of
+Constance, and where they were to part.
+
+“I feel as though I could almost go all the way with you,” said Hans, as
+they stopped to gaze upon the little valley where lay the village, and
+beyond which stretched a deep forest of dark pine-trees, traversed by a
+single road.
+
+“Nay, Hans,” said Frank, smiling, as for the first time he beheld the
+strange figure beside him; “you must go back to your pleasant little
+village and live happily, to do many a kindness to others, as you have
+done to me to-day!”
+
+“I would like to take service with the Empress myself,” said Hans, “if
+it were for some good and great cause, like the defence of the Church
+against the Turks, or the extermination of the race of dragons that
+infest the Lower Danube.”
+
+“But you forget, Hans, it is an Emperor, rules over Austria now,” said
+Frank, preferring to offer a correction to the less startling of his
+hallucinations.
+
+“No, no, Master Frank, they have not deposed the good Maria Teresa,
+they would never do that. I saw her picture over the doorway of the
+Burgermeister the last time I went to visit my mother in the Bregertzer
+Wald, and by the same token her crown and sceptre were just newly gilt,
+a thing they would not have done if she were not on the throne.”
+
+“What if she were dead, and her son too?” said Frank; but his words were
+scarce uttered when he regretted to have said them, so striking was the
+change that came over the dwarf's features.
+
+“If that were indeed true, Heaven have mercy on us!” exclaimed he,
+piously. “Old Frederick will have but little pity for good Catholics!
+But no, Master Frank, this cannot be. The last time I received soldiers
+from Nuremberg they wore the same uniforms as ever, and the 'Moriamur
+pro Rege nostro, M. T.' was in gold letters on every banner as before.”
+
+Frank was in no humor to disturb so innocent and so pleasing a delusion,
+and he gave no further opposition; and now they both descended the
+path which led to the little inn of the village. Here Hans insisted on
+performing the part of host, and soon the table was covered with brown
+bread and hard eggs, and those great massive sausages which Germans
+love, together with various flasks of Margrafler and other “Badisch”
+ wines.
+
+“Who knows,” said Hans, as he pledged his guest by ringing his
+wine-glass against the other's, “if, when we meet again, thou wouldst
+sit down at the table with such as me?”
+
+“How so, Hanserl?” asked the boy, in astonishment.
+
+“I mean, Master Franz, that you may become a colonel, or perhaps a
+general, with, mayhap, the 'St. Joseph' at your button-hole, or the
+'Maria Teresa' around your neck; and if so, how could you take your
+place at the board with the poor toy-maker?”
+
+“I am not ashamed to do so now,” said Frank, haughtily; “and the Emperor
+cannot make me more a gentleman than my birth has done. Were I to be
+ashamed of those who befriended me, I should both disgrace my rank and
+name together.”
+
+“These are good words, albeit too proud ones,” said Hans, thoughtfully.
+“As a guide through life, pride will do well enough when the roads are
+good and your equipage costly; but when you come upon mountain-paths and
+stony tracts, with many a wild torrent to cross, and many a dark glen to
+traverse, humility even a child's humility will give better teaching.”
+
+“I have no right to be other than humble!” said the boy; but the
+flashing brightness of his eyes, and the heightened color of his cheek,
+seemed to contradict his words.
+
+For a while the conversation flagged, or was maintained in short and
+broken sentences, when at length Frank said,
+
+“You will often go to see them, Hanserl, won't you? You'll sit with
+them, too, of an evening? for they will feel lonely now; and my father
+will like to tell you his stories about home, as he calls it still.”
+
+“That will I,” said Hans; “they are the happiest hours of my life when I
+sit beside that hearth.”
+
+Frank drew his hand across his eyes, and his lips quivered as he tried
+to speak.
+
+“You'll be kind to poor Ellen, too; she is so timid, Hans. You cannot
+believe how anxious she is, lest her little carvings should be thought
+unworthy of praise.”
+
+“They are gems! they are treasures of art!” cried Hans,
+enthusiastically.
+
+“And my sweet Kate!” cried the boy, as his eyes ran over, while a throng
+of emotions seemed to stop his utterance.
+
+“She is so beautiful!” exclaimed Hans, fervently. “Except the Blessed
+Maria at the Holy Cross, I never beheld such loveliness. There is the
+Angelus ringing; let us pray a blessing on them;” and they both knelt
+down in deep devotion. Frank's lips never moved, but with swelling heart
+and clasped hands he remained fixed as a statue; while Hanserl in some
+quaint old rhyme uttered his devotions.
+
+“And yonder is the dog-star, bright and splendid,” said Hans, as he
+arose. “There never was a happier omen for the beginning of a journey.
+You 'll be lucky, boy; there is the earnest of good fortune. That same
+star was shining along the path as I entered Baden, eighteen years ago;
+and see what a lucky life has mine been!”
+
+Frank could not but smile at the poor dwarf's appreciation of his
+fortune; but Hanserl's features wore a look that betokened a happy and
+contented nature.
+
+“And yours has been a lucky life, Hanserl?” said he, half in question.
+
+“Lucky? ay, that has it. I was a poor boy, barefooted and hungry in my
+native forest deformed, and stunted, too a thing to pity too weak to
+work, and with none to teach me, and yet even I was not forgotten by Him
+who made the world so fair and beautiful; but in my heart was planted
+a desire to be something to do something, that others might benefit by.
+The children used to mock me as I passed along the road; but a voice
+whispered within me, 'Be of courage, Hanserl, they will bless thee yet,
+they will greet thee with many a merry laugh and joyous cry, and call
+thee their own kind Hanserl:' and so have I lived to see it! My name
+is far and wide over Germany. Little boys and girls know and speak of
+me amongst the first words they syllable; and from the palace to the
+bauer's hut, Hans Roeckle has his friends; and who knows that when
+this poor clay is mingled with the earth, but that my spirit will hover
+around the Christmas-tree when glad voices call upon me! I often think
+it will be so.”
+
+Frank's eyes glistened as he gazed upon the dwarf, who spoke with a
+degree of emotion and feeling very different from his wont.
+
+“So you see, Master Franz,” said he, smiling, “there are ambitions of
+every hue, and this of mine you may deem of the very faintest, but it
+is enough for me. Had I been a great painter, or a poet, I would have
+revelled in the thought that my genius adorned the walls of many a noble
+palace, and that my verses kindled emotions in many a heart that felt
+like my own; but as one whom nature has not gifted, poor, ignoble, and
+unlettered, am I not lucky to have found a little world of joyous hearts
+and merry voices, who care for me % and speak of me, ay, and who would
+give me a higher place in their esteem than to Jean Paul, or Goethe
+himself?”
+
+The friends had but time to pledge each other in a parting glass, when
+the stage drove up by which Hans was to return to Baden. A few hurried
+words, half cheering, half sorrowful, a close embrace, one long and
+lingering squeeze of the hand,
+
+“Farewell, kind Hanserl!”
+
+“God guide thee, Franz!” and they parted.
+
+Frank stood in the little “Platz,” where the crowd yet lingered,
+watching the retiring “Post,” uncertain which, way to turn him.
+He dreaded to find himself all alone, and yet he shrank from new
+companionship. The newly risen moon and the calm air invited him to
+pursue his road; so he set out once more, the very exercise being a
+relief against his sad thoughts.
+
+Few words are more easily spoken than “He went to seek his fortune;”
+ and what a whole world lies within the narrow compass! A world of
+high-hearted hopes and doubting fear, of noble ambition to be won, and
+glorious paths to be trod, mingled with tender thoughts of home and
+those who made it such. What sustaining courage must be his who dares
+this course and braves that terrible conflict the toughest that ever man
+fought between his own bright coloring of life and the stern reality of
+the world! How many hopes has he to abandon, how many illusions to
+give up! How often is his faith to be falsified and his trustfulness
+betrayed; and, worst of all, what a fatal change do these trials impress
+upon himself, how different is he from what he had been!
+
+Young and untried as Frank Dalton was in life, he was not altogether
+unprepared for the vicissitudes that awaited him; his sister Nelly's
+teachings had done much to temper the over-buoyant spirit of his nature,
+and make him feel that he must draw upon that same courage to sustain
+the present, rather than to gild the future.
+
+His heart was sorrowful, too, at leaving a home where unitedly they
+had, perhaps, borne up better against poverty. He felt for his own heart
+revealed it how much can be endured in companionship, and how the burden
+of misfortune like every other load is light when many bear it. Now
+thinking of these things, now fancying the kind of life that might lie
+before him, he marched along. Then he wondered whether the Count would
+resemble his father. The Daltons were remarkable for strong traits of
+family likeness, not alone in feature, but in character; and what a
+comfort Frank felt in fancying that the old general would be a thorough
+Dalton in frankness and kindliness of nature, easy in disposition, with
+all the careless freedom of his own father! How he should love him, as
+one of themselves!
+
+It is a well-known fact, that certain families are remarkable above
+others for the importance that they attach to the ties of kindred,
+making the boast of relationship always superior to the claims of
+self-formed friendships. This is perhaps more peculiarly the case among
+those who live little in the world, and whose daily sayings and doings
+are chiefly confined to the narrow circle of home. But yet it is
+singular how long this prejudice for perhaps it deserves no better
+name can stand the conflict of actual life. The Daltons were a special
+instance of what we mean. Certain characteristics of look and feature
+distinguished them all, and they all agreed in maintaining the claim of
+relationship as the strongest bond of union; and it was strange into
+how many minor channels this stream meandered. Every old ruin, every
+monument, every fragment of armor, or ancient volume associated with
+their name, assumed a kind of religious value in their eyes, and the
+word Dalton was a talisman to exalt the veriest trifle into the rank of
+relic. From his earliest infancy Frank had been taught these lessons.
+They were the traditions of the parlor and the kitchen, and by the mere
+force of repetition became a part of his very nature. Corrig-O'Neal was
+the theme of every story. The ancient house of the family, and which,
+although by time's changes it had fallen into the hands of the Godfreys
+from whom his mother came was yet regarded with all the feelings of
+ancient pride. Over and over again was he told of the once princely
+state that his ancestors held there, the troops of retainers, the
+mounted followers that ever accompanied them. The old house itself was
+exalted to the rank of a palace, and its wide-spreading but neglected
+grounds spoken of like the park of royalty.
+
+To see this old house of his fathers, to behold with his own eyes the
+seat of their once greatness, became the passion of the boy's heart.
+Never did the Bedouin of the Desert long after Mecca with more
+heart-straining desire. To such a pitch had this passion gained on
+him, that, unable any longer to resist an impulse that neither left
+his thoughts by day nor his dreams by night, he fled from his school at
+Bruges, and when only ten years old made his way to Ostend, and under
+pretence of seeking a return to his family, persuaded the skipper of a
+trading-vessel to give him a passage to Limerick. It would take us too
+far from our road already a long one were we to follow his wanderings
+and tell of all the difficulties that beset the little fellow on his
+lonely journey. Enough that we say, he did at last reach the goal, of
+his hopes, and, after a journey of eight long days, find himself at the
+ancient gate of Corrig-O'Neal.
+
+At first the disappointment was dreadful. The proud mansion, of whose
+glorious splendor his imagination had created an Oriental palace, was
+an antiquated brick edifice, in front of which ran a long terrace, once
+adorned with statues, but of which the pedestals alone remained. A few
+hedges of yew, with here and there the fragments of a marble figure or
+fountain, showed that the old French chateau taste had once prevailed
+there; and of this a quaint straight avenue of lime-trees, reaching
+directly from the door to the river, also bore evidence. The tone of
+sadness and desertion was on everything; many of the lower windows were
+walled up; the great door itself was fastened and barricaded in such a
+way as to show it had been long disused. Not a creature was to be seen
+stirring about the place, and save that at night the flickering light
+of a candle might be descried from a small casement that looked upon the
+garden, the house might have been deemed uninhabited. Perhaps something
+in the mysterious desolation of the scene had its influence over the
+boy's mind; but as hour by hour he lingered in those silent woods, and
+lay in the deep grass, watching the cloud shadows as they stole along,
+he grew fondly attached to the place; now losing himself in some revery
+of the long past, now following out some half-remembered narrative of
+his mother's childhood, when she herself dwelt there.
+
+All his little resources of pocket-money expended, his clothes, save
+such as he wore, sold, he could scarcely tear himself from a scene that
+filled every avenue of his heart. The time, however, came, when a ship,
+about to sail for the Scheldt, gave him the opportunity of returning
+home; and now this was to be his last day at Corrig-O'Neal.
+
+And what a day of conflicting thought was it! now half resolved to
+approach the house, and ask to see his uncle, and now repelled by
+remembering all his unkindness to his father. Then marvelling whether
+some change might not have taken place in the old man's mind, and
+whether in his lonely desolation he might not wish once more to see his
+kindred near him.
+
+He knew not what to do, and evening found him still undecided, and
+sitting on a little rising spot, from which the view extended over the
+garden at the back of the house, and whence he had often watched the
+solitary light that marked the old man's vigils.
+
+Wearied by long watching and thought, he fell asleep; and when he awoke
+the light was gone, the light which hitherto had always burned till
+daybreak! and from the darkness it must now be far from that hour.
+While Frank wondered what this might mean, he was startled by hearing
+footsteps near him at least so they sounded on the gravel-walk of the
+garden, and in a few minutes after the grating sound of a key, and the
+opening of a small door which led out into the wood. He now perceived
+that a man was standing at the foot of the knoll, who seemed irresolute
+and undecided; for he twice returned to the door, once introduced the
+key, and again withdrew it, as if with a changed purpose. Suddenly he
+appeared to have made up his mind, for, stooping down, he began to dig
+with the greatest energy, stopping at intervals to listen, and again
+continuing his work when satisfied that he was unobserved.
+
+The hour the scene itself the evident secrecy of the man, almost
+paralyzed the boy with terror; nor was it till long after the turf was
+replaced, dry leaves and dead branches were strewn over the spot, and
+the man himself gone, that Frank gained courage to move away. This he
+did at first cautiously and timidly, and then with a speed that soon
+carried him far away from the spot. The following day he was at sea;
+and if at first the strange scene never left his thoughts, with time the
+impression faded away, till at length it assumed the indistinctness of a
+vision, or of some picture created by mere imagination.
+
+When he did return home, he never revealed, except to Nelly, where he
+had been, and the object for which he went; but, even to her, from some
+strange love of mystery, he told nothing of the last night's experience:
+this was a secret, which he hoarded like a miser's treasure, and loved
+to think that he only knew of. The stirring events of a schoolboy's
+life, at first, and subsequently the changeful scenes of opening
+manhood, gradually effaced the impression of what he had seen, or merely
+left it to all the indistinctness of a dream.
+
+And thus are thoughts often sealed up in the memory for years unnoticed
+and unknown till, after a long interval, they are all called forth, and
+become the very pivots on which turns our destiny.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV. THE ONSLOWS
+
+THE little town of Baden was thrown into a state of considerable
+excitement by the unexpected arrival we have chronicled in a preceding
+chapter, and the host of the “Russie” reduced to the most uncommon
+straits to restore the effective of a staff, now brought down to the
+closest economy of retrenchment. Cooks, waiters, and housemaids were
+sought after in every quarter, while emissaries were despatched right
+and left to replenish the larder and provide for the wants of the mighty
+“Englander.” Nor was all the bustle and commotion limited to within the
+hotel, but extended throughout the village itself, where many a rustic
+pony, laid up in ordinary for the winter, was again trimmed and curried
+and shod, to be paraded before the windows with a scarlet saddle-cloth
+and a worsted tassel to the bridle, in all the seductive attraction of
+a palfrey. Even flower-girls made their appearance again with a few
+frost-nipped buds and leaves; while a bassoon and a triangle, voting
+themselves a band, gave horrid signs of their means of persecution.
+
+Meanwhile were the fortunate individuals for whose benefit these
+exertions were evoked, in the most blissful ignorance of all the
+interest they were awakening. From the first moment of their arrival
+none had even seen them. Waited upon by their own servants, scarcely
+heard, not even appearing at the windows, they were unconsciously
+ministering to a mystery that now engaged every tongue and ear
+around them. As, however, nothing of secrecy had any share in their
+proceedings, we have no scruple in invading the presence and introducing
+the reader to the company.
+
+Sir Stafford Onslow was an immensely rich London banker, who in his
+capacity of borough member had voted steadily with the Whigs for some
+five-and-twenty years; supporting them by all the influence of his
+wealth and family, and who now came abroad, in a pet of sulk with his
+party, on being refused the peerage. By nature generous, kind-hearted,
+and affectionate, the constant pressure of a more ambitious wife had
+involved him in a career to which neither his tastes nor habits
+suited him. The fortune which he would have dispensed with dignity
+and munificence he was eternally taught to believe should be the
+stepping-stone to something higher in rank. All his influence in the
+City, of which he was justly proud, he was told was a mere vulgar
+ambition in comparison with that a coronet would bestow on him; and,
+in fact, having believed himself the leading man of a great section in
+society, he was led to look upon his position with discontent, and fancy
+that his just claims were disregarded and denied. Lady Hester Onslow,
+who having once been a beauty and the admired belle of royalty itself,
+had accepted the banker in a moment of pique, and never forgave him
+afterwards the unhappy preference.
+
+Belonging to a very ancient but poor family, few were surprised at her
+accepting a husband some thirty-odd years her senior; and it is probable
+that she would fully have recognized the prudence of her choice if, by
+the death of a distant relative in India, which occurred a few months
+after her marriage, she had not acquired a very large fortune. This
+sudden accession of wealth coming, as she herself said, “too late,”
+ embittered every hour of her after-life.
+
+Had she been but wealthy a few months back, she had married the man
+she loved, or whom she thought she loved, the heartless, handsome,
+well-mannered Lord Norwood, a penniless viscount, ruined before he came
+of age, and with no other means of support than the faculties which
+knavery had sharpened into talent.
+
+Miss Onslow and her brother, both the children of a former marriage,
+were strikingly like their father, not alone in feature, but in the
+traits of his frank and generous character. They were devotedly attached
+to him, not the less, perhaps, from the circumstances of a marriage to
+which they were strongly opposed, and whose results they now saw in many
+a passage of discord and disagreement.
+
+George and Sydney Onslow were both dark-complexioned and black-eyed,
+and had many traits of Spanish origin in appearance, their mother having
+been from that country. Lady Hester was a blonde, and affected to think
+that the Southern tint was but an approximation to the negro. Nor was
+she less critical on their manners, whose joyous freedom she pronounced
+essentially vulgar. Such, in a few words, were the discordant elements
+which Fate had bound up as a family, and who now, by the sudden illness
+of Sir Stafford, were driven to seek refuge in the deserted town of
+Baden. Nor can we omit another who, although not tied to the rest by
+kindred, had been long a member of the circle. This was Dr. Grounsell,
+an old college friend of Sir Stafford's, and who, having lost every
+shilling of his fortune by a speculation, had taken up his home at
+the banker's many years previous to his second marriage. Lady Hester's
+dislike to him amounted to actual hatred. She detested him for the
+influence he possessed over her husband, for the sturdiness of a
+character that resisted every blandishment, for a quaintness that
+certainly verged upon vulgarity, and, most of all, for the open and
+undisguised manner he always declared against every scheme for the
+attainment of a title.
+
+As Sir Stafford's physician, the only one in whom he had confidence, the
+doctor was enabled to stand his ground against attacks which must have
+conquered him; and by dint of long resistance and a certain obstinacy
+of character, he had grown to take pleasure in an opposition which, to
+a man of more refinement and feeling, must have proved intolerable;
+and although decidedly attached to Sir Stafford and his children, it is
+probable that he was still more bound to them by hate to “my Lady,” than
+by all his affection for themselves.
+
+Grounsell detested the Continent, yet he followed them abroad, resolved
+never to give up an inch of ground uncontested; and although assailed by
+a thousand slights and petty insults, he stood stoutly up against them
+all, defying every effort of fine-ladyism, French cookery, homoeopathy,
+puppyism, and the water-cure, to dislodge him from his position. There
+was very possibly more of dogged malice in all this than amiability or
+attachment to his friends; but it is due to the doctor to say that he
+was no hypocrite, and would never have blinked the acknowledgment if
+fairly confronted with the charge.
+
+Although, if it had not been for my Lady's resentful notice of
+the ministerial neglect, the whole family would have been snugly
+domesticated in their beautiful villa beside the Thames at Richmond,
+she artfully contrived to throw the whole weight of every annoyance they
+experienced upon every one's shoulders rather than her own; and as
+she certainly called to her aid no remarkable philosophy against the
+inconveniences of travel, the budget of her grievances assumed a most
+imposing bulk.
+
+Dressed in the very perfection of a morning costume, her cap, her
+gloves, her embroidered slippers, all in the most accurate keeping
+with that assumed air of seclusion by which fine ladies compliment the
+visitor fortunate enough to be admitted to their presence, Lady Hester
+sat at a window, occasionally looking from the deep lace that bordered
+her handkerchief to the picturesque scene of mountain and river that lay
+before her. A fastidious taste might have found something to be pleased
+with in either, but assuredly her handsome features evinced no agreeable
+emotion, and her expression was that of utter ennui and listlessness.
+
+At another window sat Sydney Onslow drawing; her brother standing behind
+her chair, and from time to time adding his counsels, but in a tone
+studiously low and whispered. “Get that shadow in something deeper, Syd,
+and you 'll have more effect in the distance.”
+
+“What is that I hear about effect and distance?” sighed out my Lady.
+“You surely are not drawing?”
+
+“Only sketching; making a hurried note of that wheel, and the quaint
+old-fashioned house beside it,” said Sydney, diffidently.
+
+“What a refinement of cruelty! The detestable noise of that mill kept
+me awake all night, and you mean to perpetuate the remembrance by a
+picture. Pray, be a good child and throw it out of the window.”
+
+Sydney looked up in her brother's face, where already a crimson flush of
+anger was gathering, but before she could reply he spoke for her. “The
+drawing is for me, Lady Onslow. You 'll. excuse me if I do not consent
+to the fate you propose for it.”
+
+“Let me look at it,” said she, languidly; and the young girl arose
+and presented the drawing to her. “How droll!” said she, laughing; “I
+suppose it is peculiar to Germany that water can run up hill.”
+
+“The shadow will correct that,” said Sydney, smiling; “and when
+the foreground is darker.” A violent slam of the door cut short the
+explanation. It was George Onslow, who, too indignant at the practised
+impertinence toward his sister, dashed out of the room in a passion.
+
+“How underbred your brother will persist in being, my love,” said she,
+calmly; “that vile trick of slamming a door, they learn, I 'm told,
+in the Guards' Club. I 'm sure I always thought it was confined to the
+melodrames one sees at the Porte St. Martin.”
+
+At this moment a servant appeared at the door. “Colonel Haggerstone's
+compliments, my Lady, and begs to know how Sir Stafford is to-day.”
+
+“Something better,” replied she, curtly; and as the man disappeared, she
+added, “Whose compliments did he say?”
+
+“I did not hear the name; it sounded like Haggerstone.”
+
+“Impossible, child; we know of no such person. What hour is it?”
+
+“A few minutes past two.”
+
+“Oh dear! I fancied it had been four or five or six,” sighed she,
+drearily. “The amiable doctor has not made his report to-day of your
+papa, and he went to see him immediately after breakfast.”
+
+“He told George that there was no amendment,” said Sydney, gravely.
+
+“He told George! Then he did not deign to tell me.”
+
+“You were not here at the moment. It was as he passed through the room
+hurriedly.”
+
+“I conclude that I was in my dressing-room. But it is only in keeping
+with Mr. Grounsell's studied disrespect, a line of conduct I grieve to
+see him supported in by members of this family.”
+
+“Mr. Alfred Jekyl, my Lady,” said a servant, “with inquiry for Sir
+Stafford.”
+
+“You appear to know best, my dear, how your papa is. Pray answer thai
+inquiry.”
+
+“Sir Stafford is not better,” said Sydney to the servant.
+
+“Who can all these people be, my dear?” said Lady Hester, with more
+animation of manner than she had yet exhibited. “Jekyl is a name one
+knows. There are Northamptonshire Jekyls, and, if I mistake not, it was
+a Jekyl married Lady Olivia Drossmore, was it not? Oh, what a fool I am
+to ask you, who never know anything of family or connection! And yet
+I 'm certain I 've told you over and over the importance the actual
+necessity of this knowledge. If you only bestowed upon Burke a tithe of
+the patience and time I have seen you devote to Lyell, you 'd not commit
+the shocking mistake you fell into t' other day of discussing the Duchess
+of Dartley's character with Lord Brandford, from whom she was divorced.
+Now you 'd never offend quartz and sandstone by miscalling their
+affinities. But here comes the doctor.”
+
+If Dr. Grounsell had been intended by nature to outrage all
+ultra-refined notions regarding personal appearance, he could not
+possibly have been more cunningly fashioned. Somewhat below the middle
+size, and squarely formed, his legs did not occupy more than a third of
+his height; his head was preternaturally large, and seemed even larger
+from a crop of curly yellowish hair, whose flaring ochre only rescued
+it from the imputation of being a wig. His hands and feet were enormous,
+requiring a muscular effort to move them that made all his gestures
+grotesque and uncouth. In addition to these native graces, his clothes
+were always made much too large for him, from his avowed dislike to the
+over-tightening and squeezing of modern fashion.
+
+As his whole life had been passed in the superintendence of a great
+military hospital in the East, wherein all his conversations with his
+brethren were maintained in technicalities, he had never converted the
+professional jargon into a popular currency, but used the terms of art
+upon all occasions, regardless of the inability of the unmedical world
+to understand him.
+
+“Well, sir, what is your report to-day?” said Lady Onslow, assuming her
+very stateliest of manners.
+
+“Better, and worse, madam. The arthritis relieved, the cardiac symptoms
+more imminent.'
+
+“Please to bear in mind, sir, that I have not studied at Apothecaries'
+Hall.”
+
+“Nor I, madam; but at Edinburgh and Aberdeen, in the faculties of
+medicine and surgery,” said Grounsell, drawing down his waistcoat, and
+arranging himself in what he considered an order of battle.
+
+“Is papa better, doctor?” said Sydney, mildly.
+
+“The articular affection is certainly alleviated, but there is mischief
+here,” said Grounsell, placing his hand over his heart; “fibrous
+tissues, my dear Miss Onslow, fibrous tissues are ticklish affairs.”
+
+“Is this advice to be construed in a moral rather than a medical sense?”
+ said Lady Onslow, with a malicious smile.
+
+“Either or both,” replied the doctor. “The heart will always be highly
+susceptible of nervous influence.”
+
+“But papa” broke in Sydney, eagerly.
+
+“Is suffering under metastasis migratory gout, it may be termed changing
+from articular to large organic structures.”
+
+“And, of course, you are giving him the old poisons that were in use
+fifty years ago?”
+
+“What do you mean, madam?” said Grounsell, sternly.
+
+“That shocking thing that drives people mad colocynth, or colchicum, or
+something like that. You know what I mean?”
+
+“Happily for me, madam, I can guess it.”
+
+“And are you still as obstinate as ever about the globules?”
+
+“The homoeopathic humbug?”
+
+“If you are polite enough so to designate what I put the most implicit
+trust in. But I warn you, sir, I mean to exert my just and rightful
+influence with Sir Stafford; and in case a very great change does not
+appear to-morrow, I shall insist upon his trying the aconite.”
+
+“If you do, madam, the insurance offices shall hear of it!” said
+Grounsell, with a sternness that made the threat most significant.
+
+“I 'll send for that man from Heidelberg at once, Sydney,” said Lady
+Hester, as, pale with passion, she seated herself at her writing-table.
+
+“Take care what you do, madam,” said Grounsell, approaching where she
+sat, and speaking in a low and solemn voice. “Let not any feeling of
+displeasure with me induce you to an act of rashness or imprudence. My
+old friend's state is critical; it may at any moment become dangerous.
+I am convinced that what I am doing offers the most reasonable hope of
+serving him. Take care lest you weaken his confidence in me, when he may
+not be prepared to repose it in another.”
+
+“Here, Sydney, you write German; and it is possible he may not read
+French. This is his name, I got it in Paris Graeffnell. Tell him to come
+at once in fact, let Francois take a carriage for him.”
+
+Sydney Onslow looked at her mother and then at the doctor. At the
+latter her glance was almost imploring, but he never noticed it, turning
+abruptly toward the window without uttering a word.
+
+“Can you consult with him, doctor?” asked Sydney, timidly.
+
+“Of course not; he 's a mountebank.”
+
+“Write, as I bade you, Miss Onslow,” said Lady Hester. “Dr. Graeffnell
+is one of the first men in Germany. Lady Heskisson sent for him when the
+Earl fell ill at Wiesbaden.”
+
+“And the Countess was a widow in four days after. Don't forget the
+denouement of the story, madam.”
+
+Sydney dropped the pen, and her hands fell powerless to her side. There
+was something in the sternness of the doctor that seemed to awe
+even Lady Onslow, for she made no reply; while Grounsell, seeing his
+advantage, left the room at once, without further parley.
+
+Our readers will probably forgive us if we follow his example, and not
+remain to listen to the eloquent monologue in which Lady Onslow lamented
+her sad condition in life. Not only did she bewail her destiny, but,
+like one of those classic personages the Greek Chorus presents us to,
+she proceeded to speculate upon every possible mischance futurity might
+have in store for her, ingeniously inventing “situations,” and
+devising “predicaments” that nothing less gifted than a self-tormenting
+imagination can conceive. Leaving her to all the pleasure such a pastime
+can give, we shall quit the house, and, although a cold, raw evening is
+closing in, wander out into the street.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V. THE PATIENT
+
+ALONG the dark and narrow street, over which the coming night cast a
+dreary shadow, a single lamp was seen to shine at the door of Ludwig
+Kraus, the apothecary; a beacon, it is but fair to add, lighted less
+with the hope of attracting custom than in obedience to the requirements
+of the law, for Herr Kraus was a “state” official, and bound to conform
+to the dictates of the government. His shop was a small triangular
+space, in which there was barely room for the learned dispenser and a
+single client at the same moment, thus giving to all his interviews the
+secrecy of the confessional itself. Jars, phials, flasks, and drawers
+rose on every side, not inscribed with the vulgar nomenclature of modern
+physic, but bearing the enigmatical marks and hieroglyphics known to
+Galen and Paracelsus. Arabic letters, dragons, strange monsters, and
+zodiacal signs met the eye everywhere, and did not consort ill with the
+spare form and high bald head of the proprietor, whose quaint-figured
+dressing-gown and black velvet cap gave him a kind of resemblance to an
+alchemist in his workshop. As Grounsell approached the glass door
+and peeped in, the scene that presented itself rather assisted this
+illusion, for straight in front of the little counter over which Kraus
+was leaning, sat the dwarf, Hans Roeckle, talking away with considerable
+animation, and from time to time seeming to expatiate upon the merits
+of a wooden figure which he held carefully in his hands. The small,
+half-lighted chamber, the passive, motionless features of the chemist,
+the strange wild gestures of little Hans, as, in his tongue of
+mysterious gutturals he poured out a flood of words, amazed Grounsell,
+and excited his curiosity to the utmost. He continued to gaze in for a
+considerable time, without being able to guess what it might mean, and
+at last abandoning all conjecture he resolved to enter. Scarcely had
+he touched the handle of the door, however, than the dwarf, seizing the
+figure, concealed it beneath the skirt of his fur mantle, and retired
+to a corner of the shop. Dr. Grounsell's errand was to obtain certain
+medicines for his patient, which, from his ignorance of German, he had
+taken the precaution to write down in Latin. He passed the paper in
+silence over the counter, and waited patiently as the chemist spelt out
+the words. Having read it through, he handed back the paper with a
+few dry words, which, being in his native tongue, were totally
+incomprehensible.
+
+“You must have these things, surely,” exclaimed Grounsell; “they are the
+commonest of all medicines;” and then remembering himself, he made signs
+in the direction of the drawers and phials to express his meaning. Again
+the chemist uttered some dozen words.
+
+The doctor produced his purse, where certain gold pieces glittered, as
+though to imply that he was willing to pay handsomely for his ignorance;
+but the other pushed it away, and shook his head in resolute refusal.
+
+“This is too bad,” muttered Grounsell, angrily. “I 'll be sworn he
+has the things, and will not give them.” The chemist motioned Hans to
+approach, and whispered a few words in his hearing, on which the
+dwarf, removing his cap in courteous salutation, addressed Grounsell:
+“High-born and much-learned Saar. De laws make no oder that doctoren
+have recht to write physics.”
+
+“What!” cried Grounsell, not understanding the meaning of this speech.
+Hans repeated it more slowly, and at length succeeded in conveying the
+fact that physicians alone were qualified to procure medicines.
+
+“But I am a doctor, my worthy friend, a physician of long standing.”
+
+“Das ist possible who knows?”
+
+“I know, and I say it,” rejoined the other, tersely.
+
+“Ja! ja!” responded Hans, as though to say the theme were not worth
+being warm about, one way or t' other.
+
+“Come, my dear sir,” said Grounsell, coaxingly; “pray be good enough to
+explain that I want these medicines for a sick friend, who is now at the
+hotel here, dangerously ill of gout.”
+
+“Podagra gout!” exclaimed Hans, with sudden animation, “and dese are de
+cure for gout?”
+
+“They will, I hope, be of service against it.”
+
+“You shall have dem Saar on one condition. That ist, you will visit
+anoder sick man mit gout an Englessman, too verh ill verb sick; and no
+rich you understan'.”
+
+“Yes, yes; I understand perfectly; I'll see him with pleasure. Tell this
+worthy man to make up these for me, and I 'll go along with you now.”
+
+“Gut! verh good,” said Hans, as in a few words of German he expressed
+to the apothecary that he might venture to transgress the law in the
+present case when the season was over, and no one to be the wiser.
+
+As Hans issued forth to show the way, he never ceased to insist upon
+the fact that the present was not a case for a fee, and that the doctor
+should well understand the condition upon which his visit was to be
+paid; and still inveighing on this theme, he arrived at the house where
+the Daltons dwelt. “Remember, too,” said Hans, “that, though they are
+poor, they are of guten stamm how say you, noble?” Grounsell listened
+with due attention to all Hanserl's cautions, following, not without
+difficulty, his strange and guttural utterances.
+
+“I will go before. Stay here,” said Hans, as they gained the
+landing-place; and so saying, he pushed open the door and disappeared.
+
+As Grounsell stood alone and in the dark, he wondered within himself
+what strange chances should have brought a fellow-countryman into this
+companionship, for there was something so grotesque in Hans's appearance
+and manner, that it routed all notion of his being admitted to any
+footing of friendly equality.
+
+The door at length opened, and the doctor followed Hans into a dimly
+lighted room, where Dalton lay, half dressed, upon his bed. Before
+Grounsell had well passed the entrance, the sick man said, “I am afraid,
+sir, that my little friend here has taken a bit of liberty with both
+of us, since I believe you wanted a patient just as little as I did a
+doctor.”
+
+The anxious, lustrous eye, the flushed cheek, and tremulous lip of the
+speaker gave, at the same time, a striking contradiction to his words.
+Grounsell's practised glance read these signs rapidly, and drawing near
+the bed, he seated himself beside it, saying, “It is quite clear, sir,
+that you are not well, and although, if we were both of us in our own
+country, this visit of mine would, as you observe, be a considerable
+liberty, seeing that we are in a foreign land, I hope you will not deem
+my intrusion of this nature, but suffer me, if I can, to be of some
+service to you.”
+
+Less the words themselves than a certain purpose-like kindliness in the
+speaker's manner, induced Dalton to accept the offer, and reply to the
+questions which the other proposed to him. “No, no, doctor,” said he,
+after a few moments; “there is no great mischief brewing after all. The
+truth is, I was fretted harassed a little. It was about a boy of mine
+I have only one and he 's gone away to be a soldier with the Austrians.
+You know, of course as who does n't? how hard it is to do anything for a
+young man now-a-days. If family or high connection could do it, we 'd
+be as well off as our neighbors. We belong to the Daltons of Garrigmore,
+that you know are full blood with the O'Neals of Cappagh. But what 's
+the use of blood now? devil a good it does a man. It would be better
+to have your father a cotton-spinner, or an iron-master, than the
+descendant of Shane Mohr na Manna.”
+
+“I believe you are right,” observed the doctor, dryly.
+
+“I know I am; I feel it myself, and I 'm almost ashamed to tell it. Here
+am I, Peter Dalton, the last of them now; and may I never leave this
+bed, if I could make a barony constable in the county where the king's
+writ could n't run once without our leave.”
+
+“But Ireland herself has changed more than your own fortunes,” remarked
+Grounsell.
+
+“That's true, that 's true,” sighed the sick man. “I don't remember the
+best days of it, but I 've heard of them often and often from my father.
+The fine old times, when Mount Dalton was filled with company from the
+ground to the slates, and two lords in the granary; a pipe of port wine
+in the hall, with a silver cup beside it; the Modereen hounds, huntsmen
+and all, living at rack and manger, as many as fifty sitting down in
+the parlor, and I won't say how many in the servants' hall; the finest
+hunters in the west country in the stables, there was life for you! Show
+me the equal of that in the wide world.”
+
+“And what is the present condition of the scene of those festivities?”
+ said Grounsell, with a calm but searching look.
+
+“The present condition?” echoed Dalton, starting up to a sitting
+posture, and grasping the curtain with a convulsive grip; “I can't tell
+you what it is to-day, this ninth of November, but I 'll tell what it
+was when I left it, eighteen years ago. The house was a ruin; the lawn
+a common; the timber cut down; the garden a waste; the tenants beggared;
+the landlord an exile. That 's a pleasant catalogue, is n't it?”
+
+“But there must come a remedy for all this,” remarked Grounsell, whose
+ideas were following out a very different channel.
+
+“Do you mean by a poor-law? Is it by taxing the half ruined to feed the
+lazy? or by rooting out all that once was a gentry, to fill their places
+by greedy speculators from Manchester and Leeds? Is that your remedy?
+It 's wishing it well I am! No; if you want to do good to the country,
+leave Ireland to be Ireland, and don't try to make Norfolk of her. Let
+her have her own Parliament, that knows the people and their wants.
+Teach her to have a pride in her own nationality, and not to be always
+looking at herself in shame beside her rich sister. Give her a word of
+kindness now and then, as you do the Scotch; but, above all, leave us to
+ourselves. We understand one another; you never did, nor never will. We
+quarrelled, and made friends again, and all went right with us; you
+came over with your Chancery Courts, and your police, and whenever we
+differed, you never stopped till we were beggared or hanged.”
+
+“You take a very original view of our efforts at civilization, I
+confess,” said Grounsell, smiling. “Civilization! Civilization! I hate
+the very sound of the word; it brings to my mind nothing but county
+jails, bridewells, turnpikes, and ministers' money. If it was n't for
+civilization, would there be a receiver over my estate of Mount Dalton?
+Would the poor tenants be racked for the rent that I always gave time
+for? Would there be a big poor-house, with its ugly front staring to
+the highway, as they tell me there is, and a police barrack to keep it
+company, opposite? I tell you again, sir, that your meddling has done
+nothing but mischief. Our little quarrels you converted into serious
+animosities; our estrangements into the feuds of two opposing races; our
+very poverty, that we had grown accustomed to, you taught us to regard
+as a 'national disgrace,' without ever instructing us how to relieve it;
+and there we are now on your hands, neither English in industry, nor
+Irish in submission, neither willing to work, nor content to be hungry!”
+
+The doctor saw by the agitated look and tone of the sick man that the
+subject was one of too much excitement for him, and hastened to change
+the topic by jocularly expressing a hope that he might prove more
+successful with him than England had been with his countrymen.
+
+“I doubt it, sir,” said Dalton, gravely; “not thanking you the less
+for your kindness. I believe, like my poor country, that I 'm past
+doctoring.” He paused for a few seconds, and then added: “It's all
+fretting. It's thinking about the girls. Frank there is no fear of. That
+'s what ails me.”
+
+Grounsell saw that to prolong his visit would be but to encourage a tone
+of depression that must prove injurious; so promising to return to see
+him in the morning, he shook Dalton's hand cordially, and followed Hans
+into the adjoining room, where writing materials were prepared for him.
+
+The two girls were standing at the fire as he entered; and simple as was
+their dress, homely even to poverty, every trait of their costume, their
+looks, bespoke them of gentle blood. Their anxious glances as he came
+forward showed their eagerness to hear his tidings; but they did not
+speak a word.
+
+“Do not be uneasy, young ladies,” said he, hastening to relieve their
+fears. “Your father's illness has nothing serious about it. A few days
+will, I trust, see him perfectly restored to health. Meanwhile you are
+his best physicians, who can minister to his spirits and cheer him up.”
+
+“Since my brother left us, sir, he appeared to sink hour by hour; he
+cannot get over the shock,” said Ellen.
+
+“I never knew him to give way before,” interposed Kate. “He used to say,
+when anything grieved him, 'he 'd pay some one to fret for him.”
+
+“With better health you 'll see his old courage return,” said the
+doctor, as he hastily wrote a few lines of prescription, and then laying
+his head in his hand, seemed for some minutes lost in thought. There
+were little comforts, mat-' ters of trifling luxury he wished to order,
+and yet he hesitated, for he did not know how far they were compatible
+with their means; nor could he venture upon the hazard of offending by
+questioning them. As in his uncertainty he raised his eyes, they fell
+upon the wooden figure which the dwarf had exhibited in the apothecary's
+shop, and which now stood upon a table near. It was a child sleeping at
+the foot of a cross, around which its arms were entwined. The emaciated
+limbs and wasted cheek portrayed fasting and exhaustion, while in the
+attitude itself, sleep seemed verging upon death.
+
+“What is that?” asked he, hastily, as he pointed with his pen to the
+object.
+
+“A poor child was found thus, frozen to death upon the Arlberg,” said
+Kate; “and my sister carved that figure from a description of the
+event.”
+
+“Your sister! This was done by you,” said Grounsell, slowly, as he
+turned his gaze from the work to the artist.
+
+“Yes,” cried Hans, whose face beamed with delight; “is it not
+'lieblich?' is it not vonderful? Dass, I say, alway; none have taste now
+none have de love to admire!”
+
+Stooping down to examine it better, Grounsell was struck by the
+expression of the face, whereon a smile of trustfulness and hope seemed
+warring with the rigid lines of coming death; so that the impression
+conveyed was more of a victory over suffering than of a terrible fate.
+
+“She is self-taught, sir; none even so much as assisted Ler by advice,”
+ said Kate, proudly.
+
+“That will be perhaps but too apparent from my efforts,” said Ellen,
+smiling faintly.
+
+[Illustration:    078]
+
+“I'm no artist, young lady,” said Grounsell, bluntly, “but I am well
+versed in every variety of the human expression in suffering, and of
+mere truth to nature I can speak confidently. This is a fine work! nay,
+do not blush, I am not a flatterer. May I take it with me, and show it
+to others more conversant with art than I am?”
+
+“Upon one condition you may,” said the girl, in a low, deep voice.
+
+“Be it so; on any condition you wish.”
+
+“We are agreed, then?”
+
+“Perfectly.”
+
+“The figure is yours Nay, sir your promise!”
+
+Groimsell stammered, and blushed, and looked confused; indeed, no man
+was less able to extricate himself from any position of embarrassment;
+and here the difficulties pressed on every side, for while he scrupled
+to accept what he deemed a gift of real value, he felt that they too had
+a right to free themselves from the obligation that his presence as a
+doctor imposed. At last he saw nothing better than to yield; and in
+all the confusion of a bashfully awkward man, he mumbled out his
+acknowledgments and catching up the figure, departed.
+
+Hans alone seemed dissatisfied at the result, for as he cast his wistful
+looks after the wooden image, his eyes swam with his tears, and he
+muttered as he went some words of deep desponding cadence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI. A FIRST VISIT.
+
+THE dreary weather of November showed no signs of “taking up.” Lowering
+days of fog and gloom alternated with cold winds and sleet, so that all
+out-door occupation was utterly denied to that imprisoned party, who
+were left with so few resources to pass the time within. It is true they
+did not make the best of the bad. Lady Hester grew hourly more irritable
+and peevish. Sydney Onslow seldom left her room. George took to the
+hills every morning, and never returned before a late dinner; while the
+doctor, when not with Sir Stafford, spent all his time at the Dal tons',
+with whom he had already established a close intimacy.
+
+Lady Hester had exhausted every possible means she could imagine to
+while away the hours; she had spent whole days in letter-writing folios
+of “tirades” to every one she could think of. She had all the carriages
+inspected, and the imperials searched, for books she well knew had
+been left behind. She had sent for the landlord's daughter to give her
+lessons in German, which she thought of learning during the week. She
+had given a morning to the Italian boy with his white mice, and pored
+for hours long over the “Livre des Voyageurs,” reading the names of
+friends who, with better fortune, had taken their departure for Italy.
+But at last there came an end even to these frail resources, and she
+was left utterly without an occupation to engage, or even a thought to
+employ her. The five minutes of morning altercation with Grounsell over,
+the dreary time was unbroken by a single event, or uncheckered by a
+single hope. Sir Stafford was indeed recovering, but so slowly that
+weeks might be required ere he could proceed on his journey. How were
+they to be passed? was the fearful question to which she could find no
+answer. She looked with actual envy at the party of boors who played at
+dominos in the beer-house opposite, and followed with longing eyes the
+little mail-cart as it left the village. If she could read Germau, there
+were scores of books at her service. If she could but take a charitable
+turn, there was poverty enough to give her occupation from morn till
+night. She never knew what it was to think seriously, for meditation is
+the manufacture that cannot work without its raw material, and with this
+her mind was not stored.
+
+It was in this pitiable frame of mind she was walking up and down the
+drawing-room one morning, just as the doctor had taken his departure,
+and with him the last little scene that was to relieve the day, when
+the servant entered with the card of Colonel Haggerstone, and the daily
+repeated inquiry for Sir Stafford's health.
+
+Had the gallant colonel presented himself at Wilton Crescent, or the
+Villa, it is more than likely that the well-instructed porter had not
+vised his passport, but at once consigned a name of such unimposing
+consonants to gentle obscurity, while such an entry in the visiting-book
+had been coolly set down as a mistake. Not so now, however. Lady Hester
+took up the card, and, instead of the habitual curt rejoinder, “Sir
+Stafford is better,” said, “You may tell Colonel Haggerstone that Lady
+Hester will receive him.”
+
+The gallant colonel, who was negligently slapping his boots with his
+riding-whip below stairs, was not a little amazed at the message.
+There had been a time when he would have interpreted the favor most
+flatteringly. He would have whispered to himself, “She has seen me
+passing the window, she was struck with me as I rode by.” Time had,
+however, toned down these bright illusions, and he read the permission
+with a nearer approach to truth, as a fine-lady caprice in a moment of
+ennui. “I thought as much,” muttered he to himself as he slowly ascended
+the stairs; “the blockade was too strictly enforced not to tell at last.
+No newspapers, no books ha! ha! Could n't help surrendering!”
+
+The colonel had by this time given his whiskers and moustaches the
+last curl, thrown back his head into a position of calm dignity, as the
+servant, throwing wide the folding-doors, announced him. Advancing two
+paces, and bowing low, Colonel Haggerstone said, “Your Ladyship will
+pardon the liberty the very great liberty I have taken in my respectful
+inquiries for some days past; but although probably not remembered by
+Sir Stafford, I once did enjoy the honor of his acquaintance, we met at
+Lord Kerrison's, in Scotland.”
+
+Lady Onslow cut short this very uninteresting explanation by a bland but
+somewhat supercilious smile, that seemed to say, “What possible matter
+can it be?” while at the same time she motioned him to be seated.
+
+“May I hope that Sir Stafford continues to improve?” said he, bowing
+again.
+
+“He's better to-day,” said Lady Onslow, languidly. “Perhaps as well
+as anyone can be in this wretched place. You heard, I suppose, of the
+series of misfortunes that befell us, and compelled us to return here?”
+
+The colonel looked mildly compassionate and inquisitive. He anticipated
+the possible pleasure her Ladyship might feel in a personal narrative,
+and he was an accomplished listener. This time, however, he was wrong.
+Lady Onslow either did not think the occasion or the audience worth the
+trouble of the exertion, and merely said, “We had a break-down somewhere
+with an odious name. Sir Stafford would travel by that road through the
+Hohlen Thai, where somebody made his famous march. Who was it?”
+
+“Massena, I think,” said the colonel, at a haphazard, thinking that at
+least the name was ben trovato, just as Sunday-school children father
+everything remarkable on John the Baptist.
+
+“Oh dear, no; it was Moreau. We stopped to breakfast at the little inn
+where he held his headquarters, and in the garden of which he amused
+himself in pistol-shooting, strange, was it not? Are you a good shot,
+Colonel?”
+
+“Good among bad ones,” said the colonel, modestly.
+
+“Then we must have a match. I am so fond of it! You have pistols, of
+course?”
+
+“I am fortunate enough to have a case of Schlessinger's best, and at
+your Ladyship's disposal.”
+
+“Well, that is agreed upon. You 'll be kind enough to select a suitable
+spot in the garden, and if to-morrow be fine By the way what is
+to-morrow not Sunday I hope?”
+
+The colonel relieved her anxieties by the assurance that the next day
+would be Monday, consequently that the present one was Sunday.
+
+“How strange! One does make sad confusion in these things abroad,” said
+she, sighing. “I think we are better in England in that respect, don't
+you?”
+
+The question was not a very clear one, but the colonel never hesitated
+to give in his adhesion.
+
+“Sir Stafford always took that view in the House, and consequently
+differed from his party, as well as about Ireland. Poor dear Ireland!
+what is to be done for her?”
+
+This was a rather more embarrassing demand than the previous one, and
+the colonel hemmed and coughed, and prepared for a speech of subtle
+generalities; but the dexterity was all unnecessary, for her Ladyship
+had already forgotten the theme, and everything about it, as she went
+on. “How I pity those dear Wreckingtons, who are condemned to live
+there! The Earl, you know, had promised solemnly that he would go any
+lengths for the party when he got his blue riband; and so they took him
+at his word, and actually named him to the viceroyalty. It was a very
+cruel thing, but I hear nothing could be better than his conduct on
+hearing it: and dear Lady Wreckington insisted upon accompanying him.
+It was exactly like the story of what was that man's name, who assisted
+in the murder of the Emperor Paul Geroboffskoi, or something like that,
+and whose wife followed him to the mines.”
+
+The colonel avowed that the cases were precisely alike, and now the
+conversation if the word can be degraded to mean that bald disjointed
+chat ran upon London people and events their marriages, their dinners,
+their separations, coalitions, divorces, and departures; on all
+which themes Haggerstone affected a considerable degree of knowledge,
+although, to any one less occupied with herself than her Ladyship, it
+would have been at once apparent that all his information was derived
+from the newspapers. It was at the close of a lamentation on the utter
+stupidity of everything and everywhere, that he adroitly asked where she
+meant to pass the winter.
+
+“I wish I knew,” said she, languidly. “The Dollingtons say Naples; the
+Upsleys tell us Rome; and, for my part, I pronounce for neither. Lady
+Dollingtou is my aversion, and the three Upsley girls, with their pink
+noses and red hair, are insufferable.”
+
+“What does your Ladyship think of Florence?” asked the colonel,
+soothingly.
+
+“Pretty much what I might of one of the Tonga Islands. I know nothing of
+the place, the people, or the climate. Pray tell me about it.”
+
+“There is very little to say,” said Haggerstone, shrugging his
+shoulders; “not but the place might be very agreeable, if there were
+some one of really fashionable standing to take the lead and give a tone
+to the society; some one who would unite indispensable rank and wealth
+with personal graces, and thus, as it were, by prescriptive right,
+assume the first place. Then, I say, Florence would be second to no city
+of Italy. Would that your Ladyship would condescend to accept the vacant
+throne!”
+
+“I!” said she, affecting astonishment; and then laughingly added: “Oh
+no! I detest mock sovereignty. I actually shudder at the idea of the
+lady-patroness part; besides, whom should one have to reign over?
+Not the Browns and Smiths and Perkinses; not the full-pensioned East
+Indians, the half-pay colonels, and the no-pay Irish gentilities, that
+form the staple of small city society. You surely would not recommend me
+to such a sad pre-eminence.”
+
+The colonel smiled flatteringly at her Ladyship's smartness, and
+hastened to assure her that such heresy was far from his thoughts; and
+then with a practised readiness ran over a list of foreign celebrities
+French, Russian, and German whose names, at least, clinked like the true
+metal.
+
+This looked promisingly; it was very like cutting all English society,
+and had the appearance of something very exclusive, very impertinent,
+and very ungenerous; and now she lent a willing ear as Haggerstone
+revealed a plan of operations for a whole winter campaign. According
+to his account, it was a perfect terra incognita, where the territorial
+limits and laws might be laid down at will; it was a state which called
+for a great dictatorship, and the sway of unlimited authority.
+
+Now, Lady Hester had never at least since her marriage, and very rarely
+even before it been more than on the periphery of fashionable society.
+When she did obtain a footing within the charmed circle, it was by no
+prescriptive right, but rather on some ground of patronage, or some
+accidental political crisis, which made Sir Stafford's influence a
+matter of moment. There was, therefore, a flattery in the thought of
+thus becoming a leader in society; and she shrewdly remembered, that
+though there might be little real power, there would be all the tyranny
+of a larger sovereignty.
+
+It is true she suffered no symptom of this satisfaction to escape
+her; on the contrary, she compassionated the “poor dear things,” that
+thought themselves “the world,” in such a place, and smiled with angelic
+pity at their sweet simplicity; but Haggerstone saw through all these
+disguises, and read her real sentiments, as a practised toadeater never
+fails to do, where only affectation is the pretence. Adroitly avoiding
+to press the question, he adverted to Baden and its dreary weather;
+offered his books, his newspapers, his horses, his phaeton, and
+everything that was his, even his companionship as a guide to the best
+riding or walking roads, and, like a clever actor, made his exit at the
+very moment when his presence became most desirable.
+
+Lady Hester looked out of the window, and saw, in the street beneath,
+the saddle-horses of the colonel, which were led up and down by a
+groom in the most accurate of costumes. The nags themselves, too, were
+handsome and in top condition. It was a little gleam of civilization,
+in the midst of universal barrenness, that brought up memories, some of
+which at least were not devoid of pain, so far as the expression of her
+features might be trusted. “I wonder who he can be?” said she, musing.
+“It's a shocking name! Haggerstone. Perhaps Sir Stafford may remember
+him. It's very sad to think that one should be reduced to such people.”
+ So, with a slight sigh, she sat down to indulge in a mood of deep and
+sincere commiseration for herself and her sorrows.
+
+From these reveries she was aroused by the arrival of a package of books
+and papers from the colonel. They included some of the latest things of
+the day, both French and English, and were exactly the kind of reading
+she cared for, that half-gossipry that revolves around a certain set,
+and busies itself about the people and incidents of one very small
+world. There were books of travel by noble authors, and novels by titled
+authoresses; the one as tamely well bred and tiresome as the others were
+warm and impassioned, no bad corroborative evidence, by the way, of
+the French maxim, that the “safety of the Lady Georginas has an immense
+relation to the coldness of the Lord Georges.” There were books of
+beauty, wherein loveliness was most aristocratic; and annuals where
+nobility condescended to write twaddle. There were analyses of new
+operas, wherein the list of the spectators was the only matter of
+interest, and better than these were the last fashions of “Longchamps,”
+ the newest bulletins of that great campaign which began in Adam's
+garden, and will endure to the “very crack of doom.”
+
+Lady Hester's spirits rallied at once from these well-timed stimulants;
+and when the party gathered together before dinner, George and his
+sister were amazed at the happy change in her manner.
+
+“I have had a visitor,” said she, after a short mystification; “a
+certain colonel, who assumes to be known to your father, but I fancy
+will scarcely be remembered by him, he calls himself Haggerstone.”
+
+“Haggerstone!” said George, repeating the name twice or thrice. “Is not
+that the name of the man who was always with Arlington, and of whom all
+the stories are told?”
+
+“As I never heard of Arlington's companion, nor the stories in question,
+I can't say. Pray enlighten us,” said Lady Hester, tartly.
+
+“Haggerstone sounds so like the name,” repeated George to himself.
+
+“So like what name? Do be good enough to explain.”
+
+“I am unwilling to tell a story which, if not justly attributable to the
+man, will certainly attach unpleasantly to his name hereafter.”
+
+“And in your excessive caution for yourself, you are pleased to forget
+me, Mr. Onslow. Pray remember that if I admit him to acquaintance--”
+
+“But surely you don't mean to do so?”
+
+“And why not?”
+
+“In the first place, you know nothing about him.”
+
+“Which is your fault.”
+
+“Be it so. I have at least told you enough to inspire reserve and
+caution.”
+
+“Quite enough to suggest curiosity and give a degree of interest to a
+very commonplace character.”
+
+“Is he young, may I ask?” said George, with a half smile.
+
+“No, far from it.”
+
+“Good-looking?”
+
+“Just as little.”
+
+“Very agreeable and well-mannered?”
+
+“Rather prosy, and too military in tone for my taste.”
+
+“Does he come under the recommendatory 'firman' of any dear friend or
+acquaintance?”
+
+“Nothing of the kind. There is his passport,” said she, pointing to his
+visiting ticket.
+
+“Your Ladyship used to be more difficult of access,” said George, dryly.
+
+“Very true; and so I may possibly become again. To make selections from
+the world of one's acquaintance is a very necessary duty; but, as my
+father used to say, no one thinks of using a sieve for chaff.”
+
+“This gentleman is, then, fortunate in his obscurity.”
+
+“Here comes Miss Onslow,” said Lady Hester, “who will probably be more
+grateful to me when she learns that our solitude is to be enlivened by
+the gallant colonel.”
+
+Sydney scanned over the books and journals on the table, and then
+quietly remarked, “If a man is to be judged of by his associates, these
+do not augur very favorably for the gentleman's taste.”
+
+“I see that you are both bent on making him a favorite of mine,” said
+Lady Hester, pettishly; “and if Dr. Grounsell will only discover some
+atrocious circumstance in his history or character, I shall be prepared
+to call him 'charming.'”
+
+The announcement of dinner fortunately broke up a discussion that
+already promised unfavorably; nor were any of the party sorry at the
+interruption.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII. A LESSON IN PISTOL-SHOOTING
+
+THERE are two great currents which divide public opinion in the whole
+world, and all mankind may be classed into one or other of these
+wide categories, “the people who praise, and the people who abuse
+everything.” In certain sets, all is as it ought to be, in this life.
+Everybody is good, dear, and amiable. All the men are gifted and
+agreeable; all the women fascinating and pretty. An indiscriminate
+shower of laudations falls upon everything or everybody, and the only
+surprise the bearer feels is how a world, so chuck full of excellence,
+can possibly consist with what one reads occasionally in the “Times” and
+the “Chronicle.”
+
+The second category is the Roland to this Oliver, and embraces those who
+have a good word for nobody, and in whose estimation the globe is one
+great penal settlement, the overseers being neither more nor less than
+the best-conducted among the convicts. The chief business of these
+people in life is to chronicle family disgraces and misfortunes, to
+store their memories with defalcations, frauds, suicides, disreputable
+transactions at play, unfair duels, seductions, and the like, and to be
+always prepared, on the first mention of a name, to connect its owner,
+or his grandmother, with some memorable blot, or some unfortunate event
+of years before. If the everlasting laudations of the one set make
+life too sweet to be wholesome, the eternal disparagement of the other
+renders it too bitter to be enjoyable; nor would it be easy to say
+whether society suffers more from the exercise of this mock charity on
+the one side, or the practice of universal malevolence on the other.
+
+Perhaps our readers will feel grateful when we assure them that we are
+not intent upon pushing the investigation further. The consideration
+was forced upon us by thinking of Colonel Haggerstone, who was a
+distinguished member of class No. 2. His mind was a police sheet, or
+rather like a page of that celebrated “Livre Noir,” wherein all the
+unexpiated offences of a nation are registered. He knew the family
+disasters of all Europe, and not a name could be mentioned in society
+to which he could not tag either a seduction, a fraud, a swindle, or a
+poltroonery; and when such revelations are given prosaically, with all
+the circumstances of date, time, and place, unrelieved by the slightest
+spice of wit or imagination, but simply narrated as “Memoires pour
+servir a l'Histoire” of an individual, the world is very apt to accept
+them as evidences of knowledge of life, rather than what they really
+are, proofs of a malignant disposition. In this way, Haggerstone seemed
+to many the mere “old soldier,” and nothing more; whereas, if nature had
+given him either fancy or epigrammatic smartness, he would have been set
+down for the incarnation of slander.
+
+It may seem strange that Lady Hester, who had lived a good deal in the
+world, should never have met a character of this type, but so it was;
+she belonged to a certain “fast set” in society, who seem to ask for a
+kind of indemnity for all they do, by never, on any occasion, stopping
+to criticise their neighbors. This semblance of good nature is a better
+defensive armor than the uninitiated know of, enlisting all loose
+sympathies with its possessor, and even gaining for its advocates that
+great floating majority who speak much and think little.
+
+In London, Haggerstone would have at once appeared the very worst
+“ton,” and she would have avoided the acquaintance of a man so unhappily
+gifted; but here, at Baden, with nothing to do, none to speak to, he
+became actually a prize, and she listened to him for hours with pleasure
+as he recounted all the misdeeds of those “dear, dear friends” who had
+made up her own “world.” There was at heart, too, the soothing flattery
+that whispered, “He can say nothing of me; the worst he can hint is,
+that I married a man old enough to be my father, and if I did, I am
+heartily sorry for the mistake.”
+
+He was shrewd enough soon to detect the family differences that
+prevailed, and to take advantage of them, not by any imprudent or
+ill-advised allusion to what would have enlisted her Ladyship's pride
+in opposition, but by suggesting occupations and amusements that he saw
+would be distasteful to the others, and thus alienate her more and more
+from their companionship. In fact, his great object was to make Lady
+Hester a disciple of that new school which owns Georges Sand for its
+patron, “and calls itself Lionue.” It would be foreign to our purpose
+here were we to stop and seek to what social causes this new sect owes
+existence. In a great measure it may be traced to the prevailing taste
+of men for club life, to that lounging ease which exacts no tribute of
+respect or even attention, but suffers men to indulge their caprices to
+any extent of selfishness; thus unfitting them for ladies' society,
+or only such society as that of ladies condescending enough to unsex
+themselves, and to talk upon themes and discuss subjects that usually
+are reserved for other audiences.
+
+Certain clever men liked this liberty, these receptions were a kind of
+free port, where all could be admitted duty free. Nothing was forbidden
+in this wide tariff, and so conversation, emancipated from the
+restriction of better society, permitted a thousand occasions of
+display, that gradually attracted people to these reunions, and made all
+other society appear cold, formal, and hypocritical by contrast. This
+new invention had not reached England when Lady Hester quitted it, but
+she listened to a description of its merits with considerable interest.
+There were many points, too, in which it chimed in with her notions. It
+had novelty, liberty, and unbounded caprice amongst its recommendations;
+and lastly, it was certain to outrage the “Onslows.” It was a “part”
+ which admitted of any amount of interpolations. Under its sanction she
+would be free to say anything, know any one, and go anywhere. Blessed
+immunity that permitted all and denied nothing!
+
+With all the vulgar requirements of “Lionism” she was already
+sufficiently conversant. She could ride, drive, shoot, and fence; was
+a very tolerable billiard-player, and could row a little. But with the
+higher walks of the craft she had made no acquaintance; she had not
+learned to swim, had never smoked, and was in dark ignorance of that
+form of language which, half mystical and all-mischievous, is in vogue
+with the members of this sect. That she could acquire all these
+things rapidly and easily the colonel assured her, and, by way
+of “matriculating,” reminded her of her challenge respecting the
+pistol-shooting, for which he had made every preparation in the garden
+of the hotel.
+
+True to his word, he had selected a very pretty alley, at the end of
+which rose a wall sufficiently high to guard against accidents from
+stray shots. On a table were displayed, in all the dandyism such
+objects are capable of, a handsome case of pistols, with all the varied
+appliances of kid leather for wadding, bullet-moulds, rammers, hammers,
+screws, and rests, even to a russia-leather bound note-book, to record
+the successes, nothing had been forgotten; and Lady Hester surveyed with
+pleasure preparations which at least implied an anxious attention to her
+wishes.
+
+“Only fancy the barbarism of the land we live in,” said he; “I have sent
+emissaries on every side to seek for some of those plaster images so
+common in every city of Europe, but in vain. Instead of your ladyship
+cutting off Joan of Arc's head, or sending your bullet through some
+redoubtable enemy of England, you must waste your prowess and skill
+upon an ignoble jar of porcelain, or a vase of Bohemian glass; unless,
+indeed, my last messenger shall have proved more fortunate, and I
+believe such is the case.” As he spoke, his servant came up with a small
+parcel carefully enveloped in paper.
+
+“I have got this figure, sir,” said he, “with the greatest difficulty,
+and only indeed by pretending we wanted it as an ornamental statue. The
+little fellow of the toy-shop parted with it in tears, as if it had been
+his brother.”
+
+“It is very beautiful!” said Lady Hester, as she surveyed a small wooden
+statue of Goethe's “Marguerite,” in the attitude of plucking the petals
+of a flower to decide upon her lover's fidelity.
+
+“A mere toy!” said Haggerstone. “These things are carved by every child
+in the Black Forest. Does your Ladyship think you could hit the feather
+of her cap without hurting the head?”
+
+“I couldn't think of such profanation,” replied she; “there is really
+something very pretty in the attitude and expression. Pray let us
+reserve her for some less terrible destiny.”
+
+But the colonel persisted in assuring her that these were the commonest
+knick-knacks that adorned every peasant's cabin, that every boor with a
+rusty knife carved similar figures, and in the midst of his explanations
+he placed the statue upon a little stone pillar about twenty paces off.
+
+Lady Hester's objection had been little more than a caprice; indeed, had
+she been convinced that the figure was a valuable work of art, she
+would have felt rather flattered than otherwise at the costliness of the
+entertainment provided for her. Like Cleopatra's pearl, it would have
+had the charm of extravagance at least; but she never gave the colonel
+credit for such gallantry, and the more readily believed all he said on
+the subject.
+
+Colonel Haggerstone proceeded to load the pistols with all that pomp and
+circumstance so amusingly displayed by certain people on like occasions.
+The bullets, encased in little globes of chamois, carefully powdered
+with emery, were forced down the barrels by a hammer, the hair trigger
+adjusted, and the weapon delivered to Lady Hester with due solemnity.
+
+“If I go wide of the mark, Colonel, I beg you to remember that I have
+not had a pistol in my hand for above three years; indeed, it must be
+nearly four years since I shot a match with Lord Norwood.”
+
+“Lord Norwood! indeed!” said Haggerstone. “I wasn't aware that your
+Ladyship had ever been his antagonist.”
+
+Had not Lady Hester been herself anxious to hide the confusion the
+allusion to the viscount always occasioned her, she could not have
+failed to remark how uncomfortably astonished was Haggerstone at the
+mention of that name. Nervously eager to do something anything that
+might relieve her embarrassment she pulled the trigger; but the aim was
+an erring one, and no trace of the bullet to be seen.
+
+“There 's no use in looking for it, Colonel Haggerstone,” said she,
+pettishly; “I'm certain I was very wide of the mark.”
+
+“I 'm positive I saw the plaster drop from the wall somewhere
+hereabouts,” said the complaisant Colonel, pointing to a spot close
+beside the figure. “Yes, and the twigs are broken here.”
+
+“No matter; I certainly missed, and that's quite enough. I told you I
+should, before I fired; and when one has the anticipation of failure, it
+is so easy to vindicate the impression.”
+
+[Illustration:   094]
+
+It was in evident chagrin at her want of success that she spoke, and all
+her companion's flatteries went for nothing. Meanwhile, he presented the
+second pistol, which, taking hastily, and without giving herself time
+for an aim, she discharged with a like result.
+
+“I 'll not try again,” said she, pettishly. “Either the pistols don't
+suit me, or the place or the light is bad. Something is wrong, that's
+certain.”
+
+Haggerstone bit his lip in silence, and went on reloading the pistols
+without trusting himself to reply. A little conflict was going on within
+him, and all his intended flatteries for her Ladyship were warring with
+the desire to display his own skill, for he was a celebrated shot, and
+not a little vain of the accomplishment. Vanity carried the day at last,
+and taking up the weapon, he raised it slowly to a level with his eye. A
+second or two he held it thus, his hand steady as a piece of marble.
+
+“I have taken my aim, and now you may give the word for me to fire when
+you please,” said he, turning his eyes from the object, and looking
+straight at Lady Hester.
+
+She stared at him as if to reassure herself of the direction of his
+glance, and then called out “Fire!” The shot rang out clear and sharp;
+with it arose a shrill cry of agony, and straight before them, at the
+foot of the pillar, lay something which looked like a roll of clothes,
+only that by its panting motion it indicated life. Haggerstone sprang
+forward, and to his horror discovered the dwarf, Hans Roeckle, who, with
+his arm broken, lay actually bathed in blood. With his remaining hand he
+clasped the little statue to his bosom, while he muttered to himself the
+words “Gerettet! saved! saved!”
+
+While Lady Hester hurried for assistance, Haggerstone bound up the
+bleeding vessels with his handkerchief; and in such German as he could
+command, asked how the accident had befallen.
+
+A few low muttering sounds were all the dwarf uttered, but he kissed the
+little image with a devotion that seemed like insanity. Meanwhile the
+colonel's servant, coming up, at once recognized Hans, and exclaimed,
+“It is the little fellow of the toy-shop, sir. I told you with what
+reluctance he parted with this figure. He must be mad, I think.”
+
+The wild looks and eager expressions of the dwarf, as he clutched the
+image and pressed it to his heart, seemed to warrant the suspicion; and
+Haggerstone thought he could read insanity in every line of the poor
+creature's face. To the crowd that instantaneously gathered around the
+inn door, and which included many of his friends and acquaintances, Hans
+would give no other explanation of the event than that it was a mere
+accident; that he was passing, and received the shot by chance; nothing
+more.
+
+“Is he not mad, or a fool?” asked Haggerstone of the innkeeper.
+
+“Neither, sir; Hans Roeckle is an old and respected burgher of our town,
+and although eccentric and odd in his way, is not wanting for good sense
+or good nature.”
+
+“Ay! ay!” cried two or three of his townsfolk, to whom the landlord
+translated the Colonel's question; “Hans is a kind-hearted fellow, and
+if he loves his dolls and wooden images over-much, he never lacks in
+affection for living creatures.”
+
+While these and such-like observations were making around him, the
+dwarf's wounds were being dressed by his friend, Ludwig Kraus, an
+operation of considerable pain, that the little fellow bore with heroic
+tranquillity. Not a word of complaint, not a syllable of impatience
+escaped him; and while from his half-closed lips a low, muttered
+exclamation of “Saved! saved!” came forth from time to time, the
+bystanders deemed it the utterance of gratitude for his own escape with
+life.
+
+But once only did any expression of irritation burst from him, it was
+when Haggerstone pulled out his purse, and with an ostentatious display
+of munificence asked him to name his recompense. “Take me home; take me
+hence!” said Hans, impatiently. “Tell the rich 'Englander' that there
+are wounds for which sorrow would be an ample cure, but there are others
+which insult is sure to fester.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII. THE NIGHT EXCURSION
+
+THE remainder of the day after the dwarf's misfortune was passed by Lady
+Hester in a state of feverish irritability. Sorry as she felt for the
+“sad accident,” her own phrase, she was still more grieved for the
+effects it produced upon herself; the jar and worry of excited feelings,
+the uncomfortableness of being anxious about anything or anybody.
+
+Epicurean in her code of manners as of morals, she detested whatever
+occasioned even a passing sensation of dissatisfaction, and hence upon
+the luckless colonel, the author of the present evil, fell no measured
+share of her displeasure. “He should have taken precautions against
+such a mishap; he ought to have had sufficient presence of mind to have
+arrested his aim; he should have fired in the air, in fact, he ought to
+have done anything but what he did do;” which was to agitate the nerves,
+and irritate the sensibilities, of a fine lady.
+
+The conduct of the family, too, was the very reverse of soothing. Sir
+Stafford's gout had relapsed on hearing of the event; George Onslow's
+anger was such that he could not trust himself to speak of the
+occurrence; and as for Sydney, though full of sorrow for the dwarf, she
+had not a single sympathy to bestow upon her stepmother. “Were there
+ever such people?” she asked herself again and again. Not one had taken
+the trouble to ask how she bore up, or express the slightest anxiety for
+the consequences the shock might occasion her.
+
+Grounsell was actually insufferable; and even hinted that if anything
+untoward were to happen, the very grave question might arise as to
+the guilt of the parties who appeared in arms without a Government
+permission. He reminded her Ladyship that they were not in England, but
+in a land beset with its own peculiar prejudices and notions, and in
+nothing so rigorous as in the penalties on accidents that took their
+origin in illegality.
+
+As for the wound itself, he informed her that the bullet had “traversed
+the deltoid, but without dividing the brachial artery; and, for the
+present, sympathetic fever and subcutaneous inflammation would be the
+worst consequences.” These tidings were neither very reassuring nor
+intelligible; but all her cross-examination could elicit little better.
+
+“Has Colonel Haggerstone been to see him?” asked she.
+
+“No, madam. His groom called with a present of two florins.”
+
+“Oh! impossible, sir.”
+
+“Perfectly true, madam. I was present when the money was returned to the
+man by a young lady, whose attentions to the sufferer saved him the pain
+this indignity would have cost him.”
+
+“A young lady, did you say? How does he happen to be so fortunate in his
+attendance?”
+
+“Her father chances to be this poor creature's tenant, and many mutual
+acts of kindness have passed between them.”
+
+“Not even scandal could asperse her motives in the present case,” said
+Lady Hester, with an insolent laugh. “It looked hardly human when they
+lifted it from the ground.”
+
+“Scandal has been guilty of as gross things, madam,” said Grounsell,
+sternly, “but I would defy her here, although there is beauty enough
+to excite all her malevolence.” And with this speech, delivered with a
+pointedness there was no mistaking, the doctor left the room.
+
+Impressions, or what she herself would have called “feelings,” chased
+each other so rapidly through Lady Hester's mind, that her whole
+attention was now directed to the young lady of whom Grounsell spoke,
+and whose singular charity excited all her curiosity. There is a strange
+tendency to imitation among those whose intelligences lie unexercised
+by any call of duty or necessity. No suggestion coming from within, they
+look without themselves for occupation and amusement. Lady Hester was a
+prominent disciple of this school; all her life she had been following,
+eager to see whether the fashions that became, or the pleasures that
+beguiled, others, might not suit herself. If such a course of existence
+inevitably conduces to ennui and discontent, it is no less difficult to
+strive against; and they who follow in the track of others' footsteps
+have all the weariness of the road without the cheering excitement of
+the journey.
+
+If the young lady found pleasure in charity, why should n't she?
+Benevolence, too, for aught she knew, might be very becoming. There were
+a hundred little devices of costume and manner which might be adopted to
+display it. What a pretty version of the good Samaritan modernized
+one might give in a Shetland scarf and a cottage bonnet the very thing
+Chalons would like to paint; and what an effective “interior” might
+be made of the dwarf's chamber, crowded with rude peasant faces, all
+abashed and almost awe-struck as she entered.
+
+The longer she dwelt upon the theme the more fascinating it became. “It
+would be really worth while to realize,” said she to herself at last “so
+amusing and so odd, an actual adventure; besides, in point of fact, it
+was her duty to look after this poor creature.” Just so; there never was
+a frivolous action, or a notion struck out by passing folly, for
+which its author could not find a justification in PRINCIPLE! We are
+everlastingly declaring against the knaveries and deceptions practised
+on us in life; but if we only took count of the cheats we play off upon
+ourselves, we should find that there are no such impostors as our own
+hearts.
+
+Nobody was ever less likely to make this discovery than Lady Hester. She
+believed herself everything that was good and amiable; she knew that she
+was handsome. Whatever contrarieties she met with in life, she was quite
+certain they came not from any fault of hers; and if self-esteem could
+give happiness, she must have enjoyed it. But it cannot. The wide
+neutral territory between what we think of ourselves and others think of
+us is filled with daring enemies to our peace, and it is impossible to
+venture into it without a wound of self-love.
+
+To make her visit to the dwarf sufficient of an adventure, it must
+be done in secret; nobody should know it but Celestine, her maid, who
+should accompany her. Affecting a slight indisposition, she could retire
+to her room in the evening, and then there would be abundant time to put
+her plan into execution. Even these few precautions against discovery
+were needless, for George did not return to dinner on that day, and
+Sydney made a headache an excuse for not appearing.
+
+Nothing short of the love of adventure and the indulgence of a caprice
+could have induced Lady Hester to venture out in such a night. The
+rain fell in torrents, and swooped along the narrow streets in channels
+swollen to the size of rivulets. The river itself, fed by many a
+mountain stream, fell tumbling over the rocks with a deafening roar,
+amid which the crashing branches of the pine-trees were heard at
+intervals. What would not have been her anxieties and lamentings
+if exposed to such a storm when travelling, surrounded with all the
+appliances that wealth can compass! and yet now, of her own free will,
+she wended her way on foot through the darkness and the hurricane, not
+only without complaining, but actually excited to a species of pleasure
+in the notion of her imaginary heroism.
+
+The courier who preceded her, as guide, enjoyed no such agreeable
+illusions, but muttered to himself, as he went, certain reflections by
+no means complimentary, to the whims of fine ladies; while Mademoiselle
+Celestine inwardly protested that anything, “not positively wrong,”
+ would be dearly purchased by the dangers of such an excursion.
+
+“Gregoire! Gregoire! where is he now!” exclaimed Lady Hester, as she
+lost sight of her guide altogether.
+
+“Here, miladi,” grunted out the courier, in evident pain; “I fail to
+break my neck over de stone bench.”
+
+“Where 's the lantern, Gregoire?”
+
+“Blowed away, zum Teufel, I believe.” “What 's he saying, Celestine?
+what does he mean?”
+
+But mademoiselle could only answer by a sob of agony over her capote de
+Paris, flattened to her head like a Highland bonnet.
+
+“Have you no light? You must get a light, Gregoire.”
+
+“Impossible, miladi; dere 's nobody livin' in dese houses at all.”
+
+“Then you must go back to the inn for one; we 'll wait here till you
+return.”
+
+A faint shriek from Mademoiselle Celestine expressed all the terror such
+a proposition suggested.
+
+“Miladi will be lost if she remain here all alone.”
+
+“Perdue! sans doute!” exclaimed Celestiue.
+
+“I am determined to have my way. Do as I bade you, Gregoire; return
+for a light, and we'll take such shelter as this door affords in the
+meanwhile.”
+
+It was in no spirit of general benevolence that Gregoire tracked his
+road back to the “Russie,” since, if truth must be told, he himself had
+extinguished the light, in the hope of forcing Lady Hester to a retreat.
+Muttering a choice selection of those pleasant phrases with which his
+native German abounds, he trudged along, secretly resolving that he
+would allow his mistress a reasonable interval of time to reflect
+over her madcap expedition. Meanwhile, Lady Hester and her maid stood
+shivering and storm-beaten beneath the drip of a narrow eave. The spirit
+of opposition alone sustained her Ladyship at this conjuncture, for she
+was wet through, her shoes soaked with rain, and the cold blast that
+swept along seemed as if it would freeze the very blood in her heart.
+
+Celestine could supply but little of comfort or consolation, and kept
+repeating the words, “Quelle aventure! quelle aventure!” in every
+variety of lamentation.
+
+“He could easily have been back by this,” said Lady Hester, after a long
+pause, and an anxious attention to every sound that might portend his
+coming: “I 'm certain it is full half an hour since he left us. What a
+night!”
+
+“Et quelle aventure!” exclaimed Celestine, anew.
+
+None knew better than Lady Hester the significant depreciation of the
+Frenchwoman's phrase, and how differently had she rated all the hazards
+of the enterprise if any compromise of character were to have followed
+it. However, it was no time for discussion, and she let it pass.
+
+“If he should have missed the way, and not be able to find us!” she
+said, after another pause.
+
+“We shall be found dead in the morning,” cried Celestine; “et pour
+quelle a venture, mon Dieu, pour quelle aventure!”
+
+The possibility that her fears suggested, and the increasing severity
+of the storm for now the thunder rolled overhead, and the very ground
+seemed to shake with the reverberation served to alarm Lady Hester, and
+for the first time she became frightened at their situation.
+
+“We could scarcely find our way back, Celestine!” said she, rather in
+the tone of one asking for comfort than putting a question.
+
+“Impossible, miladi.”
+
+“And Gregoire says that these houses are all uninhabited.”
+
+“Quelle aventure!” sobbed the maid.
+
+“What can have become of him? It is more than an hour now! What was
+that, Ce'lestine? was it lightning? there, don't you see it yonder,
+towards the end of the street? I declare it is Gregoire; I see the
+lantern.”
+
+A cry of joy burst from both together, for already hope had begun to
+wane, and a crowd of fearful anticipations had taken its place.
+
+Lady Hester tried to call his name, but the clattering noise of the
+storm drowned the weak effort. The light, however, came nearer at
+each instant, and there was no longer any doubt of their rescue, when
+suddenly it turned and disappeared at an angle of the street. Lady
+Hester uttered a piercing cry, and at the instant the lantern was again
+seen, showing that the bearer had heard the sounds.
+
+“Here, Gregoire, we are here!” exclaimed she, in her loudest voice, and
+speaking in English.
+
+Whoever carried the lantern seemed for a moment uncertain how to act,
+for there was no reply, nor any change of position for a few seconds,
+when at length the light was seen approaching where Lady Hester stood.
+
+“I think I heard an English voice,” said one whose accents proclaimed
+her to be a woman.
+
+“Oh yes!” cried Lady Hester, passionately, “I am English. We have lost
+our way. Our courier went back to the inn for a lantern, and has never
+returned, and we are almost dead with cold and terror. Can you guide us
+to the Hotel de Russie?”
+
+“The house I live in is only a few yards off. It is better you should
+take shelter there for the present.”
+
+“Take care, miladi!” whispered Celestine, eagerly. “This may be a plot
+to rob and murder us.”
+
+“Have no fears on that score, mademoiselle,” said the unknown, laughing,
+and speaking in French; “we are not very rich, but as surely we are
+perfectly safe company.”
+
+Few as these words were, there was in their utterance that indescribable
+tone of good breeding and ease which at once reassured Lady Hester, who
+now replied to her unseen acquaintance with the observance due to an
+equal, and willingly accepted the arm she offered for guidance and
+support.
+
+“At the end of this little street, scarcely two minutes' walking, and
+you will be there,” said the unknown.
+
+Lady Hester scarcely heard the remark, as she ran on with voluble levity
+on the dangers they had run, the terrific storm, the desertion of
+the courier, her own fortitude, her maid's cowardice, what must have
+happened if they had not been discovered, till at last she bethought her
+of asking by what singular accident the other should have been abroad in
+such a terrible night.
+
+“A neighbor and a friend of ours is very ill, madam, and I have been to
+the doctor's to fetch some medicine for him.”
+
+“And I, too, was bent upon a charitable errand,” said Lady Hester, quite
+pleased with the opportunity of parading her own merits, “to visit a
+poor creature who was accidentally wounded this morning.”
+
+“It is Hans Roeckle, our poor neighbor, you mean,” cried the other,
+eagerly; “and here we are at his house.” And so saying, she pushed open
+a door, to which a bell, attached on the inside, gave speedy warning of
+their approach.
+
+“Dearest Kate!” cried a voice from within, “how uneasy I have been at
+your absence!” And the same moment a young girl appeared with a light,
+which, as she shaded it with her hand, left her unaware of the presence
+of strangers.
+
+“Think rather of this lady, and what she must have suffered,” said Kate,
+as, drawing courteously back, she presented her sister to Lady Hester.
+
+“Or rather, what I might have suffered,” interposed Lady Hester, “but
+for the fortunate accident of your coming. A few moments back, as I
+stood shivering beneath the storm, I little thought that I should owe
+my rescue to a countrywoman. May I learn the name of one to whom I am so
+deeply indebted?”
+
+“Dalton, madam,” said Nelly; and then with a slight confusion, added,
+“we ought, perhaps, to tell the circumstances which induced my sister to
+be abroad at such an hour.”
+
+“She knows it all,” broke in Kate, “and can the more readily forgive it,
+as it was her own errand. But will not this lady come near the fire?”
+ said she, addressing Mademoiselle Celestiue, who, as she followed the
+rest into the humble chamber, was bestowing a most depreciatory glance
+upon the place, the furniture, and the people.
+
+“It is only my maid,” said Lady Hester, carelessly. “And now it is time
+I should introduce myself, and say that Lady Hester Onslow owes you all
+her gratitude.” Ellen courtesied respectfully at the announcement, but
+Kate Dalton's cheek colored slightly, and she bent a look of more than
+common admiration at the handsome figure of the stranger. An innate
+reverence for rank and title was rooted in her heart, and she was
+overjoyed to think that their chance acquaintance should be one of that
+class so distinctively marked out for honor. Prepared to admire every
+grace and fascination of the high-born, Kate watched with eager and
+delighted looks the slightest gestures, the least traits of manner, of
+the fashionable beauty. They were all attractions to which her heart
+gave a ready response. The accent in which she spoke, the careless
+elegance of her attitude as she lay back in her chair, the charming
+negligence with which she wore the little portions of dress exchanged
+for her own, were all inimitable graces in the eye of the simple girl.
+
+As for Lady Hester, accustomed to all the servile offices of her own
+attendants, to be punctiliously obeyed and waited on, it was yet a new
+sensation to watch the zealous and eager devotion with which the two
+sisters ministered to her wants. In utter forgetfulness of themselves,
+they had brought forth the little resources of their humble wardrobe,
+too happy, as it seemed, when they saw their services so willingly
+accepted. Fortunately, they did not perceive the contemptuous looks
+with which “mademoiselle” regarded their attentions, nor overheard
+her exclamation of “Mon Dieu! where did they gather together these
+chiffons?” as she surveyed the somewhat antiquated stores of their
+toilette.
+
+Even had Lady Hester's good breeding not prompted a gracious reception
+of what was so generously offered, the very singularity of the scene
+would have had its charm in her estimation. She was delighted with
+everything, even to Kate Dalton's slippers, which, by a most happy
+flattery, were a little too large for her. She fancied, too, that her
+costume, curiously made up of shreds and patches the most incongruous,
+was the dress of an Irish peasant, and was in an ecstasy at the thought
+of a similar one at her next fancy ball. Besides all these internal
+sources of self-satisfaction, the admiration of the two sisters was
+another and more legitimate cause of pleasure; for even Ellen, with all
+her natural reserve and caution, was scarcely less impressed than Kate
+with the charm of those fascinations which, however destined but for one
+class of society, are equally successful in all.
+
+Ellen Dalton's life had not been devoid of trials, nor had they failed
+to teach their own peculiar lessons; and yet her experiences had not
+shown her how very like right feeling good breeding can be, and how
+closely good manners may simulate every trait of a high and generous
+nature.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX. A FINE LADY'S BLANDISHMENTS.
+
+WE left Lady Hester, in our last chapter, employed in the exercise of
+those fascinations which, however unlike in other respects, have this
+resemblance to virtue, that they are assuredly their own reward. The
+charm of courtesy never conferred one half the pleasure on those for
+whom it was exercised as to him who wielded it. It matters little
+whether the magician be prince or “charlatan,” the art of pleasing is
+one of the most agreeable faculties human nature can be endowed with.
+Whether Lady Hester was aware of the theory or not, she felt the fact,
+as she saw the undisguised admiration in the faces of the two sisters;
+for while she had won over Nelly by the elevation of her sentiments and
+the kindness of her expressions, Kate was fascinated by her beauty, her
+grace, her easy gayety, and a certain voluble lightness that simulates
+frankness.
+
+Without anything that approached the prying of curiosity, for she was
+both too well bred and too little interested to have so felt such a
+motive, she inquired by what accident the Daltons remained at Baden so
+late in the season, affected to see some similarity between their cases
+and her own, asked in the most feeling terms for their father, whose
+ill-health she deplored, and then took such an interest in “dear Frank,”
+ that Kate could not resist showing a portrait of him, which, however
+humble its claims to art, still conveyed a not unfaithful resemblance of
+the handsome youth.
+
+While thus hearing about them, she was equally communicative about
+herself, and enlisted all the sympathies of the girls as she recounted
+their escape from the torrent in the Black Forest, and their subsequent
+refuge in Baden.
+
+Thence she diverged to Sir Stafford's illness, her own life of seclusion
+and sadness, and, by an easy transition, came round to poor Hans
+Roeckle and the accident of that morning.
+
+“Do tell me everything about the poor dear thing,” said she, poutingly.
+“They say it is mad.”
+
+“No, madam,” said Nelly, gravely; “Hans, with many eccentricities of
+manner, is very far from deficient in good sense or judgment, and is
+more than ordinarily endowed with right feeling and kindness of heart.”
+
+“He is a dwarf, surely?”
+
+“Yes, but in intelligence--”
+
+“Oh, that, of course,” interrupted she; “they are rarely deficient in
+acuteness, but so spiteful, so full of malice. My dear child, there 's
+no trusting them. They never forget an injury, nor even an imaginary
+slight. There was that creature what was his name? that Polish thing,
+Benywowski, I think you remember, they baked him in a pie, to amuse
+Charles II. well, he never forgave it after wards, and to the day of his
+death could never bear the sight of pastry.”
+
+“I must except poor Hans from this category,” said Nelly, mildly, and
+with difficulty restraining a smile. “He is amiability itself.”
+
+Lady Hester shook her head doubtfully, and went on.
+
+“Their very caprices, my dear, lead them into all kinds of
+extravagances. For instance, this poor thing, it would seem, is so
+enamored of these wooden toys that he makes himself, that he cannot bear
+to part with them. Now, there 's no saying to what excesses he might
+be carried by this absurd passion. I have read of the most atrocious
+murders committed under a similar fanaticism.”
+
+“I assure you, madam, there need be no fear of such in the present
+instance. In the first case, Hans is too good; in the second, the
+objects are too valueless.”
+
+“Very true, so they are; but he doesn't think them so, you know.”
+
+“Nay, my Lady; nor would you either, were you to regard them with
+attention,” broke in Kate, whose cheek was now one glow of scarlet.
+“Even this, half finished as it is, may lay claim to merit.” And as she
+spoke, she removed a napkin from a little statue, before which she held
+the candle.
+
+“For shame, Kate, dearest Kate!” cried Nelly, standing up in bashful
+discomfiture.
+
+“It is a statuette of poor Frank, madam,” continued Kate, who, totally
+regardless of her sister's interruption now exhibited the figure nearer.
+“You see him just as he left us, his knapsack on his shoulder, his sword
+fastened across it, his little cap on one side of his head, and
+that happy smile upon his lips. Poor dear fellow! how sad a heart it
+covered!”
+
+“And was this his work?” asked Lady Hester, in astonishment.
+
+“No, madam; my sister Nelly was the artist of this, as of all the
+others. Unaided and untaught, her own ingenuity alone suggesting the
+means, as her imagination supplied the conception.”
+
+“Kate! dear, dear Kate!” said Ellen, with a voice of almost rebuke.
+“You forget how unworthy these poor efforts are of such high-sounding
+epithets.” Then, turning to Lady Hester, she continued: “Were it to ears
+less charitable than yours, madam, these foolish words were spoken, I
+should fear the criticism our presumption would seem to call forth. But
+you will not think harshly of us for ignorance.”
+
+“But this figure is admirable; the attitude is graceful; the character
+of the head, the features, are in good keeping. I know, of course,
+nothing of the resemblance to your brother, but, as a work of art, I am
+competent to say it has high merit. Do tell me how the thought of doing
+these things first occurred to you.”
+
+“I learned drawing as a child, madam, and was always fond of it,” said
+Ellen, with a degree of constraint that seemed as if the question were
+painful to answer.
+
+“Yes, and so have I spent months ay, I believe I might say years at the
+easel, copying every Giorgione at Venice and every Vandyk at Genoa, and
+yet such a thought never suggested itself to me.”
+
+“I am happy to think so, madam,” was the low response.
+
+“Why so? how do you mean?” asked Lady Hester, eagerly.
+
+“That the motive in my case never could have been yours, madam.”
+
+“And what was the motive?”
+
+“Poverty, madam. The word is not a pleasant word to syllable, but it is
+even better than any attempt at disguise. These trifles, while beguiling
+many a dreary hour, have helped us through a season of more than usual
+difficulty.”
+
+“Yes, madam,” broke in Kate. “You are aware that papa's property is in
+Ireland, and for some years back it has been totally unproductive.”
+
+“How very sad how dreadful!” exclaimed Lady Hester. But whether the
+expressions referred to the condition of the Daltons or of Ireland, it
+is not quite clear.
+
+“I doubt, madam, if I should have ventured on the confession,” said
+Ellen, with a voice of calm firmness, “were it not for the opportunity
+it offers of bearing testimony to the kindness of our poor friend
+yonder, Hans Roeckle. These efforts of mine have met such favor in
+his eyes that he accepts them all, taking them as rapidly as they are
+finished, and, I need not say, treating me with a generosity that would
+become a more exalted patron and a better artist.”
+
+“It is quite a romance, I declare!” cried Lady Hester. “The Wood Demon
+and the Maiden. Only he is not in love with you, I hope?”
+
+“I'm not quite sure of that,” said Kate, laughing; “at least, when some
+rivalry of her own wooden images does not intervene.”
+
+“Hush! Hans is awaking,” said Ellen, as on tiptoe she crossed the room
+noiselessly, and opened the door of the chamber where the dwarf lay.
+Lady Hester and Kate now drew near and peeped in. On a low settle over
+which an old scarlet saddle-cloth, fringed with tarnished lace, was
+spread as a quilt lay Hans Roeckle, his wounded arm supported by a
+pillow at his side; his dark eyes glistened with the bright glare
+of fever, and his cheeks were flushed and burning, as his lips moved
+unceasingly, with a low muttering, which he continued, regardless of the
+presence of those who now approached his bedside.
+
+“What is it he is saying? Does he complain of pain?” asked Lady Hester.
+
+[Illustration:   110]
+
+“I cannot understand him,” said Nelly; “for ever since his accident he
+has spoken in his native dialect the patois of the Bregentzer Wald of
+which I am utterly ignorant; still he will reply to me in good German
+when questioned.” Then, stooping down, she asked, “Are you better,
+Hans?”
+
+Hans looked up steadfastly in her face without speaking; it seemed as if
+her voice had arrested his wandering faculties, but yet not awakened any
+intelligence.
+
+“You are thirsty, Hans,” said she, gently, as she lifted a cup of water
+to his lips. He drank greedily, and then passed his hand across his
+brow, as if trying to dispel some tormenting fancies. After a second or
+two, he said: “It was in Nuremberg, in the Oden Gasse, it happened. The
+Ritter von Ottocar stabbed her as she knelt at the cross; and the dwarf,
+Der Mohrchen, as they called him, tore off his turban to bind up the
+wound; and what was his reward, maiden? tell me that! Are ye all so
+shamed that ye dare not speak it?”
+
+“We know it not, Hans; we never heard of the Ritter nor the Mohrchen
+before.”
+
+“I 'll tell you, then. They burned him as a warlock in the Hohen Platz
+next morning.” With a wild burst of savage laughter he closed this
+speech, which he spoke in good German; but immediately after his
+thoughts seemed to turn to his old Tyrol haunts and the familiar
+language of his native land, as he sang, in a low voice, the following
+words:
+
+     “A Buchsel zu schiessen,
+     A Stossring zu schlagn,
+     A Dienal zu Liebn,
+     Muss a Rue hahn.”
+
+“What does he mean? Do tell me,” said Lady Hester, whose interest in the
+scene was more that of curiosity than compassion.
+
+“It is a peasant dialect; but means, that a rifle to shoot with, a
+weapon to wield, and a maiden to love, are all that a good Tyroler
+needs in life,” said Kate, while Nelly busied herself in arranging the
+position of the wounded limb, little offices for which the poor dwarf
+looked his gratitude silently.
+
+“How wild his looks are!” said Lady Hester. “See how his eyes glance
+along the walls, as if some objects were moving before them!” And so
+in reality was it. Hanserl's looks were riveted upon the strange and
+incongruous assemblage of toys which, either suspended from nails or
+ranged on shelves, decorated the sides of the chamber. “Ay,” said he
+at last, with a melancholy smile, “thou 'lt have to put off all this
+bravery soon, my pretty damsels, and don the black veil and the hood,
+for thy master Hans is dying!”
+
+“He is talking to the wax figures,” whispered Kate.
+
+“And ye too, my brave hussars, and ye Uhlaners with your floating
+banners, must lower your lances as ye march in the funeral procession,
+when Hanserl is dead! Take down the wine-bush from the door, hostess,
+and kneel reverently, for the bell is ringing; and here comes the priest
+in his alb, and with the pix before him. Hush! they are chanting his
+requiem. Ah! yes. Hanserl is away to the far-off land,
+
+     Wo sind die Tage lang genug,
+     Wo sind die Nachte mild.”
+
+“Come away, we do but excite his mind to wanderings,” said Ellen: “so
+long as there is light to see these toys, his fancy endows them all with
+life and feeling, and his poor brain is never at rest.” The sound of
+voices in the outer room at the same moment caught their attention, and
+they heard the courier of Lady Hester in deep converse with Mademoiselle
+Celestine. He, deploring the two hours he had passed in hunting after
+his mistress through the dark streets of the village; and she, not less
+eloquently, bewailing the misery of a night spent in that comfortless
+cabin. “To visit a wretched dwarf, too! Parbleu! had it been a
+rendezvous with some one worth while, but an excursion without an
+object, sans emotion meme, it is too bad!”
+
+“Que voulez-vous!” said Monsieur Gregoire, with a shrug of the
+shoulders; “she is English!”
+
+“Ah! that is no reason for a vulgar caprice, and I, for one, will not
+endure it longer. I cannot do so. Such things compromise one's self.
+I 'll give warning to-morrow. What would my poor dear mistress, la
+Marquise, say, if she only knew how mes petits talents were employed?”
+
+“Do not be rash, mademoiselle,” interposed the courier; “they are rich,
+very rich, and we are going to Italy too, the real pays de Cocagne of
+our profession.”
+
+How far his persuasions might have gone in inducing her to reconsider
+her determination there is no saying, when they were suddenly
+interrupted by Lady Hester's appearance.
+
+Her first care was to ascertain that her absence from the hotel had not
+been remarked, her secret, as she loved to fancy it, remained sacred.
+Having learned thus much, she listened with a kind of childish pleasure
+to the courier's version of all his unhappy wanderings in search of
+her, until he at last descried a light, the only one that shone from any
+window in the whole village.
+
+As Gregoire had provided himself with a sufficient number of shawls,
+cloaks, and clogs, and as the storm had now passed over, Lady Hester
+prepared to take her leave, delighted with her whole night's adventure.
+There had been excitement enough to make it all she could desire; nor
+did she well know whether most to admire her heroism during the storm,
+or the success with which she captivated the two sisters; the courage
+which planned the expedition, or the grace with which it was executed.
+
+“You'll come and see me, Miss Dalton; mind, I'm always at home.
+Remember, Miss Kate Dalton, that they must not deny me to you” said
+she, in her most winning of manners. The two girls gave their promise in
+bashful diffidence, while she continued,
+
+“You'll say to your papa, too, that Sir Stafford will wait on him
+whenever he is able to leave the house. Mr. Onslow, indeed, ought to
+call at once; but he is so odd. Never mind, we shall be great friends;
+and you 'll bring all your little carving tools and your models with
+you, and work in my room. Your sister her embroidery, or her lace, or
+her crochet, or whatever it is, or you 'll read German for me, like a
+dear child, that will be so delightful. I can't understand a word of it,
+but it sounds so soft, and you 'll tell me all it 's about won't you?
+And then this poor thing must want for nothing.”
+
+“Nay, madam, he is in no need of anything but kindness. In a land where
+such simple habits prevail, Hans Roeckle passes for rich.”
+
+“How strange! how very odd! but I remember that poor Prince of
+Stolzenheimer. Papa used to say that he had six cordons, but only one
+coat! I believe it was true.”
+
+“Hanserl is better off, madam,” replied Nelly, smiling; “at least as
+regards the coats.”
+
+“Tell him, then, that I've been to see him, and am so grieved at his
+accident, but that it was all Colonel Haggerstone's fault, a bit of
+silly vanity to show how well he could shoot, and I 'm certain it just
+comes of being used to the pistols. I never missed when I fired with
+Norwood's!”
+
+The utterance of that name seemed to recall her from the discursive
+babble. She paused, and for a moment or two she was silent. At last,
+turning to the sisters, she reiterated her hopes of a speedy meeting,
+and with a cordial pressure of the hand to each, wished her last
+good-night, and departed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X. A FAMILY DISCUSSION.
+
+LONG before Lady Hester awoke on the following morning every
+circumstance of her visit was known to Grounsell. It was the doctor's
+custom to see Dalton early each day, and before Sir Stafford was
+stirring, and to chat away an hour or so with the invalid, telling
+the current news of the time, and cheering his spirits by those little
+devices which are not among the worst resources of the Materia Medica.
+With all his knowledge of Lady Hester's character, her caprices,
+her whims, and her insatiable passion for excitement, he was still
+astonished beyond measure at this step: not that the false air of
+benevolence or charity deceived him, he was too old a practitioner in
+medicine, and had seen far too much of the dark side of human nature,
+to be easily gulled, but his surprise arose from the novelty of her
+condescending to know, and even propitiate, the good graces of people
+whom she usually professed to regard as the least interesting of all
+classes of mankind. The “reduced lady or gentleman” had only presented
+themselves to Lady Hester's mind by the medium of an occasional
+curiously worded advertisement in a morning paper, and were invariably
+associated with a subsequent police report, where the object of
+charity was sure to be confronted with half a dozen peers or members of
+parliament, whose sympathies he had put under contribution, to support a
+life of infamy or extravagance. “A begging impostor” rang in her mind
+as a phrase whose ingredient words could not be divorced, and she was
+thoroughly convinced that imposture and poverty were convertible terms.
+The very notion of any one having once been well off, and being now in
+embarrassment, was, to her deeming, most satisfactory evidence of past
+misconduct and present knavery. Grounsell had beard her hold forth
+on this theme more than once, “embroidering the sentiment” with an
+occasional sly allusion to himself and his own fortunes, so that he
+had often thought over the difficulty of serving the Daltons with Sir
+Stafford, by reflecting on the hostility any project would meet with
+from “my Lady,” and now accident, or something very like it, had done
+what all his ingenuity could not succeed in discovering.
+
+The announcement at first rendered him perfectly mute; he heard it
+without power to make the slightest observation; and it was only at the
+end of a lengthy description from the two sisters, that he exclaimed, in
+a kind of half soliloquy, “By Jove, it is so like her, after all!”
+
+“I 'm sure of it,” said Nelly; “her manner was kindness and gentleness
+itself. You should have seen the tender way she took poor Hansells hand
+in her own, and how eagerly she asked us to translate for her the few
+stray words he uttered.”
+
+“Of course she did. I could swear to it all, now that my eyes are
+opened.”
+
+“And with what winning grace she spoke!” cried Kate. “How the least
+phrase came from her lips with a fascination that still haunts me!”
+
+“Just so, just so!” muttered Grounsell.
+
+“How such traits of benevolence ennoble high station!” said Nelly.
+
+“How easy to credit all that one hears of the charms of intercourse,
+where manner like hers prevails on every side!” cried Kate,
+enthusiastically.
+
+“How thoughtful in all her kindness!”
+
+“What elegance in every movement!”
+
+“With what inborn courtesy she accepted the little valueless attentions,
+which were all we could render her!”
+
+“How beautiful she looked, in all the disorder of a dress so unlike her
+own splendor! I could almost fancy that old straw chair to be a handsome
+fauteuil since she sat in it.”
+
+“How delightful it must be to be admitted to the freedom of daily
+intercourse with such a person, to live within the atmosphere of such
+goodness and such refinement!” And thus they went on ringing the changes
+upon every gift and grace, from the genial warmth of her heart, to the
+snowy whiteness of her dimpled hands; while Grouusell fidgeted in his
+chair, searched for his handkerchief, his spectacles, his snuff-box,
+dropped them all in turn, and gathered them up again, in a perfect fever
+of embarrassment and indecision.
+
+“And you see her every day, doctor?” said Nelly.
+
+“Yes, every day, madam,” said he, hastily, and not noticing nor thinking
+to whom he was replying.
+
+“And is she always as charming, always as fascinating?”
+
+“Pretty much the same, I think,” said he, with a grunt.
+
+“How delightful! And always in the same buoyancy of spirits?”
+
+“Very little changed in that respect,” said he, with another grunt.
+
+“We have often felt for poor Sir Stafford being taken ill away from
+his home, and obliged to put up with the miserable resources of a
+watering-place in winter; but I own, when I think of the companionship
+of Lady Hester, much of my compassion vanishes.”
+
+“He needs it all, then,” said Grounsell, as, thrusting his hands into
+the recesses of his pockets, he sat a perfect picture of struggling
+embarrassment.
+
+“Are his sufferings so very great?”
+
+Grounsell nodded abruptly, for now he was debating within himself what
+course to take; for while, on one side, he deemed it a point of honor
+not to divulge to strangers, as were the Daltons, any of the domestic
+circumstances of those with whom he lived, he felt, on the other,
+reluctant to suffer Lady Hester's blandishments to pass for qualities
+more sterling and praiseworthy.
+
+“She asked the girls to go and see her,” said Dalton, now breaking
+silence for the first time; for although flattered in the main by what
+he heard of the fine lady's manner towards his daughters, he was not
+without misgivings that what they interpreted as courtesy might just as
+probably be called condescension, against which his Irish pride of birth
+and blood most sturdily rebelled. “She asked them to go and see her, and
+it was running in my head if she mio'ht not have heard something of the
+family connection.”
+
+“Possibly!” asserted Grounsell, too deep in his own calculations to
+waste a thought on such a speculation.
+
+“My wife's uncle, Joe Godfrey, married an Englishwoman. The sister
+was aunt to some rich city banker; and indeed, to tell the truth, his
+friends in Ireland never thought much of the connection but you see
+times are changed. They are up now, and we are down, the way of the
+world! It 's little I ever thought of claiming relationship with the
+like o' them!”
+
+“But if it 's they who seek us, papa?” whispered Kate.
+
+“Ay, that alters the case, my dear; not but I'd as soon excuse the
+politeness. Here we are, living in a small way; till matters come round
+in Ireland, we can't entertain them, not even give them a dinner-party.”
+
+“Oh, dearest papa,” broke in Nelly, “is not our poverty a blessing if it
+save us the humiliation of being absurd? Why should we think of such a
+thing? Why should we, with our straitened means and the habits narrow
+fortune teaches, presume even to a momentary equality with those so much
+above us.”
+
+“Faith, it's true enough!” cried Dalton, his cheek flushed with anger.
+“We are changed, there's no doubt of it; or it is not a Dalton would say
+the words you 've just said. I never knew before that the best in the
+land wasn't proud to come under our roof.”
+
+“When we had a roof,” said Nelly, firmly. “And if these ancestors had
+possessed a true and a higher pride, mayhap we might still have one.
+Had they felt shame to participate in schemes of extravagance and costly
+display, had they withheld encouragement from a ruinous mode of living,
+we might still be dwellers in our own home and our own country.”
+
+Dalton seemed thunderstruck at the boldness of a speech so unlike the
+gentle character of her who had uttered it. To have attributed any
+portion of the family calamities to their own misconduct to have
+laid the blame of their downfall to any score save that of English
+legislation, acts of parliament, grand-jury laws, failure of the potato
+crop, tithes, Terry alts, or smut in the wheat was a heresy he never, in
+his gloomiest moments, had imagined, and now he was to hear it from the
+lips of his own child.
+
+“Nelly Nelly Dal ton,” said he; “but why do I call you Dalton? Have you
+a drop of our blood in your veins at all, or is it the Godfreys you take
+after? Extravagance, ruinous living, waste, what 'll you say next?” He
+could n't continue, indignation and anger seemed almost to suffocate
+him.
+
+“Papa, dearest, kindest papa!” cried Nelly, as the tears burst from her
+eyes, “be not angry with me, nor suppose that any ungenerous repining
+against our altered lot finds a place in my heart. God knows that I
+grieve not for myself; in the humble sphere in which I am placed, I have
+found true contentment, greater, perhaps, than higher fortunes would
+have given me; for here my duties are better defined, and my sense of
+them is clearer. If I feel sorrow, it is for you and my dear sister,
+for you, papa, who suffer from many a privation; for her, who might well
+adorn a more exalted station. But for me the lame Nelly, as children
+used to call me” She was not suffered to finish her speech, for already
+her father had clasped his arms around her, and Kate, in a gush of
+tears, was sobbing on his shoulder.
+
+“Where's the doctor? what's become of him?” said Dalton, as, recovering
+from his emotion, he wished to give a different direction to their
+thoughts.
+
+“He went away half an hour ago, papa,” said Kate. “He always goes off
+without saying good-bye, whenever there is a word said about family.”
+
+“I noticed that, too, my dear,” said Dalton, “and I would n't wonder
+if he came of low people; not but he 's a kind creature, and mighty
+good-hearted.”
+
+Nelly could probably have suggested a better reason for the doctor's
+conduct, but she prudently forbore from again alluding to a theme
+already too painful.
+
+With the reader's permission, we will now follow him as, with a gesture
+of impatience, he abruptly left the room on the very first mention by
+Dalton of that genealogical tree in whose branches he loved to perch
+himself.
+
+“An old fool!” muttered Grounsell, as he passed downstairs, “an old
+fool, that no experience will ever make wiser! Well may his native
+country be a stumbling-block to legislators, if his countrymen be all
+like him, with his family pride and pretension! Confound him! can't
+he see that there 's no independence for a man in debt, and no true
+self-respect left for him who can't pay his tailor? For himself there's
+no help; but the poor girls! he'll be the ruin of them. Kate is already
+a willing listener to his nonsensical diatribes about blood and family;
+and poor Nelly's spirits will be broken in the hopeless conflict with
+his folly! Just so, that will be the end of it; he will turn the head of
+one, and break the heart of the other; and yet, all the while, he firmly
+believes he is leaving a far better heritage behind him in this empty
+pride, than if he could bequeath every acre that once belonged to
+them.” Thus soliloquizing, he went on ringing changes over every form of
+imprudence, waste, vanity, and absurdity, which, by applying to them the
+simple adjective of “Irish,” he fancied were at once intelligible, and
+needed no other explanation. In this mood he made his entrance into
+Sir Stafford's chamber, and so full of his own thoughts that the worthy
+baronet could not fail to notice his preoccupation.
+
+“Eh! Grounsel, what 's the matter, another row with my Lady, eh?” said
+he, smiling with his own quiet smile.
+
+“Not to-day. We 've not met this morning, and, consequently, the
+armistice of yesterday is still unbroken! The fatigue of last night has,
+doubtless, induced her to sleep a little longer, and so I have contrived
+to arrive at noon without the risk of an apoplexy.”
+
+“What fatigue do you allude to?”
+
+“Oh, I forgot I have a long story for you. What do you suppose her
+Ladyship has been performing now?”
+
+“I 've heard all about it,” said Sir Stafford, pettishly. “George has
+given me the whole narrative of that unlucky business. We must take care
+of the poor fellow, Grounsell, and see that he wants for nothing.”
+
+“You 're thinking of the pistol-shooting; but that 's not her Ladyship's
+last,” said the doctor, with a malicious laugh. “It is as a Lady
+Bountiful she has come out, and made her debut last night I am bound
+to say with infinite success.” And, without further preface, Grounsell
+related the whole adventure of Lady Hester's visit to the dwarf,
+omitting nothing of those details we have already laid before
+the reader, and dilating with all his own skill upon the possible
+consequences of the step. “I have told you already about these
+people: of that old fool, the father, with his Irish pride, his Irish
+pretensions, his poverty, and his insane notions about family. Well,
+his head a poor thing in the best of times is gone clean mad about this
+visit. And then the girls! good, dear, affectionate children as they
+are, they 're in a kind of paroxysm of ecstasy about her Ladyship's
+style, her beauty, her dress, the charm of her amiability, the
+fascination of her manner. Their little round of daily duties will
+henceforth seem a dreary toil; the very offices of their charity
+will lose all the glow of zeal when deprived of that elegance which
+refinement can throw over the veriest trifle. Ay! don't smile at it, the
+fact is a stubborn one. They 'd barter the deepest devotion they ever
+rendered to assuage pain for one trick of that flattery with which my
+Lady captivated them. Will all the poetry of poor Nelly's heart shut out
+the memory of graces associated with the vanities of fashion? Will all
+Kate's dutiful affection exalt those household drudgeries in her esteem,
+the performances of which will henceforth serve to separate her more and
+more from one her imagination has already enshrined as an idol?”
+
+“You take the matter too seriously to heart, Grounsell,” said Sir
+Stafford, smiling.
+
+“Not a bit of it; I 've studied symptoms too long and too carefully not
+to be ever on the look-out for results. To Lady Hester, this visit is
+a little episode as easily forgotten as any chance incident of the
+journey. But what an event is it in the simple story of their lives!”
+
+“Well, well, it cannot be helped now; the thing is done, and there 's
+an end of it,” said Sir Stafford, pettishly; “and I confess I cannot see
+the matter as you do, for I have been thinking for two days back about
+these Daltons, and of some mode of being of service to them, and this
+very accident may suggest the way. I have been looking over some old
+letters and papers, and I 've no doubt that I have had unintentionally,
+of course a share in the poor fellow's ruin. Do you know, Grounsell,
+that this is the very same Peter Dalton who once wrote to me the most
+insulting letters, and even a defiance to fight a duel, because a
+distant relative bequeathed to me a certain estate that more naturally
+should have descended to him. At first, I treated the epistles as
+unworthy of any serious attention, they were scarcely intelligible,
+and not distinguished by anything like a show of reason; but when from
+insult the writer proceeded to menace, I mentioned the affair to my
+lawyer, and, indeed, gave him permission to take any steps that might be
+necessary to rid me of so unpleasant a correspondent. I never heard more
+of the matter; but now, on looking over some papers, I see that the case
+went hardly with Dalton, for there was a 'rule to show cause,' and an
+'attachment,' and I don't know what besides, obtained against him from
+the King's Bench, and he was actually imprisoned eight months for this
+very business; so that, besides having succeeded to this poor fellow's
+property, I have also deprived him of his liberty. Quite enough of
+hardship to have suffered at the hands of any one man and that one, not
+an enemy.”
+
+“And would you believe it, Onslow, we have talked over you and your
+affairs a hundred times together, and yet he has never even alluded to
+this? One would think that such an event would make an impression upon
+most men; but, assuredly, he is either the most forgetful or the most
+generous fellow on earth.”
+
+“How very strange! And so you tell me that he remembers my name, and all
+the circumstances of that singular bequest for singular it was from a
+man whom I never saw since he was a boy.”
+
+“He remembers it all. It was the last blow fortune dealt him, and,
+indeed, he seemed scarcely to require so heavy a stroke to fell
+him, for, by his own account, he had been struggling on, in debt and
+difficulty, for many a year, putting off creditors by the plausible plea
+that a considerable estate must eventually fall in to him. It is quite
+certain that he believed this himself, but he also maintained a course
+of expenditure that, were he even in possession of the property, it
+would have been impossible to keep up. His brother-in-law's parsimony,
+too, was a constant source of self-gratulation to him, fancying, as he
+did, that a considerable sum in Bank stock would be among the benefits
+of this bequest. To find himself cut off, without even a mention of his
+name, was, then, to know that he was utterly, irretrievably ruined.”
+
+“Poor fellow!” exclaimed Onslow; “I never suspected the case had been
+so hard a one. His letters you shall see them yourself bore all the
+evidence of a man more touchy on the score of a point of honor than
+mindful of a mere money matter. He seemed desirous of imputing to me
+who, as I have told you, never saw Mr. Godfrey for above forty years
+something like undue influence, and, in fact, of having prejudiced his
+brother-in-law against him. He dated his angry epistles from a park or a
+castle I forget which and they bore a seal of armorial pretensions
+such as an archduke might acknowledge. All these signs seemed to me so
+indicative of fortune and standing, that I set my friend down for a very
+bloodthirsty Irishman, but assuredly never imagined that poverty had
+contributed its sting to the injury.”
+
+“I can easily conceive all that,” said Grounsell. “At this very moment,
+with want staring him on every side, he 'd rather talk of his former
+style at confound the barbarous place, I never can remember the name
+of it than he 'd listen to any suggestion for the future benefit of his
+children.”
+
+“I have been a grievous enemy to him,” said Sir Stafford, musingly.
+
+“He reckons the loss at something like six thousand a year,” said
+Grounsell.
+
+“Not the half of it, doctor; the estate, when I succeeded to it, was
+in a ruinous condition. A pauper and rebellious tenantry holding their
+tenures on nominal rents, and either living in open defiance of all law,
+or scheming to evade it by a hundred subterfuges. Matters are somewhat
+better; but if so, it has cost me largely to make them so. Disabuse his
+mind, I beg you, of this error. His loss was at least not so heavy as he
+reckoned.”
+
+“Faith, I'll scarcely venture on so very delicate a theme,” said
+Grounsell, dryly. “I 'm not quite so sure how he 'd take it.”
+
+“I see, doctor,” said Onslow, laughing, “that his duelling tastes have
+impressed you with a proper degree of respect. Well, let us think of
+something more to the purpose than rectifying a mere mistaken opinion.
+How can we serve him? What can be done for him?”
+
+“Ruined gentlemen, like second-hand uniforms, are generally sent to the
+colonies,” said Grounsell; “but Dalton is scarcely fit for export.”
+
+“What if we could get him appointed a magistrate in one of the West
+India Islands?”
+
+“New rum would finish him the first rainy season.”
+
+“Is he fit for a consulship?”
+
+“About as much as for Lord Chancellor. I tell you the man's pride would
+revolt at anything to which a duty was annexed. Whatever you decide on
+must be untrammelled by any condition of this kind.”
+
+“An annuity, then, some moderate sum sufficient to support them in
+respectability,” said Onslow; “that is the only thing I see for it, and
+I am quite ready to do my part, which, indeed, is full as much a matter
+of honor as generosity.”
+
+“How will you induce him to accept it?”
+
+“We can manage that, I fancy, with a little contrivance. I 'll consult
+Prichard; he 's coming here this very day about these renewals, and he
+'ll find a way of doing it.”
+
+“You'll have need of great caution,” said Grounsell; “without being
+naturally suspicious, misfortune has rendered him very sensitive as to
+anything like a slight. To this hour he is ignorant that his daughter
+sells those little figures; and although he sees, in a hundred
+appliances to his comfort, signs of resources of which he knows nothing,
+he never troubles his head how the money comes.”
+
+“What a strange character!”
+
+“Strange indeed. True pride and false pride, manly patience, childish
+petulance, generosity, selfishness, liberality, meanness, even to the
+spirits alternating between boy-like levity and downright despair! The
+whole is such a mixture as I never saw before, and yet I can fancy it is
+as much the national temperament as that of the individual.”
+
+And now Grounsell, launched upon a sea without compass or chart, hurried
+off to lose himself in vague speculation about questions that have
+puzzled, and are puzzling, wiser heads than his.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI. A PEEP BETWEEN THE SHUTTERS AT A NEW CHARACTER.
+
+NOT even Mademoiselle Celestine herself, nor the two London footmen now
+condemned to exhibit their splendid proportions to the untutored gaze
+of German rustics, could have chafed and fretted under the unhappy
+detention at Baden with a greater impatience than did George Onslow,
+a young Guardsman, who often fancied that London, out of season, was
+a species of Palmyra; who lived but for the life that only one capital
+affords; who could not credit the fact that people could ride, dress,
+dine, and drive anywhere else, was lamentably “ill bestowed” among the
+hills and valleys, the winding glens and dense pine forests of a little
+corner of Germany.
+
+If he liked the excitement of hard exercise, it was when the pleasure
+was combined with somewhat of peril, as in a fox-hunt, or heightened by
+the animation of a contest, in a rowing-match. Scenery, too, he cared
+for, when it came among the incidents of a deer-stalking day in the
+Highlands. Even walking, if it were a match against time, was positively
+not distasteful; but to ride, walk, row, or exert himself, for the mere
+exercise, was in his philosophy only a degree better than a sentence
+to the treadmill, the slavery being voluntary not serving to exalt the
+motive.
+
+To a mind thus constituted, the delay at Baden was intolerable.
+Lady Hester's system of small irritations and provocations rendered
+domesticity and home life out of the question. She was never much given
+to reading at any time, and now books were not to be had; Sydney was so
+taken up with studying German, that she was quite uncompanionable. Her
+father was too weak to bear much conversation; and as for Grounsell,
+George always set him down for a quiz: good-hearted in his way, but a
+bit of a bore, and too fond of old stories. Had he been a young lady, in
+such a predicament, he would have kept a journal, a pretty martyrology
+of himself and his feelings, and eked out his sorrows between Childe
+Harold and Werther. Had he been an elderly one, he would have written
+folios by the post, and covered acres of canvas with dogs in worsted,
+and tigers in Berlin wool. Alas! he had no such resources. Education had
+supplied him with but one comfort and consolation, a cigar; and so he
+smoked away incessantly: sometimes as he lounged out of the window,
+after breakfast, in all the glory of an embroidered velvet cap, and a
+gorgeous dressing-gown; sometimes as he sauntered in the empty saloon,
+or the deserted corridors, in the weed-grown garden, in the dishabille
+of a many-pocketed shooting-jacket and cork-soled shoes; now, as he
+lounged along the dreary streets, or passed along the little wooden
+bridge, wondering within himself how much longer a man could resist the
+temptation that suggested a spring over the balustrade into the dark
+pool beneath.
+
+He had come abroad partly for Sydney's sake, partly because, having
+“gone somewhat too fast” in town, an absence had become advisable. But
+now, as he sauntered about the deserted streets of the little village,
+not knowing how long the durance might last, without an occupation,
+without a resource, both his brotherly love and prudence began to
+fail him, and he wished he had remained behind, and taken the chances,
+whatever they might be, of his creditors' forbearance. His moneyed
+embarrassments involved nothing dishonorable; he had done no more than
+what some score of very well-principled young men have done, and are
+doing at this very hour, ay, good reader, and will do again, when you
+and I have gone where all our moralizing will not deceive any more, he
+had contracted debts, the payment of which must depend upon others; he
+had borrowed what no efforts of his own could restore; he had gambled,
+and lost sums totally disproportionate to his fortune; but, in all these
+things, he was still within the pale of honorable conduct, at least, so
+said the code under which he lived, and George believed it.
+
+Sir Stafford, who only learned about the half of his son's liabilities,
+was thunderstruck at the amount. It was scarcely a year and a half ago
+that he had paid all George's debts, and they were then no trifle; and
+now he saw all the old items revived and magnified, as if there was only
+one beaten road to ruin, and that began at Crocky's, and ended at “the
+Bench.” The very names of the dramatis personae were the same. It
+was Lazarus Levi lent the money, at sixty per cent; it was another
+patriarch, called Gideon Masham, discounted the same. A lucky viscount
+had once more “done the trick” at hazard; and if Cribbiter had not
+broken down in training, why Madame Pompadour had, and so the same
+result came about. George Onslow had got what Newmarket men call a
+“squeeze,” and was in for about seven thousand pounds.
+
+Nothing is more remarkable in our English code social, than the
+ingenuity with which we have contrived to divide ranks and classes of
+men, making distinctions so subtle that only long habit and training
+are able to appreciate. Not alone are the gradations of our nobility
+accurately defined, but the same distinctions prevail among the
+“untitled” classes, and even descend to the professional and trading
+ranks; so that the dealer in one commodity shall take the pas of
+another; and he who purveys the glass of port for your dessert, would
+be outraged if classed with him who contributed the Stilton! These
+hair-splittings are very unintelligible to foreigners; but, as we hold
+to them, the presumption is, that they suit us; and I should not have
+stopped now to bestow a passing notice on the system, if it were not
+that we see it, in some cases, pushed to a degree of extreme resembling
+absurdity, making even of the same career in life a sliding-scale
+of respectability; as, for instance, when a young gentleman of good
+expectations and fair fortune has outraged his guardians and his friends
+by extravagance, he is immediately removed from the Guards, and drafted
+into the Infantry of the Line; if he misbehaves there, they usually
+send him to India; is he incorrigible, he is compelled to remain in some
+regiment there; or, in cases of inveterate bad habits, he exchanges into
+the Cape Rifles, and gets his next removal from the knife of a Caffre.
+
+Ancient geographers have decided, we are not aware on what grounds, that
+there is a place between “H--ll and Connaught.” Modern discovery, with
+more certitude, has shown one between the Guards and the Line, a species
+of military purgatory, where, after a due expiation of offences, the
+sinner may return to the paradise of the Household Brigade without ever
+transgressing the Inferno of a marching regiment. This half-way stage is
+the “Rifles.” So long as a young fashionable falls no lower, he is
+safe. There is no impugnment of his character, no injury that cannot
+be repaired. Now, George Onslow had reached so far; he was compelled to
+exchange into the --th, then quartered in Ireland. It is true he did not
+join his regiment; his father had interest enough somewhere to obtain a
+leave of absence for his son, and First Lieutenant Onslow, vice Ridgway
+promoted, was suffered to amuse himself howsoever and wheresoever he
+pleased.
+
+The “exchange,” and the reasons for which it was effected, were both
+unpleasant subjects of reflection to George; and as he had few others,
+these continued to haunt him, till at last he fancied that every one was
+full of the circumstance, each muttering as he passed, “That 's Onslow,
+that was in the Coldstreams.” Lady Hester, indeed, did not always
+leave the matter purely imaginary, but threw out occasional hints about
+soldiers who never served, except at St. James's or Windsor, and who
+were kept for the wonderment and admiration of foreign sovereigns when
+visiting England, just as Suffolk breeders exhibit a “punch,” or a
+Berkshire farmer will show a hog, for the delectation of swine fanciers.
+Where children show toys, kings show soldiers, and ours are considered
+very creditable productions of the kind; but Lady Hester averred, with
+more of truth than she believed, that a man of spirit would prefer a
+somewhat different career. These currents, coming as they did in season
+and out of season, did not add to the inducements for keeping the house,
+and so George usually left home each day, and rarely returned to it
+before nightfall.
+
+It is true he might have associated with Haggerstone, who, on being
+introduced, made the most courteous advances to his intimacy; but George
+Onslow was bred in a school whose first lesson is a sensitive shrinking
+from acquaintance, and whose chief characteristic is distrust. Now he
+either had heard, or fancied he had heard, something about Haggerstone.
+“The Colonel was n't all right,” somehow or other. There was a story
+about him, or somebody of his set, and, in fact, it was as well to be
+cautious; and so the young Guardsman, who would have ventured his
+neck in a steeplechase, or his fortune on a “Derby,” exhibited all
+the deliberative wisdom of a judge as to the formation of a passing
+acquaintance.
+
+If we have been somewhat prolix in explaining the reasons of the young
+gentleman's solitude, our excuse is, that he had thereby conveyed, not
+alone all that we know, but all that is necessary to be known, of his
+character. He was one of a class so large in the world that few people
+could not count some half-dozen, at least, similar amongst their
+acquaintance; and all of whom would be currently set down as incapables,
+if it were not that now and then, every ten years or so, one of these
+well-looking, well-bred, indolent dandies, as if tired of his own
+weariness, turns out to be either a dashing soldier, with a heart
+to dare, and a head to devise the boldest achievements, or a politic
+leader, with resources of knowledge, and a skill in debate, to confront
+the most polished and practised veteran in “the Commons.”
+
+Our own experiences of our own day show that these are no paradoxical
+speculations. But we must not pursue the theme further; and have only to
+add, that the reader is not to believe that George Onslow formed one of
+these brilliant exceptions. Whether the fault lies more in himself or in
+us, we must not inquire.
+
+If his lonely walks did not suggest any pleasant reveries, the post did
+not bring any more agreeable tidings. Dry statements from Mr. Orson, his
+lawyer, every young man about town has his lawyer nowadays, about the
+difficulty of arranging his affairs, being the chief intelligence he
+received, with, from time to time, a short and pithy epistle from a
+certain noble creditor, Lord Norwood, who, although having won very
+large sums from Onslow, never seemed in such pressing difficulty as
+since his good fortune.
+
+The viscount's style epistolary was neither so marked by originality,
+nor so worthy of imitation, that it would be worth communicating; but
+as one of his letters bears slightly upon the interests of our story,
+we are induced to give it; and being, like all his correspondence, very
+brief, we will communicate it in extenso.
+
+“Oh, Norwood again!” said Onslow, as he looked at the seal, and read the
+not very legible autograph in the corner. “My noble friend does not give
+a very long respite;” and biting his lips in some impatience, he opened
+the paper, and read:
+
+     DEAR ONSLOW, Orson has paid me the two thousand, as you
+     ordered, but positively refuses the seventeen hundred and
+     eighty, the Ascot affair, because I cannot give up the
+     original two bills for twelve hundred passed to me for that
+     debt. I told him that they were thrown into the fire being
+     devilishly tempted to illustrate the process with himself
+     six months ago, when you gave the renewals; but all won't
+     do, the old prig persists in his demand, to comply with
+     which is clearly impossible, for I have not even preserved
+     the precious ashes of the incremation. I don't doubt but
+     that, legally speaking, and in pettifogging parlance, he is
+     all correct but between men of honor such strictness is
+     downright absurdity and, as Dillhurst says, “something
+     more.” Now, my dear boy, you must write to him and at once,
+     too for I 'm in a bad book about “Chanticleer” who is to
+     win, it seems, after all and say that he is acting in direct
+     opposition to your wishes, as of course he is; that the
+     money must be paid without more chaffing. The delay has
+     already put me to great inconvenience, and I know how you
+     will be provoked at his obstinacy. You 've heard, I suppose,
+     that Brentwood is going to marry Lydia Vaughan. She has
+     thirty thousand pounds, which is exactly what Jack lost last
+     winter. Crosbie says he ought to “run away from her after
+     the start as he carries no weight:” which is somewhat of
+     my own opinion. What any man has to do with a wife nowadays,
+     with the funds at eighty-two, and a dark horse first
+     favorite for the Oaks, is more than I know. Doncaster has
+     levanted, and the Red-House folk will smart for it. He would
+     back Hayes's lot, and there 's nothing can ever set him
+     right again. By the way, Orson hints that if I give him a
+     release, or something of that sort, with respect to the
+     bills, he 'd pay the cash; but this is only a dodge to make
+     a case for lawyers' parchments, stamps, and so forth; so I
+     won't stand it. Your writing to him will do the whole thing
+     at once. What a jolly world it would be, old fellow, if the
+     whole race of Orsons were carried off by the cholera, or
+     anything akin! They are the greatest enemies to human peace
+     in existence.
+
+     Believe me, yours most faithfully,
+
+     NORWOOD.
+
+     P. S. I half fancy Baden is empty by this; but if you chance
+     upon a little fellow Heaven knows to whom he belongs, or
+     whence he comes, called Albert Jekyl, will you tell him that
+     I 'll forward the twenty pounds whenever I win the Oaks, or
+     marry Miss Home Greville, or any other similar piece of good
+     fortune. When he lent me the cash, I don't believe he was
+     the owner of as much more in the world; but it suited him to
+     have a viscount in his debt a devilish bad investment, if he
+     knew but all. The chances, therefore, are that he has
+     foundered long ago, and you will be spared the trouble of
+     the explanation; but if he survive, say something
+     apologetic, for letter-writing and foreign postage are only
+     making bad worse.
+
+Although, unquestionably, the postscript of this elegant epistle was the
+part which reflected most severely upon the writer's good feeling and
+sense of honor, George Onslow was more struck by what related to his own
+affairs, nor was it till after the lapse of some days that he took
+the trouble of considering the paragraph, or learning the name of the
+individual referred to. Even then all that he could remember was, that
+he had seen or heard the name “somewhere,” and thus, very possibly,
+the whole matter would have glided from his memory, if accident had not
+brought up the recollection.
+
+Returning one evening later than usual from his solitary walk, he found
+that the hotel was closed, the door strongly secured, and all the usual
+precautions of the night taken, in the belief that the inmates were
+already safe within doors. In vain he knocked and thundered at the
+massive panels; the few servants occupied rooms at a distance, and heard
+nothing of the uproar. He shouted, he screamed, he threw gravel against
+the windows, and, in his zeal, smashed them too. All was fruitless;
+nobody stirred, nor could he detect the slightest sign of human presence
+in the vast and dreary-looking building before him. The prospect was
+not a pleasant one, and a December night in the open air was by no means
+desirable; and yet, where should he turn for shelter? The other hotels
+were all closed and deserted, and even of the private houses not one
+in twenty was inhabited. Resolving to give himself one chance more for
+admission, he scaled the paling of the garden, and reached the rear of
+the hotel; but here all his efforts proved just as profitless as the
+former, and he was at last about to abandon all hope, when he caught
+sight of a faint gleam of light issuing from a small window on the first
+floor. Having failed to attract notice by all his cries and shouts, he
+determined to reach the window, to which, fortunately, a large vine,
+attached to the wall, offered an easy access. George was an expert
+climber, and in less than a minute found himself seated on the
+window-sill, and gazing into a room by the aperture between the
+half-closed shutters. His first impression on looking in was that it was
+a servant's room. The bare, whitewashed walls; the humble, uncurtained
+bed; three chairs of coarse wood, all strengthened this suspicion, even
+to the table, covered by a coarse table-cloth, and on which stood a meal
+if meal it could be called an anchorite might have eaten on Friday. A
+plate of the common brown bread of the country was balanced by a little
+dish of radishes, next to which stood a most diminutive piece of Baden
+cheese, and a capacious decanter of water, a long-wicked tallow candle
+throwing its gloomy gleam over the whole. For a moment or two George was
+unable to detect the owner of this simple repast, as he was engaged in
+replenishing his fire; but he speedily returned, and took his place at
+the table, spreading his napkin before him, and surveying the board with
+an air of self-satisfaction such as a gourmand might bestow upon the
+most perfect petit diner. In dress, air, and look, he was thoroughly
+gentlemanlike; a little foppish, perhaps, in the arrangement of his
+hair, and somewhat too much display in the jewelled ornaments that
+studded his neckcloth. Even in his attitude, as he sat at the table,
+there was a certain air of studied elegance that formed a curious
+contrast with the miserable meal before him. Helping himself to a
+small portion of cheese, and filling out a goblet of that element which
+neither cheers nor inebriates, he proceeded to eat his supper. Onslow
+looked on with a mingled sense of wonder and ridicule, and while half
+disposed to laugh at the disparity of the entertainment and him who
+partook of it, there was something in the scene which repressed his
+scorn and rendered him even an interested spectator of what went
+forward.
+
+[Illustration:    134]
+
+The piercing cold of the night at length admonished him that
+he should provide for his own admission into the hotel; and although
+nothing was now easier than to make his presence known, yet he felt a
+natural reluctance at the pain he must occasion to the stranger,
+whose frugal mode of living and humble interior would be thus so
+unceremoniously exposed. “The chances are,” thought George, “that these
+privations are only endurable because they are practised in secret, and
+at no sacrifice of worldly estimation. How can I then or what right have
+I to inflict the torture of an exposure upon this young man, whoever
+he is!” The conclusion was very rapidly come to, and not less speedily
+acted upon; for he determined to spend the night, if need be, in
+the open air, rather than accept an alternative so painful in its
+consequences. His resolutions had usually not long to await their
+accomplishment; and, turning his back to the window, and disdaining the
+slow process by which he had gained the ascent, he sprang with one leap
+down to the ground: in doing so, however, his elbow struck the window,
+and at the same instant that he reached the earth, the shivered
+fragments of a pane of glass came clattering after him. In a moment the
+sash was thrown open, and a head appeared above. “I have smashed the
+window,” cried George, in French, “as the only means of being heard.
+They have locked me out of the hotel, and I don't fancy spending a
+winter's night in walking the streets of Baden.”
+
+“You're an Englishman,” said the voice from above, in English.
+
+“Yes; but I don't see what that has to do with the matter,” replied
+Onslow, testily; “even a Laplander might prefer shelter in such a
+season.”
+
+“If you 'll have the goodness to come round to the front door,” said
+the voice, one of the very softest and meekest of voices, “I shall have
+great pleasure in opening it for you.” And at the same time the unknown
+held forth his candle in polite guidance to the other's steps.
+
+“Thanks, thanks; never mind the light. I know the way perfectly,” said
+George, not a little ashamed at the contrast between his own gruffness
+and the courtesy of the stranger whose window he had broken.
+
+Onslow had barely time to reach the front door of the inn, when it was
+opened for him, and he saw before him a very dapper little figure, who
+with a profusion of regrets at not having heard him before, offered his
+candle a wax one on this occasion for George's accommodation. Protesting
+that the broken pane was not of the slightest inconvenience, that the
+room was a small dressing-closet, that it was not worth a moment's
+thought, and so forth, he permitted Onslow to escort him to the door of
+his room, and then wished him a good-night. The scene scarcely occupied
+the time we have taken to relate it, and yet in that very short space
+George Onslow had opportunity to see that the unknown had all the easy
+deportment and quiet breeding of one accustomed to good society. There
+was, perhaps, a little excess of courtesy, at least according to that
+school of politeness in which Onslow had been taught; but this might be
+the effect of living abroad, where such a tone usually prevailed. The
+urbanity was not exactly cold enough for George's notions. “No matter;
+he 's no snob, that 's clear,” thought he; “and even if he were,
+he's done me good service.” And with this blending of selfishness and
+speculation he went to sleep, and slept soundly, too, not harassed by
+even a thought of him who passed an hour in the effort to repair his
+broken window, and shivered the rest of the night through from the
+insufficiency of his skill.
+
+Blessed immunity theirs, who so easily forget the pain they occasion
+others, and who deem all things trifles that cost themselves
+no afterthought of regret. Happy the nature that can, without
+self-repining, spill the wine over Aunt Betty's one “peach-colored
+satin,” or, in careless mood, pluck the solitary flower of her only
+geranium. Enviable stoicism that mislays the keepsake of some poor
+widow, or lames the old curate's cob, the fond companion of many
+rambles. These, whatever others think, are very enviable traits, and
+enable the possessors to wear placid countenances, and talk in most
+meritorious strain on the blessings of equanimity and the excellent
+fruits of a well-trained mind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII. MR. ALBERT JEKYL
+
+ONSLOW'S first thought, on awaking the next morning, was of last night's
+acquaintance, but all the information he could obtain concerning him was
+that he was an Englishman who had passed the summer in Baden, and during
+the season knew and was known by every one. The waiter called him, in
+the usual formulary, “a very nice gentleman;” and seemed by his manner
+to infer that any further account might be had by paying for it. Onslow,
+if he even understood the hint, was not the man to avail himself of it;
+so he simply ordered him to bring the hotel book, in which the names of
+all travellers are inscribed, and at once discovered that the proprietor
+of the humble entresol, No. 6, was a Mr. Albert Jekyl, with the ordinary
+qualification attached to him of “Rentier Anglais.” Searching back in
+the same instructive volume, he found that, on his arrival in June, Mr.
+Jekyl had occupied a small apartment on the first floor, from which he
+had subsequently removed to the second; thence to a single room in the
+third story, and finally settled down in the quiet seclusion of the
+small chamber where George had first seen him. These were very small
+materials from which to compile a history, but at least they conveyed
+one inference, and that a very common one, that the height of Mr.
+Jekyl's fortune and that of his dwelling observed to each other an
+inverse proportion, and that, as his means went down, he went up. If,
+then, no very valuable contribution to the gentleman's history was
+contained here, at least the page recorded his name; and George,
+reopening Norwood's letter, satisfied himself that this was the same
+confiding individual who had intrusted the noble viscount with a loan
+of twenty pounds. George now remembered to have seen his card on Lady
+Hester's table, with inquiry after Sir Stafford. “Poor fellow!” thought
+he; “another victim of 'trente-et-un.' They have cleared him out at
+the tables, and he is either ashamed to write home, or his friends have
+refused to assist him. And Norwood, too the heartlessness of putting
+to contribution a poor young fellow like this!” Onslow thought worse of
+this than of fifty other sharp things of the noble Lord's doing, and of
+some of which he had been himself the victim.
+
+“I'll call upon him this very morning!” said George, half aloud, and
+with the tone and air of a man who feels he has said a very generous
+thing, and expressed a sentiment that he is well aware will expose him
+to a certain amount of reprobation. “Jekyl, after all, is a right good
+name. Lady Hester said something about Jekyls that she knew, or was
+related to. Good style of fellow he looked a little tigerish, but that
+comes of the Continent. If he be really presentable, too, my Lady will
+be glad to receive him in her present state of destitution. Norwood's
+ungracious message was a bore, to be sure, but then he need not deliver
+it there was no necessity of taking trouble to be disagreeable or,
+better again far better,” thought he, and he burst out laughing at the
+happy notion, “I 'll misunderstand his meaning, and pay the money.
+An excellent thought; for as I am about to book up a heavy sum to his
+Lordship, it 's only deducting twenty pounds and handing it to Jekyl,
+and I 'll be sworn he wants it most of us all.”
+
+The more Onslow reflected on it, the more delighted was he with this
+admirable device; and it is but fair to add, that however gratified at
+the opportunity of doing a kindness, he was even better pleased at the
+thought of how their acquaintance at the “Grosvenor” and the “Ultras”
+ would laugh at the “sharp viscount's being sold.” There was only one man
+of all Onslow's set on whom he would have liked to practise this jest,
+and that man was Norwood. Having decided upon this plan, he next thought
+of the execution of it, and this he determined should be by letter. A
+short note, conveying Norwood's message and the twenty pounds, would
+save all explanation, and spare Jekyl any unpleasant feeling the
+discussion of a private circumstance might occasion.
+
+Onslow's note concluded with his “thanks for Mr. Jekyl's kindness on the
+preceding evening,” and expressing a wish to know “at what hour Mr. J.
+would receive a visit from him.”
+
+Within a very few minutes after the billet was despatched, a servant
+announced Mr. Albert Jekyl; and that young gentleman, in the glory of a
+very magnificent brocade dressing-gown, and a Greek cap, with slippers
+of black velvet embroidered in gold, entered the room.
+
+Onslow, himself a distinguished member of that modern school of dandyism
+whose pride lies in studs and shirt-pins, in watch-chains, rings, and
+jewelled canes, was struck by the costly elegance of his visitor's
+toilette. The opal buttons at his wrists; the single diamond, of great
+size and brilliancy, on his finger; even the massive amber mouthpiece
+of the splendid meerschaum he carried in his hand, were all evidences of
+the most expensive tastes. “Could this by possibility be the man he had
+seen at supper?” was the question he at once asked himself; but there
+was no time to discuss the point, as Jekyl, in a voice almost girlish in
+its softness, said,
+
+“I could not help coming at once to thank you, Mr. Onslow, for your
+polite note, and say how gratified I feel at making your acquaintance.
+Maynard often spoke of you to me; and I confess I was twenty times a day
+tempted to introduce myself.”
+
+“Maynard Sir Horace Maynard!” cried Onslow, with a slight flush, half
+pleasure, half surprise, for the baronet was the leader of the set
+George belonged to, a man of great fortune, ancient family, the most
+successful on the English Turf, and the envy of every young fellow about
+town. “Do you know Maynard?”
+
+“Oh, very well indeed,” lisped Jekyl; “and like him much.”
+
+Onslow could not help a stare at the man who, with perfect coolness
+and such an air of patronage, professed his opinion of the most
+distinguished fashionable of the day.
+
+“He has a very pretty taste in equipage,” continued Jekyl, “but never
+could attain to the slightest knowledge of a dinner.”
+
+Onslow was thunderstruck. Maynard, whose entertainments were the triumph
+of the Clarendon, thus criticised by the man he had seen supping like a
+mouse on a morsel of mouldy cheese!
+
+“Talking of dinners, by the way,” said Jekyl, “what became of
+Merewater?”
+
+“Lord Merewater? he was in waiting when we left England.”
+
+“A very tidy cook he used to have, a Spaniard called Jose, a perfect
+hand at all the Provencal dishes. Good creature, Merewater. Don't you
+think so?”
+
+Ouslow muttered a kind of half-assent; and added, “I don't know him.”
+ Indeed, the lord in question was reputed as insufferably proud, and as
+rarely admitting a commoner to the honor of his acquaintance.
+
+“Poor Merewater! I remember playing him such a trick: to this hour he
+does not know who did it. I stole the menu of one of his grand dinners,
+and gave it to old Lord Bristock's cook, a creature that might have made
+the messes for an emigrant ship, and such a travesty of an entertainment
+never was seen. Merewater affected illness, and went away from the table
+firmly persuaded that the whole was got up to affront him.”
+
+“I thought the Earl of Bristock lived well and handsomely,” said George.
+
+“Down at Brentwood it was very well one was in the country and grouse
+and woodcocks, and salmon and pheasants, came all naturally and
+seasonably; besides, he really had some very remarkable Burgundy; and,
+though few people will drink it nowadays, Chambertin is a Christmas
+wine.”
+
+The cheese and the decanter of water were uppermost in George's mind,
+but he said nothing, suffering his companion to run on, which he did,
+over a wide expanse of titled and distinguished families, with all
+of whom he appeared to have lived on the closest terms of intimacy.
+Certainly of those Onslow himself knew, Jekyl related twenty little
+traits and tokens that showed he was speaking with true knowledge of the
+parties. Unlike Haggerstone, he rarely, if ever, alluded to any of those
+darker topics which form the staple of scandal. A very gentle ridicule
+of some slight eccentricity, a passing quiz of some peculiarity in
+dress, voice, or manner, was about the extent of Jekyl's criticism,
+which on no occasion betrayed any malice. Even the oddities that he
+portrayed were usually done by some passing bit of mimicry of the
+individual in question. These he threw into the dialogue of his story
+without halt or impediment, and which, being done with great tact, great
+command of face, and a most thorough appreciation of humor, were very
+amusing little talents, and contributed largely to his social success.
+Onslow laughed heartily at many of the imitations, and thus recognized
+characters that were introduced into a narrative without the trouble of
+announcing them.
+
+“You've heard, perhaps, the series of mishaps which compelled us to take
+refuge here,” said George, leading the way to what he supposed would
+induce an equal degree of communicativeness on the other side.
+
+“Oh! yes, the landlord told me of your disasters.”
+
+“After all, I believe the very worst of them was coming to this place in
+such a season.”
+
+“It is certainly seeing it en papillate” said Jekyl, smiling; “and you,
+perhaps, are not an admirer of beauty unadorned.”
+
+“Say, rather, of Nature at her ugliest; for whatever it may be in
+summer, with foliage, and clear streams, flowers, smart folk airing and
+driving about, equipage, music, movement, and merry voices, now it is
+really too dismal. Pray, how do you get through the day?”
+
+Jekyl smiled one of his quiet, equivocal smiles, and slightly raised his
+shoulders without speaking.
+
+“Do you shoot?”
+
+“No,” said he.
+
+“But why do I ask? there's nothing to shoot. You ride, then?”
+
+“No.”
+
+“Cigars will do a great deal; but, confound it, there must be a large
+share of the day very heavy on your hands, even with a reasonable
+allowance for reading and writing.”
+
+“Seldom do either!” said Jekyl, with his usual imperturbed manner.
+
+“You have n't surely got up a flirtation with some 'Frdulein with
+yellow hair '?”
+
+“I cannot lay claim to such good fortune. I really do nothing. I have
+not even the usual English resource of a terrier to jump over my stick,
+nor was I early enough initiated into the mystery of brandy-and-water
+in fact, a less occupied individual cannot well be imagined; but somehow
+you'll smile if I say I am not bored.”
+
+“It would be very ungenerous, then, to conceal your secret,” cried
+Onslow; “for assuredly the art of killing time here, without killing
+one's self, is worth knowing.”
+
+“The misfortune is, I cannot communicate it; that is, even giving me
+credit for possessing one, my skill is like that of some great medical
+practitioner, who has learnt to look on disease with such practised eyes
+that the appropriate remedy rises as it were instinctively to his mind,
+he knows not how or why, and who dies, without being able to transmit
+the knowledge to a successor. I have, somewhat in the same way, become
+an accomplished idler; and with such success that the dreariest day of
+rain that ever darkened the dirty windows of a village inn, the most
+scorching dog-day that ever emptied the streets of an Italian city, and
+sent all the inhabitants to their siesta, never hipped me. I have spent
+a month with perfect satisfaction in quarantine, and bobbed for three
+weeks in a calm at sea, with no other inconvenience than the moans of
+my fellow-passengers. There 's no secret in it, Mr. Onslow; or, if there
+be, it lies in this pretty discovery, that we are always bored by our
+habit of throwing ourselves on the resources of somebody else, who, in
+his turn, looks out for another, and so on. Now, a man in a fever never
+dreams of cooling his hand by laying it on another patient's cheek; yet
+this is what we do. To be thoroughly bored, you must associate yourself
+with some half-dozen tired, weary, dyspeptic twaddles, and make up a
+joint-stock bank of your several incapacities, learn to growl in chorus,
+and you'll be able to go home and practise it as a solo.”
+
+“And have you been completely alone here of late?” said George, who
+began to fear that the sermon on ennui was not unaccompanied by a taste
+of the evil.
+
+“Occasionally I 've chatted for half an hour with two gentlemen who
+reside here, a Colonel Haggerstone--”
+
+“By the way, who is he?” broke in Onslow, eagerly.
+
+“He has been traced back to Madras, but the most searching inquiries
+have failed to elicit anything further.”
+
+“Is he the man they called Arlington's Colonel Haggerstone?”
+
+Jekyl nodded; but with an air that seemed to say, he would not enter
+more deeply into the subject.
+
+“And your other companion who is he?”
+
+“Peter Dalton, of I am ashamed to say I forget where,” said Jekyl; who,
+at once assuming Dalton's bloated look, in a well-feigned Irish accent,
+went on: “a descendant of as ancient and as honorable a familee as any
+in the three kingdoms, and if a little down in the world bad luck to
+them that done it! just as ready as ever he was to enjoy agreeable
+society and the ganial flow of soul.”
+
+“He 's the better of the two, I take it,” said Onslow.
+
+“More interesting, certainly, just as a ruined chateau is a
+more picturesque object than a new police-station or a cut-stone
+penitentiary. There 's another feature also which ought to give him the
+preference. I have seen two very pretty faces from time to time as
+I have passed the windows, and which I conjecture to belong to his
+daughters.”
+
+“Have you not made their acquaintance?” asked Onslow, in some surprise.
+
+“I grieve to say I have not,” sighed Jekyl, softly.
+
+“Why, the matter should not be very difficult, one might opine, in such
+a place, at such a time, and with--”
+
+He hesitated, and Jekyl added,
+
+“With such a papa, you were about to say. Well, that is precisely the
+difficulty. Had my excellent friend, Peter, been a native of any other
+country, I flatter myself I should have known how to make my advances;
+but with these dear Irish their very accessibility is a difficulty of no
+common order. Assume an air of deference and respect, and they 'll
+set you down for a cold formalist, with whom they can have nothing in
+common. Try the opposite line, and affect the free and easy, and the
+chances are that you have a duel to fight before you know you have
+offended. I confess that I have made several small advances, and thrown
+out repeated little hints about loneliness, and long evenings, and so
+forth; and although he has concurred with me in every word, yet his
+practice has never followed his precept. But I don't despair. What say
+you, if we attack the fortress as allies? I have a notion we should
+succeed?” “With all my heart. What's your plan?” “At this moment I
+have formed none, nor is there need of any. Let us go out, like the
+knight-errants of old, in search of adventures, and see if they will not
+befall us. The first step will be to make Dalton's acquaintance. Now, he
+always takes his walk in bad weather in the great Saal below; should he
+not make his appearance there to-day, as he has already absented himself
+for some days, I 'll call to inquire after him at his own house. You 'll
+accompany me. The rest we 'll leave to fortune.”
+
+Although On slow could not see that this step could lead to anything
+beyond a civil reply to a civil demand, he assented readily, and
+promised to meet his companion at four o'clock the same evening. As for
+Jekyl, he took a very different view of the whole transaction, for
+he knew that while to him there might be considerable difficulty in
+establishing any footing with the Daltons, the son of the wealthy
+baronet would be, in all likelihood, very differently looked on. In
+presenting him, thought he, I shall have become the friend of the family
+at once. It had often before been his fortune in life to have made
+valuable acquaintances in this manner; and although the poor Daltons
+were very unlikely to figure in the category of profitable friends,
+they would at least afford an agreeable resource against the dulness of
+wintry evenings, and prevent what he himself called the “demoralization”
+ of absence from female society. Lastly, the scheme promised to establish
+a close intimacy between Onslow and himself; and here was a benefit
+worth all the others.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII. A SUSPICIOUS VISITOR
+
+How far were the Daltons from suspecting that they were the subject
+of so much and such varied solicitude, and that, while Lady Hester was
+fancying to herself all the fashionable beauties whom Kate would eclipse
+in loveliness, and what an effect charms like hers would produce on
+society, Sir Stafford was busily concerting with his lawyer the means
+of effectually benefiting them; and George Onslow for want of better
+speculated, as he smoked, on “the kind of people” they would prove, and
+wondered whether the scheme were worth the light trouble it was to cost
+him. Little did they know of all this, little imagine that outside
+of their humble roof there lived one save “dear Frank” whose thoughts
+included them. “The purple and fine linen” category of this world cannot
+appreciate the force of this want of sympathy! They, whose slightest
+griefs and least afflictions in life are always certain of the
+consolations of friends, and the even more bland solace of a fashionable
+physician whose woes are re-echoed by the “Morning Post,” and whose
+sorrows are mourned in Court Journals cannot frame to themselves the
+sense of isolation which narrow fortune impresses. “Poverty,” says
+a classical authority, “has no heavier evil than that it makes men
+ridiculous.” But this wound to self-love, deep and poignant though it
+be, is light in comparison with the crushing sense of isolation, that
+abstraction from sympathy in which poor men live!
+
+The Daltons were seated around Hanserl's bed, silently ministering to
+the sick man, and watching with deep and anxious interest the labored
+respiration and convulsive twitches of his fever. The wild and rapid
+utterance of his lips, and the strange fancies they syllabled,
+often exciting him to laughter, only deepened the gravity of their
+countenances, and cast over the glances they interchanged a tinge of
+sadder meaning.
+
+“He could n't have better luck,” muttered Dalton, sorrowfully; “just
+from being a friend to us! If he had never seen nor heard of us, maybe
+'t is happy and healthy he 'd be to-day!”
+
+“Nay, nay, papa,” said Nelly, gently; “this is to speak too gloomily;
+nor is it good for us to throw on fortune the burden that we each should
+bear patiently.”
+
+“Don't tell me that there is not such a thing as luck!” replied Dalton,
+in a tone of irritation. “I know well whether there is or no! For
+five-and-thirty years whatever I put my hand to in life turned out
+badly. It was the same whether I did anything on the spur of the moment,
+or thought over it for weeks. If I wished a thing, that was reason
+enough for it to come out wrong!”
+
+“And even were it all as you fancy, papa dearest,” said Nelly, as she
+fondly drew her arm round him, “is it nothing that these reverses have
+found you strong of heart and high of courage to bear them? Over and
+over again have you told me that the great charm of field sports lay in
+the sense of fatigue bravely endured, and peril boldly confronted;
+that, devoid of these, they were unworthy of men. Is there not a greater
+glory, then, in stemming the tide of adverse fortune; and is it not a
+higher victory that carries you triumphant over the real trials of
+life, kind of heart, trustful, and generous, as in the best days of your
+prosperity, and with a more gentle and forbearing spirit than prosperity
+ever taught?”
+
+“That 's nothing against what I was saying,” said Dalton, but with a
+more subdued face. “There 's poor little Hans, and till a couple
+of clays ago he never knew what it was to be unlucky. As he told us
+himself, his life was a fairy tale.”
+
+“True,” interposed Nelly; “and happy as it was, and blameless and
+guileless he who led it, mark how many a gloomy thought, what dark
+distressing fancies, hover round his brain, and shadow his sick-bed! No,
+no! the sorrows of this world are more equally distributed than we
+think for, and he who seems to have fewest is oftentimes but he who best
+conceals them!”
+
+Her voice shook, and became weaker as she spoke; and the last few words
+were barely audible. Dalton did not notice her emotion; but Kate's looks
+were bent upon her with an expression of fond and affectionate meaning.
+
+“There's somebody at the door,” whispered Daltou; “see who it is, Kate.”
+
+Kate arose, and opening the door softly, beheld old Andy; his shrivelled
+features and lustreless eyes appearing in a state of unusual excitement.
+
+“What's the matter, Andy? what is it you want?” said she.
+
+“Is the master here? Where 's the master?”
+
+“He 's here; what do you want with him?” rejoined she.
+
+“I want himself,” said he, as with his palsied hand he motioned to
+Dalton to come out.
+
+“What is it, you old fool?” said Dalton, impatiently, as he arose and
+followed him outside of the room.
+
+“There's one of them again!” said Andy, putting his mouth to Dalton's
+ear, and whispering in deep confidence.
+
+“One of what? one of whom?”
+
+“He's upstairs,” muttered Andy.
+
+“Who's upstairs, who is he?” cried Dalton, angrily.
+
+“Didn't I know him the minit I seen him! Ayeh! Ould as I am, my eyes
+isn't that dim yet.”
+
+“God give me patience with you!” said Dalton; and, to judge from his
+face, he was not entreating a vain blessing. “Tell me, I say, what do
+you mean, or who is it is upstairs?”
+
+Andy put his lips once more to the other's ear, and whispered, “An
+attorney!”
+
+“An attorney!” echoed Dalton.
+
+“Iss!” said Andy, with a significant nod.
+
+“And how do you know he 's an attorney?”
+
+“I seen him!” replied the other, with a grin; “and I locked the door on
+him.”
+
+“What for?”
+
+“What for! what for, is it? Oh, murther, murther!” whined the old
+creature, who in this unhappy question thought he read the evidence of
+his poor master's wreck of intellect. It was indeed no slight shock to
+him to hear that Peter Dalton had grown callous to danger, and could
+listen to the terrible word he had uttered without a sign of emotion.
+
+“I seen the papers with a red string round 'em,” said Andy, as though
+by this incidental trait he might be able to realize all the menaced
+danger.
+
+“Sirrah, ye 're an old fool!” said Dalton, angrily; and, jerking the key
+from his trembling fingers, he pushed past him, and ascended the stairs.
+
+If Dalton's impatience had been excited by the old man's absurd terrors
+and foolish warnings, his own heart was not devoid of a certain vague
+dread, as he slowly wended his way upwards. It was true he did not
+partake of old Andy's fear of the dread official of the law. Andy, who,
+forgetting time and place, not knowing that they were in another land,
+where the King's writ never ran, saw in the terrible apparition the
+shadows of coming misfortune. Every calamity of his master's house had
+been heralded by such a visit, and he could as soon have disconnected
+the banshee with a sudden death, as the sight of an attorney with an
+approaching disaster.
+
+It is true, Dalton did not go this far; but still old impressions were
+not so easily effaced. And as the liberated captive is said to tremble
+at the clanking of a chain, so his heart responded to the fear that
+memory called up of past troubles and misfortunes.
+
+“What can he want with me now?” muttered he, as he stopped to take
+breath. “They 've left me nothing but life, and they can't take that. It
+'s not that I 'd care a great deal if they did! Maybe it's more bother
+about them titles; but I'll not trouble my head about them. I sold the
+land, and I spent the money; ay, and what 's more, I spent it at home
+among my own people, like a gentleman! and if I 'm an absentee it 's
+not my fault. I suppose he couldn't arrest me,” said he, after a pause;
+“but, God knows, they 're making new laws every day, and it 's hard to
+say if they 'll let a man have peace or ease in any quarter of the world
+before long. Well, well! there's no use guessing. I have nothing to sell
+nothing to lose; I suppose they don't make it a hanging matter even
+for an Irishman to live a trifle too fast.” And with this piece of
+reassuring comfort, he pulled up his cravat, threw back the breast of
+his coat, and prepared to confront the enemy bravely.
+
+Although Dalton made some noise in unlocking the door, and not less in
+crossing the little passage that led to the sitting-room, his entrance
+was unperceived by the stranger, who was busily engaged in examining a
+half-finished group by Nelly. It represented an old soldier, whose
+eyes were covered by a bandage, seated beside a well, while a little
+drummer-boy read to him the bulletin of a great victory. She had
+destined the work for a present to Frank, and had put forth all her
+genius in its composition. The glowing enthusiasm of the blind veteran,
+his half-opened lips,' his attitude of eagerness as he drank in the
+words, were finely contrasted with the childlike simplicity of the boy,
+more intent, as it seemed, in spelling out the lines than following the
+signification.
+
+If the stranger was not a finished connoisseur, he was certainly not
+ignorant of art, and was deep in its contemplation when Dalton accosted
+him.
+
+“I beg pardon, Mr. Dalton, I presume; really this clever composition
+has made me forget myself totally. May I ask, is it the work of a native
+artist?”
+
+“It was done in this place, sir,” replied Dalton, whose pride in his
+daughter's skill was overlaid by a less worthy feeling, shame that a
+Dalton should condescend to such an occupation.
+
+“I have seen very inferior productions highly prized and praised; and if
+I am not indiscreet--”
+
+“To prevent any risk of that kind,” observed Dalton, interrupting him,
+“I 'll take the liberty of asking your name, and the object of this
+visit.”
+
+“Prichard, sir; of the firm of Prichard and Harding, solicitors,
+Lincoln's Inn Fields,” replied the other, whose voice and manner at once
+assumed a business-like tone.
+
+“I never heard the names before,” said Dalton, motioning to a chair. The
+stranger seated himself, and, placing a large roll of papers before him
+on the table, proceeded to untie and arrange them most methodically, and
+with the air of a man too deeply impressed with the importance of his
+occupation to waste a thought upon the astonishment of a bystander.
+
+“Prichard and Harding are mighty cool kind of gentlemen,” thought
+Dalton, as he took his seat at the opposite side of the table, trying,
+but not with any remarkable success, to look as much at ease as his
+visitor.
+
+“Copy of deed draft of instructions bill of sale of stock no, here it
+is! This is what we want,” muttered Prichard, half aloud. “I believe
+that letter, sir, is in your handwriting?”
+
+Dalton put on his spectacles and looked at the document for a few
+seconds, during which his countenance gradually appeared to light up
+with an expression of joyful meaning; for his eye glistened, and a red
+flush suffused his cheek.
+
+“It is, sir, that's mine, every word of it; and what's more, I 'm as
+ready to stand to it to-day as the hour I wrote it.”
+
+Mr. Prichard, scarcely noticing the reply, was again deep in his
+researches; but the object of them must be reserved for another chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV. AN EMBARRASSING QUESTION.
+
+How very seldom it is that a man looks at a letter he has written
+some twenty years or so before, and peruses it with any degree of
+satisfaction! No matter how pleasurable the theme, or how full of
+interest at the time, years have made such changes in circumstances,
+have so altered his relations with the world, dispelled illusions here,
+created new prospects there, that the chances are he can feel nothing
+but astonishment for what once were his opinions, and a strange sense of
+misgiving that he ever could have so expressed himself.
+
+Rare as this pleasure is, we left Mr. Dalton in the fullest enjoyment of
+it, in our last chapter; and as he read and re-read his autograph, every
+feature of his face showed the enjoyment it yielded him.
+
+“My own writing, sure enough! I wish I never put my hand to paper in a
+worse cause. Is n't it strange,” he muttered, “how a man's heart will
+outlive his fingers? I could n't write now as well as I used then, but
+I can feel just the same. There 's the very words I said.” And with this
+he read, half aloud, from the paper: “'But if you my consent to send
+lawyers and attorneys to the devil, and let the-matter be settled
+between us, like two gentlemen, Peter Dalton will meet you when, where,
+and how you like, and take the satisfaction as a full release of every
+claim and demand he makes on you.' Just so; and a fairer offer never was
+made; but I grieve to say it wasn't met in the same spirit.”
+
+“When you wrote that letter, Mr. Dalton,” said Prichard, not looking
+up from the papers before him, “you were doubtless suffering under the
+impression of a wrong at the hands of Sir Stafford Ouslow.”
+
+“Faith, I believe you. The loss of a fine estate was n't a trifle,
+whatever you may think it.”
+
+“The question ought rather to be, what right had you to attribute that
+loss to him?”
+
+“What right is it? All the right in the world. Who got the property?
+Answer me that. Was n't it he came in as a sole legatee? But what am I
+talking about? Sure the thing is done and ended, and what more does he
+want?”
+
+“I'm just coming to that very point, sir,” said Prichard. “Sir
+Stafford's attention having been accidentally called to this
+transaction, he perceives that he has unwittingly done you a great
+injustice, and that there is one matter, at least, on which he is bound,
+even for his own satisfaction.”
+
+“Satisfaction, is it?” broke in Dalton, catching at the only word that
+struck his ear with a distinct signification. “Better late than never;
+and it 's proud I am to oblige him. Not but there 's people would tell
+you that the time 's gone by, and all that sort of thing; but them was
+never my sentiments. 'Never a bad time for a good deed,' my poor father
+used to say, and you may tell him that I 'll think the better of his
+countrymen to the day of my death, for what he 's going to do now.”
+
+Prichard laid down the paper he was reading, and stared at the speaker
+in mute amazement.
+
+“You 're his friend, I perceive,” said Dalton.
+
+“Sir Stafford is kind enough to consider me in that light.”
+
+“Faith, the kindness is all the other way,” rejoined Dalton, laughing,
+“at least, in this country; for the seconds are just as guilty as the
+principals, and have no fun for their money. But, sure, we can cross
+over to Landau; they tell me it's Barbaria there, over the Rhine.”
+
+“Bavaria, perhaps?” interposed the other.
+
+“Yes, that 's what I said. We can be over the frontier in two hours.
+There 's every conveniency in life,” said he, rubbing his hands in high
+glee.
+
+“Our business, I trust, sir, can be all arranged here, and without much
+delay, either.”
+
+“Just as you like; I 'm not fond of moving since my knee was bad, and I
+'m agreeable to anything.”
+
+“You seem to contemplate a hostile meeting, sir, if I understand you
+aright,” said Prichard, slowly; “but if you had been kind enough to
+hear me out, you 'd have seen that nothing was further from my friend's
+thoughts or my own.”
+
+“Oh, murther!” groaned Dal ton, as he sank down into a chair.
+
+“We never entertained any such intention.”
+
+“No duel?”
+
+“Nothing of the kind.”
+
+“Sure, I heard you say satisfaction. I 'll take my oath you said
+satisfaction.”
+
+“I hope sincerely, sir, that the word may bear a peaceful
+signification.”
+
+“Oh dear, oh dear!” cried Dalton, as, clasping his hands on his knees,
+he sat, a perfect type of disappointed hope, and totally inattentive to
+a very eloquent explanation that Prichard was pouring forth.
+
+“You see, now, sir, I trust,” cried the latter, triumphantly, “that if
+my friend's intentions are not precisely what you looked for, they are
+not less inspired by an anxious desire to cultivate your friendship and
+obtain your good opinion.”
+
+“I wasn't listening to a word you were saying,” said Dalton, with a
+sincerity that would have made many men smile; but Mr. Prichard never
+laughed, or only when the joke was uttered by a silk gown, or the
+initiative given by the bench itself.
+
+“I was endeavoring, sir, to convey,” said he again, and with infinite
+patience, “that, by a clause of the late Mr. Godfrey's will, the
+suggestion was made to the effect that, if Sir Stafford Onslow should
+deem it fitting and suitable, the testator would not be averse to an
+annuity of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred pounds per annum
+being settled on Mr. Peter Dalton for the term of his life. This clause
+has now been brought under Sir Stafford's notice for the first time, as
+he never, in fact, saw the will before. The document was lodged in our
+hands; and as certain proceedings, of which the letter you have just
+acknowledged forms a part, at that period placed you in a peculiar
+position of hostility to Sir Stafford, we, as his legal advisers, did
+not take any remarkable pains to impress this recommendation on his
+memory.”
+
+“Go on; I 'm listening to you,” said Dalton.
+
+“Well, sir, Sir Stafford is now desirous of complying with this
+injunction, the terms of which he reads as more obligatory upon him than
+his legal friends would be willing to substantiate. In fact, he makes
+the matter a question of feeling and not of law; and this, of course, is
+a point wherein we have no right to interpose an opinion. Something like
+ten years have elapsed since Mr. Godfrey's death, and taking the sum at
+two hundred pounds, with interest at five per cent, a balance of above
+three thousand two hundred will now be at your disposal, together with
+the annuity on your life; and to arrange the payment of these moneys,
+and take measures for their future disbursement, I have the honor to
+present myself before you. As for these letters, they are your own; and
+Sir Stafford, in restoring them, desires to efface all memory of the
+transaction they referred to, and to assure you that, when circumstances
+enable him to meet you, it may be on terms of perfect cordiality and
+friendship.”
+
+“Upon my soul and conscience I don't understand a word of it all!” said
+Dalton, whose bewildered looks gave a perfect concurrence to the speech.
+“Is it that I have a right to all the money?”
+
+“Exactly, sir; Sir Stafford feels that he is simply carrying out the
+wishes of your relative, Mr. Godfrey--”
+
+“But this has nothing to do with the little difference between Sir
+Stafford and myself? I mean, it leaves us just where we were before.”
+
+“Sir Stafford hopes that henceforth a better understanding will subsist
+between you and himself; and that you, seeing how blameless he has
+been in the whole history of your losses, will receive this act as an
+evidence of his desire to cultivate your friendship.”
+
+“And this two hundred a year?”
+
+“Is Mr. Godfrey's bequest.”
+
+“But depending on Sir Stafford to pay or not, as he likes.”
+
+“I have already told you, sir, that he conceives he has no option in the
+matter; and that the mere expression of a desire on Mr. Godfrey's part
+becomes to him a direct injunction.”
+
+“Faith, he was mighty long in finding it out, then,” said Dalton,
+laughing.
+
+“I believe I have explained myself on that head,” replied Prichard; “but
+I am quite ready to go over the matter again.”
+
+“God forbid! my head is 'moidered' enough already, not to make it
+worse. Explanations, as they call them, always puzzle me more; but if
+you 'd go over the subject to my daughter Nelly, her brain is as clear
+as the Lord Chancellor's. I'll just call her up here; for, to tell you
+the truth, I never see my way right in anything till Nelly makes it out
+for me.”
+
+Mr. Prichard was probably not grieved at the prospect of a more
+intelligent listener, and readily assented to the proposition, in
+furtherance of which Dalton left the room to seek his daughter. On
+descending to the little chamber where he had left the two girls in
+waiting beside the dwarf's sick-bed, he now discovered that they had
+gone, and that old Andy had replaced them, a change which, to judge from
+Hansel's excited looks and wild utterance, was not by any means to his
+taste.
+
+“Was machst du hier?” cried he, sternly, to the old man.
+
+“Whisht! alannah! Take a sleep, acushla!” whined old Andy, as, under
+the delusion that it was beside an infant his watch was established, he
+tried to rock the settle-bed like a cradle, and then croned away in a
+cracked voice one of his own native ditties:
+
+     “I saw a man weeping and makin' sad moan,
+     He was crying and grievin',
+     For he knew their deceiving
+     An' rockin' a cradle for a child not his own.”
+
+“Was fur katzen jammer! What for cats' music mak'st thou there?”
+
+“Where 's the girls, Andy?” whispered Daltou in the old man's ear.
+
+“They 're gone,” muttered he.
+
+“Gone where? where did they go?”
+
+“Fort mit ihm. Away with him. Leave him not stay. Mein head is heavy,
+and mein brain turn round!” screamed Hansel.
+
+“Will ye tell me where they 're gone, I say?” cried Daiton, angrily.
+
+“Hushoo! husho!” sang out the old man, as he fancied he was composing
+his charge to sleep; and then made signs to Dalton to be still and not
+awaken him.
+
+With an angry muttering Dalton turned away and left the chamber, totally
+regardless of Hanserl's entreaties to take Andy along with him.
+
+“You're just good company for each other!” said he, sulkily, to himself.
+“But where 's these girls, I wonder?”
+
+“Oh, papa, I have found you at last!” cried Kate, as, bounding down the
+stairs half a dozen steps at a time, she threw her arm round him. “She's
+here! she's upstairs with us; and so delightful, and so kind, and so
+beautiful. I never believed any one could be so charming.”
+
+“And who is she, when she's at home?” said Dalton, half sulkily.
+
+“Lady Hester, of course, papa. She came while we were sitting with
+Hanserl, came quite alone to see him and us; and when she had talked
+to him for a while, so kindly and so sweetly, about his wound, and his
+fever, and his home in the Tyrol, and his mother, and everything, she
+turned to Nelly and said, 'Now, my dears, for a little conversation with
+yourselves. Where shall we go to be quite alone and uninterrupted?' We
+did n't know what to say, papa; for we knew that you and the strange
+gentleman were busy in the sitting-room, and while I was thinking what
+excuse to make, Nelly told her that our only room was occupied. 'Oh, I
+don't care for that in the least,' said she; 'let us shut ourselves
+up in your dressing-room.' Our dressing-room! I could have laughed and
+cried at the same moment she said it; but Nelly said that we had none,
+and invited her upstairs to her bedroom; and there she is now, papa,
+sitting on the little bed, and making Nelly tell her everything about
+who we are, and whence we came, and how we chanced to be living here.”
+
+“I wonder Nelly had n't more sense,” said Dalton, angrily; “not as much
+as a curtain on the bed, nor a bit of carpet on the floor. What 'll she
+think of us all?”
+
+“Oh, papa, you're quite mistaken; she called it a dear little snuggery;
+said she envied Nelly so much that lovely view over Eberstein and the
+Schloss, and said what would she not give to lead our happy and peaceful
+life, away from that great world she despises so heartily. How sad
+to think her duties tie her down to a servitude so distasteful and
+repulsive!”
+
+“Isn't my Lady the least taste in life of a humbug, Kitty?” whispered
+Dalton, as his eyes twinkled with malicious drollery.
+
+“Papa, papa! you cannot mean--”
+
+“No harm if she is, darling. I'm sure the pleasantest, ay, and some of
+the worthiest people ever I knew were humbugs, that is, they were always
+doing their best to be agreeable to the company; and if they strained
+their consciences a bit, small blame to them for that same.”
+
+“Lady Hester is far above such arts, papa; but you shall judge for
+yourself. Come in now, for she is so anxious to know you.”
+
+Kate, as she spoke, had opened the door of the little bedroom, and,
+drawing her arm within her father's, gently led him forward to where
+Lady Hester was seated upon the humble settle.
+
+“It's a nice place they showed you into, my Lady,” said Dalton, after
+the ceremony of introduction was gone through; “and there was the
+drawing-room, or the library, and the breakfast-parlor, all ready to
+receive you.”
+
+“We heard that you were engaged with a gentleman on business, papa.”
+
+“Well, and if I was, Nelly, transacting a small matter about my estates
+in Ireland, sure it was in my own study we were.”
+
+“I must be permitted to say that I am very grateful for any accident
+which has given me the privilege of an intimate with my dear young
+friends,” said Lady Hester, in her very sweetest of manners; “and as to
+the dear little room itself, it is positively charming.”
+
+“I wish you 'd see Mount Dalton, my Lady. There '& a window, and it is
+n't bigger than that there, and you can see seven baronies out of it
+and a part of three counties, Killikelly's flour-mills, and the town of
+Drumcoolaghan in the distance; not to speak of the Shannon winding for
+miles through as elegant a bog as ever you set eyes upon.”
+
+“Indeed!” smiled her Ladyship, with a glance of deep interest.
+
+“'T is truth, I 'm telling you, my Lady,” continued he; “and, what's
+more, 'twas our own, every stick and stone of it. From Crishnamuck
+to Ballymodereena on one side, and from the chapel at Dooras down to
+Drumcoolaghan, 'twas the Dalton estate.”
+
+“What a princely territory!”
+
+“And why not? Weren't they kings once, or the same as kings? Did n't my
+grandfather, Pearce, hold a court for life and death in his own parlor?
+Them was the happy and the good times, too,” sighed he, plaintively.
+
+“But I trust your late news from Ireland is favorable?”
+
+“Ah! there isn't much to boast about. The old families is dying out
+fast, and the properties changing hands. A set of English rogues and
+banker-fellows that made their money in dirty lanes and alleys.”
+
+A sort of imploring, beseeching anxiety from his daughter Kate here
+brought Dalton to a dead stop, and he pulled up as suddenly as if on the
+brink of a precipice.
+
+“Pray, go on, Mr. Dalton,” said Lady Hester, with a winning smile; “you
+cannot think how much you have interested me. You are aware that we
+really know nothing about poor dear Ireland; and I am so delighted to
+learn from one so competent to teach.”
+
+“I did n't mean any offence, my Lady,” stammered out Dalton, in
+confusion. “There 's good and bad everywhere; but I wish to the Lord the
+cotton-spinners would n't come among us, and their steam-engines, and
+their black chimneys, and their big factories; and they say we are not
+far from that now.”
+
+A gentle tap at the door which communicated with the sitting-room was
+heard at this moment, and Dalton exclaimed,
+
+“Come in!” but, not suffering the interruption to stop the current of
+his discourse, he was about to resume, when Mr. Prichard's well-powdered
+head appeared at the door.
+
+“I began to suspect you had forgotten me, Mr. Dalton,” said he; but
+suddenly catching a glimpse of Lady Hester, he stopped to ask pardon for
+the intrusion.
+
+“Faith, and I just did,” said Dalton, laughing; “couldn't you contrive
+to step in in the morning, and we 'll talk that little matter over
+again?”
+
+“Yes, Prichard; pray don't interrupt us now,” said Lady Hester, in a
+tone of half-peevishness. “I cannot possibly spare you, Mr. Dalton,
+at this moment;” and the man of law withdrew, with a most respectful
+obeisance.
+
+“You'll forgive me, won't you?” said she, addressing Dalton, with a
+glance whose blandishment had often succeeded in a more difficult case.
+
+“And now, papa, we'll adjourn to the drawing-room,” said Kate, who
+somehow continued to notice a hundred deficiencies in the furniture of a
+little chamber she had often before deemed perfect.
+
+Dalton accordingly offered his arm to Lady Hester, who accepted the
+courtesy in all form, and the little party moved into the sitting-room;
+Nelly following, with an expression of sadness in her pale features,
+very unlike the triumphant glances of her father and sister.
+
+“I 'm certain of your pardon, Mr. Dalton, and of yours, too, my dear
+child,” said Lady Hester, turning towards Kate, as she seated herself
+on the stiff old sofa, “when I avow that I have come here determined
+to pass the evening with you. I 'm not quite so sure that my dear Miss
+Dalton's forgiveness will be so readily accorded me. I see that she
+already looks gravely at the prospect of listening to my fiddle-faddle
+instead of following out her own charming fancies.”
+
+“Oh, how you wrong me, my Lady!” broke in Nelly, eagerly. “If it were
+not for my fears of our unfitness our inability,” she stammered in
+confusion and shame; and old Dalton broke in,
+
+“Don't mind her, my Lady; we 're as well used to company as any family
+in the country; but, you see, we don't generally mix with the people one
+meets abroad; and why should we? God knows who they are. There was chaps
+here last summer at the tables you would n't let into the servants'
+hall. There was one I seen myself, with an elegant pair of horses, as
+nice steppers as ever you looked at, and a groom behind with a leather
+strap round him,” and here Mr. Dalton performed a pantomime, by
+extending the fingers of his open hand at the side of his head, to
+represent a cockade “what d' ye call it in his hat; and who was he, did
+you think? 'Billy Rogers,' of Muck; his father was in the canal--”
+
+“In the canal!” exclaimed Lady Hester, in affright.
+
+“Yes, my Lady; in the Grand Canal, an inspector at forty pounds a year,
+the devil a farthin' more; and if you seen the son here, with two pins
+in his cravat, and a gold chain twisting and turning over his waistcoat,
+with his hat on one side, and yellow gloves, new every morning, throwing
+down the 'Naps' at that thieving game they call 'Red and Black,'
+you'd say he was the Duke of Leinster!”
+
+“Was he so like his Grace?” asked Lady Hester, with a delightful
+simplicity.
+
+“No; but grander!” replied Dalton, with a wave of his hand.
+
+“It is really, as you remark, very true,” resumed her Ladyship. “It is
+quite impossible to venture upon an acquaintance out of England; and I
+cordially concur in the caution you practise.”
+
+“So I 'm always telling the girls, 'better no company than trumpery!'
+not that I don't like a bit of sociality as well as ever I did, a snug
+little party of one's own, people whose mothers and fathers had names,
+the real old stock of the land. But to be taken up with every chance
+rapscallion you meet on the cross-roads, to be hand and glove with this,
+that, and the other, them never was my sentiments.”
+
+It is but justice to confess there was less of hypocrisy in the bland
+smile Lady Hester returned to this speech than might be suspected;
+for, what between the rapidity of Daiton's utterance, and the peculiar
+accentuation he gave to certain words, she did not really comprehend
+one syllable of what he said. Meanwhile the two girls sat silent and
+motionless. Nelly, in all the suffering of shame at the absurdity of her
+father's tone, the vulgarity of an assumption she had fondly hoped years
+of poverty might have tamed down, if not obliterated; Kate, in mute
+admiration of their lovely visitor, of whose graces she never wearied.
+Nor did Lady Hester make any effort to include them in the conversation;
+she had come out expressly for one sole object, to captivate Mr. Dalton;
+and she would suffer nothing to interfere with her project. To this
+end she heard his long and tiresome monologues about Irish misery and
+distress, narrated with an adherence to minute and local details that
+made the whole incomprehensible; she listened to him with well-feigned
+interest, in his narratives of the Daltons of times long past, of their
+riotous and extravagant living, their lawlessness, and their daring;
+nor did she permit her attention to flag while he recounted scenes and
+passages of domestic annals that might almost have filled a page of
+savage history.
+
+“How sorry you must have felt to leave a country so dear by all its
+associations and habits!” sighed she, as he finished a narrative of
+more than ordinary horrors.
+
+“Ain't I breaking my heart over it? Ain't I fretting myself to mere skin
+and bone?” said he, with a glance of condolence over his portly figure.
+“But what could I do? I was forced to come out here for the education of
+the children bother it for education! but it ruins everybody nowadays.
+When I was a boy, reading and writing, with a trifle of figures, was
+enough for any one. If you could tell what twenty bullocks cost, at two
+pounds four-and-sixpence a beast, and what was the price of a score of
+hoggets, at fifteen shillings a head, and wrote your name and address
+in a good round hand, 'twas seldom you needed more; but now you have to
+learn everything, ay, sorrow bit, but it 's learning the way to do what
+every one knows by nature; riding, dancing, no, but even walking, I 'm
+told, they teach too! Then there's French you must learn for talking!
+and Italian to sing! and German, upon my soul, I believe it's to snore
+in! and what with music, dancing, and drawing, everybody is brought up
+like a play-actor.”
+
+“There is, as you remark, far too much display in modern education, Mr.
+Dalton; but you would seem fortunate enough to have avoided the error. A
+young lady whose genius can accomplish such a work as this--”
+
+“'Tis one of Nelly's, sure enough,” said he, looking at the group to
+which she pointed, but feeling even more shame than pride in the avowal.
+
+The sound of voices a very unusual noise from the door without, now
+broke in upon the conversation, and Andy's cracked treble could be
+distinctly heard in loud altercation.
+
+“Nelly! Kitty! I say,” cried Dalton, “see what's the matter with that
+old devil. There's something come over him to-day, I think, for he won't
+be quiet for two minutes together.”
+
+Kate accordingly hastened to discover the cause of a tumult in which now
+the sound of laughter mingled.
+
+As we, however, enjoy the prerogative of knowing the facts before they
+could reach her, we may as well inform the reader that Andy, whose
+intelligence seemed to have been preternaturally awakened by the sight
+of an attorney, had been struck by seeing two strangers enter the
+house-door and leisurely ascend the stairs. At such a moment, and with
+his weak brain filled with its latest impression, the old man at once
+set them down as bailiffs come to arrest his master. He hobbled after
+them, therefore, as well as he could, and just reached the landing as
+Mr. Jekyl, with his friend Onslow, had arrived at the door.
+
+“Mr. Dalton lives here, I believe?” said Jekyl.
+
+“Anan,” muttered Andy, who, although he heard the question, affected not
+to have done so, and made this an excuse for inserting himself between
+them and the door.
+
+“I was asking if Mr. Dalton lived here!” cried Jekyl, louder, and
+staring with some astonishment at the old fellow's manoeuvre.
+
+“Who said he did, eh?” said Andy, with an effort at fierceness.
+
+“Perhaps it 's on the lower story?” asked Onslow.
+
+“Maybe it is, and maybe it isn't, then!” was the answer.
+
+“We wish to see him, my good man,” said Jekyl; “or, at least, to send a
+message to him.”
+
+“Sure! I know well enough what ye want,” said Andy, with a wave of his
+hand. “'T is n't the first of yer like I seen!”
+
+“And what may that be?” asked Onslow, not a little amused by the blended
+silliness and shrewdness of the old man's face.
+
+“Ay eh! I know yez well,” rejoined he, shaking his head. “Be off, then,
+and don't provoke the house! Away wid yez, before the servants sees ye.”
+
+“This is a rare fellow,” said Onslow, who, less interested than his
+companion about the visit, was quite satisfied to amuse himself with old
+Andy. “So you 'll not even permit us to send our respects, and ask how
+your master is?”
+
+“I'm certain you'll be more reasonable,” simpered Jekyl, as he drew a
+very weighty-looking purse from his pocket, and, with a considerable
+degree of ostentation, seemed preparing to open it.
+
+The notion of bribery, and in such a cause, was too much for Andy's
+feelings; and with a sudden jerk of his hand, he dashed the purse out
+of Jekyl's fingers, and scattered the contents all over the landing and
+stairs. “Ha, ha!” cried he, wildly, “'t is only ha'pence he has, after
+all!” And the taunt was so far true that the ground was strewn with
+kreutzers and other copper coins of the very smallest value.
+
+As for Onslow, the scene was too ludicrous for him any longer to
+restrain his laughter; and although Jekyl laughed too, and seemed to
+relish the absurdity of his mistake, as he called it, having put in his
+pocket a collection of rare and curious coins, his cheek, as he bent to
+gather them up, was suffused with a deeper flush than the mere act of
+stooping should occasion. It was precisely at this moment that Kate
+Dalton made her appearance.
+
+“What is the matter, Andy?” asked she, turning to the old man, who
+appeared, by his air and attitude, as if determined to guard the
+doorway.
+
+“Two spalpeens, that want to take the master; that's what it is,” said
+he, in a voice of passion.
+
+“Your excellent old servant has much mistaken us, Miss Dalton,” said
+Jekyl, with his most deferential of manners. “My friend, Captain
+Onslow,” here he moved his hand towards George, who bowed, “and myself,
+having planned a day's shooting in the 'Moorg,' have come to request the
+pleasure of Mr. Dalton's company.”
+
+“Oh, the thievin' villains!” muttered Andy; “that's the way they 'll
+catch him.”
+
+Meanwhile Kate, having promised to convey their polite invitation,
+expressed her fears that her father's health might be unequal to the
+exertion. Jekyl immediately took issue upon the point, and hoped, and
+wondered, and fancied, and “flattered himself” so much, that Kate at
+last discovered she had been drawn into a little discussion, when
+she simply meant to have returned a brief answer; and while she was
+hesitating how to put an end to an interview that had already lasted too
+long, Dalton himself appeared.
+
+“Is it with me these gentlemen have their business?” said he, angrily,
+while he rudely resisted all Andy's endeavors to hold him back.
+
+“Oh, my dear Mr. Dalton,” said Jekyl, warmly, “it is such a pleasure to
+see you quite restored to health again! Here we are Captain Onslow, Mr.
+Dalton thinking of a little excursion after the woodcocks down the Moorg
+Thai; and I have been indulging the hope that you 'll come along with
+us.”
+
+The very hint of an attention, the merest suggestion that bordered on
+a civility, struck a chord in old Dalton's nature that moved all his
+sympathies. It was at once a recognition of himself and his ancestry for
+generations back. It was a rehabilitation of all the Dal tons of Mount
+Dalton for centuries past; and as he extended a hand to each, and
+invited them to walk in, he half felt himself at home again, doing the
+honors of his house, and extending those hospitalities that had brought
+him to beggary.
+
+“Are you serious about the shooting-party?” whispered Onslow to Jekyl,
+as he walked forward.
+
+“Of course not. It's only a 'Grecian horse,' to get inside the citadel.”
+
+“My daughter, Miss Dalton; Mr. Jekyl Miss Kate Dalton. Your friend's
+name, I believe, is--”
+
+“Captain Onslow.”
+
+Lady Hester started at the name, and, rising, at once said,
+
+“Oh, George, I must introduce you to my fair friends. Miss Dalton, this
+gentleman calls me 'mamma;' or, at least, if he does not, it is from
+politeness. Captain Onslow Mr. Dalton. Now, by what fortunate event came
+you here?”
+
+“Ought I not to ask the same question of your Ladyship?” said George,
+archly.
+
+“If you like; only that, as I asked first--”
+
+“You shall be answered first. Lady Hester Onslow, allow me to present
+Mr. Albert Jekyl.”
+
+“Oh, indeed!” drawled out Lady Hester, as, with her very coldest bow,
+she surveyed Mr. Jekyl through her glass, and then turned away to finish
+her conversation with Ellen.
+
+Jekyl was not the man to feel a slight repulse as a defeat; but, at
+the same time, saw that the present was not the moment to risk an
+engagement. He saw, besides, that, by engaging Dalton in conversation,
+he should leave Lady Hester and Onslow at liberty to converse with
+the two sisters, and, by this act of generosity, entitle himself to
+gratitude on all sides. And, after all, among the smaller martyrdoms
+of this life, what self-sacrifice exceeds his who, out of pure
+philanthropy, devotes himself to the “bore” of the party. Honor to him
+who can lead the forlorn hope of this stronghold of weariness. Great be
+his praises who can turn from the seductive smiles of beauty, and the
+soft voices of youth, and only give eye and ear to the tiresome and
+uninteresting. High among the achievements of unobtrusive heroism
+should this claim rank; and if you doubt it, my dear reader, if you feel
+disposed to hold cheaply such darings, try it, try even for once. Take
+your place beside that deaf old lady in the light auburn wig, or draw
+your chair near to that elderly gentleman, whose twinkling gray eyes
+and tremulous lip bespeak an endless volubility on the score of personal
+reminiscences. Do this, too, within earshot of pleasant voices and merry
+laughter, of that tinkling ripple that tells of conversation flowing
+lightly on, like a summer stream, clear where shallow, and reflective
+where deep! Listen to the wearisome bead-roll of family fortunes, the
+births, deaths, and marriages of those you never saw, and hoped never
+to see, hear the long narratives of past events, garbled, mistaken, and
+misstated, with praise and censure ever misapplied, and then, I say, you
+will feel that, although such actions are not rewarded with red ribbons
+or blue, they yet demand a moral courage and a perseverance that in
+wider fields win high distinction.
+
+[Illustration:  166]
+
+Albert Jekyl was a proficient in this great art; indeed, his powers
+developed themselves according to the exigency, so that the more
+insufferably tiresome his companion, the more seemingly attentive
+and interested did he become. His features were, in fact, a kind of
+“bore-ometer,” in which, from the liveliness of the expression, you
+might calculate the stupidity of the tormentor; and the mercury of his
+nature rose, not fell, under pressure. And so you would have said had
+you but seen him that evening, as, seated beside Dalton, he heard,
+for hours long, how Irish gentlemen were ruined and their fortunes
+squandered. What jolly times they were when men resisted the law and
+never feared a debt! Not that, while devouring all the “rapparee”
+ experiences of the father, he had no eye for the daughters, and did not
+see what was passing around him. Ay, that did he, and mark well how Lady
+Hester attached herself to Kate Dalton, flattered by every sign of her
+unbought admiration, and delighted with the wondering homage of the
+artless girl. He watched Onslow, too, turn from the inanimate charms
+of Nelly's sculptured figures, to gaze upon the long dark lashes and
+brilliant complexion of her sister. He saw all the little comedy that
+went on around him, even to poor Nelly's confusion, as she assisted Andy
+to arrange a tea-table, and, for the first time since their arrival,
+proceed to make use of that little service of white and gold which,
+placed on a marble table for show, constitutes the invariable decoration
+of every humble German drawing-room. He even overheard her, as she left
+the room, giving Andy her directions a dozen times over, how he was to
+procure the tea, and the sugar, and the milk, extravagances she did not
+syllable without a sigh. He saw and heard everything, and rapidly drew
+his own inferences, not alone of their poverty, but of their unfitness
+to struggle with it.
+
+“And yet, I'd wager these people,” said he to himself, “are revelling in
+superfluities; at least, as compared to me! But, so it is, the rock that
+one man ties round his neck, another would make a stepping-stone of!”
+ This satisfactory conclusion gave additional sweetness to the bland
+smile with which he took his teacup from Nelly's hand, while he
+pronounced the beverage the very best he had ever tasted out of Moscow.
+And so we must leave the party.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV. CONTRASTS
+
+“So you think, Grounsell, I may be able to leave this in a day or two?”
+ said Sir Stafford, as, on the day following the events we have just
+related, he slowly walked up and down his dressing-room.
+
+“By the end of the week, if the weather only continue fine, we may be on
+the road again.”
+
+“I'm glad of it, heartily glad of it! Not that, as regarded myself,
+it mattered much where I was laid up in dock; but I find that this
+isolation, instead of drawing the members of my family more closely
+together, has but served to widen the breach between them. Lady Hester
+and Sydney rarely meet; George sees neither of them, and rarely comes
+near me, so that the sooner we go hence the better for all of us.”
+
+Grounsell gave a dry nod of assent, without speaking.
+
+“Sydney is very anxious to go and pass some time with her aunt Conway;
+but I foresee that, if I consent, the difference between Lady Hester and
+her will then become an irreconcilable quarrel. You don't agree with me,
+Grounsell?”
+
+“I do not. I never knew the ends of a fractured bone unite by grating
+them eternally against each other.”
+
+“And, as for George, the lounging habits of his service and cigars have
+steeped him in an indolence from which there is no emerging. I scarcely
+know what to do with him.”
+
+“It's hard enough to decide upon,” rejoined Grounsell; “he has some
+pursuits, but not one ambition.”
+
+“He has very fair abilities, certainly,” said Sir Stafford, half
+peevishly.
+
+“Very fair!” nodded Grounsell.
+
+“A good memory, a quick apprehension.”
+
+“He has one immense deficiency, for which nothing can compensate,” said
+the doctor, solemnly.
+
+“Application, industry?”
+
+“No, with his opportunities a great deal is often acquired with
+comparatively light labor. I mean a greater and more important element.”
+
+“He wants steadiness, you think?”
+
+“No; I 'll tell you what he wants, he wants pluck!”
+
+Sir Stafford's cheek became suddenly crimson, and his blue eyes grew
+almost black in the angry expression of the moment.
+
+“Pluck, sir? My son deficient in courage?”
+
+“Not as you understand it now,” resumed Grouusell, calmly. “He has
+enough, and more than enough, to shoot me or anybody else that would
+impugn it. The quality I mean is of a very different order. It is the
+daring to do a thing badly to-day in the certain confidence that you,
+will do it better to-morrow, and succeed perfectly in it this day
+twelvemonth. He has not pluck to encounter repeated failures, and yet
+return every morning to the attack; he has not pluck to be bullied
+by mediocrity in the sure and certain confidence that he will live to
+surpass it; in a word, he has not that pluck which resists the dictation
+of inferior minds, and inspires self-reliance through self-respect.”
+
+“I confess I cannot see that in the station he is likely to occupy such
+qualities are at all essential,” said Sir Stafford, almost haughtily.
+
+“Twenty thousand a year is a fine thing, and may dispense with a great
+many gifts in its possessor; and a man like myself, who never owned a
+twentieth of the amount, may be a precious bad judge of the requisites
+to spend it suitably; but I 'll tell you one thing, Onslow, that organ
+the phrenologists call 'Combativeness' is the best in the whole skull.”
+
+“I think your Irish friend Dalton must have been imparting some of his
+native prejudices to you,” said Onslow, smiling; “and, by the way, when
+have you seen him?”
+
+“I went to call there last night, but I found a tea-party, and did n't
+go in. Only think of these people, with beggary staring them on every
+side, sending out for 'Caravan' tea at I don't know how many florins a
+pound.”
+
+“I heard of it; but then, once and away--”
+
+“Once and away! Ay, but once is ruin.”
+
+“Well, I hope Prichard has arranged everything by this time. He has gone
+over this morning to complete the business; so that I trust, when we
+leave Baden, these worthy people will be m the enjoyment of easier
+circumstances.”
+
+“I see him crossing over the street now. I'll leave you together.”
+
+“No, no, Grounsell; wait and hear his report; we may want your advice
+besides, for I 'm not quite clear that this large sum of arrears should
+be left at Dalton's untrammelled disposal, as Mr. Prichard intended it
+should be a test of that excellent gentleman's prudence.”
+
+Mr. Prichard's knock was now heard at the door, and next moment
+he entered. His pale countenance was slightly flushed, and in the
+expression of his face it might be read that he had come from a scene of
+unusual excitement.
+
+“I have failed, completely failed, Sir Stafford,” said he, with a sigh,
+as he seated himself, and threw a heavy roll of paper on the table
+before him.
+
+As Sir Stafford did not break the pause that followed these words,
+Prichard resumed,
+
+“I told you last night that Mr. Dalton, not being able clearly to
+understand my communication, which I own, to prevent any searching
+scrutiny on his part, I did my best to envelop in a covering of
+technicalities, referred me to his eldest daughter, in whose acuteness
+he reposes much confidence. If I was not impressed with the difficulty
+of engaging such an adversary from his description, still less was I
+on meeting with the young lady this morning. A very quietly mannered,
+unassuming person, with considerable good looks, which once upon a
+time must have been actual beauty, was seated alone in the drawing-room
+awaiting me. Her dress was studiously plain; and were it not for an
+air of great neatness throughout, I should perhaps call it even poor.
+I mention all these matters with a certain prolixity, because they bear
+upon what ensued.
+
+“Without waiting for me to open my communication, she began by a slight
+apology for her presence there, occasioned, as she said, by her father's
+ill-health and consequent incapacity to transact business; after
+which she added a few words expressive of a hope that I would make my
+statement in the most simple and intelligible form, divested so far as
+might be of technical phraseology, and such as, to use her own words, a
+very unlettered person like herself might comprehend.
+
+“This opening, I confess, somewhat startled me; I scarcely expected so
+much from her father's daughter; but I acquiesced and went on. As we
+concocted the whole plot together here, Sir Stafford, it is needless
+that I should weary you by a repetition of it. It is enough that I say
+I omitted nothing of plausibility, either in proof of the bequest, or in
+the description of the feeling that prompted its fulfilment. I descanted
+upon the happy event which, in the course of what seemed an accident,
+had brought the two families together, and prefaced their business
+intercourse by a friendship. I adverted to the good influence increased
+comforts would exercise upon her father's health. I spoke of her sister
+and her brother in the fuller enjoyment of all that became their name
+and birth. She heard me to the very end with deep attention, never once
+interrupting, nor even by a look or gesture expressing dissent.
+
+“At last, when I had concluded, she said, 'This, then, is a bequest?'
+
+“I replied affirmatively.
+
+“'In that case,' said she, 'the terms on which it is conveyed will solve
+all the difficulty of our position. If my uncle Godfrey intended this
+legacy to be a peace-offering, however late it has been in coming,
+we should have no hesitation in accepting it; if he meant that his
+generosity should be trammelled by conditions, or subject in any way
+to the good pleasure of a third party, the matter will have a different
+aspect. Which is the truth?'
+
+“I hesitated at this point-blank appeal, so different from what I looked
+for, and she at once asked to see the will. Disconcerted still more, I
+now prevaricated, stating that I had not brought the document with
+me; that a memorandum of its provisions would, I had supposed, prove
+sufficient; and finally assured her that acceptance of the bequest
+involved neither a condition nor a pledge.
+
+“'It may, however, involve an obligation, sir,' said she, firmly. 'Let
+us learn if such be the case.'
+
+“'Are you so proud, Miss Dalton,' said I, 'that you cannot even submit
+to an obligation?'
+
+“She blushed deeply, and with a weak voice answered,
+
+“'We are too poor to incur a debt.'
+
+“Seeing it was useless to dwell longer on this part of the subject, I
+adverted to her father's increasing age, his breaking health, and the
+necessity of affording him a greater share of comforts; but she suddenly
+stopped me, saying, “'You may make my refusal of this favor for such
+it is, and nothing less a more painful duty than I deemed it, but you
+cannot alter my resolution, sir. Poverty, so long as it is honorable,
+has nothing mean nor undeserving about it, but dependence can never
+bestow happiness. It is true, as you say, that my dear father might
+have around him many of those little luxuries that he once was used to;
+but with what changed hearts would not his children minister them
+to him? Where would be that high prompting sense of duty that every
+self-sacrifice is met by now? Where that rich reward of an approving
+spirit that lightens toil and makes even weariness blessed? Our humble
+fortunes have linked us closer together; the storms of the world have
+made us draw nearer to each other, have given us one heart, hope,
+and love alike. Leave us, then, to struggle on, nor cast the gloom of
+dependence over days that all the ills of poverty could not darken. We
+are happy now; who can tell what we should become hereafter?'
+
+“I tried to turn her thoughts upon her brother, but she quickly stopped
+me, saying,
+
+“'Frank is a soldier; the rewards in his career are never withheld from
+the deserving; at all events, wealth would be unsuitable to him. He
+never knew but narrow fortunes, and the spirit that becomes a more
+exalted condition is not the growth of a day.'
+
+“I next ventured, but with every caution and delicacy, to inquire
+whether your aid and influence might not avail them in any future plans
+of life they might form?
+
+“'We have no plans,” said she, simply; 'or, rather, we have had so many
+that they all resolve themselves into mere castle-building. My
+dear father longs for Ireland again, for home as he still calls it,
+forgetting that we have no longer a home there. He fancies warm-hearted
+friends and neighbors, an affectionate people, attached to the very
+traditions of his name; but it is now wiser to feed this delusion than
+destroy it, by telling him that few, scarcely one, of his old companions
+still live, that other influences, other fortunes, other names, have
+replaced ours; we should go back there as strangers, and without even
+the stranger's claim to kind acceptance. Then, we had thought of the new
+world beyond seas; but these are the lauds of the young, the ardent, and
+the enterprising, high in hope and resolute of heart; and so, at last,
+we deemed it wisest to seek out some quiet spot, in some quiet country,
+where our poverty would, at least, present nothing remarkable, and
+there to live for each other; and we are happy, so happy that, save the
+passing dread that this delicious calm of life may not be lasting, we
+have few sorrows.'
+
+“Again and again I tried to persuade her to recall her decision, but
+in vain. Once only did she show any sign of hesitation. It was when I
+charged her with pride as the reason of refusal. Then suddenly her
+eyes filled up, and her lip trembled, and such a change came over her
+features that I grew shocked at my own words.
+
+“'Pride!' cried she. 'If you mean that inordinate self-esteem that
+prefers isolation to sympathy, that rejects an obligation from
+mere haughtiness, I know not the feeling. Our pride is not in our
+self-sufficiency, for every step in life teaches us how much we owe to
+others; but in this, that low in lot, and humble in means, we have kept,
+and hope still to keep, the motives and principles that guided us in
+happier fortunes. Yes, you may call us proud, for we are so, proud that
+our poverty has not made us mean; proud that in a strange land we have
+inspired sentiments of kindness, and even of affection; proud that,
+without any of the gifts or graces which attract, we have drawn towards
+us this instance of noble generosity of which you are now the messenger.
+I am not ashamed to own pride in all these.'
+
+“To press her further was useless; and only asking, that if by any
+future change of circumstances she might be induced to alter her
+resolve, she would still consider the proposition as open to her
+acceptance, I took my leave.”
+
+“This is most provoking,” exclaimed Onslow.
+
+“Provoking!” cried Grounsell; “you call it provoking! That where you
+sought to confer a benefit you discover a spirit greater than all the
+favors wealth ever gave, or ever will give! A noble nature, that soars
+above every accident of fortune, provoking!”
+
+“I spoke with reference to myself,” replied Onslow, tartly; “and I
+repeat, it is most provoking that I am unable to make a recompense where
+I have unquestionably inflicted a wrong!”
+
+“Rather thank God that in this age of money-seeking and gold-hunting
+there lives one whose heart is uncorrupted and incorruptible,” cried
+Grouusell.
+
+“If I had not seen it I could not have believed it!” said Prichard.
+
+“Of course not, sir,” chimed in Grounsell, bluntly. “Yours is not the
+trade where such instances are frequently met with; nor have I met with
+many myself!”
+
+“I beg to observe,” said Prichard, mildly, “that even in my career I
+have encountered many acts of high generosity.”
+
+“Generosity! Yes, I know what that means. A sister who surrenders her
+legacy to a spendthrift brother; a childless widow that denies herself
+the humblest means of comfort to help the ruined brother of her lost
+husband; a wife who places in a reckless husband's hand the last
+little remnant of fortune that was hoarded against the day of utter
+destitution; and they are always women who do these things, saving,
+scraping, careful creatures, full of self-denial and small
+economies. Not like your generous men, as the world calls them, whose
+free-heartedness is nothing but selfishness, whose liberality is the
+bait to catch flattery. But it is not of generosity I speak here. To
+give, even to one's last farthing, is far easier than to refuse help
+when you are needy. To draw the rags of poverty closer, to make their
+folds drape decently, and hide the penury within, that is the victory,
+indeed.”
+
+“Mark you,” cried Onslow, laughing, “it is an old bachelor says all
+this.”
+
+Grounsell's face became scarlet, and as suddenly pale as death; and
+although he made an effort to speak, not a sound issued from his lips.
+For an instant the pause which ensued was unbroken, when a tap was
+heard at the door. It was a message from Lady Hester, requesting, if Sir
+Stafford were disengaged, to be permitted to speak with him.
+
+“You're not going, Grounsell?” cried Sir Stafford, as he saw the doctor
+seize his hat; but he hastened out of the room without speaking, while
+the lawyer, gathering up his papers, prepared to follow him.
+
+“We shall see you at dinner, Prichard?” said Sir Stafford. “I have some
+hope of joining the party myself to-day.”
+
+Mr. Prichard bowed his acknowledgments and departed.
+
+And now the old baronet sat down to ponder in his mind the reasons for
+so strange an event as a visit in the forenoon from Lady Hester. “What
+can it mean? She can't want money,” thought he; “'t is but the other
+day I sent her a large check. Is she desirous of going back to England
+again? Are there any new disagreements at work?” This last thought
+reminded him of those of whom he had been so lately hearing, of those
+whose narrow fortunes had drawn them nearer to each other, rendering
+them more tolerant and more attached, while in his own family, where
+affluence prevailed, he saw nothing but dissension.
+
+As he sat pondering over this not too pleasant problem, a tall and
+serious-looking footman entered the room, rolling before him an
+armchair. Another and not less dignified functionary followed, with
+cushions and a foot-warmer, signs which Sir Stafford at once read as
+indicative of a long interview; for her Ladyship's preparations were
+always adopted with a degree of forethought and care that she very
+rarely exhibited in matters of real consequence.
+
+Sir Stafford was contemplating these august demonstrations, when the
+solemn voice of an upper servant announced Lady Hester; and, after a
+second's pause, she swept into the room in all that gauzy amplitude of
+costume that gives to the wearer a seeming necessity of inhabiting the
+most spacious apartments of a palace.
+
+“How d'ye do?” said she, languidly, as she sank down into her chair. “I
+had not the least notion how far this room was off; if Clements has not
+been taking me a tour of the whole house.”
+
+Mr. Clements, who was still busily engaged in disposing and arranging
+the cushions, blandly assured her Ladyship that they had come by the
+most direct way.
+
+“I'm sorry for it,” said she, peevishly, “for I shall have the more
+fatigue in going back again. There, you 're only making it worse. You
+never can learn that I don't want to be propped up like an invalid. That
+will do; you may leave the room. Sir Stafford, would you be good enough
+to draw that blind a little lower? the sun is directly in my eyes. Dear
+me, how yellow you are! or is it the light in this horrid room? Am I so
+dreadfully bilious-looking?”
+
+“On the contrary,” said he, smiling, “I should pronounce you in the most
+perfect enjoyment of health.”
+
+“Oh, of course, I have no doubt of that. I only wonder you didn't call
+it 'rude health.' I cannot conceive anything more thoroughly provoking
+than the habit of estimating one's sufferings by the very efforts made
+to suppress them.”
+
+“Sufferings, my dear? I really was not aware that you had sufferings.”
+
+“I am quite sure of that; nor is it my habit to afflict others with
+complaint. I 'm sure your friend, Mr. Grounsell, would be equally unable
+to acknowledge their existence. How I do hate that man! and I know,
+Stafford, he hates us. Oh, you smile, as if to say, 'Only some of us;
+'but I tell you he detests us all, and his old school-fellow, as he
+vulgarly persists in calling you, as much as the others.”
+
+“I sincerely hope you are mistaken.”
+
+“Polite, certainly; you trust that his dislike is limited to myself.
+Not that, for my own part, I have the least objection to any amount of
+detestation with which he may honor me; it is the tribute the low and
+obscure invariably render the well-born, and I am quite ready to accept
+it; but I own it is a little hard that I must submit to the infliction
+beneath my own roof.”
+
+“My dear Hester, how often have I assured you that you were mistaken;
+and that what you regard as disrespect to yourself is the roughness of
+an unpolished but sterling nature. The ties which have grown up between
+him and me since we were boys together ought not to be snapped for the
+sake of a mere misunderstanding; and if you cannot or will not estimate
+him for the good qualities he unquestionably possesses, at least bear
+with him for my sake.”
+
+“So I should, so I strive to do; but the evil does not end there; he
+inspires everybody with the same habits of disrespect and indifference.
+Did you remark Clements, a few moments since, when I spoke to him about
+that cushion?”
+
+“No, I can't say that I did.”
+
+“Why should you? nobody ever does trouble his head about anything that
+relates to my happiness! Well, I remarked it, and saw the supercilious
+smile he assumed when I told him that the pillow was wrong. He looked
+over at you, too, as though to say, 'You see how impossible it is to
+please her'.”
+
+“I certainly saw nothing of that.”
+
+“Even Prichard, that formerly was the most diffident of men, is now
+so much at his ease, so very much at home in my presence, it is quite
+amusing. It was but yesterday he asked me to take wine with him at
+dinner. The anachronism was bad enough, but only fancy the liberty!”
+
+“And what did you do?” asked Sir Stafford, with difficulty repressing a
+smile.
+
+“I affected not to hear, hoping he would not expose himself before the
+servants by a repetition of the request. But he went on, 'Will your
+Ladyship' I assure you he said that 'will your Ladyship do me the honor
+to drink wine with me?' I merely stared at him, but never took any
+notice of his speech. Would you believe it? he returned to the charge
+again, and with his hand on his wine-glass, began, 'I have taken
+the liberty' I could n't hear more; so I turned to George, and said,
+'George, will you tell that man not to do that?'”
+
+Sir Stafford could not restrain himself any longer, but broke out into
+a burst of hearty laughter. “Poor Prichard,” said he, at last, “I almost
+think I see him before me!”
+
+“You never think of saying, 'Poor Hester, these are not the associates
+you have been accustomed to live with!' But I could be indifferent
+to all these if my own family treated me with proper deference. As
+for Sydney and George, however, they have actually coventried me; and
+although I anticipated many sacrifices when I married, this I certainly
+never speculated upon. Lady Wallingcroft, indeed, warned me to a certain
+extent of what I should meet with; but I fondly hoped that disparity
+of years and certain differences, the fruits of early prejudices and
+habits, would be the only drawbacks on my happiness; but I have lived to
+see my error!”
+
+“The event has, indeed, not fulfilled what was expected from it,” said
+Sir Stafford, with a slow and deliberate emphasis on each word.
+
+“Oh, I comprehend you perfectly,” said she, coloring slightly, and for
+the first time displaying any trait of animation in her features. “You
+have been as much disappointed as I have. Just what my aunt Wallingcroft
+prophesied. 'Remember,' said she, and I 'm sure I have had good cause
+to remember it, 'their ideas are not our ideas; they have not the same
+hopes, ambitions, or objects that we have; their very morality is not
+our morality!'”
+
+“Of what people or nation was her Ladyship speaking?” asked Sir
+Stafford, mildly.
+
+“Of the City, generally,” replied Lady Hester, proudly.
+
+“Not in ignorance, either,” rejoined Sir Stafford; “her own father was a
+merchant in Lombard Street.”
+
+“But the family are of the best blood in Lancashire, Sir Stafford.”
+
+“It may be so; but I remember Walter Crofts himself boasting that he
+had danced to warm his feet on the very steps of the door in Grosvenor
+Square which afterwards acknowledged him as the master; and as he owed
+his wealth and station to honest industry and successful enterprise,
+none heard the speech without thinking the better of him.”
+
+“The anecdote is new to me,” said Lady Hester, superciliously; “and
+I have little doubt that the worthy man was merely embellishing an
+incident to suit the tastes of his company.”
+
+“It was the company around his table, as Lord Mayor of London!”
+
+“I could have sworn it,” said she, laughing; “but what has all this to
+do with what I wished to speak about if I could but remember what it
+was! These eternal digressions have made me forget everything.”
+
+Although the appeal was palpably directed to Sir Stafford, he sat silent
+and motionless, patiently awaiting the moment when recollection might
+enable her to resume.
+
+“Dear me! how tiresome it is! I cannot think of what I came about, and
+you will not assist me in the least.”
+
+“Up to this moment you have given me no clew to it,” said Sir Stafford,
+with a smile. “It was not to speak of Grounsell?”
+
+“Of course not. I hate even to think of him!”
+
+“Of Prichard, perhaps?” he said, with a half-sly twinkle of the eye.
+
+“Just as little!”
+
+“Possibly your friend Colonel Haggerstone was in your thoughts?”
+
+“Pray do not call him my friend. I know very little of the gentleman; I
+intend even to know less. I declined to receive him this morning, when
+he sent up his card.”
+
+“An attention I fear he has not shown that poor creature he wounded,
+Grounsell tells me.”
+
+“Oh, I have it!” said she, suddenly; the allusion to Hans at once
+recalling the Daltons, and bringing to mind the circumstances she
+desired to remember. “It was exactly of these poor people I came to
+speak. You must know, Sir Stafford, that I have made the acquaintance
+of a most interesting family here, a father and two daughters named
+Dalton.”
+
+“Grounsell has already told me so,” interrupted Sir Stafford.
+
+“Of course, then, every step I have taken in this intimacy has been
+represented in the most odious light. The amiable doctor will have,
+doubtless, imputed to me the least worthy motives for knowing persons in
+their station?”
+
+“On the contrary, Hester. If he expressed any qualification to the
+circumstance, it was in the form of a fear lest the charms of your
+society and the graces of your manner might indispose them to return
+with patience to the dull round of their daily privations.”
+
+“Indeed!” said she, superciliously. “A weak dose of his own acquaintance
+would be, then, the best antidote he could advise them! But, really,
+I must not speak of this man; any allusion to him is certain to jar
+my nerves, and irritate my feelings for the whole day after. I want to
+interest you about these Daltons.”
+
+“Nothing more easy, my dear, since I already know something about them.”
+
+“The doctor being your informant,” said she, snappishly.
+
+“No, no, Hester; many, many years ago, certain relations existed between
+us, and I grieve to say that Mr. Dalton has reason to regard me in no
+favorable light; and it was but the very moment I received your message
+I was learning from Prichard the failure of an effort I had made to
+repair a wrong. I will not weary you with a long and a sad story, but
+briefly mention that Mr. Dalton's late wife was a distant relative of my
+own.”
+
+“Yes, yes; I see it all. There was a little love in the business, an old
+flame revived in after life; nothing serious, of course but jealousies
+and misconstructions to any extent. Dear me, and that was the reason
+she died of a broken heart!” It was hard to say if Sir Stafford was
+more amused at the absurdity of this imputation, or stung by the cool
+indifference with which she uttered it; nor was it easy to know how the
+struggle, within him would terminate, when she went on: “It does appear
+so silly to see a pair of elderly gentlemen raking up a difference out
+of an amourette of the past century. You are very fortunate to have so
+quiet a spot to exhibit in!”
+
+“I am sorry to destroy an illusion so very full of amusement, Lady
+Hester; but I owe it to all parties to say that your pleasant fancy has
+not even the shadow of a color. I never even saw Mrs. Dalton; never have
+yet met her husband. The event to which I was about to allude, when you
+interrupted me, related to a bequest--”
+
+“Oh, I know the whole business, now! It was at your suit that dreadful
+mortgage was foreclosed, and these dear people were driven away from
+their ancient seat of Mount Dalton. I 'm sure I 've heard the story at
+least ten times over, but never suspected that your name was mixed up
+with it. I do assure you, Sir Stafford, that they have never dropped the
+most distant hint of you in connection with that sad episode.”
+
+“They have been but just, Lady Hester,” said he, gravely. “I never did
+hold a mortgage over this property; still less exercised the severe
+right you speak of. But it is quite needless to pursue a narrative that
+taxes your patience so severely; enough to say, that through Prichard's
+mediation I have endeavored to persuade Mr. Dalton that I was
+the trustee, under a will, of a small annuity on his life. He has
+peremptorily refused to accept it, although, as I am informed, living in
+circumstances of great poverty.”
+
+“Poor they must be, certainly. The house is wretchedly furnished, and
+the girls wear such clothes as I never saw before; not that they are
+even the worn and faded finery of better days, but actually the coarse
+stuffs such as the peasants wear!”
+
+“So I have heard.”
+
+“Not even an edging of cheap lace round their collars; not a bow of
+ribbon; not an ornament of the humblest kind about them.”
+
+“And both handsome, I am told?”
+
+“The younger, beautiful! the deepest blue eyes in the world, with long
+fringed lashes, and the most perfect mouth you can imagine. The elder
+very pretty, too, but sad-looking, for she has a fearful lameness, poor
+thing! They say it came from a fall off a horse, but I suspect it must
+have begun in infancy; one of those dreadful things they call 'spine.'
+Like all persons in her condition, she is monstrously clever; carves the
+most beautiful little groups in boxwood, and models in clay and plaster.
+She is a dear, mild, gentle thing; but I suspect with all that infirmity
+of temper that comes of long illness at least, she is seldom in high
+spirits like her sister. Kate, the younger girl, is my favorite; a fine,
+generous, warm-hearted creature, full of life and animation, and so fond
+of me already.”
+
+If Sir Stafford did not smile at the undue emphasis laid upon the last
+few words, it was not that he had not read their full significance.
+
+“And Mr. Dalton himself, what is he like?”
+
+“Like nothing I ever met before; the oddest mixture of right sentiments
+and wrong inferences; of benevolence, cruelty, roughness, gentleness;
+the most refined consideration, and the most utter disregard for other
+people and their feelings, that ever existed. You never can guess what
+will be his sentiments at any moment, or on any subject, except on the
+question of family, when his pride almost savors of insanity. I believe,
+in his own country, he would be nothing strange nor singular; but out of
+it, he is a figure unsuited to any landscape.”
+
+“It is hard to say how much of this peculiarity may have come of adverse
+fortune,” said Sir Stafford, thoughtfully.
+
+“I 'm certain he was always the same; at least, it would be impossible
+to imagine him anything different. But I have not come to speak of him,
+but of his daughter Kate, in whom I am deeply interested. You must know,
+Sir Stafford, that I have formed a little plan, for which I want your
+aid and concurrence. It is to take this dear girl along with us to
+Italy.”
+
+“Take her to Italy! In what position, Lady Hester? You surely never
+intended any menial station?”
+
+“Of course not; a kind of humble friend what they call a 'companion' in
+the newspapers to have always with one. She is exactly the creature
+to dissipate low spirits and banish ennui, and, with the advantages of
+training and teaching, will become a most attractive girl. As it is, she
+has not been quite neglected. Her French accent is very pure; German, I
+conclude, she talks fluently, she plays prettily, at least, as well as
+one can judge on that vile tinkling old harpsichord, whose legs dance
+every time it is touched, and sings very pleasingly those little German
+ballads that are now getting into fashion. In fact, it is the tone
+of society that mannerism of the world she is deficient in more than
+anything else.”
+
+“She certainly could not study in a better school than yours, Lady
+Hester; but I see some very great objections to the whole scheme, and
+without alluding to such as relate to ourselves, but simply those that
+regard the young lady herself. Would it be a kindness to withdraw her
+from the sphere wherein she is happy and contented, to mingle for a
+season or so in another and very different rank, contracting new habits
+of thought, new ideas, new associations, learning each day to look down
+upon that humble lot to which she must eventually return?”
+
+“She need not return to it. She is certain to marry, and marry well. A
+girl with so many attractions as she will possess may aspire to a very
+high match indeed!”
+
+“This is too hazardous a game of life to please my fancy,” said Sir
+Stafford, dubiously. “We ought to look every contingency in the face in
+such a matter as this.”
+
+“I have given the subject the very deepest consideration,” replied Lady
+Hester, authoritatively. “I have turned the question over and over in
+my mind, and have not seen a single difficulty for which there is not an
+easy remedy.”
+
+“Sydney certainly ought to be consulted.”
+
+“I have done so already. She is charmed with the project. She sees,
+perhaps, how few companionable qualities she herself possesses, and
+anticipates that Miss Dalton will supply that place towards me that she
+is too indolent and too indifferent to fill.”
+
+“How would the family receive such a proposition? They seem to be very
+proud. Is it likely that they would listen to a project of this nature?”
+
+“There lies the only difficulty; nor need it be an insuperable one, if
+we manage cleverly. The affair will require delicate treatment, because
+if we merely invite her to accompany us, they will naturally enough
+decline an invitation, to comply with which would involve a costly
+outlay in dress and ornament, quite impossible in their circumstances.
+This must be a matter of diplomacy, of which the first step is, however,
+already taken.”
+
+“The first step! How do you mean?”
+
+“Simply, that I have already, but in the deepest confidence, hinted the
+possibility of the project to Kate Dalton, and she is wild with delight
+at the bare thought of it. The dear child! with what rapture she heard
+me speak of the balls, and fetes, and theatres of the great world!
+of the thousand fascinations society has in store for all who have a
+rightful claim to its homage, the tribute rendered to beauty, greater
+than that conceded to rank or genius itself! I told her of all these,
+and I showed her my diamonds!”
+
+Sir Stafford made, involuntarily, a slight gesture with his hand, as
+though to say, “This last was the coup de grace.”
+
+“So far, then, as Kate is concerned, she will be a willing ally; nor do
+I anticipate any opposition from her quiet, submissive sister, who seems
+to dote upon her. The papa, indeed, is like to prove refractory; but
+this must be our business to overcome.”
+
+Lady Hester, who at the opening of the interview had spoken with all the
+listlessness of ennui, had gradually worked herself up to a species
+of ardor that made her words flow rapidly, a sign well known to Sir
+Stafford that her mind was bent upon an object that would not admit
+of gainsay. Some experience had taught him the impolicy of absolute
+resistance, and trained him to a tactic of waiting and watching for
+eventualities, which, whether the campaign be civil, military, or
+conjugal, is not without a certain degree of merit. In the present case
+there were several escape-valves. The Daltons were three in number,
+and should be unanimous. All the difficulties of the plan should be
+arranged, not alone to their perfect satisfaction, but without a wound
+to their delicacy. Grounsell was certain to be a determined opponent to
+the measure, and would, of course, be consulted upon it. And, lastly,
+if everything worked well and favorably, Lady Hester herself was by
+no means certain to wish for it the day after she had conquered all
+opposition.
+
+These, and many similar reasons, showed Sir Stafford that he might
+safely concede a concurrence that need never become practical, and
+making a merit of his necessity, he affected to yield to arguments that
+had no value in his eyes.
+
+“How do you propose to open the campaign, Hester?” asked he, after a
+pause.
+
+“I have arranged it all,” said she, with animation. “We must visit the
+Daltons together, or better still you shall go alone. No, no; a letter
+will be the right thing, a very carefully written letter, that shall
+refute by anticipation every possible objection to the plan, and show
+the Daltons the enormous advantages they must derive from it.”
+
+“As, for instance?” said Sir Stafford, with apparent anxiety to be
+instructed.
+
+“Enormous they certainly will be!” exclaimed she. “First of all, Kate,
+as I have said, is certain to marry well, and will be thus in a position
+to benefit the others, who, poor things, can do nothing for themselves.”
+
+“Very true, my dear, very true. You see all these things far more
+rapidly and more clearly than I do.”
+
+“I have thought so long and so much about it, I suppose there are few
+contingencies of the case have escaped me; and now that I learn how you
+once knew and were attached to the poor girl's mother--”
+
+“I am sorry to rob you of so harmless an illusion,” interrupted he,
+smiling; “but I have already said I never saw her.”
+
+“Oh, you did say so! I forget all about it. Well, there was something or
+other that brought the families in relation, no matter what, and it must
+be a great satisfaction to you to see the breach restored, and through
+my intervention, too; for I must needs say, Sir Stafford, there are
+many women who would entertain a silly jealousy respecting one who once
+occupied the first place in their husband's esteem.”
+
+“Must I once more assure you that this whole assumption is groundless;
+that I never--”
+
+“Quite enough; more than I ask for, more than I have any right to ask
+for,” broke she in. “If you did not interrupt me, and pardon me if I
+say that this habit of yours is calculated to produce innumerable
+misconceptions, I say that, if I had not been interrupted, I would have
+told you that I regard such jealousies as most mean and unworthy. We
+cannot be the arbiters of our affections any more than of our
+fortunes; and if in early life we may have formed attachments imprudent
+attachments.” Here her Ladyship, who had unwittingly glided from the
+consideration of Sir Stafford's case to that of her own, became confused
+and flurried, her cheek flushing and her chest heaving. She looked
+overwhelmed with embarrassment, and it was only after a long struggle to
+regain the lost clew to her discourse she could falteringly say, “Don't
+you agree with me? I 'm sure you agree with me.”
+
+“I 'm certain I should if I only understood you aright,” said he,
+good-naturedly, and by his voice and look at once reassuring her.
+
+“Well, so far, all is settled,” said she, rising from her chair. “And
+now for this letter; I conclude the sooner it be done the better. When
+may we hope to get away from this dreary place?”
+
+“Grounsell tells me, by Friday or Saturday next I shall be able for the
+journey.”
+
+“If it had not been to provoke me, I 'm certain he would have pronounced
+you quite well ten days ago.”
+
+“You forget, Hester, my own sensations not to say sufferings could
+scarcely deceive me.”
+
+“On the contrary, Dr. Clarus assured me there is nothing in the world so
+very deceptive; that pain is only referred to the diseased part by the
+brain, and has no existence whatever, and that there is no such thing as
+pain at all. He explained it perfectly, and I understood it all at the
+time. He is so clever, Dr. Clarus, and gives people such insight into
+the nature of their malady, that it really becomes quite interesting to
+be ill under his care. I remember when William, the footman, broke his
+arm, Clarus used to see him every day; and to show that no union, as it
+is called, could take place so long as motion continued, he would gently
+grate the fractured ends of the bone together.”
+
+“And was William convinced of the no-pain doctrine?” cried Sir Stafford,
+his cheek flashing with momentary anger.
+
+“The ignorant creature actually screamed out every time he was touched;
+but Clarus said it would take at least two centuries to conquer the
+prejudices of the common people.”
+
+“Not improbable, either!” said Sir Stafford.
+
+“Dear me, how very late it is,” cried she, suddenly; “and we dine at
+six!” And with a graceful motion of the hand, she said, “By-by!” and
+left the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI. THE “SAAL” OF THE “RUSSIE.”
+
+HAS the observant reader ever remarked a couple of persons parading the
+deck of a ship at sea, walking step for step through half a day, turning
+with the same short jerk, to resume the same short path, and yet
+never interchanging a word, the rhythm of the footfall the only tie of
+companionship between them? They halt occasionally, too, to look over
+the bulwarks at some white sail far away, or some cloud-bank rising from
+the horizon; mayhap they linger to watch the rolling porpoises as they
+pass, or the swift nautilus as he glides along; but yet never a sound
+nor token of mutual intelligence escapes them. It is enough that they
+live surrounded by the same influences, breathe the same air, and step
+in the same time; they have their separate thoughts, wide, perhaps, as
+the poles asunder, and yet by some strange magnetism they feel there is
+a kind of sociality in their speechless intercourse.
+
+From some such cause, perhaps, it was that Colonel Haggerstone and Jekyl
+took their accustomed walk in the dreary dining-room of the “Hotel de
+Russie.” The evening was cold and cheerless, as on that when first we
+met them there, a drifting rain, mingled with sleet, beat against the
+windows, and the wind, in mournful cadences, sighed along the dreary and
+deserted corridors. It was a comfortless scene within doors and without.
+A chance glance through the window, an occasional halt to listen when
+the thunder rolled louder and nearer, showed that, to a certain extent,
+the same emotions were common to each; but nothing else betrayed any
+community of sentiment between them, as they paced the room from end to
+end.
+
+“English people come abroad for climate!” said Haggerstone, as he
+buttoned his collar tightly around his neck, and pressed his hat more
+firmly on his head. “But who ever saw the like of this in England?”
+
+“In England you have weather, but no climate!” said Jekyl, with one
+of his little smiles of self-approval; for he caressed himself when he
+uttered a mot, and seemed to feel no slight access of self-satisfaction.
+
+“It's not the worst thing we have there, sir, I promise you,” rejoined
+Haggerstone, authoritatively.
+
+“Our coughs and rheumatics are, indeed, sore drawbacks upon patriotism.”
+
+“I do not speak of them, sir; I allude to our insolent, overbearing
+aristocracy, who, sprung from the people as they are, recruited from the
+ranks of trade or law, look down upon the really ancient blood of the
+land, the untitled nobility. Who are they, sir, that treat us thus? The
+fortunate speculator, who has amassed a million; the Attorney-General,
+who has risen to a Chief-Justiceship; men without ancestry, without
+landed influence; a lucky banker, perhaps, like our friend upstairs,
+may stand in the 'Gazette' to-morrow or next day as Baron or Viscount,
+without one single requirement of the station, save his money.”
+
+“I confess, if I have a weakness, it is for lords,” said Jekyl,
+simperingly. “I suppose I must have caught it very early in life, for it
+clings to me like an instinct.”
+
+“I feel happy to avow that I have none, sir. Six centuries of gentry
+blood suffice for all my ambitions; but I boil over when I see the
+overweening presumption of these new people.”
+
+“After all, new people, like a new watch, a new coat, and a new
+carriage, have the best chance of lasting. Old and worn out are very
+nearly convertible terms.”
+
+“These are sentiments, sir, which would, doubtless, do you excellent
+service with the family upstairs, but are quite thrown away upon such a
+mere country gentleman as myself.”
+
+Jekyl smiled, and drew up his cravat, with his habitual simpering air,
+but said nothing.
+
+“Do you purpose remaining much longer here?” asked Haggerstone,
+abruptly.
+
+“A few days, at most.”
+
+“Do you turn north or south?”
+
+“I fancy I shall winter in Italy.”
+
+“The Onslows, I believe, are bound for Rome?”
+
+“Can't say,” was the short reply.
+
+“Just the sort of people for Italy. The fashionables of what the Chinese
+call 'second chop' go down admirably at Rome or Naples.”
+
+“Very pleasant places they are, too,” said Jekyl, with a smile. “The
+climate permits everything, even dubious intimacies.”
+
+Haggerstone gave a short “Ha!” at the heresy of this speech, but made no
+other comment on it.
+
+“They say that Miss Onslow will have about a hundred thousand pounds?”
+ said Haggerstone, with an air of inquiry.
+
+“What a deal of maccaroni and parmesan that sum would buy!”
+
+“Would you have her marry an Italian, sir?”
+
+“Perhaps not, if she were to consult me on the matter,” said Jekyl,
+blandly; “but as this is, to say the least, not very probable, I may own
+that I like the mixed marriages well enough.”
+
+“They make miserable menages, sir,” broke in Haggerstone.
+
+“But excessively agreeable houses to visit at.”
+
+“The Onslows are scarcely the people to succeed in that way,” rejoined
+Haggerstone, whose thoughts seemed to revolve round this family without
+any power to wander from the theme. “Mere money, nothing but money to
+guide them.”
+
+“Not a bad pilot, either, as times go.”
+
+Haggerstone uttered another short, “Ha!” as though to enter a protest
+against the sentiment without the trouble of a refutation. He had
+utterly failed in all his efforts to draw Jekyl into a discussion of
+the banker's family, or even obtain from that excessively cautious young
+gentleman the slightest approach to an opinion about them; and yet it
+was exactly in search of this opinion that he had come down to take his
+walk that evening. It was in the hope that Jekyl might afford him some
+clew to these people's thoughts, or habits, or their intentions for the
+coming winter, that he had promenaded for the last hour and a half.
+“If he know anything of them,” thought Haggerstone, “he will be but too
+proud to show it, and display the intimacy to its fullest extent!”
+
+It was, then, to his utter discomfiture, he learned that Jekyl had
+scarcely spoken to Lady Hester, and never even seen Sir Stafford or Miss
+Onslow. It was, then, pure invention of the waiter to say that they were
+acquainted. “Jekyl has done nothing,” muttered he to himself, “and I
+suppose I need not throw away a dinner upon him to tell it.”
+
+Such were his reasonings; ana long did he balance in his own mind
+whether it were worth while to risk a bottle of Burgundy in such a
+cause; for often does it happen that the fluid thrown down the pump is
+utterly wasted, and that it is vain to moisten the sucker, if the well
+beneath be exhausted.
+
+To be, or not to be? was then the eventful point he deliberated with
+himself. Haggerstone never threw away a dinner in his life. He was not
+one of those vulgarly minded folk who ask you, in a parenthesis, to come
+in to “manger la soupe,” as they say, without more preparation than the
+spreading of your napkin. No; he knew all the importance of a
+dinner, and, be it acknowledged, how to give it also, and could have
+distinguished perfectly between the fare to set before an “habitual
+diner out,” and that suitable to some newly arrived Englishman abroad:
+he could have measured his guest to a truffle! It was his boast that he
+never gave a pheasant when a poulet would have sufficed, nor wasted his
+“Chablis” on the man who would have been contented with “Barsac.”
+
+The difficulty was not, then, how to have treated Jekyl, but whether to
+treat him at all. Indeed, the little dinner itself had been all planned
+and arranged that morning; and the “trout” from the “Murg,” and the
+grouse from Eberstein, had been “pricked off,” in the bill of fare, for
+“No. 24,” as he was unceremoniously designated, with a special order
+about the dish of whole truffles with butter, in the fair intention of
+inviting Mr. Albert Jekyl to partake of them.
+
+If a lady reveals some latent desire of conquest in the coquetry of her
+costume and the more than ordinary care of her appearance, so your
+male friend may be suspected of a design upon your confidence or your
+liberality by the studious propriety of his petit diner. Never fall into
+the vulgar error that such things are mere accident. As well ascribe
+to chance the rotations of the seasons, or the motions of the heavenly
+bodies. Your printaniere in January, your epigramme d'agneau with
+asparagus at Christmas, show a solicitude to please to the full as
+ardent, and not a whit less sincere, than the soft glances that have
+just set your heart a-beating from the recesses of yonder opera-box.
+
+“Will you eat your cutlet with me to-day, Mr. Jekyl?” said Haggerstone,
+after a pause, in which he had weighed long and well all the pros and
+cons of the invitation.
+
+“Thanks, but I dine with the Onslows!” lisped out Jekyl, with a languid
+indifference, that however did not prevent his remarking the almost
+incredulous amazement in the colonel's face; “and I perceive,” added he,
+“that it 's time to dress.”
+
+Haggerstone looked after him as he left the room; and then ringing the
+bell violently, gave orders to his servant to “pack up,” for he would
+leave Baden next morning.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII. A FAMILY DISCUSSION.
+
+SOMETHING more than a week after the scenes we have just related had
+occurred, the Daltons were seated round the fire, beside which, in the
+place of honor, in an old armchair, propped by many a cushion, reclined
+Hans Roeckle. A small lamp of three burners such as the peasants use
+stood upon the table, of which only one was lighted, and threw its
+fitful gleam over the board, covered by the materials of a most humble
+meal. Even this was untasted; and it was easy to mark in the downcast
+and depressed countenances of the group that some deep care was weighing
+upon them.
+
+Dalton himself, with folded arms, sat straight opposite the fire, his
+heavy brows closely knit, and his eyes staring fixedly at the blaze,
+as if expecting some revelation of the future from it; an open letter,
+which seemed to have dropped from his hand, was lying at his feet.
+Nelly, with bent-down head, was occupied in arranging the little
+tools and implements she was accustomed to use in carving; but in the
+tremulous motion of her fingers, and the short, quick heaving of her
+chest, might be read the signs of a struggle that cost heavily to
+subdue.
+
+Half-concealed beneath the projection of the fireplace sat Kate Dalton
+she was sewing. Although to all seeming intent upon her work, more than
+once did her fingers drop the needle to wipe the gushing tears from her
+eyes, while at intervals a short sob would burst forth, and break the
+stillness around.
+
+As for Hans, he seemed lost in a dreamy revery, from which he rallied
+at times to smile pleasantly at a little wooden figure the same which
+occasioned his disaster placed beside him.
+
+There was an air of sadness over everything; and even the old spaniel,
+Joan, as she retreated from the heat of the fire, crept with stealthy
+step beneath the table, as if respecting the mournful stillness of the
+scene. How different the picture from what that humble chamber had so
+often presented! What a contrast to those happy evenings, when, as the
+girls worked, Hans would read aloud some of those strange mysteries of
+Jean Paul, or the wild and fanciful imaginings of Chamisso, while
+old Dalton would lay down his pipe and break in upon his memories
+of Ireland, to ask at what they were laughing, and Frank look up
+distractedly from his old chronicles of German war to join in the mirth!
+How, at such moments, Hans would listen to the interpretation, and
+with what greedy ears follow the versions the girls would give of some
+favorite passage, as if dreading lest its force should be weakened
+or its beauty marred by transmission! And then those outbreaks of
+admiration that would simultaneously gush forth at some sentiment of
+high and glorious meaning, some godlike gleam of bright intelligence,
+which, though clothed in the language of a foreign land, spoke home to
+their hearts with the force that truth alone can speak!
+
+Yes, they were, indeed, happy evenings! when around their humble hearth
+came thronging the groups of many a poet's fancy, bright pictures of
+many a glorious scene, emotions of heart that seemed to beat in
+unison with their own. They felt no longer the poverty of their humble
+condition, they had no memory for the little straits and trials of the
+bygone day, as they trod with Tieck the alley beneath the lindens
+of some rural village, or sat with Auerbach beneath the porch of the
+Vorsteher's dwelling. The dull realities of life faded before the vivid
+conceptions of fiction, and they imbibed lessons of patient submission
+and trustfulness from those brothers and sisters who are poets'
+children.
+
+And yet what no darkness of adversity could rob them of the first gleam
+of what, to worldly minds at least, would seem better fortune, had
+already despoiled them. Like the traveller in the fable, who had grasped
+his cloak the faster through the storm, but who threw it away when the
+hot, rays scorched him, they could brave the hurricane, but not face the
+sunshine.
+
+The little wooden clock behind the door struck nine, and Dalton started
+up suddenly.
+
+“What did it strike, girls?” asked he, quickly.
+
+“Nine, papa,” replied Kate, in a low voice.
+
+“At what hour was he to come for the answer?”
+
+“At ten,” said she, still lower.
+
+“Well, you 'd better write it at once,” said he, with a peevishness very
+different from his ordinary manner. “They've remained here already four
+days isn't it four days she says? to give us time to make up our minds;
+we cannot detain them any longer.”
+
+“Lady Hester has shown every consideration for our difficulty,” said
+Kate. “We cannot be too grateful for her kindness.”
+
+“Tell her so,” said he, bitterly. “I suppose women know when to believe
+each other.”
+
+“And what reply am I to make, sir?” said she, calmly, as having put
+aside her work, she took her place at the writing-table.
+
+“Faith, I don't care,” said he, doggedly. “Nor is it much matter
+what opinion I give. I am nobody now; I have no right to decide upon
+anything.”
+
+“The right and duty are both yours, papa.”
+
+“Duty! So I'm to be taught my duty as well as the rest!” said he,
+passionately. “Don't you think there are some others might remember that
+they have duties also?”
+
+“Would that I could fulfil mine as my heart dictates them!” said Ellen;
+and her lip trembled as she spoke the words.
+
+“Faith! I scarce know what 's my duty, with all the drilling and
+dictating I get,” muttered he, sulkily. “But this I know, there 's no
+will left me I dare not budge this side or that without leave.”
+
+“Dearest papa, be just to yourself, if not to me.”
+
+“Isn't it truth I'm saying?” continued he, his anger rising with every
+word he spoke. “One day, I'm forbid to ask my friends home with me
+to dinner. Another, I 'm told I ought n't to go dine with them. I 'm
+tutored and lectured at every hand's turn. Never a thought crosses me,
+but it 's sure to be wrong. You din into my ears, how happy it is to be
+poor when one 's contented.”
+
+“The lesson was yours, dear papa,” said Nelly, smiling. “Don't disavow
+your own teaching.”
+
+“Well, the more fool me. I know better now. But what's the use of it?
+When the prospect of a little ease and comfort was offered to me, you
+persuaded me to refuse it. Ay, that you did! You began with the old
+story about our happy hearth and contentment; and where is it now?”
+
+A sob, so low as to be scarcely heard, broke from Nelly, and she pressed
+her hand to her heart with a convulsive force.
+
+“Can you deny it? You made me reject the only piece of kindness ever was
+shown me in a life long. There was the opportunity of spending the rest
+of my days in peace, and you wouldn't let me take it. And the fool I was
+to listen to you!”
+
+“Oh, papa, how you wrong her!” cried Kate, as, in a torrent of tears,
+she bent over his chair. “Dearest Nelly has no thought but for us. Her
+whole heart is our own.”
+
+“If you could but see it!” cried Nelly, with a thick utterance.
+
+“'T is a droll way of showing affection, then,” said Dal ton, “to keep
+me a beggar, and you no better than a servant-maid. It's little matter
+about me, I know. I'm old, and worn out, a reduced Irish gentleman, with
+nothing but his good blood remaining to him. But you, Kate, that are
+young and handsome, ay, faith! a deal sight better-looking than my Lady
+herself, it's a little hard that you are to be denied what might be your
+whole fortune in life.”
+
+“You surely would not stake all her happiness on the venture, papa?”
+ said Nelly, mildly.
+
+“Happiness!” said he, scornfully; “what do you call happiness? Is it
+dragging out life in poverty like this, with the proudest friend in our
+list an old toy-maker?”
+
+“Poor Hanserl!” murmured Nelly, in a low voice; but soft as were the
+accents, the dwarf heard them, and nodded his head twice, as though to
+thank her for a recognition of whose import he knew nothing.
+
+“Just so! You have pity enough for strangers, but none for your own
+people,” said Dalton, as he arose and paced the room, the very act of
+motion serving to increase his anger. “He was never used to better; he's
+just what he always was. But think of me! think of the expectations I
+was reared to, the place I used to hold, and see me now!”
+
+“Dearest, best papa, do not say those bitter words,” cried Kate,
+passionately. “Our own dear Nelly loves us truly. What has her life been
+but self-denial?”
+
+“And have I not had my share of self-denial?” said he, abruptly. “Is
+there left a single one of the comforts I was always accustomed to? 'T
+is sick I am of hearing about submission, and patience, and resignation,
+and the like, and that we never were so happy as now. Faith! I tell you,
+I 'd rather have one day at Mount Dalton, as it used to be long ago,
+than I 'd have twenty years of the life I spend here.”
+
+“No, papa, no,” said Nelly, winding her arm around his waist, “you'd
+rather sit at the window yonder, and listen to a song from Kate, one of
+your own favorites, or take a stroll with us after sunset of a summer's
+evening, and talk of Frank, than go back to all the gayety of that wild
+life you speak of.”
+
+“Who says so?” asked he, roughly.
+
+“You yourself. Nay, don't deny it,” said she, smiling.
+
+“If I did I was wrong, then,” rejoined he, pushing her rudely away. “It
+was because I believed my children were affectionate and fond, and
+that whatever I set my heart on they 'd be sure to wish just as much as
+myself.”
+
+“And when has that time ceased to be?” said she, calmly.
+
+“What! when has it ceased to be?” said he, sharply. “Is it you that asks
+that question, you that made me refuse the legacy?”
+
+“Nay, papa, be just,” interrupted she, mildly. “The merit of that
+refusal was all your own. I did but explain to you the circumstances
+under which this gift it was no less was offered, and your own right
+feeling dictated the reply.”
+
+Dalton was silent, a struggling sense of pride in his imputed dignity of
+behavior warring with the desire of fault-finding.
+
+“Maybe I did!” said he, at last, self-esteem gaining the mastery. “Maybe
+I saw my own reasons for what I was going to do. A Daltou is not the man
+to mistake what 's due to his name and family; but this is a different
+case. Here 's an invitation, as elegant a piece of politeness as I
+have seen, from one our own equal in every respect; she calls herself a
+connection too, we won't say much about that, for we never reckoned the
+English relations anything, asking my daughter to join them in their
+visit to Italy. When are we to see the like of that again? Is it every
+day that some rich family will make us the same offer? It's not to cost
+us a sixpence; read the letter, and you 'll see how nicely it 's hinted
+that her Ladyship takes everything upon herself. Well, if any one
+objected it might be myself; 'tis on me will fall the heaviest part
+of the blow. It was only the other day Frank left me; now I 'm to lose
+Kate, not but I know very well Nelly will do her best.”
+
+Slight as was the praise, she kissed his hand passionately for it; and
+it was some seconds ere he could proceed.
+
+“Yes, I 'm sure you 'll do all you can; but what is it after all? Won't
+I miss the songs she sings for me; won't I miss her laughing voice and
+her sprightly step?”
+
+“And why should you encounter such privations, papa?” broke Nelly in.
+“These are, as you justly say, the greatest sources of your happiness.
+Why separate from them? Why rob this humble chamber of its fairest
+ornament? Why darken our hearth by an absence for which nothing can
+requite us?”
+
+“I 'll tell you why, then,” said he, and a sparkling gleam of cunning
+lit up his eye, as the casuistry crossed his mind. “Just because I
+can deny myself anything for my children's sake. 'T is for them I am
+thinking always. Give old Peter Dalton his due, and nobody can call him
+selfish, not the worst enemy he had! Let me feel that my children are
+benefited, and you may leave me to trudge along the weary path before
+me.”
+
+“Then there only remains to see if this promise of benefit be real,”
+ said Nelly.
+
+“And why wouldn't it? Doesn't everybody know that travelling and seeing
+foreign parts is equal to any education? How many things haven't I seen
+myself since I came abroad, that I never dreamed about before I left
+home! Look at the way they dress the peas with sugar in them. See how
+they shoe a horse with a leg tied up to a post, as if they were going
+to cut it off. Mind the droll fashion they have of fastening a piece of
+timber to the hind wheel of a coach, by way of a drag! There 's no end
+to their contrivances.”
+
+“Let us forget every consideration but one,” said Nelly, earnestly.
+“What are the dangers that may beset Kate, in a career of such
+difficulty, when, without an adviser, miles away from us all, she may
+need counsel or comfort. Think of her in sickness or in sorrow, or,
+worse than both, under temptation. Picture to yourself how dearly bought
+would be every charm of that refinement you covet for her, at the price
+of a heart weakened in its attachment to home, bereft of the simple
+faith that there was no disgrace in poverty. Think, above all,” cried
+she and for the first time her lips trembled, and her eyes swam “think,
+above all, we cannot give her up forever; and yet how is she to come
+back again to these humble fortunes, and the daily toil that she will
+then regard with shame and disgust? I ask not how differently shall we
+appear in her eyes, for I know that, however changed in her habits,
+how wide soever be the range of thought knowledge may have imparted,
+her fond, true heart will still be all our own; but can you risk her
+fortunes on an ocean like this; can you peril all her future for so
+little?”
+
+“To hear you talk, Nelty, one might think she was going to Jerusalem or
+Australia; sure, after all, it's only a few days away from us she 'll
+be; and as for the dangers, devil a one of them I see. Peter Dalton's
+daughter is not likely to be ill-treated anywhere. I 'e were always a
+'good warrant' for taking care of our own; and, to make short of it,
+I wish it, and Kate herself wishes it, and I don't see why our hopes
+should not be as strong as your fears.'
+
+“You remember, too, papa, that Dr. Grounsell agreed with me, and spoke
+even more strongly than I did against the scheme?”
+
+“And did n't I pay him off for his interference? Did n't I give him a
+bit of my mind about it, and tell him that, because a man was employed
+as a doctor in a family, he ought not to presume to advise them on their
+own affairs? Faith, I don't think he'll trouble another patient with his
+counsel.”
+
+“We must not forget, sir, that if his counsel came unasked, his skill
+was unrequited; both came from a nature that wished us well.”
+
+“The advice and the physic were about the same value both made me sick;
+and so you 're like to do if you worry me any longer. I tell you now, my
+mind 's made up, and go she shall!”
+
+“Oh, papa, not if dear Nelly thinks--”
+
+“What's that to me don't I know more of the world than she does? Am I
+come to this time of life to be taught by a slip of a girl that never
+was ten miles out of her home? Sit down here now, and write the answer.”
+
+There was a stern determination in the way these last words were uttered
+that told Nelly how fruitless would be all further opposition. She had
+long since remarked, besides, how her father's temper reacted upon his
+health, and how invariably any prolonged excitement terminated in
+an attack of gout. Increasing age gave to these accesses of malady
+a character of danger, which she already began to remark with deep
+anxiety. Now she saw that immediate compliance with his wishes was the
+only alternative left.
+
+She seated herself at the table, and prepared to write. For some seconds
+the disturbance of her thoughts, the mingled crowd of sensations that
+filled her mind, prevented all power of calm consideration; but the
+struggle was soon over, and she wrote on rapidly.
+
+So silent was the chamber, so hushed was all within it, that the
+scratching noise of the pen alone broke the stillness. Speedily glided
+her hand across the paper, on which two heavy tears had already fallen,
+burning drops of sorrow that gushed from a fevered brain! A whole world
+of disaster, a terrible catalogue of ill, revealed itself before her;
+but she wrote on. She felt that she was to put in motion the series of
+events whose onward course she never could control, as though she was
+to push over a precipice the rock that in its downward rush would carry
+ruin and desolation along with it; but she wrote on.
+
+At last she ceased, and all was still; not a sound was heard in the
+little room, and Nelly leaned her head down upon the table and wept.
+
+But while she wept she prayed, prayed that if the season of trouble
+her thoughts foreshadowed should be inevitable, and that if the cup of
+sorrow must, indeed, be drained, the strength might be sent them for
+the effort. It might have been that her mind exaggerated the perils of
+separation, and the dangers that would beset one of Kate's temper and
+disposition. Her own bereavement might have impressed her with the
+misery that follows an unhappy attachment; and her reflective nature,
+shadowed by an early sorrow, might have colored too darkly a future of
+such uncertainty. But a deep foreboding, like a heavy weight, lay upon
+her heart, and she was powerless to resist it.
+
+These instincts of our nature are not to be undervalued, nor confounded
+with the weak and groundless terrors of the frivolous. The closing
+petals of the flower as the storm draws nigh, the wild cry of the
+sea-bird as the squall is gathering, the nestling of the sheep within
+the fold while yet the hurricane has not broke, are signs that, to the
+observant instincts, peril comes not unannounced.
+
+“Shall I read it, papa?” said she, as she raised her head, and turned
+towards him a look of calm and beaming affection.
+
+“You need n't,” said he, roughly. “Of course, it 's full of all the
+elegant phrases women like to cheat each other with. You said she will
+go; that's enough.”
+
+Nelly tried to speak, but the words would not come, and she merely
+nodded an acquiescence.
+
+“And, of course, too, you told her Ladyship that if it wasn't to a near
+relation of the family one that had a kind of right, as I may say, to
+ask her that I 'd never have given my consent. Neither would I!”
+
+“I said that you could give no higher proof of your confidence in Lady
+Hester's goodness and worth, than in committing to her charge all that
+we hold so dear. I spoke of our gratitude” her voice faltered here, and
+she hesitated a second or so; our gratitude! strange word to express the
+feeling with which we part from what we cling to so fondly! “and I asked
+of her to be the mother of her who had none!”
+
+“Oh, Nelly, I cannot go I cannot leave you!” burst out Kate, as she
+knelt down, and buried her head in her sister's lap. “I feel already how
+weak and how unable I am to live among strangers, away from you and dear
+papa. I have need of you both!”
+
+“May I never leave this spot if you're not enough to drive me mad!”
+ exclaimed Dalton. “You cried two nights and a day because there was
+opposition to your going. You fretted till your eyes were red, and your
+cheeks all furrowed with tears; and now that you get leave to go
+now that I consent to to to sacrifice ay, to sacrifice my domestic
+enjoyments to your benefit you turn short round and say you won't go!”
+
+“Nay, nay, papa,” said Nelly, mildly; “Kate but owns with what fears
+she would consent to leave us, and in this shows a more fitting mind to
+brave what may come, than if she went forth with a heart brimful of its
+bright anticipations, and only occupied with a future of splendor and
+enjoyment.”
+
+“I ask you again, is it into the backwoods of Newfoundland is it into
+the deserts of Arabia she is going?” said Dalton, ironically.
+
+“The country before her has perils to the full as great, if not greater
+than either,” rejoined Nelly, lowly.
+
+“There's a ring at the bell,” said Dalton, perhaps not sorry to cut
+short a discussion in which his own doubts and fears were often at
+variance with his words; for while opposing Nelly with all his might,
+he was frequently forced to coincide secretly with that he so stoutly
+resisted. Vanity alone rose above every other motive, and even hardened
+his heart against separation and absence from his favorite child, vanity
+to think that his daughter would be the admired beauty in the salons of
+the great and highly born; that she would be daily moving in a rank the
+most exalted; that his dear Kate would be the attraction of courts,
+the centre of adulation wherever she went. So blinded was he by false
+reasoning, that he actually fancied himself a martyr to his daughter's
+future advancement, and that this inveterate egotism was a high and holy
+self-denial! “My worst enemy never called me selfish,” was the balm that
+he ever laid on his chafed spirit, and always with success. It would,
+however, have been rather the part of friend, than of enemy, to have
+whispered that selfishness was the very bane and poison of his nature.
+It was his impulse in all the wasteful extravagance of his early life;
+it was his motive in all the struggles of his adversity. To sustain
+a mock rank, to affect a mock position, to uphold a mock standard of
+gentility, he was willing to submit to a thousand privations of his
+children and himself; and to gratify a foolish notion of family pride,
+he was ready to endure anything, even to separation from all he held
+dearest.
+
+“Lady Hester's courier has come for the answer to her note, papa,” said
+Nelly, twice over, before Dalton heard her, for he was deep sunk in his
+own musings.
+
+“Let him come in and have a glass of wine,” said Dalton. “I 'd like to
+ask him a few questions about these people.”
+
+“Oh, papa!” whispered Nelly, in a tone at once so reproachful, that the
+old man colored and looked away.
+
+“I meant about what time they were to start on the journey,” said he,
+confusedly.
+
+“Lady Hester told us they should leave this to-morrow, sir.”
+
+“Short notice for us. How is Kate to have all her clothes packed,
+and everything arranged? I don't think that is treating us with much
+respect, Nelly.”
+
+“They have waited four days for our decision, papa remember that.”
+
+“Ay, to be sure. I was forgetting that; and she came every day to press
+the matter more and more; and there was no end to the note-writing
+besides. I must say that nothing could beat their politeness. It was a
+mighty nice attention, the old man coming himself to call here; and a
+fine, hale, good-looking man he is! a better figure than ever his son
+will be. I don't much like Mr. George, as they call him.”
+
+“Somewhat colder, and more reserved, I think, than the other,” said
+Nelly. “But about this answer, papa?”
+
+“What a hurry they're in. Is it a return to a writ, that they must
+press for it this way? Well, well, I ought to be used to all manner of
+interruptions and disturbances by this time. Fetch me a caudle, till I
+seal it;” and he sighed, as he drew forth his old-fashioned watch, to
+which, by a massive steel chain, the great family seal was attached',
+firmly persuaded that in the simple act he was about to perform he was
+achieving a mighty labor, at the cost of much fatigue.
+
+“No rest for the wicked! as my old father used to say,” muttered he, in
+a happy ignorance whether the philosophy emanated from his parent, or
+from some higher authority. “One would think that at my time of life
+a man might look for a little peace and ease; but Peter Dalton has n't
+such luck! Give me the letter,” said he, querulously. “There is
+Peter Dalton's hand and seal, his act and will,” muttered he, with a
+half-solemnity, as he pressed the wax with his heavy signet. “'Semper
+eadem;' there 's the ancient motto of our house, and, faith, I believe
+Counsellor O'Shea was right when he translated it 'The devil a better!'”
+
+He read the address two or three times over to himself, as if there was
+something pleasurable in the very look of the words, and then he turned
+his glance towards Hans, as in a dreamy half-consciousness he sat still,
+contemplating the little statue of Marguerite.
+
+“Is n't it droll to think we 'd be writing to the first in the land, and
+an old toy-maker sitting beside the fire all the time,” said Dalton,
+as he shook his head thoughtfully, in the firm conviction that he had
+uttered a very wise and profound remark. “Well well well! Life is a
+queer thing!”
+
+“Is it not stranger still that we should have won the friendship of poor
+Hanserl than have attracted the notice of Lady Hester?” said Nelly. “Is
+it not a prouder thought that we have drawn towards us from affectionate
+interest the kindness that has no touch of condescension?”
+
+“I hope you are not comparing the two,” said Dalton, angrily. “What's
+the creature muttering to himself?”
+
+“It 'B Gretchen's song he 's trying to remember,” said Kate.
+
+     “Nach ihm nur schau' ich
+     Zum Feuster hinaus!”
+
+said Hans, in a low, distinct voice. “'Was kommt nach,' what comes next,
+Fraulein?”
+
+“You must ask sister Nelly, Hanserl,” said Kate; but Nelly was standing
+behind the massive stove, her face covered with her hands.
+
+“Zum Fenster hinaus,” repeated he, slowly; “and then, Fraulein? and
+then?”
+
+“Tell him, Nelly; tell him what follows.”
+
+     “Nach ihm nur schau' ich
+     Zum Fenster hinaus;
+     Nach ihm nur geh' ich
+
+     Aus dem Haus!”
+
+repeated she.
+
+“Ja, ja!” cried Hans, delightedly,
+
+     “Nach ihm nur geh' ich
+     Aus dem Haus!”
+
+“What does that mean?” said Dalton, with impatience. “It's Gretchen's
+song, papa,” said Nelly.
+
+“His figure I gaze on,
+
+     O'er and o'er;
+     His step I follow
+     From the door.”
+
+“I hope it isn't in love the creature is,” said Dalton; and he laughed
+heartily at the conceit, turning at the same time his look from the
+dwarf, to bestow a most complacent glance at the remains of his own once
+handsome stature. “Oh dear! oh dear!” sighed he; “isn't it wonderful,
+but there isn't a creth or a cripple that walks the earth that hasn't a
+sweetheart!”
+
+A cough, purposely loud enough to announce his presence, here came from
+the courier in the antechamber, and Dalton remembered that the letter
+had not yet been despatched.
+
+“Give it to him, Nelly,” said he, curtly.
+
+She took the letter in her hand, but stood for a second or two, as if
+powerless to move.
+
+“Must it be so, dearest papa?” said she, and the words almost choked her
+utterance.
+
+Dalton snatched the letter from her fingers, and left the room. His
+voice was heard for an instant in conversation with the courier, and the
+moment after the door banged heavily, and all was still.
+
+“It is done, Kate!” said she, throwing her arms around her sister's
+neck. “Let us now speak of the future; we have much to say, and short
+time to say it; and first let us help poor Hans downstairs.”
+
+The dwarf, clutching up the wooden image, suffered himself to be aided
+with all the submissiveness of a patient child, and, with one at
+either side of him, slowly crept down the stairs to his own chamber.
+Disengaging himself by a gentle effort as he gained his door, Hans
+removed his cap from his head and made a low and deep obeisance to each
+of the girls separately, while he bade them a good-night.
+
+“Leb wohl, Hanserl, Leb wohl!” said Kate, taking his hand
+affectionately. “Be ever the true friend that thou hast proved hitherto,
+and let me think of thee, when far away, with gratitude.”
+
+“Why this? How so, Fraulein?” said Hans, anxiously; “why farewell? Why
+sayest thou 'Leb wohl,' when it is but 'good-night'?”
+
+“Kate is about to leave us for a short space,” said Nelly, affecting to
+appear at ease and calm. “She is going to Italy, Hanserl.”
+
+“Das schone Land! that lovely land!” muttered he, over and over. “Dahin,
+dahin,” cried he, pointing with his finger to the southward, “where the
+gold orange blooms. There would I wander too.”
+
+“You'll not forget me, Hanserl?” said the young girl, kindly.
+
+“Over the great Alps and away!” said Hans, still talking to himself;
+“over the high snow-peaks which cast their shadows on our cold land, but
+have terraces for the vine and olive-garden, yonder! Thou 'It leave us,
+then, Fraulein?”
+
+“But for a little while, Hans, to come back afterwards and tell thee all
+I have seen.”
+
+“They come not back from the sunshine to the shade,” said Hans,
+solemnly. “Thou 'It leave not the palace for the peasant's hut; but
+think of us, Fraulein; think sometimes, when the soft sirocco is playing
+through thy glossy hair; when sounds of music steal over thy senses
+among the orange groves, and near the shadows of old temples, think of
+this simple Fatherland and its green valleys. Think of them with whom
+thou wert so happy, too! Splendor thou mayst have it is thy beauty's
+right; but be not proud, Fraulein. Remember what Chamisso tells us, 'Das
+Noth lehrt beten,' 'Want teaches Prayer,' and to that must thou come,
+however high thy fortune.”
+
+“Kate will be our own wherever she be,” said Nelly, clasping her sister
+affectionately to her side.
+
+“Bethink thee well, Fraulein, in thy wanderings, that the great and the
+beautiful are brethren of the good and the simple. The cataract and the
+dewdrop are kindred. Think of all that teaches thee to think of home;
+and remember well, that when thou losest the love of this humble hearth
+thou art in peril. If to any of thy childish toys thou sayest 'Ich Hebe
+dich nicht mehr,' then art thou changed indeed.” Hans sat down upon his
+little bed as he spoke, and covered his face with his hands.
+
+Nelly watched him silently for a few seconds, and then with a gentle
+hand closed the door and led Kate away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII. CARES AND CROSSES
+
+THE lamp in Kate Dalton's chamber was still burning when the morning
+dawned, and by its uncertain flicker might be seen the two sisters, who,
+clasped in each other's arms, sat upon the low settle-bed. Nelly, pale
+and motionless, supported Kate, as, overcome by watching and emotion,
+she had fallen into a heavy slumber. Not venturing to stir, lest she
+should awaken her, Nelly had leaned against the wall for support, and,
+in her unmoved features and deathly pallor, seemed like some monumental
+figure of sorrow.
+
+It was not alone the grief of an approaching separation that oppressed
+her. Sad as it was to part from one to whom she had been mother and
+sister too, her affliction was tinged with a deeper coloring in her
+fears for the future. Loving Kate dearer than anything in the world, she
+was alive to all the weak traits of her character: her credulity,
+her trustfulness, her fondness for approbation, even from those whose
+judgments she held lightly, her passion for admiration even in trifles,
+were well known to her; and while, perhaps, these very failings, like
+traits of childish temperament, had actually endeared her the more
+to Nelly, she could not but dread their effect when they came to be
+exercised in the world of strangers.
+
+Not that Nelly could form the very vaguest conception of what that world
+was like. Its measures and its perils, its engagements and hazards,
+were all unknown to her. It had never been even the dream-land of
+her imagination. Too humble in spirit, too lowly by nature, to feel
+companionship with the great and titled, she had associated all
+her thoughts with those whose life is labor; with them were all her
+sympathies. There was a simple beauty in the unchanging fortune of the
+peasant's life such as she had seen in the Schwarzwald, for instance
+that captivated her. That peaceful domesticity was the very nearest
+approach to happiness, to her thinking, and she longed for the day when
+her father might consent to the obscurity and solitude of some nameless
+“Dorf” in the dark recesses of that old forest. With Frank and Kate,
+such a lot would have been a paradise. But one was already gone, and she
+was now to lose the other too. “Strange turn of fortune,” as she said,
+“that prosperity should be more cruel than adversity. In our days of
+friendless want and necessity we held together; it is only when the
+promise of brighter destinies is dawning that we separate. It is but
+selfishness after all,” thought she, “to wish for an existence like
+this; such humble and lowly fortunes might naturally enough become 'lame
+Nelly,' but Frank, the high-hearted, daring youth, with ambitious hopes
+and soaring aspirations, demands another and a different sphere of
+action; and Kate, whose attractions would grace a court, might well
+sorrow over a lot of such ignoble obscurity. What would not my sorrow
+and self-reproach be if I saw that, in submitting to the same monotony
+of this quietude, they should have become wearied and careless, neither
+taking pleasure in the simple pastimes of the people, nor stooping to
+their companionship! And thus all may be for the best,” said she, half
+aloud, “if I could but feel courage to think so. We may each of us be
+but following his true road in life.”
+
+A long intimacy with affliction will very frequently be found to impress
+even a religiously-disposed mind with a strong tinge of fatalism. The
+apparent hopelessness of all effort to avert calamity, or stem the tide
+of evil fortune, often suggests, as its last consolation, the notion of
+a predetermined destiny, to which we are bound to submit with patient
+trustfulness; a temperament of great humility aids this conviction.
+Both of these conditions were Nelly's; she had “supped sorrow” from her
+cradle, while her estimate of herself was the very lowest possible. “I
+suppose it is so,” said she again; “all is for the best.”
+
+She already pictured to herself the new spring this change of fortune
+would impart to her father's life: with what delight he would read the
+letters from his children; how he would once more, through them, taste
+of that world whose pleasures he was so fondly attached to. “I never
+could have yielded him a gratification like this,” said Nelly, as the
+tears rose in her eyes. “I am but the image of our fallen fortunes, and
+in me, 'poor lame Nelly,' he can but see reflected our ruined lot. All
+is for the best it must be so!” sighed she, heavily; and just as the
+words escaped, her father, with noiseless step, entered the chamber.
+
+“To be sure it is, Nelly darling,” said he, as he sat down near her,
+“and glad I am that you 've come to reason at last. 'T is plain enough
+this is n't the way the Daltons ought to be passing their life, in a
+little hole of a place, without society or acquaintance of any kind. You
+and I may bear it, not but it's mighty hard upon me sometimes, too, but
+Kate there just look at her and say, is it a girl like that should be
+wasting away her youth in a dreary village? Lady Hester tells me and
+sure nobody should know better that there never was the time in the
+world when real beauty had the same chance as now, and I 'd like to see
+the girl that could stand beside her. Do you know, Nelly,” here he drew
+closer, so as to speak in a whisper, “do you know, that I do be fancying
+the strangest things might happen to us yet, that Frank might be a great
+general, and Kate married to God knows what sort of a grandee, with
+money enough to redeem Mount Dalton, and lay my old bones in the
+churchyard with my ancestors? I can't get it out of my head but it will
+come about, somehow. What do you think yourself?”
+
+“I'm but an indifferent castle-builder, papa,” said she, laughing
+softly. “I rarely attempt anything beyond a peasant hut or a shealing.”
+
+“And nobody could make the one or the other more neat and comfortable,
+that I 'll say for you, Nelly. It would have a look of home about it
+before you were a day under the roof.”
+
+The young girl blushed deeply; for, humble as the praise might have
+sounded to other ears, to hers it was the most touching she could have
+listened to.
+
+“I 'm not flattering you a bit. 'T is your own mother you take after;
+you might put her down in the bleakest spot of Ireland, and 't is a
+garden she 'd make it. Let her stop for shelter in a cabin, and before
+the shower was over you 'd not know the place. It would be all swept
+and clean, and the dishes ranged neatly on the dresser; and the pig she
+could n't abide a pig turned out, and the hens driven into the cowshed,
+and the children's faces washed, and their hair combed, and, maybe, the
+little gossoon of five years old upon her knee, saying his 'Hail, Mary,'
+or his 'A B C,' while she was teaching his mother how to wind the
+thread off the wheel; for she could spin a hank of yarn as well as any
+cottier's wife in the townland. The kind creature she was! But she never
+had a taste for real diversion; it always made her low-spirited and
+sad.”
+
+“Perhaps the pleasures you speak of were too dearly purchased, papa,”
+ said Nelly.
+
+“Indeed, maybe they were,” said he, dubiously, and as though the thought
+had now occurred for the first time; “and, now that you say it, I begin
+to believe it was that same that might have fretted her. The way she was
+brought up made her think so, too. That brother was always talking about
+wastefulness, and extravagance, and so on; and, if it was in her nature,
+he 'd have made her as stingy as himself; and look what it comes to
+after all. We spent it when we had it, the Daltons are a good warrant
+for that; and there was he grubbing and grabbing all his days, to leave
+it after him to a rich man, that does n't know whether he has so many
+thousands more or not.”
+
+Nelly made no reply, not wishing to encourage, by the slightest apparent
+interest, the continuance on the theme which invariably suggested her
+father's gloomiest reveries.
+
+“Is that her trunk, Nelly?” said Dalton, breaking silence after a
+long interval, and pointing to an old and journey-worn valise that lay
+half-open upon the floor.
+
+“Yes, papa,” said Nelly, with a sigh.
+
+“Why, it's a mean-looking, scrubby bit of a thing; sure it 's not the
+size of a good tea-chest,” said he, angrily.
+
+“And yet too roomy for all its contents, papa. Poor Kate's wardrobe is a
+very humble one.”
+
+“I 'd like to know where 's the shops here; where 's the milliners and
+the haberdashers? Are we in College Green or Grafton Street, that we
+can just send out and have everything at our hand's turn? 'T is n't on
+myself I spend the money. Look at these gaiters; they 're nine years old
+next March; and the coat on my back was made by Peter Stevens, that 's
+in his grave now. The greatest enemy ever I had could not face me down
+that I only took care of myself. If that was my way would I be here now?
+See the rag I 'm wearing round my throat, a piece of old worsted like a
+rug a thing--”
+
+He stopped, and stammered, and then was silent altogether, for he
+suddenly remembered it was Nelly herself who had worked the article in
+question.
+
+“Nay, papa,” broke she in, with her own happy smile, “you may give it to
+Andy to-morrow, for I 've made you a smart new one, of your own favorite
+colors, too, the Dalton green and white.”
+
+“Many a time I 've seen the same colors coming in first on the Corralin
+course!” cried Dalton, with enthusiasm; for at the impulse of a new word
+his mind could turn from a topic of deep and painful interest to one in
+every way its opposite. “You were too young to remember it; but you were
+there, in the 'landau,' with your mother, when Baithershin won the Murra
+handicap, the finest day's flat racing I have it from them that seen the
+best in England that ever was run in the kingdom. I won eight hundred
+pounds on it, and, by the same token, lost it all in the evening at
+'blind hookey' with old Major Haggs, of the 5th Foot, not to say a
+trifle more besides. And that 's her trunk!” said he, after another
+pause, his voice dropping at the words, as though to say, “What a change
+of fortune is there! I wonder neither of you hadn't the sense to take
+my old travelling chest; that's twice the size, and as heavy as a lead
+coffin, besides. Sorrow one would ever know if she hadn't clothes for a
+whole lifetime! Two men wouldn't carry it upstairs when it's empty.”
+
+“When even this valise is too large, papa?”
+
+“Oh dear, oh dear!” broke in Dalton; “you've no contrivance, after all.
+Don't you see that it 's not what 's inside I 'm talking about, at all,
+but the show before the world? Did n't I live at Mount Dalton on the
+fat of the laud, and every comfort a gentleman could ask, five years and
+eight months after I was ruined? And had n't I credit wherever I went,
+and for whatever I ordered? And why? Because of the house and place! I
+was like the big trunk beyond; nobody knew how little there was in it.
+Oh, Nelly dear, when you 've seen as much of life as me, you 'll know
+that one must be up to many a thing for appearance' sake.”
+
+Nelly sighed, but made no reply. Perhaps in secret she thought how much
+trouble a little sincerity with the world would save us.
+
+“We 'll be mighty lonesome after her,” said he, after a pause.
+
+Nelly nodded her head in sadness.
+
+“I was looking over the map last night, and it ain't so far away, after
+all,” said Dalton. “'T is n't much more than the length of my finger on
+the paper.”
+
+“Many a weary mile may lie within that space,” said Nelly, softly.
+
+“And I suppose we'll hear from her every week, at least?” said Dalton,
+whose mind vacillated between joy and grief, but still looked for its
+greatest consolations from without.
+
+Poor Nelly was, however, little able to furnish these. Her mind saw
+nothing but sorrow for the present; and, for the future, difficulty, if
+not danger.
+
+“You give one no comfort at all,” said Dalton, rising impatiently.
+“That's the way it will be always now, when Kate goes. No more gayety in
+the house; not a song nor a merry laugh! I see well what a dreary life
+there is before me.”
+
+“Oh, dearest papa, I 'll do my very best, not to replace her, for that
+I never could do; but to make your days less wearisome. It will be
+such pleasure, too, to talk of her, and think of her! To know of her
+happiness, and to fancy all the fair stores of knowledge she will bring
+back with her when she comes home at last!”
+
+“If I could only live to see them back again, Frank and Kate, one at
+each side of me, that 's all I ask for in this world now,” muttered he,
+as he stole noiselessly away and closed the door behind him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX. PREPARATIONS FOR THE ROAD.
+
+IF the arrival of a great family at an hotel be a scene of unusual
+bustle and excitement, with teeming speculations as to the rank and the
+wealth of the new-comers, the departure has also its interests, and
+even of a higher nature. In the former case all is vague, shadowy, and
+uncertain. The eye of the spectator wanders from the muffled figures
+as they descend, to scrutinize the lackeys, and even the luggage, as
+indicative of the strangers' habits and condition; and even to the
+shrewd perceptions of that dread functionary, the head waiter, the
+identity of the traveller assumes no higher form nor any more tangible
+shape than that they are No. 42 or 57.
+
+When the hour of leave-taking has come, however, their characters have
+become known, their tastes and habits understood, and no mean insight
+obtained into their prejudices, their passions, and their pursuits. The
+imposing old gentleman, whose rubicund nose and white waistcoat are the
+guarantees for a taste in port, has already inspired the landlord with
+a sincere regard. “My Lady's” half-invalid caprices about diet, and air,
+and sunshine, have all written themselves legibly in “the bill.” The
+tall son's champagne score incurred of a night, and uncounted of a
+morning, are not unrecorded virtues; while even the pale young ladies,
+whose sketching propensities involved donkeys, and ponies, and picnics,
+go not unremembered.
+
+Their hours of rising and retiring, their habits of society or
+seclusion, their preferences for the “Post” or the “Times,” have all
+silently been ministering to the estimate formed of them; so that in the
+commonest items of the hotel ledger are the materials for their history.
+And with what true charity are their characters weighed! How readily
+does mine host forgive the transgressions which took their origin in
+his own Burgundy! how blandly smile at the follies begotten of his
+Johannisberg! With what angelic temper does the hostess pardon the
+little liberties “young gentlemen from college will take!” Oh, if our
+dear, dear friends would but read us with half the charity, or even
+bestow upon our peccadilloes a tithe of this forgiveness! And why should
+it not be so? What are these same friends and acquaintances but guests
+in the same great inn which we call “the world”? and who, as they never
+take upon them to settle our score, need surely not trouble themselves
+about the “items.”
+
+While the Daltons were still occupied in the manner our last chapter has
+described, the “Hotel de Russie” was a scene of considerable bustle, the
+preparations for departure engaging every department of the household
+within doors and without. There were carriage-springs to be lashed with
+new cordage, drag-chains new tipped with steel, axles to smear, hinges
+to oil, imperials to buckle on, cap-cases to be secured; and then what a
+deluge of small articles to be stowed away in most minute recesses,
+and yet be always at hand when called for! cushions and cordials,
+and chauffe-pieds and “Quarterlies,” smelling-boxes and slippers, and
+spectacles and cigar-cases, journals and “John Murrays,” to be disposed
+of in the most convenient places. Every corridor and landing was blocked
+up with baggage, and the courier wiped his forehead, and “sacre'd” in
+half desperation at the mountain of trunks and portmanteaus that lay
+before him.
+
+“This is not ours,” said he, as he came to a very smart valise of
+lacquered leather, with the initials A. J. in brass on the top.
+
+“No, that 's Mr. Jekyl's,” said Mr. George's man, Twig. “He ain't
+a-goin' with you; he travels in our britzska.”
+
+“I'm more like de conducteur of a diligenz than a family courier,”
+ muttered the other, sulkily. “I know noting of de baggage, since we take
+up strangers at every stage! and always some Teufeln poor devils that
+have not a sou en poche!”
+
+“What's the matter now, Mister Greg'ry?” said Twig, who very imperfectly
+understood the other's jargon.
+
+“The matter is, I will resign my 'fonction' je m'en vais dat 's all!
+This is noting besser than an 'Eil wagen' mil passengers! Fust of all
+we have de doctor, as dey call him, wid his stuff birds and beasts, his
+dried blumen and sticks, till de roof is like de Jardin des Plantes
+at Paris, and he himself like de bear in de middle. Den we have das
+verfluchte parroquet of milady, and Flounce, de lapdog, dat must drink
+every post-station, and run up all de hills for exercise. Dam! Ich bin
+kein Hund, and need n't run up de hills too! Mademoiselle Celestine have
+a what d' ye call 'Affe' a ape; and though he be little, a reg'lar
+teufelchen to hide de keys and de money, when he find 'em. And den
+dere is de yong lady collectin' all de stones off de road, lauter
+paving-stones, which she smash wid a leetle hammer! Ach Gott, what is de
+world grow when a Fraulein fall in love wid Felsen and Steine!”
+
+“Monsieur Gregoire! Monsieur Gregoire!” screamed out a sharp voice from
+a window overhead.
+
+“Mademoiselle,” replied he, politely touching his cap to the
+femme-de-chambre.
+
+“Be good enough, Monsieur Gregoire, to have my trunks taken down; there
+are two in the fourgon, and a cap-case on the large carriage.”
+
+“Hagel and Sturm! dey are under everything. How am I--”
+
+“I can't possibly say,” broke she in; “but it must be done.”
+
+“Can't you wait, Mademoiselle, till we reach Basle?”
+
+“I'm going away, Monsieur Gregoire. I'm off to Paris,” was the reply, as
+the speaker closed the sash and disappeared.
+
+“What does she say?” inquired Twig, who, as this dialogue was carried on
+in French, was in total ignorance of its meaning.
+
+“She has given her demission,” said the courier, pompously. “Resign her
+portefeuille, and she have made a very bad affair; dat's all. Your gros
+milor is very often bien bete; he is very often rude, savage, forget
+his manners, and all dat but” and here his voice swelled into the full
+soundness of a perfect connection “but he is alway rich. Ja ja, immer
+reich!” said he over to himself. “Allons! now to get at her verdammte
+baggage, de two trunks, and de leetle box, and de ape, and de sac, and
+de four or five baskets. Diable d'affaire! Monsieur Tig, do me de grace
+to mount on high dere, and give me dat box.”
+
+“I 've nothing to say to your carriage, Mister Greg'ry. I 'm the
+captain's gentleman, and never do take any but a single-handed
+situation;” and with this very haughty speech Mr. Twig lighted a fresh
+cigar and strolled away.
+
+“Alle bose Teufeln holen de good for nichts,” sputtered Gregoire, who
+now waddled into the house to seek for assistance.
+
+Whatever apathy and indifference he might have met with from the English
+servants, the people of the hotel were like his bond-slaves. Old and
+young, men and women, the waiter, and the ostler, and the chambermaid,
+and that strange species of grande utilite, which in German households
+goes by the name of “Haus-knecht,” a compound of boots, scullion,
+porter, pimp, and drudge, were all at his command. Nor was he an
+over-mild monarch; a running fire of abuse and indignity accompanied
+every order he gave, and he stimulated their alacrity by the most
+insulting allusions to their personal defects and deficiencies.
+
+Seated upon a capacious cap-case, with his courier's cap set jauntily on
+one side, his meerschaum like a sceptre in his hand, Gregoire gave out
+his edicts right royally, and soon the courtyard was strewn with trunks,
+boxes, and bags of every shape, size, and color. The scene, indeed, was
+not devoid of tumult; for, while each of the helpers screamed away at
+the top of his throat, and Gregoire rejoined in shouts that would have
+done credit to a bull, the parrot gave vent to the most terrific cries
+and yells as the ape poked him through the bars of his cage with the
+handle of a parasol.
+
+“There, that's one of them,” cried out Monsieur Gregoire; “that round
+box beside you; down with it here.”
+
+“Monsieur Gregoire! Monsieur Gre'goire!” cried Mademoiselle from the
+window once more.
+
+The courier looked up, and touched his cap.
+
+“I'm not going, Monsieur Gregoire; the affair is arranged.”
+
+“Ah! I am charmed to hear it, Mademoiselle,” said he, smiling in seeming
+ecstasy, while he muttered a malediction between his teeth.
+
+“Miladi has made submission, and I forgive everything. You must pardon
+all the trouble I 've given you.”
+
+“These happy tidings have made me forget it,” said he, with a smile
+that verged upon a grin. “Peste!” growled he, under his breath, “we 'd
+unpacked the whole fourgon.”
+
+“Ah, que vous etes aimable!” said she, sighing.
+
+“Belle tigresse!” exclaimed he, returning the leer she bestowed; and the
+window was once more closed upon her exit. “I submitted to the labor,
+in the hope we had done with you forever,” said he, wiping his forehead;
+“and la voila there you are back again. Throw that ape down; away wid
+him, cursed beast!” cried he, venting his spite upon the minion, since
+he dare not attack the mistress. “But what have we here?”
+
+This latter exclamation was caused by the sudden entrance into the
+courtyard of two porters carrying an enormous trunk, whose iron
+fastenings and massive padlock gave it the resemblance of an emigrant's
+sea-chest. A few paces behind walked Mr. Dalton, followed again by Old
+Andy, who, with a huge oil-silk umbrella under one arm, and a bundle
+of cloaks, shawls, and hoods on the other, made his way with no small
+difficulty.
+
+Gregoire surveyed the procession with cool amazement, and then, with a
+kind of mock civility, he touched his cap, and said, “You have mistak de
+road, saar; de diligenz-office is over de way.”
+
+“And who told you I wanted it?” said Dalton, sternly. “Maybe I'm just
+where I ought to be! Isn't this Sir Stafford Onslow's coach?”
+
+“Yes, saar; but you please to remember it is not de 'Eil wagen. '”
+
+“Just hold your prate, my little chap, and it will be pleasanter, and
+safer, ay, safer, too, d'ye mind? You see that trunk there; it 's to
+go up with the luggage and be kept dry, for there 's valuable effects
+inside.”
+
+“Datis not a trunk; it is a sentry-house, a watch-box. No gentleman's
+carriage ever support a ting of dat dimension!”
+
+“It 's a trunk, and belongs to me, and my name is Peter Dalton, as the
+letters there will show you; and so no more about it, but put it up at
+once.”
+
+“I have de orders about a young lady's luggage, but none about a great
+coffin with iron hoops,” said Gregoire, tartly.
+
+“Be quiet, now, and do as I tell you, my little chap. Put these trifles,
+too, somewhere inside, and this umbrella in a safe spot; and here 's a
+little basket, with a cold pie and a bottle of wine in it.”
+
+“Himmel und Erde! how you tink milady travel mit dass schweinerei?”
+
+“It 's not pork; 't is mutton, and a pigeon in the middle,” said Dalton,
+mistaking his meaning. “I brought a taste of cheese, too; but it 's a
+trifle high, and maybe it 's as well not to send it.”
+
+“Is the leetle old man to go too?” asked Gregoire, with an insolent
+grin, and not touching the profanation of either cheese or basket.
+
+“That 's my own servant, and he 's not going,” said Dalton; “and now
+that you know my orders, just stir yourself a little, my chap, for I 'm
+not going to spend my time here with you.”
+
+A very deliberate stare, without uttering a word, was all the reply
+Gregoire returned to this speech; and then, addressing himself to the
+helpers, he gave some orders in German about the other trunks. Dalton
+waited patiently for some minutes, but no marks of attention showed that
+the courier even remembered his presence; and at last he said,
+
+“I 'm waiting to see that trunk put up; d' ye hear me?”
+
+“I hear ver well, but I mind noting at all,” said Gregoire, with a grin.
+
+“Oh, that 's it,” said Dalton, smiling, but with a twinkle in his
+gray eyes that, had the other known him better, he would scarcely have
+fancied, “that's it, then!” And taking the umbrella from beneath Andy's
+arm, he walked deliberately across the yard to where a large tank stood,
+and which, fed from a small jet d'eau, served as a watering-place for
+the post-horses. Some taper rods of ice now stood up in the midst, and a
+tolerably thick coating covered the surface of the basin.
+
+Gregoire could not help watching the proceedings of the stranger, as
+with the iron-shod umbrella he smashed the ice in one or two places,
+piercing the mass till the water spouted up through the apertures.
+
+“Have you any friend who live dere?” said the courier, sneeringly, as
+the sound of the blows resembled the noise of a door-knocker.
+
+“Not exactly, my man,” said Dalton, calmly; “but something like it.”
+
+“What is 't you do, den?” asked Gregoire, curiously.
+
+“I'll tell you,” said Dalton. “I'm breaking the ice for a new
+acquaintance;” and, as he spoke, he seized the courier by the stout
+leather belt which he wore around his waist, and, notwithstanding his
+struggles and his weight, he jerked him off the ground, and, with a
+swing, would have hurled him head foremost into the tank, when, the
+leather giving way, he fell heavily to the ground, almost senseless from
+shock and fright together. “You may thank that strap for your escape,”
+ said Dalton, contemptuously, as he threw towards him the fragments of
+broken leather.
+
+“I will have de law, and de polizei, and de Gericht. I will have you
+in de Kerker, in chains, for dis!” screamed Gregoire, half choked with
+passion.
+
+“May I never see peace, but if you don't hold your prate I 'll put you
+in it! Sit up there, and mind your business; and, above all, be civil,
+and do what you 're bid.”
+
+“I will fort; I will away. Noting make me remain in de service,” said
+Gregoire, brushing off the dirt from his sleeve, and shaking his cap.
+“I am respectable courier travel wid de Fursten vom Koniglichen Hatisen
+mit Russen, Franzosen, Ostereichen; never mit barbaren, never mit de
+wilde animalen.”
+
+“Don't, now don't, I tell you,” said Dalton, with another of those
+treacherous smiles whose expression the courier began to comprehend. “No
+balderdash! no nonsense! but go to your work, like a decent servant.”
+
+“I am no Diener; no serve anybody,” cried the courier, indignantly.
+
+[Illustration:    222]
+
+But somehow there was that in old Dalton's face that gave no
+encouragement to an open resistance, and Monsieur Gregoire knew well the
+case where compliance was the wisest policy. He also knew that in his
+vocation there lay a hundred petty vengeances more than sufficient to
+pay off any indignity that could be inflicted upon him. “I will wait
+my times,” was the reflection with which he soothed down his rage, and
+affected to forget the insult he had just suffered under.
+
+Dalton, whose mind was cast in a very different mould, and who could
+forgive either himself or his neighbor without any great exertion of
+temper, turned now coolly away, and sauntered out into the street. The
+flush of momentary anger that colored his cheek had fled, and a cast of
+pale and melancholy meaning sat upon his features, for his eye rested
+on the little wooden bridge which crossed the stream, and where now two
+muffled figures were standing, that he recognized as his daughters.
+
+They were leaning on the balustrade, and gazing at the mountain that,
+covered with its dense pine-wood, rose abruptly from the river-side.
+It had been the scene of many a happy ramble in the autumn, of many a
+delightful excursion, when, with Frank, they used to seek for fragments
+of wood that suited Nelly's sculptures. How often had they carried their
+little basket up yonder steep path, to eat their humble supper upon the
+rock, from which the setting sun could be seen! There was not a cliff
+nor crag, not a mossy slope, not a grass bank, they did not know; and
+now, as they looked, all the past moments of pleasure were crowding upon
+their memory, tinged with the sad foreboding that they were never again
+to be renewed.
+
+“That's the Riesen Fels, Nelly, yonder,” said Kate, as she pointed to a
+tall dark rock, on whose slopes the drifting snow had settled. “How sad
+and dreary it is, compared with what it seemed on Frank's birthday,
+when the nightingale was singing overhead, and the trickling stream came
+sparkling along the grass when we sat together. I can bear to part with
+it better thus than if all were as beautiful as then.”
+
+Nelly sighed, and grasped her sister's hand closer, but made no answer.
+
+“Do you remember poor Hanserl's song, and his little speech all about
+our meeting there again in the next year, Nelly?”
+
+“I do,” said Nelly, in a low and whispering voice.
+
+“And then Frank stood up, with his little gilt goblet, and said,
+
+     'With hearts as free from grief or care,
+     Here 's to our happy--'”
+
+“Wiederkehr,” cried Hanserl, supplying the word so aptly. How we all
+laughed, Nelly, at his catching the rhyme!”
+
+“I remember!” sighed Nelly, still lower.
+
+“What are you thinking of, Nelly dearest?” said Kate, as she stood for a
+few seconds gazing at the sorrow-struck features of the other.
+
+“I was thinking, dearest,” said Nelly, “that when we were met together
+there on that night, none of us foresaw what since has happened. Not
+the faintest suspicion of a separation crossed our minds. Our destinies,
+whatever else might betide, seemed at least bound up together. Our very
+poverty was like the guarantee of our unity, and yet see what has come
+to pass Frank gone; you, Kate, going to leave us now. How shall we
+speculate on the future, then, when the past has so betrayed us? How
+pilot our course in the storm, when, even in the calm, still sea, we
+have wandered from the track?”
+
+“Nelly! Nelly! every moment I feel more faint-hearted at the thought of
+separation. It is as though, in the indulgence of a mere caprice, I were
+about to incur some great hazard. Is it thus it appears to you?”
+
+“With what expectations do you look forward to this great world you are
+going to visit, Kate? Is it mere curiosity to see with your own eyes
+the brilliant scenes of which you have only read? Is it with the hope
+of finding that elegance and goodness are sisters, that refinement of
+manners is the constant companion of noble sentiments and right actions;
+or, does there lurk in your heart the longing for a sphere wherein you
+yourself might contest for the prize of admiration? Oh, if this have a
+share in your wishes, my own dear sister, beware of it. The more worthy
+you are of such homage, the greater is your peril! It is not that I am
+removed from all temptations of this kind; it is not because I have no
+attractions of beauty, that I speak thus even poor, lame Nelly cannot
+tear from her woman's heart the love of admiration. But for me, I fear,
+for you, Kate, to whom these temptations will be heightened by your own
+deservings. You are beautiful, and you blush as I speak the word; but
+what if the time come when you will hear it unmoved? The modest sense of
+shame gone, what will replace it? Pride yes, my dear sister, Pride
+and Ambition! You will long for a station more in accordance with your
+pretensions, more suited to your tastes.”
+
+“How you wrong me, Nelly!” burst Kate in. “The brightest dream of all
+this brilliant future is the hope that I may come back to you more
+worthy of your love; that, imbibing some of those traits whose
+fascinations we have already felt, I may bring beneath our humble roof
+some memories, at least, to beguile your toil.”
+
+“Oh, if that time should come!”
+
+“And it will come, dearest Nelly,” said Kate, as she threw her arms
+around her, and kissed her affectionately. “But, see! there is papa
+yonder; he is beckoning to us to join him;” and the two girls hastened
+forward to where Dalton was standing, at the corner of the street.
+
+“I'm thinking we ought to go up there, now,” said Dalton, with a motion
+of his hand in the direction of the hotel. “Take my arm, each of you.”
+
+They obeyed, and walked along in silence, till they reached the inn,
+where Dalton entered, with a certain assumed ease and confidence, that
+very commonly, with him, covered a weak purpose and a doubting spirit.
+
+“Is Sir Stafford at home, or Lady Onslow?” asked he of Mr. Twig, who,
+with a cigar in his mouth, and a “Galignani” in his hand, never rose
+from the seat he occupied.
+
+“Can't say, sir,” was the cool response, which he delivered without
+lifting his eyes from the newspaper.
+
+“Do you know, ma'am?” said he, addressing Mademoiselle Celestine, who
+happened to pass at the moment “do you know, ma'am, if Lady Onslow 's at
+home?”
+
+“She never receive in de morning,” was the curt reply. And, with a very
+impudent stare at the two sisters, whose dress imposed no restraint upon
+her insolence, mademoiselle flounced past. “Come along, girls,” said
+Dalton, angrily, and offended that he should appear to his children
+as if wanting in worldly tact and knowledge “come with me;” and he
+proceeded boldly up stairs.
+
+A folding-door lay open before them into a large chamber, littered with
+boxes, trunks, and travelling gear of all kinds. Making his way through
+these, while he left his daughters outside, Dalton approached a
+door that led into an inner room, and knocked sharply at it with his
+knuckles.
+
+“You may take it away now; I 've used cold water!” cried a voice from
+within, that at once proclaimed Dr. Grounsell.
+
+Dalton repeated his summons more confidently.
+
+“Go to the devil, I say,” cried the doctor; “you've made me cut my
+chin;” and the enraged Grouusell, with his face covered with lather,
+and streaming with blood, flung open the door in a passion. “Oh, Dalton,
+this you, and the ladies here!” said he, springing back ashamed, as
+Kate's hearty burst of laughter greeted him. “Come in, Dalton, come in,”
+ said he, dragging the father forward and shutting the door upon him. “I
+was longing to see you, man; I was just thinking how I could have five
+minutes' talk with you. What answer have you given to the letter they
+'ve sent you?”
+
+“What d' ye think?” said Dalton, jocularly, as he seated himself in a
+comfortable chair.
+
+“What do I think?” repeated he, twice or thrice over. “Egad, I don't
+know what to think! I only know what to hope, and wish it may have
+been!”
+
+“And what's that?” said Dalton, with a look of almost sternness, for he
+was not ignorant of the doctor's sentiments on the subject.
+
+“A refusal, of course,” said Grounsell, who never yet was deterred by a
+look, a sign, or an innuendo, from any expression of his sentiments.
+
+“And why so, sir?” rejoined Dalton, warmly.
+
+“On every ground in the world: What has your fine, generous-hearted,
+dear child in common with that vile world of envy, malice, and all
+wickedness you 'd throw her amongst? What similarity in thought,
+feeling, or instinct between her and that artificial class with whom you
+would associate her, with their false honor, false principle, and false
+delicacy nothing real and substantial about them but their wickedness?
+If you were a silly woman, like the mother in the 'Vicar of Wakefield,'
+I could forgive you; but a man a hardened, worldly man, that has tasted
+poverty, and knows the rubs of life. I 've no patience with you, d--n me
+if I have!”
+
+“A little more of this, and I 'll have none with you,” said Dalton, as
+he clenched his fist, and struck his knee a hard blow. “You presume to
+talk of us as people whose station was always what our present means
+imply; but I 'd have you to know that we 've better blood in our veins--”
+
+“Devil take your blood! you've made me spill mine again,” cried
+Grounsell, as he sliced a piece off his chin, and threw down the
+razor in a torrent of anger, while Dalton grinned a look of malicious
+satisfaction. “Could n't your good blood have kept you above anything
+like dependence?”
+
+Dalton sprang to his feet, and clutching the chair, raised it in the
+air; but as suddenly dashed it on the floor again, without speaking.
+
+“Go on,” cried Grounsell, daring him. “I'd rather you 'd break my skull
+than that dear girl's heart; and that 's what you 're bent on. Ay, break
+her heart! no less. You can't terrify me, man, by those angry looks. You
+can't wound me, either, by retaliating, and calling me a dependant. I
+know I am such. I know well all the ignominy, all the shame; but I know,
+too, all the misery of the position. But, mark me, the disgrace and the
+sorrow end where they begin, with myself alone. I have none to blush
+for me; I stand alone in the world, a poor, scathed, sapless, leafless
+trunk. But it is not so with you. Come, come, Dalton, you fancy that you
+know something of life because you have passed so many years of it among
+your equals and neighbors in your own 'country; but you know nothing
+absolutely nothing of the world as it exists here.”
+
+A hearty but contemptuous laugh broke from Dalton as he heard this
+speech. It was indeed somewhat of a surprise to listen to such a charge.
+He, Peter Dalton, that knew a spavined horse, or could detect a windgall
+better than any man in the county; he, that never was “taken in” by a
+roarer, nor deceived by a crib-biter, to tell him that he knew nothing
+of life!
+
+“That'll do, doctor, that'll do,” said he, with a most compassionating
+smile at the other's ignorance. “I hope you know more about medicine
+than you seem to do about men and women;” and, with these words, he left
+the room, banging the door after him as he went, and actually ashamed
+that he had been betrayed into warmth by one so evidently deficient in
+the commonest knowledge of the world.
+
+[Illustration:    228]
+
+“I 'm sorry I kept you waiting, girls,” said he, approaching them. “And,
+indeed, I might have spent my time better, too. But no matter; we must
+try and find out her Ladyship now, for the morning is slipping over.”
+
+As he spoke, George Onslow appeared, and recognizing the party with much
+cordiality, conducted them to the breakfast-room, where Sir Stafford,
+Lady Hester, and Miss Onslow were seated. If Sydney's reception of the
+two sisters was less enthusiastic than Lady Hester's, it was not less
+kind. Nelly was won almost instantaneously by the unaffected ease
+and simplicity of her manner. As for Dalton himself, her Ladyship had
+determined to carry him by storm. She suffered him to declaim about his
+ancestors and their wealth; heard him with assumed interest in all
+his interminable stories of Dal tons for six generations; and artfully
+opposed to his regrets at the approaching departure of his daughter
+the ingenious consolation that she was not about to sojourn with mere
+strangers, but with those united to her by the ties of kindred.
+George had, meanwhile, made two or three efforts to engage Kate in
+conversation; but, whether from the preoccupation of her mind, agitated
+as it well might be at such a moment, or that his topics were so utterly
+new and strange to her, his attempt was not attended with any signal
+success. A sense of shame, too, at the disparity of her own and her
+sister's appearance, in contrast with the quiet elegance of Lady Hester
+and Miss Onslow's dress, oppressed her. Strange was it that this feeling
+should have agitated her now, she who always hitherto had never wasted a
+thought on such matters, and yet she felt it acutely; and as she glanced
+from the rustling robe of silk to the folds of her own homely costume,
+her heart beat painfully, and her breathing came short. Was she already
+changed, that thoughts tike these could impress her so strongly? Had
+Adam's first shame descended to his daughter? “How unlike I am to them!”
+ was the bitter thought that rose to her mind, and ate like a cancer into
+her heart.
+
+The sense of inferiority, galling and torturing as it is, becomes
+infinitely more unendurable when connected with matters of trivial
+importance. There is a sense of indignant anger in the feeling that
+we are surpassed by what seem the mere conventionalities and tricks of
+society, and although Kate knew not the source of her unhappiness, some
+of it lay in this fact. Every little gesture, every motion, the merest
+peculiarities of voice or accent, now struck her as distinctive of a
+class, a class to which no imitation would ever give her a resemblance.
+If it were not for very shame, she would have drawn back now at the
+eleventh hour. More than once was she on the verge of confessing what
+was passing within her mind; but fears of various kinds, of her father's
+anger, of ridicule, of the charge of frivolity, all conspired to keep
+her silent, and she sat and listened to descriptions of pleasure and
+scenes wherein she had already lost every interest, and which somehow
+came associated with a sense of her own inferiority.
+
+Never did home seem so regrettable as in that moment: the humble
+fireside in winter; the happy evenings with little Hanserl; the summer's
+day rambles in the forest; their little feasts beside the waterfall,
+under the ivy-clad walls of Eberstein, all rose before her. They were
+pleasures which had no alloy in her own humble lot, and why desert them?
+She had almost gained courage to say that she would not, when a chance
+word caught her ear one word how little to hang a destiny upon! It was
+Lady Hester, who, conversing in a half-whisper with Mr. Dalton, said,
+
+“She will be perfectly beautiful when dressed becomingly.”
+
+Was this, then, all that was needed to give her the stamp and semblance
+of the others? Oh, if she could believe it! If she could but fancy that,
+at some future time, such graceful elegance should be her own, that
+gentle languor, that chastened quietude of Sydney, or that sparkling
+lightness of Lady Hester herself!
+
+“What time de horses, saar?” said the courier, popping his head into the
+room.
+
+“I scarcely know what do you say, Lady Hester?”
+
+“I 'm quite ready this instant if you like indeed, I 'm always the
+first,” said she, gayly; “nobody travels with less preparation than I
+do. There, see all I want!” and she pointed to a fan, and a book, and a
+smelling-bottle, as if all her worldly effects and requirements went no
+further, and that four great imperials and a dozen capacious boxes
+were not packed with her wardrobe. “I do detest the worry and fuss some
+people make about a journey for a week, or even a month beforehand; they
+unsettle themselves and every one around them; putting under lock
+and key half the things of every-day utility, and making a kind of
+'jail-delivery' of all the imprisoned old cloaks and dresses of the
+toilet. As for me, I take the road as I 'd go to the Opera, or drive out
+in the Park I ask for my bonnet, that's all.”
+
+There was some truth in this. Her Ladyship did, in fact, give herself
+not a whit more thought or consideration for preparation of any kind,
+than if the excursion had been a promenade.
+
+“It is now two o'clock,” said Sir Stafford, “and if we mean to reach
+Offenburg to-night we must not lose more time. Isn't it Offenburg you
+advise as our halt, Mr. Jekyl?”
+
+“Yes, Sir Stafford,” simpered out that bland personage. “It is a most
+comfortable little inn, and a very praiseworthy cook.”
+
+“By the bye, has any one thought of ordering luncheon here?” cried
+George.
+
+Jekyl gave a nod, to intimate that he had taken that precaution.
+
+“And, Mr. Jekyl,” said Lady Hester, “what of those bullfinches, for I
+must have them?”
+
+“They are safely caged and packed in our britzska, madam. You 'll also
+find that your sketch-book and the water-colors are available at any
+moment, Miss Onslow,” said he, with a respectful gesture. She smiled,
+and bowed her thanks in silence.
+
+“And de horses, saar?” asked the courier once more, for during this
+colloquy he had been standing in expectation of his orders.
+
+“Do tell him, Mr. Jekyl,” said Lady Hester, with that tone of languor
+that bespoke her dislike to the trouble of even a trifling degree of
+resolution.
+
+“I think we shall say in one hour, Gregoire,” said Jekyl, mildly. “And,
+perhaps, it would be better that you should see--” What this matter
+was that the courier should bestow his special attention upon is not on
+record in this history, inasmuch as that when the speaker had reached
+thus far, he passed out of the door, talking as he went, in a low and
+confidential voice.
+
+“Capital fellow Jekyl!” exclaimed George; “he forgets nothing.”
+
+“He appears to be a most accomplished traveller,” said Sir Stafford.
+
+“And such a linguist!” said Sydney.
+
+“And so amusing!” added my Lady.
+
+“And such a rogue!” muttered Dalton to himself, who, although so open to
+any imposition that took the form of flattery, could at once detect the
+knavery that was practised upon others, and who, at a glance, read the
+character of the new acquaintance.
+
+“Don't you like the stir and excitement of the road, my dear child?”
+ said Lady Hester to Kate, who, with very red eyes and very pale cheeks,
+stood in a window to avoid being observed. “There is something so
+adventurous about a journey always. One may be robbed, you know, or the
+carriage upset, as happened to ourselves t' other day; or mistaken for
+somebody else, and carried off to prison. It gives such a flurry to
+the spirits to think of these things, and a life of monotony is so very
+detestable.”
+
+Kate tried to smile an assent, and Lady Hester ran on in the same
+strain, extolling the delights of anything and everything that promised
+an excitement. “You know, my dear child, that this little place has
+almost been the death of me,” added she. “I never was so bored in all my
+life; and I vow I shall detest a mill and a pine-forest to the last day
+I live. If it had not been for you and your sweet sister, I do not know
+what we should have clone; but it 's all over now. The dreary interval
+is passed, and when we turn the foot of that hill yonder, we shall have
+seen the last of it.”
+
+Kate's heart was almost bursting as she heard these words. To speak thus
+of the little valley would have been a profanation at any time, but to
+do so now, when she was about to leave it, when she was about to tear
+herself away from all the ties of love and affection, seemed an actual
+cruelty.
+
+“Small places are my aversion,” continued Lady Hester, who, when
+satisfied with her own talk, never cared much what effect it was
+producing upon others. “One grows down insensibly to the measure of a
+petty locality, with its little interests, its little people, and its
+little gossip don't you think so, dear?”
+
+“We were so happy here!” murmured Kate, in a voice that a choking
+fulness of her throat almost stifled.
+
+“Of course you were, child, very happy; and it was very good of you
+to be so. Yes, very good and very right.” Here Lady Hester assumed a
+peculiar tone, which she always put on whenever she fancied that she
+was moralizing. “Natural amiability of disposition, and all that sort
+of thing, is very nice indeed; but there 's luncheon, I see, and now, my
+dear, let us take our places without loss of time. George, will you give
+your arm to Miss Dalton? Mr. Dalton but where 's Mr. Dalton?”
+
+“Papa has taken him with him to his dressing-room,” answered Sydney,
+“but begged you'd not wait; they'll be back presently.”
+
+“No lady does wait at luncheon,” said Lady Hester, snappishly, while,
+drawing Kate's arm within her own, she led her into the adjoining room.
+
+The party had scarcely seated themselves at table when they were joined
+by Jekyl. Indeed, Lady Hester had only time to complain of his absence
+when he appeared; for it was a trick of that gentleman's tact merely to
+make himself sufficiently regretted not to be blamed. And now he came
+to say that everything was ready, the postilions in the saddle, the
+carriages drawn up before the door, the relays all been ordered along
+the road, the supper bespoken for the end of the journey. These pleasant
+facts he contrived to season with a running fire of little gossip and
+mimicry, in which the landlord, and Gregoire, and Mademoiselle Celestine
+were the individuals personated.
+
+Never were Mr. Jekyl's peculiar abilities more in request; for the
+moment was an awkward and embarrassing one for all, and none, save
+himself, were able to relieve its seriousness. Even Nelly smiled at
+the witty sallies and playful conceits of this clever talker, and felt
+almost grateful to him for the momentary distraction he afforded her
+from gloomier thoughts. With such success did he exert himself, that all
+the graver sentiments of the occasion were swallowed up in the pleasant
+current of his small-talk, and no time given for a thought of that
+parting which was but a few minutes distant. Sir Stafford and Mr. Dalton
+were not sorry to discover the party in this pleasant humor, and readily
+chimed in with the gayety around them.
+
+The bugle of the postilions at length announced that “time was up,” and
+the half-hour, which German politeness accords to leave-taking, expired.
+A dead silence succeeded the sound, and, as if moved by the same
+instinctive feeling, the two sisters arose and withdrew into a window.
+Close locked in each other's arms, neither could speak. Kate's thick
+sobs came fast and full, and her heart beat against her sister's side
+as though it were bursting. As for Nelly, all that she had meant to say,
+the many things she had kept for the last moment, were forgotten, and
+she could but press the wet cheek to her own, and murmur a tremulous
+blessing.
+
+“Oh, if I could but remain with you, Nelly dearest,” sobbed Kate; “I
+feel even already my isolation. Is it too late, sister dear, is it too
+late to go back?”
+
+“Not if this be not a sudden impulse of sorrow for parting, Kate; not if
+you think you would be happier here.”
+
+“But papa! how will he--what will he--”
+
+She had not time for more, when her father joined them. A certain flurry
+of his manner showed that he was excited by talking and wine together.
+There was that in the expression of his features, too, that betokened a
+mind ill at ease with itself a restless alternating between two courses.
+
+“'Tis you are the lucky girl, Kate,” said he, drawing his arm around
+her, and pressing her to him. “This day's good luck pays me off for many
+a hard blow of fortune. They 're kind people you are going with, real
+gentry, and our own blood into the bargain.”
+
+A thick heavy sob was all the answer she could make.
+
+“To be sure you're sorry; why would n't you be sorry, leaving your own
+home and going away among strangers? and 't is I am sorry to let you
+go.”
+
+“Are you so, dearest papa? Are you really sorry to part with me? Would
+you rather I 'd stay behind with you and Nelly?” cried she, looking up
+at him with eyes swimming in tears.
+
+“Would it, is it?” said he, eagerly, as he kissed her forehead twice;
+then, suddenly checking himself, he said, in an altered voice, “but that
+would be selfish, Kate, nothing else than downright selfish. Ask Nelly,
+there, if that's my nature? Not that Nelly will ever give me too good
+a character!” added he, bitterly. But poor Ellen neither heard the
+question nor the taunt; her mind was travelling many a long mile away in
+realms of dreary speculation.
+
+“I 'm sorry to interrupt a moment like this,” said Sir Stafford, “but
+I believe I must take you away, Miss Dalton; our time is now of the
+shortest.”
+
+One fond and long embrace the sisters took, and Kate was led away
+between Sir Stafford and her father, while Nelly went through a round
+of leave-takings with the others in a state of semi-consciousness that
+resembled a dream. The courteous flatteries of Lady Hester fell as
+powerless on her ear as the rougher good wishes of Grounsell. George
+Onslow's respectful manner was as unnoticed as the flippant smartness
+of Albert Jekyl's. Even Sydney's gentle attempt at consolation was heard
+without heeding; and when one by one they had gone and left her alone
+in that dreary room, she was not more aware of her solitude than when
+they stood around her.
+
+Couriers and waiters passed in and out to see that nothing had been
+forgotten. Doors were slammed on every side, loud voices were calling,
+all the turmoil of a departure was there; but she knew nothing of it.
+Even when the loud cracking of the postilions' whips echoed in the
+courtyard, and the quick clatter of horses' feet and heavy wheels
+resounded through the arched doorway, she was still unmoved; nor did she
+recover full liberty of thought till her father stood beside her, and
+said, “Come, Nelly, let us go home.”
+
+Then she arose, and took his arm without a word. She would have given
+her life to have been able to speak even a few words of comfort to the
+poor old man, whose cheeks were wet with tears, but she could not utter
+a syllable.
+
+“Ay, indeed,” muttered he, “it will be a dreary home now.”
+
+Not another word was spoken by either as they trod their way along the
+silent streets, over which the coming gloom of evening threw a mournful
+shadow. They walked, with bent-down heads, as if actually fearing to
+recognize the objects that they had so often looked upon with her, and,
+slowly traversing the little Platz, they gained their own door. There
+they halted, and, from habit, pulled the bell. Its little tinkle, heard
+in the stillness, seemed suddenly to recall them both to thought; for
+Dalton, with a melancholy smile, said,
+
+“'T is old Andy is coming now! 'T is n't her foot I hear! Oh, Nelly,
+Nelly, how did you ever persuade me to this! Sure, I know I 'll never be
+happy again!”
+
+Nelly made no answer. The injustice of the speech was well atoned for in
+her mind by the thought that, in shifting the blame from himself to her,
+her father might find some sort of consolation; well satisfied to become
+the subject of his reproach if the sacrifice could alleviate his sorrow.
+
+“Take that chair away; throw it out of the window,” cried he, angrily.
+“It breaks my heart to look at it.” And with this he leaned his head
+upon the table, and sobbed like a child.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX. A VERY SMALL “INTERIOR.”
+
+IN one of the most favored spots of that pleasant quay which goes by
+the name of the Lungo l'Arno, at Florence, there stood a small,
+miserable-looking, rickety old building, of two stories high, wedged in
+between two massive and imposing palaces, as though a buffer to deaden
+the force of collision. In all probability it owed its origin to some
+petty usurpation, and had gradually grown up, from the unobtrusive
+humility of a cobbler's bulk, to the more permanent nuisance of stone
+and mortar. The space occupied was so small as barely to permit of
+a door and a little window beside it, within which hung a variety
+of bridles, halters, and such-like gear, with here and there the
+brass-mounted harnessing of a Calasina, or the gay worsted tassels
+and fringed finery of a peasant's Barroccino. The little spot was so
+completely crammed with wares, that for all purposes of traffic it was
+useless; hence, everything that pertained to sale was carried on in the
+street, thus contributing by another ingredient to the annoyance of this
+misplaced residence. Threats, tyranny, bribery, seductions of twenty
+kinds, intimidation in as many shapes, had all failed in inducing its
+owner to remove to another part of the town. Gigi every one in Florence
+is known by his Christian name, and we never heard him called by any
+other resisted oppressions as manfully as he was proof against
+softer influences, and held his ground, hammering away at his old
+“demi-piques,” burnishing bits and scouring housings, in utter
+indifference to the jarred nerves and chafed susceptibilities of his
+fine neighbors. It was not that the man was indifferent to money. It was
+not that the place was associated with any family reminiscences. It was
+not from its being very favorable to the nature of his dealings, since
+his chief customers were usually the frequenters of the less fashionable
+localities. It was the simple fact that Gigi was a Florentine, and, like
+a Florentine, he saw no reason why he should n't have the sun and
+the Arno as well as the Guiciardoni, who lived at his right, or the
+Rinuncini, who dwelt on his left hand.
+
+Small and contracted as that miserable frontage was, the sun did shine
+upon it just as pleasantly as on its proud neighbors, and the bright
+Arno glided by with its laughing ripples; while, from the little window
+above stairs, the eye ranged over the cypress-clad hill of San Miniato
+and the fair gardens of the Boboli. On one side lay the quaint old
+structure of the Ponte Vecchio, with its glittering stores of jewelry,
+and on the other the graceful elliptic arches of St. Trinita spanned the
+stream. The quay before the door was the chosen rallying-point of
+all Florence; the promenade where lounged all its fashionables of an
+evening, as they descended from their carriages after the accustomed
+drive in the Cascini. The Guardie Nobili passed daily, in all their
+scarlet bravery, to and from the Pitti Palace; the Grand Ducal equipage
+never took any other road. A continual flow of travellers to the great
+hotels on the quay contributed its share of bustle and animation to the
+scene; so that here might be said to meet, as in a focus, all that made
+up the life, the stir, and the movement of the capital.
+
+Full of amusement and interest as that morning panorama often is,
+our object is less to linger beside it, than, having squeezed our way
+between the chaotic wares of Gigi's shop, to ascend the little, dark,
+and creaking stairs which lead to the first story, and into which we now
+beg to introduce our reader. There are but two rooms, each of them of
+the dimensions of closets, but furnished with a degree of pretension
+that cannot fail to cause amazement as you enter. Silk draperies, carved
+cabinets, bronzes, china, chairs of ebony, tables of buhl, a Persian rug
+on the floor, an alabaster lamp suspended from the ceiling, miniatures
+in handsome frames, and armor, cover the walls; while, scattered about,
+are richly bound books, and prints, and drawings in water-color. Through
+the half-drawn curtain that covers the doorway for there is no door
+you can peep into the back room, where a lighter and more modern taste
+prevails; the gold-sprigged curtains of a French bed, and the Bohemian
+glass that glitters everywhere, bespeaking another era of decorative
+luxury.
+
+It is not with any invidious pleasure for depreciation, but purely in
+the interests of truth, that we must now tell our reader that, of all
+this seeming elegance and splendor, nothing absolutely nothing is real.
+The brocaded silks have been old petticoats; the ebony is lacquer; the
+ivory is bone; the statuettes are plaster, glazed so as to look like
+marble; the armor is papier mache, even to the owner himself, all is
+imposition, for he is no other than Albert Jekyl.
+
+Now, my dear reader, you and I see these things precisely in the same
+light. The illusion of a first glance stripped off, we smile as we
+examine, one by one, the ingenious devices meant to counterfeit ancient
+art or modern elegance. It is possible, too, that we derive as much
+amusement from the ingenuity exercised, as we should have had pleasure
+in contemplating the realities so typified. Still, there is one
+individual to whom this consciousness brings no alloy of enjoyment;
+Jekyl has persuaded himself to accept all as fact. Like the Indian,
+who first carves and then worships his god, he has gone through the old
+process of fabrication, and now gazes on his handiwork with the eyes
+of a true believer. Gracefully reclined upon an ottoman, the mock amber
+mouthpiece of a gilt hooka between his lips, he dreams, with half-closed
+eyes, of Oriental luxury! A Sybarite in every taste, he has invented a
+little philosophy of his own. He has seen enough of life to know that
+thousands might live in enjoyment out of the superfluities of rich men,
+and yet make them nothing the poorer. What banquet would not admit of
+a guest the more? What fete to which another might not be added? What
+four-in-hand prances by without some vacant seat, be it even in the
+rumble? What gilded gondola has not a place to spare? To be this
+“complement” to the world's want is then his mission.
+
+No man invents a metier without a strong element of success. The very
+creative power is an earnest of victory. It is true that there had been
+great men before Agamemnon. So had there been a race of “diners-out”
+ before Jekyl; but he first reduced the practice to system, showing
+that all the triumphs of cookery, all the splendor of equipage, all the
+blandishments of beauty, all the fascinations of high society, may be
+enjoyed by one who actually does not hold a “share in the company,” and,
+without the qualification of scrip, takes his place among the directors.
+
+Had he brought to this new profession commonplace abilities and
+inferior acquirements, he would have been lost amid that vulgar herd of
+indistinguishables which infest every city, and whose names are not even
+“writ in water.” Jekyl, however, possessed many and varied gifts.
+He might have made a popular preacher in a watering-place; a very
+successful doctor for nervous invalids; a clever practitioner at the
+bar; an admirable member of the newspaper press. He might have been very
+good as an actor; he would have been glorious as an auctioneer. With
+qualities of this order, a most plastic wit, and an india-rubber
+conscience, what bound need there be to his success! Nor was there.
+He was, in all the society of the capital, not alone an admitted and
+accepted, but a welcome guest. He might have failed to strike this man
+as being clever, or that as being agreeable. Some might be disappointed
+in his smartness; some might think his social claims overrated; none
+were ever offended by anything that fell from him. His great secret
+seemed to lie in the fact that, if generally easy to be found when
+required, he was never in the way when not wanted. Had he possessed the
+gift of invisibility, he could scarcely have been more successful in
+this latter good quality. He never interrupted a confidence; never
+marred a tete-a-tete. A kind of instinct would arrest his steps as he
+approached a boudoir where his presence would be undesirable; and he
+has been known to retire from a door on which he had already placed his
+hand, with a sudden burst of intelligence suggesting “to come another
+day.”
+
+These, however, seem mere negative qualities; his positive ones were,
+however, not less remarkable. The faculties which some men might have
+devoted to abstract science or metaphysical inquiry, he, with a keen
+perception of his own fitness, resolved to exercise upon the world
+around him. His botany was a human classification, all his chemistry an
+analysis of men's motives. It is true, perhaps, that the poet's line may
+have been received by him with a peculiar limitation, and that, if
+“the proper study of mankind is man,” his investigations took a shape
+scarcely contemplated by the writer. It was not man in his freedom of
+thought and action, not man in all the consciousness of power, and in
+the high hope of a great destiny that attracted him; no! it was for
+small humanity that he cared, for all the struggles and wiles and plots
+and schemings of this wicked world; for man amid its pomps and vanities,
+its balls, its festivals, its intrigues, and its calamities.
+
+He felt, with the great dramatist, that “all the world's a stage,”
+ and, the better to enjoy the performance, he merely took a “walking
+character,” that gave him full leisure to watch the others. Such was our
+friend Albert Jekyl, or, as he was popularly called by his acquaintance,
+Le Due de Dine-out, to distinguish him from the Talleyrands, who are
+Dues de Dino.
+
+Let us now, without further speculation, come back to him, as with his
+window open to admit the “Arno sun,” he lay at full length upon his
+ottoman, conning over his dinner list. He had been for some time absent
+from Florence, and in the interval a number of new people had arrived,
+and some of the old had gone away. He was, therefore, running over the
+names of the present and the missing, with a speculative thought for the
+future.
+
+“A bad season, it would seem!” muttered he, as his eye traced rapidly
+the list of English names, in which none of any distinction figured.
+“This comes of Carbonari and Illuminati humbug. They frighten John Bull,
+and he will not come abroad to see a barricade under his window. Great
+numbers have gone away, too, the Scotts, the Carringdons, the Hopleys!
+three excellent houses; and those dear Milnwoods, who, so lately
+'reconciled to Rome,' as the phrase is, 'took out their piety' in Friday
+fish-dinners.
+
+“The Russians, too, have left us; the Geroboffskys gone back to their
+snows again, and expiating their 'liberal tendencies' by a tour in
+Siberia. The Chaptowitsch, recalled in disgrace for asking one of Louis
+Philippe's sons to a breakfast! We have got in exchange a few Carlists,
+half a dozen 'Legitimists,' with very stately manners and small
+fortunes. But a good house to dine at, a good salon for a lounge, a
+pleasant haunt for all seasons and at all hours, what is there? Nothing,
+absolutely nothing. And what a city this was once! crammed, as it used
+to be, with dear, delightful 'ruined families;' that is, those who
+left ruin to their creditors at home, to come out and live gloriously
+abroad. And now I look down my list, and, except my little Sunday dinner
+at 'Marescotte's,' and that half luncheon thing I take at the Villa
+Pessarole, I really see nothing for the whole week. The Onslows, alone,
+figure in strong capitals. Let me see, then, how they must be treated. I
+have already housed them at the Palazzo Mazzarini, and, for some days at
+least, their time will be filled up with upholsterers, decorators,
+and such-like. Then the campaign will open, and I can but watch
+eventualities, and there will be no lack of these. The young Guardsman
+likes play. I must see that Prince Carini does not get hold of him. Miss
+Onslow has a taste for Gothic and stained glass; that, nowadays, often
+ends in a love of saints' shin-bones and other relics. My lady is
+disposed to be a 'fast one;' and, in fact, except the gruff old doctor,
+who is a confounded bore, the whole craft is deficient in ballast. But
+I was forgetting 'the Dalton,' shame on me, for she is very pretty,
+indeed!” He seemed to ruminate and reflect for some minutes, and then
+said aloud, “Yes, ma belle Catharine, with the aid of Albert Jekyl, with
+his counsel to guide, and his head to direct you, there 's no saying
+what your destiny might not be! It would be, I know well, very hard to
+convince you of the fact, and, possibly, were I to try it, you 'd be
+silly enough to fancy me in love with you!” Albert Jekyl in love! The
+idea was so excellent that he lay back and laughed heartily at it. “And
+yet,” said he, after a pause, “you 'll see this fact aright one of
+these days. You 'll learn the immense benefit my knowledge would be when
+joined to your own beauty. Ay, Kate! but it will be too late, just so,
+too late; then, like every one else, you 'll have played all your trumps
+before you begin to learn the game. A girl who has caught up every trick
+of manner, every little tactic of society within a month, and who, at
+this hour, would stand the scrutiny of the most fastidious eye, is a
+great prize in the wheel. This aptitude might lead to great things,
+though, in all probability, it will never conduce, save to very little
+ones!”
+
+With this reflection Jekyl arose to begin his toilet, an occupation
+which, less from dandyism than pure self-love, he usually prolonged
+during the whole morning. It was to him a period of self-examination.
+He seemed, to use a mercantile figure, to be taking stock of his own
+capabilities, and investigating his own means of future success.
+
+It was an “open day,” that is, he knew not where he should dine; so that
+his costume, while partaking of all the characteristics of the morning,
+had yet combined certain little decorative traits that would not be
+unsuitable if pressed to accept an unpremeditated hospitality.
+
+There were very few, indeed, with whom Jekyl would have condescended
+so to dine, not only from the want of dignity incurred, but that on
+principle he would have preferred the humblest fare at home to the
+vulgarity of a pot-luck dinner, which invariably, as he said himself,
+deranged your digestion, and led to wrong intimacies.
+
+His dress being completed, he looked out along the crowd to see in whose
+carriage he was to have a seat to the Cascini. More than one inviting
+gesture motioned him to a place, as equipage after equipage passed on;
+but although some of those who sought him were high in rank, and others
+distinguished for beauty and attraction, Jekyl declined the courtesies
+with that little wave of the hand so significative in all Italian
+intercourse. Occasionally, indeed, a bland, regretful smile seemed to
+convey the sorrow the refusal cost him; and once he actually placed his
+hand over where his heart might be, as though to express a perfect pang
+of suffering; but still he bided his time.
+
+At last a very dark visage, surrounded by a whisker of blackest hair,
+peeped from beneath the head of a very shabby caleche, whose horse and
+coachman were all of the “seediest;” and Jekyl cried out, “Morlache!”
+ while he made a sign towards the Cascini. The other replied by spreading
+out his hand horizontally from his mouth, and blowing along the surface,
+a pantomime meant to express a railroad. Jekyl immediately descended and
+took his place beside him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI. A FAMILY PICTURE
+
+THE fashionable life of a great city has a character of sameness
+which defies all attempts at portraiture. Well-bred people, and their
+amusements, are all constructed so perfectly alike, certain family
+traits pervading them throughout, that every effort at individualization
+is certain to be a failure. You may change the venue, if you will, from
+London to Paris, to Vienna, or St. Petersburg, but the issue is always
+the same; the very same interests are at work, and the same passions
+exercised, by the self-same kind of people. If such be the rule among
+the first-rate capitals of Europe, it is very far from being the case
+in those smaller cities which belong to inferior States, and which, from
+reasons of health, pleasure, or economy, are the resort of strangers
+from different parts of the world. In these society is less disciplined,
+social rank less defined; conflicting claims and rival nationalities
+disturb the scene, and there is, so to say, a kind of struggle for
+pre-eminence, which in better regulated communities is never witnessed.
+If, as is unquestionably true, such places rarely present the
+attractions of good society, they offer to the mere observer infinitely
+more varied and amusing views of life than he would ever expect to see
+elsewhere. As in the few days of a revolution, when the “barricades are
+up,” and all hurrying to the conflict, more of national character will
+be exhibited than in half a century of tame obedience to the law; so
+here are displayed, to the sun and the noonday, all those passions and
+pretensions which rarely see the light in other places.
+
+The great besetting sin of this social state is the taste for NOTORIETY.
+Everything must contribute to this. Not alone wealth, splendor, rank,
+and genius, but vice, in all its shapes and forms, must be notorious.
+“Better be calumniated in all the moods and tenses than untalked of,” is
+the grand axiom. Do something that can be reported of you, good, if you
+will, bad, if you must; but do it. If you be not rich enough to astonish
+by the caprices of your wealth, do something by your wits, or even your
+whiskers. The color of a man's gloves has sufficed to make his fortune.
+
+Upon this strange ocean, which, if rarely storm-shaken, was never
+perfectly tranquil, the Onslows were now launched, as well pleased as
+people usually are who, from being of third or fourth-rate importance
+in their own country, suddenly awake to the fact that they are
+celebrities abroad.
+
+The Mazzarini Palace had long been untenanted; its last occupant had
+been one of the Borghese family, whose princely fortune was still unable
+to maintain the splendor of a residence fitted only for royalty. To
+learn, therefore, that a rich “milordo” had arrived there with the
+intention of passing his winter, was a piece of news that occupied every
+tongue in the city. Gossips were questioned about the private history,
+the peerage consulted for such facts as were public. Sir Stafford's
+wealth was actively discussed, and all possible inroads upon it his
+son's extravagance might have made debated and decided on. A minute
+investigation into their probable reasons for leaving England was also
+instituted, in which conjectures far more ingenious than true figured
+prominently. What they were like what they said, did, and meant to do
+was the sole table-talk of the capital.
+
+“They've had their horses out from England,” said one; “They 've
+taken the best box at the Pergola,” said another; “They've engaged
+Midchekoff's cook,” said a third; “They 've been speaking to Gridani
+about his band,” chimed in a fourth; and so on. All their proceedings
+were watched and followed by that eager vulturehood which hungers for
+ortolans, and thirsts for iced champagne.
+
+Nor were the Onslows without offering food for this curious solicitude.
+From the hour of her arrival, Lady Hester had been deeply engaged, in
+concert with her grand vizier, Albert Jekyl, in preparations for the
+coming campaign. An army of upholsterers, decorators, and such-like,
+beset the Palazzo with enormous vans crammed full of wares. Furniture,
+that had served royal guests, and was even yet in high preservation, was
+condemned, to give way to newer and more costly decoration. Rich stuffs
+and hangings that had been the admiration of many a visitor, were
+ruthlessly pulled down, to be replaced by even more gorgeous materials;
+till at last it was whispered about that, except some antique cabinets,
+the pictures, and a few tables of malachite or marble, little or nothing
+remained of what once constituted the splendor of the place.
+
+These were mere rumors, however; for as yet, none, save Albert Jekyl
+himself, had seen the interior; and from him, unless disposed to accord
+it, all Confidence was hopeless. Indeed, his little vague stare when
+questioned; his simpering, “I shouldn't wonder,” “It is very likely,” or
+“Now that you mention it, I begin to think so too,” would have disarmed
+the suspicion of all who had not studied him deeply. What the Onslows
+were going to do, and when they would do it, were, then, the vexed
+questions of every coterie. In a few days more the Carnival would begin,
+and yet no announcement of their intentions had yet gone forth, no
+programme of future festivities been issued to the world. A vague and
+terrible fear began to prevail that it was possible they meant all
+these splendid preparations for themselves alone. Such a treason was
+incredible at first; but as day followed day, and no sign was made,
+suspicion ripened into actual dread; and now the eager expectants began
+to whisper among themselves dark reasons for a conduct so strange and
+inexplicable.
+
+Haggerstone contributed his share to these mysterious doublings, for,
+while not confessing that his acquaintance with the Onslows was of the
+very slightest, and dated but from a week before, he spoke of them with
+all the affected ease and information of one who had known them for
+years.
+
+Nor were his comments of the most flattering kind, for seeing how
+decidedly every effort he made to renew acquaintance was met by a
+steady opposition, he lost no time in assuming his stand as enemy. The
+interval of doubt which had occurred as to their probable mode of life
+was favorable for this line of action. None knew if they were ever to
+partake of the splendor and magnificence of the Mazzarini; none could
+guess what chance they had of the sumptuous banquets of the rich man's
+table. It was a lottery, in which, as yet, they had not even a ticket;
+and what so natural as to depreciate the scheme!
+
+If the courts of law and equity be the recognized tribunals by which the
+rights of property are decided, so there exists in every city certain
+not less decisive courts, which pronounce upon all questions of social
+claims, and deliver judgments upon the pretensions of every new arrival
+amongst them. High amid the number of these was a certain family called
+Ricketts, who had been residents of Florence for thirty-odd years back.
+They consisted of three persons, General Ricketts, his wife, and a
+maiden sister of the General. They inhabited a small house in a garden
+within the boulevard, dignified by the name of the “41 Villino Zoe.” It
+had originally been the humble residence of a market-gardener, but, by
+the aid of paint and plaster, contrived to impose upon the world almost
+as successfully as did the fair owner herself by the help of similar
+adjuncts. A word, however, for the humanities before we speak of their
+abiding-place. The “General” Heaven alone knew when, where, or in
+what service he became so was a small, delicate little man, with bland
+manners, a weak voice, a weak stomach, and a weaker head; his instincts
+all mild, gentle, and inoffensive, and his whole pursuit in life
+a passion for inventing fortifications, and defending passes and
+tetes-du-pont by lines, circumvallations, and ravelins, which cost reams
+of paper and whole buckets of water-color to describe. The only fire
+which burned within his nature was a little flickering flame of hope,
+that one day the world would awake to the recognition of his great
+discoveries, and his name be associated with those of Vauban and Carnot.
+Sustained by this, he bore up against contemporary neglect and actual
+indifference; he whispered to himself, that, like Nelson, he would one
+day “have a gazette of his own,” and in this firm conviction, he went on
+with rule and compass, measuring and daubing and drawing from morn till
+night, happy, humble, and contented: nothing could possibly be more
+inoffensive than such an existence. Even the French our natural enemies
+or the Russians our Palmerstonian Betes noires would have forgiven, had
+they but seen, the devices of his patriotism. Never did heroic ardor
+burn in a milder bosom, for, though his brain revelled in all the
+horrors of siege and slaughter, he would not have had the heart to crush
+a beetle.
+
+Unlike him in every respect was the partner of his joys: a more
+bustling, plotting, scheming existence it was hard to conceive. Most
+pretenders are satisfied with aspiring to one crown; her ambitions were
+“legion.” When Columbus received the taunts of the courtiers on the ease
+of his discovery, and merely replied, that the merit lay simply in the
+fact that he alone had made it, he was uttering a truth susceptible of
+very wide application. Nine tenths of the inventions which promote
+the happiness or secure the ease of mankind have been not a whit more
+difficult than that of balancing the egg. They only needed that some one
+should think of them “practically.” Thousands may have done so in
+moods of speculation or fancy; the grand requisite was a practical
+intelligence. Such was Mrs. Ricketts's. As she had seen at Naples
+the lava used for mere road-making, which in other hands, and by other
+treatment, might have been fashioned into all the shapes and colors
+of Bohemian glass, so did she perceive that a certain raw material was
+equally misapplied and devoted to base uses, but which, by the touch
+of genius, might be made powerful as the wand of an enchanter. This was
+“Flattery.” Do not, like the Spanish courtiers, my dear reader, do not
+smile at her discovery, nor suppose that she had been merely exploring
+an old and exhausted mine. Her flattery was not, as the world employs
+it, an exaggerated estimate of existing qualities, but a grand poetic
+and creative power, that actually begot the great sublime it praised.
+Whatever your walk, rank, or condition in life, she instantly laid hold
+of it to entrap you. No matter what your size, stature, or symmetry, she
+could costume you in a minute! Her praises, like an elastic-web livery,
+fitted all her slaves; and slaves were they of the most abject slavery,
+who were led by the dictation of her crafty intelligence!
+
+A word about poor Martha, and we have done; nor, indeed, is there any
+need we should say more than that she was universally known as “Poor
+Martha” by all their acquaintance. Oh! what patience, submission, and
+long suffering it takes before the world will confer its degree of
+Martyr, before they will condescend to visit, even with so cheap a thing
+as compassion, the life of an enduring self-devotion. Martha had had but
+one idol all her life, her brother; and although, when he married late
+in years, she had almost died broken-hearted at the shock, she clung to
+him and his fortunes, unable to separate from one to whose habits she
+had been ministering for above thirty years. It was said that originally
+she was a person of good common faculties, and a reasonably fair
+knowledge of the world; but to see her at the time of which we now
+speak, not a vestige remained of either, not a stone marked where the
+edifice once stood. Nor can this ba matter of wonderment. Who could have
+passed years amid all the phantasmagoria of that unreal existence, and
+either not gone clean mad, or made a weak compromise with sanity,
+by accepting everything as real? Poor Martha had exactly these two
+alternatives, either to “believe the crusts mutton,” or be eternally
+shut out from all hope. Who can tell the long and terrible struggle such
+a mind must have endured? what little bursts of honest energy repelled
+by fear and timidity? what good intentions baffled by natural humility,
+and the affection she bore her brother?
+
+It may have nay, it did cost her much to believe this strange creed of
+her sister-in-law; but she ended by doing so. So implicit was her faith,
+that, like a true devotee, she would not trust the evidence of her own
+senses, if opposed by the articles of her belief. The very pictures
+at whose purchase she had been present, and whose restoration and
+relacquering had been the work of her own hands, she was willing to aver
+had been the gifts of royal and princely personages. The books for which
+she had herself written to the publishers, she would swear all tributes
+offered by the respective writers to the throne of taste and erudition.
+Every object with whose humble birth and origin she was familiar, was
+associated in her mind with some curious history, which, got off by
+rote, she repeated with full credulity. Like the well-known athlete, who
+lifted a bull because he had accustomed himself to the feat since
+the animal had been a calf, rising from small beginnings, she had so
+educated her faculties that now nothing was above her powers. Not all
+the straits and contrivances by which this motley display was got up,
+not all the previous schemings and plottings, not all the discussions
+as to what King or Kaiser this should be attributed, by what artist that
+was painted, who carved this cup, who enamelled that vase, could shake
+the firmness of her faith when the matter was once decided. She might
+oppose the Bill in every stage; she might cavil at it in Committee, and
+divide on every clause; but when it once became law, she revered it as
+a statute of the land. All her own doubts faded away on the instant; all
+her former suggestions vanished at once; a new light seemed to break
+on her mind, and she appeared to see with the eyes of truth and
+discernment. We have been led away beyond our intention in this sketch,
+and have no space to devote to that temple wherein the mysteries were
+celebrated. Enough if we say that it was small and ill-arranged, its
+discomfort increased by the incongruous collection of rare and curious
+objects by which it was filled. Stuffed lions stood in the hall; mock
+men in armor guarded the entrance to the library; vast glass cases
+of mineralogical wealth, botanical specimens, stuffed birds, impaled
+butterflies, Indian weapons, Etrurian cups, Irish antiquities, Chinese
+curiosities, covered the walls on every side. Not a specimen amongst
+them that could not trace its presentation to some illustrious donor.
+Miniatures of dear, dear friends everywhere; and what a catholic
+friendship was that which included every one, from Lord Byron to
+Chalmers, and took in the whole range of morals, from Mrs. Opie to Fanny
+Elssler. Indeed, although the fair Zoe was a “rigid virtue,” her love of
+genius, her “mind-worship,” as she called it, often led her into
+strange intimacies with that intellectual class whose strength lies in
+pirouettes, and whose gifts are short petticoats. In a word, whatever
+was “notorious” was her natural prey; a great painter, a great radical,
+a great basso, a great traveller; any one to lionize, anything to hang
+history upon; to enlist, even “for one night only,” in that absurd
+comedy which was performed at her house, and to display among her
+acquaintances as another in that long catalogue of those who came to lay
+the tribute of their genius at her feet.
+
+That a large section of society was disposed to be rude and ungenerous
+enough to think her a bore, is a fact that we are, however unwilling,
+obliged to confess; but her actual influence was little affected by
+the fact. The real serious business of life is often carried on in
+localities surrounded by innumerable inconveniences. Men buy and sell
+their millions, subsidize states, and raise loans in dens dark and
+dismal enough to be prison-cells. In the same way, the Villino was a
+recognized rendezvous of all who wanted to hear what was going on in the
+world, and who wished to be d la hauteur of every current scandal of
+the day. Not that such was ever the tone of the conversation; on the
+contrary, it was “all taste and the musical glasses,” the “naughty talk”
+ being the mere asides of the scene.
+
+Now, in that season of foreign life which precedes the Carnival, and on
+those nights when there is no opera, any one benevolent enough to open
+his doors to receive is sure of full houses; so the Villino “improved
+the occasion,” by announcing a series of Tuesdays and Fridays, which
+were, as the papers say, frequented by all the rank and fashion of the
+metropolis. It is at one of these “at homes” that we would now present
+our reader, not, indeed, during the full moon of the reception, when
+the crowded rooms, suffocating with heat, were crammed with visitors,
+talking in every tongue of Europe, and every imaginable dialect of each.
+The great melee tournament was over, and a few lingered over the now
+empty lists, discussing in familiar converse the departed guests and the
+events of the evening.
+
+This privy council consisted of the reader's old acquaintance,
+Haggerstone, a Russo-Polish Count Petrolaffski, a dark, sallow-skinned,
+odd-looking gentleman, whose national predilections had raised him to
+the rank of an enemy to the Emperor, but whose private resources, it
+was rumored, came from the Imperial treasury to reward his services as
+a spy; a certain Mr. Scroope Purvis, the brother of Mrs. Ricketts,
+completing the party. He was a little, rosy-cheeked old man, with a limp
+and a stutter, perpetually running about retailing gossip, which, by
+some accident or other, he invariably got all wrong, never, on even the
+most trifling occasion, being able to record a fact as it occurred.
+
+Such were the individuals of a group which sat around the fire in close
+and secret confab., Mrs. Ricketts herself placed in the midst, her fair
+proportions gracefully disposed in a chair whose embroidery displayed
+all the quarterings and emblazonment of her family for centuries back.
+The “Bill” before the house was the Onslows, whose res gestee were
+causing a most intense interest everywhere.
+
+“Have dey return your call, madam?” asked the Pole, with an almost
+imperceptible glance beneath his dark brows.
+
+“Not yet, Count; we only left our cards yesterday.” This, be it said in
+parenthesis, was “inexact,” the visit had been made eight days before.
+“Nor should we have gone at all, but Lady Foxington begged and entreated
+we would. 'They will be so utterly without guidance of any kind,' she
+said, 'you must really take them in hand.'”
+
+“And you will take dem in your hand eh?”
+
+“That depends, my dear Count, that depends,” said she, pondering. “We
+must see what line they adopt here; rank and wealth have no influence
+with us if ununited with moral and intellectual excellence.”
+
+“I take it, then, your circle will be more select than amusing this
+winter,” said Haggerstone, with one of his whip-cracking enunciations.
+
+“Be it so, Colonel,” sighed she, plaintively. “Like a lone beacon on a
+rock, with I forget the quotation.”
+
+“With the phos-phos-phos-phate of lime upon it?” said Purvis, “that new
+discov-co-covery?”
+
+“With no such thing! A figure is, I perceive, a dangerous mode of
+expression.”
+
+“Ha! ha! ha!” cried he, with a peculiar cackle, whose hysteric notes
+always carried himself into the seventh heaven of enjoyment, “you would
+cut a pretty figure if you were to be made a beacon of, and be burned
+like Moses. Ha! ha! ha!”
+
+The lady turned from him in disdain, and addressed the Colonel.
+
+“So you really think that they are embarrassed, and that is the true
+reason of their coming abroad?”
+
+“I believe I may say I know it, ma'am!” rejoined he. “There is a kind of
+connection between our families, although I should be very sorry they 'd
+hear of it, the Badelys and the Harringtons are first cousins.”
+
+“Oh, to be sure!” broke in Purvis. “Jane Harrington was father; no, no,
+not father she was mo-mo-mother of Tom Badely; no! that is n't it, she
+was his aunt, or his brother-in-law, I forget which.”
+
+“Pray be good enough, sir, not to involve a respectable family in
+a breach of common law,” said Haggerstone, tartly, “and leave the
+explanation to me.”
+
+“How I do dislike dat English habit of countin' cousins,” said the
+Pole; “you never see tree, four English togeder without a leetle tree
+of genealogie in de middle, and dey do sit all round, fighting for de
+fruit.”
+
+“Financial reasons, then, might dictate retirement,” said Mrs. Ricketts,
+coming back to the original theme.
+
+A very significant nod from Haggerstone inferred that he concurred in
+the remark.
+
+“Four contested elections for a county, ma'am, a spendthrift wife, and a
+gambling son, rarely increase a man's income,” said he, sententiously.
+
+“Do he play? What for play is he fond of?” asked the Pole, eagerly.
+
+“Play, sir? There is nothing an Englishman will not play at, from the
+turf, to tossing for sovereigns.”
+
+“So Hamlet say, in Shakspeare, 'de play is de ting,'” cried the Count,
+with the air of a man who made a happy quotation.
+
+“They are going to have plays,” broke in Purvis; “Jekyl let it out
+to-night. They 're going to get up a Vauvau-vau-vau--”
+
+“A tete de veau, probably, sir,” said Haggerstone; “In which case,”
+ continued he, in a whisper, “you would be invaluable.”
+
+“No, it is n't that,” broke in Purvis; “they are to have what they call
+Proverbs.”
+
+“I trust they have engaged your services as Solomon, sir,” said
+Haggerstone, with that look of satisfaction which always followed an
+impudent speech.
+
+“I heard the subject of one of them,” resumed the other, who was far too
+occupied with his theme to bestow a thought upon a sarcasm. “There's a
+lady in love with with with her Mam-mam-mam--”
+
+“Her mamma,” suggested the Pole.
+
+“No, it is n't her mamma; it's her Mam-ame-ameluke her Mameluke slave;
+and he, who is a native prince, with a great many wives of his own--”
+
+“Oh, for shame, Scroope, you forget Martha is here,” said Mrs. Ricketts,
+who was always ready to suppress the bore by a call to order on the
+score of morals.
+
+“It isn't wrong, I assure you; just hear me out; let me only explain--”
+
+“There, pray don't insist, I beg you,” said Mrs. Ricketts, with a regal
+wave of her hand.
+
+“Why, it's Miss Dalton is to play it, Jekyl says,” cried Purvis, in a
+tone of most imploring cadence.
+
+“And who may Miss Dalton be?” asked Mrs. Ricketts.
+
+“She is the niece no, she's the aunt or rather her father is aunt to
+to--”
+
+“He may be an old lady, sir; but, surely--”
+
+“Oh, I have it now!” broke in Purvis. “It was her mother; Miss
+Da-a-alton's mother was uncle to a Stafford.”
+
+“Perhaps I can shorten the pedigree,” said Haggerstone, tartly. “The
+young lady is the daughter of a man whom this same Sir Stafford tricked
+out of his fortune; they were distant relatives, so he had n't even the
+plea of blood-relationship to cover his iniquity. It was, however, an
+Irish fortune, and, like a Spanish chateau, its loss is more a question
+of feeling than of fact. The lawyers still say that Dalton's right is
+unimpeachable, and that the Onslows have not even the shadow of a case
+for a jury.”
+
+“An' have de lady no broder nor sister?” asked the Count, who had heard
+this story with much attention.
+
+“She has, sir, both brother and sister, but both illegitimate, so that
+this girl is the heiress to the estate.”
+
+“And probably destined to be the wife of the young Guardsman,” said Mrs.
+Ricketts.
+
+“Guessed with your habitual perspicuity, madam,” said Haggerstone,
+bowing.
+
+“How very shocking! What worldliness one sees everywhere!” cried she,
+plaintively.
+
+“The world is excessively worldly, madam,” rejoined Haggerstone; “but I
+really believe that we are not a jot worse than were the patriarchs of
+old.”
+
+“Ah, oui, les patriarches!” echoed the Pole, laughing, and always ready
+to seize upon an allusion that savored of irreverence.
+
+“Count! Colonel Haggerstone!” cried Mrs. Ricketts, in reproof, and
+with a look to where Martha sat at her embroidery-frame. “And this Miss
+Dalton is she pretty?”
+
+“She is pretty at this moment, madam; but, with a clever hairdresser
+and a good milliner, would be downright beautiful. Of course these
+are adjuncts she is little likely to find during her sojourn with the
+Onslows.”
+
+“Poor thing! how glad one would be to offer her a kinder asylum,” said
+Mrs. Ricketts, while she threw her eyes over the cracked china
+monsters and mock Vandykes around her; “a home,” added she, “where
+intellectuality and refinement might compensate for the vulgar pleasures
+of mere wealth!”
+
+“She may want such, one of these days, yet, or I'm much mistaken,” said
+Haggerstone. “Onslow has got himself very deep in railway speculations;
+he has heavy liabilities in some Mexican mining affairs too. They 've
+all been living very fast; and a crash a real crash” this word he gave
+with a force of utterance that only malignity could compass “is almost
+certain to follow! What an excellent stable will come to the hammer
+then! There 's a 'Bone setter' colt worth a thousand guineas, with his
+engagements.”
+
+And now there was a little pause in the dialogue, while each followed
+out the thoughts of his own mind. Haggerstoue's were upon the admirable
+opportunity of picking up a first-rate batch of horses for a fourth
+of their value; Mrs. Ricketts was pondering over the good policy of
+securing possession of a rich heiress as a member of her family, to be
+held in bondage as long as possible, and eventually if it must be given
+in marriage to some unprovided-for cousin; the Pole's dreams were of a
+rich wife; and Purvis, less ambitious than the rest, merely revelled in
+the thought of all the gossip this great event, when it should come off,
+would afford him; the innumerable anecdotes he would have to retail of
+the family and their wastefulness; the tea-parties he should enliven
+by his narratives; the soirees he would amuse with his sallies. Blessed
+gift of imbecility! how infinitely more pleasurable to its possessor
+than all the qualities and attributes of genius!
+
+“Dat is ver pretty indeed, tres jolie!” said the Count, bestowing a look
+of approval at the embroidery-frame, whereupon, for eight mortal months,
+poor Martha labored at the emblazonment of the Ricketts' arms; “de
+leetle dogs are as de life.”
+
+“They are tigers, Monsieur le Comte,” replied she, modestly.
+
+“Oh, pardon! dey are tigres!”
+
+“Most puppies are somewhat tigerish nowadays,” chimed in Haggerstone,
+rising to take his leave.
+
+“You are leaving us early, Colonel,” said the old General, as he
+awoke from a long nap on the little corner sofa, which formed his
+resting-place.
+
+“It is past two, sir; and, even in your society, one cannot cheat time.”
+ Then, having acquitted himself of his debt of impertinence, he wished
+them good-night. The others, also, took their leave and departed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII. KATE.
+
+LET us now return to Kate Dalton, whose life, since we last saw her, had
+been one round of brilliant enjoyment. To the pleasure of the journey,
+with all its varied objects of interest, the picturesque scenery of the
+Via Mala, the desolate grandeur of the Splugen, the calm and tranquil
+beauty of Como, succeeded the thousand treasures of art in the great
+cities where they halted. At first every image and object seemed
+associated by some invisible link with thoughts of home. What would
+Nelly think or say of this? was the ever-recurring question of her mind.
+How should she ever be able to treasure up her own memories and tell
+of the wonderful things that every moment met her eyes? The quick
+succession of objects, all new and dazzling, were but so many wonders to
+bring back to that “dear fireside” of home. The Onslows themselves, who
+saw everything without enthusiasm of any kind, appeared to take pleasure
+in the freshness of the young girl's admiration. It gave them, as
+it were, a kind of reflected pleasure, while, amid galleries and
+collections of all that was rare and curious, nothing struck them as
+half so surprising as the boundless delight of her unhackneyed nature.
+
+Educated to a certain extent by watching the pursuits of her sister,
+Kate knew how to observe with taste, and admire with discrimination.
+Beauty of high order would seem frequently endowed with a power of
+appreciating the beauty of art, a species of relation appearing almost
+to subsist between the two.
+
+Gifted with this instinct, there was an intensity in all her enjoyments,
+which displayed itself in the animation of her manner and the elevated
+expression of her features. The coldest and most worldly natures are
+seldom able to resist the influence of this enthusiasm; however hard the
+metal of their hearts, they must melt beneath this flame. Lady Hester
+Onslow herself could not remain insensible to the pure sincerity and
+generous warmth of this artless girl. For a time the combat, silent,
+unseen, but eventful, was maintained between these two opposite natures,
+the principle of good warring with the instincts of evil. The victory
+might have rested with the true cause there was every prospect of its
+doing so when Sydney Onslow, all whose sympathies were with Kate, and
+whose alliance had every charm of sisterhood, was suddenly recalled to
+England by tidings of her aunt's illness. Educated by her aunt Conway,
+she had always looked up to her as a mother, nor did the unhappy
+circumstances of her father's second marriage tend to weaken this
+feeling of attachment. The sad news reached them at Genoa; and Sydney,
+accompanied by Dr. Grounsell, at once set out for London. If the sudden
+separation of the two girls, just at the very moment of a budding
+friendship, was sorrowfully felt by both, to Lady Hester the event was
+anything but unwelcome.
+
+She never had liked Sydney; she now detested the notion of a
+step-daughter, almost of her own age, in the same society with herself;
+she dreaded, besides, the influence that she had already acquired over
+Kate, whose whole heart and nature she had resolved on monopolizing.
+It was not from any feeling of attachment or affection, it was the pure
+miser-like desire for possession that animated her. The plan of carrying
+away Kate from her friends and home had been her own; she, therefore,
+owned her; the original title was vested in her: the young girl's whole
+future was to be in her hands; her “road in life” was to be at her
+dictation. To be free of Sydney and the odious doctor by the same event
+was a double happiness, which, in spite of all the decorous restraints
+bad news impose, actually displayed itself in the most palpable form.
+
+The Palazzo Mazzarini was now to be opened to the world, with all the
+splendor wealth could bestow, untrammelled by any restriction the taste
+of Sydney or the prudence of the doctor might impose. Sir Stafford, ever
+ready to purchase quiet for himself at any cost of money, objected
+to nothing. The cheapness of Italy, the expectations formed of an
+Englishman, were the arguments which always silenced him if he ventured
+on the very mildest remonstrance about expenditure; and Jekyl was
+immediately called into the witness-box, to show that among the
+economies of the Continent nothing was so striking as the facilities of
+entertaining. George, as might be supposed, had no dislike to see their
+own house the great centre of society, and himself the much sought-after
+and caressed youth of the capital.
+
+As for Kate, pleasure came associated in her mind with all that
+could elevate and exalt it, refinement of manners, taste, luxury, the
+fascinations of wit, the glitter of conversational brilliancy. She had
+long known that she was handsome, but she had never felt it till now;
+never awoke to that thrilling emotion which whispers of power over
+others, and which elevates the possessor of a great quality into a
+species of petty sovereignty above their fellows. Her progress in
+this conviction was a good deal aided by her maid; for, at Jekyl's
+suggestion, a certain Mademoiselle Nina had been attached to her
+personal staff.
+
+It was not easy at first for Kate to believe in the fact at all that she
+should have a peculiar attendant; nor was it without much constraint and
+confusion that she could accept of services from one whose whole air and
+bearing bore the stamp of breeding and tact. Mademoiselle Nina had been
+the maid of the Princess Menzikoff, the most distinguished belle
+of Florence, the model of taste and elegance in dress; but when the
+Princess separated from her husband, some unexplained circumstances
+had involved the name of the femme de chambre, so that, instead of
+“exchanging without a difference,” as a person of her great abilities
+might readily have done, she had disappeared for a while from the scene
+and sphere in which habitually she moved, and only emerged from her
+seclusion to accept the humble position of Kate Dalton's maid. She was a
+perfect type of her own countrywomen in her own class of life. Small
+and neatly formed, her head was too large for her size, and the forehead
+over-large for the face, the brows and temples being developed
+beyond all proportion. Her eyes, jet black and deeply set, were cold,
+stern-looking, and sleepy, sadness, or rather weariness, being the
+characteristic expression of the face. Her mouth, however, when she
+smiled, relieved this, and gave a look of softness to her features. Her
+manner was that of great distance and respect, the trained observance of
+one who had been always held in the firm hand of discipline, and never
+suffered to assume the slightest approach to a liberty. She contrived,
+however, even in her silence, or in the very few words she ever uttered,
+to throw an air of devotion into her service that took away from the
+formality of a manner that at first seemed cold and even repulsive.
+Kate, indeed, in the beginning, was thrown back by the studied reserve
+and deferential distance she observed; but as days went over, and she
+grew more accustomed to the girl's manner, she began to feel pleased
+with the placid and unchanging demeanor that seemed to bespeak a mind
+admirably trained and regulated to its own round of duties.
+
+While Kate sat at a writing-table, adding a few lines to that letter
+which, began more than a week ago, was still far from being completed,
+Nina, whose place was beside the window, worked away with bent-down
+head, not seeming to have a thought save for the occupation before her.
+Not so Kate; fancies came and went at every instant, breaking in
+upon the tenor of her thoughts, or wending far away on errands of
+speculation. Now she would turn her eye from the page to gaze in
+wondering delight at the tasteful decorations of her little chamber, a
+perfect gem of elegance in all its details; then she would start up to
+step out upon the terrace, where even in winter the orange-trees were
+standing, shedding their sweet odor at every breeze from the Arno. With
+what rapturous delight she would follow the windings of that bright
+river, till it was lost in the dark woods of the Cascini! How the sounds
+of passing equipages, the glitter and display of the moving throng,
+stirred her heart; and then, as she turned back within the room, with
+what a thrill of ecstasy her eyes rested on the splendid ball-dress
+which Nina had just laid upon the sofa! With a trembling hand she
+touched the delicate tissue of Brussels lace, and placed it over her
+arm in a graceful fold, her cheek flushing and her chest heaving in
+consciousness of heightening beauty.
+
+[Illustration:  262]
+
+Nina's head was never raised, her nimble fingers never ceased to ply;
+but beneath her dark brows her darker eyes shot forth a glance of deep
+and subtle meaning, as she watched the young girl's gesture.
+
+“Nina,” cried she, at last, “it is much too handsome for me; although
+I love to look at it, I actually fear to wear it. You know I never have
+worn anything like this before.”
+
+“Mademoiselle is too diffident and too unjust to her own charms;
+beautiful as is the robe, it only suits the elegance of its wearer.”
+
+“One ought to be so graceful in every gesture, so perfect in every
+movement beneath folds like these,” cried Kate, still gazing at the fine
+tracery.
+
+“Mademoiselle is grace itself!” said she, in a low, soft voice, so
+quiet in its utterance that it sounded like a reflection uttered
+unconsciously.
+
+“Oh, Nina, if I were so! If I only could feel that my every look and
+movement were not recalling the peasant girl; for, after all, I have
+been little better, our good blood could not protect us from being poor,
+and poverty means so much that lowers!”
+
+Nina sighed, but so softly as to be inaudible; and Kate went on:
+
+“My sister Nelly never thought so; she always felt differently. Oh,
+Nina, how you would love her if you saw her, and how you would admire
+her beautiful hair, and those deep blue eyes, so soft, so calm, and yet
+so meaning.”
+
+Nina looked up, and seemed to give a glance that implied assent.
+
+“Nelly would be so happy here, wandering through these galleries, and
+sitting for hours long in those beautiful churches, surrounded with all
+that can elevate feeling or warm imagination; she, too, would know
+how to profit by these treasures of art. The frivolous enjoyments
+that please me would be beneath her. Perhaps she would teach me better
+things; perhaps I might turn from mere sensual pleasure to higher and
+purer sources of happiness.”
+
+“Will Mademoiselle permit me to try this wreath?” said Nina, advancing
+with a garland of white roses, which she gracefully placed around Kate's
+head.
+
+A half cry of delight burst from Kate as she saw the effect in the
+glass.
+
+“Beautiful, indeed!” said Nina, as though in concurrence with an
+unspoken emotion.
+
+“But, Nina, I scarcely like this it seems as though I cannot tell what
+I wish as though I would desire notice I, that am nothing that ought to
+pass unobserved.”
+
+“You, Mademoiselle,” cried Nina, and for the first time a slight warmth
+coloring the tone of her manner, “you, Mademoiselle, the belle, the
+beauty, the acknowledged beauty of Florence!”
+
+“Nina! Nina!” cried Kate rebukingly.
+
+“I hope Mademoiselle will forgive me. I would not for the world fail in
+my respect,” said Nina, with deep humility; “but I was only repeating
+what others spoke.”
+
+“I am not angry, Nina, at least, not with you,” said Kate, hurriedly.
+“With myself, indeed, I 'm scarcely quite pleased. But who could have
+said such a silly thing?”
+
+“Every one, Mademoiselle, every one, as they were standing beneath the
+terrace t' other evening. I overheard Count Labinski say it to Captain
+Onslow; and then my Lady took it up, and said, 'You are quite right,
+gentlemen; there is nothing that approaches her in beauty.'”
+
+“Nina! dear Nina!” said Kate, covering her flushed face with both hands.
+
+“The Count de Melzi was more enthusiastic than even the rest. He vowed
+that he had grown out of temper with his Raffaelles since he saw you.”
+
+A hearty burst of laughter from Kate told that this flattery, at least,
+had gone too far. And now she resumed her seat at the writing-table.
+It was of the Splugen Pass and Como she had been writing; of the first
+burst of Italy upon the senses, as, crossing the High Alps, the land of
+the terraced vine lay stretched beneath. She tried to fall back upon the
+memory of that glorious scene as it broke upon her; but it was in vain.
+Other and far different thoughts had gained the mastery. It was no
+longer the calm lake, on whose mirrored surface snow-peaks and glaciers
+were reflected; it was not of those crags, over which the wild-fig and
+the olive, the oleander and the mimosa, are spreading, she could think.
+Other images crowded to her brain; troops of admirers were before her
+fancy; the hum of adulation filled her ears; splendid salons, resounding
+with delicious music, and ablaze with a thousand wax-lights, rose before
+her imagination, and her heart swelled with conscious triumph. The
+transition was most abrupt, then, from a description of scenery and
+natural objects to a narrative of the actual life of Florence:
+
+     “Up to this, Nelly, we have seen no one, except Mr. Jekyl,
+     whom you will remember as having met at Baden. He dines here
+     several days every week, and is most amusing with his funny
+     anecdotes and imitations, for he knows everybody, and is a
+     wonderful mimic. You 'd swear Dr. Grounsell was in the next
+     room if you heard Mr. Jekyl' s imitation. There has been
+     some difficulty about an opera-box, for Mr. Jekyl, who
+     manages everybody, will insist upon having Prince
+     Midchekoff's, which is better than the royal box, and has
+     not succeeded. For this reason we have not yet been to the
+     Opera; and, as the Palace has been undergoing a total change
+     of decoration and furniture, there has been no reception
+     here as yet; but on Tuesday we are to give our first ball.
+     All that I could tell you of splendor, my dearest Nelly,
+     would be nothing to the reality of what I see here. Such
+     magnificence in every detail; such troops of servants, all
+     so respectful and obliging, and some dressed in liveries
+     that resemble handsome uniforms! Such gold and silver plate!
+     such delicious flowers everywhere on the staircase, in the
+     drawing-room, here, actually, beside me as I write! And, oh,
+     Nelly, if you could see my dress! Lace, with bouquets of red
+     camellia, and looped up with strings of small pearls. Think
+     of me, of poor Kate Dal ton, wearing such splendor! And,
+     strange enough, too, I do not feel awkward in it. My hair,
+     that you used to think I dressed so well myself, has been
+     pronounced a perfect horror; and although I own it did shock
+     me at first to hear it, I now see that they were perfectly
+     right. Instead of bands, I wear ringlets down to my very
+     shoulders; and Nina tells me there never was such an
+     improvement, as the character of my features requires
+     softening. Such quantities of dress as I have got, too! for
+     there is endless toilette here; and although I am now
+     growing accustomed to it, at first it worried me dreadfully,
+     and left me no time to read. And, a propos of reading, Lady
+     Hester has given me such a strange book, 'Mathilde,' it is
+     called; very clever, deeply interesting, but not the kind of
+     reading you would like; at least, neither the scenes nor the
+     characters such as you would care for. Of course I take it
+     to be a good picture of life in another sphere from what I
+     have seen myself; and if it be, I must say there is more
+     vice in high society than I believed. One trait of manners,
+     however, I cannot help admiring, the extreme care that every
+     one takes never to give even the slightest offence; not only
+     that the wrong thing is never said, but ever even suggested.
+     Such an excessive deference to others' feelings bespeaks
+     great refinement, if not a higher and better quality. Lady
+     Hester is delightful in this respect. I cannot tell you how
+     the charm of her manner grows into a fascination. Captain
+     Onslow I see little of, but he is always good-humored and
+     gay; and as for Sir Stafford, he is like a father in the
+     kindliness and affection of his cordiality. Sydney I miss
+     greatly; she was nearly of my own age, and although so much
+     superior to me in every way, so companionable and
+     sisterlike. We are to write to each other if she does not
+     return soon. I intended to have said so much about the
+     galleries, but Mr. Jekyl does quiz so dreadfully about
+     artistic enthusiasm, I am actually ashamed to say a word;
+     besides, to me, Nelly, beautiful pictures impart pleasure
+     less from intrinsic merit than from the choice of subject
+     and the train of thoughts they originate; and for this
+     reason I prefer Salvator Rosa to all other painters. The
+     romantic character of his scenery, the kind of story that
+     seems to surround his characters, the solemn tranquillity of
+     his moonlights, the mellow splendor of his sunsets, actually
+     heighten one's enjoyment of the realities in nature. I am
+     ashamed to own that Raffaelle is less my favorite than
+     Titian, whose portraits appear to reveal the whole character
+     and life of the individual represented. In Velasq'uez there
+     is another feature--”
+
+Here came an interruption, for Nina came with gloves to
+choose, and now arose the difficult decision between a fringe of silver
+filigree and a deep fall of Valenciennes lace, a question on both
+sides of which Mademoiselle Nina had much to say. In all these little
+discussions, the mock importance lent to mere trifles at first amused
+Kate, and even provoked her laughter; but, by degrees, she learned not
+only to listen to them with attention, but even to take her share in
+the consultation. Nina's great art lay in her capacity for adapting a
+costume to the peculiar style and character of the wearer; and, however
+exaggerated were some of her notions on this subject, there was always
+a sufficiency of shrewd sense and good taste in her remarks to overbear
+any absurdity in her theory. Kate Dalton, whose whole nature had been
+simplicity and frankness itself, was gradually brought to assume
+a character with every change of toilette; for if she came down to
+breakfast in a simple robe of muslin, she changed it for a costume
+de paysanna to walk in the garden, and this again for a species of
+hunting-dress to ride in the Cascini, to appear afterwards at dinner in
+some new type of a past age; an endless variety of these devices at last
+engaging attention, and occupying time, to the utter exclusion of topics
+more important and interesting.
+
+The letter was now to be resumed; but the clew was lost, and her mind
+was only fettered with topics of dress and toilette. She walked out upon
+the terrace to recover her composure; but beneath the window was rolling
+on that endless tide of people and carriages that swells up the great
+flood of a capital city. She turned her steps to another side,
+and there, in the pleasure-ground, was George Onslow, with a great
+horse-sheet round him, accustoming a newly purchased Arabian to the
+flapping of a riding-skirt. It was a present Sir Stafford had made her
+the day before. Everything she saw, everything she heard, recalled but
+one image, herself! The intoxication of this thought was intense.
+Life assumed features of delight and pleasure she had never conceived
+possible before. There was an interest imparted to everything, since in
+everything she had her share. Oh! most insidious of all poisons is that
+of egotism, which lulls the conscience by the soft flattery we whisper
+to ourselves, making us to believe that we are such as the world affects
+to think us. How ready are we to take credit for gifts that have
+been merely lent us by a kind of courtesy, and of which we must make
+restitution, when called upon, with what appetite we may.
+
+For the time, indeed, the ecstasy of this delusion is boundless. Who has
+not, at some one moment or other of his life, experienced the entrancing
+delight of thinking that the world is full of his friends and admirers,
+that good wishes follow him as he goes, and kind welcomes await his
+coming? Much of our character for good or evil, of our subsequent
+utility in life, or our utter helplessness, will depend upon how we
+stand the season of trial. Kate Daiton possessed much to encourage this
+credulity; she was not only eminently handsome, but she had that species
+of fascination in her air which a clever French writer defines as the
+feminine essence, “plus femme que les autres femmes.” If a very critical
+eye might have detected in her manner and address certain little
+awkwardnesses, a less exacting judgment would have probably been
+struck with them as attractions, recalling the fact of her youth, her
+simplicity, and the freshness of her nature. Above all other charms,
+however, was the radiant happiness that beamed out in every word and
+look and gesture; such a thorough sense of enjoyment, so intense a
+pleasure in life, is among the very rarest of all gifts.
+
+There was enough of singularity, of the adventurous, in the nature of
+her position, to excel all the romance of her nature; there was more
+than enough of real splendor around her to give an air of fact and
+truth to the highest flights of her imagination. Had she been the sole
+daughter of the house and name, flatteries and caresses could not have
+been lavished on her more profusely; her will consulted, her wishes
+inquired, her taste evoked on every occasion. And yet, with all these
+seductions about her, she was not yet spoiled not yet! Home and its dear
+associations were ever present to her mind; her humble fortune, and
+that simple life she used to lead, enforcing lessons of humility not yet
+distasteful. She could still recur to the memory of the little window
+that looked over the “Murg,” and think the scenery beautiful. Her dear,
+dear papa was still all she had ever thought him. Nelly was yet the
+sweet-tempered, gentle, gifted creature she worshipped as a sister; even
+Hanserl was the kind, quaint emblem of his own dreamy “Vaterland.” As
+yet no conflict had arisen between the past and the present, between the
+remembrance of narrow fortune and all its crippling exigencies, and the
+enjoyment of wealth that seems to expand the generous feelings of the
+heart. The lustre of her present existence threw, as yet, no sickly
+light over the bygone; would it might have been always so!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII. A SMALL SUPPER PARTY.
+
+THE great ball at the Mazzarini Palace “came off” just as other great
+balls have done, and will continue to do, doubtless, for ages hence.
+There was the usual, perhaps a little more than the usual, splendor of
+dress and diamonds; the same glare and crash and glitter and crowd
+and heat; the same buoyant light-heartedness among the young; the same
+corroding ennui of the old; taste in dress was criticised, looks were
+scanned, flirtations detected, quarrels discovered, fans were mislaid,
+hearts were lost, flounces were torn, and feelings hurt. There was
+the ordinary measure of what people call enjoyment, mixed up with the
+ordinary proportion of envy, shyness, pretension, sarcasm, coldness, and
+malice. It was a grand tournament of human passions in white satin and
+jewels; and if the wounds exchanged were not as rudely administered,
+they were to the full as dangerous as in the real lists of combat.
+Yet, in this mortal conflict, all seemed happy. There was an air of
+voluptuous abandonment over everything; and whatever cares they might
+have carried within, as far as appearance went, the world went well and
+pleasantly with them. The ball was, however, a splendid one; there
+was everything that could make it such. The salons were magnificent in
+decoration; the lighting a perfect blaze. There was beauty in
+abundance, diamonds in masses, and a Royal Highness from the Court, an
+insignificant little man, it is true, with a star and a stutter, who
+stared at every one, and spoke to nobody. Still he was the centre of
+a glittering group of handsome aides-de-camp, who displayed their
+fascinations in every gesture and look.
+
+Apart from the great flood-tide of pleasure, down which so many float
+buoyantly, there is ever on these occasions a deeper current that flows
+beneath, of human wile and cunning and strategy, just as, in many
+a German fairy tale, some curious and recondite philosophy lies hid
+beneath the little incidents related to amuse childhood. It would lead
+us too far from the path of our story were we to seek for this “tiny
+thread amid the woof;” enough for our present purpose if we slightly
+advert to it, by asking our reader to accompany us to the small chamber
+which called Albert Jekyl master, and where now, at midnight, a little
+table of three covers was laid for supper. Three flasks of champagne
+stood in a little ice-pail in one corner, and on a dumbwaiter was
+arranged a dessert, which, for the season, displayed every charm of
+rarity. A large bouquet of moss-roses and camellias ornamented the
+centre of the board, and shed a pleasant odor through the room. The
+servant, whose dress and look bespoke him a waiter from a restaurant in
+the neighborhood, had just completed all the arrangements of the table,
+placing chairs around it, and heaped fresh wood upon the hearth, when a
+carriage drew up at the door. The merry sound of voices and the step of
+feet were heard on the stairs, and the next moment a lady entered, whose
+dress of black lace, adorned with bouquets of blue flowers, admirably
+set off a figure and complexion of Spanish mould and character. To
+this, a black lace veil fastened to the hair behind, and worn across
+the shoulders, contributed. There was a lightness and intrepidity in her
+step, as she entered the room, that suited the dark, flashing, steady
+glance of her full black eyes. It would have, indeed, been difficult to
+trace in that almost insolent air of conscious beauty the calm, subdued,
+and almost sorrow-struck girl whom we have seen as Nina in a former
+chapter; but, however dissimilar in appearance, they were the same
+one individual; and the humble femme de chambre of Kate Dalton was the
+celebrated ballet-dancer of the great theatre of Barcelona.
+
+The figure which followed was a strange contrast to that light and
+elegant form. He was an old, short man, of excessive corpulence in body,
+and whose face was bloated and purple by intemperance. He was dressed in
+the habit of a priest, and was in reality a canon of the Dome Cathedral.
+His unwieldy gait, his short and labored respiration, increased almost
+to suffocation by the ascent of the stairs and his cumbrous dress,
+seemed doubly absurd beside the flippant lightness of the “Ballarina.”
+ Jekyl came last, mimicking the old canon behind his back, and putting
+the waiter's gravity to a severe test by the bloated expansion of his
+cheek and the fin-like motion of his hands as he went.
+
+“Ecco me!” cried he out, with a deep grunt, as he sank into a chair and
+wiped the big drops from his forehead with the skirt of his gown.
+
+“You tripped up the stairs like a gazelle, padre,” said the girl, as she
+arranged her hair before the glass, and disposed the folds of her veil
+with all the tact of coquetry.
+
+A thick snort, like the ejaculation a hippopotamus might have uttered,
+was the only reply, and Jekyl, having given a glance over the table to
+see all was in order, made a sign for Nina to be seated.
+
+“Accursed be the stairs and he that made them!” muttered the padre. “I
+feel as if my limbs had been torn on the rack. I have been three times
+up the steps of the high altar already to-day, and am tired as a dog.”
+
+“Here is your favorite soup, padre,” said Jekyl, as he moved the ladle
+through a smoking compound, whence a rich odor of tomato and garlic
+ascended. “This will make you young again.”
+
+“And who said I would wish to be young again?” cried the priest,
+angrily. “I have experience of what youth means every day in the
+confessional, and I promise you age has the best of it.”
+
+“Such a ripe and ruddy age as yours, padre!” said the girl, with
+affected simplicity.
+
+[Illustration:  274]
+
+“Just so, minx,” rejoined he; “such ripeness as portends falling from
+the tree! Better even that than to be worm-eaten on the stalk; ay, or a
+wasp's nest within, girl, you understand me.”
+
+“You will never be good friends for half an hour together,” said Jekyl,
+as he filled their glasses with champagne, and then touching his own to
+each, drank off a bumper.
+
+“These are from Savoy, these truffles, and have no flavor,” said the
+padre, pushing away his plate. “Let me taste that lobster, for this is a
+half-fast to-day.”
+
+“They are like the priests,” said Nina, laughing; “all black without and
+rotten within!”
+
+“The ball went off admirably last night,” interposed Jekyl, to stop what
+he foresaw might prove a sharp altercation.
+
+“Yes,” said Nina, languidly. “The dresses were fresher than the wearers.
+It was the first time for much of the satin, the same could not be said
+for many of the company.”
+
+“The Balderoni looked well,” said Jekyl.
+
+“Too fat, caro mio, too fat!” replied Nina.
+
+“And she has eight penances in the week,” grunted out the canon.
+
+“There 's nothing like wickedness for embonpoint, padre,” said Nina,
+laughing.
+
+“Angels always are represented as chubby girls,” said the priest, whose
+temper seemed to improve as he ate on.
+
+“Midchekoff, I thought, was out of temper all the evening,” resumed
+Jekyl; “he went about with his glass in his eye, seeking for flaws in
+the lapis lazuli, or retouches in the pictures; and seemed terribly
+provoked at the goodness of the supper.”
+
+“I forgive him all, for not dancing with 'my Lady,'” said Nina. “She
+kept herself disengaged for the prince for half the night, and the only
+reward was his Russian compliment of, 'What a bore is a ball when one is
+past the age of dancing!'”
+
+“Did the Noncio eat much?” asked the padre, who seemed at once curious
+and envious about the dignitary.
+
+“He played whist all night,” said Jekyl, “and never changed his
+partner!”
+
+“The old Marchesa Guidotti?”
+
+“The same. You know of that, then, padre?” asked Jekyl.
+
+A grunt and a nod were all the response.
+
+“What a curious chapter on 'La vie privee' of Florence your revelations
+might be, padre!” said Jekyl, as if reflectingly. “What a deal of
+iniquity, great and small, comes to your ears every season!”
+
+“What a vast amount of it has its origin in that little scheming brain
+of thine, Signor Jekyli, and in the fertile wits of your fair neighbor.
+The unhappy marriages thou hast made; the promising unions thou hast
+broken; the doubts thou hast scattered here, the dark suspicions
+there; the rightful distrust thou hast lulled, the false confidences
+encouraged, youth, youth, thou hast a terrible score to answer for!”
+
+“When I think of the long catalogue of villany you have been listening
+to, padre, not only without an effort, but a wish to check; when every
+sin recorded has figured in your ledger, with its little price annexed;
+when you have looked out upon the stormy sea of society, as a wrecker
+ranges his eye over an iron-bound coast in a gale, and thinks of the
+'waifs' that soon will be his own; when, as I have myself seen you, you
+have looked indulgently down on petty transgressions, that must one day
+become big sins, and, like a skilful angler, throw the little fish back
+into the stream, in the confidence that when full-grown you can take
+them, when you have done all these things and a thousand more, padre,
+I cannot help muttering to myself, Age, age, what a terrible score thou
+hast to answer for!”
+
+“I must say,” interposed Nina, “you are both very bad company, and that
+nothing can be in worse taste than this interchange of compliments. You
+are both right to amuse yourselves in this world as your faculties best
+point out, but each radically wrong in attributing motives to the other.
+What, in all that is wonderful, have we to do with motives? I'm sure _I_
+have no grudges to cherish, no debts of dislike to pay off, anywhere.
+Any diablerie I take part in, is for pure mischief sake. I do think it
+rather a hard case, that, with somewhat better features, and I know a
+far shrewder wit than many others, I should perform second and third
+rate parts in this great comedy of life, while many without higher
+qualifications are 'cast for the best characters.' This little score I
+do try and exact, not from individuals, but the world at large. Mischief
+with me is the child's pleasure in deranging the chessmen when the
+players are most intent on the game.”
+
+“Now, as to these Onslows, for we must be practical, padre mio,” said
+Jekyl, “let us see what is to be done with them. As regards matrimony,
+the real prize has left for England, this Dalton girl may or may not be
+a 'hit;' some aver that she is heiress to a large estate, of which the
+Onslows have obtained possession, and that they destine her for the
+young Guardsman. This must be inquired into. My Lady has 'excellent
+dispositions,' and may have become anything or everything.”
+
+“Let her come to 'the Church,' then,” growled out the canon.
+
+“Gently, padre, gently,” said Jekyl, “you are really too covetous, and
+would drag the river always from your own net. We have been generous,
+hugely generous, to you for the last three seasons, and have made all
+your converts the pets of society, no matter how small and insignificant
+their pretensions. The vulgar have been adopted in the best circles, the
+ugly dubbed beautiful, the most tiresome of old maids have been reissued
+from the mint as new coinage. We have petted, flattered, and fawned upon
+those 'interesting Christians,' as the 'Tablet' would call them, till
+the girls began to feel that there were no partners for a polka outside
+the Church of Rome, and that all the 'indulgences' of pleasure, like
+those of religion, came from the Pope. We cannot give you the Onslows,
+or, at least, not yet. We have yet to marry the daughter, provide for
+the friend, squeeze the sou.”
+
+“Profligate young villain! Reach me the champagne, Nina; and, Nina, tell
+your young mistress that it is scarcely respectful to come on foot to
+the mid-day mass; that the clergy of the town like to see the equipages
+of the rich before the doors of the cathedral, as a suitable homage to
+the Church. The Onslows have carriages in abundance, and their liveries
+are gorgeous and splendid!”
+
+“It was her own choice,” said Nina; “she is a singular girl for one that
+never before knew luxury of any kind.”
+
+“I hate these simple tastes,” growled out the padre; “they bespeak that
+obstinacy which people call a 'calm temperament.' Her own dress, too,
+has no indication of her rank, Nina.”
+
+“That shall be cared for, padre.”
+
+“Why shouldn't that young soldier come along with her? Tell him that
+our choir is magnificent; whisper him that the beautiful Marchesa di
+Guardoni sits on the very bench beside Miss Dalton.”
+
+Nina nodded an assent.
+
+“The young girl herself is lax enough about her duties, Nina; she has
+not been even once to confession.”
+
+“That comes of these English!” cried Nina; “they make our service a
+constant jest. There is always some vulgar quizzing about saint-worship,
+or relic reverence, or the secrets of the confessional, going on amongst
+them.”
+
+“Does she permit this?” asked the priest, eagerly.
+
+“She blushes sometimes, occasionally she smiles with a good-humor meant
+to deprecate these attacks, and now and then, when the sallies have been
+pushed too far, I have seen her in tears some hours after.”
+
+“Oh, if these heretics would but abstain from ridicule!” cried the
+canon. “The least lettered amongst them can scoff and gibe and rail.
+They have their stock subjects of sarcasm, too, handed down from father
+to son, poor, witless little blasphemies, thefts from Voltaire, who
+laughed at themselves, and much mischief do they work! Let them begin to
+read, however, let them commence to 'inquire,' as the phrase has it, and
+the game is our own.”
+
+“I think, padre,” said Jekyl, “that more of your English converts are
+made upon principles of pure economy. Popery, like truffles, is so cheap
+abroad!”
+
+“Away with you! away with you!” cried the padre, rebukingly. “They
+come to us as the children seek their mother's breast. Hand me the
+maccaroni.”
+
+“Padre mio,” broke in Jekyl, “I wish you would be Catholic enough to be
+less Popish. We have other plots in hand here, besides increasing the
+funds of the 'Holy Carmelites;' and while we are disputing about the
+spoil, the game may betake themselves to other hunting-grounds. These
+Onslows must not be suffered to go hence.”
+
+“Albert is right,” interposed Nina. “When the 'Midchekoff' condescends
+to think himself in love with the Dalton girl, when the Guardsman has
+lost some thousands more than he can pay, when my Lady has offended one
+half of Florence and bullied the other, then the city will have taken a
+hold upon their hearts, and you may begin your crusade when you please.
+Indeed, I am not sure, if the season be a dull one, I would not listen
+to you myself.”
+
+“As you listened once before to the Abbe D'Esmonde,” said the canon,
+maliciously.
+
+The girl's cheek became deep red, and even over neck and shoulders the
+scarlet flush spread, while her eyes flashed a look of fiery passion.
+
+“Do you dare are you insolent enough to--”
+
+Her indignation had carried her thus far, when, by a sudden change of
+temper, she stopped, and clasping her hands over her face, burst into
+tears.
+
+Jekyl motioned the priest to be silent, while, gently leading the other
+into the adjoining room, he drew the curtain, and left her alone.
+
+“How could you say that?” said he, “you, padre, who know that this is
+more than jest?”
+
+“Spare not the sinner, neither let the stripes be light, 'Non sit levis
+flagella,' says Origen.”
+
+“Are the ortolans good, padre?” asked Jekyl, while his eye glittered
+with an intense appreciation of the old canon's hypocrisy.
+
+“They, are delicious! succulent and tender,” said the priest, wiping his
+lips. “Francesco does them to perfection.”
+
+“You at least believe in a cook,” said Jekyl, but in so low a voice as
+to escape the other's notice.
+
+“She is sobbing still,” said the canon, in a whisper, and with a gesture
+towards the curtained doorway. “I like to hear them gulping down their
+sighs. It is like the glug-glug of a rich flask of 'Lagrime.'”
+
+“But don't you pity them, padre?” asked Jekyl, in mock earnestness.
+
+“Never! never! First of all, they do not suffer in all these outbursts.
+It is but decanting their feelings into another vessel, and they love it
+themselves! I have had them for hours together thus in the confessional,
+and they go away after, so relieved in mind and so light of heart, there
+'s no believing it.”
+
+“But Nina,” said Jekyl, seriously, “is not one of these.”
+
+“She is a woman,” rejoined the padre, “and it is only a priest can read
+them.”
+
+“You see human nature as the physician does, padre, always in some
+aspect of suffering. Of its moods of mirth and levity you know less than
+we do, who pass more butterfly lives!”
+
+“True in one sense, boy; ours are the stony paths, ours are the weary
+roads in life! I like that Burgundy.”
+
+“It 's very pleasant, padre. It is part of a case I ordered for the
+Onslows, but their butler shook the bottle when bringing it to table,
+and they begged me to get rid of it.”
+
+“These wines are not suited to Italy generally,” said the canon; “but
+Florence has the merit of possessing all climates within the bounds of
+a single day, and even Chambertin is scarcely generous enough when the
+Tramontana is blowing!”
+
+“Well, have you become better mannered? May I venture to come in?” cried
+Nina, appearing at the doorway.
+
+“'Venga pure! Venga pure!'” growled out the canon. “I forgive thee
+everything. Sit down beside me, and let us pledge a friendship forever.”
+
+“There, then, let this be a peace-offering,” said she, taking the wreath
+of flowers from her own head and placing it on the brows of the padre.
+“You are now like the old Bacchus in the Boboli.”
+
+“And thou like--”
+
+“Like what? Speak it out!” cried she, angrily.
+
+“Come, come, do, I beseech you, be good friends,” interposed Jekyl. “We
+have met for other objects than to exchange reproaches.”
+
+“These are but the 'iras amantium.' boy,” said the priest; “the girl
+loves me with her whole heart.”
+
+“How you read my most secret thoughts!” said she, with a coquettish
+affectation of sincerity.
+
+“Lectiones pravissimae would they be!” muttered he, between his teeth.
+
+“What is that? What is he mumbling there, Albert?” cried she, hastily.
+
+“It is a benediction, Nina,” replied Jekyl; “did you not hear the
+Latin?”
+
+Peace was at last restored, and what between the adroit devices of Jekyl
+and the goodness of his champagne, a feeling of pleasant sociality now
+succeeded to all the bickering in which the festivity was prolonged to
+a late hour. The graver business which brought them together the Onslows
+and their affairs being discussed, they gave way to all the seductions
+of their exalted fancies. Jekyl, taking up his guitar, warbled out a
+French love song, in a little treble a bullfinch might have envied;
+Nina, with the aid of the padre's beads for castanets, stepped the
+measure of a bolero; while the old priest himself broke out into a long
+chant, in which Ovid, Petrarch, Anacreon, and his breviary alternately
+figured, and under the influence of which he fell fast asleep at last,
+totally unconscious of the corked moustaches and eyebrows with which
+Nina ornamented his reverend countenance.
+
+The sound of wheels in the silent street at last admonished them of
+the hour, and opening the window, Jekyl saw a brougham belonging to Sir
+Stafford just drawing up at the door.
+
+“Francois is punctual,” said Nina, looking at her watch; “I told him
+five o'clock.”
+
+“Had we not better set him down first?” said Jekyl, with a gesture
+toward the priest; “he does not live far away.”
+
+“With all my heart,” replied she; “but you're not going to wash his
+face?”
+
+“Of course I am, Nina. The jest might cost us far more than it was
+worth.” And so saying, Jekyl proceeded to arrange the disordered dress
+and dishevelled hair of the padre, during the performance of which the
+old priest recovered sufficient consciousness to permit himself to be
+led downstairs and deposited in the carriage.
+
+An hour later and all was still! Jekyl slumbering peacefully on his
+little French bed, over which the rose-colored mosquito curtains threw
+a softened half-sunset hue; a gentle smile parted his lips, as in his
+dreams the dreams of a happy and contented nature he wove pleasant
+fancies and devised many a future scheme.
+
+In his own dreary little den, behind the “Duomo,” the padre also slept
+heavily, not a thought, not a single passing idea breaking the stagnant
+surface of his deep lethargy.
+
+Nina, however, was wakeful, and had no mind for repose. Her brilliant
+costume carefully laid aside, she was arranging her dark hair into its
+habitually modest braid; her very features composing themselves, as she
+did so, into their wonted aspect of gentleness and submission.
+
+All the change of dress being little in comparison with the complete
+alteration now observable in her whole air and demeanor, she seemed a
+totally different being. And she was so, too; for while hypocrites
+to the world, we completely forget that we share in the deception
+ourselves.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV. A MIDNIGHT RECEPTION
+
+IT was past midnight, the Opera was just over, and the few privileged
+guests who were permitted to pay their visits to Lady Hester Onslow
+were assembled in the little drawing-room and boudoir sacred to these
+exclusive receptions. Nothing could be in stronger contrast than the
+gorgeous splendor of the apartment and the half-dressed, careless,
+lounging ease of the men as they stretched themselves on the ottomans,
+lounged on the sofas, or puffed their cigars, alike indifferent to the
+place and the presence of two ladies who, dressed in the very perfection
+of “toilette,” did the honors of the reception.
+
+Lady Hester, who wore a small embroidered velvet cap, coquettishly set
+on one side of the head, and a species of velvet jacket, such as is
+common in Greece, lay upon a sofa beneath a canopy of pink silk covered
+with lace; a most splendidly ornamented hooka, the emerald mouthpiece of
+which she held in her hand, stood on a little cushion beside her; while
+grouped around in every attitude that taste and caprice suggested on
+chairs, on cushions, squabs, “Prie-Dieu” and other drawing-room devices
+of a like nature were some half-dozen men, whose air and bearing
+pronounced them long habituated to all the usages of society. One stamp
+of feature and style pervaded all; pale, dark-eyed, black-bearded,
+and weary-looking, they seemed as though they were tired of a life of
+dissipation, and yet utterly incapable of engaging in any other.
+
+All born to high rank, some to large fortune, they found that no other
+career was open to them except vice in one shape or other. The policy
+of their rulers had excluded them from every road of honorable ambition;
+neither as statesmen nor soldiers could they hope to win fame or glory.
+Their habits of life and the tone of society gave no impulse to the
+cultivation of science or literature. The topics discussed in their
+circle never by chance adverted to a book; and there they were, with
+heads whose development indicated all that was intellectual, with brows
+and foreheads that betokened every gift of mental excellence, wearing
+away life in the dullest imaginable routine of dissipation, their minds
+neglected, their hearts corrupted, enervated in body, and deprived of
+all energy of character; they wore, even in youth, the exhausted look of
+age, and bore in every lineament of their features the type of lassitude
+and discontent.
+
+In the adjoining room sat Kate Dalton at a tea-table. She was costumed
+for we cannot use any milder word in a species of “moyen-age” dress,
+whose length of stomacher and deep-hanging sleeves recalled the
+portraits of Titian's time; a small cap covered the back of her head,
+through an aperture in which the hair appeared, its rich auburn masses
+fastened by a short stiletto of gold, whose hilt and handle were studded
+with precious stones; a massive gold chain, with a heavy cross of the
+same metal, was the only ornament she wore. Widely different as was the
+dress from that humble guise in which the reader first knew her, the
+internal change was even greater still; no longer the bashful, blushing
+girl, beaming with all the delight of a happy nature, credulous,
+light-hearted, and buoyant, she was now composed in feature, calm, and
+gentle-mannered; the placid smile that moved her lips, the graceful
+motion of her head, her slightest gestures, her least words, all
+displaying a polished ease and elegance which made even her beauty and
+attraction secondary to the fascination of her manner. It is true the
+generous frankness of her beaming eyes was gone; she no longer met you
+with a look of full and fearless confidence: the cordial warmth, the
+fresh and buoyant sallies of her ready wit, had departed, and in their
+place was a timid reserve, a cautious, shrinking delicacy, blended with
+a quiet but watchful spirit of repartee, that flattered by the very
+degree of attention it betokened.
+
+Perhaps our reader will not feel pleased with us for saying that she was
+more beautiful now than before; that intercourse with the world, dress,
+manners, the tact of society, the stimulus of admiration, the assured
+sense of her own charms, however they may have detracted from the moral
+purity of her nature, had yet invested her appearance with higher and
+more striking fascinations. Her walk, her courtesy, the passing motion
+of her hand, her attitude as she sat, were perfect studies of grace.
+Not a trace was left of her former manner; all was ease, pliancy,
+and elegance. Two persons were seated near her: one of these, our old
+acquaintance, George Onslow; the other was a dark, sallow-visaged man,
+whose age might have been anything from thirty-five to sixty, for, while
+his features were marked by the hard lines of time, his figure had all
+the semblance of youth. By a broad blue ribbon round his neck he wore
+the decoration of Saint Nicholas, and the breast of his coat was covered
+with stars, crosses, and orders of half the courts of Europe. This was
+Prince Midchekoff, whose grandfather, having taken an active part in
+the assassination of the Emperor Paul, had never been reconciled to
+the Imperial family, and was permitted to reside in a kind of honorable
+banishment out of Russia; a punishment which he bore up under, it was
+said, with admirable fortitude. His fortune was reputed to be immense,
+and there was scarcely a capital of Europe in which he did not possess
+a residence. The character of his face was peculiar, for while the
+forehead and eyes were intellectual and candid, the lower jaw and mouth
+revealed his Calmuck origin, an expression of intense, unrelenting
+cruelty being the impression at once conveyed by the thin, straight,
+compressed lips, and the long, projecting chin, seeming even longer
+from the black-pointed beard he wore. There was nothing vulgar or
+common-place about him; he never could have passed unobserved anywhere,
+and yet he was equally far from the type of high birth. His manners
+were perfectly well bred; and although he spoke seldom, his quiet and
+attentive air and his easy smile showed he possessed the still rarer
+quality of listening well.
+
+There was another figure, not exactly of this group, but at a little
+distance off, beside a table in a recess, on which a number of prints
+and drawings were scattered, and in the contemplation of which he
+affected to be absorbed; while, from time to time, his dark eyes
+flashed rapidly across to note all that went forward. He was a tall and
+singularly handsome man, in the dress of a priest. His hair, black and
+waving, covered a forehead high, massive, and well developed; his eyes
+were deep-set, and around the orbits ran lines that told of long and
+hard study, for the Abbe D'Esmonde was a distinguished scholar; and, as
+a means of withdrawing him for a season from the overtoil of reading,
+he had been attached temporarily as a species of Under-secretary to
+the Mission of the “Nonce.” In this guise he was admitted into all the
+society of the capital, where his polished address and gentle manner
+soon made him a general favorite.
+
+Equally removed from the flippant levity of the abbe as a class, and
+the gross and sensual coarseness of the “old priest,” D'Esmonde was a
+perfect man of the world, so far as taking a lively interest in all the
+great events of politics, watching eagerly the changeful features of the
+times, and studying acutely the characters of the leading men, at whose
+dictates they were modified. Its pleasures and amusements, too, he was
+willing to partake of moderately and unobtrusively; but he held himself
+far apart from all those subjects of gossip and small-talk which, in a
+society of lax morality, occupy so considerable a space, and in which
+the great dignitaries who wear scarlet and purple stockings are often
+seen to take a lively and animated share. Some ascribed this reserve
+to principle; others called it hypocrisy; and some, again, perhaps with
+more truth, deemed it the settled line of action of one who already
+destined himself for a high and conspicuous station, and had determined
+that his character should add weight and dignity to his talents.
+
+It might have been thought that he was a singular guest to have
+been admitted to receptions like the present; but Jekyl, who managed
+everything, had invited him, on the principle, as he said, that a
+gourmand has a decanter of water always beside him at dinner, “not to
+drink, but because it looks temperate.” The abbe's presence had the same
+effect; and, certainly, his calm and dignified demeanor, his polished
+address, and cultivated tone, were excellent certificates of good
+character for the rest.
+
+At the tea-table the conversation languished, or only went forward at
+intervals. Onslow's French was not fluent, and he was silent from
+shame. Kate felt that she ought not to take the lead; and the Prince,
+habitually reserved, spoke very little, and even that in the discursive,
+unconnected tone of a man who was always accustomed to find that any
+topic he started should be instantly adopted by the company.
+
+The cold and steady stare with which he surveyed her would, but a short
+time back, have covered her face with a blush; she could not have borne
+unabashed the glance of searching, almost insolent meaning he bestowed
+upon her; but now, whatever her heart might have felt, her features
+were calm and passionless; nor did she in the slightest degree show any
+consciousness of a manner that was costing Onslow a struggle whether to
+laugh at or resent.
+
+In one sense these two men were rivals, but each so impressed with
+proud contempt for the other, their rivalry was unknown to both. Kate,
+however, with her woman's tact, saw this, and knew well how her least
+smile or slightest word inclined the balance to this side or to that.
+The Prince was inveighing against the habit of wintering in Italy as one
+of the most capital blunders of the age.
+
+“We forget,” said he, “that, in our present civilization, art is always
+first and nature second, as we see evidenced in all the results of
+agriculture. It is not the most fertile soil, but the highest-labored
+one which produces the best fruits. So with respect to climate, we never
+bear in mind that, where nature does most, man always does least.”
+
+“According to that rule, Prince, we should winter at St. Petersburg, and
+spend the dog-days at Calcutta,” said Kate, smiling.
+
+“So we should,” replied he; “the appliances to resist heat or cold, of
+man's invention, are far better adapted to enjoyment than the accidental
+variations of climate.”
+
+“In my country,” said Onslow, tartly, “men study less how to avoid the
+inclemencies of weather than to become indifferent to them. Hunting,
+shooting, and deer-stalking are very sure methods to acquire this.”
+
+The Prince paid no attention to the remark, but turned the conversation
+into another channel, by asking Kate if she had ever read Fourier's
+book. From this he wandered away to the characteristic differences
+of national music, thence to the discoveries then making in Central
+America, and lastly, engaged her in an animated discussion of the
+question of slavery. On none of these points was he deeply or even well
+informed, but he possessed that fluency and facility which intercourse
+with society confers; and as all his knowledge was derived from men,
+and not from books, it bore a certain stamp of originality about it
+that secured attention. Not, indeed, from George Onslow; he was the most
+bored of men. None of the topics were his topics. Of Tattersall's, the
+Guards' Club, the society of London, the odds on the “Derby,” he could
+have discoursed well and pleasantly. From what was “wrong” with the
+Sa'nbucca filly to what was not right with Lady Flutterton's niece, he
+could have told you everything; but all these other themes were, in his
+estimation, but sheer pedantry, and, indeed, they only lacked a little
+knowledge a very little would have sufficed to be so.
+
+“He is gone,” said the Prince, with a caustic smile which revealed a
+plan; “gone at last.”
+
+“So, then, this was a device of yours, Prince,” said she, laughing. “I
+really must call my cousin back and tell him so.”
+
+“No, no,” said he, seriously. “I have won my battle, let me profit by
+my victory. Let me speak to you on another subject.” He drew his chair
+a little nearer to the table as he spoke, and laid his arm on it. Kate's
+heart beat fast and full; and the color came and went rapidly in her
+cheek. A vague sense of fear, of shame, and of triumphant pride were all
+at conflict within her. There was but one theme in the world that
+could have warranted such a commencement, so serious, so grave, so
+purpose-like. Was this, then, possible?
+
+The glittering stars all a blaze of brilliants that shone beside her
+seemed an emblem of that high state which was now within her reach; and
+what a torrent of varied emotions rushed through her heart! Of home, of
+her father, of Nelly, of Frank; and, lastly, what thoughts of George,
+poor George, whom she knew loved her, and to whom, without loving, she
+was not altogether indifferent. “Do not be agitated, Mademoiselle,” said
+the prince, laying the slightest touch of his jewelled fingers on her
+arm. “I ask a little patience and a little calm consideration for what I
+am about to say.”
+
+“Is that really like an Irish peasant's cottage, Miss Daiton?” said the
+abbe, as he held before her a drawing of one, in all the details of its
+most striking misery.
+
+“Yes, perfectly; not exaggerated in the least,” said she, hurriedly
+blushing alike at the surprise and the interruption.
+
+“You have no such misery, Monsieur le Prince, in Russia, I believe?”
+ remarked the priest, with a courteous bend of the head.
+
+“We are well governed, sir; and nothing displays it more palpably than
+that no man forgets his station,” said the prince, with an insolent
+hauteur that made Kate blush over neck and forehead, while D'Esmonde
+stood calm and passionless under the sarcasm.
+
+“So I have always heard, sir,” said he, blandly. “I remember, when at
+Wredna--”
+
+“You have been at Wredna?” asked the Prince, in an altered voice.
+
+But the other, not heeding the interruption, went on:
+
+“I remember, when at Wredna, to have heard an anecdote which strikingly
+illustrates the rigid obedience yielded to power, and the condition of
+public opinion at the same time. A manumitted slave, who was raised to
+high rank and wealth by the favor of the Czar, had returned to Wredna
+in the capacity of governor. A short time after his arrival he was
+tormented by applications and letters from a woman in great poverty
+who asserted that she was his mother. Fedeorovna, of course in secret,
+proved the truth of her assertion; but the only answer she received was
+a significant caution to be silent, and not appeal to a relationship
+which could only prove offensive. Perhaps incredulous of the authentic
+character of so cruel a reply, perhaps stung to angry indignation by it,
+she carried the humble basket of fruit and vegetables that she hawked
+for a livelihood before the door of the great mansion where her son
+resided; but, instead of advertising her wares, as is customary in these
+Muscovite markets, by some picture of a saint or some holy inscription,
+she carried a little placard, with the inscription, 'The Mother of
+Alexovitch,' the name of the Governor. A crowd soon gathered around this
+singular booth, heralded by so strange an announcement, and as speedily
+the police resorted to the spot, and carried the offender before the
+judge. The defence was the simple one that she had merely averred the
+truth. I need not weary you with the mockery of investigation that
+followed; the result is all I need tell. This woman was knouted and sent
+away to Siberia. So much for the Governor. As for the governed, they
+were enthusiastic in praise of his justice and clemency; for he might
+have ordered her to be beheaded.”
+
+“Do you tell the story as a fact, sir?” said the Prince, whose dark
+cheek became almost green in its sallowness as he spoke.
+
+“I tell it distinctly as a fact. The Papa who received the woman's
+confession repeated the tale on his own deathbed, from whence it reached
+me.”
+
+“Priests can be liars, whether Greek or Roman,” said the Prince, in a
+voice almost suffocated with passion; and then, suddenly checking the
+course of his anger, he turned to Kate with a sickly smile, and said,
+“Mademoiselle will pardon a rudeness in her presence which nothing short
+of so gross a calumny could have elicited.”
+
+“I will furnish you with all the names to-morrow, Monsieur le Prince,”
+ said D'Esmonde, in a whisper; and sauntered away into the adjoining
+room.
+
+“You look pale, Miss Dalton,” said the Prince.
+
+“That shocking story--”
+
+“Which of course you don't believe.”
+
+“The Abbe D'Esmonde I have always heard to be a person of strict
+veracity and of extreme caution.”
+
+“Be careful of him, Miss Dalton. It is not without good reason that I
+say this.”
+
+There was a degree of solemnity in the way he uttered these words that
+made Kate thoughtful and serious. Unaccustomed to see, in society,
+anything but features of pleasure and amusement, she was suddenly
+awakened to the conviction that its calm waters covered rocks and
+quicksands as perilous as stormier seas. Could people so full of
+amiabilities be dangerous acquaintances? Was there poison in this
+charmed cup? Was the doubt which sprang to her mind But she had not time
+for the inquiry, as the Prince offered her his arm to the supper-room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV. A “LEVANTER.”
+
+IN our penal settlements nothing is more common than to find the places
+of honor and distinction filled by men who were once convicts, and who
+may date the favorable turn of their fortune to the day of their having
+transgressed the law. So in certain Continental cities are individuals
+to be found occupying conspicuous stations, and enjoying a large share
+of influence, whose misdeeds at home first made them exiles, and who,
+leaving England in shame, are received abroad with honor. There is this
+difference between the two cases; for while the convict owes all his
+future advancement to his own efforts at reformation, the absentee
+obtains his “brevet” of character by the simple fact of his extradition.
+He shakes off his rascalities as he does his rheumatism, when he quits
+the foggy climate of England, and emerges spotless and without stain
+upon the shores of Ostend or Boulogne.
+
+To do this, however, he must not bear a plebeian name, nor pertain to
+the undistinguishable herd of vulgar folk. He must belong to some family
+of mark and note, with peers for his uncles and peeresses for cousins;
+nor is he always safe if he himself be not a member of an hereditary
+legislature. We have been led to these reflections by having to
+chronicle the arrival in Florence of Lord Norwood; a vague and confused
+murmur of his having done something, people knew not what, in England
+having preceded him. Some called him “poor Norwood,” and expressed
+sorrow for him; others said he was a capital fellow, up to everything,
+and that they were delighted at his coming. A few, of very tender and
+languishing virtue themselves, wondered if they ought to meet him as
+before; but the prevailing impression was charitable. The affair
+at Graham's might have been exaggerated, the Newmarket business was
+possibly a mistake. “Any man might owe money, and not be able to
+pay it,” was a sentiment pretty generally repeated and as generally
+believed; and, in fact, if to be tried by one's peers be an English
+privilege, the noble Viscount here enjoyed it at the hands of a jury
+unimpeachable on the score of equality.
+
+We are far from suggesting that Norwood's character as a “shot” had any
+concern with this mild verdict; but certain it is, his merits in this
+capacity were frequently remembered, and always with honorable mention.
+
+“No man plays ecarte better,” said Haggerstone, while as yet the
+Viscount's arrival was unknown, and as he discussed the rumors upon him
+before a group of listening Englishmen at the door of the “Club”. “No
+man plays ecarte better, nor with better luck!” added he, with a chuckle
+that was intended to convey a meaning beyond the mere words.
+
+“Has he been a large winner, then?” asked one of the bystanders,
+respectfully, looking to the Colonel for information; for, in a certain
+set, he was regarded as the most thoroughly conversant man with all the
+faults and follies of high life.
+
+“No man wins invariably, sir, except Brooke Morris, perhaps,” replied
+he, always happy at the opportunity to quote the name of a man of
+fashion in a tone of familiarity.
+
+“That was the Mo-Mo-Morris that ruined Hopeton, was n't it?” broke in
+Purvis, quite forgetting that the individual he addressed was reported
+to have a share in the transaction. Haggerstone, however, did not deign
+a reply, but puffed his cigar in perfect contempt of his questioner.
+
+“Who is this coming up here?” said one; “he looks like a new arrival.
+He is English, certainly; that frock has a London cut there's no
+mistaking.”
+
+“By Jove, it's Norwood!” cried Haggerstone, edging away, as he
+spoke, from the group. Meanwhile, the noble Viscount, a well-dressed,
+well-whiskered man, of about thirty, came leisurely forward, and
+touching his hat familiarly, said,
+
+“Ha! you here, Haggerstone! What is Florence doing?”
+
+“Pretty much as it always did, my Lord. I don't think its morals have
+improved since you knew it a few years ago.”
+
+“Or you wouldn't be here, Haggy, eh?” said the Viscount, laughing at his
+own joke. “Not suit your book if it took a virtuous turn, eh?”
+
+“I plead guilty, my Lord. I believe I do like to shoot folly as it
+flies.”
+
+“Ah, yes! And I've seen you taking a sitting shot at it too, Haggy,”
+ said the other, with a heartier laugh, which, despite of the Colonel's
+efforts not to feel, brought a crimson flush to his cheek.
+
+“Is there any play going on, Haggy?”
+
+“Nothing that you would call play, my Lord; a little whist for Nap
+points, a little ecarte, a little piquet, and, now and then, we have a
+round game at Sabloukoff's.”
+
+“Poor old fellow! and he 's alive still? And where 's the Jariominski?”
+
+“Gone back to Russia.”
+
+“And Maretti?”
+
+“In Saint Angelo, I believe.”
+
+“And that little Frenchman what was his name? his father was a Marshal
+of the Empire.”
+
+“D'Acosta.”
+
+“The same. Where is he?”
+
+“Shot himself this spring.”
+
+“Pretty girl, his sister. What became of her?”
+
+“Some one told me that she had become a Soeur de Charite.”
+
+“What a pity! So they 're all broken up, I see.”
+
+“Completely so.”
+
+“Then what have you got in their place?”
+
+“Nothing fast, my Lord, except, perhaps, your friends the Onslows.”
+
+“Yes; they 're going it, I hear. Is n't there a rich niece, or cousin,
+or something of that sort, with them?”
+
+“They've got a prettyish girl, called Dalton; but as to her being rich,
+I think it very unlikely, seeing that her family are living in Germany
+in a state of the very closest poverty.”
+
+“And Master George, how does he carry on the war?” said the Viscount,
+who seemed quite heedless of the other's correction.
+
+“He plays a little peddling ecarte now and then; but you can see that he
+has burned his fingers, and dreads the fire. They say he 's in love with
+the Dalton girl.”
+
+“Of course he is, if they live in the same house; and he 's just the
+kind of fool to marry her, too. Who 's that little fellow, listening to
+us?”
+
+“Purvis, my Lord; don't you remember him? He's one of the Ricketts's
+set.”
+
+“To be sure I do. How are you, Purvis? You look so young and so fresh, I
+could not persuade myself it could be my old acquaintance.”
+
+“I 've taken to homoe-homoe-homoe-homo--” Here he opened his mouth wide,
+and gasped till he grew black in the face.
+
+“What's the word? Give it him, Haggy. It's all up with him,” said the
+Viscount.
+
+“Homoeopathy, eh?”
+
+“Just so. Homeo-hom--”
+
+“Confound it, man, can't you be satisfied? when you're once over the
+fence, you need n't go back to leap it. And how is the dear what's her
+name Agathe? no, Zoe, how is she?”
+
+“Quite well, my Lord, and would be cha-cha-cha-rmed to see you.”
+
+“Living in that queer humbug still, eh?”
+
+“In the Vill-ino, my Lord, you mean?”
+
+“Egad! she seems the only thing left; like the dog on the wreck, eh,
+Haggy?”
+
+“Just so, my Lord,” said the other, with a complacent laugh.
+
+“What a mass of old crockery she must have got together by this
+time!” said the Viscount, yawning with a terrible recollection of her
+tiresomeness.
+
+“You came out with a yacht, my Lord?” asked Haggerstone.
+
+“Pretty well, for a man that they call ru-ru-ruined,” said Purvis,
+laughing.
+
+Norwood turned a look of angry indignation at him, and then, as if
+seeing the unworthiness of the object, merely said,
+
+“A yacht is the only real economy nowadays. You get rid at once of all
+trains of servants, household, stable people; even the bores of your
+acquaintance you cut off. By-by, Purvis.” And, with a significant wink
+at Haggerstone, he passed across the street, in time to overtake Onslow,
+who was just passing.
+
+“I think I ga-ga-gave it him there,” cried Purvis, with an hysteric
+giggle of delight; who, provided that he was permitted to fire his shot,
+never cared how severely he was himself riddled by the enemy's fire.
+Meanwhile, the Viscount and his friend were hastening forward to the
+Mazzarini Palace, as totally forgetful of Purvis as though that valuable
+individual had never existed.
+
+We may take this opportunity to mention, that when the rumors which
+attributed a grand breach of honorable conduct to Lord Norwood had
+arrived at Florence, Sir Stafford, who never had any peculiar affection
+for the Viscount, declared himself in the very strongest terms on the
+subject of his offending, and took especial pains to show the marked
+distinction between occasions of mere wasteful extravagance and
+instances of fraudulent and dishonest debt.
+
+It was in vain he was told that the rigid rule of English morality is
+always relaxed abroad, and that the moral latitude is very different in
+London and Naples. He was old-fashioned enough to believe that honor
+is the same in all climates; and having received from England a very
+detailed and specific history of the noble Lord's misdoings, he firmly
+resolved not to receive him.
+
+With all George Onslow's affection and respect for his father, he could
+not help feeling that this was a mere prejudice, one of the lingering
+remnants of a past age; a sentiment very respectable, perhaps, but
+totally inapplicable to present civilization, and quite impracticable in
+society. In fact, as he said himself, “Who is to be known, if this rule
+be acted on? What man or, further still, what woman of fashionable life
+will stand this scrutiny? To attempt such exclusiveness, one should
+retire to some remote provincial town, some fishing-village of
+patriarchal simplicity; and, even there, what security was there against
+ignoble offendings? How should, he stand the ridicule of his club and
+his acquaintance if he attempted to assume such a standard?” These
+arguments were strengthened by his disbelief, or rather his repugnance
+to believe the worst of Norwood; and furthermore, supported by Lady
+Hester's open scorn for all such “hypocritical trumpery,” and her avowal
+that the Viscount should be received, by her, at least. Exactly as of
+old, George Onslow's mind was in a state of oscillation and doubt
+now leaning to this side, now inclining to that when the question was
+decided for him, as it so often is in like cases, by a mere accident;
+for, as he loitered along the street, he suddenly felt an arm introduced
+within his own. He turned hastily round and saw Norwood, who, with, all
+his customary coolness, asked after each member of the family, and at
+once proposed to pay them a visit.
+
+Of all men living, none were less suited than Onslow for assuming any
+part, or taking any decisive line, which could possibly be avoided, or
+even postponed. He hated, besides, to do an ungracious thing anywhere,
+or to any one. It might be, thought he, that Norwood's scrape could all
+be explained away. Perhaps, after all, the thing is a mere trifle; and
+if he were to take the decided line of cutting a man without due cause,
+the consequences might be most injurious. These, and fifty such-like
+scruples, warred within him, and so engaged his attention that he
+actually heard not one word of all that “town gossip” which Norwood
+was retailing for his amusement. At last, while following out his own
+thoughts, George came to the resolution of finding out at once the
+precise position in which Norwood stood, and to this end asked the last
+news from Newmarket.
+
+Norwood's coolness never forsook him at a question whose very suddenness
+was somewhat awkward.
+
+“Bad enough,” said he, with an easy laugh. “We have all of us been 'hit
+hard.' Knolesby has lost heavily. Burchester, too, has had a smasher;
+and I myself have not escaped. In fact, George, the 'Legs' have had it
+all their own way. I suppose you heard something about it out here?”
+
+“Why, yes; there were reports--”
+
+“Oh, hang reports, man! Never trust to old women's tales. And that
+confounded fellow, Haggerstone, I 'm certain, has been spreading all
+kinds of stories. But the facts are simple enough.”
+
+“I 'm heartily glad you say so; for, to tell you the truth, Norwood, my
+father is one of the prejudiced about this affair, and I 'm dying to be
+able to give him a full explanation of the whole.”
+
+“Ah, Sir Stafford, too, among the credulous!” said Norwood, slowly. “I
+could scarcely have supposed so. No matter; only I did fancy that he
+was not exactly the person to form hasty conclusions against any man's
+character. However, you may tell him for, as for myself, I 'll not
+condescend to explain to any one but you the thing is a very simple
+one. There was a mare of Hopeton's, a Brockdon filly, entered for the
+Slingsby, and a number of us agreed to 'go a heavy thing' upon her
+against the field. A bold coup always, George, that backing against
+the field. Never do it, my boy, and particularly when you 've a set of
+rascally foreign Legs banded against you, Poles and Hungarian fellows,
+George; the downiest coves ever you met, and who, in their confounded
+jargon, can sell you before your own face. Nothing like John Bull, my
+boy. Straight, frank, and open John forever! Hit him hard and he 'll hit
+you again; but no treachery, no stab in the dark. Oh, no, no! The turf
+in England was another thing before these Continental rascals came
+amongst us. I was always against admitting them within the ring. I
+black-balled a dozen of them at the Club. But see what perseverance
+does; they're all in now. There's no John-Bull feeling among our
+set, and we 're paying a smart price for it. Never trust those German
+fellows, George. Out of England there is no truth, no honor. But, above
+all, don't back against the field; there are so many dodges against you;
+so many 'dark horses' come out fair. That 's it, you see; that 's
+the way I got it so heavily; for when Ruxton came and told me that
+'Help-me-Over' was dead lame, I believed him. A fetlock lameness is no
+trifle, you know; and there was a swelling as large as my hand around
+the coronet. The foreign fellows can manage that in the morning, and
+the horse will run to win the same day. I saw it myself. Ah, John
+Bull forever! No guile, no deceit in him. Mind me, George, I make this
+confession for you alone. I 'll not stoop to repeat it. If any man
+dare to insinuate anything to my discredit, I 'll never give myself the
+trouble of one word of explanation, but nail him to it, twelve paces,
+and no mistake. I don't think my right hand has forgot its cunning. Have
+him out at once, George; parade him on the spot, my boy; that 's the
+only plan. What! is this your quarter?” asked he, as they stopped at the
+entrance of the spacious palace. “I used to know this house well of old.
+It was the Embassy in Templeton's time. Very snug it used to be. Glad to
+see you 've banished all those maimed old deities that used to line
+the staircase, and got rid of that tiresome tapestry, too. Pretty
+vases those; fresh-looking that conservatory, they 're always strong in
+camellias in Florence. This used to be the billiard-room. I think you've
+made a good alteration; it looks better as a salon. Ah, I like this,
+excellent taste that chintz furniture; just the thing for Italy, and
+exactly what nobody thought of before!”
+
+“I'll see if my Lady be visible,” said George, as he threw the “Morning
+Post” to his friend, and hastily quitted the chamber.
+
+Norwood was no sooner left alone than he proceeded to take a leisurely
+survey of the apartment, in the course of which his attention was
+arrested by a water-color drawing, representing a young girl leaning
+over a balcony, and which he had no difficulty in at once guessing to be
+Kate Dalton. There was something in the character of her beauty an air
+of almost daring haughtiness that seemed to strike his fancy; for, as
+he gazed, he drew himself up to his full height, and seemed to assume in
+his own features the proud expression of the portrait.
+
+“With a hundred thousand and that face one might make you a viscountess,
+and yet not do badly, either,” said he to himself; and then, as if
+satisfied that he had given time enough to a mere speculative thought,
+he turned over the visiting-cards to see the names of the current
+acquaintance: “Midchekoff, Estrolenka, Janini, Tiverton, Latrobe, the
+old set; the Ricketts, too, and Haggerstone. What can have brought them
+here? Oh, there must have been a ball, for here are shoals of outsiders,
+the great Smith-Brown-and-Thompson community; and here, on the very
+smallest of pasteboards, in the very meekest of literals, have we our
+dear friend 'Albert Jekyl.' He 'll tell me all I want to know,”
+ said Norwood, as he threw himself back on the comfortable depth of a
+well-cushioned chair, and gave way to a pleasant revery.
+
+When George Ouslow had informed Lady Hester of Norwood's arrival, he
+hastened to Sir Stafford's apartment to tell him how completely the
+Viscount had exonerated himself from any charge that might be made to
+his discredit; not, indeed, that George understood one syllable of
+the explanation, nor could trace anything like connection between the
+disjointed links of the narrative. He could only affirm his own perfect
+conviction in Norwood's honor, and hoped an equal degree of faith from
+his father. Fortunately for his powers of persuasiveness, they were not
+destined to be so sorely tried; for Sir Stafford had just walked out,
+and George, too eager to set all right about Norwood, took his hat and
+followed, in the hope of overtaking him.
+
+Lady Hester was already dressed, and about to enter the drawing-room,
+when George told her that Norwood was there; and yet she returned to
+her room and made some changes in her toilet, slight, and perhaps too
+insignificant to record, but yet of importance enough to occupy some
+time, and afford her an interval for thoughts which, whatever their
+nature, served to flush her cheek and agitate her deeply.
+
+It is an awkward thing, at any time, to meet with the person to whom you
+once believed you should have been married; to see, on the terms of mere
+common acquaintance, the individual with whose fate and fortune you at
+one time fancied your own was indissolubly bound up, for weal or woe,
+for better or for worse. To exchange the vapid commonplaces of the
+world; to barter the poor counters of that petty game called society,
+with her or him with whom you have walked in all the unbounded
+confidence of affection, speculating on a golden future, or glorying in
+a delicious dream of present bliss; to touch with ceremonious respect
+that hand you have so often held fast within your own; to behold with
+respectful distance that form beside which you have sat for hours, lost
+in happy fancies; to stand, as it were, and trace out with the eye some
+path in life we might have followed, wondering whither it would have
+led us, if to some higher pinnacle of gratified ambition, if to
+disappointments darker than those we have ever known, speculating on a
+future which is already become a past, and canvassing within our hearts
+the follies that have misled and the faults that have wrecked us! Such
+are among the inevitable reminiscences of meeting; and they are full of
+a soft and touching sorrow, not all unpleasing, either, as they remind
+us of our youth and its buoyancy. Far otherwise was the present case.
+Whatever might have been the bold confidence with which Lady Hester
+protested her belief in Norwood's honor, her own heartfelt knowledge of
+the man refuted the assertion. She knew thoroughly that he was perfectly
+devoid of all principle, and merely possessed that conventional degree
+of fair dealing indispensable to association with his equals. That he
+would do anything short of what would subject him to disgrace she
+had long seen; and perhaps the unhappy moment had come when even this
+restraint was no longer a barrier. And yet, with all this depreciating
+sense of the man, would it be believed she had once loved him! ay, with
+as sincere an affection as she was capable of feeling for anything.
+
+'T is true, time and its consequences had effaced much of this feeling.
+His own indifference had done something, her new relations with the
+world had done more; and if she ever thought of him now, it was with
+a degree of half terror that there lived one man who had so thoroughly
+read all the secrets of her heart, and knew every sentiment of her
+nature.
+
+Norwood was sitting in a chair as she entered, amusing himself with
+the gambols of a little Blenheim spaniel, whose silver collar bore the
+coronet of the Russian prince. He never perceived Lady Hester until she
+was close beside him, and in an easy, half-indifferent tone, said,
+
+“How d' ye do, my Lord?”
+
+“What, Hester!” said he, starting up, and taking her hand in both his
+own.
+
+She withdrew it languidly, and seating herself, not upon the sofa to
+which he wished to lead her, but in a chair, asked when he had arrived,
+and by what route.
+
+“I came out in a yacht; stopping a few days at Gibraltar, and a week at
+Malta.”
+
+“Had you pleasant weather?”
+
+“After we got clear of the Channel, excellent weather.”
+
+“You came alone, I suppose?”
+
+“Quite alone.”
+
+“How do you get on without your dear friend Effingdale, or your
+'familiar,' Upton?”
+
+Norwood colored a little at a question the drift of which he felt
+thoroughly, but tried with a laugh to evade an answer.
+
+“Are they in England? I thought I read their names at the Newmarket
+meeting?” asked she, after waiting in vain for a reply.
+
+“Yes; they were both at Newmarket,” replied he, shortly.
+
+“Was it a good meeting?”
+
+“I can scarcely say so,” rejoined he, attempting a laugh. “My book
+turned out very unfortunately.”
+
+“I heard so,” was the short reply; and in a tone so dry and significant
+that a dead silence followed.
+
+“Pretty spaniel, that,” said Norwood, trying a slight sortie into the
+enemy's camp. “A present, I suppose, from Midchekoff?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“It is not clean bred, however, no more than his late master. Have you
+seen much of the Prince?”
+
+“He comes here every evening, after the Opera.”
+
+“What a bore that must be he is a most insufferable proser.”
+
+“I must say I disagree with you; I reckon him excessively agreeable.”
+
+“How changed you must be, Hes--Lady Hester.”
+
+“I believe I am, my Lord.”
+
+“And yet you look the same the very same as when we sauntered for hours
+through the old woods at Dipsley.” She blushed deeply; less, perhaps, at
+the words, than at the look which accompanied them.
+
+“Is this your newly found niece or cousin?” said Norwood, as he pointed
+to the portrait of Kate Dal ton.
+
+“Yes. Is n't she pretty?”
+
+“The picture is.”
+
+“She is much handsomer, however, a charming creature in every respect,
+as you will confess when you see her.”
+
+“And for what high destiny is she meant? Is she to be a Russian
+Princess, a Duchessa of Italy, or the goodwife of an untitled
+Englishman?”
+
+“She may have her choice, I believe, of either of the three--.”
+
+“Happy girl!” said he half scornfully; “and when may I hope to behold so
+much excellence?”
+
+“To-day, if you like to dine here.”
+
+“I should like it much but but--”
+
+“But what?”
+
+“It's better to be frank at once, Hester,” said he, boldly, “and say
+that I feel you are grown very cold and distant toward me. This is not
+your old manner, this not exactly the reception I looked for. Now, if
+you have any cause for this, would it not be better and fairer to speak
+it out openly than continue to treat me in this slighting fashion? You
+are silent, so there is something; pray let's hear it.”
+
+“What of Newmarket?” said she, in a low voice, so faint as almost to be
+a whisper.
+
+“So that's it,” said he, as he folded his arms and looked steadfastly at
+her.
+
+There was something in the cold and steady gaze he bestowed upon her
+that abashed, if not actually alarmed, Lady Hester. She had seen the
+same look once or twice before, and always as the prelude to some
+terrible evidence of his temper.
+
+“Lady Hester,” said he, in a low, distinct, and very slow voice, as
+though he would not have her lose a word he spoke, “the explanation
+which a man would ask for at the peril of his life ought not, in common
+justice, to be quite costless to a lady. It is perfectly possible that
+you may not care for the price, be it so; only I warn you that if you
+wish for any information on the subject you allude to, _I_ will inquire
+whether--”
+
+Here he dropped his voice, and whispered two or three words rapidly
+in her ear, after which she lay back, pale, sick, and almost fainting,
+without strength to speak or even to move.
+
+“Do not say, or still less feel, that this contest is of my provoking.
+Never was any man less in the humor to provoke hostilities, and
+particularly from old friends. I have just had bad luck, the very worst
+of bad luck. I have lost everything but my head; and even that, cool and
+calculating as it is, may go too if I be pushed too far. Now you have a
+frank and free confession from me. I have told you more than I would to
+any other living, more, perhaps, than I ought even to you.”
+
+“Then what do you intend to do here?” asked she, faintly.
+
+“Wait wait patiently for awhile. Fix upon anyone that I can discover
+mutters a syllable to my discredit, and shoot him as I would a dog.”
+
+“There may be some who, without openly discussing, will shun your
+society, and avoid your intercourse.”
+
+“Sir Stafford, for instance,” said he, with an insolent laugh. She
+nodded slightly, and he went on: “My Lady's influence will, I am
+certain, set me right in that quarter.”
+
+“I may be unequal to the task.”
+
+“You can at least try, madam.”
+
+“I have tried, Norwood. I have gone the length of declaring that I
+disbelieved every story against you, that I reposed the most implicit
+faith in your honor, and that I would certainly receive you and admit
+your visits as heretofore.”
+
+“And, of course, you'll keep your word?”
+
+“If you exact it.”
+
+“Of course I shall! Hester, this is no time for quibbling. I 've got
+into a mess, the worst of all the bad scrapes which have ever befallen
+me. A little time and a little management will pull me through but I
+must have both; nor is it in such a place, and with such a society as
+this, a man need fear investigation. I came here, as formerly one went
+to live 'within the rules.' Let me, at least, have the benefit of the
+protection for condescending to the locality.”
+
+“Sir Stafford, my Lady,” said a servant, throwing open the door; and
+the old Baronet entered hastily, and, without deigning to notice Lord
+Norwood, walked straight up to Lady Hester, and said a few words in a
+low voice.
+
+Affecting to occupy himself with the books upon the table, Norwood
+watched the dialogue with keen but stealthy glances, and then, as the
+other turned suddenly round, said,
+
+“How d' ye do, Sir Stafford? I am glad to see you looking so well.”
+
+“I thank you, my Lord; I am perfectly well,” said he, with a most
+repelling coldness.
+
+“You are surprised to see me in Florence, for certain,” said the other,
+with a forced laugh.
+
+“Very much surprised to see you here, my Lord,” was the abrupt reply.
+
+“Ha! ha! ha! I thought so!” cried Norwood, laughing, and pretending not
+to feel the point of the remark. “But, nowadays, one flits about the
+world in slippers and dressing-gown, and travelling inflicts no fatigue.
+I only left England ten days ago.”
+
+“The post comes in seven, my Lord,” said Sir Stafford. “I have had
+letters this morning, written this day week, and which give the last
+events in Town Life up to the very hour.”
+
+“Indeed! and what's the news, then?” said he, negligently.
+
+“If your Lordship will favor me with your company for a few minutes,
+I may be able to enlighten you,” said Sir Stafford, moving towards the
+door.
+
+“With the greatest pleasure. Good-bye, Lady Hester,” said he, rising.
+“You said seven o'clock dinner, I think?”
+
+“Yes,” replied she, but in a voice almost inarticulate from shame and
+terror.
+
+“Now, Sir Stafford, I 'm at your orders,” said the Viscount, gayly,
+as he left the room, followed by the old man, whose crimson cheek and
+flashing eye bespoke the passion which was struggling within him.
+
+Of the two who now entered Sir Stafford's library, it must be owned that
+Lord Norwood was, by many degrees, the more calm and collected. No one,
+to have looked at him, could possibly have supposed that any question of
+interest, not to say of deep moment, awaited him; and as he carried
+his eyes over the well-filled shelves and the hand some fittings of
+the chamber, nothing could be more naturally spoken than the few
+complimentary expressions on Sir Stafford's good taste and judgment.
+
+“I shall not ask you to be seated, my Lord,” said the old Baronet, whose
+tremulous lip and shaking cheek showed how deep-felt was his agitation.
+“The few moments of interview I have requested will be, I have no doubt,
+too painful to either of us, nor could we desire to prolong them. To me,
+I own, they are very, very painful.”
+
+These hurried, broken, and unconnected sentences fell from him as he
+searched for a letter among a number of others that littered the table.
+
+Lord Norwood bowed coldly, and, without making any reply, turned his
+back to the fire, and waited in patience.
+
+“I have, I fear, mislaid the letter,” said Sir Stafford, whose nervous
+anxiety had now so completely mastered him that he threw the letters and
+papers on every side without perceiving it.
+
+The Viscount made no sign, but suffered the search to proceed without
+remark.
+
+“It was a letter from Lord Effingdale,” continued the Baronet, still
+busied in the pursuit, “a letter written after the Newmarket settling,
+my Lord; and if I should be unfortunate enough not to find it, I must
+only trust to my memory for its contents.”
+
+Lord Norwood gave another bow, slighter and colder than the former, as
+though to say that he acquiesced perfectly, without knowing in what.
+
+“Ah! here it is! here it is!” cried Sir Stafford, at last detecting the
+missing document, which he hastily opened and ran his eyes over. “This
+letter, my Lord,” continued he, “announces that, in consequence of
+certain defalcations on your part, the members of the 'Whip Club'
+have erased your Lordship's name from their list, and declared you
+incapacitated from either entering a horse, or naming a winner for the
+stakes in future. There, there, my Lord, is the paragraph, coupled with
+what you will doubtless feel to be a very severe but just comment on the
+transaction.”
+
+Norwood took the letter and read it leisurely, as leisurely and calmly
+as though the contents never concerned him, and then, folding it up,
+laid it on the chimney-piece beside him.
+
+“Poor Effingdale!” said he, smiling; “he ought to spell better,
+considering that his mother was a governess. He writes 'naming' with an
+'e.' Didn't you remark that?”
+
+But as Sir Stafford paid no attention to the criticism, he went on:
+
+“As to the 'Whip,' I may as well tell you, that I scratched my own name
+myself. They are a set of low 'Legs,' and, except poor Effy, and two or
+three others of the same brilliant stamp, not a gentleman amongst them.”
+
+“The defalcation is, however, true?” asked Sir Stafford.
+
+“If you mean to ask whether a man always wins at Doncaster or Newmarket,
+the question is of the easiest to answer.”
+
+“I certainly presume that he always pays what he loses, my Lord,”
+ replied Sir Stafford, coloring at the evasive impertinence of the other.
+
+“Of course he does, when he has it, Sir Stafford; but that is a most
+essential condition, for the 'Turf' is not precisely like a mercantile
+pursuit.”
+
+Sir Stafford winced under the flippant insolence with which this was
+spoken.
+
+“There is not exactly a fair way to calculate profit, nor any assurance
+against accidental loss. A horse, Sir Stafford, is not an Indiaman; a
+betting man is, therefore, in a position quite exceptional.”
+
+“If a man risks what he cannot pay, he is dishonorable,” said Sir
+Stafford, in a short, abrupt tone.
+
+“I see that you cannot enter into a theme so very different from all
+your habits and pursuits. You think there is a kind of bankruptcy when
+a man gets a little behind with his bets. You don't see that all these
+transactions are on 'honor,' and that if one does 'bolt,' he means to
+'book up' another time. There was George, your own son--”
+
+“What of him? what of George?” cried Sir Stafford, with a convulsive
+grasp of the chair, while the color fled from his cheek, and he seemed
+ready to faint with emotion.
+
+“Oh, nothing in the world to cause you uneasiness. A more honorable
+fellow never breathed than George.”
+
+“Then, what of him? How comes his name to your lips at such a discussion
+as this? Tell me, this instant, my Lord. I command I entreat you!”
+
+And the old man shook like one in an ague; but Norwood saw his
+vantage-ground, and determined to use it unsparingly. He therefore
+merely smiled, and said, “Pray be calm, Sir Stafford. I repeat that
+there is nothing worthy of a moment's chagrin. I was only about to
+observe that if I had the same taste for scandal-writing as poor Effy,
+I might have circulated a similar story about your son George. He
+left England, owing me a good round sum, for which, by the way, I was
+terribly 'hard up;' and although the money was paid eventually, what
+would you have thought of me what would the world have thought of him if
+I had written such an epistle as this?”
+
+And as he spoke, his voice and manner warmed into a degree of indignant
+anger, in which, as if carried away, he snatched the letter from the
+chimney-piece and threw it into the fire. The act was unseen by Sir
+Stafford, who sat with his head deeply buried between his hands, a low
+faint groan alone bespeaking the secret agony of his heart.
+
+“My son has, then, paid you? He owes nothing, my Lord?” said he, at
+last, looking up, with a countenance furrowed by agitation.
+
+“Like a trump!” said Norwood, assuming the most easy and self-satisfied
+manner. “My life upon George Onslow! Back him to any amount, and against
+the field anywhere! A true John Bull! no humbug, no nonsense about him!
+straightforward and honorable, always!”
+
+“Your position is, then, this, my Lord,” said Sir Stafford, whose
+impatience would not permit him to listen longer, “you have quitted
+England, leaving for future settlement a number of debts, for which you
+have not the remotest prospect of liquidation.”
+
+“Too fast, you go too fast!” said the Viscount, laughing.
+
+“Lord Effingdale writes the amount at thirty thousand pounds, and adds
+that, as a defaulter--”
+
+“There's the whole of it,” broke in Norwood. “You ring the changes
+about that one confounded word, and there is no use in attempting a
+vindication. 'Give a dog a bad name,' as the adage says. Now, I took the
+trouble this very morning to go over the whole of this tiresome business
+with George. I explained to him fully, and, I hope, to his entire
+satisfaction, that I was simply unfortunate in it, nothing more. A man
+cannot always 'ride the winner; 'I 'm sure I wish _I_ could. Of course,
+I don't mean to say that it 's not a confounded 'bore' to come out here
+and live in such a place as this, and just at the opening of the season,
+too, when town is beginning to fill; but 'needs must,' we are told,
+'when a certain gent sits on the coach-box.'”
+
+Sir Stafford stood, during the whole of this speech, with his arms
+folded and his eyes fixed upon the floor. He never heard one word of
+it, but was deeply intent upon his own thoughts. At length he spoke in
+a full, collected, and firm voice: “Lord Norwood I am, as you have told
+me, perfectly unfitted to pronounce upon transactions so very unlike
+every pursuit in which my life has been passed. I am alike ignorant of
+the feelings of those who engage in them, and of the rules of honor by
+which they are guided; but this I know, that the man whom his equals
+decline to associate with at home is not recognizable abroad; and that
+he who leaves his country with shame, cannot reside away from it with
+credit.”
+
+“This would be a very rude speech, Sir Stafford Onslow, even with the
+palliative preface of your ignorance, if our relative ages admitted any
+equality between us. I am the least bellicose of men, I believe I can
+say I may afford to be so. So long, therefore, as you confine such
+sentiments to yourself, I will never complain of them; but if the time
+comes that you conceive they should be issued for general circulation--”
+
+“Well, my Lord, what then?”
+
+“Your son must answer for it, that's all!” said Norwood; and he drew
+himself up, and fixed his eye steadily on the distant wall of the room,
+with a look and gesture that made the old man sick at heart. Norwood saw
+how “his shot told,” and, turning hastily round, said: “This interview,
+I conclude, has lasted quite long enough for either of us. If you have
+any further explanations to seek for, let them come through a younger
+man, and in a more regular form. Good-morning.”
+
+Sir Stafford bowed, without speaking, as the other passed out.
+
+To have seen them both at that moment, few would have guessed aright on
+which side lay all the disgrace, and where the spirit of rectitude and
+honor.
+
+Sir Stafford, indeed, was most miserable. If the Viscount's mock
+explanations did not satisfy a single scruple of his mind, was it not
+possible they might have sufficed with others more conversant with such
+matters? Perhaps he is not worse than others of his own class. What
+would be his feelings if he were to involve George in a quarrel for
+such a cause? This was a consideration that pressed itself in twenty
+different forms, each of them enough to appall him. “But the man is
+a defaulter; he has fled from England with 'shame,'” was the stubborn
+conviction which no efforts of his casuistry could banish; and the more
+he reflected on this, the less possible seemed anything like evasion or
+compromise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI. THE END OF THE FIRST ACT
+
+THE point discussed in our last chapter, if not a momentous one in
+itself, was destined to exercise a very important influence upon the
+fortunes of the Onslow family. The interview between Sir Stafford and
+the Viscount scarcely occupied five minutes; after which the Baronet
+wrote a note of some length to her Ladyship, to which she as promptly
+replied; a second, and even a third interchange of correspondence
+followed. The dinner-party appointed for that day was put off; a certain
+ominous kind of silence pervaded the house. The few privileged visitors
+were denied admission. Mr. Proctor, Sir Stafford's man, wore a look of
+more than common seriousness. Mademoiselle Celestine's glances revealed
+a haughty sense of triumph. Even the humbler menials appeared to feel
+that something had occurred, and betrayed in their anxious faces some
+resemblance to that vague sense of half-curiosity, half-terror, the
+passengers of a steamboat experience when an accident, of whose nature
+they know nothing, has occurred to the machinery.
+
+Their doubts and suspicions assumed more shape when the order came that
+Sir Stafford would dine in the library, and her Ladyship in her own
+room, George Onslow alone appearing in the dining-room. There was an air
+of melancholy over everything, the silence deepening as night came on.
+Servants went noiselessly to and fro, drew the curtains, and closed
+the doors with a half-stealthy gesture, and seemed as though fearful of
+awakening some slumbering outbreak of passion.
+
+We neither have, nor desire to have, secrets from our readers. We will
+therefore proceed to Sir Stafford's dressing-room, where the old Baronet
+sat moodily over the fire, his anxious features and sorrow-struck
+expression showing the ravages even a few hours of suffering had
+inflicted. His table was littered with papers, parchments, and other
+formidable-looking documents. Some letters lay sealed here, others were
+half-written there; everything about him showed the conflict of doubt
+and indecision that was going on within his mind; and truly a most
+painful struggle was maintained there.
+
+For some time back he had seen with displeasure the course of
+extravagance and waste of all his household. He had observed the habits
+of reckless expense with which his establishment was maintained; but,
+possessing a very ample fortune, and feeling that probably some change
+would be made with the coming summer, he had forborne to advert to
+it, and endured with what patience he could a mode of life whose very
+display was distasteful to him. Now, however, a more serious cause for
+anxiety presented itself, in the class of intimates admitted by Lady
+Hester to her society. Of the foreigners he knew comparatively
+little; but that little was not to their advantage. Some were wealthy
+voluptuaries, glad to propagate their own habits of extravagance among
+those they suspected of fortunes smaller than their own. Others were
+penniless adventurers, speculating upon everything that might turn to
+their profit. All were men of pleasure, and of that indolent, lounging,
+purposeless character so peculiarly unpleasing to those who have led
+active lives, and been always immersed in the cares and interests of
+business.
+
+Such men, he rightly judged, were dangerous associates to his son,
+the very worst acquaintances for Kate, in whom already he was deeply
+interested; but still no actual stain of dishonor, no palpable flaw,
+could be detected in their fame, till the arrival of Lord Norwood added
+his name to the list.
+
+To receive a man of whose misconduct in England he had acquired every
+proof, was a step beyond his endurance. Here or never must he take
+his stand; and manfully he did so, at first, by calm argument and
+remonstrance, and at last by firm resolution and determination. Without
+adverting to what had passed between the Viscount and himself, the
+letter he addressed to Lady Hester conveyed his unalterable resolve not
+to know Lord Norwood. Lady Hester's reply was not less peremptory, and
+scarcely as courteous. The correspondence continued with increasing
+warmth on both sides, till Sir Stafford palpably hinted at the possible
+consequences of a spirit of discordance and disagreement so ill-adapted
+to conjugal welfare. Her Ladyship caught up the suggestion with avidity,
+and professed that, whatever scruples his delicacy might feel, to hers
+there was none in writing the word, “Separation.”
+
+If the thought had already familiarized itself to his mind, the word had
+not; and strange it is that the written syllables should have a power
+and meaning that the idea itself could never realize.
+
+To men who have had little publicity in their lives, and that little
+always of an honorable nature, there is no thought so poignantly
+miserable as the dread of a scandalous notoriety. To associate their
+names with anything that ministers to gossip; to make them tea-table
+talk; still worse, to expose them to sneering and impertinent
+criticisms, by revealing the secrets of their domesticity, is a torture
+to which no mere physical suffering has anything to compare. Sir
+Stafford Onslow was a true representative of this class of feeling. The
+sight of his name in the list of directors of some great enterprise, as
+the patron of a charity, the governor of an hospital, or the donor to an
+institution, was about as much of newspaper notoriety as he could bear
+without a sense of shrinking delicacy; but to become the mark for public
+discussion in the relations of his private life, to have himself and his
+family brought up to the bar of that terrible ordeal, where bad tongues
+are the eloquent, and evil speakers are the witty, was a speculation
+too terrible to think over; and this was exactly what Lady Hester was
+suggesting!
+
+Is it not very strange that woman, with whose nature we inseparably and
+truly associate all those virtues that take their origin in refinement
+and modesty, should sometimes be able to brave a degree of publicity
+to which a man, the very hardiest and least shamefaced, would succumb,
+crestfallen and abashed; that her timid delicacy, her shrinking
+bashfulness, can be so hardened by the world that she can face a
+notoriety where every look is an indictment, and every whisper a
+condemnation?
+
+Now, if Lady Hester was yet remote from this, she had still journeyed
+one stage of the road. She had abundant examples around her of those
+best received and best looked on in society, whose chief claim to the
+world's esteem seemed to be the contempt with which they treated all its
+ordinances. There was a dash of heroism in their effrontery that pleased
+her. They appeared more gay, more buoyant, more elastic in spirits than
+other people; their increased liberty seemed to impart enlarged and more
+generous views, and they were always “good-natured,” since, living in
+the very glassiest of houses, they never “shied” a pebble.
+
+While, then, Sir Stafford sat overwhelmed with shame and sorrow at the
+bare thought of the public discussion that awaited him, Lady Hester was
+speculating upon condolences here, approbation there, panegyrics upon
+her high spirit, and congratulations upon her freedom. The little,
+half-shadowy allusions her friends would throw out from time to time
+upon the strange unsuitableness of her marriage with a man so much her
+senior, would soon be converted into comments of unrestricted license.
+Besides and perhaps the greatest charm of all was she would have a
+grievance; not the worn-out grievance of some imaginary ailment that
+nobody believes in but the “doctor,” not the mock agonies of a heart
+complaint, that saves the sufferer from eating bad dinners in vulgar
+company, but always allows them a respite for a dejeuner at the court,
+or a supper after the Opera, with a few chosen convives, but a real,
+substantial grievance, over which men might be eloquent and ladies
+pathetic. Such were the different feelings with which two persons
+contemplated the same event. Sir Stafford's thoughts turned instantly
+towards England. What would be said there by all those friends who had
+endeavored to dissuade him from this ill-suited union? Their sorrowful
+compassion was even less endurable than the malice of others; and
+Grounsell, too, what would his old friend think of a catastrophe so
+sudden? In his heart Sir Stafford was glad that the doctor was absent;
+much as he needed his counsel and advice, he still more dreaded the
+terror of his triumphant eye at the accomplishment of his oft-repeated
+prediction.
+
+From George he met no support whatever. He either believed, or thought
+that he believed, Norwood's garbled explanation. Intercourse with a
+certain set of “fast men” had shown him that a man might do a “screwy”
+ thing now and then, and yet not be cut by his acquaintance. And
+the young Guardsman deemed his father's rigid notions nothing but
+prejudices, very excellent and commendable ones, no doubt, but as
+inapplicable to our present civilization as would be a coat of mail or a
+back-piece of chain-armor. George Onslow, therefore, halted between the
+two opinions. Adhering to his father's side from feelings of affection
+and respect, he was drawn to Lady Hester's by his convictions; not,
+indeed, aware how formidable the difference had already become between
+them, and that, before that very night closed in, they had mutually
+agreed upon a separation, which while occupying the same house, was
+essentially to exclude all intercourse.
+
+One consideration gave Sir Stafford much painful thought. What was to
+become of Kate Dalton in this new turn of affairs? The position of
+a young girl on a visit with a family living in apparent unity and
+happiness was very wide apart from her situation as the companion of a
+woman separated, even thus much, from her husband. It would be equally
+unfair to her own family, as unjust to the girl herself, to detain her
+then in such a conjuncture. And yet what was to be done? Apart from all
+the unpleasantness of proposing an abrupt return to her home, came
+the thought of the avowal that must accompany the suggestion, the very
+confession he so dreaded to make. Of course the gossiping of servants
+would soon circulate the rumor. But then they might not spread it beyond
+the Alps, nor make it the current talk of a German watering-place. Thus
+were his selfish feelings at war with higher and purer thoughts. But
+the struggle was not a long one. He sat down and wrote to Lady Hester.
+Naturally assuming that all the reasons which had such force for himself
+would weigh equally with her, he dwelt less upon the arguments for
+Kate's departure than upon the mode in which it might be proposed and
+carried out. He adverted with feeling to the sacrifice the loss would
+inflict upon Lady Hester, but professed his conviction in the belief
+that all merely selfish considerations would give way before higher and
+more important duties.
+
+“As it is,” said he, “I fear much that we have done anything but conduce
+to this dear girl's welfare and happiness. We have shown her glimpses of
+a life whose emptiness she cannot appreciate, but by whose glitter
+she is already attracted. We have exposed her to all the seductions of
+flattery, pampering a vanity which is perhaps her one only failing. We
+have doubtless suggested to her imagination dreams of a future never
+to be realized, and we must now consign her to a home where all the
+affections of fond relatives will be unequal to the task of blinding her
+to its poverty and its obscurity. And yet even this is better than to
+detain her here. It shall be my care to see in what way I can I was
+about to write 'recompense;' nor would the word be unsuitable recompense
+Mr. Dalton for the injury we have done him as regards his child; and if
+you have any suggestion to make me on this head, I will gladly accept
+it.”
+
+The note concluded with some hints as to the manner of making the
+communication to Kate, the whole awkwardness of which Sir Stafford, if
+need were, would take upon himself.
+
+The whole temper of the letter was feeling and tender. Without even in
+the most remote way adverting to what had occurred between Lady Hester
+and himself, he spoke of their separation simply in its relation to Kate
+Dalton, for whom they were both bound to think and act with caution.
+As if concentrating every thought upon her, he did not suffer any other
+consideration to interfere. Kate, and Kate only, was all its theme.
+
+Lady Hester, however, read the lines in a very different spirit. She had
+just recovered from a mesmeric trance, into which, to calm her nervous
+exaltation, her physician, Dr. Buccellini, had thrown her. She had been
+lying in a state of half-hysterical apathy for some hours, all volition,
+almost all vitality, suspended, under the influence of an exaggerated
+credulity, when the letter was laid upon the table.
+
+“What is that your maid has just left out of her hand?” asked the
+doctor, in a tone of semi-imperiousness.
+
+[Illustration:   318]
+
+“A letter, a sealed letter,” replied she, mystically waving her hand
+before her half-closed eyes.
+
+The doctor gave a look of triumph at the bystanders, and went on:
+
+“Has the letter come from a distant country, or from a correspondent
+near at hand?”
+
+“Near!” said she, with a shudder.
+
+“Where is the writer at this moment?” asked he.
+
+“In the house,” said she, with another and more violent shuddering.
+
+“I now take the letter in my hand,” said the doctor, “and what am I
+looking at?”
+
+“A seal with two griffins supporting a spur.”
+
+The doctor showed the letter on every side, with a proud and commanding
+gesture. “There is a name written in the corner of the letter, beneath
+the address. Do you know that name?”
+
+A heavy, thick sob was the reply.
+
+“There there be calm, be still,” said he, majestically motioning
+with both hands towards her; and she immediately became composed
+and tranquil. “Are the contents of this letter such as will give you
+pleasure?”
+
+A shake of the head was the answer.
+
+“Are they painful?”
+
+“Very painful,” said she, pressing her hand to her temples.
+
+“Will these tidings be productive of grand consequences?”
+
+“Yes, yes!” cried she, eagerly.
+
+“What will you do, when you read them?”
+
+“Act!” ejaculated she, solemnly.
+
+“In compliance with the spirit, or in rejection?”
+
+“Rejection!”
+
+“Sleep on, sleep on,” said the doctor, with a wave of his hand; and, as
+he spoke, her head drooped, her arm fell listlessly down, and her
+long and heavy breathing denoted deep slumber. “There are people, Miss
+Dalton,” said he to Kate, “who affect to see nothing in mesmerism but
+deception and trick, whose philosophy teaches them to discredit all that
+they cannot comprehend. I trust you may never be of this number.”
+
+“It is very wonderful, very strange,” said she, thoughtfully.
+
+“Like all the secrets of nature, its phenomena are above belief; yet, to
+those who study them with patience and industry, how compatible do they
+seem with the whole order and spirit of creation. The great system of
+vitality being a grand scheme of actionary and reactionary influences,
+the centrifugal being in reality the centripetal, and those impulses we
+vainly fancy to be our own instincts being the impressions of external
+forces do you comprehend me?”
+
+“Not perfectly; in part, perhaps,” said she, diffidently.
+
+“Even that is something,” replied he, with a bland smile. “One whose
+future fortunes will place her in a station to exert influence is an
+enviable convert to have brought to truth.”
+
+“I!” said she, blushing with shame and surprise together; “surely you
+mistake, sir. I am neither born to rank, nor like to attain it.”
+
+“Both one and the other, young lady,” said he, solemnly; “high as
+your position will one day be, it will not be above the claims of your
+descent. It is not on fallible evidence that I read the future.”
+
+“And can you really predict my fortune in life?” asked she, eagerly.
+
+“More certainly than you would credit it, when told,” said he,
+deliberately.
+
+“How I should like to hear it; how I should like to know” She stopped,
+and a deep blush covered her face.
+
+“And why should you not know that your dreams will be realized?” said
+he, hastily, as if speaking from some irresistible impulse. “What more
+natural than to desire a glance, fleeting though it be, into that
+black vista where the bright lightning of prophecy throws its momentary
+splendor?”
+
+“And how know you that I have had dreams?” said she, innocently.
+
+“I know of them but by their accomplishment. I see you not in the
+present or the past, but in the future. There your image is revealed to
+me, and surrounded by a splendor I cannot describe. It is gorgeous and
+barbaric in magnificence; there is something feudal in the state by
+which you are encompassed that almost speaks of another age.”
+
+“This is mere dreamland, indeed,” said she, laughing.
+
+“Nay, not so; nor is it all bright and glorious, as you think. There are
+shadows of many a dark tint moving along the sunlit surface.”
+
+“But how know you all this?” asked she, half incredulously.
+
+“As you slept last evening in a mesmeric slumber on that sofa; but I
+will hear no further questioning. Look to our patient here, and if
+that letter agitate her over-much, let me be sent for.” And, with these
+words, delivered oracularly, the doctor left the room, while Kate seated
+herself beside the sofa where Lady Hester slept.
+
+It was late in the night when Lady Hester awoke, and soon remembering
+that a letter had arrived, broke the seal and read it. If the proposal
+of Sir Stafford was in every way unacceptable, there was something which
+compensated for all in the excitement of spirits an act of opposition
+was sure to produce; nor was it without a sense of triumph that she read
+lines penned in evident sorrow and depression of spirit. In fact, she
+made the not uncommon error of mistaking sorrow for repentance, and
+thought she perceived in her husband's tone a desire to retrace his
+steps. It is difficult to say whether such an amende would have
+given her pleasure; certainly she would not have accepted it without
+subjecting him to a term of probation of more or less length. In any
+case, as regarded Kate, she was decided at once upon a positive refusal;
+and as, with her, a resolve and a mode of action were usually the work
+of the same moment, she motioned to Kate to sit down beside her on the
+sofa, and passing her arm around her, drew her fondly towards her.
+
+“Kate, dearest,” said she, “I 'm sure nothing would induce you to leave
+me, I mean, to desert and forsake me.”
+
+Kate pressed the hand she held in her own to her lips with fervor, but
+could not speak for emotion.
+
+“I say this,” said Lady Hester, rapidly, “because the moment has come to
+test your fidelity. Sir Stafford and I it is needless to state how and
+by what means have at last discovered, what I fancy the whole world has
+seen for many a day, that we were totally unsuited to each other, in
+taste, age, habit, feeling, mode of life, and thought; that we have
+nothing in common, neither liking nor detesting the same things,
+but actually at variance upon every possible subject and person. Of
+course-all attempt to cover such discrepancies must be a failure. We
+might trump up a hollow truce, child, but it never could be an alliance;
+and so we have thought, I 'm sure it is well that we have hit upon even
+one topic for agreement, we have thought that the best, indeed the only,
+thing we could do, was to separate.”
+
+An exclamation, almost like an accent of pain, escaped Kate at these
+words.
+
+“Yes, dearest,” resumed Lady Hester, “it was his own proposal, made in
+the very coldest imaginable fashion; for men have constantly this
+habit, and always take the tone of dignity when they are about to do
+an injustice. All this, however, I was prepared for, and could suffer
+without complaint; but he desires to rob me of you, my dear child, to
+deprive me of the only friend, the only confidante I have in the world.
+I don't wonder that you grow pale and look shocked at such cruelty,
+concealed, as it is, under the mask of care for your interests and
+regard for your welfare; and this to me, dearest, to me, who feel to you
+as to a sister, a dear, dear sister!” Here Lady Hester drew Kate towards
+her, and kissed her twice, affectionately. “There 's his letter, my
+sweet child. You can read it; or better, indeed, that you should not, if
+you would preserve any memory of your good opinion of him.”
+
+“And he that was ever so kind, so thoughtful, and so generous!” cried
+Kate.
+
+“You know nothing of these creatures, my dear,” broke in Lady Hester.
+“All those plausibilities that they play off in the world are little
+emanations of their own selfish natures. They are eternally craving
+admiration from us women, and that is the true reason of their mock
+kindness and mock generosity! I 'm sure,” added she, sighing, “my
+experience has cost me pretty dearly! What a life of trial and privation
+has mine been!”
+
+Lady Hester sighed heavily as her jewelled fingers pressed to her eyes a
+handkerchief worth a hundred guineas, and really believed herself a case
+for world-wide sympathy. She actually did shed a tear or two over
+her sorrows; for it is wonderful on what slight pretension we can
+compassionate ourselves. She thought over all the story of her life, and
+wept. She remembered how she had been obliged to refuse the husband of
+her choice; she forgot to be grateful for having escaped a heartless
+spendthrift, she remembered her acceptance of one inferior to her in
+rank, and many years her senior; but forgot his wealth, his generosity,
+his kindliness of nature, and his high character. She thought of herself
+as she was at eighteen, the flattered beauty, daughter of a Peer,
+courted, sought after, and admired; but she totally forgot what she
+was at thirty, with faded attractions, unthought of, and, worse still,
+unmarried. Of the credit side of her account with Fortune she omitted
+not an item; the debits she slurred over as unworthy of mention. That
+she should be able to deceive herself is nothing very new or strange,
+but that she should succeed in deceiving another is indeed singular; and
+such was the case. Kate listened to her, and believed everything; and
+when her reason failed to convince, her natural softness of disposition
+served to satisfy her that a more patient, long-suffering, unrepining
+being never existed than Lady Hester Onslow.
+
+“And now,” said she, after a long peroration of woes, “can you leave me
+here, alone and friendless? will you desert me?”
+
+“Oh, never, never!” cried Kate, kissing her hand and pressing her to her
+heart. “I would willingly lay down my life to avert this sad misfortune;
+but, if that cannot be, I will share your lot with the devotion of my
+whole heart.”
+
+Lady Hester could scarcely avoid smiling at the poor girl's simplicity,
+who really fancied that separation included a life of seclusion and
+sorrow, with restricted means and an obscure position; and it was with
+a kind of subdued drollery she assured Kate that even in her altered
+fortunes a great number of little pleasures and comforts would remain
+for them. In fact, by degrees the truth came slowly out, that the great
+change implied little else than unrestrained liberty of action, freedom
+to go anywhere, know any one, and be questioned by nobody; the
+equivocal character of the position adding a piquancy to the society,
+inexpressibly charming to all those who, like the Duchesse d'Abrantes,
+think it only necessary for a thing to be “wrong” to make it perfectly
+delightful.
+
+Having made a convert of Kate, Lady Hester briefly replied to Sir
+Stafford, that his proposition was alike repugnant to Miss Dalton as to
+herself, that she regretted the want of consideration on his part, which
+could have led him to desire that she should be friendless at a time
+when the presence of a companion was more than ever needed. This done,
+she kissed Kate three or four times affectionately, and retired to
+her room, well satisfied with what the day had brought forth, and only
+wishing for the morrow, which should open her new path in life.
+
+It often happens in life that we are never sufficiently struck with
+the force of our own opinions or their consequences, till, from
+some accident or other, we come to record them. Then it is that the
+sentiments we have expressed, and the lines of action adopted, suddenly
+come forth in all their unvarnished truth. Like the images which the
+painter, for the first time, commits to canvas, they stand out
+to challenge a criticism which, so long as they remained in mere
+imagination, they had escaped.
+
+This was precisely Kate Dalton's case now. Her natural warm-heartedness,
+and her fervent sense of gratitude, had led her to adopt Lady Hester's
+cause as her own; generous impulses, carrying reason all before them,
+attached her to what she fancied to be the weaker side. “The divinity
+that doth hedge--” “beauty--” made her believe that so much loveliness
+could do no wrong; nor was it till she came to write of the event to
+her sister, that even a doubt crossed her mind on the subject. The
+difficulty of explaining a circumstance of which she knew but little,
+was enhanced by her knowledge of Ellen's rigid and unbending sense of
+right. “Poor dear Nelly,” said she, “with her innocence of mind, will
+understand nothing of all this, or she will condemn Lady Hester at once.
+Submission to her husband would, in her opinion, have been the first of
+duties. She cannot appreciate motives which actuate society in a rank
+different from her own. In her ignorance of the world, too, she might
+deem my remaining here unadvisable; she might counsel my return to
+home; and thus I should be deserting, forsaking, the dear friend who has
+confided all her sorrows to my heart, and reposes all her trust in my
+fidelity. This would break Lady Hester's heart and my own together; and
+yet nothing is more likely than such a course. Better a thousand times
+not expose her friend's cause to such a casualty. A little time and a
+little patience may place matters in a position more intelligible and
+less objectionable; and, after all, the question is purely a family
+secret, the divulgence of which, even to a sister, is perhaps not
+warrantable.”
+
+Such were among the plausibilities with which she glanced over her
+conduct; without, however, satisfying herself that she was in the right.
+She had only begun the descent of lax morality, and her head was
+addled by the new sensation. Happy are they who even from weak nerves
+relinquish the career!
+
+Kate's letter home, then, was full of gay revelations. Galleries,
+churches, gardens; objects of art or historic interest; new pictures
+of manners, sketches of society, abounded. There were descriptions of
+fetes, too, and brilliant assemblies, with great names of guests and
+gorgeous displays of splendor. Well and sweetly were they written; a
+quick observation and a keen insight into character in every line. The
+subtle analysis of people and their pretensions, which comes of mixture
+with the world, was preeminent in all she said; while a certain sharp
+wit pointed many of the remarks, and sparkled in many a brilliant
+passage.
+
+It was altogether a lively and a pleasant letter. A stranger, reading
+ft, would have pronounced the writer clever and witty; a friend would
+have regretted the want of personal details, the hundred little traits
+of egoism that speak confidence and trust. But to a sister! and such
+a sister as Nelly! it was, indeed, barren! No outpouring of warm
+affection; no fond memory of home; no reference to that little fireside
+whence her own image had never departed, and where her presence was each
+night invoked.
+
+Oh! Kate, has Hanserl's dark prophecy thrown its shadow already to your
+feet? Can a young heart be so easily corrupted, and so soon?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII. A SMALL DINNER AT THE VILLINO ZOE.
+
+AMONG the penalties great folk pay for their ascendancy, there is one
+most remarkable, and that is, the intense interest taken in all their
+affairs by hundreds of worthy people who are not of their acquaintance.
+This feeling, which transcends every other known description of
+sympathy, flourishes in small communities. In the capital of which we
+are now speaking, it was at its very highest pitch of development. The
+Onslows furnished all the table-talk of the city; but in no circle
+were their merits so frequently and ably discussed as in that little
+parliament of gossip which held its meetings at the “Villino Zoe.”
+
+Mrs. Ricketts, who was no common diplomatist, had done her utmost to
+establish relations of amity with her great neighbor. She had expended
+all the arts of courtesy and all the devices of politeness to effect
+this entente cordiale; but all in vain. Her advances had been met with
+coldness, and “something more;” her perfumed little notes, written in a
+style of euphuism all her own, had been left unanswered; her presents of
+fruit and flowers unacknowledged, it is but fair to add, that they never
+proceeded further than the porter's lodge, even her visiting-cards were
+only replied to by the stiff courtesy of cards, left by Lady Hester's
+“Chasseur;” so that, in fact, failure had fallen on all her endeavors,
+and she had not even attained to the barren honor of a recognition as
+they passed in the promenade.
+
+This was a very serious discomfiture, and might, when it got abroad,
+have sorely damaged the Ricketts's ascendancy in that large circle, who
+were accustomed to regard her as the glass of fashion. Heaven knew
+what amount of insubordination might spring out of it! what rebellious
+notions might gain currency and credit! It was but the winter before
+when a Duchess, who passed through, on her way to Rome, asked “who Mrs.
+Ricketts was?” and the shock was felt during the whole season after.
+The Vandyk for whose authenticity Martha swore, was actually called in
+question. The “Sevres” cup she had herself painted was the subject of a
+heresy as astounding. We live in an age of movement and convulsion, no
+man's landmarks are safe now, and Mrs. Ricketts knew this.
+
+The Onslows, it was clear, would not know her; it only remained, then,
+to show why she would not know them. It was a rare thing to find a
+family settling down at Florence against whom a “true bill” might not
+easily be found of previous misconduct. Few left England without a
+reason that might readily become an allegation. Bankruptcy or divorce
+were the light offences; the higher ones we must not speak of. Now
+the Onslows, as it happened, were not in this category. Sir Stafford's
+character was unimpeachable, her Ladyship's had nothing more grave
+against it than the ordinary levities of her station. George “had gone
+the pace,” it was true, but nothing disreputable attached to him. There
+was no use, there fore, in “trying back” for a charge, and Mrs. Ricketts
+perceived that they must be arraigned on the very vaguest of evidence.
+Many a head has fallen beneath the guillotine for a suspicion, and many
+a heart been broken on a surmise!
+
+A little dinner at the Villino opened the plan of proceedings. It was
+a small auto-da-fe of character at which the Onslows were to be the
+victims, while the grand inquisitors were worthily represented by the
+Polish Count, Haggerstone, Purvis, and a certain Mr. Foglass, then
+passing through Florence on his way to England. This gentleman, who was
+the reputed son of a supposed son of George the Fourth, was received as
+“very good royalty” in certain circles abroad, and, by virtue of a wig,
+a portly chest, and a most imposing pomposity of manner, taken to be
+exceedingly like his grandfather, just on the same principle as red
+currant jelly makes middling mutton resemble venison.
+
+To get rid of his importunity, a Minister had made him Consul in some
+remote village of the East, but finding that there were neither fees nor
+perquisites, Foglass had left his post to besiege the doors of Downing
+Street once more, and if rejected as a suppliant, to become an admirable
+grievance for a Radical Member, and a “very cruel case of oppression”
+ for the morning papers.
+
+Foglass was essentially a “humbug;” but, unlike most, if not all other
+humbugs, without the smallest ingredient of any kind of ability.
+When men are said to live by their wits, their capital is, generally
+speaking, a very sufficient one; and that interesting class of persons
+known as adventurers numbers many clever talkers, shrewd observers,
+subtle tacticians, and admirable billiard-players; with a steady hand on
+a pistol, but ready to “pocket” either an “insult” or a “ball.” if the
+occasion require it. None of these gifts pertained to Foglass. He
+had not one of the qualities which either succeed in the world or in
+society, and yet, strange to say, this intolerable bore had a kind of
+popularity, that is to say, people gave him a vacant place at their
+dinners, and remembered him at picnics.
+
+His whole strength lay in his wig, and a certain slow, measured
+intonation which he found often attracted attention to what he said,
+and gave his tiresome anecdotes of John Kemble, Munden, and Mathews the
+semblance of a point they never possessed. Latterly, however, he had
+grown deaf, and, like most who suffer under that infirmity, taken to
+speaking in a whisper so low as to be inaudible, a piece of politeness
+for which even our reader will be grateful, as it will spare him the
+misery of his twaddle.
+
+Haggerstone and he were intimates were it not a profanation of the
+word, we should say friends. They were, however, always together; and
+Haggerstone took pains to speak of his companion as a “monstrous clever
+fellow, who required to be known to be appreciated.” Jekyl probably
+discovered the true secret of the alliance in the fact that they always
+talked to each other about the nobility, and never gave them their
+titles, an illusory familiarity with Dukes and Earls that appeared to
+render them supremely happy. Richmond, Beaufort, Cleveland, and Stanley
+were in their mouths as “household words.”
+
+After all, it was a harmless sort of pastime; and if these “Imaginary
+Conversations” gave them pleasure, why need we grumble?
+
+We have scruples about asking our reader even to a description of the
+Ricketts's dinner. It was a true Barmecide feast. There was a very showy
+bouquet of flowers: there was a lavish display of what seemed silver;
+there was a good deal of queer china and impracticable glass; in
+short, much to look at, and very little to eat. Of this fact the Pole's
+appreciation was like an instinct, and as the entrees were handed round,
+all who came after him became soon aware of. Neither the wine nor the
+dessert were temptations to a long sitting, and the party soon found
+themselves in the drawing-room.
+
+“Son Excellence is going to England?” said the Pole, addressing Foglass,
+who had been announced as an Ambassador; “if you do see de Count
+Ojeffskoy, tell him I am living here, as well as a poor exile can, who
+have lost palaces, and horses, and diamonds, and all de rest.”
+
+“Ah! the poor dear Count!” sighed Mrs. Ricketts, while Martha prolonged
+the echo.
+
+“You carry on the war tolerably well, notwithstanding,” said
+Haggerstone, who knew something of the other's resources in piquet and
+ecarte.
+
+“Carry on de war!” rejoined he, indignantly; “wid my fader, who work in
+de mines; and my beautiful sisters, who walk naked about de streets of
+Crakow!”
+
+“What kind of climate have they in Crak-Crak-Crak--” A fit of coughing
+finished a question which nobody thought of answering; and Purvis sat
+down, abashed, in a corner.
+
+“Arthur, my love,” said Mrs. Ricketts, she was great at a diversion,
+whenever such a tactic was wanted, “do you hear what Colonel Haggerstone
+has been saying?”
+
+“No, dearest,” muttered the old General, as he worked away with rule and
+compass.
+
+“He tells me,” said the lady, still louder, “that the Onslows have
+separated. Not an open, formal separation, but that they occupy distinct
+apartments, and hold no intercourse whatever.”
+
+“Sir Stafford lives on the rez de chaussee” said Haggerstone, who,
+having already told the story seven times the same morning, was quite
+perfect in the recital, “Sir Stafford lives on the rez de chaussee, with
+a small door into the garden. My Lady retains the entire first floor
+and the grand conservatory. George has a small garcon apartment off the
+terrace.”
+
+“Ho! very distressing!” sighed Mrs. Ricketts, whose woe-worn looks
+seemed to imply that she had never heard of a similar incident before;
+“and how unlike us, Arthur!” added she, with a smile of beaming
+affection. “He has ever been what you see him, since the day he stole my
+young, unsuspecting heart.”
+
+The Colonel looked over at the object thus designated, and, by the grin
+of malice on his features, appeared to infer that the compliment was but
+a sorry one, after all.
+
+“'John Anderson my Jo, John,'” muttered he, half aloud.
+
+“'We've climbed the hill toge-ge-ge-ther,'” chimed in Purvis, with a
+cackle.
+
+“Gather what, sir? Blackberries, was it?” cried Haggerstone.
+
+“Don't quote that low-lived creature,” said Mrs. Ricketts; “a poet only
+conversant with peasants and their habits. Let us talk of our own order.
+What of these poor Onslows?”
+
+“Sir Stafford dines at two, madam. A cutlet, a vegetable, and a cherry
+tart; two glasses of Gordon's sherry, and a cup of coffee.”
+
+“Without milk. I had it from Proctor,” broke in Purvis, who was bursting
+with jealousy at the accuracy of the other's narrative.
+
+“You mean without sugar, sir,” snapped Haggerstone. “Nobody does take
+milk-coffee after dinner.”
+
+“I always do,” rejoined Purvis, “when I can't get mara-mara-mara--”
+
+“I hope you can get maraschino down easier than you pronounce it, sir.”
+
+“Be quiet, Scroope,” said his sister; “you always interrupt.”
+
+“He do make de devil of misverstandness wit his whatye-call-'em,” added
+the Pole, contemptuously.
+
+And poor Purvis, rebuked on every side, was obliged to fall back beside
+Martha and her embroidery.
+
+“My Lady,” resumed Haggerstone, “is served at eleven o'clock. The moment
+Granzini's solo is over in the ballet, an express is sent off to order
+dinner. The table is far more costly than Midchekoff's.”
+
+“I do believe well,” said the Count, who always, for nationality's sake,
+deemed it proper to abuse the Russian. “De Midchekoff cook tell me he
+have but ten paoli how you say par tete by the tete for his dinner; dat
+to include everyting, from the caviar to de sheeze.”
+
+“That was not the style at the Pavilion formerly,” roared out
+Haggerstone, repeating the remark in Foglass's ear.
+
+And the ex-consul smiled blandly towards Mrs. Ricketts, and said he 'd
+take anything to England for her “with pleasure.”
+
+“He 's worse than ever,” remarked Haggerstone, irritably. “When people
+have a natural infirmity, they ought to confine themselves to their own
+room.”
+
+“Particularly when it is one of the tem-tem-temper,” said Purvis, almost
+choked with passion.
+
+“Better a hasty temper than an impracticable tongue, sir.” said
+Haggerstone.
+
+“Be quiet, Scroope,” added Mrs. Ricketts; and he was still. Then,
+turning to the Colonel, she went on: “How thankful we ought to be that
+we never knew these people! They brought letters to us, some, indeed,
+from dear and valued friends. That sweet Diana Comerton, who married
+the Duke of Ellewater, wrote a most pressing entreaty that I should call
+upon them.”
+
+“She did n't marry the Duke; she married his chap-chaplain,” chimed in
+Purvis.
+
+“Will you be quiet, Scroope?” remarked the lady.
+
+“I ought to know,” rejoined he, grown courageous in the goodness of his
+cause. “He was Bob Nutty. Bitter Bob, we always called him at school. He
+had a kind of a poly-poly-poly--”
+
+“A polyanthus,” suggested Haggerstone.
+
+“No. It was a poly-polypus a polypus, that made him snuffle in his
+speech.”
+
+“Ach Gott!” sighed the Pole; but whether in sorrow for poor “Bob,” or in
+utter weariness at his historian, was hard to say.
+
+“Lady Foxington, too,” said Mrs. Ricketts, “made a serious request that
+we should be intimate with her friend Lady Hester. She was candid enough
+to say that her Ladyship would not suit me. 'She has no soul, Zoe,'
+wrote she, 'so I need n't say more.'”
+
+“Dat is ver bad,” said the Pole, gravely.
+
+“Still, I should have made her acquaintance, for the sake of that young
+creature Miss Dalton, I think they call her and whom I rather suspect to
+be a distant cousin of ours.”
+
+“Yes; there were Dawkinses at Exeter a very respectable solicitor,
+one was, Joe Dawkins,” came in Purvis; “and he used to say we were
+co-co-co-connections.”
+
+“This family, sir, is called Dalton, and not even a stutter can make
+that Dawkins.”
+
+“Couldn't your friend Mr. Foglass find out something about these Daltons
+for us, as he goes through Germany?” asked Mrs. Ricketts of the Colonel.
+
+“No one could execute such a commission better, madam, only you must
+give him his instructions in writing. Foglass,” added he, at the top of
+his voice, “let me have your note-book for a moment.”
+
+“With pleasure,” said he, presenting his snuff-box.
+
+“No; your memorandum-book,” screamed the other, louder.
+
+“It's gone down,” whispered the deaf man. “I lost the key on Tuesday
+last.”
+
+“Not your watch, man. I want to write a line in your note-book;” and he
+made a pantomimic of writing.
+
+“Yes, certainly; if Mrs. R. will permit, I'll write to her with
+pleasure.”
+
+“Confound him!” muttered Haggerstone; and, taking up a visiting-card, he
+wrote on the back of it, “Could you trace the Daltons as you go back by
+Baden?”
+
+The deaf man at once brightened up; a look of shrewd intelligence
+lighted up his fishy eyes as he said,
+
+“Yes, of course; say, what do you want?”
+
+“Antecedents family fortune,” wrote Haggerstone.
+
+“If dey have de tin,” chimed in the Pole.
+
+“If they be moral and of irreproachable reputation,” said Mrs. Ricketts.
+
+“Are they related to the other Dawkinses?” asked Purvis. “Let him ask if
+their mother was not godfather to no, I mean grandfather to the Reverend
+Jere-Jere-Jere--”
+
+“Be quiet, Scroope will you be quiet?”
+
+“There, you have it all, now,” said Haggerstone, as he finished writing;
+“their 'family, fortune, flaws, and frailties' 'what they did, and where
+they did it' observing accuracy as to Christian names, and as many
+dates as possible.”
+
+“I'll do it,” said Foglass, as he read over the “instruction.”
+
+“We want it soon, too,” said Mrs. Ricketts. “Tell him we shall need the
+information at once.”
+
+“This with speed,” wrote Haggerstone at the foot of the memorandum.
+
+Foglass bowed a deep assent.
+
+“How like his grandfather!” said Mrs. Ricketts, in ecstasy.
+
+“I never knew he had one,” whispered Haggerstone to the Pole. “His
+father was a coachmaker in Long Acre.”
+
+“Is he not thought very like them?” asked Mrs. Ricketts, with a sidelong
+glance of admiration at the auburn peruke.
+
+“I've heard that the wig is authentic, madam.”
+
+“He has so much of that regal urbanity in his manner.”
+
+“If he is not the first gentleman of England,” muttered Haggerstone to
+himself, “he is the first one in his own family, at least.”
+
+“By the way,” said Mrs. Ricketts, hastily, “let him inquire into that
+affair of Lord Norwood.”
+
+“No necessity, madam. The affair is in 'Bell's Life,' with the
+significant question, 'Where is he?' But he can learn the particulars,
+at all events.” And he made a note in the book.
+
+“How dreadful all this, and how sad to think Florence should be the
+resort of such people!”
+
+“If it were not for rapparees and refugees, madam, house-rent would be
+very inexpensive,” said the Colonel, in a subdued voice; while,
+turning to the Pole, he added, “and if respectability is to be always
+a caricature, I'd as soon have its opposite. I suppose you do not admit
+the Viscount, madam?”
+
+“He has not ventured to present himself,” said Mrs. Ricketts, proudly.
+“I hope that there is, at least, one sanctuary where virtue can live
+unmolested.” And, as she spoke, she looked over at Martha, who was
+working away patiently; but whether happy in the exclusive tariff
+aforesaid, or somewhat tired of “protection,” we are unable to say.
+
+“What has he do?” asked the Count.
+
+“He has done the 'ring' all round, I believe,” said Haggerstone,
+chuckling at a joke which he alone could appreciate.
+
+“Dey do talk of play in England!” said the Pole, contemptuously. “Dey
+never do play high, wit there leetle how do you call 'em? bets, of tree,
+four guinea, at ecarte. But in Polen we have two, tree, five tousand
+crowns on each card. Dere, crack! you lose a fortune, or I do win one!
+One evening at Garowidsky's I do lose one estate of seventeen million
+florins, but I no care noting for all dat! I was ver rich, wit my
+palaces and de mayorat how you call dat?”
+
+Before this question could be answered, the servant threw open the
+double door of the salon, and announced, “Milordo Norwood!” A shell
+might have burst in the apartment and not created much more confusion.
+Mrs. Ricketts gave a look at Martha, as though to assure herself that
+she was in safety. Poor Martha's own fingers trembled as she bent over
+her frame. Haggerstone buttoned up his coat and arranged his cravat with
+the air of a man so consummate a tactician that he could actually roll
+himself in pitch and yet never catch the odor; while Purvis, whose dread
+of a duel list exceeded his fear of a mad dog, ensconced himself behind
+a stand of geraniums, where he resolved to live in a state of retirement
+until the terrible Viscount had withdrawn. As for the Count, a
+preparatory touch at his moustache, and a slight arrangement of his
+hair, sufficed him to meet anything; and as these were the ordinary
+details of his daily toilet, he performed them with a rapidity quite
+instinctive.
+
+To present oneself in a room where one's appearance is unacceptable is,
+perhaps, no slight test of tact, manner, and effrontery; to be actually
+indifferent to the feelings around is to be insensible to the danger;
+to see the peril, and yet appear not to notice it, constitutes the true
+line of action. Lord Norwood was perfect in this piece of performance,
+and there was neither exaggerated cordiality nor any semblance of
+constraint in his manner as he advanced to Mrs. Ricketts, and taking her
+hand, pressed it respectfully to his lips.
+
+“This salutation,” said he, gayly, “is a commission from Lord
+Kennycroft, your old and constant admirer. It was his last word as we
+parted: 'Kiss Mrs. Ricketts's hand for me, and say I am faithful as
+ever.'”
+
+“Poor dear Lord! General, here is Lord Norwood come to see us.”
+
+“How good of him how very kind! Just arrived from the East, my Lord?”
+ said he, shaking Foglass by the hand in mistake.
+
+“No, sir; from Malta.” He wouldn't say England, for reasons. “Miss
+Ricketts, I am most happy to see you and still occupied with the fine
+arts? Haggy, how d'ye do? Really it seems to me like yesterday since I
+sat here last in this delightful arm-chair, and looked about me on all
+these dear familiar objects. You 've varnished the Correggio, I think?”
+
+“The Vandyk, my Lord.”
+
+“To be sure the Vandyk. How stupid I am! Indeed, Lady Foxington said
+that not all your culture would ever make anything of me.”
+
+“How is Charlotte?” asked Mrs. Ricketts, this being the familiar for
+Lady F.
+
+“Just as you saw her last. Thinner, perhaps, but looking admirably.”
+
+“And the dear Duke how is he?”
+
+“Gouty always gouty but able to be about.”
+
+“I am so glad to hear it. It is so refreshing to talk of old friends.”
+
+“They are always talking of you. I'm sure, 'Zoe' forgive me the liberty
+Zoe Ricketts is an authority on every subject of taste and literature.”
+
+“How did you come here, my Lord?” whispered Haggerstone.
+
+“The new opera broke down, and there is no house open before twelve,”
+ was the hasty reply.
+
+“Is Jemima married, my Lord?”
+
+“No. There 's something or other wrong about the settlements. Who's the
+foreigner, Haggy?”
+
+“A Pole. Petrolaffsky.”
+
+“No, no not a bit of it. _I_ know him,” said the other, rapidly; then,
+turning to Mrs. Ricketts, he grew warmly interested in the private life
+and adventures of the nobility, for all of whom she entertained a most
+catholic affection.
+
+It was, indeed, a grand field-day for the peerage; even to the
+“Pensioners” all were under arms. It was a review such as she rarely
+enjoyed, and certainly she “improved the occasion.” She scattered
+about her noble personages with the profusion of a child strewing
+wild-flowers. There were Dukes she had known from their cradles;
+Marchionesses with whom she had disported in childhood; Earls and
+Viscounts who had been her earliest playmates; not to speak of a more
+advanced stage in her history, when all these distinguished individuals
+were suppliants and suitors. To listen to her, you would swear that she
+had never played shuttlecock with anything under an Earl, nor trundled
+a hoop with aught below a Lord in Waiting! Norwood fooled her to the
+top of her bent. To use his own phrase, “he left her easy hazards, and
+everything on the balls.” It is needless to state that, in such pleasant
+converse, she had no memory for the noble Viscount's own transgressions.
+He might have robbed the Exchequer, or stolen the Crown jewels, for
+anything that she could recollect! and when, by a seeming accident, he
+did allude to Newmarket, and lament his most “unlucky book,” she smiled
+complacently, as though to say that he could afford himself even the
+luxury of being ruined, and not care for it.
+
+“Florence is pretty much as it used to be, I suppose,” said he; “and one
+really needs one's friends to rebut and refute foolish rumors, when they
+get abroad. Now, you 'll oblige me by contradicting, if you ever hear,
+this absurd story. I neither did win forty thousand from the Duke
+of Stratton, nor shoot him in a duel for non-payment.” Both these
+derelictions were invented on the moment. “You 'll hear fifty other
+similar offences laid to my charge; and I trust to you and the Onslows
+for the refutation. In fact, it is the duty of one's own class to defend
+'their order.'”
+
+Mrs. Ricketts smiled blandly, and bowed, bowed as though her gauze
+turban had been a coronet, and the tinsel finery jewelled strawberry
+leaves! To be coupled with the Onslows in the defence of a viscount was
+a proud thought. What if it might be made a grand reality?
+
+“Apropos of the Onslows, my Lord,” said she, insidiously, “you are very
+intimate with them. How is it that we have seen so little of each other?
+Are we not congenial spirits?”
+
+“Good Heavens! I thought you were like sisters. There never were people
+so made for each other. All your tastes, habits, associations forgive
+me, if I say your very, antipathies are alike; for you both are
+unforgiving enemies of vulgarity. Depend upon it, there has been some
+underhand influence at work. Rely on 't, that evil tongues have kept you
+apart.” This he said in a whisper, and with a sidelong glance towards
+where Haggerstone sat at ecarte with the Pole.
+
+“Do you really think so?” asked she, reddening with anger, as she
+followed the direction of his eyes.
+
+“I can hit upon no other solution of the mystery,” said he,
+thoughtfully; “but know it I will, and must. You know, of course, that
+they can't endure him?”
+
+“No, I never heard that.”
+
+“It is not mere dislike, it is actual detestation. I have striven to
+moderate the feeling. I have said, 'True enough, the man is bad ton,
+but you needn't admit him to anything like intimacy. Let him come and go
+with the herd you receive at your large parties, and, above all, never
+repeat anything after him, for he has always the vulgar version of every
+incident in high life.'”
+
+Mrs. Ricketts raised her arched eyebrows and looked astonished; but it
+was a feeling in which acquiescence was beautifully blended, and the
+Viscount marked it well.
+
+“You must tell me something of this Miss Dalton,” said he, drawing his
+chair closer; “they affect a kind of mystery about her. Who is she? What
+is she?”
+
+“There are various versions of her story abroad,” said Mrs. Ricketts,
+who now spoke like the Chief Justice delivering a charge. “Some say that
+she is a natural daughter of Sir Stafford's; some aver that she is
+the last of a distinguished family whose fortune was embezzled by the
+Onslows; others assert that she is a half-sister of Lady Hester's own;
+but who ought to know the truth better than you, my Lord?”
+
+“I know absolutely nothing. She joined them in Germany; but where, when,
+and how, I never heard.”
+
+“I 'll soon be able to inform you, my Lord, on every detail of the
+matter,” said she, proudly. “Our kind friend, yonder, Mr. Foglass, has
+undertaken to discover everything. Mr. F., will you touch his arm forme,
+Martha?” and, the gentleman being aroused to consciousness, now arose,
+and approached Mrs. Ricketts's chair, “may I be permitted to take a
+glance at your note-book?” This speech was accompanied by a pantomimic
+gesture which he quickly understood. “I wish to show you, my Lord,” said
+she, addressing the Viscount, “that we proceed most methodically in our
+searches after title, as I sometimes call it ha, ha, ha! Now, here is
+the precious little volume, and this will explain the degree of accuracy
+such an investigation demands. This comes of living abroad, my Lord,”
+ added she, with a smile. “One never can be too cautious, never too
+guarded in one's intimacies. The number of dubious people one meets
+with, the equivocal characters that somehow obtain a footing in society
+here, I really must ask you to decipher these ingenious hieroglyphics
+yourself.” And she handed the book to his Lordship.
+
+He took it courteously at the spot she opened it; and as his eyes fell
+upon the page, a slight very slight flush rose to his cheek, while
+he continued to read the lines before him more than once over. “Very
+explicit, certainly!” said he, while a smile of strange meaning curled
+his lip; and then, closing the book, he returned it to the lady's hand;
+not, however, before he had adroitly torn out the page he had been
+looking at, and which contained the following words: “Norwood's affair
+the precise story of the N. M. business if cut in England, and scratched
+at the 'Whip.'”
+
+“I cannot sufficiently commend either your caution or your tact, Mrs.
+Ricketts,” said he, bowing urbanely. “Without a little scrutiny of this
+kind our salons would be overrun with blacklegs and bad characters!”
+
+It was now late, late enough for Lady Hester, and the Viscount rose
+to take his leave. He was perfectly satisfied with the results of his
+visit. He had secretly enjoyed all the absurdities of his hostess, and
+even stored up some of her charming flights for repetition elsewhere.
+He had damaged Haggerstone, whose evil-speaking he dreaded, and, by
+impugning his good breeding, had despoiled him of all credit. He had
+seen the Polish Count in a society which, even such as it was, was
+many degrees above his pretensions; and although they met without
+recognition, a masonic glance of intelligence had passed between them;
+and, lastly, he had made an ally of the dear Zoe herself, ready to
+swear to his good character, and vouch for the spotless honor of all his
+dealings on turf or card-table.
+
+“Has he explained the Newmarket affair, madam?” said Haggerstone, as the
+door closed on the Viscount's departure.
+
+“Perfectly, Colonel; there is not the shadow of a suspicion against
+him.”
+
+“And so he was not scr-scr-scratched at the 'Whip'?” cried Purvis,
+emerging from his leafy retreat.
+
+“Nothing of the kind, Scroope.”
+
+“A scratch, but not a wound, perhaps,” said Haggerstone, with a grin of
+malice.
+
+“I am ver happy please ver moosh,” said the Count, “for de sake of de
+order. I am republiquecain, but never forget I 'm de noble blood!”
+
+“Beautiful sentiment!” exclaimed Mrs. Ricketts, enthusiastically.
+“Martha, did you hear what the Count said? General, I hope you didn't
+lose it?”
+
+“I was alway for de cause of de people,” said the Count, throwing back
+his hair wildly, and seeming as if ready to do battle at a moment's
+warning.
+
+“For an anti-monarchist, he turns up the king wonderfully often at
+ecarte” said Haggerstone, in a low muttering, only overheard by Martha.
+
+“I don't think the demo-demo-demo” But before Purvis had finished his
+polysyllabic word, the company had time to make their farewell speeches
+and depart. Indeed, as the servant came to extinguish the lamps, he
+found the patient Purvis very red in the face, and with other signs of
+excitement, deeply seated in a chair, and as if struggling against an
+access of suffocation.
+
+What the profound sentiment which he desired to enunciate might
+therefore be, is lost to history, and this true narrative is unable to
+record.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII. THE VISCOUNT'S VISION.
+
+WHEN Lord Norwood arrived at the Mazzarini Palace, he was surprised not
+to find the usual half-dozen carriages of the habitues drawn up in the
+courtyard, and still more so to learn that her Ladyship did not receive
+that evening. He ascended to George Onslow's apartment, and discovered
+that he had dined with Prince Midchekoff, and not yet returned. Not
+knowing how to spend the hours, so much earlier than those of his
+usually retiring to rest, he lighted a cigar, and threw himself on a
+sofa before the fire.
+
+The reveries of men who live much in the world are seldom very
+agreeable. The work of self-examination comes with a double penalty when
+it is rarely exercised, and the heavy arrears of time are formidable
+scores to confront. Lord Norwood was no exception to this theory. Not
+that he was one to waste time or temper in self-reproaches. The bygone
+was essentially with him the “irrevocable.” It might, it is true,
+occasionally suggest a hint for the future, but it never originated a
+sorrow for the past. His philosophy was a very brief code, and comprised
+itself in this, “that he did n't think well of himself, but thought
+worse of all others.” All that he had seen of life was duplicity,
+falsehood, selfishness, and treachery. In different stations these
+characteristics took different forms; and what was artfully cloaked in
+courtesy by the lord was displayed in all its naked deformity by the
+plebeian.
+
+He might have conducted himself respectably enough had he been rich, at
+least he fervently believed so; but he was poor, and therefore driven to
+stratagems to maintain his position in society. Cheated by his guardians
+and neglected by his tutor, he was sent into the world half ruined,
+and wholly ignorant, to become at first a victim, and afterwards the
+victimizer. With no spirit of retributive vengeance, there was nothing
+of reprisal in his line of conduct, he simply thought that such was the
+natural and inevitable course of events, and that every man begins as
+dupe, and ends as knave. The highest flight of the human mind, in his
+esteem, was successful hypocrisy; and although without the plastic wit
+or the actual knowledge of life which are required well to sustain a
+part, he had contrived to impose upon a very large number of persons who
+looked up to his rank; for, strange enough, many who would not have been
+duped by a commoner, fell easy victims to the arts of “my Lord.”
+
+The value of his title he understood perfectly. He knew everything it
+could, and everything it could not, do for him. He was aware that the
+aristocracy of England would stand by one of their order through many
+vicissitudes, and that he who is born to a coronet has a charmed life,
+in circumstances where one less noble must perish ingloriously. He knew,
+too, how, for very shame's sake, they would screen one of themselves,
+and by a hundred devices seem to contradict before the world what they
+lament over behind its back; and, lastly, he knew well that he had
+always a title and a lineage to bestow, and that the peerage was the
+great prize among the daughters of men.
+
+Now, latterly, he had been pushing prerogative somewhat too far. He
+had won large sums from young men not out of their teens; he had been
+associated in play transactions with names less than reputable; and,
+finally, having backed a stable to an immense amount at Newmarket, had
+levanted on the day of his losing. He had done the act deliberately and
+calmly. It was a coup which, if successful, replaced him in credit and
+affluence; if a failure, it only confirmed the wavering judgment of his
+set, and left him to shift for the future in a different sphere; for,
+while a disgraced viscount is very bad company for viscounts, he is
+often a very welcome guest amongst that amiably innocent class who think
+the privileges of the aristocracy include bad morals with blue ribbons.
+
+The Turf could now no longer be a career with him. Ecarte and lansquenet
+were almost as much out of the question. Billiards, as Sir Walter said
+of literature, “might be a walking-stick, but never a crutch.” There
+was, then, nothing left for it but marriage. A rich heiress was his last
+coup; and as, in all likelihood, the thing could not be done twice, it
+required geat circumspection.
+
+In England this were easy enough. The manufacturing districts were grown
+ambitious. Cotton lords were desirous of a more recognized nobility,
+and millowners could be found ready to buy a coronet at the cost of half
+their fortune. But from England late events had banished him, and with a
+most damaged reputation.
+
+Now, carrying nobility to the Continent was like bringing coals to
+Newcastle, the whole length and breadth of the land being covered with
+counts, barons, dukes, and princes; and although English nobility stands
+on a different footing, there was no distinguishing the “real article”
+ amid this mass of counterfeit.
+
+Every Frenchman of small fortune was an emigre count. Every German, of
+none, was sure to be a baron. All Poles, unwashed, uncombed, and uncared
+for, were of the very cream of the aristocracy; and as for Italians!
+it was a nation of princes, with their uncles all cardinals. To be a
+viscount in such company was, perhaps, like Lord Castlereagh's unstarred
+coat, plus distingue, but certainly more modest. The milor, if not
+associated with boundless wealth, six carriages, two couriers, three
+cooks, and a groom of the chambers, the whole of the “Russie,” or
+the “Black Eagle,” means nothing abroad. If not bound up with all the
+extravagance and all the eccentricities of riches, if not dazzling by
+display or amazing by oddity, it is a contradiction of terms; and to
+be an English noble without waste, profusion, and absurdity, is to deny
+your country or be a counterfeit of your class.
+
+Lord Norwood knew and felt all these things. They had often occupied his
+speculations and engaged his thoughts; so that, if his mind reverted to
+them now, it was to regard them as facts for future theory to build upon
+as mathematicians make use of the proofs of geometry without going over
+the steps which lead to conviction. No; all his present reflections took
+a practical form, and might be summed up in the one resolve, “I must go
+no further. I have done everything that a man dare do,--perhaps a little
+more, and yet keep his footing in the world.” That tacit verdict of “not
+proven,” which had been passed upon so many of his actions, might at
+any moment be reversed now, and a review of his life's career presented
+anything but a bright retrospect. Expulsion from a great school at
+thirteen; three years' private dissipation and secret wickedness in a
+clergyman's family; a dissolute regiment, from which he was given
+leave to sell out at Malta; two years with the Legion or Don Carlos,
+it mattered not which, in Spain; a year or so in London, with a weak
+attempt at reformation; a staff appointment in India obtained and
+sold; exposure partly hushed up; debts; Jews; renewals; the Fleet; the
+Bankruptcy Court; a few disreputable duels; an action for seduction;
+ending with the last affair at Newmarket, made up the grand outline,
+the details comprising various little episodes with which we must not
+trouble ourselves.
+
+One incident, however, would come up prominently before his Lordship's
+mind, and, however little given to let the past usurp the thoughts
+which should be given to the present, it still insisted upon sharing his
+attention. This was no less than a little love affair in Spain with a
+“ballerina” of the Opera, with whom, by the aid of a young priest then
+studying at Saragossa, he had contracted a mock marriage. The sudden
+movement of a corps of the army to which he was attached gave him an
+opportunity of an easy divorce from his bride, and it is likely he had
+not twice thought of her since the event had happened. Now, however,
+that an intention of marrying in reality occurred to him, the incident
+came freshly to his mind, and he jocularly wondered if his second
+marriage might prove more fortunate than his first.
+
+The hour and the place were favorable to revery. It was past midnight.
+All was silent and noiseless in the great palace; the sharp ticking of
+the clock on the mantel-piece was the only sound to be heard, save, at a
+long distance off, the dull, subdued flow of the Arno. The room itself,
+unlighted, except by the flickering wood fire, was in deep shadow; and,
+lulled by these influences and his mild Manilla, Norwood was free to
+revel in so much of dreamland as natures like his ever explore.
+
+Who can tell whether men of this stamp know what it is to “grieve,”
+ whether chagrin for some momentary disappointment, anger at being
+thwarted, is not the nearest approach to sorrow that they ever feel?
+The whole course of their lives seems opposed to the notion of deep
+or intense feeling, and the restless activity of their ingenious minds
+appears to deny the possibility of regrets. As for Norwood, he would
+have laughed at the puerility of going over the bygone; therefore, if
+he did recur to a former incident of his life, it was involuntary and
+probably induced by the accidental similarity with those which now
+engaged his thoughts.
+
+“If this Dalton girl be rich,” thought he, “I might do worse. There are
+no relatives to make impertinent inquiries, or ask awkward questions.
+Hester can, and must, if I desire, assist me. Living out of England,
+the girl herself will have heard nothing of my doings, and in name,
+appearance, and air she is presentable anywhere.” He thought, too, that,
+as a married man, his character would be in a measure rehabilitated. It
+would be like entering on a new road in life; and if this could be done
+with a certain degree of style and outlay, he had great trust in the
+world's charity and forgiveness to pardon all the past. “A good house
+and a good cook,” thought he, “are the best witnesses to call to
+character I have ever met. Turtle and champagne have proved sovereign
+remedies for slander in all ages; and the man who can sport Lafitte in
+the evening, and split a pencil at twenty paces of a morning, may defy
+envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness.”
+
+To find out about this girl's fortune was then his first object. As
+for family, his own rank was enough for both. The matter must be done
+quickly. The London season over, England would be pouring its myriads of
+talking, gossiping travellers over the Continent, and then he should be
+discussed, probably avoided and shunned too.
+
+Even already certain unmistakable signs of coolness announced themselves
+amongst the men of his acquaintance.
+
+George Onslow avoided play when in his company. Treviliani, one of Lady
+Hester's chief danglers, and the patron of the Turf in Tuscany, would
+n't even allude to a horse before him. Prince Midchekoff went further,
+and actually, save on rare occasions, omitted him from his dinner
+list. Now, although Norwood averred that he detested _petit jeu_, hated
+spooney talk about racing, and dreaded the tiresome display of a
+“Tartar feast,” these were all threatening indications, and he saw their
+meaning. He would willingly have fastened upon some one man, fixed a
+quarrel on him, and shot him. He had more than once in life adopted this
+policy with success; but here it would have been inapplicable, and the
+public opinion he sought to bring on his own side would have been only
+more inevitably arrayed against him.
+
+“In what a mess does the want of money involve a man!” thought he, as
+he lay before the half-dying embers of the wood fire. “Had I won my bets
+on 'Chanticleer,' or had I but backed 'Amontillado,' how different had
+my position been to-day! That the simple change of one name for another
+in my betting-book the mere hazard of a choice, of a horse, too should
+influence a man's whole life, is a pretty fair instance of what the
+world is! Had I 'come right,' I should now be the favored guest of some
+noble duke, shooting his grace's pheasants, drinking his Burgundy, and
+flirting with his daughters. Fortune willed it otherwise, and here I
+am, actually plotting a match with a nameless girl to rescue myself from
+utter ruin. Three weeks ago I would not have believed that this could
+happen; and who can tell what another three weeks may bring forth?
+perhaps, already, there is mischief brewing. What if my Lady's refusal
+to receive this evening may have some signification in it? Haggerstone
+is too courteous by half, and Jekyl has never called upon me since my
+arrival!” He laughed ironically as he said this, and added, “It is a
+bold game, after all, for them to play! Reprisals to two of them, at
+least might prove awkward; and as for 'Master Albert,' he lives but
+on general sufferance. There has been a long run of luck against me;
+nothing but ill-fortune since the day I might have married Hester, and
+yet hung back, and that very same year she marries another, and inherits
+an immense fortune in India. What a blow to each of us! Such has been
+my lot through life; always backing the loser till the very moment when
+luck changes, and his turn comes to win.”
+
+As these thoughts passed through his mind, weariness, the silence of the
+hour, the darkened room, induced slumber; and although once or twice he
+made a half-effort to arouse himself and go home, the listless feeling
+gained the mastery, and he dropped off to sleep. The uneasy consciences
+have oftentimes very easy slumbers. Norwood's was of the calmest; not a
+dream, not one flitting fancy disturbed it.
+
+It was already nigh day as he lay thus, when the dull roll of wheels
+beneath the window in part awoke him; at least, it so far aroused him
+that he remembered where he was, and fancied that it might be George
+Onslow, on the return from his dinner-party. He lay for some minutes
+expecting to hear his step upon the stair, and see him enter the room;
+but as all seemed to resume its wonted quiet, he was dozing off again,
+when he heard the sound of a hand upon the lock of the door.
+
+It is one of the strange instincts of half-slumber to be often more
+alive to the influence of subdued and stealthy sounds than to louder
+noises. The slightest whisperings, the low murmurings of a human voice,
+the creaking of a chair, the cautious drawing back of a curtain will jar
+upon and arouse the faculties that have been insensible to the rushing
+flow of a cataract or the dull booming of the sea.
+
+Slight as were the sounds now heard, Norwood started as he listened to
+them, and, at once arousing himself, he fixed his eyes upon the door, in
+which the handle was seen to turn slowly and cautiously. The impression
+that it was a robber immediately occurred to him, and he determined to
+lie still and motionless, to watch what might happen. He was not
+wanting in personal courage, and had full confidence in his strength and
+activity.
+
+The door at last opened; at first, a very little, and slowly, then
+gradually more and more, till, by the mysterious half-light to which his
+eyes had grown accustomed, Norwood could see the flounces of a female
+dress, and the small, neat foot of a woman beneath it. The faint,
+uncertain flame of the fire showed him thus much, but left the remainder
+of the figure in deep shadow.
+
+Whether from excess of caution, or that she was yet hesitating what
+course to take, she remained for some seconds motionless; and Norwood,
+who had subdued his breathing to the utmost, lay in the deep shadow,
+speculating on the upshot of an adventure from which he promised
+himself, at least, an amusing story. The deep black lace which fell over
+the arched instep indicated a degree of rank in the wearer that gave a
+piquancy to the incident, and imparted a zest to the curiosity of a
+man who probably knew no higher pleasure in life than in possessing the
+secrets of his acquaintance.
+
+He had time to run over in his mind a dozen little speculations of who
+she was, ere she stirred; and at last, as if with change of purpose, he
+saw, or fancied that he saw, the door beginning slowly to close. Whether
+this was a mere trick of his excited imagination or not, a sudden
+gesture of impatience on his part threw down one of the cushions of the
+sofa. A slight shriek so slight as to be barely heard broke from the
+female, and she banged the door to. Norwood reached it with a spring;
+but although, as he wrenched it open, he could yet hear the rustling of
+a woman's dress in the passage, the sharp sound of a door hastily shut
+and locked defied all thought of pursuit, and he stood pondering over
+what had happened, and almost doubtful of its reality.
+
+“At least, the fair visitor belongs to the family; that much I may rely
+upon,” said he, as he lighted a candle to explore the locality a little
+closer. The corridor, however, abruptly stopped at a small door, which
+was locked on the inside; but to what portion of the house it led he
+could not even conjecture. He was not a very unlikely man to trace the
+clew of such an adventure as this seemed to be. It was one of
+those incidents with which his course of life had made him somewhat
+conversant; and few were better able to fill up from conjecture every
+blank of such a history. Nor was he one to shrink from any suspicion,
+no matter how repugnant to every thought of honor, nor how improbable to
+every mind less imbued with vice than his own.
+
+For a moment or two, however, he almost doubted whether the whole might
+not have been a dream, so sudden, so brief, so trackless did it all
+appear. This doubt, was, however, quickly resolved, as his eyes fell
+upon the floor, where a small fragment of a lace dress lay, as it was
+caught and torn off in the closing door. Norwood took it up, and sat
+down to examine it with attention.
+
+“Point d'Alencon,” said he, “bespeaks no vulgar wearer; and such is
+this! Who could have thought of George Onslow playing Lothario! But this
+comes of Italy. And now to find her out.” He ran over to himself half a
+dozen names, in which were nearly as many nationalities, but some doubt
+accompanied each. “No matter,” thought he, “the secret will keep.”
+
+He suddenly remembered, at the instant, that he had promised an
+acquaintance to pass some days with him in the Maremma, shooting; and,
+not sorry to have so good a reason for a few days' absence, he arose
+and set out towards his hotel, having first carefully placed within
+his pocketbook the little fragment of lace, a clew to a mystery he was
+resolved to explore hereafter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX. FRANK'S JOURNEY.
+
+Our readers may, ere this, have surmised that Frank Dalton's career as
+a soldier was neither very adventurous nor exciting, since otherwise
+we should scarcely have so nearly forgotten him. When he parted with
+Hanserl to pursue his journey, his heart was full of warring and
+conflicting emotions, love of home and hope of future distinction
+alternately swaying him; so that while his affections drew him ever
+backwards, his ambitious urged him to go on.
+
+“I could have been so happy to have lived with them,” thought he, “even
+as a peasant lives, a life of daily toil. I would have asked for no
+higher fortune than that peaceful home we had made for ourselves by
+our own affections, the happy fireside, that sufficed us for all
+the blandishments of wealth and riches. Still there would have been
+something ignoble in this humility, something that would ill become
+my blood as a Dalton. It was not thus my ancestors understood their
+station, it was not with such lowly ambitions their hearts were stirred.
+Count Stephen himself might at this hour have been in obscurity and
+poverty as great, perhaps, as our own had he been thus minded; and now
+he is a field-marshal, with a 'Maria Teresa' cross on his breast! and
+this without one friend to counsel or to aid him! What a noble service
+is that where merit can win its way self-sustained and independent,
+where, without the indignity of a patron, the path of honorable
+enterprise lies free and open to all! What generous promptings, what
+bold aspirations such a career engenders! He shall not be ashamed of
+me, he shall not have to blush for the Dalton blood,” said the boy,
+enthusiastically; and he revelled in a dream of the old Count's ecstasy
+on finding a nephew so worthy of their name, and in his fancy he saw
+pictures of future scenes in which he figured. All of these had the
+same rose tint; for while in some he imagined himself winning the
+high rewards of great achievements, in others he was the caressed and
+flattered guest of rank and beauty. “To think that I should once have
+been thus!” cried he, laughing at the conceit, “trudging along
+the high-road with a knapsack on my shoulder, like a Bursch in his
+'Wander-jahre;'” and then he vowed to himself that “he would have a
+picture taken of his humble guise as first he started in life, to hang
+up at some future day beside the decorated soldier he was yet to be.”
+
+Selfishness can wear many a mask. Sometimes it can array itself in
+features almost noble, more often its traits are of the very meanest.
+Frank's egotism was of the former kind. He wanted to attain distinction
+by an honorable path, he would not have stooped to any other. He was
+ready to do or dare all for greatness. No peril could deter, no danger
+could daunt him; but yet was he totally deficient in that greatest
+element of success, that patient discipline of the mind which, made
+up of humility and confidence, can wait and bide its time, earning the
+prizes of life before it claim them. His pride of family, however, was
+his greatest blemish, since it suggested a false notion of distinction,
+a pretension so groundless that, like a forged banknote, it was sure to
+involve even the bearer in disgrace.
+
+So full was he of himself and his own future, that he took but little
+note of the way as he went. Avoiding, from a sense of pride, to
+associate with the “Travelling Youths,” as they are called, he walked
+along from early morning to late evening, alone and companionless. It
+was mostly a dreary and uninteresting road, either leading through dark
+and gloomy pine forests or over great plains of swampy surface, where
+the stubble of the tall maize, or the stunted vines, were the only
+traces of vegetation. As he drew near the Tyrol, however, the great
+mountains came in sight, while the continual ascent told that he was
+gradually reaching the land of glaciers and snow-peaks. Day by day he
+found the road less and less frequented: these lonely districts were
+little resorted to by the wandering apprentices, so that frequently
+Frank did not meet a single traveller from day-dawn till night. Perhaps
+he felt little regret at this, leaving him, as it did, more time for
+those daydreams in which he loved to revel. Now and then some giant
+mountain glittering in the sun, or some dark gorge thousands of feet
+below him, would chase away his revery, and leave him for a time in
+a half-bewildered and wondering astonishment; but his thoughts soon
+resumed their old track, and he would plod along, staff in hand, as
+before.
+
+Walking from before daybreak to a late hour of the evening, Frank
+frequently accomplished in his day's journey as many miles as the
+traveller who, by post, only spent the few hours of mid-day on the road;
+in fact, he might have thus measured his speed, had he been less wrapped
+up in his own fancies, since, for several days, a caleche, drawn by
+three post-horses, had regularly passed him on the road, and always
+about the same hour.
+
+Frank saw nothing of this; and when on a bright and frosty day he began
+the ascent of the Arlberg, he little knew that the carriage, about half
+a mile in front, had been his travelling companion for the past week.
+Disdaining to follow the winding high-road, Frank ascended by those
+foot-tracks which gain upon the zig-zags, and thus soon was miles in
+advance of the caleche. At last he reached the half-way point of ascent,
+and was glad to rest himself for a few minutes on one of the benches
+which German thoughtfulness for the wayfarer never neglects to place
+in suitable spots. A low parapet of a couple of feet separated the road
+from a deep and almost perpendicular precipice, at the foot of which,
+above two thousand feet beneath, stood the village of Stuben. There was
+the little chapel in which he had his morning's mass, there the
+little Platz, where he had seen the post-horses getting ready for the
+travellers; there, too, the little fountain, covered with a shed of
+straw, and glistening with many an icicle in the bright sun. The very
+voices of the people reached him where he sat; and the sounds of a
+street-organ floated upwards through the still atmosphere. It was a
+scene of peaceful isolation such as would have pleased Nelly's fancy. It
+was like one of those “Dorf s” she herself had often carved to amuse a
+winter's evening, and Frank's eyes filled up as he thought of her and of
+home.
+
+The sound of feet upon the snow suddenly roused him, and, on looking
+round, Frank saw a traveller slowly coming up the pass. His dress at
+once proclaimed that he was not a pedestrian, save from choice, and was
+merely sauntering along in advance of his carriage. In the mere cursory
+glance Frank bestowed upon him he could see that he was a young and
+handsome man, with a certain soldierlike bearing in his air that well
+suited his bold but somewhat stern features.
+
+“You journey well, young fellow,” said he, addressing Frank familiarly.
+“This is the fifth day we have been fellow-travellers; and although I
+have post-horses, you have always kept up with me on your feet.”
+
+Frank touched his cap with a somewhat stiff courtesy at this
+unceremonious address; and, without deigning a reply, employed himself
+in arranging the straps of his knapsack.
+
+“Are you a soldier?” asked the stranger.
+
+“A cadet!” replied Frank as bluntly.
+
+“In what regiment, may I ask?”
+
+“The Franz Carl.”
+
+“Ah! my own old corps,” said the other, gayly. “I served four years with
+them in the Banat. From what part of the Empire are you you have n't the
+accent of an Austrian?”
+
+“I am an Irishman.”
+
+“Oh! that explains it. And your name?”
+
+“Dalton. And now, sir, what may be yours, for I don't see why this
+curiosity is to be one-sided,” said Frank, with an air even more
+insolent than the words.
+
+“I am Count Ernest of Walstein,” said the other, without a touch of
+irritation.
+
+[Illustration:  356]
+
+“What rank do you hold in the service?” asked Frank, boldly.
+
+“That of lieutenant-colonel, boy.”
+
+“And your age may be about thirty?” said Frank, half in question and
+half in sarcasm.
+
+“I was twenty-eight last August,” was the calm reply.
+
+“By Jove! that is a service!” exclaimed Frank, “where a man scarcely ten
+years my senior may command a regiment!”
+
+The other laughed, and after a brief pause, said, “People are in the
+habit of calling me fortunate, so that you must not suppose my case to
+be the rule.”
+
+“Be it so: even as an exception, the example is a bright one. Another
+may do what you have done.”
+
+“If you mean that I have earned my rank by services, boy,” said the
+Count, smiling, “you would make a grave mistake. My promotion had
+another source.”
+
+Frank looked as though he were curious to hear the explanation, but the
+other gave none.
+
+“How do you call yourself?” asked he of Frank, after a pause.
+
+“Dalton,” replied the boy, more respectfully than before.
+
+“We have a field-marshal of that name in the service, a most gallant old
+soldier, too.”
+
+“My grand-uncle!” cried Frank, with enthusiasm.
+
+“Indeed! So you are a grand-nephew to the Graf von Auersberg,” said the
+Count, taking a more deliberate view than he had yet bestowed upon him.
+“Then how comes it you are travelling in this fashion, and on foot?”
+
+“I have not asked you why you journey in a caleche with three horses,”
+ said Frank, insolently.
+
+“It's my habit to do so.”
+
+“This, then, may be mine, sir,” said Frank, throwing his knapsack on his
+shoulder, and preparing to depart.
+
+“Is not the Franz Carl at Vienna?” said the Count, not seeming to notice
+the irritation of his manner.
+
+“I believe so.”
+
+“Well, then, as I am going thither, perhaps you will accept of a seat in
+my caleche?”
+
+There was a frankness in the way this offer was made that suddenly
+routed the ill-temper Frank had fallen into. No one was less disposed
+than himself to accept of a favor from a perfect stranger; but the tone
+and manner of the proffer had, somehow, disarmed it of all appearance of
+such; and as he stood uncertain what answer to make, the Count added:
+“I 'm always lucky. I was just wishing for a travelling companion, and
+fortune has thrown us into acquaintanceship.”
+
+“I don't know I can scarcely tell,” said Frank, hesitating, “how or what
+to answer.”
+
+“You forget that we are comrades, Dalton or shall be, at least, in
+another day or two,” said the Count, familiarly; “so step in, and no
+more about it.”
+
+The caleche had drawn up as he spoke, and the courier stood, cap in
+hand, beside the door, so that Frank had no time for any but an abrupt
+refusal, and that he could not give; he therefore bowed his head, and
+sprang in. The door was slammed sharply to, and the next moment the
+horses were rattling along over the snow, the merry bells of the harness
+jingling pleasantly as they went.
+
+Probably no two beings could present a much stronger contrast than the
+two who now journeyed along side by side. The one, rich, highly placed,
+and distinguished with every gift of fortune at his command, and yet
+pleasure-sick, weary, and discontented; the other, poor, and almost
+friendless, full of hope, and ardent with all the buoyancy of youth. The
+Count was as jaded and tired of life as the cadet was eager to enjoy it.
+Notwithstanding perhaps we should rather say in virtue of these strong
+contrarieties, they made admirable travelling companions, and the road
+slipped away unconsciously to each.
+
+At Innspruck they halted for a day or two, and Frank accompanied his new
+friend to the cafes and theatres, mingling in the throng of those whose
+life is a round of easy dissipation. It is true that, to conform by
+dress and demeanor with these, Frank was obliged to spend the golden
+coins of Nelly's purse; louis after louis went in some one extravagance
+or another, sacrifices that cost him many a pang, but which, from pride,
+he bore up against with seeming indifference. Walstein presented him
+everywhere as the nephew of the old field-marshal Von Auersberg; and as
+nothing was more common than to see a young cadet dispensing the
+most lavish sums, with equipages, liveries, and servants, none seemed
+surprised that the youth should indulge in these habits and tastes of
+extravagance. His very enjoyment seemed like an earnest of being long
+habituated to these modes of life, for whether he played or drank, or in
+whatever excesses he mingled, there was ever the same joyous spirit; and
+Frank Dalton had all the outward signs of a youth rich in every accident
+of fortune. At first, thoughts of his humble home and of those by whose
+sacrifices he was enabled to indulge in such costly pleasures would
+cross his mind, and, what between shame and sorrow, he felt degraded and
+debased before himself; but, by degrees, the levity of action induced,
+as it ever will do, the levity of thinking; and he suffered himself to
+believe that “he was no worse than others.” A more fatal philosophy than
+this, youth never adopted, and he who seeks a low standard rarely stops
+till he falls beneath even that. Frank's pride of family made him vain,
+and his vanity made him credulous; he therefore implicitly believed
+all that his new companions told him, the familiar “thee and thou” of
+camaraderie giving an air of friendship to all the flatteries.
+
+“Were I a nephew of a field-marshal like thee, I'd not serve in an
+infantry corps. I 'd be in the Lichtenstein Hussars or the Lancers of
+the Kaiser,” said one.
+
+“So he will,” cried another. “Dalton only joined the Franz Carl to get
+his promotion quickly. Once at Vienna, he will be an officer, and ready
+to exchange his regiment.”
+
+“Old Auersberg can make thee what he will, lad,” said a third. “He might
+have been Minister of War himself, if he had liked it. The Emperor Franz
+loved him as a brother.”
+
+“And he is rich, too, no one knows how rich,” broke in a fourth. “He
+commanded for many years on the Turkish frontier, in those good days
+when our Grenzers used to make forays upon the villages, and every
+Pashalic paid its blackmail for peace' sake.”
+
+“Thou are a lucky dog, Dalton, to find thy promotion and an inheritance
+thus secured to thee.”
+
+“When thou has a regiment, lad, don't forget us poor devils here, that
+have no uncles in the 'Maria Teresa' category.”
+
+“I 'll lay my life on't, that he is a colonel before I become
+Rittmeister,” said a young lieutenant of dragoons, “and I have had five
+years' hard service in Galicia and Servia.”
+
+“And why not?” broke in Count Walstein, who sat silently up to
+this smoking his meerschaum in a corner. “Has the empire lost its
+aristocratic character? Are not birth and blood to have their claims, as
+of old?”
+
+This speech met a ready acceptance, for the company consisted of those
+who either were, or affected to be, of noble extraction.
+
+“How our fathers deceive themselves in trying to deceive us!” said a
+young Hungarian cadet. “I, too, was sent off to join my regiment on
+foot. Just fancy to walk from Arad to Presburg! I, that never went
+twenty miles in my life save on the saddle. They fitted me with my
+knapsack, just such a thing as Dalton's. I suppose about as many florins
+jingled in my purse as in his. They gave me their blessing and a map of
+the road, with each day's journey marked out upon it. And how far did
+I go afoot, think'st thou? Two miles and a half. There I took an 'Eil
+Bauer,' with four good horses and a wicker caleche, and we drove our
+sixty, sometimes seventy miles a day. Each night we put up at some good
+country house or other Honyadi's Ctzyscheny's Palfi's; all lay on the
+road, and I found out about fifty cousins I never knew of before, and
+made a capital acquaintance, too, the Prince Paul of Ettlingen, who,
+owning a regiment of Light Dragoons, took me into his corps, and, when
+I joined them at Leutmeritz, I was already an officer. What stuff it
+is they preach about economy and thrift! Are we the sons of peasants
+or petty shopkeepers? It comes well, too, from them in their princely
+chateaux to tell us that we must live like common soldiers. So that,
+while yesterday, as it were, I sat at a table covered with silver, and
+drank my Tokay from a Venetian glass, tomorrow I must put up with sour
+Melniker, or, mayhap, Bavarian beer, with black bread, and a sausage
+to help it down! Our worthy progenitors knew better in their own young
+days, or we should not have so many debts and mortgages on our estates
+eh, Walstein?”
+
+“I suppose the world is pretty much alike, in every age,” said the
+Count, laughing. “It now and then takes a virtuous fit, and affects
+to be better than it used to be; but I shrewdly suspect that the only
+difference is in the hypocritical pretension. When I entered the service
+and it is not so many years ago that I cannot recollect it the cant was,
+to resemble that rough school of the days of old Frederick and Maria
+Teresa. Trenck's 'Pandours,' with their scarlet breeches stuffed into
+their wide boot-tops, were the mode; and to wear your moustache to your
+shoulders to cry 'Bey'm Henker!' and 'Alle Blitzen!' every moment, were
+the veritable types of the soldier. Now we have changed all that.
+We have the Anglomania of English grooms and equipages, top-boots,
+curricles, hurdle-races, champagne suppers. Dalton will be the ton in
+his regiment, and any extravagance he likes to launch into certain to
+have its followers.”
+
+The youth blushed deeply; partly in conscious pride at the flattery,
+partly in the heartfelt shame at its inappropriateness to himself; and
+even the sincerity with which his comrades drank his health, could not
+drown the self-reproaches he was suffering under.
+
+“Thou art an only son, too, Dalton!” said another. “What favors fortune
+will shower upon one happy fellow! Here I am, one of seven; and although
+my father is a count of the empire, four of us have to take service in
+the infantry.”
+
+“What of that?” said a dark-complexioned fellow, whose high cheek-bones
+and sharp under-jaw bespoke a Pole. “I am a second lieutenant in the
+regiment that my grandfather raised and equipped at his own cost; and
+if I were to lose a thousand florins at lansquenet to-morrow, I 'd be
+broke, like the meanest 'bursch' in the corps.”
+
+“It's better to be a rich Englander,” cried one.
+
+“And with a field-marshal for a grand-uncle!” chimed in another.
+
+“And a 'Maria Teresa' to ask for thy grade as officer,” said a third.
+
+“It's a jolly service to all of us,” said a young Bohemian, who,
+although but a cadet, was a prince, with a princely fortune. “I ask for
+nothing but a war to make it the best life going.”
+
+“A war with whom?” cried several together.
+
+“What care I with whom or where? With Prussia, if you will, to fight out
+our old scores about Frauconia; with Russia, if you like better, for the
+Danubian provinces, and her Servian supremacy; with France she 's
+always ready, with a cause or without one; with Italy to round off our
+frontier, and push our limits to the Apennines; I'd say with England,
+only Dalton might n't like it.”
+
+“And where would you pick your quarrel with England?” said Frank,
+laughing.
+
+“Easily enough, through our ambassador at the Porte, or some outlying
+station, where Russia is her rival.”
+
+“Hang your politics!” broke in a Hungarian. “Let us fight when the time
+comes, but not bother our heads about the cause. I 'd rather take
+my chance of a sabre-cut any day than addle my brains with too much
+thought. Here 's to you, Dalton, mayst soon be a Rittmeister of Hussars,
+lad; a prouder thing thou needst not ask for.”
+
+“Thou shalt give us a jolly supper at the 'Schwan,' Dalton, when we meet
+at Vienna,” said another.
+
+“And we'll pledge those fair sisters of thine and they 're both
+handsome, I 'll be sworn in the best Tokay Palfi's vineyard can yield.”
+
+“My regiment will be in garrison, in the Leopoldstadt, next month, and
+I'll remind thee of this pledge.”
+
+“And we shall be at Lintz,” broke in another; “and thou mayst reckon on
+me, if I have to suffer an arrest for it afterwards.”
+
+“So it is agreed, Dalton, we are thy guests. For what day shall it be?”
+
+“Ay, let us name the day,” cried several together.
+
+“When he is named an officer,” said Walstein, “that will be time
+enough.”
+
+“Nay, nay the day month after he arrives at Vienna,” cried the Bohemian.
+“I have given three breakfasts and five suppers on the occasion of my
+promotion, and the promotion has never come yet.”
+
+“The day month after I arrive, then, be it,” said Dalton. “We meet at
+where is it?”
+
+“The 'Schwan,' lad, the first restaurant of Europe. Let men talk as they
+will of the Cadran Bleu and the Trois Freres, I'd back Hetziuger's cook
+against the world; and as for wine, he has Steinkammer at thirty florins
+the flask! And we'll drink it, too, eh, Dalton? and we'll give a 'Hoch
+Lebe' to that old grandfather or grand-uncle of thine. We'll add ten
+years to his life.”
+
+“A poor service to Dalton,” said another; “but here comes Walstein's
+horses, and now for the last glass together before we part.”
+
+The parting seemed, indeed, to be “sweet sorrow,” for each leave-taking
+led to one flask more, friendship itself appearing to make wondrous
+progress as the bottle went round. The third call of the postilion's
+bugle a summons that even German loyalty could scarcely have courage
+to resist at last cut short the festivities, and Frank once more found
+himself in the caleche, where at least a dozen hands contested for the
+last shake of his, and a shower of good wishes mingled with the sounds
+of the crashing wheels.
+
+“Glorious fellows!” cried Dalton, in an ecstasy of delight; “such
+comrades are like brothers.”
+
+Walstein smiled at the boy's enthusiasm, and lighted his meerschaum in
+silence; and thus they journeyed, each too full of his own thoughts to
+care for converse. It was not at such a moment that Dalton could give
+way to dark or serious reflections; the blandishments and caresses of
+his new friends were too powerful to admit of any rivalry in his mind;
+and even when he did revert to thoughts of home, it was to picture
+to himself his father's pride at seeing him in the society of these
+high-born youths; of Kate's delight at the degree of notice he
+attracted; and even Nelly poor Nelly! he fancied yielding a gentle,
+half-reluctant assent to a companionship which, if costly and expensive,
+was sure to be honorable and high-minded.
+
+“What would Hanserl say, too,” thought he, “if he saw me seated at the
+table with those whose high-sounding names are the pride of Austrian
+chivalry, the Thuns, the Lichtensteins, the Schwartenschilds, and the
+Walsteins, families old as the Hapsburgs themselves? Little Hanserl, to
+whom these glorious families were the great lights of history, oh, if he
+could have set eyes on me this last evening! when, with arms around my
+neck, they called me comrade!” From this he wandered on to thoughts
+of his uncle, investing the old field-marshal with every noble and
+soldierlike attribute, and, above all, fancying him as overflowing with
+affection and kindness. What hosts of questions did he ask about his
+father and his sisters; how often had he to repeat their names and
+paint their resemblances, going over the most minute details of family
+history, and recounting the simplest incidents of their daily life, for
+“Uncle Stephen would know all.”
+
+In such pleasant fancies he fell fast asleep, even in his dreams to
+carry out those imaginings that, waking, had no control of reason.
+
+Frank Dalton was awaked from a sound sleep and a pleasant dream of home
+by the hoarse voice of a mounted dragoon, ordering the postilion to
+halt; and, on looking out, he saw that they were drawn up close beside
+the angle of the great wooden bridge that crosses the Danube, under the
+walls of Vienna. The whole scene was one of wonderment and surprise to
+him. At his feet, as it were, rolled the stream of the rapid Danube; its
+impetuous flood splashing and foaming amid the fragments of ice floated
+down from the mountain regions, and which every moment were shivered
+against the stone breakwaters with the crash of thunder. Beyond the
+river rose the fortified walls of the city, covered with a dense
+multitude of people, eager spectators of a grand military display,
+which, with all the pomp of war, poured forth beneath the dark archway
+of the entrance-gate, and, winding over the “glacis,” crossed the
+bridge, and held on its course towards the Prater.
+
+It was a clear, bright day of winter; the blue sky almost cloudless, and
+the sharp outline of every object stood out, crisp and well defined, in
+the thin atmosphere. Nothing could be more favorable for the effect of
+such a spectacle. The bright weapons glanced and glittered like silver,
+the gay trappings and brilliant uniforms showed in all their splendor,
+the scarlet Lancers, the blue-clad Hussars, the Cuirassiers, with their
+towering helmets, vied with each other in soldierlike bearing; while the
+dense mass of infantry moved along with a surging, waving motion, like
+a vast sea heaving with a ground-swell. It was an army complete in every
+detail; for, even to the “ambulances” for the wounded, everything was
+there.
+
+“A review by the Emperor!” said Walstein; “and see, there comes his
+staff.” And he pointed to a group of horsemen, whose waving plumes and
+floating dolmans were seen at a little distance off in the plain.
+
+“Oh, let us follow them!” cried Frank, enthusiastically. “Such a
+glorious sight as this I never even imagined.”
+
+“You 'll see enough, perhaps too many such,” said the Count, languidly.
+“It's a favorite pastime of our old General's to drag us out of quarters
+in the very depth of winter, and spend a day in the snow of the Prater.”
+
+“Who could have a thought for weather or hardship when engaged in such a
+scene?” said Frank.
+
+“So, evidently, think those worthy field-marshals and generals of
+division, who, well mounted, and swathed in furs, canter down to the
+ground, an hour after we have reached it, and ride back again when they
+have 'taken the salute,' leaving us to plod wearily home, through wet
+roads and sloppy streets, to our cold barracks. But just the reverse
+is the opinion of those poor fellows yonder, with blue faces and
+frostbitten knuckles, and who have neither pride in this display, nor
+sympathy with the success of what is called 'a fine manoeuvre.'”
+
+Frank shook his head distrustfully. He wished not to credit the opinion,
+but knew not how to refute it, and was silent.
+
+“That is the 'Franz Carl,' Dalton,” said Walstein, pointing to a column
+of infantry, who, in their dark gray overcoats, seemed a sad-looking,
+gloomy mass. “They've got the best band and the most savage colonel in
+the service.”
+
+Frank gazed at the regiment with a strange sensation of awe and fear.
+
+“There lies my destiny!” thought he. “Who knows what friendships or
+enmities await me yonder? What hearts in that dark mass will beat
+responsively with my own; what sources of sorrow or affliction may I
+meet with amongst them!”
+
+“I wish thou hadst a better regiment, Dalton,” said Walstein.
+
+“How a better? Is it not a brave and distinguished corps?”
+
+“Brave enough,” said the other, laughing; “and as for distinction, an
+Archduke owns and commands it. But that is not what I mean. The regiment
+is a poor one; the officers are from Upper Austria, with little or
+no fortune, fellows who dine for a zwanziger, play dominos for two
+kreutzers, waltz at the wine-gardens, and fight duels with sabres.”
+
+Frank laughed at the description; but his laugh had more of gloom
+than mirth about it, for he felt at every moment the false position
+be occupied, and how inextricably complicated his circumstances were
+becoming. Every allusion to others showed him in what light he was
+himself regarded. “Was his deception honorable? was it possible to
+continue it?” were the questions that would obtrude upon him, and for
+which no ingenuity could find answer.
+
+“There 's the corps for you, Dalton,” said Walstein, drawing his
+attention to the “Hungarian Guard,” all glittering with gold embroidery,
+and mounted upon the most beautiful white chargers, at once the most
+perfect riders and the best mounted cavalry in Europe. “In that regiment
+you are certain of being quartered either here or in Prague. Those laced
+jackets are too costly wear to send down to the Banat, or among the
+wilds of Wallachia. Besides, the Empress likes to see these gaudy
+fellows on their 'schimmels' beneath the Palace windows. Your uncle
+will, of course, grumble a little about the cost. Perhaps your father,
+too, will look a little grave when he hears of six thousand florins for
+a 'dolman,' and four for a 'schabrach;' while ten or twelve horses the
+very least you could keep would scarcely sound like a moderate stable.
+Still, depend upon it, the corps is as good for service as it is costly,
+and Creptowitz, their Colonel, is a true hussar.”
+
+For a moment Dalton hesitated whether he should not make the honest
+avowal of his narrow fortune, and tell that he had no pretension to such
+habits of cost and expense; but shame was too powerful to permit the
+acknowledgment. He had already gone too far to retract, and he felt
+that any candor now would be the confession of a cheat. If these were
+harassing and torturing reflections, one flickering ray of hope still
+glimmered through the gloom; and this was, what he might expect from his
+uncle. “If he be really rich, as they say,” thought Frank, “if his favor
+be so great with the Emperor, even such a career as this may not be
+above my prospects.” As he revolved these thoughts, he sat with his head
+buried between his hands, forgetful of where he was and all around him.
+
+“You 're losing everything, Dalton,” said Walstein. “See, there go
+the 'Kaiser Jagers,' with their bugles, the finest in the service; and
+yonder are the Lichtenstein 'Light Horse,' mounted on thorough-bred
+cattle; and there, to the left, those savage-looking fellows with long
+beards, they are the 'Croat Grenadiers.' But here comes the Emperor!”
+ And, as he spoke, one deafening cheer burst forth along the line, and
+was echoed back from the walls of Vienna; while every band struck up
+the national hymn of Austria, and the proud notes of “God preserve the
+Emperor!” floated through the air.
+
+A brilliant staff of generals of every arm of the service accompanied
+“the Kaiser;” and Walstein ran quickly over the names of these, many of
+whom were among the first nobility of the Empire. Some were the war-worn
+veterans of the great campaigns; some the young hopes of Austrian
+chivalry; but, conspicuous above all, was a figure whose stature, as
+well as the singularity of his uniform, attracted Frank's notice. He was
+a very tall old man, dressed in a uniform of purple velvet slashed with
+gold, and actually covered with the crosses and decorations of various
+orders. His cap was a tall chako of red-brown fur, from which a long,
+straight scarlet plume floated, and beneath which his gray hair was
+fastened in a queue, that hung half-way down his back. Yellow buskins
+ornamented with massive gold spurs completed a costume which seemed
+almost a compromise between the present and some bygone age.
+
+The figure of the wearer, too, suited well this impression. There was
+a stern rigidity of look as he sat still and motionless in his saddle,
+which relaxed into the polished urbanity of an old courtier as often as
+the Emperor addressed him. When bowing to the mane of his charger, he
+seemed the very type of courtesy; while, as he retired his horse, there
+was all the address and ease of a practised rider.
+
+“There, to the left of Walmoden, on the powerful black horse, do you see
+that handsome old man in the purple tunic?” said Waldstein.
+
+“I have been watching him for several minutes back,” replied Frank.
+“What a singular uniform!”
+
+“Yes. It was the dress of the Artillery of the Imperial Guard in the
+days of Wagram and Lobau; and he is permitted to retain it, by a special
+leave of the Emperor, a favor he only avails himself of on occasions
+like the present.”
+
+“What a mass of orders he wears!”
+
+“He has all that the Empire can bestow, from the 'Iron Cross' to the
+'Maria Teresa.' He has the 'Legion of Honor,' too, sent him by Napoleon
+himself! It was that officer who at Elchingen rode up to the head of a
+French column, and told them that the wagons they were pursuing were the
+'ammunition of the rear-guard!' 'If you advance,' said he, 'we 'll fire
+them, and blow you and ourselves to atoms!' The coolness and heroism of
+the daring were well acknowledged by a brave enemy. The French halted,
+and our train proceeded on its way. Mayhap you have heard the anecdote
+before?”
+
+“Never,” said Frank, still gazing with admiration at the old soldier.
+
+“Then I may as well tell you that he is the Count Dalton von Auersberg,”
+ said Walstein, lying back to enjoy the youth's amazement.
+
+“What! Uncle Stephen? Is that our uncle?” burst out Frank, in delight.
+
+“I wish I could call him 'ours,' with all my heart,” said Walstein,
+laughing. “Any man might well be proud of such a relative.”
+
+But Frank never heard or heeded the remark; his whole soul was wrapped
+up in the contemplation of the old field marshal, on whom he gazed as a
+devotee might have done upon his saint.
+
+“He 's like my father,” muttered Frank, half aloud; “but
+haughtier-looking, and older. A true Dalton in every feature! How I long
+to speak to him, to tell him who I am.”
+
+“Not here, though, not here!” said Walstein, laying his hand on the
+youth's arm; for he almost feared lest he should give way to the sudden
+impulse. “Were you even the Colonel of your regiment, you could not
+approach him now.”
+
+Frank stared with some surprise at a remark which seemed to treat so
+slightingly the ties of blood and kindred; while Walstein, by no means
+easy on the score of his companion's prudence, gave the word to the
+postilion to drive on; and they entered the city of Vienna.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX. THE THREAT OP “A SLIGHT EMBARRASSMENT.”
+
+The Mazzarini Palace was now a proverb for all that was dissipated and
+extravagant throughout Florence, and in proportion as the society which
+frequented it was select and few in number, the more absurd were the
+rumors that went abroad of its dissipations and excesses. In default
+of a real, good, tangible scandal the world invented a thousand shadowy
+little slanders, that, if not as deadly to reputation at once, were just
+as certain to kill character in the long run.
+
+Sir Stafford's gout, of which he was confined to his bed or a sofa, was
+pronounced the lingering agonies of a broken heart. “My Lady's” late
+dinners were orgies where every licentiousness held sway. George was
+a reckless gambler, who had already jeopardized all the wealth of
+his family; and, as for Kate, she was at the mercy of that amiable
+temperament of the human mind which always believes the worst, and as
+constantly draws the darkest inference from its belief.
+
+Now, Sir Stafford was very gouty, very irritable, and very unhappy to
+boot, about a number of matters, which, however deeply interesting to
+himself, should have had no concern for the world. My Lady did dine at
+eleven o'clock at night, and the company was assuredly not that from
+which a discriminating public would have selected archbishops, or even
+minor canons, consisting for the most part of that class of which we
+have already made mention in a former chapter, with now and then some
+passer-through of rank, or some stray diplomate on his way to or from
+his post. George Onslow was a large loser at play, but without having
+recourse to those stratagems for payment which were so generally
+ascribed to him. While Kate poor Kate was neither better nor worse than
+the reader has hitherto known her.
+
+We do not in this admission seek to conceal the fact that she was very
+different from what first we saw her. Society had taught her tact,
+grace, and elegance of deportment. Admiration had rendered her yes,--we
+say it advisedly admiration had rendered her very attractive, drawing
+forth a thousand resources of fascination, and a thousand arts of
+pleasing, that often wither and die in the cold chill of neglect. The
+most fastidious critic could not have detected a fault in her manner;
+an ill-natured one might have objected to what seemed an excess of
+gracefulness; but even this was relieved by a youthful freshness and
+buoyancy of temperament, the last the very last remnant of her former
+self.
+
+She was the belle of Florence. Her sovereignty admitted of nothing like
+a rival. Whether she drove, or rode, or danced, or walked, the same
+admiring throng surrounded her; some sincere in all their admiration,
+others but following the lead which fashion took, and others, again,
+watchful observers of a manner in which they fancied they could trace
+the settled plan of a daring and ambitious character. Vanity had been
+the foible of her childish years; it was now the vice of her womanhood.
+Lady Hester ministered to this failing in a hundred ways. Liking Kate
+as well as it was possible for her to like anything, she took an intense
+pleasure in all the admiration she met with.
+
+As an actor is said to “create the part” which is written for him, when
+he impresses the personation with traits peculiarly his own, so did
+she fancy that Kate was but a reflected image of all her own graces and
+fascinations; and probably the proudest days of her own triumphs never
+yielded more enjoyment than she now felt in the flattering praises
+bestowed upon Kate Dalton.
+
+There were good-natured people who said that Lady Hester's admiration
+had another source, and that, as a somewhat passee beauty, she knew the
+full value of a younger and handsomer woman in attracting to her circle
+and society all that was distinguished by rank or station. We are not
+prepared to deny some force to this argument, but, assuredly, it had
+less weight than other reasons. Lady Hester's own claims, besides, were
+higher than these detractors admitted. She was, although not very young,
+still very handsome, her rank and wealth both considerable, and her
+manner the perfection of that school to which she belonged. If her
+affection for Kate was only another form of selfishness, it was not the
+less strong on that account. She was the confidante of her sorrows, by
+no means a sinecure office; the chief counsellor in all her plans;
+she was the lay-figure on which she experimented a hundred devices
+in costume and toilet; and lastly, greatest charm of all, she was a
+dependant. Not, indeed, that Kate herself so understood her position;
+pride of family, the Dalton heritage, was too powerful in her to admit
+of this. Deeply, sincerely grateful she was for all Lady Hester's
+kindness; her affection she returned tenfold, but no sense of
+inferiority mingled with this feeling, save that which arose from her
+own devoted admiration of her friend.
+
+The homage amid which she passed her life, the unceasing flow of
+flatteries around her, were not very likely to undeceive her on this
+point. A more respectful devotion could not have waited on a princess of
+the royal house. The great Midchekoff gave balls in her honor. The Arab
+horses of Treviliani were all placed at her disposal. The various visits
+to objects of curiosity or taste were arranged for her pleasure, and
+nothing omitted that could tend to stimulate her vanity and heighten her
+self-esteem.
+
+The utmost we can say for her all this while is, that if she was carried
+away by the excitement of this adulation, yet, in her heart, she was
+as little corrupted as was well possible. She could not be other
+than enamored of a life so unchanging in its happiness, nor could
+she disconnect the enjoyments around her from the possession of great
+wealth. She thought of what she had been a few months back: the “same
+Kate Dalton,” braving the snows of a dark German winter, with threadbare
+cloak and peasant “sabots,” an object of admiration to none except poor
+Hanserl, perhaps! And yet now, unchanged, unaltered, save in what gold
+can change, how different was her position! It had been well if her love
+of splendor had stopped here. It went further, however, and inspired a
+perfect dread of humble fortune.
+
+Over and over again did she hear disparaging remarks bestowed upon the
+striving efforts of “respectable poverty,” its contrivances derided, its
+little straits held up to ridicule. In dress, equipage, or household,
+whatever it did was certain to be absurd; and yet all of these people,
+so laughed at and scorned, were in the enjoyment of means far above her
+own father's!
+
+What a false position was this! How full of deceit must she become to
+sustain it! She invoked all her sophistry to assure herself that their
+condition was a mere passing state; that at some future perhaps not even
+a remote one they should have “their own again;” and that as in family
+and descent they were the equals of any, so they were not inferior in
+all the just claims to consideration and respect. She tried to think of
+her father and Nelly moving in the circles she now lived in; but, even
+alone, and in the secrecy of her own thoughts, her cheek became scarlet
+with shame, and she actually shuddered at the very notion. And even
+Frank, her once ideal of all that was graceful and noble-looking,
+how would he pass muster beside these essenced “fashionables” who now
+surrounded her! She endeavored to console herself by thinking that her
+father would have despised the lounging, unmanly lives they led, that
+Ellen would have retired in bashful modesty from a society whose tone
+of freedom and license would have shocked her, and that Frank would
+have found no companionship in a class whose pleasures lay only in
+dissipation; and yet all her casuistry could not reassure her. The
+fascinations amid which she lived were stronger than her reason.
+
+She became first aware of the great change in herself on recognizing
+how differently a letter from home affected her to what it had done some
+months before. At first she would have hastened to her room, and locked
+the door, in an ecstasy of delight to be alone with dearest Nelly, to
+commune with her own sweet sister in secret, to hang on every line,
+every word, with delight, fancying herself once more with arms clasped
+around her, or bending down beside her cheek as she leaned over her
+work-table. How every little detail would move her; how every allusion
+would bring up home before her, the snug little chamber of an evening,
+as the bright fire glowed on the hearth, and Nelly brought out her tools
+for modelling, while Hanserl was searching for some passage, a line, or
+a description that Nelly wanted; and then the little discussions that
+would ensue as to the shape of some weapon, or the fashion of some
+costume of a past age, so often broken in upon by her father, whose
+drolleries would set them laughing!
+
+With what interest, too, she would follow each trifling occurrence of
+their daily life; the progress Nelly was making in her last group; its
+difficulties how would she ponder over, and wonder how to meet them!
+With what eager curiosity would she read the commonest details of the
+household, the dreary burden of a winter's tale! and how her heart
+bounded to hear of Frank the soldier although all the tidings were that
+he was with his regiment, but “spoke little of himself or the service.”
+
+Now, however, the glow of delight which a letter used to bring up was
+changed for a deep blush of anxiety and shame, anxiety, she knew not
+wherefore or how; of shame, because Nelly's writing on the address was
+quaint and old-fashioned; while the paper and the seal bespoke the very
+lowliest acquaintance with epistolary elegance. The letter she used
+to grasp at with a high-beating heart she now clutched with greater
+eagerness, but in terror lest others should see and mark its vulgar
+exterior!
+
+How differently, too, did the contents affect her! So long as they
+referred to herself, in her own latest narrative of her life, she
+read with avidity and pleasure. Nelly's innocent wonderment was a very
+delightful sensation; her affectionate participation in her happiness
+was all grateful; even her gentle warnings against the seductions of
+such a career were not unpleasing; but the subject changed to home, and
+what an alteration came over her spirit! How dark and dismal became the
+picture, how poverty-stricken each incident and event, what littleness in
+every detail, how insignificant the occupations that interested them!
+
+How great the surprise she felt at their interest in such trifles; how
+astonished that their hopes and fears, their wishes or their dreads,
+could take so mean a form! This came with peculiar force before her,
+from a paragraph that closed Nelly's last letter, and which ran thus:
+
+“Think of our happiness, dearest Kate! We have just seen one who saw
+you lately, one of your Florence acquaintances; and I believe I might go
+further and say friends, for the terms in which he spoke of you evinced
+sincere and true regard. It was so kind of him to find us out, just to
+come and tell us about you; indeed, he remained a day here for no other
+purpose, since his diplomatic duties were urging him to England with
+speed.”
+
+When Kate had read thus far, she stopped, her face and neck crimson with
+shame, and her heart beating almost audibly. With lightning rapidity she
+ran over to herself three or four names of ministers and envoys who
+had lately left Florence, trembling to think it might be the gorgeous
+Russian, Naradskoi, the princely Neapolitan, Carnporese, or the haughty
+Spaniard, Don Hernandez Orloes, who had visited their humble interior.
+What a humiliation for her, if she were ever to see them again! Home,
+at that instant, presented itself before her but as the witness of her
+shame: how sordid and miserable did its poverty appear, and with what
+vulgarity associated! Her poor old father, around whose neck but a
+moment before she would have hung with rapture, she shrank from with
+very terror: his dress, his look, his accent every word he spoke, every
+allusion he made, were tortures to her; and Nelly even Nelly how she
+blushed to fancy her humble guise and poor exterior; the little dress of
+colored wool, from the pockets of which her carving-tools appeared; and
+then how the scene rose before her! her father producing Nelly's last
+work, some little group in clay or wood. She pictured to herself his
+pride, her sister's bashfulness, the stranger's pretended admiration!
+Till now, these emotions had never seen a counterfeit. Oh, how she
+shuddered as her thoughts took more and more the colors of reality, and
+the room itself, and its poverty-struck furniture, rose before her! At
+last she read on:
+
+“His visit was of course a great honor, and probably, had he come on any
+other errand but to speak of you, we should have been half overwhelmed
+with the condescension; but in very truth, Kate, I quite forgot all
+his greatness and his grandeur, and lost sight of his ever holding any
+higher mission than to bring news of my dearest sister. Papa, of course,
+asked him to dinner. I believe he would have invited the Czar himself
+under like circumstances; but, fortunately for us, for him, and perhaps
+for you too, he was too deaf to hear the request, and politely answered
+that he would send my letter to you with pleasure, under his own
+diplomatic seal; and so we parted. I ought to add that Mr. Foglass
+intends speedily to return to Florence.”
+
+Three or four times did Kate read this name over before she could
+persuade herself that she had it aright. Foglass! she had never even
+heard of him. The name was remarkable enough to remember, as belonging
+to a person of diplomatic rank, and yet it was quite new to her. She
+turned to Lady Hester's invitation book, but no such name was there.
+What form her doubts might have taken there is no knowing, when Mr.
+Albert Jekyl was seen to cross the courtyard, and enter the house.
+
+Knowing that if any could, he would be the person to resolve the
+difficulty, she hastened downstairs to meet him.
+
+“Mr. Jekyl,” cried she, hurriedly, “is there such a man as Mr. Foglass
+in this breathing world of ours?”
+
+“Of course there is, Miss Dalton,” said he, smiling at her eagerness.
+
+“A minister or an envoy at some court?”
+
+“Not that I have ever heard,” repeated he, with a more dubious smile.
+
+“Well, a secretary of embassy, perhaps? something of that kind? Who is
+he? what is he? where does he belong to?”
+
+“You mean Bob, Miss Dalton,” said he, at once puffing out his cheeks
+and running his hand through his hair, till it became a very good
+resemblance of the ex-Consul's wig, while, by a slight adjustment of
+his waistcoat, he imitated the pretentious presence of the mock royalty.
+“'You mean Bob, madam,'” said he, mimicking his measured intonation and
+pompous tone, “'Old Fogey, as Mathews always called me. Mathews and
+I and Townsend were always together, dined at Greenwich every Sunday
+regularly. What nights they were! Flows of reason, and feasts of eh?
+yes, that's what they were.'”
+
+“I must remind you that I never saw him,” said she, laughing; “though
+I'm certain, if I should hereafter, it will not be very hard to
+recognize him. Now, who is he?”
+
+“He himself says, a grandson of George the Fourth. Less interested
+biographers call him a son of Foglass and Crattles, who, I believe, were
+not even coachmakers to royalty. He was a consul at Ezmeroum, or some
+such place. At least, they showed him the name on a map, and bade him
+find it out; but he found out something more, it seems, that there was
+neither pay nor perquisites, neither passports nor peculation; and he
+has brought back his wisdom once again to besiege the Foreign Office.
+But how do you happen to ask about him?”
+
+“Some of my friends met him in Germany,” said she, hesitatingly. She
+might have blushed, had Jekyl looked at her; but he knew better, and
+took pains to bestow his glances in another direction.
+
+“It would be kind to tell them that the man is a most prying,
+inquisitive sort of creature, who, if he only had the sense of hearing,
+would be as mischievous as Purvis.”
+
+“I fancy they will see but little of him,” said she, with a saucy toss
+of the head. “He made their acquaintance by affecting to know me. I 'm
+sure I 've no recollection of having ever seen him.”
+
+“Of course you never knew him, Miss Dalton!” replied he, with a subdued
+horror in his voice as he spoke.
+
+“A letter for you, Mademoiselle,” said the servant to Kate; “and the man
+waits for an answer.”
+
+Kate broke the seal with some trepidation. She had no correspondents
+nearer than her home, and wondered what this might mean. It was in a
+strange commotion of spirit that she read the following lines:
+
+“Mrs. Montague Ricketts presents her respectful compliments to Miss
+Dalton, and begs to know at what hour to-day Mrs. M. R. may wait upon
+Miss D., to present a letter which has been committed to Mrs. R.'s hands
+for personal delivery. It may secure an earlier hour of audience if Mrs.
+R. mentions that the precious document is from Miss D.'s father.”
+
+What could this possibly mean? It was but that very same day the post
+brought her a letter from Nelly. Why had not her father said what he
+wished to say, in that? What need of this roundabout, mysterious mode of
+communicating?
+
+The sight of the servant still in waiting for the answer recalled her
+from these cross-questionings, and she hurried away to consult Lady
+Hester about the reply.
+
+“It's very shocking, my dear child,” said she, as she listened to the
+explanation. “The Ricketts, they tell me, is something too dreadful; and
+we have escaped her hitherto. You could n't be ill, could you?”
+
+“But the letter?” said Kate, half smiling, half provoked.
+
+“Oh, to be sure the letter! But Buccellini, you know, might take the
+letter, and leave it, with unbroken seal, near you; you could read
+it just as well. I 'm sure I read everything Sir Stafford said in his
+without ever opening it. You saw that yourself, Kate, or, with
+your scepticism, I suppose, you 'd not believe it, for you are very
+sceptical; it is your fault of faults, my dear. D'Esmonde almost shed
+tears about it, the other day. He told me that you actually refused to
+believe in the Madonna della Torre, although he showed you the phial
+with the tears in it!”
+
+“I only said that I had not seen the Virgin shed them,” said Kate.
+
+“True, child! but you saw the tears; and you heard D'Esmonde remark,
+that when you saw the garden of a morning, all soaked with wet, the
+trees and flowers dripping, you never doubted that it had rained during
+the night, although you might not have been awake to hear or see it.”
+
+Kate was silent; not that she was unprepared with an answer, but dreaded
+to prolong a discussion so remote from the object of her visit.
+
+“Now, Protestant that I am,” said Lady Hester, with the triumphant tone
+of one who rose above all the slavery of prejudice, “Protestant that I
+am, I believe in the 'Torre.' The real distinction to make is, between
+what is above, and what is contrary to, reason, Kate. Do you understand
+me, child?”
+
+“I'm sure Mrs. Ricketts's visit must be both,” Kate said, adroitly
+bringing back the original theme.
+
+“Very true; and I was forgetting the dear woman altogether. I suppose
+you must receive her, Kate; there 's no help for it! Say three o'clock,
+and I'll sit in the small drawing-room, and, with the gallery and the
+library between us, I shall not hear her dreadful voice.”
+
+“Has she such?” asked Kate, innocently.
+
+“I'm sure I don't know,” said Lady Hester, pettishly; “but of course
+she has! Those dreadful people always have! Make the visit as brief as
+possible, Kate. Let it not be a pretext for anything after. Use your
+eyeglass on every occasion, so that you can be short-sighted enough
+never to know her again. I have seen you very supercilious at times,
+child, it is precisely the manner for this interview. It was really very
+wrong of your papa to write in this fashion; or your sister, or whoever
+it was. Nobody thinks of anything but the post, nowadays. Pray tell them
+so; say it makes me quite nervous; you see I am nervous to-day! There,
+there! I don't want to fret you, child but everything has gone wrong
+to-day. Midchekoff has given away his box, and I have promised mine to
+the Lucchesini; and that blond flounce is much too narrow, so Celestine
+tells me; but I 'm sure she has cut a piece off it to make a 'berthe'
+for herself. And then the flowers are positively odious. They are
+crimson, instead of cherry-color, although I told Jekyl twice over they
+ought to be the very tint of Lady Melgund's nose! There, now; goodbye.
+Remember all I've been saying, and don't forget that this is a 'giorno
+infelice,' and everything one does will prove unlucky. I hope D'Esmonde
+will not come today. I 'm really not equal to controversy this morning.
+I should like to see Buccellini, however, and have a globule of the
+Elysian essence. Bye-bye; do think better about the 'Madonna della
+Torre,' and get rid of that odious Ricketts affair as speedily as may
+be.”
+
+With these injunctions, Kate withdrew to indite her reply to Mrs.
+Ricketts, appointing three o 'clock on that same afternoon for a visit,
+which she assuredly looked forward to with more of curiosity than
+pleasure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI. A CONVIVIAL EVENING
+
+IT is not necessary that the reader should participate in Kate Dalton's
+mystification regarding her father's letter, that document being simply
+a piece of Ricketts strategy, and obtained to secure an admission to
+the Mazzarini Palace, which, notwithstanding Lord Norwood's assurances,
+still regained an impregnable fortress to all her assaults.
+
+Foglass was then commissioned to induce Mr. Dalton to write something,
+anything, to his daughter, to be transmitted under the Embassy seal,
+a magnificent mode of conveyance, which was reason enough to call into
+exercise those powers of penmanship which, since he had ceased to issue
+promissory notes, had lain in the very rustiest state of disuse. The
+command to obtain this credential reached Foglass just as he was about
+to start from Baden; but being desirous, for various little social
+reasons, to conciliate the Ricketts's esteem, he at once altered his
+arrangements, and feigning a sudden attack of gout, a right royal malady
+he took himself to bed, and sent a few lines to Dalton, detailing his
+misfortune, and entreating a visit.
+
+Never backward in the cause of good-nature, poor Dalton sallied forth at
+night, and notwithstanding the cutting blasts of a north wind, and
+the sharp driftings of the half-frozen snow, held on his way to the
+“Russie,” where, in a very humble chamber for so distinguished a guest,
+lay Mr. Foglass in the mock agonies of gout.
+
+“How devilish kind of you, how very considerate!” said Foglass, as he
+gave one finger of his hand to shake. “So like poor Townsend this, Lord
+Tom, we used to call him. Not wet, though, I hope?”
+
+“And if I was, it would n't be the first time. But how are you yourself,
+where is the pain?”
+
+“You must speak louder; there 's a kind of damper on the voice in this
+room.”
+
+“Where 's the pain?” screamed Dalton.
+
+“There there no need to roar,” whispered the other. “The pain is here
+over the stomach, round the ribs, the back everywhere.”
+
+“Ah, I know it well,” said Dalton, with a wry contortion of the face.
+“It's the devil entirely when it gets under the short ribs! It begins
+like a rat nibbling you, as it might be, biting away little bits, with
+now and then a big slice that makes you sing out; and then the teeth
+begin to get hot, and he bites quicker, and tears you besides, sure I
+know it, this many a year.”
+
+To this description, of which Foglass heard nothing, he bowed blandly,
+and made a sign to Dalton to be seated near him.
+
+“You'd like a little wine-and-water, I'm sure,” said he, with the air of
+a man who rarely figured as a host, and liked it more rarely still.
+
+“Spirits-and-water--boiling water with sugar and a squeeze of lemon, is
+what I 'll take; and see now, you 'd not be worse of the same yourself.
+I 've an elegant receipt for the gout, but whether it 's sulphur or
+saltpetre 's in it, I don't well remember; but I know you mix it with
+treacle, ash-bark, and earthworms, the yolk of four eggs, and a little
+rosemary. But as you might n't like the taste of it at first, we 'll
+just begin with a jug of punch.”
+
+The waiter had by this time made his appearance, and the order being
+communicated by a most expressive pantomime of drinking, and a few
+solitary words of German Dalton possessed, the room assumed a look of
+sociality, to which Dalton's presence very mainly contributed.
+
+In the confidence such a moment of secrecy suggested, Foglass produced
+an ear-trumpet, a mark of the most unbounded good faith on his part, and
+which, had Dalton known him better, he would have construed into a proof
+of implicit reliance on his honor.
+
+“I've been many years at Constantinople,” said he, adjusting the
+instrument, “and the confounded muezzin has made me a little deaf. It's
+an everlasting calling to prayers, day and night, there.”
+
+“How they ever expect to get to heaven by tormentin', and teasin', is
+more than I know,” said Dalton.
+
+“They 're Mahomedans!” said Foglass, with the air of a man uttering a
+profound sentiment.
+
+“Ay, to be sure,” observed Dalton; “it's not like Christians. Now, is it
+true, they tell me they never eat salt meat!”
+
+“Never!”
+
+“Think of that! Not a bit of corned beef, nor as much as a leg of pork--”
+
+“Would n't hear of it,” interrupted Foglass. “Wine, too, is forbidden.”
+
+“And punch?”
+
+“Of course, punch also. A pipe, a cup of coffee, the bath, and a little
+opium are the luxuries of Turkish existence.”
+
+“To the devil I fling them all four,” cried Dalton, impatiently. “How a
+man is to be social beside a coffeepot, or up to his neck in hot water,
+beats me entirely. Faix! I don't envy the Turks!” And he sipped his
+glass as he spoke, like one who had fallen upon a happier destiny.
+
+“If you 'll mix me a very small glass of that punch, I'd like to propose
+a toast,” said Foglass.
+
+“There, now, that's spoke like a sensible man; pleasant company and
+social enjoyment are the greatest enemies to the gout. Make your mind
+easy, and keep your heart light, and the devil a fear but your knees
+will get limber, and the swellin' will leave your ankles; but weak punch
+and tiresome people would undermine the best constitution in the world.
+Taste that.”
+
+To judge from Mr. Foglass's face, Dalton had at least provided one
+element of health for his companion.
+
+“It is very strong very strong, indeed!” said he, puckering up his eyes.
+
+“It's the fault of the water hereabouts,” said Dalton. “It doesn't mix
+right with the spirits; so that one half the first, generally of your
+liquor tastes stiff, but the bottom is mild as milk.”
+
+[Illustration:  384]
+
+The explanation gave such encouragement to Foglass, that he drank away
+freely, and it was only when he had finished that he remembered his
+intention of giving a toast.
+
+“Now, Mr. Dalton,” said he, as he sat up with a replenished glass in his
+hand, “I am going to redeem my pledge, and about to give you the health
+of the most beautiful girl in Italy, one whose attractions are the theme
+of every tongue, and whose ambitions may realize any height, or attain
+any eminence, that she pleases.”
+
+“Here 's to you, Kate Dalton,” broke in the father, “my own sweet child;
+and if you only come back to me as you went away, the sorrow better I
+ask, or grander.”
+
+“She will be a duchess; she may be a princess if she likes.”
+
+“Who knows who knows?” said Dalton, as he hung down his head, and
+hammered away with his spoon at the sugar in his glass.
+
+“Every one knows, every one sees it, Mr. Dalton,” said Foglass,
+authoritatively. “From the Archduke Ernest of Austria to the very pages
+of the court, all are her worshippers and admirers. She'll come back to
+you with a proud name and a high coronet, Mr. Dalton.”
+
+“The devil a better than Dalton ever 'twill be! that I can tell you.
+'T is n't yesterday we took it, the same name; there 's stones in the
+churchyard of Ballyhack can show who we are; and if she married the--the
+God forgive me, I was going to say the Pope, but I meant the Grand Turk
+she would n't be better than she is now, as Kate Dalton.”
+
+“Not better, certainly, but in a more exalted rank, in a position of
+more recognized distinction,” said Foglass, blandly.
+
+“No; nor that neither,” cried Dalton, angrily. “The Daltons goes back
+to the ancient times of all. There 's one of our name in the Bible. I 'm
+not sure where, but I believe it 's in the Book of Kings, or maybe the
+Psalms; but wherever it is, he was a real gentleman, living on his own
+estate, with his livery-servants, and his horses, and everything in
+good style about him; high on the grand jury, maybe the sheriff of the
+county.”
+
+Foglass, who had followed this description but imperfectly, could only
+bow in a deep acknowledgment of what he did not understand.
+
+“The man that marries Kate Dalton isn't doing a piece of condescension,
+anyhow! that I can tell him. The dirty acres may slip away from us, but
+our good blood won't.”
+
+“No man has a higher veneration for blood, sir,” said Foglass, proudly;
+“few men have better reason for the feeling.”
+
+“Is Fogles an old stock?” asked Dalton, eagerly.
+
+“Foglass, like Fitzroy, sir, may mean more than loyalty would dare to
+avow. My father, Mr. Dalton But this is a very sad theme with me, let
+us change it; let us drink to a better feeling in our native land, when
+that abominable statute may be erased from our code, when that offspring
+of suspicion and distrust shall no longer be the offence and opprobrium
+of Englishmen. Here 's to its speedy and everlasting repeal!”
+
+The word was talismanic to Dalton, connected, as it was, in his mind
+with but one subject. He arose at once, and holding up his goblet in the
+air, cried out,
+
+“Hip! hip! hurrah! three cheers and success to it! Repeal forever!”
+
+Foglass echoed the sentiment with equal enthusiasm, and draining his
+glass to the bottom, exclaimed,
+
+“Thank you, Dalton! thank you; the heartiness of that cheer tells me we
+are friends; and although you know not what my feelings are indeed none
+can you can execrate with honest indignation those hateful unions!”
+
+“Bad luck to it!” exclaimed Dalton, with energy. “We never had grace nor
+luck since we saw it!”
+
+“Those petty German sovereigns, with their territories the size of Hyde
+Park!” said Foglass, with intense contempt.
+
+“Just so. The Hessians!” chimed in Dalton, who had a faint consciousness
+that the other was alluding to the troops of the Electorate, once
+quartered in Ireland.
+
+“Let us change the topic, Dalton,” said Foglass, pathetically, as he
+wiped his brow like a man dispelling a dark train of thought. “Here's
+to that charming young lady I saw last evening, a worthy sister of the
+beautiful Miss Dalton.”
+
+“A better child never breathed,” said Dalton, drinking off his glass.
+“My own poor Nelly,” muttered he, below his breath, “'t is better than
+handsome ye are, true-hearted, and fond of your old father.”
+
+“She has accomplishments, sir, that would realize a fortune; that is,”
+ said he, perceiving the dark cloud that passed over Dalton's features,
+“that is, if she were in a rank of life to need it.”
+
+“Yes very true just so,” stammered out Dalton, not quite sure how to
+accept the speech. “'Tis a fine thing to be able to make money, not
+that it was ever the gift of the Daltons. We were real gentlemen to
+the backbone; and there was n't one of the name for five generations,
+barring Stephen, that could earn sixpence if he was starving.”
+
+“But Stephen, what could he do?” inquired Foglass, curious to hear of
+this singular exception to the family rule.
+
+“He took to soldiering in the Austrian army, and he 's a field-marshal,
+and I don't know what more beside, this minute. My son Frank 's there
+now.”
+
+“And likes it?”
+
+“Troth, he does n't say a great deal about that. His letter is mighty
+short, and tells very little more than where he 's quartered, how
+hard-worked he is, and that he never gets a minute to himself, poor
+fellow!”
+
+“Miss Kate, then, has drawn the prize in the lottery of life?” said
+Foglass, who was anxious to bring the subject back to her.
+
+“Faix, that's as it may be,” said the other, thoughtfully. “Her letters
+is full of high life and great people, grand dances and balls, and the
+rest of it; but sure, if she 's to come back here again and live at
+home, won't it come mighty strange to her?”
+
+“But in Ireland, when you return there, the society, I conclude, is very
+good?” asked Foglass, gradually drawing him on to revelations of his
+future intentions and plans.
+
+“Who knows if I'll ever see it again? The estate has left us. 'T is them
+Onslows has it now. It might be in worse hands, no doubt; but they 've
+no more right to it than you have.”
+
+“No right to it, how do you mean?”
+
+“I mean what I say, that if every one had their own, sorrow an acre of
+that property would be theirs. 'T is a long story, but if you like to
+hear it, you 're welcome. It 's more pleasure than pain to me to tell
+it, though many a man in my situation would n't have the heart to go
+over it.”
+
+Foglass pronounced his willingness at once; and, a fresh jorum of
+punch being concocted, Dalton commenced that narrative of his marriage,
+widowhood, and loss of fortune, of which the reader already knows the
+chief particulars, and with whose details we need not twice inflict him.
+
+The narrative was a very long one; nor was it rendered more succinct by
+the manner of the narrator, nor the frequent interruptions to which, for
+explanation's sake, Foglass subjected him. Shall we own, too, that the
+punch had some share in the intricacy, Dalton's memory and Foglass's
+perceptions growing gradually more and more nebulous as the evening wore
+on. Without at all wishing to impugn Dalton's good faith, it must
+be owned that, what between his occasional reflections, his doubts,
+guesses, surmises, and suspicions, his speculations as to the reason
+of this and the cause of that, it was very difficult for a man so deeply
+versed in punch as Foglass to carry away anything like a clear notion
+of the eventful occurrences related. The strength of the potation, the
+hour, the length of the story, the parenthetical interruptions, which,
+although only bypaths, often looked exactly like the high-road,
+and probably, too, certain inaccuracies in the adjustment of
+the ear-trumpet, which grew to be very difficult at last, all
+contributed,--more or less, to a mystification which finally resembled
+nothing so much as a very confused dream.
+
+Had the worthy ex-Consul then been put on his oath, he could n't have
+said whether or not Sir Stafford had murdered the late Mr. Godfrey, or
+if that crime should be attributed to Dalton's late wife. Between Sir
+Gilbert Stafford and Sir Stafford Onslow, he had a vague suspicion of
+some Siamese bond of union, but that they were cut asunder late in life,
+and were now drifting in different currents, he also surmised. But which
+of them “got the fortune,” and which had not, who held the estate at
+present, and how Dalton came to be there at that moment relating the
+story, were Chinese puzzles to him.
+
+Murder, matrimony, debts, difficulties, and Chancery suits danced an
+infernal reel through his brain; and, what with the scattered fragments
+of Irish life thrown in incidentally, of locking dinner-parties in, and
+barring the sheriff out, of being chased by bailiffs, or hunting
+them, all these divertissements ending in a residence abroad, with its
+manifold discomforts and incongruities, poor Foglass was in a state
+which, were it only to be permanent, would have presented a spectacle of
+very lamentable insanity.
+
+The nearest approach to a fact that he could come to was that Dalton
+ought to be enormously rich, and that now he hadn't a sixpence; that the
+wealthy banker was somehow the cause, Count Stephen being not altogether
+blameless; and that Kate was living a life of extravagance and waste,
+while her father and sister were waging a hard fight with the very
+“grimmest” of poverty.
+
+“L'homme propose,” &c., says the adage; and the poet tells us an
+instance, that “those who came to scoff remained to pray.” So in the
+present case, Mr. Foglass, whose mission was to pump Peter Dalton out
+of every family secret and circumstance, had opened such an unexpected
+stream of intelligence upon himself that he was actually carried away in
+the flood.
+
+“You've been badly used, Dalton,” said he, at last. “I may say,
+infamously treated! Not only your fortune taken away, but your children
+torn from you!”
+
+“Ay, just so.” Dalton liked sympathy too well to cavil about his title
+to it. “True for you, a harder case than mine you 'll not hear of in a
+summer's day. My elegant fine place, my beautiful domain, the seat of
+my ancestors, or, if they were n't, they were my wife's, and that 's
+all the same; and to be sitting here, in a foreign country r hundreds
+of miles away from home. Oh dear, oh dear! but that's a change!” For an
+instant the thought overwhelmed him, and he was silent; then, fixing
+his eyes on Foglass, he added, in a dreamy soliloquy, “Hundreds of miles
+away from home, drinking bad brandy, with a deaf chap in a red wig for
+company.”
+
+“I call yours a case of downright oppression, Dalton,” resumed the
+other, who fortunately overheard nothing of the last remark. “If you had
+been residing in Persia or the Caucasus even in the Danubian Provinces
+we 'd have made you a case for the Foreign Office. You 'd have had your
+compensation, sir. Ay, faith! you 'd have had a good round sum for the
+murder of your father, old what 's his name? You 'd have had your claim,
+sir, for the loss of that fine boy the Austrians have taken from you,
+Mrs. Dalton's wardrobe, and all that sort of thing. I must repeat my
+conviction, you 've been grossly infamously treated!”
+
+“And just to think of my own flesh and blood, Stephen, my uncle!”
+
+“I can't think of him, sir! I can't bear to think of him!” cried
+Foglass, with enthusiasm.
+
+“A count of the Empire!” resumed Dalton; “a field-marshal, and a
+something else, with his Maria Teresa!”
+
+“At his age he might give up those habits,” said Foglass, who had
+converted the Cross of the Empress into a very different relationship.
+
+“And now, there 's Kate,” said Dalton, who never heard his comment,
+“there 's Kate, my own favorite of them all! thinks no more about us
+than if we did n't belong to her!”
+
+“Living in splendor!” mumbled Foglass. “Boundless extravagance!”
+
+“Just so! Wasting hundreds flinging the money about like chaff!”
+
+“I saw a ball dress of hers myself, at Madame Fanchone's, that was to
+cost three thousand francs!”
+
+“Three thousand francs! How am I to bear it all?” exclaimed Dalton,
+fiercely. “Will any man tell me how an Irish gentleman, with an
+embarrassed estate, and in the present times, can meet such extravagance
+as that? Three thousand francs! and, maybe, for a flimsy rag that
+wouldn't stand a shower of rain! Oh, Fogles, you don't know the man that
+'s sitting before you, hale and stout and hearty as he looks, the
+trials he has gone through, and the troubles he has faced, just for his
+children. Denying himself every enjoyment in life!” (here he sipped his
+glass), “giving up every little comfort he was used to!” (another
+sip), “all for his family! Look at my coat; feel the wool of it. See
+my breeches; 'tis like the hide of a bear they are. Take notice of my
+shoes; and there's my purse, with two florins and eight kreutzers in it;
+and, may I never see glory, if I don't owe a little bill in every shop
+that will trust me! And for what? answer me that, for what?”
+
+Although the savage energy with which this question was put would have
+extorted an answer from the least willing witness, Foglass was unable to
+reply, and only stared in mute astonishment.
+
+“I'll tell you for what, Fogles,” resumed Dalton, with a stroke of his
+clenched fist on the table, “I'll tell you for what! To have a son in
+the Hussars, and a daughter in all the height of fashion and fine life!
+That 's it, Fogles. My boy keeping company with all the first people in
+Austria, hand and glove with what 's his name? something like 'Misty,'
+or 'Hazy' I forget it now dining, driving, and shooting with them. And
+my girl, Kate. But sure you know better than myself what style she 's
+keeping! That 's the reason I 'm what you see me here, pining away in
+solitude and small means! All for my children's sake!”
+
+“It is highly meritorious. It does you honor, Dalton,” said the other,
+emphatically.
+
+“Well, I hope it does,” said he, with a sigh. “But how few know it,
+after all!”
+
+“And has this same Sir Stafford never taken any steps towards
+recompensing you? Has there been nothing like an amende for the great
+losses you 've sustained?”
+
+“Oh, indeed, to do him justice, he made me a kind of an offer once; but
+you see it was hampered with so many conditions and restrictions, and
+the like, that I rejected it with contempt. 'No!' says I, ''t is n't
+poverty will ever make me demean the old family! The Daltons won't
+suffer disgrace from me!'”
+
+“He could have assisted you without such an alternative, Dalton.”
+
+“Maybe he could, indeed!” sighed the other.
+
+“I know it well; the man is one of the richest in England; the head of a
+great bank, besides, making thousands every week.”
+
+“I often thought of that,” said Dalton. “Sure it would cost him little
+just to discount a small thing for me at three months. I'd take care to
+meet it, of course; and he'd never lose a sixpence by me. Indeed, he'd
+be gaining; for he 'd have the commission, and the discount, and the
+interest, and the devil knows what besides of law expenses--”
+
+Here he stopped abruptly, for he had unwittingly strayed into another
+and very different hypothesis regarding the fate of his bill. However,
+he pulled up short, tossed off his punch, and said, “I only wish he 'd
+do it!”
+
+“Why not try him, then? you ought, at least, to give yourself the
+chance.”
+
+“And, if he refused me, I'd have to call him out,” said Dalton, gravely;
+“and just see all the confusion that would lead to. My daughter on a
+visit there, myself here, and, maybe, obliged to go hundreds of miles to
+meet him, and no end to the expense, taking a friend with me, too. No,
+no! that would be too selfish entirely.”
+
+“What if you were to throw out a hint, when you write to your daughter,
+allude to present pressure for money; speak of tenants in arrear;
+remittances not arrived?”
+
+“Oh, faith! there's no need prompting me about these things,” said
+Dalton, with a bitter laugh. “I know them too well already.”
+
+“Write a few lines, then; you'll find paper and pens on that table.
+I 've told you that I will send it under my own seal, with the
+despatches.”
+
+Dalton was very little given to letter-writing at any period; but to
+encounter the labor at night by candle-light, and after a few hours'
+carouse, seemed to him quite out of the question. Still, the Embassy
+seal, whatever that might be, was no common temptation. Perhaps he
+fancied it to be like one of those portentous appendages which are seen
+attached to royal grants! Who can tell what amount of wax and ribbon his
+imagination bestowed upon it! Besides this, there was another motive,
+never again, perhaps, should he be able to write without Nelly's
+knowledge. This consideration decided the question at once. Accordingly,
+he put on his spectacles, and seated himself gravely to the work, which
+proceeded thus:
+
+     DEAR KATE, I 'm spending the evening with your friend the
+     Ambassador of I forget where--Fogles is his name and as
+     pleasant a man as I ever met; and he sends his regards to
+     you and all the family, and transmits this under his own
+     seal. Things is going on bad enough here. Not a shilling out
+     of Crognoborraghan. Healey ran away with the November rent
+     and the crops, and Sweeney 's got into the place, and won't
+     give it up to any one with out he gets forty pound! I 'd
+     give him forty of my teeth as soon, if I had them! Ryan
+     shot Mr. Johnson coming home from work, and will be hanged
+     on Saturday; and that 's in our favor, as he was a life in
+     Honan's lease. There 's no money in Ireland, Kellet tells
+     me, and there 's none here. Where the blazes is it all gone
+     to? Maybe, like the potatoes 't is dying out!
+
+     Frank 's well sick of soldiering; they chained him up like
+     a dog, with his hand to his leg, the other night for going
+     to the play; and if he was n't a born gentleman, he says,
+     they 'd have given him “four-and-twenty,” as he calls it,
+     with a stick for impudence. Stephen 's no more good to him
+     than an old umbrella, never gave him bit nor sup! Bad luck
+     to the old Neygur I can't speak of him.
+
+     Nelly goes on carving and cutting away as before. There 's
+     not a saint in the calendar she did n't make out of rotten
+     wood this winter, and little Hans buys them all, at a fair
+     price, she says; but I call a Holy Family cheap at ten
+     florins, and 't is giving the Virgin away to sell her for a
+     Prussian dollar. 'T is a nice way for one of the Daltons to
+     be living by her own industry!
+
+     I often wish for you back here; but I 'd be sorry, after
+     all, ye 'd come, for the place is poorer than ever, and you
+     're in good quarters, and snug where you are.
+
+     Tell me how they treat you if they're as kind as before and
+     how is the old man, and is the gout bad with him still? I
+     send you in this a little bill Martin Cox, of Drumsnagh,
+     enclosed me for sixty-two ten-and-eight. Could you get the
+     old Baronet to put his name on it for me? Tell him 't is as
+     good as the bank paper, that Cox is as respectable a man as
+     any in Leitrim, and an estated gentleman, like myself, and
+     of course that we'll take care to have the cash ready for it
+     when due. This will be a great convenience to me, and Fogles
+     says it will be a pleasure to Sir Stafford, besides
+     extending his connection among Irish gentlemen. If he seems
+     to like the notion, say that your father is well known in
+     Ireland, and can help him to a very lively business in the
+     same way. Indeed, I 'd have been a fortune to him myself
+     alone, if he 'd had the discounting of me for the last
+     fifteen years!
+
+     Never mind this, however, for bragging is not genteel; but
+     get me his name, and send me the “bit of stiff” by return of
+     post.
+
+     If he wants to be civil, maybe he 'll put it into the bank
+     himself, and send me the money; and if so, let the order be
+     on Haller and Oelcher, for I 'ne a long account with Koch
+     and Elz, and maybe they 'd keep a grip of the cash, and I 'd
+     just be where I was before.
+
+     If I can get out of this next spring--it would be a great
+     economy, for I owe something to everybody, and a new place
+     always gives courage.
+
+     I 'm hesitating whether I 'll go to Genoa or New York, but
+     cheapness will decide me, for I only live now for my family.
+
+     With all my affection,
+
+     Believe me your fond father,
+
+     PETER DALTON.
+
+     P. S. If Sir S. would rather have my own acceptance, let him
+     draw for a hundred, at three months, and I 'm ready; but
+     don't disappoint me, one way or other. Wood is fifteen
+     florins a “klafter” here, now, and I 've nobody to cut it
+     when it comes home, as Andy took a slice out of his shin on
+     Friday last with the hatchet, and is in bed ever since.
+     Vegetables, too, is dear; and since Frank went, we never
+     see a bit of game.
+
+     2nd P. S. If you had such a thing as a warm winter cloak
+     that you did n't want, you might send it to Nelly. She goes
+     out in a thing like a bit of brown paper, and the wooden
+     shoes is mighty unhandy with her lameness.
+
+     Mind the bill.
+
+
+“You are writing a rather lengthy despatch, Dalton,” said Foglass, who
+had twice dozed off to sleep, and woke again, only to see him still
+occupied with his epistle.
+
+“It's done now,” said Dalton, with a sigh; for, without well knowing
+why, he was not quite satisfied with the performance.
+
+“I wish you 'd just add a line, to say that Mrs. Ricketts, Mrs.
+Major-General Ricketts, who resides at Florence, is so desirous to
+know her. You can mention that she is one of the first people, but
+so exclusive about acquaintance, that it is almost impossible to get
+presented to her; but that this coming winter the Embassy will, in all
+likelihood, open a door to so desirable an object.”
+
+“Lady Hester will know her, of course?” said Dalton, whose sense of
+proprieties was usually clear enough when selfishness did not interfere,
+“and I don't see that my daughter should extend her acquaintance through
+any other channel.”
+
+“Oh, very true; it's of no consequence. I only meant it as an attention
+to Miss Dalton; but your observation is very just,” said Foglass, who
+suddenly felt that he was on dangerous ground.
+
+“Depend upon 't, Fogles, my daughter is in the best society of the
+place, whatever it is. It 's not a Dalton would be left out.”
+
+Foglass repeated his most implicit conviction in this belief, and did
+all in his power to efface the memory of the suggestion, but without
+success. Family pride was a kind of birdlime with old Dalton, and if he
+but touched, he could not leave it. The consequences, however, went no
+further than a long and intricate dissertation on the Dalton blood for
+several centuries back, through which Foglass slept just as soundly as
+the respected individuals there recorded, and was only awoke at last
+by Dalton rising to take leave, an event at last suggested by the empty
+decanter.
+
+“And now, Fogles,” said he, summing up, “you'll not wonder, that if we
+'re poor we 're proud. I suppose you never heard of a better stock than
+that since you were born?”
+
+“Never, by Jove! Guelphs, Ghibellines, and Hapsburgs are nothing to
+them. Good-night, good-night! I 'll take care of your letter. It shall
+go to-morrow in the Embassy bag.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII. AN INVASION.
+
+To afford the reader the explanation contained in the preceding chapter,
+we have been obliged to leave Kate Dalton waiting, in mingled anxiety
+and suspense, for the hour of Mrs. Ricketts's visit. Although her mind
+principally dwelt upon the letter which had been announced as coming
+from her father, an event so strange as naturally to cause astonishment,
+she also occasionally recurred to the awkwardness of receiving persons
+whom Lady Hester had so scrupulously avoided, and being involved in an
+acquaintanceship so unequivocally pronounced vulgar. A few short months
+before, and the incident would have worn a very different aspect to
+her eyes. She would have dwelt alone on the kindness of one, an utter
+stranger, addressing her in terms of respectful civility, and proffering
+the attention of a visit. She would have been grateful for the
+goodnature that took charge of a communication for her. She would have
+viewed the whole as a sort of flattering notice, and never dreamed of
+that long catalogue of “inconveniences” and annoyances so prolifically
+associated with the event as it at present stood. She was greatly
+changed in many respects. She had been daily accustomed to hear the
+most outrageous moral derelictions lightly treated, or, at least, but
+slightly censured. For every fault and failing there was a skilful
+excuse or a charitable explanation. The errors of the fashionable world
+were shown to be few, insignificant, and venial; and the code showed no
+exception to the rule that “well-bred people can do no wrong.” Vulgarity
+alone was criminal; and the sins of the underbred admitted of no
+palliation. Her sense of justice might have revolted against such
+judgments, had reason been ever appealed to; but such was not the
+case. Ridicule alone was the arbiter; whatever could be scoffed at was
+detestable, and a solecism in dress, accent, or demeanor was a higher
+crime than many a grave transgression or glaring iniquity.
+
+The little mimicries of Albert Jekyl, as he described Mrs. Ricketts,
+the few depreciatory remarks of Lady Hester concerning her, would have
+outweighed her worth had her character been a cornucopia of goodness.
+It was, then, in no pleasant flurry of spirits, that, just as the clock
+struck three, Kate heard the heavy door of the palace flung wide, and
+the sound of wheels echo beneath the vaulted entrance. The next moment
+a small one-horse phaeton, driven by a very meagre servant in a tawdry
+livery, passed into the courtyard, having deposited its company in the
+hall.
+
+There had been a time, and that not so very far back either, when the
+sight of that humble equipage, with visitors, would have made her heart
+beat to the full as strong, albeit with very different emotions. Now,
+however, she actually glanced at the windows to see if it had attracted
+notice, with a kind of terror at the ridicule it would excite. Never did
+she think an old gray horse could be so ugly; never did wheels make so
+intolerable a noise before! Why would people dress up their servants
+like harlequins? What was the meaning of that leopard-skin rug for the
+feet? It was an odious little vehicle, altogether. There was a tawdry,
+smirking, self-satisfied pretension about its poverty that made one wish
+for a break-down on looking at it.
+
+“Mrs. Montague Ricketts and Miss Ricketts,” said a very demure-looking
+groom of the chambers; and although his features were immaculate in
+their expressions of respect, Kate felt offended at what she thought was
+a flippancy in the man's manner.
+
+Although the announcement was thus made, the high and mighty personages
+were still three rooms off, and visible only in the dim distance, coming
+slowly forward.
+
+Leaning on her sister's arm, and with a step at once graceful and
+commanding, Mrs. Ricketts came on. At least, so Kate judged an enormous
+pyramid of crimson velvet and ermine to be, from the summit of which
+waved a sufficiency of plumes for a moderate hearse. The size and
+dignity of this imposing figure almost entirely eclipsed poor Martha,
+and completely shut out the slender proportions of Mr. Scroope Purvis,
+who, from being loaded like a sumpter-mule with various articles for the
+road, was passed over by the groom of the chambers, and believed to be a
+servant. Slow as was the order of march, Purvis made it still slower by
+momentarily dropping some of the articles with which he was charged;
+and as they comprised a footstool, a poodle, two parasols, an album,
+a smelling-bottle, a lorgnette, with various cushions, shawls, and a
+portable tire-screen, his difficulties may be rather compassionated than
+censured.
+
+“Scroope, how can you? Martha, do speak to him. It's down again! He'll
+smash my lorgnette he'll smother Fidele. How very awkward how absurd we
+shall look!” Such were the sotto voce accompaniments that filled up the
+intervals till they arrived at the great drawing-room, where Kate Dalton
+sat.
+
+If the reader has ever watched a great tragedy queen emerging from
+the flats, when, after a lively dialogue with the prompter, and the
+utterance of a pleasant jest, she issues forth upon the open stage, to
+vent the sorrows or the wrongs of injured womanhood, he may form some
+faint idea of the rapid transformation that Mrs. Ricketts underwent
+as she passed the door-sill. Her first movement was a sudden bound
+forwards, or, at least, such an approach to a spring as a body so
+imposing could accomplish, and then, throwing her arms wide, she seemed
+as if about to enclose Miss Dalton in a fast embrace; and so, doubtless,
+had she done, if Kate had responded to the sign. A deep and very formal
+courtesy was, however, her only acknowledgment of this spontaneous burst
+of feeling; and Mrs. Ricketts, like a skilful general, at once
+changing her plan of attack, converted her ardor into astonishment, and
+exclaimed,
+
+“Did you ever see such a resemblance? Could you believe it possible,
+Martha? A thousand apologies, my dear Miss Dalton, for this rudeness;
+but you are so wonderfully like our dear, dear friend Lady Caroline
+Montressor, that I actually forgot myself. Pray forgive me, and let me
+present my sister, Miss Ricketts. My brother, Mr. Scroope Purvis, Miss
+Dalton.”
+
+The ceremonial of introduction over, and Mrs. Ricketts being at last
+seated, a very tedious operation, in which the arrangement of cushions,
+pillows, and footstools played a conspicuous part, that bland lady
+began, in her very softest of voices,
+
+“This, indeed, repays me, amply, fully repays me! eh, Martha?”
+
+“Quite so, sister,” responded Martha, in a meek whisper.
+
+“A poor invalid as I am, rarely rising from a sofa except to snatch the
+perfumed odors of a violet in spring, or to listen to the murmurs of a
+rippling fountain; denied all the excitements of society by a nervous
+temperament so finely strung as to be jarred by contact, even the
+remotest, with inferior souls think of what ecstasy a moment like this
+affords me!”
+
+As Kate was profoundly ignorant to what happy combination of
+circumstances this blissful state could be attributed, she could only
+smile courteously, and mutter some vague expressions of her pleasure,
+satisfaction, and so forth.
+
+“Eve in her own paradise!” exclaimed Mrs. Ricketts, as she turned her
+eyes from Kate to the gorgeous chamber in which they were seated. “May I
+ask if the taste of these decorations be yours, Miss Dalton?”
+
+“Lady Hester Onslow's, madam,” said Kate, quietly.
+
+“I declare, I like these hangings better than 'Gobelins' they are
+lighter and more graceful. You remember, Martha, I told the dear Queen
+of Saxony that blue velvet would go so well with her small pictures. We
+discussed the point every morning at breakfast for a week, and the poor
+dear King at last called us the 'blue devils; 'very happy, wasn't it,
+Miss Dalton? But he speaks English just like one of ourselves.”
+
+“These are all Dutch pictures, I perceive,” said Purvis, who, with
+his poodle under his arm, was making a tour of the room, peering into
+everything, opening books, prying into china jars, and spying into
+work-boxes, as though in search of some missing article.
+
+“I 'm tired of Wou-Wou-Wou--” Here the poodle barked, doubtless in
+the belief that he was responding to an invitation. “Down, Fidele!
+Wou-ver-mans,” gulped out Purvis. “He 's always the same.”
+
+“But those dear white palfreys, how I love them! I always have a white
+horse, out of regard for Wouvermans.”
+
+Kate thought of the poor gray in the courtyard, and said nothing.
+
+“And there is something so touching so exquisitely touching in
+those Flemish interiors, where the goodwife is seated reading, and a
+straggling sunbeam comes slanting in upon the tiled floor. Little peeps
+of life, as it were, in a class of which we know nothing; for, really,
+Miss Dalton, iu our order, sympathies are too much fettered; and I often
+think it would be better that we knew more of the middle classes. When I
+say this, of course I do not mean as associates, far less as intimates,
+but as ingredients in the grand scheme of universal nature.”
+
+“'The no-no-noblest study of man-mankind is' what is it, sister?”
+
+“'Man,' Scroope; but the poet intended to refer to the great aims and
+objects of our being. Don't you think so, Miss Dalton? It was not man in
+the little cares of everyday life, in his social relations, but man in
+his destinies, in his vast future, when he goes beyond 'that bourne'--”
+
+“From which nobody ever got out again,” cackled Purvis, in an ecstasy at
+the readiness of his quotation.
+
+“'From which no traveller returns,' Scroope, is, I believe, the more
+correct version.”
+
+“Then it don't mean pur-pur-pur-purgatory,” gulped Scroope, who, as soon
+as the word was uttered, became shocked at what he said. “I forgot you
+were a Ro-Ro-Roman, Miss Dalton,” said he, blushing.
+
+“You are in error, Scroope,” said Mrs. Ricketts. “Miss Dalton is one of
+ourselves. All the distinguished Irish are of the Reformed faith.”
+
+“I am a Catholic, madam,” said Kate, not knowing whether to be more
+amused than annoyed at the turn the conversation had taken.
+
+“I knew it,” cried Purvis, in delight. “I tracked your carriage to the
+D-D-Duomo, and I went in after you, and saw you at the co-co-co-co--”
+
+“Corner,” whispered Martha, who, from his agonies, grew afraid of a fit.
+
+“No, not the corner, but the co-co-co-coufessional-confessional, where
+you stayed for an hour and forty minutes by my own watch; and I couldn't
+help thinking that your pec-pec-pec-peccadilloes were a good long score,
+by the time it took to to to tell them.”
+
+“Thanks, sir,” said Kate, bowing, and with difficulty restraining her
+laughter; “thanks for the very kind interest you seem to have taken in
+my spiritual welfare.”
+
+“Would that I might be suffered a participation in that charge, Miss
+Dalton,” cried Mrs. Ricketts, with enthusiasm, “and allowed to hold some
+converse with you on doctrinal questions!”
+
+“Try her with the posers, sister,” whispered Purvis. “Hush, Scroope!
+Mere opportunities of friendly discussion, nothing more I ask for, Miss
+Dalton.”
+
+“Give her the posers,” whispered Purvis, louder.
+
+“Be quiet, Scroope. I have been fortunate enough to resolve the doubts
+of more than one ere this. That dear angel, the Princess Ethelinda of
+Cobourgh, I believe I may say, owes her present enlightenment to our
+sweet evenings together.”
+
+“Begin with the posers.”
+
+“Hush! I say, Scroope.”
+
+“May I ask,” said Kate, “what is the suggestion Mr. Purvis has been good
+enough to repeat?”
+
+“That I should give you this little tract, Miss Dalton,” said Mrs.
+Ricketts as she drew out a miscellaneous assemblage of articles from a
+deep pocket, and selected from the mass a small blue-covered pamphlet,
+bearing the title, “Three Posers for Papists, by M. R.”
+
+“Montague Ricketts,” said Purvis, proudly; “she wrote it herself, and
+the Pope won't let us into Rome in consequence. It 's very droll, too;
+and the part about the the Vir-gin--”
+
+“You will, I 'm sure, excuse me, madam,” said Kate, “if I beg that this
+subject be suffered to drop. My thanks for the interest this gentleman
+and yourself have vouchsafed me will only be more lasting by leaving the
+impression of them unassociated with anything unpleasing. You were good
+enough to say that you had a letter for me?”
+
+“A letter from your father, that dear, fond father, who dotes so
+distractingly upon you, and who really seems to live but to enjoy your
+triumphs. Martha, where is the letter?”
+
+“I gave it to Scroope, sister.”
+
+“No, you didn't. I never saw--”
+
+“Yes, Scroope, I gave it to you, at the drawing-room fire--”
+
+“Yes, to be sure, and I put it into the ca-ca-ca--”
+
+“Not the candle, I hope,” cried Kate, in terror.
+
+“No, into the card-rack; and there it is now.”
+
+“How provoking!” cried Miss Ricketts; “but you shall have it to-morrow,
+Miss Dalton. I 'll leave it here myself.”
+
+“Shall I appear impatient, madam, if I send for it this evening?”
+
+“Of course not, my dear Miss Dalton; but shall I commit the precious
+charge to a menial's hand?”
+
+“You may do so with safety, madam,” said Kate, not without a slight
+irritation of manner as she spoke.
+
+“Mr. Foglass, the late minister and envoy at--”
+
+Here a tremendous crash, followed by a terrific yelping noise, broke in
+upon the colloquy; for it was Fidele had thrown down a Sevres jar, and
+lay, half-buried and howling, under the ruins. There was, of course, a
+general rising of the company, some to rescue the struggling poodle, and
+others in vain solicitude to gather up the broken fragments of the once
+beautiful vase. It was a favorite object with Lady Hester; of singular
+rarity, both for form and design; and Kate stood speechless, and almost
+sick with shame and sorrow, at the sight, not heeding one syllable
+of the excuses and apologies poured in upon her, nor of the equally
+valueless assurances that it could be easily mended; that Martha was a
+perfect proficient in such arts; and that, if Scroope would only collect
+the pieces carefully, the most difficult connoisseur would not be able
+to detect a flaw in it.
+
+“I've got a head here; but the no-nose is off,” cried Purvis.
+
+“Here it is, Scroope. I 've found it.”
+
+“No, that's a toe,” said he; “there 's a nail to it.”
+
+“I am getting ill I shall faint,” said Mrs. Ricketts, retiring upon a
+well-cushioned sofa from the calamity.
+
+Martha now flew to the bell-rope and pulled it violently, while Purvis
+threw open the window, and with such rash haste as to upset a stand of
+camellias, thereby scattering plants, buds, earth, and crockery over the
+floor, while poor Kate, thunderstruck at the avalanche of ruin around
+her, leaned against the wall for support, unable to stir or even speak.
+As Martha continued to tug away at the bell, the alarm, suggesting the
+idea of fire, brought three or four servants to the door together.
+
+“Madeira! quick, Madeira!” cried Martha, as she unloosed various
+articles of dress from her sister's throat, and prepared a plan of
+operations for resuscitation that showed at least an experienced hand.
+
+“Bring wine,” said Kate, faintly, to the astonished butler, who, not
+noticing Miss Ricketts's order, seemed to await hers.
+
+“Madeira! it must be Madeira!” cried Martha, wildly.
+
+“She don't dislike Mar-Mar-Marco-brunner,” whispered Purvis to the
+servant, “and I'll take a glass too.”
+
+Had the irruption been one of veritable housebreakers, had the occasion
+been what newspapers stereotype as a “Daring Burglary,” Kate Dalton
+might, in all likelihood, have distinguished herself as a heroine. She
+would, it is more than probable, have evinced no deficiency either of
+courage or presence of mind, but in the actual contingency nothing could
+be more utterly helpless than she proved; and, as she glided into a
+chair, her pale face and trembling features betrayed more decisive signs
+of suffering than the massive countenance which Martha was now deluging
+with eau-de-Cologne and lavender.
+
+The wine soon made its appearance; a very imposing array of restoratives
+the ambulatory pharmacopeia of the Ricketts family was all displayed
+upon a table. Martha, divested of shawl, bonnet, and gloves, stood ready
+for action; and thus, everything being in readiness, Mrs. Ricketts,
+whose consideration never suffered her to take people unawares, now
+began her nervous attack in all form.
+
+If ague hysterics recovery from drowning tic-doloureux, and an extensive
+burn had all sent representatives of their peculiar agonies, with
+injunctions to struggle for a mastery of expression, the symptoms could
+scarcely have equalled those now exhibited. There was not a contortion
+nor convulsion that her countenance did not undergo, while the
+devil's tattoo, kept up by her heels upon the floor, and her knuckles
+occasionally on the table, and now and then on Scroope's head, added
+fearfully to the effect of her screams, which varied from the deep groan
+of the melodrame to the wildest shrieks of tragedy.
+
+“There's no danger, Miss Dalton,” whispered Martha, whose functions of
+hand-rubbing, temple-bathing, wine-giving, and so forth, were performed
+with a most jog-trot regularity.
+
+“When she sc-sc-screams, she's all right,” added Purvis; and, certainly,
+the most anxious friend might have been comforted on the present
+occasion.
+
+“Shall I not send for a physician?” asked Kate, eagerly.
+
+“On no account, Miss Dalton. We are quite accustomed to these seizures.
+My dear sister's nerves are so susceptible.”
+
+“Yes,” said Scroope, who, be it remarked, had already half finished a
+bottle of hock, “poor Zoe is all sensibility the scabbard too sharp for
+the sword. Won't you have a glass of wine, Miss Dalton?”
+
+“Thanks, sir, I take none. I trust she is better now she looks easier.”
+
+“She is better; but this is a difficult moment,” whispered Martha. “Any
+shock any sudden impression now might prove fatal.”
+
+“What is to be done, then?” said Kate, in terror.
+
+“She must be put to bed at once, the room darkened, and the strictest
+silence preserved. Can you spare your room?”
+
+“Oh, of course, anything everything at such a moment,” cried the
+terrified girl, whose reason was now completely mastered by her fears.
+
+[Illustration:   408]
+
+“She must be carried. Will you give orders, Miss Dalton? and, Scroope,
+step down to the carriage, and bring up--” Here Miss Ricketts's voice
+degenerated into an inaudible whisper; but Scroope left the room to obey
+the command.
+
+Her sympathy for suffering had so thoroughly occupied Kate, that all
+the train of unpleasant consequences that were to follow this unhappy
+incident had never once occurred to her; nor did a thought of Lady
+Hester cross her mind, till, suddenly, the whole flashed upon her, by
+the appearance of her maid Nina in the drawing-room.
+
+“To your own room, Mademoiselle?” asked she, with a look that said far
+more than any words.
+
+“Yes, Nina,” whispered she. “What can I do? She is so ill! They tell me
+it may be dangerous at any moment, and--”
+
+“Hush, my dear Miss Dalton!” said Martha; “one word may wake her.”
+
+“I'd be a butterfly!” warbled the sick lady, in a low weak treble; while
+a smile of angelic beatitude beamed on her features.
+
+“Hush! be still!” said Martha, motioning the surrounders to silence.
+
+“What shall I do, Nina? Shall I go and speak to my Lady?” asked Kate.
+
+A significant shrug of the shoulders, more negative than affirmative,
+was the only answer.
+
+“I'd be a gossamer, and you'd be the King of Thebes,” said Mrs.
+Ricketts, addressing a tall footman, who stood ready to assist in
+carrying her.
+
+“Yes, madam,” said he, respectfully.
+
+“She's worse,” whispered Martha, gravely.
+
+“And we'll walk on the wall of China by moonlight, with Cleopatra and
+Mr. Cobden?”
+
+“Certainly, madam,” said the man, who felt the question too direct for
+evasion.
+
+“Has she been working slippers for the planet Ju-Ju-Jupiter yet?” asked
+Purvis, eagerly, as he entered the room, heated, and flushed from the
+weight of a portentous bag of colored wool.
+
+“No; not yet,” whispered Martha. “You may lift her now, gently very
+gently, and not a word.”
+
+And in strict obedience, the servants raised their fair burden, and
+bore her from the room, after Nina, who led the way with an air that
+betokened a more than common indifference to human suffering.
+
+“When she gets at Ju-Jupiter,” said Purvis to Kate, as they closed
+the procession, “it's a bad symptom; or when she fancies she 's
+Hec-Hec-Hec-Hec--”
+
+“Hecate?”
+
+“No; not Hec-Hecate, but Hecuba--Hecuba; then it's a month at least
+before she comes round.”
+
+“How dreadful!” said Kate. And certainly there was not a grain of
+hypocrisy in the fervor with which she uttered it.
+
+“I don't think she 'll go beyond the San-Sandwich Islands this time,
+however,” added he, consolingly,
+
+“Hush, Scroope!” cried Martha. And now they entered the small and
+exquisitely furnished dressing-room which was appropriated to Kate's
+use; within which, and opening upon a small orangery, stood her bedroom.
+
+Nina, who scrupulously obeyed every order of her young mistress,
+continued the while to exhibit a hundred petty signs of mute rebellion.
+
+“Lady Hester wishes to see Miss Dalton,” said a servant at the outer
+door.
+
+“Can you permit me for a moment?” asked Kate, in a tremor.
+
+“Oh, of course, my dear Miss Dalton; let there be no ceremony with us,”
+ said Martha. “Your kindness makes us feel like old friends already.”
+
+“I feel-myself quite at home,” cried Scroope, whose head was not proof
+against so much wine; and then, turning to one of the servants, he added
+a mild request for the two bottles that were left on the drawing-room
+table.
+
+Martha happily, however, overheard and revoked the order. And now the
+various attendants withdrew, leaving the family to themselves.
+
+It was ill no pleasant mood that Kate took her way towards Lady Hester's
+apartment. The drawing-room, as she passed through it, still exhibited
+some of the signs of its recent ruin, and the servants were busied
+in collecting fragments of porcelain and flower-pots. Their murmured
+comments, hushed as she went by, told her how the occurrence was already
+the gossip of the household. It was impossible for her not to connect
+herself with the whole misfortune. “But for her” But she could not
+endure the thought, and it was with deep humiliation and trembling in
+every limb that she entered Lady Hester's chamber.
+
+“Leave me, Celadon; I want to speak to Miss Dalton,” said Lady Hester
+to the hairdresser, who had just completed one half of her Ladyship's
+chevelure, leaving the other side pinned and rolled up in those various
+preparatory stages which have more of promise than picturesque about
+them. Her cheek was flushed, and her eyes sparkled with an animation
+that betrayed more passion than pleasure.
+
+“What is this dreadful story I 've heard, child, and that the house is
+full of? Is it possible there can be any truth in it? Have these odious
+people actually dared to establish themselves here? Tell me, child
+speak!”
+
+“Mrs. Ricketts became suddenly ill,” said Kate, trembling; “her dog
+threw down a china jar.”
+
+“Not my Sevres jar? not the large green one, with the figures?”
+
+“I grieve to say it was!”
+
+“Go on. What then?” said Lady Hester, dryly.
+
+“Shocked at the incident, and alarmed, besides, by the fall of a
+flower-stand, she fainted away, and subsequently was seized with what
+I supposed to be a convulsive attack, but to which her friends seemed
+perfectly accustomed, and pronounced not dangerous. In this dilemma they
+asked me if they might occupy my room. Of course I could not refuse, and
+yet felt, the while, that I had no right to extend the hospitality of
+this house. I saw the indelicacy of what I was doing. I was shocked and
+ashamed, and yet--”
+
+“Go on,” said Lady Hester once more, and with a stern quietude of manner
+that Kate felt more acutely than even an angry burst of temper.
+
+“I have little more to say; in fact, I know not what I am saying,” cried
+she, gulping to repress the torrent of suffering that was struggling
+within her.
+
+“Miss Dalton--” began Lady Hester.
+
+“Oh! why not Kate?” broke she, with a choking utterance.
+
+“Miss Dalton,” resumed Lady Hester, and as if not hearing the entreaty,
+“very little knowledge of that world you have lived in for the past
+three or four months might have taught you some slight self-possession
+in difficulty. Still less acquaintance with it might have suggested the
+recollection that these people are no intimates of mine; so that, even
+were tact wanting, feeling, at least, should have dictated a line of
+action to you.”
+
+“I know I have done wrong. I knew it at the time, and yet, in my
+inexperience, I could not decide on anything. My memory, too, helped to
+mislead me, for I bethought me that although these persons were not of
+your own rank and station, yet you had stooped lower than to them when
+you came to visit Nelly and myself.”
+
+“Humph!” ejaculated Lady Hester, with a gesture that very unequivocally
+seemed to say that her having done so was a grievous error. Kate saw
+it quickly, and as suddenly the blood rushed to her cheek, coloring her
+throat and neck with the deep crimson of shame. A burst of pride the
+old Dalton pride seemed to have given way within her; and as she drew
+herself up to her full height, her look and attitude wore every sign of
+haughty indignation.
+
+Lady Hester looked at her for a few seconds with a glance of searching
+import. Perhaps for a moment the possibility of a deception struck her,
+and that this might only be feigned; but as suddenly did she recognize
+the unerring traits of truth, and said,
+
+“What! child, are you angry with me?”
+
+“Oh no, no!” said Kate, bursting into tears, and kissing the hand that
+was now extended towards her, “oh no, no! but I could hate myself for
+what seems so like ingratitude.”
+
+“Come, sit down here at my feet on this stool, and tell me all about it;
+for, after all, I could forgive them the jar and the camellias, if they
+'d only have gone away afterwards. And of course the lesson will not be
+thrown away upon you, not to be easily deceived again.”
+
+“How, deceived?” exclaimed Kate. “She was very ill. I saw it myself.”
+
+“Nonsense, child. The trick is the very stalest piece of roguery going.
+Since Toe Morris, as they call him the man that treads upon people, and
+by his apologies scrapes acquaintance with them there is nothing less
+original. Why, just before we left England, there was old Bankhead got
+into Slingsby House, merely because the newspapers might announce
+his death at the Earl of Grindleton's 'on the eighth, of a few days'
+illness, deeply regretted by the noble lord, with whom he was on a
+visit.' Now, that dear Ricketts woman would almost consent to take leave
+of the world for a similar paragraph. I 'm sure I should know nothing of
+such people but that Sir Stafford's relations have somewhat enlightened
+me. He has a nest of cousins down in Shropshire, not a whit better than
+your I was going to call them 'your friends,' the Rickettses.”
+
+“It is almost incredible to suppose this could be artifice.”
+
+“Why so, child? There is no strategy too deep for people who are always
+aspiring to some society above them. Besides, after all, I was in a
+measure prepared for this.”
+
+“Prepared for it!”
+
+“Yes; Jekyl told me that if they once got in, it would be next to
+impossible to keep them out afterwards. A compromise, he said, was the
+best thing; to let them have so many days each year, with certain small
+privileges about showing the house to strangers, cutting bouquets, and
+so on; or, if we preferred it, let them carry away a Teniers or a Gerard
+Dow to copy, and take care never to ask for it. He inclined to the
+latter as the better plan, because, after a certain lapse of time, it
+can end in a cut.”
+
+“But this is inconceivable!” exclaimed Kate.
+
+“And yet half the absurd and incongruous intimacies one sees in the
+world have had some such origin, and habit will reconcile one to
+acquaintance that at first inspired feelings of abhorrence and
+detestation. I 'm sure I don 't know one good house in town where there
+are not certain intimates that have not the slightest pretension, either
+from rank, wealth, distinction, or social qualities, to be there. And
+yet, there they are; not merely as supernumeraries, either, but very
+prominent and foreground figures, giving advice and offering counsel
+on questions of family policy, and writing their vulgar names on every
+will, codicil, marriage-settlement, and trust-deed, till they seem to
+be part of the genealogical tree, to which, after all, they are only
+attached like fungi. You look very unhappy, my poor Kate, at all this;
+but, believe me, the system will outlive both of us. And so, now to your
+room, and dress for dinner. But I forgot; you have n't got a room; so
+Celestine must give you hers, and you will be close beside me, and we
+shall be the better able to concert measures about these Ricketts folk,
+who really resemble those amiable peasants your father told me of,
+on his Irish property, and whom he designated as 'squatters.' I am
+delighted that I have n't forgot the word.”
+
+And thus, chatting on, Lady Hester restored Kate's wonted happiness of
+nature, sadly shaken as it had been by the contrarieties of the morning.
+Nothing, too, was easier than to make her forget a source of irritation.
+Ever better satisfied to look on the bright side of life, her
+inclinations needed but little aid from conviction to turn her from
+gloomy themes to pleasant ones; and already some of the absurdities
+of the morning were recurring to her mind, and little traits of Mrs.
+Ricketts and her brother were involuntarily coming up through all the
+whirlpool of annoyance and confusion in whicli th y had been submerged.
+
+The coming dinner, too, engrossed some share of her thoughts; for it
+was a grand entertainment, to which all Lady Hester's most distinguished
+friends were invited. An Archduke and a Cardinal were to make part of
+the company, and Kate looked forward to meeting these great personages
+with no common interest. It was less the vulgar curiosity of observing
+the manners and bearing of distinguished characters, than the delight
+she felt in following out some child-invented narrative of her future
+life, some fancied story of her own career, wherein Princes and Prelates
+were to figure, and scenes of splendor and enjoyment to follow each
+other in rapid succession.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII. THE CONCLUSION OF A “GRAND DINNER.”
+
+LADY HESTER'S dinner of that day was a “grand one,” that is to say, it
+was one of those great displays which, from time to time, are offered up
+as sacrifices to the opinion of the world. Few of her own peculiar set
+were present. Some she omitted herself; others had begged off of their
+own accord. Midchekoff, however, was there; for, however accustomed to
+the tone and habits of a life of mere dissipation, he possessed every
+requirement for mixing with general society. It was true he was not fond
+of meeting “Royal Highnesses,” before whom his own equivocal rank
+sank into insignificance; nor did he love “Cardinals,” whose haughty
+pretensions always over-topped every other nobility. To oblige Lady
+Hester, however, he did come, and condescended, for “the nonce,” to
+assume his most amiable of moods. The Marchesa Guardoni, an old coquette
+of the days of the French Empire, but now a rigid devotee, and a most
+exclusive moralist; a few elderly diplomates, of a quiet and cat-like
+smoothness of manner, with certain notabilities of the Court, made up
+the party. There were no English whatever; Jekyl, who made out the
+list, well knowing that Florence offered none of a rank sufficiently
+distinguished, except Norwood, whose temporary absence from the city
+was rather a boon than the reverse; for the noble Viscount, when not
+“slang,” was usually silent, and, by long intercourse with the Turf and
+its followers, had ceased to feel any interest in topics which could not
+end in a wager.
+
+The entertainment was very splendid. Nothing was wanting which luxury or
+taste could contribute. The wines were delicious; the cookery perfect.
+The guests were courteous and pleasing; but all was of the quietest,
+none of the witty sallies, the piquant anecdotes, the brilliant
+repartees, which usually pattered like hail around that board.
+Still less were heard those little histories of private life where
+delinquencies furnish all the interest. The royal guest imposed a
+reserve which the presence of the Cardinal deepened. The conversation,
+like the cuisine, was flavored for fine palates; both were light,
+suggestive, and of easy digestion. Events were discussed rather than the
+actors in them. All was ease and simplicity; but it was a stately kind
+of simplicity, which served to chill those that were unaccustomed to it.
+So Kate Dalton felt it; and however sad the confession, we must own that
+she greatly preferred the free and easy tone of Lady Hester's midnight
+receptions to the colder solemnity of these distinguished guests.
+
+Even to the Cardinal's whist-table, everything wore a look of state and
+solemnity. The players laid down their cards with a measured gravity,
+and scored their honors with the air of men discharging a high and
+important function. As for the Archduke, he sat upon a sofa beside
+Lady Hester, suffering himself to be amused by the resources of her
+small-talk, bowing blandly at times, occasionally condescending to a
+smile, but rarely uttering even a monosyllable. Even that little social
+warmth that was kindled by the dinner-table seemed to have been chilled
+by the drawing-room, where the conversation was maintained in a low,
+soft tone, that never rose above a murmur. It may be, perhaps, some
+sort of consolation to little folk to think that Princes are generally
+sad-looking. The impassable barrier of reserve around them, if it
+protect from all the rubs and frictions of life, equally excludes from
+much of its genial enjoyment; and all those little pleasantries which
+grow out of intimacy are denied those who have no equals.
+
+It was in some such meditation as this Kate Dalton sat, roused
+occasionally to bestow a smile or a passing word of acknowledgment in
+return for some of those little morsels of compliment and flattery which
+old courtiers pay as their rightful tribute to a young and handsome
+woman. She was sufficiently accustomed to this kind of homage to accept
+it without losing, even for an instant, any train of thought her mind
+was pursuing. Nor did the entrance of any new guest, a number of whom
+had been invited for the evening, distract her from her half revery.
+
+The salons, without being crowded, now showed a numerous company, all of
+whom exhibited in their demeanor that respectful reserve the presence of
+royalty ever inspires. It seemed, indeed, as though all the conversation
+that went forward was like a mere “aside” to that more important
+dialogue which was maintained beside the Prince.
+
+A slow but measured tide of persons passed before him, bowing with
+respectful deference as they went. With some he deigned to speak a few
+words, others had a smile or a little nod of recognition, and some
+again one of those cold and vacant stares with which great people are
+occasionally wont to regard little ones. His Royal Highness was not one
+of those accomplished princes whose pride it is to know the name, the
+family, the pursuits, and predilections of each new presentee. On the
+contrary, he was absent, and forgetful to a degree scarcely credible;
+his want of memory betraying him into innumerable mistakes, from which,
+even had he known, no adroitness of his own could have extricated
+him. On this evening he had not been peculiarly fortunate; he had
+complimented a minister who had just received his recall in disgrace; he
+had felicitated a young lady on her approaching marriage, which had
+been broken off; while the burden of his talk to Lady Hester was in
+disparagement of those foreigners who brought a scandal upon his
+court by habits and manners which would not be tolerated in their own
+countries. Divorce, or even separation, met his heavy reprobation;
+and while his code of morality, on the whole, exhibited very merciful
+dispositions, he bestowed unmitigated severity upon all that could shock
+the world's opinion.
+
+To this Lady Hester had to listen as best she might, a task not the
+less trying and difficult from the ill-suppressed looks of malice and
+enjoyment she saw on every side. From all these causes put together,
+the occasion, however flattering to her vanity, was far from being
+pleasurable to her feelings, and she longed for it to be over. The
+Prince looked wearied enough, but somehow there is nothing like royalty
+for endurance; their whole lives would seem to teach the lesson, and
+so he sat on, saying a stray word, bowing with half-closed lids, and
+looking as though very little more would set him fast asleep.
+
+It was the very culminating point of the whole evening's austerity; one
+of those little pauses which now and then occur had succeeded to the
+murmur of conversation. The whist party had been broken up, and the
+Cardinal was slowly advancing up the room, the company, even to the
+ladies, rising respectfully as he passed, when the folding-doors were
+thrown wide, and a servant announced Mr. Scroope Purvis.
+
+If the name was unknown to the assembled guests, there was one there
+at least who heard it with a sensation of actual terror, and poor Kate
+Dalton sank back into her chair with a kind of instinctive effort at
+concealment. By this time the door had closed behind him, leaving Mr.
+Purvis standing with an expression of no small bewilderment at the
+gorgeous assembly into which he had intruded.
+
+Lady Hester's quick ear had caught the name, even from the furthest end
+of the room; but while she attributed it to the mispronunciations of
+which foreign servants are so liberal, looked out with some curiosity
+for him who owned it.
+
+Nor had she to look long, for, his first moment of surprise over, Purvis
+put up his double eye-glass and commenced a tour of the rooms, in that
+peculiarly scrutinizing way for which he was distinguished. The fact
+that all the faces were unknown to him seemed to impart additional
+courage to his investigations, for he stared about with as little
+concern as he might have done in a theatre.
+
+Most men in his situation would have been egoist enough to have thought
+only of themselves and the awkwardness of their own position. Purvis,
+on the contrary, had an eye for everything; from the chandeliers on the
+walls to the crosses on the dress-coats, from the decorations of the
+salons to the diamonds, he missed nothing; and with such impartial
+fairness did he bestow his glances, that the Cardinal's cheeks grew red
+as his own stockings as Scroope surveyed him. 'At last he reached the
+end of the great drawing-room, and found himself standing in front of
+the canopied seat where the Archduke sat with Lady Hester. Not heeding,
+if he even remarked, the little circle which etiquette had drawn in
+front of the Prince, Purvis advanced within the charmed precincts and
+stared steadily at the Duke.
+
+[Illustration:  420]
+
+“I perceive that one of your friends is most anxious to pay his respects
+to you, Lady Hester,” said the Prince, with a very peculiar smile.
+
+“I beg to assure you, sir, that the gentleman is unknown to me; his
+presence here is an honor for which I am totally unprepared.”
+
+“My name is Purvis, madam, Sc-Sc-Scroope Purvis. Miss Dalton knows me;
+and my sister is Mrs. Ricketts.”
+
+“You will find Miss Dalton yonder, sir,” said Lady Hester, all whose
+efforts were barely sufficient to restrain her temper.
+
+“I see her!” cried Purvis, putting his glass up; “but she 's trying to
+escape me. She 's got a man with a re-re-red beard before her, but it
+won't do, I'm too sh-sh-sharp for that.”
+
+The Archduke laughed, and heartily, too, at this sally; and Purvis,
+emboldened by the complaisance, edged more closely towards him to point
+out the lady in question. “She has a droll kind of sc-sc-scarf in her
+hair. There! don't you see her now? Have you ever seen the pictures in
+the Pitti Palace?”
+
+The question was a little startling, as the personage to whom it was
+addressed had his residence there. The Archduke, however, merely bowed
+in acquiescence, and Purvis went on: “My sister Zoe copied one and I
+like it better than the Ti-Tit-Titian itself. We smoked it, too, and
+made it look so brown, you'd never guess it to be mo-mo-mo-modern.”
+
+To judge from the bewildered look of the Duke, the whole of this speech
+was pure Chaldee to him; and when he turned to Lady Hester for an
+explanation, he discovered that she had left her seat. Whether mistaking
+the motion as an invitation to be seated, or merely acting by his own
+impulses, Scroope crossed over and sat down on the sofa with a degree of
+self-satisfaction that lighted up all his features.
+
+“You 're not one of the fa-family, are you?” asked he.
+
+“I have not that honor,” said the Prince, with a bow.
+
+“I thought not. I suspected that there was a tw-tw-twang in your English
+that looked foreign, but I know your face quite well.”
+
+The Duke bowed again.
+
+“Pretty rooms, these,” said Purvis, with his glass to his eye; “what
+a d-d-deal of money they must have cost! They 're going it fast, these
+Onslows.”
+
+“Indeed!” said the Prince, who only half understood the remark.
+
+“I know it,” said Scroope, with a confidential wink. “Their butcher
+se-se-serves us, and he won't give anything till they have sent their
+orders; and as for wine, they drink Bordeaux in the servants' hall.
+I don't know what you have, but a d-d-deuced sight better than ever I
+get.”
+
+“Good wine, however, can be had here, I hope,” said the Duke, blandly.
+
+“Yes, if you sm-sm-smuggle it,” said Scroope, with a knowing cackle;
+while, to add poignancy to the remark, he nudged the Prince with his
+elbow. “That's the only way to have it. The st-stupid Government sees
+nothing.”
+
+“Is that the case, sir?” asked the Prince, with a degree of interest he
+had not manifested before.
+
+“To be sure it is. My sister Zoe never pays duty on anything; and if
+you like your c-c-cigars cheap, just t-t-tell me, that 's all. The
+G-G-Grand-Duke never got a sixpence of my money yet, and if I kn-know
+myself, he never shall.”
+
+“Do you bear him any grudge, sir, that you say this so emphatically?”
+
+“No; not at all. They tell me that he's good-hearted, although somewhat
+we-weak in the a-a-attic story,” and here Scroope tapped his forehead
+significantly, “but that 's in the family. My sister Zoe could tell you
+such st-stories about them you 'd die of laughing; and then there
+'s Jekyl takes them off so well! It's c-c-capital fun. He gives a
+dia-dia-dialogue between the Grand-Duke and the Pope's Nuncio that's
+better than a farce.”
+
+How far Mr. Purvis might have been carried in his zeal to be agreeable
+there is no saying, when Lady Hester came up, with Kate leaning on her
+arm.
+
+“This gentleman claims acquaintance with you, Miss Dalton,” said she,
+haughtily.
+
+“Oh, to be sure, she knows me; and I have a letter from her her
+fa-father,” said Purvis, drawing forth a packet like a postman's.
+
+“Miss Dalton would prefer being seated, sir,” said Lady Hester, while
+she motioned towards another part of the room.
+
+“Yes, yes, of course; we'll find out a snug co-corner somewhere for a
+chat. Just take my arm, will you? Let us get away from all these great
+'Dons,' with their stars and crosses.” And, without waiting for Kate's
+reply, he drew her arm within his own, and set out in that little
+shuffling trot which he always assumed when he fancied he had business
+on hand.
+
+The ridicule of being associated with such a companion would at any
+other moment have overwhelmed Kate Dalton with shame; but now, whether
+from the few words which Lady Hester had whispered in her ear, whether
+the fact of his unauthorized appearance, or whether it were the dread of
+some greater disgrace to follow, she actually felt a sense of relief in
+the continuous flow of twaddle which he kept up as they passed down the
+room.
+
+“Who was that smiled as we passed?” asked he.
+
+“Prince Midchekoff.”
+
+“Oh, that was he, was it? You must introduce me.”
+
+“Not now, pray, not now; at any other time,” cried she, in perfect
+terror.
+
+“Well, but don't forget it. Zoe would never forgive me if I told her
+that I lost the op-op-opportunity; she wants to know him so very much.”
+
+“Of course, at another time,” said Kate, hurrying him along with
+increasing speed.
+
+“Who's he?” asked Purvis, as a tall and stately personage bowed blandly
+to Kate.
+
+“The Austrian Minister.”
+
+“Not the fellow that st-st-strangled the Emperor? Oh, I forgot; he was a
+Russian, wasn't he? They got him down and ch-ch-choked him, ha, ha, ha!
+There 's a man with a red moustache, so like the fellow who sells the
+boubou-bouquets at the Casciui.”
+
+“A Hungarian magnate,” whispered Kate.
+
+“Is he, though? Then let's have another look at him. He has as many gold
+chains about him as a shop on the Ponte Vecchio. Zoe would like him, he
+'s so odd.”
+
+At last, but not without great efforts, Kate succeeded in reaching a
+small chamber, where two others already were seated, and whose figures
+were undistinguishable in the obscurity of a studiously shaded lamp.
+
+“Isn't it strange, she never asked for Zoe?” said Purvis, as he took
+his seat on a sofa; “not to inquire for a person sick under her own
+r-r-roof?”
+
+“Lady Hester is not acquainted with Mrs. Ricketts.”
+
+“Well, but sh-sh-she ought to be. Zoe made a party for her, a d-d-d-iner
+party, and had Hagg-Haggerstone and Foglass, and the rest of them. And
+after all, you know, they are only b-bankers, these Onslows, and need
+n't give themselves airs.”
+
+“You have a letter for me, Mr. Purvis? Will you pardon my impatience--”
+
+“Yes, to be sure. I 've a letter, and an enclosure in it, too; at least,
+it feels crisp like a note, a bank-note; that 's the reason you 're
+impatient. Perhaps the re-reremittance was long a-coming, eh?”
+
+Kate made no reply to this speech, but her cheek grew scarlet as she
+heard it.
+
+Purvis, meanwhile, spread his packet of papers before him, and began his
+search for Dalton's letter.
+
+“No, that ain't it; that's from Foglass, all about Norwood, and his
+N-N-Newmarket affair. That 's a letter from Lord Gullston's valet, with
+such a droll ac-account of the whole family. Zoe recom-mended him; and
+the poor fellow 's very grateful, for he writes about all that goes on
+in the house. Lady G., it seems, has the temper of a f-f-fiend. Well,
+don't be im-impatient; I'll find your father's letter in a minute. He
+writes such a cr-cr-cramp old hand, one should detect it at once. I
+ta-take it that he 's a bit of a character, the old gen-gentleman. I 'm
+sure he is; but what have I done with his letter? Oh, here it is! here
+it is! and 'with haste' written on the corner, too.”
+
+Kate caught the letter impatiently, and, without any thought for Purvis
+or the place, tore it open at once. In doing so, the enclosure fell to
+the ground without her perceiving it; and, stranger still, it escaped
+the attention of Purvis; but that worthy man, not exactly venturing
+to read over her shoulder, had established himself directly in front,
+where, with his double eye-glass, he scanned every change in her
+features during the perusal.
+
+“All well at home, I hope, eh? How she changes color,” muttered he to
+himself. “Nobody ill; nobody dead, eh?” asked he, louder. “It must be
+something serious, though; she 's trembling like ague. Let me give you
+a chair, that is, if I can f-find one in this little den; they 've got
+nothing but d-divans all round it.” And he hurried forth into the larger
+salon in search of a seat.
+
+It was not without considerable trouble to himself and inconvenience to
+various others that he at last succeeded, and returned to the boudoir
+with a massive arm-chair in his hands. But what was his dismay to find
+that Miss Dalton had made her escape in the mean while? In vain did
+he seek her through the salons, which now were rapidly thinning; the
+distinguished guests having already departed.
+
+A stray group lingered here and there, conversing in a low tone; and
+around the fires were gathered little knots of ladies muffled and
+cloaked, and only waiting for the carriages. It was like a stage, when
+the performance was over. Scarcely deigning to notice the little man,
+who, with palpable keenness of scrutiny, pursued his search in every
+quarter, they gradually moved off, leaving Purvis alone to tread the
+“banquet-hall deserted.” The servants, as they extinguished the
+lights, passed and repassed him without remark; so that, defeated and
+disappointed, he was obliged at last to retire, sorrowfully confessing
+to his own heart how little success had attended his bold enterprise.
+
+As he passed along the galleries and descended the stairs, he made
+various little efforts to open a conversation with some one or other of
+the servants; but these dignified officials responded to his questions
+in the dryest and shortest manner; and it was only as he reached the
+great gate of the palace that he chanced upon one courteous enough to
+hear him to the end in his oft-repeated question of “Who was th-th-that
+with the large st-st-star on his breast, and a wh-wh-white beard?”
+
+The porter stared at the speaker, and said respectfully, “The signor
+probably means the Archduke?”
+
+“Not the Archduke Fr-Fr-Fr--”
+
+“Yes, sir,” said the man; and closed the heavy door after him, leaving
+Purvis in a state of astonishment, and as much shame as his nature
+permitted him to feel. Neither upon himself nor his sensations have we
+any intention to dwell; and leaving him to pursue his way homeward, we
+beg to return once more within those walls from which he had just taken
+his departure.
+
+If Lady Hester's grand company had gone, the business of the evening
+was by no means over; on the contrary, it was the hour of her night
+receptions, and now the accustomed guests of those favored precincts
+came dropping in from theatres, and operas, and late dinners. These men
+of pleasure looked jaded and tired, as usual; and, except the little
+tinkling sounds of Jekyl's small treble, no other voice sounded as they
+walked along the corridors.
+
+[Illustration:   426]
+
+When they entered Lady Hester's boudoir, they found that lady recounting
+to Midchekoff the whole circumstances of the morning's adventure, a
+recital which she continued without other interruption than a smile or
+a nod, or a little gesture of the hand to each of the new arrivals as
+he came in. If the lady's manner was devoid of all ceremony, that of the
+gentlemen was less ceremonious still; for they stretched themselves on
+divans, rested their legs upon chairs, and stood back to the fire, with
+a degree of careless ease that bespoke them thoroughly at home, Jekyl,
+perhaps, the only one present who mingled with this freedom a certain
+courteous respect that no familiarity made him ever forget.
+
+“And they are still here?” asked the Prince. “Actually in the house at
+this moment?”
+
+“At this very moment!” responded she, emphatically.
+
+“The whole thing passes belief,” exclaimed he.
+
+And now the listless loungers drew their chairs closer to hear the
+story, and laugh, as men do, who are seldom moved to mirth save when
+ridicule or malice are the provocatives.
+
+“But you haven't heard the worst yet,” said Midchekoff. “Pray tell them
+of your visitor of this evening.”
+
+And Lady Hester narrated the appearance of Mr. Purvis, who, having
+secured his entrance by a visit to his sister, had so unceremoniously
+presented himself in the drawing-room.
+
+“Heaven knows what he said to his Royal Highness when I was away. To
+judge from his face, it must have been something atrocious; and the last
+thing he said on leaving was, 'I must try and not forget your agreeable
+friend's name.'”
+
+“You might as well have invited me as have had your 'friend' Purvis,
+after all,” said a young Italian noble, whose political opinions found
+no favor at court.
+
+“But what do you mean to do, my Lady?” asked Midchekoff. “Is the enemy
+to hold undisputed possession of the fortress?”
+
+“It is precisely on that point I want advice. Prince.”
+
+“What if we form ourselves into a council of state?” said an Austrian
+general.
+
+“By all means,” said the others, who now formed a semicircle in front of
+Lady Hester's sofa.
+
+“The youngest officer always speaks first,” said the Austrian.
+
+“Then that duty is mine,” said a little man of about eighty-two or
+three, and who had represented France at half the courts of Europe.
+“I should advise a protocol in the form of a protest. It is a palpable
+invasion of territory, but, followed by an ample apology and a speedy
+evacuation, may be forgiven. There are historical warrants for such
+transgressions being accepted as acts almost of compulsion.”
+
+“The case of Anspach, for instance,” said the Austrian, with a malicious
+smile.
+
+“Precisely, General, precisely a case in point,” rejoined the old
+diplomate, with a bow and a smile that almost seemed grateful. “The
+shortest road to victory is ever the best.”
+
+“Let's try a fever, or a fire. By Jove! the sacrifice of a few chairs
+and window-curtains would be a cheap alternative,” said George Onslow.
+
+“Why not essay a compromise, my Lady?” interposed a young German
+secretary of legation; “a mixed garrison, like that of Rastadt?”
+
+“Lady Hester's troops to mount guard alternately with the Rickettses'.
+Downright treason, base treason!” exclaimed another.
+
+“What would you think of a special mission, my Lady?” simpered Jekyl.
+“It would at least serve to enlighten us as to the views of the enemy.
+The discussion of the past often throws much light on the future.”
+
+“Jekyl wants to earn a decoration,” said another, laughing. “He intends
+to be the envoy himself.”
+
+“I'll wager that I know Midchekoff's policy,” said a young Sicilian,
+who always spoke with a frank fearlessness that is most rare with other
+Italians.
+
+“Well, let us hear it,” said the Prince, gravely.
+
+“You would counsel the national expedient of retiring before the enemy,
+and making the country too cold to hold them?”
+
+“How absurd!” said Lady Hester, half angrily; “give up one's house to
+a set of people who have had the impertinence to intrude themselves
+unasked?”
+
+“And yet Giasconi is right,” said the Prince. “It is the best suggestion
+we have heard yet. Hostilities imply, to a certain extent, equality;
+negotiation is an acknowledgment of acquaintanceship; a dignified
+retreat, however, avoids either difficulty.”
+
+“In that case, let 's starve them out,” said George. “Suffer no
+supplies to be thrown into the place, and exact the most humble terms of
+submission.”
+
+“Then, where to go? that 's another question,” said Lady Hester.
+
+“His Eminence expects to see you in Rome,” whispered the Abbe, who had
+waited for an opportunity for the suggestion. “I believe he relies on a
+promise.”
+
+“Very true; but not just yet. Besides, the season is almost over,” said
+Lady Hester, with a slight degree of confusion.
+
+“Don't be frightened, Abbe,” whispered Jekyl in D'Esmonde's ear. “Her
+Ladyship is assuredly 'going to Rome' later on.”
+
+The priest smiled, with an expression that told how fully he
+comprehended the phrase.
+
+“There 's a little villa of mine, on the Lake of Como, very much at your
+service,” said Midchekoff, with the easy indifference of one suggesting
+something perfectly indifferent to him.
+
+“Do you mean La Rocca, Prince?” added the Sicilian.
+
+“Yes. They tell me it is prettily situated, but I 've never seen it.
+The Empress passed a few weeks there last year, and liked it,” said
+Midchekoff, languidly.
+
+“Really, Prince, if I don't know how to accept, I am still more at a
+loss for power to refuse your offer.”
+
+“When will you go?” said he, dryly, and taking out his memorandum-book
+to write.
+
+“What says Mr. Jekyl?” said Lady Hester, turning to that bland
+personage, who, without apparently attending to what went forward, had
+heard every syllable of it.
+
+“This is Tuesday,” said Jekyl. “There 's not much to be done; the villa
+wants for nothing: I know it perfectly.”
+
+“Ah, it's comfortable, then?” said the Prince, with a slight degree of
+animation.
+
+“La Rocca is all that Contarete's taste could make it,” replied Jekyl.
+
+“Poor Contarete! he was an excellent maitre d'hotel,” said Midchekoff.
+“He's still with me, somewhere; I rather believe in Tartary, just now.”
+
+“Your Ladyship may leave this on Thursday,” said Jekyl, who well knew
+that he was paying the most flattering compliment to Midchekoff in
+naming the shortest possible time for preparation.
+
+“Will this be inconvenient, Prince?” asked Lady Hester.
+
+“No; not in the least. If Jekyl will precede you by a couple of hours, I
+trust all will be ready.”
+
+“With your permission, then, we will say Thursday,” said she, who, with
+her habitual delight in novelty, was already wild with pleasure at the
+whole scheme.
+
+“Perhaps I'll come and visit you,” said Midchekoff. “I shall have to go
+to Vienna soon.”
+
+Lady Hester bowed and smiled her acknowledgments for this not
+over-gracious speech.
+
+“May we follow you, too, Lady Hester?” asked the Sicilian.
+
+“We expect that much from your loyalty, gentlemen. Our exile will test
+your fidelity.”
+
+“There 's something or other inconvenient about the stables,” said
+Midchekoff, “but I forget what it is; they are up a mountain, or down
+in a valley. I don't remember it, but the Emperor said it was wrong, and
+should be changed.”
+
+“They are on the opposite side of the lake, Prince,” interposed Jekyl,
+“and you must cross over to your carriage by boat.”
+
+“Oh, delightful, quite delightful!” exclaimed Lady Hester, with childish
+joy, at the novelty.
+
+“La Rocca is on a little promontory,” said Jekyl, “only approachable
+from the water, for the mountain is quite inaccessible.”
+
+“You shall have a road made, if you wish it,” said the Prince,
+languidly.
+
+“On no account. I would n't for the world destroy the isolation of the
+spot.”
+
+“Do you happen to remember, Mr. Jekyl, if there be any pictures there?”
+
+“There are some perfect gems, by Greuze.”
+
+“Oh! that's where they are, is it? I could never call to mind where they
+were left.”
+
+The conversation now became general, in discussing Lady Hester's change
+of abode, the life they should all lead when on the lake, and the
+innumerable stories that would be circulated to account for her sudden
+departure. This same mystery was not the least agreeable feature of the
+whole, and Lady Hester never wearied in talking of all the speculations
+her new step was certain to originate; and although some of the company
+regretted the approaching closure of a house which formed the resource
+of every evening, others were not sorry at the prospect of anything
+which offered a change to the monotony of their lives.
+
+“You'll come to breakfast to-morrow, Mr. Jekyl,” said Lady Hester, as he
+followed the departing guests. “I shall want you the whole day.”
+
+He bowed with his hand to his heart, and never did features of like
+mould evince a deeper aspect of devotion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV. JEKYL'S COUNSELS
+
+ONE of the most striking characteristics of our present age is the
+singular mixture of frivolity and seriousness, the almost absurd
+contrast between grave inquiry and reckless dissipation, which pervades
+the well-to-do classes. Never was there a period when merely sensual
+gratification was more highly prized and paid for; and never, perhaps, a
+time when every rank in life was more eager in the pursuit of knowledge.
+To produce this state of things a certain compromise was necessary;
+and while the mere man of pleasure affected a taste for literature
+and politics, the really active-minded either sought his relaxation,
+or extended his influence, by mingling in scenes of frivolity and
+amusement.
+
+The age which made dandies philosophers made lord chancellors droll, and
+bishops eccentric. A paradoxical spirit was abroad, and it seemed to be
+a matter of pride with every one to do something out of his station. The
+whole temper of society and the tone of conversation exhibited this new
+taste.
+
+Lady Hester Onslow was not a bad specimen of the prevailing mania. There
+was by nature a certain fidgety, capricious volatility about her that
+defied everything like a regular pursuit or a continued purpose. With a
+reasonably quick apprehension and no judgment, in being everything,
+she became nothing. Always mistaking sympathies for convictions, it was
+quite sufficient to interest her imagination to secure her adhesion,
+not, indeed, that it was worth much when obtained, seeing that she was
+but a feeble ally at the best. Her employment of the day was a type
+of herself. The mornings were passed in mesmeric experiences with her
+doctor, or what she fancied were theological discussions with the Abbe
+D'Esmonde.
+
+It would be difficult to say in which the imaginative exaltation more
+predominated. All the authentic and incredible phenomena of the one, all
+the miraculous pretensions of the other, were too little for a credulity
+that stopped at nothing. Of second sight, remote sympathy, and saintly
+miracles she never could hear enough. “Give me facts,” she would say;
+by which she meant narratives. “I will have no theories, doctor.” “Don't
+bear me down with arguments, Monsieur l'Abbe.” “Facts, and facts alone,
+have any influence with me.”
+
+Now, such facts as she asked for were easily obtainable, and the
+greatest miser need not have grudged her an ample meal of them. Many
+of the facts, too, possessed the pleasing feature of being personal in
+their interest. One day it was a charming young patient of the doctor,
+who, having touched a tress of Lady Hester's hair, made the most
+astonishing revelations of her Ladyship's disposition; telling facts of
+her feelings, her nature, and even her affections, that “she knew were
+only confided to her own heart.” Various little incidents of her daily
+life were foretold, even to such minute matters as the purchase of
+articles of jewelry, which she had not even seen at the time, and only
+met her eyes by accident afterwards. The Abbe, with equal success,
+assured her of the intense interest taken in her by the Church.
+Beautifully bound and richly illustrated books were offered to her, with
+the flattering addition that prayers were then being uttered at many
+a shrine for her enlightenment in their perusal. Less asked to conform
+herself to a new belief than to reconcile the faith to her own notions,
+she was given the very widest latitude to her opinions. If she grew
+impatient at argument, a subtle illustration, an apt metaphor, or
+sometimes a happy mot settled the question. The Abbe was a clever
+talker, and varied his subjects with all the skill of a master. He
+knew how to invoke to his aid all that poetry, art, and romance could
+contribute. The theme was a grand one when the imagination was to be
+interested, and really deserved a better listener; for save when the
+miraculous interposition of saints or the gaudy ceremonials of the
+Church were spoken of, she heard the subject with indifference, if not
+apathy. The consideration of self could, however, always bring her back;
+and it was ever a successful flattery to assure her how fervently such
+a cardinal prayed for her “right-mindedness,” and how eagerly even
+his Holiness looked forward to the moment of counting her among his
+children.
+
+Her very tastes those same tastes that ascetic Protestantism was always
+cavilling at were beautifully Roman. The Church liked display. Witness
+her magnificence and splendor, her glorious cathedrals, the pomp and
+grandeur of her ceremonial! As to music, the choir of the “Duomo” was
+seraphic, and needed not the association of the dim vaulted aisles, the
+distant altar, and the checkered rays of stained-glass windows to wrap
+the soul in a fervor of enthusiasm. Even beauty was cherished by the
+Church, and the fair Madonnas were types of an admiring love that was
+beautifully catholic in its worship.
+
+With all this, the work of conversion was a Penelope's web, that must
+each day be begun anew, for, as the hour of the Cascini drew nigh, Lady
+Hester's carriage drew up, and mesmerism, miracles, and all gave way to
+the fresher interests of courtly loungers, chit-chat, and “bouquets of
+camellias.”
+
+For the next hour or so, her mind was occupied with the gossiping
+stories of Florentine life, its surface details all recounted by the
+simpering dandies who gathered around her carriage; its deeper not
+unfrequently darker histories being the province of Mr. Albert Jekyl.
+Then home to luncheon, for, as Haggerstone related, she dined always
+after the Opera, and it was then, somewhere verging on midnight, that
+she really began to live. Then, in all the blaze of dress and jewels,
+with beauty little impaired by years, and a manner the perfection of
+that peculiar school to which she attached herself, she was indeed a
+most attractive person.
+
+Kate Dalton's life was, of course, precisely the same. Except the few
+hours given to controversial topics, and which she passed in reading,
+and the occasional change from driving to riding in the Cascini, Kate's
+day was exactly that of her friend. Not, however, with the same results;
+for while one was wearied with the same routine of unvarying pleasure,
+tired of the monotonous circle of amusement, the other became each day
+more and more enamored of a life so unchanging in its happiness. What
+was uniformity to Lady Hester, imparted a sense of security to Kate. It
+was not alone the splendor that surrounded her, the thousand objects of
+taste and elegance that seemed to multiply around them, that captivated
+her so much, it was the absence of all care, the freedom from every
+thought that this state was a mere passing one. This Kate felt to be the
+very highest of enjoyments, and when at night she whispered to herself,
+“To-morrow will be like to-day,” she had said everything that could
+brighten anticipation.
+
+Her father's letter was the first shock to this delightful illusion. Her
+own false position of splendor, in contrast to his poverty, now came up
+palpably before her, and in place of those blissful reveries in which
+she often passed hours, there rose to her mind the bitter self-accusings
+of a penitent spirit. She never slept through the night; the greater
+part of it she spent in tears. Her absence from home, brief as it was,
+was quite enough to make her forget much of its daily life. She could,
+it is true, recall the penury and the privation, but not the feelings
+that grew out of them. “How changed must he have become to stoop to
+this!” was the exclamation that she uttered again and again. “Where was
+all that Dalton pride they used to boast of? What become of that family
+dignity which once was their bulwark against every blow of Fortune?”
+
+To these thoughts succeeded the sadder one, of what course remained for
+her to adopt? a difficulty the greater since she but half understood
+what was required of her. He spoke of a bill, and yet the letter
+contained none: before she broke the seal, it felt as though there was
+an enclosure, yet she found none; and if there were, of what use would
+it be? It was perfectly impossible that she could approach Sir Stafford
+with such a request; every sense of shame, delicacy, and self-respect
+revolted at the very thought. Still less could she apply to Lady Hester,
+whose extravagant and wasteful habits always placed her in want of
+money; and yet to refuse her father on grounds which he would deem
+purely selfish was equally out of the question. She well knew that in
+a moment of anger and impatience stung by what he would call the
+ingratitude of his children he would probably himself write to Sir
+Stafford, narrating every circumstance that drove him to the step. Oh,
+that she had never left him, never ceased to live the life of want and
+hardship to which time had accustomed her! all the poverty she had ever
+known brought no such humiliation as this! Poor Nelly's lot now was a
+hundredfold superior to hers. She saw, too, that reserve once broken on
+such a theme, her father would not scruple to renew the application
+as often as he needed money. It was clear enough that he saw no
+embarrassment, nor any difficulty for her in the matter; that it neither
+could offend her feelings nor compromise her position. Could she descend
+to an evasive or equivocal reply, his temper would as certainly
+boil over, and an insulting letter would at once be addressed to Sir
+Stafford. Were she to make the request and fail, he would order her
+home, and under what circumstances should she leave the house of her
+benefactors! And yet all this was better than success.
+
+In such harassing reflections warring and jarring in her mind, the long
+hours of the night were passed. She wept, too: the bitterest tears are
+those that are wrung from shame and sorrow mingled. Many a generous
+resolve, many a thought of self-devotion and sacrifice rose to her mind;
+at moments she would have submitted herself to any wound to self-esteem
+to have obtained her father's kind word, and at others all the indignity
+of a false position overwhelmed her, and she cried as if her very heart
+were bursting.
+
+Wearied and fevered, she arose and went into the garden. It was one of
+the brilliant mornings which for a week or ten days in Italy represent
+the whole season of spring. Although still early, the sun was hot, and
+the flowers and shrubs, refreshed by the heavy dew, were bursting out
+into renewed luxuriance in the warm glow. The fountains sparkled, and
+the birds were singing, and all seemed animated by that joyous spirit
+which seems the very breath of early morning, all save poor Kate, who,
+with bent-down head and slow step, loitered along the walks, lost in her
+gloomiest thoughts.
+
+To return home again was the only issue she could see to her
+difficulties, to share the humble fortunes of her father and sister,
+away from a world in which she had no pretension to live! And this, too,
+just when that same world had cast its fascinations round her, just when
+its blandishments had gained possession of her heart, and made her feel
+that all without its pale was ignoble and unworthy. No other course
+seemed, however, to offer itself, and she had just determined on its
+adoption, when the short, quick step of some one following her made her
+turn her head. As she did so, her name was pronounced, and Mr. Albert
+Jekyl, with his hat courteously removed, advanced towards her.
+
+“I see with what care Miss Dalton protects the roses of her cheeks,”
+ said he, smiling; “and yet how few there are that know this simple
+secret.”
+
+“You give me a credit I have no claim to, Mr. Jekyl. I have almost
+forgotten the sight of a rising sun, but this morning I did not feel
+quite well a headache a sleepless night--”
+
+“Perhaps caused by anxiety,” interposed he, quietly. “I wish I had
+discovered your loss in time, but I only detected that it must be yours
+when I reached home.”
+
+“I don't comprehend you,” said she, with some hesitation.
+
+“Is not this yours, Miss Dalton?” said he, producing the bill, which had
+fallen unseen from her father's letter. “I found it on the floor of the
+small boudoir, and not paying much attention to it at the time, did
+not perceive the signature, which would at once have betrayed the
+ownership.”
+
+“It must have dropped from a letter I was reading,” said Kate, whose
+cheek was now scarlet, for she knew Jekyl well enough to be certain that
+her whole secret was by that time in his hands. Slighter materials than
+this would have sufficed for his intelligence to construct a theory
+upon. Nothing in his manner, however, evinced this knowledge, for he
+handed her the paper with an air of most impassive quietude; while,
+as if to turn her thoughts from any unpleasantness of the incident, he
+said,
+
+“You haven't yet heard, I suppose, of Lady Hester's sudden resolve to
+quit Florence?”
+
+“Leave Florence! and for where?” asked she, hurriedly.
+
+“For Midchekoff's villa at Como. We discussed it all last night after
+you left, and in twenty-four hours we are to be on the road.”
+
+“What is the reason of this hurried departure?”
+
+“The Ricketts invasion gives the pretext; but of course you know
+better than I do what a share the novelty of the scheme lends to its
+attractions.”
+
+“And we are to leave this to-morrow?” said Kate, rather to herself than
+for her companion.
+
+Jekyl marked well the tone and the expression of the speaker, but said
+not a word.
+
+Kate stood for a few seconds lost in thought. Her difficulties were
+thickening around her, and not a gleam of light shone through the gloomy
+future before her. At last, as it were overpowered by the torturing
+anxieties of her situation, she covered her face with her hands to hide
+the tears that would gush forth in spite of her.
+
+“Miss Dalton will forgive me,” said Jekyl, speaking in a low and most
+respectful voice, “if I step for once from the humble path I have
+tracked for myself in life, and offer my poor services as her adviser.”
+
+Nothing could be more deferential than the speech, or the way in which
+it was uttered, and yet Kate heard it with a sense of pain. She felt
+that her personal independence was already in peril, and that the meek
+and bashful Mr. Jekyl had gained a mastery over her. He saw all this, he
+read each struggle of her mind, and, were retreat practicable, he
+would have retreated; but, the step once taken, the only course was
+“forwards.”
+
+“Miss Dalton may reject my counsels, but she will not despise the
+devotion in which they are proffered. A mere accident” here he glanced
+at the paper which she still held in her fingers “a mere accident has
+shown me that you have a difficulty; one for which neither your habits
+nor knowledge of life can suggest the solution.” He paused, and a very
+slight nod from Kate emboldened him to proceed. “Were it not so,
+Miss Dalton were the case one for which your own exquisite tact could
+suffice, I never would have ventured on the liberty. I, who have watched
+you with wondering admiration, directing and guiding your course amid
+shoals and reefs and quicksands, where the most skilful might have found
+shipwreck, it would have been hardihood indeed for me to have offered my
+pilotage. But here, if I err not greatly, here is a new and unknown sea,
+and here I may be of service to you.”
+
+“Is it so plain, then, what all this means?” said Kate, holding out the
+bill towards Jekyl.
+
+“Alas! Miss Dalton,” said he, with a faint smile, “these are no enigmas
+to us who mix in all the worries and cares of life.”
+
+“Then how do you read the riddle?” said she, almost laughing at the easy
+flippancy of his tone.
+
+“Mr. Dalton being an Irish gentleman of a kind disposition and facile
+temper, suffers his tenantry to run most grievously into arrear. They
+won't pay, and he won't make them; his own creditors having no sympathy
+with such proceedings, become pressing and importunate. Mr. Dalton grows
+angry, and they grow irritable; he makes his agent write to them, they
+'instruct' their attorney to write to him. Mr. D. is puzzled, and were
+it not that But, may I go on?”
+
+“Of course; proceed,” said she, smiling.
+
+“You'll not be offended, though?” said he, “because, if I have not the
+privilege of being frank, I shall be worthless to you.”
+
+“There is no serious offence without intention.”
+
+“Very true; but I do not wish there should be even a trivial
+transgression.”
+
+“I 'm not afraid. Go on,” said she, nodding her head.
+
+“Where was I, then? Oh! I remember. I said that Mr. Dalton, seeing
+difficulties thickening and troubles gathering, suddenly bethinks him
+that he has a daughter, a young lady of such attractions that, in a
+society where wealth and splendor and rank hold highest place, her
+beauty has already established a dominion which nothing, save her
+gentleness, prevents being a despotism.”
+
+“Mr. Jekyl mistakes the part of a friend when he becomes flatterer.”
+
+“There is no flattery in a plain unadorned truth,” said he, hastily.
+
+“And were it all as you say,” rejoined she, speaking with a heightened
+color and a flashing eye, “how could such circumstances be linked with
+those you spoke of?”
+
+“Easily enough, if I did but dare to tell it,” was his reply.
+
+“It is too late for reserve; go on freely,” said she, with a faint sigh.
+
+Jekyl resumed,
+
+“Mr. Dalton knows there are thousands could have told him so that his
+daughter may be a princess to-morrow if she wishes it. She has but to
+choose her rank and her nationality, and there is not a land in Europe
+in whose peerage she may not inscribe her name. It is too late for
+reserve,” said he, quickly, “and consequently too late for resentment.
+You must not be angry with me now; I am but speaking in your presence
+what all the world says behind your back. Hearing this, and believing
+it, as all believe it, what is there more natural than that he should
+address himself to her at whose disposal lie all that wealth can
+compass? The sun bestows many a gleam of warmth and brightness before he
+reaches the zenith. Do not mistake me. This request was scarcely fair;
+it was ill-advised. Your freedom should never have been jeopardized
+for such a mere trifle. Had your father but seen with his own eyes your
+position here, he would never have done this; but, being done, there is
+no harm in it.”
+
+“But what am I to do?” said Kate, trembling with embarrassment and
+vexation together.
+
+“Send the money, of course,” said he, coolly.
+
+“But how from what source?”
+
+“Your own benevolence, none other,” said he, as calmly.
+
+“There is no question of a favor, no stooping to an obligation
+necessary. You will simply give your promise to repay it at some future
+day, not specifying when; and I will find a banker but too happy to
+treat with you.”
+
+“But what prospect have I of such ability to pay? what resources can I
+reckon upon?”
+
+“You will be angry if I repeat myself,” said Jekyl, with deep humility.
+
+“I am already angry with myself that I should have listened to your
+proposal so indulgently; my troubles must, indeed, have affected me
+deeply when I so far forgot myself.”
+
+Jekyl dropped his head forward on his breast, and looked a picture of
+sorrow; after a while he said,
+
+“Sir Stafford Onslow would, I well know, but be honored by your asking
+him the slight favor; but I could not counsel you to do so. Your
+feelings would have to pay too severe a sacrifice, and hence I advise
+making it a mere business matter; depositing some ornament a necklace
+you were tired of, a bracelet, anything in fact, a nothing and thus
+there is neither a difficulty nor a disclosure.”
+
+“I have scarcely anything,” said Kate; “and what I have, have been all
+presents from Lady Hester.”
+
+“Morlache would be quite content with your word,” said Jekyl, blandly.
+
+“And if I should be unable to acquit the debt, will these few things I
+possess be sufficient to do it?”
+
+“I should say double the amount, as a mere guess.”
+
+“Can I dare I take your counsel?” cried she, in an accent of intense
+anxiety.
+
+“Can you reject it, when refusal will be so bitter?”
+
+Kate gave a slight shudder, as though that pang was greater than all the
+rest.
+
+“There is fortunately no difficulty in the matter whatever,” said Jekyl,
+speaking rapidly. “You will, of course, have many things to purchase
+before you leave this. Well; take the carriage and your maid, and drive
+to the Ponte Vecchio. The last shop on the right-hand side of the bridge
+is 'Morlache's.' It is unpromising enough outside, but there is wealth
+within to subsidize a kingdom. I will be in waiting to receive you,
+and in a few minutes the whole will be concluded; and if you have your
+letter ready, you can enclose the sum, and post it at once.”
+
+If there were many things in this arrangement which shocked Kate, and
+revolted against her sense of delicacy and propriety, there was one
+counterpoise more than enough to outweigh them all: she should be
+enabled to serve her father, she, who alone of all his children had
+never contributed, save by affection, to his comfort, should now
+materially assist him. She knew too well the sufferings and anxieties
+his straitened fortune cost him, she witnessed but too often the
+half-desperation in which he would pass days, borne down and almost
+broken-hearted! and she had witnessed that outbreak of joy he would
+indulge in when an unexpected help had suddenly lifted him from the
+depth of his poverty. To be the messenger of such good tidings to be
+associated in his mind with this assistance, to win his fervent “God
+bless you!” she would have put life itself in peril; and when Jekyl
+placed so palpably before her the promptitude with which the act could
+be accomplished, all hesitation ceased, and she promised to be punctual
+at the appointed place by three o'clock that same afternoon.
+
+“It is too early to expect to see Lady Hester,” said Jekyl; “and indeed,
+my real business here this morning was with yourself, so that now I
+shall drive out to Midchekoff's and make all the arrangements about the
+villa. Till three, then, good-bye!”
+
+“Good-bye,” said Kate, for the first time disposed to feel warmly to the
+little man, and half reproach herself with some of the prejudices she
+used to entertain regarding him.
+
+Jekyl now took his way to the stables, and ordering a brougham to be got
+ready for him, sauntered into the house, and took his coffee while he
+waited.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV. RACCA MORLACHE.
+
+There is something of mediaeval look and air about the Ponte Vecchio
+in Florence, which gives it a peculiar interest to the traveller. The
+quaint little low shops on either side, all glittering with gold and
+gems; the gorgeous tiaras of diamonds; the richly enamelled cups and
+vases aside of the grotesque ornaments of peasant costume; the cumbrous
+ear-rings of stamped gold; the old-fashioned clasps and buckles of
+massive make; the chains fashioned after long-forgotten models; the
+strings of Oriental pearls, costly and rare enough for queens to wear,
+are all thrown about in a rich profusion, curiously in contrast to the
+humble sheds for they are little more that hold them.
+
+The incessant roll of equipages,--the crowd and movement of a great
+city; the lingering peasant, gazing with rapturous eyes at the
+glittering wares; the dark Israelitish face that peers from within;
+the ever-flowing tide of population of every rank and age and country,
+giving a bustle and animation to the scene, so beautifully relieved by
+the view that opens on the centre of the bridge, and where, in a vacant
+space, the Arno is seen wending peacefully along, and scattering its
+circling eddies beneath the graceful arches of the “Santa Trinita,” that
+little glimpse of hill and vineyard and river, the cypress-clad heights
+of San Miniato, and the distant mountain of Vallombrosa, more beautiful
+far than all the gold Pactolus ever rolled, or all the gems that ever
+glittered on crown or coronet.
+
+There was one stall at the end of the bridge so humble-looking and so
+scantily provided that no stranger was seen to linger beside it. A few
+coral ornaments for peasant wear, some stamped medals for pious use,
+and some of those little silver tokens hung up by some devout hands as
+votive offerings at a holy shrine, were all that appeared; while, as
+if to confirm the impression of the scanty traffic that went on, the
+massive door was barred and bolted like the portal of a prison. An
+almost erased inscription, unrenewed for nigh half a century, told that
+this was the shop of “Racca Morlache.”
+
+There may have been much of exaggeration in the stories that went of
+the Jew's enormous wealth; doubtless many of the accounts were purely
+fabulous; but one fact is certain, that from that lowly roof went forth
+sums sufficient to maintain the credit of many a tottering state, or
+support the cost of warlike struggles to replace a dynasty. To him came
+the heads of despotic governments, the leaders of rebellious democracy,
+the Russian and the Circassian, the Carlist and the Cristino. To the
+proud champion of divine right, or the fearless promulgator of equality,
+to all he was accessible. Solvency and his profit were requirements he
+could not dispense with; but, for the rest, in what channel of future
+good and evil his wealth was to flow, whether to maintain a throne or
+sap its foundation, to uphold a faith or to desecrate its altars, to
+liberate a people or to bind their fetters more closely, were cares that
+sat lightly on his heart.
+
+He might, with his vast means, have supported a style like royalty
+itself. There was no splendor nor magnificence he need have denied
+himself; nor, as the world goes, any society from which he should be
+debarred, gold is the picklock to the doors of palaces as of prisons;
+but he preferred this small and miserable habitation, which for above
+two centuries had never borne any other name than the “Casa Morlache.”
+
+Various reasons were given out for a choice so singular; among others,
+it was said that the Grand-Duke was accustomed to visit the Jew by means
+of a secret passage from the “Pitti;” while some alleged that the secret
+frequenters of Morlache's abode all came by water, and that in the dark
+night many a boat skimmed the Arno, and directed its course to the last
+arch of the Ponte Vecchio. With these rumors we have no concern, nor
+with Morlache himself have we more than a passing business.
+
+When Kate Dalton had driven up to the door, she had all but determined
+to abandon her intention. The arguments which in the morning had taken
+her by surprise seemed now weak and futile, and she was shocked with
+herself for even the momentary yielding to Jekyl's counsels. Her only
+doubt was whether to drive on without further halt, or leave some short
+message, to the effect that she had called but could not delay there.
+This seemed the better and more courteous proceeding; and while she was
+yet speaking to the dark-eyed, hook-nosed boy who appeared at the door,
+Jekyl came up.
+
+“Be quick, Miss Dalton! Don't lose an instant,” said he. “Morlache is
+going to the palace, and we shall miss him.”
+
+“But I have changed my mind. I have resolved not to accept this
+assistance. It is better far better that I should not.”
+
+“It is too late to think of that now,” said he, interrupting, and
+speaking with some slight degree of irritation.
+
+“How too late? What do you mean?”
+
+“That I have already told Morlache the whole story, and obtained his
+promise for the loan.”
+
+“Oh, sir! why have you done this?” cried she, in a voice of anguish.
+
+“I had your free permission for it, Miss Dalton. When we parted this
+morning, the matter was fully agreed on between us; but still, if
+you desire to retract, your secret is in safe keeping. Morlache never
+betrays a confidence.”
+
+“And he has heard my name!” cried she, in a broken, sobbing tone.
+
+“Not for the first time, be assured. Even Croesus looked up from his
+ingots to ask if it were 'la belle Dalton;' and when I said 'Yes,'
+'That's enough,' replied he; 'would that all my moneys had so safe
+investment!' But stay; there is Purvis yonder. He is pretending to
+examine an eye-glass in that shop opposite, but I see well that he is
+there only en vedette.”
+
+“What shall I do?” exclaimed the poor girl, now torn by impulses and
+emotions the most opposite.
+
+“One thing you must do at once,” said Jekyl; “get out of the carriage
+and visit two or three of the shops, as if in quest of some article of
+jewelry. His anxiety to learn the precise object of your search will
+soon draw him from his 'lair.'”
+
+The decision of this counsel, almost like a command, so far imposed upon
+Kate that she at once descended, and took Jekyl's arm along the bridge.
+They had not gone many yards when the short, little, shuffling step of
+Purvis was heard behind them. Lingering to gaze at some of the splendid
+objects exposed for sale, they at last reached a very splendid stall,
+where diamonds, pearls, and rubies lay in heaps of gorgeous profusion.
+And now Purvis had stationed himself exactly behind them, with his head
+most artistically adjusted to hear everything that passed between them.
+
+Jekyl seemed to feel his presence as if by an instinct, and without
+even turning his eye from the glass case, said, in a voice of some
+disparagement,
+
+“All modern settings! very lustrous very brilliant, but not at all what
+we are looking for.”
+
+Kate made no reply; for, while she had scruples about abetting a mere
+scheme, she was not the less eager to be free of the presence of the
+“Great Inquisitor.”
+
+“That, perhaps,” said Jekyl, pointing to a magnificent cross of
+brilliants, “would not go ill with the necklace, although the stones are
+smaller. Say something, anything,” added he, in a lower tone; “the spell
+is working.”
+
+“That is very handsome,” said Kate, pointing at a venture to an object
+before her.
+
+“So it is,” said Jekyl, quickly. “Let us see what value they place upon
+it. Oh, here is Mr. Purvis; how fortunate! Perhaps in all Florence there
+is not one so conversant with all that concerns taste and elegance, and,
+as an old resident, happily exempt from all the arts and wiles played
+off upon our countrymen.”
+
+“How d'ye do d'ye do?” cried Purvis, shaking hands with both. “You heard
+of the bl-bl-blunder I made last night about the Ar-Archduke?”
+
+“Not a word of it,” replied Jekyl.
+
+“I told him he was a-a-a fool,” cried Purvis, with a scream and a cackle
+that very constantly followed any confession of an impertinence.
+
+“Meno male!” exclaimed Jekyl. “Even princes ought to hear truth
+sometimes; but you can help us here. Mr. Purvis, do you see that
+chatelaine yonder, with a large emerald pendant; could you ascertain the
+price of it for Miss Dalton? They'll not attempt to be extortionate upon
+you, which they would, assuredly, if she entered the shop.”
+
+“To be sure; I'll do it with pl-pleasure. Who is it for?”
+
+“That 's a secret, Mr. Purvis; but you shall hear it afterwards.”
+
+“I guess al-ready,” said Scroope, with a cunning leer. “You 're going to
+be m-m-m-married, ain't you?”
+
+“Mr. Purvis, Mr. Purvis, I must call you to order,” said Jekyl, who saw
+that very little more would make the scene unendurable to Kate.
+
+“I hope it 's not an It-It-Italian fellow; for they 're all as poor as
+Laza-Laza-Laza--”
+
+“Yes, yes, of course; we know that. Your discretion is invaluable,” said
+Jekyl; “but pray step in, and ask this question for us.”
+
+“I'll tell who'll do better,” said Purvis, who, once full of a
+theme, never paid any attention to what was said by others.
+“Midche-Midche-Midche-k-k-off; he owns half of--”
+
+“Never mind what he owns, but remember that Miss Dalton is waiting
+all this time,” said Jekyl, who very rarely so far lost command of his
+temper; and at last Purvis yielded, and entered the shop.
+
+“Come now,” said Jekyl to his companion; “it will take him full five
+minutes to say 'chatelaine,' and before that we shall be safely housed.”
+ And with these words he hurried her along, laughing, in spite of all her
+anxieties, at the absurdity of the adventure. “He 'll see the carriage
+when he comes out,” added he, “and so I 'll tell the coachman to drive
+slowly on towards the Pitti.” And thus, without asking her consent, he
+assumed the full guidance at once; and, ere she well knew how or why,
+she found herself within the dark and dusty precincts of Morlache's
+shop.
+
+Jekyl never gave Kate much time for hesitation, but hurried her along
+through a narrow passage, from which a winding flight of stone steps
+led downwards to a considerable distance, and at last opened upon a
+neat little chamber on the level of the Arno, the window opening on the
+stream, and only separated from it by a little terrace, covered with
+geraniums in full flower. There was a strange undulating motion that
+seemed communicated from the stream to the apartment, which Jekyl at
+once explained to his companion as a contrivance for elevating and
+depressing the chamber with the changes in the current of the river;
+otherwise the room must have been under water for a considerable portion
+of the year. While he descanted on the ingenuity of the mechanism,
+and pointed attention to the portraits along the walls, the Kings and
+Kaisers with whom Morlache had held moneyed relations, the minutes
+slipped on, and Jekyl' s powers as a talker were called upon to speak
+against time, the figety nervousness of his manner, and the frequent
+glances he bestowed at the timepiece, showing how impatiently he longed
+for the Jew's arrival. To all Kate's scruples he opposed some plausible
+pretext, assuring her that, if she desired it, no mention should be made
+of the loan; that the visit might be as one of mere curiosity, to
+see some of those wonderful gems which had once graced the crowns of
+royalty; and that, in any case, the brief delay would disembarrass them
+on the score of Purvis, whose spirit of inquiry would have called him
+off in some other direction. At last, when now upwards of half an hour
+had elapsed, and no sound nor sight bore token of the Jew's coming,
+Jekyl resolved to go in search of him; and requesting Kate to wait
+patiently for a few minutes, he left the room.
+
+At first, when she found herself alone, every noise startled and
+terrified her; the minutes, as she watched the clock, seemed drawn out
+to hours. She listened with an aching anxiety for Jekyl's return, while,
+with a sorrowing heart, she reproached herself for ever having come
+there. To this state of almost feverish excitement succeeded a low
+and melancholy depression, in which the time passed without her
+consciousness; the half-dulled sounds of the city, the monotonous plash
+of the stream as it flowed past, the distant cries of the boatmen
+as they guided their swift barks down the strong current, aiding and
+increasing a feeling that was almost lethargic. Already the sun had sunk
+below the hills, and the tall palaces were throwing their giant shadows
+across the river, the presage of approaching night, and still she sat
+there all alone. Jekyl had never returned, nor had any one descended the
+stairs since his departure. Twice had she shaken off the dreamy stupor
+that was over her, and tried to find the door of the chamber, but,
+concealed in the wainscoting, it defied her efforts; and now, worn out
+with anxiety and disappointed, she sat down beside the window, gazing
+listlessly at the water, and wondering when and how her captivity was to
+end.
+
+The lamps were now being lighted on the quays, and long columns of light
+streaked the dark river. Across these a black object was seen to glide,
+and as it passed, Kate could perceive it was a boat that advanced slowly
+against the current, and headed up the stream. As she watched, it came
+nearer and nearer; and now she could hear distinctly the sound of voices
+talking in French. What, however, was her surprise when, instead of
+making for the centre arches of the bridge, the boat was vigorously
+impelled across the river, and its course directed towards the very
+place where she sat?
+
+However painful her situation before, now it became downright agony.
+It was clear there were persons coming; in another moment she would
+be discovered, unable to explain by what course of events she had come
+there, and thus exposed to every surmise and suspicion that chance
+or calumny might originate. In that brief but terrible moment what
+self-accusings, what reproaches of Jekyl crossed her mind; and yet all
+these were as nothing to the misery which coming events seemed full of.
+For a second or two she stood irresolute, and then with something like
+an instinct of escape, she stepped out upon the little terrace that
+supported the flowers, and, trembling with fear, took her stand beneath
+the shadow of one of the great buttresses of the bridge. The frail and
+half-rotten timbers creaked and bent beneath her weight, and close under
+her feet rolled along the dark river, with a low and sullen sound like
+moaning. Meanwhile the boat came nearer, and slowly gliding along, was
+at last brought up at the window. Two figures passed into the chamber,
+and the boatmen, as if performing a long-accustomed task, rowed out a
+few lengths into the stream to wait.
+
+From the window, which still remained open, a stream of light now
+issued, and Kate's quick hearing could detect the rustling sound of
+papers on the table.
+
+“There they are,” said a voice, the first accents of which she knew to
+belong to the Abbe D'Esmonde. “There they are, Signor Morlache. We have
+no concealments nor reserve with you. Examine them for yourself. You
+will find reports from nearly every part of the kingdom; some more, some
+less favorable in their bearings, but all agreeing in the main fact,
+that the cause is a great one, and the success all but certain.”
+
+“I have told you before,” said the Jew, speaking in a thick, guttural
+utterance, “that my sympathies never lead me into expense. Every solvent
+cause is good, every bankrupt one the reverse, in my estimation.”
+
+“Even upon that ground I am ready to meet you. The committee--”
+
+“Ay, who are the committee?” interrupted the Jew, hastily.
+
+“The committee contains some of the first Catholic names of Ireland, men
+of landed fortune and great territorial influence, together with several
+of the higher clergy.”
+
+“The bishops?”
+
+“The bishops, almost to a man, are with us in heart; but their peculiar
+position requires the most careful and delicate conduct. No turn of
+fortune must implicate them, or our cause is lost forever.”
+
+“If your cause be all you say it is, if the nationality be so strong,
+and the energies so powerful as you describe, why not try the issue, as
+the Italians and the Hungarians are about to do?” said Morlache. “I
+can understand a loan for a defined and real object, the purchase of
+military stores and equipment, to provide arms and ammunition, and I can
+understand how the lender, too, could calculate his risk of profit or
+loss on the issue of the struggle; but here you want half a million
+sterling, and for what?”
+
+“To win a kingdom!” cried D'Esmonde, enthusiastically. “To bring back
+to the fold of the Church the long-lost sheep; and make Ireland, as she
+once was, the centre of holy zeal and piety!”
+
+“I am not a pope, nor a cardinal, not even a monsignore,” said Morlache,
+with a bitter laugh. “You must try other arguments with me; and once
+more I say, why not join that party who already are willing to risk
+their lives in the venture?”
+
+“Have I not told you what and who they are who form this party?” said
+D'Esmonde, passionately. “Read those papers before you. Study the secret
+reports sent from nearly every parish in the kingdom. In some you will
+find the sworn depositions of men on their death-beds, the last words
+their lips have uttered on earth, all concurring to show that Ireland
+has no hope save in the Church. The men who now stir up the land to
+revolt are not devoid of courage or capacity. They are bold, and they
+are able, but they are infidel. They would call upon their countrymen
+in the name of past associations, the wrongs of bygone centuries; they
+would move the heart by appeals, touching enough, Heaven knows, to the
+galling sores of serfdom, but they will not light one fire upon the
+altar; they will not carry the only banner that should float in the van
+of an Irish army. Their bold denouncings may warn some; their poetry
+will, perhaps, move others; but their prose and verse, like themselves,
+will be forgotten in a few years, and, save a few grassy mounds in a
+village churchyard, or a prisoner's plaint sent over the sea from a land
+of banishment, nothing will remain of Ireland's patriots.”
+
+“England is too powerful for such assailants,” said the Jew.
+
+“Very true; but remember that the stout three-decker that never struck
+to an enemy has crumbled to ruin beneath the dry rot,” said D'Esmonde,
+with a savage energy of manner. “Such is the case now. All is rot and
+corruption within her; pauperism at home, rebellion abroad. The
+nobles, more tolerant as the commonalty grows more ambitious; resources
+diminishing as taxation increases; disaffection everywhere, in the towns
+where they read, in the rural districts where they brood over their
+poverty; and lastly, but greatest of all, schism in the Church, a mutiny
+in that disorderly mass that was never yet disciplined to obedience. Are
+these the evidences of strength, or are they sure signs of coming ruin?
+Mark me,” said he, hurriedly, “I do not mean from all this that such
+puny revolt as we are now to see can shake powers like that of England.
+These men will have the same fate as Tone and Emmet, without the
+sympathy that followed them. They will fail, and fail egregiously; but
+it is exactly upon this failure that our hopes of success are based. Not
+a priest will join them. On the contrary, their scheme will be denounced
+from our altars; our flocks warned to stand aloof from their evil
+influence. Our bishops will be in close communication with the heads of
+the Government; all the little coquetries of confidence and frankness
+will be played off; and our loyalty, that's the phrase, our loyalty
+stand high in public esteem. The very jeers and insults of our enemies
+will give fresh lustre to our bright example, and our calm and dignified
+demeanor form the contrast to that rampant intolerance that assails us.”
+
+“But for all this classic dignity,” said Morlache, sneeringly, “you
+need no money; such nobility of soul is, after all, the cheapest of
+luxuries.”
+
+“You are mistaken, mistaken egregiously,” broke in D'Esmonde. “It is
+precisely at that moment that we shall require a strong friend behind
+us. The 'Press' is all-powerful in England. If it does not actually
+guide, it is the embodiment of public opinion, without which men would
+never clothe their sentiments in fitting phrase, or invest them with
+those short and pithy apothegms that form the watchwords of party.
+Happily, if it be great, it is venal; and although the price be a
+princely ransom, the bargain is worth the money. Fifty or a hundred
+thousand pounds, at that nick, would gain our cause. We shall need many
+advocates; some, in assumed self-gratulation over their own prescience,
+in supporting our claims in time past, and reiterating the worn
+assertion of our attachment to the throne and the constitution; others,
+to contrast our bearing with the obtrusive loyalty of Orangeism; and
+others, again, going further than either, to proclaim that, but for
+us, Ireland would have been lost to England; and had not our allegiance
+stood in the breach, the cause of rebellion would have triumphed.”
+
+“And is this character for loyalty worth so much money?” said the Jew,
+slowly.
+
+“Not as a mere empty name, not as a vain boast,” replied D'Esmonde,
+quickly; “but if the tree be stunted, its fruits are above price. Our
+martyrdom will not go unrewarded. The moment of peril over, the season
+of concessions will begin. How I once hated the word! how I used to
+despise those who were satisfied with these crumbs from the table of the
+rich man, not knowing that the time would come when we should sit at the
+board ourselves. Concession! the vocabulary has no one word I 'd
+change for it; it is conquest, dominion, sovereignty, all together. By
+concession, we may be all we strive for, but never could wrest by force.
+Now, my good Signor Morlache, these slow and sententious English are
+a most impulsive people, and are often betrayed into the strangest
+excesses of forgiveness and forgetfulness; insomuch that I feel assured
+that nothing will be refused us, if we but play our game prudently.”
+
+“And what is the game?” said the Jew, with impatience; “for it seems to
+me that you are not about to strike for freedom, like the Hungarians or
+the Lombards. What, then, is the prize you strive for?”
+
+“The Catholicism of Ireland, and then of England, the subjugation of the
+haughtiest rebel to the Faith, the only one whose disaffection menaces
+our Holy Church; for the Lutheranism of the German is scarce worth the
+name of enemy. England once Catholic, the world is our own!”
+
+The enthusiasm of his manner, and the excited tones of his round, full
+voice seemed to check the Jew, whose cold, sarcastic features were
+turned towards the priest with an expression of wonderment.
+
+“Let us come back from all this speculation to matter of plain fact,”
+ said Morlache, after a long pause. “What securities are offered for the
+repayment of this sum? for, although the theme be full of interest to
+you, to me it has but the character of a commercial enterprise.”
+
+“But it ought not,” said D'Esmonde, passionately. “The downfall of the
+tyranny of England is your cause as much as ours. What Genoa and Venice
+were in times past, they may become again. The supremacy of the seas
+once wrested from that haughty power, the long-slumbering energies of
+Southern Europe will awaken, the great trading communities of the Levant
+will resume their ancient place, and the rich argosies of the East once
+more will float over the waters of the tideless sea.”
+
+“Not in our time, Abbe, not in our time,” said the Jew, smiling.
+
+“But are we only to build for ourselves?” said D'Esmonde. “Was it thus
+your own great forefathers raised the glorious Temple?”
+
+The allusion called up but a cold sneer on the Israelite's dark
+countenance, and D'Esmonde knew better than to repeat a blow which
+showed itself to be powerless.
+
+A tap at the door here broke in upon the colloquy, and Jekyl's voice was
+heard on the outside.
+
+“Say you are engaged, that you cannot admit him,” whispered D'Esmonde.
+“I do not wish that he should see me here.”
+
+“A thousand pardons, Morlache,” said Jekyl, from without; “but when
+I followed you to the 'Pitti,' I left a young lady here, has she gone
+away, or is she still here?”
+
+“I never saw her,” said Morlache. “She must have left before I
+returned.”
+
+“Thanks, good-bye,” said Jekyl; and his quick foot was heard ascending
+the stairs again.
+
+“The night air grows chilly,” said the Abbe, as he arose and shut the
+window; and the boatmen, mistaking the sound for a summons to approach,
+pulled up to the spot.
+
+With a sudden spring Kate bounded into the boat, while yet some distance
+off, and hurriedly said, “To the stairs beside the Santa Trinita.”
+
+The clink of money, as she took out her purse, made the brief command
+intelligible, and they shot down the stream with speed.
+
+“Do not speak of me,” said she, covering her face with her kerchief as
+she stepped from the boat; and a gold Napoleon enforced the caution.
+
+It was now night, the lamps were all lighted, and the streets crowded by
+that bustling throng of population whose hours of business or pleasure
+commence when day has closed. A thin drizzling rain was falling, and
+the footway was wet and muddy. Dressed in the height of fashion, all her
+attire suited to a carriage, Kate set out to walk homeward, with a
+heart sinking from terror. Many a time in her condition of poverty,
+with patched and threadbare cloak, had she travelled the dark road from
+Lichtenthal to Baden after nightfall, fearless and undismayed, no dread
+of danger nor of insult occurring to her happy spirit, the “Gute nacht”
+ of some homeward-bound peasant the only sound that saluted her. But now,
+she was no longer in the secluded valley of the great Vaterland; her
+way led through the crowded thoroughfares of a great city, with all its
+crash and noise and movement.
+
+If, in her wild confusion, she had no thought for each incident of the
+morning, her mind was full of “self-accusings.” How explain to Lady
+Hester her long absence, and her return alone and on foot? Her very
+maid, Nina, might arraign her conduct, and regard her with distrust and
+suspicion. How should she appear in Jekyl's eyes, who already knew her
+secret? and, lastly, what answer return to her poor father's letter,
+that letter which was the cause of all her misfortunes?
+
+“I will tell him everything,” said she to herself, as she went along. “I
+will detail the whole events of this morning, and he shall see that my
+failure has not come of lukewarmness. I will also strive to show him the
+nature of my position, and let him know the full extent of the sacrifice
+he would exact from me. If he persist, what then? Is it better to go
+back and share the poverty I cannot alleviate?
+
+“But what alternative have I? Jekyl's flatteries are but fictions. Would
+I wish them to be otherwise? Alas, I cannot tell; I do not even know my
+own heart now. Oh for one true-hearted friend to guide and counsel me!”
+ She thought of George Onslow, rash, impetuous, and ardent; she thought
+of the priest, D'Esmonde, but the last scene in which he figured made
+her shrink with terror from the man of dark intrigues and secret wiles.
+She even thought of poor Hanserl, who, in all the simplicity of his
+nature, she wished to have that moment beside her. “But he would say,
+'Go back; return to the humble home you quitted; put away all the
+glittering gauds that are clinging to and clasping your very heart.
+Take, once more, your lowly place at hearth and board, and forget the
+bright dream of pleasure you have passed through.' But how forget it?
+Has it not become my hope, my very existence? How easy for those who
+have not tasted the intoxicating cup, to say, 'Be cool of heart and
+head!' Nor am I what I was. How then go back to be that which I have
+ceased to be? Would that I had never left it! Would that I could live
+again in the dreamland of the poets that we loved so well, and wander
+with dearest Nelly through those forest glades, peopled with the
+creations of Uhland, Tieck, and Chammisso! What a glorious world is
+theirs, and how unlike the real one!”
+
+Thus, lost in thoughts conflicting and jarring with each other, mingling
+the long past with the distant future, hoping and fearing, now seeking
+self-persuasion here, now controverting her own opinions there, she
+walked hurriedly on, unconscious of the time, the place, and even the
+rude glances bestowed upon her by many who gazed at her with an insolent
+admiration. What an armor is innocence! how proof against the venomed
+dart of malice? Kate never knew the ordeal through which she was
+passing. She neither saw the looks nor heard the comments of those
+that passed. If her mind ever turned from the throng of thoughts that
+oppressed it, it was when some momentary difficulty of the way recalled
+her to herself; for, as she escaped from the smaller streets, the crowd
+and crash increased, and she found herself borne along as in a strong
+current.
+
+“Does this lead to the Piazza Annunziata?” asked she of a woman at a
+fruit-stall.
+
+“Tell her, Giacomo,” said the woman to a youth, who, with a water-melon
+in his hand, lay at full length on the pavement.
+
+“Per Baccho! but she 's handsome!” said he, holding up the paper lantern
+to gaze at her. And Kate hurried on in terror.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI. A STREET RENCONTRE
+
+LADY HESTER ONSLOW had passed a day of martyrdom. There was scarcely
+a single contrariety in the long catalogue of annoyances which had not
+fallen to her share. Her servants, habitually disciplined to perfection,
+had admitted every bore of her acquaintance, while, to the few she
+really wished to see, admittance had been denied. The rumor of an
+approaching departure had got wind through the servants, and the
+hall and the courtyard were crowded with creditors, duns, and begging
+impostors of every age and class and country. It seemed as if every
+one with a petition or a bill, an unsatisfied complaint or an unsettled
+balance, had given each other a general rendezvous that morning at the
+Mazzarini Palace.
+
+It is well known how the most obsequious tradespeople grow peremptory
+when passports are signed and posthorses are harnessed. The bland
+courteousness with which they receive “your Ladyship's orders” undergoes
+a terrible change. Departure is the next thing to death. Another country
+sounds like another world. The deferential bashfulness that could not
+hint at the mention of money, now talks boldly of his debt. The solvent
+creditor, who said always “at your convenience,” has suddenly a most
+pressing call “to make up a large sum by Saturday.”
+
+All the little cajoleries and coquetries, all the little seductions and
+temptations of trade, are given up. The invitations to buy are converted
+into suggestions for “cash payment.” It is very provoking and very
+disenchanting! From a liberal and generous patron, you suddenly discover
+yourself transformed into a dubious debtor. All the halo that has
+surrounded your taste is changed for a chill atmosphere of suspicion
+and distrust. The tradesfolk, whose respectful voices never rose above
+a whisper in the hall, now grew clamorous in the antechamber; and more
+than once did they actually obtrude themselves in person within those
+charmed precincts inhabited by Lady Hester.
+
+What had become of Miss Dalton? where could she be all this while? Had
+not Mr. Jekyl called? what was he about that he had not “arranged” with
+all these “tiresome creatures”? Was there no one who knew what to do?
+Was not Captain Onslow, even, to be found? It was quite impossible that
+these people could be telling the truth; the greater number, if not all
+of them, must have been paid already, for she had spent a world of
+money latterly “somehow.” Ce'lestine was charged with a message to this
+effect, which had a result the very opposite to what it was intended;
+and now the noisy tongues and angry accents grew bolder and louder.
+Still none came to her rescue; and she was left alone to listen to the
+rebellious threatenings that murmured in the courtyard, or to read
+the ill-spelled impertinences of such as preferred to epistolize their
+complaints.
+
+The visitors who found their way to the drawing-room had to pass through
+this motley and clamorous host; and, at each opening of the door, the
+sounds swelled loudly out.
+
+More than once she bethought her of Sir Stafford; but shame opposed the
+resolution. His liberality, indeed, was boundless; and therein lay
+the whole difficulty. Were the matter one for discussion or angry
+remonstrance, she could have adventured it without a dread. She could
+easily have brought herself to confront a struggle, but was quite
+unequal to an act of submission. Among the numerous visitors who now
+thronged the salons, Lord Norwood, who had just returned from his
+shooting excursion in the Maremma, was the only one with whom she had
+anything like intimacy.
+
+“I am but a poor counsellor in such a case,” said he, laughing. “I was
+never dunned in my life, personally, I mean, for I always take care not
+to be found; and as to written applications, I know a creditor's seal
+and superscription as well as though I had seen him affix them. The very
+postmark is peculiar.”
+
+“This levity is very unfeeling at such a moment,” said Lady Hester,
+angrily; “and when you see me so utterly deserted, too!”
+
+“But where 's Jekyl? He ought to know how to manage this!”
+
+“He has never been here since morning. His conduct is inexcusable!”
+
+“And George?”
+
+“Out the whole day!”
+
+“And the 'Dalton'? for she has rather a good head, if I don't mistake
+her.”
+
+“She took the carriage into town, and has not returned.”
+
+“By Jove! I'd write a line to Sir Stafford; I 'd tell him that I was
+going for change of ah--, and all that sort of thing, to Como for a week
+or two, and that these people were so pestering and pressing, and all
+that; that, in fact, you were worried to death about it; and finding
+that your means were so very limited--”
+
+“But he has been most liberal. His generosity has been without bounds.”
+
+“So much the better; he'll come down all the readier now.”
+
+“I feel shame at such a course,” said she, in a weak, faint voice.
+
+“As I don't precisely know what that sensation is, I can't advise
+against it; but it must needs be a very powerful emotion, if it prevent
+you accepting money.”
+
+“Can you think of nothing else, Norwood?”
+
+“To be sure I can--there are twenty ways to do the thing. Close the
+shutters, and send for Buccellini; be ill dangerously ill and leave this
+to-morrow, at daybreak; or give a ball, like Dashwood, and start when
+the company are at supper. You lose the spoons and forks, to be sure;
+but that can't be helped. You might try and bully them, too though
+perhaps it 's late for that; and lastly and, I believe, best of all
+raise a few hundreds, and pay them each something.”
+
+“But how or where raise the money?”
+
+“Leave that to me, if it must be done. The great benefactor of mankind
+was the fellow that invented bills. The glorious philanthropist that
+first devised the bright expedient of living by paper, when bullion
+failed, was a grand and original genius. How many a poor fellow might
+have been rescued from the Serpentine by a few words scrawled over a
+five-shilling stamp! What a turn to a man's whole earthly career has
+been often given, as his pen glided over the imaginative phrase
+'I promise to pay'!”
+
+Lady Hester paid no attention to the Viscount's moralizings. Shame
+indignant shame monopolized all her feelings.
+
+“Well,” said she, at last, “I believe it must be so. I cannot endure
+this any longer. Jekyl has behaved shamefully; and George I 'll never
+forgive. They ought to have taken care of all this. And now, Norwood, to
+procure the money what is to be done?”
+
+“Here 's the patent treasury for pocket use the 'Young Man's Best
+Companion,'” said he, taking out of a black morocco case three or four
+blank bill-stamps, together with a mass of acceptances of various kinds,
+the proceeds of various play debts, the majority of which he well knew
+to be valueless. “What amount will be sufficient, how much shall we draw
+for?” said he, seating himself, pen in hand, at the table.
+
+“I cannot even guess,” said she, trembling with embarrassment and
+confusion. “There are all these people's accounts and letters. I suppose
+they are all horrid cheats. I 'm sure I never got half the things, and
+that the rest are already paid for. But no matter now; let us have done
+with them at any cost.”
+
+“'Morlandi, coachmaker' pretty well for Signer Morlandi!” said Norwood
+“eleven hundred scudi for repairs to carriages for destroying your
+patent axles, and replacing English varnish by the lacquer of a tea-tray
+something less than two hundred and fifty pounds!”
+
+“He is an obliging creature,” said Lady Hester, “and always punctual.”
+
+“In that case we 'll deal generously with him. He shall have half his
+money, if he gives a receipt in full.”
+
+“'Legendre, coiffeur; eight thousand francs.' Pas mal, Monsieur
+Legendre! kid gloves and perfumes, Madonna bands and Macassar oil, are
+costly things to deal in.”
+
+“That is really iniquitous,” said Lady Hester. “I see every bouquet is
+put down at a hundred francs!”
+
+“A conservatory, at that rate, is better property than a coal-mine.
+Shall we say one thousand francs for this honest coiffeur?”
+
+“Impossible! He would scorn such an offer.”
+
+“Pardon me. I know these people somewhat better and longer than you do;
+and so far even from suffering in his estimation if that were a matter
+of any consequence you will rise in his good opinion. An Italian always
+despises a dupe, but entertains a sincere respect for all who detect
+knavery. I 'll set him down for one thousand, to be increased to fifteen
+hundred if he'll tell me how to cut down his neighbor, Guercini.”
+
+“What of Guercini? How much is his claim?”
+
+“A trifle under five thousand crowns.”
+
+“Nearly one thousand pounds!” exclaimed she. “Say, rather, eleven
+hundred and upwards,” said Norwood.
+
+“It is incredible how little I've had from him: a few trifling rings and
+brooches; some insignificant alterations and new settings; one or two
+little presents to Kate; and, I really believe, nothing more.”
+
+“We are getting deeper and deeper,” said Norwood, turning over the
+bills. “Contardo, the wine-merchant, and Frisani, table-decker, are both
+large claimants. If pine-apples were the daily food of the servants'
+hall, they could scarcely cut a more formidable figure in the reckoning,
+indeed, if the whole establishment did nothing but munch them during all
+their leisure hours, the score need not be greater. Do you know, Hester,
+that the rogueries of the Continent are a far heavier infliction than
+the income-tax, and that the boasted economy of a foreign residence is
+sensibly diminished by the unfortunate fact that one honest tradesman
+is not to be found from Naples to the North Pole? They are Spartans in
+deceit, and only disgraced whenever the rascality is detected. Now, it
+is quite absurd to read such an item as this: 'Bonbons and dried fruits,
+three hundred and seventy crowns!' Why, if your guests were stuffed with
+marrons glaces, this would be an exaggeration.”
+
+“You are very tiresome, Norwood,” said she, peevishly. “I don't want to
+be told that these people are all knaves; their character for honesty is
+no affair of mine; if it were, Buccellini could easily mesmerize any one
+of them and learn all his secrets. I only wish to get rid of them, it
+'s very distressing to hear their dreadful voices, and see their more
+dreadful selves in the court beneath.”
+
+“The task is somewhat more difficult than I bargained for,” said
+Norwood, thoughtfully. “I fancied a few 'hundreds' would suffice, but we
+must read 'thousands' instead. In any case, I 'll hold a conference with
+them, and see what can be done.”
+
+“Do so, then, and lose no time, for I see Midchekoff s chasseur below,
+and I 'm sure the Prince is coming.”
+
+Norwood gave her a look which made her suddenly become scarlet, and then
+left the room without speaking.
+
+If he had not been himself a debtor with the greater number of those who
+waited below, few could have acquitted themselves more adroitly in such
+a mission. He was an adept in that clever game by which duns are foiled
+and tradesmen mollified; he knew every little menace and every flattery
+to apply to them, when to soothe and when to snub them. All these
+arts he was both ready and willing to exercise, were it not for the
+unpleasant difficulty that his own embarrassments rendered him a
+somewhat dubious ambassador. In fact, as he himself phrased it, “it was
+playing advocate with one leg in the dock.”
+
+He lingered a little, therefore, as he went; he stopped on the landing
+of the stairs to peep out on the tumultuous assemblage beneath, like
+a general surveying the enemy's line before the engagement; nor was he
+over-pleased to remark that little Purvis was bustling about among
+the crowd, note-book and pencil in hand, palpably taking evidence and
+storing up facts for future mention. As he was still looking, the
+great gate was thrown open with a crash, and a caleche, dirty and
+travel-stained, was whirled into the court by three steaming and panting
+posters. After a brief delay, a short, thick-set figure, enveloped in
+travelling-gear, descended, and putting, as it seemed, a few questions
+as to the meaning of the assembled throng, entered the house.
+
+Curious to learn who, what, and whence the new arrival came, Norwood
+hurried downstairs; but all that he could learn from the postilion was
+that the stranger had posted from Genoa, using the greatest speed all
+the way, and never halting, save a few minutes for refreshment. The
+traveller was not accompanied by a servant, and his luggage bore neither
+name nor crest to give any clew as to his identity. That he was English,
+and that he had gone direct to Sir Stafford's apartments, was the whole
+sum of the Viscount's knowledge; but even this seemed so worthy of
+remark that he hastened back with the tidings to Lady Hester, instead of
+proceeding on his errand.
+
+She treated the announcement with less interest. It might be Proctor,
+Sir Stafford's man. Was he tall and black-whiskered? No, he was short;
+and, so far as Norwood saw, he thought him fair-haired. “She knew of
+nobody to bear that description. It might be an English physician from
+Genoa, there was one there, or in Nice, she forgot exactly which, who
+was celebrated for treating gout, or sore eyes, she could not remember
+precisely, but it was certainly one or the other. On recollection,
+however, it was probably gout, because he had attended Lord Hugmore, who
+was blind.”
+
+“In that case,” said Norwood, “Onslow would seem to be worse.”
+
+“Yes, poor man, much worse. George sat up with him the night before
+last, and said he suffered terribly. His mind used to wander at
+intervals, too, and he spoke as if he was very unhappy.”
+
+“Unhappy, a man with upwards of thirty thousand a year unhappy!” said
+Norwood, clasping his hands over his head as he spoke.
+
+“You forget, my Lord, that there are other considerations than moneyed
+ones which weigh at least with some persons; and if Onslow's fortune
+be a princely one, he may still feel compunctious regrets for his
+detestable conduct to me!”
+
+“Oh, I forgot that!” said Norwood, with a most laudable air of
+seriousness.
+
+“It was very kind of you, my Lord, very considerate and very kind,
+indeed, to forget it. Yet I should have fancied it was the very
+sentiment uppermost in the mind of any one entering this chamber,
+witnessing the solitary seclusion of my daily life, beholding the
+resources by which the weary hours are beguiled, not to speak of the
+ravages which sorrow has left upon these features.”
+
+“On that score, at least, I can contradict you, Hester,” said he, with a
+smile of flattering meaning. “It is now above eight years since first--”
+
+“How can you be so tiresome?” said she, pettishly.
+
+“Prince Midchekoff, my Lady, presents his compliments,” said a servant,
+“and wishes to know if your Ladyship will receive him at dinner to-day,
+and at what hour?”
+
+“How provoking! Yes, say, 'Yes, at eight o'clock,'” said she, walking up
+and down the room with impatience. “You 'll stay and meet him, Norwood.
+I know you 're not great friends; but no matter, George is so uncertain.
+He left us t' other day to entertain the Prince alone, Kate and
+myself, only fancy; and as he takes half-hour fits of silence, and Kate
+occasionally won't speak for a whole evening together, my part was a
+pleasant one.”
+
+“How Florence wrongs you both!” said Norwood. “They say that no one is
+more agreeable to your Ladyship than the Midchekoff,” said he, slowly
+and pointedly.
+
+“As Miss Dalton's admirer, I hope rumor adds that,” said she, hastily.
+
+“What? are you really serious? Has the Dalton pretensions?”
+
+“Perhaps not; but the Prince has,” interrupted Lady Hester. “But you
+are forgetting these people all the while. Do pray do something anything
+with them; and don't forget us at eight o'clock.” And with this Lady
+Hester hurried from the room, as if admonished by her watch of the
+lateness of the hour, but really anxious to escape further interrogatory
+from the Viscount.
+
+When Norwood reached the court, he was surprised to find it empty; not
+one of the eager creditors remained, but all was still and silent.
+
+“What has become of these good people?” asked he of the porter.
+
+“The stranger who arrived in the caleche awhile ago spoke a few words to
+them, and they went.”
+
+This was all that he knew, and being a porter, one of that privileged
+caste whose prerogative it is never to reveal what takes place before
+their eyes, his present communication was remarkable.
+
+“Would that the good genius had remembered me in his moment of generous
+abandonment!” muttered Norwood, as he took his road homeward to dress
+for dinner.
+
+Little scrupulous about the means of getting out of a difficulty,
+provided it were only successful, Norwood scarcely bestowed another
+thought upon the whole matter, and lounged along the streets, as
+forgetful of the late scene as though it had passed twenty years before.
+
+As the Viscount strolled along towards his lodgings, Kate Dalton, with
+trembling limbs and palpitating heart, threaded her way through the
+thronged streets, now wet and slippery from a thin rain that
+was falling. So long as her road lay through the less-frequented
+thoroughfares, her appearance excited little or no attention in the
+passers-by; but when she entered the Piazza Santa Trinita, all ablaze
+with gas-lamps and the reflected lights from brilliant shops, many
+stopped, turned, and gazed at the strange sight of a young and beautiful
+girl, attired in the very height of fashion, being alone and afoot at
+such an hour. Unaccountable even to mystery, as it seemed, there was
+something in her gait and carriage that at once repelled the possibility
+of a disparaging impression, and many touched or removed their hats
+respectfully as they made way for her to pass. To avoid the carriages,
+which whirled past in every direction and at tremendous speed, she
+passed close along by the houses; and, in doing so, came within that
+brilliant glare of light that poured from the glass doors of the great
+Cafe of the Piazza. It was exactly the hour when the idle loungers of
+Florence society that listless class who form the staple of our club
+life in England were swarming to talk of the plans of the evening, what
+resources of pleasure were available, and what receptions were open.
+The drizzling rain, and the cold, raw feeling of the air prevented their
+being seated, as their custom was, before the doors, where in every
+attitude of graceful languor they habitually smoked their cigars and
+discussed the passersby, in all the plenitude of recreative indolence.
+The group consisted of men of every age and country.
+
+There were princes and blacklegs and adventurers; some with real rank
+and fortune, others as destitute of character as of means. Many owned
+names great and renowned in history; others bore designations only
+chronicled in the records of criminal jurisprudence. All were well
+dressed, and, so far as cursory notice could detect, possessed the ease
+and bearing of men familiar with the habits of good society. Although
+mixing in very distinct circles, here, at least, they met every day on
+terms of familiar equality, discussing the politics of the hour and the
+events of the world with seeming frankness and candor.
+
+From a small chamber at the back of the cafe, a little tide of loungers
+seemed to ebb and flow; while the sharp rattling sound of a dice-box
+indicated the nature of the occupation that went forward there. The
+small apartment was thronged with spectators of the game; and even
+around the door several were standing, content to hear the tidings of a
+contest they could not witness.
+
+“To sit upon the Ponte Carraja, and chuck rouleaux of gold into the
+Arno, would be to the full as amusing, and not a more costly pastime,”
+ said a sharp, ringing voice, which, once heard, there was no difficulty
+in recognizing as Haggerstone's.
+
+“But Onslow plays well,” said another.
+
+“When he's in luck, sir,” said the Colonel. “Let him always have the
+winning horse to ride, and I don't say he 'll lose the saddle; but
+Maraffi would win on a donkey.”
+
+“Is he a Russian?” asked one.
+
+“No, sir, he 's worse; he 's a Greek. I know everything about him. His
+mother was a Finlander, and the father a Cephalonian. I don't think
+Satan himself would ask a better parentage.”
+
+“What luck! By Jove! I never saw such luck!” said a voice from within
+the door. “Onslow has no chance with him.”
+
+“Nor will you, sir, if you persist in expressing your opinion in
+English,” said Haggerstone. “Maraffi speaks every language, plays every
+game, and knows the use of every weapon, from a jereed to a Joe Manton.”
+
+“I 'll not test his abilities at any of them,” said the other, laughing.
+
+“_Per Baccho!_ there goes something new,” said a young Italian, from the
+window that looked into the street. “Who's she?”
+
+“_Diantre!_” said the old Duc de Parivaux. “That is something very
+exquisite, indeed. She was splashed by that carriage that passed, and I
+just saw her foot.”
+
+“She's the prima donna from Milan.”
+
+“She 's the Cipriani. I know her figure perfectly.”
+
+“She 's very like the Princesse de Raoule.”
+
+“Taller, and younger.”
+
+“And fifty times handsomer. What eyes! By Jove! I wish the drosky would
+never move on! She is regularly imprisoned there.”
+
+“You are very ungallant, gentlemen, I must say,” said the young Count
+de Guilmard, the French secretary of legation, who, having finished his
+coffee and liquor, coolly arranged his curls beneath his hat before the
+glass, “very ungallant, indeed, not to offer an arm to an unprotected
+princess. We Frenchmen understand our devoirs differently.” And, so
+saying, he passed out into the street, while the rest pressed up closer
+to the window to observe his proceedings.
+
+“Cleverly done, Guilmard!” cried one. “See how he affects to have
+protected her from the pole of that carriage.”
+
+“She 'll not notice him.” “She will.” “She has.” “She has n't.” “She is
+moving his way!” “Not at all.”
+
+“She 's speaking!” “There, I told you he 'd succeed.”
+
+“But he hasn't, though.” Amid all these phrases, which rattled on more
+rapidly than we can write them, Onslow joined the party, one heavy
+venture on a single card having involved him in a tremendous loss.
+
+“Is that a countrywoman of yours, Onslow?” asked a young Russian noble.
+“If so, the entente cordiale with France seems scarcely so secure as
+statesmen tell us.”
+
+Onslow gave one glance through the window, and dashed into the street
+with a bound like the spring of a wild animal. He threw himself between
+Guilmard and Kate. The Frenchman lifted his cane, and the same instant
+he fell backwards upon the pavement, rather hurled than struck down
+by the strong arm of the young Guardsman. Before the lookers-on could
+hasten out, George had hailed a carriage, and, assisting Kate in, took
+his seat beside her, and drove off.
+
+So sudden was the whole incident, and so engrossing the terror of
+poor Kate's mind, that she saw nothing of what passed, and was merely
+conscious that by George's opportune coming she was rescued from the
+insolent attentions of the stranger.
+
+“Did he speak to you? Did he dare to address you?” asked Onslow, in a
+voice which boiling passion rendered almost unintelligible.
+
+“If he did, I know not,” said she, as she covered her face with shame,
+and struggled against the emotion that almost choked her.
+
+“He took your arm; he certainly laid hold of your hand!”
+
+“It was all so rapid that I can tell nothing,” said she, sobbing; “and
+although my courage never failed me till you came, then I thought I
+should have fainted.”
+
+“But how came you alone, and on foot, and at such an hour, too? Where
+had you been?”
+
+These questions he put with a sort of stern resolution that showed no
+evasive answer would rescue her.
+
+“Did you leave home without a carriage, or even a servant?” asked he
+again, as no answer was returned to his former question.
+
+“I did take a carriage in the morning; and and--”
+
+“Sent it away again,” continued George, impetuously. “And where did you
+drive to, where pass the day?”
+
+Kate hung her head in silence, while her heart felt as if it would burst
+from very agony.
+
+“This is no idle curiosity of mine, Miss Dalton,” said he, speaking with
+a slow and measured utterance. “The society you have mixed with here is
+not above any reproach nor beneath any suspicion. I insist upon knowing
+where you have been, and with whom? So, then, you refuse to speak, you
+will not tell. If it be Lady Hester's secret--”
+
+“No, no! The secret is mine, and mine only. I swear to you, by all we
+both believe in, that it has no concern with any one save myself.”
+
+[Illustration:  470]
+
+“And can you not confide it to me? Have I no right to ask for the
+confidence, Kate?” said he, with tenderness.
+
+“Know you any one more deeply and sincerely your friend than I am, more
+ready to aid, protect, or counsel you?”
+
+“But this I cannot--must not tell you,” said she, in accents broken by
+sobbing.
+
+“Let me know, at least, enough to refute the insolence of an imputation
+upon your conduct. I cannot tamely sit by and hear the slanderous
+stories that to-morrow or next day will gain currency through the town.”
+
+“I cannot, I cannot,” was all that she could utter.
+
+“If not me, then, choose some other defender. Unprotected and undefended
+you must not be.”
+
+“I need none, sir; none will asperse me!” said she, haughtily.
+
+“What! you say this? while scarce five minutes since I saw you outraged,
+insulted in the open street?”
+
+A burst of tears, long repressed, here broke from Kate; and for some
+minutes her sobs alone were heard in the silence.
+
+“I will ask but one question more, Miss Dalton,” said George, slowly,
+as the carriage passed under the arched gateway of the Palace, “and then
+this incident is sealed to me forever. Is this secret whatever it be in
+your own sole keeping; or is your confidence shared in by another?”
+
+“It is,” murmured Kate, below her breath.
+
+“You mean that it is shared?” asked he, eagerly.
+
+“Yes, Mr. Jekyl at least knows--”
+
+“Jekyl!” cried George, passionately; “and is Alfred Jekyl your adviser
+and your confidant? Enough; you have told me quite enough,” said he,
+dashing open the door of the carriage as it drew up to the house. He
+gave his hand to Kate to alight, and then, turning away, left her,
+without even a “good-bye,” while Kate hurried to her room, her heart
+almost breaking with agony.
+
+“I shall be late, Nina,” said she, affecting an air and voice of
+unconcern, as she entered her room; “you must dress me rapidly.”
+
+“Mademoiselle must have been too pleasantly engaged to remember the
+hour,” said the other, with an easy pertness quite different from her
+ordinary manner.
+
+More struck by the tone than by the words themselves, Kate turned a look
+of surprise on the speaker.
+
+“It is so easy to forget one's self at Morlache's, they say,” added the
+girl, with a saucy smile; and although stung by the impertinence, Kate
+took no notice of the speech. “Mademoiselle will of course never wear
+that dress again,” said Nina, as she contemptuously threw from her the
+mud-stained and rain-spotted dress she had worn that morning. “We have
+a Basque proverb, Mademoiselle, about those who go out in a carriage and
+come back on foot.”
+
+“Nina, what do you mean by these strange words and this still more
+strange manner?” asked Kate, with a haughtiness she had never before
+assumed towards the girl.
+
+“I do not pretend to say that Mademoiselle has not the right to choose
+her confidantes, but the Principessa de San Martello and the Duchessa di
+Rivoli did not think me beneath their notice.”
+
+“Nina, you are more unintelligible than ever,” cried Kate, who still,
+through all the dark mystery of her words, saw the lowering storm of
+coming peril.
+
+“I may speak too plainly, too bluntly, Mademoiselle, but I can scarcely
+be reproached with equivocating; and I repeat that my former mistresses
+honored me with their secret confidence; and they did wisely, too, for I
+should have discovered everything of myself, and my discretion would not
+have been fettered by a compact.”
+
+“But if I have no secrets,” said Kate, drawing herself up with a proud
+disdain, “and if I have no need either of the counsels or the discretion
+of my waiting-woman?”
+
+“In that case,” said Nina, quietly, “Mademoiselle has only perilled
+herself for nothing. The young lady who leaves her carriage and her maid
+to pass three hours at Morlache's, and returns thence, on foot, after
+nightfall, may truly say she has no secrets, at least, so far as the
+city of Florence is concerned.”
+
+“This is insolence that you never permitted yourself before,” said Kate,
+passionately.
+
+“And yet, if I were Mademoiselle's friend instead of her servant, I
+should counsel her to bear it.”
+
+“But I will not,” cried Kate, indignantly. “Lady Hester shall know of
+your conduct this very instant.”
+
+“One moment, Mademoiselle, just one moment,” said Nina, interposing
+herself between Kate and the door. “My tongue is oftentimes too ready,
+and I say things for which I am deeply sorry afterwards. Forgive me, I
+beg and beseech you, if I have offended; reject my counsels, disdain my
+assistance, if you will, but do not endanger yourself in an instant of
+anger. If you have but little control over your temper, I have even less
+over mine; pass out of that door as my enemy, and I am yours to the last
+hour of my life.”
+
+There was a strange and almost incongruous mixture of feeling in the way
+she uttered these words; at one moment abject in submission, and at the
+next hurling a defiance as haughty as though she were an injured equal.
+The conflict of the girl's passion, which first flushed, now left her
+pale as death, and trembling in every limb. Her emotion bespoke the most
+intense feeling, and Kate stood like one spellbound, before her. Her
+anger had already passed away, and she looked with almost a sense of
+compassion at the excited features and heaving bosom of the Spanish
+girl.
+
+“You wrong yourself and me too, Nina,” said Kate Dalton, at last. “I
+have every trust in your fidelity, but I have no occasion to test it.”
+
+“Be it so, Mademoiselle,” replied the other, with a courtesy.
+
+“Then all is forgotten,” said Kate, affecting a gayety she could not
+feel; “and now let me hasten downstairs, for I am already late.”
+
+“The Prince will have thought it an hour, Mademoiselle,” said the girl;
+the quiet demureness of her manner depriving the words of any semblance
+of impertinence. If Kate looked gravely, perhaps some little secret
+source of pleasure lay hid within her heart; and in the glance she gave
+at her glass, there was an air of conscious triumph that did not escape
+the lynx-eyed Nina.
+
+“My Lady is waiting dinner, Miss Dalton,” said a servant, as he tapped
+at the door; and Kate, with many a trouble warring in her breast,
+hastened downstairs, in all the pride of a loveliness that never was
+more conspicuous.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII. PROPOSALS.
+
+KATE found Lady Hester, the Prince, and Mr. Jekyl awaiting her as she
+entered the drawing-room, all looking even more bored and out of sorts
+than people usually do who have been kept waiting for their dinner.
+
+“Everybody has sworn to be as tiresome and disagreeable as possible
+to-day,” said Lady Hester. “George said he'd dine here, and is
+not coming; Lord Norwood promised, and now writes me word that an
+unavoidable delay detains him; and here comes Miss Dalton, the mirror
+of punctuality when all else are late, a full half-hour after the time.
+There, dear, no excuses nor explanations about all you have been doing,
+the thousand calls you 've made, and shops you 've ransacked. I 'm
+certain you 've had a miserable day of it.”
+
+Kate blushed deeply, and dreaded to meet Jekyl' s eye; but when she
+did, that little glassy orb was as blandly meaningless as any that ever
+rattled in the head of a Dutch doll. Even as he gave his arm to lead
+her in to dine, nothing in his manner or look betrayed anything like a
+secret understanding between them. A bystander might have deemed him a
+new acquaintance.
+
+“Petits diners” have, generally, the prerogative of agreeability; they
+are the chosen reunions of a few intimates, who would not dilute their
+pleasantry even by a single bore. They are also the bright occasions for
+those little culinary triumphs which never can be attempted in a wider
+sphere. Epigrams, whether of lamb or language, require a select and
+special jury to try them; but just in the same proportion as the success
+of such small parties is greater, so is their utter failure, when by any
+mischance there happens a breakdown in the good spirits or good humor of
+the company.
+
+We have said enough to show that the ladies, at least, might be excused
+for not displaying those thousand attractions of conversation which all
+centre on the one great quality, ease of mind. The Prince was more than
+usual out of sorts, a number of irritating circumstances having occurred
+to him during the morning. A great sovereign, on whom he had lavished
+the most profuse attentions, had written him a letter of thanks, through
+his private secretary, enclosing a snuff-box, instead of sending him
+an autograph, and the first class of the national order. His glover, in
+Paris, had forgotten to make his right hand larger than the left, and a
+huge packet that had just arrived was consequently useless. His chef
+had eked out a salmi of ortolans by a thrush; and it was exactly that
+unlucky morsel the Cardinal had helped himself to at breakfast, and
+immediately sent his plate away in disappointment. Rubion, too, his
+ninth secretary, had flatly refused to marry a little danseuse that had
+just come out in the ballet, a piece of insolence and rebellion on
+his part not to be tolerated; and when we add to these griefs an
+uncomfortable neckcloth, and the tidings of an insurrection in a
+Russian province where he owned immense property in mines, his state of
+irritability may be leniently considered.
+
+Jekyl, if truth were told, had as many troubles of his own to confront
+as any of the rest. If the ocean he sailed in was not a great Atlantic,
+his bark was still but a cockleshell; his course in life required
+consummate skill and cleverness, and yet never could be safe even
+with that. Notwithstanding all this, he alone was easy, natural, and
+agreeable, not as many an inferior artist would have been agreeable, by
+any over-effort to compensate for the lack of co-operation in others,
+and thus make their silence and constraint but more palpable, his
+pleasantry was tinged with the tone of the company, and all his little
+smartnesses were rather insinuated than spoken. Quite satisfied if the
+Prince listened, or Lady Hester smiled, more than rewarded when they
+once both laughed at one of his sallies, he rattled on about the Court
+and the town talk, the little scandals of daily history, and the petty
+defections of those dear friends they nightly invited to their houses.
+While thus, as it were, devoting himself to the amusement of the others,
+his real occupation was an intense study of their thoughts, what was
+uppermost in their minds, and in what train their speculations were
+following. He had long suspected the Prince of being attracted by Kate
+Dalton; now he was certain of it. Accustomed almost from childhood to
+be flattered on every hand, and to receive the blandest smiles of beauty
+everywhere, Midchekoff's native distrust armed him strongly against
+such seductions; and had Kate followed the path of others, and exerted
+herself to please him, her failure would have been certain. It was her
+actual indifference her perfect carelessness on the subject was the
+charm to his eyes, and he felt it quite a new and agreeable sensation
+not to be made love to.
+
+Too proud of her own Dalton blood to feel any elevation by the marked
+notice of the great Russian, she merely accorded him so much of her
+favor as his personal agreeability seemed to warrant; perhaps no
+designed flattery could have been so successful. Another feeling, also,
+enhanced his admiration of her. It was a part of that barbaric instinct
+which seemed to sway all his actions, to desire the possession of
+whatever was unique in life. Those forms or fancies of which nature
+stamps but one, and breaks the die, these were a passion with him. To
+possess a bluer turquoise than any king or kaiser, to own an arab of
+some color never seen before, to have a picture by some artist who never
+painted but one; but whether it were a gem, a vase, a weapon, a diamond,
+or a dog, its value had but one test, that it had none its exact equal.
+Now, Kate Dalton realized these conditions more than any one he had
+ever met. Her very beauty was peculiar; combining, with much of feminine
+softness and delicacy, a degree of determination and vigor of character
+that to Midchekoff smacked of queenly domination. There was a species of
+fierte about her that distinguished her among other women. All that he
+had seen done by an illustrious title and a diamond tiara, she seemed
+capable of effecting in the simplest costume and without an effort. All
+these were wonderful attractions to his eyes; and if he did not fall in
+love, it was simply because he did not know how. He, however, did what
+to him served as substitute for the passion; he coveted an object which
+should form one of the greatest rarities of his collection, and the
+possession of which would give him another title to that envy, the most
+delicious tribute the world could render him.
+
+There were some drawbacks to his admiration; her birth was not
+sufficiently illustrious. His own origin was too recent to make an
+alliance of this kind desirable, and he wished that she had been a
+princess; even de la main, gauche of some royal house. Jekyl had done
+his best, by sundry allusions to Irish greatness, and the blood of
+various monarchs of Munster and Conuaught, in times past; but the Prince
+was incredulous as to Hibernian greatness; probably the remembrance of
+an Irish diamond once offered him for sale had tinged his mind with this
+sense of disparagement as to all Irish magnificence. Still Kate rose
+above every detracting influence, and he thought of the pride in which
+he should parade her through Europe as his own.
+
+Had she been a barb or a bracelet, an antique cup or a Sevres jar, he
+never would have hesitated about the acquisition. Marriage, however, was
+a more solemn engagement; and he did not quite fancy any purchase that
+cost more than mere money. Nothing but the possibility of losing her
+altogether could have overcome this cautious scruple; and Jekyl had
+artfully insinuated such a conjuncture. “George Onslow's attentions
+were,” he said, “quite palpable; and although up to this Miss Dalton
+did not seem to give encouragement, who could tell what time and daily
+intercourse might effect? There was Norwood, too, with the rank of
+peeress in his gift; there was no saying how an ambitious girl might
+be tainted by that bait.” In fact, the Prince had no time to lose; and,
+although nothing less accorded with his tastes than what imposed haste,
+he was obliged to bestir himself on this occasion.
+
+If we have dwelt thus long upon the secret thoughts of the company,
+it is because their conversation was too broken and unconnected for
+recording. They talked little, and that little was discursive. An
+occasional allusion to some social topic, a chance mention of their
+approaching departure from Florence, some reference to Como and its
+scenery, formed the whole; and then, in spite of Jekyl, whose functions
+of “fly-wheel” could not keep the machine a-moving, long pauses would
+intervene, and each lapse into a silence apparently more congenial than
+conversation. All this while Jekyl seemed to be reading the complex
+scheme of doubt, irresolution, and determination that filled
+Midchekoff's mind. The stealthy glances of the Russian's eyes towards
+Kate, the almost painful anxiety of his manner, to see if she noticed
+him while speaking, his watchful observance of her in her every accent
+and gesture, told Jekyl the struggle that was then passing within him.
+He had seen each of these symptoms before, though in a less degree,
+when the coveted object was a horse or a picture; and he well knew how
+nothing but the dread of a competition for the prize would rouse him
+from this state of doubt and uncertainty.
+
+The evening dragged slowly over, and it was now late, when Lord Norwood
+made his appearance. With a brief apology for not coming to dinner, he
+drew Jekyl to one side, and, slipping an arm within his, led him into an
+adjoining room.
+
+“I say, Jekyl,” whispered he, as they retired out of earshot of the
+others, “here's a pretty mess Onslow's got in. There has been a fracas
+in the street about Miss Dalton. How she came there at such a time, and
+alone, is another matter; and George has struck Guilmard, knocked him
+down, by Jove! and no mistake; and they're to meet tomorrow morning. Of
+course, there was nothing else for it; a blow has but one reparation,
+George will have to stand the fire of the first shot in Europe.”
+
+Jekyl hated a duel. Had he been a member of the Peace Congress, he could
+not have detested the arbitrament of arms more heartily. 'It involved
+partisanship, it severed intimacies, it barred general intercourse, and
+often closed up for a whole season the pleasantest houses of a town. The
+announcement of a strict blockade never struck a mercantile community
+with more terror. To Norwood the prospect was directly the opposite. Not
+only an adept in all the etiquette and ceremonial of such meetings, he
+liked to see his name circulated in these affairs as a kind of guarantee
+of his readiness to seek a similar reparation for injury. He had trusted
+for many a year on his dexterity at twelve paces, and he never missed an
+opportunity of sustaining the prestige of a “dead shot.”
+
+It was, then, with an ardor of amateurship that he narrated the various
+little preliminary steps which had already been taken. Merkheim, the
+Austrian secretary, had called on him, on the part of Guilmard; and as,
+in a case so clear, there was little to arrange, the only difficulty lay
+in the choice of weapons.
+
+“The Frenchman claims the sword,” said Norwood; “and it is always
+awkward to decline that proposition for a soldier. But I suppose George
+has about as much chance with one weapon as the other.”
+
+“You think he 'll kill him, my Lord?”
+
+“I think so. If the offence had been less flagrant or less public,
+possibly not. But a blow! to be struck down in the open street! I don't
+see how he can do less.”
+
+“What a break-up it will cause here!” said Jekyl, with a nod of his
+head in the direction of the drawing-room.
+
+“It will send them all back to England, I suppose.”
+
+“I suppose it will,” added Jekyl, mournfully.
+
+“What a bore! It's particularly unpleasant for me, for I hold some
+half-dozen of George's acceptances, not due yet; and, of course, the
+governor will never think of acquitting them.”
+
+“I conclude it is inevitable the meeting, I mean?” said Jekyl.
+
+“To be sure it is. Onslow took care of that! By the way, Jekyl, how came
+she there at such an hour, and alone, too?”
+
+“She had been shopping, I fancy, and missed the carriage. There was some
+blunder, I have heard, about the coachman drawing up at the wrong door.”
+
+“No go, Master Jekyl. Don't try it on with me, old fellow. You know all
+about it, if you like to tell.”
+
+“I assure you, my Lord, you give me a credit I don't deserve.”
+
+“You know the whole story from beginning to end, Jekyl. I 'd back you
+against the field, my boy.”
+
+The other shook his head with an air of supreme innocence.
+
+“Then George knows it?” added Norwood, half asserting, half asking the
+question.
+
+“He may, my Lord, for aught I can tell.”
+
+“If so, he's treating me unfairly,” said Norwood, rising and pacing
+the room. “As his friend in this affair, there should be no reserve or
+concealment with me. You can surely say that much, Jekyl, eh? What a
+close fellow you are!”
+
+“It is so easy not to blab when one has nothing to tell,” said Jekyl,
+smiling.
+
+“Come, there is something you can tell me. Where does that small
+corridor behind George's apartment lead to? There is a door at the end
+of it, and, I fancy, a stair beyond it.”
+
+“That, if I mistake not, leads up to Lady Hester. No, I remember now; it
+leads to Miss Dalton's room.”
+
+“Just so; I could have sworn it.”
+
+“Why so, my Lord?” asked Jekyl, whose curiosity was now excited to the
+utmost.
+
+“That 's my secret, Master Jekyl.”
+
+“But the door is always locked and bolted from within,” said Jekyl, “and
+there is no keyhole on the outside.”
+
+“I'll not stand pumping, Jekyl. If you had been frank with me, perhaps I
+should have been as open with you.”
+
+For an instant Jekyl hesitated what course to follow. It might be that
+Norwood really knew something of great importance. It might be that his
+discovery was valueless. And yet, if it concerned Kate in any way, the
+information would be all-important, his great game being to make her a
+princess, and yet preserve such an ascendancy over her as would render
+her his own slave.
+
+“She's a strange girl, that Dalton,” said Norwood. “I wish she had about
+forty thousand pounds.”
+
+“She may have more than that yet, my Lord,” said Jekyl, dryly.
+
+“How do you mean, Jekyl? Is there any truth in that story about the
+Irish property? Has she really a claim on the estate? Tell me all you
+know, old fellow, and I 'll be on the square with you throughout.”
+
+Jekyl, who in his remark had darkly alluded to the prospect of Kate's
+marriage with Midchekoff, now saw that Norwood had totally misconceived
+his meaning, and like a shrewd tactician, determined to profit by the
+blunder.
+
+“Come, Jekyl, be frank and aboveboard. What are her prospects?”
+
+“Better than I have told you, my Lord,” replied he, coolly. “If I
+cannot--for I am not at liberty to explain why--I am quite ready to
+pledge my word of honor to the truth of what I say, or, what your
+Lordship will think more of, to back my opinion by a bet.”
+
+“By Jove! that is news!” said the Viscount, leaning his head on the
+chimney to reflect. “You are such a slippery dog, Master Jekyl, you have
+so many turnings and windings in you, one is never quite sure with you;
+but supposing now, for argument's sake, that one thought of making this
+fair damsel a peeress, is there no hitch in the affair no screw loose
+that one ought to look to?”
+
+“In her birth, my Lord?”
+
+“No; d--n her birth! I mean about the tin.”
+
+“I believe, my Lord, that I can save you all speculation on the subject
+when I say that pursuit would be hopeless there. The Midchekoff has
+gained the start, and must win in a canter.”
+
+“That Tartar fellow! nonsense, man; I know better than that. He 'll
+never marry anything under royalty; the fellow's mother was a serf, and
+he must wash that spot out of his blood whenever he can.”
+
+“You are mistaken, my Lord. He only waits to be certain of being
+accepted, to offer himself.”
+
+“Refuse him!” said Norwood, laughing, “there's not that girl in Europe
+would refuse him. If every decoration he wore on his breast were a
+stripe of the knout upon his back, his wealth would cover all.”
+
+“The Prince would give half his fortune to be assured of all you say, my
+Lord,” said Jekyl, gravely.
+
+“By Jove! one might make a good thing of it, even that way,” said
+Norwood, half aloud. “I say, Jekyl,” added he, louder, “how much are you
+to have? nay, nay, man, there 's no impertinence in the question, we are
+both too much men of the world for that. It 's quite clear that this is
+your scheme. Now, what 's the damage?”
+
+“My Lord, you are as flattering to my abilities as unjust to my
+character.”
+
+“We 'll suppose all that said,” broke in Norwood, impatiently; “and now
+we come back to the original question, whether I cannot afford to be
+as liberal as the Russian. Only be explicit, and let us understand each
+other.”
+
+“My Lord, I will not insult myself by believing I comprehend you;” said
+Jekyl, calmly.
+
+And before Norwood could detain him he left the room.
+
+“Jekyl, come back, man! just hear me out you've mistaken me! Confound
+the cur,” muttered the Viscount, “with his hypocritical affectation as
+if I did not know his metier as well as I know my bootmaker's.”
+
+Norwood walked noiselessly to the door of the salon and peeped in.
+Lady Hester, the Prince, and Jekyl were in earnest conversation in
+one quarter; while Kate sat apart, apparently engaged with her
+embroidery-frame, but in reality too deeply sunk in thought to notice
+the bright tints before her. Norwood entered listlessly, and strolling
+across the room, took a place beside her. She moved slightly as he drew
+forward his chair, and, then, as she drew back her flounce, Norwood
+saw that it was of deep black lace. He coolly took out his pocket-book
+wherein he had deposited the torn fragment, and, regarding it with
+attention, saw that it perfectly corresponded with the dress. So
+leisurely and with such circumspection did he proceed that several
+minutes elapsed before he looked up.
+
+“You are meditative, my Lord, to-night,” said Kate, at last, making
+an effort to relieve an awkward situation; “what are you thinking of,
+pray?”
+
+“Admiring your dress, Miss Dalton, which strikes me as singularly
+beautiful and becoming.”
+
+“Great praise this, from such an acknowledged judge as Lord Norwood,”
+ said she, smiling.
+
+“I prefer it to antique lace, which in general is too heavy and cumbrous
+for my taste; I like these fine and delicate tissues, so frail and
+gossamer-like, not but their frailty, like all other frailty, incurs
+occasionally a heavy penalty; as here, for instance, you see this has
+been torn.”
+
+“So it has,” said Kate, with confusion, “and I never noticed it. What a
+quick eye you must have, my Lord!”
+
+“And a sharp ear, too, Miss Dalton,” said he, significantly; “in fact,
+I am one of those people whose every-day faculties do duty for what in
+others goes by the name of cleverness. It 's a great pity,” said he,
+looking down at the dress; “you see, Miss Dalton, what a false step can
+do.”
+
+“And yet I cannot remember when this occurred,” said she, assuming to
+misunderstand his equivocal expression.
+
+“Not recall it, not a clew to the mishap?” asked he, shrewdly.
+
+“None,” said she, blushing at the pertinacity with which he clung to the
+theme; “but it's of no consequence.”
+
+“Would Miss Dalton think it very singular if I should be able to assist
+her memory? Would she accept the service as kindly as it was proffered,
+too?”
+
+“Really, my Lord, you begin to speak in riddles,” said she, more than
+ever piqued at his persistence.
+
+“And yet,” said he, following out the thread of his own thoughts, “I am
+assuredly as safe a counsellor as Albert Jekyl.”
+
+Kate grew deadly pale, but never replied to this speech.
+
+“And certainly,” resumed he, “the man who speaks in his own name should
+ever take precedence of an envoy.”
+
+“My Lord,” said she, firmly, “the very little which I can understand of
+your words implies a pretension to knowledge and influence over me which
+I disdain to accept; but still I cannot believe that you seriously mean
+to insult me.”
+
+“Of course not,” said he; “I have come on a very different errand. If I
+did passingly allude to bygones, it was to show you that you can afford
+to be candid when I am frank. We two, united, would walk over the
+course, and no mistake, that 's what I was coming to. I don't mean to
+say that the Russian is not richer egad! there 's no disputing that,
+still, as to rank, a peer of Great Britain, I take it, is the equal of
+any man. Not to remind you of the old adage about 'a bird in the hand' I
+speak frankly, because you are your own mistress.”
+
+“Kate, if Lord Norwood will excuse you, come to me for one instant,”
+ cried Lady Hester.
+
+“Just say yes, before you go, or, if not yes, tell me that I have ground
+for hope,” whispered Norwood. But she arose without speaking.
+
+[Illustration:  484]
+
+“I'll not stand a 'hedge,' by Jove!” said Norwood, sulkily; “play or
+pay, nothing else for me.”
+
+“Allow me to pass you, my Lord,” said Kate, courteously.
+
+“One word, off or on, Miss Dalton,” said he, rising, and affecting to
+make way, while he still barred the passage. A proud, disdainful smile
+was all the reply she vouchsafed.
+
+“All right,” said he, insolently; “only remember how we stand, Miss
+Dalton, and whenever you want to repair the mischance of your lace
+flounce, don't forget the piece is in my keeping;” and he opened the
+pocket-book as he spoke, and exhibited the fragment before her. Sick
+with a terror she could neither explain nor realize, she lay back again
+in her chair, unable to move, while Norwood glided quietly away and left
+the room.
+
+“Dear Kate, have you forgotten me all this time?” said Lady Hester, whom
+Kate now perceived was alone on the sofa, Midchekoff and Jekyl having
+retired into an adjoining gallery, where they walked slowly along, side
+by side, deep in conversation.
+
+“You shouldn't have suffered Norwood to engross your attention in that
+manner, my dear. The Prince has been quite put out by it, and at such a
+moment, too, and how flushed you are! What has he been saying?”
+
+“I can scarcely remember,” said Kate, confusedly.
+
+“Well, it's of no consequence, dear, because I have got something to
+tell you that would speedily make you forget it. You know, Kate, how
+I always prophesied wonderful things for you, just as I did before for
+poor Georgina Elderton, and she married a Rajah afterwards, and died
+Begum of something ending in 'Bad.' Indeed, I might say it ended in bad
+for herself, poor dear, for I believe she was poisoned. But, to come
+back, I always said that you also would have astonishing luck. I told
+Sir Stafford so. The first day I saw you, 'She 'll be like Georgina,' I
+said. 'You 'll see that girl in a wonderful position one of these days.'
+It is not that men care for their wives more than formerly, I rather
+fancy the reverse, but they have got a most intense passion just now for
+beauty. Wealth and good blood were once the only requisites, but they
+are both disregarded now, in comparison with good looks. I suppose the
+fashion won't last, it would be very absurd if it should, but while it
+is the mode one ought to profit by it. Just as I am wearing all those
+horrid old brocades of my great-grand-aunt's, with odious flowers of
+crimson and yellow, now that the taste in dress is 'rococo,' but of
+course in a year or two people will recover their senses again, and
+pretty girls without portions be left for sub-alterns in the line, as
+Providence intended they should. Don't you think so, dear?”
+
+The brief question at the end of this long rambling speech would
+possibly have puzzled Kate to reply to, had not Lady Hester been far too
+much occupied in her own speculations to care for a rejoinder.
+
+“You'll hear people talk a deal of nonsense about unequal marriages,
+and they'll quote Heaven knows what instances of girls, generally Irish
+ones, picking up princes and royal dukes, and all ending unhappily.
+Don't believe a word of it, dearest; there 's never misery where there
+'s large fortune. The people who cry in velvet always shed rose-water
+tears, that don't hurt the skin or spoil the complexion. Not that I can
+say so of myself,” added she, with a deep sigh; “but I am a creature
+apart. I fervently trust nature does not often form similar ones.
+Buccellini told me that I had a fifth pair of nerves, I assure you he
+did. It was a very shocking thing, and probably he ought never to have
+mentioned it to me; but it perfectly explains the excessive sensibility
+of my whole nature, does n't it, dear?”
+
+Kate smiled assent, and Lady Hester went on:
+
+“Then, as to religion, my dear, I'm afraid, indeed, we all think too
+little about it. I 'm sure I 'm quite shocked at what I see in society.
+It was only the other night Lady Grace Morton kept her seat when the
+Cardinal was speaking to her. I apologized to him for it afterwards, and
+he said, with such a sweet smile, 'If these Protestants would only give
+us back our churches, we 'd forgive their keeping their chairs.' The mot
+was very pretty, in French, and well turned was n't it? Of course, then,
+you 'll make no obstacle about the Greek Church, which I believe is
+exactly like your own, only that the priest has a beard, which I think
+more becoming. It looks affectionate, too; it always gives one the idea
+of devotion, a girl changing her faith for her husband; and really, in
+this tiresome age we live in, a new religion is the only new thing one
+ever hears of. Your excellent family that sweet sister and the dear old
+papa will probably make a fuss about it; but you know, after all, how
+absurd that is, and if you were to marry a Chinese, there 's no saying
+what strange creatures you 'd have to pray to. You 'll have to go to
+Russia, but only for presentation; that over, the Prince will obtain a
+renewal of his permission to reside abroad; still, if you have to pass
+a winter at St. Petersburg, it will be far from disagreeable. The women
+are too fond of caviare and high play; but they dress just as well as
+in Paris, and wear better diamonds. Midchekoff's jewels are unequalled;
+and, now that I think of it, there 's one thing I 've set my heart on,
+and you must positively promise to give me, a little stiletto with an
+emerald hilt and handle. I have pined for it there 's no other word
+these three years. He wore it in London, and I have never had it out of
+my thoughts since. You can afford to be very generous, dearest. How I
+envy you that pleasure! and the delight you 'll feel in providing for
+poor papa and Mary no, Elizabeth, I mean how absurd! I should say Ellen.
+It was something about that tale of Elizabeth, the Exile of Siberia,
+was running in my mind. The Prince will do whatever you suggest, and,
+indeed, he has already hinted about your brother Frank joining the
+Russian service. He 'll have him named an officer in the Emperor's
+Guard. You must insist, too, upon La Rocca being your own settled upon
+yourself. They tell me it 's the sweetest spot in the world; and I
+'ll always live there when you don't want it. I mention this about the
+settlement, because there 's no saying how men will behave. I 'm sure I
+never could have anticipated such a return as I have met with from Sir
+Stafford. And then, you know, with a Russian, one cannot be too guarded.
+Don't you agree with me? Well, never mind, you 'll perhaps come round to
+my opinion later. But here comes the Prince, and it will be as well you
+should retire, dearest. I'll see you in your dressing-room, and tell you
+everything.”
+
+And with this assurance Kate retired, with a head and heart as full as
+ever young lady's felt.
+
+Kate was hastening to her room, when a short, quick step behind her made
+her turn round, and she saw Purvis endeavoring to overtake her.
+
+“Oh! I have you at last,” said he, puffing for breath; “and what a
+ch-chase I 've had for it! I 've been in five rooms already, and nearly
+had a f-f-fight with that Frenchwoman of Lady Hester's. She 's a regular
+T-T-Tartar, she is, and almost boxed my ears for looking into a small
+case where my Lady's r-ringlets are kept ha! ha! ha! I saw them, though,
+two long and two short, and a pl-pl-plait for the back of the head. How
+she m-m-makes up at night!”
+
+“I must say that you have the strangest mode of requiting hospitality,”
+ said Kate, haughtily.
+
+“It 's all very well to talk of hospi-hospi-hospi--” Here a fit of gaping
+brought on coughing, which, after a violent struggle, ended in the
+forced utterance of the last syllable of the word, but with such fatigue
+and exhaustion that he seemed scarcely able to continue; at last,
+however, he did resume. “It's all very well to talk of that, but we got
+in here by our own cl-cl-cleverness; at least by Zoe's.”
+
+“Less good-natured persons would find another word for it, Mr. Purvis.”
+
+“So they would. Haggerstone called it a Ricketty stratagem. No
+matter; we 're in ha! ha! ha! and he 's out. The pr-pr-proof of the
+pu-pu-pudding--”
+
+“Will you excuse me, sir, if I say I must leave you?”
+
+“Don't go, don't go; I've something very important to to tell you.
+And first, Zoe my sister Zoe wants to see you. The cook has been
+most im-im-impertinent to her. She says it was ginger she put in the
+maca-maca-roni, instead of P-P--Parmesan; all his truffles are only
+Piedmontese. That is n't all: don't be in such a h-hurry. They 've
+changed the wine, too. We had Ch-Ch-Chambertin yesterday, and they 've
+given us P-Pomard to-day. How is that to be borne?”
+
+“I really see but one remedy for it, sir,” said Kate, scornfully.
+
+“So Zoe said; that 's exactly her opinion. They must be sent away. Zoe
+knows a very ti-ti-tidy cook. He 's not a a top-sawyer, you know, but he
+can r-roast a bit of beef, and make a c-capital rice-pudding, and he 'll
+come for six dollars a month. Wouldn't that be a sa-saving? Zoe told him
+to c-call to-day, and speak to La-Lady Hester.”
+
+“He will find that difficult, sir,” said Kate, dryly.
+
+“And as for the b-butler, such a j-j-jackanapes I never saw; and Zoe
+would advise you to take little Pierrette, the fellow you see every
+day at the Pergola; he sells the tickets outside the door. He looks
+r-r-ragged enough now, but when he 's dressed--”
+
+“You must see, sir,” interposed Kate, “that these are all details in
+which it would be both indelicate and impertinent for me to intrude an
+opinion about.”
+
+“Not when you li-live in the house; not when you're
+dome-dome-domesticated with the family. We 're all in the same bo-boat
+now; and Zoe says somebody must steer it. Now Lizetta, Zoe's maid, would
+keep the k-keys herself.”
+
+“Pray remember, sir, this is Lady Hester Onslow's house.”
+
+“Egad! it w-won't be long so, if she goes on as she's d-doing. Martha
+saw the meat-cart come in this morning, and I had a p-p-peep into the
+servants' hall when the fl-flunkeys were feeding, and such w-w-waste,
+such re-reckless--”
+
+“Good-evening, Mr. Purvis; I cannot stay longer,” said Kate. And, before
+he could interpose a word, she hastened from the spot, and, passing
+rapidly up the stairs, gained her own room, leaving Purvis to bethink
+him over the mass of things he had not touched upon, and on which he had
+mainly intended to debate.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII. AN ARRIVAL.
+
+LET us go back a few hours in our history, and follow the short and
+burly figure which, emerging from the travelling-carriage in the
+courtyard of the palace, pushed his way through the noisy throng of
+duns, and entered the house.
+
+“How are you, Proctor how is your master?” said he, as he threw off his
+great-coat, and unrolled a capacious muffler from his throat. “How is
+Sir Stafford?”
+
+“Oh, Dr. Grounsell, glad you've come, sir. It will be a real pleasure to
+my master to see you again, sir.”
+
+“How is he, man, how 's the gout?”
+
+“Poorly, very poorly, sir. Things have gone badly here, doctor, since
+you left us,” said he, with a sigh.
+
+“Yes, yes; I know it all; I have heard all about that. But his health
+tell me of his health.”
+
+“Greatly broken, sir. No sleep o' nights without opium, and no real rest
+even with that.”
+
+“And his spirits?”
+
+“Broken too, sir. He's not what you remember him, sir, nor anything like
+it. No pleasant joke, sir, when anything goes amiss, as it used to be;
+no turning it off with a merry laugh! He 's fretful and impatient about
+the merest trifles, and he that never wanted attendance is now always
+complaining that he 's neglected, and deserted and forsaken by all the
+world.”
+
+“Does the Captain come often to see and sit with him?”
+
+“Every day, sir; but these visits do rather harm than good. Sir Stafford
+is vexed at what goes on in the house; and Master George, I don't know
+how it is, but he don't calm him down, and they have oftentimes angry
+words together; not but my master is frequently in the wrong, and
+taxes the young gentleman with what he can't help; for you see, sir, my
+Lady--”
+
+“D--n! I mean, tell me about Sir Stafford; it is of him I want to hear.
+Does he read?”
+
+“He makes me read to him every day, sir, all about the money-market
+and railroad shares; sometimes twice over, indeed; and when I ask if he
+would n't like to hear about what goes on in politics, he always says,
+'No, Proctor, let's have the City article again.'”
+
+“And his letters does n't he read them?”
+
+“The Captain reads them for him, sir; and now and then writes the
+answers, for he can't hold a pen himself! Oh, you 'll not know him when
+you see him! He that was so large and fine a man, I lift him in and out
+of bed as if he were a baby.”
+
+“Has he no acquaintance here?”
+
+“None, sir.”
+
+“Are there no inquiries after his health?”
+
+“Yes, sir; there's plenty of people he used to give money to when he was
+up and about poor actors, and painters, and the like they come every
+day to know how he is. Some of them leave begging letters, which I never
+give him; but most go away without a word.”
+
+“And his countrymen here are there none who ask after him?”
+
+“No, sir. The only English we ever see visit my Lady, and never come to
+this side of the house at all.”
+
+“Does Miss Dalton come to inquire for him?”
+
+“Every morning and every night too, sir. I suppose it must be without
+my Lady's orders, or even knowledge; for once, when Sir Stafford was
+sitting up in his dressing-room, and I asked her if she would n't like
+to come in and sit a few minutes with him, she turned away without
+speaking; and I saw, from her manner, that she was crying.”
+
+“What are all these people outside, who are they?”
+
+“My Lady's tradespeople, sir. They've heard she's going for a few
+weeks to Como, and they 've come with all their bills, as if she was a
+runaway.”
+
+“Go and tell them to leave this, send them away, Proctor. It would do
+your master great injury were he to overhear them. Say that everything
+shall be paid in a day or two; that Sir Stafford remains here, and is
+responsible for all.”
+
+Proctor hastened out on his errand, and the doctor sat down and covered
+his face with his hands.
+
+“Poor Stafford! is all your trustful affection come to this? Is it thus
+that your unbounded generosity, your noble hospitality, are requited?”
+
+When Proctor returned, he proceeded to detail, for the doctor's
+information, the various events which had occurred during his absence.
+With most, Grounsell was already acquainted, and listened to the
+particulars without surprise or emotion.
+
+“So it is, so it is,” muttered he to himself; “there may be more cant
+of virtue, a greater share of hypocrisy in our English morals, but,
+assuredly, these things do not happen with us as we see them here. There
+would seem a something enervating in the very air of the land, that a
+man like him should have sunk down into this besotted apathy! When can I
+see him, Proctor?”
+
+“He 's dozing just now, sir; but about midnight he wakes up and asks for
+his draught. If that won't be too late for you--”
+
+“Too late for me! Why, what else have I travelled for, night and day,
+without intermission? Be cautious, however, about how you announce me.
+Perhaps it would be better I should see the Captain first.”
+
+“You 'll scarcely find him at home, sir, at this hour; he generally
+comes in between three and four.”
+
+“Show me to his room. I 'll write a few lines for him in case we don't
+meet.”
+
+Proctor accompanied the doctor across the courtyard, and, guiding him up
+a small stair, reached the terrace off which George Onslow's apartment
+opened. The window-shutters of the room were not closed, nor the
+curtains drawn; and in the bright light of several candles that shone
+within, Grounsell saw two figures seated at a table, and busily engaged
+in examining the details of a case of pistols which lay before them.
+
+“That will do, Proctor,” said Grounsell; “you may leave me now. I'll be
+with you at twelve.” And thus saying, he gently pushed him towards the
+door of the terrace, which he closed and bolted after him, and then
+noiselessly returned to his former place.
+
+There were few things less congenial to Grounsell's nature than playing
+the spy. It was a part he thoroughly detested, nor did he think that it
+admitted of defence or palliation; still, the whole habit of his mind
+through life had impressed him with a disparaging opinion of himself.
+The limited sphere of his duties, the humble routine of his daily walk,
+and the very few friendships he had inspired, all tended to increase
+this impression, till at last he looked upon himself as one who could
+only be useful by the sacrifice of personal feeling and the abnegation
+of all self-esteem; and thus he would have declined to know another
+man for what he deemed of no consequence in himself. His fault was not
+thinking too well of others, but thinking too meanly of himself.
+
+The scene before him now was enough to suggest deep anxiety. Notes and
+letters littered the floor and the table; the embers of a large fire of
+papers lay on the hearth; open drawers and boxes stood on every
+side; all betokening preparation, the object of which the pistol-case
+sufficiently indicated. As they sat with their backs to the window,
+Grounsell could not recognize the figures; but the voice of one
+proclaimed him to be George Onslow.
+
+“And where is this place on the way to Arezzo?” asked he.
+
+“No; on the opposite side of the city, off the high-road to Bologna. It
+is a little park, surrounding a summer palace of the Grand Duke, they
+call Pratolino,” said the other. “They all agree that it is the best
+spot to be found; no molestation, nor interference of any kind; and a
+capital breakfast of fresh trout to be had at the inn.”
+
+“An interesting consideration for such as have good appetites,” said
+Onslow, laughing.
+
+“I never saw a Frenchman who had not, on such an occasion,” rejoined the
+other, snapping the pistol as he spoke. “I like these straight stocks;
+you are almost always certain of your man, with a stiff arm and a low
+aim.”
+
+“I don't know that I 've forgotten anything, Norwood,” said Onslow,
+rising and pacing the room with folded arms.
+
+“You 've written to the governor?”
+
+“Yes; and mentioned those acceptances,” said Onslow, with a sneering
+severity that the other never seemed to notice. “You're quite safe,
+whatever happens.”
+
+“Hang it, man, I wasn't thinking of that; curse the money, it never
+entered my thoughts.”
+
+“My father will pay it,” said George, dryly, and continued his walk.
+
+“As you have alluded to it, I hope you spoke of it as a loan, anything
+like a play transaction suggests a mess of scandal and stories.”
+
+“I have called it a debt, and that is quite sufficient.”
+
+“All right whatever you like. And now about this girl. Do you intend
+to let this mystery continue, or do you think that, under the
+circumstances, Lady Hester should still retain her as a friend and
+companion?”
+
+“I know of nothing to her disparagement, nor have I yet met one who
+does. That there are circumstances which she does not deem fitting to
+entrust to my keeping is no just cause of allegation against her.”
+
+“You are very honorable to say so, George; but I must confess it is more
+than she deserves at your hands.”
+
+“How do you mean?”
+
+“That she means to take the Russian, that's all.”
+
+“Well, and why not? Would not such a match be a brilliant one for a girl
+of much higher rank and pretension?”
+
+“What's the use of all this fencing, man?” said Norwood, half angrily,
+“I know better how matters stand. Do you remember the night you lost so
+heavily at Macao? Well, I was lying stretched on the sofa, yonder, by
+the light of the fire only, when the door opened, and she stepped gently
+in.”
+
+“What, Kate Dalton?”
+
+“Yes, Kate Dalton. Oh! impossible, if you like deny it as much as you
+please, but she has not equal hardihood, that I can tell you; and if she
+had, here is the proof that could condemn her, this fragment of her lace
+flounce was caught in the door as she banged it in her escape; and this
+very evening I compared it with the dress in question; ay, and showed
+her the rent from which it came.”
+
+Twice did George compel Norwood to repeat over this story; and then sat
+down, overwhelmed with sorrow and shame.
+
+“You swear to me, then, Onslow, that you never saw her here, never knew
+of her coming?” said he, after a long silence between them.
+
+“Never, I swear!” said the other, solemnly.
+
+“Then, some other is the fortunate man, that's all. How good if it
+should turn out to be Jekyl!” And he laughed heartily at the absurdity
+of the conceit.
+
+“No more of this,” said Onslow, passionately. “The tone of the society
+we live in here would seem to warrant any or every imputation, even on
+those whose lives are spotless; and I know of no greater degradation
+than the facility of our belief in them. In this instance, however, my
+conscience is at ease; and I reject, with contempt, the possibility of a
+stain upon that girl's honor.”
+
+“The sentiment does more credit to your chivalry than your shrewdness,
+George,” said the Viscount, sarcastically.
+
+“But as you are about to stake your life on the issue, I cannot impugn
+your sincerity.”
+
+A hasty movement of George towards the window here alarmed Grounsell,
+and he noiselessly withdrew, and descended the stairs again.
+
+“A precious mess of trouble do I find ready for me,” muttered he, as he
+passed across the courtyard. “Debt, duelling, and sickness, such are
+the pleasures that welcome me; and these not the worst, perhaps, if the
+causes of them were to be made known!”
+
+“My Lady has just heard of your arrival, doctor, and begs you will have
+the kindness to step up to her room,” said Proctor, coming to meet him.
+
+“I 'm tired, I 'm fatigued. Say I 'm in bed,” said Grounsell, angrily.
+
+“Her maid has just seen you, sir,” suggested Proctor, mildly.
+
+“No matter; give the answer I tell you; or stay perhaps it would be
+better to see her. Yes, Proctor, show me the way.” And muttering to
+himself, “The meeting will not be a whit pleasanter for her than me,” he
+followed the servant up the stairs.
+
+Well habituated to Lady Hester's extravagant and costly tastes,
+Grounsell was yet unprepared for the gorgeous decorations and splendid
+ornaments of the chambers through which he passed, and he stopped
+from time to time in amazement to contemplate a magnificence which was
+probably rather heightened than diminished by the uncertain light of the
+candles the servant carried. He peered at the china vases; he passed his
+hand across the malachite and jasper tables; he narrowly inspected the
+rich mosaics, as though doubtful of their being genuine; and then, with
+a deep sigh, almost deep enough to be a groan, he moved on in sadness.
+A bust of Kate Dalton the work of a great sculptor, and an admirable
+likeness caught his eye, and he gazed at it with signs of strong
+emotion. There was much beauty in it, and of a character all her own;
+but still the cold marble had caught up, in traits sterner than those of
+life, the ambitious bearing of the head and the proud elevation of the
+brow.
+
+“And she has become this already!” said he, half aloud. “Oh, how
+unlike poor Nelly's model! how different from the simple and beauteous
+innocence of those saint-like features!”
+
+“My Lady will see you, sir,” said Celestine, breaking in upon his
+musings. And he followed her into the chamber, where, seated in a deeply
+cushioned chair, Lady Hester reclined, dressed in all the perfection of
+an elegant deshabille.
+
+Grounsell was, assuredly, not the man to be most taken by such
+attractions, yet he could not remain entirely insensible to them; and he
+felt a most awkward sense of admiration as he surveyed her. With all
+a woman's quickness, her Ladyship saw the effect she had produced, and
+languidly extending her hand, she vouchsafed the nearest approach to a
+smile with which she had ever favored him. As if suddenly recalling all
+his old antipathies and prejudices, Grounsell was himself in a moment,
+and, scarcely touching the taper and jewelled fingers, he bowed
+ceremoniously and took his seat at a little distance off.
+
+“This is a very unexpected pleasure indeed,” sighed Lady Hester; “you
+only arrived to-night?”
+
+“Half an hour ago, madam; and but for your Ladyship's summons I should
+have been in bed.”
+
+“How do you find Sir Stafford looking poorly, I fear?”
+
+“I haven't yet seen him, madam, but I am prepared for a great change.”
+
+“I fear so,” sighed she, plaintively; “George says, quite a break up;
+and Buccellini calls it 'Gotta Affievolita,' and says it is very fatal
+with elderly people.”
+
+“The vulgar phrase of a 'broken heart' is more expressive, madam, and
+perhaps quite as pathological.”
+
+Lady Hester drew proudly up, and seemed preparing herself for a coming
+encounter. They were old antagonists, and well knew each other's mode
+of attack. On the present occasion, however, Grounsell did not seek a
+contest, and was satisfied by a single shot at the enemy, as if trying
+the range of his gun.
+
+“You will probably advise a change of air and scene, Dr. Grounsell,”
+ said she, calmly, and as though inviting pacific intercourse.
+
+“It is precisely what I have come for, madam,” answered he, in a short,
+dry voice. “Sir Stafford's affairs require his immediate return to
+England. The vicissitudes that attend on great commercial enterprises
+threaten him with large very large losses.”
+
+Lady Hester fell back in her chair, and this time, at least, her pale
+cheek and her powerless attitude were not feigned nor counterfeited; but
+Grounsell merely handed her a smelling-bottle from the table, and went
+on:
+
+“The exact extent of his liabilities cannot be ascertained at once, but
+they must be considerable. He will be fortunate if there remain to him
+one fourth of his property.”
+
+Lady Hester's head fell heavily back, and she fainted away.
+
+The doctor rose, and sprinkled her forehead with water, and then
+patiently sat down with his finger on her wrist to watch the returning
+tide of circulation. Assured at length of her restored consciousness, he
+went on:
+
+“A small establishment, strict economy, a watchful supervision of every
+domestic arrangement, together with the proceeds of the sale of all the
+useless trumpery by which he is at present surrounded, will do much;
+but he must be seconded, madam, seconded and aided, not thwarted and
+opposed. George can exchange into a regiment in India; the proper steps
+have been already taken for that purpose.”
+
+“Have you been thoughtful enough, sir, in your general care of this
+family, to engage a small house for us at Brighton?”
+
+“I have seen one at Ramsgate, madam,” replied he, dryly; “but the rent
+is more than we ought to give.”
+
+“Are we so very poor as that, sir?” said she, sarcastically, laying
+emphasis on the pronoun.
+
+“Many excellent and worthy persons, madam, contrive to live respectably
+on less.”
+
+“Is Miss Onslow to go out as a governess, doctor? I am afraid you have
+forgotten her share in these transactions?”
+
+“I have a letter from her in my pocket, madam, which would show that she
+herself is not guilty of this forgetfulness, wherein she makes the very
+proposition you allude to.”
+
+“And me? Have you no sphere of self-denial and duty have you no
+degrading station, nor menial servitude, adapted to my habits?”
+
+“I know of none, madam,” said Grounsell, sternly. “Varnish will no
+more make a picture than fine manners prove a substitute for skill or
+industry.”
+
+“This is really too much, sir,” said she, rising, her face now crimson
+with anger; “and even if all you have said prove true, reverse of
+fortune can bring no heavier infliction than the prospect of your
+intimacy and obtrusive counsels.”
+
+“You may not need them, madam. In adversity,” said Grounsell, with
+a smile, “healthy stomachs get on very well without bitters.” And so
+saying, he bowed and left the room.
+
+For a few moments Lady Hester sat overwhelmed by the tidings she had
+just heard, and then, suddenly rising, she rang the bell for her maid.
+
+“Send Miss Dalton to me, Celestine; say I wish to speak to her
+immediately,” said she. “This may be the last time we shall speak to
+each other ere we invert our positions,” muttered she to herself. And
+in the working of her features might be read all the agony of the
+reflection.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX. PRATOLINO.
+
+How like the great world is every little section of it! How full of
+all its passions and interests, its warring jealousies and its selfish
+struggles! Within the Mazzarini Palace that night were at work every
+emotion and sentiment which sway the wide communities of men; and hope
+and fear, the yearnings of ambition, and the gloomy forebodings of
+despair, sat beside the pillows of those who, in vain, sought sleep and
+forgetfulness.
+
+Before that long night ended, Sir Stafford had learned his ruin, for it
+was little less. Kate had yielded, to the pressing entreaties of Lady
+Hester, her consent to accept Midchekoff; and, just as day was breaking,
+George Onslow stole to his father's bedside to see him once more,
+perhaps for the last time. It would be difficult to say in which of
+those three hearts the darkest sorrow brooded. With noiseless step and
+cautious gesture, George crossed the little sitting-room, and entered
+his father's chamber; and, without awaking the servant, who kept watch
+habitually without, but now had dropped off to sleep, he gained the
+bedside, and sat down.
+
+The terrible tidings he had just heard were evidently working on Sir
+Stafford's brain, and, despite all the influence of his opiate, still
+engaged his faculties; for his lips continued to move rapidly, and short
+broken sentences fell from him incessantly. “Poor George! poor George!”
+ he muttered from time to time, and the tears rolled down the young man's
+cheek as he heard them.
+
+“How unworthy of him have I been!” thought he; “how shamefully unworthy
+and forgetful! Here should have been my place, for those hours which
+I have spent in noisy dissipation and debauch; and now I come for the
+first time, and probably the last! Oh, my poor father! How will you bear
+up against the shock that is preparing for you? for, with all my faults,
+I know how you have loved me!” A heavy tear dropped from him on the old
+man's cheek as he said this; and gently brushing it off with his hand,
+Sir Stafford opened his eyes and awoke. A mild and gentle smile broke
+over his features as he saw his son beside him, and he drew him towards
+him, and kissed him.
+
+“Have you been long here, George?” said he, affectionately.
+
+“But a few minutes. I am so sorry to have disturbed you,” muttered the
+other, in confusion,
+
+“Have you seen Grounsell yet? Has he told you?” asked Sir Stafford.
+
+“Grounsell? no, sir. I did not even hear of his arrival. What are his
+tidings?”
+
+“The saddest, perhaps, one friend can bring another,” sighed Onslow,
+as he covered his eyes with his hand. “Nay, nay, I am wrong,” said he,
+rapidly. “So long as Sydney and yourself are spared to me I have no
+right to say this; still, George, it is a terrible blow that strikes a
+man down from affluence to poverty, and, in place of wealth and power,
+leaves him nothing but insignificance and ruin!”
+
+“Good heavens, father! is your brain wandering? What fancies are these
+that are flitting across your mind?”
+
+“Sad and stern truths, my poor boy,” replied the old man, grasping his
+son's hand in his fevered palm. “A few weeks more will see the great
+house of Onslow bankrupt. These things cannot be told too briefly,
+George,” said he, speaking with a tremulous and eager rapidity. “One
+should hear misfortune early, to gain more time for future measures. A
+great crash has fallen upon the moneyed interest of England. The vast
+speculations in railways have overreached themselves; failures of great
+houses abroad have added to the difficulty. The correspondents whose
+solvency we never doubted are tottering to ruin. Every post brings
+tidings of some new failure; and from Odessa, from Hamburg, and from
+the ports of the Baltic to the distant shores of the New World, there is
+nothing but bankruptcy.”
+
+“But you have large estates, sir; you possess property of various kinds
+beyond the reach of these casualties.”
+
+“I own nothing to which my creditors have not a just right; nor, if I
+did, could I exercise the privilege of retaining it, George,” said the
+old man. “From what Grounsell tells me, there will be sufficient to meet
+every claim, but no more. There will remain nothing after. Lady Hester's
+settlement will, of course, secure to her a moderate competence; and
+we--you and I must look about, and see how we can face this same world
+we have been feasting so long. My time in it will needs be brief; but
+you, who may look forward with hope to long years of life, must bethink
+you at once of the new path before you. Arouse yourself, then, to the
+task, and I do not know but I may be prouder of you yet, buffeting
+the wild waves of adversity, and fighting the manful part of a bold,
+courageous spirit, than I have ever been in seeing you in the brilliant
+circle of all your high and titled acquaintances. Ay, George, the
+English merchant never died out in my heart, for all the aristocratic
+leaven which accident mixed up with my fortunes. I never ceased to glory
+in the pride of wealth accumulated by generous enterprises and honorable
+toil. I loved the life of labor that disciplined the faculties,
+and exercised not alone intelligence, but turned to use the gentler
+charities of life, linking man to man, as brethren journeying the same
+road, with different burdens, perhaps, but with the same goal. For
+myself, therefore, I have few cares. It remains with you to make them
+even fewer.”
+
+“Tell me what you propose for me, sir,” said George, in a low, weak
+voice.
+
+“First of all, George, you ought to leave the army. Grounsell, I must
+tell you, is not of this opinion; he advises an exchange into a regiment
+in India, but I think differently. To repair, if it be possible, the
+shattered wreck of our fortunes, you must address yourself to business
+life and habits. You 'll have to visit the West Indies, and, probably,
+the East. We still possess property in Ceylon, of value; and our coffee
+plantations there, as yet only in their infancy, need nothing but good
+management to ensure success. Grounsell laughed at my suggesting you for
+such duties, but I know you better, George, far better, than he does.
+The English pluck that storms a breach or heads a charge is the very
+same quality that sustains a man on the long dark road of adverse
+fortune. I have often told Grounsell that the stuff was in you, George.”
+
+The young man squeezed his father's hand, but was obliged to turn away
+his head to hide the tears which filled his eyes; for what a terrible
+deception was he practising at that very moment, and what duplicity was
+there even in the silence with which he heard him!
+
+For a few seconds Sir Stafford seemed to revel in all the bright visions
+of a warm fancy. The prospect his imagination had conjured up appeared
+to have momentarily lifted him above the reach of sorrow. He thought of
+his son engaged in the active business of life, and displaying in this
+new career the energies and resources of a bold and courageous spirit.
+He imagined the high-principled youth becoming the British merchant, and
+making the name of “Onslow” great and respected in the old arena of all
+their victories, the city of London. Could this but come to pass, were
+this dream to be realized, and he would bless the hour that wrecked his
+fortune, and thus made his poverty the foundation of future greatness.
+
+“I confess, George,” said he, “that I have a pride in thinking that I
+knew you better than others did, and that I read in the very wayward
+caprices of your disposition the impatience of an active mind, and not
+the ennui of an indolent one.” From this the old man branched off into
+his plans for the future; and, as if the emergency had suggested energy,
+talked well and clearly of all that was to be done. They were to start
+for England at once. Sir Stafford felt as if he was able to set out
+that very day. Some weeks would elapse before the crash came, and in the
+interval every preparation might be taken. “I hope,” said he, feelingly,
+“that I have few enemies; I am not sanguine enough to say, none; but,
+such as they are, they will not seek to humiliate me, I trust, by any
+unnecessary publicity.” The theme was a very painful one, and for a few
+seconds he could not go on. At last he resumed: “The extravagance of
+this household, George, will give much and just offence. It must be
+retrenched, and from this very day, from this very hour. You will
+look to this. It must not be said of us that, with ruin before us, we
+continued these habits of wasteful excess. Let these troops of idle
+servants be discharged at once. Except Lady Hester's carriage, sell
+off all equipage. Take no heed of what will be the town talk; such a
+downfall as ours can never be kept a secret. Let us only take care that
+we fall with dignity. Grounsell will remain here after us to settle
+everything, and our departure ought to be as speedy as may be. But you
+are not listening, George; do you hear me?”
+
+It was quite true George heeded little of what his father spoke; for,
+with bent-down head, he was trying to catch the sounds of what seemed
+a long, low whistle from the court without. As he listened, the whistle
+was repeated; he knew now that it was Norwood's signal, and that “his
+time was up.”
+
+“I must leave you, my dear father,” said he, assuming all that he could
+of calmness. “I have an appointment this morning, and one that I cannot
+well shake off. Norwood and I have promised to meet some friends at
+Pratolino.”
+
+“It was of that same Norwood I wished to speak to you, George. The
+sophistry of thinking him 'no worse than his set' will serve no longer.
+Such men are not fitting acquaintances for one whose character must be
+above reproach. Norwood is a most unworthy friend for you.”
+
+“I scarcely ever thought of him in that light. We are intimate, it is
+true; but such intimacy is not friendship.”
+
+“The greater the pollution of such acquaintanceship, then,” said the old
+man, gravely. “To see the dark side of such a nature, and yet live
+under its baneful shadow, is infinitely worse, George, than all the
+self-deception of a rash confidence. Keep your promise to-day, but I
+beseech you, let it be for the last time in such company.”
+
+Again the whistle was heard, and with the sharp crack of a whip,
+denoting impatience; and fearful that some accident might betray his
+secret, George clasped the old man's hand fervidly within his own, and
+hurried away without a word.
+
+“Is that George?” cried Norwood, as he stood beside a calessino ready
+harnessed, and with lamps lighted, for the morning was still dark, “is
+that George? Why, where have you been loitering this half-hour, man?
+Our time is six sharp, and it is now considerably past five, and the way
+lies all up hill.”
+
+“I have often done the distance in half an hour,” said George, angrily.
+
+“Perhaps the errand was a pleasanter one,” rejoined Norwood, laughing;
+“but jump in, for I feel certain the others are before us.”
+
+George Onslow was in no mood for talking as he took his seat beside his
+companion. The late scene with his father and the approaching event were
+enough to occupy him, even had his feeling for Norwood been different
+from what it was; but in reality never had he experienced the
+same dislike for the Viscount. All the flippant ease, all the cool
+indifference he displayed, were only so many offences to one whose
+thoughts were traversing the whole current of his life, from earliest
+boyhood down to that very moment. A few hours hence he might be no more!
+And thence arose to his mind the judgments men would pass upon him, the
+few who would speak charitably, the still fewer who would regret him.
+“What a career!” thought he. “What use to have made of fortune, station,
+health, and vigor; to have lived in dissipation, and die for a street
+brawl! And poor Kate! to what unfeeling scandal will this unhappy
+meeting expose you! how impossible to expect that truth will ever
+penetrate through that dark atmosphere of mystery and malevolence the
+world will throw over the event!”
+
+Norwood was provoked at the silence, and tried in various ways to break
+it. He spoke of the road, the weather, the horse's trotting action,
+the scenery, over which the breaking day now threw fitful and uncertain
+lights, but all in vain; and at last, piqued by non-success, he
+spitefully pointed attention to a little valley beside the road, and
+said, “Do you see that spot yonder, near the pine-trees? that 's where
+Harry Mathews was shot. Malzahn sent the bullet through the brain
+at forty paces. They were both first-rate pistol-shots, and the only
+question was who should fire first. Harry determined to reserve his
+shot, and he carried the privilege into the other world with him.
+Malzahn knew he might trust his skill, and fired the very instant he
+took his ground. The moral of which is, always try and have first fire
+with a foreigner.”
+
+“I heard the sound of wheels behind us; who are they?” said George, not
+heeding either the story or the counsel.
+
+“The doctor, I suspect. I ordered a calessino to wait for him at the
+door of the palace, and bring him up as fast as possible.”
+
+“If Guilmard be equal to his reputation, we shall not want his
+services,” said Onslow, with a faint smile.
+
+“Who can tell? We 'll put you up at a short distance; and there 's
+nothing shakes the nerves of your practised pistol-shot more than ten or
+twelve paces.”
+
+The road here became so steep that they were obliged to get down and
+walk for some distance, while the horse toiled slowly up behind them. As
+they went, Norwood continued to talk on incessantly of this, that, and
+t' other, as though bound to occupy the attention of his companion;
+while George, with half-closed eyes, strolled onward, deep in his own
+thoughts.
+
+“We 're not far off the place now, George,” said Norwood, at last, “and
+I wish you 'd throw off that look of care and abstraction. These foreign
+fellows will be quite ready to misinterpret it. Seem at your ease, man,
+and take the thing as I have seen you take it before, as rather good fun
+than otherwise.”
+
+“But that is precisely what I do not feel it,” said George, smiling
+quietly. “Twenty-four hours ago, when life had every possible advantage
+to bestow on me, with the prospect of an ample fortune before me, I was
+perfectly ready to turn out with any man who had the right to ask me;
+and now that I am ruined--”
+
+“Ruined!” broke in Norwood; “what do you mean? You have not lost to that
+Greek fellow so largely as that?”
+
+“Now that my father is on the verge of utter ruin,” repeated George,
+slowly, “the news came last night, I never felt the desire of life so
+strong within me. A few days or weeks more will make it public gossip,
+so I may tell you that we have not escaped the torrent that is sweeping
+away so many of the richest houses in Europe; and what between our
+immense liabilities and my father's scrupulous sense of honor, the
+chances are we shall be utterly beggared.”
+
+“The devil!” exclaimed Norwood, whose thoughts at once reverted to his
+own claims on George, and the unpaid acceptances he still held of his.
+
+“That's what I feel so strange,” said George, now speaking with a degree
+of warmth and interest, “that it should be exactly when life ceases
+to give promise that I should care for it; and I own to you, I 'd give
+anything that this meeting was not before me.”
+
+Norwood started, and turned his keen eyes on the other, but in the calm,
+unmoved features he saw no traces of fear or even agitation; and it was
+in his habitually calm voice Onslow resumed,
+
+“Yes, I wish the Count's hand would shake a little, Norwood. I 'd be
+most grateful to the bullet that would take to the right or the left of
+me.”
+
+“Come, come, George, no more of this. We are alone here, it's true; but
+if you talk this way now, you may chance to look like it by and by.”
+
+“And if I do not, my looks will strangely belie my sentiments, that I
+can tell you,” said Onslow, with a quiet laugh. “I don't care how you
+read the confession, Norwood, but I tell you frankly, that if the insult
+in this instance admitted of an apology, if there were any way to come
+off consistent with honor, I 'd take it, and not fight this Frenchman.”
+
+“Have you forgotten his reputation as a shot?” asked Norwood, hastily.
+
+“I was not thinking of it. My mind was dwelling merely on myself and my
+own interests, how far my life, if preserved, could be rendered useful
+to others, and in what way my death might occasion detriment and
+injury.”
+
+“A most mercantile estimate of profit and loss, by Jove!” said Norwood,
+laughing; “and perhaps it is fortunate for you there is no amende
+possible, for if Guilmard should miss you--”
+
+“As to these acceptances,” said George, not paying attention to what the
+other said, “I 'd prefer that they should not be presented to my father
+under our actual circumstances. My horses and carriages, and some other
+trumpery of mine, when sold, will more than meet them, and I have given
+orders to that end.”
+
+“Come, old fellow, it's not gone that far yet,” said Norwood, affecting
+a tone of friendship, suggested by the self-satisfaction the promise of
+payment afforded him. “But, hush! There they are, all together. Let us
+talk no more of these matters; and now, George, for Heaven's sake, be
+cool.”
+
+Norwood drew the other's arm within his own as he said this, and
+advanced to where a group of some half-dozen persons were standing,
+beside a low balcony, overlooking the Val d'Arno and the graceful valley
+in which Florence stands. Norwood quitted his friend's arm as he came
+forward and saluted the company. Nothing could possibly be more easy and
+unconstrained than the tone of their conversation, as they chatted away
+about the prospect beneath, and over which, like a gauzy veil, the gray
+shadow of dawn was hanging. With the exception of an Italian or two,
+they were all French, the young fashionables who were the loungers of
+the salons and cafes of the city.
+
+“Have you breakfasted, my Lord?” said one. “If not, let me recommend
+some excellent cutlets, which are not too cold, even yet.”
+
+“And the best chocolate I ever tasted out of Paris,” cried another.
+
+“Thanks,” said Norwood. “We 'll profit by the good counsel.” And, taking
+a cigar from his case, he lighted it from Guilmard's, as, with hands in
+his paletot, he sat negligently on the wall, surveying the scene below
+him.
+
+“Come, George, let's have something,” whispered Norwood, eagerly;
+for the vacant and unoccupied stare of Onslow continued to cause the
+Viscount the most intense anxiety. “These fellows are affecting to be
+devilish cool. Let us not be behindhand.” And, rather by force than mere
+persuasion, he dragged Onslow along, and entered the little parlor of
+the inn.
+
+A large table, covered with the remains of an ample breakfast, stood
+in the middle of the room, and a dish of cutlets was placed to keep hot
+before the stove. Several loose sheets of paper lay scattered about the
+table, on which were scrawled absurd and ill-drawn caricatures of duels,
+in which attitudes of extravagant fear and terror predominated. Norwood
+glanced at them for a moment, and then contemptuously threw them into
+the fire.
+
+“Sit down, George,” said he, placing a chair for the other; “and, if
+you cannot eat, at least take a 'nip' of brandy. Jekyl will be up, I
+suppose, in a few minutes. I told him to come with the doctor.”
+
+“I never felt an appetite at this early hour,” said Onslow; “and perhaps
+the present is not the time to suggest one.”
+
+“Did you remark Guilmard?” said Norwood, as he helped himself to a
+cutlet, and prepared his plate most artistically for a savory meal. “Did
+you observe him, George?”
+
+“No; I never looked that way.”
+
+“By Jove! he has got a tremendous scar on his cheek; the whole length,
+from the eye to the corner of his mouth. English knuckles do not
+certainly improve French physiognomy. A left-hander, eh?”
+
+“I remember nothing about it,” said Onslow, carelessly.
+
+“Well, you 've left him a memorandum of the transaction, any way,”
+ said the Viscount, as he ate on. “And you were talking about an apology
+awhile ago?”
+
+“I was wishing that the case admitted of one,” said Onslow, calmly.
+
+Norwood gave a sidelong glance at the speaker, and, although he said
+nothing, a gesture of angry impatience revealed what was passing within
+him.
+
+“Do try that brandy. Well, then, take a glass of curacoa,” said he,
+pushing the bottle towards him.
+
+“Something! anything, in fact, you would say, Norwood, that might serve
+to make my courage 'carry the bead;' but you are altogether mistaken in
+inc. It is not of myself I am thinking; my anxieties are. But what could
+you care, or even understand, about my motives? Finish your breakfast,
+and let us make an end of this affair.”
+
+“In one minute more I'm your man; but if I have a weakness, it is for a
+plain roast truffle, with butter. It was a first love of mine, and,
+as the adage says, 'only revient toujours.' Were I in your shoes this
+morning, George, I 'd not leave one on the dish.”
+
+“On what principle, pray?” asked Onslow, smiling.
+
+“On that of the old Cardinal, who, when his doctors pronounced his case
+hopeless, immediately ordered a supper of ortolans with olives. It was
+a grand opportunity to indulge without the terror of an indigestion; and
+_a propos_ to such themes, where can our worthy doctor be all this time?
+The calessino was close up with us all the way.”
+
+Leaving Norwood to continue his meal, George strolled out in quest
+of the surgeon, but none had seen nor knew anything of him. An empty
+calessino was standing on the roadside, but the driver only knew that
+the gentleman who came with him had got out there, and entered the park.
+
+“Then we shall find him near the little lake,” said Norwood, coolly, as
+George returned, disappointed. “But it's strange, too, that he should
+be alone. Jekyl was to have been with him. These foreigners ever insist
+upon two seconds on either side. Like the gambler that always is calling
+for fresh cards, it looks very like a suspicion of foul play. Go back,
+George, and see if the fellow knows nothing of Jekyl. You 've only to
+name him, for every cab, cad, and barcaruolo of Florence is acquainted
+with Master Albert.”
+
+George returned to the spot, but without any success. The man stated
+that he took his stand, as he was desired, at the gate of the palace,
+and that a little man, apparently somewhat elderly, came out and asked
+which way the others had gone, and how long before they had started.
+“See that you pick them up then,” said he, “but don't pass them. He
+talked incessantly,” added the man, “the whole way, but in such bad
+Italian that I could make nothing of it, and so I answered at random.
+If I were tired of him, I fancy he was sick of me; and when he got out
+yonder, and passed into the park, it was a relief to us both.”
+
+George was just turning away, when his eye caught a glimpse of the
+glorious landscape beneath, on which a freshly risen sun was shedding
+all its splendor. There are few scenes, even in Italy, more striking
+than the Val d'Arno around Florence. The beautiful city itself, capped
+with many a dome and tower, the gigantic castle of the Bargello, the
+graceful arch of the Baptistery, the massive facade of the Pitti, all,
+even to the lone tower on the hill where Galileo watched, rich in
+their storied memories; while on the gentle slope of the mountain stood
+hundreds of beauteous villas, whose very names are like spells to the
+imagination, and the Dante, the Alfieri, the Boccaccio, vie in interest
+with the sterner realities of the Medici, the Pazzi, the Salviati, and
+the Strozzi. What a flood of memory pours over the mind, to think how
+every orange-grove and terrace, how each clump of olives, or each
+alley of cedars, have witnessed the most intense passions, or the most
+glorious triumphs of man's intellect or ambition, and that every spot we
+see has its own claim to immortality!
+
+Not in such mood as this, however, did Onslow survey the scene. It was
+in the rapt admiration of its picturesque beauty. The glittering river,
+now seen and lost again, the waving tree-tops, the parterres of bright
+flowers, the stately palaces, whose terraces were shadowed by the
+magnolia, the oleander, and the fig, all made up a picture of rich and
+beautiful effect, and he longed to throw himself on the deep grass and
+gaze on it for hours. As he stood thus, unable to tear himself away, he
+heard the sharp cracking of a postilion's whip immediately beneath him,
+and, on looking down, saw two heavily laden travelling-carriages, which
+all the power of eight horses to each could barely drag along against
+the steep ascent. A mounted courier in advance proclaimed that the
+travellers were persons of condition, and everything about the equipages
+themselves indicated wealth and station. As Onslow knew all who moved
+in a certain class in society, he was curious to see who was journeying
+northward so early in the year, and, stepping into a little copse beside
+the road, he waited for the carriages to pass.
+
+They came slowly forward, now halting to “breathe” the weary horses, now
+struggling for a brief space against the hill, and at last, turning a
+sharp angle of the way, the first carriage drew short up, directly in
+front of where he stood. The panels bore the flaunting and pretentious
+arms of Prince Midchekoff, with many an armorial emblem, which, however
+tolerated in the rest of Europe, the Czar would not suffer within his
+own dominions. As George glanced at these, he started, for a well-known
+voice caught his ear, and, forgetting his desire of concealment, he
+leaned forward to listen. It was Kate was speaking; he could not hear
+the words, but the accents were her own. “Oh for one look at her,
+for the last time!” thought he; and dashed headlong through the copse
+towards where, by another bend, the road made a rapid turn upwards.
+
+Already the horses had regained their wind, and were away at a brisk
+trot, as George tore onward through the closely interwoven branches and
+thick underwood of the grove. There was no path, nor, once out of sight
+or sound of the road, anything to guide him; but he dashed on, in the
+direction he supposed the carriage must take. At every step the way grew
+more intricate and difficult; the pits the peasants dig for chestnut
+leaves, the little heaps collected for firewood, intercepted him at
+each moment. With torn clothes and bleeding hands he still rushed madly,
+resolutely bent upon his object; and, with many a bruise and many a
+scar, at last gained the open country just in time to see the second
+carriage crowning the peak of the mountain above his head, while he
+could hear the sharp, clanking sound of the drag as they fastened it to
+the leading carriage. Any attempt to overtake them on the hill must
+now be hopeless. He well knew the pace at which a continental postilion
+descends a mountain, and how the steepest galleries of Alps and
+Apennines are often galloped down at speed. For miles below him he could
+see the winding zigzags of the road, and at each turning he fancied
+how he might catch sight of her. The mountain itself was terraced with
+vineyards from base to summit; but, from the steepness of its side,
+these terraces were but narrow strips of ground, barely sufficient for
+the vine-dresser to pass when tending his plants, or gathering in their
+produce. To look down on this giant stair, for such it seemed, was a
+giddy sensation, and few could have surveyed the precipitous descent
+without a sense of danger. Onslow's thoughts, however, had but one
+object, to see Kate once, and for the last time. By a straight descent
+of the mountain, leaping from terrace to terrace, it was possible for
+him to reach the bottom before the carriages could traverse the winding
+course of the road; and no sooner was the thought conceived than he
+proceeded to execute it. It is difficult to convey to those who have
+never seen these terraced flights of earth a true notion of the peril of
+such an undertaking; but they who have beheld them will acknowledge
+that little short of utter recklessness could dare it. Less leaping than
+dropping from height to height, the slightest impulse will carry the
+footsteps beyond the edge of the terrace, and then all self-control is
+lost, and destruction, to every appearance, inevitable.
+
+The youth whose nerves have been trained by the sports of fox-hunting
+and deer-stalking, however, is seldom unprepared for sudden danger; and
+George never hesitated when once the undertaking seemed practicable. By
+sidelong leaps he descended the first three or four terraces well and
+safely. Impressed with the risk of the exploit, he never turned his eyes
+from the spot whereon he meant to alight, and measured every bound with
+accuracy. Suddenly, however, his attention was caught by the postilion's
+bugle sounding, several hundred feet below him, and, in a bend of the
+road, he saw the dust left by the fast-descending carriage. Forgetful of
+safety, of everything, save his object, he leaped at random, and with a
+tremendous bound cleared one terrace completely, and alighted on the one
+beneath it. The impulse drove him forwards, and ere he could recover, he
+was on the very verge of the cliff. Even yet his presence of mind might
+have rescued him, when the loose masonry gave way, and carried him
+down with it. He fell forwards, and headlong; the force of the descent
+carried him on, and now, half falling, half-struggling, he bounded from
+height to height, till, shattered, maimed, and bleeding, he rolled, an
+unconscious heap of clay, in the long grass of the valley.
+
+Not fifty yards from where he lay, the carriages passed, and Kate even
+leaned from the window to gaze upon the winding glen, little thinking
+how terrible an interest that quiet scene was filled with. And so the
+equipages held their speed, and pressed onward; while, with a faint
+breathing, poor George lay, sleeping that dreamless slumber that seems a
+counterfeit of death.
+
+
+
+END OF VOL. I.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Daltons, Volume I (of II), by
+Charles James Lever
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diff --git a/32061-0.zip b/32061-0.zip
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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      The Daltons: by Charles James Lever
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    pre     { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+Project Gutenberg's The Daltons, Volume I (of II), by Charles James Lever
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Daltons, Volume I (of II)
+       Or,Three Roads In Life
+
+Author: Charles James Lever
+
+Illustrator: Phiz.
+
+Release Date: April 19, 2010 [EBook #32061]
+Last Updated: February 27, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DALTONS, VOLUME I (OF II) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      THE DALTONS:
+    </h1>
+    <h3>
+      OR,
+    </h3>
+    <h2>
+      THREE ROADS IN LIFE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By Charles James Lever
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      With Illustrations By Phiz.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      In Two Volumes <br /><br /> Vol. I. <br /><br /> Boston: Little, Brown, And
+      Company <br /> 1895.
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/frontispiece.jpg" alt="frontispiece" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/titlepage.jpg" alt="titlepage" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To LORD METHUEN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      MY DEAR METHUEN, Some idle folk have pretended that certain living
+      characters have been depicted under the fictitious names of these volumes.
+      There is, I assure you, but one personality contained in it, and that is
+      of a right true-hearted Englishman, hospitable, and manly in all his
+      dealings; and to him I wish to dedicate my book, in testimony not only of
+      the gratitude which, in common with all his countrymen here, I feel to be
+      his due, but in recognition of many happy hours passed in his society, and
+      the honor of his friendship. The personality begins and ends with this
+      dedication, which I beg you to accept of, and am
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ever yours faithfully,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      CHARLES LEVER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PALAZZO CAPPONI, FLORENCE, Feb. 28, 1852.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br /> <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE. </a> <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0002"> <b>THE DALTONS, OR THREE ROADS IN LIFE</b> </a>
+        <br /> <br /> <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;BADEN
+        OUT OF SEASON <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;AN
+        HUMBLE INTERIOR <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        FOREST ROAD <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        ONSLOWS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        PATIENT <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;A
+        FIRST VISIT <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;A
+        LESSON IN PISTOL-SHOOTING <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER
+        VIII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE NIGHT EXCURSION <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;A FINE LADY'S
+        BLANDISHMENTS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;A
+        FAMILY DISCUSSION <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;A
+        PEEP BETWEEN THE SHUTTERS AT A NEW CHARACTER <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;MR. ALBERT JEKYL
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;A
+        SUSPICIOUS VISITOR <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;AN
+        EMBARRASSING QUESTION <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XV.
+        </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;CONTRASTS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER
+        XVI. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE &ldquo;SAAL&rdquo; OF THE &ldquo;RUSSIE.&rdquo; <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER XVII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;A FAMILY DISCUSSION
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER XVIII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;CARES
+        AND CROSSES <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER XIX. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;PREPARATIONS
+        FOR THE ROAD <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER XX. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;A
+        VERY SMALL &ldquo;INTERIOR.&rdquo; <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER XXI.
+        </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;A FAMILY PICTURE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0022">
+        CHAPTER XXII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;KATE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0023">
+        CHAPTER XXIII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;A SMALL SUPPER PARTY <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0024"> CHAPTER XXIV. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;A MIDNIGHT RECEPTION
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0025"> CHAPTER XXV. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;A
+        &ldquo;LEVANTER.&rdquo; <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0026"> CHAPTER XXVI. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        END OF THE FIRST ACT <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0027"> CHAPTER XXVII.
+        </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;A SMALL DINNER AT THE VILLINO ZOE <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0028"> CHAPTER XXVIII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE VISCOUNT'S
+        VISION <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0029"> CHAPTER XXIX. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;FRANK'S
+        JOURNEY <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0030"> CHAPTER XXX. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        THREAT OF &ldquo;A SLIGHT EMBARRASSMENT.&rdquo; <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0031">
+        CHAPTER XXXI. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;A CONVIVIAL EVENING <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0032"> CHAPTER XXXII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;AN INVASION <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2HCH0033"> CHAPTER XXXIII. &nbsp;&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        CONCLUSION OF A &ldquo;GRAND DINNER.&rdquo; <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0034">
+        CHAPTER XXXIV. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;JEKYL'S COUNSELS <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0035"> CHAPTER XXXV. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;RACCA MORLACHE <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2HCH0036"> CHAPTER XXXVI. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;A STREET
+        RENCONTRE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0037"> CHAPTER XXXVII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;PROPOSALS
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0038"> CHAPTER XXXVIII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;AN
+        ARRIVAL <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0039"> CHAPTER XXXIX. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;PRATOLINO
+        <br /><br />
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      PREFACE.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      IF the original conception of this tale was owing to the story of an old
+      and valued schoolfellow who took service in Austria, and rose to rank and
+      honors there, all the rest was purely fictitious. My friend had made a
+      deep impression on my mind by his narratives of that strange life,
+      wherein, in the very midst of our modern civilization, an old-world
+      tradition still has its influence, making the army of to-day the veritable
+      sons and descendants of those who grouped around the bivouac fires in
+      Wallenstein's camp. Of that more than Oriental submission that graduated
+      deference to military rank that chivalrous devotion to the &ldquo;Kaiser&rdquo; whicli
+      enter into the soldier heart of Austria, I have been unable to reproduce
+      any but the very faintest outlines, and yet these were the traits which,
+      pervaded all my friend's stories and gave them character and
+      distinctiveness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many of the other characters in this tale were drawn from the life, with
+      such changes added and omitted features as might rescue them from any
+      charge of personality. With all my care on this score, one or two have
+      been believed to be recognizable; and if so I have only to hope that I
+      have touched on peculiarities of disposition inoffensively, and only
+      depicted such traits as may &ldquo;point a moral,&rdquo; without wounding the
+      possessor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The last portion of the story includes some scenes from the Italian
+      campaign, which had just come to a close while I was writing. If a better
+      experience of Italy than I then possessed might modify some of the
+      opinions I entertained at that time, and induce me to form some
+      conclusions at least at variance with those I then expressed, I still
+      prefer to leave the whole unaltered, lest in changing I might injure the
+      impression under which the fulness of my once conviction had impelled me
+      to pronounce.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Writing these lines now, while men's hearts are throbbing anxiously for
+      the tidings any day may produce, and when the earth is already tremulous
+      under the march of distant squadrons, I own that even the faint, weak
+      picture of that struggle in this story appeals to myself with a more than
+      common interest. I have no more to add than my grateful acknowledgments to
+      such as still hold me in their favor, and to write myself their devoted
+      servant,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      CHARLES LEVER. <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      THE DALTONS,<br /><br />OR THREE ROADS IN LIFE.
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I. BADEN OUT OF SEASON.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      A THEATRE by daylight, a great historical picture in the process of
+      cleaning, a ballet-dancer of a wet day hastening to rehearsal, the
+      favorite for the Oaks dead-lame in a straw-yard, are scarcely more
+      stripped of their legitimate illusions than is a fashionable
+      watering-place on the approach of winter. The gay shops and stalls of
+      flaunting wares are closed; the promenades, lately kept in trimmest order,
+      are weed-grown and neglected; the &ldquo;sear and yellow leaves&rdquo; are fluttering
+      and rustling along the alleys where &ldquo;Beauty's step was wont to tread.&rdquo;
+       Both music and fountains have ceased to play; the very statues are putting
+      on great overcoats of snow, while the orange-trees file off like a sad
+      funeral procession to hide themselves in dusky sheds till the coming
+      spring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You see as you look around you that nature has been as unreal as art
+      itself, and that all the bright hues of foliage and flower, all the odors
+      that floated from bed and parterre, all the rippling flow of stream and
+      fountain, have been just as artistically devised, and as much &ldquo;got up,&rdquo; as
+      the transparencies or the Tyrolese singers, the fireworks or the fancy
+      fair, or any other of those ingenious &ldquo;spectacles&rdquo; which amuse the grown
+      children of fashion. The few who yet linger seem to have undergone a
+      strange transmutation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The smiling landlord of the &ldquo;Adler&rdquo; we refer particularly to Germany as
+      the very land of watering-places is a half-sulky, farmer-looking
+      personage, busily engaged in storing up his Indian corn and his firewood
+      and his forage, against the season of snows. The bland &ldquo;croupier,&rdquo; on
+      whose impassive countenance no shade of fortune was able to mark even a
+      passing emotion, is now seen higgling with a peasant for a sack of
+      charcoal, in all the eagerness of avarice. The trim maiden, whose golden
+      locks and soft blue eyes made the bouquets she sold seem fairer to look
+      on, is a stout wench, whose uncouth fur cap and wooden shoes are the very
+      antidotes to romance. All the transformations take the same sad colors. It
+      is a pantomime read backwards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such was Baden-Baden in the November of 182-. Some weeks of bad and broken
+      weather had scattered and dispersed all the gay company. The hotels and
+      assembly-rooms were closed for the winter. The ball-room, which so lately
+      was alight with a thousand tapers, was now barricaded like a jail. The
+      very post-office, around which each morning an eager and pressing crowd
+      used to gather, was shut up, one small aperture alone remaining, as if to
+      show to what a fraction all correspondence had been reduced. The Hotel de
+      Russie was the only house open in the little town; but although the door
+      lay ajar, no busy throng of waiters, no lamps, invited the traveller to
+      believe a hospitable reception might await him within. A very brief glance
+      inside would soon have dispelled any such illusion, had it ever existed.
+      The wide staircase, formerly lined with orange-trees and camellias, was
+      stripped of all its bright foliage; the marble statues were removed; the
+      great thermometer, whose crystal decorations had arrested many a passing
+      look, was now encased within a wooden box, as if its tell-tale face might
+      reveal unpleasant truths, if left exposed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The spacious &ldquo;Saal,&rdquo; where some eighty guests assembled every day, was
+      denuded of all its furniture, mirrors, and lustres; bronzes and pictures
+      were gone, and nothing remained but a huge earthenware stove, within whose
+      grating a faded nosegay left there in summer defied all speculations as to
+      a fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this comfortless chamber three persons now paraded with that quick step
+      and brisk motion that bespeak a walk for warmth and exercise; for dismal
+      as it was within doors, it was still preferable to the scene without,
+      where a cold incessant rain was falling, that, on the hills around, took
+      the form of snow. The last lingerers at a watering-place, like those who
+      cling on to a wreck, have usually something peculiarly sad in their
+      aspect. Unable, as it were, to brave the waves like strong swimmers, they
+      hold on to the last with some vague hope of escape, and, like a
+      shipwrecked crew, drawing closer to each other in adversity than in more
+      prosperous times, they condescend now to acquaintance, and even intimacy,
+      where, before, a mere nod of recognition was alone interchanged. Such were
+      the three who now, buttoned up to the chin, and with hands deeply thrust
+      into side-pockets, paced backwards and forwards, sometimes exchanging a
+      few words, but in that broken and discursive fashion that showed that no
+      tie of mutual taste or companionship had bound them together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The youngest of the party was a small and very slightly made man of about
+      five or six-and-twenty, whose face, voice, and figure were almost
+      feminine, and, only for a very slight line of black moustache, might have
+      warranted the suspicion of a disguise. His lacquered boots and spotless
+      yellow gloves appeared somewhat out of season, as well as the very light
+      textured coat which he wore; but Mr. Albert Jekyl had been accidentally
+      detained at Baden, waiting for that cruel remittance which, whether the
+      sin be that of agent or relative, is ever so slow of coming. That he bore
+      the inconvenience admirably (and without the slightest show of impatience)
+      it is but fair to confess; and whatever chagrin either the detention, the
+      bad weather, or the solitude may have occasioned, no vestige of discontent
+      appeared upon features where a look of practised courtesy, and a most
+      bland smile, gave the predominant expression. &ldquo;Who he was,&rdquo; or, in other
+      words, whence he came, of what family, with what fortune, pursuits, or
+      expectations, we are not ashamed to confess our utter ignorance, seeing
+      that it was shared by all those that tarried that season at Baden, with
+      whom, however, he lived on terms of easy and familiar intercourse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next to him was a bilious-looking man, somewhat past the middle of
+      life, with that hard and severe cast of features that rather repels than
+      invites intimacy. In figure he was compactly and stoutly built, his step
+      as he walked, and his air as he stood, showed one whose military training
+      had given the whole tone to his character. Certain strong lines about the
+      mouth, and a peculiar puckering of the angles of the eyes, boded a turn
+      for sarcasm, which all his instincts, and they were Scotch ones, could not
+      completely repress. His voice was loud, sharp, and ringing, the voice of a
+      man who, when he said a thing, would not brook being asked to repeat it.
+      That Colonel Haggerstone knew how to be sapling as well as oak, was a
+      tradition among those who had served with him; still it is right to add,
+      that his more congenial mood was the imperative, and that which he usually
+      practised. The accidental lameness of one of his horses had detained him
+      some weeks at Baden, a durance which assuredly appeared to push his temper
+      to its very last intrenchments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The third representative of forlorn humanity was a very tall, muscular
+      man, whose jockey-cut green coat and wide-brimmed hat contrasted oddly
+      with a pair of huge white moustaches, that would have done credit to a
+      captain of the Old Guard. On features, originally handsome, time, poverty,
+      and dissipation had left many a mark; but still the half-droll,
+      half-truculent twinkle of his clear gray eyes showed him one whom no turn
+      of fortune could thoroughly subdue, and who, even in the very hardest of
+      his trials, could find heart to indulge his humor for Peter Dalton was an
+      Irishman; and although many years an absentee, held the dear island and
+      its prejudices as green in his memory as though he had left it but a week
+      before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such were the three, who, without one sympathy in common, without a point
+      of contact in character, were now drawn into a chance acquaintance by the
+      mere accident of bad weather. Their conversation if such it could be
+      called showed how little progress could be made in intimacy by those whose
+      roads in life lie apart. The bygone season, the company, the play-table
+      and its adventures, were all discussed so often, that nothing remained but
+      the weather. That topic, so inexhaustible to Englishmen, however, offered
+      little variety now, for it had been uniformly bad for some weeks past.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where do you propose to pass the winter, sir?&rdquo; said Haggerstone to Jekyl,
+      after a somewhat lengthy lamentation over the probable condition of all
+      the Alpine passes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 've scarcely thought of it yet,&rdquo; simpered out the other, with his
+      habitual smile. &ldquo;There's no saying where one ought to pitch his tent till
+      the Carnival opens.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you, sir?&rdquo; asked Haggerstone of his companion on the other side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Upon my honor, I don't know then,&rdquo; said Dalton; &ldquo;but I would n't wonder
+      if I stayed here, or hereabouts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here! why, this is Tobolsk, sir! You surely couldn't mean to pass a
+      winter here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I once knew a man who did it,&rdquo; interposed Jekyl, blandly. &ldquo;They cleaned
+      him out at 'the tables;' and so he had nothing for it but to remain. He
+      made rather a good thing of it, too; for it seems these worthy people,
+      however conversant with the great arts of ruin, had never seen the royal
+      game of thimble-rig; and Frank Mathews walked into them all, and contrived
+      to keep himself in beet-root and boiled beef by his little talents.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was n't that the fellow who was broke at Kilmagund?&rdquo; croaked Haggerstone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Something happened to him in India; I never well knew what,&rdquo; simpered
+      Jekyl. &ldquo;Some said he had caught the cholera; others, that he had got into
+      the Company's service.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By way of a mishap, sir, I suppose,&rdquo; said the Colonel, tartly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He would n't have minded it, in the least. For certain,&rdquo; resumed the
+      other, coolly, &ldquo;he was a sharp-witted fellow; always ready to take the
+      tone of any society.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Colonel's cheek grew yellower, and his eyes sparkled with an angrier
+      lustre; but he made no rejoinder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's the place to make a fortune, I'm told,&rdquo; said Dalton. &ldquo;I hear
+      there's not the like of it all the world over.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or to spend one,&rdquo; added Haggerstone, curtly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, and why not?&rdquo; replied Dalton. &ldquo;I 'm sure it 's as pleasant as
+      saving barring a man 's a Scotchman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if he should be, sir? and if he were one that now stands before you?&rdquo;
+       said Haggerstone, drawing himself proudly up, and looking the other
+      sternly in the face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No offence no offence in life. I did n't mean to hurt your feelings.
+      Sure, a man can't help where he 's going to be born.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fancy we'd all have booked ourselves for a cradle in Buckingham
+      Palace,&rdquo; interposed Jekyl, &ldquo;if the matter were optional.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Faith! I don't think so,&rdquo; broke in Dalton. &ldquo;Give me back Corrig-O'Neal,
+      as my grandfather Pearce had it, with the whole barony of
+      Kilmurray-O'Mahon, two packs of hounds, and the first cellar in the
+      county, and to the devil I'd fling all the royal residences ever I seen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The sentiment is scarcely a loyal one, sir,&rdquo; said Haggerstone, &ldquo;and, as
+      one wearing his Majesty's cloth, I beg to take the liberty of reminding
+      you of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maybe it isn't; and what then?&rdquo; said Dalton, over whose good-natured
+      countenance a passing cloud of displeasure lowered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Simply, sir, that it shouldn't be uttered in my presence,&rdquo; said
+      Haggerstone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Phew!&rdquo; said Dalton, with a long whistle, &ldquo;is that what you 're at? See,
+      now&rdquo; here he turned fully round, so as to face the Colonel &ldquo;see, now, I 'm
+      the dullest fellow in the world at what is called 'taking a thing up;' but
+      make it clear for me let me only see what is pleasing to the company, and
+      it is n't Peter Dalton will balk your fancy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I venture to remark,&rdquo; said Jekyl, blandly, &ldquo;that you are both in
+      error, and however I may (the cold of the season being considered) envy
+      your warmth, it is after all only so much caloric needlessly expended.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was n't choleric at all,&rdquo; broke in Dalton, mistaking the word, and thus
+      happily, by the hearty laugh his blunder created, bringing the silly
+      altercation to an end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Haggerstone, &ldquo;since we are all so perfectly agreed in our
+      sentiments, we could n't do better than dine together, and have a bumper
+      to the King's health.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I always dine at two, or half-past,&rdquo; simpered Jekyl; &ldquo;besides, I'm on a
+      regimen, and never drink wine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There 's nobody likes a bit of conviviality better than myself,&rdquo; said Dal
+      ton; &ldquo;but I 've a kind of engagement, a promise I made this morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was an evident confusion in the way these words were uttered, which
+      did not escape either of the others, who exchanged the most significant
+      glances as he spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What have we here?&rdquo; cried Jekyl, as he sprang to the window and looked
+      out. &ldquo;A courier, by all that's muddy! Who could have expected such an
+      apparition at this time?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What can bring people here now?&rdquo; said Haggerstone, as with his glass to
+      his eye he surveyed the little well-fed figure, who, in his tawdry jacket
+      all slashed with gold, and heavy jack-boots, was closely locked in the
+      embraces of the landlord.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jekyl at once issued forth to learn the news, and, although not fully
+      three minutes absent, returned to his companions with a full account of
+      the expected arrivals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's that rich banker, Sir Stafford Onslow, with his family. They were on
+      their way to Italy, and made a mess of it somehow in the Black Forest they
+      got swept away by a torrent, or crushed by an avalanche, or something of
+      the kind, and Sir Stafford was seized with the gout, and so they 've put
+      back, glad even to make such a port as Baden.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If it's the gout's the matter with him,&rdquo; said Dalton, &ldquo;I 've the finest
+      receipt in the world. Take a pint of spirits poteen if you can get it beat
+      up two eggs and a pat of butter in it; throw in a clove of garlic and a
+      few scrapings of horseradish, let it simmer over the fire for a minute or
+      two, stir it with a sprig of rosemary to give it a flavor, and then drink
+      it off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gracious Heaven! what a dose!&rdquo; exclaimed Jekyl, in horror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then, I never knew it fail. My father took it for forty years, and
+      there wasn't a haler man in the country. If it was n't that he gave up the
+      horseradish for he did n't like the taste of it he 'd, maybe, be alive at
+      this hour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The cure was rather slow of operation,&rdquo; said Haggerstone, with a sneer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Twas only the more like all remedies for Irish grievances, then,&rdquo;
+       observed Dal ton, and his face grew a shade graver as he spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who was it this Onslow married?&rdquo; said the Colonel, turning to Jekyl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One of the Headworths, I think.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, to be sure; Lady Hester. She was a handsome woman when I saw her
+      first, but she fell off sadly; and indeed, if she had not, she 'd scarcely
+      have condescended to an alliance with a man in trade, even though he were
+      Sir Gilbert Stafford.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Gilbert Stafford!&rdquo; repeated Dalton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir; and now Sir Gilbert Stafford Onslow. He took the name from that
+      estate in Warwickshire; Skepton Park, I believe they call it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By my conscience, I wish that was the only thing he took,&rdquo; ejaculated
+      Dalton, with a degree of fervor that astonished the others, &ldquo;for he took
+      an elegant estate that belonged by right to my wife. Maybe you have heard
+      tell of Corrig-O'Neal?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Haggerstone shook his head, while with his elbow he nudged his companion,
+      to intimate his total disbelief in the whole narrative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely you must have heard of the murder of Arthur Godfrey, of
+      Corrig-O'Neal; was n't the whole world ringing with it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Another negative sign answered this appeal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, well, that beats all ever I heard! but so it is, sorrow bit they
+      care in England if we all murdered each other! Arthur Godfrey, as I was
+      saying, was my wife's brother, there were just the two of them, Arthur and
+      Jane; she was my wife.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! here they come!&rdquo; exclaimed Jekyl, not sorry for the event which so
+      opportunely interrupted Dalton's unpromising history. And now a heavy
+      travelling-carriage, loaded with imperials and beset with boxes, was
+      dragged up to the door by six smoking horses. The courier and the landlord
+      were immediately in attendance, and after a brief delay the steps were
+      lowered, and a short, stout man, with a very red face and a very yellow
+      wig, descended, and assisted a lady to alight. She was a tall woman, whose
+      figure and carriage were characterized by an air of fashion. After her
+      came a younger lady; and lastly, moving with great difficulty, and showing
+      by his worn looks and enfeebled frame the suffering he had endured, came a
+      very thin, mild-looking man of about sixty. Leaning upon the arm of the
+      courier at one side, and of his stout companion, whom he called Doctor, at
+      the other, he slowly followed the ladies into the house. They had scarcely
+      disappeared when a caleche, drawn by three horses at a sharp gallop, drew
+      up, and a young fellow sprang out, whose easy gestures and active
+      movements showed that all the enjoyments of wealth and all the
+      blandishments of fashion had not undermined the elastic vigor of body
+      which young Englishmen owe to the practice of field sports.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This place quite deserted, I suppose,&rdquo; cried he, addressing the landlord.
+      &ldquo;No one here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No one, sir. All gone,&rdquo; was the reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haggerstone's head shook with a movement of impatience as he heard this
+      remark, disparaging as it was, to his own importance; but he said nothing,
+      and resumed his walk as before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our Irish friend is gone away, I perceive,&rdquo; said Jekyl, as he looked
+      around in vain for Dalton. &ldquo;Do you believe all that story of the estate he
+      told us?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a syllable of it, sir. I never yet met an Irishman and it has been my
+      lot to know some scores of them who had not been cheated out of a
+      magnificent property, and was not related to half the peerage to boot.
+      Now, I take it that our highly connected friend is rather out at elbows!&rdquo;
+       And he laughed his own peculiar hard laugh, as though the mere fancy of
+      another man's poverty was something inconceivably pleasant and amusing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dinner, sir,&rdquo; said the waiter, entering and addressing the Colonel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Glad of it,&rdquo; cried he; &ldquo;it's the only way to kill time in this cursed
+      place;&rdquo; and so saying, and without the ceremony of a good-bye to his
+      companion, the Colonel bustled out of the room with a step intended to
+      represent extreme youth and activity. &ldquo;That gentleman dines at two?&rdquo; asked
+      he of the waiter, as he followed him up the stairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has not dined at all, sir, for some days back,&rdquo; said the waiter. &ldquo;A
+      cup of coffee in the morning, and a biscuit, are all that he takes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Colonel made an expressive gesture by turning out the lining of his
+      pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir,&rdquo; replied the other, significantly; &ldquo;very much that way, I
+      believe.&rdquo; And with that he uncovered the soup, and the Colonel arranged
+      his napkin and prepared to dine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II. AN HUMBLE INTERIOR
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      WHEN Dalton parted from his companions at the &ldquo;Russie,&rdquo; it was to proceed
+      by many an intricate and narrow passage to a remote part of the upper
+      town, where close to the garden wall of the Ducal Palace stood, and still
+      stands, a little solitary two-storied house, framed in wood, and the
+      partitions displaying some very faded traces of fresco painting. Here was
+      the well-known shop of a toy-maker; and although now closely barred and
+      shuttered, in summer many a gay and merry troop of children devoured with
+      eager eyes the treasures of Hans Roeckle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Entering a dark and narrow passage beside the shop, Dalton ascended the
+      little creaking stairs which led to the second story. The landing place
+      was covered with firewood, great branches of newly-hewn beech and oak, in
+      the midst of which stood a youth, hatchet in hand, busily engaged in
+      chopping and splitting the heavy masses around him. The flush of exercise
+      upon his cheek suited well the character of a figure which, clothed only
+      in shirt and trousers, presented a perfect picture of youthful health and
+      symmetry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tired, Frank?&rdquo; asked the old man, as he came up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tired, father! not a bit of it. I only wish I had as much more to split
+      for you, since the winter will be a cold one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come in and sit down, boy, now,&rdquo; said the father, with a slight tremor as
+      he spoke. &ldquo;We cannot have many more opportunities of talking together.
+      To-morrow is the 28th of November.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; and I must be in Vienna by the fourth, so Uncle Stephen writes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must not call him uncle, Frank, he forbids it himself; besides, he is
+      my uncle, and not yours. My father and he were brothers, but never saw
+      each other after fifteen years of age, when the Count that 's what we
+      always called him entered the Austrian service, so that we are all
+      strangers to each other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His letter does n't show any lively desire for a closer intimacy,&rdquo; said
+      the boy, laughing. &ldquo;A droll composition it is, spelling and all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He left Ireland when he was a child, and lucky he was to do so,&rdquo; sighed
+      Dalton, heavily. &ldquo;I wish I had done the same.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The chamber into which they entered was, although scrupulously clean and
+      neat, marked by every sign of poverty. The furniture was scanty and of the
+      humblest kind; the table linen, such as used by the peasantry, while the
+      great jug of water that stood on the board seemed the very climax of
+      narrow fortune in a land where the very poorest are wine-drinkers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A small knapsack with a light travelling-cap on it, and a staff beside it,
+      seemed to attract Dalton's eyes as he sat down. &ldquo;It is but a poor
+      equipment, that yonder. Frank,&rdquo; said he at last, with a forced smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The easier carried,&rdquo; replied the lad, gayly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very true,&rdquo; sighed the other. &ldquo;You must make the journey on foot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why not, father? Of what use all this good blood, of which I have
+      been told so often and so much, if it will not enable a man to compete
+      with the low-born peasant. And see how well this knapsack sits,&rdquo; cried he,
+      as he threw it on his shoulder. &ldquo;I doubt if the Emperor's pack will be as
+      pleasant to carry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So long as you haven't to carry a heavy heart, boy,&rdquo; said Dalton, with
+      deep emotion, &ldquo;I believe no load is too much.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If it were not for leaving you and the girls, I never could be happier,
+      never more full of hope, father. Why should not <i>I</i> win my way upward
+      as Count Stephen has done? Loyalty and courage are not the birthright of
+      only one of our name!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bad luck was all the birthright ever I inherited,&rdquo; said the old man,
+      passionately; &ldquo;bad luck in everything I touched through life! Where others
+      grew rich, I became a beggar; where they found happiness, <i>I</i> met
+      misery and ruin! But it's not of this I ought to be thinking now,&rdquo; cried
+      he, changing his tone. &ldquo;Let us see, where are the girls?&rdquo; And so saying,
+      he entered a little kitchen which adjoined the room, and where, engaged in
+      the task of preparing the dinner, was a girl, who, though several years
+      older, bore a striking resemblance to the boy. Over features that must
+      once have been the very type of buoyant gayety, years of sorrow and
+      suffering had left their deep traces, and the dark circles around the eyes
+      betrayed how deeply she had known affliction. Ellen Dalton's figure was
+      faulty for want of height in proportion to her size, but had another and
+      more grievous defect in a lameness, which made her walk with the greatest
+      difficulty. This was the consequence of an accident when riding, a horse
+      having fallen upon her and fractured the hip-bone. It was said, too, that
+      she had been engaged to be married at the time, but that her lover,
+      shocked by the disfigurement, had broken off the match, and thus made this
+      calamity the sorrow of a life long.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where's Kate?&rdquo; said the father, as he cast a glance around the chamber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ellen drew near, and whispered a few words in his ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not in this dreadful weather; surely, Ellen, you didn't let her go out in
+      such a night as this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush!&rdquo; murmured she, &ldquo;Frank will hear you; and remember, father, it is
+      his last night with us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Could n't old Andy have found the place?&rdquo; asked Daiton; and as he spoke,
+      he turned his eyes to a corner of the kitchen, where a little old man sat
+      in a straw chair peeling turnips, while he croned a ditty to himself in a
+      low singsong tone; his thin, wizened features, browned by years and smoke,
+      his small scratch wig, and the remains of an old scarlet hunting-coat that
+      he wore, giving him the strongest resemblance to one of the monkeys one
+      sees in a street exhibition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor Andy!&rdquo; cried Ellen, &ldquo;he'd have lost his way twenty times before he
+      got to the bridge.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Faith, then, he must be greatly altered,&rdquo; said Dalton, &ldquo;for I 've seen
+      him track a fox for twenty miles of ground, when not a dog of the pack
+      could come on the trace. Eh, Andy!&rdquo; cried he, aloud, and stooping down so
+      as to be heard by the old man, &ldquo;do you remember the cover at Corralin?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't ask him, father,&rdquo; said Ellen, eagerly; &ldquo;he cannot sleep for the
+      whole night after his old memories have been awakened.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The spell, however, had begun to work; and the old man, letting fall both
+      knife and turnip, placed his hands on his knees, and in a weak, reedy
+      treble began a strange, monotonous kind of air, as if to remind himself of
+      the words, which, after a minute or two, he remembered thus.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;There was old Tom Whaley,
+     And Anthony Baillie,
+     And Fitzgerald, the Knight of Glynn,
+     And Father Clare,
+     On his big brown mare,
+     That moruin' at Corralin!&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well done, Andy! well done!&rdquo; exclaimed Dalton. &ldquo;You 're as fresh as a
+      four-year-old.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Iss!&rdquo; said Andy, and went on with his song.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;And Miles O'Shea,
+     On his cropped tail bay,
+     Was soon seen ridin' in.
+     He was vexed and crossed
+     At the light hoar frost,
+     That mornin' at Corralin.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go on, Andy! go on, my boy!&rdquo; exclaimed Dalton, in a rapture at the words
+      that reminded him of many a day in the field and many a night's carouse.
+      &ldquo;What comes next?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay!&rdquo; cried Andy.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Says he, 'When the wind
+     Laves no scent behind,
+     To keep the dogs out 's a sin;
+     I 'll be d&mdash;d if I stay,
+     To lose my day,
+     This mornin' at Corralin.'&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      But ye see he was out in his reck'nin'!&rdquo; cried Andy; &ldquo;for, as if
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;To give him the lie,
+     There rose a cry,
+     As the hounds came yelpin' in;
+     And from every throat
+     There swelled one note,
+     That moruin' at Corralin.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      A fit of coughing, brought on by a vigorous attempt to imitate the cry of
+      a pack, here closed Andy's minstrelsy; and Ellen, who seemed to have
+      anticipated some such catastrophe, now induced her father to return to the
+      sitting-room, while she proceeded to use those principles of domestic
+      medicine clapping on the back and cold water usually deemed of efficacy in
+      like cases.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There now, no more singing, but take up your knife and do what I bade
+      you,&rdquo; said she, affecting an air of rebuke; while the old man, whose
+      perceptions did not rise above those of a spaniel, hung down his head in
+      silence. At the same moment the outer door of the kitchen opened, and Kate
+      Dalton entered. Taller and several years younger than her sister, she was
+      in the full pride of that beauty of which blue eyes and dark hair are the
+      chief characteristics, and is deemed by many as peculiarly Irish.
+      Delicately fair, and with features regular as a Grecian model, there was a
+      look of brilliant, almost of haughty, defiance about her, to which her
+      gait and carriage seemed to contribute; nor could the humble character of
+      her dress, where strictest poverty declared itself, disguise the
+      sentiment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How soon you're back, dearest!&rdquo; said Ellen, as she took off the dripping
+      cloak from her sister's shoulders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And only think, Ellen, I was obliged to go to Lichtenthal, where little
+      Hans spends all his evenings in the winter season, at the 'Hahn!' And just
+      fancy his gallantry! He would see me home, and would hold up the umbrella,
+      too, over my head, although it kept his own arm at full stretch; while, by
+      the pace we walked, I did as much for his legs. It is very ungrateful to
+      laugh at him, for he said a hundred pretty things to me, about my courage
+      to venture out in such weather, about my accent as I spoke German, and
+      lastly, in praise of my skill as a sculptor. Only fancy, Ellen, what a
+      humiliation for me to confess that these pretty devices were yours, and
+      not mine; and that my craft went no further than seeking for the material
+      which your genius was to fashion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Genius, Kate!&rdquo; exclaimed Ellen, laughing. &ldquo;Has Master Hans been giving
+      you a lesson in flattery; but tell me of your success which has he taken?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All everything!&rdquo; cried Kate; &ldquo;for although at the beginning the little
+      fellow would select one figure and then change it for another, it was easy
+      to see that he could not bring himself to part with any of them: now
+      sitting down in rapture before the 'Travelling Student,' now gazing
+      delightedly at the 'Charcoal-Burners,' but all his warmest enthusiasm
+      bursting forth as I produced the 'Forest Maiden at the Well.' He did,
+      indeed, think the 'Pedler' too handsome, but he found no such fault with
+      the Maiden: and here, dearest, here are the proceeds, for I told him that
+      we must have ducats in shining gold for Frank's new crimson purse; and
+      here they are;&rdquo; and she held up a purse of gay colors, through whose
+      meshes the bright metal glittered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor Hans!&rdquo; said Ellen, feelingly. &ldquo;It is seldom that so humble an artist
+      meets so generous a patron.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's coming to-night,&rdquo; said Kate, as she smoothed down the braids of her
+      glossy hair before a little glass, &ldquo;he's coming to say good-bye to Frank.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is so fond of Frank.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And of Frank's sister Nelly; nay, no blushing, dearest; for myself, I am
+      free to own admiration never comes amiss, even when offered by as humble a
+      creature as the dwarf, Hans Roeckle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For shame, Kate, for shame! It is this idle vanity that stifles honest
+      pride, as rank weeds destroy the soil for wholesome plants to live in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is very well for you, Nelly, to talk of pride, but poor things like
+      myself are fain to content themselves with the baser metal, and even put
+      up with vanity! There, now, no sermons, no seriousness; I'll listen to
+      nothing to-day that savors of sadness, and, as I hear pa and Frank
+      laughing, I'll be of the party.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The glance of affection and admiration which Ellen bestowed upon her
+      sister was not unmixed with an expression of painful anxiety, and the sigh
+      that escaped her told with what tender interest she watched over her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The little dinner, prepared with more than usual care, at length appeared,
+      and the family sat around the humble board with a sense of happiness
+      dashed by one only reflection, that on the morrow Frank's place would be
+      vacant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still each exerted himself to overcome the sadness of that thought, or
+      even to dally with it, as one suggestive of pleasure; and when Ellen
+      placed unexpectedly a great flask of Margraer before them to drink the
+      young soldier's health, the zest and merriment rose to the highest. Nor
+      was old Andy forgotten in the general joy. A large bumper of wine was put
+      before him, and the door of the sitting-room left open, as if to let him
+      participate in the merry noises that prevailed there. How naturally, and
+      instinctively, too, their hopes gave color to all they said, as they told
+      each other that the occasion was a happy one! that dear Frank would soon
+      be an officer, and of course distinguished by the favor of some one high
+      in power; and lastly, they dwelt with such complacency on the affectionate
+      regard and influence of &ldquo;Count Stephen&rdquo; as certain to secure the youth's
+      advancement. They had often heard of the Count's great military fame, and
+      the esteem in which he was held by the Court of Vienna; and now they
+      speculated on the delight it would afford the old warrior who had never
+      been married himself to have one like Frank, to assist by his patronage,
+      and promote by his influence, and with such enthusiasm did they discuss
+      the point, that at last they actually persuaded themselves that Frank's
+      entering the service was a species of devotion to his relative's interest,
+      by affording him an object worthy of his regard and affection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While Ellen loved to dwell upon the great advantages of one who should be
+      like a father to the boy, aiding him by wise counsel, and guiding him in
+      every difficulty, Kate preferred to fancy the Count introducing Frank into
+      all the brilliant society of the splendid capital, presenting him to those
+      whose acquaintance was distinction, and at once launching him into the
+      world of fashion and enjoyment. The promptitude with which he acceded to
+      their father's application on Frank's behalf, was constantly referred to
+      as the evidence of his affectionate feeling for the family; and if his one
+      solitary letter was of the very briefest and driest of all epistolary
+      essays, they accounted for this very naturally by the length of time which
+      had elapsed since he had either spoken or written his native language.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the midst of these self-gratulations and pleasant fancies the door
+      opened, and Hans Roeckle appeared, covered from head to foot by a light
+      hoar-frost, that made him look like the figure with which an ingenious
+      confectioner sometimes decorates a cake. The dwarf stood staring at the
+      signs of a conviviality so new and unexpected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is this Christmas time, or Holy Monday, or the Three Kings' festival, or
+      what is it, that I see you all feasting?&rdquo; cried Hans, shaking the snow off
+      his hat, and proceeding to remove a cloak which he had draped over his
+      shoulder in most artistic folds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We were drinking Frank's health, Master Hans,&rdquo; said Dalton, &ldquo;before he
+      leaves us. Come over and pledge him too, and wish him all success, and
+      that he may live to be a good and valued soldier of the Emperor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hans had by this time taken off his cloak, which, by mounting on a chair,
+      he contrived to hang up, and now approached the table with great
+      solemnity, a pair of immense boots of Russian leather, that reached to his
+      hips, giving him a peculiarly cumbrous and heavy gait; but these, as well
+      as a long vest of rabbit skins that buttoned close to the neck, made his
+      invariable costume in the winter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I drink,&rdquo; said the dwarf, as, filling a bumper, he turned to each of the
+      company severally &ldquo;I drink to the venerable father and the fair maidens,
+      and the promising youth of this good family, and I wish them every
+      blessing good Christians ought to ask for; but as for killing and slaying,
+      for burning villages and laying waste cities, I 've no sympathy with
+      these.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you are speaking of barbarous times, Master Hans,&rdquo; said Kate, whose
+      cheek mantled into scarlet as she spoke, &ldquo;when to be strong was to be
+      cruel, and when ill-disciplined hordes tyrannized over good citizens.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0001" id="linkimage-0001">
+      <!-- IMG --></a> <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/00040.jpg" alt="00040" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am talking of soldiers, such as the world has ever seen them,&rdquo; cried
+      Hans, passionately; but of whose military experiences, it is but fair to
+      say, his own little toyshop supplied all the source. &ldquo;What are they?&rdquo;
+       cried he, &ldquo;but toys that never last, whether he who plays with them be
+      child or kaiser! always getting smashed, heads knocked off here, arms and
+      legs astray there; ay, and strangest of all, thought most of when most
+      disabled! and then at last packed up in a box or a barrack, it matters not
+      which, to be forgotten and seen no more! Hadst thou thought of something
+      useful, boy some good craft, a Jager with a corkscrew inside of him, a
+      tailor that turns into a pair of snuffers, a Dutch lady that makes a
+      pin-cushion, these are toys people don't weary of but a soldier! to stand
+      ever thus&rdquo; and Hans shouldered the fire-shovel, and stood &ldquo;at the
+      present.&rdquo; &ldquo;To wheel about so walk ten steps here ten back there never so
+      much as a glance at the pretty girl who is passing close beside you.&rdquo; Here
+      he gave a look of such indescribable tenderness towards Kate, that the
+      whole party burst into a fit of laughter. &ldquo;They would have drawn me for
+      the conscription,&rdquo; said Hans, proudly, &ldquo;but I was the only son of a widow,
+      and they could not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And are you never grieved to think what glorious opportunities of
+      distinction have been thus lost to you?&rdquo; said Kate, who, notwithstanding
+      Ellen's imploring looks, could not resist the temptation of amusing
+      herself with the dwarf's vanity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have never suffered that thought to weigh upon me,&rdquo; cried Hans, with
+      the most unsuspecting simplicity. &ldquo;It is true, I might have risen to rank
+      and honors; but how would they have suited me, or I them? Or how should I
+      have made those dearest to me sharers in a fortune so unbecoming to us?
+      Think of poor Hans's old mother, if her son were to ask her blessing with
+      a coat all glittering with stars and crosses; and then think of her as I
+      have seen her, when I go, as I do every year, to visit her in the
+      Bregentzer Wald, when she comes out to meet me with our whole village,
+      proud of her son, and yet not ashamed of herself. That is glory that is
+      distinction enough for Hans Roeckle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The earnestness of his voice, and the honest manliness of his sentiments,
+      were more than enough to cover the venial errors of a vanity that was all
+      simplicity. It is true that Hans saw the world only through the medium of
+      his own calling, and that not a very exalted one; but still there went
+      through all the narrowness of his views a tone of kindliness a hearty
+      spirit of benevolence, that made his simplicity at times rise into
+      something almost akin to wisdom. He had known the Dal tons as his tenants,
+      and soon perceived that they were not like those rich English, from whom
+      his countrymen derive such abundant gains. He saw them arrive at a season
+      when all others were taking their departure, and detected in all their
+      efforts at economy, not alone that they were poor, but, sadder still, that
+      they were of those who seem never to accustom themselves to the privations
+      of narrow fortune; for, while some submit in patience to their humble lot,
+      with others life is one long and hard-fought struggle, wherein health,
+      hope, and temper are expended in vain. That the Daltons maintained a
+      distance and reserve towards others of like fortune did, indeed, puzzle
+      honest Hans, perhaps it displeased him, too, for he thought it might be
+      pride; but then their treatment of himself disarmed that suspicion, for
+      they not only received him ever cordially, but with every sign of real
+      affection; and what was he to expect such? Nor were these the only traits
+      that fascinated him; for all the rugged shell the kernel was a heart as
+      tender, as warm, and as full of generous emotions as ever beat within an
+      ampler breast. The two sisters, in Hans's eyes, were alike beautiful; each
+      had some grace or charm that he had never met with before, nor could he
+      ever satisfy himself whether his fancy was more taken by Kate's wit or by
+      Ellen's gentleness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If anything were needed to complete the measure of his admiration, their
+      skill in carving those wooden figures, which he sold, would have been
+      sufficient. These were in his eyes nor was he a mean connoisseur high
+      efforts of genius; and Hans saw in them a poetry and a truthfulness to
+      nature that such productions rarely, if ever, possess. To sell, such
+      things as mere toys, he regarded as little short of a sacrilege, while
+      even to part with them at all cost him a pang like that the gold-worker of
+      Florence experienced when he saw some treasure of Benvenuto's chisel leave
+      his possession. Not, indeed, that honest Hans had to struggle against that
+      criminal passion which prompted the jeweller, even by deeds of
+      assassination, to repossess himself of the coveted objects; nay, on the
+      contrary, he felt a kindness and a degree of interest towards those in
+      whose keeping they were, as if some secret sympathy united them to each
+      other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Is it any wonder if poor Hans forgot himself in such pleasant company, and
+      sat a full hour and a half longer than he ought? To him the little
+      intervals of silence that were occasionally suffered to intervene were but
+      moments of dreamy and delicious revery, wherein his fancy wandered away in
+      a thousand pleasant paths; and when at last the watchman for remember,
+      good reader, they were in that primitive Germany where customs change not
+      too abruptly announced two o'clock, little Hans did not vouchsafe a
+      grateful response to the quaint old rhyme that was chanted beneath the
+      window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That little chap would sit to the day of judgment, and never ask to wet
+      his lips,&rdquo; said Dal ton, as Frank accompanied the dwarf downstairs to the
+      street door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe he not only forgot the hour, but where he was, and everything
+      else,&rdquo; said Kate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And poor Frank! who should have been in bed some hours ago,&rdquo; sighed
+      Nelly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gone at last, girls!&rdquo; exclaimed Frank, as he entered, laughing. &ldquo;If it
+      hadn't been a gust of wind that caught him at the door, and carried him
+      clean away, our leave-taking might have lasted till morning. Poor fellow!
+      he had so many cautions to give me, such mountains of good counsel; and
+      see, here is a holy medal he made me accept. He told me the 'Swedes' would
+      never harm me so long as I wore it; he still fancies that we are in the
+      Thirty Years' War.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In a hearty laugh over Hans Roeckle's political knowledge, they wished
+      each other an affectionate good-night, and separated. Frank was to have
+      his breakfast by daybreak, and each sister affected to leave the care of
+      that meal to the other, secretly resolving to be up and stirring first.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Save old Andy, there was not one disposed to sleep that night. All were
+      too full of their own cares. Even Dalton himself, blunted as were his
+      feelings by a long life of suffering, his mind was tortured by anxieties;
+      and one sad question arose again and again before him, without an answer
+      ever occurring: &ldquo;What is to become of the girls when I am gone? Without a
+      home, they will soon be without a protector!&rdquo; The bright fancies, the
+      hopeful visions in which the evening had been passed, made the revulsion
+      to these gloomy thoughts the darker. He lay with his hands pressed upon
+      his face, while the hot tears gushed from eyes that never before knew
+      weeping.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At moments he half resolved not to let Frank depart, but an instant's
+      thought showed him how futile would be the change. It would be but leaving
+      him to share the poverty, to depend upon the scanty pittance already too
+      little for themselves. &ldquo;Would Count Stephen befriend the poor girls?&rdquo; he
+      asked himself over and over; and in his difficulty he turned to the
+      strange epistle in which the old general announced Frank's appointment as
+      a cadet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The paper, the square folding, the straight, stiff letters, well suited a
+      style which plainly proclaimed how many years his English had lain at
+      rest. The note ran thus:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     GRABEN-WIEN, Octobre 9, 18&mdash;
+
+     WORTHY SIR AND NEPHEW, Your kindly greeting, but long-time
+     on-the-road-coming letter is in my hands. It is to me
+     pleasure that I announce the appointment of your son as a
+     Cadet in the seventh battalion of the Carl-Franz Infanterie.
+     So with, let him in all speed of time report himself here at
+     Wien, before the War's Minister, bringing his Tauf schein
+     Baptism's sign as proof of Individualism.
+
+     I am yours, well to command, and much-loving kinsman,
+
+     GRAF DALTON VON AUERSBERG, Lieut.-General and
+     Feldzeugmeister, K.K.A.
+
+     To the high and well-born, the Freiherr v. Dalton, in Baden Baden.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III. THE FOREST ROAD.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THIS dry epistle Dalton read and re-read, trying, if not to discover some
+      touch of kindliness or interest, to detect, at least, some clew to its
+      writer's nature; but to no use, its quaint formalism baffled all
+      speculation, and he gave up the pursuit in despair. That &ldquo;the Count&rdquo; was
+      his father's only brother, and a &ldquo;Dalton,&rdquo; were the only grains of comfort
+      he could extract from his meditations; but he had lived long enough in the
+      world to know how little binding were the ties of kindred when once
+      slackened by years and distance. The Count might, therefore, regard them
+      in the light of intruders, and feel the very reverse of pleasure at the
+      revival of a relationship which had slept for more than half a century.
+      Dalton's pride or what he thought his pride revolted against this thought;
+      for, although this same pride would not have withheld him from asking a
+      favor of the Count, it would have assumed a most indignant attitude if
+      refused, or even grudgingly accorded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the thought first occurred to him of applying to his uncle in Frank's
+      behalf, he never hesitated about the propriety of addressing a request to
+      one with whom he had never interchanged a line in all his life; and now he
+      was quite ready to take offence, if all the warmth of blood relationship
+      should not fill the heart of him who had been an exile from home and
+      family since his earliest boyhood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An easy, indolent selfishness had been the spirit of Dalton's whole life.
+      He liked to keep a good house, and to see company about him; and this
+      obtained for him the reputation of hospitality. He disliked unpopularity,
+      and dreaded the &ldquo;bad word&rdquo; of the people; and hence he suffered his
+      tenantry to fall into arrears and his estate into ruin. A vain rivalry
+      with wealthier neighbors prevented retrenchment when his means were
+      lessened. The unthinking selfishness of his nature was apparent even in
+      his marriage, since it was in obedience to an old pledge extracted years
+      before that Miss Godfrey accepted him, and parted in anger with her
+      brother, who had ever loved her with the warmest affection. Mr. Godfrey
+      never forgave his sister; and at his death, the mysterious' circumstances
+      of which were never cleared up, his estate passed to a distant relative,
+      the rick Sir Gilbert Stafford.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dalton, who long cherished the hope of a reconciliation, saw all prospect
+      vanish when his wife died, which she did, it was said, of a broken heart.
+      His debts were already considerable, and all the resources of borrowing
+      and mortgage had been long since exhausted; nothing was then left for him
+      but an arrangement with his creditors, which, giving him a pittance
+      scarcely above the very closest poverty, enabled him to drag out life in
+      the cheap places of the Continent; and thus, for nigh twenty years, had he
+      wandered about from Dieppe to Ostend, to Bruges, to Dusseldorf, to
+      Coblentz, and so on, among the small Ducal cities, till, with still
+      failing fortune, he was fain to seek a residence for the winter in Baden,
+      where house-rent, at least, would be almost saved to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The same apathy that had brought on his ruin enabled him to bear it.
+      Nothing has such a mock resemblance to wisdom as utter heartlessness; with
+      all the seeming of true philosophy, it assumes a port and bearing above
+      the trials of the world; holds on &ldquo;the even tenor of its way,&rdquo; undeterred
+      by the reverses which overwhelm others, and even meets the sternest frowns
+      of fortune with the bland smile of equanimity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this way Dalton had deceived many who had known him in better days, and
+      who now saw him, even in his adversity, with the same careless,
+      good-natured look, as when he took the field with his own hounds, or
+      passed round the claret at his own table. Even his own children were
+      sharers in this delusion, and heard him with wondering admiration, as he
+      told of the life he used to lead, and the style he once kept up at Mount
+      Dalton. These were his favorite topics; and, as he grew older, he seemed
+      to find a kind of consolation in contrasting all the hard rubs of present
+      adversity with his once splendor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon Ellen Dalton, who had known and could still remember her mother,
+      these recitals produced an impression of profound grief, associated as
+      they were with the sufferings of a sick-bed and the closing sorrows of a
+      life; while, in the others, they served to keep up a species of pride of
+      birth, and an assumption of superiority to others of like fortune, which
+      their father gloried in, representing, as he used to say, &ldquo;the old spirit
+      of the Dal tons.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As for Kate, she felt it a compensation for present poverty to know that
+      they were of gentle blood, and that if fortune, at some distant future,
+      would deal kindly by them, to think that they should not obtrude
+      themselves like upstarts on the world, but resume, as it were, the place
+      that was long their own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Frank the evil had taken a deeper root. Taught from his earliest
+      infancy to believe himself the heir of an ancient house, pride of birth
+      and station instilled into his mind by old Andy, the huntsman, the only
+      dependant, whom, with characteristic wisdom, they had carried with them
+      from Ireland, he never ceased to ponder on the subject, and wonder within
+      himself if he should live to have &ldquo;his own&rdquo; again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such a hold had this passion taken of him, that, even as a child, he would
+      wander away for days long into lonely and unfrequented spots, thinking
+      over the stories he had heard, and trying to conjure up before his eyes
+      some resemblance to that ancient house and venerable domain which had been
+      so long in his family. It was no part of his teaching to know by what
+      spendthrift and reckless waste, by what a long career of folly,
+      extravagance, and dissipation, the fortune of his family had been wrecked;
+      or rather, many vague and shadowy suspicions had been left to fester in
+      his mind of wrongs and injuries done them; of severe laws imposed by
+      English ignorance or cruelty; of injustice, on this hand heartless
+      indifference of friends on the other; the unrelenting anger of his uncle
+      Godfrey filling up the measure of their calamities. Frank Dalton's
+      education went very little further than this; but, bad as it was, its
+      effect was blunted by the natural frankness and generosity of his
+      character, its worst fruits being an over-estimate of himself and his
+      pretensions, errors which the world has always the watchful kindness to
+      correct in those who wear threadbare coats and patched boots.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was warmly and devotedly attached to his father and sisters, and
+      whatever bitterness found its way into his heart was from seeing them
+      enduring the many trials of poverty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All his enthusiasm for the service in which he was about to enter was,
+      therefore, barely sufficient to overcome the sorrow of parting with those,
+      whom alone of all the world he loved; and when the moment drew nigh for
+      his departure, he forgot the bright illusions by which he had so often fed
+      his hopes, and could only think of the grief of separation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His candle had burned down nearly to the socket, when he arose and looked
+      at his watch. It was all dark as midnight without, although nigh six
+      o'clock. He opened the window, and a thin snowdrift came slanting in,
+      borne on a cutting north wind; he closed it hastily, and shuddered as he
+      thought of the long and lonely march before him. All was silent in the
+      house as he dressed himself and prepared for the road. With noiseless step
+      he drew near his father's door and listened; everything was still. He
+      could not bring himself to disturb him, so he passed on to the room where
+      his sisters slept. The door lay ajar, and a candle was burning on the
+      table. Frank entered on tiptoe and drew near the bed, but it was empty and
+      had not been lain in. As he turned round he beheld Kate asleep in a chair,
+      dressed as he had last seen her. She had never lain down, and the
+      prayer-book, which had dropped from her hand, told how her last waking
+      moments were passed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He kissed her twice, but even the hot tears that fell from his eyes upon
+      her cheek did not break her slumber. He looked about him for some token to
+      leave, that might tell he had been there, but there was nothing, and, with
+      a low sigh, he stole from the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he passed out into the kitchen, Ellen was there. She had already
+      prepared his breakfast, and was spreading the table when he entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How good of you how kind, Ellen,&rdquo; said he, as he passed his arm around
+      her neck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush, Frank, they are both sleeping. Poor papa never closed his eyes till
+      half an hour ago, and Kate was fairly overcome ere she yielded.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will say that I kissed them, Nelly, kissed them twice,&rdquo; said he, in a
+      low, broken voice, &ldquo;and that I could n't bear to awake them. Leave-taking
+      is so sorrowful. Oh, Ellen, if I knew that you were all happy, that there
+      were no hardships before you, when I 'm away!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why should we not, Frank?&rdquo; said she, firmly. &ldquo;There is no dishonor in
+      this poverty, so long as there are no straits to make it seem other than
+      it is. Let us rather pray for the spirit that may befit any lot we are
+      thrown in, than for a fortune to which we might be unsuited.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would you forget who we are, Ellen?&rdquo; said he, half reproachfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would remember it, Frank, in a temper less of pride than humility.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not see much of the family spirit in all this,&rdquo; rejoined he, almost
+      angrily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The family spirit,&rdquo; echoed she, feelingly. &ldquo;What has it ever done for us,
+      save injury? Has it suggested a high=bearing courage against the ills of
+      narrow fortune? Has it told us how to bear poverty with dignity, or taught
+      us one single lesson of patience and submission? Or has it, on the
+      contrary, been ever present to whisper the changes in our condition how
+      altered our lot making us ashamed of that companionship which our station
+      rendered possible for us, and leaving us in the isolation of
+      friendlessness for the sake of I blush to abuse the word our Pride! Oh,
+      Frank, my dear, dear brother, take it not ill of me, that in our last
+      moments together, perhaps for years, I speak what may jar upon your ears
+      to hear; but remember that I am much older, that I have seen far more of
+      the world, at least of its sorrows and cares, than you have. I have indeed
+      known affliction in many ways, but have never found a poorer comforter in
+      its troubles than what we call our Pride!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You would have me forget I am a Dalton, then?&rdquo; said the boy, in a tone of
+      sorrowful meaning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never! when the recollection could prompt a generous or a noble action, a
+      manly ambition, or a high-hearted thought; but the name will have no spell
+      in it, if used to instil an imperious, discontented spirit, a regretful
+      contrast of what we are, with what we might have been, or what, in a
+      worldly sense, is more destructive still, a false reliance on the
+      distinction of a family to which we have contributed nothing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0002" id="linkimage-0002">
+      <!-- IMG --></a> <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/00050.jpg" alt="00050" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You do not know, Nelly dearest, of what a comfort you have robbed me,&rdquo;
+       said Frank, sorrowfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not say so, my dearest brother,&rdquo; cried she, passing her arm around
+      him; &ldquo;a deception, a mere illusion, is unworthy of that name. Look above
+      the gratification of mere vanity, and you will become steeled against the
+      many wounds self-love is sure to receive in intercourse with the world. I
+      cannot tell how, or with what associates, you are about to live, but I
+      feel certain that in every station a man of truth and honor will make
+      himself respected. Be such, dearest Frank. If family pride if the name of
+      Dalton have value in your eyes, remember that upon you it rests to assert
+      its right to distinction. If, as I would fondly hope, your heart dwells
+      here with us, bethink ye what joy what holy gratitude you will diffuse
+      around our humble hearth to know that our brother is a good man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was some moments ere either could speak again. Emotions, very different
+      ones, perhaps, filled their hearts, and each was too deeply moved for
+      words. Frank's eyes were full of tears, and his cheek quivering, as he
+      threw his knapsack on his shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will write from Innspruck, Frank; but how many days will it take ere
+      you reach that city?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Twelve or fourteen at least, if I go on foot. There, Nelly, do not help
+      me, dearest; I shall not have you tomorrow to fasten these straps.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is not to be forgotten, Frank; it's Kate's present. How sorry she
+      will be not to have given it with her own hands!&rdquo; And so saying, she gave
+      him the purse her sister had worked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But there is gold in it,&rdquo; said the boy, growing pale with emotion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very little, Frank dearest,&rdquo; replied she, smiling. &ldquo;A cadet must always
+      have gold in his purse, so little Hans tells us; and you know how wise he
+      is in all these matters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And is it from a home like this that I am to take gold away!&rdquo; cried he,
+      passionately.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, Frank, you must not persuade us that we are so very poor. I will not
+      consent to any sense of martyrdom, I promise you.&rdquo; It was not without
+      difficulty she could overcome his scruples; nor, perhaps, had she
+      succeeded at all, if his thoughts had not been diverted into another
+      channel by a light tapping at the door. It was Hans Roeckle come to awake
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again and again the brother and sister embraced; and in a very agony of
+      tears Frank tore himself away, and hastened down the stairs. The next
+      moment the heavy house door banged loudly, and he was gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oh, the loneliness of mind in which he threaded his way through the dark
+      and narrow streets, where the snow already lay deeply! With what sinking
+      of the heart he turned to look for the last time at the window where the
+      light the only one to be seen still glimmered. How little could all the
+      promptings of hope suffice against the sad and dark reality that he was
+      leaving all he loved, and all who loved him, to adventure upon a world
+      where all was bleak and friendless!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But not all his dark forebodings could equal hers from whom he had just
+      parted. Loving her brother with an affection more like that of mother than
+      sister, she had often thought over the traits of his character, where,
+      with many a noble gift, the evil seeds of wrong teaching had left, like
+      tall weeds among flowers, the baneful errors of inordinate self-esteem and
+      pride. Ignorant of the career on which he was about to enter, Ellen could
+      but speculate vaguely how such a character would be esteemed, and whether
+      his native frankness and generosity would cover over, or make appear as
+      foibles, these graver faults. Their own narrow fortunes, the very straits
+      and privations of poverty, with all their cruel wounds to honest pride,
+      and all their sore trials of temper, she could bear up against with an
+      undaunted courage. She had learned her lesson in the only school wherein
+      it is taught, and daily habit had instilled its own powers of endurance;
+      but, for Frank, her ambition hoped a higher and brighter destiny, and now,
+      in her solitude, and with a swelling heart, she knelt down and prayed for
+      him. And, oh! if the utter ings of such devotion never rise to Heaven or
+      meet acceptance there, they at least bring balm to the spirit of him who
+      syllables them, building up a hope whose foundations are above the
+      casualties of humanity, and giving a courage that mere self-reliance never
+      gave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Little Hans not only came to awaken Frank, but to give him companionship
+      for some miles of his way, a thoughtful kindness, for which the youth's
+      deep preoccupation seemed to offer but a poor return. Indeed, Frank
+      scarcely knew that he was not travelling in utter solitude, and all the
+      skilful devices of the worthy dwarf to turn the channel of his thoughts
+      were fruitless. Had there been sufficient light to have surveyed the
+      equipment of his companion, it is more than probable that the sight would
+      have done more to produce this diversion of gloom than any arguments which
+      could have been used. Master Roeckle, whose mind was a perfect storehouse
+      of German horrors, earthly and unearthly, and who imagined that a great
+      majority of the human population of the globe were either bandits or
+      witches, had surrounded himself with a whole museum of amulets and charms
+      of various kinds. In his cap he wore the tail of a black squirrel, as a
+      safeguard against the &ldquo;Forest Imp;&rdquo; a large dried toad hung around his
+      neck, like an order, to protect him from the evil eye; a duck's foot was
+      fastened to the tassel of his boot, as a talisman against drowning; while
+      strings of medals, coins, precious stones, blessed beads, and dried
+      insects, hung round and about him in every direction. Of all the portions
+      of his equipment, however, what seemed the most absurd was a huge pole-axe
+      of the fifteenth century, and which he carried as a defence against mere
+      mortal foes, but which, from its weight and size, appeared far more likely
+      to lay its bearer low than inflict injury upon others. It had been
+      originally stored up in the Rust Kammer, at Prague, and was said to be the
+      identical weapon with which Conrad slew the giant at Leutmeritz, a fact
+      which warranted Hans in expending two hundred florins in purchasing it;
+      as, to use his own emphatic words, &ldquo;it was not every day one knew where to
+      find the weapon to bring down a giant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As Hans, encumbered by his various adjuncts, trotted along beside his
+      stalwart companion, he soon discovered that all his conversational ability
+      to exert which cost him so dearly was utterly unattended to; he fell into
+      a moody silence, and thus they journeyed for miles of way without
+      interchanging a word. At last they came in sight of the little village of
+      Hernitz Kretschen, whence by a by road Frank was to reach the regular line
+      that leads through the Hohlen Thai to the Lake of Constance, and where
+      they were to part.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I feel as though I could almost go all the way with you,&rdquo; said Hans, as
+      they stopped to gaze upon the little valley where lay the village, and
+      beyond which stretched a deep forest of dark pine-trees, traversed by a
+      single road.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, Hans,&rdquo; said Frank, smiling, as for the first time he beheld the
+      strange figure beside him; &ldquo;you must go back to your pleasant little
+      village and live happily, to do many a kindness to others, as you have
+      done to me to-day!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would like to take service with the Empress myself,&rdquo; said Hans, &ldquo;if it
+      were for some good and great cause, like the defence of the Church against
+      the Turks, or the extermination of the race of dragons that infest the
+      Lower Danube.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you forget, Hans, it is an Emperor, rules over Austria now,&rdquo; said
+      Frank, preferring to offer a correction to the less startling of his
+      hallucinations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, Master Frank, they have not deposed the good Maria Teresa, they
+      would never do that. I saw her picture over the doorway of the
+      Burgermeister the last time I went to visit my mother in the Bregertzer
+      Wald, and by the same token her crown and sceptre were just newly gilt, a
+      thing they would not have done if she were not on the throne.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What if she were dead, and her son too?&rdquo; said Frank; but his words were
+      scarce uttered when he regretted to have said them, so striking was the
+      change that came over the dwarf's features.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If that were indeed true, Heaven have mercy on us!&rdquo; exclaimed he,
+      piously. &ldquo;Old Frederick will have but little pity for good Catholics! But
+      no, Master Frank, this cannot be. The last time I received soldiers from
+      Nuremberg they wore the same uniforms as ever, and the 'Moriamur pro Rege
+      nostro, M. T.' was in gold letters on every banner as before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank was in no humor to disturb so innocent and so pleasing a delusion,
+      and he gave no further opposition; and now they both descended the path
+      which led to the little inn of the village. Here Hans insisted on
+      performing the part of host, and soon the table was covered with brown
+      bread and hard eggs, and those great massive sausages which Germans love,
+      together with various flasks of Margrafler and other &ldquo;Badisch&rdquo; wines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who knows,&rdquo; said Hans, as he pledged his guest by ringing his wine-glass
+      against the other's, &ldquo;if, when we meet again, thou wouldst sit down at the
+      table with such as me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How so, Hanserl?&rdquo; asked the boy, in astonishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean, Master Franz, that you may become a colonel, or perhaps a
+      general, with, mayhap, the 'St. Joseph' at your button-hole, or the 'Maria
+      Teresa' around your neck; and if so, how could you take your place at the
+      board with the poor toy-maker?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not ashamed to do so now,&rdquo; said Frank, haughtily; &ldquo;and the Emperor
+      cannot make me more a gentleman than my birth has done. Were I to be
+      ashamed of those who befriended me, I should both disgrace my rank and
+      name together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These are good words, albeit too proud ones,&rdquo; said Hans, thoughtfully.
+      &ldquo;As a guide through life, pride will do well enough when the roads are
+      good and your equipage costly; but when you come upon mountain-paths and
+      stony tracts, with many a wild torrent to cross, and many a dark glen to
+      traverse, humility even a child's humility will give better teaching.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have no right to be other than humble!&rdquo; said the boy; but the flashing
+      brightness of his eyes, and the heightened color of his cheek, seemed to
+      contradict his words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a while the conversation flagged, or was maintained in short and
+      broken sentences, when at length Frank said,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will often go to see them, Hanserl, won't you? You'll sit with them,
+      too, of an evening? for they will feel lonely now; and my father will like
+      to tell you his stories about home, as he calls it still.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will I,&rdquo; said Hans; &ldquo;they are the happiest hours of my life when I
+      sit beside that hearth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank drew his hand across his eyes, and his lips quivered as he tried to
+      speak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll be kind to poor Ellen, too; she is so timid, Hans. You cannot
+      believe how anxious she is, lest her little carvings should be thought
+      unworthy of praise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are gems! they are treasures of art!&rdquo; cried Hans, enthusiastically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And my sweet Kate!&rdquo; cried the boy, as his eyes ran over, while a throng
+      of emotions seemed to stop his utterance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is so beautiful!&rdquo; exclaimed Hans, fervently. &ldquo;Except the Blessed
+      Maria at the Holy Cross, I never beheld such loveliness. There is the
+      Angelus ringing; let us pray a blessing on them;&rdquo; and they both knelt down
+      in deep devotion. Frank's lips never moved, but with swelling heart and
+      clasped hands he remained fixed as a statue; while Hanserl in some quaint
+      old rhyme uttered his devotions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And yonder is the dog-star, bright and splendid,&rdquo; said Hans, as he arose.
+      &ldquo;There never was a happier omen for the beginning of a journey. You 'll be
+      lucky, boy; there is the earnest of good fortune. That same star was
+      shining along the path as I entered Baden, eighteen years ago; and see
+      what a lucky life has mine been!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank could not but smile at the poor dwarf's appreciation of his fortune;
+      but Hanserl's features wore a look that betokened a happy and contented
+      nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And yours has been a lucky life, Hanserl?&rdquo; said he, half in question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lucky? ay, that has it. I was a poor boy, barefooted and hungry in my
+      native forest deformed, and stunted, too a thing to pity too weak to work,
+      and with none to teach me, and yet even I was not forgotten by Him who
+      made the world so fair and beautiful; but in my heart was planted a desire
+      to be something to do something, that others might benefit by. The
+      children used to mock me as I passed along the road; but a voice whispered
+      within me, 'Be of courage, Hanserl, they will bless thee yet, they will
+      greet thee with many a merry laugh and joyous cry, and call thee their own
+      kind Hanserl:' and so have I lived to see it! My name is far and wide over
+      Germany. Little boys and girls know and speak of me amongst the first
+      words they syllable; and from the palace to the bauer's hut, Hans Roeckle
+      has his friends; and who knows that when this poor clay is mingled with
+      the earth, but that my spirit will hover around the Christmas-tree when
+      glad voices call upon me! I often think it will be so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank's eyes glistened as he gazed upon the dwarf, who spoke with a degree
+      of emotion and feeling very different from his wont.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you see, Master Franz,&rdquo; said he, smiling, &ldquo;there are ambitions of
+      every hue, and this of mine you may deem of the very faintest, but it is
+      enough for me. Had I been a great painter, or a poet, I would have
+      revelled in the thought that my genius adorned the walls of many a noble
+      palace, and that my verses kindled emotions in many a heart that felt like
+      my own; but as one whom nature has not gifted, poor, ignoble, and
+      unlettered, am I not lucky to have found a little world of joyous hearts
+      and merry voices, who care for me % and speak of me, ay, and who would
+      give me a higher place in their esteem than to Jean Paul, or Goethe
+      himself?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The friends had but time to pledge each other in a parting glass, when the
+      stage drove up by which Hans was to return to Baden. A few hurried words,
+      half cheering, half sorrowful, a close embrace, one long and lingering
+      squeeze of the hand,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Farewell, kind Hanserl!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God guide thee, Franz!&rdquo; and they parted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank stood in the little &ldquo;Platz,&rdquo; where the crowd yet lingered, watching
+      the retiring &ldquo;Post,&rdquo; uncertain which, way to turn him. He dreaded to find
+      himself all alone, and yet he shrank from new companionship. The newly
+      risen moon and the calm air invited him to pursue his road; so he set out
+      once more, the very exercise being a relief against his sad thoughts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Few words are more easily spoken than &ldquo;He went to seek his fortune;&rdquo; and
+      what a whole world lies within the narrow compass! A world of high-hearted
+      hopes and doubting fear, of noble ambition to be won, and glorious paths
+      to be trod, mingled with tender thoughts of home and those who made it
+      such. What sustaining courage must be his who dares this course and braves
+      that terrible conflict the toughest that ever man fought between his own
+      bright coloring of life and the stern reality of the world! How many hopes
+      has he to abandon, how many illusions to give up! How often is his faith
+      to be falsified and his trustfulness betrayed; and, worst of all, what a
+      fatal change do these trials impress upon himself, how different is he
+      from what he had been!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Young and untried as Frank Dalton was in life, he was not altogether
+      unprepared for the vicissitudes that awaited him; his sister Nelly's
+      teachings had done much to temper the over-buoyant spirit of his nature,
+      and make him feel that he must draw upon that same courage to sustain the
+      present, rather than to gild the future.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His heart was sorrowful, too, at leaving a home where unitedly they had,
+      perhaps, borne up better against poverty. He felt for his own heart
+      revealed it how much can be endured in companionship, and how the burden
+      of misfortune like every other load is light when many bear it. Now
+      thinking of these things, now fancying the kind of life that might lie
+      before him, he marched along. Then he wondered whether the Count would
+      resemble his father. The Daltons were remarkable for strong traits of
+      family likeness, not alone in feature, but in character; and what a
+      comfort Frank felt in fancying that the old general would be a thorough
+      Dalton in frankness and kindliness of nature, easy in disposition, with
+      all the careless freedom of his own father! How he should love him, as one
+      of themselves!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is a well-known fact, that certain families are remarkable above others
+      for the importance that they attach to the ties of kindred, making the
+      boast of relationship always superior to the claims of self-formed
+      friendships. This is perhaps more peculiarly the case among those who live
+      little in the world, and whose daily sayings and doings are chiefly
+      confined to the narrow circle of home. But yet it is singular how long
+      this prejudice for perhaps it deserves no better name can stand the
+      conflict of actual life. The Daltons were a special instance of what we
+      mean. Certain characteristics of look and feature distinguished them all,
+      and they all agreed in maintaining the claim of relationship as the
+      strongest bond of union; and it was strange into how many minor channels
+      this stream meandered. Every old ruin, every monument, every fragment of
+      armor, or ancient volume associated with their name, assumed a kind of
+      religious value in their eyes, and the word Dalton was a talisman to exalt
+      the veriest trifle into the rank of relic. From his earliest infancy Frank
+      had been taught these lessons. They were the traditions of the parlor and
+      the kitchen, and by the mere force of repetition became a part of his very
+      nature. Corrig-O'Neal was the theme of every story. The ancient house of
+      the family, and which, although by time's changes it had fallen into the
+      hands of the Godfreys from whom his mother came was yet regarded with all
+      the feelings of ancient pride. Over and over again was he told of the once
+      princely state that his ancestors held there, the troops of retainers, the
+      mounted followers that ever accompanied them. The old house itself was
+      exalted to the rank of a palace, and its wide-spreading but neglected
+      grounds spoken of like the park of royalty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To see this old house of his fathers, to behold with his own eyes the seat
+      of their once greatness, became the passion of the boy's heart. Never did
+      the Bedouin of the Desert long after Mecca with more heart-straining
+      desire. To such a pitch had this passion gained on him, that, unable any
+      longer to resist an impulse that neither left his thoughts by day nor his
+      dreams by night, he fled from his school at Bruges, and when only ten
+      years old made his way to Ostend, and under pretence of seeking a return
+      to his family, persuaded the skipper of a trading-vessel to give him a
+      passage to Limerick. It would take us too far from our road already a long
+      one were we to follow his wanderings and tell of all the difficulties that
+      beset the little fellow on his lonely journey. Enough that we say, he did
+      at last reach the goal, of his hopes, and, after a journey of eight long
+      days, find himself at the ancient gate of Corrig-O'Neal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first the disappointment was dreadful. The proud mansion, of whose
+      glorious splendor his imagination had created an Oriental palace, was an
+      antiquated brick edifice, in front of which ran a long terrace, once
+      adorned with statues, but of which the pedestals alone remained. A few
+      hedges of yew, with here and there the fragments of a marble figure or
+      fountain, showed that the old French chateau taste had once prevailed
+      there; and of this a quaint straight avenue of lime-trees, reaching
+      directly from the door to the river, also bore evidence. The tone of
+      sadness and desertion was on everything; many of the lower windows were
+      walled up; the great door itself was fastened and barricaded in such a way
+      as to show it had been long disused. Not a creature was to be seen
+      stirring about the place, and save that at night the flickering light of a
+      candle might be descried from a small casement that looked upon the
+      garden, the house might have been deemed uninhabited. Perhaps something in
+      the mysterious desolation of the scene had its influence over the boy's
+      mind; but as hour by hour he lingered in those silent woods, and lay in
+      the deep grass, watching the cloud shadows as they stole along, he grew
+      fondly attached to the place; now losing himself in some revery of the
+      long past, now following out some half-remembered narrative of his
+      mother's childhood, when she herself dwelt there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All his little resources of pocket-money expended, his clothes, save such
+      as he wore, sold, he could scarcely tear himself from a scene that filled
+      every avenue of his heart. The time, however, came, when a ship, about to
+      sail for the Scheldt, gave him the opportunity of returning home; and now
+      this was to be his last day at Corrig-O'Neal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And what a day of conflicting thought was it! now half resolved to
+      approach the house, and ask to see his uncle, and now repelled by
+      remembering all his unkindness to his father. Then marvelling whether some
+      change might not have taken place in the old man's mind, and whether in
+      his lonely desolation he might not wish once more to see his kindred near
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He knew not what to do, and evening found him still undecided, and sitting
+      on a little rising spot, from which the view extended over the garden at
+      the back of the house, and whence he had often watched the solitary light
+      that marked the old man's vigils.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wearied by long watching and thought, he fell asleep; and when he awoke
+      the light was gone, the light which hitherto had always burned till
+      daybreak! and from the darkness it must now be far from that hour. While
+      Frank wondered what this might mean, he was startled by hearing footsteps
+      near him at least so they sounded on the gravel-walk of the garden, and in
+      a few minutes after the grating sound of a key, and the opening of a small
+      door which led out into the wood. He now perceived that a man was standing
+      at the foot of the knoll, who seemed irresolute and undecided; for he
+      twice returned to the door, once introduced the key, and again withdrew
+      it, as if with a changed purpose. Suddenly he appeared to have made up his
+      mind, for, stooping down, he began to dig with the greatest energy,
+      stopping at intervals to listen, and again continuing his work when
+      satisfied that he was unobserved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hour the scene itself the evident secrecy of the man, almost paralyzed
+      the boy with terror; nor was it till long after the turf was replaced, dry
+      leaves and dead branches were strewn over the spot, and the man himself
+      gone, that Frank gained courage to move away. This he did at first
+      cautiously and timidly, and then with a speed that soon carried him far
+      away from the spot. The following day he was at sea; and if at first the
+      strange scene never left his thoughts, with time the impression faded
+      away, till at length it assumed the indistinctness of a vision, or of some
+      picture created by mere imagination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he did return home, he never revealed, except to Nelly, where he had
+      been, and the object for which he went; but, even to her, from some
+      strange love of mystery, he told nothing of the last night's experience:
+      this was a secret, which he hoarded like a miser's treasure, and loved to
+      think that he only knew of. The stirring events of a schoolboy's life, at
+      first, and subsequently the changeful scenes of opening manhood, gradually
+      effaced the impression of what he had seen, or merely left it to all the
+      indistinctness of a dream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And thus are thoughts often sealed up in the memory for years unnoticed
+      and unknown till, after a long interval, they are all called forth, and
+      become the very pivots on which turns our destiny.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV. THE ONSLOWS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE little town of Baden was thrown into a state of considerable
+      excitement by the unexpected arrival we have chronicled in a preceding
+      chapter, and the host of the &ldquo;Russie&rdquo; reduced to the most uncommon straits
+      to restore the effective of a staff, now brought down to the closest
+      economy of retrenchment. Cooks, waiters, and housemaids were sought after
+      in every quarter, while emissaries were despatched right and left to
+      replenish the larder and provide for the wants of the mighty &ldquo;Englander.&rdquo;
+       Nor was all the bustle and commotion limited to within the hotel, but
+      extended throughout the village itself, where many a rustic pony, laid up
+      in ordinary for the winter, was again trimmed and curried and shod, to be
+      paraded before the windows with a scarlet saddle-cloth and a worsted
+      tassel to the bridle, in all the seductive attraction of a palfrey. Even
+      flower-girls made their appearance again with a few frost-nipped buds and
+      leaves; while a bassoon and a triangle, voting themselves a band, gave
+      horrid signs of their means of persecution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile were the fortunate individuals for whose benefit these exertions
+      were evoked, in the most blissful ignorance of all the interest they were
+      awakening. From the first moment of their arrival none had even seen them.
+      Waited upon by their own servants, scarcely heard, not even appearing at
+      the windows, they were unconsciously ministering to a mystery that now
+      engaged every tongue and ear around them. As, however, nothing of secrecy
+      had any share in their proceedings, we have no scruple in invading the
+      presence and introducing the reader to the company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Stafford Onslow was an immensely rich London banker, who in his
+      capacity of borough member had voted steadily with the Whigs for some
+      five-and-twenty years; supporting them by all the influence of his wealth
+      and family, and who now came abroad, in a pet of sulk with his party, on
+      being refused the peerage. By nature generous, kind-hearted, and
+      affectionate, the constant pressure of a more ambitious wife had involved
+      him in a career to which neither his tastes nor habits suited him. The
+      fortune which he would have dispensed with dignity and munificence he was
+      eternally taught to believe should be the stepping-stone to something
+      higher in rank. All his influence in the City, of which he was justly
+      proud, he was told was a mere vulgar ambition in comparison with that a
+      coronet would bestow on him; and, in fact, having believed himself the
+      leading man of a great section in society, he was led to look upon his
+      position with discontent, and fancy that his just claims were disregarded
+      and denied. Lady Hester Onslow, who having once been a beauty and the
+      admired belle of royalty itself, had accepted the banker in a moment of
+      pique, and never forgave him afterwards the unhappy preference.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Belonging to a very ancient but poor family, few were surprised at her
+      accepting a husband some thirty-odd years her senior; and it is probable
+      that she would fully have recognized the prudence of her choice if, by the
+      death of a distant relative in India, which occurred a few months after
+      her marriage, she had not acquired a very large fortune. This sudden
+      accession of wealth coming, as she herself said, &ldquo;too late,&rdquo; embittered
+      every hour of her after-life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had she been but wealthy a few months back, she had married the man she
+      loved, or whom she thought she loved, the heartless, handsome,
+      well-mannered Lord Norwood, a penniless viscount, ruined before he came of
+      age, and with no other means of support than the faculties which knavery
+      had sharpened into talent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Onslow and her brother, both the children of a former marriage, were
+      strikingly like their father, not alone in feature, but in the traits of
+      his frank and generous character. They were devotedly attached to him, not
+      the less, perhaps, from the circumstances of a marriage to which they were
+      strongly opposed, and whose results they now saw in many a passage of
+      discord and disagreement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      George and Sydney Onslow were both dark-complexioned and black-eyed, and
+      had many traits of Spanish origin in appearance, their mother having been
+      from that country. Lady Hester was a blonde, and affected to think that
+      the Southern tint was but an approximation to the negro. Nor was she less
+      critical on their manners, whose joyous freedom she pronounced essentially
+      vulgar. Such, in a few words, were the discordant elements which Fate had
+      bound up as a family, and who now, by the sudden illness of Sir Stafford,
+      were driven to seek refuge in the deserted town of Baden. Nor can we omit
+      another who, although not tied to the rest by kindred, had been long a
+      member of the circle. This was Dr. Grounsell, an old college friend of Sir
+      Stafford's, and who, having lost every shilling of his fortune by a
+      speculation, had taken up his home at the banker's many years previous to
+      his second marriage. Lady Hester's dislike to him amounted to actual
+      hatred. She detested him for the influence he possessed over her husband,
+      for the sturdiness of a character that resisted every blandishment, for a
+      quaintness that certainly verged upon vulgarity, and, most of all, for the
+      open and undisguised manner he always declared against every scheme for
+      the attainment of a title.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Sir Stafford's physician, the only one in whom he had confidence, the
+      doctor was enabled to stand his ground against attacks which must have
+      conquered him; and by dint of long resistance and a certain obstinacy of
+      character, he had grown to take pleasure in an opposition which, to a man
+      of more refinement and feeling, must have proved intolerable; and although
+      decidedly attached to Sir Stafford and his children, it is probable that
+      he was still more bound to them by hate to &ldquo;my Lady,&rdquo; than by all his
+      affection for themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Grounsell detested the Continent, yet he followed them abroad, resolved
+      never to give up an inch of ground uncontested; and although assailed by a
+      thousand slights and petty insults, he stood stoutly up against them all,
+      defying every effort of fine-ladyism, French cookery, homoeopathy,
+      puppyism, and the water-cure, to dislodge him from his position. There was
+      very possibly more of dogged malice in all this than amiability or
+      attachment to his friends; but it is due to the doctor to say that he was
+      no hypocrite, and would never have blinked the acknowledgment if fairly
+      confronted with the charge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although, if it had not been for my Lady's resentful notice of the
+      ministerial neglect, the whole family would have been snugly domesticated
+      in their beautiful villa beside the Thames at Richmond, she artfully
+      contrived to throw the whole weight of every annoyance they experienced
+      upon every one's shoulders rather than her own; and as she certainly
+      called to her aid no remarkable philosophy against the inconveniences of
+      travel, the budget of her grievances assumed a most imposing bulk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dressed in the very perfection of a morning costume, her cap, her gloves,
+      her embroidered slippers, all in the most accurate keeping with that
+      assumed air of seclusion by which fine ladies compliment the visitor
+      fortunate enough to be admitted to their presence, Lady Hester sat at a
+      window, occasionally looking from the deep lace that bordered her
+      handkerchief to the picturesque scene of mountain and river that lay
+      before her. A fastidious taste might have found something to be pleased
+      with in either, but assuredly her handsome features evinced no agreeable
+      emotion, and her expression was that of utter ennui and listlessness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At another window sat Sydney Onslow drawing; her brother standing behind
+      her chair, and from time to time adding his counsels, but in a tone
+      studiously low and whispered. &ldquo;Get that shadow in something deeper, Syd,
+      and you 'll have more effect in the distance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that I hear about effect and distance?&rdquo; sighed out my Lady. &ldquo;You
+      surely are not drawing?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only sketching; making a hurried note of that wheel, and the quaint
+      old-fashioned house beside it,&rdquo; said Sydney, diffidently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a refinement of cruelty! The detestable noise of that mill kept me
+      awake all night, and you mean to perpetuate the remembrance by a picture.
+      Pray, be a good child and throw it out of the window.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sydney looked up in her brother's face, where already a crimson flush of
+      anger was gathering, but before she could reply he spoke for her. &ldquo;The
+      drawing is for me, Lady Onslow. You 'll. excuse me if I do not consent to
+      the fate you propose for it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me look at it,&rdquo; said she, languidly; and the young girl arose and
+      presented the drawing to her. &ldquo;How droll!&rdquo; said she, laughing; &ldquo;I suppose
+      it is peculiar to Germany that water can run up hill.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The shadow will correct that,&rdquo; said Sydney, smiling; &ldquo;and when the
+      foreground is darker.&rdquo; A violent slam of the door cut short the
+      explanation. It was George Onslow, who, too indignant at the practised
+      impertinence toward his sister, dashed out of the room in a passion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How underbred your brother will persist in being, my love,&rdquo; said she,
+      calmly; &ldquo;that vile trick of slamming a door, they learn, I 'm told, in the
+      Guards' Club. I 'm sure I always thought it was confined to the melodrames
+      one sees at the Porte St. Martin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment a servant appeared at the door. &ldquo;Colonel Haggerstone's
+      compliments, my Lady, and begs to know how Sir Stafford is to-day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Something better,&rdquo; replied she, curtly; and as the man disappeared, she
+      added, &ldquo;Whose compliments did he say?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not hear the name; it sounded like Haggerstone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Impossible, child; we know of no such person. What hour is it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A few minutes past two.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh dear! I fancied it had been four or five or six,&rdquo; sighed she,
+      drearily. &ldquo;The amiable doctor has not made his report to-day of your papa,
+      and he went to see him immediately after breakfast.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He told George that there was no amendment,&rdquo; said Sydney, gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He told George! Then he did not deign to tell me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You were not here at the moment. It was as he passed through the room
+      hurriedly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I conclude that I was in my dressing-room. But it is only in keeping with
+      Mr. Grounsell's studied disrespect, a line of conduct I grieve to see him
+      supported in by members of this family.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Alfred Jekyl, my Lady,&rdquo; said a servant, &ldquo;with inquiry for Sir
+      Stafford.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You appear to know best, my dear, how your papa is. Pray answer thai
+      inquiry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Stafford is not better,&rdquo; said Sydney to the servant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who can all these people be, my dear?&rdquo; said Lady Hester, with more
+      animation of manner than she had yet exhibited. &ldquo;Jekyl is a name one
+      knows. There are Northamptonshire Jekyls, and, if I mistake not, it was a
+      Jekyl married Lady Olivia Drossmore, was it not? Oh, what a fool I am to
+      ask you, who never know anything of family or connection! And yet I 'm
+      certain I 've told you over and over the importance the actual necessity
+      of this knowledge. If you only bestowed upon Burke a tithe of the patience
+      and time I have seen you devote to Lyell, you 'd not commit the shocking
+      mistake you fell into t' other day of discussing the Duchess of Dartley's
+      character with Lord Brandford, from whom she was divorced. Now you 'd
+      never offend quartz and sandstone by miscalling their affinities. But here
+      comes the doctor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      If Dr. Grounsell had been intended by nature to outrage all ultra-refined
+      notions regarding personal appearance, he could not possibly have been
+      more cunningly fashioned. Somewhat below the middle size, and squarely
+      formed, his legs did not occupy more than a third of his height; his head
+      was preternaturally large, and seemed even larger from a crop of curly
+      yellowish hair, whose flaring ochre only rescued it from the imputation of
+      being a wig. His hands and feet were enormous, requiring a muscular effort
+      to move them that made all his gestures grotesque and uncouth. In addition
+      to these native graces, his clothes were always made much too large for
+      him, from his avowed dislike to the over-tightening and squeezing of
+      modern fashion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As his whole life had been passed in the superintendence of a great
+      military hospital in the East, wherein all his conversations with his
+      brethren were maintained in technicalities, he had never converted the
+      professional jargon into a popular currency, but used the terms of art
+      upon all occasions, regardless of the inability of the unmedical world to
+      understand him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, sir, what is your report to-day?&rdquo; said Lady Onslow, assuming her
+      very stateliest of manners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Better, and worse, madam. The arthritis relieved, the cardiac symptoms
+      more imminent.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Please to bear in mind, sir, that I have not studied at Apothecaries'
+      Hall.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nor I, madam; but at Edinburgh and Aberdeen, in the faculties of medicine
+      and surgery,&rdquo; said Grounsell, drawing down his waistcoat, and arranging
+      himself in what he considered an order of battle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is papa better, doctor?&rdquo; said Sydney, mildly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The articular affection is certainly alleviated, but there is mischief
+      here,&rdquo; said Grounsell, placing his hand over his heart; &ldquo;fibrous tissues,
+      my dear Miss Onslow, fibrous tissues are ticklish affairs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is this advice to be construed in a moral rather than a medical sense?&rdquo;
+       said Lady Onslow, with a malicious smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Either or both,&rdquo; replied the doctor. &ldquo;The heart will always be highly
+      susceptible of nervous influence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But papa&rdquo; broke in Sydney, eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is suffering under metastasis migratory gout, it may be termed changing
+      from articular to large organic structures.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And, of course, you are giving him the old poisons that were in use fifty
+      years ago?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you mean, madam?&rdquo; said Grounsell, sternly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That shocking thing that drives people mad colocynth, or colchicum, or
+      something like that. You know what I mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Happily for me, madam, I can guess it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And are you still as obstinate as ever about the globules?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The homoeopathic humbug?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you are polite enough so to designate what I put the most implicit
+      trust in. But I warn you, sir, I mean to exert my just and rightful
+      influence with Sir Stafford; and in case a very great change does not
+      appear to-morrow, I shall insist upon his trying the aconite.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you do, madam, the insurance offices shall hear of it!&rdquo; said
+      Grounsell, with a sternness that made the threat most significant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 'll send for that man from Heidelberg at once, Sydney,&rdquo; said Lady
+      Hester, as, pale with passion, she seated herself at her writing-table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take care what you do, madam,&rdquo; said Grounsell, approaching where she sat,
+      and speaking in a low and solemn voice. &ldquo;Let not any feeling of
+      displeasure with me induce you to an act of rashness or imprudence. My old
+      friend's state is critical; it may at any moment become dangerous. I am
+      convinced that what I am doing offers the most reasonable hope of serving
+      him. Take care lest you weaken his confidence in me, when he may not be
+      prepared to repose it in another.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here, Sydney, you write German; and it is possible he may not read
+      French. This is his name, I got it in Paris Graeffnell. Tell him to come
+      at once in fact, let Francois take a carriage for him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sydney Onslow looked at her mother and then at the doctor. At the latter
+      her glance was almost imploring, but he never noticed it, turning abruptly
+      toward the window without uttering a word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you consult with him, doctor?&rdquo; asked Sydney, timidly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course not; he 's a mountebank.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Write, as I bade you, Miss Onslow,&rdquo; said Lady Hester. &ldquo;Dr. Graeffnell is
+      one of the first men in Germany. Lady Heskisson sent for him when the Earl
+      fell ill at Wiesbaden.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the Countess was a widow in four days after. Don't forget the
+      denouement of the story, madam.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sydney dropped the pen, and her hands fell powerless to her side. There
+      was something in the sternness of the doctor that seemed to awe even Lady
+      Onslow, for she made no reply; while Grounsell, seeing his advantage, left
+      the room at once, without further parley.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our readers will probably forgive us if we follow his example, and not
+      remain to listen to the eloquent monologue in which Lady Onslow lamented
+      her sad condition in life. Not only did she bewail her destiny, but, like
+      one of those classic personages the Greek Chorus presents us to, she
+      proceeded to speculate upon every possible mischance futurity might have
+      in store for her, ingeniously inventing &ldquo;situations,&rdquo; and devising
+      &ldquo;predicaments&rdquo; that nothing less gifted than a self-tormenting imagination
+      can conceive. Leaving her to all the pleasure such a pastime can give, we
+      shall quit the house, and, although a cold, raw evening is closing in,
+      wander out into the street.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V. THE PATIENT
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      ALONG the dark and narrow street, over which the coming night cast a
+      dreary shadow, a single lamp was seen to shine at the door of Ludwig
+      Kraus, the apothecary; a beacon, it is but fair to add, lighted less with
+      the hope of attracting custom than in obedience to the requirements of the
+      law, for Herr Kraus was a &ldquo;state&rdquo; official, and bound to conform to the
+      dictates of the government. His shop was a small triangular space, in
+      which there was barely room for the learned dispenser and a single client
+      at the same moment, thus giving to all his interviews the secrecy of the
+      confessional itself. Jars, phials, flasks, and drawers rose on every side,
+      not inscribed with the vulgar nomenclature of modern physic, but bearing
+      the enigmatical marks and hieroglyphics known to Galen and Paracelsus.
+      Arabic letters, dragons, strange monsters, and zodiacal signs met the eye
+      everywhere, and did not consort ill with the spare form and high bald head
+      of the proprietor, whose quaint-figured dressing-gown and black velvet cap
+      gave him a kind of resemblance to an alchemist in his workshop. As
+      Grounsell approached the glass door and peeped in, the scene that
+      presented itself rather assisted this illusion, for straight in front of
+      the little counter over which Kraus was leaning, sat the dwarf, Hans
+      Roeckle, talking away with considerable animation, and from time to time
+      seeming to expatiate upon the merits of a wooden figure which he held
+      carefully in his hands. The small, half-lighted chamber, the passive,
+      motionless features of the chemist, the strange wild gestures of little
+      Hans, as, in his tongue of mysterious gutturals he poured out a flood of
+      words, amazed Grounsell, and excited his curiosity to the utmost. He
+      continued to gaze in for a considerable time, without being able to guess
+      what it might mean, and at last abandoning all conjecture he resolved to
+      enter. Scarcely had he touched the handle of the door, however, than the
+      dwarf, seizing the figure, concealed it beneath the skirt of his fur
+      mantle, and retired to a corner of the shop. Dr. Grounsell's errand was to
+      obtain certain medicines for his patient, which, from his ignorance of
+      German, he had taken the precaution to write down in Latin. He passed the
+      paper in silence over the counter, and waited patiently as the chemist
+      spelt out the words. Having read it through, he handed back the paper with
+      a few dry words, which, being in his native tongue, were totally
+      incomprehensible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must have these things, surely,&rdquo; exclaimed Grounsell; &ldquo;they are the
+      commonest of all medicines;&rdquo; and then remembering himself, he made signs
+      in the direction of the drawers and phials to express his meaning. Again
+      the chemist uttered some dozen words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor produced his purse, where certain gold pieces glittered, as
+      though to imply that he was willing to pay handsomely for his ignorance;
+      but the other pushed it away, and shook his head in resolute refusal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is too bad,&rdquo; muttered Grounsell, angrily. &ldquo;I 'll be sworn he has the
+      things, and will not give them.&rdquo; The chemist motioned Hans to approach,
+      and whispered a few words in his hearing, on which the dwarf, removing his
+      cap in courteous salutation, addressed Grounsell: &ldquo;High-born and
+      much-learned Saar. De laws make no oder that doctoren have recht to write
+      physics.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What!&rdquo; cried Grounsell, not understanding the meaning of this speech.
+      Hans repeated it more slowly, and at length succeeded in conveying the
+      fact that physicians alone were qualified to procure medicines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I am a doctor, my worthy friend, a physician of long standing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Das ist possible who knows?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know, and I say it,&rdquo; rejoined the other, tersely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ja! ja!&rdquo; responded Hans, as though to say the theme were not worth being
+      warm about, one way or t' other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, my dear sir,&rdquo; said Grounsell, coaxingly; &ldquo;pray be good enough to
+      explain that I want these medicines for a sick friend, who is now at the
+      hotel here, dangerously ill of gout.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Podagra gout!&rdquo; exclaimed Hans, with sudden animation, &ldquo;and dese are de
+      cure for gout?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They will, I hope, be of service against it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You shall have dem Saar on one condition. That ist, you will visit anoder
+      sick man mit gout an Englessman, too verh ill verb sick; and no rich you
+      understan'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes; I understand perfectly; I'll see him with pleasure. Tell this
+      worthy man to make up these for me, and I 'll go along with you now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gut! verh good,&rdquo; said Hans, as in a few words of German he expressed to
+      the apothecary that he might venture to transgress the law in the present
+      case when the season was over, and no one to be the wiser.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Hans issued forth to show the way, he never ceased to insist upon the
+      fact that the present was not a case for a fee, and that the doctor should
+      well understand the condition upon which his visit was to be paid; and
+      still inveighing on this theme, he arrived at the house where the Daltons
+      dwelt. &ldquo;Remember, too,&rdquo; said Hans, &ldquo;that, though they are poor, they are
+      of guten stamm how say you, noble?&rdquo; Grounsell listened with due attention
+      to all Hanserl's cautions, following, not without difficulty, his strange
+      and guttural utterances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will go before. Stay here,&rdquo; said Hans, as they gained the
+      landing-place; and so saying, he pushed open the door and disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Grounsell stood alone and in the dark, he wondered within himself what
+      strange chances should have brought a fellow-countryman into this
+      companionship, for there was something so grotesque in Hans's appearance
+      and manner, that it routed all notion of his being admitted to any footing
+      of friendly equality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The door at length opened, and the doctor followed Hans into a dimly
+      lighted room, where Dalton lay, half dressed, upon his bed. Before
+      Grounsell had well passed the entrance, the sick man said, &ldquo;I am afraid,
+      sir, that my little friend here has taken a bit of liberty with both of
+      us, since I believe you wanted a patient just as little as I did a
+      doctor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The anxious, lustrous eye, the flushed cheek, and tremulous lip of the
+      speaker gave, at the same time, a striking contradiction to his words.
+      Grounsell's practised glance read these signs rapidly, and drawing near
+      the bed, he seated himself beside it, saying, &ldquo;It is quite clear, sir,
+      that you are not well, and although, if we were both of us in our own
+      country, this visit of mine would, as you observe, be a considerable
+      liberty, seeing that we are in a foreign land, I hope you will not deem my
+      intrusion of this nature, but suffer me, if I can, to be of some service
+      to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Less the words themselves than a certain purpose-like kindliness in the
+      speaker's manner, induced Dalton to accept the offer, and reply to the
+      questions which the other proposed to him. &ldquo;No, no, doctor,&rdquo; said he,
+      after a few moments; &ldquo;there is no great mischief brewing after all. The
+      truth is, I was fretted harassed a little. It was about a boy of mine I
+      have only one and he 's gone away to be a soldier with the Austrians. You
+      know, of course as who does n't? how hard it is to do anything for a young
+      man now-a-days. If family or high connection could do it, we 'd be as well
+      off as our neighbors. We belong to the Daltons of Garrigmore, that you
+      know are full blood with the O'Neals of Cappagh. But what 's the use of
+      blood now? devil a good it does a man. It would be better to have your
+      father a cotton-spinner, or an iron-master, than the descendant of Shane
+      Mohr na Manna.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe you are right,&rdquo; observed the doctor, dryly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know I am; I feel it myself, and I 'm almost ashamed to tell it. Here
+      am I, Peter Dalton, the last of them now; and may I never leave this bed,
+      if I could make a barony constable in the county where the king's writ
+      could n't run once without our leave.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But Ireland herself has changed more than your own fortunes,&rdquo; remarked
+      Grounsell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's true, that 's true,&rdquo; sighed the sick man. &ldquo;I don't remember the
+      best days of it, but I 've heard of them often and often from my father.
+      The fine old times, when Mount Dalton was filled with company from the
+      ground to the slates, and two lords in the granary; a pipe of port wine in
+      the hall, with a silver cup beside it; the Modereen hounds, huntsmen and
+      all, living at rack and manger, as many as fifty sitting down in the
+      parlor, and I won't say how many in the servants' hall; the finest hunters
+      in the west country in the stables, there was life for you! Show me the
+      equal of that in the wide world.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what is the present condition of the scene of those festivities?&rdquo;
+       said Grounsell, with a calm but searching look.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The present condition?&rdquo; echoed Dalton, starting up to a sitting posture,
+      and grasping the curtain with a convulsive grip; &ldquo;I can't tell you what it
+      is to-day, this ninth of November, but I 'll tell what it was when I left
+      it, eighteen years ago. The house was a ruin; the lawn a common; the
+      timber cut down; the garden a waste; the tenants beggared; the landlord an
+      exile. That 's a pleasant catalogue, is n't it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But there must come a remedy for all this,&rdquo; remarked Grounsell, whose
+      ideas were following out a very different channel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you mean by a poor-law? Is it by taxing the half ruined to feed the
+      lazy? or by rooting out all that once was a gentry, to fill their places
+      by greedy speculators from Manchester and Leeds? Is that your remedy? It
+      's wishing it well I am! No; if you want to do good to the country, leave
+      Ireland to be Ireland, and don't try to make Norfolk of her. Let her have
+      her own Parliament, that knows the people and their wants. Teach her to
+      have a pride in her own nationality, and not to be always looking at
+      herself in shame beside her rich sister. Give her a word of kindness now
+      and then, as you do the Scotch; but, above all, leave us to ourselves. We
+      understand one another; you never did, nor never will. We quarrelled, and
+      made friends again, and all went right with us; you came over with your
+      Chancery Courts, and your police, and whenever we differed, you never
+      stopped till we were beggared or hanged.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You take a very original view of our efforts at civilization, I confess,&rdquo;
+       said Grounsell, smiling. &ldquo;Civilization! Civilization! I hate the very
+      sound of the word; it brings to my mind nothing but county jails,
+      bridewells, turnpikes, and ministers' money. If it was n't for
+      civilization, would there be a receiver over my estate of Mount Dalton?
+      Would the poor tenants be racked for the rent that I always gave time for?
+      Would there be a big poor-house, with its ugly front staring to the
+      highway, as they tell me there is, and a police barrack to keep it
+      company, opposite? I tell you again, sir, that your meddling has done
+      nothing but mischief. Our little quarrels you converted into serious
+      animosities; our estrangements into the feuds of two opposing races; our
+      very poverty, that we had grown accustomed to, you taught us to regard as
+      a 'national disgrace,' without ever instructing us how to relieve it; and
+      there we are now on your hands, neither English in industry, nor Irish in
+      submission, neither willing to work, nor content to be hungry!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor saw by the agitated look and tone of the sick man that the
+      subject was one of too much excitement for him, and hastened to change the
+      topic by jocularly expressing a hope that he might prove more successful
+      with him than England had been with his countrymen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I doubt it, sir,&rdquo; said Dalton, gravely; &ldquo;not thanking you the less for
+      your kindness. I believe, like my poor country, that I 'm past doctoring.&rdquo;
+       He paused for a few seconds, and then added: &ldquo;It's all fretting. It's
+      thinking about the girls. Frank there is no fear of. That 's what ails
+      me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Grounsell saw that to prolong his visit would be but to encourage a tone
+      of depression that must prove injurious; so promising to return to see him
+      in the morning, he shook Dalton's hand cordially, and followed Hans into
+      the adjoining room, where writing materials were prepared for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two girls were standing at the fire as he entered; and simple as was
+      their dress, homely even to poverty, every trait of their costume, their
+      looks, bespoke them of gentle blood. Their anxious glances as he came
+      forward showed their eagerness to hear his tidings; but they did not speak
+      a word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not be uneasy, young ladies,&rdquo; said he, hastening to relieve their
+      fears. &ldquo;Your father's illness has nothing serious about it. A few days
+      will, I trust, see him perfectly restored to health. Meanwhile you are his
+      best physicians, who can minister to his spirits and cheer him up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Since my brother left us, sir, he appeared to sink hour by hour; he
+      cannot get over the shock,&rdquo; said Ellen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never knew him to give way before,&rdquo; interposed Kate. &ldquo;He used to say,
+      when anything grieved him, 'he 'd pay some one to fret for him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With better health you 'll see his old courage return,&rdquo; said the doctor,
+      as he hastily wrote a few lines of prescription, and then laying his head
+      in his hand, seemed for some minutes lost in thought. There were little
+      comforts, mat-' ters of trifling luxury he wished to order, and yet he
+      hesitated, for he did not know how far they were compatible with their
+      means; nor could he venture upon the hazard of offending by questioning
+      them. As in his uncertainty he raised his eyes, they fell upon the wooden
+      figure which the dwarf had exhibited in the apothecary's shop, and which
+      now stood upon a table near. It was a child sleeping at the foot of a
+      cross, around which its arms were entwined. The emaciated limbs and wasted
+      cheek portrayed fasting and exhaustion, while in the attitude itself,
+      sleep seemed verging upon death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that?&rdquo; asked he, hastily, as he pointed with his pen to the
+      object.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A poor child was found thus, frozen to death upon the Arlberg,&rdquo; said
+      Kate; &ldquo;and my sister carved that figure from a description of the event.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your sister! This was done by you,&rdquo; said Grounsell, slowly, as he turned
+      his gaze from the work to the artist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; cried Hans, whose face beamed with delight; &ldquo;is it not 'lieblich?'
+      is it not vonderful? Dass, I say, alway; none have taste now none have de
+      love to admire!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Stooping down to examine it better, Grounsell was struck by the expression
+      of the face, whereon a smile of trustfulness and hope seemed warring with
+      the rigid lines of coming death; so that the impression conveyed was more
+      of a victory over suffering than of a terrible fate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is self-taught, sir; none even so much as assisted Ler by advice,&rdquo;
+       said Kate, proudly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will be perhaps but too apparent from my efforts,&rdquo; said Ellen,
+      smiling faintly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0003" id="linkimage-0003">
+      <!-- IMG --></a> <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/00078.jpg" alt="00078" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm no artist, young lady,&rdquo; said Grounsell, bluntly, &ldquo;but I am well
+      versed in every variety of the human expression in suffering, and of mere
+      truth to nature I can speak confidently. This is a fine work! nay, do not
+      blush, I am not a flatterer. May I take it with me, and show it to others
+      more conversant with art than I am?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Upon one condition you may,&rdquo; said the girl, in a low, deep voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be it so; on any condition you wish.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are agreed, then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perfectly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The figure is yours Nay, sir your promise!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Groimsell stammered, and blushed, and looked confused; indeed, no man was
+      less able to extricate himself from any position of embarrassment; and
+      here the difficulties pressed on every side, for while he scrupled to
+      accept what he deemed a gift of real value, he felt that they too had a
+      right to free themselves from the obligation that his presence as a doctor
+      imposed. At last he saw nothing better than to yield; and in all the
+      confusion of a bashfully awkward man, he mumbled out his acknowledgments
+      and catching up the figure, departed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hans alone seemed dissatisfied at the result, for as he cast his wistful
+      looks after the wooden image, his eyes swam with his tears, and he
+      muttered as he went some words of deep desponding cadence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI. A FIRST VISIT.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE dreary weather of November showed no signs of &ldquo;taking up.&rdquo; Lowering
+      days of fog and gloom alternated with cold winds and sleet, so that all
+      out-door occupation was utterly denied to that imprisoned party, who were
+      left with so few resources to pass the time within. It is true they did
+      not make the best of the bad. Lady Hester grew hourly more irritable and
+      peevish. Sydney Onslow seldom left her room. George took to the hills
+      every morning, and never returned before a late dinner; while the doctor,
+      when not with Sir Stafford, spent all his time at the Dal tons', with whom
+      he had already established a close intimacy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Hester had exhausted every possible means she could imagine to while
+      away the hours; she had spent whole days in letter-writing folios of
+      &ldquo;tirades&rdquo; to every one she could think of. She had all the carriages
+      inspected, and the imperials searched, for books she well knew had been
+      left behind. She had sent for the landlord's daughter to give her lessons
+      in German, which she thought of learning during the week. She had given a
+      morning to the Italian boy with his white mice, and pored for hours long
+      over the &ldquo;Livre des Voyageurs,&rdquo; reading the names of friends who, with
+      better fortune, had taken their departure for Italy. But at last there
+      came an end even to these frail resources, and she was left utterly
+      without an occupation to engage, or even a thought to employ her. The five
+      minutes of morning altercation with Grounsell over, the dreary time was
+      unbroken by a single event, or uncheckered by a single hope. Sir Stafford
+      was indeed recovering, but so slowly that weeks might be required ere he
+      could proceed on his journey. How were they to be passed? was the fearful
+      question to which she could find no answer. She looked with actual envy at
+      the party of boors who played at dominos in the beer-house opposite, and
+      followed with longing eyes the little mail-cart as it left the village. If
+      she could read Germau, there were scores of books at her service. If she
+      could but take a charitable turn, there was poverty enough to give her
+      occupation from morn till night. She never knew what it was to think
+      seriously, for meditation is the manufacture that cannot work without its
+      raw material, and with this her mind was not stored.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in this pitiable frame of mind she was walking up and down the
+      drawing-room one morning, just as the doctor had taken his departure, and
+      with him the last little scene that was to relieve the day, when the
+      servant entered with the card of Colonel Haggerstone, and the daily
+      repeated inquiry for Sir Stafford's health.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had the gallant colonel presented himself at Wilton Crescent, or the
+      Villa, it is more than likely that the well-instructed porter had not
+      vised his passport, but at once consigned a name of such unimposing
+      consonants to gentle obscurity, while such an entry in the visiting-book
+      had been coolly set down as a mistake. Not so now, however. Lady Hester
+      took up the card, and, instead of the habitual curt rejoinder, &ldquo;Sir
+      Stafford is better,&rdquo; said, &ldquo;You may tell Colonel Haggerstone that Lady
+      Hester will receive him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The gallant colonel, who was negligently slapping his boots with his
+      riding-whip below stairs, was not a little amazed at the message. There
+      had been a time when he would have interpreted the favor most
+      flatteringly. He would have whispered to himself, &ldquo;She has seen me passing
+      the window, she was struck with me as I rode by.&rdquo; Time had, however, toned
+      down these bright illusions, and he read the permission with a nearer
+      approach to truth, as a fine-lady caprice in a moment of ennui. &ldquo;I thought
+      as much,&rdquo; muttered he to himself as he slowly ascended the stairs; &ldquo;the
+      blockade was too strictly enforced not to tell at last. No newspapers, no
+      books ha! ha! Could n't help surrendering!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The colonel had by this time given his whiskers and moustaches the last
+      curl, thrown back his head into a position of calm dignity, as the
+      servant, throwing wide the folding-doors, announced him. Advancing two
+      paces, and bowing low, Colonel Haggerstone said, &ldquo;Your Ladyship will
+      pardon the liberty the very great liberty I have taken in my respectful
+      inquiries for some days past; but although probably not remembered by Sir
+      Stafford, I once did enjoy the honor of his acquaintance, we met at Lord
+      Kerrison's, in Scotland.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Onslow cut short this very uninteresting explanation by a bland but
+      somewhat supercilious smile, that seemed to say, &ldquo;What possible matter can
+      it be?&rdquo; while at the same time she motioned him to be seated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I hope that Sir Stafford continues to improve?&rdquo; said he, bowing
+      again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's better to-day,&rdquo; said Lady Onslow, languidly. &ldquo;Perhaps as well as
+      anyone can be in this wretched place. You heard, I suppose, of the series
+      of misfortunes that befell us, and compelled us to return here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The colonel looked mildly compassionate and inquisitive. He anticipated
+      the possible pleasure her Ladyship might feel in a personal narrative, and
+      he was an accomplished listener. This time, however, he was wrong. Lady
+      Onslow either did not think the occasion or the audience worth the trouble
+      of the exertion, and merely said, &ldquo;We had a break-down somewhere with an
+      odious name. Sir Stafford would travel by that road through the Hohlen
+      Thai, where somebody made his famous march. Who was it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Massena, I think,&rdquo; said the colonel, at a haphazard, thinking that at
+      least the name was ben trovato, just as Sunday-school children father
+      everything remarkable on John the Baptist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh dear, no; it was Moreau. We stopped to breakfast at the little inn
+      where he held his headquarters, and in the garden of which he amused
+      himself in pistol-shooting, strange, was it not? Are you a good shot,
+      Colonel?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good among bad ones,&rdquo; said the colonel, modestly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then we must have a match. I am so fond of it! You have pistols, of
+      course?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am fortunate enough to have a case of Schlessinger's best, and at your
+      Ladyship's disposal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, that is agreed upon. You 'll be kind enough to select a suitable
+      spot in the garden, and if to-morrow be fine By the way what is to-morrow
+      not Sunday I hope?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The colonel relieved her anxieties by the assurance that the next day
+      would be Monday, consequently that the present one was Sunday.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How strange! One does make sad confusion in these things abroad,&rdquo; said
+      she, sighing. &ldquo;I think we are better in England in that respect, don't
+      you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The question was not a very clear one, but the colonel never hesitated to
+      give in his adhesion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Stafford always took that view in the House, and consequently
+      differed from his party, as well as about Ireland. Poor dear Ireland! what
+      is to be done for her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was a rather more embarrassing demand than the previous one, and the
+      colonel hemmed and coughed, and prepared for a speech of subtle
+      generalities; but the dexterity was all unnecessary, for her Ladyship had
+      already forgotten the theme, and everything about it, as she went on. &ldquo;How
+      I pity those dear Wreckingtons, who are condemned to live there! The Earl,
+      you know, had promised solemnly that he would go any lengths for the party
+      when he got his blue riband; and so they took him at his word, and
+      actually named him to the viceroyalty. It was a very cruel thing, but I
+      hear nothing could be better than his conduct on hearing it: and dear Lady
+      Wreckington insisted upon accompanying him. It was exactly like the story
+      of what was that man's name, who assisted in the murder of the Emperor
+      Paul Geroboffskoi, or something like that, and whose wife followed him to
+      the mines.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The colonel avowed that the cases were precisely alike, and now the
+      conversation if the word can be degraded to mean that bald disjointed chat
+      ran upon London people and events their marriages, their dinners, their
+      separations, coalitions, divorces, and departures; on all which themes
+      Haggerstone affected a considerable degree of knowledge, although, to any
+      one less occupied with herself than her Ladyship, it would have been at
+      once apparent that all his information was derived from the newspapers. It
+      was at the close of a lamentation on the utter stupidity of everything and
+      everywhere, that he adroitly asked where she meant to pass the winter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish I knew,&rdquo; said she, languidly. &ldquo;The Dollingtons say Naples; the
+      Upsleys tell us Rome; and, for my part, I pronounce for neither. Lady
+      Dollingtou is my aversion, and the three Upsley girls, with their pink
+      noses and red hair, are insufferable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does your Ladyship think of Florence?&rdquo; asked the colonel,
+      soothingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pretty much what I might of one of the Tonga Islands. I know nothing of
+      the place, the people, or the climate. Pray tell me about it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is very little to say,&rdquo; said Haggerstone, shrugging his shoulders;
+      &ldquo;not but the place might be very agreeable, if there were some one of
+      really fashionable standing to take the lead and give a tone to the
+      society; some one who would unite indispensable rank and wealth with
+      personal graces, and thus, as it were, by prescriptive right, assume the
+      first place. Then, I say, Florence would be second to no city of Italy.
+      Would that your Ladyship would condescend to accept the vacant throne!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I!&rdquo; said she, affecting astonishment; and then laughingly added: &ldquo;Oh no!
+      I detest mock sovereignty. I actually shudder at the idea of the
+      lady-patroness part; besides, whom should one have to reign over? Not the
+      Browns and Smiths and Perkinses; not the full-pensioned East Indians, the
+      half-pay colonels, and the no-pay Irish gentilities, that form the staple
+      of small city society. You surely would not recommend me to such a sad
+      pre-eminence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The colonel smiled flatteringly at her Ladyship's smartness, and hastened
+      to assure her that such heresy was far from his thoughts; and then with a
+      practised readiness ran over a list of foreign celebrities French,
+      Russian, and German whose names, at least, clinked like the true metal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This looked promisingly; it was very like cutting all English society, and
+      had the appearance of something very exclusive, very impertinent, and very
+      ungenerous; and now she lent a willing ear as Haggerstone revealed a plan
+      of operations for a whole winter campaign. According to his account, it
+      was a perfect terra incognita, where the territorial limits and laws might
+      be laid down at will; it was a state which called for a great
+      dictatorship, and the sway of unlimited authority.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, Lady Hester had never at least since her marriage, and very rarely
+      even before it been more than on the periphery of fashionable society.
+      When she did obtain a footing within the charmed circle, it was by no
+      prescriptive right, but rather on some ground of patronage, or some
+      accidental political crisis, which made Sir Stafford's influence a matter
+      of moment. There was, therefore, a flattery in the thought of thus
+      becoming a leader in society; and she shrewdly remembered, that though
+      there might be little real power, there would be all the tyranny of a
+      larger sovereignty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is true she suffered no symptom of this satisfaction to escape her; on
+      the contrary, she compassionated the &ldquo;poor dear things,&rdquo; that thought
+      themselves &ldquo;the world,&rdquo; in such a place, and smiled with angelic pity at
+      their sweet simplicity; but Haggerstone saw through all these disguises,
+      and read her real sentiments, as a practised toadeater never fails to do,
+      where only affectation is the pretence. Adroitly avoiding to press the
+      question, he adverted to Baden and its dreary weather; offered his books,
+      his newspapers, his horses, his phaeton, and everything that was his, even
+      his companionship as a guide to the best riding or walking roads, and,
+      like a clever actor, made his exit at the very moment when his presence
+      became most desirable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Hester looked out of the window, and saw, in the street beneath, the
+      saddle-horses of the colonel, which were led up and down by a groom in the
+      most accurate of costumes. The nags themselves, too, were handsome and in
+      top condition. It was a little gleam of civilization, in the midst of
+      universal barrenness, that brought up memories, some of which at least
+      were not devoid of pain, so far as the expression of her features might be
+      trusted. &ldquo;I wonder who he can be?&rdquo; said she, musing. &ldquo;It's a shocking
+      name! Haggerstone. Perhaps Sir Stafford may remember him. It's very sad to
+      think that one should be reduced to such people.&rdquo; So, with a slight sigh,
+      she sat down to indulge in a mood of deep and sincere commiseration for
+      herself and her sorrows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From these reveries she was aroused by the arrival of a package of books
+      and papers from the colonel. They included some of the latest things of
+      the day, both French and English, and were exactly the kind of reading she
+      cared for, that half-gossipry that revolves around a certain set, and
+      busies itself about the people and incidents of one very small world.
+      There were books of travel by noble authors, and novels by titled
+      authoresses; the one as tamely well bred and tiresome as the others were
+      warm and impassioned, no bad corroborative evidence, by the way, of the
+      French maxim, that the &ldquo;safety of the Lady Georginas has an immense
+      relation to the coldness of the Lord Georges.&rdquo; There were books of beauty,
+      wherein loveliness was most aristocratic; and annuals where nobility
+      condescended to write twaddle. There were analyses of new operas, wherein
+      the list of the spectators was the only matter of interest, and better
+      than these were the last fashions of &ldquo;Longchamps,&rdquo; the newest bulletins of
+      that great campaign which began in Adam's garden, and will endure to the
+      &ldquo;very crack of doom.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Hester's spirits rallied at once from these well-timed stimulants;
+      and when the party gathered together before dinner, George and his sister
+      were amazed at the happy change in her manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have had a visitor,&rdquo; said she, after a short mystification; &ldquo;a certain
+      colonel, who assumes to be known to your father, but I fancy will scarcely
+      be remembered by him, he calls himself Haggerstone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haggerstone!&rdquo; said George, repeating the name twice or thrice. &ldquo;Is not
+      that the name of the man who was always with Arlington, and of whom all
+      the stories are told?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As I never heard of Arlington's companion, nor the stories in question, I
+      can't say. Pray enlighten us,&rdquo; said Lady Hester, tartly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haggerstone sounds so like the name,&rdquo; repeated George to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So like what name? Do be good enough to explain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am unwilling to tell a story which, if not justly attributable to the
+      man, will certainly attach unpleasantly to his name hereafter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And in your excessive caution for yourself, you are pleased to forget me,
+      Mr. Onslow. Pray remember that if I admit him to acquaintance&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But surely you don't mean to do so?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the first place, you know nothing about him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which is your fault.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be it so. I have at least told you enough to inspire reserve and
+      caution.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite enough to suggest curiosity and give a degree of interest to a very
+      commonplace character.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is he young, may I ask?&rdquo; said George, with a half smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, far from it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good-looking?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just as little.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very agreeable and well-mannered?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rather prosy, and too military in tone for my taste.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does he come under the recommendatory 'firman' of any dear friend or
+      acquaintance?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing of the kind. There is his passport,&rdquo; said she, pointing to his
+      visiting ticket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your Ladyship used to be more difficult of access,&rdquo; said George, dryly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very true; and so I may possibly become again. To make selections from
+      the world of one's acquaintance is a very necessary duty; but, as my
+      father used to say, no one thinks of using a sieve for chaff.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This gentleman is, then, fortunate in his obscurity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here comes Miss Onslow,&rdquo; said Lady Hester, &ldquo;who will probably be more
+      grateful to me when she learns that our solitude is to be enlivened by the
+      gallant colonel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sydney scanned over the books and journals on the table, and then quietly
+      remarked, &ldquo;If a man is to be judged of by his associates, these do not
+      augur very favorably for the gentleman's taste.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see that you are both bent on making him a favorite of mine,&rdquo; said Lady
+      Hester, pettishly; &ldquo;and if Dr. Grounsell will only discover some atrocious
+      circumstance in his history or character, I shall be prepared to call him
+      'charming.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The announcement of dinner fortunately broke up a discussion that already
+      promised unfavorably; nor were any of the party sorry at the interruption.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII. A LESSON IN PISTOL-SHOOTING
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THERE are two great currents which divide public opinion in the whole
+      world, and all mankind may be classed into one or other of these wide
+      categories, &ldquo;the people who praise, and the people who abuse everything.&rdquo;
+       In certain sets, all is as it ought to be, in this life. Everybody is
+      good, dear, and amiable. All the men are gifted and agreeable; all the
+      women fascinating and pretty. An indiscriminate shower of laudations falls
+      upon everything or everybody, and the only surprise the bearer feels is
+      how a world, so chuck full of excellence, can possibly consist with what
+      one reads occasionally in the &ldquo;Times&rdquo; and the &ldquo;Chronicle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The second category is the Roland to this Oliver, and embraces those who
+      have a good word for nobody, and in whose estimation the globe is one
+      great penal settlement, the overseers being neither more nor less than the
+      best-conducted among the convicts. The chief business of these people in
+      life is to chronicle family disgraces and misfortunes, to store their
+      memories with defalcations, frauds, suicides, disreputable transactions at
+      play, unfair duels, seductions, and the like, and to be always prepared,
+      on the first mention of a name, to connect its owner, or his grandmother,
+      with some memorable blot, or some unfortunate event of years before. If
+      the everlasting laudations of the one set make life too sweet to be
+      wholesome, the eternal disparagement of the other renders it too bitter to
+      be enjoyable; nor would it be easy to say whether society suffers more
+      from the exercise of this mock charity on the one side, or the practice of
+      universal malevolence on the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps our readers will feel grateful when we assure them that we are not
+      intent upon pushing the investigation further. The consideration was
+      forced upon us by thinking of Colonel Haggerstone, who was a distinguished
+      member of class No. 2. His mind was a police sheet, or rather like a page
+      of that celebrated &ldquo;Livre Noir,&rdquo; wherein all the unexpiated offences of a
+      nation are registered. He knew the family disasters of all Europe, and not
+      a name could be mentioned in society to which he could not tag either a
+      seduction, a fraud, a swindle, or a poltroonery; and when such revelations
+      are given prosaically, with all the circumstances of date, time, and
+      place, unrelieved by the slightest spice of wit or imagination, but simply
+      narrated as &ldquo;Memoires pour servir a l'Histoire&rdquo; of an individual, the
+      world is very apt to accept them as evidences of knowledge of life, rather
+      than what they really are, proofs of a malignant disposition. In this way,
+      Haggerstone seemed to many the mere &ldquo;old soldier,&rdquo; and nothing more;
+      whereas, if nature had given him either fancy or epigrammatic smartness,
+      he would have been set down for the incarnation of slander.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may seem strange that Lady Hester, who had lived a good deal in the
+      world, should never have met a character of this type, but so it was; she
+      belonged to a certain &ldquo;fast set&rdquo; in society, who seem to ask for a kind of
+      indemnity for all they do, by never, on any occasion, stopping to
+      criticise their neighbors. This semblance of good nature is a better
+      defensive armor than the uninitiated know of, enlisting all loose
+      sympathies with its possessor, and even gaining for its advocates that
+      great floating majority who speak much and think little.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In London, Haggerstone would have at once appeared the very worst &ldquo;ton,&rdquo;
+       and she would have avoided the acquaintance of a man so unhappily gifted;
+      but here, at Baden, with nothing to do, none to speak to, he became
+      actually a prize, and she listened to him for hours with pleasure as he
+      recounted all the misdeeds of those &ldquo;dear, dear friends&rdquo; who had made up
+      her own &ldquo;world.&rdquo; There was at heart, too, the soothing flattery that
+      whispered, &ldquo;He can say nothing of me; the worst he can hint is, that I
+      married a man old enough to be my father, and if I did, I am heartily
+      sorry for the mistake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He was shrewd enough soon to detect the family differences that prevailed,
+      and to take advantage of them, not by any imprudent or ill-advised
+      allusion to what would have enlisted her Ladyship's pride in opposition,
+      but by suggesting occupations and amusements that he saw would be
+      distasteful to the others, and thus alienate her more and more from their
+      companionship. In fact, his great object was to make Lady Hester a
+      disciple of that new school which owns Georges Sand for its patron, &ldquo;and
+      calls itself Lionue.&rdquo; It would be foreign to our purpose here were we to
+      stop and seek to what social causes this new sect owes existence. In a
+      great measure it may be traced to the prevailing taste of men for club
+      life, to that lounging ease which exacts no tribute of respect or even
+      attention, but suffers men to indulge their caprices to any extent of
+      selfishness; thus unfitting them for ladies' society, or only such society
+      as that of ladies condescending enough to unsex themselves, and to talk
+      upon themes and discuss subjects that usually are reserved for other
+      audiences.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Certain clever men liked this liberty, these receptions were a kind of
+      free port, where all could be admitted duty free. Nothing was forbidden in
+      this wide tariff, and so conversation, emancipated from the restriction of
+      better society, permitted a thousand occasions of display, that gradually
+      attracted people to these reunions, and made all other society appear
+      cold, formal, and hypocritical by contrast. This new invention had not
+      reached England when Lady Hester quitted it, but she listened to a
+      description of its merits with considerable interest. There were many
+      points, too, in which it chimed in with her notions. It had novelty,
+      liberty, and unbounded caprice amongst its recommendations; and lastly, it
+      was certain to outrage the &ldquo;Onslows.&rdquo; It was a &ldquo;part&rdquo; which admitted of
+      any amount of interpolations. Under its sanction she would be free to say
+      anything, know any one, and go anywhere. Blessed immunity that permitted
+      all and denied nothing!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With all the vulgar requirements of &ldquo;Lionism&rdquo; she was already sufficiently
+      conversant. She could ride, drive, shoot, and fence; was a very tolerable
+      billiard-player, and could row a little. But with the higher walks of the
+      craft she had made no acquaintance; she had not learned to swim, had never
+      smoked, and was in dark ignorance of that form of language which, half
+      mystical and all-mischievous, is in vogue with the members of this sect.
+      That she could acquire all these things rapidly and easily the colonel
+      assured her, and, by way of &ldquo;matriculating,&rdquo; reminded her of her challenge
+      respecting the pistol-shooting, for which he had made every preparation in
+      the garden of the hotel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      True to his word, he had selected a very pretty alley, at the end of which
+      rose a wall sufficiently high to guard against accidents from stray shots.
+      On a table were displayed, in all the dandyism such objects are capable
+      of, a handsome case of pistols, with all the varied appliances of kid
+      leather for wadding, bullet-moulds, rammers, hammers, screws, and rests,
+      even to a russia-leather bound note-book, to record the successes, nothing
+      had been forgotten; and Lady Hester surveyed with pleasure preparations
+      which at least implied an anxious attention to her wishes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only fancy the barbarism of the land we live in,&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;I have sent
+      emissaries on every side to seek for some of those plaster images so
+      common in every city of Europe, but in vain. Instead of your ladyship
+      cutting off Joan of Arc's head, or sending your bullet through some
+      redoubtable enemy of England, you must waste your prowess and skill upon
+      an ignoble jar of porcelain, or a vase of Bohemian glass; unless, indeed,
+      my last messenger shall have proved more fortunate, and I believe such is
+      the case.&rdquo; As he spoke, his servant came up with a small parcel carefully
+      enveloped in paper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have got this figure, sir,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;with the greatest difficulty, and
+      only indeed by pretending we wanted it as an ornamental statue. The little
+      fellow of the toy-shop parted with it in tears, as if it had been his
+      brother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is very beautiful!&rdquo; said Lady Hester, as she surveyed a small wooden
+      statue of Goethe's &ldquo;Marguerite,&rdquo; in the attitude of plucking the petals of
+      a flower to decide upon her lover's fidelity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A mere toy!&rdquo; said Haggerstone. &ldquo;These things are carved by every child in
+      the Black Forest. Does your Ladyship think you could hit the feather of
+      her cap without hurting the head?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I couldn't think of such profanation,&rdquo; replied she; &ldquo;there is really
+      something very pretty in the attitude and expression. Pray let us reserve
+      her for some less terrible destiny.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But the colonel persisted in assuring her that these were the commonest
+      knick-knacks that adorned every peasant's cabin, that every boor with a
+      rusty knife carved similar figures, and in the midst of his explanations
+      he placed the statue upon a little stone pillar about twenty paces off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Hester's objection had been little more than a caprice; indeed, had
+      she been convinced that the figure was a valuable work of art, she would
+      have felt rather flattered than otherwise at the costliness of the
+      entertainment provided for her. Like Cleopatra's pearl, it would have had
+      the charm of extravagance at least; but she never gave the colonel credit
+      for such gallantry, and the more readily believed all he said on the
+      subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Colonel Haggerstone proceeded to load the pistols with all that pomp and
+      circumstance so amusingly displayed by certain people on like occasions.
+      The bullets, encased in little globes of chamois, carefully powdered with
+      emery, were forced down the barrels by a hammer, the hair trigger
+      adjusted, and the weapon delivered to Lady Hester with due solemnity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I go wide of the mark, Colonel, I beg you to remember that I have not
+      had a pistol in my hand for above three years; indeed, it must be nearly
+      four years since I shot a match with Lord Norwood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lord Norwood! indeed!&rdquo; said Haggerstone. &ldquo;I wasn't aware that your
+      Ladyship had ever been his antagonist.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Had not Lady Hester been herself anxious to hide the confusion the
+      allusion to the viscount always occasioned her, she could not have failed
+      to remark how uncomfortably astonished was Haggerstone at the mention of
+      that name. Nervously eager to do something anything that might relieve her
+      embarrassment she pulled the trigger; but the aim was an erring one, and
+      no trace of the bullet to be seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There 's no use in looking for it, Colonel Haggerstone,&rdquo; said she,
+      pettishly; &ldquo;I'm certain I was very wide of the mark.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 'm positive I saw the plaster drop from the wall somewhere hereabouts,&rdquo;
+       said the complaisant Colonel, pointing to a spot close beside the figure.
+      &ldquo;Yes, and the twigs are broken here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No matter; I certainly missed, and that's quite enough. I told you I
+      should, before I fired; and when one has the anticipation of failure, it
+      is so easy to vindicate the impression.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0004" id="linkimage-0004">
+      <!-- IMG --></a> <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/00094.jpg" alt="00094" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in evident chagrin at her want of success that she spoke, and all
+      her companion's flatteries went for nothing. Meanwhile, he presented the
+      second pistol, which, taking hastily, and without giving herself time for
+      an aim, she discharged with a like result.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 'll not try again,&rdquo; said she, pettishly. &ldquo;Either the pistols don't suit
+      me, or the place or the light is bad. Something is wrong, that's certain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Haggerstone bit his lip in silence, and went on reloading the pistols
+      without trusting himself to reply. A little conflict was going on within
+      him, and all his intended flatteries for her Ladyship were warring with
+      the desire to display his own skill, for he was a celebrated shot, and not
+      a little vain of the accomplishment. Vanity carried the day at last, and
+      taking up the weapon, he raised it slowly to a level with his eye. A
+      second or two he held it thus, his hand steady as a piece of marble.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have taken my aim, and now you may give the word for me to fire when
+      you please,&rdquo; said he, turning his eyes from the object, and looking
+      straight at Lady Hester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She stared at him as if to reassure herself of the direction of his
+      glance, and then called out &ldquo;Fire!&rdquo; The shot rang out clear and sharp;
+      with it arose a shrill cry of agony, and straight before them, at the foot
+      of the pillar, lay something which looked like a roll of clothes, only
+      that by its panting motion it indicated life. Haggerstone sprang forward,
+      and to his horror discovered the dwarf, Hans Roeckle, who, with his arm
+      broken, lay actually bathed in blood. With his remaining hand he clasped
+      the little statue to his bosom, while he muttered to himself the words
+      &ldquo;Gerettet! saved! saved!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While Lady Hester hurried for assistance, Haggerstone bound up the
+      bleeding vessels with his handkerchief; and in such German as he could
+      command, asked how the accident had befallen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few low muttering sounds were all the dwarf uttered, but he kissed the
+      little image with a devotion that seemed like insanity. Meanwhile the
+      colonel's servant, coming up, at once recognized Hans, and exclaimed, &ldquo;It
+      is the little fellow of the toy-shop, sir. I told you with what reluctance
+      he parted with this figure. He must be mad, I think.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The wild looks and eager expressions of the dwarf, as he clutched the
+      image and pressed it to his heart, seemed to warrant the suspicion; and
+      Haggerstone thought he could read insanity in every line of the poor
+      creature's face. To the crowd that instantaneously gathered around the inn
+      door, and which included many of his friends and acquaintances, Hans would
+      give no other explanation of the event than that it was a mere accident;
+      that he was passing, and received the shot by chance; nothing more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is he not mad, or a fool?&rdquo; asked Haggerstone of the innkeeper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Neither, sir; Hans Roeckle is an old and respected burgher of our town,
+      and although eccentric and odd in his way, is not wanting for good sense
+      or good nature.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay! ay!&rdquo; cried two or three of his townsfolk, to whom the landlord
+      translated the Colonel's question; &ldquo;Hans is a kind-hearted fellow, and if
+      he loves his dolls and wooden images over-much, he never lacks in
+      affection for living creatures.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While these and such-like observations were making around him, the dwarf's
+      wounds were being dressed by his friend, Ludwig Kraus, an operation of
+      considerable pain, that the little fellow bore with heroic tranquillity.
+      Not a word of complaint, not a syllable of impatience escaped him; and
+      while from his half-closed lips a low, muttered exclamation of &ldquo;Saved!
+      saved!&rdquo; came forth from time to time, the bystanders deemed it the
+      utterance of gratitude for his own escape with life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But once only did any expression of irritation burst from him, it was when
+      Haggerstone pulled out his purse, and with an ostentatious display of
+      munificence asked him to name his recompense. &ldquo;Take me home; take me
+      hence!&rdquo; said Hans, impatiently. &ldquo;Tell the rich 'Englander' that there are
+      wounds for which sorrow would be an ample cure, but there are others which
+      insult is sure to fester.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII. THE NIGHT EXCURSION
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE remainder of the day after the dwarf's misfortune was passed by Lady
+      Hester in a state of feverish irritability. Sorry as she felt for the &ldquo;sad
+      accident,&rdquo; her own phrase, she was still more grieved for the effects it
+      produced upon herself; the jar and worry of excited feelings, the
+      uncomfortableness of being anxious about anything or anybody.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Epicurean in her code of manners as of morals, she detested whatever
+      occasioned even a passing sensation of dissatisfaction, and hence upon the
+      luckless colonel, the author of the present evil, fell no measured share
+      of her displeasure. &ldquo;He should have taken precautions against such a
+      mishap; he ought to have had sufficient presence of mind to have arrested
+      his aim; he should have fired in the air, in fact, he ought to have done
+      anything but what he did do;&rdquo; which was to agitate the nerves, and
+      irritate the sensibilities, of a fine lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The conduct of the family, too, was the very reverse of soothing. Sir
+      Stafford's gout had relapsed on hearing of the event; George Onslow's
+      anger was such that he could not trust himself to speak of the occurrence;
+      and as for Sydney, though full of sorrow for the dwarf, she had not a
+      single sympathy to bestow upon her stepmother. &ldquo;Were there ever such
+      people?&rdquo; she asked herself again and again. Not one had taken the trouble
+      to ask how she bore up, or express the slightest anxiety for the
+      consequences the shock might occasion her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Grounsell was actually insufferable; and even hinted that if anything
+      untoward were to happen, the very grave question might arise as to the
+      guilt of the parties who appeared in arms without a Government permission.
+      He reminded her Ladyship that they were not in England, but in a land
+      beset with its own peculiar prejudices and notions, and in nothing so
+      rigorous as in the penalties on accidents that took their origin in
+      illegality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for the wound itself, he informed her that the bullet had &ldquo;traversed
+      the deltoid, but without dividing the brachial artery; and, for the
+      present, sympathetic fever and subcutaneous inflammation would be the
+      worst consequences.&rdquo; These tidings were neither very reassuring nor
+      intelligible; but all her cross-examination could elicit little better.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has Colonel Haggerstone been to see him?&rdquo; asked she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, madam. His groom called with a present of two florins.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! impossible, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perfectly true, madam. I was present when the money was returned to the
+      man by a young lady, whose attentions to the sufferer saved him the pain
+      this indignity would have cost him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A young lady, did you say? How does he happen to be so fortunate in his
+      attendance?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Her father chances to be this poor creature's tenant, and many mutual
+      acts of kindness have passed between them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not even scandal could asperse her motives in the present case,&rdquo; said
+      Lady Hester, with an insolent laugh. &ldquo;It looked hardly human when they
+      lifted it from the ground.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Scandal has been guilty of as gross things, madam,&rdquo; said Grounsell,
+      sternly, &ldquo;but I would defy her here, although there is beauty enough to
+      excite all her malevolence.&rdquo; And with this speech, delivered with a
+      pointedness there was no mistaking, the doctor left the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Impressions, or what she herself would have called &ldquo;feelings,&rdquo; chased each
+      other so rapidly through Lady Hester's mind, that her whole attention was
+      now directed to the young lady of whom Grounsell spoke, and whose singular
+      charity excited all her curiosity. There is a strange tendency to
+      imitation among those whose intelligences lie unexercised by any call of
+      duty or necessity. No suggestion coming from within, they look without
+      themselves for occupation and amusement. Lady Hester was a prominent
+      disciple of this school; all her life she had been following, eager to see
+      whether the fashions that became, or the pleasures that beguiled, others,
+      might not suit herself. If such a course of existence inevitably conduces
+      to ennui and discontent, it is no less difficult to strive against; and
+      they who follow in the track of others' footsteps have all the weariness
+      of the road without the cheering excitement of the journey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the young lady found pleasure in charity, why should n't she?
+      Benevolence, too, for aught she knew, might be very becoming. There were a
+      hundred little devices of costume and manner which might be adopted to
+      display it. What a pretty version of the good Samaritan modernized one
+      might give in a Shetland scarf and a cottage bonnet the very thing Chalons
+      would like to paint; and what an effective &ldquo;interior&rdquo; might be made of the
+      dwarf's chamber, crowded with rude peasant faces, all abashed and almost
+      awe-struck as she entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The longer she dwelt upon the theme the more fascinating it became. &ldquo;It
+      would be really worth while to realize,&rdquo; said she to herself at last &ldquo;so
+      amusing and so odd, an actual adventure; besides, in point of fact, it was
+      her duty to look after this poor creature.&rdquo; Just so; there never was a
+      frivolous action, or a notion struck out by passing folly, for which its
+      author could not find a justification in PRINCIPLE! We are everlastingly
+      declaring against the knaveries and deceptions practised on us in life;
+      but if we only took count of the cheats we play off upon ourselves, we
+      should find that there are no such impostors as our own hearts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nobody was ever less likely to make this discovery than Lady Hester. She
+      believed herself everything that was good and amiable; she knew that she
+      was handsome. Whatever contrarieties she met with in life, she was quite
+      certain they came not from any fault of hers; and if self-esteem could
+      give happiness, she must have enjoyed it. But it cannot. The wide neutral
+      territory between what we think of ourselves and others think of us is
+      filled with daring enemies to our peace, and it is impossible to venture
+      into it without a wound of self-love.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To make her visit to the dwarf sufficient of an adventure, it must be done
+      in secret; nobody should know it but Celestine, her maid, who should
+      accompany her. Affecting a slight indisposition, she could retire to her
+      room in the evening, and then there would be abundant time to put her plan
+      into execution. Even these few precautions against discovery were
+      needless, for George did not return to dinner on that day, and Sydney made
+      a headache an excuse for not appearing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing short of the love of adventure and the indulgence of a caprice
+      could have induced Lady Hester to venture out in such a night. The rain
+      fell in torrents, and swooped along the narrow streets in channels swollen
+      to the size of rivulets. The river itself, fed by many a mountain stream,
+      fell tumbling over the rocks with a deafening roar, amid which the
+      crashing branches of the pine-trees were heard at intervals. What would
+      not have been her anxieties and lamentings if exposed to such a storm when
+      travelling, surrounded with all the appliances that wealth can compass!
+      and yet now, of her own free will, she wended her way on foot through the
+      darkness and the hurricane, not only without complaining, but actually
+      excited to a species of pleasure in the notion of her imaginary heroism.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The courier who preceded her, as guide, enjoyed no such agreeable
+      illusions, but muttered to himself, as he went, certain reflections by no
+      means complimentary, to the whims of fine ladies; while Mademoiselle
+      Celestine inwardly protested that anything, &ldquo;not positively wrong,&rdquo; would
+      be dearly purchased by the dangers of such an excursion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gregoire! Gregoire! where is he now!&rdquo; exclaimed Lady Hester, as she lost
+      sight of her guide altogether.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here, miladi,&rdquo; grunted out the courier, in evident pain; &ldquo;I fail to break
+      my neck over de stone bench.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where 's the lantern, Gregoire?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Blowed away, zum Teufel, I believe.&rdquo; &ldquo;What 's he saying, Celestine? what
+      does he mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But mademoiselle could only answer by a sob of agony over her capote de
+      Paris, flattened to her head like a Highland bonnet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you no light? You must get a light, Gregoire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Impossible, miladi; dere 's nobody livin' in dese houses at all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you must go back to the inn for one; we 'll wait here till you
+      return.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A faint shriek from Mademoiselle Celestine expressed all the terror such a
+      proposition suggested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miladi will be lost if she remain here all alone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perdue! sans doute!&rdquo; exclaimed Celestiue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am determined to have my way. Do as I bade you, Gregoire; return for a
+      light, and we'll take such shelter as this door affords in the meanwhile.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in no spirit of general benevolence that Gregoire tracked his road
+      back to the &ldquo;Russie,&rdquo; since, if truth must be told, he himself had
+      extinguished the light, in the hope of forcing Lady Hester to a retreat.
+      Muttering a choice selection of those pleasant phrases with which his
+      native German abounds, he trudged along, secretly resolving that he would
+      allow his mistress a reasonable interval of time to reflect over her
+      madcap expedition. Meanwhile, Lady Hester and her maid stood shivering and
+      storm-beaten beneath the drip of a narrow eave. The spirit of opposition
+      alone sustained her Ladyship at this conjuncture, for she was wet through,
+      her shoes soaked with rain, and the cold blast that swept along seemed as
+      if it would freeze the very blood in her heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Celestine could supply but little of comfort or consolation, and kept
+      repeating the words, &ldquo;Quelle aventure! quelle aventure!&rdquo; in every variety
+      of lamentation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He could easily have been back by this,&rdquo; said Lady Hester, after a long
+      pause, and an anxious attention to every sound that might portend his
+      coming: &ldquo;I 'm certain it is full half an hour since he left us. What a
+      night!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Et quelle aventure!&rdquo; exclaimed Celestine, anew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      None knew better than Lady Hester the significant depreciation of the
+      Frenchwoman's phrase, and how differently had she rated all the hazards of
+      the enterprise if any compromise of character were to have followed it.
+      However, it was no time for discussion, and she let it pass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he should have missed the way, and not be able to find us!&rdquo; she said,
+      after another pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall be found dead in the morning,&rdquo; cried Celestine; &ldquo;et pour quelle
+      a venture, mon Dieu, pour quelle aventure!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The possibility that her fears suggested, and the increasing severity of
+      the storm for now the thunder rolled overhead, and the very ground seemed
+      to shake with the reverberation served to alarm Lady Hester, and for the
+      first time she became frightened at their situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We could scarcely find our way back, Celestine!&rdquo; said she, rather in the
+      tone of one asking for comfort than putting a question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Impossible, miladi.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And Gregoire says that these houses are all uninhabited.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quelle aventure!&rdquo; sobbed the maid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What can have become of him? It is more than an hour now! What was that,
+      Ce'lestine? was it lightning? there, don't you see it yonder, towards the
+      end of the street? I declare it is Gregoire; I see the lantern.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A cry of joy burst from both together, for already hope had begun to wane,
+      and a crowd of fearful anticipations had taken its place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Hester tried to call his name, but the clattering noise of the storm
+      drowned the weak effort. The light, however, came nearer at each instant,
+      and there was no longer any doubt of their rescue, when suddenly it turned
+      and disappeared at an angle of the street. Lady Hester uttered a piercing
+      cry, and at the instant the lantern was again seen, showing that the
+      bearer had heard the sounds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here, Gregoire, we are here!&rdquo; exclaimed she, in her loudest voice, and
+      speaking in English.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whoever carried the lantern seemed for a moment uncertain how to act, for
+      there was no reply, nor any change of position for a few seconds, when at
+      length the light was seen approaching where Lady Hester stood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think I heard an English voice,&rdquo; said one whose accents proclaimed her
+      to be a woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh yes!&rdquo; cried Lady Hester, passionately, &ldquo;I am English. We have lost our
+      way. Our courier went back to the inn for a lantern, and has never
+      returned, and we are almost dead with cold and terror. Can you guide us to
+      the Hotel de Russie?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The house I live in is only a few yards off. It is better you should take
+      shelter there for the present.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take care, miladi!&rdquo; whispered Celestine, eagerly. &ldquo;This may be a plot to
+      rob and murder us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have no fears on that score, mademoiselle,&rdquo; said the unknown, laughing,
+      and speaking in French; &ldquo;we are not very rich, but as surely we are
+      perfectly safe company.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Few as these words were, there was in their utterance that indescribable
+      tone of good breeding and ease which at once reassured Lady Hester, who
+      now replied to her unseen acquaintance with the observance due to an
+      equal, and willingly accepted the arm she offered for guidance and
+      support.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At the end of this little street, scarcely two minutes' walking, and you
+      will be there,&rdquo; said the unknown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Hester scarcely heard the remark, as she ran on with voluble levity
+      on the dangers they had run, the terrific storm, the desertion of the
+      courier, her own fortitude, her maid's cowardice, what must have happened
+      if they had not been discovered, till at last she bethought her of asking
+      by what singular accident the other should have been abroad in such a
+      terrible night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A neighbor and a friend of ours is very ill, madam, and I have been to
+      the doctor's to fetch some medicine for him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I, too, was bent upon a charitable errand,&rdquo; said Lady Hester, quite
+      pleased with the opportunity of parading her own merits, &ldquo;to visit a poor
+      creature who was accidentally wounded this morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is Hans Roeckle, our poor neighbor, you mean,&rdquo; cried the other,
+      eagerly; &ldquo;and here we are at his house.&rdquo; And so saying, she pushed open a
+      door, to which a bell, attached on the inside, gave speedy warning of
+      their approach.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dearest Kate!&rdquo; cried a voice from within, &ldquo;how uneasy I have been at your
+      absence!&rdquo; And the same moment a young girl appeared with a light, which,
+      as she shaded it with her hand, left her unaware of the presence of
+      strangers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Think rather of this lady, and what she must have suffered,&rdquo; said Kate,
+      as, drawing courteously back, she presented her sister to Lady Hester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or rather, what I might have suffered,&rdquo; interposed Lady Hester, &ldquo;but for
+      the fortunate accident of your coming. A few moments back, as I stood
+      shivering beneath the storm, I little thought that I should owe my rescue
+      to a countrywoman. May I learn the name of one to whom I am so deeply
+      indebted?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dalton, madam,&rdquo; said Nelly; and then with a slight confusion, added, &ldquo;we
+      ought, perhaps, to tell the circumstances which induced my sister to be
+      abroad at such an hour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She knows it all,&rdquo; broke in Kate, &ldquo;and can the more readily forgive it,
+      as it was her own errand. But will not this lady come near the fire?&rdquo; said
+      she, addressing Mademoiselle Celestiue, who, as she followed the rest into
+      the humble chamber, was bestowing a most depreciatory glance upon the
+      place, the furniture, and the people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is only my maid,&rdquo; said Lady Hester, carelessly. &ldquo;And now it is time I
+      should introduce myself, and say that Lady Hester Onslow owes you all her
+      gratitude.&rdquo; Ellen courtesied respectfully at the announcement, but Kate
+      Dalton's cheek colored slightly, and she bent a look of more than common
+      admiration at the handsome figure of the stranger. An innate reverence for
+      rank and title was rooted in her heart, and she was overjoyed to think
+      that their chance acquaintance should be one of that class so
+      distinctively marked out for honor. Prepared to admire every grace and
+      fascination of the high-born, Kate watched with eager and delighted looks
+      the slightest gestures, the least traits of manner, of the fashionable
+      beauty. They were all attractions to which her heart gave a ready
+      response. The accent in which she spoke, the careless elegance of her
+      attitude as she lay back in her chair, the charming negligence with which
+      she wore the little portions of dress exchanged for her own, were all
+      inimitable graces in the eye of the simple girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for Lady Hester, accustomed to all the servile offices of her own
+      attendants, to be punctiliously obeyed and waited on, it was yet a new
+      sensation to watch the zealous and eager devotion with which the two
+      sisters ministered to her wants. In utter forgetfulness of themselves,
+      they had brought forth the little resources of their humble wardrobe, too
+      happy, as it seemed, when they saw their services so willingly accepted.
+      Fortunately, they did not perceive the contemptuous looks with which
+      &ldquo;mademoiselle&rdquo; regarded their attentions, nor overheard her exclamation of
+      &ldquo;Mon Dieu! where did they gather together these chiffons?&rdquo; as she surveyed
+      the somewhat antiquated stores of their toilette.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even had Lady Hester's good breeding not prompted a gracious reception of
+      what was so generously offered, the very singularity of the scene would
+      have had its charm in her estimation. She was delighted with everything,
+      even to Kate Dalton's slippers, which, by a most happy flattery, were a
+      little too large for her. She fancied, too, that her costume, curiously
+      made up of shreds and patches the most incongruous, was the dress of an
+      Irish peasant, and was in an ecstasy at the thought of a similar one at
+      her next fancy ball. Besides all these internal sources of
+      self-satisfaction, the admiration of the two sisters was another and more
+      legitimate cause of pleasure; for even Ellen, with all her natural reserve
+      and caution, was scarcely less impressed than Kate with the charm of those
+      fascinations which, however destined but for one class of society, are
+      equally successful in all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ellen Dalton's life had not been devoid of trials, nor had they failed to
+      teach their own peculiar lessons; and yet her experiences had not shown
+      her how very like right feeling good breeding can be, and how closely good
+      manners may simulate every trait of a high and generous nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IX. A FINE LADY'S BLANDISHMENTS.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      WE left Lady Hester, in our last chapter, employed in the exercise of
+      those fascinations which, however unlike in other respects, have this
+      resemblance to virtue, that they are assuredly their own reward. The charm
+      of courtesy never conferred one half the pleasure on those for whom it was
+      exercised as to him who wielded it. It matters little whether the magician
+      be prince or &ldquo;charlatan,&rdquo; the art of pleasing is one of the most agreeable
+      faculties human nature can be endowed with. Whether Lady Hester was aware
+      of the theory or not, she felt the fact, as she saw the undisguised
+      admiration in the faces of the two sisters; for while she had won over
+      Nelly by the elevation of her sentiments and the kindness of her
+      expressions, Kate was fascinated by her beauty, her grace, her easy
+      gayety, and a certain voluble lightness that simulates frankness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without anything that approached the prying of curiosity, for she was both
+      too well bred and too little interested to have so felt such a motive, she
+      inquired by what accident the Daltons remained at Baden so late in the
+      season, affected to see some similarity between their cases and her own,
+      asked in the most feeling terms for their father, whose ill-health she
+      deplored, and then took such an interest in &ldquo;dear Frank,&rdquo; that Kate could
+      not resist showing a portrait of him, which, however humble its claims to
+      art, still conveyed a not unfaithful resemblance of the handsome youth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While thus hearing about them, she was equally communicative about
+      herself, and enlisted all the sympathies of the girls as she recounted
+      their escape from the torrent in the Black Forest, and their subsequent
+      refuge in Baden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thence she diverged to Sir Stafford's illness, her own life of seclusion
+      and sadness, and, by an easy transition, came round to poor Hans Roeckle
+      and the accident of that morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do tell me everything about the poor dear thing,&rdquo; said she, poutingly.
+      &ldquo;They say it is mad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, madam,&rdquo; said Nelly, gravely; &ldquo;Hans, with many eccentricities of
+      manner, is very far from deficient in good sense or judgment, and is more
+      than ordinarily endowed with right feeling and kindness of heart.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is a dwarf, surely?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, but in intelligence&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, that, of course,&rdquo; interrupted she; &ldquo;they are rarely deficient in
+      acuteness, but so spiteful, so full of malice. My dear child, there 's no
+      trusting them. They never forget an injury, nor even an imaginary slight.
+      There was that creature what was his name? that Polish thing, Benywowski,
+      I think you remember, they baked him in a pie, to amuse Charles II. well,
+      he never forgave it after wards, and to the day of his death could never
+      bear the sight of pastry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must except poor Hans from this category,&rdquo; said Nelly, mildly, and with
+      difficulty restraining a smile. &ldquo;He is amiability itself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Hester shook her head doubtfully, and went on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Their very caprices, my dear, lead them into all kinds of extravagances.
+      For instance, this poor thing, it would seem, is so enamored of these
+      wooden toys that he makes himself, that he cannot bear to part with them.
+      Now, there 's no saying to what excesses he might be carried by this
+      absurd passion. I have read of the most atrocious murders committed under
+      a similar fanaticism.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I assure you, madam, there need be no fear of such in the present
+      instance. In the first case, Hans is too good; in the second, the objects
+      are too valueless.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very true, so they are; but he doesn't think them so, you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, my Lady; nor would you either, were you to regard them with
+      attention,&rdquo; broke in Kate, whose cheek was now one glow of scarlet. &ldquo;Even
+      this, half finished as it is, may lay claim to merit.&rdquo; And as she spoke,
+      she removed a napkin from a little statue, before which she held the
+      candle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For shame, Kate, dearest Kate!&rdquo; cried Nelly, standing up in bashful
+      discomfiture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a statuette of poor Frank, madam,&rdquo; continued Kate, who, totally
+      regardless of her sister's interruption now exhibited the figure nearer.
+      &ldquo;You see him just as he left us, his knapsack on his shoulder, his sword
+      fastened across it, his little cap on one side of his head, and that happy
+      smile upon his lips. Poor dear fellow! how sad a heart it covered!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And was this his work?&rdquo; asked Lady Hester, in astonishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, madam; my sister Nelly was the artist of this, as of all the others.
+      Unaided and untaught, her own ingenuity alone suggesting the means, as her
+      imagination supplied the conception.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Kate! dear, dear Kate!&rdquo; said Ellen, with a voice of almost rebuke. &ldquo;You
+      forget how unworthy these poor efforts are of such high-sounding
+      epithets.&rdquo; Then, turning to Lady Hester, she continued: &ldquo;Were it to ears
+      less charitable than yours, madam, these foolish words were spoken, I
+      should fear the criticism our presumption would seem to call forth. But
+      you will not think harshly of us for ignorance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this figure is admirable; the attitude is graceful; the character of
+      the head, the features, are in good keeping. I know, of course, nothing of
+      the resemblance to your brother, but, as a work of art, I am competent to
+      say it has high merit. Do tell me how the thought of doing these things
+      first occurred to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I learned drawing as a child, madam, and was always fond of it,&rdquo; said
+      Ellen, with a degree of constraint that seemed as if the question were
+      painful to answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, and so have I spent months ay, I believe I might say years at the
+      easel, copying every Giorgione at Venice and every Vandyk at Genoa, and
+      yet such a thought never suggested itself to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am happy to think so, madam,&rdquo; was the low response.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why so? how do you mean?&rdquo; asked Lady Hester, eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That the motive in my case never could have been yours, madam.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what was the motive?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poverty, madam. The word is not a pleasant word to syllable, but it is
+      even better than any attempt at disguise. These trifles, while beguiling
+      many a dreary hour, have helped us through a season of more than usual
+      difficulty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, madam,&rdquo; broke in Kate. &ldquo;You are aware that papa's property is in
+      Ireland, and for some years back it has been totally unproductive.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How very sad how dreadful!&rdquo; exclaimed Lady Hester. But whether the
+      expressions referred to the condition of the Daltons or of Ireland, it is
+      not quite clear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I doubt, madam, if I should have ventured on the confession,&rdquo; said Ellen,
+      with a voice of calm firmness, &ldquo;were it not for the opportunity it offers
+      of bearing testimony to the kindness of our poor friend yonder, Hans
+      Roeckle. These efforts of mine have met such favor in his eyes that he
+      accepts them all, taking them as rapidly as they are finished, and, I need
+      not say, treating me with a generosity that would become a more exalted
+      patron and a better artist.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is quite a romance, I declare!&rdquo; cried Lady Hester. &ldquo;The Wood Demon and
+      the Maiden. Only he is not in love with you, I hope?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm not quite sure of that,&rdquo; said Kate, laughing; &ldquo;at least, when some
+      rivalry of her own wooden images does not intervene.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush! Hans is awaking,&rdquo; said Ellen, as on tiptoe she crossed the room
+      noiselessly, and opened the door of the chamber where the dwarf lay. Lady
+      Hester and Kate now drew near and peeped in. On a low settle over which an
+      old scarlet saddle-cloth, fringed with tarnished lace, was spread as a
+      quilt lay Hans Roeckle, his wounded arm supported by a pillow at his side;
+      his dark eyes glistened with the bright glare of fever, and his cheeks
+      were flushed and burning, as his lips moved unceasingly, with a low
+      muttering, which he continued, regardless of the presence of those who now
+      approached his bedside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it he is saying? Does he complain of pain?&rdquo; asked Lady Hester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0005" id="linkimage-0005">
+      <!-- IMG --></a> <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/00110.jpg" alt="00110" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot understand him,&rdquo; said Nelly; &ldquo;for ever since his accident he has
+      spoken in his native dialect the patois of the Bregentzer Wald of which I
+      am utterly ignorant; still he will reply to me in good German when
+      questioned.&rdquo; Then, stooping down, she asked, &ldquo;Are you better, Hans?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hans looked up steadfastly in her face without speaking; it seemed as if
+      her voice had arrested his wandering faculties, but yet not awakened any
+      intelligence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are thirsty, Hans,&rdquo; said she, gently, as she lifted a cup of water to
+      his lips. He drank greedily, and then passed his hand across his brow, as
+      if trying to dispel some tormenting fancies. After a second or two, he
+      said: &ldquo;It was in Nuremberg, in the Oden Gasse, it happened. The Ritter von
+      Ottocar stabbed her as she knelt at the cross; and the dwarf, Der
+      Mohrchen, as they called him, tore off his turban to bind up the wound;
+      and what was his reward, maiden? tell me that! Are ye all so shamed that
+      ye dare not speak it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We know it not, Hans; we never heard of the Ritter nor the Mohrchen
+      before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 'll tell you, then. They burned him as a warlock in the Hohen Platz
+      next morning.&rdquo; With a wild burst of savage laughter he closed this speech,
+      which he spoke in good German; but immediately after his thoughts seemed
+      to turn to his old Tyrol haunts and the familiar language of his native
+      land, as he sang, in a low voice, the following words:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;A Buchsel zu schiessen,
+     A Stossring zu schlagn,
+     A Dienal zu Liebn,
+     Muss a Rue hahn.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does he mean? Do tell me,&rdquo; said Lady Hester, whose interest in the
+      scene was more that of curiosity than compassion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a peasant dialect; but means, that a rifle to shoot with, a weapon
+      to wield, and a maiden to love, are all that a good Tyroler needs in
+      life,&rdquo; said Kate, while Nelly busied herself in arranging the position of
+      the wounded limb, little offices for which the poor dwarf looked his
+      gratitude silently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How wild his looks are!&rdquo; said Lady Hester. &ldquo;See how his eyes glance along
+      the walls, as if some objects were moving before them!&rdquo; And so in reality
+      was it. Hanserl's looks were riveted upon the strange and incongruous
+      assemblage of toys which, either suspended from nails or ranged on
+      shelves, decorated the sides of the chamber. &ldquo;Ay,&rdquo; said he at last, with a
+      melancholy smile, &ldquo;thou 'lt have to put off all this bravery soon, my
+      pretty damsels, and don the black veil and the hood, for thy master Hans
+      is dying!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is talking to the wax figures,&rdquo; whispered Kate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And ye too, my brave hussars, and ye Uhlaners with your floating banners,
+      must lower your lances as ye march in the funeral procession, when Hanserl
+      is dead! Take down the wine-bush from the door, hostess, and kneel
+      reverently, for the bell is ringing; and here comes the priest in his alb,
+      and with the pix before him. Hush! they are chanting his requiem. Ah! yes.
+      Hanserl is away to the far-off land,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Wo sind die Tage lang genug,
+     Wo sind die Nachte mild.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come away, we do but excite his mind to wanderings,&rdquo; said Ellen: &ldquo;so long
+      as there is light to see these toys, his fancy endows them all with life
+      and feeling, and his poor brain is never at rest.&rdquo; The sound of voices in
+      the outer room at the same moment caught their attention, and they heard
+      the courier of Lady Hester in deep converse with Mademoiselle Celestine.
+      He, deploring the two hours he had passed in hunting after his mistress
+      through the dark streets of the village; and she, not less eloquently,
+      bewailing the misery of a night spent in that comfortless cabin. &ldquo;To visit
+      a wretched dwarf, too! Parbleu! had it been a rendezvous with some one
+      worth while, but an excursion without an object, sans emotion meme, it is
+      too bad!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Que voulez-vous!&rdquo; said Monsieur Gregoire, with a shrug of the shoulders;
+      &ldquo;she is English!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! that is no reason for a vulgar caprice, and I, for one, will not
+      endure it longer. I cannot do so. Such things compromise one's self. I 'll
+      give warning to-morrow. What would my poor dear mistress, la Marquise,
+      say, if she only knew how mes petits talents were employed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not be rash, mademoiselle,&rdquo; interposed the courier; &ldquo;they are rich,
+      very rich, and we are going to Italy too, the real pays de Cocagne of our
+      profession.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      How far his persuasions might have gone in inducing her to reconsider her
+      determination there is no saying, when they were suddenly interrupted by
+      Lady Hester's appearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her first care was to ascertain that her absence from the hotel had not
+      been remarked, her secret, as she loved to fancy it, remained sacred.
+      Having learned thus much, she listened with a kind of childish pleasure to
+      the courier's version of all his unhappy wanderings in search of her,
+      until he at last descried a light, the only one that shone from any window
+      in the whole village.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Gregoire had provided himself with a sufficient number of shawls,
+      cloaks, and clogs, and as the storm had now passed over, Lady Hester
+      prepared to take her leave, delighted with her whole night's adventure.
+      There had been excitement enough to make it all she could desire; nor did
+      she well know whether most to admire her heroism during the storm, or the
+      success with which she captivated the two sisters; the courage which
+      planned the expedition, or the grace with which it was executed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll come and see me, Miss Dalton; mind, I'm always at home. Remember,
+      Miss Kate Dalton, that they must not deny me to you&rdquo; said she, in her most
+      winning of manners. The two girls gave their promise in bashful
+      diffidence, while she continued,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll say to your papa, too, that Sir Stafford will wait on him whenever
+      he is able to leave the house. Mr. Onslow, indeed, ought to call at once;
+      but he is so odd. Never mind, we shall be great friends; and you 'll bring
+      all your little carving tools and your models with you, and work in my
+      room. Your sister her embroidery, or her lace, or her crochet, or whatever
+      it is, or you 'll read German for me, like a dear child, that will be so
+      delightful. I can't understand a word of it, but it sounds so soft, and
+      you 'll tell me all it 's about won't you? And then this poor thing must
+      want for nothing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, madam, he is in no need of anything but kindness. In a land where
+      such simple habits prevail, Hans Roeckle passes for rich.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How strange! how very odd! but I remember that poor Prince of
+      Stolzenheimer. Papa used to say that he had six cordons, but only one
+      coat! I believe it was true.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hanserl is better off, madam,&rdquo; replied Nelly, smiling; &ldquo;at least as
+      regards the coats.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell him, then, that I've been to see him, and am so grieved at his
+      accident, but that it was all Colonel Haggerstone's fault, a bit of silly
+      vanity to show how well he could shoot, and I 'm certain it just comes of
+      being used to the pistols. I never missed when I fired with Norwood's!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The utterance of that name seemed to recall her from the discursive
+      babble. She paused, and for a moment or two she was silent. At last,
+      turning to the sisters, she reiterated her hopes of a speedy meeting, and
+      with a cordial pressure of the hand to each, wished her last good-night,
+      and departed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER X. A FAMILY DISCUSSION.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      LONG before Lady Hester awoke on the following morning every circumstance
+      of her visit was known to Grounsell. It was the doctor's custom to see
+      Dalton early each day, and before Sir Stafford was stirring, and to chat
+      away an hour or so with the invalid, telling the current news of the time,
+      and cheering his spirits by those little devices which are not among the
+      worst resources of the Materia Medica. With all his knowledge of Lady
+      Hester's character, her caprices, her whims, and her insatiable passion
+      for excitement, he was still astonished beyond measure at this step: not
+      that the false air of benevolence or charity deceived him, he was too old
+      a practitioner in medicine, and had seen far too much of the dark side of
+      human nature, to be easily gulled, but his surprise arose from the novelty
+      of her condescending to know, and even propitiate, the good graces of
+      people whom she usually professed to regard as the least interesting of
+      all classes of mankind. The &ldquo;reduced lady or gentleman&rdquo; had only presented
+      themselves to Lady Hester's mind by the medium of an occasional curiously
+      worded advertisement in a morning paper, and were invariably associated
+      with a subsequent police report, where the object of charity was sure to
+      be confronted with half a dozen peers or members of parliament, whose
+      sympathies he had put under contribution, to support a life of infamy or
+      extravagance. &ldquo;A begging impostor&rdquo; rang in her mind as a phrase whose
+      ingredient words could not be divorced, and she was thoroughly convinced
+      that imposture and poverty were convertible terms. The very notion of any
+      one having once been well off, and being now in embarrassment, was, to her
+      deeming, most satisfactory evidence of past misconduct and present
+      knavery. Grounsell had beard her hold forth on this theme more than once,
+      &ldquo;embroidering the sentiment&rdquo; with an occasional sly allusion to himself
+      and his own fortunes, so that he had often thought over the difficulty of
+      serving the Daltons with Sir Stafford, by reflecting on the hostility any
+      project would meet with from &ldquo;my Lady,&rdquo; and now accident, or something
+      very like it, had done what all his ingenuity could not succeed in
+      discovering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The announcement at first rendered him perfectly mute; he heard it without
+      power to make the slightest observation; and it was only at the end of a
+      lengthy description from the two sisters, that he exclaimed, in a kind of
+      half soliloquy, &ldquo;By Jove, it is so like her, after all!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 'm sure of it,&rdquo; said Nelly; &ldquo;her manner was kindness and gentleness
+      itself. You should have seen the tender way she took poor Hansells hand in
+      her own, and how eagerly she asked us to translate for her the few stray
+      words he uttered.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course she did. I could swear to it all, now that my eyes are opened.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And with what winning grace she spoke!&rdquo; cried Kate. &ldquo;How the least phrase
+      came from her lips with a fascination that still haunts me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just so, just so!&rdquo; muttered Grounsell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How such traits of benevolence ennoble high station!&rdquo; said Nelly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How easy to credit all that one hears of the charms of intercourse, where
+      manner like hers prevails on every side!&rdquo; cried Kate, enthusiastically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How thoughtful in all her kindness!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What elegance in every movement!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With what inborn courtesy she accepted the little valueless attentions,
+      which were all we could render her!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How beautiful she looked, in all the disorder of a dress so unlike her
+      own splendor! I could almost fancy that old straw chair to be a handsome
+      fauteuil since she sat in it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How delightful it must be to be admitted to the freedom of daily
+      intercourse with such a person, to live within the atmosphere of such
+      goodness and such refinement!&rdquo; And thus they went on ringing the changes
+      upon every gift and grace, from the genial warmth of her heart, to the
+      snowy whiteness of her dimpled hands; while Grouusell fidgeted in his
+      chair, searched for his handkerchief, his spectacles, his snuff-box,
+      dropped them all in turn, and gathered them up again, in a perfect fever
+      of embarrassment and indecision.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you see her every day, doctor?&rdquo; said Nelly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, every day, madam,&rdquo; said he, hastily, and not noticing nor thinking
+      to whom he was replying.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And is she always as charming, always as fascinating?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pretty much the same, I think,&rdquo; said he, with a grunt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How delightful! And always in the same buoyancy of spirits?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very little changed in that respect,&rdquo; said he, with another grunt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have often felt for poor Sir Stafford being taken ill away from his
+      home, and obliged to put up with the miserable resources of a
+      watering-place in winter; but I own, when I think of the companionship of
+      Lady Hester, much of my compassion vanishes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He needs it all, then,&rdquo; said Grounsell, as, thrusting his hands into the
+      recesses of his pockets, he sat a perfect picture of struggling
+      embarrassment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are his sufferings so very great?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Grounsell nodded abruptly, for now he was debating within himself what
+      course to take; for while, on one side, he deemed it a point of honor not
+      to divulge to strangers, as were the Daltons, any of the domestic
+      circumstances of those with whom he lived, he felt, on the other,
+      reluctant to suffer Lady Hester's blandishments to pass for qualities more
+      sterling and praiseworthy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She asked the girls to go and see her,&rdquo; said Dalton, now breaking silence
+      for the first time; for although flattered in the main by what he heard of
+      the fine lady's manner towards his daughters, he was not without
+      misgivings that what they interpreted as courtesy might just as probably
+      be called condescension, against which his Irish pride of birth and blood
+      most sturdily rebelled. &ldquo;She asked them to go and see her, and it was
+      running in my head if she mio'ht not have heard something of the family
+      connection.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Possibly!&rdquo; asserted Grounsell, too deep in his own calculations to waste
+      a thought on such a speculation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My wife's uncle, Joe Godfrey, married an Englishwoman. The sister was
+      aunt to some rich city banker; and indeed, to tell the truth, his friends
+      in Ireland never thought much of the connection but you see times are
+      changed. They are up now, and we are down, the way of the world! It 's
+      little I ever thought of claiming relationship with the like o' them!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But if it 's they who seek us, papa?&rdquo; whispered Kate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, that alters the case, my dear; not but I'd as soon excuse the
+      politeness. Here we are, living in a small way; till matters come round in
+      Ireland, we can't entertain them, not even give them a dinner-party.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, dearest papa,&rdquo; broke in Nelly, &ldquo;is not our poverty a blessing if it
+      save us the humiliation of being absurd? Why should we think of such a
+      thing? Why should we, with our straitened means and the habits narrow
+      fortune teaches, presume even to a momentary equality with those so much
+      above us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Faith, it's true enough!&rdquo; cried Dalton, his cheek flushed with anger. &ldquo;We
+      are changed, there's no doubt of it; or it is not a Dalton would say the
+      words you 've just said. I never knew before that the best in the land
+      wasn't proud to come under our roof.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When we had a roof,&rdquo; said Nelly, firmly. &ldquo;And if these ancestors had
+      possessed a true and a higher pride, mayhap we might still have one. Had
+      they felt shame to participate in schemes of extravagance and costly
+      display, had they withheld encouragement from a ruinous mode of living, we
+      might still be dwellers in our own home and our own country.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dalton seemed thunderstruck at the boldness of a speech so unlike the
+      gentle character of her who had uttered it. To have attributed any portion
+      of the family calamities to their own misconduct to have laid the blame of
+      their downfall to any score save that of English legislation, acts of
+      parliament, grand-jury laws, failure of the potato crop, tithes, Terry
+      alts, or smut in the wheat was a heresy he never, in his gloomiest
+      moments, had imagined, and now he was to hear it from the lips of his own
+      child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nelly Nelly Dal ton,&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;but why do I call you Dalton? Have you a
+      drop of our blood in your veins at all, or is it the Godfreys you take
+      after? Extravagance, ruinous living, waste, what 'll you say next?&rdquo; He
+      could n't continue, indignation and anger seemed almost to suffocate him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Papa, dearest, kindest papa!&rdquo; cried Nelly, as the tears burst from her
+      eyes, &ldquo;be not angry with me, nor suppose that any ungenerous repining
+      against our altered lot finds a place in my heart. God knows that I grieve
+      not for myself; in the humble sphere in which I am placed, I have found
+      true contentment, greater, perhaps, than higher fortunes would have given
+      me; for here my duties are better defined, and my sense of them is
+      clearer. If I feel sorrow, it is for you and my dear sister, for you,
+      papa, who suffer from many a privation; for her, who might well adorn a
+      more exalted station. But for me the lame Nelly, as children used to call
+      me&rdquo; She was not suffered to finish her speech, for already her father had
+      clasped his arms around her, and Kate, in a gush of tears, was sobbing on
+      his shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where's the doctor? what's become of him?&rdquo; said Dalton, as, recovering
+      from his emotion, he wished to give a different direction to their
+      thoughts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He went away half an hour ago, papa,&rdquo; said Kate. &ldquo;He always goes off
+      without saying good-bye, whenever there is a word said about family.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I noticed that, too, my dear,&rdquo; said Dalton, &ldquo;and I would n't wonder if he
+      came of low people; not but he 's a kind creature, and mighty
+      good-hearted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Nelly could probably have suggested a better reason for the doctor's
+      conduct, but she prudently forbore from again alluding to a theme already
+      too painful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the reader's permission, we will now follow him as, with a gesture of
+      impatience, he abruptly left the room on the very first mention by Dalton
+      of that genealogical tree in whose branches he loved to perch himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An old fool!&rdquo; muttered Grounsell, as he passed downstairs, &ldquo;an old fool,
+      that no experience will ever make wiser! Well may his native country be a
+      stumbling-block to legislators, if his countrymen be all like him, with
+      his family pride and pretension! Confound him! can't he see that there 's
+      no independence for a man in debt, and no true self-respect left for him
+      who can't pay his tailor? For himself there's no help; but the poor girls!
+      he'll be the ruin of them. Kate is already a willing listener to his
+      nonsensical diatribes about blood and family; and poor Nelly's spirits
+      will be broken in the hopeless conflict with his folly! Just so, that will
+      be the end of it; he will turn the head of one, and break the heart of the
+      other; and yet, all the while, he firmly believes he is leaving a far
+      better heritage behind him in this empty pride, than if he could bequeath
+      every acre that once belonged to them.&rdquo; Thus soliloquizing, he went on
+      ringing changes over every form of imprudence, waste, vanity, and
+      absurdity, which, by applying to them the simple adjective of &ldquo;Irish,&rdquo; he
+      fancied were at once intelligible, and needed no other explanation. In
+      this mood he made his entrance into Sir Stafford's chamber, and so full of
+      his own thoughts that the worthy baronet could not fail to notice his
+      preoccupation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eh! Grounsel, what 's the matter, another row with my Lady, eh?&rdquo; said he,
+      smiling with his own quiet smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not to-day. We 've not met this morning, and, consequently, the armistice
+      of yesterday is still unbroken! The fatigue of last night has, doubtless,
+      induced her to sleep a little longer, and so I have contrived to arrive at
+      noon without the risk of an apoplexy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What fatigue do you allude to?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I forgot I have a long story for you. What do you suppose her
+      Ladyship has been performing now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 've heard all about it,&rdquo; said Sir Stafford, pettishly. &ldquo;George has
+      given me the whole narrative of that unlucky business. We must take care
+      of the poor fellow, Grounsell, and see that he wants for nothing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You 're thinking of the pistol-shooting; but that 's not her Ladyship's
+      last,&rdquo; said the doctor, with a malicious laugh. &ldquo;It is as a Lady Bountiful
+      she has come out, and made her debut last night I am bound to say with
+      infinite success.&rdquo; And, without further preface, Grounsell related the
+      whole adventure of Lady Hester's visit to the dwarf, omitting nothing of
+      those details we have already laid before the reader, and dilating with
+      all his own skill upon the possible consequences of the step. &ldquo;I have told
+      you already about these people: of that old fool, the father, with his
+      Irish pride, his Irish pretensions, his poverty, and his insane notions
+      about family. Well, his head a poor thing in the best of times is gone
+      clean mad about this visit. And then the girls! good, dear, affectionate
+      children as they are, they 're in a kind of paroxysm of ecstasy about her
+      Ladyship's style, her beauty, her dress, the charm of her amiability, the
+      fascination of her manner. Their little round of daily duties will
+      henceforth seem a dreary toil; the very offices of their charity will lose
+      all the glow of zeal when deprived of that elegance which refinement can
+      throw over the veriest trifle. Ay! don't smile at it, the fact is a
+      stubborn one. They 'd barter the deepest devotion they ever rendered to
+      assuage pain for one trick of that flattery with which my Lady captivated
+      them. Will all the poetry of poor Nelly's heart shut out the memory of
+      graces associated with the vanities of fashion? Will all Kate's dutiful
+      affection exalt those household drudgeries in her esteem, the performances
+      of which will henceforth serve to separate her more and more from one her
+      imagination has already enshrined as an idol?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You take the matter too seriously to heart, Grounsell,&rdquo; said Sir
+      Stafford, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a bit of it; I 've studied symptoms too long and too carefully not to
+      be ever on the look-out for results. To Lady Hester, this visit is a
+      little episode as easily forgotten as any chance incident of the journey.
+      But what an event is it in the simple story of their lives!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, well, it cannot be helped now; the thing is done, and there 's an
+      end of it,&rdquo; said Sir Stafford, pettishly; &ldquo;and I confess I cannot see the
+      matter as you do, for I have been thinking for two days back about these
+      Daltons, and of some mode of being of service to them, and this very
+      accident may suggest the way. I have been looking over some old letters
+      and papers, and I 've no doubt that I have had unintentionally, of course
+      a share in the poor fellow's ruin. Do you know, Grounsell, that this is
+      the very same Peter Dalton who once wrote to me the most insulting
+      letters, and even a defiance to fight a duel, because a distant relative
+      bequeathed to me a certain estate that more naturally should have
+      descended to him. At first, I treated the epistles as unworthy of any
+      serious attention, they were scarcely intelligible, and not distinguished
+      by anything like a show of reason; but when from insult the writer
+      proceeded to menace, I mentioned the affair to my lawyer, and, indeed,
+      gave him permission to take any steps that might be necessary to rid me of
+      so unpleasant a correspondent. I never heard more of the matter; but now,
+      on looking over some papers, I see that the case went hardly with Dalton,
+      for there was a 'rule to show cause,' and an 'attachment,' and I don't
+      know what besides, obtained against him from the King's Bench, and he was
+      actually imprisoned eight months for this very business; so that, besides
+      having succeeded to this poor fellow's property, I have also deprived him
+      of his liberty. Quite enough of hardship to have suffered at the hands of
+      any one man and that one, not an enemy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And would you believe it, Onslow, we have talked over you and your
+      affairs a hundred times together, and yet he has never even alluded to
+      this? One would think that such an event would make an impression upon
+      most men; but, assuredly, he is either the most forgetful or the most
+      generous fellow on earth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How very strange! And so you tell me that he remembers my name, and all
+      the circumstances of that singular bequest for singular it was from a man
+      whom I never saw since he was a boy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He remembers it all. It was the last blow fortune dealt him, and, indeed,
+      he seemed scarcely to require so heavy a stroke to fell him, for, by his
+      own account, he had been struggling on, in debt and difficulty, for many a
+      year, putting off creditors by the plausible plea that a considerable
+      estate must eventually fall in to him. It is quite certain that he
+      believed this himself, but he also maintained a course of expenditure
+      that, were he even in possession of the property, it would have been
+      impossible to keep up. His brother-in-law's parsimony, too, was a constant
+      source of self-gratulation to him, fancying, as he did, that a
+      considerable sum in Bank stock would be among the benefits of this
+      bequest. To find himself cut off, without even a mention of his name, was,
+      then, to know that he was utterly, irretrievably ruined.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor fellow!&rdquo; exclaimed Onslow; &ldquo;I never suspected the case had been so
+      hard a one. His letters you shall see them yourself bore all the evidence
+      of a man more touchy on the score of a point of honor than mindful of a
+      mere money matter. He seemed desirous of imputing to me who, as I have
+      told you, never saw Mr. Godfrey for above forty years something like undue
+      influence, and, in fact, of having prejudiced his brother-in-law against
+      him. He dated his angry epistles from a park or a castle I forget which
+      and they bore a seal of armorial pretensions such as an archduke might
+      acknowledge. All these signs seemed to me so indicative of fortune and
+      standing, that I set my friend down for a very bloodthirsty Irishman, but
+      assuredly never imagined that poverty had contributed its sting to the
+      injury.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can easily conceive all that,&rdquo; said Grounsell. &ldquo;At this very moment,
+      with want staring him on every side, he 'd rather talk of his former style
+      at confound the barbarous place, I never can remember the name of it than
+      he 'd listen to any suggestion for the future benefit of his children.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have been a grievous enemy to him,&rdquo; said Sir Stafford, musingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He reckons the loss at something like six thousand a year,&rdquo; said
+      Grounsell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not the half of it, doctor; the estate, when I succeeded to it, was in a
+      ruinous condition. A pauper and rebellious tenantry holding their tenures
+      on nominal rents, and either living in open defiance of all law, or
+      scheming to evade it by a hundred subterfuges. Matters are somewhat
+      better; but if so, it has cost me largely to make them so. Disabuse his
+      mind, I beg you, of this error. His loss was at least not so heavy as he
+      reckoned.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Faith, I'll scarcely venture on so very delicate a theme,&rdquo; said
+      Grounsell, dryly. &ldquo;I 'm not quite so sure how he 'd take it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see, doctor,&rdquo; said Onslow, laughing, &ldquo;that his duelling tastes have
+      impressed you with a proper degree of respect. Well, let us think of
+      something more to the purpose than rectifying a mere mistaken opinion. How
+      can we serve him? What can be done for him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruined gentlemen, like second-hand uniforms, are generally sent to the
+      colonies,&rdquo; said Grounsell; &ldquo;but Dalton is scarcely fit for export.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What if we could get him appointed a magistrate in one of the West India
+      Islands?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;New rum would finish him the first rainy season.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is he fit for a consulship?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;About as much as for Lord Chancellor. I tell you the man's pride would
+      revolt at anything to which a duty was annexed. Whatever you decide on
+      must be untrammelled by any condition of this kind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An annuity, then, some moderate sum sufficient to support them in
+      respectability,&rdquo; said Onslow; &ldquo;that is the only thing I see for it, and I
+      am quite ready to do my part, which, indeed, is full as much a matter of
+      honor as generosity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How will you induce him to accept it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We can manage that, I fancy, with a little contrivance. I 'll consult
+      Prichard; he 's coming here this very day about these renewals, and he 'll
+      find a way of doing it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll have need of great caution,&rdquo; said Grounsell; &ldquo;without being
+      naturally suspicious, misfortune has rendered him very sensitive as to
+      anything like a slight. To this hour he is ignorant that his daughter
+      sells those little figures; and although he sees, in a hundred appliances
+      to his comfort, signs of resources of which he knows nothing, he never
+      troubles his head how the money comes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a strange character!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Strange indeed. True pride and false pride, manly patience, childish
+      petulance, generosity, selfishness, liberality, meanness, even to the
+      spirits alternating between boy-like levity and downright despair! The
+      whole is such a mixture as I never saw before, and yet I can fancy it is
+      as much the national temperament as that of the individual.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And now Grounsell, launched upon a sea without compass or chart, hurried
+      off to lose himself in vague speculation about questions that have
+      puzzled, and are puzzling, wiser heads than his.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XI. A PEEP BETWEEN THE SHUTTERS AT A NEW CHARACTER.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      NOT even Mademoiselle Celestine herself, nor the two London footmen now
+      condemned to exhibit their splendid proportions to the untutored gaze of
+      German rustics, could have chafed and fretted under the unhappy detention
+      at Baden with a greater impatience than did George Onslow, a young
+      Guardsman, who often fancied that London, out of season, was a species of
+      Palmyra; who lived but for the life that only one capital affords; who
+      could not credit the fact that people could ride, dress, dine, and drive
+      anywhere else, was lamentably &ldquo;ill bestowed&rdquo; among the hills and valleys,
+      the winding glens and dense pine forests of a little corner of Germany.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If he liked the excitement of hard exercise, it was when the pleasure was
+      combined with somewhat of peril, as in a fox-hunt, or heightened by the
+      animation of a contest, in a rowing-match. Scenery, too, he cared for,
+      when it came among the incidents of a deer-stalking day in the Highlands.
+      Even walking, if it were a match against time, was positively not
+      distasteful; but to ride, walk, row, or exert himself, for the mere
+      exercise, was in his philosophy only a degree better than a sentence to
+      the treadmill, the slavery being voluntary not serving to exalt the
+      motive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To a mind thus constituted, the delay at Baden was intolerable. Lady
+      Hester's system of small irritations and provocations rendered domesticity
+      and home life out of the question. She was never much given to reading at
+      any time, and now books were not to be had; Sydney was so taken up with
+      studying German, that she was quite uncompanionable. Her father was too
+      weak to bear much conversation; and as for Grounsell, George always set
+      him down for a quiz: good-hearted in his way, but a bit of a bore, and too
+      fond of old stories. Had he been a young lady, in such a predicament, he
+      would have kept a journal, a pretty martyrology of himself and his
+      feelings, and eked out his sorrows between Childe Harold and Werther. Had
+      he been an elderly one, he would have written folios by the post, and
+      covered acres of canvas with dogs in worsted, and tigers in Berlin wool.
+      Alas! he had no such resources. Education had supplied him with but one
+      comfort and consolation, a cigar; and so he smoked away incessantly:
+      sometimes as he lounged out of the window, after breakfast, in all the
+      glory of an embroidered velvet cap, and a gorgeous dressing-gown;
+      sometimes as he sauntered in the empty saloon, or the deserted corridors,
+      in the weed-grown garden, in the dishabille of a many-pocketed
+      shooting-jacket and cork-soled shoes; now, as he lounged along the dreary
+      streets, or passed along the little wooden bridge, wondering within
+      himself how much longer a man could resist the temptation that suggested a
+      spring over the balustrade into the dark pool beneath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had come abroad partly for Sydney's sake, partly because, having &ldquo;gone
+      somewhat too fast&rdquo; in town, an absence had become advisable. But now, as
+      he sauntered about the deserted streets of the little village, not knowing
+      how long the durance might last, without an occupation, without a
+      resource, both his brotherly love and prudence began to fail him, and he
+      wished he had remained behind, and taken the chances, whatever they might
+      be, of his creditors' forbearance. His moneyed embarrassments involved
+      nothing dishonorable; he had done no more than what some score of very
+      well-principled young men have done, and are doing at this very hour, ay,
+      good reader, and will do again, when you and I have gone where all our
+      moralizing will not deceive any more, he had contracted debts, the payment
+      of which must depend upon others; he had borrowed what no efforts of his
+      own could restore; he had gambled, and lost sums totally disproportionate
+      to his fortune; but, in all these things, he was still within the pale of
+      honorable conduct, at least, so said the code under which he lived, and
+      George believed it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Stafford, who only learned about the half of his son's liabilities,
+      was thunderstruck at the amount. It was scarcely a year and a half ago
+      that he had paid all George's debts, and they were then no trifle; and now
+      he saw all the old items revived and magnified, as if there was only one
+      beaten road to ruin, and that began at Crocky's, and ended at &ldquo;the Bench.&rdquo;
+       The very names of the dramatis personae were the same. It was Lazarus Levi
+      lent the money, at sixty per cent; it was another patriarch, called Gideon
+      Masham, discounted the same. A lucky viscount had once more &ldquo;done the
+      trick&rdquo; at hazard; and if Cribbiter had not broken down in training, why
+      Madame Pompadour had, and so the same result came about. George Onslow had
+      got what Newmarket men call a &ldquo;squeeze,&rdquo; and was in for about seven
+      thousand pounds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing is more remarkable in our English code social, than the ingenuity
+      with which we have contrived to divide ranks and classes of men, making
+      distinctions so subtle that only long habit and training are able to
+      appreciate. Not alone are the gradations of our nobility accurately
+      defined, but the same distinctions prevail among the &ldquo;untitled&rdquo; classes,
+      and even descend to the professional and trading ranks; so that the dealer
+      in one commodity shall take the pas of another; and he who purveys the
+      glass of port for your dessert, would be outraged if classed with him who
+      contributed the Stilton! These hair-splittings are very unintelligible to
+      foreigners; but, as we hold to them, the presumption is, that they suit
+      us; and I should not have stopped now to bestow a passing notice on the
+      system, if it were not that we see it, in some cases, pushed to a degree
+      of extreme resembling absurdity, making even of the same career in life a
+      sliding-scale of respectability; as, for instance, when a young gentleman
+      of good expectations and fair fortune has outraged his guardians and his
+      friends by extravagance, he is immediately removed from the Guards, and
+      drafted into the Infantry of the Line; if he misbehaves there, they
+      usually send him to India; is he incorrigible, he is compelled to remain
+      in some regiment there; or, in cases of inveterate bad habits, he
+      exchanges into the Cape Rifles, and gets his next removal from the knife
+      of a Caffre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ancient geographers have decided, we are not aware on what grounds, that
+      there is a place between &ldquo;H&mdash;ll and Connaught.&rdquo; Modern discovery,
+      with more certitude, has shown one between the Guards and the Line, a
+      species of military purgatory, where, after a due expiation of offences,
+      the sinner may return to the paradise of the Household Brigade without
+      ever transgressing the Inferno of a marching regiment. This half-way stage
+      is the &ldquo;Rifles.&rdquo; So long as a young fashionable falls no lower, he is
+      safe. There is no impugnment of his character, no injury that cannot be
+      repaired. Now, George Onslow had reached so far; he was compelled to
+      exchange into the &mdash;th, then quartered in Ireland. It is true he did
+      not join his regiment; his father had interest enough somewhere to obtain
+      a leave of absence for his son, and First Lieutenant Onslow, vice Ridgway
+      promoted, was suffered to amuse himself howsoever and wheresoever he
+      pleased.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The &ldquo;exchange,&rdquo; and the reasons for which it was effected, were both
+      unpleasant subjects of reflection to George; and as he had few others,
+      these continued to haunt him, till at last he fancied that every one was
+      full of the circumstance, each muttering as he passed, &ldquo;That 's Onslow,
+      that was in the Coldstreams.&rdquo; Lady Hester, indeed, did not always leave
+      the matter purely imaginary, but threw out occasional hints about soldiers
+      who never served, except at St. James's or Windsor, and who were kept for
+      the wonderment and admiration of foreign sovereigns when visiting England,
+      just as Suffolk breeders exhibit a &ldquo;punch,&rdquo; or a Berkshire farmer will
+      show a hog, for the delectation of swine fanciers. Where children show
+      toys, kings show soldiers, and ours are considered very creditable
+      productions of the kind; but Lady Hester averred, with more of truth than
+      she believed, that a man of spirit would prefer a somewhat different
+      career. These currents, coming as they did in season and out of season,
+      did not add to the inducements for keeping the house, and so George
+      usually left home each day, and rarely returned to it before nightfall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is true he might have associated with Haggerstone, who, on being
+      introduced, made the most courteous advances to his intimacy; but George
+      Onslow was bred in a school whose first lesson is a sensitive shrinking
+      from acquaintance, and whose chief characteristic is distrust. Now he
+      either had heard, or fancied he had heard, something about Haggerstone.
+      &ldquo;The Colonel was n't all right,&rdquo; somehow or other. There was a story about
+      him, or somebody of his set, and, in fact, it was as well to be cautious;
+      and so the young Guardsman, who would have ventured his neck in a
+      steeplechase, or his fortune on a &ldquo;Derby,&rdquo; exhibited all the deliberative
+      wisdom of a judge as to the formation of a passing acquaintance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If we have been somewhat prolix in explaining the reasons of the young
+      gentleman's solitude, our excuse is, that he had thereby conveyed, not
+      alone all that we know, but all that is necessary to be known, of his
+      character. He was one of a class so large in the world that few people
+      could not count some half-dozen, at least, similar amongst their
+      acquaintance; and all of whom would be currently set down as incapables,
+      if it were not that now and then, every ten years or so, one of these
+      well-looking, well-bred, indolent dandies, as if tired of his own
+      weariness, turns out to be either a dashing soldier, with a heart to dare,
+      and a head to devise the boldest achievements, or a politic leader, with
+      resources of knowledge, and a skill in debate, to confront the most
+      polished and practised veteran in &ldquo;the Commons.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Our own experiences of our own day show that these are no paradoxical
+      speculations. But we must not pursue the theme further; and have only to
+      add, that the reader is not to believe that George Onslow formed one of
+      these brilliant exceptions. Whether the fault lies more in himself or in
+      us, we must not inquire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If his lonely walks did not suggest any pleasant reveries, the post did
+      not bring any more agreeable tidings. Dry statements from Mr. Orson, his
+      lawyer, every young man about town has his lawyer nowadays, about the
+      difficulty of arranging his affairs, being the chief intelligence he
+      received, with, from time to time, a short and pithy epistle from a
+      certain noble creditor, Lord Norwood, who, although having won very large
+      sums from Onslow, never seemed in such pressing difficulty as since his
+      good fortune.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The viscount's style epistolary was neither so marked by originality, nor
+      so worthy of imitation, that it would be worth communicating; but as one
+      of his letters bears slightly upon the interests of our story, we are
+      induced to give it; and being, like all his correspondence, very brief, we
+      will communicate it in extenso.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Norwood again!&rdquo; said Onslow, as he looked at the seal, and read the
+      not very legible autograph in the corner. &ldquo;My noble friend does not give a
+      very long respite;&rdquo; and biting his lips in some impatience, he opened the
+      paper, and read:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     DEAR ONSLOW, Orson has paid me the two thousand, as you
+     ordered, but positively refuses the seventeen hundred and
+     eighty, the Ascot affair, because I cannot give up the
+     original two bills for twelve hundred passed to me for that
+     debt. I told him that they were thrown into the fire being
+     devilishly tempted to illustrate the process with himself
+     six months ago, when you gave the renewals; but all won't
+     do, the old prig persists in his demand, to comply with
+     which is clearly impossible, for I have not even preserved
+     the precious ashes of the incremation. I don't doubt but
+     that, legally speaking, and in pettifogging parlance, he is
+     all correct but between men of honor such strictness is
+     downright absurdity and, as Dillhurst says, &ldquo;something
+     more.&rdquo; Now, my dear boy, you must write to him and at once,
+     too for I 'm in a bad book about &ldquo;Chanticleer&rdquo; who is to
+     win, it seems, after all and say that he is acting in direct
+     opposition to your wishes, as of course he is; that the
+     money must be paid without more chaffing. The delay has
+     already put me to great inconvenience, and I know how you
+     will be provoked at his obstinacy. You 've heard, I suppose,
+     that Brentwood is going to marry Lydia Vaughan. She has
+     thirty thousand pounds, which is exactly what Jack lost last
+     winter. Crosbie says he ought to &ldquo;run away from her after
+     the start as he carries no weight:&rdquo; which is somewhat of
+     my own opinion. What any man has to do with a wife nowadays,
+     with the funds at eighty-two, and a dark horse first
+     favorite for the Oaks, is more than I know. Doncaster has
+     levanted, and the Red-House folk will smart for it. He would
+     back Hayes's lot, and there 's nothing can ever set him
+     right again. By the way, Orson hints that if I give him a
+     release, or something of that sort, with respect to the
+     bills, he 'd pay the cash; but this is only a dodge to make
+     a case for lawyers' parchments, stamps, and so forth; so I
+     won't stand it. Your writing to him will do the whole thing
+     at once. What a jolly world it would be, old fellow, if the
+     whole race of Orsons were carried off by the cholera, or
+     anything akin! They are the greatest enemies to human peace
+     in existence.
+
+     Believe me, yours most faithfully,
+
+     NORWOOD.
+
+     P. S. I half fancy Baden is empty by this; but if you chance
+     upon a little fellow Heaven knows to whom he belongs, or
+     whence he comes, called Albert Jekyl, will you tell him that
+     I 'll forward the twenty pounds whenever I win the Oaks, or
+     marry Miss Home Greville, or any other similar piece of good
+     fortune. When he lent me the cash, I don't believe he was
+     the owner of as much more in the world; but it suited him to
+     have a viscount in his debt a devilish bad investment, if he
+     knew but all. The chances, therefore, are that he has
+     foundered long ago, and you will be spared the trouble of
+     the explanation; but if he survive, say something
+     apologetic, for letter-writing and foreign postage are only
+     making bad worse.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Although, unquestionably, the postscript of this elegant epistle was the
+      part which reflected most severely upon the writer's good feeling and
+      sense of honor, George Onslow was more struck by what related to his own
+      affairs, nor was it till after the lapse of some days that he took the
+      trouble of considering the paragraph, or learning the name of the
+      individual referred to. Even then all that he could remember was, that he
+      had seen or heard the name &ldquo;somewhere,&rdquo; and thus, very possibly, the whole
+      matter would have glided from his memory, if accident had not brought up
+      the recollection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Returning one evening later than usual from his solitary walk, he found
+      that the hotel was closed, the door strongly secured, and all the usual
+      precautions of the night taken, in the belief that the inmates were
+      already safe within doors. In vain he knocked and thundered at the massive
+      panels; the few servants occupied rooms at a distance, and heard nothing
+      of the uproar. He shouted, he screamed, he threw gravel against the
+      windows, and, in his zeal, smashed them too. All was fruitless; nobody
+      stirred, nor could he detect the slightest sign of human presence in the
+      vast and dreary-looking building before him. The prospect was not a
+      pleasant one, and a December night in the open air was by no means
+      desirable; and yet, where should he turn for shelter? The other hotels
+      were all closed and deserted, and even of the private houses not one in
+      twenty was inhabited. Resolving to give himself one chance more for
+      admission, he scaled the paling of the garden, and reached the rear of the
+      hotel; but here all his efforts proved just as profitless as the former,
+      and he was at last about to abandon all hope, when he caught sight of a
+      faint gleam of light issuing from a small window on the first floor.
+      Having failed to attract notice by all his cries and shouts, he determined
+      to reach the window, to which, fortunately, a large vine, attached to the
+      wall, offered an easy access. George was an expert climber, and in less
+      than a minute found himself seated on the window-sill, and gazing into a
+      room by the aperture between the half-closed shutters. His first
+      impression on looking in was that it was a servant's room. The bare,
+      whitewashed walls; the humble, uncurtained bed; three chairs of coarse
+      wood, all strengthened this suspicion, even to the table, covered by a
+      coarse table-cloth, and on which stood a meal if meal it could be called
+      an anchorite might have eaten on Friday. A plate of the common brown bread
+      of the country was balanced by a little dish of radishes, next to which
+      stood a most diminutive piece of Baden cheese, and a capacious decanter of
+      water, a long-wicked tallow candle throwing its gloomy gleam over the
+      whole. For a moment or two George was unable to detect the owner of this
+      simple repast, as he was engaged in replenishing his fire; but he speedily
+      returned, and took his place at the table, spreading his napkin before
+      him, and surveying the board with an air of self-satisfaction such as a
+      gourmand might bestow upon the most perfect petit diner. In dress, air,
+      and look, he was thoroughly gentlemanlike; a little foppish, perhaps, in
+      the arrangement of his hair, and somewhat too much display in the jewelled
+      ornaments that studded his neckcloth. Even in his attitude, as he sat at
+      the table, there was a certain air of studied elegance that formed a
+      curious contrast with the miserable meal before him. Helping himself to a
+      small portion of cheese, and filling out a goblet of that element which
+      neither cheers nor inebriates, he proceeded to eat his supper. Onslow
+      looked on with a mingled sense of wonder and ridicule, and while half
+      disposed to laugh at the disparity of the entertainment and him who
+      partook of it, there was something in the scene which repressed his scorn
+      and rendered him even an interested spectator of what went forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0006" id="linkimage-0006">
+      <!-- IMG --></a> <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/00134.jpg" alt="00134" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The piercing cold of the night at length admonished him that he should
+      provide for his own admission into the hotel; and although nothing was now
+      easier than to make his presence known, yet he felt a natural reluctance
+      at the pain he must occasion to the stranger, whose frugal mode of living
+      and humble interior would be thus so unceremoniously exposed. &ldquo;The chances
+      are,&rdquo; thought George, &ldquo;that these privations are only endurable because
+      they are practised in secret, and at no sacrifice of worldly estimation.
+      How can I then or what right have I to inflict the torture of an exposure
+      upon this young man, whoever he is!&rdquo; The conclusion was very rapidly come
+      to, and not less speedily acted upon; for he determined to spend the
+      night, if need be, in the open air, rather than accept an alternative so
+      painful in its consequences. His resolutions had usually not long to await
+      their accomplishment; and, turning his back to the window, and disdaining
+      the slow process by which he had gained the ascent, he sprang with one
+      leap down to the ground: in doing so, however, his elbow struck the
+      window, and at the same instant that he reached the earth, the shivered
+      fragments of a pane of glass came clattering after him. In a moment the
+      sash was thrown open, and a head appeared above. &ldquo;I have smashed the
+      window,&rdquo; cried George, in French, &ldquo;as the only means of being heard. They
+      have locked me out of the hotel, and I don't fancy spending a winter's
+      night in walking the streets of Baden.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're an Englishman,&rdquo; said the voice from above, in English.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; but I don't see what that has to do with the matter,&rdquo; replied
+      Onslow, testily; &ldquo;even a Laplander might prefer shelter in such a season.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you 'll have the goodness to come round to the front door,&rdquo; said the
+      voice, one of the very softest and meekest of voices, &ldquo;I shall have great
+      pleasure in opening it for you.&rdquo; And at the same time the unknown held
+      forth his candle in polite guidance to the other's steps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks, thanks; never mind the light. I know the way perfectly,&rdquo; said
+      George, not a little ashamed at the contrast between his own gruffness and
+      the courtesy of the stranger whose window he had broken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Onslow had barely time to reach the front door of the inn, when it was
+      opened for him, and he saw before him a very dapper little figure, who
+      with a profusion of regrets at not having heard him before, offered his
+      candle a wax one on this occasion for George's accommodation. Protesting
+      that the broken pane was not of the slightest inconvenience, that the room
+      was a small dressing-closet, that it was not worth a moment's thought, and
+      so forth, he permitted Onslow to escort him to the door of his room, and
+      then wished him a good-night. The scene scarcely occupied the time we have
+      taken to relate it, and yet in that very short space George Onslow had
+      opportunity to see that the unknown had all the easy deportment and quiet
+      breeding of one accustomed to good society. There was, perhaps, a little
+      excess of courtesy, at least according to that school of politeness in
+      which Onslow had been taught; but this might be the effect of living
+      abroad, where such a tone usually prevailed. The urbanity was not exactly
+      cold enough for George's notions. &ldquo;No matter; he 's no snob, that 's
+      clear,&rdquo; thought he; &ldquo;and even if he were, he's done me good service.&rdquo; And
+      with this blending of selfishness and speculation he went to sleep, and
+      slept soundly, too, not harassed by even a thought of him who passed an
+      hour in the effort to repair his broken window, and shivered the rest of
+      the night through from the insufficiency of his skill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Blessed immunity theirs, who so easily forget the pain they occasion
+      others, and who deem all things trifles that cost themselves no
+      afterthought of regret. Happy the nature that can, without self-repining,
+      spill the wine over Aunt Betty's one &ldquo;peach-colored satin,&rdquo; or, in
+      careless mood, pluck the solitary flower of her only geranium. Enviable
+      stoicism that mislays the keepsake of some poor widow, or lames the old
+      curate's cob, the fond companion of many rambles. These, whatever others
+      think, are very enviable traits, and enable the possessors to wear placid
+      countenances, and talk in most meritorious strain on the blessings of
+      equanimity and the excellent fruits of a well-trained mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XII. MR. ALBERT JEKYL
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      ONSLOW'S first thought, on awaking the next morning, was of last night's
+      acquaintance, but all the information he could obtain concerning him was
+      that he was an Englishman who had passed the summer in Baden, and during
+      the season knew and was known by every one. The waiter called him, in the
+      usual formulary, &ldquo;a very nice gentleman;&rdquo; and seemed by his manner to
+      infer that any further account might be had by paying for it. Onslow, if
+      he even understood the hint, was not the man to avail himself of it; so he
+      simply ordered him to bring the hotel book, in which the names of all
+      travellers are inscribed, and at once discovered that the proprietor of
+      the humble entresol, No. 6, was a Mr. Albert Jekyl, with the ordinary
+      qualification attached to him of &ldquo;Rentier Anglais.&rdquo; Searching back in the
+      same instructive volume, he found that, on his arrival in June, Mr. Jekyl
+      had occupied a small apartment on the first floor, from which he had
+      subsequently removed to the second; thence to a single room in the third
+      story, and finally settled down in the quiet seclusion of the small
+      chamber where George had first seen him. These were very small materials
+      from which to compile a history, but at least they conveyed one inference,
+      and that a very common one, that the height of Mr. Jekyl's fortune and
+      that of his dwelling observed to each other an inverse proportion, and
+      that, as his means went down, he went up. If, then, no very valuable
+      contribution to the gentleman's history was contained here, at least the
+      page recorded his name; and George, reopening Norwood's letter, satisfied
+      himself that this was the same confiding individual who had intrusted the
+      noble viscount with a loan of twenty pounds. George now remembered to have
+      seen his card on Lady Hester's table, with inquiry after Sir Stafford.
+      &ldquo;Poor fellow!&rdquo; thought he; &ldquo;another victim of 'trente-et-un.' They have
+      cleared him out at the tables, and he is either ashamed to write home, or
+      his friends have refused to assist him. And Norwood, too the heartlessness
+      of putting to contribution a poor young fellow like this!&rdquo; Onslow thought
+      worse of this than of fifty other sharp things of the noble Lord's doing,
+      and of some of which he had been himself the victim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll call upon him this very morning!&rdquo; said George, half aloud, and with
+      the tone and air of a man who feels he has said a very generous thing, and
+      expressed a sentiment that he is well aware will expose him to a certain
+      amount of reprobation. &ldquo;Jekyl, after all, is a right good name. Lady
+      Hester said something about Jekyls that she knew, or was related to. Good
+      style of fellow he looked a little tigerish, but that comes of the
+      Continent. If he be really presentable, too, my Lady will be glad to
+      receive him in her present state of destitution. Norwood's ungracious
+      message was a bore, to be sure, but then he need not deliver it there was
+      no necessity of taking trouble to be disagreeable or, better again far
+      better,&rdquo; thought he, and he burst out laughing at the happy notion, &ldquo;I 'll
+      misunderstand his meaning, and pay the money. An excellent thought; for as
+      I am about to book up a heavy sum to his Lordship, it 's only deducting
+      twenty pounds and handing it to Jekyl, and I 'll be sworn he wants it most
+      of us all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The more Onslow reflected on it, the more delighted was he with this
+      admirable device; and it is but fair to add, that however gratified at the
+      opportunity of doing a kindness, he was even better pleased at the thought
+      of how their acquaintance at the &ldquo;Grosvenor&rdquo; and the &ldquo;Ultras&rdquo; would laugh
+      at the &ldquo;sharp viscount's being sold.&rdquo; There was only one man of all
+      Onslow's set on whom he would have liked to practise this jest, and that
+      man was Norwood. Having decided upon this plan, he next thought of the
+      execution of it, and this he determined should be by letter. A short note,
+      conveying Norwood's message and the twenty pounds, would save all
+      explanation, and spare Jekyl any unpleasant feeling the discussion of a
+      private circumstance might occasion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Onslow's note concluded with his &ldquo;thanks for Mr. Jekyl's kindness on the
+      preceding evening,&rdquo; and expressing a wish to know &ldquo;at what hour Mr. J.
+      would receive a visit from him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Within a very few minutes after the billet was despatched, a servant
+      announced Mr. Albert Jekyl; and that young gentleman, in the glory of a
+      very magnificent brocade dressing-gown, and a Greek cap, with slippers of
+      black velvet embroidered in gold, entered the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Onslow, himself a distinguished member of that modern school of dandyism
+      whose pride lies in studs and shirt-pins, in watch-chains, rings, and
+      jewelled canes, was struck by the costly elegance of his visitor's
+      toilette. The opal buttons at his wrists; the single diamond, of great
+      size and brilliancy, on his finger; even the massive amber mouthpiece of
+      the splendid meerschaum he carried in his hand, were all evidences of the
+      most expensive tastes. &ldquo;Could this by possibility be the man he had seen
+      at supper?&rdquo; was the question he at once asked himself; but there was no
+      time to discuss the point, as Jekyl, in a voice almost girlish in its
+      softness, said,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I could not help coming at once to thank you, Mr. Onslow, for your polite
+      note, and say how gratified I feel at making your acquaintance. Maynard
+      often spoke of you to me; and I confess I was twenty times a day tempted
+      to introduce myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maynard Sir Horace Maynard!&rdquo; cried Onslow, with a slight flush, half
+      pleasure, half surprise, for the baronet was the leader of the set George
+      belonged to, a man of great fortune, ancient family, the most successful
+      on the English Turf, and the envy of every young fellow about town. &ldquo;Do
+      you know Maynard?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, very well indeed,&rdquo; lisped Jekyl; &ldquo;and like him much.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Onslow could not help a stare at the man who, with perfect coolness and
+      such an air of patronage, professed his opinion of the most distinguished
+      fashionable of the day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has a very pretty taste in equipage,&rdquo; continued Jekyl, &ldquo;but never
+      could attain to the slightest knowledge of a dinner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Onslow was thunderstruck. Maynard, whose entertainments were the triumph
+      of the Clarendon, thus criticised by the man he had seen supping like a
+      mouse on a morsel of mouldy cheese!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Talking of dinners, by the way,&rdquo; said Jekyl, &ldquo;what became of Merewater?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lord Merewater? he was in waiting when we left England.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A very tidy cook he used to have, a Spaniard called Jose, a perfect hand
+      at all the Provencal dishes. Good creature, Merewater. Don't you think
+      so?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ouslow muttered a kind of half-assent; and added, &ldquo;I don't know him.&rdquo;
+       Indeed, the lord in question was reputed as insufferably proud, and as
+      rarely admitting a commoner to the honor of his acquaintance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor Merewater! I remember playing him such a trick: to this hour he does
+      not know who did it. I stole the menu of one of his grand dinners, and
+      gave it to old Lord Bristock's cook, a creature that might have made the
+      messes for an emigrant ship, and such a travesty of an entertainment never
+      was seen. Merewater affected illness, and went away from the table firmly
+      persuaded that the whole was got up to affront him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought the Earl of Bristock lived well and handsomely,&rdquo; said George.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Down at Brentwood it was very well one was in the country and grouse and
+      woodcocks, and salmon and pheasants, came all naturally and seasonably;
+      besides, he really had some very remarkable Burgundy; and, though few
+      people will drink it nowadays, Chambertin is a Christmas wine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The cheese and the decanter of water were uppermost in George's mind, but
+      he said nothing, suffering his companion to run on, which he did, over a
+      wide expanse of titled and distinguished families, with all of whom he
+      appeared to have lived on the closest terms of intimacy. Certainly of
+      those Onslow himself knew, Jekyl related twenty little traits and tokens
+      that showed he was speaking with true knowledge of the parties. Unlike
+      Haggerstone, he rarely, if ever, alluded to any of those darker topics
+      which form the staple of scandal. A very gentle ridicule of some slight
+      eccentricity, a passing quiz of some peculiarity in dress, voice, or
+      manner, was about the extent of Jekyl's criticism, which on no occasion
+      betrayed any malice. Even the oddities that he portrayed were usually done
+      by some passing bit of mimicry of the individual in question. These he
+      threw into the dialogue of his story without halt or impediment, and
+      which, being done with great tact, great command of face, and a most
+      thorough appreciation of humor, were very amusing little talents, and
+      contributed largely to his social success. Onslow laughed heartily at many
+      of the imitations, and thus recognized characters that were introduced
+      into a narrative without the trouble of announcing them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You've heard, perhaps, the series of mishaps which compelled us to take
+      refuge here,&rdquo; said George, leading the way to what he supposed would
+      induce an equal degree of communicativeness on the other side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! yes, the landlord told me of your disasters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;After all, I believe the very worst of them was coming to this place in
+      such a season.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is certainly seeing it en papillate&rdquo; said Jekyl, smiling; &ldquo;and you,
+      perhaps, are not an admirer of beauty unadorned.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say, rather, of Nature at her ugliest; for whatever it may be in summer,
+      with foliage, and clear streams, flowers, smart folk airing and driving
+      about, equipage, music, movement, and merry voices, now it is really too
+      dismal. Pray, how do you get through the day?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jekyl smiled one of his quiet, equivocal smiles, and slightly raised his
+      shoulders without speaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you shoot?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But why do I ask? there's nothing to shoot. You ride, then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cigars will do a great deal; but, confound it, there must be a large
+      share of the day very heavy on your hands, even with a reasonable
+      allowance for reading and writing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Seldom do either!&rdquo; said Jekyl, with his usual imperturbed manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have n't surely got up a flirtation with some 'Frdulein with yellow
+      hair '?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot lay claim to such good fortune. I really do nothing. I have not
+      even the usual English resource of a terrier to jump over my stick, nor
+      was I early enough initiated into the mystery of brandy-and-water in fact,
+      a less occupied individual cannot well be imagined; but somehow you'll
+      smile if I say I am not bored.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would be very ungenerous, then, to conceal your secret,&rdquo; cried Onslow;
+      &ldquo;for assuredly the art of killing time here, without killing one's self,
+      is worth knowing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The misfortune is, I cannot communicate it; that is, even giving me
+      credit for possessing one, my skill is like that of some great medical
+      practitioner, who has learnt to look on disease with such practised eyes
+      that the appropriate remedy rises as it were instinctively to his mind, he
+      knows not how or why, and who dies, without being able to transmit the
+      knowledge to a successor. I have, somewhat in the same way, become an
+      accomplished idler; and with such success that the dreariest day of rain
+      that ever darkened the dirty windows of a village inn, the most scorching
+      dog-day that ever emptied the streets of an Italian city, and sent all the
+      inhabitants to their siesta, never hipped me. I have spent a month with
+      perfect satisfaction in quarantine, and bobbed for three weeks in a calm
+      at sea, with no other inconvenience than the moans of my
+      fellow-passengers. There 's no secret in it, Mr. Onslow; or, if there be,
+      it lies in this pretty discovery, that we are always bored by our habit of
+      throwing ourselves on the resources of somebody else, who, in his turn,
+      looks out for another, and so on. Now, a man in a fever never dreams of
+      cooling his hand by laying it on another patient's cheek; yet this is what
+      we do. To be thoroughly bored, you must associate yourself with some
+      half-dozen tired, weary, dyspeptic twaddles, and make up a joint-stock
+      bank of your several incapacities, learn to growl in chorus, and you'll be
+      able to go home and practise it as a solo.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And have you been completely alone here of late?&rdquo; said George, who began
+      to fear that the sermon on ennui was not unaccompanied by a taste of the
+      evil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Occasionally I 've chatted for half an hour with two gentlemen who reside
+      here, a Colonel Haggerstone&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the way, who is he?&rdquo; broke in Onslow, eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has been traced back to Madras, but the most searching inquiries have
+      failed to elicit anything further.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is he the man they called Arlington's Colonel Haggerstone?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jekyl nodded; but with an air that seemed to say, he would not enter more
+      deeply into the subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And your other companion who is he?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Peter Dalton, of I am ashamed to say I forget where,&rdquo; said Jekyl; who, at
+      once assuming Dalton's bloated look, in a well-feigned Irish accent, went
+      on: &ldquo;a descendant of as ancient and as honorable a familee as any in the
+      three kingdoms, and if a little down in the world bad luck to them that
+      done it! just as ready as ever he was to enjoy agreeable society and the
+      ganial flow of soul.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He 's the better of the two, I take it,&rdquo; said Onslow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;More interesting, certainly, just as a ruined chateau is a more
+      picturesque object than a new police-station or a cut-stone penitentiary.
+      There 's another feature also which ought to give him the preference. I
+      have seen two very pretty faces from time to time as I have passed the
+      windows, and which I conjecture to belong to his daughters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you not made their acquaintance?&rdquo; asked Onslow, in some surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I grieve to say I have not,&rdquo; sighed Jekyl, softly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, the matter should not be very difficult, one might opine, in such a
+      place, at such a time, and with&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He hesitated, and Jekyl added,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With such a papa, you were about to say. Well, that is precisely the
+      difficulty. Had my excellent friend, Peter, been a native of any other
+      country, I flatter myself I should have known how to make my advances; but
+      with these dear Irish their very accessibility is a difficulty of no
+      common order. Assume an air of deference and respect, and they 'll set you
+      down for a cold formalist, with whom they can have nothing in common. Try
+      the opposite line, and affect the free and easy, and the chances are that
+      you have a duel to fight before you know you have offended. I confess that
+      I have made several small advances, and thrown out repeated little hints
+      about loneliness, and long evenings, and so forth; and although he has
+      concurred with me in every word, yet his practice has never followed his
+      precept. But I don't despair. What say you, if we attack the fortress as
+      allies? I have a notion we should succeed?&rdquo; &ldquo;With all my heart. What's
+      your plan?&rdquo; &ldquo;At this moment I have formed none, nor is there need of any.
+      Let us go out, like the knight-errants of old, in search of adventures,
+      and see if they will not befall us. The first step will be to make
+      Dalton's acquaintance. Now, he always takes his walk in bad weather in the
+      great Saal below; should he not make his appearance there to-day, as he
+      has already absented himself for some days, I 'll call to inquire after
+      him at his own house. You 'll accompany me. The rest we 'll leave to
+      fortune.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Although On slow could not see that this step could lead to anything
+      beyond a civil reply to a civil demand, he assented readily, and promised
+      to meet his companion at four o'clock the same evening. As for Jekyl, he
+      took a very different view of the whole transaction, for he knew that
+      while to him there might be considerable difficulty in establishing any
+      footing with the Daltons, the son of the wealthy baronet would be, in all
+      likelihood, very differently looked on. In presenting him, thought he, I
+      shall have become the friend of the family at once. It had often before
+      been his fortune in life to have made valuable acquaintances in this
+      manner; and although the poor Daltons were very unlikely to figure in the
+      category of profitable friends, they would at least afford an agreeable
+      resource against the dulness of wintry evenings, and prevent what he
+      himself called the &ldquo;demoralization&rdquo; of absence from female society.
+      Lastly, the scheme promised to establish a close intimacy between Onslow
+      and himself; and here was a benefit worth all the others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIII. A SUSPICIOUS VISITOR
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      How far were the Daltons from suspecting that they were the subject of so
+      much and such varied solicitude, and that, while Lady Hester was fancying
+      to herself all the fashionable beauties whom Kate would eclipse in
+      loveliness, and what an effect charms like hers would produce on society,
+      Sir Stafford was busily concerting with his lawyer the means of
+      effectually benefiting them; and George Onslow for want of better
+      speculated, as he smoked, on &ldquo;the kind of people&rdquo; they would prove, and
+      wondered whether the scheme were worth the light trouble it was to cost
+      him. Little did they know of all this, little imagine that outside of
+      their humble roof there lived one save &ldquo;dear Frank&rdquo; whose thoughts
+      included them. &ldquo;The purple and fine linen&rdquo; category of this world cannot
+      appreciate the force of this want of sympathy! They, whose slightest
+      griefs and least afflictions in life are always certain of the
+      consolations of friends, and the even more bland solace of a fashionable
+      physician whose woes are re-echoed by the &ldquo;Morning Post,&rdquo; and whose
+      sorrows are mourned in Court Journals cannot frame to themselves the sense
+      of isolation which narrow fortune impresses. &ldquo;Poverty,&rdquo; says a classical
+      authority, &ldquo;has no heavier evil than that it makes men ridiculous.&rdquo; But
+      this wound to self-love, deep and poignant though it be, is light in
+      comparison with the crushing sense of isolation, that abstraction from
+      sympathy in which poor men live!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Daltons were seated around Hanserl's bed, silently ministering to the
+      sick man, and watching with deep and anxious interest the labored
+      respiration and convulsive twitches of his fever. The wild and rapid
+      utterance of his lips, and the strange fancies they syllabled, often
+      exciting him to laughter, only deepened the gravity of their countenances,
+      and cast over the glances they interchanged a tinge of sadder meaning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He could n't have better luck,&rdquo; muttered Dalton, sorrowfully; &ldquo;just from
+      being a friend to us! If he had never seen nor heard of us, maybe 't is
+      happy and healthy he 'd be to-day!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, nay, papa,&rdquo; said Nelly, gently; &ldquo;this is to speak too gloomily; nor
+      is it good for us to throw on fortune the burden that we each should bear
+      patiently.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't tell me that there is not such a thing as luck!&rdquo; replied Dalton, in
+      a tone of irritation. &ldquo;I know well whether there is or no! For
+      five-and-thirty years whatever I put my hand to in life turned out badly.
+      It was the same whether I did anything on the spur of the moment, or
+      thought over it for weeks. If I wished a thing, that was reason enough for
+      it to come out wrong!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And even were it all as you fancy, papa dearest,&rdquo; said Nelly, as she
+      fondly drew her arm round him, &ldquo;is it nothing that these reverses have
+      found you strong of heart and high of courage to bear them? Over and over
+      again have you told me that the great charm of field sports lay in the
+      sense of fatigue bravely endured, and peril boldly confronted; that,
+      devoid of these, they were unworthy of men. Is there not a greater glory,
+      then, in stemming the tide of adverse fortune; and is it not a higher
+      victory that carries you triumphant over the real trials of life, kind of
+      heart, trustful, and generous, as in the best days of your prosperity, and
+      with a more gentle and forbearing spirit than prosperity ever taught?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That 's nothing against what I was saying,&rdquo; said Dalton, but with a more
+      subdued face. &ldquo;There 's poor little Hans, and till a couple of clays ago
+      he never knew what it was to be unlucky. As he told us himself, his life
+      was a fairy tale.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True,&rdquo; interposed Nelly; &ldquo;and happy as it was, and blameless and
+      guileless he who led it, mark how many a gloomy thought, what dark
+      distressing fancies, hover round his brain, and shadow his sick-bed! No,
+      no! the sorrows of this world are more equally distributed than we think
+      for, and he who seems to have fewest is oftentimes but he who best
+      conceals them!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her voice shook, and became weaker as she spoke; and the last few words
+      were barely audible. Dalton did not notice her emotion; but Kate's looks
+      were bent upon her with an expression of fond and affectionate meaning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's somebody at the door,&rdquo; whispered Daltou; &ldquo;see who it is, Kate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Kate arose, and opening the door softly, beheld old Andy; his shrivelled
+      features and lustreless eyes appearing in a state of unusual excitement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's the matter, Andy? what is it you want?&rdquo; said she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is the master here? Where 's the master?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He 's here; what do you want with him?&rdquo; rejoined she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want himself,&rdquo; said he, as with his palsied hand he motioned to Dalton
+      to come out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it, you old fool?&rdquo; said Dalton, impatiently, as he arose and
+      followed him outside of the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's one of them again!&rdquo; said Andy, putting his mouth to Dalton's ear,
+      and whispering in deep confidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One of what? one of whom?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's upstairs,&rdquo; muttered Andy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who's upstairs, who is he?&rdquo; cried Dalton, angrily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Didn't I know him the minit I seen him! Ayeh! Ould as I am, my eyes isn't
+      that dim yet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God give me patience with you!&rdquo; said Dalton; and, to judge from his face,
+      he was not entreating a vain blessing. &ldquo;Tell me, I say, what do you mean,
+      or who is it is upstairs?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Andy put his lips once more to the other's ear, and whispered, &ldquo;An
+      attorney!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An attorney!&rdquo; echoed Dalton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Iss!&rdquo; said Andy, with a significant nod.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how do you know he 's an attorney?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I seen him!&rdquo; replied the other, with a grin; &ldquo;and I locked the door on
+      him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What for?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What for! what for, is it? Oh, murther, murther!&rdquo; whined the old
+      creature, who in this unhappy question thought he read the evidence of his
+      poor master's wreck of intellect. It was indeed no slight shock to him to
+      hear that Peter Dalton had grown callous to danger, and could listen to
+      the terrible word he had uttered without a sign of emotion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I seen the papers with a red string round 'em,&rdquo; said Andy, as though by
+      this incidental trait he might be able to realize all the menaced danger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sirrah, ye 're an old fool!&rdquo; said Dalton, angrily; and, jerking the key
+      from his trembling fingers, he pushed past him, and ascended the stairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If Dalton's impatience had been excited by the old man's absurd terrors
+      and foolish warnings, his own heart was not devoid of a certain vague
+      dread, as he slowly wended his way upwards. It was true he did not partake
+      of old Andy's fear of the dread official of the law. Andy, who, forgetting
+      time and place, not knowing that they were in another land, where the
+      King's writ never ran, saw in the terrible apparition the shadows of
+      coming misfortune. Every calamity of his master's house had been heralded
+      by such a visit, and he could as soon have disconnected the banshee with a
+      sudden death, as the sight of an attorney with an approaching disaster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is true, Dalton did not go this far; but still old impressions were not
+      so easily effaced. And as the liberated captive is said to tremble at the
+      clanking of a chain, so his heart responded to the fear that memory called
+      up of past troubles and misfortunes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What can he want with me now?&rdquo; muttered he, as he stopped to take breath.
+      &ldquo;They 've left me nothing but life, and they can't take that. It 's not
+      that I 'd care a great deal if they did! Maybe it's more bother about them
+      titles; but I'll not trouble my head about them. I sold the land, and I
+      spent the money; ay, and what 's more, I spent it at home among my own
+      people, like a gentleman! and if I 'm an absentee it 's not my fault. I
+      suppose he couldn't arrest me,&rdquo; said he, after a pause; &ldquo;but, God knows,
+      they 're making new laws every day, and it 's hard to say if they 'll let
+      a man have peace or ease in any quarter of the world before long. Well,
+      well! there's no use guessing. I have nothing to sell nothing to lose; I
+      suppose they don't make it a hanging matter even for an Irishman to live a
+      trifle too fast.&rdquo; And with this piece of reassuring comfort, he pulled up
+      his cravat, threw back the breast of his coat, and prepared to confront
+      the enemy bravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although Dalton made some noise in unlocking the door, and not less in
+      crossing the little passage that led to the sitting-room, his entrance was
+      unperceived by the stranger, who was busily engaged in examining a
+      half-finished group by Nelly. It represented an old soldier, whose eyes
+      were covered by a bandage, seated beside a well, while a little
+      drummer-boy read to him the bulletin of a great victory. She had destined
+      the work for a present to Frank, and had put forth all her genius in its
+      composition. The glowing enthusiasm of the blind veteran, his half-opened
+      lips,' his attitude of eagerness as he drank in the words, were finely
+      contrasted with the childlike simplicity of the boy, more intent, as it
+      seemed, in spelling out the lines than following the signification.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the stranger was not a finished connoisseur, he was certainly not
+      ignorant of art, and was deep in its contemplation when Dalton accosted
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I beg pardon, Mr. Dalton, I presume; really this clever composition has
+      made me forget myself totally. May I ask, is it the work of a native
+      artist?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was done in this place, sir,&rdquo; replied Dalton, whose pride in his
+      daughter's skill was overlaid by a less worthy feeling, shame that a
+      Dalton should condescend to such an occupation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have seen very inferior productions highly prized and praised; and if I
+      am not indiscreet&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To prevent any risk of that kind,&rdquo; observed Dalton, interrupting him, &ldquo;I
+      'll take the liberty of asking your name, and the object of this visit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Prichard, sir; of the firm of Prichard and Harding, solicitors, Lincoln's
+      Inn Fields,&rdquo; replied the other, whose voice and manner at once assumed a
+      business-like tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never heard the names before,&rdquo; said Dalton, motioning to a chair. The
+      stranger seated himself, and, placing a large roll of papers before him on
+      the table, proceeded to untie and arrange them most methodically, and with
+      the air of a man too deeply impressed with the importance of his
+      occupation to waste a thought upon the astonishment of a bystander.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Prichard and Harding are mighty cool kind of gentlemen,&rdquo; thought Dalton,
+      as he took his seat at the opposite side of the table, trying, but not
+      with any remarkable success, to look as much at ease as his visitor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Copy of deed draft of instructions bill of sale of stock no, here it is!
+      This is what we want,&rdquo; muttered Prichard, half aloud. &ldquo;I believe that
+      letter, sir, is in your handwriting?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dalton put on his spectacles and looked at the document for a few seconds,
+      during which his countenance gradually appeared to light up with an
+      expression of joyful meaning; for his eye glistened, and a red flush
+      suffused his cheek.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is, sir, that's mine, every word of it; and what's more, I 'm as ready
+      to stand to it to-day as the hour I wrote it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Prichard, scarcely noticing the reply, was again deep in his
+      researches; but the object of them must be reserved for another chapter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIV. AN EMBARRASSING QUESTION.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      How very seldom it is that a man looks at a letter he has written some
+      twenty years or so before, and peruses it with any degree of satisfaction!
+      No matter how pleasurable the theme, or how full of interest at the time,
+      years have made such changes in circumstances, have so altered his
+      relations with the world, dispelled illusions here, created new prospects
+      there, that the chances are he can feel nothing but astonishment for what
+      once were his opinions, and a strange sense of misgiving that he ever
+      could have so expressed himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rare as this pleasure is, we left Mr. Dalton in the fullest enjoyment of
+      it, in our last chapter; and as he read and re-read his autograph, every
+      feature of his face showed the enjoyment it yielded him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My own writing, sure enough! I wish I never put my hand to paper in a
+      worse cause. Is n't it strange,&rdquo; he muttered, &ldquo;how a man's heart will
+      outlive his fingers? I could n't write now as well as I used then, but I
+      can feel just the same. There 's the very words I said.&rdquo; And with this he
+      read, half aloud, from the paper: &ldquo;'But if you my consent to send lawyers
+      and attorneys to the devil, and let the-matter be settled between us, like
+      two gentlemen, Peter Dalton will meet you when, where, and how you like,
+      and take the satisfaction as a full release of every claim and demand he
+      makes on you.' Just so; and a fairer offer never was made; but I grieve to
+      say it wasn't met in the same spirit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When you wrote that letter, Mr. Dalton,&rdquo; said Prichard, not looking up
+      from the papers before him, &ldquo;you were doubtless suffering under the
+      impression of a wrong at the hands of Sir Stafford Ouslow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Faith, I believe you. The loss of a fine estate was n't a trifle,
+      whatever you may think it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The question ought rather to be, what right had you to attribute that
+      loss to him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What right is it? All the right in the world. Who got the property?
+      Answer me that. Was n't it he came in as a sole legatee? But what am I
+      talking about? Sure the thing is done and ended, and what more does he
+      want?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm just coming to that very point, sir,&rdquo; said Prichard. &ldquo;Sir Stafford's
+      attention having been accidentally called to this transaction, he
+      perceives that he has unwittingly done you a great injustice, and that
+      there is one matter, at least, on which he is bound, even for his own
+      satisfaction.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Satisfaction, is it?&rdquo; broke in Dalton, catching at the only word that
+      struck his ear with a distinct signification. &ldquo;Better late than never; and
+      it 's proud I am to oblige him. Not but there 's people would tell you
+      that the time 's gone by, and all that sort of thing; but them was never
+      my sentiments. 'Never a bad time for a good deed,' my poor father used to
+      say, and you may tell him that I 'll think the better of his countrymen to
+      the day of my death, for what he 's going to do now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Prichard laid down the paper he was reading, and stared at the speaker in
+      mute amazement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You 're his friend, I perceive,&rdquo; said Dalton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Stafford is kind enough to consider me in that light.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Faith, the kindness is all the other way,&rdquo; rejoined Dalton, laughing, &ldquo;at
+      least, in this country; for the seconds are just as guilty as the
+      principals, and have no fun for their money. But, sure, we can cross over
+      to Landau; they tell me it's Barbaria there, over the Rhine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bavaria, perhaps?&rdquo; interposed the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, that 's what I said. We can be over the frontier in two hours. There
+      's every conveniency in life,&rdquo; said he, rubbing his hands in high glee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our business, I trust, sir, can be all arranged here, and without much
+      delay, either.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just as you like; I 'm not fond of moving since my knee was bad, and I 'm
+      agreeable to anything.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You seem to contemplate a hostile meeting, sir, if I understand you
+      aright,&rdquo; said Prichard, slowly; &ldquo;but if you had been kind enough to hear
+      me out, you 'd have seen that nothing was further from my friend's
+      thoughts or my own.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, murther!&rdquo; groaned Dal ton, as he sank down into a chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We never entertained any such intention.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No duel?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing of the kind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sure, I heard you say satisfaction. I 'll take my oath you said
+      satisfaction.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope sincerely, sir, that the word may bear a peaceful signification.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh dear, oh dear!&rdquo; cried Dalton, as, clasping his hands on his knees, he
+      sat, a perfect type of disappointed hope, and totally inattentive to a
+      very eloquent explanation that Prichard was pouring forth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see, now, sir, I trust,&rdquo; cried the latter, triumphantly, &ldquo;that if my
+      friend's intentions are not precisely what you looked for, they are not
+      less inspired by an anxious desire to cultivate your friendship and obtain
+      your good opinion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wasn't listening to a word you were saying,&rdquo; said Dalton, with a
+      sincerity that would have made many men smile; but Mr. Prichard never
+      laughed, or only when the joke was uttered by a silk gown, or the
+      initiative given by the bench itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was endeavoring, sir, to convey,&rdquo; said he again, and with infinite
+      patience, &ldquo;that, by a clause of the late Mr. Godfrey's will, the
+      suggestion was made to the effect that, if Sir Stafford Onslow should deem
+      it fitting and suitable, the testator would not be averse to an annuity of
+      from one hundred and fifty to two hundred pounds per annum being settled
+      on Mr. Peter Dalton for the term of his life. This clause has now been
+      brought under Sir Stafford's notice for the first time, as he never, in
+      fact, saw the will before. The document was lodged in our hands; and as
+      certain proceedings, of which the letter you have just acknowledged forms
+      a part, at that period placed you in a peculiar position of hostility to
+      Sir Stafford, we, as his legal advisers, did not take any remarkable pains
+      to impress this recommendation on his memory.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go on; I 'm listening to you,&rdquo; said Dalton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, sir, Sir Stafford is now desirous of complying with this
+      injunction, the terms of which he reads as more obligatory upon him than
+      his legal friends would be willing to substantiate. In fact, he makes the
+      matter a question of feeling and not of law; and this, of course, is a
+      point wherein we have no right to interpose an opinion. Something like ten
+      years have elapsed since Mr. Godfrey's death, and taking the sum at two
+      hundred pounds, with interest at five per cent, a balance of above three
+      thousand two hundred will now be at your disposal, together with the
+      annuity on your life; and to arrange the payment of these moneys, and take
+      measures for their future disbursement, I have the honor to present myself
+      before you. As for these letters, they are your own; and Sir Stafford, in
+      restoring them, desires to efface all memory of the transaction they
+      referred to, and to assure you that, when circumstances enable him to meet
+      you, it may be on terms of perfect cordiality and friendship.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Upon my soul and conscience I don't understand a word of it all!&rdquo; said
+      Dalton, whose bewildered looks gave a perfect concurrence to the speech.
+      &ldquo;Is it that I have a right to all the money?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Exactly, sir; Sir Stafford feels that he is simply carrying out the
+      wishes of your relative, Mr. Godfrey&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this has nothing to do with the little difference between Sir
+      Stafford and myself? I mean, it leaves us just where we were before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Stafford hopes that henceforth a better understanding will subsist
+      between you and himself; and that you, seeing how blameless he has been in
+      the whole history of your losses, will receive this act as an evidence of
+      his desire to cultivate your friendship.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And this two hundred a year?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is Mr. Godfrey's bequest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But depending on Sir Stafford to pay or not, as he likes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have already told you, sir, that he conceives he has no option in the
+      matter; and that the mere expression of a desire on Mr. Godfrey's part
+      becomes to him a direct injunction.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Faith, he was mighty long in finding it out, then,&rdquo; said Dalton,
+      laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe I have explained myself on that head,&rdquo; replied Prichard; &ldquo;but I
+      am quite ready to go over the matter again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God forbid! my head is 'moidered' enough already, not to make it worse.
+      Explanations, as they call them, always puzzle me more; but if you 'd go
+      over the subject to my daughter Nelly, her brain is as clear as the Lord
+      Chancellor's. I'll just call her up here; for, to tell you the truth, I
+      never see my way right in anything till Nelly makes it out for me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Prichard was probably not grieved at the prospect of a more
+      intelligent listener, and readily assented to the proposition, in
+      furtherance of which Dalton left the room to seek his daughter. On
+      descending to the little chamber where he had left the two girls in
+      waiting beside the dwarf's sick-bed, he now discovered that they had gone,
+      and that old Andy had replaced them, a change which, to judge from
+      Hansel's excited looks and wild utterance, was not by any means to his
+      taste.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was machst du hier?&rdquo; cried he, sternly, to the old man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whisht! alannah! Take a sleep, acushla!&rdquo; whined old Andy, as, under the
+      delusion that it was beside an infant his watch was established, he tried
+      to rock the settle-bed like a cradle, and then croned away in a cracked
+      voice one of his own native ditties:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;I saw a man weeping and makin' sad moan,
+     He was crying and grievin',
+     For he knew their deceiving
+     An' rockin' a cradle for a child not his own.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was fur katzen jammer! What for cats' music mak'st thou there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where 's the girls, Andy?&rdquo; whispered Daltou in the old man's ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They 're gone,&rdquo; muttered he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gone where? where did they go?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fort mit ihm. Away with him. Leave him not stay. Mein head is heavy, and
+      mein brain turn round!&rdquo; screamed Hansel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will ye tell me where they 're gone, I say?&rdquo; cried Daiton, angrily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hushoo! husho!&rdquo; sang out the old man, as he fancied he was composing his
+      charge to sleep; and then made signs to Dalton to be still and not awaken
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With an angry muttering Dalton turned away and left the chamber, totally
+      regardless of Hanserl's entreaties to take Andy along with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're just good company for each other!&rdquo; said he, sulkily, to himself.
+      &ldquo;But where 's these girls, I wonder?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, papa, I have found you at last!&rdquo; cried Kate, as, bounding down the
+      stairs half a dozen steps at a time, she threw her arm round him. &ldquo;She's
+      here! she's upstairs with us; and so delightful, and so kind, and so
+      beautiful. I never believed any one could be so charming.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And who is she, when she's at home?&rdquo; said Dalton, half sulkily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lady Hester, of course, papa. She came while we were sitting with
+      Hanserl, came quite alone to see him and us; and when she had talked to
+      him for a while, so kindly and so sweetly, about his wound, and his fever,
+      and his home in the Tyrol, and his mother, and everything, she turned to
+      Nelly and said, 'Now, my dears, for a little conversation with yourselves.
+      Where shall we go to be quite alone and uninterrupted?' We did n't know
+      what to say, papa; for we knew that you and the strange gentleman were
+      busy in the sitting-room, and while I was thinking what excuse to make,
+      Nelly told her that our only room was occupied. 'Oh, I don't care for that
+      in the least,' said she; 'let us shut ourselves up in your dressing-room.'
+      Our dressing-room! I could have laughed and cried at the same moment she
+      said it; but Nelly said that we had none, and invited her upstairs to her
+      bedroom; and there she is now, papa, sitting on the little bed, and making
+      Nelly tell her everything about who we are, and whence we came, and how we
+      chanced to be living here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder Nelly had n't more sense,&rdquo; said Dalton, angrily; &ldquo;not as much as
+      a curtain on the bed, nor a bit of carpet on the floor. What 'll she think
+      of us all?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, papa, you're quite mistaken; she called it a dear little snuggery;
+      said she envied Nelly so much that lovely view over Eberstein and the
+      Schloss, and said what would she not give to lead our happy and peaceful
+      life, away from that great world she despises so heartily. How sad to
+      think her duties tie her down to a servitude so distasteful and
+      repulsive!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isn't my Lady the least taste in life of a humbug, Kitty?&rdquo; whispered
+      Dalton, as his eyes twinkled with malicious drollery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Papa, papa! you cannot mean&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No harm if she is, darling. I'm sure the pleasantest, ay, and some of the
+      worthiest people ever I knew were humbugs, that is, they were always doing
+      their best to be agreeable to the company; and if they strained their
+      consciences a bit, small blame to them for that same.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lady Hester is far above such arts, papa; but you shall judge for
+      yourself. Come in now, for she is so anxious to know you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Kate, as she spoke, had opened the door of the little bedroom, and,
+      drawing her arm within her father's, gently led him forward to where Lady
+      Hester was seated upon the humble settle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's a nice place they showed you into, my Lady,&rdquo; said Dalton, after the
+      ceremony of introduction was gone through; &ldquo;and there was the
+      drawing-room, or the library, and the breakfast-parlor, all ready to
+      receive you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We heard that you were engaged with a gentleman on business, papa.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, and if I was, Nelly, transacting a small matter about my estates in
+      Ireland, sure it was in my own study we were.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must be permitted to say that I am very grateful for any accident which
+      has given me the privilege of an intimate with my dear young friends,&rdquo;
+       said Lady Hester, in her very sweetest of manners; &ldquo;and as to the dear
+      little room itself, it is positively charming.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish you 'd see Mount Dalton, my Lady. There '&amp; a window, and it is
+      n't bigger than that there, and you can see seven baronies out of it and a
+      part of three counties, Killikelly's flour-mills, and the town of
+      Drumcoolaghan in the distance; not to speak of the Shannon winding for
+      miles through as elegant a bog as ever you set eyes upon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed!&rdquo; smiled her Ladyship, with a glance of deep interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'T is truth, I 'm telling you, my Lady,&rdquo; continued he; &ldquo;and, what's more,
+      'twas our own, every stick and stone of it. From Crishnamuck to
+      Ballymodereena on one side, and from the chapel at Dooras down to
+      Drumcoolaghan, 'twas the Dalton estate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a princely territory!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why not? Weren't they kings once, or the same as kings? Did n't my
+      grandfather, Pearce, hold a court for life and death in his own parlor?
+      Them was the happy and the good times, too,&rdquo; sighed he, plaintively.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I trust your late news from Ireland is favorable?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! there isn't much to boast about. The old families is dying out fast,
+      and the properties changing hands. A set of English rogues and
+      banker-fellows that made their money in dirty lanes and alleys.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A sort of imploring, beseeching anxiety from his daughter Kate here
+      brought Dalton to a dead stop, and he pulled up as suddenly as if on the
+      brink of a precipice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pray, go on, Mr. Dalton,&rdquo; said Lady Hester, with a winning smile; &ldquo;you
+      cannot think how much you have interested me. You are aware that we really
+      know nothing about poor dear Ireland; and I am so delighted to learn from
+      one so competent to teach.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did n't mean any offence, my Lady,&rdquo; stammered out Dalton, in confusion.
+      &ldquo;There 's good and bad everywhere; but I wish to the Lord the
+      cotton-spinners would n't come among us, and their steam-engines, and
+      their black chimneys, and their big factories; and they say we are not far
+      from that now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A gentle tap at the door which communicated with the sitting-room was
+      heard at this moment, and Dalton exclaimed,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come in!&rdquo; but, not suffering the interruption to stop the current of his
+      discourse, he was about to resume, when Mr. Prichard's well-powdered head
+      appeared at the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I began to suspect you had forgotten me, Mr. Dalton,&rdquo; said he; but
+      suddenly catching a glimpse of Lady Hester, he stopped to ask pardon for
+      the intrusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Faith, and I just did,&rdquo; said Dalton, laughing; &ldquo;couldn't you contrive to
+      step in in the morning, and we 'll talk that little matter over again?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Prichard; pray don't interrupt us now,&rdquo; said Lady Hester, in a tone
+      of half-peevishness. &ldquo;I cannot possibly spare you, Mr. Dalton, at this
+      moment;&rdquo; and the man of law withdrew, with a most respectful obeisance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll forgive me, won't you?&rdquo; said she, addressing Dalton, with a glance
+      whose blandishment had often succeeded in a more difficult case.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now, papa, we'll adjourn to the drawing-room,&rdquo; said Kate, who somehow
+      continued to notice a hundred deficiencies in the furniture of a little
+      chamber she had often before deemed perfect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dalton accordingly offered his arm to Lady Hester, who accepted the
+      courtesy in all form, and the little party moved into the sitting-room;
+      Nelly following, with an expression of sadness in her pale features, very
+      unlike the triumphant glances of her father and sister.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 'm certain of your pardon, Mr. Dalton, and of yours, too, my dear
+      child,&rdquo; said Lady Hester, turning towards Kate, as she seated herself on
+      the stiff old sofa, &ldquo;when I avow that I have come here determined to pass
+      the evening with you. I 'm not quite so sure that my dear Miss Dalton's
+      forgiveness will be so readily accorded me. I see that she already looks
+      gravely at the prospect of listening to my fiddle-faddle instead of
+      following out her own charming fancies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, how you wrong me, my Lady!&rdquo; broke in Nelly, eagerly. &ldquo;If it were not
+      for my fears of our unfitness our inability,&rdquo; she stammered in confusion
+      and shame; and old Dalton broke in,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't mind her, my Lady; we 're as well used to company as any family in
+      the country; but, you see, we don't generally mix with the people one
+      meets abroad; and why should we? God knows who they are. There was chaps
+      here last summer at the tables you would n't let into the servants' hall.
+      There was one I seen myself, with an elegant pair of horses, as nice
+      steppers as ever you looked at, and a groom behind with a leather strap
+      round him,&rdquo; and here Mr. Dalton performed a pantomime, by extending the
+      fingers of his open hand at the side of his head, to represent a cockade
+      &ldquo;what d' ye call it in his hat; and who was he, did you think? 'Billy
+      Rogers,' of Muck; his father was in the canal&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the canal!&rdquo; exclaimed Lady Hester, in affright.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, my Lady; in the Grand Canal, an inspector at forty pounds a year,
+      the devil a farthin' more; and if you seen the son here, with two pins in
+      his cravat, and a gold chain twisting and turning over his waistcoat, with
+      his hat on one side, and yellow gloves, new every morning, throwing down
+      the 'Naps' at that thieving game they call 'Red and Black,' you'd say he
+      was the Duke of Leinster!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was he so like his Grace?&rdquo; asked Lady Hester, with a delightful
+      simplicity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; but grander!&rdquo; replied Dalton, with a wave of his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is really, as you remark, very true,&rdquo; resumed her Ladyship. &ldquo;It is
+      quite impossible to venture upon an acquaintance out of England; and I
+      cordially concur in the caution you practise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I 'm always telling the girls, 'better no company than trumpery!' not
+      that I don't like a bit of sociality as well as ever I did, a snug little
+      party of one's own, people whose mothers and fathers had names, the real
+      old stock of the land. But to be taken up with every chance rapscallion
+      you meet on the cross-roads, to be hand and glove with this, that, and the
+      other, them never was my sentiments.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It is but justice to confess there was less of hypocrisy in the bland
+      smile Lady Hester returned to this speech than might be suspected; for,
+      what between the rapidity of Daiton's utterance, and the peculiar
+      accentuation he gave to certain words, she did not really comprehend one
+      syllable of what he said. Meanwhile the two girls sat silent and
+      motionless. Nelly, in all the suffering of shame at the absurdity of her
+      father's tone, the vulgarity of an assumption she had fondly hoped years
+      of poverty might have tamed down, if not obliterated; Kate, in mute
+      admiration of their lovely visitor, of whose graces she never wearied. Nor
+      did Lady Hester make any effort to include them in the conversation; she
+      had come out expressly for one sole object, to captivate Mr. Dalton; and
+      she would suffer nothing to interfere with her project. To this end she
+      heard his long and tiresome monologues about Irish misery and distress,
+      narrated with an adherence to minute and local details that made the whole
+      incomprehensible; she listened to him with well-feigned interest, in his
+      narratives of the Daltons of times long past, of their riotous and
+      extravagant living, their lawlessness, and their daring; nor did she
+      permit her attention to flag while he recounted scenes and passages of
+      domestic annals that might almost have filled a page of savage history.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How sorry you must have felt to leave a country so dear by all its
+      associations and habits!&rdquo; sighed she, as he finished a narrative of more
+      than ordinary horrors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ain't I breaking my heart over it? Ain't I fretting myself to mere skin
+      and bone?&rdquo; said he, with a glance of condolence over his portly figure.
+      &ldquo;But what could I do? I was forced to come out here for the education of
+      the children bother it for education! but it ruins everybody nowadays.
+      When I was a boy, reading and writing, with a trifle of figures, was
+      enough for any one. If you could tell what twenty bullocks cost, at two
+      pounds four-and-sixpence a beast, and what was the price of a score of
+      hoggets, at fifteen shillings a head, and wrote your name and address in a
+      good round hand, 'twas seldom you needed more; but now you have to learn
+      everything, ay, sorrow bit, but it 's learning the way to do what every
+      one knows by nature; riding, dancing, no, but even walking, I 'm told,
+      they teach too! Then there's French you must learn for talking! and
+      Italian to sing! and German, upon my soul, I believe it's to snore in! and
+      what with music, dancing, and drawing, everybody is brought up like a
+      play-actor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is, as you remark, far too much display in modern education, Mr.
+      Dalton; but you would seem fortunate enough to have avoided the error. A
+      young lady whose genius can accomplish such a work as this&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Tis one of Nelly's, sure enough,&rdquo; said he, looking at the group to which
+      she pointed, but feeling even more shame than pride in the avowal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sound of voices a very unusual noise from the door without, now broke
+      in upon the conversation, and Andy's cracked treble could be distinctly
+      heard in loud altercation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nelly! Kitty! I say,&rdquo; cried Dalton, &ldquo;see what's the matter with that old
+      devil. There's something come over him to-day, I think, for he won't be
+      quiet for two minutes together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Kate accordingly hastened to discover the cause of a tumult in which now
+      the sound of laughter mingled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As we, however, enjoy the prerogative of knowing the facts before they
+      could reach her, we may as well inform the reader that Andy, whose
+      intelligence seemed to have been preternaturally awakened by the sight of
+      an attorney, had been struck by seeing two strangers enter the house-door
+      and leisurely ascend the stairs. At such a moment, and with his weak brain
+      filled with its latest impression, the old man at once set them down as
+      bailiffs come to arrest his master. He hobbled after them, therefore, as
+      well as he could, and just reached the landing as Mr. Jekyl, with his
+      friend Onslow, had arrived at the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Dalton lives here, I believe?&rdquo; said Jekyl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Anan,&rdquo; muttered Andy, who, although he heard the question, affected not
+      to have done so, and made this an excuse for inserting himself between
+      them and the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was asking if Mr. Dalton lived here!&rdquo; cried Jekyl, louder, and staring
+      with some astonishment at the old fellow's manoeuvre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who said he did, eh?&rdquo; said Andy, with an effort at fierceness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps it 's on the lower story?&rdquo; asked Onslow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maybe it is, and maybe it isn't, then!&rdquo; was the answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We wish to see him, my good man,&rdquo; said Jekyl; &ldquo;or, at least, to send a
+      message to him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sure! I know well enough what ye want,&rdquo; said Andy, with a wave of his
+      hand. &ldquo;'T is n't the first of yer like I seen!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what may that be?&rdquo; asked Onslow, not a little amused by the blended
+      silliness and shrewdness of the old man's face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay eh! I know yez well,&rdquo; rejoined he, shaking his head. &ldquo;Be off, then,
+      and don't provoke the house! Away wid yez, before the servants sees ye.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is a rare fellow,&rdquo; said Onslow, who, less interested than his
+      companion about the visit, was quite satisfied to amuse himself with old
+      Andy. &ldquo;So you 'll not even permit us to send our respects, and ask how
+      your master is?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm certain you'll be more reasonable,&rdquo; simpered Jekyl, as he drew a very
+      weighty-looking purse from his pocket, and, with a considerable degree of
+      ostentation, seemed preparing to open it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The notion of bribery, and in such a cause, was too much for Andy's
+      feelings; and with a sudden jerk of his hand, he dashed the purse out of
+      Jekyl's fingers, and scattered the contents all over the landing and
+      stairs. &ldquo;Ha, ha!&rdquo; cried he, wildly, &ldquo;'t is only ha'pence he has, after
+      all!&rdquo; And the taunt was so far true that the ground was strewn with
+      kreutzers and other copper coins of the very smallest value.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for Onslow, the scene was too ludicrous for him any longer to restrain
+      his laughter; and although Jekyl laughed too, and seemed to relish the
+      absurdity of his mistake, as he called it, having put in his pocket a
+      collection of rare and curious coins, his cheek, as he bent to gather them
+      up, was suffused with a deeper flush than the mere act of stooping should
+      occasion. It was precisely at this moment that Kate Dalton made her
+      appearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the matter, Andy?&rdquo; asked she, turning to the old man, who
+      appeared, by his air and attitude, as if determined to guard the doorway.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Two spalpeens, that want to take the master; that's what it is,&rdquo; said he,
+      in a voice of passion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your excellent old servant has much mistaken us, Miss Dalton,&rdquo; said
+      Jekyl, with his most deferential of manners. &ldquo;My friend, Captain Onslow,&rdquo;
+       here he moved his hand towards George, who bowed, &ldquo;and myself, having
+      planned a day's shooting in the 'Moorg,' have come to request the pleasure
+      of Mr. Dalton's company.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, the thievin' villains!&rdquo; muttered Andy; &ldquo;that's the way they 'll catch
+      him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile Kate, having promised to convey their polite invitation,
+      expressed her fears that her father's health might be unequal to the
+      exertion. Jekyl immediately took issue upon the point, and hoped, and
+      wondered, and fancied, and &ldquo;flattered himself&rdquo; so much, that Kate at last
+      discovered she had been drawn into a little discussion, when she simply
+      meant to have returned a brief answer; and while she was hesitating how to
+      put an end to an interview that had already lasted too long, Dalton
+      himself appeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it with me these gentlemen have their business?&rdquo; said he, angrily,
+      while he rudely resisted all Andy's endeavors to hold him back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, my dear Mr. Dalton,&rdquo; said Jekyl, warmly, &ldquo;it is such a pleasure to
+      see you quite restored to health again! Here we are Captain Onslow, Mr.
+      Dalton thinking of a little excursion after the woodcocks down the Moorg
+      Thai; and I have been indulging the hope that you 'll come along with us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The very hint of an attention, the merest suggestion that bordered on a
+      civility, struck a chord in old Dalton's nature that moved all his
+      sympathies. It was at once a recognition of himself and his ancestry for
+      generations back. It was a rehabilitation of all the Dal tons of Mount
+      Dalton for centuries past; and as he extended a hand to each, and invited
+      them to walk in, he half felt himself at home again, doing the honors of
+      his house, and extending those hospitalities that had brought him to
+      beggary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you serious about the shooting-party?&rdquo; whispered Onslow to Jekyl, as
+      he walked forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course not. It's only a 'Grecian horse,' to get inside the citadel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My daughter, Miss Dalton; Mr. Jekyl Miss Kate Dalton. Your friend's name,
+      I believe, is&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Captain Onslow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Hester started at the name, and, rising, at once said,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, George, I must introduce you to my fair friends. Miss Dalton, this
+      gentleman calls me 'mamma;' or, at least, if he does not, it is from
+      politeness. Captain Onslow Mr. Dalton. Now, by what fortunate event came
+      you here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ought I not to ask the same question of your Ladyship?&rdquo; said George,
+      archly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you like; only that, as I asked first&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You shall be answered first. Lady Hester Onslow, allow me to present Mr.
+      Albert Jekyl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, indeed!&rdquo; drawled out Lady Hester, as, with her very coldest bow, she
+      surveyed Mr. Jekyl through her glass, and then turned away to finish her
+      conversation with Ellen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jekyl was not the man to feel a slight repulse as a defeat; but, at the
+      same time, saw that the present was not the moment to risk an engagement.
+      He saw, besides, that, by engaging Dalton in conversation, he should leave
+      Lady Hester and Onslow at liberty to converse with the two sisters, and,
+      by this act of generosity, entitle himself to gratitude on all sides. And,
+      after all, among the smaller martyrdoms of this life, what self-sacrifice
+      exceeds his who, out of pure philanthropy, devotes himself to the &ldquo;bore&rdquo;
+       of the party. Honor to him who can lead the forlorn hope of this
+      stronghold of weariness. Great be his praises who can turn from the
+      seductive smiles of beauty, and the soft voices of youth, and only give
+      eye and ear to the tiresome and uninteresting. High among the achievements
+      of unobtrusive heroism should this claim rank; and if you doubt it, my
+      dear reader, if you feel disposed to hold cheaply such darings, try it,
+      try even for once. Take your place beside that deaf old lady in the light
+      auburn wig, or draw your chair near to that elderly gentleman, whose
+      twinkling gray eyes and tremulous lip bespeak an endless volubility on the
+      score of personal reminiscences. Do this, too, within earshot of pleasant
+      voices and merry laughter, of that tinkling ripple that tells of
+      conversation flowing lightly on, like a summer stream, clear where
+      shallow, and reflective where deep! Listen to the wearisome bead-roll of
+      family fortunes, the births, deaths, and marriages of those you never saw,
+      and hoped never to see, hear the long narratives of past events, garbled,
+      mistaken, and misstated, with praise and censure ever misapplied, and
+      then, I say, you will feel that, although such actions are not rewarded
+      with red ribbons or blue, they yet demand a moral courage and a
+      perseverance that in wider fields win high distinction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0007" id="linkimage-0007">
+      <!-- IMG --></a> <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/00166.jpg" alt="00166" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Albert Jekyl was a proficient in this great art; indeed, his powers
+      developed themselves according to the exigency, so that the more
+      insufferably tiresome his companion, the more seemingly attentive and
+      interested did he become. His features were, in fact, a kind of
+      &ldquo;bore-ometer,&rdquo; in which, from the liveliness of the expression, you might
+      calculate the stupidity of the tormentor; and the mercury of his nature
+      rose, not fell, under pressure. And so you would have said had you but
+      seen him that evening, as, seated beside Dalton, he heard, for hours long,
+      how Irish gentlemen were ruined and their fortunes squandered. What jolly
+      times they were when men resisted the law and never feared a debt! Not
+      that, while devouring all the &ldquo;rapparee&rdquo; experiences of the father, he had
+      no eye for the daughters, and did not see what was passing around him. Ay,
+      that did he, and mark well how Lady Hester attached herself to Kate
+      Dalton, flattered by every sign of her unbought admiration, and delighted
+      with the wondering homage of the artless girl. He watched Onslow, too,
+      turn from the inanimate charms of Nelly's sculptured figures, to gaze upon
+      the long dark lashes and brilliant complexion of her sister. He saw all
+      the little comedy that went on around him, even to poor Nelly's confusion,
+      as she assisted Andy to arrange a tea-table, and, for the first time since
+      their arrival, proceed to make use of that little service of white and
+      gold which, placed on a marble table for show, constitutes the invariable
+      decoration of every humble German drawing-room. He even overheard her, as
+      she left the room, giving Andy her directions a dozen times over, how he
+      was to procure the tea, and the sugar, and the milk, extravagances she did
+      not syllable without a sigh. He saw and heard everything, and rapidly drew
+      his own inferences, not alone of their poverty, but of their unfitness to
+      struggle with it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And yet, I'd wager these people,&rdquo; said he to himself, &ldquo;are revelling in
+      superfluities; at least, as compared to me! But, so it is, the rock that
+      one man ties round his neck, another would make a stepping-stone of!&rdquo; This
+      satisfactory conclusion gave additional sweetness to the bland smile with
+      which he took his teacup from Nelly's hand, while he pronounced the
+      beverage the very best he had ever tasted out of Moscow. And so we must
+      leave the party.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XV. CONTRASTS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you think, Grounsell, I may be able to leave this in a day or two?&rdquo;
+       said Sir Stafford, as, on the day following the events we have just
+      related, he slowly walked up and down his dressing-room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the end of the week, if the weather only continue fine, we may be on
+      the road again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm glad of it, heartily glad of it! Not that, as regarded myself, it
+      mattered much where I was laid up in dock; but I find that this isolation,
+      instead of drawing the members of my family more closely together, has but
+      served to widen the breach between them. Lady Hester and Sydney rarely
+      meet; George sees neither of them, and rarely comes near me, so that the
+      sooner we go hence the better for all of us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Grounsell gave a dry nod of assent, without speaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sydney is very anxious to go and pass some time with her aunt Conway; but
+      I foresee that, if I consent, the difference between Lady Hester and her
+      will then become an irreconcilable quarrel. You don't agree with me,
+      Grounsell?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not. I never knew the ends of a fractured bone unite by grating them
+      eternally against each other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And, as for George, the lounging habits of his service and cigars have
+      steeped him in an indolence from which there is no emerging. I scarcely
+      know what to do with him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's hard enough to decide upon,&rdquo; rejoined Grounsell; &ldquo;he has some
+      pursuits, but not one ambition.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has very fair abilities, certainly,&rdquo; said Sir Stafford, half
+      peevishly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very fair!&rdquo; nodded Grounsell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A good memory, a quick apprehension.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has one immense deficiency, for which nothing can compensate,&rdquo; said
+      the doctor, solemnly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Application, industry?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, with his opportunities a great deal is often acquired with
+      comparatively light labor. I mean a greater and more important element.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He wants steadiness, you think?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; I 'll tell you what he wants, he wants pluck!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Stafford's cheek became suddenly crimson, and his blue eyes grew
+      almost black in the angry expression of the moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pluck, sir? My son deficient in courage?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not as you understand it now,&rdquo; resumed Grouusell, calmly. &ldquo;He has enough,
+      and more than enough, to shoot me or anybody else that would impugn it.
+      The quality I mean is of a very different order. It is the daring to do a
+      thing badly to-day in the certain confidence that you, will do it better
+      to-morrow, and succeed perfectly in it this day twelvemonth. He has not
+      pluck to encounter repeated failures, and yet return every morning to the
+      attack; he has not pluck to be bullied by mediocrity in the sure and
+      certain confidence that he will live to surpass it; in a word, he has not
+      that pluck which resists the dictation of inferior minds, and inspires
+      self-reliance through self-respect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I confess I cannot see that in the station he is likely to occupy such
+      qualities are at all essential,&rdquo; said Sir Stafford, almost haughtily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Twenty thousand a year is a fine thing, and may dispense with a great
+      many gifts in its possessor; and a man like myself, who never owned a
+      twentieth of the amount, may be a precious bad judge of the requisites to
+      spend it suitably; but I 'll tell you one thing, Onslow, that organ the
+      phrenologists call 'Combativeness' is the best in the whole skull.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think your Irish friend Dalton must have been imparting some of his
+      native prejudices to you,&rdquo; said Onslow, smiling; &ldquo;and, by the way, when
+      have you seen him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I went to call there last night, but I found a tea-party, and did n't go
+      in. Only think of these people, with beggary staring them on every side,
+      sending out for 'Caravan' tea at I don't know how many florins a pound.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I heard of it; but then, once and away&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Once and away! Ay, but once is ruin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I hope Prichard has arranged everything by this time. He has gone
+      over this morning to complete the business; so that I trust, when we leave
+      Baden, these worthy people will be m the enjoyment of easier
+      circumstances.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see him crossing over the street now. I'll leave you together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, Grounsell; wait and hear his report; we may want your advice
+      besides, for I 'm not quite clear that this large sum of arrears should be
+      left at Dalton's untrammelled disposal, as Mr. Prichard intended it should
+      be a test of that excellent gentleman's prudence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Prichard's knock was now heard at the door, and next moment he
+      entered. His pale countenance was slightly flushed, and in the expression
+      of his face it might be read that he had come from a scene of unusual
+      excitement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have failed, completely failed, Sir Stafford,&rdquo; said he, with a sigh, as
+      he seated himself, and threw a heavy roll of paper on the table before
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Sir Stafford did not break the pause that followed these words,
+      Prichard resumed,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I told you last night that Mr. Dalton, not being able clearly to
+      understand my communication, which I own, to prevent any searching
+      scrutiny on his part, I did my best to envelop in a covering of
+      technicalities, referred me to his eldest daughter, in whose acuteness he
+      reposes much confidence. If I was not impressed with the difficulty of
+      engaging such an adversary from his description, still less was I on
+      meeting with the young lady this morning. A very quietly mannered,
+      unassuming person, with considerable good looks, which once upon a time
+      must have been actual beauty, was seated alone in the drawing-room
+      awaiting me. Her dress was studiously plain; and were it not for an air of
+      great neatness throughout, I should perhaps call it even poor. I mention
+      all these matters with a certain prolixity, because they bear upon what
+      ensued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Without waiting for me to open my communication, she began by a slight
+      apology for her presence there, occasioned, as she said, by her father's
+      ill-health and consequent incapacity to transact business; after which she
+      added a few words expressive of a hope that I would make my statement in
+      the most simple and intelligible form, divested so far as might be of
+      technical phraseology, and such as, to use her own words, a very
+      unlettered person like herself might comprehend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This opening, I confess, somewhat startled me; I scarcely expected so
+      much from her father's daughter; but I acquiesced and went on. As we
+      concocted the whole plot together here, Sir Stafford, it is needless that
+      I should weary you by a repetition of it. It is enough that I say I
+      omitted nothing of plausibility, either in proof of the bequest, or in the
+      description of the feeling that prompted its fulfilment. I descanted upon
+      the happy event which, in the course of what seemed an accident, had
+      brought the two families together, and prefaced their business intercourse
+      by a friendship. I adverted to the good influence increased comforts would
+      exercise upon her father's health. I spoke of her sister and her brother
+      in the fuller enjoyment of all that became their name and birth. She heard
+      me to the very end with deep attention, never once interrupting, nor even
+      by a look or gesture expressing dissent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At last, when I had concluded, she said, 'This, then, is a bequest?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I replied affirmatively.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'In that case,' said she, 'the terms on which it is conveyed will solve
+      all the difficulty of our position. If my uncle Godfrey intended this
+      legacy to be a peace-offering, however late it has been in coming, we
+      should have no hesitation in accepting it; if he meant that his generosity
+      should be trammelled by conditions, or subject in any way to the good
+      pleasure of a third party, the matter will have a different aspect. Which
+      is the truth?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hesitated at this point-blank appeal, so different from what I looked
+      for, and she at once asked to see the will. Disconcerted still more, I now
+      prevaricated, stating that I had not brought the document with me; that a
+      memorandum of its provisions would, I had supposed, prove sufficient; and
+      finally assured her that acceptance of the bequest involved neither a
+      condition nor a pledge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'It may, however, involve an obligation, sir,' said she, firmly. 'Let us
+      learn if such be the case.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Are you so proud, Miss Dalton,' said I, 'that you cannot even submit to
+      an obligation?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She blushed deeply, and with a weak voice answered,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'We are too poor to incur a debt.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Seeing it was useless to dwell longer on this part of the subject, I
+      adverted to her father's increasing age, his breaking health, and the
+      necessity of affording him a greater share of comforts; but she suddenly
+      stopped me, saying, &ldquo;'You may make my refusal of this favor for such it
+      is, and nothing less a more painful duty than I deemed it, but you cannot
+      alter my resolution, sir. Poverty, so long as it is honorable, has nothing
+      mean nor undeserving about it, but dependence can never bestow happiness.
+      It is true, as you say, that my dear father might have around him many of
+      those little luxuries that he once was used to; but with what changed
+      hearts would not his children minister them to him? Where would be that
+      high prompting sense of duty that every self-sacrifice is met by now?
+      Where that rich reward of an approving spirit that lightens toil and makes
+      even weariness blessed? Our humble fortunes have linked us closer
+      together; the storms of the world have made us draw nearer to each other,
+      have given us one heart, hope, and love alike. Leave us, then, to struggle
+      on, nor cast the gloom of dependence over days that all the ills of
+      poverty could not darken. We are happy now; who can tell what we should
+      become hereafter?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I tried to turn her thoughts upon her brother, but she quickly stopped
+      me, saying,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Frank is a soldier; the rewards in his career are never withheld from
+      the deserving; at all events, wealth would be unsuitable to him. He never
+      knew but narrow fortunes, and the spirit that becomes a more exalted
+      condition is not the growth of a day.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I next ventured, but with every caution and delicacy, to inquire whether
+      your aid and influence might not avail them in any future plans of life
+      they might form?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'We have no plans,&rdquo; said she, simply; 'or, rather, we have had so many
+      that they all resolve themselves into mere castle-building. My dear father
+      longs for Ireland again, for home as he still calls it, forgetting that we
+      have no longer a home there. He fancies warm-hearted friends and
+      neighbors, an affectionate people, attached to the very traditions of his
+      name; but it is now wiser to feed this delusion than destroy it, by
+      telling him that few, scarcely one, of his old companions still live, that
+      other influences, other fortunes, other names, have replaced ours; we
+      should go back there as strangers, and without even the stranger's claim
+      to kind acceptance. Then, we had thought of the new world beyond seas; but
+      these are the lauds of the young, the ardent, and the enterprising, high
+      in hope and resolute of heart; and so, at last, we deemed it wisest to
+      seek out some quiet spot, in some quiet country, where our poverty would,
+      at least, present nothing remarkable, and there to live for each other;
+      and we are happy, so happy that, save the passing dread that this
+      delicious calm of life may not be lasting, we have few sorrows.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Again and again I tried to persuade her to recall her decision, but in
+      vain. Once only did she show any sign of hesitation. It was when I charged
+      her with pride as the reason of refusal. Then suddenly her eyes filled up,
+      and her lip trembled, and such a change came over her features that I grew
+      shocked at my own words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Pride!' cried she. 'If you mean that inordinate self-esteem that prefers
+      isolation to sympathy, that rejects an obligation from mere haughtiness, I
+      know not the feeling. Our pride is not in our self-sufficiency, for every
+      step in life teaches us how much we owe to others; but in this, that low
+      in lot, and humble in means, we have kept, and hope still to keep, the
+      motives and principles that guided us in happier fortunes. Yes, you may
+      call us proud, for we are so, proud that our poverty has not made us mean;
+      proud that in a strange land we have inspired sentiments of kindness, and
+      even of affection; proud that, without any of the gifts or graces which
+      attract, we have drawn towards us this instance of noble generosity of
+      which you are now the messenger. I am not ashamed to own pride in all
+      these.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To press her further was useless; and only asking, that if by any future
+      change of circumstances she might be induced to alter her resolve, she
+      would still consider the proposition as open to her acceptance, I took my
+      leave.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is most provoking,&rdquo; exclaimed Onslow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Provoking!&rdquo; cried Grounsell; &ldquo;you call it provoking! That where you
+      sought to confer a benefit you discover a spirit greater than all the
+      favors wealth ever gave, or ever will give! A noble nature, that soars
+      above every accident of fortune, provoking!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I spoke with reference to myself,&rdquo; replied Onslow, tartly; &ldquo;and I repeat,
+      it is most provoking that I am unable to make a recompense where I have
+      unquestionably inflicted a wrong!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rather thank God that in this age of money-seeking and gold-hunting there
+      lives one whose heart is uncorrupted and incorruptible,&rdquo; cried Grouusell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I had not seen it I could not have believed it!&rdquo; said Prichard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course not, sir,&rdquo; chimed in Grounsell, bluntly. &ldquo;Yours is not the
+      trade where such instances are frequently met with; nor have I met with
+      many myself!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I beg to observe,&rdquo; said Prichard, mildly, &ldquo;that even in my career I have
+      encountered many acts of high generosity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Generosity! Yes, I know what that means. A sister who surrenders her
+      legacy to a spendthrift brother; a childless widow that denies herself the
+      humblest means of comfort to help the ruined brother of her lost husband;
+      a wife who places in a reckless husband's hand the last little remnant of
+      fortune that was hoarded against the day of utter destitution; and they
+      are always women who do these things, saving, scraping, careful creatures,
+      full of self-denial and small economies. Not like your generous men, as
+      the world calls them, whose free-heartedness is nothing but selfishness,
+      whose liberality is the bait to catch flattery. But it is not of
+      generosity I speak here. To give, even to one's last farthing, is far
+      easier than to refuse help when you are needy. To draw the rags of poverty
+      closer, to make their folds drape decently, and hide the penury within,
+      that is the victory, indeed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mark you,&rdquo; cried Onslow, laughing, &ldquo;it is an old bachelor says all this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Grounsell's face became scarlet, and as suddenly pale as death; and
+      although he made an effort to speak, not a sound issued from his lips. For
+      an instant the pause which ensued was unbroken, when a tap was heard at
+      the door. It was a message from Lady Hester, requesting, if Sir Stafford
+      were disengaged, to be permitted to speak with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're not going, Grounsell?&rdquo; cried Sir Stafford, as he saw the doctor
+      seize his hat; but he hastened out of the room without speaking, while the
+      lawyer, gathering up his papers, prepared to follow him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall see you at dinner, Prichard?&rdquo; said Sir Stafford. &ldquo;I have some
+      hope of joining the party myself to-day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Prichard bowed his acknowledgments and departed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now the old baronet sat down to ponder in his mind the reasons for so
+      strange an event as a visit in the forenoon from Lady Hester. &ldquo;What can it
+      mean? She can't want money,&rdquo; thought he; &ldquo;'t is but the other day I sent
+      her a large check. Is she desirous of going back to England again? Are
+      there any new disagreements at work?&rdquo; This last thought reminded him of
+      those of whom he had been so lately hearing, of those whose narrow
+      fortunes had drawn them nearer to each other, rendering them more tolerant
+      and more attached, while in his own family, where affluence prevailed, he
+      saw nothing but dissension.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he sat pondering over this not too pleasant problem, a tall and
+      serious-looking footman entered the room, rolling before him an armchair.
+      Another and not less dignified functionary followed, with cushions and a
+      foot-warmer, signs which Sir Stafford at once read as indicative of a long
+      interview; for her Ladyship's preparations were always adopted with a
+      degree of forethought and care that she very rarely exhibited in matters
+      of real consequence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Stafford was contemplating these august demonstrations, when the
+      solemn voice of an upper servant announced Lady Hester; and, after a
+      second's pause, she swept into the room in all that gauzy amplitude of
+      costume that gives to the wearer a seeming necessity of inhabiting the
+      most spacious apartments of a palace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How d'ye do?&rdquo; said she, languidly, as she sank down into her chair. &ldquo;I
+      had not the least notion how far this room was off; if Clements has not
+      been taking me a tour of the whole house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Clements, who was still busily engaged in disposing and arranging the
+      cushions, blandly assured her Ladyship that they had come by the most
+      direct way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm sorry for it,&rdquo; said she, peevishly, &ldquo;for I shall have the more
+      fatigue in going back again. There, you 're only making it worse. You
+      never can learn that I don't want to be propped up like an invalid. That
+      will do; you may leave the room. Sir Stafford, would you be good enough to
+      draw that blind a little lower? the sun is directly in my eyes. Dear me,
+      how yellow you are! or is it the light in this horrid room? Am I so
+      dreadfully bilious-looking?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On the contrary,&rdquo; said he, smiling, &ldquo;I should pronounce you in the most
+      perfect enjoyment of health.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, of course, I have no doubt of that. I only wonder you didn't call it
+      'rude health.' I cannot conceive anything more thoroughly provoking than
+      the habit of estimating one's sufferings by the very efforts made to
+      suppress them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sufferings, my dear? I really was not aware that you had sufferings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am quite sure of that; nor is it my habit to afflict others with
+      complaint. I 'm sure your friend, Mr. Grounsell, would be equally unable
+      to acknowledge their existence. How I do hate that man! and I know,
+      Stafford, he hates us. Oh, you smile, as if to say, 'Only some of us; 'but
+      I tell you he detests us all, and his old school-fellow, as he vulgarly
+      persists in calling you, as much as the others.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I sincerely hope you are mistaken.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Polite, certainly; you trust that his dislike is limited to myself. Not
+      that, for my own part, I have the least objection to any amount of
+      detestation with which he may honor me; it is the tribute the low and
+      obscure invariably render the well-born, and I am quite ready to accept
+      it; but I own it is a little hard that I must submit to the infliction
+      beneath my own roof.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear Hester, how often have I assured you that you were mistaken; and
+      that what you regard as disrespect to yourself is the roughness of an
+      unpolished but sterling nature. The ties which have grown up between him
+      and me since we were boys together ought not to be snapped for the sake of
+      a mere misunderstanding; and if you cannot or will not estimate him for
+      the good qualities he unquestionably possesses, at least bear with him for
+      my sake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I should, so I strive to do; but the evil does not end there; he
+      inspires everybody with the same habits of disrespect and indifference.
+      Did you remark Clements, a few moments since, when I spoke to him about
+      that cushion?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I can't say that I did.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should you? nobody ever does trouble his head about anything that
+      relates to my happiness! Well, I remarked it, and saw the supercilious
+      smile he assumed when I told him that the pillow was wrong. He looked over
+      at you, too, as though to say, 'You see how impossible it is to please
+      her'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I certainly saw nothing of that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even Prichard, that formerly was the most diffident of men, is now so
+      much at his ease, so very much at home in my presence, it is quite
+      amusing. It was but yesterday he asked me to take wine with him at dinner.
+      The anachronism was bad enough, but only fancy the liberty!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what did you do?&rdquo; asked Sir Stafford, with difficulty repressing a
+      smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I affected not to hear, hoping he would not expose himself before the
+      servants by a repetition of the request. But he went on, 'Will your
+      Ladyship' I assure you he said that 'will your Ladyship do me the honor to
+      drink wine with me?' I merely stared at him, but never took any notice of
+      his speech. Would you believe it? he returned to the charge again, and
+      with his hand on his wine-glass, began, 'I have taken the liberty' I could
+      n't hear more; so I turned to George, and said, 'George, will you tell
+      that man not to do that?'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Stafford could not restrain himself any longer, but broke out into a
+      burst of hearty laughter. &ldquo;Poor Prichard,&rdquo; said he, at last, &ldquo;I almost
+      think I see him before me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You never think of saying, 'Poor Hester, these are not the associates you
+      have been accustomed to live with!' But I could be indifferent to all
+      these if my own family treated me with proper deference. As for Sydney and
+      George, however, they have actually coventried me; and although I
+      anticipated many sacrifices when I married, this I certainly never
+      speculated upon. Lady Wallingcroft, indeed, warned me to a certain extent
+      of what I should meet with; but I fondly hoped that disparity of years and
+      certain differences, the fruits of early prejudices and habits, would be
+      the only drawbacks on my happiness; but I have lived to see my error!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The event has, indeed, not fulfilled what was expected from it,&rdquo; said Sir
+      Stafford, with a slow and deliberate emphasis on each word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I comprehend you perfectly,&rdquo; said she, coloring slightly, and for the
+      first time displaying any trait of animation in her features. &ldquo;You have
+      been as much disappointed as I have. Just what my aunt Wallingcroft
+      prophesied. 'Remember,' said she, and I 'm sure I have had good cause to
+      remember it, 'their ideas are not our ideas; they have not the same hopes,
+      ambitions, or objects that we have; their very morality is not our
+      morality!'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of what people or nation was her Ladyship speaking?&rdquo; asked Sir Stafford,
+      mildly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of the City, generally,&rdquo; replied Lady Hester, proudly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not in ignorance, either,&rdquo; rejoined Sir Stafford; &ldquo;her own father was a
+      merchant in Lombard Street.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the family are of the best blood in Lancashire, Sir Stafford.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may be so; but I remember Walter Crofts himself boasting that he had
+      danced to warm his feet on the very steps of the door in Grosvenor Square
+      which afterwards acknowledged him as the master; and as he owed his wealth
+      and station to honest industry and successful enterprise, none heard the
+      speech without thinking the better of him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The anecdote is new to me,&rdquo; said Lady Hester, superciliously; &ldquo;and I have
+      little doubt that the worthy man was merely embellishing an incident to
+      suit the tastes of his company.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was the company around his table, as Lord Mayor of London!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I could have sworn it,&rdquo; said she, laughing; &ldquo;but what has all this to do
+      with what I wished to speak about if I could but remember what it was!
+      These eternal digressions have made me forget everything.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Although the appeal was palpably directed to Sir Stafford, he sat silent
+      and motionless, patiently awaiting the moment when recollection might
+      enable her to resume.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dear me! how tiresome it is! I cannot think of what I came about, and you
+      will not assist me in the least.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Up to this moment you have given me no clew to it,&rdquo; said Sir Stafford,
+      with a smile. &ldquo;It was not to speak of Grounsell?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course not. I hate even to think of him!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of Prichard, perhaps?&rdquo; he said, with a half-sly twinkle of the eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just as little!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Possibly your friend Colonel Haggerstone was in your thoughts?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pray do not call him my friend. I know very little of the gentleman; I
+      intend even to know less. I declined to receive him this morning, when he
+      sent up his card.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An attention I fear he has not shown that poor creature he wounded,
+      Grounsell tells me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I have it!&rdquo; said she, suddenly; the allusion to Hans at once
+      recalling the Daltons, and bringing to mind the circumstances she desired
+      to remember. &ldquo;It was exactly of these poor people I came to speak. You
+      must know, Sir Stafford, that I have made the acquaintance of a most
+      interesting family here, a father and two daughters named Dalton.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Grounsell has already told me so,&rdquo; interrupted Sir Stafford.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course, then, every step I have taken in this intimacy has been
+      represented in the most odious light. The amiable doctor will have,
+      doubtless, imputed to me the least worthy motives for knowing persons in
+      their station?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On the contrary, Hester. If he expressed any qualification to the
+      circumstance, it was in the form of a fear lest the charms of your society
+      and the graces of your manner might indispose them to return with patience
+      to the dull round of their daily privations.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed!&rdquo; said she, superciliously. &ldquo;A weak dose of his own acquaintance
+      would be, then, the best antidote he could advise them! But, really, I
+      must not speak of this man; any allusion to him is certain to jar my
+      nerves, and irritate my feelings for the whole day after. I want to
+      interest you about these Daltons.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing more easy, my dear, since I already know something about them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The doctor being your informant,&rdquo; said she, snappishly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, Hester; many, many years ago, certain relations existed between
+      us, and I grieve to say that Mr. Dalton has reason to regard me in no
+      favorable light; and it was but the very moment I received your message I
+      was learning from Prichard the failure of an effort I had made to repair a
+      wrong. I will not weary you with a long and a sad story, but briefly
+      mention that Mr. Dalton's late wife was a distant relative of my own.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes; I see it all. There was a little love in the business, an old
+      flame revived in after life; nothing serious, of course but jealousies and
+      misconstructions to any extent. Dear me, and that was the reason she died
+      of a broken heart!&rdquo; It was hard to say if Sir Stafford was more amused at
+      the absurdity of this imputation, or stung by the cool indifference with
+      which she uttered it; nor was it easy to know how the struggle, within him
+      would terminate, when she went on: &ldquo;It does appear so silly to see a pair
+      of elderly gentlemen raking up a difference out of an amourette of the
+      past century. You are very fortunate to have so quiet a spot to exhibit
+      in!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sorry to destroy an illusion so very full of amusement, Lady Hester;
+      but I owe it to all parties to say that your pleasant fancy has not even
+      the shadow of a color. I never even saw Mrs. Dalton; never have yet met
+      her husband. The event to which I was about to allude, when you
+      interrupted me, related to a bequest&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I know the whole business, now! It was at your suit that dreadful
+      mortgage was foreclosed, and these dear people were driven away from their
+      ancient seat of Mount Dalton. I 'm sure I 've heard the story at least ten
+      times over, but never suspected that your name was mixed up with it. I do
+      assure you, Sir Stafford, that they have never dropped the most distant
+      hint of you in connection with that sad episode.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They have been but just, Lady Hester,&rdquo; said he, gravely. &ldquo;I never did
+      hold a mortgage over this property; still less exercised the severe right
+      you speak of. But it is quite needless to pursue a narrative that taxes
+      your patience so severely; enough to say, that through Prichard's
+      mediation I have endeavored to persuade Mr. Dalton that I was the trustee,
+      under a will, of a small annuity on his life. He has peremptorily refused
+      to accept it, although, as I am informed, living in circumstances of great
+      poverty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor they must be, certainly. The house is wretchedly furnished, and the
+      girls wear such clothes as I never saw before; not that they are even the
+      worn and faded finery of better days, but actually the coarse stuffs such
+      as the peasants wear!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I have heard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not even an edging of cheap lace round their collars; not a bow of
+      ribbon; not an ornament of the humblest kind about them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And both handsome, I am told?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The younger, beautiful! the deepest blue eyes in the world, with long
+      fringed lashes, and the most perfect mouth you can imagine. The elder very
+      pretty, too, but sad-looking, for she has a fearful lameness, poor thing!
+      They say it came from a fall off a horse, but I suspect it must have begun
+      in infancy; one of those dreadful things they call 'spine.' Like all
+      persons in her condition, she is monstrously clever; carves the most
+      beautiful little groups in boxwood, and models in clay and plaster. She is
+      a dear, mild, gentle thing; but I suspect with all that infirmity of
+      temper that comes of long illness at least, she is seldom in high spirits
+      like her sister. Kate, the younger girl, is my favorite; a fine, generous,
+      warm-hearted creature, full of life and animation, and so fond of me
+      already.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      If Sir Stafford did not smile at the undue emphasis laid upon the last few
+      words, it was not that he had not read their full significance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And Mr. Dalton himself, what is he like?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Like nothing I ever met before; the oddest mixture of right sentiments
+      and wrong inferences; of benevolence, cruelty, roughness, gentleness; the
+      most refined consideration, and the most utter disregard for other people
+      and their feelings, that ever existed. You never can guess what will be
+      his sentiments at any moment, or on any subject, except on the question of
+      family, when his pride almost savors of insanity. I believe, in his own
+      country, he would be nothing strange nor singular; but out of it, he is a
+      figure unsuited to any landscape.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is hard to say how much of this peculiarity may have come of adverse
+      fortune,&rdquo; said Sir Stafford, thoughtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 'm certain he was always the same; at least, it would be impossible to
+      imagine him anything different. But I have not come to speak of him, but
+      of his daughter Kate, in whom I am deeply interested. You must know, Sir
+      Stafford, that I have formed a little plan, for which I want your aid and
+      concurrence. It is to take this dear girl along with us to Italy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take her to Italy! In what position, Lady Hester? You surely never
+      intended any menial station?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course not; a kind of humble friend what they call a 'companion' in
+      the newspapers to have always with one. She is exactly the creature to
+      dissipate low spirits and banish ennui, and, with the advantages of
+      training and teaching, will become a most attractive girl. As it is, she
+      has not been quite neglected. Her French accent is very pure; German, I
+      conclude, she talks fluently, she plays prettily, at least, as well as one
+      can judge on that vile tinkling old harpsichord, whose legs dance every
+      time it is touched, and sings very pleasingly those little German ballads
+      that are now getting into fashion. In fact, it is the tone of society that
+      mannerism of the world she is deficient in more than anything else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She certainly could not study in a better school than yours, Lady Hester;
+      but I see some very great objections to the whole scheme, and without
+      alluding to such as relate to ourselves, but simply those that regard the
+      young lady herself. Would it be a kindness to withdraw her from the sphere
+      wherein she is happy and contented, to mingle for a season or so in
+      another and very different rank, contracting new habits of thought, new
+      ideas, new associations, learning each day to look down upon that humble
+      lot to which she must eventually return?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She need not return to it. She is certain to marry, and marry well. A
+      girl with so many attractions as she will possess may aspire to a very
+      high match indeed!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is too hazardous a game of life to please my fancy,&rdquo; said Sir
+      Stafford, dubiously. &ldquo;We ought to look every contingency in the face in
+      such a matter as this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have given the subject the very deepest consideration,&rdquo; replied Lady
+      Hester, authoritatively. &ldquo;I have turned the question over and over in my
+      mind, and have not seen a single difficulty for which there is not an easy
+      remedy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sydney certainly ought to be consulted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have done so already. She is charmed with the project. She sees,
+      perhaps, how few companionable qualities she herself possesses, and
+      anticipates that Miss Dalton will supply that place towards me that she is
+      too indolent and too indifferent to fill.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How would the family receive such a proposition? They seem to be very
+      proud. Is it likely that they would listen to a project of this nature?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There lies the only difficulty; nor need it be an insuperable one, if we
+      manage cleverly. The affair will require delicate treatment, because if we
+      merely invite her to accompany us, they will naturally enough decline an
+      invitation, to comply with which would involve a costly outlay in dress
+      and ornament, quite impossible in their circumstances. This must be a
+      matter of diplomacy, of which the first step is, however, already taken.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The first step! How do you mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Simply, that I have already, but in the deepest confidence, hinted the
+      possibility of the project to Kate Dalton, and she is wild with delight at
+      the bare thought of it. The dear child! with what rapture she heard me
+      speak of the balls, and fetes, and theatres of the great world! of the
+      thousand fascinations society has in store for all who have a rightful
+      claim to its homage, the tribute rendered to beauty, greater than that
+      conceded to rank or genius itself! I told her of all these, and I showed
+      her my diamonds!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Stafford made, involuntarily, a slight gesture with his hand, as
+      though to say, &ldquo;This last was the coup de grace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So far, then, as Kate is concerned, she will be a willing ally; nor do I
+      anticipate any opposition from her quiet, submissive sister, who seems to
+      dote upon her. The papa, indeed, is like to prove refractory; but this
+      must be our business to overcome.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Hester, who at the opening of the interview had spoken with all the
+      listlessness of ennui, had gradually worked herself up to a species of
+      ardor that made her words flow rapidly, a sign well known to Sir Stafford
+      that her mind was bent upon an object that would not admit of gainsay.
+      Some experience had taught him the impolicy of absolute resistance, and
+      trained him to a tactic of waiting and watching for eventualities, which,
+      whether the campaign be civil, military, or conjugal, is not without a
+      certain degree of merit. In the present case there were several
+      escape-valves. The Daltons were three in number, and should be unanimous.
+      All the difficulties of the plan should be arranged, not alone to their
+      perfect satisfaction, but without a wound to their delicacy. Grounsell was
+      certain to be a determined opponent to the measure, and would, of course,
+      be consulted upon it. And, lastly, if everything worked well and
+      favorably, Lady Hester herself was by no means certain to wish for it the
+      day after she had conquered all opposition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These, and many similar reasons, showed Sir Stafford that he might safely
+      concede a concurrence that need never become practical, and making a merit
+      of his necessity, he affected to yield to arguments that had no value in
+      his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you propose to open the campaign, Hester?&rdquo; asked he, after a
+      pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have arranged it all,&rdquo; said she, with animation. &ldquo;We must visit the
+      Daltons together, or better still you shall go alone. No, no; a letter
+      will be the right thing, a very carefully written letter, that shall
+      refute by anticipation every possible objection to the plan, and show the
+      Daltons the enormous advantages they must derive from it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As, for instance?&rdquo; said Sir Stafford, with apparent anxiety to be
+      instructed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Enormous they certainly will be!&rdquo; exclaimed she. &ldquo;First of all, Kate, as
+      I have said, is certain to marry well, and will be thus in a position to
+      benefit the others, who, poor things, can do nothing for themselves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very true, my dear, very true. You see all these things far more rapidly
+      and more clearly than I do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have thought so long and so much about it, I suppose there are few
+      contingencies of the case have escaped me; and now that I learn how you
+      once knew and were attached to the poor girl's mother&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sorry to rob you of so harmless an illusion,&rdquo; interrupted he,
+      smiling; &ldquo;but I have already said I never saw her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, you did say so! I forget all about it. Well, there was something or
+      other that brought the families in relation, no matter what, and it must
+      be a great satisfaction to you to see the breach restored, and through my
+      intervention, too; for I must needs say, Sir Stafford, there are many
+      women who would entertain a silly jealousy respecting one who once
+      occupied the first place in their husband's esteem.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Must I once more assure you that this whole assumption is groundless;
+      that I never&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite enough; more than I ask for, more than I have any right to ask
+      for,&rdquo; broke she in. &ldquo;If you did not interrupt me, and pardon me if I say
+      that this habit of yours is calculated to produce innumerable
+      misconceptions, I say that, if I had not been interrupted, I would have
+      told you that I regard such jealousies as most mean and unworthy. We
+      cannot be the arbiters of our affections any more than of our fortunes;
+      and if in early life we may have formed attachments imprudent
+      attachments.&rdquo; Here her Ladyship, who had unwittingly glided from the
+      consideration of Sir Stafford's case to that of her own, became confused
+      and flurried, her cheek flushing and her chest heaving. She looked
+      overwhelmed with embarrassment, and it was only after a long struggle to
+      regain the lost clew to her discourse she could falteringly say, &ldquo;Don't
+      you agree with me? I 'm sure you agree with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 'm certain I should if I only understood you aright,&rdquo; said he,
+      good-naturedly, and by his voice and look at once reassuring her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, so far, all is settled,&rdquo; said she, rising from her chair. &ldquo;And now
+      for this letter; I conclude the sooner it be done the better. When may we
+      hope to get away from this dreary place?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Grounsell tells me, by Friday or Saturday next I shall be able for the
+      journey.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If it had not been to provoke me, I 'm certain he would have pronounced
+      you quite well ten days ago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You forget, Hester, my own sensations not to say sufferings could
+      scarcely deceive me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On the contrary, Dr. Clarus assured me there is nothing in the world so
+      very deceptive; that pain is only referred to the diseased part by the
+      brain, and has no existence whatever, and that there is no such thing as
+      pain at all. He explained it perfectly, and I understood it all at the
+      time. He is so clever, Dr. Clarus, and gives people such insight into the
+      nature of their malady, that it really becomes quite interesting to be ill
+      under his care. I remember when William, the footman, broke his arm,
+      Clarus used to see him every day; and to show that no union, as it is
+      called, could take place so long as motion continued, he would gently
+      grate the fractured ends of the bone together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And was William convinced of the no-pain doctrine?&rdquo; cried Sir Stafford,
+      his cheek flashing with momentary anger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The ignorant creature actually screamed out every time he was touched;
+      but Clarus said it would take at least two centuries to conquer the
+      prejudices of the common people.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not improbable, either!&rdquo; said Sir Stafford.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dear me, how very late it is,&rdquo; cried she, suddenly; &ldquo;and we dine at six!&rdquo;
+       And with a graceful motion of the hand, she said, &ldquo;By-by!&rdquo; and left the
+      room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVI. THE &ldquo;SAAL&rdquo; OF THE &ldquo;RUSSIE.&rdquo;
+     </h2>
+    <p>
+      HAS the observant reader ever remarked a couple of persons parading the
+      deck of a ship at sea, walking step for step through half a day, turning
+      with the same short jerk, to resume the same short path, and yet never
+      interchanging a word, the rhythm of the footfall the only tie of
+      companionship between them? They halt occasionally, too, to look over the
+      bulwarks at some white sail far away, or some cloud-bank rising from the
+      horizon; mayhap they linger to watch the rolling porpoises as they pass,
+      or the swift nautilus as he glides along; but yet never a sound nor token
+      of mutual intelligence escapes them. It is enough that they live
+      surrounded by the same influences, breathe the same air, and step in the
+      same time; they have their separate thoughts, wide, perhaps, as the poles
+      asunder, and yet by some strange magnetism they feel there is a kind of
+      sociality in their speechless intercourse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From some such cause, perhaps, it was that Colonel Haggerstone and Jekyl
+      took their accustomed walk in the dreary dining-room of the &ldquo;Hotel de
+      Russie.&rdquo; The evening was cold and cheerless, as on that when first we met
+      them there, a drifting rain, mingled with sleet, beat against the windows,
+      and the wind, in mournful cadences, sighed along the dreary and deserted
+      corridors. It was a comfortless scene within doors and without. A chance
+      glance through the window, an occasional halt to listen when the thunder
+      rolled louder and nearer, showed that, to a certain extent, the same
+      emotions were common to each; but nothing else betrayed any community of
+      sentiment between them, as they paced the room from end to end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;English people come abroad for climate!&rdquo; said Haggerstone, as he buttoned
+      his collar tightly around his neck, and pressed his hat more firmly on his
+      head. &ldquo;But who ever saw the like of this in England?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In England you have weather, but no climate!&rdquo; said Jekyl, with one of his
+      little smiles of self-approval; for he caressed himself when he uttered a
+      mot, and seemed to feel no slight access of self-satisfaction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's not the worst thing we have there, sir, I promise you,&rdquo; rejoined
+      Haggerstone, authoritatively.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our coughs and rheumatics are, indeed, sore drawbacks upon patriotism.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not speak of them, sir; I allude to our insolent, overbearing
+      aristocracy, who, sprung from the people as they are, recruited from the
+      ranks of trade or law, look down upon the really ancient blood of the
+      land, the untitled nobility. Who are they, sir, that treat us thus? The
+      fortunate speculator, who has amassed a million; the Attorney-General, who
+      has risen to a Chief-Justiceship; men without ancestry, without landed
+      influence; a lucky banker, perhaps, like our friend upstairs, may stand in
+      the 'Gazette' to-morrow or next day as Baron or Viscount, without one
+      single requirement of the station, save his money.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I confess, if I have a weakness, it is for lords,&rdquo; said Jekyl,
+      simperingly. &ldquo;I suppose I must have caught it very early in life, for it
+      clings to me like an instinct.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I feel happy to avow that I have none, sir. Six centuries of gentry blood
+      suffice for all my ambitions; but I boil over when I see the overweening
+      presumption of these new people.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;After all, new people, like a new watch, a new coat, and a new carriage,
+      have the best chance of lasting. Old and worn out are very nearly
+      convertible terms.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These are sentiments, sir, which would, doubtless, do you excellent
+      service with the family upstairs, but are quite thrown away upon such a
+      mere country gentleman as myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jekyl smiled, and drew up his cravat, with his habitual simpering air, but
+      said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you purpose remaining much longer here?&rdquo; asked Haggerstone, abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A few days, at most.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you turn north or south?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fancy I shall winter in Italy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Onslows, I believe, are bound for Rome?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can't say,&rdquo; was the short reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just the sort of people for Italy. The fashionables of what the Chinese
+      call 'second chop' go down admirably at Rome or Naples.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very pleasant places they are, too,&rdquo; said Jekyl, with a smile. &ldquo;The
+      climate permits everything, even dubious intimacies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Haggerstone gave a short &ldquo;Ha!&rdquo; at the heresy of this speech, but made no
+      other comment on it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They say that Miss Onslow will have about a hundred thousand pounds?&rdquo;
+       said Haggerstone, with an air of inquiry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a deal of maccaroni and parmesan that sum would buy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would you have her marry an Italian, sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps not, if she were to consult me on the matter,&rdquo; said Jekyl,
+      blandly; &ldquo;but as this is, to say the least, not very probable, I may own
+      that I like the mixed marriages well enough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They make miserable menages, sir,&rdquo; broke in Haggerstone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But excessively agreeable houses to visit at.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Onslows are scarcely the people to succeed in that way,&rdquo; rejoined
+      Haggerstone, whose thoughts seemed to revolve round this family without
+      any power to wander from the theme. &ldquo;Mere money, nothing but money to
+      guide them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a bad pilot, either, as times go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Haggerstone uttered another short, &ldquo;Ha!&rdquo; as though to enter a protest
+      against the sentiment without the trouble of a refutation. He had utterly
+      failed in all his efforts to draw Jekyl into a discussion of the banker's
+      family, or even obtain from that excessively cautious young gentleman the
+      slightest approach to an opinion about them; and yet it was exactly in
+      search of this opinion that he had come down to take his walk that
+      evening. It was in the hope that Jekyl might afford him some clew to these
+      people's thoughts, or habits, or their intentions for the coming winter,
+      that he had promenaded for the last hour and a half. &ldquo;If he know anything
+      of them,&rdquo; thought Haggerstone, &ldquo;he will be but too proud to show it, and
+      display the intimacy to its fullest extent!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was, then, to his utter discomfiture, he learned that Jekyl had
+      scarcely spoken to Lady Hester, and never even seen Sir Stafford or Miss
+      Onslow. It was, then, pure invention of the waiter to say that they were
+      acquainted. &ldquo;Jekyl has done nothing,&rdquo; muttered he to himself, &ldquo;and I
+      suppose I need not throw away a dinner upon him to tell it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Such were his reasonings; ana long did he balance in his own mind whether
+      it were worth while to risk a bottle of Burgundy in such a cause; for
+      often does it happen that the fluid thrown down the pump is utterly
+      wasted, and that it is vain to moisten the sucker, if the well beneath be
+      exhausted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To be, or not to be? was then the eventful point he deliberated with
+      himself. Haggerstone never threw away a dinner in his life. He was not one
+      of those vulgarly minded folk who ask you, in a parenthesis, to come in to
+      &ldquo;manger la soupe,&rdquo; as they say, without more preparation than the
+      spreading of your napkin. No; he knew all the importance of a dinner, and,
+      be it acknowledged, how to give it also, and could have distinguished
+      perfectly between the fare to set before an &ldquo;habitual diner out,&rdquo; and that
+      suitable to some newly arrived Englishman abroad: he could have measured
+      his guest to a truffle! It was his boast that he never gave a pheasant
+      when a poulet would have sufficed, nor wasted his &ldquo;Chablis&rdquo; on the man who
+      would have been contented with &ldquo;Barsac.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The difficulty was not, then, how to have treated Jekyl, but whether to
+      treat him at all. Indeed, the little dinner itself had been all planned
+      and arranged that morning; and the &ldquo;trout&rdquo; from the &ldquo;Murg,&rdquo; and the grouse
+      from Eberstein, had been &ldquo;pricked off,&rdquo; in the bill of fare, for &ldquo;No. 24,&rdquo;
+       as he was unceremoniously designated, with a special order about the dish
+      of whole truffles with butter, in the fair intention of inviting Mr.
+      Albert Jekyl to partake of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If a lady reveals some latent desire of conquest in the coquetry of her
+      costume and the more than ordinary care of her appearance, so your male
+      friend may be suspected of a design upon your confidence or your
+      liberality by the studious propriety of his petit diner. Never fall into
+      the vulgar error that such things are mere accident. As well ascribe to
+      chance the rotations of the seasons, or the motions of the heavenly
+      bodies. Your printaniere in January, your epigramme d'agneau with
+      asparagus at Christmas, show a solicitude to please to the full as ardent,
+      and not a whit less sincere, than the soft glances that have just set your
+      heart a-beating from the recesses of yonder opera-box.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you eat your cutlet with me to-day, Mr. Jekyl?&rdquo; said Haggerstone,
+      after a pause, in which he had weighed long and well all the pros and cons
+      of the invitation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks, but I dine with the Onslows!&rdquo; lisped out Jekyl, with a languid
+      indifference, that however did not prevent his remarking the almost
+      incredulous amazement in the colonel's face; &ldquo;and I perceive,&rdquo; added he,
+      &ldquo;that it 's time to dress.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Haggerstone looked after him as he left the room; and then ringing the
+      bell violently, gave orders to his servant to &ldquo;pack up,&rdquo; for he would
+      leave Baden next morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVII. A FAMILY DISCUSSION.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      SOMETHING more than a week after the scenes we have just related had
+      occurred, the Daltons were seated round the fire, beside which, in the
+      place of honor, in an old armchair, propped by many a cushion, reclined
+      Hans Roeckle. A small lamp of three burners such as the peasants use stood
+      upon the table, of which only one was lighted, and threw its fitful gleam
+      over the board, covered by the materials of a most humble meal. Even this
+      was untasted; and it was easy to mark in the downcast and depressed
+      countenances of the group that some deep care was weighing upon them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dalton himself, with folded arms, sat straight opposite the fire, his
+      heavy brows closely knit, and his eyes staring fixedly at the blaze, as if
+      expecting some revelation of the future from it; an open letter, which
+      seemed to have dropped from his hand, was lying at his feet. Nelly, with
+      bent-down head, was occupied in arranging the little tools and implements
+      she was accustomed to use in carving; but in the tremulous motion of her
+      fingers, and the short, quick heaving of her chest, might be read the
+      signs of a struggle that cost heavily to subdue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Half-concealed beneath the projection of the fireplace sat Kate Dalton she
+      was sewing. Although to all seeming intent upon her work, more than once
+      did her fingers drop the needle to wipe the gushing tears from her eyes,
+      while at intervals a short sob would burst forth, and break the stillness
+      around.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for Hans, he seemed lost in a dreamy revery, from which he rallied at
+      times to smile pleasantly at a little wooden figure the same which
+      occasioned his disaster placed beside him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was an air of sadness over everything; and even the old spaniel,
+      Joan, as she retreated from the heat of the fire, crept with stealthy step
+      beneath the table, as if respecting the mournful stillness of the scene.
+      How different the picture from what that humble chamber had so often
+      presented! What a contrast to those happy evenings, when, as the girls
+      worked, Hans would read aloud some of those strange mysteries of Jean
+      Paul, or the wild and fanciful imaginings of Chamisso, while old Dalton
+      would lay down his pipe and break in upon his memories of Ireland, to ask
+      at what they were laughing, and Frank look up distractedly from his old
+      chronicles of German war to join in the mirth! How, at such moments, Hans
+      would listen to the interpretation, and with what greedy ears follow the
+      versions the girls would give of some favorite passage, as if dreading
+      lest its force should be weakened or its beauty marred by transmission!
+      And then those outbreaks of admiration that would simultaneously gush
+      forth at some sentiment of high and glorious meaning, some godlike gleam
+      of bright intelligence, which, though clothed in the language of a foreign
+      land, spoke home to their hearts with the force that truth alone can
+      speak!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes, they were, indeed, happy evenings! when around their humble hearth
+      came thronging the groups of many a poet's fancy, bright pictures of many
+      a glorious scene, emotions of heart that seemed to beat in unison with
+      their own. They felt no longer the poverty of their humble condition, they
+      had no memory for the little straits and trials of the bygone day, as they
+      trod with Tieck the alley beneath the lindens of some rural village, or
+      sat with Auerbach beneath the porch of the Vorsteher's dwelling. The dull
+      realities of life faded before the vivid conceptions of fiction, and they
+      imbibed lessons of patient submission and trustfulness from those brothers
+      and sisters who are poets' children.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And yet what no darkness of adversity could rob them of the first gleam of
+      what, to worldly minds at least, would seem better fortune, had already
+      despoiled them. Like the traveller in the fable, who had grasped his cloak
+      the faster through the storm, but who threw it away when the hot, rays
+      scorched him, they could brave the hurricane, but not face the sunshine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The little wooden clock behind the door struck nine, and Dalton started up
+      suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What did it strike, girls?&rdquo; asked he, quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nine, papa,&rdquo; replied Kate, in a low voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At what hour was he to come for the answer?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At ten,&rdquo; said she, still lower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you 'd better write it at once,&rdquo; said he, with a peevishness very
+      different from his ordinary manner. &ldquo;They've remained here already four
+      days isn't it four days she says? to give us time to make up our minds; we
+      cannot detain them any longer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lady Hester has shown every consideration for our difficulty,&rdquo; said Kate.
+      &ldquo;We cannot be too grateful for her kindness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell her so,&rdquo; said he, bitterly. &ldquo;I suppose women know when to believe
+      each other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what reply am I to make, sir?&rdquo; said she, calmly, as having put aside
+      her work, she took her place at the writing-table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Faith, I don't care,&rdquo; said he, doggedly. &ldquo;Nor is it much matter what
+      opinion I give. I am nobody now; I have no right to decide upon anything.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The right and duty are both yours, papa.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Duty! So I'm to be taught my duty as well as the rest!&rdquo; said he,
+      passionately. &ldquo;Don't you think there are some others might remember that
+      they have duties also?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would that I could fulfil mine as my heart dictates them!&rdquo; said Ellen;
+      and her lip trembled as she spoke the words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Faith! I scarce know what 's my duty, with all the drilling and dictating
+      I get,&rdquo; muttered he, sulkily. &ldquo;But this I know, there 's no will left me I
+      dare not budge this side or that without leave.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dearest papa, be just to yourself, if not to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isn't it truth I'm saying?&rdquo; continued he, his anger rising with every
+      word he spoke. &ldquo;One day, I'm forbid to ask my friends home with me to
+      dinner. Another, I 'm told I ought n't to go dine with them. I 'm tutored
+      and lectured at every hand's turn. Never a thought crosses me, but it 's
+      sure to be wrong. You din into my ears, how happy it is to be poor when
+      one 's contented.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The lesson was yours, dear papa,&rdquo; said Nelly, smiling. &ldquo;Don't disavow
+      your own teaching.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, the more fool me. I know better now. But what's the use of it? When
+      the prospect of a little ease and comfort was offered to me, you persuaded
+      me to refuse it. Ay, that you did! You began with the old story about our
+      happy hearth and contentment; and where is it now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A sob, so low as to be scarcely heard, broke from Nelly, and she pressed
+      her hand to her heart with a convulsive force.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you deny it? You made me reject the only piece of kindness ever was
+      shown me in a life long. There was the opportunity of spending the rest of
+      my days in peace, and you wouldn't let me take it. And the fool I was to
+      listen to you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, papa, how you wrong her!&rdquo; cried Kate, as, in a torrent of tears, she
+      bent over his chair. &ldquo;Dearest Nelly has no thought but for us. Her whole
+      heart is our own.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you could but see it!&rdquo; cried Nelly, with a thick utterance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'T is a droll way of showing affection, then,&rdquo; said Dal ton, &ldquo;to keep me
+      a beggar, and you no better than a servant-maid. It's little matter about
+      me, I know. I'm old, and worn out, a reduced Irish gentleman, with nothing
+      but his good blood remaining to him. But you, Kate, that are young and
+      handsome, ay, faith! a deal sight better-looking than my Lady herself,
+      it's a little hard that you are to be denied what might be your whole
+      fortune in life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You surely would not stake all her happiness on the venture, papa?&rdquo; said
+      Nelly, mildly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Happiness!&rdquo; said he, scornfully; &ldquo;what do you call happiness? Is it
+      dragging out life in poverty like this, with the proudest friend in our
+      list an old toy-maker?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor Hanserl!&rdquo; murmured Nelly, in a low voice; but soft as were the
+      accents, the dwarf heard them, and nodded his head twice, as though to
+      thank her for a recognition of whose import he knew nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just so! You have pity enough for strangers, but none for your own
+      people,&rdquo; said Dalton, as he arose and paced the room, the very act of
+      motion serving to increase his anger. &ldquo;He was never used to better; he's
+      just what he always was. But think of me! think of the expectations I was
+      reared to, the place I used to hold, and see me now!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dearest, best papa, do not say those bitter words,&rdquo; cried Kate,
+      passionately. &ldquo;Our own dear Nelly loves us truly. What has her life been
+      but self-denial?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And have I not had my share of self-denial?&rdquo; said he, abruptly. &ldquo;Is there
+      left a single one of the comforts I was always accustomed to? 'T is sick I
+      am of hearing about submission, and patience, and resignation, and the
+      like, and that we never were so happy as now. Faith! I tell you, I 'd
+      rather have one day at Mount Dalton, as it used to be long ago, than I 'd
+      have twenty years of the life I spend here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, papa, no,&rdquo; said Nelly, winding her arm around his waist, &ldquo;you'd
+      rather sit at the window yonder, and listen to a song from Kate, one of
+      your own favorites, or take a stroll with us after sunset of a summer's
+      evening, and talk of Frank, than go back to all the gayety of that wild
+      life you speak of.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who says so?&rdquo; asked he, roughly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You yourself. Nay, don't deny it,&rdquo; said she, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I did I was wrong, then,&rdquo; rejoined he, pushing her rudely away. &ldquo;It
+      was because I believed my children were affectionate and fond, and that
+      whatever I set my heart on they 'd be sure to wish just as much as
+      myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And when has that time ceased to be?&rdquo; said she, calmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What! when has it ceased to be?&rdquo; said he, sharply. &ldquo;Is it you that asks
+      that question, you that made me refuse the legacy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, papa, be just,&rdquo; interrupted she, mildly. &ldquo;The merit of that refusal
+      was all your own. I did but explain to you the circumstances under which
+      this gift it was no less was offered, and your own right feeling dictated
+      the reply.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dalton was silent, a struggling sense of pride in his imputed dignity of
+      behavior warring with the desire of fault-finding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maybe I did!&rdquo; said he, at last, self-esteem gaining the mastery. &ldquo;Maybe I
+      saw my own reasons for what I was going to do. A Daltou is not the man to
+      mistake what 's due to his name and family; but this is a different case.
+      Here 's an invitation, as elegant a piece of politeness as I have seen,
+      from one our own equal in every respect; she calls herself a connection
+      too, we won't say much about that, for we never reckoned the English
+      relations anything, asking my daughter to join them in their visit to
+      Italy. When are we to see the like of that again? Is it every day that
+      some rich family will make us the same offer? It's not to cost us a
+      sixpence; read the letter, and you 'll see how nicely it 's hinted that
+      her Ladyship takes everything upon herself. Well, if any one objected it
+      might be myself; 'tis on me will fall the heaviest part of the blow. It
+      was only the other day Frank left me; now I 'm to lose Kate, not but I
+      know very well Nelly will do her best.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Slight as was the praise, she kissed his hand passionately for it; and it
+      was some seconds ere he could proceed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I 'm sure you 'll do all you can; but what is it after all? Won't I
+      miss the songs she sings for me; won't I miss her laughing voice and her
+      sprightly step?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why should you encounter such privations, papa?&rdquo; broke Nelly in.
+      &ldquo;These are, as you justly say, the greatest sources of your happiness. Why
+      separate from them? Why rob this humble chamber of its fairest ornament?
+      Why darken our hearth by an absence for which nothing can requite us?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 'll tell you why, then,&rdquo; said he, and a sparkling gleam of cunning lit
+      up his eye, as the casuistry crossed his mind. &ldquo;Just because I can deny
+      myself anything for my children's sake. 'T is for them I am thinking
+      always. Give old Peter Dalton his due, and nobody can call him selfish,
+      not the worst enemy he had! Let me feel that my children are benefited,
+      and you may leave me to trudge along the weary path before me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then there only remains to see if this promise of benefit be real,&rdquo; said
+      Nelly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why wouldn't it? Doesn't everybody know that travelling and seeing
+      foreign parts is equal to any education? How many things haven't I seen
+      myself since I came abroad, that I never dreamed about before I left home!
+      Look at the way they dress the peas with sugar in them. See how they shoe
+      a horse with a leg tied up to a post, as if they were going to cut it off.
+      Mind the droll fashion they have of fastening a piece of timber to the
+      hind wheel of a coach, by way of a drag! There 's no end to their
+      contrivances.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us forget every consideration but one,&rdquo; said Nelly, earnestly. &ldquo;What
+      are the dangers that may beset Kate, in a career of such difficulty, when,
+      without an adviser, miles away from us all, she may need counsel or
+      comfort. Think of her in sickness or in sorrow, or, worse than both, under
+      temptation. Picture to yourself how dearly bought would be every charm of
+      that refinement you covet for her, at the price of a heart weakened in its
+      attachment to home, bereft of the simple faith that there was no disgrace
+      in poverty. Think, above all,&rdquo; cried she and for the first time her lips
+      trembled, and her eyes swam &ldquo;think, above all, we cannot give her up
+      forever; and yet how is she to come back again to these humble fortunes,
+      and the daily toil that she will then regard with shame and disgust? I ask
+      not how differently shall we appear in her eyes, for I know that, however
+      changed in her habits, how wide soever be the range of thought knowledge
+      may have imparted, her fond, true heart will still be all our own; but can
+      you risk her fortunes on an ocean like this; can you peril all her future
+      for so little?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To hear you talk, Nelty, one might think she was going to Jerusalem or
+      Australia; sure, after all, it's only a few days away from us she 'll be;
+      and as for the dangers, devil a one of them I see. Peter Dalton's daughter
+      is not likely to be ill-treated anywhere. I 'e were always a 'good
+      warrant' for taking care of our own; and, to make short of it, I wish it,
+      and Kate herself wishes it, and I don't see why our hopes should not be as
+      strong as your fears.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You remember, too, papa, that Dr. Grounsell agreed with me, and spoke
+      even more strongly than I did against the scheme?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And did n't I pay him off for his interference? Did n't I give him a bit
+      of my mind about it, and tell him that, because a man was employed as a
+      doctor in a family, he ought not to presume to advise them on their own
+      affairs? Faith, I don't think he'll trouble another patient with his
+      counsel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must not forget, sir, that if his counsel came unasked, his skill was
+      unrequited; both came from a nature that wished us well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The advice and the physic were about the same value both made me sick;
+      and so you 're like to do if you worry me any longer. I tell you now, my
+      mind 's made up, and go she shall!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, papa, not if dear Nelly thinks&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's that to me don't I know more of the world than she does? Am I come
+      to this time of life to be taught by a slip of a girl that never was ten
+      miles out of her home? Sit down here now, and write the answer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a stern determination in the way these last words were uttered
+      that told Nelly how fruitless would be all further opposition. She had
+      long since remarked, besides, how her father's temper reacted upon his
+      health, and how invariably any prolonged excitement terminated in an
+      attack of gout. Increasing age gave to these accesses of malady a
+      character of danger, which she already began to remark with deep anxiety.
+      Now she saw that immediate compliance with his wishes was the only
+      alternative left.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She seated herself at the table, and prepared to write. For some seconds
+      the disturbance of her thoughts, the mingled crowd of sensations that
+      filled her mind, prevented all power of calm consideration; but the
+      struggle was soon over, and she wrote on rapidly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So silent was the chamber, so hushed was all within it, that the
+      scratching noise of the pen alone broke the stillness. Speedily glided her
+      hand across the paper, on which two heavy tears had already fallen,
+      burning drops of sorrow that gushed from a fevered brain! A whole world of
+      disaster, a terrible catalogue of ill, revealed itself before her; but she
+      wrote on. She felt that she was to put in motion the series of events
+      whose onward course she never could control, as though she was to push
+      over a precipice the rock that in its downward rush would carry ruin and
+      desolation along with it; but she wrote on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last she ceased, and all was still; not a sound was heard in the little
+      room, and Nelly leaned her head down upon the table and wept.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But while she wept she prayed, prayed that if the season of trouble her
+      thoughts foreshadowed should be inevitable, and that if the cup of sorrow
+      must, indeed, be drained, the strength might be sent them for the effort.
+      It might have been that her mind exaggerated the perils of separation, and
+      the dangers that would beset one of Kate's temper and disposition. Her own
+      bereavement might have impressed her with the misery that follows an
+      unhappy attachment; and her reflective nature, shadowed by an early
+      sorrow, might have colored too darkly a future of such uncertainty. But a
+      deep foreboding, like a heavy weight, lay upon her heart, and she was
+      powerless to resist it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These instincts of our nature are not to be undervalued, nor confounded
+      with the weak and groundless terrors of the frivolous. The closing petals
+      of the flower as the storm draws nigh, the wild cry of the sea-bird as the
+      squall is gathering, the nestling of the sheep within the fold while yet
+      the hurricane has not broke, are signs that, to the observant instincts,
+      peril comes not unannounced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I read it, papa?&rdquo; said she, as she raised her head, and turned
+      towards him a look of calm and beaming affection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You need n't,&rdquo; said he, roughly. &ldquo;Of course, it 's full of all the
+      elegant phrases women like to cheat each other with. You said she will go;
+      that's enough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Nelly tried to speak, but the words would not come, and she merely nodded
+      an acquiescence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And, of course, too, you told her Ladyship that if it wasn't to a near
+      relation of the family one that had a kind of right, as I may say, to ask
+      her that I 'd never have given my consent. Neither would I!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I said that you could give no higher proof of your confidence in Lady
+      Hester's goodness and worth, than in committing to her charge all that we
+      hold so dear. I spoke of our gratitude&rdquo; her voice faltered here, and she
+      hesitated a second or so; our gratitude! strange word to express the
+      feeling with which we part from what we cling to so fondly! &ldquo;and I asked
+      of her to be the mother of her who had none!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Nelly, I cannot go I cannot leave you!&rdquo; burst out Kate, as she knelt
+      down, and buried her head in her sister's lap. &ldquo;I feel already how weak
+      and how unable I am to live among strangers, away from you and dear papa.
+      I have need of you both!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I never leave this spot if you're not enough to drive me mad!&rdquo;
+       exclaimed Dalton. &ldquo;You cried two nights and a day because there was
+      opposition to your going. You fretted till your eyes were red, and your
+      cheeks all furrowed with tears; and now that you get leave to go now that
+      I consent to to to sacrifice ay, to sacrifice my domestic enjoyments to
+      your benefit you turn short round and say you won't go!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, nay, papa,&rdquo; said Nelly, mildly; &ldquo;Kate but owns with what fears she
+      would consent to leave us, and in this shows a more fitting mind to brave
+      what may come, than if she went forth with a heart brimful of its bright
+      anticipations, and only occupied with a future of splendor and enjoyment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ask you again, is it into the backwoods of Newfoundland is it into the
+      deserts of Arabia she is going?&rdquo; said Dalton, ironically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The country before her has perils to the full as great, if not greater
+      than either,&rdquo; rejoined Nelly, lowly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's a ring at the bell,&rdquo; said Dalton, perhaps not sorry to cut short
+      a discussion in which his own doubts and fears were often at variance with
+      his words; for while opposing Nelly with all his might, he was frequently
+      forced to coincide secretly with that he so stoutly resisted. Vanity alone
+      rose above every other motive, and even hardened his heart against
+      separation and absence from his favorite child, vanity to think that his
+      daughter would be the admired beauty in the salons of the great and highly
+      born; that she would be daily moving in a rank the most exalted; that his
+      dear Kate would be the attraction of courts, the centre of adulation
+      wherever she went. So blinded was he by false reasoning, that he actually
+      fancied himself a martyr to his daughter's future advancement, and that
+      this inveterate egotism was a high and holy self-denial! &ldquo;My worst enemy
+      never called me selfish,&rdquo; was the balm that he ever laid on his chafed
+      spirit, and always with success. It would, however, have been rather the
+      part of friend, than of enemy, to have whispered that selfishness was the
+      very bane and poison of his nature. It was his impulse in all the wasteful
+      extravagance of his early life; it was his motive in all the struggles of
+      his adversity. To sustain a mock rank, to affect a mock position, to
+      uphold a mock standard of gentility, he was willing to submit to a
+      thousand privations of his children and himself; and to gratify a foolish
+      notion of family pride, he was ready to endure anything, even to
+      separation from all he held dearest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lady Hester's courier has come for the answer to her note, papa,&rdquo; said
+      Nelly, twice over, before Dalton heard her, for he was deep sunk in his
+      own musings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let him come in and have a glass of wine,&rdquo; said Dalton. &ldquo;I 'd like to ask
+      him a few questions about these people.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, papa!&rdquo; whispered Nelly, in a tone at once so reproachful, that the
+      old man colored and looked away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I meant about what time they were to start on the journey,&rdquo; said he,
+      confusedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lady Hester told us they should leave this to-morrow, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Short notice for us. How is Kate to have all her clothes packed, and
+      everything arranged? I don't think that is treating us with much respect,
+      Nelly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They have waited four days for our decision, papa remember that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, to be sure. I was forgetting that; and she came every day to press
+      the matter more and more; and there was no end to the note-writing
+      besides. I must say that nothing could beat their politeness. It was a
+      mighty nice attention, the old man coming himself to call here; and a
+      fine, hale, good-looking man he is! a better figure than ever his son will
+      be. I don't much like Mr. George, as they call him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Somewhat colder, and more reserved, I think, than the other,&rdquo; said Nelly.
+      &ldquo;But about this answer, papa?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a hurry they're in. Is it a return to a writ, that they must press
+      for it this way? Well, well, I ought to be used to all manner of
+      interruptions and disturbances by this time. Fetch me a caudle, till I
+      seal it;&rdquo; and he sighed, as he drew forth his old-fashioned watch, to
+      which, by a massive steel chain, the great family seal was attached',
+      firmly persuaded that in the simple act he was about to perform he was
+      achieving a mighty labor, at the cost of much fatigue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No rest for the wicked! as my old father used to say,&rdquo; muttered he, in a
+      happy ignorance whether the philosophy emanated from his parent, or from
+      some higher authority. &ldquo;One would think that at my time of life a man
+      might look for a little peace and ease; but Peter Dalton has n't such
+      luck! Give me the letter,&rdquo; said he, querulously. &ldquo;There is Peter Dalton's
+      hand and seal, his act and will,&rdquo; muttered he, with a half-solemnity, as
+      he pressed the wax with his heavy signet. &ldquo;'Semper eadem;' there 's the
+      ancient motto of our house, and, faith, I believe Counsellor O'Shea was
+      right when he translated it 'The devil a better!'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He read the address two or three times over to himself, as if there was
+      something pleasurable in the very look of the words, and then he turned
+      his glance towards Hans, as in a dreamy half-consciousness he sat still,
+      contemplating the little statue of Marguerite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is n't it droll to think we 'd be writing to the first in the land, and
+      an old toy-maker sitting beside the fire all the time,&rdquo; said Dalton, as he
+      shook his head thoughtfully, in the firm conviction that he had uttered a
+      very wise and profound remark. &ldquo;Well well well! Life is a queer thing!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it not stranger still that we should have won the friendship of poor
+      Hanserl than have attracted the notice of Lady Hester?&rdquo; said Nelly. &ldquo;Is it
+      not a prouder thought that we have drawn towards us from affectionate
+      interest the kindness that has no touch of condescension?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope you are not comparing the two,&rdquo; said Dalton, angrily. &ldquo;What's the
+      creature muttering to himself?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It 'B Gretchen's song he 's trying to remember,&rdquo; said Kate.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Nach ihm nur schau' ich
+     Zum Feuster hinaus!&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      said Hans, in a low, distinct voice. &ldquo;'Was kommt nach,' what comes next,
+      Fraulein?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must ask sister Nelly, Hanserl,&rdquo; said Kate; but Nelly was standing
+      behind the massive stove, her face covered with her hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Zum Fenster hinaus,&rdquo; repeated he, slowly; &ldquo;and then, Fraulein? and then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell him, Nelly; tell him what follows.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Nach ihm nur schau' ich
+     Zum Fenster hinaus;
+     Nach ihm nur geh' ich
+
+     Aus dem Haus!&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      repeated she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ja, ja!&rdquo; cried Hans, delightedly,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Nach ihm nur geh' ich
+     Aus dem Haus!&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does that mean?&rdquo; said Dalton, with impatience. &ldquo;It's Gretchen's
+      song, papa,&rdquo; said Nelly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His figure I gaze on,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     O'er and o'er;
+     His step I follow
+     From the door.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope it isn't in love the creature is,&rdquo; said Dalton; and he laughed
+      heartily at the conceit, turning at the same time his look from the dwarf,
+      to bestow a most complacent glance at the remains of his own once handsome
+      stature. &ldquo;Oh dear! oh dear!&rdquo; sighed he; &ldquo;isn't it wonderful, but there
+      isn't a creth or a cripple that walks the earth that hasn't a sweetheart!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A cough, purposely loud enough to announce his presence, here came from
+      the courier in the antechamber, and Dalton remembered that the letter had
+      not yet been despatched.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give it to him, Nelly,&rdquo; said he, curtly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She took the letter in her hand, but stood for a second or two, as if
+      powerless to move.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Must it be so, dearest papa?&rdquo; said she, and the words almost choked her
+      utterance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dalton snatched the letter from her fingers, and left the room. His voice
+      was heard for an instant in conversation with the courier, and the moment
+      after the door banged heavily, and all was still.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is done, Kate!&rdquo; said she, throwing her arms around her sister's neck.
+      &ldquo;Let us now speak of the future; we have much to say, and short time to
+      say it; and first let us help poor Hans downstairs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The dwarf, clutching up the wooden image, suffered himself to be aided
+      with all the submissiveness of a patient child, and, with one at either
+      side of him, slowly crept down the stairs to his own chamber. Disengaging
+      himself by a gentle effort as he gained his door, Hans removed his cap
+      from his head and made a low and deep obeisance to each of the girls
+      separately, while he bade them a good-night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leb wohl, Hanserl, Leb wohl!&rdquo; said Kate, taking his hand affectionately.
+      &ldquo;Be ever the true friend that thou hast proved hitherto, and let me think
+      of thee, when far away, with gratitude.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why this? How so, Fraulein?&rdquo; said Hans, anxiously; &ldquo;why farewell? Why
+      sayest thou 'Leb wohl,' when it is but 'good-night'?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Kate is about to leave us for a short space,&rdquo; said Nelly, affecting to
+      appear at ease and calm. &ldquo;She is going to Italy, Hanserl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Das schone Land! that lovely land!&rdquo; muttered he, over and over. &ldquo;Dahin,
+      dahin,&rdquo; cried he, pointing with his finger to the southward, &ldquo;where the
+      gold orange blooms. There would I wander too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll not forget me, Hanserl?&rdquo; said the young girl, kindly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Over the great Alps and away!&rdquo; said Hans, still talking to himself; &ldquo;over
+      the high snow-peaks which cast their shadows on our cold land, but have
+      terraces for the vine and olive-garden, yonder! Thou 'It leave us, then,
+      Fraulein?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But for a little while, Hans, to come back afterwards and tell thee all I
+      have seen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They come not back from the sunshine to the shade,&rdquo; said Hans, solemnly.
+      &ldquo;Thou 'It leave not the palace for the peasant's hut; but think of us,
+      Fraulein; think sometimes, when the soft sirocco is playing through thy
+      glossy hair; when sounds of music steal over thy senses among the orange
+      groves, and near the shadows of old temples, think of this simple
+      Fatherland and its green valleys. Think of them with whom thou wert so
+      happy, too! Splendor thou mayst have it is thy beauty's right; but be not
+      proud, Fraulein. Remember what Chamisso tells us, 'Das Noth lehrt beten,'
+      'Want teaches Prayer,' and to that must thou come, however high thy
+      fortune.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Kate will be our own wherever she be,&rdquo; said Nelly, clasping her sister
+      affectionately to her side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bethink thee well, Fraulein, in thy wanderings, that the great and the
+      beautiful are brethren of the good and the simple. The cataract and the
+      dewdrop are kindred. Think of all that teaches thee to think of home; and
+      remember well, that when thou losest the love of this humble hearth thou
+      art in peril. If to any of thy childish toys thou sayest 'Ich Hebe dich
+      nicht mehr,' then art thou changed indeed.&rdquo; Hans sat down upon his little
+      bed as he spoke, and covered his face with his hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nelly watched him silently for a few seconds, and then with a gentle hand
+      closed the door and led Kate away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVIII. CARES AND CROSSES
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE lamp in Kate Dalton's chamber was still burning when the morning
+      dawned, and by its uncertain flicker might be seen the two sisters, who,
+      clasped in each other's arms, sat upon the low settle-bed. Nelly, pale and
+      motionless, supported Kate, as, overcome by watching and emotion, she had
+      fallen into a heavy slumber. Not venturing to stir, lest she should awaken
+      her, Nelly had leaned against the wall for support, and, in her unmoved
+      features and deathly pallor, seemed like some monumental figure of sorrow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not alone the grief of an approaching separation that oppressed
+      her. Sad as it was to part from one to whom she had been mother and sister
+      too, her affliction was tinged with a deeper coloring in her fears for the
+      future. Loving Kate dearer than anything in the world, she was alive to
+      all the weak traits of her character: her credulity, her trustfulness, her
+      fondness for approbation, even from those whose judgments she held
+      lightly, her passion for admiration even in trifles, were well known to
+      her; and while, perhaps, these very failings, like traits of childish
+      temperament, had actually endeared her the more to Nelly, she could not
+      but dread their effect when they came to be exercised in the world of
+      strangers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not that Nelly could form the very vaguest conception of what that world
+      was like. Its measures and its perils, its engagements and hazards, were
+      all unknown to her. It had never been even the dream-land of her
+      imagination. Too humble in spirit, too lowly by nature, to feel
+      companionship with the great and titled, she had associated all her
+      thoughts with those whose life is labor; with them were all her
+      sympathies. There was a simple beauty in the unchanging fortune of the
+      peasant's life such as she had seen in the Schwarzwald, for instance that
+      captivated her. That peaceful domesticity was the very nearest approach to
+      happiness, to her thinking, and she longed for the day when her father
+      might consent to the obscurity and solitude of some nameless &ldquo;Dorf&rdquo; in the
+      dark recesses of that old forest. With Frank and Kate, such a lot would
+      have been a paradise. But one was already gone, and she was now to lose
+      the other too. &ldquo;Strange turn of fortune,&rdquo; as she said, &ldquo;that prosperity
+      should be more cruel than adversity. In our days of friendless want and
+      necessity we held together; it is only when the promise of brighter
+      destinies is dawning that we separate. It is but selfishness after all,&rdquo;
+       thought she, &ldquo;to wish for an existence like this; such humble and lowly
+      fortunes might naturally enough become 'lame Nelly,' but Frank, the
+      high-hearted, daring youth, with ambitious hopes and soaring aspirations,
+      demands another and a different sphere of action; and Kate, whose
+      attractions would grace a court, might well sorrow over a lot of such
+      ignoble obscurity. What would not my sorrow and self-reproach be if I saw
+      that, in submitting to the same monotony of this quietude, they should
+      have become wearied and careless, neither taking pleasure in the simple
+      pastimes of the people, nor stooping to their companionship! And thus all
+      may be for the best,&rdquo; said she, half aloud, &ldquo;if I could but feel courage
+      to think so. We may each of us be but following his true road in life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A long intimacy with affliction will very frequently be found to impress
+      even a religiously-disposed mind with a strong tinge of fatalism. The
+      apparent hopelessness of all effort to avert calamity, or stem the tide of
+      evil fortune, often suggests, as its last consolation, the notion of a
+      predetermined destiny, to which we are bound to submit with patient
+      trustfulness; a temperament of great humility aids this conviction. Both
+      of these conditions were Nelly's; she had &ldquo;supped sorrow&rdquo; from her cradle,
+      while her estimate of herself was the very lowest possible. &ldquo;I suppose it
+      is so,&rdquo; said she again; &ldquo;all is for the best.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She already pictured to herself the new spring this change of fortune
+      would impart to her father's life: with what delight he would read the
+      letters from his children; how he would once more, through them, taste of
+      that world whose pleasures he was so fondly attached to. &ldquo;I never could
+      have yielded him a gratification like this,&rdquo; said Nelly, as the tears rose
+      in her eyes. &ldquo;I am but the image of our fallen fortunes, and in me, 'poor
+      lame Nelly,' he can but see reflected our ruined lot. All is for the best
+      it must be so!&rdquo; sighed she, heavily; and just as the words escaped, her
+      father, with noiseless step, entered the chamber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sure it is, Nelly darling,&rdquo; said he, as he sat down near her, &ldquo;and
+      glad I am that you 've come to reason at last. 'T is plain enough this is
+      n't the way the Daltons ought to be passing their life, in a little hole
+      of a place, without society or acquaintance of any kind. You and I may
+      bear it, not but it's mighty hard upon me sometimes, too, but Kate there
+      just look at her and say, is it a girl like that should be wasting away
+      her youth in a dreary village? Lady Hester tells me and sure nobody should
+      know better that there never was the time in the world when real beauty
+      had the same chance as now, and I 'd like to see the girl that could stand
+      beside her. Do you know, Nelly,&rdquo; here he drew closer, so as to speak in a
+      whisper, &ldquo;do you know, that I do be fancying the strangest things might
+      happen to us yet, that Frank might be a great general, and Kate married to
+      God knows what sort of a grandee, with money enough to redeem Mount
+      Dalton, and lay my old bones in the churchyard with my ancestors? I can't
+      get it out of my head but it will come about, somehow. What do you think
+      yourself?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm but an indifferent castle-builder, papa,&rdquo; said she, laughing softly.
+      &ldquo;I rarely attempt anything beyond a peasant hut or a shealing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And nobody could make the one or the other more neat and comfortable,
+      that I 'll say for you, Nelly. It would have a look of home about it
+      before you were a day under the roof.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The young girl blushed deeply; for, humble as the praise might have
+      sounded to other ears, to hers it was the most touching she could have
+      listened to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 'm not flattering you a bit. 'T is your own mother you take after; you
+      might put her down in the bleakest spot of Ireland, and 't is a garden she
+      'd make it. Let her stop for shelter in a cabin, and before the shower was
+      over you 'd not know the place. It would be all swept and clean, and the
+      dishes ranged neatly on the dresser; and the pig she could n't abide a pig
+      turned out, and the hens driven into the cowshed, and the children's faces
+      washed, and their hair combed, and, maybe, the little gossoon of five
+      years old upon her knee, saying his 'Hail, Mary,' or his 'A B C,' while
+      she was teaching his mother how to wind the thread off the wheel; for she
+      could spin a hank of yarn as well as any cottier's wife in the townland.
+      The kind creature she was! But she never had a taste for real diversion;
+      it always made her low-spirited and sad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps the pleasures you speak of were too dearly purchased, papa,&rdquo; said
+      Nelly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed, maybe they were,&rdquo; said he, dubiously, and as though the thought
+      had now occurred for the first time; &ldquo;and, now that you say it, I begin to
+      believe it was that same that might have fretted her. The way she was
+      brought up made her think so, too. That brother was always talking about
+      wastefulness, and extravagance, and so on; and, if it was in her nature,
+      he 'd have made her as stingy as himself; and look what it comes to after
+      all. We spent it when we had it, the Daltons are a good warrant for that;
+      and there was he grubbing and grabbing all his days, to leave it after him
+      to a rich man, that does n't know whether he has so many thousands more or
+      not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Nelly made no reply, not wishing to encourage, by the slightest apparent
+      interest, the continuance on the theme which invariably suggested her
+      father's gloomiest reveries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that her trunk, Nelly?&rdquo; said Dalton, breaking silence after a long
+      interval, and pointing to an old and journey-worn valise that lay
+      half-open upon the floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, papa,&rdquo; said Nelly, with a sigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, it's a mean-looking, scrubby bit of a thing; sure it 's not the size
+      of a good tea-chest,&rdquo; said he, angrily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And yet too roomy for all its contents, papa. Poor Kate's wardrobe is a
+      very humble one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 'd like to know where 's the shops here; where 's the milliners and the
+      haberdashers? Are we in College Green or Grafton Street, that we can just
+      send out and have everything at our hand's turn? 'T is n't on myself I
+      spend the money. Look at these gaiters; they 're nine years old next
+      March; and the coat on my back was made by Peter Stevens, that 's in his
+      grave now. The greatest enemy ever I had could not face me down that I
+      only took care of myself. If that was my way would I be here now? See the
+      rag I 'm wearing round my throat, a piece of old worsted like a rug a
+      thing&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He stopped, and stammered, and then was silent altogether, for he suddenly
+      remembered it was Nelly herself who had worked the article in question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, papa,&rdquo; broke she in, with her own happy smile, &ldquo;you may give it to
+      Andy to-morrow, for I 've made you a smart new one, of your own favorite
+      colors, too, the Dalton green and white.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Many a time I 've seen the same colors coming in first on the Corralin
+      course!&rdquo; cried Dalton, with enthusiasm; for at the impulse of a new word
+      his mind could turn from a topic of deep and painful interest to one in
+      every way its opposite. &ldquo;You were too young to remember it; but you were
+      there, in the 'landau,' with your mother, when Baithershin won the Murra
+      handicap, the finest day's flat racing I have it from them that seen the
+      best in England that ever was run in the kingdom. I won eight hundred
+      pounds on it, and, by the same token, lost it all in the evening at 'blind
+      hookey' with old Major Haggs, of the 5th Foot, not to say a trifle more
+      besides. And that 's her trunk!&rdquo; said he, after another pause, his voice
+      dropping at the words, as though to say, &ldquo;What a change of fortune is
+      there! I wonder neither of you hadn't the sense to take my old travelling
+      chest; that's twice the size, and as heavy as a lead coffin, besides.
+      Sorrow one would ever know if she hadn't clothes for a whole lifetime! Two
+      men wouldn't carry it upstairs when it's empty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When even this valise is too large, papa?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh dear, oh dear!&rdquo; broke in Dalton; &ldquo;you've no contrivance, after all.
+      Don't you see that it 's not what 's inside I 'm talking about, at all,
+      but the show before the world? Did n't I live at Mount Dalton on the fat
+      of the laud, and every comfort a gentleman could ask, five years and eight
+      months after I was ruined? And had n't I credit wherever I went, and for
+      whatever I ordered? And why? Because of the house and place! I was like
+      the big trunk beyond; nobody knew how little there was in it. Oh, Nelly
+      dear, when you 've seen as much of life as me, you 'll know that one must
+      be up to many a thing for appearance' sake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Nelly sighed, but made no reply. Perhaps in secret she thought how much
+      trouble a little sincerity with the world would save us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We 'll be mighty lonesome after her,&rdquo; said he, after a pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nelly nodded her head in sadness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was looking over the map last night, and it ain't so far away, after
+      all,&rdquo; said Dalton. &ldquo;'T is n't much more than the length of my finger on
+      the paper.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Many a weary mile may lie within that space,&rdquo; said Nelly, softly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I suppose we'll hear from her every week, at least?&rdquo; said Dalton,
+      whose mind vacillated between joy and grief, but still looked for its
+      greatest consolations from without.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Poor Nelly was, however, little able to furnish these. Her mind saw
+      nothing but sorrow for the present; and, for the future, difficulty, if
+      not danger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You give one no comfort at all,&rdquo; said Dalton, rising impatiently. &ldquo;That's
+      the way it will be always now, when Kate goes. No more gayety in the
+      house; not a song nor a merry laugh! I see well what a dreary life there
+      is before me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, dearest papa, I 'll do my very best, not to replace her, for that I
+      never could do; but to make your days less wearisome. It will be such
+      pleasure, too, to talk of her, and think of her! To know of her happiness,
+      and to fancy all the fair stores of knowledge she will bring back with her
+      when she comes home at last!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I could only live to see them back again, Frank and Kate, one at each
+      side of me, that 's all I ask for in this world now,&rdquo; muttered he, as he
+      stole noiselessly away and closed the door behind him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIX. PREPARATIONS FOR THE ROAD.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      IF the arrival of a great family at an hotel be a scene of unusual bustle
+      and excitement, with teeming speculations as to the rank and the wealth of
+      the new-comers, the departure has also its interests, and even of a higher
+      nature. In the former case all is vague, shadowy, and uncertain. The eye
+      of the spectator wanders from the muffled figures as they descend, to
+      scrutinize the lackeys, and even the luggage, as indicative of the
+      strangers' habits and condition; and even to the shrewd perceptions of
+      that dread functionary, the head waiter, the identity of the traveller
+      assumes no higher form nor any more tangible shape than that they are No.
+      42 or 57.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the hour of leave-taking has come, however, their characters have
+      become known, their tastes and habits understood, and no mean insight
+      obtained into their prejudices, their passions, and their pursuits. The
+      imposing old gentleman, whose rubicund nose and white waistcoat are the
+      guarantees for a taste in port, has already inspired the landlord with a
+      sincere regard. &ldquo;My Lady's&rdquo; half-invalid caprices about diet, and air, and
+      sunshine, have all written themselves legibly in &ldquo;the bill.&rdquo; The tall
+      son's champagne score incurred of a night, and uncounted of a morning, are
+      not unrecorded virtues; while even the pale young ladies, whose sketching
+      propensities involved donkeys, and ponies, and picnics, go not
+      unremembered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their hours of rising and retiring, their habits of society or seclusion,
+      their preferences for the &ldquo;Post&rdquo; or the &ldquo;Times,&rdquo; have all silently been
+      ministering to the estimate formed of them; so that in the commonest items
+      of the hotel ledger are the materials for their history. And with what
+      true charity are their characters weighed! How readily does mine host
+      forgive the transgressions which took their origin in his own Burgundy!
+      how blandly smile at the follies begotten of his Johannisberg! With what
+      angelic temper does the hostess pardon the little liberties &ldquo;young
+      gentlemen from college will take!&rdquo; Oh, if our dear, dear friends would but
+      read us with half the charity, or even bestow upon our peccadilloes a
+      tithe of this forgiveness! And why should it not be so? What are these
+      same friends and acquaintances but guests in the same great inn which we
+      call &ldquo;the world&rdquo;? and who, as they never take upon them to settle our
+      score, need surely not trouble themselves about the &ldquo;items.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While the Daltons were still occupied in the manner our last chapter has
+      described, the &ldquo;Hotel de Russie&rdquo; was a scene of considerable bustle, the
+      preparations for departure engaging every department of the household
+      within doors and without. There were carriage-springs to be lashed with
+      new cordage, drag-chains new tipped with steel, axles to smear, hinges to
+      oil, imperials to buckle on, cap-cases to be secured; and then what a
+      deluge of small articles to be stowed away in most minute recesses, and
+      yet be always at hand when called for! cushions and cordials, and
+      chauffe-pieds and &ldquo;Quarterlies,&rdquo; smelling-boxes and slippers, and
+      spectacles and cigar-cases, journals and &ldquo;John Murrays,&rdquo; to be disposed of
+      in the most convenient places. Every corridor and landing was blocked up
+      with baggage, and the courier wiped his forehead, and &ldquo;sacre'd&rdquo; in half
+      desperation at the mountain of trunks and portmanteaus that lay before
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is not ours,&rdquo; said he, as he came to a very smart valise of
+      lacquered leather, with the initials A. J. in brass on the top.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, that 's Mr. Jekyl's,&rdquo; said Mr. George's man, Twig. &ldquo;He ain't a-goin'
+      with you; he travels in our britzska.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm more like de conducteur of a diligenz than a family courier,&rdquo;
+       muttered the other, sulkily. &ldquo;I know noting of de baggage, since we take
+      up strangers at every stage! and always some Teufeln poor devils that have
+      not a sou en poche!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's the matter now, Mister Greg'ry?&rdquo; said Twig, who very imperfectly
+      understood the other's jargon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The matter is, I will resign my 'fonction' je m'en vais dat 's all! This
+      is noting besser than an 'Eil wagen' mil passengers! Fust of all we have
+      de doctor, as dey call him, wid his stuff birds and beasts, his dried
+      blumen and sticks, till de roof is like de Jardin des Plantes at Paris,
+      and he himself like de bear in de middle. Den we have das verfluchte
+      parroquet of milady, and Flounce, de lapdog, dat must drink every
+      post-station, and run up all de hills for exercise. Dam! Ich bin kein
+      Hund, and need n't run up de hills too! Mademoiselle Celestine have a what
+      d' ye call 'Affe' a ape; and though he be little, a reg'lar teufelchen to
+      hide de keys and de money, when he find 'em. And den dere is de yong lady
+      collectin' all de stones off de road, lauter paving-stones, which she
+      smash wid a leetle hammer! Ach Gott, what is de world grow when a Fraulein
+      fall in love wid Felsen and Steine!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Monsieur Gregoire! Monsieur Gregoire!&rdquo; screamed out a sharp voice from a
+      window overhead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mademoiselle,&rdquo; replied he, politely touching his cap to the
+      femme-de-chambre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be good enough, Monsieur Gregoire, to have my trunks taken down; there
+      are two in the fourgon, and a cap-case on the large carriage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hagel and Sturm! dey are under everything. How am I&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't possibly say,&rdquo; broke she in; &ldquo;but it must be done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can't you wait, Mademoiselle, till we reach Basle?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm going away, Monsieur Gregoire. I'm off to Paris,&rdquo; was the reply, as
+      the speaker closed the sash and disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does she say?&rdquo; inquired Twig, who, as this dialogue was carried on
+      in French, was in total ignorance of its meaning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She has given her demission,&rdquo; said the courier, pompously. &ldquo;Resign her
+      portefeuille, and she have made a very bad affair; dat's all. Your gros
+      milor is very often bien bete; he is very often rude, savage, forget his
+      manners, and all dat but&rdquo; and here his voice swelled into the full
+      soundness of a perfect connection &ldquo;but he is alway rich. Ja ja, immer
+      reich!&rdquo; said he over to himself. &ldquo;Allons! now to get at her verdammte
+      baggage, de two trunks, and de leetle box, and de ape, and de sac, and de
+      four or five baskets. Diable d'affaire! Monsieur Tig, do me de grace to
+      mount on high dere, and give me dat box.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 've nothing to say to your carriage, Mister Greg'ry. I 'm the captain's
+      gentleman, and never do take any but a single-handed situation;&rdquo; and with
+      this very haughty speech Mr. Twig lighted a fresh cigar and strolled away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alle bose Teufeln holen de good for nichts,&rdquo; sputtered Gregoire, who now
+      waddled into the house to seek for assistance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whatever apathy and indifference he might have met with from the English
+      servants, the people of the hotel were like his bond-slaves. Old and
+      young, men and women, the waiter, and the ostler, and the chambermaid, and
+      that strange species of grande utilite, which in German households goes by
+      the name of &ldquo;Haus-knecht,&rdquo; a compound of boots, scullion, porter, pimp,
+      and drudge, were all at his command. Nor was he an over-mild monarch; a
+      running fire of abuse and indignity accompanied every order he gave, and
+      he stimulated their alacrity by the most insulting allusions to their
+      personal defects and deficiencies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Seated upon a capacious cap-case, with his courier's cap set jauntily on
+      one side, his meerschaum like a sceptre in his hand, Gregoire gave out his
+      edicts right royally, and soon the courtyard was strewn with trunks,
+      boxes, and bags of every shape, size, and color. The scene, indeed, was
+      not devoid of tumult; for, while each of the helpers screamed away at the
+      top of his throat, and Gregoire rejoined in shouts that would have done
+      credit to a bull, the parrot gave vent to the most terrific cries and
+      yells as the ape poked him through the bars of his cage with the handle of
+      a parasol.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, that's one of them,&rdquo; cried out Monsieur Gregoire; &ldquo;that round box
+      beside you; down with it here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Monsieur Gregoire! Monsieur Gre'goire!&rdquo; cried Mademoiselle from the
+      window once more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The courier looked up, and touched his cap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm not going, Monsieur Gregoire; the affair is arranged.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! I am charmed to hear it, Mademoiselle,&rdquo; said he, smiling in seeming
+      ecstasy, while he muttered a malediction between his teeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miladi has made submission, and I forgive everything. You must pardon all
+      the trouble I 've given you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These happy tidings have made me forget it,&rdquo; said he, with a smile that
+      verged upon a grin. &ldquo;Peste!&rdquo; growled he, under his breath, &ldquo;we 'd unpacked
+      the whole fourgon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, que vous etes aimable!&rdquo; said she, sighing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Belle tigresse!&rdquo; exclaimed he, returning the leer she bestowed; and the
+      window was once more closed upon her exit. &ldquo;I submitted to the labor, in
+      the hope we had done with you forever,&rdquo; said he, wiping his forehead; &ldquo;and
+      la voila there you are back again. Throw that ape down; away wid him,
+      cursed beast!&rdquo; cried he, venting his spite upon the minion, since he dare
+      not attack the mistress. &ldquo;But what have we here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This latter exclamation was caused by the sudden entrance into the
+      courtyard of two porters carrying an enormous trunk, whose iron fastenings
+      and massive padlock gave it the resemblance of an emigrant's sea-chest. A
+      few paces behind walked Mr. Dalton, followed again by Old Andy, who, with
+      a huge oil-silk umbrella under one arm, and a bundle of cloaks, shawls,
+      and hoods on the other, made his way with no small difficulty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gregoire surveyed the procession with cool amazement, and then, with a
+      kind of mock civility, he touched his cap, and said, &ldquo;You have mistak de
+      road, saar; de diligenz-office is over de way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And who told you I wanted it?&rdquo; said Dalton, sternly. &ldquo;Maybe I'm just
+      where I ought to be! Isn't this Sir Stafford Onslow's coach?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, saar; but you please to remember it is not de 'Eil wagen. '&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just hold your prate, my little chap, and it will be pleasanter, and
+      safer, ay, safer, too, d'ye mind? You see that trunk there; it 's to go up
+      with the luggage and be kept dry, for there 's valuable effects inside.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Datis not a trunk; it is a sentry-house, a watch-box. No gentleman's
+      carriage ever support a ting of dat dimension!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It 's a trunk, and belongs to me, and my name is Peter Dalton, as the
+      letters there will show you; and so no more about it, but put it up at
+      once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have de orders about a young lady's luggage, but none about a great
+      coffin with iron hoops,&rdquo; said Gregoire, tartly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be quiet, now, and do as I tell you, my little chap. Put these trifles,
+      too, somewhere inside, and this umbrella in a safe spot; and here 's a
+      little basket, with a cold pie and a bottle of wine in it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Himmel und Erde! how you tink milady travel mit dass schweinerei?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It 's not pork; 't is mutton, and a pigeon in the middle,&rdquo; said Dalton,
+      mistaking his meaning. &ldquo;I brought a taste of cheese, too; but it 's a
+      trifle high, and maybe it 's as well not to send it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is the leetle old man to go too?&rdquo; asked Gregoire, with an insolent grin,
+      and not touching the profanation of either cheese or basket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That 's my own servant, and he 's not going,&rdquo; said Dalton; &ldquo;and now that
+      you know my orders, just stir yourself a little, my chap, for I 'm not
+      going to spend my time here with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A very deliberate stare, without uttering a word, was all the reply
+      Gregoire returned to this speech; and then, addressing himself to the
+      helpers, he gave some orders in German about the other trunks. Dalton
+      waited patiently for some minutes, but no marks of attention showed that
+      the courier even remembered his presence; and at last he said,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 'm waiting to see that trunk put up; d' ye hear me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hear ver well, but I mind noting at all,&rdquo; said Gregoire, with a grin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, that 's it,&rdquo; said Dalton, smiling, but with a twinkle in his gray
+      eyes that, had the other known him better, he would scarcely have fancied,
+      &ldquo;that's it, then!&rdquo; And taking the umbrella from beneath Andy's arm, he
+      walked deliberately across the yard to where a large tank stood, and
+      which, fed from a small jet d'eau, served as a watering-place for the
+      post-horses. Some taper rods of ice now stood up in the midst, and a
+      tolerably thick coating covered the surface of the basin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gregoire could not help watching the proceedings of the stranger, as with
+      the iron-shod umbrella he smashed the ice in one or two places, piercing
+      the mass till the water spouted up through the apertures.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you any friend who live dere?&rdquo; said the courier, sneeringly, as the
+      sound of the blows resembled the noise of a door-knocker.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not exactly, my man,&rdquo; said Dalton, calmly; &ldquo;but something like it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is 't you do, den?&rdquo; asked Gregoire, curiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll tell you,&rdquo; said Dalton. &ldquo;I'm breaking the ice for a new
+      acquaintance;&rdquo; and, as he spoke, he seized the courier by the stout
+      leather belt which he wore around his waist, and, notwithstanding his
+      struggles and his weight, he jerked him off the ground, and, with a swing,
+      would have hurled him head foremost into the tank, when, the leather
+      giving way, he fell heavily to the ground, almost senseless from shock and
+      fright together. &ldquo;You may thank that strap for your escape,&rdquo; said Dalton,
+      contemptuously, as he threw towards him the fragments of broken leather.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will have de law, and de polizei, and de Gericht. I will have you in de
+      Kerker, in chains, for dis!&rdquo; screamed Gregoire, half choked with passion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I never see peace, but if you don't hold your prate I 'll put you in
+      it! Sit up there, and mind your business; and, above all, be civil, and do
+      what you 're bid.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will fort; I will away. Noting make me remain in de service,&rdquo; said
+      Gregoire, brushing off the dirt from his sleeve, and shaking his cap. &ldquo;I
+      am respectable courier travel wid de Fursten vom Koniglichen Hatisen mit
+      Russen, Franzosen, Ostereichen; never mit barbaren, never mit de wilde
+      animalen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't, now don't, I tell you,&rdquo; said Dalton, with another of those
+      treacherous smiles whose expression the courier began to comprehend. &ldquo;No
+      balderdash! no nonsense! but go to your work, like a decent servant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am no Diener; no serve anybody,&rdquo; cried the courier, indignantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0008" id="linkimage-0008">
+      <!-- IMG --></a> <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/00222.jpg" alt="00222" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But somehow there was that in old Dalton's face that gave no encouragement
+      to an open resistance, and Monsieur Gregoire knew well the case where
+      compliance was the wisest policy. He also knew that in his vocation there
+      lay a hundred petty vengeances more than sufficient to pay off any
+      indignity that could be inflicted upon him. &ldquo;I will wait my times,&rdquo; was
+      the reflection with which he soothed down his rage, and affected to forget
+      the insult he had just suffered under.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dalton, whose mind was cast in a very different mould, and who could
+      forgive either himself or his neighbor without any great exertion of
+      temper, turned now coolly away, and sauntered out into the street. The
+      flush of momentary anger that colored his cheek had fled, and a cast of
+      pale and melancholy meaning sat upon his features, for his eye rested on
+      the little wooden bridge which crossed the stream, and where now two
+      muffled figures were standing, that he recognized as his daughters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were leaning on the balustrade, and gazing at the mountain that,
+      covered with its dense pine-wood, rose abruptly from the river-side. It
+      had been the scene of many a happy ramble in the autumn, of many a
+      delightful excursion, when, with Frank, they used to seek for fragments of
+      wood that suited Nelly's sculptures. How often had they carried their
+      little basket up yonder steep path, to eat their humble supper upon the
+      rock, from which the setting sun could be seen! There was not a cliff nor
+      crag, not a mossy slope, not a grass bank, they did not know; and now, as
+      they looked, all the past moments of pleasure were crowding upon their
+      memory, tinged with the sad foreboding that they were never again to be
+      renewed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's the Riesen Fels, Nelly, yonder,&rdquo; said Kate, as she pointed to a
+      tall dark rock, on whose slopes the drifting snow had settled. &ldquo;How sad
+      and dreary it is, compared with what it seemed on Frank's birthday, when
+      the nightingale was singing overhead, and the trickling stream came
+      sparkling along the grass when we sat together. I can bear to part with it
+      better thus than if all were as beautiful as then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Nelly sighed, and grasped her sister's hand closer, but made no answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you remember poor Hanserl's song, and his little speech all about our
+      meeting there again in the next year, Nelly?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do,&rdquo; said Nelly, in a low and whispering voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And then Frank stood up, with his little gilt goblet, and said,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     'With hearts as free from grief or care,
+     Here 's to our happy&mdash;'&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wiederkehr,&rdquo; cried Hanserl, supplying the word so aptly. How we all
+      laughed, Nelly, at his catching the rhyme!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I remember!&rdquo; sighed Nelly, still lower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you thinking of, Nelly dearest?&rdquo; said Kate, as she stood for a
+      few seconds gazing at the sorrow-struck features of the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was thinking, dearest,&rdquo; said Nelly, &ldquo;that when we were met together
+      there on that night, none of us foresaw what since has happened. Not the
+      faintest suspicion of a separation crossed our minds. Our destinies,
+      whatever else might betide, seemed at least bound up together. Our very
+      poverty was like the guarantee of our unity, and yet see what has come to
+      pass Frank gone; you, Kate, going to leave us now. How shall we speculate
+      on the future, then, when the past has so betrayed us? How pilot our
+      course in the storm, when, even in the calm, still sea, we have wandered
+      from the track?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nelly! Nelly! every moment I feel more faint-hearted at the thought of
+      separation. It is as though, in the indulgence of a mere caprice, I were
+      about to incur some great hazard. Is it thus it appears to you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With what expectations do you look forward to this great world you are
+      going to visit, Kate? Is it mere curiosity to see with your own eyes the
+      brilliant scenes of which you have only read? Is it with the hope of
+      finding that elegance and goodness are sisters, that refinement of manners
+      is the constant companion of noble sentiments and right actions; or, does
+      there lurk in your heart the longing for a sphere wherein you yourself
+      might contest for the prize of admiration? Oh, if this have a share in
+      your wishes, my own dear sister, beware of it. The more worthy you are of
+      such homage, the greater is your peril! It is not that I am removed from
+      all temptations of this kind; it is not because I have no attractions of
+      beauty, that I speak thus even poor, lame Nelly cannot tear from her
+      woman's heart the love of admiration. But for me, I fear, for you, Kate,
+      to whom these temptations will be heightened by your own deservings. You
+      are beautiful, and you blush as I speak the word; but what if the time
+      come when you will hear it unmoved? The modest sense of shame gone, what
+      will replace it? Pride yes, my dear sister, Pride and Ambition! You will
+      long for a station more in accordance with your pretensions, more suited
+      to your tastes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How you wrong me, Nelly!&rdquo; burst Kate in. &ldquo;The brightest dream of all this
+      brilliant future is the hope that I may come back to you more worthy of
+      your love; that, imbibing some of those traits whose fascinations we have
+      already felt, I may bring beneath our humble roof some memories, at least,
+      to beguile your toil.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, if that time should come!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And it will come, dearest Nelly,&rdquo; said Kate, as she threw her arms around
+      her, and kissed her affectionately. &ldquo;But, see! there is papa yonder; he is
+      beckoning to us to join him;&rdquo; and the two girls hastened forward to where
+      Dalton was standing, at the corner of the street.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm thinking we ought to go up there, now,&rdquo; said Dalton, with a motion of
+      his hand in the direction of the hotel. &ldquo;Take my arm, each of you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They obeyed, and walked along in silence, till they reached the inn, where
+      Dalton entered, with a certain assumed ease and confidence, that very
+      commonly, with him, covered a weak purpose and a doubting spirit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is Sir Stafford at home, or Lady Onslow?&rdquo; asked he of Mr. Twig, who, with
+      a cigar in his mouth, and a &ldquo;Galignani&rdquo; in his hand, never rose from the
+      seat he occupied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can't say, sir,&rdquo; was the cool response, which he delivered without
+      lifting his eyes from the newspaper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know, ma'am?&rdquo; said he, addressing Mademoiselle Celestine, who
+      happened to pass at the moment &ldquo;do you know, ma'am, if Lady Onslow 's at
+      home?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She never receive in de morning,&rdquo; was the curt reply. And, with a very
+      impudent stare at the two sisters, whose dress imposed no restraint upon
+      her insolence, mademoiselle flounced past. &ldquo;Come along, girls,&rdquo; said
+      Dalton, angrily, and offended that he should appear to his children as if
+      wanting in worldly tact and knowledge &ldquo;come with me;&rdquo; and he proceeded
+      boldly up stairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A folding-door lay open before them into a large chamber, littered with
+      boxes, trunks, and travelling gear of all kinds. Making his way through
+      these, while he left his daughters outside, Dalton approached a door that
+      led into an inner room, and knocked sharply at it with his knuckles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may take it away now; I 've used cold water!&rdquo; cried a voice from
+      within, that at once proclaimed Dr. Grounsell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dalton repeated his summons more confidently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go to the devil, I say,&rdquo; cried the doctor; &ldquo;you've made me cut my chin;&rdquo;
+       and the enraged Grouusell, with his face covered with lather, and
+      streaming with blood, flung open the door in a passion. &ldquo;Oh, Dalton, this
+      you, and the ladies here!&rdquo; said he, springing back ashamed, as Kate's
+      hearty burst of laughter greeted him. &ldquo;Come in, Dalton, come in,&rdquo; said he,
+      dragging the father forward and shutting the door upon him. &ldquo;I was longing
+      to see you, man; I was just thinking how I could have five minutes' talk
+      with you. What answer have you given to the letter they 've sent you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What d' ye think?&rdquo; said Dalton, jocularly, as he seated himself in a
+      comfortable chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do I think?&rdquo; repeated he, twice or thrice over. &ldquo;Egad, I don't know
+      what to think! I only know what to hope, and wish it may have been!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what's that?&rdquo; said Dalton, with a look of almost sternness, for he
+      was not ignorant of the doctor's sentiments on the subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A refusal, of course,&rdquo; said Grounsell, who never yet was deterred by a
+      look, a sign, or an innuendo, from any expression of his sentiments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why so, sir?&rdquo; rejoined Dalton, warmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On every ground in the world: What has your fine, generous-hearted, dear
+      child in common with that vile world of envy, malice, and all wickedness
+      you 'd throw her amongst? What similarity in thought, feeling, or instinct
+      between her and that artificial class with whom you would associate her,
+      with their false honor, false principle, and false delicacy nothing real
+      and substantial about them but their wickedness? If you were a silly
+      woman, like the mother in the 'Vicar of Wakefield,' I could forgive you;
+      but a man a hardened, worldly man, that has tasted poverty, and knows the
+      rubs of life. I 've no patience with you, d&mdash;n me if I have!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A little more of this, and I 'll have none with you,&rdquo; said Dalton, as he
+      clenched his fist, and struck his knee a hard blow. &ldquo;You presume to talk
+      of us as people whose station was always what our present means imply; but
+      I 'd have you to know that we 've better blood in our veins&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Devil take your blood! you've made me spill mine again,&rdquo; cried Grounsell,
+      as he sliced a piece off his chin, and threw down the razor in a torrent
+      of anger, while Dalton grinned a look of malicious satisfaction. &ldquo;Could
+      n't your good blood have kept you above anything like dependence?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dalton sprang to his feet, and clutching the chair, raised it in the air;
+      but as suddenly dashed it on the floor again, without speaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go on,&rdquo; cried Grounsell, daring him. &ldquo;I'd rather you 'd break my skull
+      than that dear girl's heart; and that 's what you 're bent on. Ay, break
+      her heart! no less. You can't terrify me, man, by those angry looks. You
+      can't wound me, either, by retaliating, and calling me a dependant. I know
+      I am such. I know well all the ignominy, all the shame; but I know, too,
+      all the misery of the position. But, mark me, the disgrace and the sorrow
+      end where they begin, with myself alone. I have none to blush for me; I
+      stand alone in the world, a poor, scathed, sapless, leafless trunk. But it
+      is not so with you. Come, come, Dalton, you fancy that you know something
+      of life because you have passed so many years of it among your equals and
+      neighbors in your own 'country; but you know nothing absolutely nothing of
+      the world as it exists here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A hearty but contemptuous laugh broke from Dalton as he heard this speech.
+      It was indeed somewhat of a surprise to listen to such a charge. He, Peter
+      Dalton, that knew a spavined horse, or could detect a windgall better than
+      any man in the county; he, that never was &ldquo;taken in&rdquo; by a roarer, nor
+      deceived by a crib-biter, to tell him that he knew nothing of life!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That'll do, doctor, that'll do,&rdquo; said he, with a most compassionating
+      smile at the other's ignorance. &ldquo;I hope you know more about medicine than
+      you seem to do about men and women;&rdquo; and, with these words, he left the
+      room, banging the door after him as he went, and actually ashamed that he
+      had been betrayed into warmth by one so evidently deficient in the
+      commonest knowledge of the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0009" id="linkimage-0009">
+      <!-- IMG --></a> <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/00228.jpg" alt="00228" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 'm sorry I kept you waiting, girls,&rdquo; said he, approaching them. &ldquo;And,
+      indeed, I might have spent my time better, too. But no matter; we must try
+      and find out her Ladyship now, for the morning is slipping over.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke, George Onslow appeared, and recognizing the party with much
+      cordiality, conducted them to the breakfast-room, where Sir Stafford, Lady
+      Hester, and Miss Onslow were seated. If Sydney's reception of the two
+      sisters was less enthusiastic than Lady Hester's, it was not less kind.
+      Nelly was won almost instantaneously by the unaffected ease and simplicity
+      of her manner. As for Dalton himself, her Ladyship had determined to carry
+      him by storm. She suffered him to declaim about his ancestors and their
+      wealth; heard him with assumed interest in all his interminable stories of
+      Dal tons for six generations; and artfully opposed to his regrets at the
+      approaching departure of his daughter the ingenious consolation that she
+      was not about to sojourn with mere strangers, but with those united to her
+      by the ties of kindred. George had, meanwhile, made two or three efforts
+      to engage Kate in conversation; but, whether from the preoccupation of her
+      mind, agitated as it well might be at such a moment, or that his topics
+      were so utterly new and strange to her, his attempt was not attended with
+      any signal success. A sense of shame, too, at the disparity of her own and
+      her sister's appearance, in contrast with the quiet elegance of Lady
+      Hester and Miss Onslow's dress, oppressed her. Strange was it that this
+      feeling should have agitated her now, she who always hitherto had never
+      wasted a thought on such matters, and yet she felt it acutely; and as she
+      glanced from the rustling robe of silk to the folds of her own homely
+      costume, her heart beat painfully, and her breathing came short. Was she
+      already changed, that thoughts tike these could impress her so strongly?
+      Had Adam's first shame descended to his daughter? &ldquo;How unlike I am to
+      them!&rdquo; was the bitter thought that rose to her mind, and ate like a cancer
+      into her heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sense of inferiority, galling and torturing as it is, becomes
+      infinitely more unendurable when connected with matters of trivial
+      importance. There is a sense of indignant anger in the feeling that we are
+      surpassed by what seem the mere conventionalities and tricks of society,
+      and although Kate knew not the source of her unhappiness, some of it lay
+      in this fact. Every little gesture, every motion, the merest peculiarities
+      of voice or accent, now struck her as distinctive of a class, a class to
+      which no imitation would ever give her a resemblance. If it were not for
+      very shame, she would have drawn back now at the eleventh hour. More than
+      once was she on the verge of confessing what was passing within her mind;
+      but fears of various kinds, of her father's anger, of ridicule, of the
+      charge of frivolity, all conspired to keep her silent, and she sat and
+      listened to descriptions of pleasure and scenes wherein she had already
+      lost every interest, and which somehow came associated with a sense of her
+      own inferiority.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Never did home seem so regrettable as in that moment: the humble fireside
+      in winter; the happy evenings with little Hanserl; the summer's day
+      rambles in the forest; their little feasts beside the waterfall, under the
+      ivy-clad walls of Eberstein, all rose before her. They were pleasures
+      which had no alloy in her own humble lot, and why desert them? She had
+      almost gained courage to say that she would not, when a chance word caught
+      her ear one word how little to hang a destiny upon! It was Lady Hester,
+      who, conversing in a half-whisper with Mr. Dalton, said,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She will be perfectly beautiful when dressed becomingly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Was this, then, all that was needed to give her the stamp and semblance of
+      the others? Oh, if she could believe it! If she could but fancy that, at
+      some future time, such graceful elegance should be her own, that gentle
+      languor, that chastened quietude of Sydney, or that sparkling lightness of
+      Lady Hester herself!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What time de horses, saar?&rdquo; said the courier, popping his head into the
+      room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I scarcely know what do you say, Lady Hester?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 'm quite ready this instant if you like indeed, I 'm always the first,&rdquo;
+       said she, gayly; &ldquo;nobody travels with less preparation than I do. There,
+      see all I want!&rdquo; and she pointed to a fan, and a book, and a
+      smelling-bottle, as if all her worldly effects and requirements went no
+      further, and that four great imperials and a dozen capacious boxes were
+      not packed with her wardrobe. &ldquo;I do detest the worry and fuss some people
+      make about a journey for a week, or even a month beforehand; they unsettle
+      themselves and every one around them; putting under lock and key half the
+      things of every-day utility, and making a kind of 'jail-delivery' of all
+      the imprisoned old cloaks and dresses of the toilet. As for me, I take the
+      road as I 'd go to the Opera, or drive out in the Park I ask for my
+      bonnet, that's all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was some truth in this. Her Ladyship did, in fact, give herself not
+      a whit more thought or consideration for preparation of any kind, than if
+      the excursion had been a promenade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is now two o'clock,&rdquo; said Sir Stafford, &ldquo;and if we mean to reach
+      Offenburg to-night we must not lose more time. Isn't it Offenburg you
+      advise as our halt, Mr. Jekyl?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Sir Stafford,&rdquo; simpered out that bland personage. &ldquo;It is a most
+      comfortable little inn, and a very praiseworthy cook.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the bye, has any one thought of ordering luncheon here?&rdquo; cried George.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jekyl gave a nod, to intimate that he had taken that precaution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And, Mr. Jekyl,&rdquo; said Lady Hester, &ldquo;what of those bullfinches, for I must
+      have them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are safely caged and packed in our britzska, madam. You 'll also
+      find that your sketch-book and the water-colors are available at any
+      moment, Miss Onslow,&rdquo; said he, with a respectful gesture. She smiled, and
+      bowed her thanks in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And de horses, saar?&rdquo; asked the courier once more, for during this
+      colloquy he had been standing in expectation of his orders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do tell him, Mr. Jekyl,&rdquo; said Lady Hester, with that tone of languor that
+      bespoke her dislike to the trouble of even a trifling degree of
+      resolution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think we shall say in one hour, Gregoire,&rdquo; said Jekyl, mildly. &ldquo;And,
+      perhaps, it would be better that you should see&mdash;&rdquo; What this matter
+      was that the courier should bestow his special attention upon is not on
+      record in this history, inasmuch as that when the speaker had reached thus
+      far, he passed out of the door, talking as he went, in a low and
+      confidential voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Capital fellow Jekyl!&rdquo; exclaimed George; &ldquo;he forgets nothing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He appears to be a most accomplished traveller,&rdquo; said Sir Stafford.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And such a linguist!&rdquo; said Sydney.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And so amusing!&rdquo; added my Lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And such a rogue!&rdquo; muttered Dalton to himself, who, although so open to
+      any imposition that took the form of flattery, could at once detect the
+      knavery that was practised upon others, and who, at a glance, read the
+      character of the new acquaintance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't you like the stir and excitement of the road, my dear child?&rdquo; said
+      Lady Hester to Kate, who, with very red eyes and very pale cheeks, stood
+      in a window to avoid being observed. &ldquo;There is something so adventurous
+      about a journey always. One may be robbed, you know, or the carriage
+      upset, as happened to ourselves t' other day; or mistaken for somebody
+      else, and carried off to prison. It gives such a flurry to the spirits to
+      think of these things, and a life of monotony is so very detestable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Kate tried to smile an assent, and Lady Hester ran on in the same strain,
+      extolling the delights of anything and everything that promised an
+      excitement. &ldquo;You know, my dear child, that this little place has almost
+      been the death of me,&rdquo; added she. &ldquo;I never was so bored in all my life;
+      and I vow I shall detest a mill and a pine-forest to the last day I live.
+      If it had not been for you and your sweet sister, I do not know what we
+      should have clone; but it 's all over now. The dreary interval is passed,
+      and when we turn the foot of that hill yonder, we shall have seen the last
+      of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Kate's heart was almost bursting as she heard these words. To speak thus
+      of the little valley would have been a profanation at any time, but to do
+      so now, when she was about to leave it, when she was about to tear herself
+      away from all the ties of love and affection, seemed an actual cruelty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Small places are my aversion,&rdquo; continued Lady Hester, who, when satisfied
+      with her own talk, never cared much what effect it was producing upon
+      others. &ldquo;One grows down insensibly to the measure of a petty locality,
+      with its little interests, its little people, and its little gossip don't
+      you think so, dear?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We were so happy here!&rdquo; murmured Kate, in a voice that a choking fulness
+      of her throat almost stifled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course you were, child, very happy; and it was very good of you to be
+      so. Yes, very good and very right.&rdquo; Here Lady Hester assumed a peculiar
+      tone, which she always put on whenever she fancied that she was
+      moralizing. &ldquo;Natural amiability of disposition, and all that sort of
+      thing, is very nice indeed; but there 's luncheon, I see, and now, my
+      dear, let us take our places without loss of time. George, will you give
+      your arm to Miss Dalton? Mr. Dalton but where 's Mr. Dalton?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Papa has taken him with him to his dressing-room,&rdquo; answered Sydney, &ldquo;but
+      begged you'd not wait; they'll be back presently.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No lady does wait at luncheon,&rdquo; said Lady Hester, snappishly, while,
+      drawing Kate's arm within her own, she led her into the adjoining room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The party had scarcely seated themselves at table when they were joined by
+      Jekyl. Indeed, Lady Hester had only time to complain of his absence when
+      he appeared; for it was a trick of that gentleman's tact merely to make
+      himself sufficiently regretted not to be blamed. And now he came to say
+      that everything was ready, the postilions in the saddle, the carriages
+      drawn up before the door, the relays all been ordered along the road, the
+      supper bespoken for the end of the journey. These pleasant facts he
+      contrived to season with a running fire of little gossip and mimicry, in
+      which the landlord, and Gregoire, and Mademoiselle Celestine were the
+      individuals personated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Never were Mr. Jekyl's peculiar abilities more in request; for the moment
+      was an awkward and embarrassing one for all, and none, save himself, were
+      able to relieve its seriousness. Even Nelly smiled at the witty sallies
+      and playful conceits of this clever talker, and felt almost grateful to
+      him for the momentary distraction he afforded her from gloomier thoughts.
+      With such success did he exert himself, that all the graver sentiments of
+      the occasion were swallowed up in the pleasant current of his small-talk,
+      and no time given for a thought of that parting which was but a few
+      minutes distant. Sir Stafford and Mr. Dalton were not sorry to discover
+      the party in this pleasant humor, and readily chimed in with the gayety
+      around them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bugle of the postilions at length announced that &ldquo;time was up,&rdquo; and
+      the half-hour, which German politeness accords to leave-taking, expired. A
+      dead silence succeeded the sound, and, as if moved by the same instinctive
+      feeling, the two sisters arose and withdrew into a window. Close locked in
+      each other's arms, neither could speak. Kate's thick sobs came fast and
+      full, and her heart beat against her sister's side as though it were
+      bursting. As for Nelly, all that she had meant to say, the many things she
+      had kept for the last moment, were forgotten, and she could but press the
+      wet cheek to her own, and murmur a tremulous blessing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, if I could but remain with you, Nelly dearest,&rdquo; sobbed Kate; &ldquo;I feel
+      even already my isolation. Is it too late, sister dear, is it too late to
+      go back?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not if this be not a sudden impulse of sorrow for parting, Kate; not if
+      you think you would be happier here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But papa! how will he&mdash;what will he&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She had not time for more, when her father joined them. A certain flurry
+      of his manner showed that he was excited by talking and wine together.
+      There was that in the expression of his features, too, that betokened a
+      mind ill at ease with itself a restless alternating between two courses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Tis you are the lucky girl, Kate,&rdquo; said he, drawing his arm around her,
+      and pressing her to him. &ldquo;This day's good luck pays me off for many a hard
+      blow of fortune. They 're kind people you are going with, real gentry, and
+      our own blood into the bargain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A thick heavy sob was all the answer she could make.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sure you're sorry; why would n't you be sorry, leaving your own
+      home and going away among strangers? and 't is I am sorry to let you go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you so, dearest papa? Are you really sorry to part with me? Would you
+      rather I 'd stay behind with you and Nelly?&rdquo; cried she, looking up at him
+      with eyes swimming in tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would it, is it?&rdquo; said he, eagerly, as he kissed her forehead twice;
+      then, suddenly checking himself, he said, in an altered voice, &ldquo;but that
+      would be selfish, Kate, nothing else than downright selfish. Ask Nelly,
+      there, if that's my nature? Not that Nelly will ever give me too good a
+      character!&rdquo; added he, bitterly. But poor Ellen neither heard the question
+      nor the taunt; her mind was travelling many a long mile away in realms of
+      dreary speculation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 'm sorry to interrupt a moment like this,&rdquo; said Sir Stafford, &ldquo;but I
+      believe I must take you away, Miss Dalton; our time is now of the
+      shortest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      One fond and long embrace the sisters took, and Kate was led away between
+      Sir Stafford and her father, while Nelly went through a round of
+      leave-takings with the others in a state of semi-consciousness that
+      resembled a dream. The courteous flatteries of Lady Hester fell as
+      powerless on her ear as the rougher good wishes of Grounsell. George
+      Onslow's respectful manner was as unnoticed as the flippant smartness of
+      Albert Jekyl's. Even Sydney's gentle attempt at consolation was heard
+      without heeding; and when one by one they had gone and left her alone in
+      that dreary room, she was not more aware of her solitude than when they
+      stood around her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Couriers and waiters passed in and out to see that nothing had been
+      forgotten. Doors were slammed on every side, loud voices were calling, all
+      the turmoil of a departure was there; but she knew nothing of it. Even
+      when the loud cracking of the postilions' whips echoed in the courtyard,
+      and the quick clatter of horses' feet and heavy wheels resounded through
+      the arched doorway, she was still unmoved; nor did she recover full
+      liberty of thought till her father stood beside her, and said, &ldquo;Come,
+      Nelly, let us go home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she arose, and took his arm without a word. She would have given her
+      life to have been able to speak even a few words of comfort to the poor
+      old man, whose cheeks were wet with tears, but she could not utter a
+      syllable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, indeed,&rdquo; muttered he, &ldquo;it will be a dreary home now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Not another word was spoken by either as they trod their way along the
+      silent streets, over which the coming gloom of evening threw a mournful
+      shadow. They walked, with bent-down heads, as if actually fearing to
+      recognize the objects that they had so often looked upon with her, and,
+      slowly traversing the little Platz, they gained their own door. There they
+      halted, and, from habit, pulled the bell. Its little tinkle, heard in the
+      stillness, seemed suddenly to recall them both to thought; for Dalton,
+      with a melancholy smile, said,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'T is old Andy is coming now! 'T is n't her foot I hear! Oh, Nelly,
+      Nelly, how did you ever persuade me to this! Sure, I know I 'll never be
+      happy again!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Nelly made no answer. The injustice of the speech was well atoned for in
+      her mind by the thought that, in shifting the blame from himself to her,
+      her father might find some sort of consolation; well satisfied to become
+      the subject of his reproach if the sacrifice could alleviate his sorrow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take that chair away; throw it out of the window,&rdquo; cried he, angrily. &ldquo;It
+      breaks my heart to look at it.&rdquo; And with this he leaned his head upon the
+      table, and sobbed like a child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XX. A VERY SMALL &ldquo;INTERIOR.&rdquo;
+     </h2>
+    <p>
+      IN one of the most favored spots of that pleasant quay which goes by the
+      name of the Lungo l'Arno, at Florence, there stood a small,
+      miserable-looking, rickety old building, of two stories high, wedged in
+      between two massive and imposing palaces, as though a buffer to deaden the
+      force of collision. In all probability it owed its origin to some petty
+      usurpation, and had gradually grown up, from the unobtrusive humility of a
+      cobbler's bulk, to the more permanent nuisance of stone and mortar. The
+      space occupied was so small as barely to permit of a door and a little
+      window beside it, within which hung a variety of bridles, halters, and
+      such-like gear, with here and there the brass-mounted harnessing of a
+      Calasina, or the gay worsted tassels and fringed finery of a peasant's
+      Barroccino. The little spot was so completely crammed with wares, that for
+      all purposes of traffic it was useless; hence, everything that pertained
+      to sale was carried on in the street, thus contributing by another
+      ingredient to the annoyance of this misplaced residence. Threats, tyranny,
+      bribery, seductions of twenty kinds, intimidation in as many shapes, had
+      all failed in inducing its owner to remove to another part of the town.
+      Gigi every one in Florence is known by his Christian name, and we never
+      heard him called by any other resisted oppressions as manfully as he was
+      proof against softer influences, and held his ground, hammering away at
+      his old &ldquo;demi-piques,&rdquo; burnishing bits and scouring housings, in utter
+      indifference to the jarred nerves and chafed susceptibilities of his fine
+      neighbors. It was not that the man was indifferent to money. It was not
+      that the place was associated with any family reminiscences. It was not
+      from its being very favorable to the nature of his dealings, since his
+      chief customers were usually the frequenters of the less fashionable
+      localities. It was the simple fact that Gigi was a Florentine, and, like a
+      Florentine, he saw no reason why he should n't have the sun and the Arno
+      as well as the Guiciardoni, who lived at his right, or the Rinuncini, who
+      dwelt on his left hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Small and contracted as that miserable frontage was, the sun did shine
+      upon it just as pleasantly as on its proud neighbors, and the bright Arno
+      glided by with its laughing ripples; while, from the little window above
+      stairs, the eye ranged over the cypress-clad hill of San Miniato and the
+      fair gardens of the Boboli. On one side lay the quaint old structure of
+      the Ponte Vecchio, with its glittering stores of jewelry, and on the other
+      the graceful elliptic arches of St. Trinita spanned the stream. The quay
+      before the door was the chosen rallying-point of all Florence; the
+      promenade where lounged all its fashionables of an evening, as they
+      descended from their carriages after the accustomed drive in the Cascini.
+      The Guardie Nobili passed daily, in all their scarlet bravery, to and from
+      the Pitti Palace; the Grand Ducal equipage never took any other road. A
+      continual flow of travellers to the great hotels on the quay contributed
+      its share of bustle and animation to the scene; so that here might be said
+      to meet, as in a focus, all that made up the life, the stir, and the
+      movement of the capital.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Full of amusement and interest as that morning panorama often is, our
+      object is less to linger beside it, than, having squeezed our way between
+      the chaotic wares of Gigi's shop, to ascend the little, dark, and creaking
+      stairs which lead to the first story, and into which we now beg to
+      introduce our reader. There are but two rooms, each of them of the
+      dimensions of closets, but furnished with a degree of pretension that
+      cannot fail to cause amazement as you enter. Silk draperies, carved
+      cabinets, bronzes, china, chairs of ebony, tables of buhl, a Persian rug
+      on the floor, an alabaster lamp suspended from the ceiling, miniatures in
+      handsome frames, and armor, cover the walls; while, scattered about, are
+      richly bound books, and prints, and drawings in water-color. Through the
+      half-drawn curtain that covers the doorway for there is no door you can
+      peep into the back room, where a lighter and more modern taste prevails;
+      the gold-sprigged curtains of a French bed, and the Bohemian glass that
+      glitters everywhere, bespeaking another era of decorative luxury.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is not with any invidious pleasure for depreciation, but purely in the
+      interests of truth, that we must now tell our reader that, of all this
+      seeming elegance and splendor, nothing absolutely nothing is real. The
+      brocaded silks have been old petticoats; the ebony is lacquer; the ivory
+      is bone; the statuettes are plaster, glazed so as to look like marble; the
+      armor is papier mache, even to the owner himself, all is imposition, for
+      he is no other than Albert Jekyl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, my dear reader, you and I see these things precisely in the same
+      light. The illusion of a first glance stripped off, we smile as we
+      examine, one by one, the ingenious devices meant to counterfeit ancient
+      art or modern elegance. It is possible, too, that we derive as much
+      amusement from the ingenuity exercised, as we should have had pleasure in
+      contemplating the realities so typified. Still, there is one individual to
+      whom this consciousness brings no alloy of enjoyment; Jekyl has persuaded
+      himself to accept all as fact. Like the Indian, who first carves and then
+      worships his god, he has gone through the old process of fabrication, and
+      now gazes on his handiwork with the eyes of a true believer. Gracefully
+      reclined upon an ottoman, the mock amber mouthpiece of a gilt hooka
+      between his lips, he dreams, with half-closed eyes, of Oriental luxury! A
+      Sybarite in every taste, he has invented a little philosophy of his own.
+      He has seen enough of life to know that thousands might live in enjoyment
+      out of the superfluities of rich men, and yet make them nothing the
+      poorer. What banquet would not admit of a guest the more? What fete to
+      which another might not be added? What four-in-hand prances by without
+      some vacant seat, be it even in the rumble? What gilded gondola has not a
+      place to spare? To be this &ldquo;complement&rdquo; to the world's want is then his
+      mission.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No man invents a metier without a strong element of success. The very
+      creative power is an earnest of victory. It is true that there had been
+      great men before Agamemnon. So had there been a race of &ldquo;diners-out&rdquo;
+       before Jekyl; but he first reduced the practice to system, showing that
+      all the triumphs of cookery, all the splendor of equipage, all the
+      blandishments of beauty, all the fascinations of high society, may be
+      enjoyed by one who actually does not hold a &ldquo;share in the company,&rdquo; and,
+      without the qualification of scrip, takes his place among the directors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had he brought to this new profession commonplace abilities and inferior
+      acquirements, he would have been lost amid that vulgar herd of
+      indistinguishables which infest every city, and whose names are not even
+      &ldquo;writ in water.&rdquo; Jekyl, however, possessed many and varied gifts. He might
+      have made a popular preacher in a watering-place; a very successful doctor
+      for nervous invalids; a clever practitioner at the bar; an admirable
+      member of the newspaper press. He might have been very good as an actor;
+      he would have been glorious as an auctioneer. With qualities of this
+      order, a most plastic wit, and an india-rubber conscience, what bound need
+      there be to his success! Nor was there. He was, in all the society of the
+      capital, not alone an admitted and accepted, but a welcome guest. He might
+      have failed to strike this man as being clever, or that as being
+      agreeable. Some might be disappointed in his smartness; some might think
+      his social claims overrated; none were ever offended by anything that fell
+      from him. His great secret seemed to lie in the fact that, if generally
+      easy to be found when required, he was never in the way when not wanted.
+      Had he possessed the gift of invisibility, he could scarcely have been
+      more successful in this latter good quality. He never interrupted a
+      confidence; never marred a tete-a-tete. A kind of instinct would arrest
+      his steps as he approached a boudoir where his presence would be
+      undesirable; and he has been known to retire from a door on which he had
+      already placed his hand, with a sudden burst of intelligence suggesting
+      &ldquo;to come another day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These, however, seem mere negative qualities; his positive ones were,
+      however, not less remarkable. The faculties which some men might have
+      devoted to abstract science or metaphysical inquiry, he, with a keen
+      perception of his own fitness, resolved to exercise upon the world around
+      him. His botany was a human classification, all his chemistry an analysis
+      of men's motives. It is true, perhaps, that the poet's line may have been
+      received by him with a peculiar limitation, and that, if &ldquo;the proper study
+      of mankind is man,&rdquo; his investigations took a shape scarcely contemplated
+      by the writer. It was not man in his freedom of thought and action, not
+      man in all the consciousness of power, and in the high hope of a great
+      destiny that attracted him; no! it was for small humanity that he cared,
+      for all the struggles and wiles and plots and schemings of this wicked
+      world; for man amid its pomps and vanities, its balls, its festivals, its
+      intrigues, and its calamities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He felt, with the great dramatist, that &ldquo;all the world's a stage,&rdquo; and,
+      the better to enjoy the performance, he merely took a &ldquo;walking character,&rdquo;
+       that gave him full leisure to watch the others. Such was our friend Albert
+      Jekyl, or, as he was popularly called by his acquaintance, Le Due de
+      Dine-out, to distinguish him from the Talleyrands, who are Dues de Dino.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let us now, without further speculation, come back to him, as with his
+      window open to admit the &ldquo;Arno sun,&rdquo; he lay at full length upon his
+      ottoman, conning over his dinner list. He had been for some time absent
+      from Florence, and in the interval a number of new people had arrived, and
+      some of the old had gone away. He was, therefore, running over the names
+      of the present and the missing, with a speculative thought for the future.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A bad season, it would seem!&rdquo; muttered he, as his eye traced rapidly the
+      list of English names, in which none of any distinction figured. &ldquo;This
+      comes of Carbonari and Illuminati humbug. They frighten John Bull, and he
+      will not come abroad to see a barricade under his window. Great numbers
+      have gone away, too, the Scotts, the Carringdons, the Hopleys! three
+      excellent houses; and those dear Milnwoods, who, so lately 'reconciled to
+      Rome,' as the phrase is, 'took out their piety' in Friday fish-dinners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Russians, too, have left us; the Geroboffskys gone back to their
+      snows again, and expiating their 'liberal tendencies' by a tour in
+      Siberia. The Chaptowitsch, recalled in disgrace for asking one of Louis
+      Philippe's sons to a breakfast! We have got in exchange a few Carlists,
+      half a dozen 'Legitimists,' with very stately manners and small fortunes.
+      But a good house to dine at, a good salon for a lounge, a pleasant haunt
+      for all seasons and at all hours, what is there? Nothing, absolutely
+      nothing. And what a city this was once! crammed, as it used to be, with
+      dear, delightful 'ruined families;' that is, those who left ruin to their
+      creditors at home, to come out and live gloriously abroad. And now I look
+      down my list, and, except my little Sunday dinner at 'Marescotte's,' and
+      that half luncheon thing I take at the Villa Pessarole, I really see
+      nothing for the whole week. The Onslows, alone, figure in strong capitals.
+      Let me see, then, how they must be treated. I have already housed them at
+      the Palazzo Mazzarini, and, for some days at least, their time will be
+      filled up with upholsterers, decorators, and such-like. Then the campaign
+      will open, and I can but watch eventualities, and there will be no lack of
+      these. The young Guardsman likes play. I must see that Prince Carini does
+      not get hold of him. Miss Onslow has a taste for Gothic and stained glass;
+      that, nowadays, often ends in a love of saints' shin-bones and other
+      relics. My lady is disposed to be a 'fast one;' and, in fact, except the
+      gruff old doctor, who is a confounded bore, the whole craft is deficient
+      in ballast. But I was forgetting 'the Dalton,' shame on me, for she is
+      very pretty, indeed!&rdquo; He seemed to ruminate and reflect for some minutes,
+      and then said aloud, &ldquo;Yes, ma belle Catharine, with the aid of Albert
+      Jekyl, with his counsel to guide, and his head to direct you, there 's no
+      saying what your destiny might not be! It would be, I know well, very hard
+      to convince you of the fact, and, possibly, were I to try it, you 'd be
+      silly enough to fancy me in love with you!&rdquo; Albert Jekyl in love! The idea
+      was so excellent that he lay back and laughed heartily at it. &ldquo;And yet,&rdquo;
+       said he, after a pause, &ldquo;you 'll see this fact aright one of these days.
+      You 'll learn the immense benefit my knowledge would be when joined to
+      your own beauty. Ay, Kate! but it will be too late, just so, too late;
+      then, like every one else, you 'll have played all your trumps before you
+      begin to learn the game. A girl who has caught up every trick of manner,
+      every little tactic of society within a month, and who, at this hour,
+      would stand the scrutiny of the most fastidious eye, is a great prize in
+      the wheel. This aptitude might lead to great things, though, in all
+      probability, it will never conduce, save to very little ones!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With this reflection Jekyl arose to begin his toilet, an occupation which,
+      less from dandyism than pure self-love, he usually prolonged during the
+      whole morning. It was to him a period of self-examination. He seemed, to
+      use a mercantile figure, to be taking stock of his own capabilities, and
+      investigating his own means of future success.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was an &ldquo;open day,&rdquo; that is, he knew not where he should dine; so that
+      his costume, while partaking of all the characteristics of the morning,
+      had yet combined certain little decorative traits that would not be
+      unsuitable if pressed to accept an unpremeditated hospitality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were very few, indeed, with whom Jekyl would have condescended so to
+      dine, not only from the want of dignity incurred, but that on principle he
+      would have preferred the humblest fare at home to the vulgarity of a
+      pot-luck dinner, which invariably, as he said himself, deranged your
+      digestion, and led to wrong intimacies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His dress being completed, he looked out along the crowd to see in whose
+      carriage he was to have a seat to the Cascini. More than one inviting
+      gesture motioned him to a place, as equipage after equipage passed on; but
+      although some of those who sought him were high in rank, and others
+      distinguished for beauty and attraction, Jekyl declined the courtesies
+      with that little wave of the hand so significative in all Italian
+      intercourse. Occasionally, indeed, a bland, regretful smile seemed to
+      convey the sorrow the refusal cost him; and once he actually placed his
+      hand over where his heart might be, as though to express a perfect pang of
+      suffering; but still he bided his time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last a very dark visage, surrounded by a whisker of blackest hair,
+      peeped from beneath the head of a very shabby caleche, whose horse and
+      coachman were all of the &ldquo;seediest;&rdquo; and Jekyl cried out, &ldquo;Morlache!&rdquo;
+       while he made a sign towards the Cascini. The other replied by spreading
+      out his hand horizontally from his mouth, and blowing along the surface, a
+      pantomime meant to express a railroad. Jekyl immediately descended and
+      took his place beside him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXI. A FAMILY PICTURE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE fashionable life of a great city has a character of sameness which
+      defies all attempts at portraiture. Well-bred people, and their
+      amusements, are all constructed so perfectly alike, certain family traits
+      pervading them throughout, that every effort at individualization is
+      certain to be a failure. You may change the venue, if you will, from
+      London to Paris, to Vienna, or St. Petersburg, but the issue is always the
+      same; the very same interests are at work, and the same passions
+      exercised, by the self-same kind of people. If such be the rule among the
+      first-rate capitals of Europe, it is very far from being the case in those
+      smaller cities which belong to inferior States, and which, from reasons of
+      health, pleasure, or economy, are the resort of strangers from different
+      parts of the world. In these society is less disciplined, social rank less
+      defined; conflicting claims and rival nationalities disturb the scene, and
+      there is, so to say, a kind of struggle for pre-eminence, which in better
+      regulated communities is never witnessed. If, as is unquestionably true,
+      such places rarely present the attractions of good society, they offer to
+      the mere observer infinitely more varied and amusing views of life than he
+      would ever expect to see elsewhere. As in the few days of a revolution,
+      when the &ldquo;barricades are up,&rdquo; and all hurrying to the conflict, more of
+      national character will be exhibited than in half a century of tame
+      obedience to the law; so here are displayed, to the sun and the noonday,
+      all those passions and pretensions which rarely see the light in other
+      places.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great besetting sin of this social state is the taste for NOTORIETY.
+      Everything must contribute to this. Not alone wealth, splendor, rank, and
+      genius, but vice, in all its shapes and forms, must be notorious. &ldquo;Better
+      be calumniated in all the moods and tenses than untalked of,&rdquo; is the grand
+      axiom. Do something that can be reported of you, good, if you will, bad,
+      if you must; but do it. If you be not rich enough to astonish by the
+      caprices of your wealth, do something by your wits, or even your whiskers.
+      The color of a man's gloves has sufficed to make his fortune.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon this strange ocean, which, if rarely storm-shaken, was never
+      perfectly tranquil, the Onslows were now launched, as well pleased as
+      people usually are who, from being of third or fourth-rate importance in
+      their own country, suddenly awake to the fact that they are celebrities
+      abroad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Mazzarini Palace had long been untenanted; its last occupant had been
+      one of the Borghese family, whose princely fortune was still unable to
+      maintain the splendor of a residence fitted only for royalty. To learn,
+      therefore, that a rich &ldquo;milordo&rdquo; had arrived there with the intention of
+      passing his winter, was a piece of news that occupied every tongue in the
+      city. Gossips were questioned about the private history, the peerage
+      consulted for such facts as were public. Sir Stafford's wealth was
+      actively discussed, and all possible inroads upon it his son's
+      extravagance might have made debated and decided on. A minute
+      investigation into their probable reasons for leaving England was also
+      instituted, in which conjectures far more ingenious than true figured
+      prominently. What they were like what they said, did, and meant to do was
+      the sole table-talk of the capital.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They've had their horses out from England,&rdquo; said one; &ldquo;They 've taken the
+      best box at the Pergola,&rdquo; said another; &ldquo;They've engaged Midchekoff's
+      cook,&rdquo; said a third; &ldquo;They 've been speaking to Gridani about his band,&rdquo;
+       chimed in a fourth; and so on. All their proceedings were watched and
+      followed by that eager vulturehood which hungers for ortolans, and thirsts
+      for iced champagne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nor were the Onslows without offering food for this curious solicitude.
+      From the hour of her arrival, Lady Hester had been deeply engaged, in
+      concert with her grand vizier, Albert Jekyl, in preparations for the
+      coming campaign. An army of upholsterers, decorators, and such-like, beset
+      the Palazzo with enormous vans crammed full of wares. Furniture, that had
+      served royal guests, and was even yet in high preservation, was condemned,
+      to give way to newer and more costly decoration. Rich stuffs and hangings
+      that had been the admiration of many a visitor, were ruthlessly pulled
+      down, to be replaced by even more gorgeous materials; till at last it was
+      whispered about that, except some antique cabinets, the pictures, and a
+      few tables of malachite or marble, little or nothing remained of what once
+      constituted the splendor of the place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These were mere rumors, however; for as yet, none, save Albert Jekyl
+      himself, had seen the interior; and from him, unless disposed to accord
+      it, all Confidence was hopeless. Indeed, his little vague stare when
+      questioned; his simpering, &ldquo;I shouldn't wonder,&rdquo; &ldquo;It is very likely,&rdquo; or
+      &ldquo;Now that you mention it, I begin to think so too,&rdquo; would have disarmed
+      the suspicion of all who had not studied him deeply. What the Onslows were
+      going to do, and when they would do it, were, then, the vexed questions of
+      every coterie. In a few days more the Carnival would begin, and yet no
+      announcement of their intentions had yet gone forth, no programme of
+      future festivities been issued to the world. A vague and terrible fear
+      began to prevail that it was possible they meant all these splendid
+      preparations for themselves alone. Such a treason was incredible at first;
+      but as day followed day, and no sign was made, suspicion ripened into
+      actual dread; and now the eager expectants began to whisper among
+      themselves dark reasons for a conduct so strange and inexplicable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haggerstone contributed his share to these mysterious doublings, for,
+      while not confessing that his acquaintance with the Onslows was of the
+      very slightest, and dated but from a week before, he spoke of them with
+      all the affected ease and information of one who had known them for years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nor were his comments of the most flattering kind, for seeing how
+      decidedly every effort he made to renew acquaintance was met by a steady
+      opposition, he lost no time in assuming his stand as enemy. The interval
+      of doubt which had occurred as to their probable mode of life was
+      favorable for this line of action. None knew if they were ever to partake
+      of the splendor and magnificence of the Mazzarini; none could guess what
+      chance they had of the sumptuous banquets of the rich man's table. It was
+      a lottery, in which, as yet, they had not even a ticket; and what so
+      natural as to depreciate the scheme!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the courts of law and equity be the recognized tribunals by which the
+      rights of property are decided, so there exists in every city certain not
+      less decisive courts, which pronounce upon all questions of social claims,
+      and deliver judgments upon the pretensions of every new arrival amongst
+      them. High amid the number of these was a certain family called Ricketts,
+      who had been residents of Florence for thirty-odd years back. They
+      consisted of three persons, General Ricketts, his wife, and a maiden
+      sister of the General. They inhabited a small house in a garden within the
+      boulevard, dignified by the name of the &ldquo;41 Villino Zoe.&rdquo; It had
+      originally been the humble residence of a market-gardener, but, by the aid
+      of paint and plaster, contrived to impose upon the world almost as
+      successfully as did the fair owner herself by the help of similar
+      adjuncts. A word, however, for the humanities before we speak of their
+      abiding-place. The &ldquo;General&rdquo; Heaven alone knew when, where, or in what
+      service he became so was a small, delicate little man, with bland manners,
+      a weak voice, a weak stomach, and a weaker head; his instincts all mild,
+      gentle, and inoffensive, and his whole pursuit in life a passion for
+      inventing fortifications, and defending passes and tetes-du-pont by lines,
+      circumvallations, and ravelins, which cost reams of paper and whole
+      buckets of water-color to describe. The only fire which burned within his
+      nature was a little flickering flame of hope, that one day the world would
+      awake to the recognition of his great discoveries, and his name be
+      associated with those of Vauban and Carnot. Sustained by this, he bore up
+      against contemporary neglect and actual indifference; he whispered to
+      himself, that, like Nelson, he would one day &ldquo;have a gazette of his own,&rdquo;
+       and in this firm conviction, he went on with rule and compass, measuring
+      and daubing and drawing from morn till night, happy, humble, and
+      contented: nothing could possibly be more inoffensive than such an
+      existence. Even the French our natural enemies or the Russians our
+      Palmerstonian Betes noires would have forgiven, had they but seen, the
+      devices of his patriotism. Never did heroic ardor burn in a milder bosom,
+      for, though his brain revelled in all the horrors of siege and slaughter,
+      he would not have had the heart to crush a beetle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Unlike him in every respect was the partner of his joys: a more bustling,
+      plotting, scheming existence it was hard to conceive. Most pretenders are
+      satisfied with aspiring to one crown; her ambitions were &ldquo;legion.&rdquo; When
+      Columbus received the taunts of the courtiers on the ease of his
+      discovery, and merely replied, that the merit lay simply in the fact that
+      he alone had made it, he was uttering a truth susceptible of very wide
+      application. Nine tenths of the inventions which promote the happiness or
+      secure the ease of mankind have been not a whit more difficult than that
+      of balancing the egg. They only needed that some one should think of them
+      &ldquo;practically.&rdquo; Thousands may have done so in moods of speculation or
+      fancy; the grand requisite was a practical intelligence. Such was Mrs.
+      Ricketts's. As she had seen at Naples the lava used for mere road-making,
+      which in other hands, and by other treatment, might have been fashioned
+      into all the shapes and colors of Bohemian glass, so did she perceive that
+      a certain raw material was equally misapplied and devoted to base uses,
+      but which, by the touch of genius, might be made powerful as the wand of
+      an enchanter. This was &ldquo;Flattery.&rdquo; Do not, like the Spanish courtiers, my
+      dear reader, do not smile at her discovery, nor suppose that she had been
+      merely exploring an old and exhausted mine. Her flattery was not, as the
+      world employs it, an exaggerated estimate of existing qualities, but a
+      grand poetic and creative power, that actually begot the great sublime it
+      praised. Whatever your walk, rank, or condition in life, she instantly
+      laid hold of it to entrap you. No matter what your size, stature, or
+      symmetry, she could costume you in a minute! Her praises, like an
+      elastic-web livery, fitted all her slaves; and slaves were they of the
+      most abject slavery, who were led by the dictation of her crafty
+      intelligence!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A word about poor Martha, and we have done; nor, indeed, is there any need
+      we should say more than that she was universally known as &ldquo;Poor Martha&rdquo; by
+      all their acquaintance. Oh! what patience, submission, and long suffering
+      it takes before the world will confer its degree of Martyr, before they
+      will condescend to visit, even with so cheap a thing as compassion, the
+      life of an enduring self-devotion. Martha had had but one idol all her
+      life, her brother; and although, when he married late in years, she had
+      almost died broken-hearted at the shock, she clung to him and his
+      fortunes, unable to separate from one to whose habits she had been
+      ministering for above thirty years. It was said that originally she was a
+      person of good common faculties, and a reasonably fair knowledge of the
+      world; but to see her at the time of which we now speak, not a vestige
+      remained of either, not a stone marked where the edifice once stood. Nor
+      can this ba matter of wonderment. Who could have passed years amid all the
+      phantasmagoria of that unreal existence, and either not gone clean mad, or
+      made a weak compromise with sanity, by accepting everything as real? Poor
+      Martha had exactly these two alternatives, either to &ldquo;believe the crusts
+      mutton,&rdquo; or be eternally shut out from all hope. Who can tell the long and
+      terrible struggle such a mind must have endured? what little bursts of
+      honest energy repelled by fear and timidity? what good intentions baffled
+      by natural humility, and the affection she bore her brother?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may have nay, it did cost her much to believe this strange creed of her
+      sister-in-law; but she ended by doing so. So implicit was her faith, that,
+      like a true devotee, she would not trust the evidence of her own senses,
+      if opposed by the articles of her belief. The very pictures at whose
+      purchase she had been present, and whose restoration and relacquering had
+      been the work of her own hands, she was willing to aver had been the gifts
+      of royal and princely personages. The books for which she had herself
+      written to the publishers, she would swear all tributes offered by the
+      respective writers to the throne of taste and erudition. Every object with
+      whose humble birth and origin she was familiar, was associated in her mind
+      with some curious history, which, got off by rote, she repeated with full
+      credulity. Like the well-known athlete, who lifted a bull because he had
+      accustomed himself to the feat since the animal had been a calf, rising
+      from small beginnings, she had so educated her faculties that now nothing
+      was above her powers. Not all the straits and contrivances by which this
+      motley display was got up, not all the previous schemings and plottings,
+      not all the discussions as to what King or Kaiser this should be
+      attributed, by what artist that was painted, who carved this cup, who
+      enamelled that vase, could shake the firmness of her faith when the matter
+      was once decided. She might oppose the Bill in every stage; she might
+      cavil at it in Committee, and divide on every clause; but when it once
+      became law, she revered it as a statute of the land. All her own doubts
+      faded away on the instant; all her former suggestions vanished at once; a
+      new light seemed to break on her mind, and she appeared to see with the
+      eyes of truth and discernment. We have been led away beyond our intention
+      in this sketch, and have no space to devote to that temple wherein the
+      mysteries were celebrated. Enough if we say that it was small and
+      ill-arranged, its discomfort increased by the incongruous collection of
+      rare and curious objects by which it was filled. Stuffed lions stood in
+      the hall; mock men in armor guarded the entrance to the library; vast
+      glass cases of mineralogical wealth, botanical specimens, stuffed birds,
+      impaled butterflies, Indian weapons, Etrurian cups, Irish antiquities,
+      Chinese curiosities, covered the walls on every side. Not a specimen
+      amongst them that could not trace its presentation to some illustrious
+      donor. Miniatures of dear, dear friends everywhere; and what a catholic
+      friendship was that which included every one, from Lord Byron to Chalmers,
+      and took in the whole range of morals, from Mrs. Opie to Fanny Elssler.
+      Indeed, although the fair Zoe was a &ldquo;rigid virtue,&rdquo; her love of genius,
+      her &ldquo;mind-worship,&rdquo; as she called it, often led her into strange
+      intimacies with that intellectual class whose strength lies in pirouettes,
+      and whose gifts are short petticoats. In a word, whatever was &ldquo;notorious&rdquo;
+       was her natural prey; a great painter, a great radical, a great basso, a
+      great traveller; any one to lionize, anything to hang history upon; to
+      enlist, even &ldquo;for one night only,&rdquo; in that absurd comedy which was
+      performed at her house, and to display among her acquaintances as another
+      in that long catalogue of those who came to lay the tribute of their
+      genius at her feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That a large section of society was disposed to be rude and ungenerous
+      enough to think her a bore, is a fact that we are, however unwilling,
+      obliged to confess; but her actual influence was little affected by the
+      fact. The real serious business of life is often carried on in localities
+      surrounded by innumerable inconveniences. Men buy and sell their millions,
+      subsidize states, and raise loans in dens dark and dismal enough to be
+      prison-cells. In the same way, the Villino was a recognized rendezvous of
+      all who wanted to hear what was going on in the world, and who wished to
+      be d la hauteur of every current scandal of the day. Not that such was
+      ever the tone of the conversation; on the contrary, it was &ldquo;all taste and
+      the musical glasses,&rdquo; the &ldquo;naughty talk&rdquo; being the mere asides of the
+      scene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, in that season of foreign life which precedes the Carnival, and on
+      those nights when there is no opera, any one benevolent enough to open his
+      doors to receive is sure of full houses; so the Villino &ldquo;improved the
+      occasion,&rdquo; by announcing a series of Tuesdays and Fridays, which were, as
+      the papers say, frequented by all the rank and fashion of the metropolis.
+      It is at one of these &ldquo;at homes&rdquo; that we would now present our reader,
+      not, indeed, during the full moon of the reception, when the crowded
+      rooms, suffocating with heat, were crammed with visitors, talking in every
+      tongue of Europe, and every imaginable dialect of each. The great melee
+      tournament was over, and a few lingered over the now empty lists,
+      discussing in familiar converse the departed guests and the events of the
+      evening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This privy council consisted of the reader's old acquaintance,
+      Haggerstone, a Russo-Polish Count Petrolaffski, a dark, sallow-skinned,
+      odd-looking gentleman, whose national predilections had raised him to the
+      rank of an enemy to the Emperor, but whose private resources, it was
+      rumored, came from the Imperial treasury to reward his services as a spy;
+      a certain Mr. Scroope Purvis, the brother of Mrs. Ricketts, completing the
+      party. He was a little, rosy-cheeked old man, with a limp and a stutter,
+      perpetually running about retailing gossip, which, by some accident or
+      other, he invariably got all wrong, never, on even the most trifling
+      occasion, being able to record a fact as it occurred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such were the individuals of a group which sat around the fire in close
+      and secret confab., Mrs. Ricketts herself placed in the midst, her fair
+      proportions gracefully disposed in a chair whose embroidery displayed all
+      the quarterings and emblazonment of her family for centuries back. The
+      &ldquo;Bill&rdquo; before the house was the Onslows, whose res gestee were causing a
+      most intense interest everywhere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have dey return your call, madam?&rdquo; asked the Pole, with an almost
+      imperceptible glance beneath his dark brows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not yet, Count; we only left our cards yesterday.&rdquo; This, be it said in
+      parenthesis, was &ldquo;inexact,&rdquo; the visit had been made eight days before.
+      &ldquo;Nor should we have gone at all, but Lady Foxington begged and entreated
+      we would. 'They will be so utterly without guidance of any kind,' she
+      said, 'you must really take them in hand.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you will take dem in your hand eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That depends, my dear Count, that depends,&rdquo; said she, pondering. &ldquo;We must
+      see what line they adopt here; rank and wealth have no influence with us
+      if ununited with moral and intellectual excellence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I take it, then, your circle will be more select than amusing this
+      winter,&rdquo; said Haggerstone, with one of his whip-cracking enunciations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be it so, Colonel,&rdquo; sighed she, plaintively. &ldquo;Like a lone beacon on a
+      rock, with I forget the quotation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With the phos-phos-phos-phate of lime upon it?&rdquo; said Purvis, &ldquo;that new
+      discov-co-covery?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With no such thing! A figure is, I perceive, a dangerous mode of
+      expression.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha! ha! ha!&rdquo; cried he, with a peculiar cackle, whose hysteric notes
+      always carried himself into the seventh heaven of enjoyment, &ldquo;you would
+      cut a pretty figure if you were to be made a beacon of, and be burned like
+      Moses. Ha! ha! ha!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The lady turned from him in disdain, and addressed the Colonel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you really think that they are embarrassed, and that is the true
+      reason of their coming abroad?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe I may say I know it, ma'am!&rdquo; rejoined he. &ldquo;There is a kind of
+      connection between our families, although I should be very sorry they 'd
+      hear of it, the Badelys and the Harringtons are first cousins.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, to be sure!&rdquo; broke in Purvis. &ldquo;Jane Harrington was father; no, no,
+      not father she was mo-mo-mother of Tom Badely; no! that is n't it, she was
+      his aunt, or his brother-in-law, I forget which.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pray be good enough, sir, not to involve a respectable family in a breach
+      of common law,&rdquo; said Haggerstone, tartly, &ldquo;and leave the explanation to
+      me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How I do dislike dat English habit of countin' cousins,&rdquo; said the Pole;
+      &ldquo;you never see tree, four English togeder without a leetle tree of
+      genealogie in de middle, and dey do sit all round, fighting for de fruit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Financial reasons, then, might dictate retirement,&rdquo; said Mrs. Ricketts,
+      coming back to the original theme.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A very significant nod from Haggerstone inferred that he concurred in the
+      remark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Four contested elections for a county, ma'am, a spendthrift wife, and a
+      gambling son, rarely increase a man's income,&rdquo; said he, sententiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do he play? What for play is he fond of?&rdquo; asked the Pole, eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Play, sir? There is nothing an Englishman will not play at, from the
+      turf, to tossing for sovereigns.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So Hamlet say, in Shakspeare, 'de play is de ting,'&rdquo; cried the Count,
+      with the air of a man who made a happy quotation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are going to have plays,&rdquo; broke in Purvis; &ldquo;Jekyl let it out
+      to-night. They 're going to get up a Vauvau-vau-vau&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A tete de veau, probably, sir,&rdquo; said Haggerstone; &ldquo;In which case,&rdquo;
+       continued he, in a whisper, &ldquo;you would be invaluable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, it is n't that,&rdquo; broke in Purvis; &ldquo;they are to have what they call
+      Proverbs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I trust they have engaged your services as Solomon, sir,&rdquo; said
+      Haggerstone, with that look of satisfaction which always followed an
+      impudent speech.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I heard the subject of one of them,&rdquo; resumed the other, who was far too
+      occupied with his theme to bestow a thought upon a sarcasm. &ldquo;There's a
+      lady in love with with with her Mam-mam-mam&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Her mamma,&rdquo; suggested the Pole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, it is n't her mamma; it's her Mam-ame-ameluke her Mameluke slave; and
+      he, who is a native prince, with a great many wives of his own&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, for shame, Scroope, you forget Martha is here,&rdquo; said Mrs. Ricketts,
+      who was always ready to suppress the bore by a call to order on the score
+      of morals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It isn't wrong, I assure you; just hear me out; let me only explain&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, pray don't insist, I beg you,&rdquo; said Mrs. Ricketts, with a regal
+      wave of her hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, it's Miss Dalton is to play it, Jekyl says,&rdquo; cried Purvis, in a tone
+      of most imploring cadence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And who may Miss Dalton be?&rdquo; asked Mrs. Ricketts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is the niece no, she's the aunt or rather her father is aunt to to&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He may be an old lady, sir; but, surely&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I have it now!&rdquo; broke in Purvis. &ldquo;It was her mother; Miss
+      Da-a-alton's mother was uncle to a Stafford.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps I can shorten the pedigree,&rdquo; said Haggerstone, tartly. &ldquo;The young
+      lady is the daughter of a man whom this same Sir Stafford tricked out of
+      his fortune; they were distant relatives, so he had n't even the plea of
+      blood-relationship to cover his iniquity. It was, however, an Irish
+      fortune, and, like a Spanish chateau, its loss is more a question of
+      feeling than of fact. The lawyers still say that Dalton's right is
+      unimpeachable, and that the Onslows have not even the shadow of a case for
+      a jury.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An' have de lady no broder nor sister?&rdquo; asked the Count, who had heard
+      this story with much attention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She has, sir, both brother and sister, but both illegitimate, so that
+      this girl is the heiress to the estate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And probably destined to be the wife of the young Guardsman,&rdquo; said Mrs.
+      Ricketts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Guessed with your habitual perspicuity, madam,&rdquo; said Haggerstone, bowing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How very shocking! What worldliness one sees everywhere!&rdquo; cried she,
+      plaintively.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The world is excessively worldly, madam,&rdquo; rejoined Haggerstone; &ldquo;but I
+      really believe that we are not a jot worse than were the patriarchs of
+      old.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, oui, les patriarches!&rdquo; echoed the Pole, laughing, and always ready to
+      seize upon an allusion that savored of irreverence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Count! Colonel Haggerstone!&rdquo; cried Mrs. Ricketts, in reproof, and with a
+      look to where Martha sat at her embroidery-frame. &ldquo;And this Miss Dalton is
+      she pretty?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is pretty at this moment, madam; but, with a clever hairdresser and a
+      good milliner, would be downright beautiful. Of course these are adjuncts
+      she is little likely to find during her sojourn with the Onslows.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor thing! how glad one would be to offer her a kinder asylum,&rdquo; said
+      Mrs. Ricketts, while she threw her eyes over the cracked china monsters
+      and mock Vandykes around her; &ldquo;a home,&rdquo; added she, &ldquo;where intellectuality
+      and refinement might compensate for the vulgar pleasures of mere wealth!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She may want such, one of these days, yet, or I'm much mistaken,&rdquo; said
+      Haggerstone. &ldquo;Onslow has got himself very deep in railway speculations; he
+      has heavy liabilities in some Mexican mining affairs too. They 've all
+      been living very fast; and a crash a real crash&rdquo; this word he gave with a
+      force of utterance that only malignity could compass &ldquo;is almost certain to
+      follow! What an excellent stable will come to the hammer then! There 's a
+      'Bone setter' colt worth a thousand guineas, with his engagements.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And now there was a little pause in the dialogue, while each followed out
+      the thoughts of his own mind. Haggerstoue's were upon the admirable
+      opportunity of picking up a first-rate batch of horses for a fourth of
+      their value; Mrs. Ricketts was pondering over the good policy of securing
+      possession of a rich heiress as a member of her family, to be held in
+      bondage as long as possible, and eventually if it must be given in
+      marriage to some unprovided-for cousin; the Pole's dreams were of a rich
+      wife; and Purvis, less ambitious than the rest, merely revelled in the
+      thought of all the gossip this great event, when it should come off, would
+      afford him; the innumerable anecdotes he would have to retail of the
+      family and their wastefulness; the tea-parties he should enliven by his
+      narratives; the soirees he would amuse with his sallies. Blessed gift of
+      imbecility! how infinitely more pleasurable to its possessor than all the
+      qualities and attributes of genius!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dat is ver pretty indeed, tres jolie!&rdquo; said the Count, bestowing a look
+      of approval at the embroidery-frame, whereupon, for eight mortal months,
+      poor Martha labored at the emblazonment of the Ricketts' arms; &ldquo;de leetle
+      dogs are as de life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are tigers, Monsieur le Comte,&rdquo; replied she, modestly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, pardon! dey are tigres!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Most puppies are somewhat tigerish nowadays,&rdquo; chimed in Haggerstone,
+      rising to take his leave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are leaving us early, Colonel,&rdquo; said the old General, as he awoke
+      from a long nap on the little corner sofa, which formed his resting-place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is past two, sir; and, even in your society, one cannot cheat time.&rdquo;
+       Then, having acquitted himself of his debt of impertinence, he wished them
+      good-night. The others, also, took their leave and departed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXII. KATE.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      LET us now return to Kate Dalton, whose life, since we last saw her, had
+      been one round of brilliant enjoyment. To the pleasure of the journey,
+      with all its varied objects of interest, the picturesque scenery of the
+      Via Mala, the desolate grandeur of the Splugen, the calm and tranquil
+      beauty of Como, succeeded the thousand treasures of art in the great
+      cities where they halted. At first every image and object seemed
+      associated by some invisible link with thoughts of home. What would Nelly
+      think or say of this? was the ever-recurring question of her mind. How
+      should she ever be able to treasure up her own memories and tell of the
+      wonderful things that every moment met her eyes? The quick succession of
+      objects, all new and dazzling, were but so many wonders to bring back to
+      that &ldquo;dear fireside&rdquo; of home. The Onslows themselves, who saw everything
+      without enthusiasm of any kind, appeared to take pleasure in the freshness
+      of the young girl's admiration. It gave them, as it were, a kind of
+      reflected pleasure, while, amid galleries and collections of all that was
+      rare and curious, nothing struck them as half so surprising as the
+      boundless delight of her unhackneyed nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Educated to a certain extent by watching the pursuits of her sister, Kate
+      knew how to observe with taste, and admire with discrimination. Beauty of
+      high order would seem frequently endowed with a power of appreciating the
+      beauty of art, a species of relation appearing almost to subsist between
+      the two.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gifted with this instinct, there was an intensity in all her enjoyments,
+      which displayed itself in the animation of her manner and the elevated
+      expression of her features. The coldest and most worldly natures are
+      seldom able to resist the influence of this enthusiasm; however hard the
+      metal of their hearts, they must melt beneath this flame. Lady Hester
+      Onslow herself could not remain insensible to the pure sincerity and
+      generous warmth of this artless girl. For a time the combat, silent,
+      unseen, but eventful, was maintained between these two opposite natures,
+      the principle of good warring with the instincts of evil. The victory
+      might have rested with the true cause there was every prospect of its
+      doing so when Sydney Onslow, all whose sympathies were with Kate, and
+      whose alliance had every charm of sisterhood, was suddenly recalled to
+      England by tidings of her aunt's illness. Educated by her aunt Conway, she
+      had always looked up to her as a mother, nor did the unhappy circumstances
+      of her father's second marriage tend to weaken this feeling of attachment.
+      The sad news reached them at Genoa; and Sydney, accompanied by Dr.
+      Grounsell, at once set out for London. If the sudden separation of the two
+      girls, just at the very moment of a budding friendship, was sorrowfully
+      felt by both, to Lady Hester the event was anything but unwelcome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She never had liked Sydney; she now detested the notion of a
+      step-daughter, almost of her own age, in the same society with herself;
+      she dreaded, besides, the influence that she had already acquired over
+      Kate, whose whole heart and nature she had resolved on monopolizing. It
+      was not from any feeling of attachment or affection, it was the pure
+      miser-like desire for possession that animated her. The plan of carrying
+      away Kate from her friends and home had been her own; she, therefore,
+      owned her; the original title was vested in her: the young girl's whole
+      future was to be in her hands; her &ldquo;road in life&rdquo; was to be at her
+      dictation. To be free of Sydney and the odious doctor by the same event
+      was a double happiness, which, in spite of all the decorous restraints bad
+      news impose, actually displayed itself in the most palpable form.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Palazzo Mazzarini was now to be opened to the world, with all the
+      splendor wealth could bestow, untrammelled by any restriction the taste of
+      Sydney or the prudence of the doctor might impose. Sir Stafford, ever
+      ready to purchase quiet for himself at any cost of money, objected to
+      nothing. The cheapness of Italy, the expectations formed of an Englishman,
+      were the arguments which always silenced him if he ventured on the very
+      mildest remonstrance about expenditure; and Jekyl was immediately called
+      into the witness-box, to show that among the economies of the Continent
+      nothing was so striking as the facilities of entertaining. George, as
+      might be supposed, had no dislike to see their own house the great centre
+      of society, and himself the much sought-after and caressed youth of the
+      capital.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for Kate, pleasure came associated in her mind with all that could
+      elevate and exalt it, refinement of manners, taste, luxury, the
+      fascinations of wit, the glitter of conversational brilliancy. She had
+      long known that she was handsome, but she had never felt it till now;
+      never awoke to that thrilling emotion which whispers of power over others,
+      and which elevates the possessor of a great quality into a species of
+      petty sovereignty above their fellows. Her progress in this conviction was
+      a good deal aided by her maid; for, at Jekyl's suggestion, a certain
+      Mademoiselle Nina had been attached to her personal staff.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not easy at first for Kate to believe in the fact at all that she
+      should have a peculiar attendant; nor was it without much constraint and
+      confusion that she could accept of services from one whose whole air and
+      bearing bore the stamp of breeding and tact. Mademoiselle Nina had been
+      the maid of the Princess Menzikoff, the most distinguished belle of
+      Florence, the model of taste and elegance in dress; but when the Princess
+      separated from her husband, some unexplained circumstances had involved
+      the name of the femme de chambre, so that, instead of &ldquo;exchanging without
+      a difference,&rdquo; as a person of her great abilities might readily have done,
+      she had disappeared for a while from the scene and sphere in which
+      habitually she moved, and only emerged from her seclusion to accept the
+      humble position of Kate Dalton's maid. She was a perfect type of her own
+      countrywomen in her own class of life. Small and neatly formed, her head
+      was too large for her size, and the forehead over-large for the face, the
+      brows and temples being developed beyond all proportion. Her eyes, jet
+      black and deeply set, were cold, stern-looking, and sleepy, sadness, or
+      rather weariness, being the characteristic expression of the face. Her
+      mouth, however, when she smiled, relieved this, and gave a look of
+      softness to her features. Her manner was that of great distance and
+      respect, the trained observance of one who had been always held in the
+      firm hand of discipline, and never suffered to assume the slightest
+      approach to a liberty. She contrived, however, even in her silence, or in
+      the very few words she ever uttered, to throw an air of devotion into her
+      service that took away from the formality of a manner that at first seemed
+      cold and even repulsive. Kate, indeed, in the beginning, was thrown back
+      by the studied reserve and deferential distance she observed; but as days
+      went over, and she grew more accustomed to the girl's manner, she began to
+      feel pleased with the placid and unchanging demeanor that seemed to
+      bespeak a mind admirably trained and regulated to its own round of duties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While Kate sat at a writing-table, adding a few lines to that letter
+      which, began more than a week ago, was still far from being completed,
+      Nina, whose place was beside the window, worked away with bent-down head,
+      not seeming to have a thought save for the occupation before her. Not so
+      Kate; fancies came and went at every instant, breaking in upon the tenor
+      of her thoughts, or wending far away on errands of speculation. Now she
+      would turn her eye from the page to gaze in wondering delight at the
+      tasteful decorations of her little chamber, a perfect gem of elegance in
+      all its details; then she would start up to step out upon the terrace,
+      where even in winter the orange-trees were standing, shedding their sweet
+      odor at every breeze from the Arno. With what rapturous delight she would
+      follow the windings of that bright river, till it was lost in the dark
+      woods of the Cascini! How the sounds of passing equipages, the glitter and
+      display of the moving throng, stirred her heart; and then, as she turned
+      back within the room, with what a thrill of ecstasy her eyes rested on the
+      splendid ball-dress which Nina had just laid upon the sofa! With a
+      trembling hand she touched the delicate tissue of Brussels lace, and
+      placed it over her arm in a graceful fold, her cheek flushing and her
+      chest heaving in consciousness of heightening beauty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0010" id="linkimage-0010">
+      <!-- IMG --></a> <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/00262.jpg" alt="00262" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nina's head was never raised, her nimble fingers never ceased to ply; but
+      beneath her dark brows her darker eyes shot forth a glance of deep and
+      subtle meaning, as she watched the young girl's gesture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nina,&rdquo; cried she, at last, &ldquo;it is much too handsome for me; although I
+      love to look at it, I actually fear to wear it. You know I never have worn
+      anything like this before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mademoiselle is too diffident and too unjust to her own charms; beautiful
+      as is the robe, it only suits the elegance of its wearer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One ought to be so graceful in every gesture, so perfect in every
+      movement beneath folds like these,&rdquo; cried Kate, still gazing at the fine
+      tracery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mademoiselle is grace itself!&rdquo; said she, in a low, soft voice, so quiet
+      in its utterance that it sounded like a reflection uttered unconsciously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Nina, if I were so! If I only could feel that my every look and
+      movement were not recalling the peasant girl; for, after all, I have been
+      little better, our good blood could not protect us from being poor, and
+      poverty means so much that lowers!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Nina sighed, but so softly as to be inaudible; and Kate went on:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My sister Nelly never thought so; she always felt differently. Oh, Nina,
+      how you would love her if you saw her, and how you would admire her
+      beautiful hair, and those deep blue eyes, so soft, so calm, and yet so
+      meaning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Nina looked up, and seemed to give a glance that implied assent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nelly would be so happy here, wandering through these galleries, and
+      sitting for hours long in those beautiful churches, surrounded with all
+      that can elevate feeling or warm imagination; she, too, would know how to
+      profit by these treasures of art. The frivolous enjoyments that please me
+      would be beneath her. Perhaps she would teach me better things; perhaps I
+      might turn from mere sensual pleasure to higher and purer sources of
+      happiness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will Mademoiselle permit me to try this wreath?&rdquo; said Nina, advancing
+      with a garland of white roses, which she gracefully placed around Kate's
+      head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A half cry of delight burst from Kate as she saw the effect in the glass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beautiful, indeed!&rdquo; said Nina, as though in concurrence with an unspoken
+      emotion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, Nina, I scarcely like this it seems as though I cannot tell what I
+      wish as though I would desire notice I, that am nothing that ought to pass
+      unobserved.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You, Mademoiselle,&rdquo; cried Nina, and for the first time a slight warmth
+      coloring the tone of her manner, &ldquo;you, Mademoiselle, the belle, the
+      beauty, the acknowledged beauty of Florence!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nina! Nina!&rdquo; cried Kate rebukingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope Mademoiselle will forgive me. I would not for the world fail in my
+      respect,&rdquo; said Nina, with deep humility; &ldquo;but I was only repeating what
+      others spoke.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not angry, Nina, at least, not with you,&rdquo; said Kate, hurriedly.
+      &ldquo;With myself, indeed, I 'm scarcely quite pleased. But who could have said
+      such a silly thing?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Every one, Mademoiselle, every one, as they were standing beneath the
+      terrace t' other evening. I overheard Count Labinski say it to Captain
+      Onslow; and then my Lady took it up, and said, 'You are quite right,
+      gentlemen; there is nothing that approaches her in beauty.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nina! dear Nina!&rdquo; said Kate, covering her flushed face with both hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Count de Melzi was more enthusiastic than even the rest. He vowed
+      that he had grown out of temper with his Raffaelles since he saw you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A hearty burst of laughter from Kate told that this flattery, at least,
+      had gone too far. And now she resumed her seat at the writing-table. It
+      was of the Splugen Pass and Como she had been writing; of the first burst
+      of Italy upon the senses, as, crossing the High Alps, the land of the
+      terraced vine lay stretched beneath. She tried to fall back upon the
+      memory of that glorious scene as it broke upon her; but it was in vain.
+      Other and far different thoughts had gained the mastery. It was no longer
+      the calm lake, on whose mirrored surface snow-peaks and glaciers were
+      reflected; it was not of those crags, over which the wild-fig and the
+      olive, the oleander and the mimosa, are spreading, she could think. Other
+      images crowded to her brain; troops of admirers were before her fancy; the
+      hum of adulation filled her ears; splendid salons, resounding with
+      delicious music, and ablaze with a thousand wax-lights, rose before her
+      imagination, and her heart swelled with conscious triumph. The transition
+      was most abrupt, then, from a description of scenery and natural objects
+      to a narrative of the actual life of Florence:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Up to this, Nelly, we have seen no one, except Mr. Jekyl,
+     whom you will remember as having met at Baden. He dines here
+     several days every week, and is most amusing with his funny
+     anecdotes and imitations, for he knows everybody, and is a
+     wonderful mimic. You 'd swear Dr. Grounsell was in the next
+     room if you heard Mr. Jekyl' s imitation. There has been
+     some difficulty about an opera-box, for Mr. Jekyl, who
+     manages everybody, will insist upon having Prince
+     Midchekoff's, which is better than the royal box, and has
+     not succeeded. For this reason we have not yet been to the
+     Opera; and, as the Palace has been undergoing a total change
+     of decoration and furniture, there has been no reception
+     here as yet; but on Tuesday we are to give our first ball.
+     All that I could tell you of splendor, my dearest Nelly,
+     would be nothing to the reality of what I see here. Such
+     magnificence in every detail; such troops of servants, all
+     so respectful and obliging, and some dressed in liveries
+     that resemble handsome uniforms! Such gold and silver plate!
+     such delicious flowers everywhere on the staircase, in the
+     drawing-room, here, actually, beside me as I write! And, oh,
+     Nelly, if you could see my dress! Lace, with bouquets of red
+     camellia, and looped up with strings of small pearls. Think
+     of me, of poor Kate Dal ton, wearing such splendor! And,
+     strange enough, too, I do not feel awkward in it. My hair,
+     that you used to think I dressed so well myself, has been
+     pronounced a perfect horror; and although I own it did shock
+     me at first to hear it, I now see that they were perfectly
+     right. Instead of bands, I wear ringlets down to my very
+     shoulders; and Nina tells me there never was such an
+     improvement, as the character of my features requires
+     softening. Such quantities of dress as I have got, too! for
+     there is endless toilette here; and although I am now
+     growing accustomed to it, at first it worried me dreadfully,
+     and left me no time to read. And, a propos of reading, Lady
+     Hester has given me such a strange book, 'Mathilde,' it is
+     called; very clever, deeply interesting, but not the kind of
+     reading you would like; at least, neither the scenes nor the
+     characters such as you would care for. Of course I take it
+     to be a good picture of life in another sphere from what I
+     have seen myself; and if it be, I must say there is more
+     vice in high society than I believed. One trait of manners,
+     however, I cannot help admiring, the extreme care that every
+     one takes never to give even the slightest offence; not only
+     that the wrong thing is never said, but ever even suggested.
+     Such an excessive deference to others' feelings bespeaks
+     great refinement, if not a higher and better quality. Lady
+     Hester is delightful in this respect. I cannot tell you how
+     the charm of her manner grows into a fascination. Captain
+     Onslow I see little of, but he is always good-humored and
+     gay; and as for Sir Stafford, he is like a father in the
+     kindliness and affection of his cordiality. Sydney I miss
+     greatly; she was nearly of my own age, and although so much
+     superior to me in every way, so companionable and
+     sisterlike. We are to write to each other if she does not
+     return soon. I intended to have said so much about the
+     galleries, but Mr. Jekyl does quiz so dreadfully about
+     artistic enthusiasm, I am actually ashamed to say a word;
+     besides, to me, Nelly, beautiful pictures impart pleasure
+     less from intrinsic merit than from the choice of subject
+     and the train of thoughts they originate; and for this
+     reason I prefer Salvator Rosa to all other painters. The
+     romantic character of his scenery, the kind of story that
+     seems to surround his characters, the solemn tranquillity of
+     his moonlights, the mellow splendor of his sunsets, actually
+     heighten one's enjoyment of the realities in nature. I am
+     ashamed to own that Raffaelle is less my favorite than
+     Titian, whose portraits appear to reveal the whole character
+     and life of the individual represented. In Velasq'uez there
+     is another feature&mdash;&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      Here came an interruption, for Nina came with gloves to choose, and now
+      arose the difficult decision between a fringe of silver filigree and a
+      deep fall of Valenciennes lace, a question on both sides of which
+      Mademoiselle Nina had much to say. In all these little discussions, the
+      mock importance lent to mere trifles at first amused Kate, and even
+      provoked her laughter; but, by degrees, she learned not only to listen to
+      them with attention, but even to take her share in the consultation.
+      Nina's great art lay in her capacity for adapting a costume to the
+      peculiar style and character of the wearer; and, however exaggerated were
+      some of her notions on this subject, there was always a sufficiency of
+      shrewd sense and good taste in her remarks to overbear any absurdity in
+      her theory. Kate Dalton, whose whole nature had been simplicity and
+      frankness itself, was gradually brought to assume a character with every
+      change of toilette; for if she came down to breakfast in a simple robe of
+      muslin, she changed it for a costume de paysanna to walk in the garden,
+      and this again for a species of hunting-dress to ride in the Cascini, to
+      appear afterwards at dinner in some new type of a past age; an endless
+      variety of these devices at last engaging attention, and occupying time,
+      to the utter exclusion of topics more important and interesting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The letter was now to be resumed; but the clew was lost, and her mind was
+      only fettered with topics of dress and toilette. She walked out upon the
+      terrace to recover her composure; but beneath the window was rolling on
+      that endless tide of people and carriages that swells up the great flood
+      of a capital city. She turned her steps to another side, and there, in the
+      pleasure-ground, was George Onslow, with a great horse-sheet round him,
+      accustoming a newly purchased Arabian to the flapping of a riding-skirt.
+      It was a present Sir Stafford had made her the day before. Everything she
+      saw, everything she heard, recalled but one image, herself! The
+      intoxication of this thought was intense. Life assumed features of delight
+      and pleasure she had never conceived possible before. There was an
+      interest imparted to everything, since in everything she had her share.
+      Oh! most insidious of all poisons is that of egotism, which lulls the
+      conscience by the soft flattery we whisper to ourselves, making us to
+      believe that we are such as the world affects to think us. How ready are
+      we to take credit for gifts that have been merely lent us by a kind of
+      courtesy, and of which we must make restitution, when called upon, with
+      what appetite we may.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the time, indeed, the ecstasy of this delusion is boundless. Who has
+      not, at some one moment or other of his life, experienced the entrancing
+      delight of thinking that the world is full of his friends and admirers,
+      that good wishes follow him as he goes, and kind welcomes await his
+      coming? Much of our character for good or evil, of our subsequent utility
+      in life, or our utter helplessness, will depend upon how we stand the
+      season of trial. Kate Daiton possessed much to encourage this credulity;
+      she was not only eminently handsome, but she had that species of
+      fascination in her air which a clever French writer defines as the
+      feminine essence, &ldquo;plus femme que les autres femmes.&rdquo; If a very critical
+      eye might have detected in her manner and address certain little
+      awkwardnesses, a less exacting judgment would have probably been struck
+      with them as attractions, recalling the fact of her youth, her simplicity,
+      and the freshness of her nature. Above all other charms, however, was the
+      radiant happiness that beamed out in every word and look and gesture; such
+      a thorough sense of enjoyment, so intense a pleasure in life, is among the
+      very rarest of all gifts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was enough of singularity, of the adventurous, in the nature of her
+      position, to excel all the romance of her nature; there was more than
+      enough of real splendor around her to give an air of fact and truth to the
+      highest flights of her imagination. Had she been the sole daughter of the
+      house and name, flatteries and caresses could not have been lavished on
+      her more profusely; her will consulted, her wishes inquired, her taste
+      evoked on every occasion. And yet, with all these seductions about her,
+      she was not yet spoiled not yet! Home and its dear associations were ever
+      present to her mind; her humble fortune, and that simple life she used to
+      lead, enforcing lessons of humility not yet distasteful. She could still
+      recur to the memory of the little window that looked over the &ldquo;Murg,&rdquo; and
+      think the scenery beautiful. Her dear, dear papa was still all she had
+      ever thought him. Nelly was yet the sweet-tempered, gentle, gifted
+      creature she worshipped as a sister; even Hanserl was the kind, quaint
+      emblem of his own dreamy &ldquo;Vaterland.&rdquo; As yet no conflict had arisen
+      between the past and the present, between the remembrance of narrow
+      fortune and all its crippling exigencies, and the enjoyment of wealth that
+      seems to expand the generous feelings of the heart. The lustre of her
+      present existence threw, as yet, no sickly light over the bygone; would it
+      might have been always so!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIII. A SMALL SUPPER PARTY.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE great ball at the Mazzarini Palace &ldquo;came off&rdquo; just as other great
+      balls have done, and will continue to do, doubtless, for ages hence. There
+      was the usual, perhaps a little more than the usual, splendor of dress and
+      diamonds; the same glare and crash and glitter and crowd and heat; the
+      same buoyant light-heartedness among the young; the same corroding ennui
+      of the old; taste in dress was criticised, looks were scanned, flirtations
+      detected, quarrels discovered, fans were mislaid, hearts were lost,
+      flounces were torn, and feelings hurt. There was the ordinary measure of
+      what people call enjoyment, mixed up with the ordinary proportion of envy,
+      shyness, pretension, sarcasm, coldness, and malice. It was a grand
+      tournament of human passions in white satin and jewels; and if the wounds
+      exchanged were not as rudely administered, they were to the full as
+      dangerous as in the real lists of combat. Yet, in this mortal conflict,
+      all seemed happy. There was an air of voluptuous abandonment over
+      everything; and whatever cares they might have carried within, as far as
+      appearance went, the world went well and pleasantly with them. The ball
+      was, however, a splendid one; there was everything that could make it
+      such. The salons were magnificent in decoration; the lighting a perfect
+      blaze. There was beauty in abundance, diamonds in masses, and a Royal
+      Highness from the Court, an insignificant little man, it is true, with a
+      star and a stutter, who stared at every one, and spoke to nobody. Still he
+      was the centre of a glittering group of handsome aides-de-camp, who
+      displayed their fascinations in every gesture and look.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Apart from the great flood-tide of pleasure, down which so many float
+      buoyantly, there is ever on these occasions a deeper current that flows
+      beneath, of human wile and cunning and strategy, just as, in many a German
+      fairy tale, some curious and recondite philosophy lies hid beneath the
+      little incidents related to amuse childhood. It would lead us too far from
+      the path of our story were we to seek for this &ldquo;tiny thread amid the
+      woof;&rdquo; enough for our present purpose if we slightly advert to it, by
+      asking our reader to accompany us to the small chamber which called Albert
+      Jekyl master, and where now, at midnight, a little table of three covers
+      was laid for supper. Three flasks of champagne stood in a little ice-pail
+      in one corner, and on a dumbwaiter was arranged a dessert, which, for the
+      season, displayed every charm of rarity. A large bouquet of moss-roses and
+      camellias ornamented the centre of the board, and shed a pleasant odor
+      through the room. The servant, whose dress and look bespoke him a waiter
+      from a restaurant in the neighborhood, had just completed all the
+      arrangements of the table, placing chairs around it, and heaped fresh wood
+      upon the hearth, when a carriage drew up at the door. The merry sound of
+      voices and the step of feet were heard on the stairs, and the next moment
+      a lady entered, whose dress of black lace, adorned with bouquets of blue
+      flowers, admirably set off a figure and complexion of Spanish mould and
+      character. To this, a black lace veil fastened to the hair behind, and
+      worn across the shoulders, contributed. There was a lightness and
+      intrepidity in her step, as she entered the room, that suited the dark,
+      flashing, steady glance of her full black eyes. It would have, indeed,
+      been difficult to trace in that almost insolent air of conscious beauty
+      the calm, subdued, and almost sorrow-struck girl whom we have seen as Nina
+      in a former chapter; but, however dissimilar in appearance, they were the
+      same one individual; and the humble femme de chambre of Kate Dalton was
+      the celebrated ballet-dancer of the great theatre of Barcelona.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The figure which followed was a strange contrast to that light and elegant
+      form. He was an old, short man, of excessive corpulence in body, and whose
+      face was bloated and purple by intemperance. He was dressed in the habit
+      of a priest, and was in reality a canon of the Dome Cathedral. His
+      unwieldy gait, his short and labored respiration, increased almost to
+      suffocation by the ascent of the stairs and his cumbrous dress, seemed
+      doubly absurd beside the flippant lightness of the &ldquo;Ballarina.&rdquo; Jekyl came
+      last, mimicking the old canon behind his back, and putting the waiter's
+      gravity to a severe test by the bloated expansion of his cheek and the
+      fin-like motion of his hands as he went.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ecco me!&rdquo; cried he out, with a deep grunt, as he sank into a chair and
+      wiped the big drops from his forehead with the skirt of his gown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You tripped up the stairs like a gazelle, padre,&rdquo; said the girl, as she
+      arranged her hair before the glass, and disposed the folds of her veil
+      with all the tact of coquetry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A thick snort, like the ejaculation a hippopotamus might have uttered, was
+      the only reply, and Jekyl, having given a glance over the table to see all
+      was in order, made a sign for Nina to be seated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Accursed be the stairs and he that made them!&rdquo; muttered the padre. &ldquo;I
+      feel as if my limbs had been torn on the rack. I have been three times up
+      the steps of the high altar already to-day, and am tired as a dog.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here is your favorite soup, padre,&rdquo; said Jekyl, as he moved the ladle
+      through a smoking compound, whence a rich odor of tomato and garlic
+      ascended. &ldquo;This will make you young again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And who said I would wish to be young again?&rdquo; cried the priest, angrily.
+      &ldquo;I have experience of what youth means every day in the confessional, and
+      I promise you age has the best of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Such a ripe and ruddy age as yours, padre!&rdquo; said the girl, with affected
+      simplicity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0011" id="linkimage-0011">
+      <!-- IMG --></a> <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/00274.jpg" alt="00274" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just so, minx,&rdquo; rejoined he; &ldquo;such ripeness as portends falling from the
+      tree! Better even that than to be worm-eaten on the stalk; ay, or a wasp's
+      nest within, girl, you understand me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will never be good friends for half an hour together,&rdquo; said Jekyl, as
+      he filled their glasses with champagne, and then touching his own to each,
+      drank off a bumper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These are from Savoy, these truffles, and have no flavor,&rdquo; said the
+      padre, pushing away his plate. &ldquo;Let me taste that lobster, for this is a
+      half-fast to-day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are like the priests,&rdquo; said Nina, laughing; &ldquo;all black without and
+      rotten within!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The ball went off admirably last night,&rdquo; interposed Jekyl, to stop what
+      he foresaw might prove a sharp altercation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Nina, languidly. &ldquo;The dresses were fresher than the wearers.
+      It was the first time for much of the satin, the same could not be said
+      for many of the company.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Balderoni looked well,&rdquo; said Jekyl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Too fat, caro mio, too fat!&rdquo; replied Nina.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And she has eight penances in the week,&rdquo; grunted out the canon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There 's nothing like wickedness for embonpoint, padre,&rdquo; said Nina,
+      laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Angels always are represented as chubby girls,&rdquo; said the priest, whose
+      temper seemed to improve as he ate on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Midchekoff, I thought, was out of temper all the evening,&rdquo; resumed Jekyl;
+      &ldquo;he went about with his glass in his eye, seeking for flaws in the lapis
+      lazuli, or retouches in the pictures; and seemed terribly provoked at the
+      goodness of the supper.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I forgive him all, for not dancing with 'my Lady,'&rdquo; said Nina. &ldquo;She kept
+      herself disengaged for the prince for half the night, and the only reward
+      was his Russian compliment of, 'What a bore is a ball when one is past the
+      age of dancing!'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did the Noncio eat much?&rdquo; asked the padre, who seemed at once curious and
+      envious about the dignitary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He played whist all night,&rdquo; said Jekyl, &ldquo;and never changed his partner!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The old Marchesa Guidotti?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The same. You know of that, then, padre?&rdquo; asked Jekyl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A grunt and a nod were all the response.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a curious chapter on 'La vie privee' of Florence your revelations
+      might be, padre!&rdquo; said Jekyl, as if reflectingly. &ldquo;What a deal of
+      iniquity, great and small, comes to your ears every season!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a vast amount of it has its origin in that little scheming brain of
+      thine, Signor Jekyli, and in the fertile wits of your fair neighbor. The
+      unhappy marriages thou hast made; the promising unions thou hast broken;
+      the doubts thou hast scattered here, the dark suspicions there; the
+      rightful distrust thou hast lulled, the false confidences encouraged,
+      youth, youth, thou hast a terrible score to answer for!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When I think of the long catalogue of villany you have been listening to,
+      padre, not only without an effort, but a wish to check; when every sin
+      recorded has figured in your ledger, with its little price annexed; when
+      you have looked out upon the stormy sea of society, as a wrecker ranges
+      his eye over an iron-bound coast in a gale, and thinks of the 'waifs' that
+      soon will be his own; when, as I have myself seen you, you have looked
+      indulgently down on petty transgressions, that must one day become big
+      sins, and, like a skilful angler, throw the little fish back into the
+      stream, in the confidence that when full-grown you can take them, when you
+      have done all these things and a thousand more, padre, I cannot help
+      muttering to myself, Age, age, what a terrible score thou hast to answer
+      for!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must say,&rdquo; interposed Nina, &ldquo;you are both very bad company, and that
+      nothing can be in worse taste than this interchange of compliments. You
+      are both right to amuse yourselves in this world as your faculties best
+      point out, but each radically wrong in attributing motives to the other.
+      What, in all that is wonderful, have we to do with motives? I'm sure <i>I</i>
+      have no grudges to cherish, no debts of dislike to pay off, anywhere. Any
+      diablerie I take part in, is for pure mischief sake. I do think it rather
+      a hard case, that, with somewhat better features, and I know a far
+      shrewder wit than many others, I should perform second and third rate
+      parts in this great comedy of life, while many without higher
+      qualifications are 'cast for the best characters.' This little score I do
+      try and exact, not from individuals, but the world at large. Mischief with
+      me is the child's pleasure in deranging the chessmen when the players are
+      most intent on the game.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, as to these Onslows, for we must be practical, padre mio,&rdquo; said
+      Jekyl, &ldquo;let us see what is to be done with them. As regards matrimony, the
+      real prize has left for England, this Dalton girl may or may not be a
+      'hit;' some aver that she is heiress to a large estate, of which the
+      Onslows have obtained possession, and that they destine her for the young
+      Guardsman. This must be inquired into. My Lady has 'excellent
+      dispositions,' and may have become anything or everything.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let her come to 'the Church,' then,&rdquo; growled out the canon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gently, padre, gently,&rdquo; said Jekyl, &ldquo;you are really too covetous, and
+      would drag the river always from your own net. We have been generous,
+      hugely generous, to you for the last three seasons, and have made all your
+      converts the pets of society, no matter how small and insignificant their
+      pretensions. The vulgar have been adopted in the best circles, the ugly
+      dubbed beautiful, the most tiresome of old maids have been reissued from
+      the mint as new coinage. We have petted, flattered, and fawned upon those
+      'interesting Christians,' as the 'Tablet' would call them, till the girls
+      began to feel that there were no partners for a polka outside the Church
+      of Rome, and that all the 'indulgences' of pleasure, like those of
+      religion, came from the Pope. We cannot give you the Onslows, or, at
+      least, not yet. We have yet to marry the daughter, provide for the friend,
+      squeeze the sou.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Profligate young villain! Reach me the champagne, Nina; and, Nina, tell
+      your young mistress that it is scarcely respectful to come on foot to the
+      mid-day mass; that the clergy of the town like to see the equipages of the
+      rich before the doors of the cathedral, as a suitable homage to the
+      Church. The Onslows have carriages in abundance, and their liveries are
+      gorgeous and splendid!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was her own choice,&rdquo; said Nina; &ldquo;she is a singular girl for one that
+      never before knew luxury of any kind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hate these simple tastes,&rdquo; growled out the padre; &ldquo;they bespeak that
+      obstinacy which people call a 'calm temperament.' Her own dress, too, has
+      no indication of her rank, Nina.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That shall be cared for, padre.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why shouldn't that young soldier come along with her? Tell him that our
+      choir is magnificent; whisper him that the beautiful Marchesa di Guardoni
+      sits on the very bench beside Miss Dalton.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Nina nodded an assent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The young girl herself is lax enough about her duties, Nina; she has not
+      been even once to confession.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That comes of these English!&rdquo; cried Nina; &ldquo;they make our service a
+      constant jest. There is always some vulgar quizzing about saint-worship,
+      or relic reverence, or the secrets of the confessional, going on amongst
+      them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does she permit this?&rdquo; asked the priest, eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She blushes sometimes, occasionally she smiles with a good-humor meant to
+      deprecate these attacks, and now and then, when the sallies have been
+      pushed too far, I have seen her in tears some hours after.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, if these heretics would but abstain from ridicule!&rdquo; cried the canon.
+      &ldquo;The least lettered amongst them can scoff and gibe and rail. They have
+      their stock subjects of sarcasm, too, handed down from father to son,
+      poor, witless little blasphemies, thefts from Voltaire, who laughed at
+      themselves, and much mischief do they work! Let them begin to read,
+      however, let them commence to 'inquire,' as the phrase has it, and the
+      game is our own.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think, padre,&rdquo; said Jekyl, &ldquo;that more of your English converts are made
+      upon principles of pure economy. Popery, like truffles, is so cheap
+      abroad!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Away with you! away with you!&rdquo; cried the padre, rebukingly. &ldquo;They come to
+      us as the children seek their mother's breast. Hand me the maccaroni.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Padre mio,&rdquo; broke in Jekyl, &ldquo;I wish you would be Catholic enough to be
+      less Popish. We have other plots in hand here, besides increasing the
+      funds of the 'Holy Carmelites;' and while we are disputing about the
+      spoil, the game may betake themselves to other hunting-grounds. These
+      Onslows must not be suffered to go hence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Albert is right,&rdquo; interposed Nina. &ldquo;When the 'Midchekoff' condescends to
+      think himself in love with the Dalton girl, when the Guardsman has lost
+      some thousands more than he can pay, when my Lady has offended one half of
+      Florence and bullied the other, then the city will have taken a hold upon
+      their hearts, and you may begin your crusade when you please. Indeed, I am
+      not sure, if the season be a dull one, I would not listen to you myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As you listened once before to the Abbe D'Esmonde,&rdquo; said the canon,
+      maliciously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl's cheek became deep red, and even over neck and shoulders the
+      scarlet flush spread, while her eyes flashed a look of fiery passion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you dare are you insolent enough to&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her indignation had carried her thus far, when, by a sudden change of
+      temper, she stopped, and clasping her hands over her face, burst into
+      tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jekyl motioned the priest to be silent, while, gently leading the other
+      into the adjoining room, he drew the curtain, and left her alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How could you say that?&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;you, padre, who know that this is more
+      than jest?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spare not the sinner, neither let the stripes be light, 'Non sit levis
+      flagella,' says Origen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are the ortolans good, padre?&rdquo; asked Jekyl, while his eye glittered with
+      an intense appreciation of the old canon's hypocrisy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They, are delicious! succulent and tender,&rdquo; said the priest, wiping his
+      lips. &ldquo;Francesco does them to perfection.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You at least believe in a cook,&rdquo; said Jekyl, but in so low a voice as to
+      escape the other's notice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is sobbing still,&rdquo; said the canon, in a whisper, and with a gesture
+      towards the curtained doorway. &ldquo;I like to hear them gulping down their
+      sighs. It is like the glug-glug of a rich flask of 'Lagrime.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But don't you pity them, padre?&rdquo; asked Jekyl, in mock earnestness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never! never! First of all, they do not suffer in all these outbursts. It
+      is but decanting their feelings into another vessel, and they love it
+      themselves! I have had them for hours together thus in the confessional,
+      and they go away after, so relieved in mind and so light of heart, there
+      's no believing it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But Nina,&rdquo; said Jekyl, seriously, &ldquo;is not one of these.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is a woman,&rdquo; rejoined the padre, &ldquo;and it is only a priest can read
+      them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see human nature as the physician does, padre, always in some aspect
+      of suffering. Of its moods of mirth and levity you know less than we do,
+      who pass more butterfly lives!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True in one sense, boy; ours are the stony paths, ours are the weary
+      roads in life! I like that Burgundy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It 's very pleasant, padre. It is part of a case I ordered for the
+      Onslows, but their butler shook the bottle when bringing it to table, and
+      they begged me to get rid of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These wines are not suited to Italy generally,&rdquo; said the canon; &ldquo;but
+      Florence has the merit of possessing all climates within the bounds of a
+      single day, and even Chambertin is scarcely generous enough when the
+      Tramontana is blowing!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, have you become better mannered? May I venture to come in?&rdquo; cried
+      Nina, appearing at the doorway.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Venga pure! Venga pure!'&rdquo; growled out the canon. &ldquo;I forgive thee
+      everything. Sit down beside me, and let us pledge a friendship forever.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, then, let this be a peace-offering,&rdquo; said she, taking the wreath
+      of flowers from her own head and placing it on the brows of the padre.
+      &ldquo;You are now like the old Bacchus in the Boboli.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And thou like&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Like what? Speak it out!&rdquo; cried she, angrily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, come, do, I beseech you, be good friends,&rdquo; interposed Jekyl. &ldquo;We
+      have met for other objects than to exchange reproaches.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These are but the 'iras amantium.' boy,&rdquo; said the priest; &ldquo;the girl loves
+      me with her whole heart.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How you read my most secret thoughts!&rdquo; said she, with a coquettish
+      affectation of sincerity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lectiones pravissimae would they be!&rdquo; muttered he, between his teeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that? What is he mumbling there, Albert?&rdquo; cried she, hastily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a benediction, Nina,&rdquo; replied Jekyl; &ldquo;did you not hear the Latin?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Peace was at last restored, and what between the adroit devices of Jekyl
+      and the goodness of his champagne, a feeling of pleasant sociality now
+      succeeded to all the bickering in which the festivity was prolonged to a
+      late hour. The graver business which brought them together the Onslows and
+      their affairs being discussed, they gave way to all the seductions of
+      their exalted fancies. Jekyl, taking up his guitar, warbled out a French
+      love song, in a little treble a bullfinch might have envied; Nina, with
+      the aid of the padre's beads for castanets, stepped the measure of a
+      bolero; while the old priest himself broke out into a long chant, in which
+      Ovid, Petrarch, Anacreon, and his breviary alternately figured, and under
+      the influence of which he fell fast asleep at last, totally unconscious of
+      the corked moustaches and eyebrows with which Nina ornamented his reverend
+      countenance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sound of wheels in the silent street at last admonished them of the
+      hour, and opening the window, Jekyl saw a brougham belonging to Sir
+      Stafford just drawing up at the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Francois is punctual,&rdquo; said Nina, looking at her watch; &ldquo;I told him five
+      o'clock.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Had we not better set him down first?&rdquo; said Jekyl, with a gesture toward
+      the priest; &ldquo;he does not live far away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With all my heart,&rdquo; replied she; &ldquo;but you're not going to wash his face?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course I am, Nina. The jest might cost us far more than it was worth.&rdquo;
+       And so saying, Jekyl proceeded to arrange the disordered dress and
+      dishevelled hair of the padre, during the performance of which the old
+      priest recovered sufficient consciousness to permit himself to be led
+      downstairs and deposited in the carriage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour later and all was still! Jekyl slumbering peacefully on his little
+      French bed, over which the rose-colored mosquito curtains threw a softened
+      half-sunset hue; a gentle smile parted his lips, as in his dreams the
+      dreams of a happy and contented nature he wove pleasant fancies and
+      devised many a future scheme.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In his own dreary little den, behind the &ldquo;Duomo,&rdquo; the padre also slept
+      heavily, not a thought, not a single passing idea breaking the stagnant
+      surface of his deep lethargy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nina, however, was wakeful, and had no mind for repose. Her brilliant
+      costume carefully laid aside, she was arranging her dark hair into its
+      habitually modest braid; her very features composing themselves, as she
+      did so, into their wonted aspect of gentleness and submission.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All the change of dress being little in comparison with the complete
+      alteration now observable in her whole air and demeanor, she seemed a
+      totally different being. And she was so, too; for while hypocrites to the
+      world, we completely forget that we share in the deception ourselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIV. A MIDNIGHT RECEPTION
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      IT was past midnight, the Opera was just over, and the few privileged
+      guests who were permitted to pay their visits to Lady Hester Onslow were
+      assembled in the little drawing-room and boudoir sacred to these exclusive
+      receptions. Nothing could be in stronger contrast than the gorgeous
+      splendor of the apartment and the half-dressed, careless, lounging ease of
+      the men as they stretched themselves on the ottomans, lounged on the
+      sofas, or puffed their cigars, alike indifferent to the place and the
+      presence of two ladies who, dressed in the very perfection of &ldquo;toilette,&rdquo;
+       did the honors of the reception.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Hester, who wore a small embroidered velvet cap, coquettishly set on
+      one side of the head, and a species of velvet jacket, such as is common in
+      Greece, lay upon a sofa beneath a canopy of pink silk covered with lace; a
+      most splendidly ornamented hooka, the emerald mouthpiece of which she held
+      in her hand, stood on a little cushion beside her; while grouped around in
+      every attitude that taste and caprice suggested on chairs, on cushions,
+      squabs, &ldquo;Prie-Dieu&rdquo; and other drawing-room devices of a like nature were
+      some half-dozen men, whose air and bearing pronounced them long habituated
+      to all the usages of society. One stamp of feature and style pervaded all;
+      pale, dark-eyed, black-bearded, and weary-looking, they seemed as though
+      they were tired of a life of dissipation, and yet utterly incapable of
+      engaging in any other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All born to high rank, some to large fortune, they found that no other
+      career was open to them except vice in one shape or other. The policy of
+      their rulers had excluded them from every road of honorable ambition;
+      neither as statesmen nor soldiers could they hope to win fame or glory.
+      Their habits of life and the tone of society gave no impulse to the
+      cultivation of science or literature. The topics discussed in their circle
+      never by chance adverted to a book; and there they were, with heads whose
+      development indicated all that was intellectual, with brows and foreheads
+      that betokened every gift of mental excellence, wearing away life in the
+      dullest imaginable routine of dissipation, their minds neglected, their
+      hearts corrupted, enervated in body, and deprived of all energy of
+      character; they wore, even in youth, the exhausted look of age, and bore
+      in every lineament of their features the type of lassitude and discontent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the adjoining room sat Kate Dalton at a tea-table. She was costumed for
+      we cannot use any milder word in a species of &ldquo;moyen-age&rdquo; dress, whose
+      length of stomacher and deep-hanging sleeves recalled the portraits of
+      Titian's time; a small cap covered the back of her head, through an
+      aperture in which the hair appeared, its rich auburn masses fastened by a
+      short stiletto of gold, whose hilt and handle were studded with precious
+      stones; a massive gold chain, with a heavy cross of the same metal, was
+      the only ornament she wore. Widely different as was the dress from that
+      humble guise in which the reader first knew her, the internal change was
+      even greater still; no longer the bashful, blushing girl, beaming with all
+      the delight of a happy nature, credulous, light-hearted, and buoyant, she
+      was now composed in feature, calm, and gentle-mannered; the placid smile
+      that moved her lips, the graceful motion of her head, her slightest
+      gestures, her least words, all displaying a polished ease and elegance
+      which made even her beauty and attraction secondary to the fascination of
+      her manner. It is true the generous frankness of her beaming eyes was
+      gone; she no longer met you with a look of full and fearless confidence:
+      the cordial warmth, the fresh and buoyant sallies of her ready wit, had
+      departed, and in their place was a timid reserve, a cautious, shrinking
+      delicacy, blended with a quiet but watchful spirit of repartee, that
+      flattered by the very degree of attention it betokened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps our reader will not feel pleased with us for saying that she was
+      more beautiful now than before; that intercourse with the world, dress,
+      manners, the tact of society, the stimulus of admiration, the assured
+      sense of her own charms, however they may have detracted from the moral
+      purity of her nature, had yet invested her appearance with higher and more
+      striking fascinations. Her walk, her courtesy, the passing motion of her
+      hand, her attitude as she sat, were perfect studies of grace. Not a trace
+      was left of her former manner; all was ease, pliancy, and elegance. Two
+      persons were seated near her: one of these, our old acquaintance, George
+      Onslow; the other was a dark, sallow-visaged man, whose age might have
+      been anything from thirty-five to sixty, for, while his features were
+      marked by the hard lines of time, his figure had all the semblance of
+      youth. By a broad blue ribbon round his neck he wore the decoration of
+      Saint Nicholas, and the breast of his coat was covered with stars,
+      crosses, and orders of half the courts of Europe. This was Prince
+      Midchekoff, whose grandfather, having taken an active part in the
+      assassination of the Emperor Paul, had never been reconciled to the
+      Imperial family, and was permitted to reside in a kind of honorable
+      banishment out of Russia; a punishment which he bore up under, it was
+      said, with admirable fortitude. His fortune was reputed to be immense, and
+      there was scarcely a capital of Europe in which he did not possess a
+      residence. The character of his face was peculiar, for while the forehead
+      and eyes were intellectual and candid, the lower jaw and mouth revealed
+      his Calmuck origin, an expression of intense, unrelenting cruelty being
+      the impression at once conveyed by the thin, straight, compressed lips,
+      and the long, projecting chin, seeming even longer from the black-pointed
+      beard he wore. There was nothing vulgar or common-place about him; he
+      never could have passed unobserved anywhere, and yet he was equally far
+      from the type of high birth. His manners were perfectly well bred; and
+      although he spoke seldom, his quiet and attentive air and his easy smile
+      showed he possessed the still rarer quality of listening well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was another figure, not exactly of this group, but at a little
+      distance off, beside a table in a recess, on which a number of prints and
+      drawings were scattered, and in the contemplation of which he affected to
+      be absorbed; while, from time to time, his dark eyes flashed rapidly
+      across to note all that went forward. He was a tall and singularly
+      handsome man, in the dress of a priest. His hair, black and waving,
+      covered a forehead high, massive, and well developed; his eyes were
+      deep-set, and around the orbits ran lines that told of long and hard
+      study, for the Abbe D'Esmonde was a distinguished scholar; and, as a means
+      of withdrawing him for a season from the overtoil of reading, he had been
+      attached temporarily as a species of Under-secretary to the Mission of the
+      &ldquo;Nonce.&rdquo; In this guise he was admitted into all the society of the
+      capital, where his polished address and gentle manner soon made him a
+      general favorite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Equally removed from the flippant levity of the abbe as a class, and the
+      gross and sensual coarseness of the &ldquo;old priest,&rdquo; D'Esmonde was a perfect
+      man of the world, so far as taking a lively interest in all the great
+      events of politics, watching eagerly the changeful features of the times,
+      and studying acutely the characters of the leading men, at whose dictates
+      they were modified. Its pleasures and amusements, too, he was willing to
+      partake of moderately and unobtrusively; but he held himself far apart
+      from all those subjects of gossip and small-talk which, in a society of
+      lax morality, occupy so considerable a space, and in which the great
+      dignitaries who wear scarlet and purple stockings are often seen to take a
+      lively and animated share. Some ascribed this reserve to principle; others
+      called it hypocrisy; and some, again, perhaps with more truth, deemed it
+      the settled line of action of one who already destined himself for a high
+      and conspicuous station, and had determined that his character should add
+      weight and dignity to his talents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It might have been thought that he was a singular guest to have been
+      admitted to receptions like the present; but Jekyl, who managed
+      everything, had invited him, on the principle, as he said, that a gourmand
+      has a decanter of water always beside him at dinner, &ldquo;not to drink, but
+      because it looks temperate.&rdquo; The abbe's presence had the same effect; and,
+      certainly, his calm and dignified demeanor, his polished address, and
+      cultivated tone, were excellent certificates of good character for the
+      rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the tea-table the conversation languished, or only went forward at
+      intervals. Onslow's French was not fluent, and he was silent from shame.
+      Kate felt that she ought not to take the lead; and the Prince, habitually
+      reserved, spoke very little, and even that in the discursive, unconnected
+      tone of a man who was always accustomed to find that any topic he started
+      should be instantly adopted by the company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cold and steady stare with which he surveyed her would, but a short
+      time back, have covered her face with a blush; she could not have borne
+      unabashed the glance of searching, almost insolent meaning he bestowed
+      upon her; but now, whatever her heart might have felt, her features were
+      calm and passionless; nor did she in the slightest degree show any
+      consciousness of a manner that was costing Onslow a struggle whether to
+      laugh at or resent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In one sense these two men were rivals, but each so impressed with proud
+      contempt for the other, their rivalry was unknown to both. Kate, however,
+      with her woman's tact, saw this, and knew well how her least smile or
+      slightest word inclined the balance to this side or to that. The Prince
+      was inveighing against the habit of wintering in Italy as one of the most
+      capital blunders of the age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We forget,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;that, in our present civilization, art is always
+      first and nature second, as we see evidenced in all the results of
+      agriculture. It is not the most fertile soil, but the highest-labored one
+      which produces the best fruits. So with respect to climate, we never bear
+      in mind that, where nature does most, man always does least.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;According to that rule, Prince, we should winter at St. Petersburg, and
+      spend the dog-days at Calcutta,&rdquo; said Kate, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So we should,&rdquo; replied he; &ldquo;the appliances to resist heat or cold, of
+      man's invention, are far better adapted to enjoyment than the accidental
+      variations of climate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In my country,&rdquo; said Onslow, tartly, &ldquo;men study less how to avoid the
+      inclemencies of weather than to become indifferent to them. Hunting,
+      shooting, and deer-stalking are very sure methods to acquire this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Prince paid no attention to the remark, but turned the conversation
+      into another channel, by asking Kate if she had ever read Fourier's book.
+      From this he wandered away to the characteristic differences of national
+      music, thence to the discoveries then making in Central America, and
+      lastly, engaged her in an animated discussion of the question of slavery.
+      On none of these points was he deeply or even well informed, but he
+      possessed that fluency and facility which intercourse with society
+      confers; and as all his knowledge was derived from men, and not from
+      books, it bore a certain stamp of originality about it that secured
+      attention. Not, indeed, from George Onslow; he was the most bored of men.
+      None of the topics were his topics. Of Tattersall's, the Guards' Club, the
+      society of London, the odds on the &ldquo;Derby,&rdquo; he could have discoursed well
+      and pleasantly. From what was &ldquo;wrong&rdquo; with the Sa'nbucca filly to what was
+      not right with Lady Flutterton's niece, he could have told you everything;
+      but all these other themes were, in his estimation, but sheer pedantry,
+      and, indeed, they only lacked a little knowledge a very little would have
+      sufficed to be so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is gone,&rdquo; said the Prince, with a caustic smile which revealed a plan;
+      &ldquo;gone at last.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So, then, this was a device of yours, Prince,&rdquo; said she, laughing. &ldquo;I
+      really must call my cousin back and tell him so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; said he, seriously. &ldquo;I have won my battle, let me profit by my
+      victory. Let me speak to you on another subject.&rdquo; He drew his chair a
+      little nearer to the table as he spoke, and laid his arm on it. Kate's
+      heart beat fast and full; and the color came and went rapidly in her
+      cheek. A vague sense of fear, of shame, and of triumphant pride were all
+      at conflict within her. There was but one theme in the world that could
+      have warranted such a commencement, so serious, so grave, so purpose-like.
+      Was this, then, possible?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The glittering stars all a blaze of brilliants that shone beside her
+      seemed an emblem of that high state which was now within her reach; and
+      what a torrent of varied emotions rushed through her heart! Of home, of
+      her father, of Nelly, of Frank; and, lastly, what thoughts of George, poor
+      George, whom she knew loved her, and to whom, without loving, she was not
+      altogether indifferent. &ldquo;Do not be agitated, Mademoiselle,&rdquo; said the
+      prince, laying the slightest touch of his jewelled fingers on her arm. &ldquo;I
+      ask a little patience and a little calm consideration for what I am about
+      to say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that really like an Irish peasant's cottage, Miss Daiton?&rdquo; said the
+      abbe, as he held before her a drawing of one, in all the details of its
+      most striking misery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, perfectly; not exaggerated in the least,&rdquo; said she, hurriedly
+      blushing alike at the surprise and the interruption.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have no such misery, Monsieur le Prince, in Russia, I believe?&rdquo;
+       remarked the priest, with a courteous bend of the head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are well governed, sir; and nothing displays it more palpably than
+      that no man forgets his station,&rdquo; said the prince, with an insolent
+      hauteur that made Kate blush over neck and forehead, while D'Esmonde stood
+      calm and passionless under the sarcasm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I have always heard, sir,&rdquo; said he, blandly. &ldquo;I remember, when at
+      Wredna&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have been at Wredna?&rdquo; asked the Prince, in an altered voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the other, not heeding the interruption, went on:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I remember, when at Wredna, to have heard an anecdote which strikingly
+      illustrates the rigid obedience yielded to power, and the condition of
+      public opinion at the same time. A manumitted slave, who was raised to
+      high rank and wealth by the favor of the Czar, had returned to Wredna in
+      the capacity of governor. A short time after his arrival he was tormented
+      by applications and letters from a woman in great poverty who asserted
+      that she was his mother. Fedeorovna, of course in secret, proved the truth
+      of her assertion; but the only answer she received was a significant
+      caution to be silent, and not appeal to a relationship which could only
+      prove offensive. Perhaps incredulous of the authentic character of so
+      cruel a reply, perhaps stung to angry indignation by it, she carried the
+      humble basket of fruit and vegetables that she hawked for a livelihood
+      before the door of the great mansion where her son resided; but, instead
+      of advertising her wares, as is customary in these Muscovite markets, by
+      some picture of a saint or some holy inscription, she carried a little
+      placard, with the inscription, 'The Mother of Alexovitch,' the name of the
+      Governor. A crowd soon gathered around this singular booth, heralded by so
+      strange an announcement, and as speedily the police resorted to the spot,
+      and carried the offender before the judge. The defence was the simple one
+      that she had merely averred the truth. I need not weary you with the
+      mockery of investigation that followed; the result is all I need tell.
+      This woman was knouted and sent away to Siberia. So much for the Governor.
+      As for the governed, they were enthusiastic in praise of his justice and
+      clemency; for he might have ordered her to be beheaded.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you tell the story as a fact, sir?&rdquo; said the Prince, whose dark cheek
+      became almost green in its sallowness as he spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I tell it distinctly as a fact. The Papa who received the woman's
+      confession repeated the tale on his own deathbed, from whence it reached
+      me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Priests can be liars, whether Greek or Roman,&rdquo; said the Prince, in a
+      voice almost suffocated with passion; and then, suddenly checking the
+      course of his anger, he turned to Kate with a sickly smile, and said,
+      &ldquo;Mademoiselle will pardon a rudeness in her presence which nothing short
+      of so gross a calumny could have elicited.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will furnish you with all the names to-morrow, Monsieur le Prince,&rdquo;
+       said D'Esmonde, in a whisper; and sauntered away into the adjoining room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You look pale, Miss Dalton,&rdquo; said the Prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That shocking story&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which of course you don't believe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Abbe D'Esmonde I have always heard to be a person of strict veracity
+      and of extreme caution.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be careful of him, Miss Dalton. It is not without good reason that I say
+      this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a degree of solemnity in the way he uttered these words that
+      made Kate thoughtful and serious. Unaccustomed to see, in society,
+      anything but features of pleasure and amusement, she was suddenly awakened
+      to the conviction that its calm waters covered rocks and quicksands as
+      perilous as stormier seas. Could people so full of amiabilities be
+      dangerous acquaintances? Was there poison in this charmed cup? Was the
+      doubt which sprang to her mind But she had not time for the inquiry, as
+      the Prince offered her his arm to the supper-room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXV. A &ldquo;LEVANTER.&rdquo;
+     </h2>
+    <p>
+      IN our penal settlements nothing is more common than to find the places of
+      honor and distinction filled by men who were once convicts, and who may
+      date the favorable turn of their fortune to the day of their having
+      transgressed the law. So in certain Continental cities are individuals to
+      be found occupying conspicuous stations, and enjoying a large share of
+      influence, whose misdeeds at home first made them exiles, and who, leaving
+      England in shame, are received abroad with honor. There is this difference
+      between the two cases; for while the convict owes all his future
+      advancement to his own efforts at reformation, the absentee obtains his
+      &ldquo;brevet&rdquo; of character by the simple fact of his extradition. He shakes off
+      his rascalities as he does his rheumatism, when he quits the foggy climate
+      of England, and emerges spotless and without stain upon the shores of
+      Ostend or Boulogne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To do this, however, he must not bear a plebeian name, nor pertain to the
+      undistinguishable herd of vulgar folk. He must belong to some family of
+      mark and note, with peers for his uncles and peeresses for cousins; nor is
+      he always safe if he himself be not a member of an hereditary legislature.
+      We have been led to these reflections by having to chronicle the arrival
+      in Florence of Lord Norwood; a vague and confused murmur of his having
+      done something, people knew not what, in England having preceded him. Some
+      called him &ldquo;poor Norwood,&rdquo; and expressed sorrow for him; others said he
+      was a capital fellow, up to everything, and that they were delighted at
+      his coming. A few, of very tender and languishing virtue themselves,
+      wondered if they ought to meet him as before; but the prevailing
+      impression was charitable. The affair at Graham's might have been
+      exaggerated, the Newmarket business was possibly a mistake. &ldquo;Any man might
+      owe money, and not be able to pay it,&rdquo; was a sentiment pretty generally
+      repeated and as generally believed; and, in fact, if to be tried by one's
+      peers be an English privilege, the noble Viscount here enjoyed it at the
+      hands of a jury unimpeachable on the score of equality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We are far from suggesting that Norwood's character as a &ldquo;shot&rdquo; had any
+      concern with this mild verdict; but certain it is, his merits in this
+      capacity were frequently remembered, and always with honorable mention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No man plays ecarte better,&rdquo; said Haggerstone, while as yet the
+      Viscount's arrival was unknown, and as he discussed the rumors upon him
+      before a group of listening Englishmen at the door of the &ldquo;Club&rdquo;. &ldquo;No man
+      plays ecarte better, nor with better luck!&rdquo; added he, with a chuckle that
+      was intended to convey a meaning beyond the mere words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has he been a large winner, then?&rdquo; asked one of the bystanders,
+      respectfully, looking to the Colonel for information; for, in a certain
+      set, he was regarded as the most thoroughly conversant man with all the
+      faults and follies of high life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No man wins invariably, sir, except Brooke Morris, perhaps,&rdquo; replied he,
+      always happy at the opportunity to quote the name of a man of fashion in a
+      tone of familiarity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That was the Mo-Mo-Morris that ruined Hopeton, was n't it?&rdquo; broke in
+      Purvis, quite forgetting that the individual he addressed was reported to
+      have a share in the transaction. Haggerstone, however, did not deign a
+      reply, but puffed his cigar in perfect contempt of his questioner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is this coming up here?&rdquo; said one; &ldquo;he looks like a new arrival. He
+      is English, certainly; that frock has a London cut there's no mistaking.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By Jove, it's Norwood!&rdquo; cried Haggerstone, edging away, as he spoke, from
+      the group. Meanwhile, the noble Viscount, a well-dressed, well-whiskered
+      man, of about thirty, came leisurely forward, and touching his hat
+      familiarly, said,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha! you here, Haggerstone! What is Florence doing?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pretty much as it always did, my Lord. I don't think its morals have
+      improved since you knew it a few years ago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or you wouldn't be here, Haggy, eh?&rdquo; said the Viscount, laughing at his
+      own joke. &ldquo;Not suit your book if it took a virtuous turn, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I plead guilty, my Lord. I believe I do like to shoot folly as it flies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, yes! And I've seen you taking a sitting shot at it too, Haggy,&rdquo; said
+      the other, with a heartier laugh, which, despite of the Colonel's efforts
+      not to feel, brought a crimson flush to his cheek.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there any play going on, Haggy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing that you would call play, my Lord; a little whist for Nap points,
+      a little ecarte, a little piquet, and, now and then, we have a round game
+      at Sabloukoff's.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor old fellow! and he 's alive still? And where 's the Jariominski?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gone back to Russia.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And Maretti?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In Saint Angelo, I believe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And that little Frenchman what was his name? his father was a Marshal of
+      the Empire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;D'Acosta.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The same. Where is he?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shot himself this spring.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pretty girl, his sister. What became of her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Some one told me that she had become a Soeur de Charite.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a pity! So they 're all broken up, I see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Completely so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then what have you got in their place?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing fast, my Lord, except, perhaps, your friends the Onslows.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; they 're going it, I hear. Is n't there a rich niece, or cousin, or
+      something of that sort, with them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They've got a prettyish girl, called Dalton; but as to her being rich, I
+      think it very unlikely, seeing that her family are living in Germany in a
+      state of the very closest poverty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And Master George, how does he carry on the war?&rdquo; said the Viscount, who
+      seemed quite heedless of the other's correction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He plays a little peddling ecarte now and then; but you can see that he
+      has burned his fingers, and dreads the fire. They say he 's in love with
+      the Dalton girl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course he is, if they live in the same house; and he 's just the kind
+      of fool to marry her, too. Who 's that little fellow, listening to us?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Purvis, my Lord; don't you remember him? He's one of the Ricketts's set.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sure I do. How are you, Purvis? You look so young and so fresh, I
+      could not persuade myself it could be my old acquaintance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 've taken to homoe-homoe-homoe-homo&mdash;&rdquo; Here he opened his mouth
+      wide, and gasped till he grew black in the face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's the word? Give it him, Haggy. It's all up with him,&rdquo; said the
+      Viscount.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Homoeopathy, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just so. Homeo-hom&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Confound it, man, can't you be satisfied? when you're once over the
+      fence, you need n't go back to leap it. And how is the dear what's her
+      name Agathe? no, Zoe, how is she?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite well, my Lord, and would be cha-cha-cha-rmed to see you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Living in that queer humbug still, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the Vill-ino, my Lord, you mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Egad! she seems the only thing left; like the dog on the wreck, eh,
+      Haggy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just so, my Lord,&rdquo; said the other, with a complacent laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a mass of old crockery she must have got together by this time!&rdquo;
+       said the Viscount, yawning with a terrible recollection of her
+      tiresomeness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You came out with a yacht, my Lord?&rdquo; asked Haggerstone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pretty well, for a man that they call ru-ru-ruined,&rdquo; said Purvis,
+      laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Norwood turned a look of angry indignation at him, and then, as if seeing
+      the unworthiness of the object, merely said,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A yacht is the only real economy nowadays. You get rid at once of all
+      trains of servants, household, stable people; even the bores of your
+      acquaintance you cut off. By-by, Purvis.&rdquo; And, with a significant wink at
+      Haggerstone, he passed across the street, in time to overtake Onslow, who
+      was just passing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think I ga-ga-gave it him there,&rdquo; cried Purvis, with an hysteric giggle
+      of delight; who, provided that he was permitted to fire his shot, never
+      cared how severely he was himself riddled by the enemy's fire. Meanwhile,
+      the Viscount and his friend were hastening forward to the Mazzarini
+      Palace, as totally forgetful of Purvis as though that valuable individual
+      had never existed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We may take this opportunity to mention, that when the rumors which
+      attributed a grand breach of honorable conduct to Lord Norwood had arrived
+      at Florence, Sir Stafford, who never had any peculiar affection for the
+      Viscount, declared himself in the very strongest terms on the subject of
+      his offending, and took especial pains to show the marked distinction
+      between occasions of mere wasteful extravagance and instances of
+      fraudulent and dishonest debt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in vain he was told that the rigid rule of English morality is
+      always relaxed abroad, and that the moral latitude is very different in
+      London and Naples. He was old-fashioned enough to believe that honor is
+      the same in all climates; and having received from England a very detailed
+      and specific history of the noble Lord's misdoings, he firmly resolved not
+      to receive him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With all George Onslow's affection and respect for his father, he could
+      not help feeling that this was a mere prejudice, one of the lingering
+      remnants of a past age; a sentiment very respectable, perhaps, but totally
+      inapplicable to present civilization, and quite impracticable in society.
+      In fact, as he said himself, &ldquo;Who is to be known, if this rule be acted
+      on? What man or, further still, what woman of fashionable life will stand
+      this scrutiny? To attempt such exclusiveness, one should retire to some
+      remote provincial town, some fishing-village of patriarchal simplicity;
+      and, even there, what security was there against ignoble offendings? How
+      should, he stand the ridicule of his club and his acquaintance if he
+      attempted to assume such a standard?&rdquo; These arguments were strengthened by
+      his disbelief, or rather his repugnance to believe the worst of Norwood;
+      and furthermore, supported by Lady Hester's open scorn for all such
+      &ldquo;hypocritical trumpery,&rdquo; and her avowal that the Viscount should be
+      received, by her, at least. Exactly as of old, George Onslow's mind was in
+      a state of oscillation and doubt now leaning to this side, now inclining
+      to that when the question was decided for him, as it so often is in like
+      cases, by a mere accident; for, as he loitered along the street, he
+      suddenly felt an arm introduced within his own. He turned hastily round
+      and saw Norwood, who, with, all his customary coolness, asked after each
+      member of the family, and at once proposed to pay them a visit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of all men living, none were less suited than Onslow for assuming any
+      part, or taking any decisive line, which could possibly be avoided, or
+      even postponed. He hated, besides, to do an ungracious thing anywhere, or
+      to any one. It might be, thought he, that Norwood's scrape could all be
+      explained away. Perhaps, after all, the thing is a mere trifle; and if he
+      were to take the decided line of cutting a man without due cause, the
+      consequences might be most injurious. These, and fifty such-like scruples,
+      warred within him, and so engaged his attention that he actually heard not
+      one word of all that &ldquo;town gossip&rdquo; which Norwood was retailing for his
+      amusement. At last, while following out his own thoughts, George came to
+      the resolution of finding out at once the precise position in which
+      Norwood stood, and to this end asked the last news from Newmarket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Norwood's coolness never forsook him at a question whose very suddenness
+      was somewhat awkward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bad enough,&rdquo; said he, with an easy laugh. &ldquo;We have all of us been 'hit
+      hard.' Knolesby has lost heavily. Burchester, too, has had a smasher; and
+      I myself have not escaped. In fact, George, the 'Legs' have had it all
+      their own way. I suppose you heard something about it out here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, yes; there were reports&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, hang reports, man! Never trust to old women's tales. And that
+      confounded fellow, Haggerstone, I 'm certain, has been spreading all kinds
+      of stories. But the facts are simple enough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 'm heartily glad you say so; for, to tell you the truth, Norwood, my
+      father is one of the prejudiced about this affair, and I 'm dying to be
+      able to give him a full explanation of the whole.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, Sir Stafford, too, among the credulous!&rdquo; said Norwood, slowly. &ldquo;I
+      could scarcely have supposed so. No matter; only I did fancy that he was
+      not exactly the person to form hasty conclusions against any man's
+      character. However, you may tell him for, as for myself, I 'll not
+      condescend to explain to any one but you the thing is a very simple one.
+      There was a mare of Hopeton's, a Brockdon filly, entered for the Slingsby,
+      and a number of us agreed to 'go a heavy thing' upon her against the
+      field. A bold coup always, George, that backing against the field. Never
+      do it, my boy, and particularly when you 've a set of rascally foreign
+      Legs banded against you, Poles and Hungarian fellows, George; the downiest
+      coves ever you met, and who, in their confounded jargon, can sell you
+      before your own face. Nothing like John Bull, my boy. Straight, frank, and
+      open John forever! Hit him hard and he 'll hit you again; but no
+      treachery, no stab in the dark. Oh, no, no! The turf in England was
+      another thing before these Continental rascals came amongst us. I was
+      always against admitting them within the ring. I black-balled a dozen of
+      them at the Club. But see what perseverance does; they're all in now.
+      There's no John-Bull feeling among our set, and we 're paying a smart
+      price for it. Never trust those German fellows, George. Out of England
+      there is no truth, no honor. But, above all, don't back against the field;
+      there are so many dodges against you; so many 'dark horses' come out fair.
+      That 's it, you see; that 's the way I got it so heavily; for when Ruxton
+      came and told me that 'Help-me-Over' was dead lame, I believed him. A
+      fetlock lameness is no trifle, you know; and there was a swelling as large
+      as my hand around the coronet. The foreign fellows can manage that in the
+      morning, and the horse will run to win the same day. I saw it myself. Ah,
+      John Bull forever! No guile, no deceit in him. Mind me, George, I make
+      this confession for you alone. I 'll not stoop to repeat it. If any man
+      dare to insinuate anything to my discredit, I 'll never give myself the
+      trouble of one word of explanation, but nail him to it, twelve paces, and
+      no mistake. I don't think my right hand has forgot its cunning. Have him
+      out at once, George; parade him on the spot, my boy; that 's the only
+      plan. What! is this your quarter?&rdquo; asked he, as they stopped at the
+      entrance of the spacious palace. &ldquo;I used to know this house well of old.
+      It was the Embassy in Templeton's time. Very snug it used to be. Glad to
+      see you 've banished all those maimed old deities that used to line the
+      staircase, and got rid of that tiresome tapestry, too. Pretty vases those;
+      fresh-looking that conservatory, they 're always strong in camellias in
+      Florence. This used to be the billiard-room. I think you've made a good
+      alteration; it looks better as a salon. Ah, I like this, excellent taste
+      that chintz furniture; just the thing for Italy, and exactly what nobody
+      thought of before!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll see if my Lady be visible,&rdquo; said George, as he threw the &ldquo;Morning
+      Post&rdquo; to his friend, and hastily quitted the chamber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Norwood was no sooner left alone than he proceeded to take a leisurely
+      survey of the apartment, in the course of which his attention was arrested
+      by a water-color drawing, representing a young girl leaning over a
+      balcony, and which he had no difficulty in at once guessing to be Kate
+      Dalton. There was something in the character of her beauty an air of
+      almost daring haughtiness that seemed to strike his fancy; for, as he
+      gazed, he drew himself up to his full height, and seemed to assume in his
+      own features the proud expression of the portrait.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With a hundred thousand and that face one might make you a viscountess,
+      and yet not do badly, either,&rdquo; said he to himself; and then, as if
+      satisfied that he had given time enough to a mere speculative thought, he
+      turned over the visiting-cards to see the names of the current
+      acquaintance: &ldquo;Midchekoff, Estrolenka, Janini, Tiverton, Latrobe, the old
+      set; the Ricketts, too, and Haggerstone. What can have brought them here?
+      Oh, there must have been a ball, for here are shoals of outsiders, the
+      great Smith-Brown-and-Thompson community; and here, on the very smallest
+      of pasteboards, in the very meekest of literals, have we our dear friend
+      'Albert Jekyl.' He 'll tell me all I want to know,&rdquo; said Norwood, as he
+      threw himself back on the comfortable depth of a well-cushioned chair, and
+      gave way to a pleasant revery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When George Ouslow had informed Lady Hester of Norwood's arrival, he
+      hastened to Sir Stafford's apartment to tell him how completely the
+      Viscount had exonerated himself from any charge that might be made to his
+      discredit; not, indeed, that George understood one syllable of the
+      explanation, nor could trace anything like connection between the
+      disjointed links of the narrative. He could only affirm his own perfect
+      conviction in Norwood's honor, and hoped an equal degree of faith from his
+      father. Fortunately for his powers of persuasiveness, they were not
+      destined to be so sorely tried; for Sir Stafford had just walked out, and
+      George, too eager to set all right about Norwood, took his hat and
+      followed, in the hope of overtaking him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Hester was already dressed, and about to enter the drawing-room, when
+      George told her that Norwood was there; and yet she returned to her room
+      and made some changes in her toilet, slight, and perhaps too insignificant
+      to record, but yet of importance enough to occupy some time, and afford
+      her an interval for thoughts which, whatever their nature, served to flush
+      her cheek and agitate her deeply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is an awkward thing, at any time, to meet with the person to whom you
+      once believed you should have been married; to see, on the terms of mere
+      common acquaintance, the individual with whose fate and fortune you at one
+      time fancied your own was indissolubly bound up, for weal or woe, for
+      better or for worse. To exchange the vapid commonplaces of the world; to
+      barter the poor counters of that petty game called society, with her or
+      him with whom you have walked in all the unbounded confidence of
+      affection, speculating on a golden future, or glorying in a delicious
+      dream of present bliss; to touch with ceremonious respect that hand you
+      have so often held fast within your own; to behold with respectful
+      distance that form beside which you have sat for hours, lost in happy
+      fancies; to stand, as it were, and trace out with the eye some path in
+      life we might have followed, wondering whither it would have led us, if to
+      some higher pinnacle of gratified ambition, if to disappointments darker
+      than those we have ever known, speculating on a future which is already
+      become a past, and canvassing within our hearts the follies that have
+      misled and the faults that have wrecked us! Such are among the inevitable
+      reminiscences of meeting; and they are full of a soft and touching sorrow,
+      not all unpleasing, either, as they remind us of our youth and its
+      buoyancy. Far otherwise was the present case. Whatever might have been the
+      bold confidence with which Lady Hester protested her belief in Norwood's
+      honor, her own heartfelt knowledge of the man refuted the assertion. She
+      knew thoroughly that he was perfectly devoid of all principle, and merely
+      possessed that conventional degree of fair dealing indispensable to
+      association with his equals. That he would do anything short of what would
+      subject him to disgrace she had long seen; and perhaps the unhappy moment
+      had come when even this restraint was no longer a barrier. And yet, with
+      all this depreciating sense of the man, would it be believed she had once
+      loved him! ay, with as sincere an affection as she was capable of feeling
+      for anything.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'T is true, time and its consequences had effaced much of this feeling.
+      His own indifference had done something, her new relations with the world
+      had done more; and if she ever thought of him now, it was with a degree of
+      half terror that there lived one man who had so thoroughly read all the
+      secrets of her heart, and knew every sentiment of her nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Norwood was sitting in a chair as she entered, amusing himself with the
+      gambols of a little Blenheim spaniel, whose silver collar bore the coronet
+      of the Russian prince. He never perceived Lady Hester until she was close
+      beside him, and in an easy, half-indifferent tone, said,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How d' ye do, my Lord?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, Hester!&rdquo; said he, starting up, and taking her hand in both his own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She withdrew it languidly, and seating herself, not upon the sofa to which
+      he wished to lead her, but in a chair, asked when he had arrived, and by
+      what route.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came out in a yacht; stopping a few days at Gibraltar, and a week at
+      Malta.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Had you pleasant weather?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;After we got clear of the Channel, excellent weather.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You came alone, I suppose?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite alone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you get on without your dear friend Effingdale, or your
+      'familiar,' Upton?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Norwood colored a little at a question the drift of which he felt
+      thoroughly, but tried with a laugh to evade an answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are they in England? I thought I read their names at the Newmarket
+      meeting?&rdquo; asked she, after waiting in vain for a reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; they were both at Newmarket,&rdquo; replied he, shortly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was it a good meeting?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can scarcely say so,&rdquo; rejoined he, attempting a laugh. &ldquo;My book turned
+      out very unfortunately.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I heard so,&rdquo; was the short reply; and in a tone so dry and significant
+      that a dead silence followed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pretty spaniel, that,&rdquo; said Norwood, trying a slight sortie into the
+      enemy's camp. &ldquo;A present, I suppose, from Midchekoff?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not clean bred, however, no more than his late master. Have you
+      seen much of the Prince?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He comes here every evening, after the Opera.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a bore that must be he is a most insufferable proser.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must say I disagree with you; I reckon him excessively agreeable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How changed you must be, Hes&mdash;Lady Hester.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe I am, my Lord.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And yet you look the same the very same as when we sauntered for hours
+      through the old woods at Dipsley.&rdquo; She blushed deeply; less, perhaps, at
+      the words, than at the look which accompanied them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is this your newly found niece or cousin?&rdquo; said Norwood, as he pointed to
+      the portrait of Kate Dal ton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. Is n't she pretty?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The picture is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is much handsomer, however, a charming creature in every respect, as
+      you will confess when you see her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And for what high destiny is she meant? Is she to be a Russian Princess,
+      a Duchessa of Italy, or the goodwife of an untitled Englishman?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She may have her choice, I believe, of either of the three&mdash;.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Happy girl!&rdquo; said he half scornfully; &ldquo;and when may I hope to behold so
+      much excellence?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To-day, if you like to dine here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should like it much but but&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's better to be frank at once, Hester,&rdquo; said he, boldly, &ldquo;and say that
+      I feel you are grown very cold and distant toward me. This is not your old
+      manner, this not exactly the reception I looked for. Now, if you have any
+      cause for this, would it not be better and fairer to speak it out openly
+      than continue to treat me in this slighting fashion? You are silent, so
+      there is something; pray let's hear it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What of Newmarket?&rdquo; said she, in a low voice, so faint as almost to be a
+      whisper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So that's it,&rdquo; said he, as he folded his arms and looked steadfastly at
+      her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was something in the cold and steady gaze he bestowed upon her that
+      abashed, if not actually alarmed, Lady Hester. She had seen the same look
+      once or twice before, and always as the prelude to some terrible evidence
+      of his temper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lady Hester,&rdquo; said he, in a low, distinct, and very slow voice, as though
+      he would not have her lose a word he spoke, &ldquo;the explanation which a man
+      would ask for at the peril of his life ought not, in common justice, to be
+      quite costless to a lady. It is perfectly possible that you may not care
+      for the price, be it so; only I warn you that if you wish for any
+      information on the subject you allude to, <i>I</i> will inquire whether&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here he dropped his voice, and whispered two or three words rapidly in her
+      ear, after which she lay back, pale, sick, and almost fainting, without
+      strength to speak or even to move.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not say, or still less feel, that this contest is of my provoking.
+      Never was any man less in the humor to provoke hostilities, and
+      particularly from old friends. I have just had bad luck, the very worst of
+      bad luck. I have lost everything but my head; and even that, cool and
+      calculating as it is, may go too if I be pushed too far. Now you have a
+      frank and free confession from me. I have told you more than I would to
+      any other living, more, perhaps, than I ought even to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then what do you intend to do here?&rdquo; asked she, faintly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait wait patiently for awhile. Fix upon anyone that I can discover
+      mutters a syllable to my discredit, and shoot him as I would a dog.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There may be some who, without openly discussing, will shun your society,
+      and avoid your intercourse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Stafford, for instance,&rdquo; said he, with an insolent laugh. She nodded
+      slightly, and he went on: &ldquo;My Lady's influence will, I am certain, set me
+      right in that quarter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I may be unequal to the task.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can at least try, madam.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have tried, Norwood. I have gone the length of declaring that I
+      disbelieved every story against you, that I reposed the most implicit
+      faith in your honor, and that I would certainly receive you and admit your
+      visits as heretofore.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And, of course, you'll keep your word?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you exact it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course I shall! Hester, this is no time for quibbling. I 've got into
+      a mess, the worst of all the bad scrapes which have ever befallen me. A
+      little time and a little management will pull me through but I must have
+      both; nor is it in such a place, and with such a society as this, a man
+      need fear investigation. I came here, as formerly one went to live 'within
+      the rules.' Let me, at least, have the benefit of the protection for
+      condescending to the locality.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Stafford, my Lady,&rdquo; said a servant, throwing open the door; and the
+      old Baronet entered hastily, and, without deigning to notice Lord Norwood,
+      walked straight up to Lady Hester, and said a few words in a low voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Affecting to occupy himself with the books upon the table, Norwood watched
+      the dialogue with keen but stealthy glances, and then, as the other turned
+      suddenly round, said,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How d' ye do, Sir Stafford? I am glad to see you looking so well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank you, my Lord; I am perfectly well,&rdquo; said he, with a most
+      repelling coldness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are surprised to see me in Florence, for certain,&rdquo; said the other,
+      with a forced laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very much surprised to see you here, my Lord,&rdquo; was the abrupt reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha! ha! ha! I thought so!&rdquo; cried Norwood, laughing, and pretending not to
+      feel the point of the remark. &ldquo;But, nowadays, one flits about the world in
+      slippers and dressing-gown, and travelling inflicts no fatigue. I only
+      left England ten days ago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The post comes in seven, my Lord,&rdquo; said Sir Stafford. &ldquo;I have had letters
+      this morning, written this day week, and which give the last events in
+      Town Life up to the very hour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed! and what's the news, then?&rdquo; said he, negligently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If your Lordship will favor me with your company for a few minutes, I may
+      be able to enlighten you,&rdquo; said Sir Stafford, moving towards the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With the greatest pleasure. Good-bye, Lady Hester,&rdquo; said he, rising. &ldquo;You
+      said seven o'clock dinner, I think?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; replied she, but in a voice almost inarticulate from shame and
+      terror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, Sir Stafford, I 'm at your orders,&rdquo; said the Viscount, gayly, as he
+      left the room, followed by the old man, whose crimson cheek and flashing
+      eye bespoke the passion which was struggling within him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of the two who now entered Sir Stafford's library, it must be owned that
+      Lord Norwood was, by many degrees, the more calm and collected. No one, to
+      have looked at him, could possibly have supposed that any question of
+      interest, not to say of deep moment, awaited him; and as he carried his
+      eyes over the well-filled shelves and the hand some fittings of the
+      chamber, nothing could be more naturally spoken than the few complimentary
+      expressions on Sir Stafford's good taste and judgment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall not ask you to be seated, my Lord,&rdquo; said the old Baronet, whose
+      tremulous lip and shaking cheek showed how deep-felt was his agitation.
+      &ldquo;The few moments of interview I have requested will be, I have no doubt,
+      too painful to either of us, nor could we desire to prolong them. To me, I
+      own, they are very, very painful.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These hurried, broken, and unconnected sentences fell from him as he
+      searched for a letter among a number of others that littered the table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord Norwood bowed coldly, and, without making any reply, turned his back
+      to the fire, and waited in patience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have, I fear, mislaid the letter,&rdquo; said Sir Stafford, whose nervous
+      anxiety had now so completely mastered him that he threw the letters and
+      papers on every side without perceiving it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Viscount made no sign, but suffered the search to proceed without
+      remark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was a letter from Lord Effingdale,&rdquo; continued the Baronet, still
+      busied in the pursuit, &ldquo;a letter written after the Newmarket settling, my
+      Lord; and if I should be unfortunate enough not to find it, I must only
+      trust to my memory for its contents.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord Norwood gave another bow, slighter and colder than the former, as
+      though to say that he acquiesced perfectly, without knowing in what.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! here it is! here it is!&rdquo; cried Sir Stafford, at last detecting the
+      missing document, which he hastily opened and ran his eyes over. &ldquo;This
+      letter, my Lord,&rdquo; continued he, &ldquo;announces that, in consequence of certain
+      defalcations on your part, the members of the 'Whip Club' have erased your
+      Lordship's name from their list, and declared you incapacitated from
+      either entering a horse, or naming a winner for the stakes in future.
+      There, there, my Lord, is the paragraph, coupled with what you will
+      doubtless feel to be a very severe but just comment on the transaction.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Norwood took the letter and read it leisurely, as leisurely and calmly as
+      though the contents never concerned him, and then, folding it up, laid it
+      on the chimney-piece beside him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor Effingdale!&rdquo; said he, smiling; &ldquo;he ought to spell better,
+      considering that his mother was a governess. He writes 'naming' with an
+      'e.' Didn't you remark that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But as Sir Stafford paid no attention to the criticism, he went on:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As to the 'Whip,' I may as well tell you, that I scratched my own name
+      myself. They are a set of low 'Legs,' and, except poor Effy, and two or
+      three others of the same brilliant stamp, not a gentleman amongst them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The defalcation is, however, true?&rdquo; asked Sir Stafford.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you mean to ask whether a man always wins at Doncaster or Newmarket,
+      the question is of the easiest to answer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I certainly presume that he always pays what he loses, my Lord,&rdquo; replied
+      Sir Stafford, coloring at the evasive impertinence of the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course he does, when he has it, Sir Stafford; but that is a most
+      essential condition, for the 'Turf' is not precisely like a mercantile
+      pursuit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Stafford winced under the flippant insolence with which this was
+      spoken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is not exactly a fair way to calculate profit, nor any assurance
+      against accidental loss. A horse, Sir Stafford, is not an Indiaman; a
+      betting man is, therefore, in a position quite exceptional.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If a man risks what he cannot pay, he is dishonorable,&rdquo; said Sir
+      Stafford, in a short, abrupt tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see that you cannot enter into a theme so very different from all your
+      habits and pursuits. You think there is a kind of bankruptcy when a man
+      gets a little behind with his bets. You don't see that all these
+      transactions are on 'honor,' and that if one does 'bolt,' he means to
+      'book up' another time. There was George, your own son&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What of him? what of George?&rdquo; cried Sir Stafford, with a convulsive grasp
+      of the chair, while the color fled from his cheek, and he seemed ready to
+      faint with emotion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, nothing in the world to cause you uneasiness. A more honorable fellow
+      never breathed than George.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, what of him? How comes his name to your lips at such a discussion
+      as this? Tell me, this instant, my Lord. I command I entreat you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the old man shook like one in an ague; but Norwood saw his
+      vantage-ground, and determined to use it unsparingly. He therefore merely
+      smiled, and said, &ldquo;Pray be calm, Sir Stafford. I repeat that there is
+      nothing worthy of a moment's chagrin. I was only about to observe that if
+      I had the same taste for scandal-writing as poor Effy, I might have
+      circulated a similar story about your son George. He left England, owing
+      me a good round sum, for which, by the way, I was terribly 'hard up;' and
+      although the money was paid eventually, what would you have thought of me
+      what would the world have thought of him if I had written such an epistle
+      as this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And as he spoke, his voice and manner warmed into a degree of indignant
+      anger, in which, as if carried away, he snatched the letter from the
+      chimney-piece and threw it into the fire. The act was unseen by Sir
+      Stafford, who sat with his head deeply buried between his hands, a low
+      faint groan alone bespeaking the secret agony of his heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My son has, then, paid you? He owes nothing, my Lord?&rdquo; said he, at last,
+      looking up, with a countenance furrowed by agitation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Like a trump!&rdquo; said Norwood, assuming the most easy and self-satisfied
+      manner. &ldquo;My life upon George Onslow! Back him to any amount, and against
+      the field anywhere! A true John Bull! no humbug, no nonsense about him!
+      straightforward and honorable, always!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your position is, then, this, my Lord,&rdquo; said Sir Stafford, whose
+      impatience would not permit him to listen longer, &ldquo;you have quitted
+      England, leaving for future settlement a number of debts, for which you
+      have not the remotest prospect of liquidation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Too fast, you go too fast!&rdquo; said the Viscount, laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lord Effingdale writes the amount at thirty thousand pounds, and adds
+      that, as a defaulter&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's the whole of it,&rdquo; broke in Norwood. &ldquo;You ring the changes about
+      that one confounded word, and there is no use in attempting a vindication.
+      'Give a dog a bad name,' as the adage says. Now, I took the trouble this
+      very morning to go over the whole of this tiresome business with George. I
+      explained to him fully, and, I hope, to his entire satisfaction, that I
+      was simply unfortunate in it, nothing more. A man cannot always 'ride the
+      winner; 'I 'm sure I wish <i>I</i> could. Of course, I don't mean to say
+      that it 's not a confounded 'bore' to come out here and live in such a
+      place as this, and just at the opening of the season, too, when town is
+      beginning to fill; but 'needs must,' we are told, 'when a certain gent
+      sits on the coach-box.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Stafford stood, during the whole of this speech, with his arms folded
+      and his eyes fixed upon the floor. He never heard one word of it, but was
+      deeply intent upon his own thoughts. At length he spoke in a full,
+      collected, and firm voice: &ldquo;Lord Norwood I am, as you have told me,
+      perfectly unfitted to pronounce upon transactions so very unlike every
+      pursuit in which my life has been passed. I am alike ignorant of the
+      feelings of those who engage in them, and of the rules of honor by which
+      they are guided; but this I know, that the man whom his equals decline to
+      associate with at home is not recognizable abroad; and that he who leaves
+      his country with shame, cannot reside away from it with credit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This would be a very rude speech, Sir Stafford Onslow, even with the
+      palliative preface of your ignorance, if our relative ages admitted any
+      equality between us. I am the least bellicose of men, I believe I can say
+      I may afford to be so. So long, therefore, as you confine such sentiments
+      to yourself, I will never complain of them; but if the time comes that you
+      conceive they should be issued for general circulation&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, my Lord, what then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your son must answer for it, that's all!&rdquo; said Norwood; and he drew
+      himself up, and fixed his eye steadily on the distant wall of the room,
+      with a look and gesture that made the old man sick at heart. Norwood saw
+      how &ldquo;his shot told,&rdquo; and, turning hastily round, said: &ldquo;This interview, I
+      conclude, has lasted quite long enough for either of us. If you have any
+      further explanations to seek for, let them come through a younger man, and
+      in a more regular form. Good-morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Stafford bowed, without speaking, as the other passed out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To have seen them both at that moment, few would have guessed aright on
+      which side lay all the disgrace, and where the spirit of rectitude and
+      honor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Stafford, indeed, was most miserable. If the Viscount's mock
+      explanations did not satisfy a single scruple of his mind, was it not
+      possible they might have sufficed with others more conversant with such
+      matters? Perhaps he is not worse than others of his own class. What would
+      be his feelings if he were to involve George in a quarrel for such a
+      cause? This was a consideration that pressed itself in twenty different
+      forms, each of them enough to appall him. &ldquo;But the man is a defaulter; he
+      has fled from England with 'shame,'&rdquo; was the stubborn conviction which no
+      efforts of his casuistry could banish; and the more he reflected on this,
+      the less possible seemed anything like evasion or compromise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0026" id="link2HCH0026">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVI. THE END OF THE FIRST ACT
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE point discussed in our last chapter, if not a momentous one in itself,
+      was destined to exercise a very important influence upon the fortunes of
+      the Onslow family. The interview between Sir Stafford and the Viscount
+      scarcely occupied five minutes; after which the Baronet wrote a note of
+      some length to her Ladyship, to which she as promptly replied; a second,
+      and even a third interchange of correspondence followed. The dinner-party
+      appointed for that day was put off; a certain ominous kind of silence
+      pervaded the house. The few privileged visitors were denied admission. Mr.
+      Proctor, Sir Stafford's man, wore a look of more than common seriousness.
+      Mademoiselle Celestine's glances revealed a haughty sense of triumph. Even
+      the humbler menials appeared to feel that something had occurred, and
+      betrayed in their anxious faces some resemblance to that vague sense of
+      half-curiosity, half-terror, the passengers of a steamboat experience when
+      an accident, of whose nature they know nothing, has occurred to the
+      machinery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their doubts and suspicions assumed more shape when the order came that
+      Sir Stafford would dine in the library, and her Ladyship in her own room,
+      George Onslow alone appearing in the dining-room. There was an air of
+      melancholy over everything, the silence deepening as night came on.
+      Servants went noiselessly to and fro, drew the curtains, and closed the
+      doors with a half-stealthy gesture, and seemed as though fearful of
+      awakening some slumbering outbreak of passion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We neither have, nor desire to have, secrets from our readers. We will
+      therefore proceed to Sir Stafford's dressing-room, where the old Baronet
+      sat moodily over the fire, his anxious features and sorrow-struck
+      expression showing the ravages even a few hours of suffering had
+      inflicted. His table was littered with papers, parchments, and other
+      formidable-looking documents. Some letters lay sealed here, others were
+      half-written there; everything about him showed the conflict of doubt and
+      indecision that was going on within his mind; and truly a most painful
+      struggle was maintained there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For some time back he had seen with displeasure the course of extravagance
+      and waste of all his household. He had observed the habits of reckless
+      expense with which his establishment was maintained; but, possessing a
+      very ample fortune, and feeling that probably some change would be made
+      with the coming summer, he had forborne to advert to it, and endured with
+      what patience he could a mode of life whose very display was distasteful
+      to him. Now, however, a more serious cause for anxiety presented itself,
+      in the class of intimates admitted by Lady Hester to her society. Of the
+      foreigners he knew comparatively little; but that little was not to their
+      advantage. Some were wealthy voluptuaries, glad to propagate their own
+      habits of extravagance among those they suspected of fortunes smaller than
+      their own. Others were penniless adventurers, speculating upon everything
+      that might turn to their profit. All were men of pleasure, and of that
+      indolent, lounging, purposeless character so peculiarly unpleasing to
+      those who have led active lives, and been always immersed in the cares and
+      interests of business.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such men, he rightly judged, were dangerous associates to his son, the
+      very worst acquaintances for Kate, in whom already he was deeply
+      interested; but still no actual stain of dishonor, no palpable flaw, could
+      be detected in their fame, till the arrival of Lord Norwood added his name
+      to the list.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To receive a man of whose misconduct in England he had acquired every
+      proof, was a step beyond his endurance. Here or never must he take his
+      stand; and manfully he did so, at first, by calm argument and
+      remonstrance, and at last by firm resolution and determination. Without
+      adverting to what had passed between the Viscount and himself, the letter
+      he addressed to Lady Hester conveyed his unalterable resolve not to know
+      Lord Norwood. Lady Hester's reply was not less peremptory, and scarcely as
+      courteous. The correspondence continued with increasing warmth on both
+      sides, till Sir Stafford palpably hinted at the possible consequences of a
+      spirit of discordance and disagreement so ill-adapted to conjugal welfare.
+      Her Ladyship caught up the suggestion with avidity, and professed that,
+      whatever scruples his delicacy might feel, to hers there was none in
+      writing the word, &ldquo;Separation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      If the thought had already familiarized itself to his mind, the word had
+      not; and strange it is that the written syllables should have a power and
+      meaning that the idea itself could never realize.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To men who have had little publicity in their lives, and that little
+      always of an honorable nature, there is no thought so poignantly miserable
+      as the dread of a scandalous notoriety. To associate their names with
+      anything that ministers to gossip; to make them tea-table talk; still
+      worse, to expose them to sneering and impertinent criticisms, by revealing
+      the secrets of their domesticity, is a torture to which no mere physical
+      suffering has anything to compare. Sir Stafford Onslow was a true
+      representative of this class of feeling. The sight of his name in the list
+      of directors of some great enterprise, as the patron of a charity, the
+      governor of an hospital, or the donor to an institution, was about as much
+      of newspaper notoriety as he could bear without a sense of shrinking
+      delicacy; but to become the mark for public discussion in the relations of
+      his private life, to have himself and his family brought up to the bar of
+      that terrible ordeal, where bad tongues are the eloquent, and evil
+      speakers are the witty, was a speculation too terrible to think over; and
+      this was exactly what Lady Hester was suggesting!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Is it not very strange that woman, with whose nature we inseparably and
+      truly associate all those virtues that take their origin in refinement and
+      modesty, should sometimes be able to brave a degree of publicity to which
+      a man, the very hardiest and least shamefaced, would succumb, crestfallen
+      and abashed; that her timid delicacy, her shrinking bashfulness, can be so
+      hardened by the world that she can face a notoriety where every look is an
+      indictment, and every whisper a condemnation?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, if Lady Hester was yet remote from this, she had still journeyed one
+      stage of the road. She had abundant examples around her of those best
+      received and best looked on in society, whose chief claim to the world's
+      esteem seemed to be the contempt with which they treated all its
+      ordinances. There was a dash of heroism in their effrontery that pleased
+      her. They appeared more gay, more buoyant, more elastic in spirits than
+      other people; their increased liberty seemed to impart enlarged and more
+      generous views, and they were always &ldquo;good-natured,&rdquo; since, living in the
+      very glassiest of houses, they never &ldquo;shied&rdquo; a pebble.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While, then, Sir Stafford sat overwhelmed with shame and sorrow at the
+      bare thought of the public discussion that awaited him, Lady Hester was
+      speculating upon condolences here, approbation there, panegyrics upon her
+      high spirit, and congratulations upon her freedom. The little,
+      half-shadowy allusions her friends would throw out from time to time upon
+      the strange unsuitableness of her marriage with a man so much her senior,
+      would soon be converted into comments of unrestricted license. Besides and
+      perhaps the greatest charm of all was she would have a grievance; not the
+      worn-out grievance of some imaginary ailment that nobody believes in but
+      the &ldquo;doctor,&rdquo; not the mock agonies of a heart complaint, that saves the
+      sufferer from eating bad dinners in vulgar company, but always allows them
+      a respite for a dejeuner at the court, or a supper after the Opera, with a
+      few chosen convives, but a real, substantial grievance, over which men
+      might be eloquent and ladies pathetic. Such were the different feelings
+      with which two persons contemplated the same event. Sir Stafford's
+      thoughts turned instantly towards England. What would be said there by all
+      those friends who had endeavored to dissuade him from this ill-suited
+      union? Their sorrowful compassion was even less endurable than the malice
+      of others; and Grounsell, too, what would his old friend think of a
+      catastrophe so sudden? In his heart Sir Stafford was glad that the doctor
+      was absent; much as he needed his counsel and advice, he still more
+      dreaded the terror of his triumphant eye at the accomplishment of his
+      oft-repeated prediction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From George he met no support whatever. He either believed, or thought
+      that he believed, Norwood's garbled explanation. Intercourse with a
+      certain set of &ldquo;fast men&rdquo; had shown him that a man might do a &ldquo;screwy&rdquo;
+       thing now and then, and yet not be cut by his acquaintance. And the young
+      Guardsman deemed his father's rigid notions nothing but prejudices, very
+      excellent and commendable ones, no doubt, but as inapplicable to our
+      present civilization as would be a coat of mail or a back-piece of
+      chain-armor. George Onslow, therefore, halted between the two opinions.
+      Adhering to his father's side from feelings of affection and respect, he
+      was drawn to Lady Hester's by his convictions; not, indeed, aware how
+      formidable the difference had already become between them, and that,
+      before that very night closed in, they had mutually agreed upon a
+      separation, which while occupying the same house, was essentially to
+      exclude all intercourse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One consideration gave Sir Stafford much painful thought. What was to
+      become of Kate Dalton in this new turn of affairs? The position of a young
+      girl on a visit with a family living in apparent unity and happiness was
+      very wide apart from her situation as the companion of a woman separated,
+      even thus much, from her husband. It would be equally unfair to her own
+      family, as unjust to the girl herself, to detain her then in such a
+      conjuncture. And yet what was to be done? Apart from all the
+      unpleasantness of proposing an abrupt return to her home, came the thought
+      of the avowal that must accompany the suggestion, the very confession he
+      so dreaded to make. Of course the gossiping of servants would soon
+      circulate the rumor. But then they might not spread it beyond the Alps,
+      nor make it the current talk of a German watering-place. Thus were his
+      selfish feelings at war with higher and purer thoughts. But the struggle
+      was not a long one. He sat down and wrote to Lady Hester. Naturally
+      assuming that all the reasons which had such force for himself would weigh
+      equally with her, he dwelt less upon the arguments for Kate's departure
+      than upon the mode in which it might be proposed and carried out. He
+      adverted with feeling to the sacrifice the loss would inflict upon Lady
+      Hester, but professed his conviction in the belief that all merely selfish
+      considerations would give way before higher and more important duties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As it is,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;I fear much that we have done anything but conduce
+      to this dear girl's welfare and happiness. We have shown her glimpses of a
+      life whose emptiness she cannot appreciate, but by whose glitter she is
+      already attracted. We have exposed her to all the seductions of flattery,
+      pampering a vanity which is perhaps her one only failing. We have
+      doubtless suggested to her imagination dreams of a future never to be
+      realized, and we must now consign her to a home where all the affections
+      of fond relatives will be unequal to the task of blinding her to its
+      poverty and its obscurity. And yet even this is better than to detain her
+      here. It shall be my care to see in what way I can I was about to write
+      'recompense;' nor would the word be unsuitable recompense Mr. Dalton for
+      the injury we have done him as regards his child; and if you have any
+      suggestion to make me on this head, I will gladly accept it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The note concluded with some hints as to the manner of making the
+      communication to Kate, the whole awkwardness of which Sir Stafford, if
+      need were, would take upon himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole temper of the letter was feeling and tender. Without even in the
+      most remote way adverting to what had occurred between Lady Hester and
+      himself, he spoke of their separation simply in its relation to Kate
+      Dalton, for whom they were both bound to think and act with caution. As if
+      concentrating every thought upon her, he did not suffer any other
+      consideration to interfere. Kate, and Kate only, was all its theme.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Hester, however, read the lines in a very different spirit. She had
+      just recovered from a mesmeric trance, into which, to calm her nervous
+      exaltation, her physician, Dr. Buccellini, had thrown her. She had been
+      lying in a state of half-hysterical apathy for some hours, all volition,
+      almost all vitality, suspended, under the influence of an exaggerated
+      credulity, when the letter was laid upon the table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that your maid has just left out of her hand?&rdquo; asked the doctor,
+      in a tone of semi-imperiousness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/00318.jpg" alt="00318" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A letter, a sealed letter,&rdquo; replied she, mystically waving her hand
+      before her half-closed eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor gave a look of triumph at the bystanders, and went on:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has the letter come from a distant country, or from a correspondent near
+      at hand?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Near!&rdquo; said she, with a shudder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is the writer at this moment?&rdquo; asked he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the house,&rdquo; said she, with another and more violent shuddering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I now take the letter in my hand,&rdquo; said the doctor, &ldquo;and what am I
+      looking at?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A seal with two griffins supporting a spur.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor showed the letter on every side, with a proud and commanding
+      gesture. &ldquo;There is a name written in the corner of the letter, beneath the
+      address. Do you know that name?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A heavy, thick sob was the reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There there be calm, be still,&rdquo; said he, majestically motioning with both
+      hands towards her; and she immediately became composed and tranquil. &ldquo;Are
+      the contents of this letter such as will give you pleasure?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A shake of the head was the answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are they painful?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very painful,&rdquo; said she, pressing her hand to her temples.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will these tidings be productive of grand consequences?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes!&rdquo; cried she, eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What will you do, when you read them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Act!&rdquo; ejaculated she, solemnly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In compliance with the spirit, or in rejection?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rejection!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sleep on, sleep on,&rdquo; said the doctor, with a wave of his hand; and, as he
+      spoke, her head drooped, her arm fell listlessly down, and her long and
+      heavy breathing denoted deep slumber. &ldquo;There are people, Miss Dalton,&rdquo;
+       said he to Kate, &ldquo;who affect to see nothing in mesmerism but deception and
+      trick, whose philosophy teaches them to discredit all that they cannot
+      comprehend. I trust you may never be of this number.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is very wonderful, very strange,&rdquo; said she, thoughtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Like all the secrets of nature, its phenomena are above belief; yet, to
+      those who study them with patience and industry, how compatible do they
+      seem with the whole order and spirit of creation. The great system of
+      vitality being a grand scheme of actionary and reactionary influences, the
+      centrifugal being in reality the centripetal, and those impulses we vainly
+      fancy to be our own instincts being the impressions of external forces do
+      you comprehend me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not perfectly; in part, perhaps,&rdquo; said she, diffidently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even that is something,&rdquo; replied he, with a bland smile. &ldquo;One whose
+      future fortunes will place her in a station to exert influence is an
+      enviable convert to have brought to truth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I!&rdquo; said she, blushing with shame and surprise together; &ldquo;surely you
+      mistake, sir. I am neither born to rank, nor like to attain it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Both one and the other, young lady,&rdquo; said he, solemnly; &ldquo;high as your
+      position will one day be, it will not be above the claims of your descent.
+      It is not on fallible evidence that I read the future.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And can you really predict my fortune in life?&rdquo; asked she, eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;More certainly than you would credit it, when told,&rdquo; said he,
+      deliberately.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How I should like to hear it; how I should like to know&rdquo; She stopped, and
+      a deep blush covered her face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why should you not know that your dreams will be realized?&rdquo; said he,
+      hastily, as if speaking from some irresistible impulse. &ldquo;What more natural
+      than to desire a glance, fleeting though it be, into that black vista
+      where the bright lightning of prophecy throws its momentary splendor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how know you that I have had dreams?&rdquo; said she, innocently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know of them but by their accomplishment. I see you not in the present
+      or the past, but in the future. There your image is revealed to me, and
+      surrounded by a splendor I cannot describe. It is gorgeous and barbaric in
+      magnificence; there is something feudal in the state by which you are
+      encompassed that almost speaks of another age.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is mere dreamland, indeed,&rdquo; said she, laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, not so; nor is it all bright and glorious, as you think. There are
+      shadows of many a dark tint moving along the sunlit surface.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how know you all this?&rdquo; asked she, half incredulously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As you slept last evening in a mesmeric slumber on that sofa; but I will
+      hear no further questioning. Look to our patient here, and if that letter
+      agitate her over-much, let me be sent for.&rdquo; And, with these words,
+      delivered oracularly, the doctor left the room, while Kate seated herself
+      beside the sofa where Lady Hester slept.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was late in the night when Lady Hester awoke, and soon remembering that
+      a letter had arrived, broke the seal and read it. If the proposal of Sir
+      Stafford was in every way unacceptable, there was something which
+      compensated for all in the excitement of spirits an act of opposition was
+      sure to produce; nor was it without a sense of triumph that she read lines
+      penned in evident sorrow and depression of spirit. In fact, she made the
+      not uncommon error of mistaking sorrow for repentance, and thought she
+      perceived in her husband's tone a desire to retrace his steps. It is
+      difficult to say whether such an amende would have given her pleasure;
+      certainly she would not have accepted it without subjecting him to a term
+      of probation of more or less length. In any case, as regarded Kate, she
+      was decided at once upon a positive refusal; and as, with her, a resolve
+      and a mode of action were usually the work of the same moment, she
+      motioned to Kate to sit down beside her on the sofa, and passing her arm
+      around her, drew her fondly towards her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Kate, dearest,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;I 'm sure nothing would induce you to leave
+      me, I mean, to desert and forsake me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Kate pressed the hand she held in her own to her lips with fervor, but
+      could not speak for emotion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I say this,&rdquo; said Lady Hester, rapidly, &ldquo;because the moment has come to
+      test your fidelity. Sir Stafford and I it is needless to state how and by
+      what means have at last discovered, what I fancy the whole world has seen
+      for many a day, that we were totally unsuited to each other, in taste,
+      age, habit, feeling, mode of life, and thought; that we have nothing in
+      common, neither liking nor detesting the same things, but actually at
+      variance upon every possible subject and person. Of course-all attempt to
+      cover such discrepancies must be a failure. We might trump up a hollow
+      truce, child, but it never could be an alliance; and so we have thought, I
+      'm sure it is well that we have hit upon even one topic for agreement, we
+      have thought that the best, indeed the only, thing we could do, was to
+      separate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      An exclamation, almost like an accent of pain, escaped Kate at these
+      words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, dearest,&rdquo; resumed Lady Hester, &ldquo;it was his own proposal, made in the
+      very coldest imaginable fashion; for men have constantly this habit, and
+      always take the tone of dignity when they are about to do an injustice.
+      All this, however, I was prepared for, and could suffer without complaint;
+      but he desires to rob me of you, my dear child, to deprive me of the only
+      friend, the only confidante I have in the world. I don't wonder that you
+      grow pale and look shocked at such cruelty, concealed, as it is, under the
+      mask of care for your interests and regard for your welfare; and this to
+      me, dearest, to me, who feel to you as to a sister, a dear, dear sister!&rdquo;
+       Here Lady Hester drew Kate towards her, and kissed her twice,
+      affectionately. &ldquo;There 's his letter, my sweet child. You can read it; or
+      better, indeed, that you should not, if you would preserve any memory of
+      your good opinion of him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And he that was ever so kind, so thoughtful, and so generous!&rdquo; cried
+      Kate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know nothing of these creatures, my dear,&rdquo; broke in Lady Hester. &ldquo;All
+      those plausibilities that they play off in the world are little emanations
+      of their own selfish natures. They are eternally craving admiration from
+      us women, and that is the true reason of their mock kindness and mock
+      generosity! I 'm sure,&rdquo; added she, sighing, &ldquo;my experience has cost me
+      pretty dearly! What a life of trial and privation has mine been!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Hester sighed heavily as her jewelled fingers pressed to her eyes a
+      handkerchief worth a hundred guineas, and really believed herself a case
+      for world-wide sympathy. She actually did shed a tear or two over her
+      sorrows; for it is wonderful on what slight pretension we can
+      compassionate ourselves. She thought over all the story of her life, and
+      wept. She remembered how she had been obliged to refuse the husband of her
+      choice; she forgot to be grateful for having escaped a heartless
+      spendthrift, she remembered her acceptance of one inferior to her in rank,
+      and many years her senior; but forgot his wealth, his generosity, his
+      kindliness of nature, and his high character. She thought of herself as
+      she was at eighteen, the flattered beauty, daughter of a Peer, courted,
+      sought after, and admired; but she totally forgot what she was at thirty,
+      with faded attractions, unthought of, and, worse still, unmarried. Of the
+      credit side of her account with Fortune she omitted not an item; the
+      debits she slurred over as unworthy of mention. That she should be able to
+      deceive herself is nothing very new or strange, but that she should
+      succeed in deceiving another is indeed singular; and such was the case.
+      Kate listened to her, and believed everything; and when her reason failed
+      to convince, her natural softness of disposition served to satisfy her
+      that a more patient, long-suffering, unrepining being never existed than
+      Lady Hester Onslow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now,&rdquo; said she, after a long peroration of woes, &ldquo;can you leave me
+      here, alone and friendless? will you desert me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, never, never!&rdquo; cried Kate, kissing her hand and pressing her to her
+      heart. &ldquo;I would willingly lay down my life to avert this sad misfortune;
+      but, if that cannot be, I will share your lot with the devotion of my
+      whole heart.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Hester could scarcely avoid smiling at the poor girl's simplicity,
+      who really fancied that separation included a life of seclusion and
+      sorrow, with restricted means and an obscure position; and it was with a
+      kind of subdued drollery she assured Kate that even in her altered
+      fortunes a great number of little pleasures and comforts would remain for
+      them. In fact, by degrees the truth came slowly out, that the great change
+      implied little else than unrestrained liberty of action, freedom to go
+      anywhere, know any one, and be questioned by nobody; the equivocal
+      character of the position adding a piquancy to the society, inexpressibly
+      charming to all those who, like the Duchesse d'Abrantes, think it only
+      necessary for a thing to be &ldquo;wrong&rdquo; to make it perfectly delightful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having made a convert of Kate, Lady Hester briefly replied to Sir
+      Stafford, that his proposition was alike repugnant to Miss Dalton as to
+      herself, that she regretted the want of consideration on his part, which
+      could have led him to desire that she should be friendless at a time when
+      the presence of a companion was more than ever needed. This done, she
+      kissed Kate three or four times affectionately, and retired to her room,
+      well satisfied with what the day had brought forth, and only wishing for
+      the morrow, which should open her new path in life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It often happens in life that we are never sufficiently struck with the
+      force of our own opinions or their consequences, till, from some accident
+      or other, we come to record them. Then it is that the sentiments we have
+      expressed, and the lines of action adopted, suddenly come forth in all
+      their unvarnished truth. Like the images which the painter, for the first
+      time, commits to canvas, they stand out to challenge a criticism which, so
+      long as they remained in mere imagination, they had escaped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was precisely Kate Dalton's case now. Her natural warm-heartedness,
+      and her fervent sense of gratitude, had led her to adopt Lady Hester's
+      cause as her own; generous impulses, carrying reason all before them,
+      attached her to what she fancied to be the weaker side. &ldquo;The divinity that
+      doth hedge&mdash;&rdquo; &ldquo;beauty&mdash;&rdquo; made her believe that so much
+      loveliness could do no wrong; nor was it till she came to write of the
+      event to her sister, that even a doubt crossed her mind on the subject.
+      The difficulty of explaining a circumstance of which she knew but little,
+      was enhanced by her knowledge of Ellen's rigid and unbending sense of
+      right. &ldquo;Poor dear Nelly,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;with her innocence of mind, will
+      understand nothing of all this, or she will condemn Lady Hester at once.
+      Submission to her husband would, in her opinion, have been the first of
+      duties. She cannot appreciate motives which actuate society in a rank
+      different from her own. In her ignorance of the world, too, she might deem
+      my remaining here unadvisable; she might counsel my return to home; and
+      thus I should be deserting, forsaking, the dear friend who has confided
+      all her sorrows to my heart, and reposes all her trust in my fidelity.
+      This would break Lady Hester's heart and my own together; and yet nothing
+      is more likely than such a course. Better a thousand times not expose her
+      friend's cause to such a casualty. A little time and a little patience may
+      place matters in a position more intelligible and less objectionable; and,
+      after all, the question is purely a family secret, the divulgence of
+      which, even to a sister, is perhaps not warrantable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Such were among the plausibilities with which she glanced over her
+      conduct; without, however, satisfying herself that she was in the right.
+      She had only begun the descent of lax morality, and her head was addled by
+      the new sensation. Happy are they who even from weak nerves relinquish the
+      career!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Kate's letter home, then, was full of gay revelations. Galleries,
+      churches, gardens; objects of art or historic interest; new pictures of
+      manners, sketches of society, abounded. There were descriptions of fetes,
+      too, and brilliant assemblies, with great names of guests and gorgeous
+      displays of splendor. Well and sweetly were they written; a quick
+      observation and a keen insight into character in every line. The subtle
+      analysis of people and their pretensions, which comes of mixture with the
+      world, was preeminent in all she said; while a certain sharp wit pointed
+      many of the remarks, and sparkled in many a brilliant passage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was altogether a lively and a pleasant letter. A stranger, reading ft,
+      would have pronounced the writer clever and witty; a friend would have
+      regretted the want of personal details, the hundred little traits of
+      egoism that speak confidence and trust. But to a sister! and such a sister
+      as Nelly! it was, indeed, barren! No outpouring of warm affection; no fond
+      memory of home; no reference to that little fireside whence her own image
+      had never departed, and where her presence was each night invoked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oh! Kate, has Hanserl's dark prophecy thrown its shadow already to your
+      feet? Can a young heart be so easily corrupted, and so soon?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0027" id="link2HCH0027">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVII. A SMALL DINNER AT THE VILLINO ZOE.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      AMONG the penalties great folk pay for their ascendancy, there is one most
+      remarkable, and that is, the intense interest taken in all their affairs
+      by hundreds of worthy people who are not of their acquaintance. This
+      feeling, which transcends every other known description of sympathy,
+      flourishes in small communities. In the capital of which we are now
+      speaking, it was at its very highest pitch of development. The Onslows
+      furnished all the table-talk of the city; but in no circle were their
+      merits so frequently and ably discussed as in that little parliament of
+      gossip which held its meetings at the &ldquo;Villino Zoe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ricketts, who was no common diplomatist, had done her utmost to
+      establish relations of amity with her great neighbor. She had expended all
+      the arts of courtesy and all the devices of politeness to effect this
+      entente cordiale; but all in vain. Her advances had been met with
+      coldness, and &ldquo;something more;&rdquo; her perfumed little notes, written in a
+      style of euphuism all her own, had been left unanswered; her presents of
+      fruit and flowers unacknowledged, it is but fair to add, that they never
+      proceeded further than the porter's lodge, even her visiting-cards were
+      only replied to by the stiff courtesy of cards, left by Lady Hester's
+      &ldquo;Chasseur;&rdquo; so that, in fact, failure had fallen on all her endeavors, and
+      she had not even attained to the barren honor of a recognition as they
+      passed in the promenade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was a very serious discomfiture, and might, when it got abroad, have
+      sorely damaged the Ricketts's ascendancy in that large circle, who were
+      accustomed to regard her as the glass of fashion. Heaven knew what amount
+      of insubordination might spring out of it! what rebellious notions might
+      gain currency and credit! It was but the winter before when a Duchess, who
+      passed through, on her way to Rome, asked &ldquo;who Mrs. Ricketts was?&rdquo; and the
+      shock was felt during the whole season after. The Vandyk for whose
+      authenticity Martha swore, was actually called in question. The &ldquo;Sevres&rdquo;
+       cup she had herself painted was the subject of a heresy as astounding. We
+      live in an age of movement and convulsion, no man's landmarks are safe
+      now, and Mrs. Ricketts knew this.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Onslows, it was clear, would not know her; it only remained, then, to
+      show why she would not know them. It was a rare thing to find a family
+      settling down at Florence against whom a &ldquo;true bill&rdquo; might not easily be
+      found of previous misconduct. Few left England without a reason that might
+      readily become an allegation. Bankruptcy or divorce were the light
+      offences; the higher ones we must not speak of. Now the Onslows, as it
+      happened, were not in this category. Sir Stafford's character was
+      unimpeachable, her Ladyship's had nothing more grave against it than the
+      ordinary levities of her station. George &ldquo;had gone the pace,&rdquo; it was true,
+      but nothing disreputable attached to him. There was no use, there fore, in
+      &ldquo;trying back&rdquo; for a charge, and Mrs. Ricketts perceived that they must be
+      arraigned on the very vaguest of evidence. Many a head has fallen beneath
+      the guillotine for a suspicion, and many a heart been broken on a surmise!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A little dinner at the Villino opened the plan of proceedings. It was a
+      small auto-da-fe of character at which the Onslows were to be the victims,
+      while the grand inquisitors were worthily represented by the Polish Count,
+      Haggerstone, Purvis, and a certain Mr. Foglass, then passing through
+      Florence on his way to England. This gentleman, who was the reputed son of
+      a supposed son of George the Fourth, was received as &ldquo;very good royalty&rdquo;
+       in certain circles abroad, and, by virtue of a wig, a portly chest, and a
+      most imposing pomposity of manner, taken to be exceedingly like his
+      grandfather, just on the same principle as red currant jelly makes
+      middling mutton resemble venison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To get rid of his importunity, a Minister had made him Consul in some
+      remote village of the East, but finding that there were neither fees nor
+      perquisites, Foglass had left his post to besiege the doors of Downing
+      Street once more, and if rejected as a suppliant, to become an admirable
+      grievance for a Radical Member, and a &ldquo;very cruel case of oppression&rdquo; for
+      the morning papers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Foglass was essentially a &ldquo;humbug;&rdquo; but, unlike most, if not all other
+      humbugs, without the smallest ingredient of any kind of ability. When men
+      are said to live by their wits, their capital is, generally speaking, a
+      very sufficient one; and that interesting class of persons known as
+      adventurers numbers many clever talkers, shrewd observers, subtle
+      tacticians, and admirable billiard-players; with a steady hand on a
+      pistol, but ready to &ldquo;pocket&rdquo; either an &ldquo;insult&rdquo; or a &ldquo;ball.&rdquo; if the
+      occasion require it. None of these gifts pertained to Foglass. He had not
+      one of the qualities which either succeed in the world or in society, and
+      yet, strange to say, this intolerable bore had a kind of popularity, that
+      is to say, people gave him a vacant place at their dinners, and remembered
+      him at picnics.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His whole strength lay in his wig, and a certain slow, measured intonation
+      which he found often attracted attention to what he said, and gave his
+      tiresome anecdotes of John Kemble, Munden, and Mathews the semblance of a
+      point they never possessed. Latterly, however, he had grown deaf, and,
+      like most who suffer under that infirmity, taken to speaking in a whisper
+      so low as to be inaudible, a piece of politeness for which even our reader
+      will be grateful, as it will spare him the misery of his twaddle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haggerstone and he were intimates were it not a profanation of the word,
+      we should say friends. They were, however, always together; and
+      Haggerstone took pains to speak of his companion as a &ldquo;monstrous clever
+      fellow, who required to be known to be appreciated.&rdquo; Jekyl probably
+      discovered the true secret of the alliance in the fact that they always
+      talked to each other about the nobility, and never gave them their titles,
+      an illusory familiarity with Dukes and Earls that appeared to render them
+      supremely happy. Richmond, Beaufort, Cleveland, and Stanley were in their
+      mouths as &ldquo;household words.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After all, it was a harmless sort of pastime; and if these &ldquo;Imaginary
+      Conversations&rdquo; gave them pleasure, why need we grumble?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have scruples about asking our reader even to a description of the
+      Ricketts's dinner. It was a true Barmecide feast. There was a very showy
+      bouquet of flowers: there was a lavish display of what seemed silver;
+      there was a good deal of queer china and impracticable glass; in short,
+      much to look at, and very little to eat. Of this fact the Pole's
+      appreciation was like an instinct, and as the entrees were handed round,
+      all who came after him became soon aware of. Neither the wine nor the
+      dessert were temptations to a long sitting, and the party soon found
+      themselves in the drawing-room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Son Excellence is going to England?&rdquo; said the Pole, addressing Foglass,
+      who had been announced as an Ambassador; &ldquo;if you do see de Count
+      Ojeffskoy, tell him I am living here, as well as a poor exile can, who
+      have lost palaces, and horses, and diamonds, and all de rest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! the poor dear Count!&rdquo; sighed Mrs. Ricketts, while Martha prolonged
+      the echo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You carry on the war tolerably well, notwithstanding,&rdquo; said Haggerstone,
+      who knew something of the other's resources in piquet and ecarte.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Carry on de war!&rdquo; rejoined he, indignantly; &ldquo;wid my fader, who work in de
+      mines; and my beautiful sisters, who walk naked about de streets of
+      Crakow!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What kind of climate have they in Crak-Crak-Crak&mdash;&rdquo; A fit of
+      coughing finished a question which nobody thought of answering; and Purvis
+      sat down, abashed, in a corner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Arthur, my love,&rdquo; said Mrs. Ricketts, she was great at a diversion,
+      whenever such a tactic was wanted, &ldquo;do you hear what Colonel Haggerstone
+      has been saying?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, dearest,&rdquo; muttered the old General, as he worked away with rule and
+      compass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He tells me,&rdquo; said the lady, still louder, &ldquo;that the Onslows have
+      separated. Not an open, formal separation, but that they occupy distinct
+      apartments, and hold no intercourse whatever.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Stafford lives on the rez de chaussee&rdquo; said Haggerstone, who, having
+      already told the story seven times the same morning, was quite perfect in
+      the recital, &ldquo;Sir Stafford lives on the rez de chaussee, with a small door
+      into the garden. My Lady retains the entire first floor and the grand
+      conservatory. George has a small garcon apartment off the terrace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ho! very distressing!&rdquo; sighed Mrs. Ricketts, whose woe-worn looks seemed
+      to imply that she had never heard of a similar incident before; &ldquo;and how
+      unlike us, Arthur!&rdquo; added she, with a smile of beaming affection. &ldquo;He has
+      ever been what you see him, since the day he stole my young, unsuspecting
+      heart.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Colonel looked over at the object thus designated, and, by the grin of
+      malice on his features, appeared to infer that the compliment was but a
+      sorry one, after all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'John Anderson my Jo, John,'&rdquo; muttered he, half aloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'We've climbed the hill toge-ge-ge-ther,'&rdquo; chimed in Purvis, with a
+      cackle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gather what, sir? Blackberries, was it?&rdquo; cried Haggerstone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't quote that low-lived creature,&rdquo; said Mrs. Ricketts; &ldquo;a poet only
+      conversant with peasants and their habits. Let us talk of our own order.
+      What of these poor Onslows?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Stafford dines at two, madam. A cutlet, a vegetable, and a cherry
+      tart; two glasses of Gordon's sherry, and a cup of coffee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Without milk. I had it from Proctor,&rdquo; broke in Purvis, who was bursting
+      with jealousy at the accuracy of the other's narrative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean without sugar, sir,&rdquo; snapped Haggerstone. &ldquo;Nobody does take
+      milk-coffee after dinner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I always do,&rdquo; rejoined Purvis, &ldquo;when I can't get mara-mara-mara&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope you can get maraschino down easier than you pronounce it, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be quiet, Scroope,&rdquo; said his sister; &ldquo;you always interrupt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He do make de devil of misverstandness wit his whatye-call-'em,&rdquo; added
+      the Pole, contemptuously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And poor Purvis, rebuked on every side, was obliged to fall back beside
+      Martha and her embroidery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My Lady,&rdquo; resumed Haggerstone, &ldquo;is served at eleven o'clock. The moment
+      Granzini's solo is over in the ballet, an express is sent off to order
+      dinner. The table is far more costly than Midchekoff's.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do believe well,&rdquo; said the Count, who always, for nationality's sake,
+      deemed it proper to abuse the Russian. &ldquo;De Midchekoff cook tell me he have
+      but ten paoli how you say par tete by the tete for his dinner; dat to
+      include everyting, from the caviar to de sheeze.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That was not the style at the Pavilion formerly,&rdquo; roared out Haggerstone,
+      repeating the remark in Foglass's ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the ex-consul smiled blandly towards Mrs. Ricketts, and said he 'd
+      take anything to England for her &ldquo;with pleasure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He 's worse than ever,&rdquo; remarked Haggerstone, irritably. &ldquo;When people
+      have a natural infirmity, they ought to confine themselves to their own
+      room.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Particularly when it is one of the tem-tem-temper,&rdquo; said Purvis, almost
+      choked with passion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Better a hasty temper than an impracticable tongue, sir.&rdquo; said
+      Haggerstone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be quiet, Scroope,&rdquo; added Mrs. Ricketts; and he was still. Then, turning
+      to the Colonel, she went on: &ldquo;How thankful we ought to be that we never
+      knew these people! They brought letters to us, some, indeed, from dear and
+      valued friends. That sweet Diana Comerton, who married the Duke of
+      Ellewater, wrote a most pressing entreaty that I should call upon them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She did n't marry the Duke; she married his chap-chaplain,&rdquo; chimed in
+      Purvis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you be quiet, Scroope?&rdquo; remarked the lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ought to know,&rdquo; rejoined he, grown courageous in the goodness of his
+      cause. &ldquo;He was Bob Nutty. Bitter Bob, we always called him at school. He
+      had a kind of a poly-poly-poly&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A polyanthus,&rdquo; suggested Haggerstone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. It was a poly-polypus a polypus, that made him snuffle in his
+      speech.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ach Gott!&rdquo; sighed the Pole; but whether in sorrow for poor &ldquo;Bob,&rdquo; or in
+      utter weariness at his historian, was hard to say.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lady Foxington, too,&rdquo; said Mrs. Ricketts, &ldquo;made a serious request that we
+      should be intimate with her friend Lady Hester. She was candid enough to
+      say that her Ladyship would not suit me. 'She has no soul, Zoe,' wrote
+      she, 'so I need n't say more.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dat is ver bad,&rdquo; said the Pole, gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still, I should have made her acquaintance, for the sake of that young
+      creature Miss Dalton, I think they call her and whom I rather suspect to
+      be a distant cousin of ours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; there were Dawkinses at Exeter a very respectable solicitor, one
+      was, Joe Dawkins,&rdquo; came in Purvis; &ldquo;and he used to say we were
+      co-co-co-connections.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This family, sir, is called Dalton, and not even a stutter can make that
+      Dawkins.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Couldn't your friend Mr. Foglass find out something about these Daltons
+      for us, as he goes through Germany?&rdquo; asked Mrs. Ricketts of the Colonel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No one could execute such a commission better, madam, only you must give
+      him his instructions in writing. Foglass,&rdquo; added he, at the top of his
+      voice, &ldquo;let me have your note-book for a moment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With pleasure,&rdquo; said he, presenting his snuff-box.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; your memorandum-book,&rdquo; screamed the other, louder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's gone down,&rdquo; whispered the deaf man. &ldquo;I lost the key on Tuesday
+      last.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not your watch, man. I want to write a line in your note-book;&rdquo; and he
+      made a pantomimic of writing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, certainly; if Mrs. R. will permit, I'll write to her with pleasure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Confound him!&rdquo; muttered Haggerstone; and, taking up a visiting-card, he
+      wrote on the back of it, &ldquo;Could you trace the Daltons as you go back by
+      Baden?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The deaf man at once brightened up; a look of shrewd intelligence lighted
+      up his fishy eyes as he said,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, of course; say, what do you want?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Antecedents family fortune,&rdquo; wrote Haggerstone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If dey have de tin,&rdquo; chimed in the Pole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If they be moral and of irreproachable reputation,&rdquo; said Mrs. Ricketts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are they related to the other Dawkinses?&rdquo; asked Purvis. &ldquo;Let him ask if
+      their mother was not godfather to no, I mean grandfather to the Reverend
+      Jere-Jere-Jere&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be quiet, Scroope will you be quiet?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, you have it all, now,&rdquo; said Haggerstone, as he finished writing;
+      &ldquo;their 'family, fortune, flaws, and frailties' 'what they did, and where
+      they did it' observing accuracy as to Christian names, and as many dates
+      as possible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll do it,&rdquo; said Foglass, as he read over the &ldquo;instruction.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We want it soon, too,&rdquo; said Mrs. Ricketts. &ldquo;Tell him we shall need the
+      information at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This with speed,&rdquo; wrote Haggerstone at the foot of the memorandum.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Foglass bowed a deep assent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How like his grandfather!&rdquo; said Mrs. Ricketts, in ecstasy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never knew he had one,&rdquo; whispered Haggerstone to the Pole. &ldquo;His father
+      was a coachmaker in Long Acre.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is he not thought very like them?&rdquo; asked Mrs. Ricketts, with a sidelong
+      glance of admiration at the auburn peruke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've heard that the wig is authentic, madam.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has so much of that regal urbanity in his manner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he is not the first gentleman of England,&rdquo; muttered Haggerstone to
+      himself, &ldquo;he is the first one in his own family, at least.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the way,&rdquo; said Mrs. Ricketts, hastily, &ldquo;let him inquire into that
+      affair of Lord Norwood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No necessity, madam. The affair is in 'Bell's Life,' with the significant
+      question, 'Where is he?' But he can learn the particulars, at all events.&rdquo;
+       And he made a note in the book.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How dreadful all this, and how sad to think Florence should be the resort
+      of such people!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If it were not for rapparees and refugees, madam, house-rent would be
+      very inexpensive,&rdquo; said the Colonel, in a subdued voice; while, turning to
+      the Pole, he added, &ldquo;and if respectability is to be always a caricature,
+      I'd as soon have its opposite. I suppose you do not admit the Viscount,
+      madam?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has not ventured to present himself,&rdquo; said Mrs. Ricketts, proudly. &ldquo;I
+      hope that there is, at least, one sanctuary where virtue can live
+      unmolested.&rdquo; And, as she spoke, she looked over at Martha, who was working
+      away patiently; but whether happy in the exclusive tariff aforesaid, or
+      somewhat tired of &ldquo;protection,&rdquo; we are unable to say.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What has he do?&rdquo; asked the Count.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has done the 'ring' all round, I believe,&rdquo; said Haggerstone, chuckling
+      at a joke which he alone could appreciate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dey do talk of play in England!&rdquo; said the Pole, contemptuously. &ldquo;Dey
+      never do play high, wit there leetle how do you call 'em? bets, of tree,
+      four guinea, at ecarte. But in Polen we have two, tree, five tousand
+      crowns on each card. Dere, crack! you lose a fortune, or I do win one! One
+      evening at Garowidsky's I do lose one estate of seventeen million florins,
+      but I no care noting for all dat! I was ver rich, wit my palaces and de
+      mayorat how you call dat?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Before this question could be answered, the servant threw open the double
+      door of the salon, and announced, &ldquo;Milordo Norwood!&rdquo; A shell might have
+      burst in the apartment and not created much more confusion. Mrs. Ricketts
+      gave a look at Martha, as though to assure herself that she was in safety.
+      Poor Martha's own fingers trembled as she bent over her frame. Haggerstone
+      buttoned up his coat and arranged his cravat with the air of a man so
+      consummate a tactician that he could actually roll himself in pitch and
+      yet never catch the odor; while Purvis, whose dread of a duel list
+      exceeded his fear of a mad dog, ensconced himself behind a stand of
+      geraniums, where he resolved to live in a state of retirement until the
+      terrible Viscount had withdrawn. As for the Count, a preparatory touch at
+      his moustache, and a slight arrangement of his hair, sufficed him to meet
+      anything; and as these were the ordinary details of his daily toilet, he
+      performed them with a rapidity quite instinctive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To present oneself in a room where one's appearance is unacceptable is,
+      perhaps, no slight test of tact, manner, and effrontery; to be actually
+      indifferent to the feelings around is to be insensible to the danger; to
+      see the peril, and yet appear not to notice it, constitutes the true line
+      of action. Lord Norwood was perfect in this piece of performance, and
+      there was neither exaggerated cordiality nor any semblance of constraint
+      in his manner as he advanced to Mrs. Ricketts, and taking her hand,
+      pressed it respectfully to his lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This salutation,&rdquo; said he, gayly, &ldquo;is a commission from Lord Kennycroft,
+      your old and constant admirer. It was his last word as we parted: 'Kiss
+      Mrs. Ricketts's hand for me, and say I am faithful as ever.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor dear Lord! General, here is Lord Norwood come to see us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How good of him how very kind! Just arrived from the East, my Lord?&rdquo; said
+      he, shaking Foglass by the hand in mistake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir; from Malta.&rdquo; He wouldn't say England, for reasons. &ldquo;Miss
+      Ricketts, I am most happy to see you and still occupied with the fine
+      arts? Haggy, how d'ye do? Really it seems to me like yesterday since I sat
+      here last in this delightful arm-chair, and looked about me on all these
+      dear familiar objects. You 've varnished the Correggio, I think?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Vandyk, my Lord.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sure the Vandyk. How stupid I am! Indeed, Lady Foxington said that
+      not all your culture would ever make anything of me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is Charlotte?&rdquo; asked Mrs. Ricketts, this being the familiar for Lady
+      F.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just as you saw her last. Thinner, perhaps, but looking admirably.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the dear Duke how is he?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gouty always gouty but able to be about.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am so glad to hear it. It is so refreshing to talk of old friends.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are always talking of you. I'm sure, 'Zoe' forgive me the liberty
+      Zoe Ricketts is an authority on every subject of taste and literature.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How did you come here, my Lord?&rdquo; whispered Haggerstone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The new opera broke down, and there is no house open before twelve,&rdquo; was
+      the hasty reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is Jemima married, my Lord?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. There 's something or other wrong about the settlements. Who's the
+      foreigner, Haggy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A Pole. Petrolaffsky.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no not a bit of it. <i>I</i> know him,&rdquo; said the other, rapidly;
+      then, turning to Mrs. Ricketts, he grew warmly interested in the private
+      life and adventures of the nobility, for all of whom she entertained a
+      most catholic affection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was, indeed, a grand field-day for the peerage; even to the
+      &ldquo;Pensioners&rdquo; all were under arms. It was a review such as she rarely
+      enjoyed, and certainly she &ldquo;improved the occasion.&rdquo; She scattered about
+      her noble personages with the profusion of a child strewing wild-flowers.
+      There were Dukes she had known from their cradles; Marchionesses with whom
+      she had disported in childhood; Earls and Viscounts who had been her
+      earliest playmates; not to speak of a more advanced stage in her history,
+      when all these distinguished individuals were suppliants and suitors. To
+      listen to her, you would swear that she had never played shuttlecock with
+      anything under an Earl, nor trundled a hoop with aught below a Lord in
+      Waiting! Norwood fooled her to the top of her bent. To use his own phrase,
+      &ldquo;he left her easy hazards, and everything on the balls.&rdquo; It is needless to
+      state that, in such pleasant converse, she had no memory for the noble
+      Viscount's own transgressions. He might have robbed the Exchequer, or
+      stolen the Crown jewels, for anything that she could recollect! and when,
+      by a seeming accident, he did allude to Newmarket, and lament his most
+      &ldquo;unlucky book,&rdquo; she smiled complacently, as though to say that he could
+      afford himself even the luxury of being ruined, and not care for it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Florence is pretty much as it used to be, I suppose,&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;and one
+      really needs one's friends to rebut and refute foolish rumors, when they
+      get abroad. Now, you 'll oblige me by contradicting, if you ever hear,
+      this absurd story. I neither did win forty thousand from the Duke of
+      Stratton, nor shoot him in a duel for non-payment.&rdquo; Both these
+      derelictions were invented on the moment. &ldquo;You 'll hear fifty other
+      similar offences laid to my charge; and I trust to you and the Onslows for
+      the refutation. In fact, it is the duty of one's own class to defend
+      'their order.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ricketts smiled blandly, and bowed, bowed as though her gauze turban
+      had been a coronet, and the tinsel finery jewelled strawberry leaves! To
+      be coupled with the Onslows in the defence of a viscount was a proud
+      thought. What if it might be made a grand reality?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Apropos of the Onslows, my Lord,&rdquo; said she, insidiously, &ldquo;you are very
+      intimate with them. How is it that we have seen so little of each other?
+      Are we not congenial spirits?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good Heavens! I thought you were like sisters. There never were people so
+      made for each other. All your tastes, habits, associations forgive me, if
+      I say your very, antipathies are alike; for you both are unforgiving
+      enemies of vulgarity. Depend upon it, there has been some underhand
+      influence at work. Rely on 't, that evil tongues have kept you apart.&rdquo;
+       This he said in a whisper, and with a sidelong glance towards where
+      Haggerstone sat at ecarte with the Pole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you really think so?&rdquo; asked she, reddening with anger, as she followed
+      the direction of his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can hit upon no other solution of the mystery,&rdquo; said he, thoughtfully;
+      &ldquo;but know it I will, and must. You know, of course, that they can't endure
+      him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I never heard that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not mere dislike, it is actual detestation. I have striven to
+      moderate the feeling. I have said, 'True enough, the man is bad ton, but
+      you needn't admit him to anything like intimacy. Let him come and go with
+      the herd you receive at your large parties, and, above all, never repeat
+      anything after him, for he has always the vulgar version of every incident
+      in high life.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Ricketts raised her arched eyebrows and looked astonished; but it was
+      a feeling in which acquiescence was beautifully blended, and the Viscount
+      marked it well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must tell me something of this Miss Dalton,&rdquo; said he, drawing his
+      chair closer; &ldquo;they affect a kind of mystery about her. Who is she? What
+      is she?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are various versions of her story abroad,&rdquo; said Mrs. Ricketts, who
+      now spoke like the Chief Justice delivering a charge. &ldquo;Some say that she
+      is a natural daughter of Sir Stafford's; some aver that she is the last of
+      a distinguished family whose fortune was embezzled by the Onslows; others
+      assert that she is a half-sister of Lady Hester's own; but who ought to
+      know the truth better than you, my Lord?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know absolutely nothing. She joined them in Germany; but where, when,
+      and how, I never heard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 'll soon be able to inform you, my Lord, on every detail of the
+      matter,&rdquo; said she, proudly. &ldquo;Our kind friend, yonder, Mr. Foglass, has
+      undertaken to discover everything. Mr. F., will you touch his arm forme,
+      Martha?&rdquo; and, the gentleman being aroused to consciousness, now arose, and
+      approached Mrs. Ricketts's chair, &ldquo;may I be permitted to take a glance at
+      your note-book?&rdquo; This speech was accompanied by a pantomimic gesture which
+      he quickly understood. &ldquo;I wish to show you, my Lord,&rdquo; said she, addressing
+      the Viscount, &ldquo;that we proceed most methodically in our searches after
+      title, as I sometimes call it ha, ha, ha! Now, here is the precious little
+      volume, and this will explain the degree of accuracy such an investigation
+      demands. This comes of living abroad, my Lord,&rdquo; added she, with a smile.
+      &ldquo;One never can be too cautious, never too guarded in one's intimacies. The
+      number of dubious people one meets with, the equivocal characters that
+      somehow obtain a footing in society here, I really must ask you to
+      decipher these ingenious hieroglyphics yourself.&rdquo; And she handed the book
+      to his Lordship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He took it courteously at the spot she opened it; and as his eyes fell
+      upon the page, a slight very slight flush rose to his cheek, while he
+      continued to read the lines before him more than once over. &ldquo;Very
+      explicit, certainly!&rdquo; said he, while a smile of strange meaning curled his
+      lip; and then, closing the book, he returned it to the lady's hand; not,
+      however, before he had adroitly torn out the page he had been looking at,
+      and which contained the following words: &ldquo;Norwood's affair the precise
+      story of the N. M. business if cut in England, and scratched at the
+      'Whip.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot sufficiently commend either your caution or your tact, Mrs.
+      Ricketts,&rdquo; said he, bowing urbanely. &ldquo;Without a little scrutiny of this
+      kind our salons would be overrun with blacklegs and bad characters!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now late, late enough for Lady Hester, and the Viscount rose to
+      take his leave. He was perfectly satisfied with the results of his visit.
+      He had secretly enjoyed all the absurdities of his hostess, and even
+      stored up some of her charming flights for repetition elsewhere. He had
+      damaged Haggerstone, whose evil-speaking he dreaded, and, by impugning his
+      good breeding, had despoiled him of all credit. He had seen the Polish
+      Count in a society which, even such as it was, was many degrees above his
+      pretensions; and although they met without recognition, a masonic glance
+      of intelligence had passed between them; and, lastly, he had made an ally
+      of the dear Zoe herself, ready to swear to his good character, and vouch
+      for the spotless honor of all his dealings on turf or card-table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has he explained the Newmarket affair, madam?&rdquo; said Haggerstone, as the
+      door closed on the Viscount's departure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perfectly, Colonel; there is not the shadow of a suspicion against him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And so he was not scr-scr-scratched at the 'Whip'?&rdquo; cried Purvis,
+      emerging from his leafy retreat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing of the kind, Scroope.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A scratch, but not a wound, perhaps,&rdquo; said Haggerstone, with a grin of
+      malice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am ver happy please ver moosh,&rdquo; said the Count, &ldquo;for de sake of de
+      order. I am republiquecain, but never forget I 'm de noble blood!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beautiful sentiment!&rdquo; exclaimed Mrs. Ricketts, enthusiastically. &ldquo;Martha,
+      did you hear what the Count said? General, I hope you didn't lose it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was alway for de cause of de people,&rdquo; said the Count, throwing back his
+      hair wildly, and seeming as if ready to do battle at a moment's warning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For an anti-monarchist, he turns up the king wonderfully often at ecarte&rdquo;
+       said Haggerstone, in a low muttering, only overheard by Martha.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think the demo-demo-demo&rdquo; But before Purvis had finished his
+      polysyllabic word, the company had time to make their farewell speeches
+      and depart. Indeed, as the servant came to extinguish the lamps, he found
+      the patient Purvis very red in the face, and with other signs of
+      excitement, deeply seated in a chair, and as if struggling against an
+      access of suffocation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What the profound sentiment which he desired to enunciate might therefore
+      be, is lost to history, and this true narrative is unable to record.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0028" id="link2HCH0028">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVIII. THE VISCOUNT'S VISION.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      WHEN Lord Norwood arrived at the Mazzarini Palace, he was surprised not to
+      find the usual half-dozen carriages of the habitues drawn up in the
+      courtyard, and still more so to learn that her Ladyship did not receive
+      that evening. He ascended to George Onslow's apartment, and discovered
+      that he had dined with Prince Midchekoff, and not yet returned. Not
+      knowing how to spend the hours, so much earlier than those of his usually
+      retiring to rest, he lighted a cigar, and threw himself on a sofa before
+      the fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reveries of men who live much in the world are seldom very agreeable.
+      The work of self-examination comes with a double penalty when it is rarely
+      exercised, and the heavy arrears of time are formidable scores to
+      confront. Lord Norwood was no exception to this theory. Not that he was
+      one to waste time or temper in self-reproaches. The bygone was essentially
+      with him the &ldquo;irrevocable.&rdquo; It might, it is true, occasionally suggest a
+      hint for the future, but it never originated a sorrow for the past. His
+      philosophy was a very brief code, and comprised itself in this, &ldquo;that he
+      did n't think well of himself, but thought worse of all others.&rdquo; All that
+      he had seen of life was duplicity, falsehood, selfishness, and treachery.
+      In different stations these characteristics took different forms; and what
+      was artfully cloaked in courtesy by the lord was displayed in all its
+      naked deformity by the plebeian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He might have conducted himself respectably enough had he been rich, at
+      least he fervently believed so; but he was poor, and therefore driven to
+      stratagems to maintain his position in society. Cheated by his guardians
+      and neglected by his tutor, he was sent into the world half ruined, and
+      wholly ignorant, to become at first a victim, and afterwards the
+      victimizer. With no spirit of retributive vengeance, there was nothing of
+      reprisal in his line of conduct, he simply thought that such was the
+      natural and inevitable course of events, and that every man begins as
+      dupe, and ends as knave. The highest flight of the human mind, in his
+      esteem, was successful hypocrisy; and although without the plastic wit or
+      the actual knowledge of life which are required well to sustain a part, he
+      had contrived to impose upon a very large number of persons who looked up
+      to his rank; for, strange enough, many who would not have been duped by a
+      commoner, fell easy victims to the arts of &ldquo;my Lord.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The value of his title he understood perfectly. He knew everything it
+      could, and everything it could not, do for him. He was aware that the
+      aristocracy of England would stand by one of their order through many
+      vicissitudes, and that he who is born to a coronet has a charmed life, in
+      circumstances where one less noble must perish ingloriously. He knew, too,
+      how, for very shame's sake, they would screen one of themselves, and by a
+      hundred devices seem to contradict before the world what they lament over
+      behind its back; and, lastly, he knew well that he had always a title and
+      a lineage to bestow, and that the peerage was the great prize among the
+      daughters of men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, latterly, he had been pushing prerogative somewhat too far. He had
+      won large sums from young men not out of their teens; he had been
+      associated in play transactions with names less than reputable; and,
+      finally, having backed a stable to an immense amount at Newmarket, had
+      levanted on the day of his losing. He had done the act deliberately and
+      calmly. It was a coup which, if successful, replaced him in credit and
+      affluence; if a failure, it only confirmed the wavering judgment of his
+      set, and left him to shift for the future in a different sphere; for,
+      while a disgraced viscount is very bad company for viscounts, he is often
+      a very welcome guest amongst that amiably innocent class who think the
+      privileges of the aristocracy include bad morals with blue ribbons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Turf could now no longer be a career with him. Ecarte and lansquenet
+      were almost as much out of the question. Billiards, as Sir Walter said of
+      literature, &ldquo;might be a walking-stick, but never a crutch.&rdquo; There was,
+      then, nothing left for it but marriage. A rich heiress was his last coup;
+      and as, in all likelihood, the thing could not be done twice, it required
+      geat circumspection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In England this were easy enough. The manufacturing districts were grown
+      ambitious. Cotton lords were desirous of a more recognized nobility, and
+      millowners could be found ready to buy a coronet at the cost of half their
+      fortune. But from England late events had banished him, and with a most
+      damaged reputation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, carrying nobility to the Continent was like bringing coals to
+      Newcastle, the whole length and breadth of the land being covered with
+      counts, barons, dukes, and princes; and although English nobility stands
+      on a different footing, there was no distinguishing the &ldquo;real article&rdquo;
+       amid this mass of counterfeit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every Frenchman of small fortune was an emigre count. Every German, of
+      none, was sure to be a baron. All Poles, unwashed, uncombed, and uncared
+      for, were of the very cream of the aristocracy; and as for Italians! it
+      was a nation of princes, with their uncles all cardinals. To be a viscount
+      in such company was, perhaps, like Lord Castlereagh's unstarred coat, plus
+      distingue, but certainly more modest. The milor, if not associated with
+      boundless wealth, six carriages, two couriers, three cooks, and a groom of
+      the chambers, the whole of the &ldquo;Russie,&rdquo; or the &ldquo;Black Eagle,&rdquo; means
+      nothing abroad. If not bound up with all the extravagance and all the
+      eccentricities of riches, if not dazzling by display or amazing by oddity,
+      it is a contradiction of terms; and to be an English noble without waste,
+      profusion, and absurdity, is to deny your country or be a counterfeit of
+      your class.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord Norwood knew and felt all these things. They had often occupied his
+      speculations and engaged his thoughts; so that, if his mind reverted to
+      them now, it was to regard them as facts for future theory to build upon
+      as mathematicians make use of the proofs of geometry without going over
+      the steps which lead to conviction. No; all his present reflections took a
+      practical form, and might be summed up in the one resolve, &ldquo;I must go no
+      further. I have done everything that a man dare do,&mdash;perhaps a little
+      more, and yet keep his footing in the world.&rdquo; That tacit verdict of &ldquo;not
+      proven,&rdquo; which had been passed upon so many of his actions, might at any
+      moment be reversed now, and a review of his life's career presented
+      anything but a bright retrospect. Expulsion from a great school at
+      thirteen; three years' private dissipation and secret wickedness in a
+      clergyman's family; a dissolute regiment, from which he was given leave to
+      sell out at Malta; two years with the Legion or Don Carlos, it mattered
+      not which, in Spain; a year or so in London, with a weak attempt at
+      reformation; a staff appointment in India obtained and sold; exposure
+      partly hushed up; debts; Jews; renewals; the Fleet; the Bankruptcy Court;
+      a few disreputable duels; an action for seduction; ending with the last
+      affair at Newmarket, made up the grand outline, the details comprising
+      various little episodes with which we must not trouble ourselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One incident, however, would come up prominently before his Lordship's
+      mind, and, however little given to let the past usurp the thoughts which
+      should be given to the present, it still insisted upon sharing his
+      attention. This was no less than a little love affair in Spain with a
+      &ldquo;ballerina&rdquo; of the Opera, with whom, by the aid of a young priest then
+      studying at Saragossa, he had contracted a mock marriage. The sudden
+      movement of a corps of the army to which he was attached gave him an
+      opportunity of an easy divorce from his bride, and it is likely he had not
+      twice thought of her since the event had happened. Now, however, that an
+      intention of marrying in reality occurred to him, the incident came
+      freshly to his mind, and he jocularly wondered if his second marriage
+      might prove more fortunate than his first.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hour and the place were favorable to revery. It was past midnight. All
+      was silent and noiseless in the great palace; the sharp ticking of the
+      clock on the mantel-piece was the only sound to be heard, save, at a long
+      distance off, the dull, subdued flow of the Arno. The room itself,
+      unlighted, except by the flickering wood fire, was in deep shadow; and,
+      lulled by these influences and his mild Manilla, Norwood was free to revel
+      in so much of dreamland as natures like his ever explore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Who can tell whether men of this stamp know what it is to &ldquo;grieve,&rdquo;
+       whether chagrin for some momentary disappointment, anger at being
+      thwarted, is not the nearest approach to sorrow that they ever feel? The
+      whole course of their lives seems opposed to the notion of deep or intense
+      feeling, and the restless activity of their ingenious minds appears to
+      deny the possibility of regrets. As for Norwood, he would have laughed at
+      the puerility of going over the bygone; therefore, if he did recur to a
+      former incident of his life, it was involuntary and probably induced by
+      the accidental similarity with those which now engaged his thoughts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If this Dalton girl be rich,&rdquo; thought he, &ldquo;I might do worse. There are no
+      relatives to make impertinent inquiries, or ask awkward questions. Hester
+      can, and must, if I desire, assist me. Living out of England, the girl
+      herself will have heard nothing of my doings, and in name, appearance, and
+      air she is presentable anywhere.&rdquo; He thought, too, that, as a married man,
+      his character would be in a measure rehabilitated. It would be like
+      entering on a new road in life; and if this could be done with a certain
+      degree of style and outlay, he had great trust in the world's charity and
+      forgiveness to pardon all the past. &ldquo;A good house and a good cook,&rdquo;
+       thought he, &ldquo;are the best witnesses to call to character I have ever met.
+      Turtle and champagne have proved sovereign remedies for slander in all
+      ages; and the man who can sport Lafitte in the evening, and split a pencil
+      at twenty paces of a morning, may defy envy, hatred, and malice, and all
+      uncharitableness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To find out about this girl's fortune was then his first object. As for
+      family, his own rank was enough for both. The matter must be done quickly.
+      The London season over, England would be pouring its myriads of talking,
+      gossiping travellers over the Continent, and then he should be discussed,
+      probably avoided and shunned too.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even already certain unmistakable signs of coolness announced themselves
+      amongst the men of his acquaintance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      George Onslow avoided play when in his company. Treviliani, one of Lady
+      Hester's chief danglers, and the patron of the Turf in Tuscany, would n't
+      even allude to a horse before him. Prince Midchekoff went further, and
+      actually, save on rare occasions, omitted him from his dinner list. Now,
+      although Norwood averred that he detested <i>petit jeu</i>, hated spooney
+      talk about racing, and dreaded the tiresome display of a &ldquo;Tartar feast,&rdquo;
+       these were all threatening indications, and he saw their meaning. He would
+      willingly have fastened upon some one man, fixed a quarrel on him, and
+      shot him. He had more than once in life adopted this policy with success;
+      but here it would have been inapplicable, and the public opinion he sought
+      to bring on his own side would have been only more inevitably arrayed
+      against him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In what a mess does the want of money involve a man!&rdquo; thought he, as he
+      lay before the half-dying embers of the wood fire. &ldquo;Had I won my bets on
+      'Chanticleer,' or had I but backed 'Amontillado,' how different had my
+      position been to-day! That the simple change of one name for another in my
+      betting-book the mere hazard of a choice, of a horse, too should influence
+      a man's whole life, is a pretty fair instance of what the world is! Had I
+      'come right,' I should now be the favored guest of some noble duke,
+      shooting his grace's pheasants, drinking his Burgundy, and flirting with
+      his daughters. Fortune willed it otherwise, and here I am, actually
+      plotting a match with a nameless girl to rescue myself from utter ruin.
+      Three weeks ago I would not have believed that this could happen; and who
+      can tell what another three weeks may bring forth? perhaps, already, there
+      is mischief brewing. What if my Lady's refusal to receive this evening may
+      have some signification in it? Haggerstone is too courteous by half, and
+      Jekyl has never called upon me since my arrival!&rdquo; He laughed ironically as
+      he said this, and added, &ldquo;It is a bold game, after all, for them to play!
+      Reprisals to two of them, at least might prove awkward; and as for 'Master
+      Albert,' he lives but on general sufferance. There has been a long run of
+      luck against me; nothing but ill-fortune since the day I might have
+      married Hester, and yet hung back, and that very same year she marries
+      another, and inherits an immense fortune in India. What a blow to each of
+      us! Such has been my lot through life; always backing the loser till the
+      very moment when luck changes, and his turn comes to win.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As these thoughts passed through his mind, weariness, the silence of the
+      hour, the darkened room, induced slumber; and although once or twice he
+      made a half-effort to arouse himself and go home, the listless feeling
+      gained the mastery, and he dropped off to sleep. The uneasy consciences
+      have oftentimes very easy slumbers. Norwood's was of the calmest; not a
+      dream, not one flitting fancy disturbed it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was already nigh day as he lay thus, when the dull roll of wheels
+      beneath the window in part awoke him; at least, it so far aroused him that
+      he remembered where he was, and fancied that it might be George Onslow, on
+      the return from his dinner-party. He lay for some minutes expecting to
+      hear his step upon the stair, and see him enter the room; but as all
+      seemed to resume its wonted quiet, he was dozing off again, when he heard
+      the sound of a hand upon the lock of the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is one of the strange instincts of half-slumber to be often more alive
+      to the influence of subdued and stealthy sounds than to louder noises. The
+      slightest whisperings, the low murmurings of a human voice, the creaking
+      of a chair, the cautious drawing back of a curtain will jar upon and
+      arouse the faculties that have been insensible to the rushing flow of a
+      cataract or the dull booming of the sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Slight as were the sounds now heard, Norwood started as he listened to
+      them, and, at once arousing himself, he fixed his eyes upon the door, in
+      which the handle was seen to turn slowly and cautiously. The impression
+      that it was a robber immediately occurred to him, and he determined to lie
+      still and motionless, to watch what might happen. He was not wanting in
+      personal courage, and had full confidence in his strength and activity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The door at last opened; at first, a very little, and slowly, then
+      gradually more and more, till, by the mysterious half-light to which his
+      eyes had grown accustomed, Norwood could see the flounces of a female
+      dress, and the small, neat foot of a woman beneath it. The faint,
+      uncertain flame of the fire showed him thus much, but left the remainder
+      of the figure in deep shadow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether from excess of caution, or that she was yet hesitating what course
+      to take, she remained for some seconds motionless; and Norwood, who had
+      subdued his breathing to the utmost, lay in the deep shadow, speculating
+      on the upshot of an adventure from which he promised himself, at least, an
+      amusing story. The deep black lace which fell over the arched instep
+      indicated a degree of rank in the wearer that gave a piquancy to the
+      incident, and imparted a zest to the curiosity of a man who probably knew
+      no higher pleasure in life than in possessing the secrets of his
+      acquaintance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had time to run over in his mind a dozen little speculations of who she
+      was, ere she stirred; and at last, as if with change of purpose, he saw,
+      or fancied that he saw, the door beginning slowly to close. Whether this
+      was a mere trick of his excited imagination or not, a sudden gesture of
+      impatience on his part threw down one of the cushions of the sofa. A
+      slight shriek so slight as to be barely heard broke from the female, and
+      she banged the door to. Norwood reached it with a spring; but although, as
+      he wrenched it open, he could yet hear the rustling of a woman's dress in
+      the passage, the sharp sound of a door hastily shut and locked defied all
+      thought of pursuit, and he stood pondering over what had happened, and
+      almost doubtful of its reality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At least, the fair visitor belongs to the family; that much I may rely
+      upon,&rdquo; said he, as he lighted a candle to explore the locality a little
+      closer. The corridor, however, abruptly stopped at a small door, which was
+      locked on the inside; but to what portion of the house it led he could not
+      even conjecture. He was not a very unlikely man to trace the clew of such
+      an adventure as this seemed to be. It was one of those incidents with
+      which his course of life had made him somewhat conversant; and few were
+      better able to fill up from conjecture every blank of such a history. Nor
+      was he one to shrink from any suspicion, no matter how repugnant to every
+      thought of honor, nor how improbable to every mind less imbued with vice
+      than his own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a moment or two, however, he almost doubted whether the whole might
+      not have been a dream, so sudden, so brief, so trackless did it all
+      appear. This doubt, was, however, quickly resolved, as his eyes fell upon
+      the floor, where a small fragment of a lace dress lay, as it was caught
+      and torn off in the closing door. Norwood took it up, and sat down to
+      examine it with attention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Point d'Alencon,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;bespeaks no vulgar wearer; and such is this!
+      Who could have thought of George Onslow playing Lothario! But this comes
+      of Italy. And now to find her out.&rdquo; He ran over to himself half a dozen
+      names, in which were nearly as many nationalities, but some doubt
+      accompanied each. &ldquo;No matter,&rdquo; thought he, &ldquo;the secret will keep.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He suddenly remembered, at the instant, that he had promised an
+      acquaintance to pass some days with him in the Maremma, shooting; and, not
+      sorry to have so good a reason for a few days' absence, he arose and set
+      out towards his hotel, having first carefully placed within his pocketbook
+      the little fragment of lace, a clew to a mystery he was resolved to
+      explore hereafter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0029" id="link2HCH0029">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIX. FRANK'S JOURNEY.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Our readers may, ere this, have surmised that Frank Dalton's career as a
+      soldier was neither very adventurous nor exciting, since otherwise we
+      should scarcely have so nearly forgotten him. When he parted with Hanserl
+      to pursue his journey, his heart was full of warring and conflicting
+      emotions, love of home and hope of future distinction alternately swaying
+      him; so that while his affections drew him ever backwards, his ambitious
+      urged him to go on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I could have been so happy to have lived with them,&rdquo; thought he, &ldquo;even as
+      a peasant lives, a life of daily toil. I would have asked for no higher
+      fortune than that peaceful home we had made for ourselves by our own
+      affections, the happy fireside, that sufficed us for all the blandishments
+      of wealth and riches. Still there would have been something ignoble in
+      this humility, something that would ill become my blood as a Dalton. It
+      was not thus my ancestors understood their station, it was not with such
+      lowly ambitions their hearts were stirred. Count Stephen himself might at
+      this hour have been in obscurity and poverty as great, perhaps, as our own
+      had he been thus minded; and now he is a field-marshal, with a 'Maria
+      Teresa' cross on his breast! and this without one friend to counsel or to
+      aid him! What a noble service is that where merit can win its way
+      self-sustained and independent, where, without the indignity of a patron,
+      the path of honorable enterprise lies free and open to all! What generous
+      promptings, what bold aspirations such a career engenders! He shall not be
+      ashamed of me, he shall not have to blush for the Dalton blood,&rdquo; said the
+      boy, enthusiastically; and he revelled in a dream of the old Count's
+      ecstasy on finding a nephew so worthy of their name, and in his fancy he
+      saw pictures of future scenes in which he figured. All of these had the
+      same rose tint; for while in some he imagined himself winning the high
+      rewards of great achievements, in others he was the caressed and flattered
+      guest of rank and beauty. &ldquo;To think that I should once have been thus!&rdquo;
+       cried he, laughing at the conceit, &ldquo;trudging along the high-road with a
+      knapsack on my shoulder, like a Bursch in his 'Wander-jahre;'&rdquo; and then he
+      vowed to himself that &ldquo;he would have a picture taken of his humble guise
+      as first he started in life, to hang up at some future day beside the
+      decorated soldier he was yet to be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Selfishness can wear many a mask. Sometimes it can array itself in
+      features almost noble, more often its traits are of the very meanest.
+      Frank's egotism was of the former kind. He wanted to attain distinction by
+      an honorable path, he would not have stooped to any other. He was ready to
+      do or dare all for greatness. No peril could deter, no danger could daunt
+      him; but yet was he totally deficient in that greatest element of success,
+      that patient discipline of the mind which, made up of humility and
+      confidence, can wait and bide its time, earning the prizes of life before
+      it claim them. His pride of family, however, was his greatest blemish,
+      since it suggested a false notion of distinction, a pretension so
+      groundless that, like a forged banknote, it was sure to involve even the
+      bearer in disgrace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So full was he of himself and his own future, that he took but little note
+      of the way as he went. Avoiding, from a sense of pride, to associate with
+      the &ldquo;Travelling Youths,&rdquo; as they are called, he walked along from early
+      morning to late evening, alone and companionless. It was mostly a dreary
+      and uninteresting road, either leading through dark and gloomy pine
+      forests or over great plains of swampy surface, where the stubble of the
+      tall maize, or the stunted vines, were the only traces of vegetation. As
+      he drew near the Tyrol, however, the great mountains came in sight, while
+      the continual ascent told that he was gradually reaching the land of
+      glaciers and snow-peaks. Day by day he found the road less and less
+      frequented: these lonely districts were little resorted to by the
+      wandering apprentices, so that frequently Frank did not meet a single
+      traveller from day-dawn till night. Perhaps he felt little regret at this,
+      leaving him, as it did, more time for those daydreams in which he loved to
+      revel. Now and then some giant mountain glittering in the sun, or some
+      dark gorge thousands of feet below him, would chase away his revery, and
+      leave him for a time in a half-bewildered and wondering astonishment; but
+      his thoughts soon resumed their old track, and he would plod along, staff
+      in hand, as before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Walking from before daybreak to a late hour of the evening, Frank
+      frequently accomplished in his day's journey as many miles as the
+      traveller who, by post, only spent the few hours of mid-day on the road;
+      in fact, he might have thus measured his speed, had he been less wrapped
+      up in his own fancies, since, for several days, a caleche, drawn by three
+      post-horses, had regularly passed him on the road, and always about the
+      same hour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank saw nothing of this; and when on a bright and frosty day he began
+      the ascent of the Arlberg, he little knew that the carriage, about half a
+      mile in front, had been his travelling companion for the past week.
+      Disdaining to follow the winding high-road, Frank ascended by those
+      foot-tracks which gain upon the zig-zags, and thus soon was miles in
+      advance of the caleche. At last he reached the half-way point of ascent,
+      and was glad to rest himself for a few minutes on one of the benches which
+      German thoughtfulness for the wayfarer never neglects to place in suitable
+      spots. A low parapet of a couple of feet separated the road from a deep
+      and almost perpendicular precipice, at the foot of which, above two
+      thousand feet beneath, stood the village of Stuben. There was the little
+      chapel in which he had his morning's mass, there the little Platz, where
+      he had seen the post-horses getting ready for the travellers; there, too,
+      the little fountain, covered with a shed of straw, and glistening with
+      many an icicle in the bright sun. The very voices of the people reached
+      him where he sat; and the sounds of a street-organ floated upwards through
+      the still atmosphere. It was a scene of peaceful isolation such as would
+      have pleased Nelly's fancy. It was like one of those &ldquo;Dorf s&rdquo; she herself
+      had often carved to amuse a winter's evening, and Frank's eyes filled up
+      as he thought of her and of home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sound of feet upon the snow suddenly roused him, and, on looking
+      round, Frank saw a traveller slowly coming up the pass. His dress at once
+      proclaimed that he was not a pedestrian, save from choice, and was merely
+      sauntering along in advance of his carriage. In the mere cursory glance
+      Frank bestowed upon him he could see that he was a young and handsome man,
+      with a certain soldierlike bearing in his air that well suited his bold
+      but somewhat stern features.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You journey well, young fellow,&rdquo; said he, addressing Frank familiarly.
+      &ldquo;This is the fifth day we have been fellow-travellers; and although I have
+      post-horses, you have always kept up with me on your feet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank touched his cap with a somewhat stiff courtesy at this unceremonious
+      address; and, without deigning a reply, employed himself in arranging the
+      straps of his knapsack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you a soldier?&rdquo; asked the stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A cadet!&rdquo; replied Frank as bluntly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In what regiment, may I ask?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Franz Carl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! my own old corps,&rdquo; said the other, gayly. &ldquo;I served four years with
+      them in the Banat. From what part of the Empire are you you have n't the
+      accent of an Austrian?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am an Irishman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! that explains it. And your name?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dalton. And now, sir, what may be yours, for I don't see why this
+      curiosity is to be one-sided,&rdquo; said Frank, with an air even more insolent
+      than the words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am Count Ernest of Walstein,&rdquo; said the other, without a touch of
+      irritation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0013" id="linkimage-0013">
+      <!-- IMG --></a> <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/00356.jpg" alt="00356" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What rank do you hold in the service?&rdquo; asked Frank, boldly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That of lieutenant-colonel, boy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And your age may be about thirty?&rdquo; said Frank, half in question and half
+      in sarcasm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was twenty-eight last August,&rdquo; was the calm reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By Jove! that is a service!&rdquo; exclaimed Frank, &ldquo;where a man scarcely ten
+      years my senior may command a regiment!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The other laughed, and after a brief pause, said, &ldquo;People are in the habit
+      of calling me fortunate, so that you must not suppose my case to be the
+      rule.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be it so: even as an exception, the example is a bright one. Another may
+      do what you have done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you mean that I have earned my rank by services, boy,&rdquo; said the Count,
+      smiling, &ldquo;you would make a grave mistake. My promotion had another
+      source.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank looked as though he were curious to hear the explanation, but the
+      other gave none.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you call yourself?&rdquo; asked he of Frank, after a pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dalton,&rdquo; replied the boy, more respectfully than before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have a field-marshal of that name in the service, a most gallant old
+      soldier, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My grand-uncle!&rdquo; cried Frank, with enthusiasm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed! So you are a grand-nephew to the Graf von Auersberg,&rdquo; said the
+      Count, taking a more deliberate view than he had yet bestowed upon him.
+      &ldquo;Then how comes it you are travelling in this fashion, and on foot?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have not asked you why you journey in a caleche with three horses,&rdquo;
+       said Frank, insolently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's my habit to do so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This, then, may be mine, sir,&rdquo; said Frank, throwing his knapsack on his
+      shoulder, and preparing to depart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is not the Franz Carl at Vienna?&rdquo; said the Count, not seeming to notice
+      the irritation of his manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then, as I am going thither, perhaps you will accept of a seat in
+      my caleche?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a frankness in the way this offer was made that suddenly routed
+      the ill-temper Frank had fallen into. No one was less disposed than
+      himself to accept of a favor from a perfect stranger; but the tone and
+      manner of the proffer had, somehow, disarmed it of all appearance of such;
+      and as he stood uncertain what answer to make, the Count added: &ldquo;I 'm
+      always lucky. I was just wishing for a travelling companion, and fortune
+      has thrown us into acquaintanceship.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know I can scarcely tell,&rdquo; said Frank, hesitating, &ldquo;how or what
+      to answer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You forget that we are comrades, Dalton or shall be, at least, in another
+      day or two,&rdquo; said the Count, familiarly; &ldquo;so step in, and no more about
+      it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The caleche had drawn up as he spoke, and the courier stood, cap in hand,
+      beside the door, so that Frank had no time for any but an abrupt refusal,
+      and that he could not give; he therefore bowed his head, and sprang in.
+      The door was slammed sharply to, and the next moment the horses were
+      rattling along over the snow, the merry bells of the harness jingling
+      pleasantly as they went.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Probably no two beings could present a much stronger contrast than the two
+      who now journeyed along side by side. The one, rich, highly placed, and
+      distinguished with every gift of fortune at his command, and yet
+      pleasure-sick, weary, and discontented; the other, poor, and almost
+      friendless, full of hope, and ardent with all the buoyancy of youth. The
+      Count was as jaded and tired of life as the cadet was eager to enjoy it.
+      Notwithstanding perhaps we should rather say in virtue of these strong
+      contrarieties, they made admirable travelling companions, and the road
+      slipped away unconsciously to each.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Innspruck they halted for a day or two, and Frank accompanied his new
+      friend to the cafes and theatres, mingling in the throng of those whose
+      life is a round of easy dissipation. It is true that, to conform by dress
+      and demeanor with these, Frank was obliged to spend the golden coins of
+      Nelly's purse; louis after louis went in some one extravagance or another,
+      sacrifices that cost him many a pang, but which, from pride, he bore up
+      against with seeming indifference. Walstein presented him everywhere as
+      the nephew of the old field-marshal Von Auersberg; and as nothing was more
+      common than to see a young cadet dispensing the most lavish sums, with
+      equipages, liveries, and servants, none seemed surprised that the youth
+      should indulge in these habits and tastes of extravagance. His very
+      enjoyment seemed like an earnest of being long habituated to these modes
+      of life, for whether he played or drank, or in whatever excesses he
+      mingled, there was ever the same joyous spirit; and Frank Dalton had all
+      the outward signs of a youth rich in every accident of fortune. At first,
+      thoughts of his humble home and of those by whose sacrifices he was
+      enabled to indulge in such costly pleasures would cross his mind, and,
+      what between shame and sorrow, he felt degraded and debased before
+      himself; but, by degrees, the levity of action induced, as it ever will
+      do, the levity of thinking; and he suffered himself to believe that &ldquo;he
+      was no worse than others.&rdquo; A more fatal philosophy than this, youth never
+      adopted, and he who seeks a low standard rarely stops till he falls
+      beneath even that. Frank's pride of family made him vain, and his vanity
+      made him credulous; he therefore implicitly believed all that his new
+      companions told him, the familiar &ldquo;thee and thou&rdquo; of camaraderie giving an
+      air of friendship to all the flatteries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Were I a nephew of a field-marshal like thee, I'd not serve in an
+      infantry corps. I 'd be in the Lichtenstein Hussars or the Lancers of the
+      Kaiser,&rdquo; said one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So he will,&rdquo; cried another. &ldquo;Dalton only joined the Franz Carl to get his
+      promotion quickly. Once at Vienna, he will be an officer, and ready to
+      exchange his regiment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Old Auersberg can make thee what he will, lad,&rdquo; said a third. &ldquo;He might
+      have been Minister of War himself, if he had liked it. The Emperor Franz
+      loved him as a brother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And he is rich, too, no one knows how rich,&rdquo; broke in a fourth. &ldquo;He
+      commanded for many years on the Turkish frontier, in those good days when
+      our Grenzers used to make forays upon the villages, and every Pashalic
+      paid its blackmail for peace' sake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou are a lucky dog, Dalton, to find thy promotion and an inheritance
+      thus secured to thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When thou has a regiment, lad, don't forget us poor devils here, that
+      have no uncles in the 'Maria Teresa' category.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 'll lay my life on't, that he is a colonel before I become
+      Rittmeister,&rdquo; said a young lieutenant of dragoons, &ldquo;and I have had five
+      years' hard service in Galicia and Servia.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why not?&rdquo; broke in Count Walstein, who sat silently up to this
+      smoking his meerschaum in a corner. &ldquo;Has the empire lost its aristocratic
+      character? Are not birth and blood to have their claims, as of old?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This speech met a ready acceptance, for the company consisted of those who
+      either were, or affected to be, of noble extraction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How our fathers deceive themselves in trying to deceive us!&rdquo; said a young
+      Hungarian cadet. &ldquo;I, too, was sent off to join my regiment on foot. Just
+      fancy to walk from Arad to Presburg! I, that never went twenty miles in my
+      life save on the saddle. They fitted me with my knapsack, just such a
+      thing as Dalton's. I suppose about as many florins jingled in my purse as
+      in his. They gave me their blessing and a map of the road, with each day's
+      journey marked out upon it. And how far did I go afoot, think'st thou? Two
+      miles and a half. There I took an 'Eil Bauer,' with four good horses and a
+      wicker caleche, and we drove our sixty, sometimes seventy miles a day.
+      Each night we put up at some good country house or other Honyadi's
+      Ctzyscheny's Palfi's; all lay on the road, and I found out about fifty
+      cousins I never knew of before, and made a capital acquaintance, too, the
+      Prince Paul of Ettlingen, who, owning a regiment of Light Dragoons, took
+      me into his corps, and, when I joined them at Leutmeritz, I was already an
+      officer. What stuff it is they preach about economy and thrift! Are we the
+      sons of peasants or petty shopkeepers? It comes well, too, from them in
+      their princely chateaux to tell us that we must live like common soldiers.
+      So that, while yesterday, as it were, I sat at a table covered with
+      silver, and drank my Tokay from a Venetian glass, tomorrow I must put up
+      with sour Melniker, or, mayhap, Bavarian beer, with black bread, and a
+      sausage to help it down! Our worthy progenitors knew better in their own
+      young days, or we should not have so many debts and mortgages on our
+      estates eh, Walstein?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose the world is pretty much alike, in every age,&rdquo; said the Count,
+      laughing. &ldquo;It now and then takes a virtuous fit, and affects to be better
+      than it used to be; but I shrewdly suspect that the only difference is in
+      the hypocritical pretension. When I entered the service and it is not so
+      many years ago that I cannot recollect it the cant was, to resemble that
+      rough school of the days of old Frederick and Maria Teresa. Trenck's
+      'Pandours,' with their scarlet breeches stuffed into their wide boot-tops,
+      were the mode; and to wear your moustache to your shoulders to cry 'Bey'm
+      Henker!' and 'Alle Blitzen!' every moment, were the veritable types of the
+      soldier. Now we have changed all that. We have the Anglomania of English
+      grooms and equipages, top-boots, curricles, hurdle-races, champagne
+      suppers. Dalton will be the ton in his regiment, and any extravagance he
+      likes to launch into certain to have its followers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The youth blushed deeply; partly in conscious pride at the flattery,
+      partly in the heartfelt shame at its inappropriateness to himself; and
+      even the sincerity with which his comrades drank his health, could not
+      drown the self-reproaches he was suffering under.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art an only son, too, Dalton!&rdquo; said another. &ldquo;What favors fortune
+      will shower upon one happy fellow! Here I am, one of seven; and although
+      my father is a count of the empire, four of us have to take service in the
+      infantry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What of that?&rdquo; said a dark-complexioned fellow, whose high cheek-bones
+      and sharp under-jaw bespoke a Pole. &ldquo;I am a second lieutenant in the
+      regiment that my grandfather raised and equipped at his own cost; and if I
+      were to lose a thousand florins at lansquenet to-morrow, I 'd be broke,
+      like the meanest 'bursch' in the corps.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's better to be a rich Englander,&rdquo; cried one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And with a field-marshal for a grand-uncle!&rdquo; chimed in another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And a 'Maria Teresa' to ask for thy grade as officer,&rdquo; said a third.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's a jolly service to all of us,&rdquo; said a young Bohemian, who, although
+      but a cadet, was a prince, with a princely fortune. &ldquo;I ask for nothing but
+      a war to make it the best life going.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A war with whom?&rdquo; cried several together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What care I with whom or where? With Prussia, if you will, to fight out
+      our old scores about Frauconia; with Russia, if you like better, for the
+      Danubian provinces, and her Servian supremacy; with France she 's always
+      ready, with a cause or without one; with Italy to round off our frontier,
+      and push our limits to the Apennines; I'd say with England, only Dalton
+      might n't like it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where would you pick your quarrel with England?&rdquo; said Frank,
+      laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Easily enough, through our ambassador at the Porte, or some outlying
+      station, where Russia is her rival.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hang your politics!&rdquo; broke in a Hungarian. &ldquo;Let us fight when the time
+      comes, but not bother our heads about the cause. I 'd rather take my
+      chance of a sabre-cut any day than addle my brains with too much thought.
+      Here 's to you, Dalton, mayst soon be a Rittmeister of Hussars, lad; a
+      prouder thing thou needst not ask for.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou shalt give us a jolly supper at the 'Schwan,' Dalton, when we meet
+      at Vienna,&rdquo; said another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And we'll pledge those fair sisters of thine and they 're both handsome,
+      I 'll be sworn in the best Tokay Palfi's vineyard can yield.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My regiment will be in garrison, in the Leopoldstadt, next month, and
+      I'll remind thee of this pledge.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And we shall be at Lintz,&rdquo; broke in another; &ldquo;and thou mayst reckon on
+      me, if I have to suffer an arrest for it afterwards.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it is agreed, Dalton, we are thy guests. For what day shall it be?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, let us name the day,&rdquo; cried several together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When he is named an officer,&rdquo; said Walstein, &ldquo;that will be time enough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, nay the day month after he arrives at Vienna,&rdquo; cried the Bohemian.
+      &ldquo;I have given three breakfasts and five suppers on the occasion of my
+      promotion, and the promotion has never come yet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The day month after I arrive, then, be it,&rdquo; said Dalton. &ldquo;We meet at
+      where is it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The 'Schwan,' lad, the first restaurant of Europe. Let men talk as they
+      will of the Cadran Bleu and the Trois Freres, I'd back Hetziuger's cook
+      against the world; and as for wine, he has Steinkammer at thirty florins
+      the flask! And we'll drink it, too, eh, Dalton? and we'll give a 'Hoch
+      Lebe' to that old grandfather or grand-uncle of thine. We'll add ten years
+      to his life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A poor service to Dalton,&rdquo; said another; &ldquo;but here comes Walstein's
+      horses, and now for the last glass together before we part.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The parting seemed, indeed, to be &ldquo;sweet sorrow,&rdquo; for each leave-taking
+      led to one flask more, friendship itself appearing to make wondrous
+      progress as the bottle went round. The third call of the postilion's bugle
+      a summons that even German loyalty could scarcely have courage to resist
+      at last cut short the festivities, and Frank once more found himself in
+      the caleche, where at least a dozen hands contested for the last shake of
+      his, and a shower of good wishes mingled with the sounds of the crashing
+      wheels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Glorious fellows!&rdquo; cried Dalton, in an ecstasy of delight; &ldquo;such comrades
+      are like brothers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Walstein smiled at the boy's enthusiasm, and lighted his meerschaum in
+      silence; and thus they journeyed, each too full of his own thoughts to
+      care for converse. It was not at such a moment that Dalton could give way
+      to dark or serious reflections; the blandishments and caresses of his new
+      friends were too powerful to admit of any rivalry in his mind; and even
+      when he did revert to thoughts of home, it was to picture to himself his
+      father's pride at seeing him in the society of these high-born youths; of
+      Kate's delight at the degree of notice he attracted; and even Nelly poor
+      Nelly! he fancied yielding a gentle, half-reluctant assent to a
+      companionship which, if costly and expensive, was sure to be honorable and
+      high-minded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What would Hanserl say, too,&rdquo; thought he, &ldquo;if he saw me seated at the
+      table with those whose high-sounding names are the pride of Austrian
+      chivalry, the Thuns, the Lichtensteins, the Schwartenschilds, and the
+      Walsteins, families old as the Hapsburgs themselves? Little Hanserl, to
+      whom these glorious families were the great lights of history, oh, if he
+      could have set eyes on me this last evening! when, with arms around my
+      neck, they called me comrade!&rdquo; From this he wandered on to thoughts of his
+      uncle, investing the old field-marshal with every noble and soldierlike
+      attribute, and, above all, fancying him as overflowing with affection and
+      kindness. What hosts of questions did he ask about his father and his
+      sisters; how often had he to repeat their names and paint their
+      resemblances, going over the most minute details of family history, and
+      recounting the simplest incidents of their daily life, for &ldquo;Uncle Stephen
+      would know all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In such pleasant fancies he fell fast asleep, even in his dreams to carry
+      out those imaginings that, waking, had no control of reason.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank Dalton was awaked from a sound sleep and a pleasant dream of home by
+      the hoarse voice of a mounted dragoon, ordering the postilion to halt;
+      and, on looking out, he saw that they were drawn up close beside the angle
+      of the great wooden bridge that crosses the Danube, under the walls of
+      Vienna. The whole scene was one of wonderment and surprise to him. At his
+      feet, as it were, rolled the stream of the rapid Danube; its impetuous
+      flood splashing and foaming amid the fragments of ice floated down from
+      the mountain regions, and which every moment were shivered against the
+      stone breakwaters with the crash of thunder. Beyond the river rose the
+      fortified walls of the city, covered with a dense multitude of people,
+      eager spectators of a grand military display, which, with all the pomp of
+      war, poured forth beneath the dark archway of the entrance-gate, and,
+      winding over the &ldquo;glacis,&rdquo; crossed the bridge, and held on its course
+      towards the Prater.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a clear, bright day of winter; the blue sky almost cloudless, and
+      the sharp outline of every object stood out, crisp and well defined, in
+      the thin atmosphere. Nothing could be more favorable for the effect of
+      such a spectacle. The bright weapons glanced and glittered like silver,
+      the gay trappings and brilliant uniforms showed in all their splendor, the
+      scarlet Lancers, the blue-clad Hussars, the Cuirassiers, with their
+      towering helmets, vied with each other in soldierlike bearing; while the
+      dense mass of infantry moved along with a surging, waving motion, like a
+      vast sea heaving with a ground-swell. It was an army complete in every
+      detail; for, even to the &ldquo;ambulances&rdquo; for the wounded, everything was
+      there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A review by the Emperor!&rdquo; said Walstein; &ldquo;and see, there comes his
+      staff.&rdquo; And he pointed to a group of horsemen, whose waving plumes and
+      floating dolmans were seen at a little distance off in the plain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, let us follow them!&rdquo; cried Frank, enthusiastically. &ldquo;Such a glorious
+      sight as this I never even imagined.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You 'll see enough, perhaps too many such,&rdquo; said the Count, languidly.
+      &ldquo;It's a favorite pastime of our old General's to drag us out of quarters
+      in the very depth of winter, and spend a day in the snow of the Prater.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who could have a thought for weather or hardship when engaged in such a
+      scene?&rdquo; said Frank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So, evidently, think those worthy field-marshals and generals of
+      division, who, well mounted, and swathed in furs, canter down to the
+      ground, an hour after we have reached it, and ride back again when they
+      have 'taken the salute,' leaving us to plod wearily home, through wet
+      roads and sloppy streets, to our cold barracks. But just the reverse is
+      the opinion of those poor fellows yonder, with blue faces and frostbitten
+      knuckles, and who have neither pride in this display, nor sympathy with
+      the success of what is called 'a fine manoeuvre.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank shook his head distrustfully. He wished not to credit the opinion,
+      but knew not how to refute it, and was silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is the 'Franz Carl,' Dalton,&rdquo; said Walstein, pointing to a column of
+      infantry, who, in their dark gray overcoats, seemed a sad-looking, gloomy
+      mass. &ldquo;They've got the best band and the most savage colonel in the
+      service.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank gazed at the regiment with a strange sensation of awe and fear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There lies my destiny!&rdquo; thought he. &ldquo;Who knows what friendships or
+      enmities await me yonder? What hearts in that dark mass will beat
+      responsively with my own; what sources of sorrow or affliction may I meet
+      with amongst them!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish thou hadst a better regiment, Dalton,&rdquo; said Walstein.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How a better? Is it not a brave and distinguished corps?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brave enough,&rdquo; said the other, laughing; &ldquo;and as for distinction, an
+      Archduke owns and commands it. But that is not what I mean. The regiment
+      is a poor one; the officers are from Upper Austria, with little or no
+      fortune, fellows who dine for a zwanziger, play dominos for two kreutzers,
+      waltz at the wine-gardens, and fight duels with sabres.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank laughed at the description; but his laugh had more of gloom than
+      mirth about it, for he felt at every moment the false position be
+      occupied, and how inextricably complicated his circumstances were
+      becoming. Every allusion to others showed him in what light he was himself
+      regarded. &ldquo;Was his deception honorable? was it possible to continue it?&rdquo;
+       were the questions that would obtrude upon him, and for which no ingenuity
+      could find answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There 's the corps for you, Dalton,&rdquo; said Walstein, drawing his attention
+      to the &ldquo;Hungarian Guard,&rdquo; all glittering with gold embroidery, and mounted
+      upon the most beautiful white chargers, at once the most perfect riders
+      and the best mounted cavalry in Europe. &ldquo;In that regiment you are certain
+      of being quartered either here or in Prague. Those laced jackets are too
+      costly wear to send down to the Banat, or among the wilds of Wallachia.
+      Besides, the Empress likes to see these gaudy fellows on their 'schimmels'
+      beneath the Palace windows. Your uncle will, of course, grumble a little
+      about the cost. Perhaps your father, too, will look a little grave when he
+      hears of six thousand florins for a 'dolman,' and four for a 'schabrach;'
+      while ten or twelve horses the very least you could keep would scarcely
+      sound like a moderate stable. Still, depend upon it, the corps is as good
+      for service as it is costly, and Creptowitz, their Colonel, is a true
+      hussar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For a moment Dalton hesitated whether he should not make the honest avowal
+      of his narrow fortune, and tell that he had no pretension to such habits
+      of cost and expense; but shame was too powerful to permit the
+      acknowledgment. He had already gone too far to retract, and he felt that
+      any candor now would be the confession of a cheat. If these were harassing
+      and torturing reflections, one flickering ray of hope still glimmered
+      through the gloom; and this was, what he might expect from his uncle. &ldquo;If
+      he be really rich, as they say,&rdquo; thought Frank, &ldquo;if his favor be so great
+      with the Emperor, even such a career as this may not be above my
+      prospects.&rdquo; As he revolved these thoughts, he sat with his head buried
+      between his hands, forgetful of where he was and all around him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You 're losing everything, Dalton,&rdquo; said Walstein. &ldquo;See, there go the
+      'Kaiser Jagers,' with their bugles, the finest in the service; and yonder
+      are the Lichtenstein 'Light Horse,' mounted on thorough-bred cattle; and
+      there, to the left, those savage-looking fellows with long beards, they
+      are the 'Croat Grenadiers.' But here comes the Emperor!&rdquo; And, as he spoke,
+      one deafening cheer burst forth along the line, and was echoed back from
+      the walls of Vienna; while every band struck up the national hymn of
+      Austria, and the proud notes of &ldquo;God preserve the Emperor!&rdquo; floated
+      through the air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A brilliant staff of generals of every arm of the service accompanied &ldquo;the
+      Kaiser;&rdquo; and Walstein ran quickly over the names of these, many of whom
+      were among the first nobility of the Empire. Some were the war-worn
+      veterans of the great campaigns; some the young hopes of Austrian
+      chivalry; but, conspicuous above all, was a figure whose stature, as well
+      as the singularity of his uniform, attracted Frank's notice. He was a very
+      tall old man, dressed in a uniform of purple velvet slashed with gold, and
+      actually covered with the crosses and decorations of various orders. His
+      cap was a tall chako of red-brown fur, from which a long, straight scarlet
+      plume floated, and beneath which his gray hair was fastened in a queue,
+      that hung half-way down his back. Yellow buskins ornamented with massive
+      gold spurs completed a costume which seemed almost a compromise between
+      the present and some bygone age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The figure of the wearer, too, suited well this impression. There was a
+      stern rigidity of look as he sat still and motionless in his saddle, which
+      relaxed into the polished urbanity of an old courtier as often as the
+      Emperor addressed him. When bowing to the mane of his charger, he seemed
+      the very type of courtesy; while, as he retired his horse, there was all
+      the address and ease of a practised rider.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, to the left of Walmoden, on the powerful black horse, do you see
+      that handsome old man in the purple tunic?&rdquo; said Waldstein.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have been watching him for several minutes back,&rdquo; replied Frank. &ldquo;What
+      a singular uniform!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. It was the dress of the Artillery of the Imperial Guard in the days
+      of Wagram and Lobau; and he is permitted to retain it, by a special leave
+      of the Emperor, a favor he only avails himself of on occasions like the
+      present.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a mass of orders he wears!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has all that the Empire can bestow, from the 'Iron Cross' to the
+      'Maria Teresa.' He has the 'Legion of Honor,' too, sent him by Napoleon
+      himself! It was that officer who at Elchingen rode up to the head of a
+      French column, and told them that the wagons they were pursuing were the
+      'ammunition of the rear-guard!' 'If you advance,' said he, 'we 'll fire
+      them, and blow you and ourselves to atoms!' The coolness and heroism of
+      the daring were well acknowledged by a brave enemy. The French halted, and
+      our train proceeded on its way. Mayhap you have heard the anecdote
+      before?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never,&rdquo; said Frank, still gazing with admiration at the old soldier.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I may as well tell you that he is the Count Dalton von Auersberg,&rdquo;
+       said Walstein, lying back to enjoy the youth's amazement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What! Uncle Stephen? Is that our uncle?&rdquo; burst out Frank, in delight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish I could call him 'ours,' with all my heart,&rdquo; said Walstein,
+      laughing. &ldquo;Any man might well be proud of such a relative.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Frank never heard or heeded the remark; his whole soul was wrapped up
+      in the contemplation of the old field marshal, on whom he gazed as a
+      devotee might have done upon his saint.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He 's like my father,&rdquo; muttered Frank, half aloud; &ldquo;but
+      haughtier-looking, and older. A true Dalton in every feature! How I long
+      to speak to him, to tell him who I am.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not here, though, not here!&rdquo; said Walstein, laying his hand on the
+      youth's arm; for he almost feared lest he should give way to the sudden
+      impulse. &ldquo;Were you even the Colonel of your regiment, you could not
+      approach him now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank stared with some surprise at a remark which seemed to treat so
+      slightingly the ties of blood and kindred; while Walstein, by no means
+      easy on the score of his companion's prudence, gave the word to the
+      postilion to drive on; and they entered the city of Vienna.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0030" id="link2HCH0030">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXX. THE THREAT OP &ldquo;A SLIGHT EMBARRASSMENT.&rdquo;
+     </h2>
+    <p>
+      The Mazzarini Palace was now a proverb for all that was dissipated and
+      extravagant throughout Florence, and in proportion as the society which
+      frequented it was select and few in number, the more absurd were the
+      rumors that went abroad of its dissipations and excesses. In default of a
+      real, good, tangible scandal the world invented a thousand shadowy little
+      slanders, that, if not as deadly to reputation at once, were just as
+      certain to kill character in the long run.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Stafford's gout, of which he was confined to his bed or a sofa, was
+      pronounced the lingering agonies of a broken heart. &ldquo;My Lady's&rdquo; late
+      dinners were orgies where every licentiousness held sway. George was a
+      reckless gambler, who had already jeopardized all the wealth of his
+      family; and, as for Kate, she was at the mercy of that amiable temperament
+      of the human mind which always believes the worst, and as constantly draws
+      the darkest inference from its belief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, Sir Stafford was very gouty, very irritable, and very unhappy to
+      boot, about a number of matters, which, however deeply interesting to
+      himself, should have had no concern for the world. My Lady did dine at
+      eleven o'clock at night, and the company was assuredly not that from which
+      a discriminating public would have selected archbishops, or even minor
+      canons, consisting for the most part of that class of which we have
+      already made mention in a former chapter, with now and then some
+      passer-through of rank, or some stray diplomate on his way to or from his
+      post. George Onslow was a large loser at play, but without having recourse
+      to those stratagems for payment which were so generally ascribed to him.
+      While Kate poor Kate was neither better nor worse than the reader has
+      hitherto known her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We do not in this admission seek to conceal the fact that she was very
+      different from what first we saw her. Society had taught her tact, grace,
+      and elegance of deportment. Admiration had rendered her yes,&mdash;we say
+      it advisedly admiration had rendered her very attractive, drawing forth a
+      thousand resources of fascination, and a thousand arts of pleasing, that
+      often wither and die in the cold chill of neglect. The most fastidious
+      critic could not have detected a fault in her manner; an ill-natured one
+      might have objected to what seemed an excess of gracefulness; but even
+      this was relieved by a youthful freshness and buoyancy of temperament, the
+      last the very last remnant of her former self.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was the belle of Florence. Her sovereignty admitted of nothing like a
+      rival. Whether she drove, or rode, or danced, or walked, the same admiring
+      throng surrounded her; some sincere in all their admiration, others but
+      following the lead which fashion took, and others, again, watchful
+      observers of a manner in which they fancied they could trace the settled
+      plan of a daring and ambitious character. Vanity had been the foible of
+      her childish years; it was now the vice of her womanhood. Lady Hester
+      ministered to this failing in a hundred ways. Liking Kate as well as it
+      was possible for her to like anything, she took an intense pleasure in all
+      the admiration she met with.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As an actor is said to &ldquo;create the part&rdquo; which is written for him, when he
+      impresses the personation with traits peculiarly his own, so did she fancy
+      that Kate was but a reflected image of all her own graces and
+      fascinations; and probably the proudest days of her own triumphs never
+      yielded more enjoyment than she now felt in the flattering praises
+      bestowed upon Kate Dalton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were good-natured people who said that Lady Hester's admiration had
+      another source, and that, as a somewhat passee beauty, she knew the full
+      value of a younger and handsomer woman in attracting to her circle and
+      society all that was distinguished by rank or station. We are not prepared
+      to deny some force to this argument, but, assuredly, it had less weight
+      than other reasons. Lady Hester's own claims, besides, were higher than
+      these detractors admitted. She was, although not very young, still very
+      handsome, her rank and wealth both considerable, and her manner the
+      perfection of that school to which she belonged. If her affection for Kate
+      was only another form of selfishness, it was not the less strong on that
+      account. She was the confidante of her sorrows, by no means a sinecure
+      office; the chief counsellor in all her plans; she was the lay-figure on
+      which she experimented a hundred devices in costume and toilet; and
+      lastly, greatest charm of all, she was a dependant. Not, indeed, that Kate
+      herself so understood her position; pride of family, the Dalton heritage,
+      was too powerful in her to admit of this. Deeply, sincerely grateful she
+      was for all Lady Hester's kindness; her affection she returned tenfold,
+      but no sense of inferiority mingled with this feeling, save that which
+      arose from her own devoted admiration of her friend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The homage amid which she passed her life, the unceasing flow of
+      flatteries around her, were not very likely to undeceive her on this
+      point. A more respectful devotion could not have waited on a princess of
+      the royal house. The great Midchekoff gave balls in her honor. The Arab
+      horses of Treviliani were all placed at her disposal. The various visits
+      to objects of curiosity or taste were arranged for her pleasure, and
+      nothing omitted that could tend to stimulate her vanity and heighten her
+      self-esteem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The utmost we can say for her all this while is, that if she was carried
+      away by the excitement of this adulation, yet, in her heart, she was as
+      little corrupted as was well possible. She could not be other than
+      enamored of a life so unchanging in its happiness, nor could she
+      disconnect the enjoyments around her from the possession of great wealth.
+      She thought of what she had been a few months back: the &ldquo;same Kate
+      Dalton,&rdquo; braving the snows of a dark German winter, with threadbare cloak
+      and peasant &ldquo;sabots,&rdquo; an object of admiration to none except poor Hanserl,
+      perhaps! And yet now, unchanged, unaltered, save in what gold can change,
+      how different was her position! It had been well if her love of splendor
+      had stopped here. It went further, however, and inspired a perfect dread
+      of humble fortune.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Over and over again did she hear disparaging remarks bestowed upon the
+      striving efforts of &ldquo;respectable poverty,&rdquo; its contrivances derided, its
+      little straits held up to ridicule. In dress, equipage, or household,
+      whatever it did was certain to be absurd; and yet all of these people, so
+      laughed at and scorned, were in the enjoyment of means far above her own
+      father's!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What a false position was this! How full of deceit must she become to
+      sustain it! She invoked all her sophistry to assure herself that their
+      condition was a mere passing state; that at some future perhaps not even a
+      remote one they should have &ldquo;their own again;&rdquo; and that as in family and
+      descent they were the equals of any, so they were not inferior in all the
+      just claims to consideration and respect. She tried to think of her father
+      and Nelly moving in the circles she now lived in; but, even alone, and in
+      the secrecy of her own thoughts, her cheek became scarlet with shame, and
+      she actually shuddered at the very notion. And even Frank, her once ideal
+      of all that was graceful and noble-looking, how would he pass muster
+      beside these essenced &ldquo;fashionables&rdquo; who now surrounded her! She
+      endeavored to console herself by thinking that her father would have
+      despised the lounging, unmanly lives they led, that Ellen would have
+      retired in bashful modesty from a society whose tone of freedom and
+      license would have shocked her, and that Frank would have found no
+      companionship in a class whose pleasures lay only in dissipation; and yet
+      all her casuistry could not reassure her. The fascinations amid which she
+      lived were stronger than her reason.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She became first aware of the great change in herself on recognizing how
+      differently a letter from home affected her to what it had done some
+      months before. At first she would have hastened to her room, and locked
+      the door, in an ecstasy of delight to be alone with dearest Nelly, to
+      commune with her own sweet sister in secret, to hang on every line, every
+      word, with delight, fancying herself once more with arms clasped around
+      her, or bending down beside her cheek as she leaned over her work-table.
+      How every little detail would move her; how every allusion would bring up
+      home before her, the snug little chamber of an evening, as the bright fire
+      glowed on the hearth, and Nelly brought out her tools for modelling, while
+      Hanserl was searching for some passage, a line, or a description that
+      Nelly wanted; and then the little discussions that would ensue as to the
+      shape of some weapon, or the fashion of some costume of a past age, so
+      often broken in upon by her father, whose drolleries would set them
+      laughing!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With what interest, too, she would follow each trifling occurrence of
+      their daily life; the progress Nelly was making in her last group; its
+      difficulties how would she ponder over, and wonder how to meet them! With
+      what eager curiosity would she read the commonest details of the
+      household, the dreary burden of a winter's tale! and how her heart bounded
+      to hear of Frank the soldier although all the tidings were that he was
+      with his regiment, but &ldquo;spoke little of himself or the service.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, however, the glow of delight which a letter used to bring up was
+      changed for a deep blush of anxiety and shame, anxiety, she knew not
+      wherefore or how; of shame, because Nelly's writing on the address was
+      quaint and old-fashioned; while the paper and the seal bespoke the very
+      lowliest acquaintance with epistolary elegance. The letter she used to
+      grasp at with a high-beating heart she now clutched with greater
+      eagerness, but in terror lest others should see and mark its vulgar
+      exterior!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How differently, too, did the contents affect her! So long as they
+      referred to herself, in her own latest narrative of her life, she read
+      with avidity and pleasure. Nelly's innocent wonderment was a very
+      delightful sensation; her affectionate participation in her happiness was
+      all grateful; even her gentle warnings against the seductions of such a
+      career were not unpleasing; but the subject changed to home, and what an
+      alteration came over her spirit! How dark and dismal became the picture,
+      how poverty-stricken each incident and event, what littleness in every
+      detail, how insignificant the occupations that interested them!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How great the surprise she felt at their interest in such trifles; how
+      astonished that their hopes and fears, their wishes or their dreads, could
+      take so mean a form! This came with peculiar force before her, from a
+      paragraph that closed Nelly's last letter, and which ran thus:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Think of our happiness, dearest Kate! We have just seen one who saw you
+      lately, one of your Florence acquaintances; and I believe I might go
+      further and say friends, for the terms in which he spoke of you evinced
+      sincere and true regard. It was so kind of him to find us out, just to
+      come and tell us about you; indeed, he remained a day here for no other
+      purpose, since his diplomatic duties were urging him to England with
+      speed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When Kate had read thus far, she stopped, her face and neck crimson with
+      shame, and her heart beating almost audibly. With lightning rapidity she
+      ran over to herself three or four names of ministers and envoys who had
+      lately left Florence, trembling to think it might be the gorgeous Russian,
+      Naradskoi, the princely Neapolitan, Carnporese, or the haughty Spaniard,
+      Don Hernandez Orloes, who had visited their humble interior. What a
+      humiliation for her, if she were ever to see them again! Home, at that
+      instant, presented itself before her but as the witness of her shame: how
+      sordid and miserable did its poverty appear, and with what vulgarity
+      associated! Her poor old father, around whose neck but a moment before she
+      would have hung with rapture, she shrank from with very terror: his dress,
+      his look, his accent every word he spoke, every allusion he made, were
+      tortures to her; and Nelly even Nelly how she blushed to fancy her humble
+      guise and poor exterior; the little dress of colored wool, from the
+      pockets of which her carving-tools appeared; and then how the scene rose
+      before her! her father producing Nelly's last work, some little group in
+      clay or wood. She pictured to herself his pride, her sister's bashfulness,
+      the stranger's pretended admiration! Till now, these emotions had never
+      seen a counterfeit. Oh, how she shuddered as her thoughts took more and
+      more the colors of reality, and the room itself, and its poverty-struck
+      furniture, rose before her! At last she read on:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His visit was of course a great honor, and probably, had he come on any
+      other errand but to speak of you, we should have been half overwhelmed
+      with the condescension; but in very truth, Kate, I quite forgot all his
+      greatness and his grandeur, and lost sight of his ever holding any higher
+      mission than to bring news of my dearest sister. Papa, of course, asked
+      him to dinner. I believe he would have invited the Czar himself under like
+      circumstances; but, fortunately for us, for him, and perhaps for you too,
+      he was too deaf to hear the request, and politely answered that he would
+      send my letter to you with pleasure, under his own diplomatic seal; and so
+      we parted. I ought to add that Mr. Foglass intends speedily to return to
+      Florence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Three or four times did Kate read this name over before she could persuade
+      herself that she had it aright. Foglass! she had never even heard of him.
+      The name was remarkable enough to remember, as belonging to a person of
+      diplomatic rank, and yet it was quite new to her. She turned to Lady
+      Hester's invitation book, but no such name was there. What form her doubts
+      might have taken there is no knowing, when Mr. Albert Jekyl was seen to
+      cross the courtyard, and enter the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Knowing that if any could, he would be the person to resolve the
+      difficulty, she hastened downstairs to meet him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Jekyl,&rdquo; cried she, hurriedly, &ldquo;is there such a man as Mr. Foglass in
+      this breathing world of ours?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course there is, Miss Dalton,&rdquo; said he, smiling at her eagerness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A minister or an envoy at some court?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not that I have ever heard,&rdquo; repeated he, with a more dubious smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, a secretary of embassy, perhaps? something of that kind? Who is he?
+      what is he? where does he belong to?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean Bob, Miss Dalton,&rdquo; said he, at once puffing out his cheeks and
+      running his hand through his hair, till it became a very good resemblance
+      of the ex-Consul's wig, while, by a slight adjustment of his waistcoat, he
+      imitated the pretentious presence of the mock royalty. &ldquo;'You mean Bob,
+      madam,'&rdquo; said he, mimicking his measured intonation and pompous tone,
+      &ldquo;'Old Fogey, as Mathews always called me. Mathews and I and Townsend were
+      always together, dined at Greenwich every Sunday regularly. What nights
+      they were! Flows of reason, and feasts of eh? yes, that's what they
+      were.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must remind you that I never saw him,&rdquo; said she, laughing; &ldquo;though I'm
+      certain, if I should hereafter, it will not be very hard to recognize him.
+      Now, who is he?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He himself says, a grandson of George the Fourth. Less interested
+      biographers call him a son of Foglass and Crattles, who, I believe, were
+      not even coachmakers to royalty. He was a consul at Ezmeroum, or some such
+      place. At least, they showed him the name on a map, and bade him find it
+      out; but he found out something more, it seems, that there was neither pay
+      nor perquisites, neither passports nor peculation; and he has brought back
+      his wisdom once again to besiege the Foreign Office. But how do you happen
+      to ask about him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Some of my friends met him in Germany,&rdquo; said she, hesitatingly. She might
+      have blushed, had Jekyl looked at her; but he knew better, and took pains
+      to bestow his glances in another direction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would be kind to tell them that the man is a most prying, inquisitive
+      sort of creature, who, if he only had the sense of hearing, would be as
+      mischievous as Purvis.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fancy they will see but little of him,&rdquo; said she, with a saucy toss of
+      the head. &ldquo;He made their acquaintance by affecting to know me. I 'm sure I
+      've no recollection of having ever seen him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course you never knew him, Miss Dalton!&rdquo; replied he, with a subdued
+      horror in his voice as he spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A letter for you, Mademoiselle,&rdquo; said the servant to Kate; &ldquo;and the man
+      waits for an answer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Kate broke the seal with some trepidation. She had no correspondents
+      nearer than her home, and wondered what this might mean. It was in a
+      strange commotion of spirit that she read the following lines:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mrs. Montague Ricketts presents her respectful compliments to Miss
+      Dalton, and begs to know at what hour to-day Mrs. M. R. may wait upon Miss
+      D., to present a letter which has been committed to Mrs. R.'s hands for
+      personal delivery. It may secure an earlier hour of audience if Mrs. R.
+      mentions that the precious document is from Miss D.'s father.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      What could this possibly mean? It was but that very same day the post
+      brought her a letter from Nelly. Why had not her father said what he
+      wished to say, in that? What need of this roundabout, mysterious mode of
+      communicating?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sight of the servant still in waiting for the answer recalled her from
+      these cross-questionings, and she hurried away to consult Lady Hester
+      about the reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's very shocking, my dear child,&rdquo; said she, as she listened to the
+      explanation. &ldquo;The Ricketts, they tell me, is something too dreadful; and
+      we have escaped her hitherto. You could n't be ill, could you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the letter?&rdquo; said Kate, half smiling, half provoked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, to be sure the letter! But Buccellini, you know, might take the
+      letter, and leave it, with unbroken seal, near you; you could read it just
+      as well. I 'm sure I read everything Sir Stafford said in his without ever
+      opening it. You saw that yourself, Kate, or, with your scepticism, I
+      suppose, you 'd not believe it, for you are very sceptical; it is your
+      fault of faults, my dear. D'Esmonde almost shed tears about it, the other
+      day. He told me that you actually refused to believe in the Madonna della
+      Torre, although he showed you the phial with the tears in it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I only said that I had not seen the Virgin shed them,&rdquo; said Kate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True, child! but you saw the tears; and you heard D'Esmonde remark, that
+      when you saw the garden of a morning, all soaked with wet, the trees and
+      flowers dripping, you never doubted that it had rained during the night,
+      although you might not have been awake to hear or see it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Kate was silent; not that she was unprepared with an answer, but dreaded
+      to prolong a discussion so remote from the object of her visit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, Protestant that I am,&rdquo; said Lady Hester, with the triumphant tone of
+      one who rose above all the slavery of prejudice, &ldquo;Protestant that I am, I
+      believe in the 'Torre.' The real distinction to make is, between what is
+      above, and what is contrary to, reason, Kate. Do you understand me,
+      child?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm sure Mrs. Ricketts's visit must be both,&rdquo; Kate said, adroitly
+      bringing back the original theme.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very true; and I was forgetting the dear woman altogether. I suppose you
+      must receive her, Kate; there 's no help for it! Say three o'clock, and
+      I'll sit in the small drawing-room, and, with the gallery and the library
+      between us, I shall not hear her dreadful voice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has she such?&rdquo; asked Kate, innocently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm sure I don't know,&rdquo; said Lady Hester, pettishly; &ldquo;but of course she
+      has! Those dreadful people always have! Make the visit as brief as
+      possible, Kate. Let it not be a pretext for anything after. Use your
+      eyeglass on every occasion, so that you can be short-sighted enough never
+      to know her again. I have seen you very supercilious at times, child, it
+      is precisely the manner for this interview. It was really very wrong of
+      your papa to write in this fashion; or your sister, or whoever it was.
+      Nobody thinks of anything but the post, nowadays. Pray tell them so; say
+      it makes me quite nervous; you see I am nervous to-day! There, there! I
+      don't want to fret you, child but everything has gone wrong to-day.
+      Midchekoff has given away his box, and I have promised mine to the
+      Lucchesini; and that blond flounce is much too narrow, so Celestine tells
+      me; but I 'm sure she has cut a piece off it to make a 'berthe' for
+      herself. And then the flowers are positively odious. They are crimson,
+      instead of cherry-color, although I told Jekyl twice over they ought to be
+      the very tint of Lady Melgund's nose! There, now; goodbye. Remember all
+      I've been saying, and don't forget that this is a 'giorno infelice,' and
+      everything one does will prove unlucky. I hope D'Esmonde will not come
+      today. I 'm really not equal to controversy this morning. I should like to
+      see Buccellini, however, and have a globule of the Elysian essence.
+      Bye-bye; do think better about the 'Madonna della Torre,' and get rid of
+      that odious Ricketts affair as speedily as may be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With these injunctions, Kate withdrew to indite her reply to Mrs.
+      Ricketts, appointing three o 'clock on that same afternoon for a visit,
+      which she assuredly looked forward to with more of curiosity than
+      pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0031" id="link2HCH0031">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXI. A CONVIVIAL EVENING
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      IT is not necessary that the reader should participate in Kate Dalton's
+      mystification regarding her father's letter, that document being simply a
+      piece of Ricketts strategy, and obtained to secure an admission to the
+      Mazzarini Palace, which, notwithstanding Lord Norwood's assurances, still
+      regained an impregnable fortress to all her assaults.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Foglass was then commissioned to induce Mr. Dalton to write something,
+      anything, to his daughter, to be transmitted under the Embassy seal, a
+      magnificent mode of conveyance, which was reason enough to call into
+      exercise those powers of penmanship which, since he had ceased to issue
+      promissory notes, had lain in the very rustiest state of disuse. The
+      command to obtain this credential reached Foglass just as he was about to
+      start from Baden; but being desirous, for various little social reasons,
+      to conciliate the Ricketts's esteem, he at once altered his arrangements,
+      and feigning a sudden attack of gout, a right royal malady he took himself
+      to bed, and sent a few lines to Dalton, detailing his misfortune, and
+      entreating a visit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Never backward in the cause of good-nature, poor Dalton sallied forth at
+      night, and notwithstanding the cutting blasts of a north wind, and the
+      sharp driftings of the half-frozen snow, held on his way to the &ldquo;Russie,&rdquo;
+       where, in a very humble chamber for so distinguished a guest, lay Mr.
+      Foglass in the mock agonies of gout.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How devilish kind of you, how very considerate!&rdquo; said Foglass, as he gave
+      one finger of his hand to shake. &ldquo;So like poor Townsend this, Lord Tom, we
+      used to call him. Not wet, though, I hope?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if I was, it would n't be the first time. But how are you yourself,
+      where is the pain?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must speak louder; there 's a kind of damper on the voice in this
+      room.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where 's the pain?&rdquo; screamed Dalton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There there no need to roar,&rdquo; whispered the other. &ldquo;The pain is here over
+      the stomach, round the ribs, the back everywhere.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, I know it well,&rdquo; said Dalton, with a wry contortion of the face.
+      &ldquo;It's the devil entirely when it gets under the short ribs! It begins like
+      a rat nibbling you, as it might be, biting away little bits, with now and
+      then a big slice that makes you sing out; and then the teeth begin to get
+      hot, and he bites quicker, and tears you besides, sure I know it, this
+      many a year.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To this description, of which Foglass heard nothing, he bowed blandly, and
+      made a sign to Dalton to be seated near him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'd like a little wine-and-water, I'm sure,&rdquo; said he, with the air of a
+      man who rarely figured as a host, and liked it more rarely still.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spirits-and-water&mdash;boiling water with sugar and a squeeze of lemon,
+      is what I 'll take; and see now, you 'd not be worse of the same yourself.
+      I 've an elegant receipt for the gout, but whether it 's sulphur or
+      saltpetre 's in it, I don't well remember; but I know you mix it with
+      treacle, ash-bark, and earthworms, the yolk of four eggs, and a little
+      rosemary. But as you might n't like the taste of it at first, we 'll just
+      begin with a jug of punch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The waiter had by this time made his appearance, and the order being
+      communicated by a most expressive pantomime of drinking, and a few
+      solitary words of German Dalton possessed, the room assumed a look of
+      sociality, to which Dalton's presence very mainly contributed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the confidence such a moment of secrecy suggested, Foglass produced an
+      ear-trumpet, a mark of the most unbounded good faith on his part, and
+      which, had Dalton known him better, he would have construed into a proof
+      of implicit reliance on his honor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've been many years at Constantinople,&rdquo; said he, adjusting the
+      instrument, &ldquo;and the confounded muezzin has made me a little deaf. It's an
+      everlasting calling to prayers, day and night, there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How they ever expect to get to heaven by tormentin', and teasin', is more
+      than I know,&rdquo; said Dalton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They 're Mahomedans!&rdquo; said Foglass, with the air of a man uttering a
+      profound sentiment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, to be sure,&rdquo; observed Dalton; &ldquo;it's not like Christians. Now, is it
+      true, they tell me they never eat salt meat!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Think of that! Not a bit of corned beef, nor as much as a leg of pork&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would n't hear of it,&rdquo; interrupted Foglass. &ldquo;Wine, too, is forbidden.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And punch?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course, punch also. A pipe, a cup of coffee, the bath, and a little
+      opium are the luxuries of Turkish existence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To the devil I fling them all four,&rdquo; cried Dalton, impatiently. &ldquo;How a
+      man is to be social beside a coffeepot, or up to his neck in hot water,
+      beats me entirely. Faix! I don't envy the Turks!&rdquo; And he sipped his glass
+      as he spoke, like one who had fallen upon a happier destiny.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you 'll mix me a very small glass of that punch, I'd like to propose a
+      toast,&rdquo; said Foglass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, now, that's spoke like a sensible man; pleasant company and social
+      enjoyment are the greatest enemies to the gout. Make your mind easy, and
+      keep your heart light, and the devil a fear but your knees will get
+      limber, and the swellin' will leave your ankles; but weak punch and
+      tiresome people would undermine the best constitution in the world. Taste
+      that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To judge from Mr. Foglass's face, Dalton had at least provided one element
+      of health for his companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is very strong very strong, indeed!&rdquo; said he, puckering up his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's the fault of the water hereabouts,&rdquo; said Dalton. &ldquo;It doesn't mix
+      right with the spirits; so that one half the first, generally of your
+      liquor tastes stiff, but the bottom is mild as milk.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0014" id="linkimage-0014">
+      <!-- IMG --></a> <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/00384.jpg" alt="00384" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The explanation gave such encouragement to Foglass, that he drank away
+      freely, and it was only when he had finished that he remembered his
+      intention of giving a toast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, Mr. Dalton,&rdquo; said he, as he sat up with a replenished glass in his
+      hand, &ldquo;I am going to redeem my pledge, and about to give you the health of
+      the most beautiful girl in Italy, one whose attractions are the theme of
+      every tongue, and whose ambitions may realize any height, or attain any
+      eminence, that she pleases.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here 's to you, Kate Dalton,&rdquo; broke in the father, &ldquo;my own sweet child;
+      and if you only come back to me as you went away, the sorrow better I ask,
+      or grander.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She will be a duchess; she may be a princess if she likes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who knows who knows?&rdquo; said Dalton, as he hung down his head, and hammered
+      away with his spoon at the sugar in his glass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Every one knows, every one sees it, Mr. Dalton,&rdquo; said Foglass,
+      authoritatively. &ldquo;From the Archduke Ernest of Austria to the very pages of
+      the court, all are her worshippers and admirers. She'll come back to you
+      with a proud name and a high coronet, Mr. Dalton.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The devil a better than Dalton ever 'twill be! that I can tell you. 'T is
+      n't yesterday we took it, the same name; there 's stones in the churchyard
+      of Ballyhack can show who we are; and if she married the&mdash;the God
+      forgive me, I was going to say the Pope, but I meant the Grand Turk she
+      would n't be better than she is now, as Kate Dalton.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not better, certainly, but in a more exalted rank, in a position of more
+      recognized distinction,&rdquo; said Foglass, blandly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; nor that neither,&rdquo; cried Dalton, angrily. &ldquo;The Daltons goes back to
+      the ancient times of all. There 's one of our name in the Bible. I 'm not
+      sure where, but I believe it 's in the Book of Kings, or maybe the Psalms;
+      but wherever it is, he was a real gentleman, living on his own estate,
+      with his livery-servants, and his horses, and everything in good style
+      about him; high on the grand jury, maybe the sheriff of the county.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Foglass, who had followed this description but imperfectly, could only bow
+      in a deep acknowledgment of what he did not understand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The man that marries Kate Dalton isn't doing a piece of condescension,
+      anyhow! that I can tell him. The dirty acres may slip away from us, but
+      our good blood won't.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No man has a higher veneration for blood, sir,&rdquo; said Foglass, proudly;
+      &ldquo;few men have better reason for the feeling.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is Fogles an old stock?&rdquo; asked Dalton, eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Foglass, like Fitzroy, sir, may mean more than loyalty would dare to
+      avow. My father, Mr. Dalton But this is a very sad theme with me, let us
+      change it; let us drink to a better feeling in our native land, when that
+      abominable statute may be erased from our code, when that offspring of
+      suspicion and distrust shall no longer be the offence and opprobrium of
+      Englishmen. Here 's to its speedy and everlasting repeal!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The word was talismanic to Dalton, connected, as it was, in his mind with
+      but one subject. He arose at once, and holding up his goblet in the air,
+      cried out,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hip! hip! hurrah! three cheers and success to it! Repeal forever!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Foglass echoed the sentiment with equal enthusiasm, and draining his glass
+      to the bottom, exclaimed,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you, Dalton! thank you; the heartiness of that cheer tells me we
+      are friends; and although you know not what my feelings are indeed none
+      can you can execrate with honest indignation those hateful unions!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bad luck to it!&rdquo; exclaimed Dalton, with energy. &ldquo;We never had grace nor
+      luck since we saw it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Those petty German sovereigns, with their territories the size of Hyde
+      Park!&rdquo; said Foglass, with intense contempt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just so. The Hessians!&rdquo; chimed in Dalton, who had a faint consciousness
+      that the other was alluding to the troops of the Electorate, once
+      quartered in Ireland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us change the topic, Dalton,&rdquo; said Foglass, pathetically, as he wiped
+      his brow like a man dispelling a dark train of thought. &ldquo;Here's to that
+      charming young lady I saw last evening, a worthy sister of the beautiful
+      Miss Dalton.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A better child never breathed,&rdquo; said Dalton, drinking off his glass. &ldquo;My
+      own poor Nelly,&rdquo; muttered he, below his breath, &ldquo;'t is better than
+      handsome ye are, true-hearted, and fond of your old father.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She has accomplishments, sir, that would realize a fortune; that is,&rdquo;
+       said he, perceiving the dark cloud that passed over Dalton's features,
+      &ldquo;that is, if she were in a rank of life to need it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes very true just so,&rdquo; stammered out Dalton, not quite sure how to
+      accept the speech. &ldquo;'Tis a fine thing to be able to make money, not that
+      it was ever the gift of the Daltons. We were real gentlemen to the
+      backbone; and there was n't one of the name for five generations, barring
+      Stephen, that could earn sixpence if he was starving.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But Stephen, what could he do?&rdquo; inquired Foglass, curious to hear of this
+      singular exception to the family rule.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He took to soldiering in the Austrian army, and he 's a field-marshal,
+      and I don't know what more beside, this minute. My son Frank 's there
+      now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And likes it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Troth, he does n't say a great deal about that. His letter is mighty
+      short, and tells very little more than where he 's quartered, how
+      hard-worked he is, and that he never gets a minute to himself, poor
+      fellow!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miss Kate, then, has drawn the prize in the lottery of life?&rdquo; said
+      Foglass, who was anxious to bring the subject back to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Faix, that's as it may be,&rdquo; said the other, thoughtfully. &ldquo;Her letters is
+      full of high life and great people, grand dances and balls, and the rest
+      of it; but sure, if she 's to come back here again and live at home, won't
+      it come mighty strange to her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But in Ireland, when you return there, the society, I conclude, is very
+      good?&rdquo; asked Foglass, gradually drawing him on to revelations of his
+      future intentions and plans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who knows if I'll ever see it again? The estate has left us. 'T is them
+      Onslows has it now. It might be in worse hands, no doubt; but they 've no
+      more right to it than you have.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No right to it, how do you mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean what I say, that if every one had their own, sorrow an acre of
+      that property would be theirs. 'T is a long story, but if you like to hear
+      it, you 're welcome. It 's more pleasure than pain to me to tell it,
+      though many a man in my situation would n't have the heart to go over it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Foglass pronounced his willingness at once; and, a fresh jorum of punch
+      being concocted, Dalton commenced that narrative of his marriage,
+      widowhood, and loss of fortune, of which the reader already knows the
+      chief particulars, and with whose details we need not twice inflict him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The narrative was a very long one; nor was it rendered more succinct by
+      the manner of the narrator, nor the frequent interruptions to which, for
+      explanation's sake, Foglass subjected him. Shall we own, too, that the
+      punch had some share in the intricacy, Dalton's memory and Foglass's
+      perceptions growing gradually more and more nebulous as the evening wore
+      on. Without at all wishing to impugn Dalton's good faith, it must be owned
+      that, what between his occasional reflections, his doubts, guesses,
+      surmises, and suspicions, his speculations as to the reason of this and
+      the cause of that, it was very difficult for a man so deeply versed in
+      punch as Foglass to carry away anything like a clear notion of the
+      eventful occurrences related. The strength of the potation, the hour, the
+      length of the story, the parenthetical interruptions, which, although only
+      bypaths, often looked exactly like the high-road, and probably, too,
+      certain inaccuracies in the adjustment of the ear-trumpet, which grew to
+      be very difficult at last, all contributed,&mdash;more or less, to a
+      mystification which finally resembled nothing so much as a very confused
+      dream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had the worthy ex-Consul then been put on his oath, he could n't have said
+      whether or not Sir Stafford had murdered the late Mr. Godfrey, or if that
+      crime should be attributed to Dalton's late wife. Between Sir Gilbert
+      Stafford and Sir Stafford Onslow, he had a vague suspicion of some Siamese
+      bond of union, but that they were cut asunder late in life, and were now
+      drifting in different currents, he also surmised. But which of them &ldquo;got
+      the fortune,&rdquo; and which had not, who held the estate at present, and how
+      Dalton came to be there at that moment relating the story, were Chinese
+      puzzles to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Murder, matrimony, debts, difficulties, and Chancery suits danced an
+      infernal reel through his brain; and, what with the scattered fragments of
+      Irish life thrown in incidentally, of locking dinner-parties in, and
+      barring the sheriff out, of being chased by bailiffs, or hunting them, all
+      these divertissements ending in a residence abroad, with its manifold
+      discomforts and incongruities, poor Foglass was in a state which, were it
+      only to be permanent, would have presented a spectacle of very lamentable
+      insanity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nearest approach to a fact that he could come to was that Dalton ought
+      to be enormously rich, and that now he hadn't a sixpence; that the wealthy
+      banker was somehow the cause, Count Stephen being not altogether
+      blameless; and that Kate was living a life of extravagance and waste,
+      while her father and sister were waging a hard fight with the very
+      &ldquo;grimmest&rdquo; of poverty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;L'homme propose,&rdquo; &amp;c., says the adage; and the poet tells us an
+      instance, that &ldquo;those who came to scoff remained to pray.&rdquo; So in the
+      present case, Mr. Foglass, whose mission was to pump Peter Dalton out of
+      every family secret and circumstance, had opened such an unexpected stream
+      of intelligence upon himself that he was actually carried away in the
+      flood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You've been badly used, Dalton,&rdquo; said he, at last. &ldquo;I may say, infamously
+      treated! Not only your fortune taken away, but your children torn from
+      you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, just so.&rdquo; Dalton liked sympathy too well to cavil about his title to
+      it. &ldquo;True for you, a harder case than mine you 'll not hear of in a
+      summer's day. My elegant fine place, my beautiful domain, the seat of my
+      ancestors, or, if they were n't, they were my wife's, and that 's all the
+      same; and to be sitting here, in a foreign country r hundreds of miles
+      away from home. Oh dear, oh dear! but that's a change!&rdquo; For an instant the
+      thought overwhelmed him, and he was silent; then, fixing his eyes on
+      Foglass, he added, in a dreamy soliloquy, &ldquo;Hundreds of miles away from
+      home, drinking bad brandy, with a deaf chap in a red wig for company.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I call yours a case of downright oppression, Dalton,&rdquo; resumed the other,
+      who fortunately overheard nothing of the last remark. &ldquo;If you had been
+      residing in Persia or the Caucasus even in the Danubian Provinces we 'd
+      have made you a case for the Foreign Office. You 'd have had your
+      compensation, sir. Ay, faith! you 'd have had a good round sum for the
+      murder of your father, old what 's his name? You 'd have had your claim,
+      sir, for the loss of that fine boy the Austrians have taken from you, Mrs.
+      Dalton's wardrobe, and all that sort of thing. I must repeat my
+      conviction, you 've been grossly infamously treated!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And just to think of my own flesh and blood, Stephen, my uncle!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't think of him, sir! I can't bear to think of him!&rdquo; cried Foglass,
+      with enthusiasm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A count of the Empire!&rdquo; resumed Dalton; &ldquo;a field-marshal, and a something
+      else, with his Maria Teresa!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At his age he might give up those habits,&rdquo; said Foglass, who had
+      converted the Cross of the Empress into a very different relationship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now, there 's Kate,&rdquo; said Dalton, who never heard his comment, &ldquo;there
+      's Kate, my own favorite of them all! thinks no more about us than if we
+      did n't belong to her!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Living in splendor!&rdquo; mumbled Foglass. &ldquo;Boundless extravagance!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just so! Wasting hundreds flinging the money about like chaff!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I saw a ball dress of hers myself, at Madame Fanchone's, that was to cost
+      three thousand francs!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Three thousand francs! How am I to bear it all?&rdquo; exclaimed Dalton,
+      fiercely. &ldquo;Will any man tell me how an Irish gentleman, with an
+      embarrassed estate, and in the present times, can meet such extravagance
+      as that? Three thousand francs! and, maybe, for a flimsy rag that wouldn't
+      stand a shower of rain! Oh, Fogles, you don't know the man that 's sitting
+      before you, hale and stout and hearty as he looks, the trials he has gone
+      through, and the troubles he has faced, just for his children. Denying
+      himself every enjoyment in life!&rdquo; (here he sipped his glass), &ldquo;giving up
+      every little comfort he was used to!&rdquo; (another sip), &ldquo;all for his family!
+      Look at my coat; feel the wool of it. See my breeches; 'tis like the hide
+      of a bear they are. Take notice of my shoes; and there's my purse, with
+      two florins and eight kreutzers in it; and, may I never see glory, if I
+      don't owe a little bill in every shop that will trust me! And for what?
+      answer me that, for what?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Although the savage energy with which this question was put would have
+      extorted an answer from the least willing witness, Foglass was unable to
+      reply, and only stared in mute astonishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll tell you for what, Fogles,&rdquo; resumed Dalton, with a stroke of his
+      clenched fist on the table, &ldquo;I'll tell you for what! To have a son in the
+      Hussars, and a daughter in all the height of fashion and fine life! That
+      's it, Fogles. My boy keeping company with all the first people in
+      Austria, hand and glove with what 's his name? something like 'Misty,' or
+      'Hazy' I forget it now dining, driving, and shooting with them. And my
+      girl, Kate. But sure you know better than myself what style she 's
+      keeping! That 's the reason I 'm what you see me here, pining away in
+      solitude and small means! All for my children's sake!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is highly meritorious. It does you honor, Dalton,&rdquo; said the other,
+      emphatically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I hope it does,&rdquo; said he, with a sigh. &ldquo;But how few know it, after
+      all!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And has this same Sir Stafford never taken any steps towards recompensing
+      you? Has there been nothing like an amende for the great losses you 've
+      sustained?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, indeed, to do him justice, he made me a kind of an offer once; but
+      you see it was hampered with so many conditions and restrictions, and the
+      like, that I rejected it with contempt. 'No!' says I, ''t is n't poverty
+      will ever make me demean the old family! The Daltons won't suffer disgrace
+      from me!'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He could have assisted you without such an alternative, Dalton.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maybe he could, indeed!&rdquo; sighed the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know it well; the man is one of the richest in England; the head of a
+      great bank, besides, making thousands every week.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I often thought of that,&rdquo; said Dalton. &ldquo;Sure it would cost him little
+      just to discount a small thing for me at three months. I'd take care to
+      meet it, of course; and he'd never lose a sixpence by me. Indeed, he'd be
+      gaining; for he 'd have the commission, and the discount, and the
+      interest, and the devil knows what besides of law expenses&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here he stopped abruptly, for he had unwittingly strayed into another and
+      very different hypothesis regarding the fate of his bill. However, he
+      pulled up short, tossed off his punch, and said, &ldquo;I only wish he 'd do
+      it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not try him, then? you ought, at least, to give yourself the chance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And, if he refused me, I'd have to call him out,&rdquo; said Dalton, gravely;
+      &ldquo;and just see all the confusion that would lead to. My daughter on a visit
+      there, myself here, and, maybe, obliged to go hundreds of miles to meet
+      him, and no end to the expense, taking a friend with me, too. No, no! that
+      would be too selfish entirely.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What if you were to throw out a hint, when you write to your daughter,
+      allude to present pressure for money; speak of tenants in arrear;
+      remittances not arrived?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, faith! there's no need prompting me about these things,&rdquo; said Dalton,
+      with a bitter laugh. &ldquo;I know them too well already.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Write a few lines, then; you'll find paper and pens on that table. I 've
+      told you that I will send it under my own seal, with the despatches.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dalton was very little given to letter-writing at any period; but to
+      encounter the labor at night by candle-light, and after a few hours'
+      carouse, seemed to him quite out of the question. Still, the Embassy seal,
+      whatever that might be, was no common temptation. Perhaps he fancied it to
+      be like one of those portentous appendages which are seen attached to
+      royal grants! Who can tell what amount of wax and ribbon his imagination
+      bestowed upon it! Besides this, there was another motive, never again,
+      perhaps, should he be able to write without Nelly's knowledge. This
+      consideration decided the question at once. Accordingly, he put on his
+      spectacles, and seated himself gravely to the work, which proceeded thus:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     DEAR KATE, I 'm spending the evening with your friend the
+     Ambassador of I forget where&mdash;Fogles is his name and as
+     pleasant a man as I ever met; and he sends his regards to
+     you and all the family, and transmits this under his own
+     seal. Things is going on bad enough here. Not a shilling out
+     of Crognoborraghan. Healey ran away with the November rent
+     and the crops, and Sweeney 's got into the place, and won't
+     give it up to any one with out he gets forty pound! I 'd
+     give him forty of my teeth as soon, if I had them! Ryan
+     shot Mr. Johnson coming home from work, and will be hanged
+     on Saturday; and that 's in our favor, as he was a life in
+     Honan's lease. There 's no money in Ireland, Kellet tells
+     me, and there 's none here. Where the blazes is it all gone
+     to? Maybe, like the potatoes 't is dying out!
+
+     Frank 's well sick of soldiering; they chained him up like
+     a dog, with his hand to his leg, the other night for going
+     to the play; and if he was n't a born gentleman, he says,
+     they 'd have given him &ldquo;four-and-twenty,&rdquo; as he calls it,
+     with a stick for impudence. Stephen 's no more good to him
+     than an old umbrella, never gave him bit nor sup! Bad luck
+     to the old Neygur I can't speak of him.
+
+     Nelly goes on carving and cutting away as before. There 's
+     not a saint in the calendar she did n't make out of rotten
+     wood this winter, and little Hans buys them all, at a fair
+     price, she says; but I call a Holy Family cheap at ten
+     florins, and 't is giving the Virgin away to sell her for a
+     Prussian dollar. 'T is a nice way for one of the Daltons to
+     be living by her own industry!
+
+     I often wish for you back here; but I 'd be sorry, after
+     all, ye 'd come, for the place is poorer than ever, and you
+     're in good quarters, and snug where you are.
+
+     Tell me how they treat you if they're as kind as before and
+     how is the old man, and is the gout bad with him still? I
+     send you in this a little bill Martin Cox, of Drumsnagh,
+     enclosed me for sixty-two ten-and-eight. Could you get the
+     old Baronet to put his name on it for me? Tell him 't is as
+     good as the bank paper, that Cox is as respectable a man as
+     any in Leitrim, and an estated gentleman, like myself, and
+     of course that we'll take care to have the cash ready for it
+     when due. This will be a great convenience to me, and Fogles
+     says it will be a pleasure to Sir Stafford, besides
+     extending his connection among Irish gentlemen. If he seems
+     to like the notion, say that your father is well known in
+     Ireland, and can help him to a very lively business in the
+     same way. Indeed, I 'd have been a fortune to him myself
+     alone, if he 'd had the discounting of me for the last
+     fifteen years!
+
+     Never mind this, however, for bragging is not genteel; but
+     get me his name, and send me the &ldquo;bit of stiff&rdquo; by return of
+     post.
+
+     If he wants to be civil, maybe he 'll put it into the bank
+     himself, and send me the money; and if so, let the order be
+     on Haller and Oelcher, for I 'ne a long account with Koch
+     and Elz, and maybe they 'd keep a grip of the cash, and I 'd
+     just be where I was before.
+
+     If I can get out of this next spring&mdash;it would be a great
+     economy, for I owe something to everybody, and a new place
+     always gives courage.
+
+     I 'm hesitating whether I 'll go to Genoa or New York, but
+     cheapness will decide me, for I only live now for my family.
+
+     With all my affection,
+
+     Believe me your fond father,
+
+     PETER DALTON.
+
+     P. S. If Sir S. would rather have my own acceptance, let him
+     draw for a hundred, at three months, and I 'm ready; but
+     don't disappoint me, one way or other. Wood is fifteen
+     florins a &ldquo;klafter&rdquo; here, now, and I 've nobody to cut it
+     when it comes home, as Andy took a slice out of his shin on
+     Friday last with the hatchet, and is in bed ever since.
+     Vegetables, too, is dear; and since Frank went, we never
+     see a bit of game.
+
+     2nd P. S. If you had such a thing as a warm winter cloak
+     that you did n't want, you might send it to Nelly. She goes
+     out in a thing like a bit of brown paper, and the wooden
+     shoes is mighty unhandy with her lameness.
+
+     Mind the bill.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are writing a rather lengthy despatch, Dalton,&rdquo; said Foglass, who had
+      twice dozed off to sleep, and woke again, only to see him still occupied
+      with his epistle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's done now,&rdquo; said Dalton, with a sigh; for, without well knowing why,
+      he was not quite satisfied with the performance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish you 'd just add a line, to say that Mrs. Ricketts, Mrs.
+      Major-General Ricketts, who resides at Florence, is so desirous to know
+      her. You can mention that she is one of the first people, but so exclusive
+      about acquaintance, that it is almost impossible to get presented to her;
+      but that this coming winter the Embassy will, in all likelihood, open a
+      door to so desirable an object.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lady Hester will know her, of course?&rdquo; said Dalton, whose sense of
+      proprieties was usually clear enough when selfishness did not interfere,
+      &ldquo;and I don't see that my daughter should extend her acquaintance through
+      any other channel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, very true; it's of no consequence. I only meant it as an attention to
+      Miss Dalton; but your observation is very just,&rdquo; said Foglass, who
+      suddenly felt that he was on dangerous ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Depend upon 't, Fogles, my daughter is in the best society of the place,
+      whatever it is. It 's not a Dalton would be left out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Foglass repeated his most implicit conviction in this belief, and did all
+      in his power to efface the memory of the suggestion, but without success.
+      Family pride was a kind of birdlime with old Dalton, and if he but
+      touched, he could not leave it. The consequences, however, went no further
+      than a long and intricate dissertation on the Dalton blood for several
+      centuries back, through which Foglass slept just as soundly as the
+      respected individuals there recorded, and was only awoke at last by Dalton
+      rising to take leave, an event at last suggested by the empty decanter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now, Fogles,&rdquo; said he, summing up, &ldquo;you'll not wonder, that if we 're
+      poor we 're proud. I suppose you never heard of a better stock than that
+      since you were born?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never, by Jove! Guelphs, Ghibellines, and Hapsburgs are nothing to them.
+      Good-night, good-night! I 'll take care of your letter. It shall go
+      to-morrow in the Embassy bag.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0032" id="link2HCH0032">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXII. AN INVASION.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      To afford the reader the explanation contained in the preceding chapter,
+      we have been obliged to leave Kate Dalton waiting, in mingled anxiety and
+      suspense, for the hour of Mrs. Ricketts's visit. Although her mind
+      principally dwelt upon the letter which had been announced as coming from
+      her father, an event so strange as naturally to cause astonishment, she
+      also occasionally recurred to the awkwardness of receiving persons whom
+      Lady Hester had so scrupulously avoided, and being involved in an
+      acquaintanceship so unequivocally pronounced vulgar. A few short months
+      before, and the incident would have worn a very different aspect to her
+      eyes. She would have dwelt alone on the kindness of one, an utter
+      stranger, addressing her in terms of respectful civility, and proffering
+      the attention of a visit. She would have been grateful for the goodnature
+      that took charge of a communication for her. She would have viewed the
+      whole as a sort of flattering notice, and never dreamed of that long
+      catalogue of &ldquo;inconveniences&rdquo; and annoyances so prolifically associated
+      with the event as it at present stood. She was greatly changed in many
+      respects. She had been daily accustomed to hear the most outrageous moral
+      derelictions lightly treated, or, at least, but slightly censured. For
+      every fault and failing there was a skilful excuse or a charitable
+      explanation. The errors of the fashionable world were shown to be few,
+      insignificant, and venial; and the code showed no exception to the rule
+      that &ldquo;well-bred people can do no wrong.&rdquo; Vulgarity alone was criminal; and
+      the sins of the underbred admitted of no palliation. Her sense of justice
+      might have revolted against such judgments, had reason been ever appealed
+      to; but such was not the case. Ridicule alone was the arbiter; whatever
+      could be scoffed at was detestable, and a solecism in dress, accent, or
+      demeanor was a higher crime than many a grave transgression or glaring
+      iniquity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The little mimicries of Albert Jekyl, as he described Mrs. Ricketts, the
+      few depreciatory remarks of Lady Hester concerning her, would have
+      outweighed her worth had her character been a cornucopia of goodness. It
+      was, then, in no pleasant flurry of spirits, that, just as the clock
+      struck three, Kate heard the heavy door of the palace flung wide, and the
+      sound of wheels echo beneath the vaulted entrance. The next moment a small
+      one-horse phaeton, driven by a very meagre servant in a tawdry livery,
+      passed into the courtyard, having deposited its company in the hall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There had been a time, and that not so very far back either, when the
+      sight of that humble equipage, with visitors, would have made her heart
+      beat to the full as strong, albeit with very different emotions. Now,
+      however, she actually glanced at the windows to see if it had attracted
+      notice, with a kind of terror at the ridicule it would excite. Never did
+      she think an old gray horse could be so ugly; never did wheels make so
+      intolerable a noise before! Why would people dress up their servants like
+      harlequins? What was the meaning of that leopard-skin rug for the feet? It
+      was an odious little vehicle, altogether. There was a tawdry, smirking,
+      self-satisfied pretension about its poverty that made one wish for a
+      break-down on looking at it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mrs. Montague Ricketts and Miss Ricketts,&rdquo; said a very demure-looking
+      groom of the chambers; and although his features were immaculate in their
+      expressions of respect, Kate felt offended at what she thought was a
+      flippancy in the man's manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although the announcement was thus made, the high and mighty personages
+      were still three rooms off, and visible only in the dim distance, coming
+      slowly forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leaning on her sister's arm, and with a step at once graceful and
+      commanding, Mrs. Ricketts came on. At least, so Kate judged an enormous
+      pyramid of crimson velvet and ermine to be, from the summit of which waved
+      a sufficiency of plumes for a moderate hearse. The size and dignity of
+      this imposing figure almost entirely eclipsed poor Martha, and completely
+      shut out the slender proportions of Mr. Scroope Purvis, who, from being
+      loaded like a sumpter-mule with various articles for the road, was passed
+      over by the groom of the chambers, and believed to be a servant. Slow as
+      was the order of march, Purvis made it still slower by momentarily
+      dropping some of the articles with which he was charged; and as they
+      comprised a footstool, a poodle, two parasols, an album, a
+      smelling-bottle, a lorgnette, with various cushions, shawls, and a
+      portable tire-screen, his difficulties may be rather compassionated than
+      censured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Scroope, how can you? Martha, do speak to him. It's down again! He'll
+      smash my lorgnette he'll smother Fidele. How very awkward how absurd we
+      shall look!&rdquo; Such were the sotto voce accompaniments that filled up the
+      intervals till they arrived at the great drawing-room, where Kate Dalton
+      sat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the reader has ever watched a great tragedy queen emerging from the
+      flats, when, after a lively dialogue with the prompter, and the utterance
+      of a pleasant jest, she issues forth upon the open stage, to vent the
+      sorrows or the wrongs of injured womanhood, he may form some faint idea of
+      the rapid transformation that Mrs. Ricketts underwent as she passed the
+      door-sill. Her first movement was a sudden bound forwards, or, at least,
+      such an approach to a spring as a body so imposing could accomplish, and
+      then, throwing her arms wide, she seemed as if about to enclose Miss
+      Dalton in a fast embrace; and so, doubtless, had she done, if Kate had
+      responded to the sign. A deep and very formal courtesy was, however, her
+      only acknowledgment of this spontaneous burst of feeling; and Mrs.
+      Ricketts, like a skilful general, at once changing her plan of attack,
+      converted her ardor into astonishment, and exclaimed,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you ever see such a resemblance? Could you believe it possible,
+      Martha? A thousand apologies, my dear Miss Dalton, for this rudeness; but
+      you are so wonderfully like our dear, dear friend Lady Caroline
+      Montressor, that I actually forgot myself. Pray forgive me, and let me
+      present my sister, Miss Ricketts. My brother, Mr. Scroope Purvis, Miss
+      Dalton.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ceremonial of introduction over, and Mrs. Ricketts being at last
+      seated, a very tedious operation, in which the arrangement of cushions,
+      pillows, and footstools played a conspicuous part, that bland lady began,
+      in her very softest of voices,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This, indeed, repays me, amply, fully repays me! eh, Martha?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite so, sister,&rdquo; responded Martha, in a meek whisper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A poor invalid as I am, rarely rising from a sofa except to snatch the
+      perfumed odors of a violet in spring, or to listen to the murmurs of a
+      rippling fountain; denied all the excitements of society by a nervous
+      temperament so finely strung as to be jarred by contact, even the
+      remotest, with inferior souls think of what ecstasy a moment like this
+      affords me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As Kate was profoundly ignorant to what happy combination of circumstances
+      this blissful state could be attributed, she could only smile courteously,
+      and mutter some vague expressions of her pleasure, satisfaction, and so
+      forth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eve in her own paradise!&rdquo; exclaimed Mrs. Ricketts, as she turned her eyes
+      from Kate to the gorgeous chamber in which they were seated. &ldquo;May I ask if
+      the taste of these decorations be yours, Miss Dalton?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lady Hester Onslow's, madam,&rdquo; said Kate, quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I declare, I like these hangings better than 'Gobelins' they are lighter
+      and more graceful. You remember, Martha, I told the dear Queen of Saxony
+      that blue velvet would go so well with her small pictures. We discussed
+      the point every morning at breakfast for a week, and the poor dear King at
+      last called us the 'blue devils; 'very happy, wasn't it, Miss Dalton? But
+      he speaks English just like one of ourselves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These are all Dutch pictures, I perceive,&rdquo; said Purvis, who, with his
+      poodle under his arm, was making a tour of the room, peering into
+      everything, opening books, prying into china jars, and spying into
+      work-boxes, as though in search of some missing article.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 'm tired of Wou-Wou-Wou&mdash;&rdquo; Here the poodle barked, doubtless in
+      the belief that he was responding to an invitation. &ldquo;Down, Fidele!
+      Wou-ver-mans,&rdquo; gulped out Purvis. &ldquo;He 's always the same.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But those dear white palfreys, how I love them! I always have a white
+      horse, out of regard for Wouvermans.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Kate thought of the poor gray in the courtyard, and said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And there is something so touching so exquisitely touching in those
+      Flemish interiors, where the goodwife is seated reading, and a straggling
+      sunbeam comes slanting in upon the tiled floor. Little peeps of life, as
+      it were, in a class of which we know nothing; for, really, Miss Dalton, iu
+      our order, sympathies are too much fettered; and I often think it would be
+      better that we knew more of the middle classes. When I say this, of course
+      I do not mean as associates, far less as intimates, but as ingredients in
+      the grand scheme of universal nature.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'The no-no-noblest study of man-mankind is' what is it, sister?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Man,' Scroope; but the poet intended to refer to the great aims and
+      objects of our being. Don't you think so, Miss Dalton? It was not man in
+      the little cares of everyday life, in his social relations, but man in his
+      destinies, in his vast future, when he goes beyond 'that bourne'&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From which nobody ever got out again,&rdquo; cackled Purvis, in an ecstasy at
+      the readiness of his quotation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'From which no traveller returns,' Scroope, is, I believe, the more
+      correct version.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then it don't mean pur-pur-pur-purgatory,&rdquo; gulped Scroope, who, as soon
+      as the word was uttered, became shocked at what he said. &ldquo;I forgot you
+      were a Ro-Ro-Roman, Miss Dalton,&rdquo; said he, blushing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are in error, Scroope,&rdquo; said Mrs. Ricketts. &ldquo;Miss Dalton is one of
+      ourselves. All the distinguished Irish are of the Reformed faith.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am a Catholic, madam,&rdquo; said Kate, not knowing whether to be more amused
+      than annoyed at the turn the conversation had taken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I knew it,&rdquo; cried Purvis, in delight. &ldquo;I tracked your carriage to the
+      D-D-Duomo, and I went in after you, and saw you at the co-co-co-co&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Corner,&rdquo; whispered Martha, who, from his agonies, grew afraid of a fit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, not the corner, but the co-co-co-coufessional-confessional, where you
+      stayed for an hour and forty minutes by my own watch; and I couldn't help
+      thinking that your pec-pec-pec-peccadilloes were a good long score, by the
+      time it took to to to tell them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks, sir,&rdquo; said Kate, bowing, and with difficulty restraining her
+      laughter; &ldquo;thanks for the very kind interest you seem to have taken in my
+      spiritual welfare.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would that I might be suffered a participation in that charge, Miss
+      Dalton,&rdquo; cried Mrs. Ricketts, with enthusiasm, &ldquo;and allowed to hold some
+      converse with you on doctrinal questions!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Try her with the posers, sister,&rdquo; whispered Purvis. &ldquo;Hush, Scroope! Mere
+      opportunities of friendly discussion, nothing more I ask for, Miss
+      Dalton.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give her the posers,&rdquo; whispered Purvis, louder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be quiet, Scroope. I have been fortunate enough to resolve the doubts of
+      more than one ere this. That dear angel, the Princess Ethelinda of
+      Cobourgh, I believe I may say, owes her present enlightenment to our sweet
+      evenings together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Begin with the posers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush! I say, Scroope.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I ask,&rdquo; said Kate, &ldquo;what is the suggestion Mr. Purvis has been good
+      enough to repeat?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I should give you this little tract, Miss Dalton,&rdquo; said Mrs.
+      Ricketts as she drew out a miscellaneous assemblage of articles from a
+      deep pocket, and selected from the mass a small blue-covered pamphlet,
+      bearing the title, &ldquo;Three Posers for Papists, by M. R.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Montague Ricketts,&rdquo; said Purvis, proudly; &ldquo;she wrote it herself, and the
+      Pope won't let us into Rome in consequence. It 's very droll, too; and the
+      part about the the Vir-gin&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will, I 'm sure, excuse me, madam,&rdquo; said Kate, &ldquo;if I beg that this
+      subject be suffered to drop. My thanks for the interest this gentleman and
+      yourself have vouchsafed me will only be more lasting by leaving the
+      impression of them unassociated with anything unpleasing. You were good
+      enough to say that you had a letter for me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A letter from your father, that dear, fond father, who dotes so
+      distractingly upon you, and who really seems to live but to enjoy your
+      triumphs. Martha, where is the letter?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I gave it to Scroope, sister.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, you didn't. I never saw&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Scroope, I gave it to you, at the drawing-room fire&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, to be sure, and I put it into the ca-ca-ca&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not the candle, I hope,&rdquo; cried Kate, in terror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, into the card-rack; and there it is now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How provoking!&rdquo; cried Miss Ricketts; &ldquo;but you shall have it to-morrow,
+      Miss Dalton. I 'll leave it here myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I appear impatient, madam, if I send for it this evening?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course not, my dear Miss Dalton; but shall I commit the precious
+      charge to a menial's hand?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may do so with safety, madam,&rdquo; said Kate, not without a slight
+      irritation of manner as she spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Foglass, the late minister and envoy at&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here a tremendous crash, followed by a terrific yelping noise, broke in
+      upon the colloquy; for it was Fidele had thrown down a Sevres jar, and
+      lay, half-buried and howling, under the ruins. There was, of course, a
+      general rising of the company, some to rescue the struggling poodle, and
+      others in vain solicitude to gather up the broken fragments of the once
+      beautiful vase. It was a favorite object with Lady Hester; of singular
+      rarity, both for form and design; and Kate stood speechless, and almost
+      sick with shame and sorrow, at the sight, not heeding one syllable of the
+      excuses and apologies poured in upon her, nor of the equally valueless
+      assurances that it could be easily mended; that Martha was a perfect
+      proficient in such arts; and that, if Scroope would only collect the
+      pieces carefully, the most difficult connoisseur would not be able to
+      detect a flaw in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've got a head here; but the no-nose is off,&rdquo; cried Purvis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here it is, Scroope. I 've found it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, that's a toe,&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;there 's a nail to it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am getting ill I shall faint,&rdquo; said Mrs. Ricketts, retiring upon a
+      well-cushioned sofa from the calamity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Martha now flew to the bell-rope and pulled it violently, while Purvis
+      threw open the window, and with such rash haste as to upset a stand of
+      camellias, thereby scattering plants, buds, earth, and crockery over the
+      floor, while poor Kate, thunderstruck at the avalanche of ruin around her,
+      leaned against the wall for support, unable to stir or even speak. As
+      Martha continued to tug away at the bell, the alarm, suggesting the idea
+      of fire, brought three or four servants to the door together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madeira! quick, Madeira!&rdquo; cried Martha, as she unloosed various articles
+      of dress from her sister's throat, and prepared a plan of operations for
+      resuscitation that showed at least an experienced hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bring wine,&rdquo; said Kate, faintly, to the astonished butler, who, not
+      noticing Miss Ricketts's order, seemed to await hers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madeira! it must be Madeira!&rdquo; cried Martha, wildly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She don't dislike Mar-Mar-Marco-brunner,&rdquo; whispered Purvis to the
+      servant, &ldquo;and I'll take a glass too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Had the irruption been one of veritable housebreakers, had the occasion
+      been what newspapers stereotype as a &ldquo;Daring Burglary,&rdquo; Kate Dalton might,
+      in all likelihood, have distinguished herself as a heroine. She would, it
+      is more than probable, have evinced no deficiency either of courage or
+      presence of mind, but in the actual contingency nothing could be more
+      utterly helpless than she proved; and, as she glided into a chair, her
+      pale face and trembling features betrayed more decisive signs of suffering
+      than the massive countenance which Martha was now deluging with
+      eau-de-Cologne and lavender.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wine soon made its appearance; a very imposing array of restoratives
+      the ambulatory pharmacopeia of the Ricketts family was all displayed upon
+      a table. Martha, divested of shawl, bonnet, and gloves, stood ready for
+      action; and thus, everything being in readiness, Mrs. Ricketts, whose
+      consideration never suffered her to take people unawares, now began her
+      nervous attack in all form.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If ague hysterics recovery from drowning tic-doloureux, and an extensive
+      burn had all sent representatives of their peculiar agonies, with
+      injunctions to struggle for a mastery of expression, the symptoms could
+      scarcely have equalled those now exhibited. There was not a contortion nor
+      convulsion that her countenance did not undergo, while the devil's tattoo,
+      kept up by her heels upon the floor, and her knuckles occasionally on the
+      table, and now and then on Scroope's head, added fearfully to the effect
+      of her screams, which varied from the deep groan of the melodrame to the
+      wildest shrieks of tragedy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's no danger, Miss Dalton,&rdquo; whispered Martha, whose functions of
+      hand-rubbing, temple-bathing, wine-giving, and so forth, were performed
+      with a most jog-trot regularity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When she sc-sc-screams, she's all right,&rdquo; added Purvis; and, certainly,
+      the most anxious friend might have been comforted on the present occasion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I not send for a physician?&rdquo; asked Kate, eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On no account, Miss Dalton. We are quite accustomed to these seizures. My
+      dear sister's nerves are so susceptible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Scroope, who, be it remarked, had already half finished a
+      bottle of hock, &ldquo;poor Zoe is all sensibility the scabbard too sharp for
+      the sword. Won't you have a glass of wine, Miss Dalton?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks, sir, I take none. I trust she is better now she looks easier.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is better; but this is a difficult moment,&rdquo; whispered Martha. &ldquo;Any
+      shock any sudden impression now might prove fatal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is to be done, then?&rdquo; said Kate, in terror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She must be put to bed at once, the room darkened, and the strictest
+      silence preserved. Can you spare your room?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, of course, anything everything at such a moment,&rdquo; cried the terrified
+      girl, whose reason was now completely mastered by her fears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0015" id="linkimage-0015">
+      <!-- IMG --></a> <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/00408.jpg" alt="00408" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She must be carried. Will you give orders, Miss Dalton? and, Scroope,
+      step down to the carriage, and bring up&mdash;&rdquo; Here Miss Ricketts's voice
+      degenerated into an inaudible whisper; but Scroope left the room to obey
+      the command.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her sympathy for suffering had so thoroughly occupied Kate, that all the
+      train of unpleasant consequences that were to follow this unhappy incident
+      had never once occurred to her; nor did a thought of Lady Hester cross her
+      mind, till, suddenly, the whole flashed upon her, by the appearance of her
+      maid Nina in the drawing-room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To your own room, Mademoiselle?&rdquo; asked she, with a look that said far
+      more than any words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Nina,&rdquo; whispered she. &ldquo;What can I do? She is so ill! They tell me it
+      may be dangerous at any moment, and&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush, my dear Miss Dalton!&rdquo; said Martha; &ldquo;one word may wake her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'd be a butterfly!&rdquo; warbled the sick lady, in a low weak treble; while a
+      smile of angelic beatitude beamed on her features.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush! be still!&rdquo; said Martha, motioning the surrounders to silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What shall I do, Nina? Shall I go and speak to my Lady?&rdquo; asked Kate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A significant shrug of the shoulders, more negative than affirmative, was
+      the only answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'd be a gossamer, and you'd be the King of Thebes,&rdquo; said Mrs. Ricketts,
+      addressing a tall footman, who stood ready to assist in carrying her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, madam,&rdquo; said he, respectfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She's worse,&rdquo; whispered Martha, gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And we'll walk on the wall of China by moonlight, with Cleopatra and Mr.
+      Cobden?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly, madam,&rdquo; said the man, who felt the question too direct for
+      evasion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has she been working slippers for the planet Ju-Ju-Jupiter yet?&rdquo; asked
+      Purvis, eagerly, as he entered the room, heated, and flushed from the
+      weight of a portentous bag of colored wool.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; not yet,&rdquo; whispered Martha. &ldquo;You may lift her now, gently very
+      gently, and not a word.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And in strict obedience, the servants raised their fair burden, and bore
+      her from the room, after Nina, who led the way with an air that betokened
+      a more than common indifference to human suffering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When she gets at Ju-Jupiter,&rdquo; said Purvis to Kate, as they closed the
+      procession, &ldquo;it's a bad symptom; or when she fancies she 's
+      Hec-Hec-Hec-Hec&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hecate?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; not Hec-Hecate, but Hecuba&mdash;Hecuba; then it's a month at least
+      before she comes round.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How dreadful!&rdquo; said Kate. And certainly there was not a grain of
+      hypocrisy in the fervor with which she uttered it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think she 'll go beyond the San-Sandwich Islands this time,
+      however,&rdquo; added he, consolingly,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush, Scroope!&rdquo; cried Martha. And now they entered the small and
+      exquisitely furnished dressing-room which was appropriated to Kate's use;
+      within which, and opening upon a small orangery, stood her bedroom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nina, who scrupulously obeyed every order of her young mistress, continued
+      the while to exhibit a hundred petty signs of mute rebellion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lady Hester wishes to see Miss Dalton,&rdquo; said a servant at the outer door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you permit me for a moment?&rdquo; asked Kate, in a tremor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, of course, my dear Miss Dalton; let there be no ceremony with us,&rdquo;
+       said Martha. &ldquo;Your kindness makes us feel like old friends already.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I feel-myself quite at home,&rdquo; cried Scroope, whose head was not proof
+      against so much wine; and then, turning to one of the servants, he added a
+      mild request for the two bottles that were left on the drawing-room table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Martha happily, however, overheard and revoked the order. And now the
+      various attendants withdrew, leaving the family to themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was ill no pleasant mood that Kate took her way towards Lady Hester's
+      apartment. The drawing-room, as she passed through it, still exhibited
+      some of the signs of its recent ruin, and the servants were busied in
+      collecting fragments of porcelain and flower-pots. Their murmured
+      comments, hushed as she went by, told her how the occurrence was already
+      the gossip of the household. It was impossible for her not to connect
+      herself with the whole misfortune. &ldquo;But for her&rdquo; But she could not endure
+      the thought, and it was with deep humiliation and trembling in every limb
+      that she entered Lady Hester's chamber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leave me, Celadon; I want to speak to Miss Dalton,&rdquo; said Lady Hester to
+      the hairdresser, who had just completed one half of her Ladyship's
+      chevelure, leaving the other side pinned and rolled up in those various
+      preparatory stages which have more of promise than picturesque about them.
+      Her cheek was flushed, and her eyes sparkled with an animation that
+      betrayed more passion than pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is this dreadful story I 've heard, child, and that the house is
+      full of? Is it possible there can be any truth in it? Have these odious
+      people actually dared to establish themselves here? Tell me, child speak!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mrs. Ricketts became suddenly ill,&rdquo; said Kate, trembling; &ldquo;her dog threw
+      down a china jar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not my Sevres jar? not the large green one, with the figures?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I grieve to say it was!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go on. What then?&rdquo; said Lady Hester, dryly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shocked at the incident, and alarmed, besides, by the fall of a
+      flower-stand, she fainted away, and subsequently was seized with what I
+      supposed to be a convulsive attack, but to which her friends seemed
+      perfectly accustomed, and pronounced not dangerous. In this dilemma they
+      asked me if they might occupy my room. Of course I could not refuse, and
+      yet felt, the while, that I had no right to extend the hospitality of this
+      house. I saw the indelicacy of what I was doing. I was shocked and
+      ashamed, and yet&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go on,&rdquo; said Lady Hester once more, and with a stern quietude of manner
+      that Kate felt more acutely than even an angry burst of temper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have little more to say; in fact, I know not what I am saying,&rdquo; cried
+      she, gulping to repress the torrent of suffering that was struggling
+      within her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miss Dalton&mdash;&rdquo; began Lady Hester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! why not Kate?&rdquo; broke she, with a choking utterance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miss Dalton,&rdquo; resumed Lady Hester, and as if not hearing the entreaty,
+      &ldquo;very little knowledge of that world you have lived in for the past three
+      or four months might have taught you some slight self-possession in
+      difficulty. Still less acquaintance with it might have suggested the
+      recollection that these people are no intimates of mine; so that, even
+      were tact wanting, feeling, at least, should have dictated a line of
+      action to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know I have done wrong. I knew it at the time, and yet, in my
+      inexperience, I could not decide on anything. My memory, too, helped to
+      mislead me, for I bethought me that although these persons were not of
+      your own rank and station, yet you had stooped lower than to them when you
+      came to visit Nelly and myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Humph!&rdquo; ejaculated Lady Hester, with a gesture that very unequivocally
+      seemed to say that her having done so was a grievous error. Kate saw it
+      quickly, and as suddenly the blood rushed to her cheek, coloring her
+      throat and neck with the deep crimson of shame. A burst of pride the old
+      Dalton pride seemed to have given way within her; and as she drew herself
+      up to her full height, her look and attitude wore every sign of haughty
+      indignation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Hester looked at her for a few seconds with a glance of searching
+      import. Perhaps for a moment the possibility of a deception struck her,
+      and that this might only be feigned; but as suddenly did she recognize the
+      unerring traits of truth, and said,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What! child, are you angry with me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh no, no!&rdquo; said Kate, bursting into tears, and kissing the hand that was
+      now extended towards her, &ldquo;oh no, no! but I could hate myself for what
+      seems so like ingratitude.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, sit down here at my feet on this stool, and tell me all about it;
+      for, after all, I could forgive them the jar and the camellias, if they 'd
+      only have gone away afterwards. And of course the lesson will not be
+      thrown away upon you, not to be easily deceived again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How, deceived?&rdquo; exclaimed Kate. &ldquo;She was very ill. I saw it myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nonsense, child. The trick is the very stalest piece of roguery going.
+      Since Toe Morris, as they call him the man that treads upon people, and by
+      his apologies scrapes acquaintance with them there is nothing less
+      original. Why, just before we left England, there was old Bankhead got
+      into Slingsby House, merely because the newspapers might announce his
+      death at the Earl of Grindleton's 'on the eighth, of a few days' illness,
+      deeply regretted by the noble lord, with whom he was on a visit.' Now,
+      that dear Ricketts woman would almost consent to take leave of the world
+      for a similar paragraph. I 'm sure I should know nothing of such people
+      but that Sir Stafford's relations have somewhat enlightened me. He has a
+      nest of cousins down in Shropshire, not a whit better than your I was
+      going to call them 'your friends,' the Rickettses.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is almost incredible to suppose this could be artifice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why so, child? There is no strategy too deep for people who are always
+      aspiring to some society above them. Besides, after all, I was in a
+      measure prepared for this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Prepared for it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; Jekyl told me that if they once got in, it would be next to
+      impossible to keep them out afterwards. A compromise, he said, was the
+      best thing; to let them have so many days each year, with certain small
+      privileges about showing the house to strangers, cutting bouquets, and so
+      on; or, if we preferred it, let them carry away a Teniers or a Gerard Dow
+      to copy, and take care never to ask for it. He inclined to the latter as
+      the better plan, because, after a certain lapse of time, it can end in a
+      cut.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this is inconceivable!&rdquo; exclaimed Kate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And yet half the absurd and incongruous intimacies one sees in the world
+      have had some such origin, and habit will reconcile one to acquaintance
+      that at first inspired feelings of abhorrence and detestation. I 'm sure I
+      don 't know one good house in town where there are not certain intimates
+      that have not the slightest pretension, either from rank, wealth,
+      distinction, or social qualities, to be there. And yet, there they are;
+      not merely as supernumeraries, either, but very prominent and foreground
+      figures, giving advice and offering counsel on questions of family policy,
+      and writing their vulgar names on every will, codicil,
+      marriage-settlement, and trust-deed, till they seem to be part of the
+      genealogical tree, to which, after all, they are only attached like fungi.
+      You look very unhappy, my poor Kate, at all this; but, believe me, the
+      system will outlive both of us. And so, now to your room, and dress for
+      dinner. But I forgot; you have n't got a room; so Celestine must give you
+      hers, and you will be close beside me, and we shall be the better able to
+      concert measures about these Ricketts folk, who really resemble those
+      amiable peasants your father told me of, on his Irish property, and whom
+      he designated as 'squatters.' I am delighted that I have n't forgot the
+      word.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And thus, chatting on, Lady Hester restored Kate's wonted happiness of
+      nature, sadly shaken as it had been by the contrarieties of the morning.
+      Nothing, too, was easier than to make her forget a source of irritation.
+      Ever better satisfied to look on the bright side of life, her inclinations
+      needed but little aid from conviction to turn her from gloomy themes to
+      pleasant ones; and already some of the absurdities of the morning were
+      recurring to her mind, and little traits of Mrs. Ricketts and her brother
+      were involuntarily coming up through all the whirlpool of annoyance and
+      confusion in whicli th y had been submerged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The coming dinner, too, engrossed some share of her thoughts; for it was a
+      grand entertainment, to which all Lady Hester's most distinguished friends
+      were invited. An Archduke and a Cardinal were to make part of the company,
+      and Kate looked forward to meeting these great personages with no common
+      interest. It was less the vulgar curiosity of observing the manners and
+      bearing of distinguished characters, than the delight she felt in
+      following out some child-invented narrative of her future life, some
+      fancied story of her own career, wherein Princes and Prelates were to
+      figure, and scenes of splendor and enjoyment to follow each other in rapid
+      succession.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0033" id="link2HCH0033">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXIII. THE CONCLUSION OF A &ldquo;GRAND DINNER.&rdquo;
+     </h2>
+    <p>
+      LADY HESTER'S dinner of that day was a &ldquo;grand one,&rdquo; that is to say, it was
+      one of those great displays which, from time to time, are offered up as
+      sacrifices to the opinion of the world. Few of her own peculiar set were
+      present. Some she omitted herself; others had begged off of their own
+      accord. Midchekoff, however, was there; for, however accustomed to the
+      tone and habits of a life of mere dissipation, he possessed every
+      requirement for mixing with general society. It was true he was not fond
+      of meeting &ldquo;Royal Highnesses,&rdquo; before whom his own equivocal rank sank
+      into insignificance; nor did he love &ldquo;Cardinals,&rdquo; whose haughty
+      pretensions always over-topped every other nobility. To oblige Lady
+      Hester, however, he did come, and condescended, for &ldquo;the nonce,&rdquo; to assume
+      his most amiable of moods. The Marchesa Guardoni, an old coquette of the
+      days of the French Empire, but now a rigid devotee, and a most exclusive
+      moralist; a few elderly diplomates, of a quiet and cat-like smoothness of
+      manner, with certain notabilities of the Court, made up the party. There
+      were no English whatever; Jekyl, who made out the list, well knowing that
+      Florence offered none of a rank sufficiently distinguished, except
+      Norwood, whose temporary absence from the city was rather a boon than the
+      reverse; for the noble Viscount, when not &ldquo;slang,&rdquo; was usually silent,
+      and, by long intercourse with the Turf and its followers, had ceased to
+      feel any interest in topics which could not end in a wager.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The entertainment was very splendid. Nothing was wanting which luxury or
+      taste could contribute. The wines were delicious; the cookery perfect. The
+      guests were courteous and pleasing; but all was of the quietest, none of
+      the witty sallies, the piquant anecdotes, the brilliant repartees, which
+      usually pattered like hail around that board. Still less were heard those
+      little histories of private life where delinquencies furnish all the
+      interest. The royal guest imposed a reserve which the presence of the
+      Cardinal deepened. The conversation, like the cuisine, was flavored for
+      fine palates; both were light, suggestive, and of easy digestion. Events
+      were discussed rather than the actors in them. All was ease and
+      simplicity; but it was a stately kind of simplicity, which served to chill
+      those that were unaccustomed to it. So Kate Dalton felt it; and however
+      sad the confession, we must own that she greatly preferred the free and
+      easy tone of Lady Hester's midnight receptions to the colder solemnity of
+      these distinguished guests.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even to the Cardinal's whist-table, everything wore a look of state and
+      solemnity. The players laid down their cards with a measured gravity, and
+      scored their honors with the air of men discharging a high and important
+      function. As for the Archduke, he sat upon a sofa beside Lady Hester,
+      suffering himself to be amused by the resources of her small-talk, bowing
+      blandly at times, occasionally condescending to a smile, but rarely
+      uttering even a monosyllable. Even that little social warmth that was
+      kindled by the dinner-table seemed to have been chilled by the
+      drawing-room, where the conversation was maintained in a low, soft tone,
+      that never rose above a murmur. It may be, perhaps, some sort of
+      consolation to little folk to think that Princes are generally
+      sad-looking. The impassable barrier of reserve around them, if it protect
+      from all the rubs and frictions of life, equally excludes from much of its
+      genial enjoyment; and all those little pleasantries which grow out of
+      intimacy are denied those who have no equals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in some such meditation as this Kate Dalton sat, roused
+      occasionally to bestow a smile or a passing word of acknowledgment in
+      return for some of those little morsels of compliment and flattery which
+      old courtiers pay as their rightful tribute to a young and handsome woman.
+      She was sufficiently accustomed to this kind of homage to accept it
+      without losing, even for an instant, any train of thought her mind was
+      pursuing. Nor did the entrance of any new guest, a number of whom had been
+      invited for the evening, distract her from her half revery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The salons, without being crowded, now showed a numerous company, all of
+      whom exhibited in their demeanor that respectful reserve the presence of
+      royalty ever inspires. It seemed, indeed, as though all the conversation
+      that went forward was like a mere &ldquo;aside&rdquo; to that more important dialogue
+      which was maintained beside the Prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A slow but measured tide of persons passed before him, bowing with
+      respectful deference as they went. With some he deigned to speak a few
+      words, others had a smile or a little nod of recognition, and some again
+      one of those cold and vacant stares with which great people are
+      occasionally wont to regard little ones. His Royal Highness was not one of
+      those accomplished princes whose pride it is to know the name, the family,
+      the pursuits, and predilections of each new presentee. On the contrary, he
+      was absent, and forgetful to a degree scarcely credible; his want of
+      memory betraying him into innumerable mistakes, from which, even had he
+      known, no adroitness of his own could have extricated him. On this evening
+      he had not been peculiarly fortunate; he had complimented a minister who
+      had just received his recall in disgrace; he had felicitated a young lady
+      on her approaching marriage, which had been broken off; while the burden
+      of his talk to Lady Hester was in disparagement of those foreigners who
+      brought a scandal upon his court by habits and manners which would not be
+      tolerated in their own countries. Divorce, or even separation, met his
+      heavy reprobation; and while his code of morality, on the whole, exhibited
+      very merciful dispositions, he bestowed unmitigated severity upon all that
+      could shock the world's opinion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To this Lady Hester had to listen as best she might, a task not the less
+      trying and difficult from the ill-suppressed looks of malice and enjoyment
+      she saw on every side. From all these causes put together, the occasion,
+      however flattering to her vanity, was far from being pleasurable to her
+      feelings, and she longed for it to be over. The Prince looked wearied
+      enough, but somehow there is nothing like royalty for endurance; their
+      whole lives would seem to teach the lesson, and so he sat on, saying a
+      stray word, bowing with half-closed lids, and looking as though very
+      little more would set him fast asleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the very culminating point of the whole evening's austerity; one of
+      those little pauses which now and then occur had succeeded to the murmur
+      of conversation. The whist party had been broken up, and the Cardinal was
+      slowly advancing up the room, the company, even to the ladies, rising
+      respectfully as he passed, when the folding-doors were thrown wide, and a
+      servant announced Mr. Scroope Purvis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the name was unknown to the assembled guests, there was one there at
+      least who heard it with a sensation of actual terror, and poor Kate Dalton
+      sank back into her chair with a kind of instinctive effort at concealment.
+      By this time the door had closed behind him, leaving Mr. Purvis standing
+      with an expression of no small bewilderment at the gorgeous assembly into
+      which he had intruded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Hester's quick ear had caught the name, even from the furthest end of
+      the room; but while she attributed it to the mispronunciations of which
+      foreign servants are so liberal, looked out with some curiosity for him
+      who owned it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nor had she to look long, for, his first moment of surprise over, Purvis
+      put up his double eye-glass and commenced a tour of the rooms, in that
+      peculiarly scrutinizing way for which he was distinguished. The fact that
+      all the faces were unknown to him seemed to impart additional courage to
+      his investigations, for he stared about with as little concern as he might
+      have done in a theatre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Most men in his situation would have been egoist enough to have thought
+      only of themselves and the awkwardness of their own position. Purvis, on
+      the contrary, had an eye for everything; from the chandeliers on the walls
+      to the crosses on the dress-coats, from the decorations of the salons to
+      the diamonds, he missed nothing; and with such impartial fairness did he
+      bestow his glances, that the Cardinal's cheeks grew red as his own
+      stockings as Scroope surveyed him. 'At last he reached the end of the
+      great drawing-room, and found himself standing in front of the canopied
+      seat where the Archduke sat with Lady Hester. Not heeding, if he even
+      remarked, the little circle which etiquette had drawn in front of the
+      Prince, Purvis advanced within the charmed precincts and stared steadily
+      at the Duke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0016" id="linkimage-0016">
+      <!-- IMG --></a> <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/00420.jpg" alt="00420" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I perceive that one of your friends is most anxious to pay his respects
+      to you, Lady Hester,&rdquo; said the Prince, with a very peculiar smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I beg to assure you, sir, that the gentleman is unknown to me; his
+      presence here is an honor for which I am totally unprepared.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My name is Purvis, madam, Sc-Sc-Scroope Purvis. Miss Dalton knows me; and
+      my sister is Mrs. Ricketts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will find Miss Dalton yonder, sir,&rdquo; said Lady Hester, all whose
+      efforts were barely sufficient to restrain her temper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see her!&rdquo; cried Purvis, putting his glass up; &ldquo;but she 's trying to
+      escape me. She 's got a man with a re-re-red beard before her, but it
+      won't do, I'm too sh-sh-sharp for that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Archduke laughed, and heartily, too, at this sally; and Purvis,
+      emboldened by the complaisance, edged more closely towards him to point
+      out the lady in question. &ldquo;She has a droll kind of sc-sc-scarf in her
+      hair. There! don't you see her now? Have you ever seen the pictures in the
+      Pitti Palace?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The question was a little startling, as the personage to whom it was
+      addressed had his residence there. The Archduke, however, merely bowed in
+      acquiescence, and Purvis went on: &ldquo;My sister Zoe copied one and I like it
+      better than the Ti-Tit-Titian itself. We smoked it, too, and made it look
+      so brown, you'd never guess it to be mo-mo-mo-modern.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To judge from the bewildered look of the Duke, the whole of this speech
+      was pure Chaldee to him; and when he turned to Lady Hester for an
+      explanation, he discovered that she had left her seat. Whether mistaking
+      the motion as an invitation to be seated, or merely acting by his own
+      impulses, Scroope crossed over and sat down on the sofa with a degree of
+      self-satisfaction that lighted up all his features.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You 're not one of the fa-family, are you?&rdquo; asked he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have not that honor,&rdquo; said the Prince, with a bow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought not. I suspected that there was a tw-tw-twang in your English
+      that looked foreign, but I know your face quite well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Duke bowed again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pretty rooms, these,&rdquo; said Purvis, with his glass to his eye; &ldquo;what a
+      d-d-deal of money they must have cost! They 're going it fast, these
+      Onslows.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed!&rdquo; said the Prince, who only half understood the remark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know it,&rdquo; said Scroope, with a confidential wink. &ldquo;Their butcher
+      se-se-serves us, and he won't give anything till they have sent their
+      orders; and as for wine, they drink Bordeaux in the servants' hall. I
+      don't know what you have, but a d-d-deuced sight better than ever I get.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good wine, however, can be had here, I hope,&rdquo; said the Duke, blandly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, if you sm-sm-smuggle it,&rdquo; said Scroope, with a knowing cackle;
+      while, to add poignancy to the remark, he nudged the Prince with his
+      elbow. &ldquo;That's the only way to have it. The st-stupid Government sees
+      nothing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that the case, sir?&rdquo; asked the Prince, with a degree of interest he
+      had not manifested before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sure it is. My sister Zoe never pays duty on anything; and if you
+      like your c-c-cigars cheap, just t-t-tell me, that 's all. The
+      G-G-Grand-Duke never got a sixpence of my money yet, and if I kn-know
+      myself, he never shall.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you bear him any grudge, sir, that you say this so emphatically?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; not at all. They tell me that he's good-hearted, although somewhat
+      we-weak in the a-a-attic story,&rdquo; and here Scroope tapped his forehead
+      significantly, &ldquo;but that 's in the family. My sister Zoe could tell you
+      such st-stories about them you 'd die of laughing; and then there 's Jekyl
+      takes them off so well! It's c-c-capital fun. He gives a dia-dia-dialogue
+      between the Grand-Duke and the Pope's Nuncio that's better than a farce.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      How far Mr. Purvis might have been carried in his zeal to be agreeable
+      there is no saying, when Lady Hester came up, with Kate leaning on her
+      arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This gentleman claims acquaintance with you, Miss Dalton,&rdquo; said she,
+      haughtily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, to be sure, she knows me; and I have a letter from her her
+      fa-father,&rdquo; said Purvis, drawing forth a packet like a postman's.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miss Dalton would prefer being seated, sir,&rdquo; said Lady Hester, while she
+      motioned towards another part of the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes, of course; we'll find out a snug co-corner somewhere for a
+      chat. Just take my arm, will you? Let us get away from all these great
+      'Dons,' with their stars and crosses.&rdquo; And, without waiting for Kate's
+      reply, he drew her arm within his own, and set out in that little
+      shuffling trot which he always assumed when he fancied he had business on
+      hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ridicule of being associated with such a companion would at any other
+      moment have overwhelmed Kate Dalton with shame; but now, whether from the
+      few words which Lady Hester had whispered in her ear, whether the fact of
+      his unauthorized appearance, or whether it were the dread of some greater
+      disgrace to follow, she actually felt a sense of relief in the continuous
+      flow of twaddle which he kept up as they passed down the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who was that smiled as we passed?&rdquo; asked he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Prince Midchekoff.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, that was he, was it? You must introduce me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not now, pray, not now; at any other time,&rdquo; cried she, in perfect terror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, but don't forget it. Zoe would never forgive me if I told her that
+      I lost the op-op-opportunity; she wants to know him so very much.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course, at another time,&rdquo; said Kate, hurrying him along with
+      increasing speed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who's he?&rdquo; asked Purvis, as a tall and stately personage bowed blandly to
+      Kate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Austrian Minister.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not the fellow that st-st-strangled the Emperor? Oh, I forgot; he was a
+      Russian, wasn't he? They got him down and ch-ch-choked him, ha, ha, ha!
+      There 's a man with a red moustache, so like the fellow who sells the
+      boubou-bouquets at the Casciui.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A Hungarian magnate,&rdquo; whispered Kate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is he, though? Then let's have another look at him. He has as many gold
+      chains about him as a shop on the Ponte Vecchio. Zoe would like him, he 's
+      so odd.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At last, but not without great efforts, Kate succeeded in reaching a small
+      chamber, where two others already were seated, and whose figures were
+      undistinguishable in the obscurity of a studiously shaded lamp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isn't it strange, she never asked for Zoe?&rdquo; said Purvis, as he took his
+      seat on a sofa; &ldquo;not to inquire for a person sick under her own r-r-roof?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lady Hester is not acquainted with Mrs. Ricketts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, but sh-sh-she ought to be. Zoe made a party for her, a d-d-d-iner
+      party, and had Hagg-Haggerstone and Foglass, and the rest of them. And
+      after all, you know, they are only b-bankers, these Onslows, and need n't
+      give themselves airs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have a letter for me, Mr. Purvis? Will you pardon my impatience&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, to be sure. I 've a letter, and an enclosure in it, too; at least,
+      it feels crisp like a note, a bank-note; that 's the reason you 're
+      impatient. Perhaps the re-reremittance was long a-coming, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Kate made no reply to this speech, but her cheek grew scarlet as she heard
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Purvis, meanwhile, spread his packet of papers before him, and began his
+      search for Dalton's letter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, that ain't it; that's from Foglass, all about Norwood, and his
+      N-N-Newmarket affair. That 's a letter from Lord Gullston's valet, with
+      such a droll ac-account of the whole family. Zoe recom-mended him; and the
+      poor fellow 's very grateful, for he writes about all that goes on in the
+      house. Lady G., it seems, has the temper of a f-f-fiend. Well, don't be
+      im-impatient; I'll find your father's letter in a minute. He writes such a
+      cr-cr-cramp old hand, one should detect it at once. I ta-take it that he
+      's a bit of a character, the old gen-gentleman. I 'm sure he is; but what
+      have I done with his letter? Oh, here it is! here it is! and 'with haste'
+      written on the corner, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Kate caught the letter impatiently, and, without any thought for Purvis or
+      the place, tore it open at once. In doing so, the enclosure fell to the
+      ground without her perceiving it; and, stranger still, it escaped the
+      attention of Purvis; but that worthy man, not exactly venturing to read
+      over her shoulder, had established himself directly in front, where, with
+      his double eye-glass, he scanned every change in her features during the
+      perusal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All well at home, I hope, eh? How she changes color,&rdquo; muttered he to
+      himself. &ldquo;Nobody ill; nobody dead, eh?&rdquo; asked he, louder. &ldquo;It must be
+      something serious, though; she 's trembling like ague. Let me give you a
+      chair, that is, if I can f-find one in this little den; they 've got
+      nothing but d-divans all round it.&rdquo; And he hurried forth into the larger
+      salon in search of a seat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not without considerable trouble to himself and inconvenience to
+      various others that he at last succeeded, and returned to the boudoir with
+      a massive arm-chair in his hands. But what was his dismay to find that
+      Miss Dalton had made her escape in the mean while? In vain did he seek her
+      through the salons, which now were rapidly thinning; the distinguished
+      guests having already departed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A stray group lingered here and there, conversing in a low tone; and
+      around the fires were gathered little knots of ladies muffled and cloaked,
+      and only waiting for the carriages. It was like a stage, when the
+      performance was over. Scarcely deigning to notice the little man, who,
+      with palpable keenness of scrutiny, pursued his search in every quarter,
+      they gradually moved off, leaving Purvis alone to tread the &ldquo;banquet-hall
+      deserted.&rdquo; The servants, as they extinguished the lights, passed and
+      repassed him without remark; so that, defeated and disappointed, he was
+      obliged at last to retire, sorrowfully confessing to his own heart how
+      little success had attended his bold enterprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he passed along the galleries and descended the stairs, he made various
+      little efforts to open a conversation with some one or other of the
+      servants; but these dignified officials responded to his questions in the
+      dryest and shortest manner; and it was only as he reached the great gate
+      of the palace that he chanced upon one courteous enough to hear him to the
+      end in his oft-repeated question of &ldquo;Who was th-th-that with the large
+      st-st-star on his breast, and a wh-wh-white beard?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The porter stared at the speaker, and said respectfully, &ldquo;The signor
+      probably means the Archduke?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not the Archduke Fr-Fr-Fr&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir,&rdquo; said the man; and closed the heavy door after him, leaving
+      Purvis in a state of astonishment, and as much shame as his nature
+      permitted him to feel. Neither upon himself nor his sensations have we any
+      intention to dwell; and leaving him to pursue his way homeward, we beg to
+      return once more within those walls from which he had just taken his
+      departure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If Lady Hester's grand company had gone, the business of the evening was
+      by no means over; on the contrary, it was the hour of her night
+      receptions, and now the accustomed guests of those favored precincts came
+      dropping in from theatres, and operas, and late dinners. These men of
+      pleasure looked jaded and tired, as usual; and, except the little tinkling
+      sounds of Jekyl's small treble, no other voice sounded as they walked
+      along the corridors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0017" id="linkimage-0017">
+      <!-- IMG --></a> <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/00426.jpg" alt="00426" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they entered Lady Hester's boudoir, they found that lady recounting
+      to Midchekoff the whole circumstances of the morning's adventure, a
+      recital which she continued without other interruption than a smile or a
+      nod, or a little gesture of the hand to each of the new arrivals as he
+      came in. If the lady's manner was devoid of all ceremony, that of the
+      gentlemen was less ceremonious still; for they stretched themselves on
+      divans, rested their legs upon chairs, and stood back to the fire, with a
+      degree of careless ease that bespoke them thoroughly at home, Jekyl,
+      perhaps, the only one present who mingled with this freedom a certain
+      courteous respect that no familiarity made him ever forget.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And they are still here?&rdquo; asked the Prince. &ldquo;Actually in the house at
+      this moment?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At this very moment!&rdquo; responded she, emphatically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The whole thing passes belief,&rdquo; exclaimed he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now the listless loungers drew their chairs closer to hear the story,
+      and laugh, as men do, who are seldom moved to mirth save when ridicule or
+      malice are the provocatives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you haven't heard the worst yet,&rdquo; said Midchekoff. &ldquo;Pray tell them of
+      your visitor of this evening.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Lady Hester narrated the appearance of Mr. Purvis, who, having secured
+      his entrance by a visit to his sister, had so unceremoniously presented
+      himself in the drawing-room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heaven knows what he said to his Royal Highness when I was away. To judge
+      from his face, it must have been something atrocious; and the last thing
+      he said on leaving was, 'I must try and not forget your agreeable friend's
+      name.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You might as well have invited me as have had your 'friend' Purvis, after
+      all,&rdquo; said a young Italian noble, whose political opinions found no favor
+      at court.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what do you mean to do, my Lady?&rdquo; asked Midchekoff. &ldquo;Is the enemy to
+      hold undisputed possession of the fortress?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is precisely on that point I want advice. Prince.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What if we form ourselves into a council of state?&rdquo; said an Austrian
+      general.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By all means,&rdquo; said the others, who now formed a semicircle in front of
+      Lady Hester's sofa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The youngest officer always speaks first,&rdquo; said the Austrian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then that duty is mine,&rdquo; said a little man of about eighty-two or three,
+      and who had represented France at half the courts of Europe. &ldquo;I should
+      advise a protocol in the form of a protest. It is a palpable invasion of
+      territory, but, followed by an ample apology and a speedy evacuation, may
+      be forgiven. There are historical warrants for such transgressions being
+      accepted as acts almost of compulsion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The case of Anspach, for instance,&rdquo; said the Austrian, with a malicious
+      smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Precisely, General, precisely a case in point,&rdquo; rejoined the old
+      diplomate, with a bow and a smile that almost seemed grateful. &ldquo;The
+      shortest road to victory is ever the best.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let's try a fever, or a fire. By Jove! the sacrifice of a few chairs and
+      window-curtains would be a cheap alternative,&rdquo; said George Onslow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not essay a compromise, my Lady?&rdquo; interposed a young German secretary
+      of legation; &ldquo;a mixed garrison, like that of Rastadt?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lady Hester's troops to mount guard alternately with the Rickettses'.
+      Downright treason, base treason!&rdquo; exclaimed another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What would you think of a special mission, my Lady?&rdquo; simpered Jekyl. &ldquo;It
+      would at least serve to enlighten us as to the views of the enemy. The
+      discussion of the past often throws much light on the future.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jekyl wants to earn a decoration,&rdquo; said another, laughing. &ldquo;He intends to
+      be the envoy himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll wager that I know Midchekoff's policy,&rdquo; said a young Sicilian, who
+      always spoke with a frank fearlessness that is most rare with other
+      Italians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, let us hear it,&rdquo; said the Prince, gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You would counsel the national expedient of retiring before the enemy,
+      and making the country too cold to hold them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How absurd!&rdquo; said Lady Hester, half angrily; &ldquo;give up one's house to a
+      set of people who have had the impertinence to intrude themselves
+      unasked?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And yet Giasconi is right,&rdquo; said the Prince. &ldquo;It is the best suggestion
+      we have heard yet. Hostilities imply, to a certain extent, equality;
+      negotiation is an acknowledgment of acquaintanceship; a dignified retreat,
+      however, avoids either difficulty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In that case, let 's starve them out,&rdquo; said George. &ldquo;Suffer no supplies
+      to be thrown into the place, and exact the most humble terms of
+      submission.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, where to go? that 's another question,&rdquo; said Lady Hester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His Eminence expects to see you in Rome,&rdquo; whispered the Abbe, who had
+      waited for an opportunity for the suggestion. &ldquo;I believe he relies on a
+      promise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very true; but not just yet. Besides, the season is almost over,&rdquo; said
+      Lady Hester, with a slight degree of confusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't be frightened, Abbe,&rdquo; whispered Jekyl in D'Esmonde's ear. &ldquo;Her
+      Ladyship is assuredly 'going to Rome' later on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The priest smiled, with an expression that told how fully he comprehended
+      the phrase.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There 's a little villa of mine, on the Lake of Como, very much at your
+      service,&rdquo; said Midchekoff, with the easy indifference of one suggesting
+      something perfectly indifferent to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you mean La Rocca, Prince?&rdquo; added the Sicilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. They tell me it is prettily situated, but I 've never seen it. The
+      Empress passed a few weeks there last year, and liked it,&rdquo; said
+      Midchekoff, languidly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Really, Prince, if I don't know how to accept, I am still more at a loss
+      for power to refuse your offer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When will you go?&rdquo; said he, dryly, and taking out his memorandum-book to
+      write.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What says Mr. Jekyl?&rdquo; said Lady Hester, turning to that bland personage,
+      who, without apparently attending to what went forward, had heard every
+      syllable of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is Tuesday,&rdquo; said Jekyl. &ldquo;There 's not much to be done; the villa
+      wants for nothing: I know it perfectly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, it's comfortable, then?&rdquo; said the Prince, with a slight degree of
+      animation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;La Rocca is all that Contarete's taste could make it,&rdquo; replied Jekyl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor Contarete! he was an excellent maitre d'hotel,&rdquo; said Midchekoff.
+      &ldquo;He's still with me, somewhere; I rather believe in Tartary, just now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your Ladyship may leave this on Thursday,&rdquo; said Jekyl, who well knew that
+      he was paying the most flattering compliment to Midchekoff in naming the
+      shortest possible time for preparation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will this be inconvenient, Prince?&rdquo; asked Lady Hester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; not in the least. If Jekyl will precede you by a couple of hours, I
+      trust all will be ready.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With your permission, then, we will say Thursday,&rdquo; said she, who, with
+      her habitual delight in novelty, was already wild with pleasure at the
+      whole scheme.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps I'll come and visit you,&rdquo; said Midchekoff. &ldquo;I shall have to go to
+      Vienna soon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Hester bowed and smiled her acknowledgments for this not
+      over-gracious speech.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May we follow you, too, Lady Hester?&rdquo; asked the Sicilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We expect that much from your loyalty, gentlemen. Our exile will test
+      your fidelity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There 's something or other inconvenient about the stables,&rdquo; said
+      Midchekoff, &ldquo;but I forget what it is; they are up a mountain, or down in a
+      valley. I don't remember it, but the Emperor said it was wrong, and should
+      be changed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are on the opposite side of the lake, Prince,&rdquo; interposed Jekyl,
+      &ldquo;and you must cross over to your carriage by boat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, delightful, quite delightful!&rdquo; exclaimed Lady Hester, with childish
+      joy, at the novelty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;La Rocca is on a little promontory,&rdquo; said Jekyl, &ldquo;only approachable from
+      the water, for the mountain is quite inaccessible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You shall have a road made, if you wish it,&rdquo; said the Prince, languidly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On no account. I would n't for the world destroy the isolation of the
+      spot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you happen to remember, Mr. Jekyl, if there be any pictures there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are some perfect gems, by Greuze.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! that's where they are, is it? I could never call to mind where they
+      were left.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The conversation now became general, in discussing Lady Hester's change of
+      abode, the life they should all lead when on the lake, and the innumerable
+      stories that would be circulated to account for her sudden departure. This
+      same mystery was not the least agreeable feature of the whole, and Lady
+      Hester never wearied in talking of all the speculations her new step was
+      certain to originate; and although some of the company regretted the
+      approaching closure of a house which formed the resource of every evening,
+      others were not sorry at the prospect of anything which offered a change
+      to the monotony of their lives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll come to breakfast to-morrow, Mr. Jekyl,&rdquo; said Lady Hester, as he
+      followed the departing guests. &ldquo;I shall want you the whole day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He bowed with his hand to his heart, and never did features of like mould
+      evince a deeper aspect of devotion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0034" id="link2HCH0034">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXIV. JEKYL'S COUNSELS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      ONE of the most striking characteristics of our present age is the
+      singular mixture of frivolity and seriousness, the almost absurd contrast
+      between grave inquiry and reckless dissipation, which pervades the
+      well-to-do classes. Never was there a period when merely sensual
+      gratification was more highly prized and paid for; and never, perhaps, a
+      time when every rank in life was more eager in the pursuit of knowledge.
+      To produce this state of things a certain compromise was necessary; and
+      while the mere man of pleasure affected a taste for literature and
+      politics, the really active-minded either sought his relaxation, or
+      extended his influence, by mingling in scenes of frivolity and amusement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The age which made dandies philosophers made lord chancellors droll, and
+      bishops eccentric. A paradoxical spirit was abroad, and it seemed to be a
+      matter of pride with every one to do something out of his station. The
+      whole temper of society and the tone of conversation exhibited this new
+      taste.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Hester Onslow was not a bad specimen of the prevailing mania. There
+      was by nature a certain fidgety, capricious volatility about her that
+      defied everything like a regular pursuit or a continued purpose. With a
+      reasonably quick apprehension and no judgment, in being everything, she
+      became nothing. Always mistaking sympathies for convictions, it was quite
+      sufficient to interest her imagination to secure her adhesion, not,
+      indeed, that it was worth much when obtained, seeing that she was but a
+      feeble ally at the best. Her employment of the day was a type of herself.
+      The mornings were passed in mesmeric experiences with her doctor, or what
+      she fancied were theological discussions with the Abbe D'Esmonde.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It would be difficult to say in which the imaginative exaltation more
+      predominated. All the authentic and incredible phenomena of the one, all
+      the miraculous pretensions of the other, were too little for a credulity
+      that stopped at nothing. Of second sight, remote sympathy, and saintly
+      miracles she never could hear enough. &ldquo;Give me facts,&rdquo; she would say; by
+      which she meant narratives. &ldquo;I will have no theories, doctor.&rdquo; &ldquo;Don't bear
+      me down with arguments, Monsieur l'Abbe.&rdquo; &ldquo;Facts, and facts alone, have
+      any influence with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, such facts as she asked for were easily obtainable, and the greatest
+      miser need not have grudged her an ample meal of them. Many of the facts,
+      too, possessed the pleasing feature of being personal in their interest.
+      One day it was a charming young patient of the doctor, who, having touched
+      a tress of Lady Hester's hair, made the most astonishing revelations of
+      her Ladyship's disposition; telling facts of her feelings, her nature, and
+      even her affections, that &ldquo;she knew were only confided to her own heart.&rdquo;
+       Various little incidents of her daily life were foretold, even to such
+      minute matters as the purchase of articles of jewelry, which she had not
+      even seen at the time, and only met her eyes by accident afterwards. The
+      Abbe, with equal success, assured her of the intense interest taken in her
+      by the Church. Beautifully bound and richly illustrated books were offered
+      to her, with the flattering addition that prayers were then being uttered
+      at many a shrine for her enlightenment in their perusal. Less asked to
+      conform herself to a new belief than to reconcile the faith to her own
+      notions, she was given the very widest latitude to her opinions. If she
+      grew impatient at argument, a subtle illustration, an apt metaphor, or
+      sometimes a happy mot settled the question. The Abbe was a clever talker,
+      and varied his subjects with all the skill of a master. He knew how to
+      invoke to his aid all that poetry, art, and romance could contribute. The
+      theme was a grand one when the imagination was to be interested, and
+      really deserved a better listener; for save when the miraculous
+      interposition of saints or the gaudy ceremonials of the Church were spoken
+      of, she heard the subject with indifference, if not apathy. The
+      consideration of self could, however, always bring her back; and it was
+      ever a successful flattery to assure her how fervently such a cardinal
+      prayed for her &ldquo;right-mindedness,&rdquo; and how eagerly even his Holiness
+      looked forward to the moment of counting her among his children.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her very tastes those same tastes that ascetic Protestantism was always
+      cavilling at were beautifully Roman. The Church liked display. Witness her
+      magnificence and splendor, her glorious cathedrals, the pomp and grandeur
+      of her ceremonial! As to music, the choir of the &ldquo;Duomo&rdquo; was seraphic, and
+      needed not the association of the dim vaulted aisles, the distant altar,
+      and the checkered rays of stained-glass windows to wrap the soul in a
+      fervor of enthusiasm. Even beauty was cherished by the Church, and the
+      fair Madonnas were types of an admiring love that was beautifully catholic
+      in its worship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With all this, the work of conversion was a Penelope's web, that must each
+      day be begun anew, for, as the hour of the Cascini drew nigh, Lady
+      Hester's carriage drew up, and mesmerism, miracles, and all gave way to
+      the fresher interests of courtly loungers, chit-chat, and &ldquo;bouquets of
+      camellias.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For the next hour or so, her mind was occupied with the gossiping stories
+      of Florentine life, its surface details all recounted by the simpering
+      dandies who gathered around her carriage; its deeper not unfrequently
+      darker histories being the province of Mr. Albert Jekyl. Then home to
+      luncheon, for, as Haggerstone related, she dined always after the Opera,
+      and it was then, somewhere verging on midnight, that she really began to
+      live. Then, in all the blaze of dress and jewels, with beauty little
+      impaired by years, and a manner the perfection of that peculiar school to
+      which she attached herself, she was indeed a most attractive person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Kate Dalton's life was, of course, precisely the same. Except the few
+      hours given to controversial topics, and which she passed in reading, and
+      the occasional change from driving to riding in the Cascini, Kate's day
+      was exactly that of her friend. Not, however, with the same results; for
+      while one was wearied with the same routine of unvarying pleasure, tired
+      of the monotonous circle of amusement, the other became each day more and
+      more enamored of a life so unchanging in its happiness. What was
+      uniformity to Lady Hester, imparted a sense of security to Kate. It was
+      not alone the splendor that surrounded her, the thousand objects of taste
+      and elegance that seemed to multiply around them, that captivated her so
+      much, it was the absence of all care, the freedom from every thought that
+      this state was a mere passing one. This Kate felt to be the very highest
+      of enjoyments, and when at night she whispered to herself, &ldquo;To-morrow will
+      be like to-day,&rdquo; she had said everything that could brighten anticipation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her father's letter was the first shock to this delightful illusion. Her
+      own false position of splendor, in contrast to his poverty, now came up
+      palpably before her, and in place of those blissful reveries in which she
+      often passed hours, there rose to her mind the bitter self-accusings of a
+      penitent spirit. She never slept through the night; the greater part of it
+      she spent in tears. Her absence from home, brief as it was, was quite
+      enough to make her forget much of its daily life. She could, it is true,
+      recall the penury and the privation, but not the feelings that grew out of
+      them. &ldquo;How changed must he have become to stoop to this!&rdquo; was the
+      exclamation that she uttered again and again. &ldquo;Where was all that Dalton
+      pride they used to boast of? What become of that family dignity which once
+      was their bulwark against every blow of Fortune?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To these thoughts succeeded the sadder one, of what course remained for
+      her to adopt? a difficulty the greater since she but half understood what
+      was required of her. He spoke of a bill, and yet the letter contained
+      none: before she broke the seal, it felt as though there was an enclosure,
+      yet she found none; and if there were, of what use would it be? It was
+      perfectly impossible that she could approach Sir Stafford with such a
+      request; every sense of shame, delicacy, and self-respect revolted at the
+      very thought. Still less could she apply to Lady Hester, whose extravagant
+      and wasteful habits always placed her in want of money; and yet to refuse
+      her father on grounds which he would deem purely selfish was equally out
+      of the question. She well knew that in a moment of anger and impatience
+      stung by what he would call the ingratitude of his children he would
+      probably himself write to Sir Stafford, narrating every circumstance that
+      drove him to the step. Oh, that she had never left him, never ceased to
+      live the life of want and hardship to which time had accustomed her! all
+      the poverty she had ever known brought no such humiliation as this! Poor
+      Nelly's lot now was a hundredfold superior to hers. She saw, too, that
+      reserve once broken on such a theme, her father would not scruple to renew
+      the application as often as he needed money. It was clear enough that he
+      saw no embarrassment, nor any difficulty for her in the matter; that it
+      neither could offend her feelings nor compromise her position. Could she
+      descend to an evasive or equivocal reply, his temper would as certainly
+      boil over, and an insulting letter would at once be addressed to Sir
+      Stafford. Were she to make the request and fail, he would order her home,
+      and under what circumstances should she leave the house of her
+      benefactors! And yet all this was better than success.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In such harassing reflections warring and jarring in her mind, the long
+      hours of the night were passed. She wept, too: the bitterest tears are
+      those that are wrung from shame and sorrow mingled. Many a generous
+      resolve, many a thought of self-devotion and sacrifice rose to her mind;
+      at moments she would have submitted herself to any wound to self-esteem to
+      have obtained her father's kind word, and at others all the indignity of a
+      false position overwhelmed her, and she cried as if her very heart were
+      bursting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wearied and fevered, she arose and went into the garden. It was one of the
+      brilliant mornings which for a week or ten days in Italy represent the
+      whole season of spring. Although still early, the sun was hot, and the
+      flowers and shrubs, refreshed by the heavy dew, were bursting out into
+      renewed luxuriance in the warm glow. The fountains sparkled, and the birds
+      were singing, and all seemed animated by that joyous spirit which seems
+      the very breath of early morning, all save poor Kate, who, with bent-down
+      head and slow step, loitered along the walks, lost in her gloomiest
+      thoughts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To return home again was the only issue she could see to her difficulties,
+      to share the humble fortunes of her father and sister, away from a world
+      in which she had no pretension to live! And this, too, just when that same
+      world had cast its fascinations round her, just when its blandishments had
+      gained possession of her heart, and made her feel that all without its
+      pale was ignoble and unworthy. No other course seemed, however, to offer
+      itself, and she had just determined on its adoption, when the short, quick
+      step of some one following her made her turn her head. As she did so, her
+      name was pronounced, and Mr. Albert Jekyl, with his hat courteously
+      removed, advanced towards her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see with what care Miss Dalton protects the roses of her cheeks,&rdquo; said
+      he, smiling; &ldquo;and yet how few there are that know this simple secret.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You give me a credit I have no claim to, Mr. Jekyl. I have almost
+      forgotten the sight of a rising sun, but this morning I did not feel quite
+      well a headache a sleepless night&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps caused by anxiety,&rdquo; interposed he, quietly. &ldquo;I wish I had
+      discovered your loss in time, but I only detected that it must be yours
+      when I reached home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't comprehend you,&rdquo; said she, with some hesitation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is not this yours, Miss Dalton?&rdquo; said he, producing the bill, which had
+      fallen unseen from her father's letter. &ldquo;I found it on the floor of the
+      small boudoir, and not paying much attention to it at the time, did not
+      perceive the signature, which would at once have betrayed the ownership.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must have dropped from a letter I was reading,&rdquo; said Kate, whose cheek
+      was now scarlet, for she knew Jekyl well enough to be certain that her
+      whole secret was by that time in his hands. Slighter materials than this
+      would have sufficed for his intelligence to construct a theory upon.
+      Nothing in his manner, however, evinced this knowledge, for he handed her
+      the paper with an air of most impassive quietude; while, as if to turn her
+      thoughts from any unpleasantness of the incident, he said,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You haven't yet heard, I suppose, of Lady Hester's sudden resolve to quit
+      Florence?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leave Florence! and for where?&rdquo; asked she, hurriedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For Midchekoff's villa at Como. We discussed it all last night after you
+      left, and in twenty-four hours we are to be on the road.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the reason of this hurried departure?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Ricketts invasion gives the pretext; but of course you know better
+      than I do what a share the novelty of the scheme lends to its
+      attractions.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And we are to leave this to-morrow?&rdquo; said Kate, rather to herself than
+      for her companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jekyl marked well the tone and the expression of the speaker, but said not
+      a word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Kate stood for a few seconds lost in thought. Her difficulties were
+      thickening around her, and not a gleam of light shone through the gloomy
+      future before her. At last, as it were overpowered by the torturing
+      anxieties of her situation, she covered her face with her hands to hide
+      the tears that would gush forth in spite of her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miss Dalton will forgive me,&rdquo; said Jekyl, speaking in a low and most
+      respectful voice, &ldquo;if I step for once from the humble path I have tracked
+      for myself in life, and offer my poor services as her adviser.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing could be more deferential than the speech, or the way in which it
+      was uttered, and yet Kate heard it with a sense of pain. She felt that her
+      personal independence was already in peril, and that the meek and bashful
+      Mr. Jekyl had gained a mastery over her. He saw all this, he read each
+      struggle of her mind, and, were retreat practicable, he would have
+      retreated; but, the step once taken, the only course was &ldquo;forwards.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miss Dalton may reject my counsels, but she will not despise the devotion
+      in which they are proffered. A mere accident&rdquo; here he glanced at the paper
+      which she still held in her fingers &ldquo;a mere accident has shown me that you
+      have a difficulty; one for which neither your habits nor knowledge of life
+      can suggest the solution.&rdquo; He paused, and a very slight nod from Kate
+      emboldened him to proceed. &ldquo;Were it not so, Miss Dalton were the case one
+      for which your own exquisite tact could suffice, I never would have
+      ventured on the liberty. I, who have watched you with wondering
+      admiration, directing and guiding your course amid shoals and reefs and
+      quicksands, where the most skilful might have found shipwreck, it would
+      have been hardihood indeed for me to have offered my pilotage. But here,
+      if I err not greatly, here is a new and unknown sea, and here I may be of
+      service to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it so plain, then, what all this means?&rdquo; said Kate, holding out the
+      bill towards Jekyl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas! Miss Dalton,&rdquo; said he, with a faint smile, &ldquo;these are no enigmas to
+      us who mix in all the worries and cares of life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then how do you read the riddle?&rdquo; said she, almost laughing at the easy
+      flippancy of his tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Dalton being an Irish gentleman of a kind disposition and facile
+      temper, suffers his tenantry to run most grievously into arrear. They
+      won't pay, and he won't make them; his own creditors having no sympathy
+      with such proceedings, become pressing and importunate. Mr. Dalton grows
+      angry, and they grow irritable; he makes his agent write to them, they
+      'instruct' their attorney to write to him. Mr. D. is puzzled, and were it
+      not that But, may I go on?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course; proceed,&rdquo; said she, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll not be offended, though?&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;because, if I have not the
+      privilege of being frank, I shall be worthless to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is no serious offence without intention.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very true; but I do not wish there should be even a trivial
+      transgression.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 'm not afraid. Go on,&rdquo; said she, nodding her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where was I, then? Oh! I remember. I said that Mr. Dalton, seeing
+      difficulties thickening and troubles gathering, suddenly bethinks him that
+      he has a daughter, a young lady of such attractions that, in a society
+      where wealth and splendor and rank hold highest place, her beauty has
+      already established a dominion which nothing, save her gentleness,
+      prevents being a despotism.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Jekyl mistakes the part of a friend when he becomes flatterer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is no flattery in a plain unadorned truth,&rdquo; said he, hastily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And were it all as you say,&rdquo; rejoined she, speaking with a heightened
+      color and a flashing eye, &ldquo;how could such circumstances be linked with
+      those you spoke of?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Easily enough, if I did but dare to tell it,&rdquo; was his reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is too late for reserve; go on freely,&rdquo; said she, with a faint sigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jekyl resumed,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Dalton knows there are thousands could have told him so that his
+      daughter may be a princess to-morrow if she wishes it. She has but to
+      choose her rank and her nationality, and there is not a land in Europe in
+      whose peerage she may not inscribe her name. It is too late for reserve,&rdquo;
+       said he, quickly, &ldquo;and consequently too late for resentment. You must not
+      be angry with me now; I am but speaking in your presence what all the
+      world says behind your back. Hearing this, and believing it, as all
+      believe it, what is there more natural than that he should address himself
+      to her at whose disposal lie all that wealth can compass? The sun bestows
+      many a gleam of warmth and brightness before he reaches the zenith. Do not
+      mistake me. This request was scarcely fair; it was ill-advised. Your
+      freedom should never have been jeopardized for such a mere trifle. Had
+      your father but seen with his own eyes your position here, he would never
+      have done this; but, being done, there is no harm in it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what am I to do?&rdquo; said Kate, trembling with embarrassment and
+      vexation together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Send the money, of course,&rdquo; said he, coolly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how from what source?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your own benevolence, none other,&rdquo; said he, as calmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is no question of a favor, no stooping to an obligation necessary.
+      You will simply give your promise to repay it at some future day, not
+      specifying when; and I will find a banker but too happy to treat with
+      you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what prospect have I of such ability to pay? what resources can I
+      reckon upon?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will be angry if I repeat myself,&rdquo; said Jekyl, with deep humility.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am already angry with myself that I should have listened to your
+      proposal so indulgently; my troubles must, indeed, have affected me deeply
+      when I so far forgot myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jekyl dropped his head forward on his breast, and looked a picture of
+      sorrow; after a while he said,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Stafford Onslow would, I well know, but be honored by your asking him
+      the slight favor; but I could not counsel you to do so. Your feelings
+      would have to pay too severe a sacrifice, and hence I advise making it a
+      mere business matter; depositing some ornament a necklace you were tired
+      of, a bracelet, anything in fact, a nothing and thus there is neither a
+      difficulty nor a disclosure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have scarcely anything,&rdquo; said Kate; &ldquo;and what I have, have been all
+      presents from Lady Hester.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Morlache would be quite content with your word,&rdquo; said Jekyl, blandly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if I should be unable to acquit the debt, will these few things I
+      possess be sufficient to do it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should say double the amount, as a mere guess.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can I dare I take your counsel?&rdquo; cried she, in an accent of intense
+      anxiety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you reject it, when refusal will be so bitter?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Kate gave a slight shudder, as though that pang was greater than all the
+      rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is fortunately no difficulty in the matter whatever,&rdquo; said Jekyl,
+      speaking rapidly. &ldquo;You will, of course, have many things to purchase
+      before you leave this. Well; take the carriage and your maid, and drive to
+      the Ponte Vecchio. The last shop on the right-hand side of the bridge is
+      'Morlache's.' It is unpromising enough outside, but there is wealth within
+      to subsidize a kingdom. I will be in waiting to receive you, and in a few
+      minutes the whole will be concluded; and if you have your letter ready,
+      you can enclose the sum, and post it at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      If there were many things in this arrangement which shocked Kate, and
+      revolted against her sense of delicacy and propriety, there was one
+      counterpoise more than enough to outweigh them all: she should be enabled
+      to serve her father, she, who alone of all his children had never
+      contributed, save by affection, to his comfort, should now materially
+      assist him. She knew too well the sufferings and anxieties his straitened
+      fortune cost him, she witnessed but too often the half-desperation in
+      which he would pass days, borne down and almost broken-hearted! and she
+      had witnessed that outbreak of joy he would indulge in when an unexpected
+      help had suddenly lifted him from the depth of his poverty. To be the
+      messenger of such good tidings to be associated in his mind with this
+      assistance, to win his fervent &ldquo;God bless you!&rdquo; she would have put life
+      itself in peril; and when Jekyl placed so palpably before her the
+      promptitude with which the act could be accomplished, all hesitation
+      ceased, and she promised to be punctual at the appointed place by three
+      o'clock that same afternoon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is too early to expect to see Lady Hester,&rdquo; said Jekyl; &ldquo;and indeed,
+      my real business here this morning was with yourself, so that now I shall
+      drive out to Midchekoff's and make all the arrangements about the villa.
+      Till three, then, good-bye!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good-bye,&rdquo; said Kate, for the first time disposed to feel warmly to the
+      little man, and half reproach herself with some of the prejudices she used
+      to entertain regarding him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jekyl now took his way to the stables, and ordering a brougham to be got
+      ready for him, sauntered into the house, and took his coffee while he
+      waited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0035" id="link2HCH0035">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXV. RACCA MORLACHE.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      There is something of mediaeval look and air about the Ponte Vecchio in
+      Florence, which gives it a peculiar interest to the traveller. The quaint
+      little low shops on either side, all glittering with gold and gems; the
+      gorgeous tiaras of diamonds; the richly enamelled cups and vases aside of
+      the grotesque ornaments of peasant costume; the cumbrous ear-rings of
+      stamped gold; the old-fashioned clasps and buckles of massive make; the
+      chains fashioned after long-forgotten models; the strings of Oriental
+      pearls, costly and rare enough for queens to wear, are all thrown about in
+      a rich profusion, curiously in contrast to the humble sheds for they are
+      little more that hold them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The incessant roll of equipages,&mdash;the crowd and movement of a great
+      city; the lingering peasant, gazing with rapturous eyes at the glittering
+      wares; the dark Israelitish face that peers from within; the ever-flowing
+      tide of population of every rank and age and country, giving a bustle and
+      animation to the scene, so beautifully relieved by the view that opens on
+      the centre of the bridge, and where, in a vacant space, the Arno is seen
+      wending peacefully along, and scattering its circling eddies beneath the
+      graceful arches of the &ldquo;Santa Trinita,&rdquo; that little glimpse of hill and
+      vineyard and river, the cypress-clad heights of San Miniato, and the
+      distant mountain of Vallombrosa, more beautiful far than all the gold
+      Pactolus ever rolled, or all the gems that ever glittered on crown or
+      coronet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was one stall at the end of the bridge so humble-looking and so
+      scantily provided that no stranger was seen to linger beside it. A few
+      coral ornaments for peasant wear, some stamped medals for pious use, and
+      some of those little silver tokens hung up by some devout hands as votive
+      offerings at a holy shrine, were all that appeared; while, as if to
+      confirm the impression of the scanty traffic that went on, the massive
+      door was barred and bolted like the portal of a prison. An almost erased
+      inscription, unrenewed for nigh half a century, told that this was the
+      shop of &ldquo;Racca Morlache.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There may have been much of exaggeration in the stories that went of the
+      Jew's enormous wealth; doubtless many of the accounts were purely
+      fabulous; but one fact is certain, that from that lowly roof went forth
+      sums sufficient to maintain the credit of many a tottering state, or
+      support the cost of warlike struggles to replace a dynasty. To him came
+      the heads of despotic governments, the leaders of rebellious democracy,
+      the Russian and the Circassian, the Carlist and the Cristino. To the proud
+      champion of divine right, or the fearless promulgator of equality, to all
+      he was accessible. Solvency and his profit were requirements he could not
+      dispense with; but, for the rest, in what channel of future good and evil
+      his wealth was to flow, whether to maintain a throne or sap its
+      foundation, to uphold a faith or to desecrate its altars, to liberate a
+      people or to bind their fetters more closely, were cares that sat lightly
+      on his heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He might, with his vast means, have supported a style like royalty itself.
+      There was no splendor nor magnificence he need have denied himself; nor,
+      as the world goes, any society from which he should be debarred, gold is
+      the picklock to the doors of palaces as of prisons; but he preferred this
+      small and miserable habitation, which for above two centuries had never
+      borne any other name than the &ldquo;Casa Morlache.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Various reasons were given out for a choice so singular; among others, it
+      was said that the Grand-Duke was accustomed to visit the Jew by means of a
+      secret passage from the &ldquo;Pitti;&rdquo; while some alleged that the secret
+      frequenters of Morlache's abode all came by water, and that in the dark
+      night many a boat skimmed the Arno, and directed its course to the last
+      arch of the Ponte Vecchio. With these rumors we have no concern, nor with
+      Morlache himself have we more than a passing business.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Kate Dalton had driven up to the door, she had all but determined to
+      abandon her intention. The arguments which in the morning had taken her by
+      surprise seemed now weak and futile, and she was shocked with herself for
+      even the momentary yielding to Jekyl's counsels. Her only doubt was
+      whether to drive on without further halt, or leave some short message, to
+      the effect that she had called but could not delay there. This seemed the
+      better and more courteous proceeding; and while she was yet speaking to
+      the dark-eyed, hook-nosed boy who appeared at the door, Jekyl came up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be quick, Miss Dalton! Don't lose an instant,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Morlache is
+      going to the palace, and we shall miss him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I have changed my mind. I have resolved not to accept this
+      assistance. It is better far better that I should not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is too late to think of that now,&rdquo; said he, interrupting, and speaking
+      with some slight degree of irritation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How too late? What do you mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I have already told Morlache the whole story, and obtained his
+      promise for the loan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, sir! why have you done this?&rdquo; cried she, in a voice of anguish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had your free permission for it, Miss Dalton. When we parted this
+      morning, the matter was fully agreed on between us; but still, if you
+      desire to retract, your secret is in safe keeping. Morlache never betrays
+      a confidence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And he has heard my name!&rdquo; cried she, in a broken, sobbing tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not for the first time, be assured. Even Croesus looked up from his
+      ingots to ask if it were 'la belle Dalton;' and when I said 'Yes,' 'That's
+      enough,' replied he; 'would that all my moneys had so safe investment!'
+      But stay; there is Purvis yonder. He is pretending to examine an eye-glass
+      in that shop opposite, but I see well that he is there only en vedette.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What shall I do?&rdquo; exclaimed the poor girl, now torn by impulses and
+      emotions the most opposite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One thing you must do at once,&rdquo; said Jekyl; &ldquo;get out of the carriage and
+      visit two or three of the shops, as if in quest of some article of
+      jewelry. His anxiety to learn the precise object of your search will soon
+      draw him from his 'lair.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The decision of this counsel, almost like a command, so far imposed upon
+      Kate that she at once descended, and took Jekyl's arm along the bridge.
+      They had not gone many yards when the short, little, shuffling step of
+      Purvis was heard behind them. Lingering to gaze at some of the splendid
+      objects exposed for sale, they at last reached a very splendid stall,
+      where diamonds, pearls, and rubies lay in heaps of gorgeous profusion. And
+      now Purvis had stationed himself exactly behind them, with his head most
+      artistically adjusted to hear everything that passed between them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jekyl seemed to feel his presence as if by an instinct, and without even
+      turning his eye from the glass case, said, in a voice of some
+      disparagement,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All modern settings! very lustrous very brilliant, but not at all what we
+      are looking for.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Kate made no reply; for, while she had scruples about abetting a mere
+      scheme, she was not the less eager to be free of the presence of the
+      &ldquo;Great Inquisitor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That, perhaps,&rdquo; said Jekyl, pointing to a magnificent cross of
+      brilliants, &ldquo;would not go ill with the necklace, although the stones are
+      smaller. Say something, anything,&rdquo; added he, in a lower tone; &ldquo;the spell
+      is working.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is very handsome,&rdquo; said Kate, pointing at a venture to an object
+      before her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it is,&rdquo; said Jekyl, quickly. &ldquo;Let us see what value they place upon
+      it. Oh, here is Mr. Purvis; how fortunate! Perhaps in all Florence there
+      is not one so conversant with all that concerns taste and elegance, and,
+      as an old resident, happily exempt from all the arts and wiles played off
+      upon our countrymen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How d'ye do d'ye do?&rdquo; cried Purvis, shaking hands with both. &ldquo;You heard
+      of the bl-bl-blunder I made last night about the Ar-Archduke?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a word of it,&rdquo; replied Jekyl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I told him he was a-a-a fool,&rdquo; cried Purvis, with a scream and a cackle
+      that very constantly followed any confession of an impertinence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Meno male!&rdquo; exclaimed Jekyl. &ldquo;Even princes ought to hear truth sometimes;
+      but you can help us here. Mr. Purvis, do you see that chatelaine yonder,
+      with a large emerald pendant; could you ascertain the price of it for Miss
+      Dalton? They'll not attempt to be extortionate upon you, which they would,
+      assuredly, if she entered the shop.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sure; I'll do it with pl-pleasure. Who is it for?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That 's a secret, Mr. Purvis; but you shall hear it afterwards.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I guess al-ready,&rdquo; said Scroope, with a cunning leer. &ldquo;You 're going to
+      be m-m-m-married, ain't you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Purvis, Mr. Purvis, I must call you to order,&rdquo; said Jekyl, who saw
+      that very little more would make the scene unendurable to Kate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope it 's not an It-It-Italian fellow; for they 're all as poor as
+      Laza-Laza-Laza&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes, of course; we know that. Your discretion is invaluable,&rdquo; said
+      Jekyl; &ldquo;but pray step in, and ask this question for us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll tell who'll do better,&rdquo; said Purvis, who, once full of a theme,
+      never paid any attention to what was said by others.
+      &ldquo;Midche-Midche-Midche-k-k-off; he owns half of&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never mind what he owns, but remember that Miss Dalton is waiting all
+      this time,&rdquo; said Jekyl, who very rarely so far lost command of his temper;
+      and at last Purvis yielded, and entered the shop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come now,&rdquo; said Jekyl to his companion; &ldquo;it will take him full five
+      minutes to say 'chatelaine,' and before that we shall be safely housed.&rdquo;
+       And with these words he hurried her along, laughing, in spite of all her
+      anxieties, at the absurdity of the adventure. &ldquo;He 'll see the carriage
+      when he comes out,&rdquo; added he, &ldquo;and so I 'll tell the coachman to drive
+      slowly on towards the Pitti.&rdquo; And thus, without asking her consent, he
+      assumed the full guidance at once; and, ere she well knew how or why, she
+      found herself within the dark and dusty precincts of Morlache's shop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jekyl never gave Kate much time for hesitation, but hurried her along
+      through a narrow passage, from which a winding flight of stone steps led
+      downwards to a considerable distance, and at last opened upon a neat
+      little chamber on the level of the Arno, the window opening on the stream,
+      and only separated from it by a little terrace, covered with geraniums in
+      full flower. There was a strange undulating motion that seemed
+      communicated from the stream to the apartment, which Jekyl at once
+      explained to his companion as a contrivance for elevating and depressing
+      the chamber with the changes in the current of the river; otherwise the
+      room must have been under water for a considerable portion of the year.
+      While he descanted on the ingenuity of the mechanism, and pointed
+      attention to the portraits along the walls, the Kings and Kaisers with
+      whom Morlache had held moneyed relations, the minutes slipped on, and
+      Jekyl' s powers as a talker were called upon to speak against time, the
+      figety nervousness of his manner, and the frequent glances he bestowed at
+      the timepiece, showing how impatiently he longed for the Jew's arrival. To
+      all Kate's scruples he opposed some plausible pretext, assuring her that,
+      if she desired it, no mention should be made of the loan; that the visit
+      might be as one of mere curiosity, to see some of those wonderful gems
+      which had once graced the crowns of royalty; and that, in any case, the
+      brief delay would disembarrass them on the score of Purvis, whose spirit
+      of inquiry would have called him off in some other direction. At last,
+      when now upwards of half an hour had elapsed, and no sound nor sight bore
+      token of the Jew's coming, Jekyl resolved to go in search of him; and
+      requesting Kate to wait patiently for a few minutes, he left the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first, when she found herself alone, every noise startled and terrified
+      her; the minutes, as she watched the clock, seemed drawn out to hours. She
+      listened with an aching anxiety for Jekyl's return, while, with a
+      sorrowing heart, she reproached herself for ever having come there. To
+      this state of almost feverish excitement succeeded a low and melancholy
+      depression, in which the time passed without her consciousness; the
+      half-dulled sounds of the city, the monotonous plash of the stream as it
+      flowed past, the distant cries of the boatmen as they guided their swift
+      barks down the strong current, aiding and increasing a feeling that was
+      almost lethargic. Already the sun had sunk below the hills, and the tall
+      palaces were throwing their giant shadows across the river, the presage of
+      approaching night, and still she sat there all alone. Jekyl had never
+      returned, nor had any one descended the stairs since his departure. Twice
+      had she shaken off the dreamy stupor that was over her, and tried to find
+      the door of the chamber, but, concealed in the wainscoting, it defied her
+      efforts; and now, worn out with anxiety and disappointed, she sat down
+      beside the window, gazing listlessly at the water, and wondering when and
+      how her captivity was to end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lamps were now being lighted on the quays, and long columns of light
+      streaked the dark river. Across these a black object was seen to glide,
+      and as it passed, Kate could perceive it was a boat that advanced slowly
+      against the current, and headed up the stream. As she watched, it came
+      nearer and nearer; and now she could hear distinctly the sound of voices
+      talking in French. What, however, was her surprise when, instead of making
+      for the centre arches of the bridge, the boat was vigorously impelled
+      across the river, and its course directed towards the very place where she
+      sat?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However painful her situation before, now it became downright agony. It
+      was clear there were persons coming; in another moment she would be
+      discovered, unable to explain by what course of events she had come there,
+      and thus exposed to every surmise and suspicion that chance or calumny
+      might originate. In that brief but terrible moment what self-accusings,
+      what reproaches of Jekyl crossed her mind; and yet all these were as
+      nothing to the misery which coming events seemed full of. For a second or
+      two she stood irresolute, and then with something like an instinct of
+      escape, she stepped out upon the little terrace that supported the
+      flowers, and, trembling with fear, took her stand beneath the shadow of
+      one of the great buttresses of the bridge. The frail and half-rotten
+      timbers creaked and bent beneath her weight, and close under her feet
+      rolled along the dark river, with a low and sullen sound like moaning.
+      Meanwhile the boat came nearer, and slowly gliding along, was at last
+      brought up at the window. Two figures passed into the chamber, and the
+      boatmen, as if performing a long-accustomed task, rowed out a few lengths
+      into the stream to wait.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the window, which still remained open, a stream of light now issued,
+      and Kate's quick hearing could detect the rustling sound of papers on the
+      table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There they are,&rdquo; said a voice, the first accents of which she knew to
+      belong to the Abbe D'Esmonde. &ldquo;There they are, Signor Morlache. We have no
+      concealments nor reserve with you. Examine them for yourself. You will
+      find reports from nearly every part of the kingdom; some more, some less
+      favorable in their bearings, but all agreeing in the main fact, that the
+      cause is a great one, and the success all but certain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have told you before,&rdquo; said the Jew, speaking in a thick, guttural
+      utterance, &ldquo;that my sympathies never lead me into expense. Every solvent
+      cause is good, every bankrupt one the reverse, in my estimation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even upon that ground I am ready to meet you. The committee&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, who are the committee?&rdquo; interrupted the Jew, hastily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The committee contains some of the first Catholic names of Ireland, men
+      of landed fortune and great territorial influence, together with several
+      of the higher clergy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The bishops?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The bishops, almost to a man, are with us in heart; but their peculiar
+      position requires the most careful and delicate conduct. No turn of
+      fortune must implicate them, or our cause is lost forever.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If your cause be all you say it is, if the nationality be so strong, and
+      the energies so powerful as you describe, why not try the issue, as the
+      Italians and the Hungarians are about to do?&rdquo; said Morlache. &ldquo;I can
+      understand a loan for a defined and real object, the purchase of military
+      stores and equipment, to provide arms and ammunition, and I can understand
+      how the lender, too, could calculate his risk of profit or loss on the
+      issue of the struggle; but here you want half a million sterling, and for
+      what?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To win a kingdom!&rdquo; cried D'Esmonde, enthusiastically. &ldquo;To bring back to
+      the fold of the Church the long-lost sheep; and make Ireland, as she once
+      was, the centre of holy zeal and piety!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not a pope, nor a cardinal, not even a monsignore,&rdquo; said Morlache,
+      with a bitter laugh. &ldquo;You must try other arguments with me; and once more
+      I say, why not join that party who already are willing to risk their lives
+      in the venture?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have I not told you what and who they are who form this party?&rdquo; said
+      D'Esmonde, passionately. &ldquo;Read those papers before you. Study the secret
+      reports sent from nearly every parish in the kingdom. In some you will
+      find the sworn depositions of men on their death-beds, the last words
+      their lips have uttered on earth, all concurring to show that Ireland has
+      no hope save in the Church. The men who now stir up the land to revolt are
+      not devoid of courage or capacity. They are bold, and they are able, but
+      they are infidel. They would call upon their countrymen in the name of
+      past associations, the wrongs of bygone centuries; they would move the
+      heart by appeals, touching enough, Heaven knows, to the galling sores of
+      serfdom, but they will not light one fire upon the altar; they will not
+      carry the only banner that should float in the van of an Irish army. Their
+      bold denouncings may warn some; their poetry will, perhaps, move others;
+      but their prose and verse, like themselves, will be forgotten in a few
+      years, and, save a few grassy mounds in a village churchyard, or a
+      prisoner's plaint sent over the sea from a land of banishment, nothing
+      will remain of Ireland's patriots.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;England is too powerful for such assailants,&rdquo; said the Jew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very true; but remember that the stout three-decker that never struck to
+      an enemy has crumbled to ruin beneath the dry rot,&rdquo; said D'Esmonde, with a
+      savage energy of manner. &ldquo;Such is the case now. All is rot and corruption
+      within her; pauperism at home, rebellion abroad. The nobles, more tolerant
+      as the commonalty grows more ambitious; resources diminishing as taxation
+      increases; disaffection everywhere, in the towns where they read, in the
+      rural districts where they brood over their poverty; and lastly, but
+      greatest of all, schism in the Church, a mutiny in that disorderly mass
+      that was never yet disciplined to obedience. Are these the evidences of
+      strength, or are they sure signs of coming ruin? Mark me,&rdquo; said he,
+      hurriedly, &ldquo;I do not mean from all this that such puny revolt as we are
+      now to see can shake powers like that of England. These men will have the
+      same fate as Tone and Emmet, without the sympathy that followed them. They
+      will fail, and fail egregiously; but it is exactly upon this failure that
+      our hopes of success are based. Not a priest will join them. On the
+      contrary, their scheme will be denounced from our altars; our flocks
+      warned to stand aloof from their evil influence. Our bishops will be in
+      close communication with the heads of the Government; all the little
+      coquetries of confidence and frankness will be played off; and our
+      loyalty, that's the phrase, our loyalty stand high in public esteem. The
+      very jeers and insults of our enemies will give fresh lustre to our bright
+      example, and our calm and dignified demeanor form the contrast to that
+      rampant intolerance that assails us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But for all this classic dignity,&rdquo; said Morlache, sneeringly, &ldquo;you need
+      no money; such nobility of soul is, after all, the cheapest of luxuries.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are mistaken, mistaken egregiously,&rdquo; broke in D'Esmonde. &ldquo;It is
+      precisely at that moment that we shall require a strong friend behind us.
+      The 'Press' is all-powerful in England. If it does not actually guide, it
+      is the embodiment of public opinion, without which men would never clothe
+      their sentiments in fitting phrase, or invest them with those short and
+      pithy apothegms that form the watchwords of party. Happily, if it be
+      great, it is venal; and although the price be a princely ransom, the
+      bargain is worth the money. Fifty or a hundred thousand pounds, at that
+      nick, would gain our cause. We shall need many advocates; some, in assumed
+      self-gratulation over their own prescience, in supporting our claims in
+      time past, and reiterating the worn assertion of our attachment to the
+      throne and the constitution; others, to contrast our bearing with the
+      obtrusive loyalty of Orangeism; and others, again, going further than
+      either, to proclaim that, but for us, Ireland would have been lost to
+      England; and had not our allegiance stood in the breach, the cause of
+      rebellion would have triumphed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And is this character for loyalty worth so much money?&rdquo; said the Jew,
+      slowly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not as a mere empty name, not as a vain boast,&rdquo; replied D'Esmonde,
+      quickly; &ldquo;but if the tree be stunted, its fruits are above price. Our
+      martyrdom will not go unrewarded. The moment of peril over, the season of
+      concessions will begin. How I once hated the word! how I used to despise
+      those who were satisfied with these crumbs from the table of the rich man,
+      not knowing that the time would come when we should sit at the board
+      ourselves. Concession! the vocabulary has no one word I 'd change for it;
+      it is conquest, dominion, sovereignty, all together. By concession, we may
+      be all we strive for, but never could wrest by force. Now, my good Signor
+      Morlache, these slow and sententious English are a most impulsive people,
+      and are often betrayed into the strangest excesses of forgiveness and
+      forgetfulness; insomuch that I feel assured that nothing will be refused
+      us, if we but play our game prudently.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what is the game?&rdquo; said the Jew, with impatience; &ldquo;for it seems to me
+      that you are not about to strike for freedom, like the Hungarians or the
+      Lombards. What, then, is the prize you strive for?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Catholicism of Ireland, and then of England, the subjugation of the
+      haughtiest rebel to the Faith, the only one whose disaffection menaces our
+      Holy Church; for the Lutheranism of the German is scarce worth the name of
+      enemy. England once Catholic, the world is our own!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The enthusiasm of his manner, and the excited tones of his round, full
+      voice seemed to check the Jew, whose cold, sarcastic features were turned
+      towards the priest with an expression of wonderment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us come back from all this speculation to matter of plain fact,&rdquo; said
+      Morlache, after a long pause. &ldquo;What securities are offered for the
+      repayment of this sum? for, although the theme be full of interest to you,
+      to me it has but the character of a commercial enterprise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But it ought not,&rdquo; said D'Esmonde, passionately. &ldquo;The downfall of the
+      tyranny of England is your cause as much as ours. What Genoa and Venice
+      were in times past, they may become again. The supremacy of the seas once
+      wrested from that haughty power, the long-slumbering energies of Southern
+      Europe will awaken, the great trading communities of the Levant will
+      resume their ancient place, and the rich argosies of the East once more
+      will float over the waters of the tideless sea.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not in our time, Abbe, not in our time,&rdquo; said the Jew, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But are we only to build for ourselves?&rdquo; said D'Esmonde. &ldquo;Was it thus
+      your own great forefathers raised the glorious Temple?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The allusion called up but a cold sneer on the Israelite's dark
+      countenance, and D'Esmonde knew better than to repeat a blow which showed
+      itself to be powerless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A tap at the door here broke in upon the colloquy, and Jekyl's voice was
+      heard on the outside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say you are engaged, that you cannot admit him,&rdquo; whispered D'Esmonde. &ldquo;I
+      do not wish that he should see me here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A thousand pardons, Morlache,&rdquo; said Jekyl, from without; &ldquo;but when I
+      followed you to the 'Pitti,' I left a young lady here, has she gone away,
+      or is she still here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never saw her,&rdquo; said Morlache. &ldquo;She must have left before I returned.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks, good-bye,&rdquo; said Jekyl; and his quick foot was heard ascending the
+      stairs again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The night air grows chilly,&rdquo; said the Abbe, as he arose and shut the
+      window; and the boatmen, mistaking the sound for a summons to approach,
+      pulled up to the spot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a sudden spring Kate bounded into the boat, while yet some distance
+      off, and hurriedly said, &ldquo;To the stairs beside the Santa Trinita.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The clink of money, as she took out her purse, made the brief command
+      intelligible, and they shot down the stream with speed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not speak of me,&rdquo; said she, covering her face with her kerchief as she
+      stepped from the boat; and a gold Napoleon enforced the caution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now night, the lamps were all lighted, and the streets crowded by
+      that bustling throng of population whose hours of business or pleasure
+      commence when day has closed. A thin drizzling rain was falling, and the
+      footway was wet and muddy. Dressed in the height of fashion, all her
+      attire suited to a carriage, Kate set out to walk homeward, with a heart
+      sinking from terror. Many a time in her condition of poverty, with patched
+      and threadbare cloak, had she travelled the dark road from Lichtenthal to
+      Baden after nightfall, fearless and undismayed, no dread of danger nor of
+      insult occurring to her happy spirit, the &ldquo;Gute nacht&rdquo; of some
+      homeward-bound peasant the only sound that saluted her. But now, she was
+      no longer in the secluded valley of the great Vaterland; her way led
+      through the crowded thoroughfares of a great city, with all its crash and
+      noise and movement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If, in her wild confusion, she had no thought for each incident of the
+      morning, her mind was full of &ldquo;self-accusings.&rdquo; How explain to Lady Hester
+      her long absence, and her return alone and on foot? Her very maid, Nina,
+      might arraign her conduct, and regard her with distrust and suspicion. How
+      should she appear in Jekyl's eyes, who already knew her secret? and,
+      lastly, what answer return to her poor father's letter, that letter which
+      was the cause of all her misfortunes?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will tell him everything,&rdquo; said she to herself, as she went along. &ldquo;I
+      will detail the whole events of this morning, and he shall see that my
+      failure has not come of lukewarmness. I will also strive to show him the
+      nature of my position, and let him know the full extent of the sacrifice
+      he would exact from me. If he persist, what then? Is it better to go back
+      and share the poverty I cannot alleviate?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what alternative have I? Jekyl's flatteries are but fictions. Would I
+      wish them to be otherwise? Alas, I cannot tell; I do not even know my own
+      heart now. Oh for one true-hearted friend to guide and counsel me!&rdquo; She
+      thought of George Onslow, rash, impetuous, and ardent; she thought of the
+      priest, D'Esmonde, but the last scene in which he figured made her shrink
+      with terror from the man of dark intrigues and secret wiles. She even
+      thought of poor Hanserl, who, in all the simplicity of his nature, she
+      wished to have that moment beside her. &ldquo;But he would say, 'Go back; return
+      to the humble home you quitted; put away all the glittering gauds that are
+      clinging to and clasping your very heart. Take, once more, your lowly
+      place at hearth and board, and forget the bright dream of pleasure you
+      have passed through.' But how forget it? Has it not become my hope, my
+      very existence? How easy for those who have not tasted the intoxicating
+      cup, to say, 'Be cool of heart and head!' Nor am I what I was. How then go
+      back to be that which I have ceased to be? Would that I had never left it!
+      Would that I could live again in the dreamland of the poets that we loved
+      so well, and wander with dearest Nelly through those forest glades,
+      peopled with the creations of Uhland, Tieck, and Chammisso! What a
+      glorious world is theirs, and how unlike the real one!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus, lost in thoughts conflicting and jarring with each other, mingling
+      the long past with the distant future, hoping and fearing, now seeking
+      self-persuasion here, now controverting her own opinions there, she walked
+      hurriedly on, unconscious of the time, the place, and even the rude
+      glances bestowed upon her by many who gazed at her with an insolent
+      admiration. What an armor is innocence! how proof against the venomed dart
+      of malice? Kate never knew the ordeal through which she was passing. She
+      neither saw the looks nor heard the comments of those that passed. If her
+      mind ever turned from the throng of thoughts that oppressed it, it was
+      when some momentary difficulty of the way recalled her to herself; for, as
+      she escaped from the smaller streets, the crowd and crash increased, and
+      she found herself borne along as in a strong current.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does this lead to the Piazza Annunziata?&rdquo; asked she of a woman at a
+      fruit-stall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell her, Giacomo,&rdquo; said the woman to a youth, who, with a water-melon in
+      his hand, lay at full length on the pavement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Per Baccho! but she 's handsome!&rdquo; said he, holding up the paper lantern
+      to gaze at her. And Kate hurried on in terror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0036" id="link2HCH0036">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXVI. A STREET RENCONTRE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      LADY HESTER ONSLOW had passed a day of martyrdom. There was scarcely a
+      single contrariety in the long catalogue of annoyances which had not
+      fallen to her share. Her servants, habitually disciplined to perfection,
+      had admitted every bore of her acquaintance, while, to the few she really
+      wished to see, admittance had been denied. The rumor of an approaching
+      departure had got wind through the servants, and the hall and the
+      courtyard were crowded with creditors, duns, and begging impostors of
+      every age and class and country. It seemed as if every one with a petition
+      or a bill, an unsatisfied complaint or an unsettled balance, had given
+      each other a general rendezvous that morning at the Mazzarini Palace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is well known how the most obsequious tradespeople grow peremptory when
+      passports are signed and posthorses are harnessed. The bland courteousness
+      with which they receive &ldquo;your Ladyship's orders&rdquo; undergoes a terrible
+      change. Departure is the next thing to death. Another country sounds like
+      another world. The deferential bashfulness that could not hint at the
+      mention of money, now talks boldly of his debt. The solvent creditor, who
+      said always &ldquo;at your convenience,&rdquo; has suddenly a most pressing call &ldquo;to
+      make up a large sum by Saturday.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All the little cajoleries and coquetries, all the little seductions and
+      temptations of trade, are given up. The invitations to buy are converted
+      into suggestions for &ldquo;cash payment.&rdquo; It is very provoking and very
+      disenchanting! From a liberal and generous patron, you suddenly discover
+      yourself transformed into a dubious debtor. All the halo that has
+      surrounded your taste is changed for a chill atmosphere of suspicion and
+      distrust. The tradesfolk, whose respectful voices never rose above a
+      whisper in the hall, now grew clamorous in the antechamber; and more than
+      once did they actually obtrude themselves in person within those charmed
+      precincts inhabited by Lady Hester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What had become of Miss Dalton? where could she be all this while? Had not
+      Mr. Jekyl called? what was he about that he had not &ldquo;arranged&rdquo; with all
+      these &ldquo;tiresome creatures&rdquo;? Was there no one who knew what to do? Was not
+      Captain Onslow, even, to be found? It was quite impossible that these
+      people could be telling the truth; the greater number, if not all of them,
+      must have been paid already, for she had spent a world of money latterly
+      &ldquo;somehow.&rdquo; Ce'lestine was charged with a message to this effect, which had
+      a result the very opposite to what it was intended; and now the noisy
+      tongues and angry accents grew bolder and louder. Still none came to her
+      rescue; and she was left alone to listen to the rebellious threatenings
+      that murmured in the courtyard, or to read the ill-spelled impertinences
+      of such as preferred to epistolize their complaints.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The visitors who found their way to the drawing-room had to pass through
+      this motley and clamorous host; and, at each opening of the door, the
+      sounds swelled loudly out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      More than once she bethought her of Sir Stafford; but shame opposed the
+      resolution. His liberality, indeed, was boundless; and therein lay the
+      whole difficulty. Were the matter one for discussion or angry
+      remonstrance, she could have adventured it without a dread. She could
+      easily have brought herself to confront a struggle, but was quite unequal
+      to an act of submission. Among the numerous visitors who now thronged the
+      salons, Lord Norwood, who had just returned from his shooting excursion in
+      the Maremma, was the only one with whom she had anything like intimacy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am but a poor counsellor in such a case,&rdquo; said he, laughing. &ldquo;I was
+      never dunned in my life, personally, I mean, for I always take care not to
+      be found; and as to written applications, I know a creditor's seal and
+      superscription as well as though I had seen him affix them. The very
+      postmark is peculiar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This levity is very unfeeling at such a moment,&rdquo; said Lady Hester,
+      angrily; &ldquo;and when you see me so utterly deserted, too!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But where 's Jekyl? He ought to know how to manage this!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has never been here since morning. His conduct is inexcusable!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And George?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Out the whole day!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the 'Dalton'? for she has rather a good head, if I don't mistake
+      her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She took the carriage into town, and has not returned.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By Jove! I'd write a line to Sir Stafford; I 'd tell him that I was going
+      for change of ah&mdash;, and all that sort of thing, to Como for a week or
+      two, and that these people were so pestering and pressing, and all that;
+      that, in fact, you were worried to death about it; and finding that your
+      means were so very limited&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But he has been most liberal. His generosity has been without bounds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So much the better; he'll come down all the readier now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I feel shame at such a course,&rdquo; said she, in a weak, faint voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As I don't precisely know what that sensation is, I can't advise against
+      it; but it must needs be a very powerful emotion, if it prevent you
+      accepting money.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you think of nothing else, Norwood?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sure I can&mdash;there are twenty ways to do the thing. Close the
+      shutters, and send for Buccellini; be ill dangerously ill and leave this
+      to-morrow, at daybreak; or give a ball, like Dashwood, and start when the
+      company are at supper. You lose the spoons and forks, to be sure; but that
+      can't be helped. You might try and bully them, too though perhaps it 's
+      late for that; and lastly and, I believe, best of all raise a few
+      hundreds, and pay them each something.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how or where raise the money?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leave that to me, if it must be done. The great benefactor of mankind was
+      the fellow that invented bills. The glorious philanthropist that first
+      devised the bright expedient of living by paper, when bullion failed, was
+      a grand and original genius. How many a poor fellow might have been
+      rescued from the Serpentine by a few words scrawled over a five-shilling
+      stamp! What a turn to a man's whole earthly career has been often given,
+      as his pen glided over the imaginative phrase 'I promise to pay'!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Hester paid no attention to the Viscount's moralizings. Shame
+      indignant shame monopolized all her feelings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said she, at last, &ldquo;I believe it must be so. I cannot endure this
+      any longer. Jekyl has behaved shamefully; and George I 'll never forgive.
+      They ought to have taken care of all this. And now, Norwood, to procure
+      the money what is to be done?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here 's the patent treasury for pocket use the 'Young Man's Best
+      Companion,'&rdquo; said he, taking out of a black morocco case three or four
+      blank bill-stamps, together with a mass of acceptances of various kinds,
+      the proceeds of various play debts, the majority of which he well knew to
+      be valueless. &ldquo;What amount will be sufficient, how much shall we draw
+      for?&rdquo; said he, seating himself, pen in hand, at the table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot even guess,&rdquo; said she, trembling with embarrassment and
+      confusion. &ldquo;There are all these people's accounts and letters. I suppose
+      they are all horrid cheats. I 'm sure I never got half the things, and
+      that the rest are already paid for. But no matter now; let us have done
+      with them at any cost.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Morlandi, coachmaker' pretty well for Signer Morlandi!&rdquo; said Norwood
+      &ldquo;eleven hundred scudi for repairs to carriages for destroying your patent
+      axles, and replacing English varnish by the lacquer of a tea-tray
+      something less than two hundred and fifty pounds!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is an obliging creature,&rdquo; said Lady Hester, &ldquo;and always punctual.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In that case we 'll deal generously with him. He shall have half his
+      money, if he gives a receipt in full.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Legendre, coiffeur; eight thousand francs.' Pas mal, Monsieur Legendre!
+      kid gloves and perfumes, Madonna bands and Macassar oil, are costly things
+      to deal in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is really iniquitous,&rdquo; said Lady Hester. &ldquo;I see every bouquet is put
+      down at a hundred francs!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A conservatory, at that rate, is better property than a coal-mine. Shall
+      we say one thousand francs for this honest coiffeur?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Impossible! He would scorn such an offer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pardon me. I know these people somewhat better and longer than you do;
+      and so far even from suffering in his estimation if that were a matter of
+      any consequence you will rise in his good opinion. An Italian always
+      despises a dupe, but entertains a sincere respect for all who detect
+      knavery. I 'll set him down for one thousand, to be increased to fifteen
+      hundred if he'll tell me how to cut down his neighbor, Guercini.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What of Guercini? How much is his claim?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A trifle under five thousand crowns.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nearly one thousand pounds!&rdquo; exclaimed she. &ldquo;Say, rather, eleven hundred
+      and upwards,&rdquo; said Norwood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is incredible how little I've had from him: a few trifling rings and
+      brooches; some insignificant alterations and new settings; one or two
+      little presents to Kate; and, I really believe, nothing more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are getting deeper and deeper,&rdquo; said Norwood, turning over the bills.
+      &ldquo;Contardo, the wine-merchant, and Frisani, table-decker, are both large
+      claimants. If pine-apples were the daily food of the servants' hall, they
+      could scarcely cut a more formidable figure in the reckoning, indeed, if
+      the whole establishment did nothing but munch them during all their
+      leisure hours, the score need not be greater. Do you know, Hester, that
+      the rogueries of the Continent are a far heavier infliction than the
+      income-tax, and that the boasted economy of a foreign residence is
+      sensibly diminished by the unfortunate fact that one honest tradesman is
+      not to be found from Naples to the North Pole? They are Spartans in
+      deceit, and only disgraced whenever the rascality is detected. Now, it is
+      quite absurd to read such an item as this: 'Bonbons and dried fruits,
+      three hundred and seventy crowns!' Why, if your guests were stuffed with
+      marrons glaces, this would be an exaggeration.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are very tiresome, Norwood,&rdquo; said she, peevishly. &ldquo;I don't want to be
+      told that these people are all knaves; their character for honesty is no
+      affair of mine; if it were, Buccellini could easily mesmerize any one of
+      them and learn all his secrets. I only wish to get rid of them, it 's very
+      distressing to hear their dreadful voices, and see their more dreadful
+      selves in the court beneath.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The task is somewhat more difficult than I bargained for,&rdquo; said Norwood,
+      thoughtfully. &ldquo;I fancied a few 'hundreds' would suffice, but we must read
+      'thousands' instead. In any case, I 'll hold a conference with them, and
+      see what can be done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do so, then, and lose no time, for I see Midchekoff s chasseur below, and
+      I 'm sure the Prince is coming.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Norwood gave her a look which made her suddenly become scarlet, and then
+      left the room without speaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If he had not been himself a debtor with the greater number of those who
+      waited below, few could have acquitted themselves more adroitly in such a
+      mission. He was an adept in that clever game by which duns are foiled and
+      tradesmen mollified; he knew every little menace and every flattery to
+      apply to them, when to soothe and when to snub them. All these arts he was
+      both ready and willing to exercise, were it not for the unpleasant
+      difficulty that his own embarrassments rendered him a somewhat dubious
+      ambassador. In fact, as he himself phrased it, &ldquo;it was playing advocate
+      with one leg in the dock.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He lingered a little, therefore, as he went; he stopped on the landing of
+      the stairs to peep out on the tumultuous assemblage beneath, like a
+      general surveying the enemy's line before the engagement; nor was he
+      over-pleased to remark that little Purvis was bustling about among the
+      crowd, note-book and pencil in hand, palpably taking evidence and storing
+      up facts for future mention. As he was still looking, the great gate was
+      thrown open with a crash, and a caleche, dirty and travel-stained, was
+      whirled into the court by three steaming and panting posters. After a
+      brief delay, a short, thick-set figure, enveloped in travelling-gear,
+      descended, and putting, as it seemed, a few questions as to the meaning of
+      the assembled throng, entered the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Curious to learn who, what, and whence the new arrival came, Norwood
+      hurried downstairs; but all that he could learn from the postilion was
+      that the stranger had posted from Genoa, using the greatest speed all the
+      way, and never halting, save a few minutes for refreshment. The traveller
+      was not accompanied by a servant, and his luggage bore neither name nor
+      crest to give any clew as to his identity. That he was English, and that
+      he had gone direct to Sir Stafford's apartments, was the whole sum of the
+      Viscount's knowledge; but even this seemed so worthy of remark that he
+      hastened back with the tidings to Lady Hester, instead of proceeding on
+      his errand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She treated the announcement with less interest. It might be Proctor, Sir
+      Stafford's man. Was he tall and black-whiskered? No, he was short; and, so
+      far as Norwood saw, he thought him fair-haired. &ldquo;She knew of nobody to
+      bear that description. It might be an English physician from Genoa, there
+      was one there, or in Nice, she forgot exactly which, who was celebrated
+      for treating gout, or sore eyes, she could not remember precisely, but it
+      was certainly one or the other. On recollection, however, it was probably
+      gout, because he had attended Lord Hugmore, who was blind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In that case,&rdquo; said Norwood, &ldquo;Onslow would seem to be worse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, poor man, much worse. George sat up with him the night before last,
+      and said he suffered terribly. His mind used to wander at intervals, too,
+      and he spoke as if he was very unhappy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Unhappy, a man with upwards of thirty thousand a year unhappy!&rdquo; said
+      Norwood, clasping his hands over his head as he spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You forget, my Lord, that there are other considerations than moneyed
+      ones which weigh at least with some persons; and if Onslow's fortune be a
+      princely one, he may still feel compunctious regrets for his detestable
+      conduct to me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I forgot that!&rdquo; said Norwood, with a most laudable air of
+      seriousness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was very kind of you, my Lord, very considerate and very kind, indeed,
+      to forget it. Yet I should have fancied it was the very sentiment
+      uppermost in the mind of any one entering this chamber, witnessing the
+      solitary seclusion of my daily life, beholding the resources by which the
+      weary hours are beguiled, not to speak of the ravages which sorrow has
+      left upon these features.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On that score, at least, I can contradict you, Hester,&rdquo; said he, with a
+      smile of flattering meaning. &ldquo;It is now above eight years since first&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How can you be so tiresome?&rdquo; said she, pettishly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Prince Midchekoff, my Lady, presents his compliments,&rdquo; said a servant,
+      &ldquo;and wishes to know if your Ladyship will receive him at dinner to-day,
+      and at what hour?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How provoking! Yes, say, 'Yes, at eight o'clock,'&rdquo; said she, walking up
+      and down the room with impatience. &ldquo;You 'll stay and meet him, Norwood. I
+      know you 're not great friends; but no matter, George is so uncertain. He
+      left us t' other day to entertain the Prince alone, Kate and myself, only
+      fancy; and as he takes half-hour fits of silence, and Kate occasionally
+      won't speak for a whole evening together, my part was a pleasant one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How Florence wrongs you both!&rdquo; said Norwood. &ldquo;They say that no one is
+      more agreeable to your Ladyship than the Midchekoff,&rdquo; said he, slowly and
+      pointedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As Miss Dalton's admirer, I hope rumor adds that,&rdquo; said she, hastily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What? are you really serious? Has the Dalton pretensions?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps not; but the Prince has,&rdquo; interrupted Lady Hester. &ldquo;But you are
+      forgetting these people all the while. Do pray do something anything with
+      them; and don't forget us at eight o'clock.&rdquo; And with this Lady Hester
+      hurried from the room, as if admonished by her watch of the lateness of
+      the hour, but really anxious to escape further interrogatory from the
+      Viscount.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Norwood reached the court, he was surprised to find it empty; not one
+      of the eager creditors remained, but all was still and silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What has become of these good people?&rdquo; asked he of the porter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The stranger who arrived in the caleche awhile ago spoke a few words to
+      them, and they went.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was all that he knew, and being a porter, one of that privileged
+      caste whose prerogative it is never to reveal what takes place before
+      their eyes, his present communication was remarkable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would that the good genius had remembered me in his moment of generous
+      abandonment!&rdquo; muttered Norwood, as he took his road homeward to dress for
+      dinner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Little scrupulous about the means of getting out of a difficulty, provided
+      it were only successful, Norwood scarcely bestowed another thought upon
+      the whole matter, and lounged along the streets, as forgetful of the late
+      scene as though it had passed twenty years before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the Viscount strolled along towards his lodgings, Kate Dalton, with
+      trembling limbs and palpitating heart, threaded her way through the
+      thronged streets, now wet and slippery from a thin rain that was falling.
+      So long as her road lay through the less-frequented thoroughfares, her
+      appearance excited little or no attention in the passers-by; but when she
+      entered the Piazza Santa Trinita, all ablaze with gas-lamps and the
+      reflected lights from brilliant shops, many stopped, turned, and gazed at
+      the strange sight of a young and beautiful girl, attired in the very
+      height of fashion, being alone and afoot at such an hour. Unaccountable
+      even to mystery, as it seemed, there was something in her gait and
+      carriage that at once repelled the possibility of a disparaging
+      impression, and many touched or removed their hats respectfully as they
+      made way for her to pass. To avoid the carriages, which whirled past in
+      every direction and at tremendous speed, she passed close along by the
+      houses; and, in doing so, came within that brilliant glare of light that
+      poured from the glass doors of the great Cafe of the Piazza. It was
+      exactly the hour when the idle loungers of Florence society that listless
+      class who form the staple of our club life in England were swarming to
+      talk of the plans of the evening, what resources of pleasure were
+      available, and what receptions were open. The drizzling rain, and the
+      cold, raw feeling of the air prevented their being seated, as their custom
+      was, before the doors, where in every attitude of graceful languor they
+      habitually smoked their cigars and discussed the passersby, in all the
+      plenitude of recreative indolence. The group consisted of men of every age
+      and country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were princes and blacklegs and adventurers; some with real rank and
+      fortune, others as destitute of character as of means. Many owned names
+      great and renowned in history; others bore designations only chronicled in
+      the records of criminal jurisprudence. All were well dressed, and, so far
+      as cursory notice could detect, possessed the ease and bearing of men
+      familiar with the habits of good society. Although mixing in very distinct
+      circles, here, at least, they met every day on terms of familiar equality,
+      discussing the politics of the hour and the events of the world with
+      seeming frankness and candor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From a small chamber at the back of the cafe, a little tide of loungers
+      seemed to ebb and flow; while the sharp rattling sound of a dice-box
+      indicated the nature of the occupation that went forward there. The small
+      apartment was thronged with spectators of the game; and even around the
+      door several were standing, content to hear the tidings of a contest they
+      could not witness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To sit upon the Ponte Carraja, and chuck rouleaux of gold into the Arno,
+      would be to the full as amusing, and not a more costly pastime,&rdquo; said a
+      sharp, ringing voice, which, once heard, there was no difficulty in
+      recognizing as Haggerstone's.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But Onslow plays well,&rdquo; said another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When he's in luck, sir,&rdquo; said the Colonel. &ldquo;Let him always have the
+      winning horse to ride, and I don't say he 'll lose the saddle; but Maraffi
+      would win on a donkey.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is he a Russian?&rdquo; asked one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir, he 's worse; he 's a Greek. I know everything about him. His
+      mother was a Finlander, and the father a Cephalonian. I don't think Satan
+      himself would ask a better parentage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What luck! By Jove! I never saw such luck!&rdquo; said a voice from within the
+      door. &ldquo;Onslow has no chance with him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nor will you, sir, if you persist in expressing your opinion in English,&rdquo;
+       said Haggerstone. &ldquo;Maraffi speaks every language, plays every game, and
+      knows the use of every weapon, from a jereed to a Joe Manton.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 'll not test his abilities at any of them,&rdquo; said the other, laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>Per Baccho!</i> there goes something new,&rdquo; said a young Italian, from
+      the window that looked into the street. &ldquo;Who's she?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>Diantre!</i>&rdquo; said the old Duc de Parivaux. &ldquo;That is something very
+      exquisite, indeed. She was splashed by that carriage that passed, and I
+      just saw her foot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She's the prima donna from Milan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She 's the Cipriani. I know her figure perfectly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She 's very like the Princesse de Raoule.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Taller, and younger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And fifty times handsomer. What eyes! By Jove! I wish the drosky would
+      never move on! She is regularly imprisoned there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are very ungallant, gentlemen, I must say,&rdquo; said the young Count de
+      Guilmard, the French secretary of legation, who, having finished his
+      coffee and liquor, coolly arranged his curls beneath his hat before the
+      glass, &ldquo;very ungallant, indeed, not to offer an arm to an unprotected
+      princess. We Frenchmen understand our devoirs differently.&rdquo; And, so
+      saying, he passed out into the street, while the rest pressed up closer to
+      the window to observe his proceedings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cleverly done, Guilmard!&rdquo; cried one. &ldquo;See how he affects to have
+      protected her from the pole of that carriage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She 'll not notice him.&rdquo; &ldquo;She will.&rdquo; &ldquo;She has.&rdquo; &ldquo;She has n't.&rdquo; &ldquo;She is
+      moving his way!&rdquo; &ldquo;Not at all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She 's speaking!&rdquo; &ldquo;There, I told you he 'd succeed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But he hasn't, though.&rdquo; Amid all these phrases, which rattled on more
+      rapidly than we can write them, Onslow joined the party, one heavy venture
+      on a single card having involved him in a tremendous loss.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that a countrywoman of yours, Onslow?&rdquo; asked a young Russian noble.
+      &ldquo;If so, the entente cordiale with France seems scarcely so secure as
+      statesmen tell us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Onslow gave one glance through the window, and dashed into the street with
+      a bound like the spring of a wild animal. He threw himself between
+      Guilmard and Kate. The Frenchman lifted his cane, and the same instant he
+      fell backwards upon the pavement, rather hurled than struck down by the
+      strong arm of the young Guardsman. Before the lookers-on could hasten out,
+      George had hailed a carriage, and, assisting Kate in, took his seat beside
+      her, and drove off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So sudden was the whole incident, and so engrossing the terror of poor
+      Kate's mind, that she saw nothing of what passed, and was merely conscious
+      that by George's opportune coming she was rescued from the insolent
+      attentions of the stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did he speak to you? Did he dare to address you?&rdquo; asked Onslow, in a
+      voice which boiling passion rendered almost unintelligible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he did, I know not,&rdquo; said she, as she covered her face with shame, and
+      struggled against the emotion that almost choked her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He took your arm; he certainly laid hold of your hand!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was all so rapid that I can tell nothing,&rdquo; said she, sobbing; &ldquo;and
+      although my courage never failed me till you came, then I thought I should
+      have fainted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how came you alone, and on foot, and at such an hour, too? Where had
+      you been?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These questions he put with a sort of stern resolution that showed no
+      evasive answer would rescue her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you leave home without a carriage, or even a servant?&rdquo; asked he
+      again, as no answer was returned to his former question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did take a carriage in the morning; and and&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sent it away again,&rdquo; continued George, impetuously. &ldquo;And where did you
+      drive to, where pass the day?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Kate hung her head in silence, while her heart felt as if it would burst
+      from very agony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is no idle curiosity of mine, Miss Dalton,&rdquo; said he, speaking with a
+      slow and measured utterance. &ldquo;The society you have mixed with here is not
+      above any reproach nor beneath any suspicion. I insist upon knowing where
+      you have been, and with whom? So, then, you refuse to speak, you will not
+      tell. If it be Lady Hester's secret&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no! The secret is mine, and mine only. I swear to you, by all we both
+      believe in, that it has no concern with any one save myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0018" id="linkimage-0018">
+      <!-- IMG --></a> <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/00470.jpg" alt="00470" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And can you not confide it to me? Have I no right to ask for the
+      confidence, Kate?&rdquo; said he, with tenderness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Know you any one more deeply and sincerely your friend than I am, more
+      ready to aid, protect, or counsel you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this I cannot&mdash;must not tell you,&rdquo; said she, in accents broken
+      by sobbing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me know, at least, enough to refute the insolence of an imputation
+      upon your conduct. I cannot tamely sit by and hear the slanderous stories
+      that to-morrow or next day will gain currency through the town.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot, I cannot,&rdquo; was all that she could utter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If not me, then, choose some other defender. Unprotected and undefended
+      you must not be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I need none, sir; none will asperse me!&rdquo; said she, haughtily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What! you say this? while scarce five minutes since I saw you outraged,
+      insulted in the open street?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A burst of tears, long repressed, here broke from Kate; and for some
+      minutes her sobs alone were heard in the silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will ask but one question more, Miss Dalton,&rdquo; said George, slowly, as
+      the carriage passed under the arched gateway of the Palace, &ldquo;and then this
+      incident is sealed to me forever. Is this secret whatever it be in your
+      own sole keeping; or is your confidence shared in by another?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is,&rdquo; murmured Kate, below her breath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean that it is shared?&rdquo; asked he, eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Mr. Jekyl at least knows&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jekyl!&rdquo; cried George, passionately; &ldquo;and is Alfred Jekyl your adviser and
+      your confidant? Enough; you have told me quite enough,&rdquo; said he, dashing
+      open the door of the carriage as it drew up to the house. He gave his hand
+      to Kate to alight, and then, turning away, left her, without even a
+      &ldquo;good-bye,&rdquo; while Kate hurried to her room, her heart almost breaking with
+      agony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall be late, Nina,&rdquo; said she, affecting an air and voice of
+      unconcern, as she entered her room; &ldquo;you must dress me rapidly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mademoiselle must have been too pleasantly engaged to remember the hour,&rdquo;
+       said the other, with an easy pertness quite different from her ordinary
+      manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      More struck by the tone than by the words themselves, Kate turned a look
+      of surprise on the speaker.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is so easy to forget one's self at Morlache's, they say,&rdquo; added the
+      girl, with a saucy smile; and although stung by the impertinence, Kate
+      took no notice of the speech. &ldquo;Mademoiselle will of course never wear that
+      dress again,&rdquo; said Nina, as she contemptuously threw from her the
+      mud-stained and rain-spotted dress she had worn that morning. &ldquo;We have a
+      Basque proverb, Mademoiselle, about those who go out in a carriage and
+      come back on foot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nina, what do you mean by these strange words and this still more strange
+      manner?&rdquo; asked Kate, with a haughtiness she had never before assumed
+      towards the girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not pretend to say that Mademoiselle has not the right to choose her
+      confidantes, but the Principessa de San Martello and the Duchessa di
+      Rivoli did not think me beneath their notice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nina, you are more unintelligible than ever,&rdquo; cried Kate, who still,
+      through all the dark mystery of her words, saw the lowering storm of
+      coming peril.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I may speak too plainly, too bluntly, Mademoiselle, but I can scarcely be
+      reproached with equivocating; and I repeat that my former mistresses
+      honored me with their secret confidence; and they did wisely, too, for I
+      should have discovered everything of myself, and my discretion would not
+      have been fettered by a compact.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But if I have no secrets,&rdquo; said Kate, drawing herself up with a proud
+      disdain, &ldquo;and if I have no need either of the counsels or the discretion
+      of my waiting-woman?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In that case,&rdquo; said Nina, quietly, &ldquo;Mademoiselle has only perilled
+      herself for nothing. The young lady who leaves her carriage and her maid
+      to pass three hours at Morlache's, and returns thence, on foot, after
+      nightfall, may truly say she has no secrets, at least, so far as the city
+      of Florence is concerned.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is insolence that you never permitted yourself before,&rdquo; said Kate,
+      passionately.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And yet, if I were Mademoiselle's friend instead of her servant, I should
+      counsel her to bear it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I will not,&rdquo; cried Kate, indignantly. &ldquo;Lady Hester shall know of your
+      conduct this very instant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One moment, Mademoiselle, just one moment,&rdquo; said Nina, interposing
+      herself between Kate and the door. &ldquo;My tongue is oftentimes too ready, and
+      I say things for which I am deeply sorry afterwards. Forgive me, I beg and
+      beseech you, if I have offended; reject my counsels, disdain my
+      assistance, if you will, but do not endanger yourself in an instant of
+      anger. If you have but little control over your temper, I have even less
+      over mine; pass out of that door as my enemy, and I am yours to the last
+      hour of my life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a strange and almost incongruous mixture of feeling in the way
+      she uttered these words; at one moment abject in submission, and at the
+      next hurling a defiance as haughty as though she were an injured equal.
+      The conflict of the girl's passion, which first flushed, now left her pale
+      as death, and trembling in every limb. Her emotion bespoke the most
+      intense feeling, and Kate stood like one spellbound, before her. Her anger
+      had already passed away, and she looked with almost a sense of compassion
+      at the excited features and heaving bosom of the Spanish girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You wrong yourself and me too, Nina,&rdquo; said Kate Dalton, at last. &ldquo;I have
+      every trust in your fidelity, but I have no occasion to test it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be it so, Mademoiselle,&rdquo; replied the other, with a courtesy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then all is forgotten,&rdquo; said Kate, affecting a gayety she could not feel;
+      &ldquo;and now let me hasten downstairs, for I am already late.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Prince will have thought it an hour, Mademoiselle,&rdquo; said the girl;
+      the quiet demureness of her manner depriving the words of any semblance of
+      impertinence. If Kate looked gravely, perhaps some little secret source of
+      pleasure lay hid within her heart; and in the glance she gave at her
+      glass, there was an air of conscious triumph that did not escape the
+      lynx-eyed Nina.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My Lady is waiting dinner, Miss Dalton,&rdquo; said a servant, as he tapped at
+      the door; and Kate, with many a trouble warring in her breast, hastened
+      downstairs, in all the pride of a loveliness that never was more
+      conspicuous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0037" id="link2HCH0037">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXVII. PROPOSALS.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      KATE found Lady Hester, the Prince, and Mr. Jekyl awaiting her as she
+      entered the drawing-room, all looking even more bored and out of sorts
+      than people usually do who have been kept waiting for their dinner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Everybody has sworn to be as tiresome and disagreeable as possible
+      to-day,&rdquo; said Lady Hester. &ldquo;George said he'd dine here, and is not coming;
+      Lord Norwood promised, and now writes me word that an unavoidable delay
+      detains him; and here comes Miss Dalton, the mirror of punctuality when
+      all else are late, a full half-hour after the time. There, dear, no
+      excuses nor explanations about all you have been doing, the thousand calls
+      you 've made, and shops you 've ransacked. I 'm certain you 've had a
+      miserable day of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Kate blushed deeply, and dreaded to meet Jekyl' s eye; but when she did,
+      that little glassy orb was as blandly meaningless as any that ever rattled
+      in the head of a Dutch doll. Even as he gave his arm to lead her in to
+      dine, nothing in his manner or look betrayed anything like a secret
+      understanding between them. A bystander might have deemed him a new
+      acquaintance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Petits diners&rdquo; have, generally, the prerogative of agreeability; they are
+      the chosen reunions of a few intimates, who would not dilute their
+      pleasantry even by a single bore. They are also the bright occasions for
+      those little culinary triumphs which never can be attempted in a wider
+      sphere. Epigrams, whether of lamb or language, require a select and
+      special jury to try them; but just in the same proportion as the success
+      of such small parties is greater, so is their utter failure, when by any
+      mischance there happens a breakdown in the good spirits or good humor of
+      the company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have said enough to show that the ladies, at least, might be excused
+      for not displaying those thousand attractions of conversation which all
+      centre on the one great quality, ease of mind. The Prince was more than
+      usual out of sorts, a number of irritating circumstances having occurred
+      to him during the morning. A great sovereign, on whom he had lavished the
+      most profuse attentions, had written him a letter of thanks, through his
+      private secretary, enclosing a snuff-box, instead of sending him an
+      autograph, and the first class of the national order. His glover, in
+      Paris, had forgotten to make his right hand larger than the left, and a
+      huge packet that had just arrived was consequently useless. His chef had
+      eked out a salmi of ortolans by a thrush; and it was exactly that unlucky
+      morsel the Cardinal had helped himself to at breakfast, and immediately
+      sent his plate away in disappointment. Rubion, too, his ninth secretary,
+      had flatly refused to marry a little danseuse that had just come out in
+      the ballet, a piece of insolence and rebellion on his part not to be
+      tolerated; and when we add to these griefs an uncomfortable neckcloth, and
+      the tidings of an insurrection in a Russian province where he owned
+      immense property in mines, his state of irritability may be leniently
+      considered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jekyl, if truth were told, had as many troubles of his own to confront as
+      any of the rest. If the ocean he sailed in was not a great Atlantic, his
+      bark was still but a cockleshell; his course in life required consummate
+      skill and cleverness, and yet never could be safe even with that.
+      Notwithstanding all this, he alone was easy, natural, and agreeable, not
+      as many an inferior artist would have been agreeable, by any over-effort
+      to compensate for the lack of co-operation in others, and thus make their
+      silence and constraint but more palpable, his pleasantry was tinged with
+      the tone of the company, and all his little smartnesses were rather
+      insinuated than spoken. Quite satisfied if the Prince listened, or Lady
+      Hester smiled, more than rewarded when they once both laughed at one of
+      his sallies, he rattled on about the Court and the town talk, the little
+      scandals of daily history, and the petty defections of those dear friends
+      they nightly invited to their houses. While thus, as it were, devoting
+      himself to the amusement of the others, his real occupation was an intense
+      study of their thoughts, what was uppermost in their minds, and in what
+      train their speculations were following. He had long suspected the Prince
+      of being attracted by Kate Dalton; now he was certain of it. Accustomed
+      almost from childhood to be flattered on every hand, and to receive the
+      blandest smiles of beauty everywhere, Midchekoff's native distrust armed
+      him strongly against such seductions; and had Kate followed the path of
+      others, and exerted herself to please him, her failure would have been
+      certain. It was her actual indifference her perfect carelessness on the
+      subject was the charm to his eyes, and he felt it quite a new and
+      agreeable sensation not to be made love to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Too proud of her own Dalton blood to feel any elevation by the marked
+      notice of the great Russian, she merely accorded him so much of her favor
+      as his personal agreeability seemed to warrant; perhaps no designed
+      flattery could have been so successful. Another feeling, also, enhanced
+      his admiration of her. It was a part of that barbaric instinct which
+      seemed to sway all his actions, to desire the possession of whatever was
+      unique in life. Those forms or fancies of which nature stamps but one, and
+      breaks the die, these were a passion with him. To possess a bluer
+      turquoise than any king or kaiser, to own an arab of some color never seen
+      before, to have a picture by some artist who never painted but one; but
+      whether it were a gem, a vase, a weapon, a diamond, or a dog, its value
+      had but one test, that it had none its exact equal. Now, Kate Dalton
+      realized these conditions more than any one he had ever met. Her very
+      beauty was peculiar; combining, with much of feminine softness and
+      delicacy, a degree of determination and vigor of character that to
+      Midchekoff smacked of queenly domination. There was a species of fierte
+      about her that distinguished her among other women. All that he had seen
+      done by an illustrious title and a diamond tiara, she seemed capable of
+      effecting in the simplest costume and without an effort. All these were
+      wonderful attractions to his eyes; and if he did not fall in love, it was
+      simply because he did not know how. He, however, did what to him served as
+      substitute for the passion; he coveted an object which should form one of
+      the greatest rarities of his collection, and the possession of which would
+      give him another title to that envy, the most delicious tribute the world
+      could render him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were some drawbacks to his admiration; her birth was not
+      sufficiently illustrious. His own origin was too recent to make an
+      alliance of this kind desirable, and he wished that she had been a
+      princess; even de la main, gauche of some royal house. Jekyl had done his
+      best, by sundry allusions to Irish greatness, and the blood of various
+      monarchs of Munster and Conuaught, in times past; but the Prince was
+      incredulous as to Hibernian greatness; probably the remembrance of an
+      Irish diamond once offered him for sale had tinged his mind with this
+      sense of disparagement as to all Irish magnificence. Still Kate rose above
+      every detracting influence, and he thought of the pride in which he should
+      parade her through Europe as his own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had she been a barb or a bracelet, an antique cup or a Sevres jar, he
+      never would have hesitated about the acquisition. Marriage, however, was a
+      more solemn engagement; and he did not quite fancy any purchase that cost
+      more than mere money. Nothing but the possibility of losing her altogether
+      could have overcome this cautious scruple; and Jekyl had artfully
+      insinuated such a conjuncture. &ldquo;George Onslow's attentions were,&rdquo; he said,
+      &ldquo;quite palpable; and although up to this Miss Dalton did not seem to give
+      encouragement, who could tell what time and daily intercourse might
+      effect? There was Norwood, too, with the rank of peeress in his gift;
+      there was no saying how an ambitious girl might be tainted by that bait.&rdquo;
+       In fact, the Prince had no time to lose; and, although nothing less
+      accorded with his tastes than what imposed haste, he was obliged to bestir
+      himself on this occasion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If we have dwelt thus long upon the secret thoughts of the company, it is
+      because their conversation was too broken and unconnected for recording.
+      They talked little, and that little was discursive. An occasional allusion
+      to some social topic, a chance mention of their approaching departure from
+      Florence, some reference to Como and its scenery, formed the whole; and
+      then, in spite of Jekyl, whose functions of &ldquo;fly-wheel&rdquo; could not keep the
+      machine a-moving, long pauses would intervene, and each lapse into a
+      silence apparently more congenial than conversation. All this while Jekyl
+      seemed to be reading the complex scheme of doubt, irresolution, and
+      determination that filled Midchekoff's mind. The stealthy glances of the
+      Russian's eyes towards Kate, the almost painful anxiety of his manner, to
+      see if she noticed him while speaking, his watchful observance of her in
+      her every accent and gesture, told Jekyl the struggle that was then
+      passing within him. He had seen each of these symptoms before, though in a
+      less degree, when the coveted object was a horse or a picture; and he well
+      knew how nothing but the dread of a competition for the prize would rouse
+      him from this state of doubt and uncertainty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The evening dragged slowly over, and it was now late, when Lord Norwood
+      made his appearance. With a brief apology for not coming to dinner, he
+      drew Jekyl to one side, and, slipping an arm within his, led him into an
+      adjoining room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I say, Jekyl,&rdquo; whispered he, as they retired out of earshot of the
+      others, &ldquo;here's a pretty mess Onslow's got in. There has been a fracas in
+      the street about Miss Dalton. How she came there at such a time, and
+      alone, is another matter; and George has struck Guilmard, knocked him
+      down, by Jove! and no mistake; and they're to meet tomorrow morning. Of
+      course, there was nothing else for it; a blow has but one reparation,
+      George will have to stand the fire of the first shot in Europe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jekyl hated a duel. Had he been a member of the Peace Congress, he could
+      not have detested the arbitrament of arms more heartily. 'It involved
+      partisanship, it severed intimacies, it barred general intercourse, and
+      often closed up for a whole season the pleasantest houses of a town. The
+      announcement of a strict blockade never struck a mercantile community with
+      more terror. To Norwood the prospect was directly the opposite. Not only
+      an adept in all the etiquette and ceremonial of such meetings, he liked to
+      see his name circulated in these affairs as a kind of guarantee of his
+      readiness to seek a similar reparation for injury. He had trusted for many
+      a year on his dexterity at twelve paces, and he never missed an
+      opportunity of sustaining the prestige of a &ldquo;dead shot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was, then, with an ardor of amateurship that he narrated the various
+      little preliminary steps which had already been taken. Merkheim, the
+      Austrian secretary, had called on him, on the part of Guilmard; and as, in
+      a case so clear, there was little to arrange, the only difficulty lay in
+      the choice of weapons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Frenchman claims the sword,&rdquo; said Norwood; &ldquo;and it is always awkward
+      to decline that proposition for a soldier. But I suppose George has about
+      as much chance with one weapon as the other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You think he 'll kill him, my Lord?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think so. If the offence had been less flagrant or less public,
+      possibly not. But a blow! to be struck down in the open street! I don't
+      see how he can do less.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a break-up it will cause here!&rdquo; said Jekyl, with a nod of his head
+      in the direction of the drawing-room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will send them all back to England, I suppose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose it will,&rdquo; added Jekyl, mournfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a bore! It's particularly unpleasant for me, for I hold some
+      half-dozen of George's acceptances, not due yet; and, of course, the
+      governor will never think of acquitting them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I conclude it is inevitable the meeting, I mean?&rdquo; said Jekyl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sure it is. Onslow took care of that! By the way, Jekyl, how came
+      she there at such an hour, and alone, too?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She had been shopping, I fancy, and missed the carriage. There was some
+      blunder, I have heard, about the coachman drawing up at the wrong door.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No go, Master Jekyl. Don't try it on with me, old fellow. You know all
+      about it, if you like to tell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I assure you, my Lord, you give me a credit I don't deserve.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know the whole story from beginning to end, Jekyl. I 'd back you
+      against the field, my boy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The other shook his head with an air of supreme innocence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then George knows it?&rdquo; added Norwood, half asserting, half asking the
+      question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He may, my Lord, for aught I can tell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If so, he's treating me unfairly,&rdquo; said Norwood, rising and pacing the
+      room. &ldquo;As his friend in this affair, there should be no reserve or
+      concealment with me. You can surely say that much, Jekyl, eh? What a close
+      fellow you are!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is so easy not to blab when one has nothing to tell,&rdquo; said Jekyl,
+      smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, there is something you can tell me. Where does that small corridor
+      behind George's apartment lead to? There is a door at the end of it, and,
+      I fancy, a stair beyond it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That, if I mistake not, leads up to Lady Hester. No, I remember now; it
+      leads to Miss Dalton's room.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just so; I could have sworn it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why so, my Lord?&rdquo; asked Jekyl, whose curiosity was now excited to the
+      utmost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That 's my secret, Master Jekyl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the door is always locked and bolted from within,&rdquo; said Jekyl, &ldquo;and
+      there is no keyhole on the outside.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll not stand pumping, Jekyl. If you had been frank with me, perhaps I
+      should have been as open with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For an instant Jekyl hesitated what course to follow. It might be that
+      Norwood really knew something of great importance. It might be that his
+      discovery was valueless. And yet, if it concerned Kate in any way, the
+      information would be all-important, his great game being to make her a
+      princess, and yet preserve such an ascendancy over her as would render her
+      his own slave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She's a strange girl, that Dalton,&rdquo; said Norwood. &ldquo;I wish she had about
+      forty thousand pounds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She may have more than that yet, my Lord,&rdquo; said Jekyl, dryly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you mean, Jekyl? Is there any truth in that story about the Irish
+      property? Has she really a claim on the estate? Tell me all you know, old
+      fellow, and I 'll be on the square with you throughout.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jekyl, who in his remark had darkly alluded to the prospect of Kate's
+      marriage with Midchekoff, now saw that Norwood had totally misconceived
+      his meaning, and like a shrewd tactician, determined to profit by the
+      blunder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, Jekyl, be frank and aboveboard. What are her prospects?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Better than I have told you, my Lord,&rdquo; replied he, coolly. &ldquo;If I cannot&mdash;for
+      I am not at liberty to explain why&mdash;I am quite ready to pledge my
+      word of honor to the truth of what I say, or, what your Lordship will
+      think more of, to back my opinion by a bet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By Jove! that is news!&rdquo; said the Viscount, leaning his head on the
+      chimney to reflect. &ldquo;You are such a slippery dog, Master Jekyl, you have
+      so many turnings and windings in you, one is never quite sure with you;
+      but supposing now, for argument's sake, that one thought of making this
+      fair damsel a peeress, is there no hitch in the affair no screw loose that
+      one ought to look to?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In her birth, my Lord?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; d&mdash;n her birth! I mean about the tin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe, my Lord, that I can save you all speculation on the subject
+      when I say that pursuit would be hopeless there. The Midchekoff has gained
+      the start, and must win in a canter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That Tartar fellow! nonsense, man; I know better than that. He 'll never
+      marry anything under royalty; the fellow's mother was a serf, and he must
+      wash that spot out of his blood whenever he can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are mistaken, my Lord. He only waits to be certain of being accepted,
+      to offer himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Refuse him!&rdquo; said Norwood, laughing, &ldquo;there's not that girl in Europe
+      would refuse him. If every decoration he wore on his breast were a stripe
+      of the knout upon his back, his wealth would cover all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Prince would give half his fortune to be assured of all you say, my
+      Lord,&rdquo; said Jekyl, gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By Jove! one might make a good thing of it, even that way,&rdquo; said Norwood,
+      half aloud. &ldquo;I say, Jekyl,&rdquo; added he, louder, &ldquo;how much are you to have?
+      nay, nay, man, there 's no impertinence in the question, we are both too
+      much men of the world for that. It 's quite clear that this is your
+      scheme. Now, what 's the damage?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My Lord, you are as flattering to my abilities as unjust to my
+      character.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We 'll suppose all that said,&rdquo; broke in Norwood, impatiently; &ldquo;and now we
+      come back to the original question, whether I cannot afford to be as
+      liberal as the Russian. Only be explicit, and let us understand each
+      other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My Lord, I will not insult myself by believing I comprehend you;&rdquo; said
+      Jekyl, calmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And before Norwood could detain him he left the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jekyl, come back, man! just hear me out you've mistaken me! Confound the
+      cur,&rdquo; muttered the Viscount, &ldquo;with his hypocritical affectation as if I
+      did not know his metier as well as I know my bootmaker's.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Norwood walked noiselessly to the door of the salon and peeped in. Lady
+      Hester, the Prince, and Jekyl were in earnest conversation in one quarter;
+      while Kate sat apart, apparently engaged with her embroidery-frame, but in
+      reality too deeply sunk in thought to notice the bright tints before her.
+      Norwood entered listlessly, and strolling across the room, took a place
+      beside her. She moved slightly as he drew forward his chair, and, then, as
+      she drew back her flounce, Norwood saw that it was of deep black lace. He
+      coolly took out his pocket-book wherein he had deposited the torn
+      fragment, and, regarding it with attention, saw that it perfectly
+      corresponded with the dress. So leisurely and with such circumspection did
+      he proceed that several minutes elapsed before he looked up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are meditative, my Lord, to-night,&rdquo; said Kate, at last, making an
+      effort to relieve an awkward situation; &ldquo;what are you thinking of, pray?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Admiring your dress, Miss Dalton, which strikes me as singularly
+      beautiful and becoming.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Great praise this, from such an acknowledged judge as Lord Norwood,&rdquo; said
+      she, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I prefer it to antique lace, which in general is too heavy and cumbrous
+      for my taste; I like these fine and delicate tissues, so frail and
+      gossamer-like, not but their frailty, like all other frailty, incurs
+      occasionally a heavy penalty; as here, for instance, you see this has been
+      torn.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it has,&rdquo; said Kate, with confusion, &ldquo;and I never noticed it. What a
+      quick eye you must have, my Lord!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And a sharp ear, too, Miss Dalton,&rdquo; said he, significantly; &ldquo;in fact, I
+      am one of those people whose every-day faculties do duty for what in
+      others goes by the name of cleverness. It 's a great pity,&rdquo; said he,
+      looking down at the dress; &ldquo;you see, Miss Dalton, what a false step can
+      do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And yet I cannot remember when this occurred,&rdquo; said she, assuming to
+      misunderstand his equivocal expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not recall it, not a clew to the mishap?&rdquo; asked he, shrewdly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;None,&rdquo; said she, blushing at the pertinacity with which he clung to the
+      theme; &ldquo;but it's of no consequence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would Miss Dalton think it very singular if I should be able to assist
+      her memory? Would she accept the service as kindly as it was proffered,
+      too?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Really, my Lord, you begin to speak in riddles,&rdquo; said she, more than ever
+      piqued at his persistence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And yet,&rdquo; said he, following out the thread of his own thoughts, &ldquo;I am
+      assuredly as safe a counsellor as Albert Jekyl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Kate grew deadly pale, but never replied to this speech.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And certainly,&rdquo; resumed he, &ldquo;the man who speaks in his own name should
+      ever take precedence of an envoy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My Lord,&rdquo; said she, firmly, &ldquo;the very little which I can understand of
+      your words implies a pretension to knowledge and influence over me which I
+      disdain to accept; but still I cannot believe that you seriously mean to
+      insult me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course not,&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;I have come on a very different errand. If I
+      did passingly allude to bygones, it was to show you that you can afford to
+      be candid when I am frank. We two, united, would walk over the course, and
+      no mistake, that 's what I was coming to. I don't mean to say that the
+      Russian is not richer egad! there 's no disputing that, still, as to rank,
+      a peer of Great Britain, I take it, is the equal of any man. Not to remind
+      you of the old adage about 'a bird in the hand' I speak frankly, because
+      you are your own mistress.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Kate, if Lord Norwood will excuse you, come to me for one instant,&rdquo; cried
+      Lady Hester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just say yes, before you go, or, if not yes, tell me that I have ground
+      for hope,&rdquo; whispered Norwood. But she arose without speaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0019" id="linkimage-0019">
+      <!-- IMG --></a> <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/00484.jpg" alt="00484" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll not stand a 'hedge,' by Jove!&rdquo; said Norwood, sulkily; &ldquo;play or pay,
+      nothing else for me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Allow me to pass you, my Lord,&rdquo; said Kate, courteously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One word, off or on, Miss Dalton,&rdquo; said he, rising, and affecting to make
+      way, while he still barred the passage. A proud, disdainful smile was all
+      the reply she vouchsafed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right,&rdquo; said he, insolently; &ldquo;only remember how we stand, Miss
+      Dalton, and whenever you want to repair the mischance of your lace
+      flounce, don't forget the piece is in my keeping;&rdquo; and he opened the
+      pocket-book as he spoke, and exhibited the fragment before her. Sick with
+      a terror she could neither explain nor realize, she lay back again in her
+      chair, unable to move, while Norwood glided quietly away and left the
+      room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dear Kate, have you forgotten me all this time?&rdquo; said Lady Hester, whom
+      Kate now perceived was alone on the sofa, Midchekoff and Jekyl having
+      retired into an adjoining gallery, where they walked slowly along, side by
+      side, deep in conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You shouldn't have suffered Norwood to engross your attention in that
+      manner, my dear. The Prince has been quite put out by it, and at such a
+      moment, too, and how flushed you are! What has he been saying?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can scarcely remember,&rdquo; said Kate, confusedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, it's of no consequence, dear, because I have got something to tell
+      you that would speedily make you forget it. You know, Kate, how I always
+      prophesied wonderful things for you, just as I did before for poor
+      Georgina Elderton, and she married a Rajah afterwards, and died Begum of
+      something ending in 'Bad.' Indeed, I might say it ended in bad for
+      herself, poor dear, for I believe she was poisoned. But, to come back, I
+      always said that you also would have astonishing luck. I told Sir Stafford
+      so. The first day I saw you, 'She 'll be like Georgina,' I said. 'You 'll
+      see that girl in a wonderful position one of these days.' It is not that
+      men care for their wives more than formerly, I rather fancy the reverse,
+      but they have got a most intense passion just now for beauty. Wealth and
+      good blood were once the only requisites, but they are both disregarded
+      now, in comparison with good looks. I suppose the fashion won't last, it
+      would be very absurd if it should, but while it is the mode one ought to
+      profit by it. Just as I am wearing all those horrid old brocades of my
+      great-grand-aunt's, with odious flowers of crimson and yellow, now that
+      the taste in dress is 'rococo,' but of course in a year or two people will
+      recover their senses again, and pretty girls without portions be left for
+      sub-alterns in the line, as Providence intended they should. Don't you
+      think so, dear?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The brief question at the end of this long rambling speech would possibly
+      have puzzled Kate to reply to, had not Lady Hester been far too much
+      occupied in her own speculations to care for a rejoinder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll hear people talk a deal of nonsense about unequal marriages, and
+      they'll quote Heaven knows what instances of girls, generally Irish ones,
+      picking up princes and royal dukes, and all ending unhappily. Don't
+      believe a word of it, dearest; there 's never misery where there 's large
+      fortune. The people who cry in velvet always shed rose-water tears, that
+      don't hurt the skin or spoil the complexion. Not that I can say so of
+      myself,&rdquo; added she, with a deep sigh; &ldquo;but I am a creature apart. I
+      fervently trust nature does not often form similar ones. Buccellini told
+      me that I had a fifth pair of nerves, I assure you he did. It was a very
+      shocking thing, and probably he ought never to have mentioned it to me;
+      but it perfectly explains the excessive sensibility of my whole nature,
+      does n't it, dear?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Kate smiled assent, and Lady Hester went on:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, as to religion, my dear, I'm afraid, indeed, we all think too
+      little about it. I 'm sure I 'm quite shocked at what I see in society. It
+      was only the other night Lady Grace Morton kept her seat when the Cardinal
+      was speaking to her. I apologized to him for it afterwards, and he said,
+      with such a sweet smile, 'If these Protestants would only give us back our
+      churches, we 'd forgive their keeping their chairs.' The mot was very
+      pretty, in French, and well turned was n't it? Of course, then, you 'll
+      make no obstacle about the Greek Church, which I believe is exactly like
+      your own, only that the priest has a beard, which I think more becoming.
+      It looks affectionate, too; it always gives one the idea of devotion, a
+      girl changing her faith for her husband; and really, in this tiresome age
+      we live in, a new religion is the only new thing one ever hears of. Your
+      excellent family that sweet sister and the dear old papa will probably
+      make a fuss about it; but you know, after all, how absurd that is, and if
+      you were to marry a Chinese, there 's no saying what strange creatures you
+      'd have to pray to. You 'll have to go to Russia, but only for
+      presentation; that over, the Prince will obtain a renewal of his
+      permission to reside abroad; still, if you have to pass a winter at St.
+      Petersburg, it will be far from disagreeable. The women are too fond of
+      caviare and high play; but they dress just as well as in Paris, and wear
+      better diamonds. Midchekoff's jewels are unequalled; and, now that I think
+      of it, there 's one thing I 've set my heart on, and you must positively
+      promise to give me, a little stiletto with an emerald hilt and handle. I
+      have pined for it there 's no other word these three years. He wore it in
+      London, and I have never had it out of my thoughts since. You can afford
+      to be very generous, dearest. How I envy you that pleasure! and the
+      delight you 'll feel in providing for poor papa and Mary no, Elizabeth, I
+      mean how absurd! I should say Ellen. It was something about that tale of
+      Elizabeth, the Exile of Siberia, was running in my mind. The Prince will
+      do whatever you suggest, and, indeed, he has already hinted about your
+      brother Frank joining the Russian service. He 'll have him named an
+      officer in the Emperor's Guard. You must insist, too, upon La Rocca being
+      your own settled upon yourself. They tell me it 's the sweetest spot in
+      the world; and I 'll always live there when you don't want it. I mention
+      this about the settlement, because there 's no saying how men will behave.
+      I 'm sure I never could have anticipated such a return as I have met with
+      from Sir Stafford. And then, you know, with a Russian, one cannot be too
+      guarded. Don't you agree with me? Well, never mind, you 'll perhaps come
+      round to my opinion later. But here comes the Prince, and it will be as
+      well you should retire, dearest. I'll see you in your dressing-room, and
+      tell you everything.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And with this assurance Kate retired, with a head and heart as full as
+      ever young lady's felt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Kate was hastening to her room, when a short, quick step behind her made
+      her turn round, and she saw Purvis endeavoring to overtake her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! I have you at last,&rdquo; said he, puffing for breath; &ldquo;and what a
+      ch-chase I 've had for it! I 've been in five rooms already, and nearly
+      had a f-f-fight with that Frenchwoman of Lady Hester's. She 's a regular
+      T-T-Tartar, she is, and almost boxed my ears for looking into a small case
+      where my Lady's r-ringlets are kept ha! ha! ha! I saw them, though, two
+      long and two short, and a pl-pl-plait for the back of the head. How she
+      m-m-makes up at night!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must say that you have the strangest mode of requiting hospitality,&rdquo;
+       said Kate, haughtily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It 's all very well to talk of hospi-hospi-hospi&mdash;&rdquo; Here a fit of
+      gaping brought on coughing, which, after a violent struggle, ended in the
+      forced utterance of the last syllable of the word, but with such fatigue
+      and exhaustion that he seemed scarcely able to continue; at last, however,
+      he did resume. &ldquo;It's all very well to talk of that, but we got in here by
+      our own cl-cl-cleverness; at least by Zoe's.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Less good-natured persons would find another word for it, Mr. Purvis.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So they would. Haggerstone called it a Ricketty stratagem. No matter; we
+      're in ha! ha! ha! and he 's out. The pr-pr-proof of the pu-pu-pudding&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you excuse me, sir, if I say I must leave you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't go, don't go; I've something very important to to tell you. And
+      first, Zoe my sister Zoe wants to see you. The cook has been most
+      im-im-impertinent to her. She says it was ginger she put in the
+      maca-maca-roni, instead of P-P&mdash;Parmesan; all his truffles are only
+      Piedmontese. That is n't all: don't be in such a h-hurry. They 've changed
+      the wine, too. We had Ch-Ch-Chambertin yesterday, and they 've given us
+      P-Pomard to-day. How is that to be borne?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I really see but one remedy for it, sir,&rdquo; said Kate, scornfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So Zoe said; that 's exactly her opinion. They must be sent away. Zoe
+      knows a very ti-ti-tidy cook. He 's not a a top-sawyer, you know, but he
+      can r-roast a bit of beef, and make a c-capital rice-pudding, and he 'll
+      come for six dollars a month. Wouldn't that be a sa-saving? Zoe told him
+      to c-call to-day, and speak to La-Lady Hester.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He will find that difficult, sir,&rdquo; said Kate, dryly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And as for the b-butler, such a j-j-jackanapes I never saw; and Zoe would
+      advise you to take little Pierrette, the fellow you see every day at the
+      Pergola; he sells the tickets outside the door. He looks r-r-ragged enough
+      now, but when he 's dressed&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must see, sir,&rdquo; interposed Kate, &ldquo;that these are all details in which
+      it would be both indelicate and impertinent for me to intrude an opinion
+      about.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not when you li-live in the house; not when you're dome-dome-domesticated
+      with the family. We 're all in the same bo-boat now; and Zoe says somebody
+      must steer it. Now Lizetta, Zoe's maid, would keep the k-keys herself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pray remember, sir, this is Lady Hester Onslow's house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Egad! it w-won't be long so, if she goes on as she's d-doing. Martha saw
+      the meat-cart come in this morning, and I had a p-p-peep into the
+      servants' hall when the fl-flunkeys were feeding, and such w-w-waste, such
+      re-reckless&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good-evening, Mr. Purvis; I cannot stay longer,&rdquo; said Kate. And, before
+      he could interpose a word, she hastened from the spot, and, passing
+      rapidly up the stairs, gained her own room, leaving Purvis to bethink him
+      over the mass of things he had not touched upon, and on which he had
+      mainly intended to debate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0038" id="link2HCH0038">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXVIII. AN ARRIVAL.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      LET us go back a few hours in our history, and follow the short and burly
+      figure which, emerging from the travelling-carriage in the courtyard of
+      the palace, pushed his way through the noisy throng of duns, and entered
+      the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How are you, Proctor how is your master?&rdquo; said he, as he threw off his
+      great-coat, and unrolled a capacious muffler from his throat. &ldquo;How is Sir
+      Stafford?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Dr. Grounsell, glad you've come, sir. It will be a real pleasure to
+      my master to see you again, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is he, man, how 's the gout?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poorly, very poorly, sir. Things have gone badly here, doctor, since you
+      left us,&rdquo; said he, with a sigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes; I know it all; I have heard all about that. But his health tell
+      me of his health.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Greatly broken, sir. No sleep o' nights without opium, and no real rest
+      even with that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And his spirits?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Broken too, sir. He's not what you remember him, sir, nor anything like
+      it. No pleasant joke, sir, when anything goes amiss, as it used to be; no
+      turning it off with a merry laugh! He 's fretful and impatient about the
+      merest trifles, and he that never wanted attendance is now always
+      complaining that he 's neglected, and deserted and forsaken by all the
+      world.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does the Captain come often to see and sit with him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Every day, sir; but these visits do rather harm than good. Sir Stafford
+      is vexed at what goes on in the house; and Master George, I don't know how
+      it is, but he don't calm him down, and they have oftentimes angry words
+      together; not but my master is frequently in the wrong, and taxes the
+      young gentleman with what he can't help; for you see, sir, my Lady&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;D&mdash;n! I mean, tell me about Sir Stafford; it is of him I want to
+      hear. Does he read?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He makes me read to him every day, sir, all about the money-market and
+      railroad shares; sometimes twice over, indeed; and when I ask if he would
+      n't like to hear about what goes on in politics, he always says, 'No,
+      Proctor, let's have the City article again.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And his letters does n't he read them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Captain reads them for him, sir; and now and then writes the answers,
+      for he can't hold a pen himself! Oh, you 'll not know him when you see
+      him! He that was so large and fine a man, I lift him in and out of bed as
+      if he were a baby.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has he no acquaintance here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;None, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are there no inquiries after his health?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir; there's plenty of people he used to give money to when he was
+      up and about poor actors, and painters, and the like they come every day
+      to know how he is. Some of them leave begging letters, which I never give
+      him; but most go away without a word.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And his countrymen here are there none who ask after him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir. The only English we ever see visit my Lady, and never come to
+      this side of the house at all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does Miss Dalton come to inquire for him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Every morning and every night too, sir. I suppose it must be without my
+      Lady's orders, or even knowledge; for once, when Sir Stafford was sitting
+      up in his dressing-room, and I asked her if she would n't like to come in
+      and sit a few minutes with him, she turned away without speaking; and I
+      saw, from her manner, that she was crying.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are all these people outside, who are they?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My Lady's tradespeople, sir. They've heard she's going for a few weeks to
+      Como, and they 've come with all their bills, as if she was a runaway.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go and tell them to leave this, send them away, Proctor. It would do your
+      master great injury were he to overhear them. Say that everything shall be
+      paid in a day or two; that Sir Stafford remains here, and is responsible
+      for all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Proctor hastened out on his errand, and the doctor sat down and covered
+      his face with his hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor Stafford! is all your trustful affection come to this? Is it thus
+      that your unbounded generosity, your noble hospitality, are requited?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When Proctor returned, he proceeded to detail, for the doctor's
+      information, the various events which had occurred during his absence.
+      With most, Grounsell was already acquainted, and listened to the
+      particulars without surprise or emotion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it is, so it is,&rdquo; muttered he to himself; &ldquo;there may be more cant of
+      virtue, a greater share of hypocrisy in our English morals, but,
+      assuredly, these things do not happen with us as we see them here. There
+      would seem a something enervating in the very air of the land, that a man
+      like him should have sunk down into this besotted apathy! When can I see
+      him, Proctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He 's dozing just now, sir; but about midnight he wakes up and asks for
+      his draught. If that won't be too late for you&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Too late for me! Why, what else have I travelled for, night and day,
+      without intermission? Be cautious, however, about how you announce me.
+      Perhaps it would be better I should see the Captain first.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You 'll scarcely find him at home, sir, at this hour; he generally comes
+      in between three and four.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Show me to his room. I 'll write a few lines for him in case we don't
+      meet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Proctor accompanied the doctor across the courtyard, and, guiding him up a
+      small stair, reached the terrace off which George Onslow's apartment
+      opened. The window-shutters of the room were not closed, nor the curtains
+      drawn; and in the bright light of several candles that shone within,
+      Grounsell saw two figures seated at a table, and busily engaged in
+      examining the details of a case of pistols which lay before them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will do, Proctor,&rdquo; said Grounsell; &ldquo;you may leave me now. I'll be
+      with you at twelve.&rdquo; And thus saying, he gently pushed him towards the
+      door of the terrace, which he closed and bolted after him, and then
+      noiselessly returned to his former place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were few things less congenial to Grounsell's nature than playing
+      the spy. It was a part he thoroughly detested, nor did he think that it
+      admitted of defence or palliation; still, the whole habit of his mind
+      through life had impressed him with a disparaging opinion of himself. The
+      limited sphere of his duties, the humble routine of his daily walk, and
+      the very few friendships he had inspired, all tended to increase this
+      impression, till at last he looked upon himself as one who could only be
+      useful by the sacrifice of personal feeling and the abnegation of all
+      self-esteem; and thus he would have declined to know another man for what
+      he deemed of no consequence in himself. His fault was not thinking too
+      well of others, but thinking too meanly of himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The scene before him now was enough to suggest deep anxiety. Notes and
+      letters littered the floor and the table; the embers of a large fire of
+      papers lay on the hearth; open drawers and boxes stood on every side; all
+      betokening preparation, the object of which the pistol-case sufficiently
+      indicated. As they sat with their backs to the window, Grounsell could not
+      recognize the figures; but the voice of one proclaimed him to be George
+      Onslow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where is this place on the way to Arezzo?&rdquo; asked he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; on the opposite side of the city, off the high-road to Bologna. It is
+      a little park, surrounding a summer palace of the Grand Duke, they call
+      Pratolino,&rdquo; said the other. &ldquo;They all agree that it is the best spot to be
+      found; no molestation, nor interference of any kind; and a capital
+      breakfast of fresh trout to be had at the inn.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An interesting consideration for such as have good appetites,&rdquo; said
+      Onslow, laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never saw a Frenchman who had not, on such an occasion,&rdquo; rejoined the
+      other, snapping the pistol as he spoke. &ldquo;I like these straight stocks; you
+      are almost always certain of your man, with a stiff arm and a low aim.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know that I 've forgotten anything, Norwood,&rdquo; said Onslow, rising
+      and pacing the room with folded arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You 've written to the governor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; and mentioned those acceptances,&rdquo; said Onslow, with a sneering
+      severity that the other never seemed to notice. &ldquo;You're quite safe,
+      whatever happens.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hang it, man, I wasn't thinking of that; curse the money, it never
+      entered my thoughts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My father will pay it,&rdquo; said George, dryly, and continued his walk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As you have alluded to it, I hope you spoke of it as a loan, anything
+      like a play transaction suggests a mess of scandal and stories.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have called it a debt, and that is quite sufficient.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right whatever you like. And now about this girl. Do you intend to
+      let this mystery continue, or do you think that, under the circumstances,
+      Lady Hester should still retain her as a friend and companion?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know of nothing to her disparagement, nor have I yet met one who does.
+      That there are circumstances which she does not deem fitting to entrust to
+      my keeping is no just cause of allegation against her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are very honorable to say so, George; but I must confess it is more
+      than she deserves at your hands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That she means to take the Russian, that's all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, and why not? Would not such a match be a brilliant one for a girl
+      of much higher rank and pretension?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's the use of all this fencing, man?&rdquo; said Norwood, half angrily, &ldquo;I
+      know better how matters stand. Do you remember the night you lost so
+      heavily at Macao? Well, I was lying stretched on the sofa, yonder, by the
+      light of the fire only, when the door opened, and she stepped gently in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, Kate Dalton?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Kate Dalton. Oh! impossible, if you like deny it as much as you
+      please, but she has not equal hardihood, that I can tell you; and if she
+      had, here is the proof that could condemn her, this fragment of her lace
+      flounce was caught in the door as she banged it in her escape; and this
+      very evening I compared it with the dress in question; ay, and showed her
+      the rent from which it came.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Twice did George compel Norwood to repeat over this story; and then sat
+      down, overwhelmed with sorrow and shame.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You swear to me, then, Onslow, that you never saw her here, never knew of
+      her coming?&rdquo; said he, after a long silence between them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never, I swear!&rdquo; said the other, solemnly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, some other is the fortunate man, that's all. How good if it should
+      turn out to be Jekyl!&rdquo; And he laughed heartily at the absurdity of the
+      conceit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No more of this,&rdquo; said Onslow, passionately. &ldquo;The tone of the society we
+      live in here would seem to warrant any or every imputation, even on those
+      whose lives are spotless; and I know of no greater degradation than the
+      facility of our belief in them. In this instance, however, my conscience
+      is at ease; and I reject, with contempt, the possibility of a stain upon
+      that girl's honor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The sentiment does more credit to your chivalry than your shrewdness,
+      George,&rdquo; said the Viscount, sarcastically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But as you are about to stake your life on the issue, I cannot impugn
+      your sincerity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A hasty movement of George towards the window here alarmed Grounsell, and
+      he noiselessly withdrew, and descended the stairs again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A precious mess of trouble do I find ready for me,&rdquo; muttered he, as he
+      passed across the courtyard. &ldquo;Debt, duelling, and sickness, such are the
+      pleasures that welcome me; and these not the worst, perhaps, if the causes
+      of them were to be made known!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My Lady has just heard of your arrival, doctor, and begs you will have
+      the kindness to step up to her room,&rdquo; said Proctor, coming to meet him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 'm tired, I 'm fatigued. Say I 'm in bed,&rdquo; said Grounsell, angrily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Her maid has just seen you, sir,&rdquo; suggested Proctor, mildly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No matter; give the answer I tell you; or stay perhaps it would be better
+      to see her. Yes, Proctor, show me the way.&rdquo; And muttering to himself, &ldquo;The
+      meeting will not be a whit pleasanter for her than me,&rdquo; he followed the
+      servant up the stairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well habituated to Lady Hester's extravagant and costly tastes, Grounsell
+      was yet unprepared for the gorgeous decorations and splendid ornaments of
+      the chambers through which he passed, and he stopped from time to time in
+      amazement to contemplate a magnificence which was probably rather
+      heightened than diminished by the uncertain light of the candles the
+      servant carried. He peered at the china vases; he passed his hand across
+      the malachite and jasper tables; he narrowly inspected the rich mosaics,
+      as though doubtful of their being genuine; and then, with a deep sigh,
+      almost deep enough to be a groan, he moved on in sadness. A bust of Kate
+      Dalton the work of a great sculptor, and an admirable likeness caught his
+      eye, and he gazed at it with signs of strong emotion. There was much
+      beauty in it, and of a character all her own; but still the cold marble
+      had caught up, in traits sterner than those of life, the ambitious bearing
+      of the head and the proud elevation of the brow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And she has become this already!&rdquo; said he, half aloud. &ldquo;Oh, how unlike
+      poor Nelly's model! how different from the simple and beauteous innocence
+      of those saint-like features!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My Lady will see you, sir,&rdquo; said Celestine, breaking in upon his musings.
+      And he followed her into the chamber, where, seated in a deeply cushioned
+      chair, Lady Hester reclined, dressed in all the perfection of an elegant
+      deshabille.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Grounsell was, assuredly, not the man to be most taken by such
+      attractions, yet he could not remain entirely insensible to them; and he
+      felt a most awkward sense of admiration as he surveyed her. With all a
+      woman's quickness, her Ladyship saw the effect she had produced, and
+      languidly extending her hand, she vouchsafed the nearest approach to a
+      smile with which she had ever favored him. As if suddenly recalling all
+      his old antipathies and prejudices, Grounsell was himself in a moment,
+      and, scarcely touching the taper and jewelled fingers, he bowed
+      ceremoniously and took his seat at a little distance off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is a very unexpected pleasure indeed,&rdquo; sighed Lady Hester; &ldquo;you only
+      arrived to-night?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Half an hour ago, madam; and but for your Ladyship's summons I should
+      have been in bed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you find Sir Stafford looking poorly, I fear?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I haven't yet seen him, madam, but I am prepared for a great change.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fear so,&rdquo; sighed she, plaintively; &ldquo;George says, quite a break up; and
+      Buccellini calls it 'Gotta Affievolita,' and says it is very fatal with
+      elderly people.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The vulgar phrase of a 'broken heart' is more expressive, madam, and
+      perhaps quite as pathological.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Hester drew proudly up, and seemed preparing herself for a coming
+      encounter. They were old antagonists, and well knew each other's mode of
+      attack. On the present occasion, however, Grounsell did not seek a
+      contest, and was satisfied by a single shot at the enemy, as if trying the
+      range of his gun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will probably advise a change of air and scene, Dr. Grounsell,&rdquo; said
+      she, calmly, and as though inviting pacific intercourse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is precisely what I have come for, madam,&rdquo; answered he, in a short,
+      dry voice. &ldquo;Sir Stafford's affairs require his immediate return to
+      England. The vicissitudes that attend on great commercial enterprises
+      threaten him with large very large losses.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Hester fell back in her chair, and this time, at least, her pale
+      cheek and her powerless attitude were not feigned nor counterfeited; but
+      Grounsell merely handed her a smelling-bottle from the table, and went on:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The exact extent of his liabilities cannot be ascertained at once, but
+      they must be considerable. He will be fortunate if there remain to him one
+      fourth of his property.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Hester's head fell heavily back, and she fainted away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor rose, and sprinkled her forehead with water, and then patiently
+      sat down with his finger on her wrist to watch the returning tide of
+      circulation. Assured at length of her restored consciousness, he went on:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A small establishment, strict economy, a watchful supervision of every
+      domestic arrangement, together with the proceeds of the sale of all the
+      useless trumpery by which he is at present surrounded, will do much; but
+      he must be seconded, madam, seconded and aided, not thwarted and opposed.
+      George can exchange into a regiment in India; the proper steps have been
+      already taken for that purpose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you been thoughtful enough, sir, in your general care of this
+      family, to engage a small house for us at Brighton?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have seen one at Ramsgate, madam,&rdquo; replied he, dryly; &ldquo;but the rent is
+      more than we ought to give.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are we so very poor as that, sir?&rdquo; said she, sarcastically, laying
+      emphasis on the pronoun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Many excellent and worthy persons, madam, contrive to live respectably on
+      less.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is Miss Onslow to go out as a governess, doctor? I am afraid you have
+      forgotten her share in these transactions?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have a letter from her in my pocket, madam, which would show that she
+      herself is not guilty of this forgetfulness, wherein she makes the very
+      proposition you allude to.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And me? Have you no sphere of self-denial and duty have you no degrading
+      station, nor menial servitude, adapted to my habits?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know of none, madam,&rdquo; said Grounsell, sternly. &ldquo;Varnish will no more
+      make a picture than fine manners prove a substitute for skill or
+      industry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is really too much, sir,&rdquo; said she, rising, her face now crimson
+      with anger; &ldquo;and even if all you have said prove true, reverse of fortune
+      can bring no heavier infliction than the prospect of your intimacy and
+      obtrusive counsels.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may not need them, madam. In adversity,&rdquo; said Grounsell, with a
+      smile, &ldquo;healthy stomachs get on very well without bitters.&rdquo; And so saying,
+      he bowed and left the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a few moments Lady Hester sat overwhelmed by the tidings she had just
+      heard, and then, suddenly rising, she rang the bell for her maid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Send Miss Dalton to me, Celestine; say I wish to speak to her
+      immediately,&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;This may be the last time we shall speak to each
+      other ere we invert our positions,&rdquo; muttered she to herself. And in the
+      working of her features might be read all the agony of the reflection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0039" id="link2HCH0039">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXIX. PRATOLINO.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      How like the great world is every little section of it! How full of all
+      its passions and interests, its warring jealousies and its selfish
+      struggles! Within the Mazzarini Palace that night were at work every
+      emotion and sentiment which sway the wide communities of men; and hope and
+      fear, the yearnings of ambition, and the gloomy forebodings of despair,
+      sat beside the pillows of those who, in vain, sought sleep and
+      forgetfulness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before that long night ended, Sir Stafford had learned his ruin, for it
+      was little less. Kate had yielded, to the pressing entreaties of Lady
+      Hester, her consent to accept Midchekoff; and, just as day was breaking,
+      George Onslow stole to his father's bedside to see him once more, perhaps
+      for the last time. It would be difficult to say in which of those three
+      hearts the darkest sorrow brooded. With noiseless step and cautious
+      gesture, George crossed the little sitting-room, and entered his father's
+      chamber; and, without awaking the servant, who kept watch habitually
+      without, but now had dropped off to sleep, he gained the bedside, and sat
+      down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The terrible tidings he had just heard were evidently working on Sir
+      Stafford's brain, and, despite all the influence of his opiate, still
+      engaged his faculties; for his lips continued to move rapidly, and short
+      broken sentences fell from him incessantly. &ldquo;Poor George! poor George!&rdquo; he
+      muttered from time to time, and the tears rolled down the young man's
+      cheek as he heard them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How unworthy of him have I been!&rdquo; thought he; &ldquo;how shamefully unworthy
+      and forgetful! Here should have been my place, for those hours which I
+      have spent in noisy dissipation and debauch; and now I come for the first
+      time, and probably the last! Oh, my poor father! How will you bear up
+      against the shock that is preparing for you? for, with all my faults, I
+      know how you have loved me!&rdquo; A heavy tear dropped from him on the old
+      man's cheek as he said this; and gently brushing it off with his hand, Sir
+      Stafford opened his eyes and awoke. A mild and gentle smile broke over his
+      features as he saw his son beside him, and he drew him towards him, and
+      kissed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you been long here, George?&rdquo; said he, affectionately.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But a few minutes. I am so sorry to have disturbed you,&rdquo; muttered the
+      other, in confusion,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you seen Grounsell yet? Has he told you?&rdquo; asked Sir Stafford.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Grounsell? no, sir. I did not even hear of his arrival. What are his
+      tidings?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The saddest, perhaps, one friend can bring another,&rdquo; sighed Onslow, as he
+      covered his eyes with his hand. &ldquo;Nay, nay, I am wrong,&rdquo; said he, rapidly.
+      &ldquo;So long as Sydney and yourself are spared to me I have no right to say
+      this; still, George, it is a terrible blow that strikes a man down from
+      affluence to poverty, and, in place of wealth and power, leaves him
+      nothing but insignificance and ruin!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good heavens, father! is your brain wandering? What fancies are these
+      that are flitting across your mind?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sad and stern truths, my poor boy,&rdquo; replied the old man, grasping his
+      son's hand in his fevered palm. &ldquo;A few weeks more will see the great house
+      of Onslow bankrupt. These things cannot be told too briefly, George,&rdquo; said
+      he, speaking with a tremulous and eager rapidity. &ldquo;One should hear
+      misfortune early, to gain more time for future measures. A great crash has
+      fallen upon the moneyed interest of England. The vast speculations in
+      railways have overreached themselves; failures of great houses abroad have
+      added to the difficulty. The correspondents whose solvency we never
+      doubted are tottering to ruin. Every post brings tidings of some new
+      failure; and from Odessa, from Hamburg, and from the ports of the Baltic
+      to the distant shores of the New World, there is nothing but bankruptcy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you have large estates, sir; you possess property of various kinds
+      beyond the reach of these casualties.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I own nothing to which my creditors have not a just right; nor, if I did,
+      could I exercise the privilege of retaining it, George,&rdquo; said the old man.
+      &ldquo;From what Grounsell tells me, there will be sufficient to meet every
+      claim, but no more. There will remain nothing after. Lady Hester's
+      settlement will, of course, secure to her a moderate competence; and we&mdash;you
+      and I must look about, and see how we can face this same world we have
+      been feasting so long. My time in it will needs be brief; but you, who may
+      look forward with hope to long years of life, must bethink you at once of
+      the new path before you. Arouse yourself, then, to the task, and I do not
+      know but I may be prouder of you yet, buffeting the wild waves of
+      adversity, and fighting the manful part of a bold, courageous spirit, than
+      I have ever been in seeing you in the brilliant circle of all your high
+      and titled acquaintances. Ay, George, the English merchant never died out
+      in my heart, for all the aristocratic leaven which accident mixed up with
+      my fortunes. I never ceased to glory in the pride of wealth accumulated by
+      generous enterprises and honorable toil. I loved the life of labor that
+      disciplined the faculties, and exercised not alone intelligence, but
+      turned to use the gentler charities of life, linking man to man, as
+      brethren journeying the same road, with different burdens, perhaps, but
+      with the same goal. For myself, therefore, I have few cares. It remains
+      with you to make them even fewer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me what you propose for me, sir,&rdquo; said George, in a low, weak voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;First of all, George, you ought to leave the army. Grounsell, I must tell
+      you, is not of this opinion; he advises an exchange into a regiment in
+      India, but I think differently. To repair, if it be possible, the
+      shattered wreck of our fortunes, you must address yourself to business
+      life and habits. You 'll have to visit the West Indies, and, probably, the
+      East. We still possess property in Ceylon, of value; and our coffee
+      plantations there, as yet only in their infancy, need nothing but good
+      management to ensure success. Grounsell laughed at my suggesting you for
+      such duties, but I know you better, George, far better, than he does. The
+      English pluck that storms a breach or heads a charge is the very same
+      quality that sustains a man on the long dark road of adverse fortune. I
+      have often told Grounsell that the stuff was in you, George.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The young man squeezed his father's hand, but was obliged to turn away his
+      head to hide the tears which filled his eyes; for what a terrible
+      deception was he practising at that very moment, and what duplicity was
+      there even in the silence with which he heard him!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a few seconds Sir Stafford seemed to revel in all the bright visions
+      of a warm fancy. The prospect his imagination had conjured up appeared to
+      have momentarily lifted him above the reach of sorrow. He thought of his
+      son engaged in the active business of life, and displaying in this new
+      career the energies and resources of a bold and courageous spirit. He
+      imagined the high-principled youth becoming the British merchant, and
+      making the name of &ldquo;Onslow&rdquo; great and respected in the old arena of all
+      their victories, the city of London. Could this but come to pass, were
+      this dream to be realized, and he would bless the hour that wrecked his
+      fortune, and thus made his poverty the foundation of future greatness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I confess, George,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;that I have a pride in thinking that I knew
+      you better than others did, and that I read in the very wayward caprices
+      of your disposition the impatience of an active mind, and not the ennui of
+      an indolent one.&rdquo; From this the old man branched off into his plans for
+      the future; and, as if the emergency had suggested energy, talked well and
+      clearly of all that was to be done. They were to start for England at
+      once. Sir Stafford felt as if he was able to set out that very day. Some
+      weeks would elapse before the crash came, and in the interval every
+      preparation might be taken. &ldquo;I hope,&rdquo; said he, feelingly, &ldquo;that I have few
+      enemies; I am not sanguine enough to say, none; but, such as they are,
+      they will not seek to humiliate me, I trust, by any unnecessary
+      publicity.&rdquo; The theme was a very painful one, and for a few seconds he
+      could not go on. At last he resumed: &ldquo;The extravagance of this household,
+      George, will give much and just offence. It must be retrenched, and from
+      this very day, from this very hour. You will look to this. It must not be
+      said of us that, with ruin before us, we continued these habits of
+      wasteful excess. Let these troops of idle servants be discharged at once.
+      Except Lady Hester's carriage, sell off all equipage. Take no heed of what
+      will be the town talk; such a downfall as ours can never be kept a secret.
+      Let us only take care that we fall with dignity. Grounsell will remain
+      here after us to settle everything, and our departure ought to be as
+      speedy as may be. But you are not listening, George; do you hear me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was quite true George heeded little of what his father spoke; for, with
+      bent-down head, he was trying to catch the sounds of what seemed a long,
+      low whistle from the court without. As he listened, the whistle was
+      repeated; he knew now that it was Norwood's signal, and that &ldquo;his time was
+      up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must leave you, my dear father,&rdquo; said he, assuming all that he could of
+      calmness. &ldquo;I have an appointment this morning, and one that I cannot well
+      shake off. Norwood and I have promised to meet some friends at Pratolino.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was of that same Norwood I wished to speak to you, George. The
+      sophistry of thinking him 'no worse than his set' will serve no longer.
+      Such men are not fitting acquaintances for one whose character must be
+      above reproach. Norwood is a most unworthy friend for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I scarcely ever thought of him in that light. We are intimate, it is
+      true; but such intimacy is not friendship.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The greater the pollution of such acquaintanceship, then,&rdquo; said the old
+      man, gravely. &ldquo;To see the dark side of such a nature, and yet live under
+      its baneful shadow, is infinitely worse, George, than all the
+      self-deception of a rash confidence. Keep your promise to-day, but I
+      beseech you, let it be for the last time in such company.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Again the whistle was heard, and with the sharp crack of a whip, denoting
+      impatience; and fearful that some accident might betray his secret, George
+      clasped the old man's hand fervidly within his own, and hurried away
+      without a word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that George?&rdquo; cried Norwood, as he stood beside a calessino ready
+      harnessed, and with lamps lighted, for the morning was still dark, &ldquo;is
+      that George? Why, where have you been loitering this half-hour, man? Our
+      time is six sharp, and it is now considerably past five, and the way lies
+      all up hill.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have often done the distance in half an hour,&rdquo; said George, angrily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps the errand was a pleasanter one,&rdquo; rejoined Norwood, laughing;
+      &ldquo;but jump in, for I feel certain the others are before us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      George Onslow was in no mood for talking as he took his seat beside his
+      companion. The late scene with his father and the approaching event were
+      enough to occupy him, even had his feeling for Norwood been different from
+      what it was; but in reality never had he experienced the same dislike for
+      the Viscount. All the flippant ease, all the cool indifference he
+      displayed, were only so many offences to one whose thoughts were
+      traversing the whole current of his life, from earliest boyhood down to
+      that very moment. A few hours hence he might be no more! And thence arose
+      to his mind the judgments men would pass upon him, the few who would speak
+      charitably, the still fewer who would regret him. &ldquo;What a career!&rdquo; thought
+      he. &ldquo;What use to have made of fortune, station, health, and vigor; to have
+      lived in dissipation, and die for a street brawl! And poor Kate! to what
+      unfeeling scandal will this unhappy meeting expose you! how impossible to
+      expect that truth will ever penetrate through that dark atmosphere of
+      mystery and malevolence the world will throw over the event!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Norwood was provoked at the silence, and tried in various ways to break
+      it. He spoke of the road, the weather, the horse's trotting action, the
+      scenery, over which the breaking day now threw fitful and uncertain
+      lights, but all in vain; and at last, piqued by non-success, he spitefully
+      pointed attention to a little valley beside the road, and said, &ldquo;Do you
+      see that spot yonder, near the pine-trees? that 's where Harry Mathews was
+      shot. Malzahn sent the bullet through the brain at forty paces. They were
+      both first-rate pistol-shots, and the only question was who should fire
+      first. Harry determined to reserve his shot, and he carried the privilege
+      into the other world with him. Malzahn knew he might trust his skill, and
+      fired the very instant he took his ground. The moral of which is, always
+      try and have first fire with a foreigner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I heard the sound of wheels behind us; who are they?&rdquo; said George, not
+      heeding either the story or the counsel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The doctor, I suspect. I ordered a calessino to wait for him at the door
+      of the palace, and bring him up as fast as possible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If Guilmard be equal to his reputation, we shall not want his services,&rdquo;
+       said Onslow, with a faint smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who can tell? We 'll put you up at a short distance; and there 's nothing
+      shakes the nerves of your practised pistol-shot more than ten or twelve
+      paces.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The road here became so steep that they were obliged to get down and walk
+      for some distance, while the horse toiled slowly up behind them. As they
+      went, Norwood continued to talk on incessantly of this, that, and t'
+      other, as though bound to occupy the attention of his companion; while
+      George, with half-closed eyes, strolled onward, deep in his own thoughts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We 're not far off the place now, George,&rdquo; said Norwood, at last, &ldquo;and I
+      wish you 'd throw off that look of care and abstraction. These foreign
+      fellows will be quite ready to misinterpret it. Seem at your ease, man,
+      and take the thing as I have seen you take it before, as rather good fun
+      than otherwise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But that is precisely what I do not feel it,&rdquo; said George, smiling
+      quietly. &ldquo;Twenty-four hours ago, when life had every possible advantage to
+      bestow on me, with the prospect of an ample fortune before me, I was
+      perfectly ready to turn out with any man who had the right to ask me; and
+      now that I am ruined&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ruined!&rdquo; broke in Norwood; &ldquo;what do you mean? You have not lost to that
+      Greek fellow so largely as that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now that my father is on the verge of utter ruin,&rdquo; repeated George,
+      slowly, &ldquo;the news came last night, I never felt the desire of life so
+      strong within me. A few days or weeks more will make it public gossip, so
+      I may tell you that we have not escaped the torrent that is sweeping away
+      so many of the richest houses in Europe; and what between our immense
+      liabilities and my father's scrupulous sense of honor, the chances are we
+      shall be utterly beggared.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The devil!&rdquo; exclaimed Norwood, whose thoughts at once reverted to his own
+      claims on George, and the unpaid acceptances he still held of his.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's what I feel so strange,&rdquo; said George, now speaking with a degree
+      of warmth and interest, &ldquo;that it should be exactly when life ceases to
+      give promise that I should care for it; and I own to you, I 'd give
+      anything that this meeting was not before me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Norwood started, and turned his keen eyes on the other, but in the calm,
+      unmoved features he saw no traces of fear or even agitation; and it was in
+      his habitually calm voice Onslow resumed,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I wish the Count's hand would shake a little, Norwood. I 'd be most
+      grateful to the bullet that would take to the right or the left of me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, come, George, no more of this. We are alone here, it's true; but if
+      you talk this way now, you may chance to look like it by and by.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if I do not, my looks will strangely belie my sentiments, that I can
+      tell you,&rdquo; said Onslow, with a quiet laugh. &ldquo;I don't care how you read the
+      confession, Norwood, but I tell you frankly, that if the insult in this
+      instance admitted of an apology, if there were any way to come off
+      consistent with honor, I 'd take it, and not fight this Frenchman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you forgotten his reputation as a shot?&rdquo; asked Norwood, hastily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was not thinking of it. My mind was dwelling merely on myself and my
+      own interests, how far my life, if preserved, could be rendered useful to
+      others, and in what way my death might occasion detriment and injury.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A most mercantile estimate of profit and loss, by Jove!&rdquo; said Norwood,
+      laughing; &ldquo;and perhaps it is fortunate for you there is no amende
+      possible, for if Guilmard should miss you&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As to these acceptances,&rdquo; said George, not paying attention to what the
+      other said, &ldquo;I 'd prefer that they should not be presented to my father
+      under our actual circumstances. My horses and carriages, and some other
+      trumpery of mine, when sold, will more than meet them, and I have given
+      orders to that end.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, old fellow, it's not gone that far yet,&rdquo; said Norwood, affecting a
+      tone of friendship, suggested by the self-satisfaction the promise of
+      payment afforded him. &ldquo;But, hush! There they are, all together. Let us
+      talk no more of these matters; and now, George, for Heaven's sake, be
+      cool.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Norwood drew the other's arm within his own as he said this, and advanced
+      to where a group of some half-dozen persons were standing, beside a low
+      balcony, overlooking the Val d'Arno and the graceful valley in which
+      Florence stands. Norwood quitted his friend's arm as he came forward and
+      saluted the company. Nothing could possibly be more easy and unconstrained
+      than the tone of their conversation, as they chatted away about the
+      prospect beneath, and over which, like a gauzy veil, the gray shadow of
+      dawn was hanging. With the exception of an Italian or two, they were all
+      French, the young fashionables who were the loungers of the salons and
+      cafes of the city.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you breakfasted, my Lord?&rdquo; said one. &ldquo;If not, let me recommend some
+      excellent cutlets, which are not too cold, even yet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the best chocolate I ever tasted out of Paris,&rdquo; cried another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks,&rdquo; said Norwood. &ldquo;We 'll profit by the good counsel.&rdquo; And, taking a
+      cigar from his case, he lighted it from Guilmard's, as, with hands in his
+      paletot, he sat negligently on the wall, surveying the scene below him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, George, let's have something,&rdquo; whispered Norwood, eagerly; for the
+      vacant and unoccupied stare of Onslow continued to cause the Viscount the
+      most intense anxiety. &ldquo;These fellows are affecting to be devilish cool.
+      Let us not be behindhand.&rdquo; And, rather by force than mere persuasion, he
+      dragged Onslow along, and entered the little parlor of the inn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A large table, covered with the remains of an ample breakfast, stood in
+      the middle of the room, and a dish of cutlets was placed to keep hot
+      before the stove. Several loose sheets of paper lay scattered about the
+      table, on which were scrawled absurd and ill-drawn caricatures of duels,
+      in which attitudes of extravagant fear and terror predominated. Norwood
+      glanced at them for a moment, and then contemptuously threw them into the
+      fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sit down, George,&rdquo; said he, placing a chair for the other; &ldquo;and, if you
+      cannot eat, at least take a 'nip' of brandy. Jekyl will be up, I suppose,
+      in a few minutes. I told him to come with the doctor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never felt an appetite at this early hour,&rdquo; said Onslow; &ldquo;and perhaps
+      the present is not the time to suggest one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you remark Guilmard?&rdquo; said Norwood, as he helped himself to a cutlet,
+      and prepared his plate most artistically for a savory meal. &ldquo;Did you
+      observe him, George?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; I never looked that way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By Jove! he has got a tremendous scar on his cheek; the whole length,
+      from the eye to the corner of his mouth. English knuckles do not certainly
+      improve French physiognomy. A left-hander, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I remember nothing about it,&rdquo; said Onslow, carelessly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you 've left him a memorandum of the transaction, any way,&rdquo; said
+      the Viscount, as he ate on. &ldquo;And you were talking about an apology awhile
+      ago?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was wishing that the case admitted of one,&rdquo; said Onslow, calmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Norwood gave a sidelong glance at the speaker, and, although he said
+      nothing, a gesture of angry impatience revealed what was passing within
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do try that brandy. Well, then, take a glass of curacoa,&rdquo; said he,
+      pushing the bottle towards him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Something! anything, in fact, you would say, Norwood, that might serve to
+      make my courage 'carry the bead;' but you are altogether mistaken in inc.
+      It is not of myself I am thinking; my anxieties are. But what could you
+      care, or even understand, about my motives? Finish your breakfast, and let
+      us make an end of this affair.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In one minute more I'm your man; but if I have a weakness, it is for a
+      plain roast truffle, with butter. It was a first love of mine, and, as the
+      adage says, 'only revient toujours.' Were I in your shoes this morning,
+      George, I 'd not leave one on the dish.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On what principle, pray?&rdquo; asked Onslow, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On that of the old Cardinal, who, when his doctors pronounced his case
+      hopeless, immediately ordered a supper of ortolans with olives. It was a
+      grand opportunity to indulge without the terror of an indigestion; and <i>a
+      propos</i> to such themes, where can our worthy doctor be all this time?
+      The calessino was close up with us all the way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Leaving Norwood to continue his meal, George strolled out in quest of the
+      surgeon, but none had seen nor knew anything of him. An empty calessino
+      was standing on the roadside, but the driver only knew that the gentleman
+      who came with him had got out there, and entered the park.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then we shall find him near the little lake,&rdquo; said Norwood, coolly, as
+      George returned, disappointed. &ldquo;But it's strange, too, that he should be
+      alone. Jekyl was to have been with him. These foreigners ever insist upon
+      two seconds on either side. Like the gambler that always is calling for
+      fresh cards, it looks very like a suspicion of foul play. Go back, George,
+      and see if the fellow knows nothing of Jekyl. You 've only to name him,
+      for every cab, cad, and barcaruolo of Florence is acquainted with Master
+      Albert.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      George returned to the spot, but without any success. The man stated that
+      he took his stand, as he was desired, at the gate of the palace, and that
+      a little man, apparently somewhat elderly, came out and asked which way
+      the others had gone, and how long before they had started. &ldquo;See that you
+      pick them up then,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;but don't pass them. He talked incessantly,&rdquo;
+       added the man, &ldquo;the whole way, but in such bad Italian that I could make
+      nothing of it, and so I answered at random. If I were tired of him, I
+      fancy he was sick of me; and when he got out yonder, and passed into the
+      park, it was a relief to us both.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      George was just turning away, when his eye caught a glimpse of the
+      glorious landscape beneath, on which a freshly risen sun was shedding all
+      its splendor. There are few scenes, even in Italy, more striking than the
+      Val d'Arno around Florence. The beautiful city itself, capped with many a
+      dome and tower, the gigantic castle of the Bargello, the graceful arch of
+      the Baptistery, the massive facade of the Pitti, all, even to the lone
+      tower on the hill where Galileo watched, rich in their storied memories;
+      while on the gentle slope of the mountain stood hundreds of beauteous
+      villas, whose very names are like spells to the imagination, and the
+      Dante, the Alfieri, the Boccaccio, vie in interest with the sterner
+      realities of the Medici, the Pazzi, the Salviati, and the Strozzi. What a
+      flood of memory pours over the mind, to think how every orange-grove and
+      terrace, how each clump of olives, or each alley of cedars, have witnessed
+      the most intense passions, or the most glorious triumphs of man's
+      intellect or ambition, and that every spot we see has its own claim to
+      immortality!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not in such mood as this, however, did Onslow survey the scene. It was in
+      the rapt admiration of its picturesque beauty. The glittering river, now
+      seen and lost again, the waving tree-tops, the parterres of bright
+      flowers, the stately palaces, whose terraces were shadowed by the
+      magnolia, the oleander, and the fig, all made up a picture of rich and
+      beautiful effect, and he longed to throw himself on the deep grass and
+      gaze on it for hours. As he stood thus, unable to tear himself away, he
+      heard the sharp cracking of a postilion's whip immediately beneath him,
+      and, on looking down, saw two heavily laden travelling-carriages, which
+      all the power of eight horses to each could barely drag along against the
+      steep ascent. A mounted courier in advance proclaimed that the travellers
+      were persons of condition, and everything about the equipages themselves
+      indicated wealth and station. As Onslow knew all who moved in a certain
+      class in society, he was curious to see who was journeying northward so
+      early in the year, and, stepping into a little copse beside the road, he
+      waited for the carriages to pass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They came slowly forward, now halting to &ldquo;breathe&rdquo; the weary horses, now
+      struggling for a brief space against the hill, and at last, turning a
+      sharp angle of the way, the first carriage drew short up, directly in
+      front of where he stood. The panels bore the flaunting and pretentious
+      arms of Prince Midchekoff, with many an armorial emblem, which, however
+      tolerated in the rest of Europe, the Czar would not suffer within his own
+      dominions. As George glanced at these, he started, for a well-known voice
+      caught his ear, and, forgetting his desire of concealment, he leaned
+      forward to listen. It was Kate was speaking; he could not hear the words,
+      but the accents were her own. &ldquo;Oh for one look at her, for the last time!&rdquo;
+       thought he; and dashed headlong through the copse towards where, by
+      another bend, the road made a rapid turn upwards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Already the horses had regained their wind, and were away at a brisk trot,
+      as George tore onward through the closely interwoven branches and thick
+      underwood of the grove. There was no path, nor, once out of sight or sound
+      of the road, anything to guide him; but he dashed on, in the direction he
+      supposed the carriage must take. At every step the way grew more intricate
+      and difficult; the pits the peasants dig for chestnut leaves, the little
+      heaps collected for firewood, intercepted him at each moment. With torn
+      clothes and bleeding hands he still rushed madly, resolutely bent upon his
+      object; and, with many a bruise and many a scar, at last gained the open
+      country just in time to see the second carriage crowning the peak of the
+      mountain above his head, while he could hear the sharp, clanking sound of
+      the drag as they fastened it to the leading carriage. Any attempt to
+      overtake them on the hill must now be hopeless. He well knew the pace at
+      which a continental postilion descends a mountain, and how the steepest
+      galleries of Alps and Apennines are often galloped down at speed. For
+      miles below him he could see the winding zigzags of the road, and at each
+      turning he fancied how he might catch sight of her. The mountain itself
+      was terraced with vineyards from base to summit; but, from the steepness
+      of its side, these terraces were but narrow strips of ground, barely
+      sufficient for the vine-dresser to pass when tending his plants, or
+      gathering in their produce. To look down on this giant stair, for such it
+      seemed, was a giddy sensation, and few could have surveyed the precipitous
+      descent without a sense of danger. Onslow's thoughts, however, had but one
+      object, to see Kate once, and for the last time. By a straight descent of
+      the mountain, leaping from terrace to terrace, it was possible for him to
+      reach the bottom before the carriages could traverse the winding course of
+      the road; and no sooner was the thought conceived than he proceeded to
+      execute it. It is difficult to convey to those who have never seen these
+      terraced flights of earth a true notion of the peril of such an
+      undertaking; but they who have beheld them will acknowledge that little
+      short of utter recklessness could dare it. Less leaping than dropping from
+      height to height, the slightest impulse will carry the footsteps beyond
+      the edge of the terrace, and then all self-control is lost, and
+      destruction, to every appearance, inevitable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The youth whose nerves have been trained by the sports of fox-hunting and
+      deer-stalking, however, is seldom unprepared for sudden danger; and George
+      never hesitated when once the undertaking seemed practicable. By sidelong
+      leaps he descended the first three or four terraces well and safely.
+      Impressed with the risk of the exploit, he never turned his eyes from the
+      spot whereon he meant to alight, and measured every bound with accuracy.
+      Suddenly, however, his attention was caught by the postilion's bugle
+      sounding, several hundred feet below him, and, in a bend of the road, he
+      saw the dust left by the fast-descending carriage. Forgetful of safety, of
+      everything, save his object, he leaped at random, and with a tremendous
+      bound cleared one terrace completely, and alighted on the one beneath it.
+      The impulse drove him forwards, and ere he could recover, he was on the
+      very verge of the cliff. Even yet his presence of mind might have rescued
+      him, when the loose masonry gave way, and carried him down with it. He
+      fell forwards, and headlong; the force of the descent carried him on, and
+      now, half falling, half-struggling, he bounded from height to height,
+      till, shattered, maimed, and bleeding, he rolled, an unconscious heap of
+      clay, in the long grass of the valley.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not fifty yards from where he lay, the carriages passed, and Kate even
+      leaned from the window to gaze upon the winding glen, little thinking how
+      terrible an interest that quiet scene was filled with. And so the
+      equipages held their speed, and pressed onward; while, with a faint
+      breathing, poor George lay, sleeping that dreamless slumber that seems a
+      counterfeit of death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      END OF VOL. I. <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
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+Project Gutenberg's The Daltons, Volume I (of II), by Charles James Lever
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Daltons, Volume I (of II)
+       Or,Three Roads In Life
+
+Author: Charles James Lever
+
+Illustrator: Phiz.
+
+Release Date: April 19, 2010 [EBook #32061]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DALTONS, VOLUME I (OF II) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+THE DALTONS:
+
+OR,
+
+THREE ROADS IN LIFE
+
+
+By Charles James Lever
+
+
+With Illustrations By Phiz.
+
+
+In Two Volumes
+
+Vol. I.
+
+
+Boston: Little, Brown, And Company
+
+1895.
+
+
+
+To LORD METHUEN.
+
+
+MY DEAR METHUEN, Some idle folk have pretended that certain living
+characters have been depicted under the fictitious names of these
+volumes. There is, I assure you, but one personality contained in it,
+and that is of a right true-hearted Englishman, hospitable, and manly
+in all his dealings; and to him I wish to dedicate my book, in testimony
+not only of the gratitude which, in common with all his countrymen here,
+I feel to be his due, but in recognition of many happy hours passed in
+his society, and the honor of his friendship. The personality begins and
+ends with this dedication, which I beg you to accept of, and am
+
+Ever yours faithfully,
+
+CHARLES LEVER.
+
+PALAZZO CAPPONI, FLORENCE, Feb. 28, 1852.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+IF the original conception of this tale was owing to the story of an old
+and valued schoolfellow who took service in Austria, and rose to rank
+and honors there, all the rest was purely fictitious. My friend had made
+a deep impression on my mind by his narratives of that strange life,
+wherein, in the very midst of our modern civilization, an old-world
+tradition still has its influence, making the army of to-day the
+veritable sons and descendants of those who grouped around the bivouac
+fires in Wallenstein's camp. Of that more than Oriental submission that
+graduated deference to military rank that chivalrous devotion to the
+"Kaiser" whicli enter into the soldier heart of Austria, I have been
+unable to reproduce any but the very faintest outlines, and yet these
+were the traits which, pervaded all my friend's stories and gave them
+character and distinctiveness.
+
+Many of the other characters in this tale were drawn from the life, with
+such changes added and omitted features as might rescue them from any
+charge of personality. With all my care on this score, one or two have
+been believed to be recognizable; and if so I have only to hope that
+I have touched on peculiarities of disposition inoffensively, and
+only depicted such traits as may "point a moral," without wounding the
+possessor.
+
+The last portion of the story includes some scenes from the Italian
+campaign, which had just come to a close while I was writing. If a
+better experience of Italy than I then possessed might modify some of
+the opinions I entertained at that time, and induce me to form some
+conclusions at least at variance with those I then expressed, I still
+prefer to leave the whole unaltered, lest in changing I might injure the
+impression under which the fulness of my once conviction had impelled me
+to pronounce.
+
+Writing these lines now, while men's hearts are throbbing anxiously for
+the tidings any day may produce, and when the earth is already tremulous
+under the march of distant squadrons, I own that even the faint, weak
+picture of that struggle in this story appeals to myself with a
+more than common interest. I have no more to add than my grateful
+acknowledgments to such as still hold me in their favor, and to write
+myself their devoted servant,
+
+CHARLES LEVER.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE DALTONS, OR THREE ROADS IN LIFE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I. BADEN OUT OF SEASON.
+
+A THEATRE by daylight, a great historical picture in the process of
+cleaning, a ballet-dancer of a wet day hastening to rehearsal, the
+favorite for the Oaks dead-lame in a straw-yard, are scarcely
+more stripped of their legitimate illusions than is a fashionable
+watering-place on the approach of winter. The gay shops and stalls of
+flaunting wares are closed; the promenades, lately kept in trimmest
+order, are weed-grown and neglected; the "sear and yellow leaves" are
+fluttering and rustling along the alleys where "Beauty's step was
+wont to tread." Both music and fountains have ceased to play; the very
+statues are putting on great overcoats of snow, while the orange-trees
+file off like a sad funeral procession to hide themselves in dusky sheds
+till the coming spring.
+
+You see as you look around you that nature has been as unreal as art
+itself, and that all the bright hues of foliage and flower, all the
+odors that floated from bed and parterre, all the rippling flow of
+stream and fountain, have been just as artistically devised, and as much
+"got up," as the transparencies or the Tyrolese singers, the fireworks
+or the fancy fair, or any other of those ingenious "spectacles" which
+amuse the grown children of fashion. The few who yet linger seem to have
+undergone a strange transmutation.
+
+The smiling landlord of the "Adler" we refer particularly to Germany
+as the very land of watering-places is a half-sulky, farmer-looking
+personage, busily engaged in storing up his Indian corn and his firewood
+and his forage, against the season of snows. The bland "croupier," on
+whose impassive countenance no shade of fortune was able to mark even
+a passing emotion, is now seen higgling with a peasant for a sack of
+charcoal, in all the eagerness of avarice. The trim maiden, whose golden
+locks and soft blue eyes made the bouquets she sold seem fairer to look
+on, is a stout wench, whose uncouth fur cap and wooden shoes are the
+very antidotes to romance. All the transformations take the same sad
+colors. It is a pantomime read backwards.
+
+Such was Baden-Baden in the November of 182-. Some weeks of bad and
+broken weather had scattered and dispersed all the gay company. The
+hotels and assembly-rooms were closed for the winter. The ball-room,
+which so lately was alight with a thousand tapers, was now barricaded
+like a jail. The very post-office, around which each morning an eager
+and pressing crowd used to gather, was shut up, one small aperture alone
+remaining, as if to show to what a fraction all correspondence had been
+reduced. The Hotel de Russie was the only house open in the little town;
+but although the door lay ajar, no busy throng of waiters, no lamps,
+invited the traveller to believe a hospitable reception might await him
+within. A very brief glance inside would soon have dispelled any such
+illusion, had it ever existed. The wide staircase, formerly lined with
+orange-trees and camellias, was stripped of all its bright foliage;
+the marble statues were removed; the great thermometer, whose crystal
+decorations had arrested many a passing look, was now encased within a
+wooden box, as if its tell-tale face might reveal unpleasant truths, if
+left exposed.
+
+The spacious "Saal," where some eighty guests assembled every day, was
+denuded of all its furniture, mirrors, and lustres; bronzes and pictures
+were gone, and nothing remained but a huge earthenware stove,
+within whose grating a faded nosegay left there in summer defied all
+speculations as to a fire.
+
+In this comfortless chamber three persons now paraded with that quick
+step and brisk motion that bespeak a walk for warmth and exercise; for
+dismal as it was within doors, it was still preferable to the scene
+without, where a cold incessant rain was falling, that, on the hills
+around, took the form of snow. The last lingerers at a watering-place,
+like those who cling on to a wreck, have usually something peculiarly
+sad in their aspect. Unable, as it were, to brave the waves like strong
+swimmers, they hold on to the last with some vague hope of escape, and,
+like a shipwrecked crew, drawing closer to each other in adversity than
+in more prosperous times, they condescend now to acquaintance, and
+even intimacy, where, before, a mere nod of recognition was alone
+interchanged. Such were the three who now, buttoned up to the chin,
+and with hands deeply thrust into side-pockets, paced backwards and
+forwards, sometimes exchanging a few words, but in that broken
+and discursive fashion that showed that no tie of mutual taste or
+companionship had bound them together.
+
+The youngest of the party was a small and very slightly made man of
+about five or six-and-twenty, whose face, voice, and figure were almost
+feminine, and, only for a very slight line of black moustache, might
+have warranted the suspicion of a disguise. His lacquered boots and
+spotless yellow gloves appeared somewhat out of season, as well as the
+very light textured coat which he wore; but Mr. Albert Jekyl had been
+accidentally detained at Baden, waiting for that cruel remittance which,
+whether the sin be that of agent or relative, is ever so slow of coming.
+That he bore the inconvenience admirably (and without the slightest show
+of impatience) it is but fair to confess; and whatever chagrin either
+the detention, the bad weather, or the solitude may have occasioned, no
+vestige of discontent appeared upon features where a look of practised
+courtesy, and a most bland smile, gave the predominant expression. "Who
+he was," or, in other words, whence he came, of what family, with what
+fortune, pursuits, or expectations, we are not ashamed to confess our
+utter ignorance, seeing that it was shared by all those that tarried
+that season at Baden, with whom, however, he lived on terms of easy and
+familiar intercourse.
+
+The next to him was a bilious-looking man, somewhat past the middle of
+life, with that hard and severe cast of features that rather repels than
+invites intimacy. In figure he was compactly and stoutly built, his
+step as he walked, and his air as he stood, showed one whose military
+training had given the whole tone to his character. Certain strong lines
+about the mouth, and a peculiar puckering of the angles of the eyes,
+boded a turn for sarcasm, which all his instincts, and they were Scotch
+ones, could not completely repress. His voice was loud, sharp, and
+ringing, the voice of a man who, when he said a thing, would not brook
+being asked to repeat it. That Colonel Haggerstone knew how to be
+sapling as well as oak, was a tradition among those who had served with
+him; still it is right to add, that his more congenial mood was the
+imperative, and that which he usually practised. The accidental lameness
+of one of his horses had detained him some weeks at Baden, a
+durance which assuredly appeared to push his temper to its very last
+intrenchments.
+
+The third representative of forlorn humanity was a very tall, muscular
+man, whose jockey-cut green coat and wide-brimmed hat contrasted oddly
+with a pair of huge white moustaches, that would have done credit to
+a captain of the Old Guard. On features, originally handsome, time,
+poverty, and dissipation had left many a mark; but still the half-droll,
+half-truculent twinkle of his clear gray eyes showed him one whom no
+turn of fortune could thoroughly subdue, and who, even in the very
+hardest of his trials, could find heart to indulge his humor for Peter
+Dalton was an Irishman; and although many years an absentee, held the
+dear island and its prejudices as green in his memory as though he had
+left it but a week before.
+
+Such were the three, who, without one sympathy in common, without a
+point of contact in character, were now drawn into a chance acquaintance
+by the mere accident of bad weather. Their conversation if such it could
+be called showed how little progress could be made in intimacy by those
+whose roads in life lie apart. The bygone season, the company, the
+play-table and its adventures, were all discussed so often, that nothing
+remained but the weather. That topic, so inexhaustible to Englishmen,
+however, offered little variety now, for it had been uniformly bad for
+some weeks past.
+
+"Where do you propose to pass the winter, sir?" said Haggerstone to
+Jekyl, after a somewhat lengthy lamentation over the probable condition
+of all the Alpine passes.
+
+"I 've scarcely thought of it yet," simpered out the other, with his
+habitual smile. "There's no saying where one ought to pitch his tent
+till the Carnival opens."
+
+"And you, sir?" asked Haggerstone of his companion on the other side.
+
+"Upon my honor, I don't know then," said Dalton; "but I would n't wonder
+if I stayed here, or hereabouts."
+
+"Here! why, this is Tobolsk, sir! You surely couldn't mean to pass a
+winter here?"
+
+"I once knew a man who did it," interposed Jekyl, blandly. "They cleaned
+him out at 'the tables;' and so he had nothing for it but to remain.
+He made rather a good thing of it, too; for it seems these worthy
+people, however conversant with the great arts of ruin, had never seen
+the royal game of thimble-rig; and Frank Mathews walked into them all,
+and contrived to keep himself in beet-root and boiled beef by his little
+talents."
+
+"Was n't that the fellow who was broke at Kilmagund?" croaked
+Haggerstone.
+
+"Something happened to him in India; I never well knew what," simpered
+Jekyl. "Some said he had caught the cholera; others, that he had got
+into the Company's service."
+
+"By way of a mishap, sir, I suppose," said the Colonel, tartly.
+
+"He would n't have minded it, in the least. For certain," resumed the
+other, coolly, "he was a sharp-witted fellow; always ready to take the
+tone of any society."
+
+The Colonel's cheek grew yellower, and his eyes sparkled with an angrier
+lustre; but he made no rejoinder.
+
+"That's the place to make a fortune, I'm told," said Dalton. "I hear
+there's not the like of it all the world over."
+
+"Or to spend one," added Haggerstone, curtly.
+
+"Well, and why not?" replied Dalton. "I 'm sure it 's as pleasant as
+saving barring a man 's a Scotchman."
+
+"And if he should be, sir? and if he were one that now stands before
+you?" said Haggerstone, drawing himself proudly up, and looking the
+other sternly in the face.
+
+"No offence no offence in life. I did n't mean to hurt your feelings.
+Sure, a man can't help where he 's going to be born."
+
+"I fancy we'd all have booked ourselves for a cradle in Buckingham
+Palace," interposed Jekyl, "if the matter were optional."
+
+"Faith! I don't think so," broke in Dalton. "Give me back
+Corrig-O'Neal, as my grandfather Pearce had it, with the whole barony
+of Kilmurray-O'Mahon, two packs of hounds, and the first cellar in
+the county, and to the devil I'd fling all the royal residences ever I
+seen."
+
+"The sentiment is scarcely a loyal one, sir," said Haggerstone, "and, as
+one wearing his Majesty's cloth, I beg to take the liberty of reminding
+you of it."
+
+"Maybe it isn't; and what then?" said Dalton, over whose good-natured
+countenance a passing cloud of displeasure lowered.
+
+"Simply, sir, that it shouldn't be uttered in my presence," said
+Haggerstone.
+
+"Phew!" said Dalton, with a long whistle, "is that what you 're at? See,
+now" here he turned fully round, so as to face the Colonel "see, now,
+I 'm the dullest fellow in the world at what is called 'taking a thing
+up;' but make it clear for me let me only see what is pleasing to the
+company, and it is n't Peter Dalton will balk your fancy."
+
+"May I venture to remark," said Jekyl, blandly, "that you are both in
+error, and however I may (the cold of the season being considered) envy
+your warmth, it is after all only so much caloric needlessly expended."
+
+"I was n't choleric at all," broke in Dalton, mistaking the word, and
+thus happily, by the hearty laugh his blunder created, bringing the
+silly altercation to an end.
+
+"Well," said Haggerstone, "since we are all so perfectly agreed in our
+sentiments, we could n't do better than dine together, and have a bumper
+to the King's health."
+
+"I always dine at two, or half-past," simpered Jekyl; "besides, I'm on a
+regimen, and never drink wine."
+
+"There 's nobody likes a bit of conviviality better than myself,"
+said Dal ton; "but I 've a kind of engagement, a promise I made this
+morning."
+
+There was an evident confusion in the way these words were uttered,
+which did not escape either of the others, who exchanged the most
+significant glances as he spoke.
+
+"What have we here?" cried Jekyl, as he sprang to the window and looked
+out. "A courier, by all that's muddy! Who could have expected such an
+apparition at this time?"
+
+"What can bring people here now?" said Haggerstone, as with his glass
+to his eye he surveyed the little well-fed figure, who, in his tawdry
+jacket all slashed with gold, and heavy jack-boots, was closely locked
+in the embraces of the landlord.
+
+Jekyl at once issued forth to learn the news, and, although not fully
+three minutes absent, returned to his companions with a full account of
+the expected arrivals.
+
+"It's that rich banker, Sir Stafford Onslow, with his family. They were
+on their way to Italy, and made a mess of it somehow in the Black
+Forest they got swept away by a torrent, or crushed by an avalanche, or
+something of the kind, and Sir Stafford was seized with the gout, and so
+they 've put back, glad even to make such a port as Baden."
+
+"If it's the gout's the matter with him," said Dalton, "I 've the finest
+receipt in the world. Take a pint of spirits poteen if you can get it
+beat up two eggs and a pat of butter in it; throw in a clove of garlic
+and a few scrapings of horseradish, let it simmer over the fire for a
+minute or two, stir it with a sprig of rosemary to give it a flavor, and
+then drink it off."
+
+"Gracious Heaven! what a dose!" exclaimed Jekyl, in horror.
+
+"Well, then, I never knew it fail. My father took it for forty years,
+and there wasn't a haler man in the country. If it was n't that he gave
+up the horseradish for he did n't like the taste of it he 'd, maybe, be
+alive at this hour."
+
+"The cure was rather slow of operation," said Haggerstone, with a sneer.
+
+"'Twas only the more like all remedies for Irish grievances, then,"
+observed Dal ton, and his face grew a shade graver as he spoke.
+
+"Who was it this Onslow married?" said the Colonel, turning to Jekyl.
+
+"One of the Headworths, I think."
+
+"Ah, to be sure; Lady Hester. She was a handsome woman when I saw
+her first, but she fell off sadly; and indeed, if she had not, she 'd
+scarcely have condescended to an alliance with a man in trade, even
+though he were Sir Gilbert Stafford."
+
+"Sir Gilbert Stafford!" repeated Dalton.
+
+"Yes, sir; and now Sir Gilbert Stafford Onslow. He took the name from
+that estate in Warwickshire; Skepton Park, I believe they call it."
+
+"By my conscience, I wish that was the only thing he took," ejaculated
+Dalton, with a degree of fervor that astonished the others, "for he
+took an elegant estate that belonged by right to my wife. Maybe you have
+heard tell of Corrig-O'Neal?"
+
+Haggerstone shook his head, while with his elbow he nudged his
+companion, to intimate his total disbelief in the whole narrative.
+
+"Surely you must have heard of the murder of Arthur Godfrey, of
+Corrig-O'Neal; was n't the whole world ringing with it?"
+
+Another negative sign answered this appeal.
+
+"Well, well, that beats all ever I heard! but so it is, sorrow bit they
+care in England if we all murdered each other! Arthur Godfrey, as I was
+saying, was my wife's brother, there were just the two of them, Arthur
+and Jane; she was my wife."
+
+"Ah! here they come!" exclaimed Jekyl, not sorry for the event which so
+opportunely interrupted Dalton's unpromising history. And now a heavy
+travelling-carriage, loaded with imperials and beset with boxes, was
+dragged up to the door by six smoking horses. The courier and the
+landlord were immediately in attendance, and after a brief delay the
+steps were lowered, and a short, stout man, with a very red face and
+a very yellow wig, descended, and assisted a lady to alight. She was a
+tall woman, whose figure and carriage were characterized by an air of
+fashion. After her came a younger lady; and lastly, moving with great
+difficulty, and showing by his worn looks and enfeebled frame the
+suffering he had endured, came a very thin, mild-looking man of about
+sixty. Leaning upon the arm of the courier at one side, and of his stout
+companion, whom he called Doctor, at the other, he slowly followed the
+ladies into the house. They had scarcely disappeared when a caleche,
+drawn by three horses at a sharp gallop, drew up, and a young fellow
+sprang out, whose easy gestures and active movements showed that all
+the enjoyments of wealth and all the blandishments of fashion had not
+undermined the elastic vigor of body which young Englishmen owe to the
+practice of field sports.
+
+"This place quite deserted, I suppose," cried he, addressing the
+landlord. "No one here?"
+
+"No one, sir. All gone," was the reply.
+
+Haggerstone's head shook with a movement of impatience as he heard
+this remark, disparaging as it was, to his own importance; but he said
+nothing, and resumed his walk as before.
+
+"Our Irish friend is gone away, I perceive," said Jekyl, as he looked
+around in vain for Dalton. "Do you believe all that story of the estate
+he told us?"
+
+"Not a syllable of it, sir. I never yet met an Irishman and it has been
+my lot to know some scores of them who had not been cheated out of a
+magnificent property, and was not related to half the peerage to boot.
+Now, I take it that our highly connected friend is rather out at elbows!"
+And he laughed his own peculiar hard laugh, as though the mere fancy
+of another man's poverty was something inconceivably pleasant and
+amusing.
+
+"Dinner, sir," said the waiter, entering and addressing the Colonel.
+
+"Glad of it," cried he; "it's the only way to kill time in this cursed
+place;" and so saying, and without the ceremony of a good-bye to his
+companion, the Colonel bustled out of the room with a step intended to
+represent extreme youth and activity. "That gentleman dines at two?"
+asked he of the waiter, as he followed him up the stairs.
+
+"He has not dined at all, sir, for some days back," said the waiter. "A
+cup of coffee in the morning, and a biscuit, are all that he takes."
+
+The Colonel made an expressive gesture by turning out the lining of his
+pocket.
+
+"Yes, sir," replied the other, significantly; "very much that way, I
+believe." And with that he uncovered the soup, and the Colonel arranged
+his napkin and prepared to dine.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II. AN HUMBLE INTERIOR
+
+WHEN Dalton parted from his companions at the "Russie," it was to
+proceed by many an intricate and narrow passage to a remote part of the
+upper town, where close to the garden wall of the Ducal Palace stood,
+and still stands, a little solitary two-storied house, framed in wood,
+and the partitions displaying some very faded traces of fresco painting.
+Here was the well-known shop of a toy-maker; and although now closely
+barred and shuttered, in summer many a gay and merry troop of children
+devoured with eager eyes the treasures of Hans Roeckle.
+
+Entering a dark and narrow passage beside the shop, Dalton ascended the
+little creaking stairs which led to the second story. The landing place
+was covered with firewood, great branches of newly-hewn beech and oak,
+in the midst of which stood a youth, hatchet in hand, busily engaged
+in chopping and splitting the heavy masses around him. The flush of
+exercise upon his cheek suited well the character of a figure which,
+clothed only in shirt and trousers, presented a perfect picture of
+youthful health and symmetry.
+
+"Tired, Frank?" asked the old man, as he came up.
+
+"Tired, father! not a bit of it. I only wish I had as much more to split
+for you, since the winter will be a cold one."
+
+"Come in and sit down, boy, now," said the father, with a slight
+tremor as he spoke. "We cannot have many more opportunities of talking
+together. To-morrow is the 28th of November."
+
+"Yes; and I must be in Vienna by the fourth, so Uncle Stephen writes."
+
+"You must not call him uncle, Frank, he forbids it himself; besides, he
+is my uncle, and not yours. My father and he were brothers, but never
+saw each other after fifteen years of age, when the Count that 's what
+we always called him entered the Austrian service, so that we are all
+strangers to each other."
+
+"His letter does n't show any lively desire for a closer intimacy," said
+the boy, laughing. "A droll composition it is, spelling and all."
+
+"He left Ireland when he was a child, and lucky he was to do so," sighed
+Dalton, heavily. "I wish I had done the same."
+
+The chamber into which they entered was, although scrupulously clean and
+neat, marked by every sign of poverty. The furniture was scanty and of
+the humblest kind; the table linen, such as used by the peasantry, while
+the great jug of water that stood on the board seemed the very climax of
+narrow fortune in a land where the very poorest are wine-drinkers.
+
+A small knapsack with a light travelling-cap on it, and a staff beside
+it, seemed to attract Dalton's eyes as he sat down. "It is but a poor
+equipment, that yonder. Frank," said he at last, with a forced smile.
+
+"The easier carried," replied the lad, gayly.
+
+"Very true," sighed the other. "You must make the journey on foot."
+
+"And why not, father? Of what use all this good blood, of which I have
+been told so often and so much, if it will not enable a man to compete
+with the low-born peasant. And see how well this knapsack sits," cried
+he, as he threw it on his shoulder. "I doubt if the Emperor's pack will
+be as pleasant to carry."
+
+"So long as you haven't to carry a heavy heart, boy," said Dalton, with
+deep emotion, "I believe no load is too much."
+
+"If it were not for leaving you and the girls, I never could be happier,
+never more full of hope, father. Why should not _I_ win my way upward as
+Count Stephen has done? Loyalty and courage are not the birthright of
+only one of our name!"
+
+"Bad luck was all the birthright ever I inherited," said the old man,
+passionately; "bad luck in everything I touched through life! Where
+others grew rich, I became a beggar; where they found happiness, _I_ met
+misery and ruin! But it's not of this I ought to be thinking now," cried
+he, changing his tone. "Let us see, where are the girls?" And so saying,
+he entered a little kitchen which adjoined the room, and where, engaged
+in the task of preparing the dinner, was a girl, who, though several
+years older, bore a striking resemblance to the boy. Over features that
+must once have been the very type of buoyant gayety, years of sorrow and
+suffering had left their deep traces, and the dark circles around the
+eyes betrayed how deeply she had known affliction. Ellen Dalton's figure
+was faulty for want of height in proportion to her size, but had another
+and more grievous defect in a lameness, which made her walk with the
+greatest difficulty. This was the consequence of an accident when
+riding, a horse having fallen upon her and fractured the hip-bone. It
+was said, too, that she had been engaged to be married at the time, but
+that her lover, shocked by the disfigurement, had broken off the match,
+and thus made this calamity the sorrow of a life long.
+
+"Where's Kate?" said the father, as he cast a glance around the chamber.
+
+Ellen drew near, and whispered a few words in his ear.
+
+"Not in this dreadful weather; surely, Ellen, you didn't let her go out
+in such a night as this?"
+
+"Hush!" murmured she, "Frank will hear you; and remember, father, it is
+his last night with us."
+
+"Could n't old Andy have found the place?" asked Daiton; and as he
+spoke, he turned his eyes to a corner of the kitchen, where a little
+old man sat in a straw chair peeling turnips, while he croned a ditty to
+himself in a low singsong tone; his thin, wizened features, browned
+by years and smoke, his small scratch wig, and the remains of an old
+scarlet hunting-coat that he wore, giving him the strongest resemblance
+to one of the monkeys one sees in a street exhibition.
+
+"Poor Andy!" cried Ellen, "he'd have lost his way twenty times before he
+got to the bridge."
+
+"Faith, then, he must be greatly altered," said Dalton, "for I 've seen
+him track a fox for twenty miles of ground, when not a dog of the pack
+could come on the trace. Eh, Andy!" cried he, aloud, and stooping
+down so as to be heard by the old man, "do you remember the cover at
+Corralin?"
+
+"Don't ask him, father," said Ellen, eagerly; "he cannot sleep for the
+whole night after his old memories have been awakened."
+
+The spell, however, had begun to work; and the old man, letting fall
+both knife and turnip, placed his hands on his knees, and in a weak,
+reedy treble began a strange, monotonous kind of air, as if to remind
+himself of the words, which, after a minute or two, he remembered thus.
+
+     "There was old Tom Whaley,
+     And Anthony Baillie,
+     And Fitzgerald, the Knight of Glynn,
+     And Father Clare,
+     On his big brown mare,
+     That moruin' at Corralin!"
+
+"Well done, Andy! well done!" exclaimed Dalton. "You 're as fresh as a
+four-year-old."
+
+"Iss!" said Andy, and went on with his song.
+
+     "And Miles O'Shea,
+     On his cropped tail bay,
+     Was soon seen ridin' in.
+     He was vexed and crossed
+     At the light hoar frost,
+     That mornin' at Corralin."
+
+"Go on, Andy! go on, my boy!" exclaimed Dalton, in a rapture at the
+words that reminded him of many a day in the field and many a night's
+carouse. "What comes next?"
+
+"Ay!" cried Andy.
+
+     "Says he, 'When the wind
+     Laves no scent behind,
+     To keep the dogs out 's a sin;
+     I 'll be d--d if I stay,
+     To lose my day,
+     This mornin' at Corralin.'"
+
+But ye see he was out in his reck'nin'!" cried Andy; "for, as if
+
+     "To give him the lie,
+     There rose a cry,
+     As the hounds came yelpin' in;
+     And from every throat
+     There swelled one note,
+     That moruin' at Corralin."
+
+A fit of coughing, brought on by a vigorous attempt to imitate the cry
+of a pack, here closed Andy's minstrelsy; and Ellen, who seemed to have
+anticipated some such catastrophe, now induced her father to return
+to the sitting-room, while she proceeded to use those principles of
+domestic medicine clapping on the back and cold water usually deemed of
+efficacy in like cases.
+
+"There now, no more singing, but take up your knife and do what I bade
+you," said she, affecting an air of rebuke; while the old man, whose
+perceptions did not rise above those of a spaniel, hung down his head
+in silence. At the same moment the outer door of the kitchen opened, and
+Kate Dalton entered. Taller and several years younger than her sister,
+she was in the full pride of that beauty of which blue eyes and dark
+hair are the chief characteristics, and is deemed by many as peculiarly
+Irish. Delicately fair, and with features regular as a Grecian model,
+there was a look of brilliant, almost of haughty, defiance about her, to
+which her gait and carriage seemed to contribute; nor could the humble
+character of her dress, where strictest poverty declared itself,
+disguise the sentiment.
+
+"How soon you're back, dearest!" said Ellen, as she took off the
+dripping cloak from her sister's shoulders.
+
+"And only think, Ellen, I was obliged to go to Lichtenthal, where little
+Hans spends all his evenings in the winter season, at the 'Hahn!' And
+just fancy his gallantry! He would see me home, and would hold up
+the umbrella, too, over my head, although it kept his own arm at full
+stretch; while, by the pace we walked, I did as much for his legs. It is
+very ungrateful to laugh at him, for he said a hundred pretty things to
+me, about my courage to venture out in such weather, about my accent as
+I spoke German, and lastly, in praise of my skill as a sculptor. Only
+fancy, Ellen, what a humiliation for me to confess that these pretty
+devices were yours, and not mine; and that my craft went no further than
+seeking for the material which your genius was to fashion."
+
+"Genius, Kate!" exclaimed Ellen, laughing. "Has Master Hans been giving
+you a lesson in flattery; but tell me of your success which has he
+taken?"
+
+"All everything!" cried Kate; "for although at the beginning the little
+fellow would select one figure and then change it for another, it was
+easy to see that he could not bring himself to part with any of them:
+now sitting down in rapture before the 'Travelling Student,' now gazing
+delightedly at the 'Charcoal-Burners,' but all his warmest enthusiasm
+bursting forth as I produced the 'Forest Maiden at the Well.' He did,
+indeed, think the 'Pedler' too handsome, but he found no such fault
+with the Maiden: and here, dearest, here are the proceeds, for I told
+him that we must have ducats in shining gold for Frank's new crimson
+purse; and here they are;" and she held up a purse of gay colors,
+through whose meshes the bright metal glittered.
+
+"Poor Hans!" said Ellen, feelingly. "It is seldom that so humble an
+artist meets so generous a patron."
+
+"He's coming to-night," said Kate, as she smoothed down the braids of
+her glossy hair before a little glass, "he's coming to say good-bye to
+Frank."
+
+"He is so fond of Frank."
+
+"And of Frank's sister Nelly; nay, no blushing, dearest; for myself,
+I am free to own admiration never comes amiss, even when offered by as
+humble a creature as the dwarf, Hans Roeckle."
+
+"For shame, Kate, for shame! It is this idle vanity that stifles honest
+pride, as rank weeds destroy the soil for wholesome plants to live in."
+
+"It is very well for you, Nelly, to talk of pride, but poor things like
+myself are fain to content themselves with the baser metal, and even put
+up with vanity! There, now, no sermons, no seriousness; I'll listen
+to nothing to-day that savors of sadness, and, as I hear pa and Frank
+laughing, I'll be of the party."
+
+The glance of affection and admiration which Ellen bestowed upon her
+sister was not unmixed with an expression of painful anxiety, and the
+sigh that escaped her told with what tender interest she watched over
+her.
+
+The little dinner, prepared with more than usual care, at length
+appeared, and the family sat around the humble board with a sense of
+happiness dashed by one only reflection, that on the morrow Frank's
+place would be vacant.
+
+Still each exerted himself to overcome the sadness of that thought, or
+even to dally with it, as one suggestive of pleasure; and when Ellen
+placed unexpectedly a great flask of Margraer before them to drink the
+young soldier's health, the zest and merriment rose to the highest. Nor
+was old Andy forgotten in the general joy. A large bumper of wine was
+put before him, and the door of the sitting-room left open, as if to let
+him participate in the merry noises that prevailed there. How naturally,
+and instinctively, too, their hopes gave color to all they said, as they
+told each other that the occasion was a happy one! that dear Frank would
+soon be an officer, and of course distinguished by the favor of some
+one high in power; and lastly, they dwelt with such complacency on
+the affectionate regard and influence of "Count Stephen" as certain
+to secure the youth's advancement. They had often heard of the Count's
+great military fame, and the esteem in which he was held by the Court of
+Vienna; and now they speculated on the delight it would afford the old
+warrior who had never been married himself to have one like Frank, to
+assist by his patronage, and promote by his influence, and with such
+enthusiasm did they discuss the point, that at last they actually
+persuaded themselves that Frank's entering the service was a species of
+devotion to his relative's interest, by affording him an object worthy
+of his regard and affection.
+
+While Ellen loved to dwell upon the great advantages of one who should
+be like a father to the boy, aiding him by wise counsel, and guiding him
+in every difficulty, Kate preferred to fancy the Count introducing Frank
+into all the brilliant society of the splendid capital, presenting him
+to those whose acquaintance was distinction, and at once launching him
+into the world of fashion and enjoyment. The promptitude with which he
+acceded to their father's application on Frank's behalf, was constantly
+referred to as the evidence of his affectionate feeling for the family;
+and if his one solitary letter was of the very briefest and driest of
+all epistolary essays, they accounted for this very naturally by the
+length of time which had elapsed since he had either spoken or written
+his native language.
+
+In the midst of these self-gratulations and pleasant fancies the door
+opened, and Hans Roeckle appeared, covered from head to foot by a light
+hoar-frost, that made him look like the figure with which an ingenious
+confectioner sometimes decorates a cake. The dwarf stood staring at the
+signs of a conviviality so new and unexpected.
+
+"Is this Christmas time, or Holy Monday, or the Three Kings' festival,
+or what is it, that I see you all feasting?" cried Hans, shaking the
+snow off his hat, and proceeding to remove a cloak which he had draped
+over his shoulder in most artistic folds.
+
+"We were drinking Frank's health, Master Hans," said Dalton, "before he
+leaves us. Come over and pledge him too, and wish him all success, and
+that he may live to be a good and valued soldier of the Emperor."
+
+Hans had by this time taken off his cloak, which, by mounting on a
+chair, he contrived to hang up, and now approached the table with great
+solemnity, a pair of immense boots of Russian leather, that reached to
+his hips, giving him a peculiarly cumbrous and heavy gait; but these,
+as well as a long vest of rabbit skins that buttoned close to the neck,
+made his invariable costume in the winter.
+
+"I drink," said the dwarf, as, filling a bumper, he turned to each of
+the company severally "I drink to the venerable father and the fair
+maidens, and the promising youth of this good family, and I wish them
+every blessing good Christians ought to ask for; but as for killing and
+slaying, for burning villages and laying waste cities, I 've no sympathy
+with these."
+
+"But you are speaking of barbarous times, Master Hans," said Kate, whose
+cheek mantled into scarlet as she spoke, "when to be strong was to be
+cruel, and when ill-disciplined hordes tyrannized over good citizens."
+
+[Illustration:  040]
+
+"I am talking of soldiers, such as the world has ever seen them," cried
+Hans, passionately; but of whose military experiences, it is but fair
+to say, his own little toyshop supplied all the source. "What are they?"
+cried he, "but toys that never last, whether he who plays with them be
+child or kaiser! always getting smashed, heads knocked off here, arms
+and legs astray there; ay, and strangest of all, thought most of when
+most disabled! and then at last packed up in a box or a barrack, it
+matters not which, to be forgotten and seen no more! Hadst thou thought
+of something useful, boy some good craft, a Jager with a corkscrew
+inside of him, a tailor that turns into a pair of snuffers, a Dutch lady
+that makes a pin-cushion, these are toys people don't weary of but a
+soldier! to stand ever thus" and Hans shouldered the fire-shovel, and
+stood "at the present." "To wheel about so walk ten steps here ten back
+there never so much as a glance at the pretty girl who is passing
+close beside you." Here he gave a look of such indescribable tenderness
+towards Kate, that the whole party burst into a fit of laughter. "They
+would have drawn me for the conscription," said Hans, proudly, "but I
+was the only son of a widow, and they could not."
+
+"And are you never grieved to think what glorious opportunities of
+distinction have been thus lost to you?" said Kate, who, notwithstanding
+Ellen's imploring looks, could not resist the temptation of amusing
+herself with the dwarf's vanity.
+
+"I have never suffered that thought to weigh upon me," cried Hans, with
+the most unsuspecting simplicity. "It is true, I might have risen to
+rank and honors; but how would they have suited me, or I them? Or
+how should I have made those dearest to me sharers in a fortune so
+unbecoming to us? Think of poor Hans's old mother, if her son were to
+ask her blessing with a coat all glittering with stars and crosses; and
+then think of her as I have seen her, when I go, as I do every year, to
+visit her in the Bregentzer Wald, when she comes out to meet me with our
+whole village, proud of her son, and yet not ashamed of herself. That is
+glory that is distinction enough for Hans Roeckle."
+
+The earnestness of his voice, and the honest manliness of his
+sentiments, were more than enough to cover the venial errors of a vanity
+that was all simplicity. It is true that Hans saw the world only through
+the medium of his own calling, and that not a very exalted one; but
+still there went through all the narrowness of his views a tone of
+kindliness a hearty spirit of benevolence, that made his simplicity at
+times rise into something almost akin to wisdom. He had known the Dal
+tons as his tenants, and soon perceived that they were not like those
+rich English, from whom his countrymen derive such abundant gains. He
+saw them arrive at a season when all others were taking their departure,
+and detected in all their efforts at economy, not alone that they were
+poor, but, sadder still, that they were of those who seem never to
+accustom themselves to the privations of narrow fortune; for, while some
+submit in patience to their humble lot, with others life is one long and
+hard-fought struggle, wherein health, hope, and temper are expended in
+vain. That the Daltons maintained a distance and reserve towards others
+of like fortune did, indeed, puzzle honest Hans, perhaps it displeased
+him, too, for he thought it might be pride; but then their treatment
+of himself disarmed that suspicion, for they not only received him ever
+cordially, but with every sign of real affection; and what was he to
+expect such? Nor were these the only traits that fascinated him; for all
+the rugged shell the kernel was a heart as tender, as warm, and as
+full of generous emotions as ever beat within an ampler breast. The two
+sisters, in Hans's eyes, were alike beautiful; each had some grace
+or charm that he had never met with before, nor could he ever satisfy
+himself whether his fancy was more taken by Kate's wit or by Ellen's
+gentleness.
+
+If anything were needed to complete the measure of his admiration, their
+skill in carving those wooden figures, which he sold, would have been
+sufficient. These were in his eyes nor was he a mean connoisseur high
+efforts of genius; and Hans saw in them a poetry and a truthfulness to
+nature that such productions rarely, if ever, possess. To sell, such
+things as mere toys, he regarded as little short of a sacrilege, while
+even to part with them at all cost him a pang like that the gold-worker
+of Florence experienced when he saw some treasure of Benvenuto's chisel
+leave his possession. Not, indeed, that honest Hans had to struggle
+against that criminal passion which prompted the jeweller, even by deeds
+of assassination, to repossess himself of the coveted objects; nay, on
+the contrary, he felt a kindness and a degree of interest towards those
+in whose keeping they were, as if some secret sympathy united them to
+each other.
+
+Is it any wonder if poor Hans forgot himself in such pleasant company,
+and sat a full hour and a half longer than he ought? To him the little
+intervals of silence that were occasionally suffered to intervene were
+but moments of dreamy and delicious revery, wherein his fancy wandered
+away in a thousand pleasant paths; and when at last the watchman for
+remember, good reader, they were in that primitive Germany where customs
+change not too abruptly announced two o'clock, little Hans did not
+vouchsafe a grateful response to the quaint old rhyme that was chanted
+beneath the window.
+
+"That little chap would sit to the day of judgment, and never ask to wet
+his lips," said Dal ton, as Frank accompanied the dwarf downstairs to
+the street door.
+
+"I believe he not only forgot the hour, but where he was, and everything
+else," said Kate.
+
+"And poor Frank! who should have been in bed some hours ago," sighed
+Nelly.
+
+"Gone at last, girls!" exclaimed Frank, as he entered, laughing. "If it
+hadn't been a gust of wind that caught him at the door, and carried
+him clean away, our leave-taking might have lasted till morning. Poor
+fellow! he had so many cautions to give me, such mountains of good
+counsel; and see, here is a holy medal he made me accept. He told me the
+'Swedes' would never harm me so long as I wore it; he still fancies
+that we are in the Thirty Years' War."
+
+In a hearty laugh over Hans Roeckle's political knowledge, they wished
+each other an affectionate good-night, and separated. Frank was to have
+his breakfast by daybreak, and each sister affected to leave the care of
+that meal to the other, secretly resolving to be up and stirring first.
+
+Save old Andy, there was not one disposed to sleep that night. All were
+too full of their own cares. Even Dalton himself, blunted as were
+his feelings by a long life of suffering, his mind was tortured by
+anxieties; and one sad question arose again and again before him,
+without an answer ever occurring: "What is to become of the girls when
+I am gone? Without a home, they will soon be without a protector!"
+The bright fancies, the hopeful visions in which the evening had been
+passed, made the revulsion to these gloomy thoughts the darker. He lay
+with his hands pressed upon his face, while the hot tears gushed from
+eyes that never before knew weeping.
+
+At moments he half resolved not to let Frank depart, but an instant's
+thought showed him how futile would be the change. It would be but
+leaving him to share the poverty, to depend upon the scanty pittance
+already too little for themselves. "Would Count Stephen befriend the
+poor girls?" he asked himself over and over; and in his difficulty he
+turned to the strange epistle in which the old general announced Frank's
+appointment as a cadet.
+
+The paper, the square folding, the straight, stiff letters, well suited
+a style which plainly proclaimed how many years his English had lain at
+rest. The note ran thus:
+
+     GRABEN-WIEN, Octobre 9, 18--
+
+     WORTHY SIR AND NEPHEW, Your kindly greeting, but long-time
+     on-the-road-coming letter is in my hands. It is to me
+     pleasure that I announce the appointment of your son as a
+     Cadet in the seventh battalion of the Carl-Franz Infanterie.
+     So with, let him in all speed of time report himself here at
+     Wien, before the War's Minister, bringing his Tauf schein
+     Baptism's sign as proof of Individualism.
+
+     I am yours, well to command, and much-loving kinsman,
+
+     GRAF DALTON VON AUERSBERG, Lieut.-General and
+     Feldzeugmeister, K.K.A.
+
+     To the high and well-born, the Freiherr v. Dalton, in Baden Baden.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III. THE FOREST ROAD.
+
+THIS dry epistle Dalton read and re-read, trying, if not to discover
+some touch of kindliness or interest, to detect, at least, some clew
+to its writer's nature; but to no use, its quaint formalism baffled all
+speculation, and he gave up the pursuit in despair. That "the Count"
+was his father's only brother, and a "Dalton," were the only grains of
+comfort he could extract from his meditations; but he had lived long
+enough in the world to know how little binding were the ties of kindred
+when once slackened by years and distance. The Count might, therefore,
+regard them in the light of intruders, and feel the very reverse of
+pleasure at the revival of a relationship which had slept for more than
+half a century. Dalton's pride or what he thought his pride revolted
+against this thought; for, although this same pride would not have
+withheld him from asking a favor of the Count, it would have assumed a
+most indignant attitude if refused, or even grudgingly accorded.
+
+When the thought first occurred to him of applying to his uncle in
+Frank's behalf, he never hesitated about the propriety of addressing
+a request to one with whom he had never interchanged a line in all his
+life; and now he was quite ready to take offence, if all the warmth
+of blood relationship should not fill the heart of him who had been an
+exile from home and family since his earliest boyhood.
+
+An easy, indolent selfishness had been the spirit of Dalton's whole
+life. He liked to keep a good house, and to see company about him;
+and this obtained for him the reputation of hospitality. He disliked
+unpopularity, and dreaded the "bad word" of the people; and hence he
+suffered his tenantry to fall into arrears and his estate into ruin. A
+vain rivalry with wealthier neighbors prevented retrenchment when
+his means were lessened. The unthinking selfishness of his nature was
+apparent even in his marriage, since it was in obedience to an old
+pledge extracted years before that Miss Godfrey accepted him, and parted
+in anger with her brother, who had ever loved her with the warmest
+affection. Mr. Godfrey never forgave his sister; and at his death, the
+mysterious' circumstances of which were never cleared up, his estate
+passed to a distant relative, the rick Sir Gilbert Stafford.
+
+Dalton, who long cherished the hope of a reconciliation, saw all
+prospect vanish when his wife died, which she did, it was said, of a
+broken heart. His debts were already considerable, and all the resources
+of borrowing and mortgage had been long since exhausted; nothing was
+then left for him but an arrangement with his creditors, which, giving
+him a pittance scarcely above the very closest poverty, enabled him to
+drag out life in the cheap places of the Continent; and thus, for nigh
+twenty years, had he wandered about from Dieppe to Ostend, to Bruges, to
+Dusseldorf, to Coblentz, and so on, among the small Ducal cities, till,
+with still failing fortune, he was fain to seek a residence for the
+winter in Baden, where house-rent, at least, would be almost saved to
+him.
+
+The same apathy that had brought on his ruin enabled him to bear it.
+Nothing has such a mock resemblance to wisdom as utter heartlessness;
+with all the seeming of true philosophy, it assumes a port and bearing
+above the trials of the world; holds on "the even tenor of its way,"
+undeterred by the reverses which overwhelm others, and even meets the
+sternest frowns of fortune with the bland smile of equanimity.
+
+In this way Dalton had deceived many who had known him in better days,
+and who now saw him, even in his adversity, with the same careless,
+good-natured look, as when he took the field with his own hounds, or
+passed round the claret at his own table. Even his own children were
+sharers in this delusion, and heard him with wondering admiration, as he
+told of the life he used to lead, and the style he once kept up at Mount
+Dalton. These were his favorite topics; and, as he grew older, he
+seemed to find a kind of consolation in contrasting all the hard rubs of
+present adversity with his once splendor.
+
+Upon Ellen Dalton, who had known and could still remember her mother,
+these recitals produced an impression of profound grief, associated as
+they were with the sufferings of a sick-bed and the closing sorrows of a
+life; while, in the others, they served to keep up a species of pride of
+birth, and an assumption of superiority to others of like fortune,
+which their father gloried in, representing, as he used to say, "the old
+spirit of the Dal tons."
+
+As for Kate, she felt it a compensation for present poverty to know that
+they were of gentle blood, and that if fortune, at some distant future,
+would deal kindly by them, to think that they should not obtrude
+themselves like upstarts on the world, but resume, as it were, the place
+that was long their own.
+
+In Frank the evil had taken a deeper root. Taught from his earliest
+infancy to believe himself the heir of an ancient house, pride of birth
+and station instilled into his mind by old Andy, the huntsman, the only
+dependant, whom, with characteristic wisdom, they had carried with
+them from Ireland, he never ceased to ponder on the subject, and wonder
+within himself if he should live to have "his own" again.
+
+Such a hold had this passion taken of him, that, even as a child, he
+would wander away for days long into lonely and unfrequented spots,
+thinking over the stories he had heard, and trying to conjure up before
+his eyes some resemblance to that ancient house and venerable domain
+which had been so long in his family. It was no part of his teaching to
+know by what spendthrift and reckless waste, by what a long career of
+folly, extravagance, and dissipation, the fortune of his family had been
+wrecked; or rather, many vague and shadowy suspicions had been left
+to fester in his mind of wrongs and injuries done them; of severe laws
+imposed by English ignorance or cruelty; of injustice, on this hand
+heartless indifference of friends on the other; the unrelenting anger
+of his uncle Godfrey filling up the measure of their calamities. Frank
+Dalton's education went very little further than this; but, bad as it
+was, its effect was blunted by the natural frankness and generosity of
+his character, its worst fruits being an over-estimate of himself and
+his pretensions, errors which the world has always the watchful kindness
+to correct in those who wear threadbare coats and patched boots.
+
+He was warmly and devotedly attached to his father and sisters, and
+whatever bitterness found its way into his heart was from seeing them
+enduring the many trials of poverty.
+
+All his enthusiasm for the service in which he was about to enter was,
+therefore, barely sufficient to overcome the sorrow of parting with
+those, whom alone of all the world he loved; and when the moment drew
+nigh for his departure, he forgot the bright illusions by which he had
+so often fed his hopes, and could only think of the grief of separation.
+
+His candle had burned down nearly to the socket, when he arose and
+looked at his watch. It was all dark as midnight without, although nigh
+six o'clock. He opened the window, and a thin snowdrift came slanting
+in, borne on a cutting north wind; he closed it hastily, and shuddered
+as he thought of the long and lonely march before him. All was silent
+in the house as he dressed himself and prepared for the road. With
+noiseless step he drew near his father's door and listened; everything
+was still. He could not bring himself to disturb him, so he passed on
+to the room where his sisters slept. The door lay ajar, and a candle was
+burning on the table. Frank entered on tiptoe and drew near the bed, but
+it was empty and had not been lain in. As he turned round he beheld Kate
+asleep in a chair, dressed as he had last seen her. She had never lain
+down, and the prayer-book, which had dropped from her hand, told how her
+last waking moments were passed.
+
+He kissed her twice, but even the hot tears that fell from his eyes upon
+her cheek did not break her slumber. He looked about him for some token
+to leave, that might tell he had been there, but there was nothing, and,
+with a low sigh, he stole from the room.
+
+As he passed out into the kitchen, Ellen was there. She had already
+prepared his breakfast, and was spreading the table when he entered.
+
+"How good of you how kind, Ellen," said he, as he passed his arm around
+her neck.
+
+"Hush, Frank, they are both sleeping. Poor papa never closed his eyes
+till half an hour ago, and Kate was fairly overcome ere she yielded."
+
+"You will say that I kissed them, Nelly, kissed them twice," said he,
+in a low, broken voice, "and that I could n't bear to awake them.
+Leave-taking is so sorrowful. Oh, Ellen, if I knew that you were all
+happy, that there were no hardships before you, when I 'm away!"
+
+"And why should we not, Frank?" said she, firmly. "There is no dishonor
+in this poverty, so long as there are no straits to make it seem other
+than it is. Let us rather pray for the spirit that may befit any lot we
+are thrown in, than for a fortune to which we might be unsuited."
+
+"Would you forget who we are, Ellen?" said he, half reproachfully.
+
+"I would remember it, Frank, in a temper less of pride than humility."
+
+"I do not see much of the family spirit in all this," rejoined he,
+almost angrily.
+
+"The family spirit," echoed she, feelingly. "What has it ever done for
+us, save injury? Has it suggested a high=bearing courage against the
+ills of narrow fortune? Has it told us how to bear poverty with dignity,
+or taught us one single lesson of patience and submission? Or has it, on
+the contrary, been ever present to whisper the changes in our condition
+how altered our lot making us ashamed of that companionship which our
+station rendered possible for us, and leaving us in the isolation of
+friendlessness for the sake of I blush to abuse the word our Pride! Oh,
+Frank, my dear, dear brother, take it not ill of me, that in our last
+moments together, perhaps for years, I speak what may jar upon your ears
+to hear; but remember that I am much older, that I have seen far more
+of the world, at least of its sorrows and cares, than you have. I have
+indeed known affliction in many ways, but have never found a poorer
+comforter in its troubles than what we call our Pride!"
+
+"You would have me forget I am a Dalton, then?" said the boy, in a tone
+of sorrowful meaning.
+
+"Never! when the recollection could prompt a generous or a noble action,
+a manly ambition, or a high-hearted thought; but the name will have
+no spell in it, if used to instil an imperious, discontented spirit,
+a regretful contrast of what we are, with what we might have been, or
+what, in a worldly sense, is more destructive still, a false reliance on
+the distinction of a family to which we have contributed nothing."
+
+
+[Illustration:    050]
+
+"You do not know, Nelly dearest, of what a comfort you have robbed me,"
+said Frank, sorrowfully.
+
+"Do not say so, my dearest brother," cried she, passing her arm around
+him; "a deception, a mere illusion, is unworthy of that name. Look above
+the gratification of mere vanity, and you will become steeled against
+the many wounds self-love is sure to receive in intercourse with the
+world. I cannot tell how, or with what associates, you are about to
+live, but I feel certain that in every station a man of truth and honor
+will make himself respected. Be such, dearest Frank. If family pride if
+the name of Dalton have value in your eyes, remember that upon you it
+rests to assert its right to distinction. If, as I would fondly hope,
+your heart dwells here with us, bethink ye what joy what holy gratitude
+you will diffuse around our humble hearth to know that our brother is a
+good man."
+
+It was some moments ere either could speak again. Emotions, very
+different ones, perhaps, filled their hearts, and each was too deeply
+moved for words. Frank's eyes were full of tears, and his cheek
+quivering, as he threw his knapsack on his shoulder.
+
+"You will write from Innspruck, Frank; but how many days will it take
+ere you reach that city?"
+
+"Twelve or fourteen at least, if I go on foot. There, Nelly, do not help
+me, dearest; I shall not have you tomorrow to fasten these straps."
+
+"This is not to be forgotten, Frank; it's Kate's present. How sorry she
+will be not to have given it with her own hands!" And so saying, she
+gave him the purse her sister had worked.
+
+"But there is gold in it," said the boy, growing pale with emotion.
+
+"Very little, Frank dearest," replied she, smiling. "A cadet must always
+have gold in his purse, so little Hans tells us; and you know how wise
+he is in all these matters."
+
+"And is it from a home like this that I am to take gold away!" cried he,
+passionately.
+
+"Nay, Frank, you must not persuade us that we are so very poor. I
+will not consent to any sense of martyrdom, I promise you." It was not
+without difficulty she could overcome his scruples; nor, perhaps, had
+she succeeded at all, if his thoughts had not been diverted into another
+channel by a light tapping at the door. It was Hans Roeckle come to
+awake him.
+
+Again and again the brother and sister embraced; and in a very agony of
+tears Frank tore himself away, and hastened down the stairs. The next
+moment the heavy house door banged loudly, and he was gone.
+
+Oh, the loneliness of mind in which he threaded his way through the dark
+and narrow streets, where the snow already lay deeply! With what sinking
+of the heart he turned to look for the last time at the window where the
+light the only one to be seen still glimmered. How little could all the
+promptings of hope suffice against the sad and dark reality that he was
+leaving all he loved, and all who loved him, to adventure upon a world
+where all was bleak and friendless!
+
+But not all his dark forebodings could equal hers from whom he had just
+parted. Loving her brother with an affection more like that of mother
+than sister, she had often thought over the traits of his character,
+where, with many a noble gift, the evil seeds of wrong teaching had
+left, like tall weeds among flowers, the baneful errors of inordinate
+self-esteem and pride. Ignorant of the career on which he was about to
+enter, Ellen could but speculate vaguely how such a character would be
+esteemed, and whether his native frankness and generosity would cover
+over, or make appear as foibles, these graver faults. Their own narrow
+fortunes, the very straits and privations of poverty, with all their
+cruel wounds to honest pride, and all their sore trials of temper, she
+could bear up against with an undaunted courage. She had learned her
+lesson in the only school wherein it is taught, and daily habit had
+instilled its own powers of endurance; but, for Frank, her ambition
+hoped a higher and brighter destiny, and now, in her solitude, and with
+a swelling heart, she knelt down and prayed for him. And, oh! if the
+utter ings of such devotion never rise to Heaven or meet acceptance
+there, they at least bring balm to the spirit of him who syllables
+them, building up a hope whose foundations are above the casualties of
+humanity, and giving a courage that mere self-reliance never gave.
+
+Little Hans not only came to awaken Frank, but to give him companionship
+for some miles of his way, a thoughtful kindness, for which the youth's
+deep preoccupation seemed to offer but a poor return. Indeed, Frank
+scarcely knew that he was not travelling in utter solitude, and all the
+skilful devices of the worthy dwarf to turn the channel of his thoughts
+were fruitless. Had there been sufficient light to have surveyed the
+equipment of his companion, it is more than probable that the sight
+would have done more to produce this diversion of gloom than any
+arguments which could have been used. Master Roeckle, whose mind was
+a perfect storehouse of German horrors, earthly and unearthly, and who
+imagined that a great majority of the human population of the globe were
+either bandits or witches, had surrounded himself with a whole museum
+of amulets and charms of various kinds. In his cap he wore the tail of
+a black squirrel, as a safeguard against the "Forest Imp;" a large dried
+toad hung around his neck, like an order, to protect him from the evil
+eye; a duck's foot was fastened to the tassel of his boot, as a talisman
+against drowning; while strings of medals, coins, precious stones,
+blessed beads, and dried insects, hung round and about him in every
+direction. Of all the portions of his equipment, however, what seemed
+the most absurd was a huge pole-axe of the fifteenth century, and which
+he carried as a defence against mere mortal foes, but which, from its
+weight and size, appeared far more likely to lay its bearer low than
+inflict injury upon others. It had been originally stored up in the Rust
+Kammer, at Prague, and was said to be the identical weapon with which
+Conrad slew the giant at Leutmeritz, a fact which warranted Hans in
+expending two hundred florins in purchasing it; as, to use his own
+emphatic words, "it was not every day one knew where to find the weapon
+to bring down a giant."
+
+As Hans, encumbered by his various adjuncts, trotted along beside his
+stalwart companion, he soon discovered that all his conversational
+ability to exert which cost him so dearly was utterly unattended to;
+he fell into a moody silence, and thus they journeyed for miles of way
+without interchanging a word. At last they came in sight of the little
+village of Hernitz Kretschen, whence by a by road Frank was to reach
+the regular line that leads through the Hohlen Thai to the Lake of
+Constance, and where they were to part.
+
+"I feel as though I could almost go all the way with you," said Hans, as
+they stopped to gaze upon the little valley where lay the village, and
+beyond which stretched a deep forest of dark pine-trees, traversed by a
+single road.
+
+"Nay, Hans," said Frank, smiling, as for the first time he beheld the
+strange figure beside him; "you must go back to your pleasant little
+village and live happily, to do many a kindness to others, as you have
+done to me to-day!"
+
+"I would like to take service with the Empress myself," said Hans, "if
+it were for some good and great cause, like the defence of the Church
+against the Turks, or the extermination of the race of dragons that
+infest the Lower Danube."
+
+"But you forget, Hans, it is an Emperor, rules over Austria now," said
+Frank, preferring to offer a correction to the less startling of his
+hallucinations.
+
+"No, no, Master Frank, they have not deposed the good Maria Teresa,
+they would never do that. I saw her picture over the doorway of the
+Burgermeister the last time I went to visit my mother in the Bregertzer
+Wald, and by the same token her crown and sceptre were just newly gilt,
+a thing they would not have done if she were not on the throne."
+
+"What if she were dead, and her son too?" said Frank; but his words were
+scarce uttered when he regretted to have said them, so striking was the
+change that came over the dwarf's features.
+
+"If that were indeed true, Heaven have mercy on us!" exclaimed he,
+piously. "Old Frederick will have but little pity for good Catholics!
+But no, Master Frank, this cannot be. The last time I received soldiers
+from Nuremberg they wore the same uniforms as ever, and the 'Moriamur
+pro Rege nostro, M. T.' was in gold letters on every banner as before."
+
+Frank was in no humor to disturb so innocent and so pleasing a delusion,
+and he gave no further opposition; and now they both descended the
+path which led to the little inn of the village. Here Hans insisted on
+performing the part of host, and soon the table was covered with brown
+bread and hard eggs, and those great massive sausages which Germans
+love, together with various flasks of Margrafler and other "Badisch"
+wines.
+
+"Who knows," said Hans, as he pledged his guest by ringing his
+wine-glass against the other's, "if, when we meet again, thou wouldst
+sit down at the table with such as me?"
+
+"How so, Hanserl?" asked the boy, in astonishment.
+
+"I mean, Master Franz, that you may become a colonel, or perhaps a
+general, with, mayhap, the 'St. Joseph' at your button-hole, or the
+'Maria Teresa' around your neck; and if so, how could you take your
+place at the board with the poor toy-maker?"
+
+"I am not ashamed to do so now," said Frank, haughtily; "and the Emperor
+cannot make me more a gentleman than my birth has done. Were I to be
+ashamed of those who befriended me, I should both disgrace my rank and
+name together."
+
+"These are good words, albeit too proud ones," said Hans, thoughtfully.
+"As a guide through life, pride will do well enough when the roads are
+good and your equipage costly; but when you come upon mountain-paths and
+stony tracts, with many a wild torrent to cross, and many a dark glen to
+traverse, humility even a child's humility will give better teaching."
+
+"I have no right to be other than humble!" said the boy; but the
+flashing brightness of his eyes, and the heightened color of his cheek,
+seemed to contradict his words.
+
+For a while the conversation flagged, or was maintained in short and
+broken sentences, when at length Frank said,
+
+"You will often go to see them, Hanserl, won't you? You'll sit with
+them, too, of an evening? for they will feel lonely now; and my father
+will like to tell you his stories about home, as he calls it still."
+
+"That will I," said Hans; "they are the happiest hours of my life when I
+sit beside that hearth."
+
+Frank drew his hand across his eyes, and his lips quivered as he tried
+to speak.
+
+"You'll be kind to poor Ellen, too; she is so timid, Hans. You cannot
+believe how anxious she is, lest her little carvings should be thought
+unworthy of praise."
+
+"They are gems! they are treasures of art!" cried Hans,
+enthusiastically.
+
+"And my sweet Kate!" cried the boy, as his eyes ran over, while a throng
+of emotions seemed to stop his utterance.
+
+"She is so beautiful!" exclaimed Hans, fervently. "Except the Blessed
+Maria at the Holy Cross, I never beheld such loveliness. There is the
+Angelus ringing; let us pray a blessing on them;" and they both knelt
+down in deep devotion. Frank's lips never moved, but with swelling heart
+and clasped hands he remained fixed as a statue; while Hanserl in some
+quaint old rhyme uttered his devotions.
+
+"And yonder is the dog-star, bright and splendid," said Hans, as he
+arose. "There never was a happier omen for the beginning of a journey.
+You 'll be lucky, boy; there is the earnest of good fortune. That same
+star was shining along the path as I entered Baden, eighteen years ago;
+and see what a lucky life has mine been!"
+
+Frank could not but smile at the poor dwarf's appreciation of his
+fortune; but Hanserl's features wore a look that betokened a happy and
+contented nature.
+
+"And yours has been a lucky life, Hanserl?" said he, half in question.
+
+"Lucky? ay, that has it. I was a poor boy, barefooted and hungry in my
+native forest deformed, and stunted, too a thing to pity too weak to
+work, and with none to teach me, and yet even I was not forgotten by Him
+who made the world so fair and beautiful; but in my heart was planted
+a desire to be something to do something, that others might benefit by.
+The children used to mock me as I passed along the road; but a voice
+whispered within me, 'Be of courage, Hanserl, they will bless thee yet,
+they will greet thee with many a merry laugh and joyous cry, and call
+thee their own kind Hanserl:' and so have I lived to see it! My name
+is far and wide over Germany. Little boys and girls know and speak of
+me amongst the first words they syllable; and from the palace to the
+bauer's hut, Hans Roeckle has his friends; and who knows that when
+this poor clay is mingled with the earth, but that my spirit will hover
+around the Christmas-tree when glad voices call upon me! I often think
+it will be so."
+
+Frank's eyes glistened as he gazed upon the dwarf, who spoke with a
+degree of emotion and feeling very different from his wont.
+
+"So you see, Master Franz," said he, smiling, "there are ambitions of
+every hue, and this of mine you may deem of the very faintest, but it
+is enough for me. Had I been a great painter, or a poet, I would have
+revelled in the thought that my genius adorned the walls of many a noble
+palace, and that my verses kindled emotions in many a heart that felt
+like my own; but as one whom nature has not gifted, poor, ignoble, and
+unlettered, am I not lucky to have found a little world of joyous hearts
+and merry voices, who care for me % and speak of me, ay, and who would
+give me a higher place in their esteem than to Jean Paul, or Goethe
+himself?"
+
+The friends had but time to pledge each other in a parting glass, when
+the stage drove up by which Hans was to return to Baden. A few hurried
+words, half cheering, half sorrowful, a close embrace, one long and
+lingering squeeze of the hand,
+
+"Farewell, kind Hanserl!"
+
+"God guide thee, Franz!" and they parted.
+
+Frank stood in the little "Platz," where the crowd yet lingered,
+watching the retiring "Post," uncertain which, way to turn him.
+He dreaded to find himself all alone, and yet he shrank from new
+companionship. The newly risen moon and the calm air invited him to
+pursue his road; so he set out once more, the very exercise being a
+relief against his sad thoughts.
+
+Few words are more easily spoken than "He went to seek his fortune;"
+and what a whole world lies within the narrow compass! A world of
+high-hearted hopes and doubting fear, of noble ambition to be won, and
+glorious paths to be trod, mingled with tender thoughts of home and
+those who made it such. What sustaining courage must be his who dares
+this course and braves that terrible conflict the toughest that ever man
+fought between his own bright coloring of life and the stern reality of
+the world! How many hopes has he to abandon, how many illusions to
+give up! How often is his faith to be falsified and his trustfulness
+betrayed; and, worst of all, what a fatal change do these trials impress
+upon himself, how different is he from what he had been!
+
+Young and untried as Frank Dalton was in life, he was not altogether
+unprepared for the vicissitudes that awaited him; his sister Nelly's
+teachings had done much to temper the over-buoyant spirit of his nature,
+and make him feel that he must draw upon that same courage to sustain
+the present, rather than to gild the future.
+
+His heart was sorrowful, too, at leaving a home where unitedly they
+had, perhaps, borne up better against poverty. He felt for his own heart
+revealed it how much can be endured in companionship, and how the burden
+of misfortune like every other load is light when many bear it. Now
+thinking of these things, now fancying the kind of life that might lie
+before him, he marched along. Then he wondered whether the Count would
+resemble his father. The Daltons were remarkable for strong traits of
+family likeness, not alone in feature, but in character; and what a
+comfort Frank felt in fancying that the old general would be a thorough
+Dalton in frankness and kindliness of nature, easy in disposition, with
+all the careless freedom of his own father! How he should love him, as
+one of themselves!
+
+It is a well-known fact, that certain families are remarkable above
+others for the importance that they attach to the ties of kindred,
+making the boast of relationship always superior to the claims of
+self-formed friendships. This is perhaps more peculiarly the case among
+those who live little in the world, and whose daily sayings and doings
+are chiefly confined to the narrow circle of home. But yet it is
+singular how long this prejudice for perhaps it deserves no better
+name can stand the conflict of actual life. The Daltons were a special
+instance of what we mean. Certain characteristics of look and feature
+distinguished them all, and they all agreed in maintaining the claim of
+relationship as the strongest bond of union; and it was strange into
+how many minor channels this stream meandered. Every old ruin, every
+monument, every fragment of armor, or ancient volume associated with
+their name, assumed a kind of religious value in their eyes, and the
+word Dalton was a talisman to exalt the veriest trifle into the rank of
+relic. From his earliest infancy Frank had been taught these lessons.
+They were the traditions of the parlor and the kitchen, and by the mere
+force of repetition became a part of his very nature. Corrig-O'Neal was
+the theme of every story. The ancient house of the family, and which,
+although by time's changes it had fallen into the hands of the Godfreys
+from whom his mother came was yet regarded with all the feelings of
+ancient pride. Over and over again was he told of the once princely
+state that his ancestors held there, the troops of retainers, the
+mounted followers that ever accompanied them. The old house itself was
+exalted to the rank of a palace, and its wide-spreading but neglected
+grounds spoken of like the park of royalty.
+
+To see this old house of his fathers, to behold with his own eyes the
+seat of their once greatness, became the passion of the boy's heart.
+Never did the Bedouin of the Desert long after Mecca with more
+heart-straining desire. To such a pitch had this passion gained on
+him, that, unable any longer to resist an impulse that neither left
+his thoughts by day nor his dreams by night, he fled from his school at
+Bruges, and when only ten years old made his way to Ostend, and under
+pretence of seeking a return to his family, persuaded the skipper of a
+trading-vessel to give him a passage to Limerick. It would take us too
+far from our road already a long one were we to follow his wanderings
+and tell of all the difficulties that beset the little fellow on his
+lonely journey. Enough that we say, he did at last reach the goal, of
+his hopes, and, after a journey of eight long days, find himself at the
+ancient gate of Corrig-O'Neal.
+
+At first the disappointment was dreadful. The proud mansion, of whose
+glorious splendor his imagination had created an Oriental palace, was
+an antiquated brick edifice, in front of which ran a long terrace, once
+adorned with statues, but of which the pedestals alone remained. A few
+hedges of yew, with here and there the fragments of a marble figure or
+fountain, showed that the old French chateau taste had once prevailed
+there; and of this a quaint straight avenue of lime-trees, reaching
+directly from the door to the river, also bore evidence. The tone of
+sadness and desertion was on everything; many of the lower windows were
+walled up; the great door itself was fastened and barricaded in such a
+way as to show it had been long disused. Not a creature was to be seen
+stirring about the place, and save that at night the flickering light
+of a candle might be descried from a small casement that looked upon the
+garden, the house might have been deemed uninhabited. Perhaps something
+in the mysterious desolation of the scene had its influence over the
+boy's mind; but as hour by hour he lingered in those silent woods, and
+lay in the deep grass, watching the cloud shadows as they stole along,
+he grew fondly attached to the place; now losing himself in some revery
+of the long past, now following out some half-remembered narrative of
+his mother's childhood, when she herself dwelt there.
+
+All his little resources of pocket-money expended, his clothes, save
+such as he wore, sold, he could scarcely tear himself from a scene that
+filled every avenue of his heart. The time, however, came, when a ship,
+about to sail for the Scheldt, gave him the opportunity of returning
+home; and now this was to be his last day at Corrig-O'Neal.
+
+And what a day of conflicting thought was it! now half resolved to
+approach the house, and ask to see his uncle, and now repelled by
+remembering all his unkindness to his father. Then marvelling whether
+some change might not have taken place in the old man's mind, and
+whether in his lonely desolation he might not wish once more to see his
+kindred near him.
+
+He knew not what to do, and evening found him still undecided, and
+sitting on a little rising spot, from which the view extended over the
+garden at the back of the house, and whence he had often watched the
+solitary light that marked the old man's vigils.
+
+Wearied by long watching and thought, he fell asleep; and when he awoke
+the light was gone, the light which hitherto had always burned till
+daybreak! and from the darkness it must now be far from that hour.
+While Frank wondered what this might mean, he was startled by hearing
+footsteps near him at least so they sounded on the gravel-walk of the
+garden, and in a few minutes after the grating sound of a key, and the
+opening of a small door which led out into the wood. He now perceived
+that a man was standing at the foot of the knoll, who seemed irresolute
+and undecided; for he twice returned to the door, once introduced the
+key, and again withdrew it, as if with a changed purpose. Suddenly he
+appeared to have made up his mind, for, stooping down, he began to dig
+with the greatest energy, stopping at intervals to listen, and again
+continuing his work when satisfied that he was unobserved.
+
+The hour the scene itself the evident secrecy of the man, almost
+paralyzed the boy with terror; nor was it till long after the turf was
+replaced, dry leaves and dead branches were strewn over the spot, and
+the man himself gone, that Frank gained courage to move away. This he
+did at first cautiously and timidly, and then with a speed that soon
+carried him far away from the spot. The following day he was at sea;
+and if at first the strange scene never left his thoughts, with time the
+impression faded away, till at length it assumed the indistinctness of a
+vision, or of some picture created by mere imagination.
+
+When he did return home, he never revealed, except to Nelly, where he
+had been, and the object for which he went; but, even to her, from some
+strange love of mystery, he told nothing of the last night's experience:
+this was a secret, which he hoarded like a miser's treasure, and loved
+to think that he only knew of. The stirring events of a schoolboy's
+life, at first, and subsequently the changeful scenes of opening
+manhood, gradually effaced the impression of what he had seen, or merely
+left it to all the indistinctness of a dream.
+
+And thus are thoughts often sealed up in the memory for years unnoticed
+and unknown till, after a long interval, they are all called forth, and
+become the very pivots on which turns our destiny.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV. THE ONSLOWS
+
+THE little town of Baden was thrown into a state of considerable
+excitement by the unexpected arrival we have chronicled in a preceding
+chapter, and the host of the "Russie" reduced to the most uncommon
+straits to restore the effective of a staff, now brought down to the
+closest economy of retrenchment. Cooks, waiters, and housemaids were
+sought after in every quarter, while emissaries were despatched right
+and left to replenish the larder and provide for the wants of the mighty
+"Englander." Nor was all the bustle and commotion limited to within the
+hotel, but extended throughout the village itself, where many a rustic
+pony, laid up in ordinary for the winter, was again trimmed and curried
+and shod, to be paraded before the windows with a scarlet saddle-cloth
+and a worsted tassel to the bridle, in all the seductive attraction of
+a palfrey. Even flower-girls made their appearance again with a few
+frost-nipped buds and leaves; while a bassoon and a triangle, voting
+themselves a band, gave horrid signs of their means of persecution.
+
+Meanwhile were the fortunate individuals for whose benefit these
+exertions were evoked, in the most blissful ignorance of all the
+interest they were awakening. From the first moment of their arrival
+none had even seen them. Waited upon by their own servants, scarcely
+heard, not even appearing at the windows, they were unconsciously
+ministering to a mystery that now engaged every tongue and ear
+around them. As, however, nothing of secrecy had any share in their
+proceedings, we have no scruple in invading the presence and introducing
+the reader to the company.
+
+Sir Stafford Onslow was an immensely rich London banker, who in his
+capacity of borough member had voted steadily with the Whigs for some
+five-and-twenty years; supporting them by all the influence of his
+wealth and family, and who now came abroad, in a pet of sulk with his
+party, on being refused the peerage. By nature generous, kind-hearted,
+and affectionate, the constant pressure of a more ambitious wife had
+involved him in a career to which neither his tastes nor habits
+suited him. The fortune which he would have dispensed with dignity
+and munificence he was eternally taught to believe should be the
+stepping-stone to something higher in rank. All his influence in the
+City, of which he was justly proud, he was told was a mere vulgar
+ambition in comparison with that a coronet would bestow on him; and,
+in fact, having believed himself the leading man of a great section in
+society, he was led to look upon his position with discontent, and fancy
+that his just claims were disregarded and denied. Lady Hester Onslow,
+who having once been a beauty and the admired belle of royalty itself,
+had accepted the banker in a moment of pique, and never forgave him
+afterwards the unhappy preference.
+
+Belonging to a very ancient but poor family, few were surprised at her
+accepting a husband some thirty-odd years her senior; and it is probable
+that she would fully have recognized the prudence of her choice if, by
+the death of a distant relative in India, which occurred a few months
+after her marriage, she had not acquired a very large fortune. This
+sudden accession of wealth coming, as she herself said, "too late,"
+embittered every hour of her after-life.
+
+Had she been but wealthy a few months back, she had married the man
+she loved, or whom she thought she loved, the heartless, handsome,
+well-mannered Lord Norwood, a penniless viscount, ruined before he came
+of age, and with no other means of support than the faculties which
+knavery had sharpened into talent.
+
+Miss Onslow and her brother, both the children of a former marriage,
+were strikingly like their father, not alone in feature, but in the
+traits of his frank and generous character. They were devotedly attached
+to him, not the less, perhaps, from the circumstances of a marriage to
+which they were strongly opposed, and whose results they now saw in many
+a passage of discord and disagreement.
+
+George and Sydney Onslow were both dark-complexioned and black-eyed,
+and had many traits of Spanish origin in appearance, their mother having
+been from that country. Lady Hester was a blonde, and affected to think
+that the Southern tint was but an approximation to the negro. Nor was
+she less critical on their manners, whose joyous freedom she pronounced
+essentially vulgar. Such, in a few words, were the discordant elements
+which Fate had bound up as a family, and who now, by the sudden illness
+of Sir Stafford, were driven to seek refuge in the deserted town of
+Baden. Nor can we omit another who, although not tied to the rest by
+kindred, had been long a member of the circle. This was Dr. Grounsell,
+an old college friend of Sir Stafford's, and who, having lost every
+shilling of his fortune by a speculation, had taken up his home at
+the banker's many years previous to his second marriage. Lady Hester's
+dislike to him amounted to actual hatred. She detested him for the
+influence he possessed over her husband, for the sturdiness of a
+character that resisted every blandishment, for a quaintness that
+certainly verged upon vulgarity, and, most of all, for the open and
+undisguised manner he always declared against every scheme for the
+attainment of a title.
+
+As Sir Stafford's physician, the only one in whom he had confidence, the
+doctor was enabled to stand his ground against attacks which must have
+conquered him; and by dint of long resistance and a certain obstinacy
+of character, he had grown to take pleasure in an opposition which, to
+a man of more refinement and feeling, must have proved intolerable;
+and although decidedly attached to Sir Stafford and his children, it is
+probable that he was still more bound to them by hate to "my Lady," than
+by all his affection for themselves.
+
+Grounsell detested the Continent, yet he followed them abroad, resolved
+never to give up an inch of ground uncontested; and although assailed by
+a thousand slights and petty insults, he stood stoutly up against them
+all, defying every effort of fine-ladyism, French cookery, homoeopathy,
+puppyism, and the water-cure, to dislodge him from his position. There
+was very possibly more of dogged malice in all this than amiability or
+attachment to his friends; but it is due to the doctor to say that he
+was no hypocrite, and would never have blinked the acknowledgment if
+fairly confronted with the charge.
+
+Although, if it had not been for my Lady's resentful notice of
+the ministerial neglect, the whole family would have been snugly
+domesticated in their beautiful villa beside the Thames at Richmond,
+she artfully contrived to throw the whole weight of every annoyance they
+experienced upon every one's shoulders rather than her own; and as
+she certainly called to her aid no remarkable philosophy against the
+inconveniences of travel, the budget of her grievances assumed a most
+imposing bulk.
+
+Dressed in the very perfection of a morning costume, her cap, her
+gloves, her embroidered slippers, all in the most accurate keeping
+with that assumed air of seclusion by which fine ladies compliment the
+visitor fortunate enough to be admitted to their presence, Lady Hester
+sat at a window, occasionally looking from the deep lace that bordered
+her handkerchief to the picturesque scene of mountain and river that lay
+before her. A fastidious taste might have found something to be pleased
+with in either, but assuredly her handsome features evinced no agreeable
+emotion, and her expression was that of utter ennui and listlessness.
+
+At another window sat Sydney Onslow drawing; her brother standing behind
+her chair, and from time to time adding his counsels, but in a tone
+studiously low and whispered. "Get that shadow in something deeper, Syd,
+and you 'll have more effect in the distance."
+
+"What is that I hear about effect and distance?" sighed out my Lady.
+"You surely are not drawing?"
+
+"Only sketching; making a hurried note of that wheel, and the quaint
+old-fashioned house beside it," said Sydney, diffidently.
+
+"What a refinement of cruelty! The detestable noise of that mill kept
+me awake all night, and you mean to perpetuate the remembrance by a
+picture. Pray, be a good child and throw it out of the window."
+
+Sydney looked up in her brother's face, where already a crimson flush of
+anger was gathering, but before she could reply he spoke for her. "The
+drawing is for me, Lady Onslow. You 'll. excuse me if I do not consent
+to the fate you propose for it."
+
+"Let me look at it," said she, languidly; and the young girl arose
+and presented the drawing to her. "How droll!" said she, laughing; "I
+suppose it is peculiar to Germany that water can run up hill."
+
+"The shadow will correct that," said Sydney, smiling; "and when
+the foreground is darker." A violent slam of the door cut short the
+explanation. It was George Onslow, who, too indignant at the practised
+impertinence toward his sister, dashed out of the room in a passion.
+
+"How underbred your brother will persist in being, my love," said she,
+calmly; "that vile trick of slamming a door, they learn, I 'm told,
+in the Guards' Club. I 'm sure I always thought it was confined to the
+melodrames one sees at the Porte St. Martin."
+
+At this moment a servant appeared at the door. "Colonel Haggerstone's
+compliments, my Lady, and begs to know how Sir Stafford is to-day."
+
+"Something better," replied she, curtly; and as the man disappeared, she
+added, "Whose compliments did he say?"
+
+"I did not hear the name; it sounded like Haggerstone."
+
+"Impossible, child; we know of no such person. What hour is it?"
+
+"A few minutes past two."
+
+"Oh dear! I fancied it had been four or five or six," sighed she,
+drearily. "The amiable doctor has not made his report to-day of your
+papa, and he went to see him immediately after breakfast."
+
+"He told George that there was no amendment," said Sydney, gravely.
+
+"He told George! Then he did not deign to tell me."
+
+"You were not here at the moment. It was as he passed through the room
+hurriedly."
+
+"I conclude that I was in my dressing-room. But it is only in keeping
+with Mr. Grounsell's studied disrespect, a line of conduct I grieve to
+see him supported in by members of this family."
+
+"Mr. Alfred Jekyl, my Lady," said a servant, "with inquiry for Sir
+Stafford."
+
+"You appear to know best, my dear, how your papa is. Pray answer thai
+inquiry."
+
+"Sir Stafford is not better," said Sydney to the servant.
+
+"Who can all these people be, my dear?" said Lady Hester, with more
+animation of manner than she had yet exhibited. "Jekyl is a name one
+knows. There are Northamptonshire Jekyls, and, if I mistake not, it was
+a Jekyl married Lady Olivia Drossmore, was it not? Oh, what a fool I am
+to ask you, who never know anything of family or connection! And yet
+I 'm certain I 've told you over and over the importance the actual
+necessity of this knowledge. If you only bestowed upon Burke a tithe of
+the patience and time I have seen you devote to Lyell, you 'd not commit
+the shocking mistake you fell into t' other day of discussing the Duchess
+of Dartley's character with Lord Brandford, from whom she was divorced.
+Now you 'd never offend quartz and sandstone by miscalling their
+affinities. But here comes the doctor."
+
+If Dr. Grounsell had been intended by nature to outrage all
+ultra-refined notions regarding personal appearance, he could not
+possibly have been more cunningly fashioned. Somewhat below the middle
+size, and squarely formed, his legs did not occupy more than a third of
+his height; his head was preternaturally large, and seemed even larger
+from a crop of curly yellowish hair, whose flaring ochre only rescued
+it from the imputation of being a wig. His hands and feet were enormous,
+requiring a muscular effort to move them that made all his gestures
+grotesque and uncouth. In addition to these native graces, his clothes
+were always made much too large for him, from his avowed dislike to the
+over-tightening and squeezing of modern fashion.
+
+As his whole life had been passed in the superintendence of a great
+military hospital in the East, wherein all his conversations with his
+brethren were maintained in technicalities, he had never converted the
+professional jargon into a popular currency, but used the terms of art
+upon all occasions, regardless of the inability of the unmedical world
+to understand him.
+
+"Well, sir, what is your report to-day?" said Lady Onslow, assuming her
+very stateliest of manners.
+
+"Better, and worse, madam. The arthritis relieved, the cardiac symptoms
+more imminent.'
+
+"Please to bear in mind, sir, that I have not studied at Apothecaries'
+Hall."
+
+"Nor I, madam; but at Edinburgh and Aberdeen, in the faculties of
+medicine and surgery," said Grounsell, drawing down his waistcoat, and
+arranging himself in what he considered an order of battle.
+
+"Is papa better, doctor?" said Sydney, mildly.
+
+"The articular affection is certainly alleviated, but there is mischief
+here," said Grounsell, placing his hand over his heart; "fibrous
+tissues, my dear Miss Onslow, fibrous tissues are ticklish affairs."
+
+"Is this advice to be construed in a moral rather than a medical sense?"
+said Lady Onslow, with a malicious smile.
+
+"Either or both," replied the doctor. "The heart will always be highly
+susceptible of nervous influence."
+
+"But papa" broke in Sydney, eagerly.
+
+"Is suffering under metastasis migratory gout, it may be termed changing
+from articular to large organic structures."
+
+"And, of course, you are giving him the old poisons that were in use
+fifty years ago?"
+
+"What do you mean, madam?" said Grounsell, sternly.
+
+"That shocking thing that drives people mad colocynth, or colchicum, or
+something like that. You know what I mean?"
+
+"Happily for me, madam, I can guess it."
+
+"And are you still as obstinate as ever about the globules?"
+
+"The homoeopathic humbug?"
+
+"If you are polite enough so to designate what I put the most implicit
+trust in. But I warn you, sir, I mean to exert my just and rightful
+influence with Sir Stafford; and in case a very great change does not
+appear to-morrow, I shall insist upon his trying the aconite."
+
+"If you do, madam, the insurance offices shall hear of it!" said
+Grounsell, with a sternness that made the threat most significant.
+
+"I 'll send for that man from Heidelberg at once, Sydney," said Lady
+Hester, as, pale with passion, she seated herself at her writing-table.
+
+"Take care what you do, madam," said Grounsell, approaching where she
+sat, and speaking in a low and solemn voice. "Let not any feeling of
+displeasure with me induce you to an act of rashness or imprudence. My
+old friend's state is critical; it may at any moment become dangerous.
+I am convinced that what I am doing offers the most reasonable hope of
+serving him. Take care lest you weaken his confidence in me, when he may
+not be prepared to repose it in another."
+
+"Here, Sydney, you write German; and it is possible he may not read
+French. This is his name, I got it in Paris Graeffnell. Tell him to come
+at once in fact, let Francois take a carriage for him."
+
+Sydney Onslow looked at her mother and then at the doctor. At the
+latter her glance was almost imploring, but he never noticed it, turning
+abruptly toward the window without uttering a word.
+
+"Can you consult with him, doctor?" asked Sydney, timidly.
+
+"Of course not; he 's a mountebank."
+
+"Write, as I bade you, Miss Onslow," said Lady Hester. "Dr. Graeffnell
+is one of the first men in Germany. Lady Heskisson sent for him when the
+Earl fell ill at Wiesbaden."
+
+"And the Countess was a widow in four days after. Don't forget the
+denouement of the story, madam."
+
+Sydney dropped the pen, and her hands fell powerless to her side. There
+was something in the sternness of the doctor that seemed to awe
+even Lady Onslow, for she made no reply; while Grounsell, seeing his
+advantage, left the room at once, without further parley.
+
+Our readers will probably forgive us if we follow his example, and not
+remain to listen to the eloquent monologue in which Lady Onslow lamented
+her sad condition in life. Not only did she bewail her destiny, but,
+like one of those classic personages the Greek Chorus presents us to,
+she proceeded to speculate upon every possible mischance futurity might
+have in store for her, ingeniously inventing "situations," and
+devising "predicaments" that nothing less gifted than a self-tormenting
+imagination can conceive. Leaving her to all the pleasure such a pastime
+can give, we shall quit the house, and, although a cold, raw evening is
+closing in, wander out into the street.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V. THE PATIENT
+
+ALONG the dark and narrow street, over which the coming night cast a
+dreary shadow, a single lamp was seen to shine at the door of Ludwig
+Kraus, the apothecary; a beacon, it is but fair to add, lighted less
+with the hope of attracting custom than in obedience to the requirements
+of the law, for Herr Kraus was a "state" official, and bound to conform
+to the dictates of the government. His shop was a small triangular
+space, in which there was barely room for the learned dispenser and a
+single client at the same moment, thus giving to all his interviews the
+secrecy of the confessional itself. Jars, phials, flasks, and drawers
+rose on every side, not inscribed with the vulgar nomenclature of modern
+physic, but bearing the enigmatical marks and hieroglyphics known to
+Galen and Paracelsus. Arabic letters, dragons, strange monsters, and
+zodiacal signs met the eye everywhere, and did not consort ill with the
+spare form and high bald head of the proprietor, whose quaint-figured
+dressing-gown and black velvet cap gave him a kind of resemblance to an
+alchemist in his workshop. As Grounsell approached the glass door
+and peeped in, the scene that presented itself rather assisted this
+illusion, for straight in front of the little counter over which Kraus
+was leaning, sat the dwarf, Hans Roeckle, talking away with considerable
+animation, and from time to time seeming to expatiate upon the merits
+of a wooden figure which he held carefully in his hands. The small,
+half-lighted chamber, the passive, motionless features of the chemist,
+the strange wild gestures of little Hans, as, in his tongue of
+mysterious gutturals he poured out a flood of words, amazed Grounsell,
+and excited his curiosity to the utmost. He continued to gaze in for a
+considerable time, without being able to guess what it might mean, and
+at last abandoning all conjecture he resolved to enter. Scarcely had
+he touched the handle of the door, however, than the dwarf, seizing the
+figure, concealed it beneath the skirt of his fur mantle, and retired
+to a corner of the shop. Dr. Grounsell's errand was to obtain certain
+medicines for his patient, which, from his ignorance of German, he had
+taken the precaution to write down in Latin. He passed the paper in
+silence over the counter, and waited patiently as the chemist spelt out
+the words. Having read it through, he handed back the paper with a
+few dry words, which, being in his native tongue, were totally
+incomprehensible.
+
+"You must have these things, surely," exclaimed Grounsell; "they are the
+commonest of all medicines;" and then remembering himself, he made signs
+in the direction of the drawers and phials to express his meaning. Again
+the chemist uttered some dozen words.
+
+The doctor produced his purse, where certain gold pieces glittered, as
+though to imply that he was willing to pay handsomely for his ignorance;
+but the other pushed it away, and shook his head in resolute refusal.
+
+"This is too bad," muttered Grounsell, angrily. "I 'll be sworn he
+has the things, and will not give them." The chemist motioned Hans to
+approach, and whispered a few words in his hearing, on which the
+dwarf, removing his cap in courteous salutation, addressed Grounsell:
+"High-born and much-learned Saar. De laws make no oder that doctoren
+have recht to write physics."
+
+"What!" cried Grounsell, not understanding the meaning of this speech.
+Hans repeated it more slowly, and at length succeeded in conveying the
+fact that physicians alone were qualified to procure medicines.
+
+"But I am a doctor, my worthy friend, a physician of long standing."
+
+"Das ist possible who knows?"
+
+"I know, and I say it," rejoined the other, tersely.
+
+"Ja! ja!" responded Hans, as though to say the theme were not worth
+being warm about, one way or t' other.
+
+"Come, my dear sir," said Grounsell, coaxingly; "pray be good enough to
+explain that I want these medicines for a sick friend, who is now at the
+hotel here, dangerously ill of gout."
+
+"Podagra gout!" exclaimed Hans, with sudden animation, "and dese are de
+cure for gout?"
+
+"They will, I hope, be of service against it."
+
+"You shall have dem Saar on one condition. That ist, you will visit
+anoder sick man mit gout an Englessman, too verh ill verb sick; and no
+rich you understan'."
+
+"Yes, yes; I understand perfectly; I'll see him with pleasure. Tell this
+worthy man to make up these for me, and I 'll go along with you now."
+
+"Gut! verh good," said Hans, as in a few words of German he expressed
+to the apothecary that he might venture to transgress the law in the
+present case when the season was over, and no one to be the wiser.
+
+As Hans issued forth to show the way, he never ceased to insist upon
+the fact that the present was not a case for a fee, and that the doctor
+should well understand the condition upon which his visit was to be
+paid; and still inveighing on this theme, he arrived at the house where
+the Daltons dwelt. "Remember, too," said Hans, "that, though they are
+poor, they are of guten stamm how say you, noble?" Grounsell listened
+with due attention to all Hanserl's cautions, following, not without
+difficulty, his strange and guttural utterances.
+
+"I will go before. Stay here," said Hans, as they gained the
+landing-place; and so saying, he pushed open the door and disappeared.
+
+As Grounsell stood alone and in the dark, he wondered within himself
+what strange chances should have brought a fellow-countryman into this
+companionship, for there was something so grotesque in Hans's appearance
+and manner, that it routed all notion of his being admitted to any
+footing of friendly equality.
+
+The door at length opened, and the doctor followed Hans into a dimly
+lighted room, where Dalton lay, half dressed, upon his bed. Before
+Grounsell had well passed the entrance, the sick man said, "I am afraid,
+sir, that my little friend here has taken a bit of liberty with both
+of us, since I believe you wanted a patient just as little as I did a
+doctor."
+
+The anxious, lustrous eye, the flushed cheek, and tremulous lip of the
+speaker gave, at the same time, a striking contradiction to his words.
+Grounsell's practised glance read these signs rapidly, and drawing near
+the bed, he seated himself beside it, saying, "It is quite clear, sir,
+that you are not well, and although, if we were both of us in our own
+country, this visit of mine would, as you observe, be a considerable
+liberty, seeing that we are in a foreign land, I hope you will not deem
+my intrusion of this nature, but suffer me, if I can, to be of some
+service to you."
+
+Less the words themselves than a certain purpose-like kindliness in the
+speaker's manner, induced Dalton to accept the offer, and reply to the
+questions which the other proposed to him. "No, no, doctor," said he,
+after a few moments; "there is no great mischief brewing after all. The
+truth is, I was fretted harassed a little. It was about a boy of mine
+I have only one and he 's gone away to be a soldier with the Austrians.
+You know, of course as who does n't? how hard it is to do anything for a
+young man now-a-days. If family or high connection could do it, we 'd
+be as well off as our neighbors. We belong to the Daltons of Garrigmore,
+that you know are full blood with the O'Neals of Cappagh. But what 's
+the use of blood now? devil a good it does a man. It would be better
+to have your father a cotton-spinner, or an iron-master, than the
+descendant of Shane Mohr na Manna."
+
+"I believe you are right," observed the doctor, dryly.
+
+"I know I am; I feel it myself, and I 'm almost ashamed to tell it. Here
+am I, Peter Dalton, the last of them now; and may I never leave this
+bed, if I could make a barony constable in the county where the king's
+writ could n't run once without our leave."
+
+"But Ireland herself has changed more than your own fortunes," remarked
+Grounsell.
+
+"That's true, that 's true," sighed the sick man. "I don't remember the
+best days of it, but I 've heard of them often and often from my father.
+The fine old times, when Mount Dalton was filled with company from the
+ground to the slates, and two lords in the granary; a pipe of port wine
+in the hall, with a silver cup beside it; the Modereen hounds, huntsmen
+and all, living at rack and manger, as many as fifty sitting down in
+the parlor, and I won't say how many in the servants' hall; the finest
+hunters in the west country in the stables, there was life for you! Show
+me the equal of that in the wide world."
+
+"And what is the present condition of the scene of those festivities?"
+said Grounsell, with a calm but searching look.
+
+"The present condition?" echoed Dalton, starting up to a sitting
+posture, and grasping the curtain with a convulsive grip; "I can't tell
+you what it is to-day, this ninth of November, but I 'll tell what it
+was when I left it, eighteen years ago. The house was a ruin; the lawn
+a common; the timber cut down; the garden a waste; the tenants beggared;
+the landlord an exile. That 's a pleasant catalogue, is n't it?"
+
+"But there must come a remedy for all this," remarked Grounsell, whose
+ideas were following out a very different channel.
+
+"Do you mean by a poor-law? Is it by taxing the half ruined to feed the
+lazy? or by rooting out all that once was a gentry, to fill their places
+by greedy speculators from Manchester and Leeds? Is that your remedy?
+It 's wishing it well I am! No; if you want to do good to the country,
+leave Ireland to be Ireland, and don't try to make Norfolk of her. Let
+her have her own Parliament, that knows the people and their wants.
+Teach her to have a pride in her own nationality, and not to be always
+looking at herself in shame beside her rich sister. Give her a word of
+kindness now and then, as you do the Scotch; but, above all, leave us to
+ourselves. We understand one another; you never did, nor never will. We
+quarrelled, and made friends again, and all went right with us; you
+came over with your Chancery Courts, and your police, and whenever we
+differed, you never stopped till we were beggared or hanged."
+
+"You take a very original view of our efforts at civilization, I
+confess," said Grounsell, smiling. "Civilization! Civilization! I hate
+the very sound of the word; it brings to my mind nothing but county
+jails, bridewells, turnpikes, and ministers' money. If it was n't for
+civilization, would there be a receiver over my estate of Mount Dalton?
+Would the poor tenants be racked for the rent that I always gave time
+for? Would there be a big poor-house, with its ugly front staring to
+the highway, as they tell me there is, and a police barrack to keep it
+company, opposite? I tell you again, sir, that your meddling has done
+nothing but mischief. Our little quarrels you converted into serious
+animosities; our estrangements into the feuds of two opposing races; our
+very poverty, that we had grown accustomed to, you taught us to regard
+as a 'national disgrace,' without ever instructing us how to relieve it;
+and there we are now on your hands, neither English in industry, nor
+Irish in submission, neither willing to work, nor content to be hungry!"
+
+The doctor saw by the agitated look and tone of the sick man that the
+subject was one of too much excitement for him, and hastened to change
+the topic by jocularly expressing a hope that he might prove more
+successful with him than England had been with his countrymen.
+
+"I doubt it, sir," said Dalton, gravely; "not thanking you the less
+for your kindness. I believe, like my poor country, that I 'm past
+doctoring." He paused for a few seconds, and then added: "It's all
+fretting. It's thinking about the girls. Frank there is no fear of. That
+'s what ails me."
+
+Grounsell saw that to prolong his visit would be but to encourage a tone
+of depression that must prove injurious; so promising to return to see
+him in the morning, he shook Dalton's hand cordially, and followed Hans
+into the adjoining room, where writing materials were prepared for him.
+
+The two girls were standing at the fire as he entered; and simple as was
+their dress, homely even to poverty, every trait of their costume, their
+looks, bespoke them of gentle blood. Their anxious glances as he came
+forward showed their eagerness to hear his tidings; but they did not
+speak a word.
+
+"Do not be uneasy, young ladies," said he, hastening to relieve their
+fears. "Your father's illness has nothing serious about it. A few days
+will, I trust, see him perfectly restored to health. Meanwhile you are
+his best physicians, who can minister to his spirits and cheer him up."
+
+"Since my brother left us, sir, he appeared to sink hour by hour; he
+cannot get over the shock," said Ellen.
+
+"I never knew him to give way before," interposed Kate. "He used to say,
+when anything grieved him, 'he 'd pay some one to fret for him."
+
+"With better health you 'll see his old courage return," said the
+doctor, as he hastily wrote a few lines of prescription, and then laying
+his head in his hand, seemed for some minutes lost in thought. There
+were little comforts, mat-' ters of trifling luxury he wished to order,
+and yet he hesitated, for he did not know how far they were compatible
+with their means; nor could he venture upon the hazard of offending by
+questioning them. As in his uncertainty he raised his eyes, they fell
+upon the wooden figure which the dwarf had exhibited in the apothecary's
+shop, and which now stood upon a table near. It was a child sleeping at
+the foot of a cross, around which its arms were entwined. The emaciated
+limbs and wasted cheek portrayed fasting and exhaustion, while in the
+attitude itself, sleep seemed verging upon death.
+
+"What is that?" asked he, hastily, as he pointed with his pen to the
+object.
+
+"A poor child was found thus, frozen to death upon the Arlberg," said
+Kate; "and my sister carved that figure from a description of the
+event."
+
+"Your sister! This was done by you," said Grounsell, slowly, as he
+turned his gaze from the work to the artist.
+
+"Yes," cried Hans, whose face beamed with delight; "is it not
+'lieblich?' is it not vonderful? Dass, I say, alway; none have taste now
+none have de love to admire!"
+
+Stooping down to examine it better, Grounsell was struck by the
+expression of the face, whereon a smile of trustfulness and hope seemed
+warring with the rigid lines of coming death; so that the impression
+conveyed was more of a victory over suffering than of a terrible fate.
+
+"She is self-taught, sir; none even so much as assisted Ler by advice,"
+said Kate, proudly.
+
+"That will be perhaps but too apparent from my efforts," said Ellen,
+smiling faintly.
+
+[Illustration:    078]
+
+"I'm no artist, young lady," said Grounsell, bluntly, "but I am well
+versed in every variety of the human expression in suffering, and of
+mere truth to nature I can speak confidently. This is a fine work! nay,
+do not blush, I am not a flatterer. May I take it with me, and show it
+to others more conversant with art than I am?"
+
+"Upon one condition you may," said the girl, in a low, deep voice.
+
+"Be it so; on any condition you wish."
+
+"We are agreed, then?"
+
+"Perfectly."
+
+"The figure is yours Nay, sir your promise!"
+
+Groimsell stammered, and blushed, and looked confused; indeed, no man
+was less able to extricate himself from any position of embarrassment;
+and here the difficulties pressed on every side, for while he scrupled
+to accept what he deemed a gift of real value, he felt that they too had
+a right to free themselves from the obligation that his presence as a
+doctor imposed. At last he saw nothing better than to yield; and in
+all the confusion of a bashfully awkward man, he mumbled out his
+acknowledgments and catching up the figure, departed.
+
+Hans alone seemed dissatisfied at the result, for as he cast his wistful
+looks after the wooden image, his eyes swam with his tears, and he
+muttered as he went some words of deep desponding cadence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI. A FIRST VISIT.
+
+THE dreary weather of November showed no signs of "taking up." Lowering
+days of fog and gloom alternated with cold winds and sleet, so that all
+out-door occupation was utterly denied to that imprisoned party, who
+were left with so few resources to pass the time within. It is true they
+did not make the best of the bad. Lady Hester grew hourly more irritable
+and peevish. Sydney Onslow seldom left her room. George took to the
+hills every morning, and never returned before a late dinner; while the
+doctor, when not with Sir Stafford, spent all his time at the Dal tons',
+with whom he had already established a close intimacy.
+
+Lady Hester had exhausted every possible means she could imagine to
+while away the hours; she had spent whole days in letter-writing folios
+of "tirades" to every one she could think of. She had all the carriages
+inspected, and the imperials searched, for books she well knew had
+been left behind. She had sent for the landlord's daughter to give her
+lessons in German, which she thought of learning during the week. She
+had given a morning to the Italian boy with his white mice, and pored
+for hours long over the "Livre des Voyageurs," reading the names of
+friends who, with better fortune, had taken their departure for Italy.
+But at last there came an end even to these frail resources, and she
+was left utterly without an occupation to engage, or even a thought to
+employ her. The five minutes of morning altercation with Grounsell over,
+the dreary time was unbroken by a single event, or uncheckered by a
+single hope. Sir Stafford was indeed recovering, but so slowly that
+weeks might be required ere he could proceed on his journey. How were
+they to be passed? was the fearful question to which she could find no
+answer. She looked with actual envy at the party of boors who played at
+dominos in the beer-house opposite, and followed with longing eyes the
+little mail-cart as it left the village. If she could read Germau, there
+were scores of books at her service. If she could but take a charitable
+turn, there was poverty enough to give her occupation from morn till
+night. She never knew what it was to think seriously, for meditation is
+the manufacture that cannot work without its raw material, and with this
+her mind was not stored.
+
+It was in this pitiable frame of mind she was walking up and down the
+drawing-room one morning, just as the doctor had taken his departure,
+and with him the last little scene that was to relieve the day, when
+the servant entered with the card of Colonel Haggerstone, and the daily
+repeated inquiry for Sir Stafford's health.
+
+Had the gallant colonel presented himself at Wilton Crescent, or the
+Villa, it is more than likely that the well-instructed porter had not
+vised his passport, but at once consigned a name of such unimposing
+consonants to gentle obscurity, while such an entry in the visiting-book
+had been coolly set down as a mistake. Not so now, however. Lady Hester
+took up the card, and, instead of the habitual curt rejoinder, "Sir
+Stafford is better," said, "You may tell Colonel Haggerstone that Lady
+Hester will receive him."
+
+The gallant colonel, who was negligently slapping his boots with his
+riding-whip below stairs, was not a little amazed at the message.
+There had been a time when he would have interpreted the favor most
+flatteringly. He would have whispered to himself, "She has seen me
+passing the window, she was struck with me as I rode by." Time had,
+however, toned down these bright illusions, and he read the permission
+with a nearer approach to truth, as a fine-lady caprice in a moment of
+ennui. "I thought as much," muttered he to himself as he slowly ascended
+the stairs; "the blockade was too strictly enforced not to tell at last.
+No newspapers, no books ha! ha! Could n't help surrendering!"
+
+The colonel had by this time given his whiskers and moustaches the
+last curl, thrown back his head into a position of calm dignity, as the
+servant, throwing wide the folding-doors, announced him. Advancing two
+paces, and bowing low, Colonel Haggerstone said, "Your Ladyship will
+pardon the liberty the very great liberty I have taken in my respectful
+inquiries for some days past; but although probably not remembered by
+Sir Stafford, I once did enjoy the honor of his acquaintance, we met at
+Lord Kerrison's, in Scotland."
+
+Lady Onslow cut short this very uninteresting explanation by a bland but
+somewhat supercilious smile, that seemed to say, "What possible matter
+can it be?" while at the same time she motioned him to be seated.
+
+"May I hope that Sir Stafford continues to improve?" said he, bowing
+again.
+
+"He's better to-day," said Lady Onslow, languidly. "Perhaps as well
+as anyone can be in this wretched place. You heard, I suppose, of the
+series of misfortunes that befell us, and compelled us to return here?"
+
+The colonel looked mildly compassionate and inquisitive. He anticipated
+the possible pleasure her Ladyship might feel in a personal narrative,
+and he was an accomplished listener. This time, however, he was wrong.
+Lady Onslow either did not think the occasion or the audience worth the
+trouble of the exertion, and merely said, "We had a break-down somewhere
+with an odious name. Sir Stafford would travel by that road through the
+Hohlen Thai, where somebody made his famous march. Who was it?"
+
+"Massena, I think," said the colonel, at a haphazard, thinking that at
+least the name was ben trovato, just as Sunday-school children father
+everything remarkable on John the Baptist.
+
+"Oh dear, no; it was Moreau. We stopped to breakfast at the little inn
+where he held his headquarters, and in the garden of which he amused
+himself in pistol-shooting, strange, was it not? Are you a good shot,
+Colonel?"
+
+"Good among bad ones," said the colonel, modestly.
+
+"Then we must have a match. I am so fond of it! You have pistols, of
+course?"
+
+"I am fortunate enough to have a case of Schlessinger's best, and at
+your Ladyship's disposal."
+
+"Well, that is agreed upon. You 'll be kind enough to select a suitable
+spot in the garden, and if to-morrow be fine By the way what is
+to-morrow not Sunday I hope?"
+
+The colonel relieved her anxieties by the assurance that the next day
+would be Monday, consequently that the present one was Sunday.
+
+"How strange! One does make sad confusion in these things abroad," said
+she, sighing. "I think we are better in England in that respect, don't
+you?"
+
+The question was not a very clear one, but the colonel never hesitated
+to give in his adhesion.
+
+"Sir Stafford always took that view in the House, and consequently
+differed from his party, as well as about Ireland. Poor dear Ireland!
+what is to be done for her?"
+
+This was a rather more embarrassing demand than the previous one, and
+the colonel hemmed and coughed, and prepared for a speech of subtle
+generalities; but the dexterity was all unnecessary, for her Ladyship
+had already forgotten the theme, and everything about it, as she went
+on. "How I pity those dear Wreckingtons, who are condemned to live
+there! The Earl, you know, had promised solemnly that he would go any
+lengths for the party when he got his blue riband; and so they took him
+at his word, and actually named him to the viceroyalty. It was a very
+cruel thing, but I hear nothing could be better than his conduct on
+hearing it: and dear Lady Wreckington insisted upon accompanying him.
+It was exactly like the story of what was that man's name, who assisted
+in the murder of the Emperor Paul Geroboffskoi, or something like that,
+and whose wife followed him to the mines."
+
+The colonel avowed that the cases were precisely alike, and now the
+conversation if the word can be degraded to mean that bald disjointed
+chat ran upon London people and events their marriages, their dinners,
+their separations, coalitions, divorces, and departures; on all
+which themes Haggerstone affected a considerable degree of knowledge,
+although, to any one less occupied with herself than her Ladyship, it
+would have been at once apparent that all his information was derived
+from the newspapers. It was at the close of a lamentation on the utter
+stupidity of everything and everywhere, that he adroitly asked where she
+meant to pass the winter.
+
+"I wish I knew," said she, languidly. "The Dollingtons say Naples; the
+Upsleys tell us Rome; and, for my part, I pronounce for neither. Lady
+Dollingtou is my aversion, and the three Upsley girls, with their pink
+noses and red hair, are insufferable."
+
+"What does your Ladyship think of Florence?" asked the colonel,
+soothingly.
+
+"Pretty much what I might of one of the Tonga Islands. I know nothing of
+the place, the people, or the climate. Pray tell me about it."
+
+"There is very little to say," said Haggerstone, shrugging his
+shoulders; "not but the place might be very agreeable, if there were
+some one of really fashionable standing to take the lead and give a tone
+to the society; some one who would unite indispensable rank and wealth
+with personal graces, and thus, as it were, by prescriptive right,
+assume the first place. Then, I say, Florence would be second to no city
+of Italy. Would that your Ladyship would condescend to accept the vacant
+throne!"
+
+"I!" said she, affecting astonishment; and then laughingly added: "Oh
+no! I detest mock sovereignty. I actually shudder at the idea of the
+lady-patroness part; besides, whom should one have to reign over?
+Not the Browns and Smiths and Perkinses; not the full-pensioned East
+Indians, the half-pay colonels, and the no-pay Irish gentilities, that
+form the staple of small city society. You surely would not recommend me
+to such a sad pre-eminence."
+
+The colonel smiled flatteringly at her Ladyship's smartness, and
+hastened to assure her that such heresy was far from his thoughts; and
+then with a practised readiness ran over a list of foreign celebrities
+French, Russian, and German whose names, at least, clinked like the true
+metal.
+
+This looked promisingly; it was very like cutting all English society,
+and had the appearance of something very exclusive, very impertinent,
+and very ungenerous; and now she lent a willing ear as Haggerstone
+revealed a plan of operations for a whole winter campaign. According
+to his account, it was a perfect terra incognita, where the territorial
+limits and laws might be laid down at will; it was a state which called
+for a great dictatorship, and the sway of unlimited authority.
+
+Now, Lady Hester had never at least since her marriage, and very rarely
+even before it been more than on the periphery of fashionable society.
+When she did obtain a footing within the charmed circle, it was by no
+prescriptive right, but rather on some ground of patronage, or some
+accidental political crisis, which made Sir Stafford's influence a
+matter of moment. There was, therefore, a flattery in the thought of
+thus becoming a leader in society; and she shrewdly remembered, that
+though there might be little real power, there would be all the tyranny
+of a larger sovereignty.
+
+It is true she suffered no symptom of this satisfaction to escape
+her; on the contrary, she compassionated the "poor dear things," that
+thought themselves "the world," in such a place, and smiled with angelic
+pity at their sweet simplicity; but Haggerstone saw through all these
+disguises, and read her real sentiments, as a practised toadeater never
+fails to do, where only affectation is the pretence. Adroitly avoiding
+to press the question, he adverted to Baden and its dreary weather;
+offered his books, his newspapers, his horses, his phaeton, and
+everything that was his, even his companionship as a guide to the best
+riding or walking roads, and, like a clever actor, made his exit at the
+very moment when his presence became most desirable.
+
+Lady Hester looked out of the window, and saw, in the street beneath,
+the saddle-horses of the colonel, which were led up and down by a
+groom in the most accurate of costumes. The nags themselves, too, were
+handsome and in top condition. It was a little gleam of civilization,
+in the midst of universal barrenness, that brought up memories, some of
+which at least were not devoid of pain, so far as the expression of her
+features might be trusted. "I wonder who he can be?" said she, musing.
+"It's a shocking name! Haggerstone. Perhaps Sir Stafford may remember
+him. It's very sad to think that one should be reduced to such people."
+So, with a slight sigh, she sat down to indulge in a mood of deep and
+sincere commiseration for herself and her sorrows.
+
+From these reveries she was aroused by the arrival of a package of books
+and papers from the colonel. They included some of the latest things of
+the day, both French and English, and were exactly the kind of reading
+she cared for, that half-gossipry that revolves around a certain set,
+and busies itself about the people and incidents of one very small
+world. There were books of travel by noble authors, and novels by titled
+authoresses; the one as tamely well bred and tiresome as the others were
+warm and impassioned, no bad corroborative evidence, by the way, of
+the French maxim, that the "safety of the Lady Georginas has an immense
+relation to the coldness of the Lord Georges." There were books of
+beauty, wherein loveliness was most aristocratic; and annuals where
+nobility condescended to write twaddle. There were analyses of new
+operas, wherein the list of the spectators was the only matter of
+interest, and better than these were the last fashions of "Longchamps,"
+the newest bulletins of that great campaign which began in Adam's
+garden, and will endure to the "very crack of doom."
+
+Lady Hester's spirits rallied at once from these well-timed stimulants;
+and when the party gathered together before dinner, George and his
+sister were amazed at the happy change in her manner.
+
+"I have had a visitor," said she, after a short mystification; "a
+certain colonel, who assumes to be known to your father, but I fancy
+will scarcely be remembered by him, he calls himself Haggerstone."
+
+"Haggerstone!" said George, repeating the name twice or thrice. "Is not
+that the name of the man who was always with Arlington, and of whom all
+the stories are told?"
+
+"As I never heard of Arlington's companion, nor the stories in question,
+I can't say. Pray enlighten us," said Lady Hester, tartly.
+
+"Haggerstone sounds so like the name," repeated George to himself.
+
+"So like what name? Do be good enough to explain."
+
+"I am unwilling to tell a story which, if not justly attributable to the
+man, will certainly attach unpleasantly to his name hereafter."
+
+"And in your excessive caution for yourself, you are pleased to forget
+me, Mr. Onslow. Pray remember that if I admit him to acquaintance--"
+
+"But surely you don't mean to do so?"
+
+"And why not?"
+
+"In the first place, you know nothing about him."
+
+"Which is your fault."
+
+"Be it so. I have at least told you enough to inspire reserve and
+caution."
+
+"Quite enough to suggest curiosity and give a degree of interest to a
+very commonplace character."
+
+"Is he young, may I ask?" said George, with a half smile.
+
+"No, far from it."
+
+"Good-looking?"
+
+"Just as little."
+
+"Very agreeable and well-mannered?"
+
+"Rather prosy, and too military in tone for my taste."
+
+"Does he come under the recommendatory 'firman' of any dear friend or
+acquaintance?"
+
+"Nothing of the kind. There is his passport," said she, pointing to his
+visiting ticket.
+
+"Your Ladyship used to be more difficult of access," said George, dryly.
+
+"Very true; and so I may possibly become again. To make selections from
+the world of one's acquaintance is a very necessary duty; but, as my
+father used to say, no one thinks of using a sieve for chaff."
+
+"This gentleman is, then, fortunate in his obscurity."
+
+"Here comes Miss Onslow," said Lady Hester, "who will probably be more
+grateful to me when she learns that our solitude is to be enlivened by
+the gallant colonel."
+
+Sydney scanned over the books and journals on the table, and then
+quietly remarked, "If a man is to be judged of by his associates, these
+do not augur very favorably for the gentleman's taste."
+
+"I see that you are both bent on making him a favorite of mine," said
+Lady Hester, pettishly; "and if Dr. Grounsell will only discover some
+atrocious circumstance in his history or character, I shall be prepared
+to call him 'charming.'"
+
+The announcement of dinner fortunately broke up a discussion that
+already promised unfavorably; nor were any of the party sorry at the
+interruption.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII. A LESSON IN PISTOL-SHOOTING
+
+THERE are two great currents which divide public opinion in the whole
+world, and all mankind may be classed into one or other of these
+wide categories, "the people who praise, and the people who abuse
+everything." In certain sets, all is as it ought to be, in this life.
+Everybody is good, dear, and amiable. All the men are gifted and
+agreeable; all the women fascinating and pretty. An indiscriminate
+shower of laudations falls upon everything or everybody, and the only
+surprise the bearer feels is how a world, so chuck full of excellence,
+can possibly consist with what one reads occasionally in the "Times" and
+the "Chronicle."
+
+The second category is the Roland to this Oliver, and embraces those who
+have a good word for nobody, and in whose estimation the globe is one
+great penal settlement, the overseers being neither more nor less than
+the best-conducted among the convicts. The chief business of these
+people in life is to chronicle family disgraces and misfortunes, to
+store their memories with defalcations, frauds, suicides, disreputable
+transactions at play, unfair duels, seductions, and the like, and to be
+always prepared, on the first mention of a name, to connect its owner,
+or his grandmother, with some memorable blot, or some unfortunate event
+of years before. If the everlasting laudations of the one set make
+life too sweet to be wholesome, the eternal disparagement of the other
+renders it too bitter to be enjoyable; nor would it be easy to say
+whether society suffers more from the exercise of this mock charity on
+the one side, or the practice of universal malevolence on the other.
+
+Perhaps our readers will feel grateful when we assure them that we are
+not intent upon pushing the investigation further. The consideration
+was forced upon us by thinking of Colonel Haggerstone, who was a
+distinguished member of class No. 2. His mind was a police sheet, or
+rather like a page of that celebrated "Livre Noir," wherein all the
+unexpiated offences of a nation are registered. He knew the family
+disasters of all Europe, and not a name could be mentioned in society
+to which he could not tag either a seduction, a fraud, a swindle, or a
+poltroonery; and when such revelations are given prosaically, with all
+the circumstances of date, time, and place, unrelieved by the slightest
+spice of wit or imagination, but simply narrated as "Memoires pour
+servir a l'Histoire" of an individual, the world is very apt to accept
+them as evidences of knowledge of life, rather than what they really
+are, proofs of a malignant disposition. In this way, Haggerstone seemed
+to many the mere "old soldier," and nothing more; whereas, if nature had
+given him either fancy or epigrammatic smartness, he would have been set
+down for the incarnation of slander.
+
+It may seem strange that Lady Hester, who had lived a good deal in the
+world, should never have met a character of this type, but so it was;
+she belonged to a certain "fast set" in society, who seem to ask for a
+kind of indemnity for all they do, by never, on any occasion, stopping
+to criticise their neighbors. This semblance of good nature is a better
+defensive armor than the uninitiated know of, enlisting all loose
+sympathies with its possessor, and even gaining for its advocates that
+great floating majority who speak much and think little.
+
+In London, Haggerstone would have at once appeared the very worst
+"ton," and she would have avoided the acquaintance of a man so unhappily
+gifted; but here, at Baden, with nothing to do, none to speak to, he
+became actually a prize, and she listened to him for hours with pleasure
+as he recounted all the misdeeds of those "dear, dear friends" who had
+made up her own "world." There was at heart, too, the soothing flattery
+that whispered, "He can say nothing of me; the worst he can hint is,
+that I married a man old enough to be my father, and if I did, I am
+heartily sorry for the mistake."
+
+He was shrewd enough soon to detect the family differences that
+prevailed, and to take advantage of them, not by any imprudent or
+ill-advised allusion to what would have enlisted her Ladyship's pride
+in opposition, but by suggesting occupations and amusements that he saw
+would be distasteful to the others, and thus alienate her more and more
+from their companionship. In fact, his great object was to make Lady
+Hester a disciple of that new school which owns Georges Sand for its
+patron, "and calls itself Lionue." It would be foreign to our purpose
+here were we to stop and seek to what social causes this new sect owes
+existence. In a great measure it may be traced to the prevailing taste
+of men for club life, to that lounging ease which exacts no tribute of
+respect or even attention, but suffers men to indulge their caprices to
+any extent of selfishness; thus unfitting them for ladies' society,
+or only such society as that of ladies condescending enough to unsex
+themselves, and to talk upon themes and discuss subjects that usually
+are reserved for other audiences.
+
+Certain clever men liked this liberty, these receptions were a kind of
+free port, where all could be admitted duty free. Nothing was forbidden
+in this wide tariff, and so conversation, emancipated from the
+restriction of better society, permitted a thousand occasions of
+display, that gradually attracted people to these reunions, and made all
+other society appear cold, formal, and hypocritical by contrast. This
+new invention had not reached England when Lady Hester quitted it, but
+she listened to a description of its merits with considerable interest.
+There were many points, too, in which it chimed in with her notions. It
+had novelty, liberty, and unbounded caprice amongst its recommendations;
+and lastly, it was certain to outrage the "Onslows." It was a "part"
+which admitted of any amount of interpolations. Under its sanction she
+would be free to say anything, know any one, and go anywhere. Blessed
+immunity that permitted all and denied nothing!
+
+With all the vulgar requirements of "Lionism" she was already
+sufficiently conversant. She could ride, drive, shoot, and fence; was
+a very tolerable billiard-player, and could row a little. But with the
+higher walks of the craft she had made no acquaintance; she had not
+learned to swim, had never smoked, and was in dark ignorance of that
+form of language which, half mystical and all-mischievous, is in vogue
+with the members of this sect. That she could acquire all these
+things rapidly and easily the colonel assured her, and, by way
+of "matriculating," reminded her of her challenge respecting the
+pistol-shooting, for which he had made every preparation in the garden
+of the hotel.
+
+True to his word, he had selected a very pretty alley, at the end of
+which rose a wall sufficiently high to guard against accidents from
+stray shots. On a table were displayed, in all the dandyism such
+objects are capable of, a handsome case of pistols, with all the varied
+appliances of kid leather for wadding, bullet-moulds, rammers, hammers,
+screws, and rests, even to a russia-leather bound note-book, to record
+the successes, nothing had been forgotten; and Lady Hester surveyed with
+pleasure preparations which at least implied an anxious attention to her
+wishes.
+
+"Only fancy the barbarism of the land we live in," said he; "I have sent
+emissaries on every side to seek for some of those plaster images so
+common in every city of Europe, but in vain. Instead of your ladyship
+cutting off Joan of Arc's head, or sending your bullet through some
+redoubtable enemy of England, you must waste your prowess and skill
+upon an ignoble jar of porcelain, or a vase of Bohemian glass; unless,
+indeed, my last messenger shall have proved more fortunate, and I
+believe such is the case." As he spoke, his servant came up with a small
+parcel carefully enveloped in paper.
+
+"I have got this figure, sir," said he, "with the greatest difficulty,
+and only indeed by pretending we wanted it as an ornamental statue. The
+little fellow of the toy-shop parted with it in tears, as if it had been
+his brother."
+
+"It is very beautiful!" said Lady Hester, as she surveyed a small wooden
+statue of Goethe's "Marguerite," in the attitude of plucking the petals
+of a flower to decide upon her lover's fidelity.
+
+"A mere toy!" said Haggerstone. "These things are carved by every child
+in the Black Forest. Does your Ladyship think you could hit the feather
+of her cap without hurting the head?"
+
+"I couldn't think of such profanation," replied she; "there is really
+something very pretty in the attitude and expression. Pray let us
+reserve her for some less terrible destiny."
+
+But the colonel persisted in assuring her that these were the commonest
+knick-knacks that adorned every peasant's cabin, that every boor with a
+rusty knife carved similar figures, and in the midst of his explanations
+he placed the statue upon a little stone pillar about twenty paces off.
+
+Lady Hester's objection had been little more than a caprice; indeed, had
+she been convinced that the figure was a valuable work of art, she
+would have felt rather flattered than otherwise at the costliness of the
+entertainment provided for her. Like Cleopatra's pearl, it would have
+had the charm of extravagance at least; but she never gave the colonel
+credit for such gallantry, and the more readily believed all he said on
+the subject.
+
+Colonel Haggerstone proceeded to load the pistols with all that pomp and
+circumstance so amusingly displayed by certain people on like occasions.
+The bullets, encased in little globes of chamois, carefully powdered
+with emery, were forced down the barrels by a hammer, the hair trigger
+adjusted, and the weapon delivered to Lady Hester with due solemnity.
+
+"If I go wide of the mark, Colonel, I beg you to remember that I have
+not had a pistol in my hand for above three years; indeed, it must be
+nearly four years since I shot a match with Lord Norwood."
+
+"Lord Norwood! indeed!" said Haggerstone. "I wasn't aware that your
+Ladyship had ever been his antagonist."
+
+Had not Lady Hester been herself anxious to hide the confusion the
+allusion to the viscount always occasioned her, she could not have
+failed to remark how uncomfortably astonished was Haggerstone at the
+mention of that name. Nervously eager to do something anything that
+might relieve her embarrassment she pulled the trigger; but the aim was
+an erring one, and no trace of the bullet to be seen.
+
+"There 's no use in looking for it, Colonel Haggerstone," said she,
+pettishly; "I'm certain I was very wide of the mark."
+
+"I 'm positive I saw the plaster drop from the wall somewhere
+hereabouts," said the complaisant Colonel, pointing to a spot close
+beside the figure. "Yes, and the twigs are broken here."
+
+"No matter; I certainly missed, and that's quite enough. I told you I
+should, before I fired; and when one has the anticipation of failure, it
+is so easy to vindicate the impression."
+
+[Illustration:   094]
+
+It was in evident chagrin at her want of success that she spoke, and all
+her companion's flatteries went for nothing. Meanwhile, he presented the
+second pistol, which, taking hastily, and without giving herself time
+for an aim, she discharged with a like result.
+
+"I 'll not try again," said she, pettishly. "Either the pistols don't
+suit me, or the place or the light is bad. Something is wrong, that's
+certain."
+
+Haggerstone bit his lip in silence, and went on reloading the pistols
+without trusting himself to reply. A little conflict was going on within
+him, and all his intended flatteries for her Ladyship were warring with
+the desire to display his own skill, for he was a celebrated shot, and
+not a little vain of the accomplishment. Vanity carried the day at last,
+and taking up the weapon, he raised it slowly to a level with his eye. A
+second or two he held it thus, his hand steady as a piece of marble.
+
+"I have taken my aim, and now you may give the word for me to fire when
+you please," said he, turning his eyes from the object, and looking
+straight at Lady Hester.
+
+She stared at him as if to reassure herself of the direction of his
+glance, and then called out "Fire!" The shot rang out clear and sharp;
+with it arose a shrill cry of agony, and straight before them, at the
+foot of the pillar, lay something which looked like a roll of clothes,
+only that by its panting motion it indicated life. Haggerstone sprang
+forward, and to his horror discovered the dwarf, Hans Roeckle, who, with
+his arm broken, lay actually bathed in blood. With his remaining hand he
+clasped the little statue to his bosom, while he muttered to himself the
+words "Gerettet! saved! saved!"
+
+While Lady Hester hurried for assistance, Haggerstone bound up the
+bleeding vessels with his handkerchief; and in such German as he could
+command, asked how the accident had befallen.
+
+A few low muttering sounds were all the dwarf uttered, but he kissed the
+little image with a devotion that seemed like insanity. Meanwhile the
+colonel's servant, coming up, at once recognized Hans, and exclaimed,
+"It is the little fellow of the toy-shop, sir. I told you with what
+reluctance he parted with this figure. He must be mad, I think."
+
+The wild looks and eager expressions of the dwarf, as he clutched the
+image and pressed it to his heart, seemed to warrant the suspicion; and
+Haggerstone thought he could read insanity in every line of the poor
+creature's face. To the crowd that instantaneously gathered around the
+inn door, and which included many of his friends and acquaintances, Hans
+would give no other explanation of the event than that it was a mere
+accident; that he was passing, and received the shot by chance; nothing
+more.
+
+"Is he not mad, or a fool?" asked Haggerstone of the innkeeper.
+
+"Neither, sir; Hans Roeckle is an old and respected burgher of our town,
+and although eccentric and odd in his way, is not wanting for good sense
+or good nature."
+
+"Ay! ay!" cried two or three of his townsfolk, to whom the landlord
+translated the Colonel's question; "Hans is a kind-hearted fellow, and
+if he loves his dolls and wooden images over-much, he never lacks in
+affection for living creatures."
+
+While these and such-like observations were making around him, the
+dwarf's wounds were being dressed by his friend, Ludwig Kraus, an
+operation of considerable pain, that the little fellow bore with heroic
+tranquillity. Not a word of complaint, not a syllable of impatience
+escaped him; and while from his half-closed lips a low, muttered
+exclamation of "Saved! saved!" came forth from time to time, the
+bystanders deemed it the utterance of gratitude for his own escape with
+life.
+
+But once only did any expression of irritation burst from him, it was
+when Haggerstone pulled out his purse, and with an ostentatious display
+of munificence asked him to name his recompense. "Take me home; take me
+hence!" said Hans, impatiently. "Tell the rich 'Englander' that there
+are wounds for which sorrow would be an ample cure, but there are others
+which insult is sure to fester."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII. THE NIGHT EXCURSION
+
+THE remainder of the day after the dwarf's misfortune was passed by Lady
+Hester in a state of feverish irritability. Sorry as she felt for the
+"sad accident," her own phrase, she was still more grieved for the
+effects it produced upon herself; the jar and worry of excited feelings,
+the uncomfortableness of being anxious about anything or anybody.
+
+Epicurean in her code of manners as of morals, she detested whatever
+occasioned even a passing sensation of dissatisfaction, and hence upon
+the luckless colonel, the author of the present evil, fell no measured
+share of her displeasure. "He should have taken precautions against
+such a mishap; he ought to have had sufficient presence of mind to have
+arrested his aim; he should have fired in the air, in fact, he ought to
+have done anything but what he did do;" which was to agitate the nerves,
+and irritate the sensibilities, of a fine lady.
+
+The conduct of the family, too, was the very reverse of soothing. Sir
+Stafford's gout had relapsed on hearing of the event; George Onslow's
+anger was such that he could not trust himself to speak of the
+occurrence; and as for Sydney, though full of sorrow for the dwarf, she
+had not a single sympathy to bestow upon her stepmother. "Were there
+ever such people?" she asked herself again and again. Not one had taken
+the trouble to ask how she bore up, or express the slightest anxiety for
+the consequences the shock might occasion her.
+
+Grounsell was actually insufferable; and even hinted that if anything
+untoward were to happen, the very grave question might arise as to
+the guilt of the parties who appeared in arms without a Government
+permission. He reminded her Ladyship that they were not in England, but
+in a land beset with its own peculiar prejudices and notions, and in
+nothing so rigorous as in the penalties on accidents that took their
+origin in illegality.
+
+As for the wound itself, he informed her that the bullet had "traversed
+the deltoid, but without dividing the brachial artery; and, for the
+present, sympathetic fever and subcutaneous inflammation would be the
+worst consequences." These tidings were neither very reassuring nor
+intelligible; but all her cross-examination could elicit little better.
+
+"Has Colonel Haggerstone been to see him?" asked she.
+
+"No, madam. His groom called with a present of two florins."
+
+"Oh! impossible, sir."
+
+"Perfectly true, madam. I was present when the money was returned to the
+man by a young lady, whose attentions to the sufferer saved him the pain
+this indignity would have cost him."
+
+"A young lady, did you say? How does he happen to be so fortunate in his
+attendance?"
+
+"Her father chances to be this poor creature's tenant, and many mutual
+acts of kindness have passed between them."
+
+"Not even scandal could asperse her motives in the present case," said
+Lady Hester, with an insolent laugh. "It looked hardly human when they
+lifted it from the ground."
+
+"Scandal has been guilty of as gross things, madam," said Grounsell,
+sternly, "but I would defy her here, although there is beauty enough
+to excite all her malevolence." And with this speech, delivered with a
+pointedness there was no mistaking, the doctor left the room.
+
+Impressions, or what she herself would have called "feelings," chased
+each other so rapidly through Lady Hester's mind, that her whole
+attention was now directed to the young lady of whom Grounsell spoke,
+and whose singular charity excited all her curiosity. There is a strange
+tendency to imitation among those whose intelligences lie unexercised
+by any call of duty or necessity. No suggestion coming from within, they
+look without themselves for occupation and amusement. Lady Hester was a
+prominent disciple of this school; all her life she had been following,
+eager to see whether the fashions that became, or the pleasures that
+beguiled, others, might not suit herself. If such a course of existence
+inevitably conduces to ennui and discontent, it is no less difficult to
+strive against; and they who follow in the track of others' footsteps
+have all the weariness of the road without the cheering excitement of
+the journey.
+
+If the young lady found pleasure in charity, why should n't she?
+Benevolence, too, for aught she knew, might be very becoming. There were
+a hundred little devices of costume and manner which might be adopted to
+display it. What a pretty version of the good Samaritan modernized
+one might give in a Shetland scarf and a cottage bonnet the very thing
+Chalons would like to paint; and what an effective "interior" might
+be made of the dwarf's chamber, crowded with rude peasant faces, all
+abashed and almost awe-struck as she entered.
+
+The longer she dwelt upon the theme the more fascinating it became. "It
+would be really worth while to realize," said she to herself at last "so
+amusing and so odd, an actual adventure; besides, in point of fact, it
+was her duty to look after this poor creature." Just so; there never was
+a frivolous action, or a notion struck out by passing folly, for
+which its author could not find a justification in PRINCIPLE! We are
+everlastingly declaring against the knaveries and deceptions practised
+on us in life; but if we only took count of the cheats we play off upon
+ourselves, we should find that there are no such impostors as our own
+hearts.
+
+Nobody was ever less likely to make this discovery than Lady Hester. She
+believed herself everything that was good and amiable; she knew that she
+was handsome. Whatever contrarieties she met with in life, she was quite
+certain they came not from any fault of hers; and if self-esteem could
+give happiness, she must have enjoyed it. But it cannot. The wide
+neutral territory between what we think of ourselves and others think of
+us is filled with daring enemies to our peace, and it is impossible to
+venture into it without a wound of self-love.
+
+To make her visit to the dwarf sufficient of an adventure, it must
+be done in secret; nobody should know it but Celestine, her maid, who
+should accompany her. Affecting a slight indisposition, she could retire
+to her room in the evening, and then there would be abundant time to put
+her plan into execution. Even these few precautions against discovery
+were needless, for George did not return to dinner on that day, and
+Sydney made a headache an excuse for not appearing.
+
+Nothing short of the love of adventure and the indulgence of a caprice
+could have induced Lady Hester to venture out in such a night. The
+rain fell in torrents, and swooped along the narrow streets in channels
+swollen to the size of rivulets. The river itself, fed by many a
+mountain stream, fell tumbling over the rocks with a deafening roar,
+amid which the crashing branches of the pine-trees were heard at
+intervals. What would not have been her anxieties and lamentings
+if exposed to such a storm when travelling, surrounded with all the
+appliances that wealth can compass! and yet now, of her own free will,
+she wended her way on foot through the darkness and the hurricane, not
+only without complaining, but actually excited to a species of pleasure
+in the notion of her imaginary heroism.
+
+The courier who preceded her, as guide, enjoyed no such agreeable
+illusions, but muttered to himself, as he went, certain reflections by
+no means complimentary, to the whims of fine ladies; while Mademoiselle
+Celestine inwardly protested that anything, "not positively wrong,"
+would be dearly purchased by the dangers of such an excursion.
+
+"Gregoire! Gregoire! where is he now!" exclaimed Lady Hester, as she
+lost sight of her guide altogether.
+
+"Here, miladi," grunted out the courier, in evident pain; "I fail to
+break my neck over de stone bench."
+
+"Where 's the lantern, Gregoire?"
+
+"Blowed away, zum Teufel, I believe." "What 's he saying, Celestine?
+what does he mean?"
+
+But mademoiselle could only answer by a sob of agony over her capote de
+Paris, flattened to her head like a Highland bonnet.
+
+"Have you no light? You must get a light, Gregoire."
+
+"Impossible, miladi; dere 's nobody livin' in dese houses at all."
+
+"Then you must go back to the inn for one; we 'll wait here till you
+return."
+
+A faint shriek from Mademoiselle Celestine expressed all the terror such
+a proposition suggested.
+
+"Miladi will be lost if she remain here all alone."
+
+"Perdue! sans doute!" exclaimed Celestiue.
+
+"I am determined to have my way. Do as I bade you, Gregoire; return
+for a light, and we'll take such shelter as this door affords in the
+meanwhile."
+
+It was in no spirit of general benevolence that Gregoire tracked his
+road back to the "Russie," since, if truth must be told, he himself had
+extinguished the light, in the hope of forcing Lady Hester to a retreat.
+Muttering a choice selection of those pleasant phrases with which his
+native German abounds, he trudged along, secretly resolving that he
+would allow his mistress a reasonable interval of time to reflect
+over her madcap expedition. Meanwhile, Lady Hester and her maid stood
+shivering and storm-beaten beneath the drip of a narrow eave. The spirit
+of opposition alone sustained her Ladyship at this conjuncture, for she
+was wet through, her shoes soaked with rain, and the cold blast that
+swept along seemed as if it would freeze the very blood in her heart.
+
+Celestine could supply but little of comfort or consolation, and kept
+repeating the words, "Quelle aventure! quelle aventure!" in every
+variety of lamentation.
+
+"He could easily have been back by this," said Lady Hester, after a long
+pause, and an anxious attention to every sound that might portend his
+coming: "I 'm certain it is full half an hour since he left us. What a
+night!"
+
+"Et quelle aventure!" exclaimed Celestine, anew.
+
+None knew better than Lady Hester the significant depreciation of the
+Frenchwoman's phrase, and how differently had she rated all the hazards
+of the enterprise if any compromise of character were to have followed
+it. However, it was no time for discussion, and she let it pass.
+
+"If he should have missed the way, and not be able to find us!" she
+said, after another pause.
+
+"We shall be found dead in the morning," cried Celestine; "et pour
+quelle a venture, mon Dieu, pour quelle aventure!"
+
+The possibility that her fears suggested, and the increasing severity
+of the storm for now the thunder rolled overhead, and the very ground
+seemed to shake with the reverberation served to alarm Lady Hester, and
+for the first time she became frightened at their situation.
+
+"We could scarcely find our way back, Celestine!" said she, rather in
+the tone of one asking for comfort than putting a question.
+
+"Impossible, miladi."
+
+"And Gregoire says that these houses are all uninhabited."
+
+"Quelle aventure!" sobbed the maid.
+
+"What can have become of him? It is more than an hour now! What was
+that, Ce'lestine? was it lightning? there, don't you see it yonder,
+towards the end of the street? I declare it is Gregoire; I see the
+lantern."
+
+A cry of joy burst from both together, for already hope had begun to
+wane, and a crowd of fearful anticipations had taken its place.
+
+Lady Hester tried to call his name, but the clattering noise of the
+storm drowned the weak effort. The light, however, came nearer at
+each instant, and there was no longer any doubt of their rescue, when
+suddenly it turned and disappeared at an angle of the street. Lady
+Hester uttered a piercing cry, and at the instant the lantern was again
+seen, showing that the bearer had heard the sounds.
+
+"Here, Gregoire, we are here!" exclaimed she, in her loudest voice, and
+speaking in English.
+
+Whoever carried the lantern seemed for a moment uncertain how to act,
+for there was no reply, nor any change of position for a few seconds,
+when at length the light was seen approaching where Lady Hester stood.
+
+"I think I heard an English voice," said one whose accents proclaimed
+her to be a woman.
+
+"Oh yes!" cried Lady Hester, passionately, "I am English. We have lost
+our way. Our courier went back to the inn for a lantern, and has never
+returned, and we are almost dead with cold and terror. Can you guide us
+to the Hotel de Russie?"
+
+"The house I live in is only a few yards off. It is better you should
+take shelter there for the present."
+
+"Take care, miladi!" whispered Celestine, eagerly. "This may be a plot
+to rob and murder us."
+
+"Have no fears on that score, mademoiselle," said the unknown, laughing,
+and speaking in French; "we are not very rich, but as surely we are
+perfectly safe company."
+
+Few as these words were, there was in their utterance that indescribable
+tone of good breeding and ease which at once reassured Lady Hester, who
+now replied to her unseen acquaintance with the observance due to an
+equal, and willingly accepted the arm she offered for guidance and
+support.
+
+"At the end of this little street, scarcely two minutes' walking, and
+you will be there," said the unknown.
+
+Lady Hester scarcely heard the remark, as she ran on with voluble levity
+on the dangers they had run, the terrific storm, the desertion of
+the courier, her own fortitude, her maid's cowardice, what must have
+happened if they had not been discovered, till at last she bethought her
+of asking by what singular accident the other should have been abroad in
+such a terrible night.
+
+"A neighbor and a friend of ours is very ill, madam, and I have been to
+the doctor's to fetch some medicine for him."
+
+"And I, too, was bent upon a charitable errand," said Lady Hester, quite
+pleased with the opportunity of parading her own merits, "to visit a
+poor creature who was accidentally wounded this morning."
+
+"It is Hans Roeckle, our poor neighbor, you mean," cried the other,
+eagerly; "and here we are at his house." And so saying, she pushed open
+a door, to which a bell, attached on the inside, gave speedy warning of
+their approach.
+
+"Dearest Kate!" cried a voice from within, "how uneasy I have been at
+your absence!" And the same moment a young girl appeared with a light,
+which, as she shaded it with her hand, left her unaware of the presence
+of strangers.
+
+"Think rather of this lady, and what she must have suffered," said Kate,
+as, drawing courteously back, she presented her sister to Lady Hester.
+
+"Or rather, what I might have suffered," interposed Lady Hester, "but
+for the fortunate accident of your coming. A few moments back, as I
+stood shivering beneath the storm, I little thought that I should owe
+my rescue to a countrywoman. May I learn the name of one to whom I am so
+deeply indebted?"
+
+"Dalton, madam," said Nelly; and then with a slight confusion, added,
+"we ought, perhaps, to tell the circumstances which induced my sister to
+be abroad at such an hour."
+
+"She knows it all," broke in Kate, "and can the more readily forgive it,
+as it was her own errand. But will not this lady come near the fire?"
+said she, addressing Mademoiselle Celestiue, who, as she followed the
+rest into the humble chamber, was bestowing a most depreciatory glance
+upon the place, the furniture, and the people.
+
+"It is only my maid," said Lady Hester, carelessly. "And now it is time
+I should introduce myself, and say that Lady Hester Onslow owes you all
+her gratitude." Ellen courtesied respectfully at the announcement, but
+Kate Dalton's cheek colored slightly, and she bent a look of more than
+common admiration at the handsome figure of the stranger. An innate
+reverence for rank and title was rooted in her heart, and she was
+overjoyed to think that their chance acquaintance should be one of that
+class so distinctively marked out for honor. Prepared to admire every
+grace and fascination of the high-born, Kate watched with eager and
+delighted looks the slightest gestures, the least traits of manner, of
+the fashionable beauty. They were all attractions to which her heart
+gave a ready response. The accent in which she spoke, the careless
+elegance of her attitude as she lay back in her chair, the charming
+negligence with which she wore the little portions of dress exchanged
+for her own, were all inimitable graces in the eye of the simple girl.
+
+As for Lady Hester, accustomed to all the servile offices of her own
+attendants, to be punctiliously obeyed and waited on, it was yet a new
+sensation to watch the zealous and eager devotion with which the two
+sisters ministered to her wants. In utter forgetfulness of themselves,
+they had brought forth the little resources of their humble wardrobe,
+too happy, as it seemed, when they saw their services so willingly
+accepted. Fortunately, they did not perceive the contemptuous looks
+with which "mademoiselle" regarded their attentions, nor overheard
+her exclamation of "Mon Dieu! where did they gather together these
+chiffons?" as she surveyed the somewhat antiquated stores of their
+toilette.
+
+Even had Lady Hester's good breeding not prompted a gracious reception
+of what was so generously offered, the very singularity of the scene
+would have had its charm in her estimation. She was delighted with
+everything, even to Kate Dalton's slippers, which, by a most happy
+flattery, were a little too large for her. She fancied, too, that her
+costume, curiously made up of shreds and patches the most incongruous,
+was the dress of an Irish peasant, and was in an ecstasy at the thought
+of a similar one at her next fancy ball. Besides all these internal
+sources of self-satisfaction, the admiration of the two sisters was
+another and more legitimate cause of pleasure; for even Ellen, with all
+her natural reserve and caution, was scarcely less impressed than Kate
+with the charm of those fascinations which, however destined but for one
+class of society, are equally successful in all.
+
+Ellen Dalton's life had not been devoid of trials, nor had they failed
+to teach their own peculiar lessons; and yet her experiences had not
+shown her how very like right feeling good breeding can be, and how
+closely good manners may simulate every trait of a high and generous
+nature.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX. A FINE LADY'S BLANDISHMENTS.
+
+WE left Lady Hester, in our last chapter, employed in the exercise of
+those fascinations which, however unlike in other respects, have this
+resemblance to virtue, that they are assuredly their own reward. The
+charm of courtesy never conferred one half the pleasure on those for
+whom it was exercised as to him who wielded it. It matters little
+whether the magician be prince or "charlatan," the art of pleasing is
+one of the most agreeable faculties human nature can be endowed with.
+Whether Lady Hester was aware of the theory or not, she felt the fact,
+as she saw the undisguised admiration in the faces of the two sisters;
+for while she had won over Nelly by the elevation of her sentiments and
+the kindness of her expressions, Kate was fascinated by her beauty, her
+grace, her easy gayety, and a certain voluble lightness that simulates
+frankness.
+
+Without anything that approached the prying of curiosity, for she was
+both too well bred and too little interested to have so felt such a
+motive, she inquired by what accident the Daltons remained at Baden so
+late in the season, affected to see some similarity between their cases
+and her own, asked in the most feeling terms for their father, whose
+ill-health she deplored, and then took such an interest in "dear Frank,"
+that Kate could not resist showing a portrait of him, which, however
+humble its claims to art, still conveyed a not unfaithful resemblance of
+the handsome youth.
+
+While thus hearing about them, she was equally communicative about
+herself, and enlisted all the sympathies of the girls as she recounted
+their escape from the torrent in the Black Forest, and their subsequent
+refuge in Baden.
+
+Thence she diverged to Sir Stafford's illness, her own life of seclusion
+and sadness, and, by an easy transition, came round to poor Hans
+Roeckle and the accident of that morning.
+
+"Do tell me everything about the poor dear thing," said she, poutingly.
+"They say it is mad."
+
+"No, madam," said Nelly, gravely; "Hans, with many eccentricities of
+manner, is very far from deficient in good sense or judgment, and is
+more than ordinarily endowed with right feeling and kindness of heart."
+
+"He is a dwarf, surely?"
+
+"Yes, but in intelligence--"
+
+"Oh, that, of course," interrupted she; "they are rarely deficient in
+acuteness, but so spiteful, so full of malice. My dear child, there 's
+no trusting them. They never forget an injury, nor even an imaginary
+slight. There was that creature what was his name? that Polish thing,
+Benywowski, I think you remember, they baked him in a pie, to amuse
+Charles II. well, he never forgave it after wards, and to the day of his
+death could never bear the sight of pastry."
+
+"I must except poor Hans from this category," said Nelly, mildly, and
+with difficulty restraining a smile. "He is amiability itself."
+
+Lady Hester shook her head doubtfully, and went on.
+
+"Their very caprices, my dear, lead them into all kinds of
+extravagances. For instance, this poor thing, it would seem, is so
+enamored of these wooden toys that he makes himself, that he cannot bear
+to part with them. Now, there 's no saying to what excesses he might
+be carried by this absurd passion. I have read of the most atrocious
+murders committed under a similar fanaticism."
+
+"I assure you, madam, there need be no fear of such in the present
+instance. In the first case, Hans is too good; in the second, the
+objects are too valueless."
+
+"Very true, so they are; but he doesn't think them so, you know."
+
+"Nay, my Lady; nor would you either, were you to regard them with
+attention," broke in Kate, whose cheek was now one glow of scarlet.
+"Even this, half finished as it is, may lay claim to merit." And as she
+spoke, she removed a napkin from a little statue, before which she held
+the candle.
+
+"For shame, Kate, dearest Kate!" cried Nelly, standing up in bashful
+discomfiture.
+
+"It is a statuette of poor Frank, madam," continued Kate, who, totally
+regardless of her sister's interruption now exhibited the figure nearer.
+"You see him just as he left us, his knapsack on his shoulder, his sword
+fastened across it, his little cap on one side of his head, and
+that happy smile upon his lips. Poor dear fellow! how sad a heart it
+covered!"
+
+"And was this his work?" asked Lady Hester, in astonishment.
+
+"No, madam; my sister Nelly was the artist of this, as of all the
+others. Unaided and untaught, her own ingenuity alone suggesting the
+means, as her imagination supplied the conception."
+
+"Kate! dear, dear Kate!" said Ellen, with a voice of almost rebuke.
+"You forget how unworthy these poor efforts are of such high-sounding
+epithets." Then, turning to Lady Hester, she continued: "Were it to ears
+less charitable than yours, madam, these foolish words were spoken, I
+should fear the criticism our presumption would seem to call forth. But
+you will not think harshly of us for ignorance."
+
+"But this figure is admirable; the attitude is graceful; the character
+of the head, the features, are in good keeping. I know, of course,
+nothing of the resemblance to your brother, but, as a work of art, I am
+competent to say it has high merit. Do tell me how the thought of doing
+these things first occurred to you."
+
+"I learned drawing as a child, madam, and was always fond of it," said
+Ellen, with a degree of constraint that seemed as if the question were
+painful to answer.
+
+"Yes, and so have I spent months ay, I believe I might say years at the
+easel, copying every Giorgione at Venice and every Vandyk at Genoa, and
+yet such a thought never suggested itself to me."
+
+"I am happy to think so, madam," was the low response.
+
+"Why so? how do you mean?" asked Lady Hester, eagerly.
+
+"That the motive in my case never could have been yours, madam."
+
+"And what was the motive?"
+
+"Poverty, madam. The word is not a pleasant word to syllable, but it is
+even better than any attempt at disguise. These trifles, while beguiling
+many a dreary hour, have helped us through a season of more than usual
+difficulty."
+
+"Yes, madam," broke in Kate. "You are aware that papa's property is in
+Ireland, and for some years back it has been totally unproductive."
+
+"How very sad how dreadful!" exclaimed Lady Hester. But whether the
+expressions referred to the condition of the Daltons or of Ireland, it
+is not quite clear.
+
+"I doubt, madam, if I should have ventured on the confession," said
+Ellen, with a voice of calm firmness, "were it not for the opportunity
+it offers of bearing testimony to the kindness of our poor friend
+yonder, Hans Roeckle. These efforts of mine have met such favor in
+his eyes that he accepts them all, taking them as rapidly as they are
+finished, and, I need not say, treating me with a generosity that would
+become a more exalted patron and a better artist."
+
+"It is quite a romance, I declare!" cried Lady Hester. "The Wood Demon
+and the Maiden. Only he is not in love with you, I hope?"
+
+"I'm not quite sure of that," said Kate, laughing; "at least, when some
+rivalry of her own wooden images does not intervene."
+
+"Hush! Hans is awaking," said Ellen, as on tiptoe she crossed the room
+noiselessly, and opened the door of the chamber where the dwarf lay.
+Lady Hester and Kate now drew near and peeped in. On a low settle over
+which an old scarlet saddle-cloth, fringed with tarnished lace, was
+spread as a quilt lay Hans Roeckle, his wounded arm supported by a
+pillow at his side; his dark eyes glistened with the bright glare
+of fever, and his cheeks were flushed and burning, as his lips moved
+unceasingly, with a low muttering, which he continued, regardless of the
+presence of those who now approached his bedside.
+
+"What is it he is saying? Does he complain of pain?" asked Lady Hester.
+
+[Illustration:   110]
+
+"I cannot understand him," said Nelly; "for ever since his accident he
+has spoken in his native dialect the patois of the Bregentzer Wald of
+which I am utterly ignorant; still he will reply to me in good German
+when questioned." Then, stooping down, she asked, "Are you better,
+Hans?"
+
+Hans looked up steadfastly in her face without speaking; it seemed as if
+her voice had arrested his wandering faculties, but yet not awakened any
+intelligence.
+
+"You are thirsty, Hans," said she, gently, as she lifted a cup of water
+to his lips. He drank greedily, and then passed his hand across his
+brow, as if trying to dispel some tormenting fancies. After a second or
+two, he said: "It was in Nuremberg, in the Oden Gasse, it happened. The
+Ritter von Ottocar stabbed her as she knelt at the cross; and the dwarf,
+Der Mohrchen, as they called him, tore off his turban to bind up the
+wound; and what was his reward, maiden? tell me that! Are ye all so
+shamed that ye dare not speak it?"
+
+"We know it not, Hans; we never heard of the Ritter nor the Mohrchen
+before."
+
+"I 'll tell you, then. They burned him as a warlock in the Hohen Platz
+next morning." With a wild burst of savage laughter he closed this
+speech, which he spoke in good German; but immediately after his
+thoughts seemed to turn to his old Tyrol haunts and the familiar
+language of his native land, as he sang, in a low voice, the following
+words:
+
+     "A Buchsel zu schiessen,
+     A Stossring zu schlagn,
+     A Dienal zu Liebn,
+     Muss a Rue hahn."
+
+"What does he mean? Do tell me," said Lady Hester, whose interest in the
+scene was more that of curiosity than compassion.
+
+"It is a peasant dialect; but means, that a rifle to shoot with, a
+weapon to wield, and a maiden to love, are all that a good Tyroler
+needs in life," said Kate, while Nelly busied herself in arranging the
+position of the wounded limb, little offices for which the poor dwarf
+looked his gratitude silently.
+
+"How wild his looks are!" said Lady Hester. "See how his eyes glance
+along the walls, as if some objects were moving before them!" And so
+in reality was it. Hanserl's looks were riveted upon the strange and
+incongruous assemblage of toys which, either suspended from nails or
+ranged on shelves, decorated the sides of the chamber. "Ay," said he
+at last, with a melancholy smile, "thou 'lt have to put off all this
+bravery soon, my pretty damsels, and don the black veil and the hood,
+for thy master Hans is dying!"
+
+"He is talking to the wax figures," whispered Kate.
+
+"And ye too, my brave hussars, and ye Uhlaners with your floating
+banners, must lower your lances as ye march in the funeral procession,
+when Hanserl is dead! Take down the wine-bush from the door, hostess,
+and kneel reverently, for the bell is ringing; and here comes the priest
+in his alb, and with the pix before him. Hush! they are chanting his
+requiem. Ah! yes. Hanserl is away to the far-off land,
+
+     Wo sind die Tage lang genug,
+     Wo sind die Nachte mild."
+
+"Come away, we do but excite his mind to wanderings," said Ellen: "so
+long as there is light to see these toys, his fancy endows them all with
+life and feeling, and his poor brain is never at rest." The sound of
+voices in the outer room at the same moment caught their attention, and
+they heard the courier of Lady Hester in deep converse with Mademoiselle
+Celestine. He, deploring the two hours he had passed in hunting after
+his mistress through the dark streets of the village; and she, not less
+eloquently, bewailing the misery of a night spent in that comfortless
+cabin. "To visit a wretched dwarf, too! Parbleu! had it been a
+rendezvous with some one worth while, but an excursion without an
+object, sans emotion meme, it is too bad!"
+
+"Que voulez-vous!" said Monsieur Gregoire, with a shrug of the
+shoulders; "she is English!"
+
+"Ah! that is no reason for a vulgar caprice, and I, for one, will not
+endure it longer. I cannot do so. Such things compromise one's self.
+I 'll give warning to-morrow. What would my poor dear mistress, la
+Marquise, say, if she only knew how mes petits talents were employed?"
+
+"Do not be rash, mademoiselle," interposed the courier; "they are rich,
+very rich, and we are going to Italy too, the real pays de Cocagne of
+our profession."
+
+How far his persuasions might have gone in inducing her to reconsider
+her determination there is no saying, when they were suddenly
+interrupted by Lady Hester's appearance.
+
+Her first care was to ascertain that her absence from the hotel had not
+been remarked, her secret, as she loved to fancy it, remained sacred.
+Having learned thus much, she listened with a kind of childish pleasure
+to the courier's version of all his unhappy wanderings in search of
+her, until he at last descried a light, the only one that shone from any
+window in the whole village.
+
+As Gregoire had provided himself with a sufficient number of shawls,
+cloaks, and clogs, and as the storm had now passed over, Lady Hester
+prepared to take her leave, delighted with her whole night's adventure.
+There had been excitement enough to make it all she could desire; nor
+did she well know whether most to admire her heroism during the storm,
+or the success with which she captivated the two sisters; the courage
+which planned the expedition, or the grace with which it was executed.
+
+"You'll come and see me, Miss Dalton; mind, I'm always at home.
+Remember, Miss Kate Dalton, that they must not deny me to you" said
+she, in her most winning of manners. The two girls gave their promise in
+bashful diffidence, while she continued,
+
+"You'll say to your papa, too, that Sir Stafford will wait on him
+whenever he is able to leave the house. Mr. Onslow, indeed, ought to
+call at once; but he is so odd. Never mind, we shall be great friends;
+and you 'll bring all your little carving tools and your models with
+you, and work in my room. Your sister her embroidery, or her lace, or
+her crochet, or whatever it is, or you 'll read German for me, like a
+dear child, that will be so delightful. I can't understand a word of it,
+but it sounds so soft, and you 'll tell me all it 's about won't you?
+And then this poor thing must want for nothing."
+
+"Nay, madam, he is in no need of anything but kindness. In a land where
+such simple habits prevail, Hans Roeckle passes for rich."
+
+"How strange! how very odd! but I remember that poor Prince of
+Stolzenheimer. Papa used to say that he had six cordons, but only one
+coat! I believe it was true."
+
+"Hanserl is better off, madam," replied Nelly, smiling; "at least as
+regards the coats."
+
+"Tell him, then, that I've been to see him, and am so grieved at his
+accident, but that it was all Colonel Haggerstone's fault, a bit of
+silly vanity to show how well he could shoot, and I 'm certain it just
+comes of being used to the pistols. I never missed when I fired with
+Norwood's!"
+
+The utterance of that name seemed to recall her from the discursive
+babble. She paused, and for a moment or two she was silent. At last,
+turning to the sisters, she reiterated her hopes of a speedy meeting,
+and with a cordial pressure of the hand to each, wished her last
+good-night, and departed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X. A FAMILY DISCUSSION.
+
+LONG before Lady Hester awoke on the following morning every
+circumstance of her visit was known to Grounsell. It was the doctor's
+custom to see Dalton early each day, and before Sir Stafford was
+stirring, and to chat away an hour or so with the invalid, telling
+the current news of the time, and cheering his spirits by those little
+devices which are not among the worst resources of the Materia Medica.
+With all his knowledge of Lady Hester's character, her caprices,
+her whims, and her insatiable passion for excitement, he was still
+astonished beyond measure at this step: not that the false air of
+benevolence or charity deceived him, he was too old a practitioner in
+medicine, and had seen far too much of the dark side of human nature,
+to be easily gulled, but his surprise arose from the novelty of her
+condescending to know, and even propitiate, the good graces of people
+whom she usually professed to regard as the least interesting of all
+classes of mankind. The "reduced lady or gentleman" had only presented
+themselves to Lady Hester's mind by the medium of an occasional
+curiously worded advertisement in a morning paper, and were invariably
+associated with a subsequent police report, where the object of
+charity was sure to be confronted with half a dozen peers or members of
+parliament, whose sympathies he had put under contribution, to support a
+life of infamy or extravagance. "A begging impostor" rang in her mind
+as a phrase whose ingredient words could not be divorced, and she was
+thoroughly convinced that imposture and poverty were convertible terms.
+The very notion of any one having once been well off, and being now in
+embarrassment, was, to her deeming, most satisfactory evidence of past
+misconduct and present knavery. Grounsell had beard her hold forth
+on this theme more than once, "embroidering the sentiment" with an
+occasional sly allusion to himself and his own fortunes, so that he
+had often thought over the difficulty of serving the Daltons with Sir
+Stafford, by reflecting on the hostility any project would meet with
+from "my Lady," and now accident, or something very like it, had done
+what all his ingenuity could not succeed in discovering.
+
+The announcement at first rendered him perfectly mute; he heard it
+without power to make the slightest observation; and it was only at the
+end of a lengthy description from the two sisters, that he exclaimed, in
+a kind of half soliloquy, "By Jove, it is so like her, after all!"
+
+"I 'm sure of it," said Nelly; "her manner was kindness and gentleness
+itself. You should have seen the tender way she took poor Hansells hand
+in her own, and how eagerly she asked us to translate for her the few
+stray words he uttered."
+
+"Of course she did. I could swear to it all, now that my eyes are
+opened."
+
+"And with what winning grace she spoke!" cried Kate. "How the least
+phrase came from her lips with a fascination that still haunts me!"
+
+"Just so, just so!" muttered Grounsell.
+
+"How such traits of benevolence ennoble high station!" said Nelly.
+
+"How easy to credit all that one hears of the charms of intercourse,
+where manner like hers prevails on every side!" cried Kate,
+enthusiastically.
+
+"How thoughtful in all her kindness!"
+
+"What elegance in every movement!"
+
+"With what inborn courtesy she accepted the little valueless attentions,
+which were all we could render her!"
+
+"How beautiful she looked, in all the disorder of a dress so unlike her
+own splendor! I could almost fancy that old straw chair to be a handsome
+fauteuil since she sat in it."
+
+"How delightful it must be to be admitted to the freedom of daily
+intercourse with such a person, to live within the atmosphere of such
+goodness and such refinement!" And thus they went on ringing the changes
+upon every gift and grace, from the genial warmth of her heart, to the
+snowy whiteness of her dimpled hands; while Grouusell fidgeted in his
+chair, searched for his handkerchief, his spectacles, his snuff-box,
+dropped them all in turn, and gathered them up again, in a perfect fever
+of embarrassment and indecision.
+
+"And you see her every day, doctor?" said Nelly.
+
+"Yes, every day, madam," said he, hastily, and not noticing nor thinking
+to whom he was replying.
+
+"And is she always as charming, always as fascinating?"
+
+"Pretty much the same, I think," said he, with a grunt.
+
+"How delightful! And always in the same buoyancy of spirits?"
+
+"Very little changed in that respect," said he, with another grunt.
+
+"We have often felt for poor Sir Stafford being taken ill away from
+his home, and obliged to put up with the miserable resources of a
+watering-place in winter; but I own, when I think of the companionship
+of Lady Hester, much of my compassion vanishes."
+
+"He needs it all, then," said Grounsell, as, thrusting his hands into
+the recesses of his pockets, he sat a perfect picture of struggling
+embarrassment.
+
+"Are his sufferings so very great?"
+
+Grounsell nodded abruptly, for now he was debating within himself what
+course to take; for while, on one side, he deemed it a point of honor
+not to divulge to strangers, as were the Daltons, any of the domestic
+circumstances of those with whom he lived, he felt, on the other,
+reluctant to suffer Lady Hester's blandishments to pass for qualities
+more sterling and praiseworthy.
+
+"She asked the girls to go and see her," said Dalton, now breaking
+silence for the first time; for although flattered in the main by what
+he heard of the fine lady's manner towards his daughters, he was not
+without misgivings that what they interpreted as courtesy might just as
+probably be called condescension, against which his Irish pride of birth
+and blood most sturdily rebelled. "She asked them to go and see her, and
+it was running in my head if she mio'ht not have heard something of the
+family connection."
+
+"Possibly!" asserted Grounsell, too deep in his own calculations to
+waste a thought on such a speculation.
+
+"My wife's uncle, Joe Godfrey, married an Englishwoman. The sister
+was aunt to some rich city banker; and indeed, to tell the truth, his
+friends in Ireland never thought much of the connection but you see
+times are changed. They are up now, and we are down, the way of the
+world! It 's little I ever thought of claiming relationship with the
+like o' them!"
+
+"But if it 's they who seek us, papa?" whispered Kate.
+
+"Ay, that alters the case, my dear; not but I'd as soon excuse the
+politeness. Here we are, living in a small way; till matters come round
+in Ireland, we can't entertain them, not even give them a dinner-party."
+
+"Oh, dearest papa," broke in Nelly, "is not our poverty a blessing if it
+save us the humiliation of being absurd? Why should we think of such a
+thing? Why should we, with our straitened means and the habits narrow
+fortune teaches, presume even to a momentary equality with those so much
+above us."
+
+"Faith, it's true enough!" cried Dalton, his cheek flushed with anger.
+"We are changed, there's no doubt of it; or it is not a Dalton would say
+the words you 've just said. I never knew before that the best in the
+land wasn't proud to come under our roof."
+
+"When we had a roof," said Nelly, firmly. "And if these ancestors had
+possessed a true and a higher pride, mayhap we might still have one.
+Had they felt shame to participate in schemes of extravagance and costly
+display, had they withheld encouragement from a ruinous mode of living,
+we might still be dwellers in our own home and our own country."
+
+Dalton seemed thunderstruck at the boldness of a speech so unlike the
+gentle character of her who had uttered it. To have attributed any
+portion of the family calamities to their own misconduct to have
+laid the blame of their downfall to any score save that of English
+legislation, acts of parliament, grand-jury laws, failure of the potato
+crop, tithes, Terry alts, or smut in the wheat was a heresy he never, in
+his gloomiest moments, had imagined, and now he was to hear it from the
+lips of his own child.
+
+"Nelly Nelly Dal ton," said he; "but why do I call you Dalton? Have you
+a drop of our blood in your veins at all, or is it the Godfreys you take
+after? Extravagance, ruinous living, waste, what 'll you say next?" He
+could n't continue, indignation and anger seemed almost to suffocate
+him.
+
+"Papa, dearest, kindest papa!" cried Nelly, as the tears burst from her
+eyes, "be not angry with me, nor suppose that any ungenerous repining
+against our altered lot finds a place in my heart. God knows that I
+grieve not for myself; in the humble sphere in which I am placed, I have
+found true contentment, greater, perhaps, than higher fortunes would
+have given me; for here my duties are better defined, and my sense of
+them is clearer. If I feel sorrow, it is for you and my dear sister,
+for you, papa, who suffer from many a privation; for her, who might well
+adorn a more exalted station. But for me the lame Nelly, as children
+used to call me" She was not suffered to finish her speech, for already
+her father had clasped his arms around her, and Kate, in a gush of
+tears, was sobbing on his shoulder.
+
+"Where's the doctor? what's become of him?" said Dalton, as, recovering
+from his emotion, he wished to give a different direction to their
+thoughts.
+
+"He went away half an hour ago, papa," said Kate. "He always goes off
+without saying good-bye, whenever there is a word said about family."
+
+"I noticed that, too, my dear," said Dalton, "and I would n't wonder
+if he came of low people; not but he 's a kind creature, and mighty
+good-hearted."
+
+Nelly could probably have suggested a better reason for the doctor's
+conduct, but she prudently forbore from again alluding to a theme
+already too painful.
+
+With the reader's permission, we will now follow him as, with a gesture
+of impatience, he abruptly left the room on the very first mention by
+Dalton of that genealogical tree in whose branches he loved to perch
+himself.
+
+"An old fool!" muttered Grounsell, as he passed downstairs, "an old
+fool, that no experience will ever make wiser! Well may his native
+country be a stumbling-block to legislators, if his countrymen be all
+like him, with his family pride and pretension! Confound him! can't
+he see that there 's no independence for a man in debt, and no true
+self-respect left for him who can't pay his tailor? For himself there's
+no help; but the poor girls! he'll be the ruin of them. Kate is already
+a willing listener to his nonsensical diatribes about blood and family;
+and poor Nelly's spirits will be broken in the hopeless conflict with
+his folly! Just so, that will be the end of it; he will turn the head of
+one, and break the heart of the other; and yet, all the while, he firmly
+believes he is leaving a far better heritage behind him in this empty
+pride, than if he could bequeath every acre that once belonged to
+them." Thus soliloquizing, he went on ringing changes over every form of
+imprudence, waste, vanity, and absurdity, which, by applying to them the
+simple adjective of "Irish," he fancied were at once intelligible, and
+needed no other explanation. In this mood he made his entrance into
+Sir Stafford's chamber, and so full of his own thoughts that the worthy
+baronet could not fail to notice his preoccupation.
+
+"Eh! Grounsel, what 's the matter, another row with my Lady, eh?" said
+he, smiling with his own quiet smile.
+
+"Not to-day. We 've not met this morning, and, consequently, the
+armistice of yesterday is still unbroken! The fatigue of last night has,
+doubtless, induced her to sleep a little longer, and so I have contrived
+to arrive at noon without the risk of an apoplexy."
+
+"What fatigue do you allude to?"
+
+"Oh, I forgot I have a long story for you. What do you suppose her
+Ladyship has been performing now?"
+
+"I 've heard all about it," said Sir Stafford, pettishly. "George has
+given me the whole narrative of that unlucky business. We must take care
+of the poor fellow, Grounsell, and see that he wants for nothing."
+
+"You 're thinking of the pistol-shooting; but that 's not her Ladyship's
+last," said the doctor, with a malicious laugh. "It is as a Lady
+Bountiful she has come out, and made her debut last night I am bound
+to say with infinite success." And, without further preface, Grounsell
+related the whole adventure of Lady Hester's visit to the dwarf,
+omitting nothing of those details we have already laid before
+the reader, and dilating with all his own skill upon the possible
+consequences of the step. "I have told you already about these
+people: of that old fool, the father, with his Irish pride, his Irish
+pretensions, his poverty, and his insane notions about family. Well,
+his head a poor thing in the best of times is gone clean mad about this
+visit. And then the girls! good, dear, affectionate children as they
+are, they 're in a kind of paroxysm of ecstasy about her Ladyship's
+style, her beauty, her dress, the charm of her amiability, the
+fascination of her manner. Their little round of daily duties will
+henceforth seem a dreary toil; the very offices of their charity
+will lose all the glow of zeal when deprived of that elegance which
+refinement can throw over the veriest trifle. Ay! don't smile at it, the
+fact is a stubborn one. They 'd barter the deepest devotion they ever
+rendered to assuage pain for one trick of that flattery with which my
+Lady captivated them. Will all the poetry of poor Nelly's heart shut out
+the memory of graces associated with the vanities of fashion? Will all
+Kate's dutiful affection exalt those household drudgeries in her esteem,
+the performances of which will henceforth serve to separate her more and
+more from one her imagination has already enshrined as an idol?"
+
+"You take the matter too seriously to heart, Grounsell," said Sir
+Stafford, smiling.
+
+"Not a bit of it; I 've studied symptoms too long and too carefully not
+to be ever on the look-out for results. To Lady Hester, this visit is
+a little episode as easily forgotten as any chance incident of the
+journey. But what an event is it in the simple story of their lives!"
+
+"Well, well, it cannot be helped now; the thing is done, and there 's
+an end of it," said Sir Stafford, pettishly; "and I confess I cannot see
+the matter as you do, for I have been thinking for two days back about
+these Daltons, and of some mode of being of service to them, and this
+very accident may suggest the way. I have been looking over some old
+letters and papers, and I 've no doubt that I have had unintentionally,
+of course a share in the poor fellow's ruin. Do you know, Grounsell,
+that this is the very same Peter Dalton who once wrote to me the most
+insulting letters, and even a defiance to fight a duel, because a
+distant relative bequeathed to me a certain estate that more naturally
+should have descended to him. At first, I treated the epistles as
+unworthy of any serious attention, they were scarcely intelligible,
+and not distinguished by anything like a show of reason; but when from
+insult the writer proceeded to menace, I mentioned the affair to my
+lawyer, and, indeed, gave him permission to take any steps that might be
+necessary to rid me of so unpleasant a correspondent. I never heard more
+of the matter; but now, on looking over some papers, I see that the case
+went hardly with Dalton, for there was a 'rule to show cause,' and an
+'attachment,' and I don't know what besides, obtained against him from
+the King's Bench, and he was actually imprisoned eight months for this
+very business; so that, besides having succeeded to this poor fellow's
+property, I have also deprived him of his liberty. Quite enough of
+hardship to have suffered at the hands of any one man and that one, not
+an enemy."
+
+"And would you believe it, Onslow, we have talked over you and your
+affairs a hundred times together, and yet he has never even alluded to
+this? One would think that such an event would make an impression upon
+most men; but, assuredly, he is either the most forgetful or the most
+generous fellow on earth."
+
+"How very strange! And so you tell me that he remembers my name, and all
+the circumstances of that singular bequest for singular it was from a
+man whom I never saw since he was a boy."
+
+"He remembers it all. It was the last blow fortune dealt him, and,
+indeed, he seemed scarcely to require so heavy a stroke to fell
+him, for, by his own account, he had been struggling on, in debt and
+difficulty, for many a year, putting off creditors by the plausible plea
+that a considerable estate must eventually fall in to him. It is quite
+certain that he believed this himself, but he also maintained a course
+of expenditure that, were he even in possession of the property, it
+would have been impossible to keep up. His brother-in-law's parsimony,
+too, was a constant source of self-gratulation to him, fancying, as he
+did, that a considerable sum in Bank stock would be among the benefits
+of this bequest. To find himself cut off, without even a mention of his
+name, was, then, to know that he was utterly, irretrievably ruined."
+
+"Poor fellow!" exclaimed Onslow; "I never suspected the case had been
+so hard a one. His letters you shall see them yourself bore all the
+evidence of a man more touchy on the score of a point of honor than
+mindful of a mere money matter. He seemed desirous of imputing to me
+who, as I have told you, never saw Mr. Godfrey for above forty years
+something like undue influence, and, in fact, of having prejudiced his
+brother-in-law against him. He dated his angry epistles from a park or a
+castle I forget which and they bore a seal of armorial pretensions
+such as an archduke might acknowledge. All these signs seemed to me so
+indicative of fortune and standing, that I set my friend down for a very
+bloodthirsty Irishman, but assuredly never imagined that poverty had
+contributed its sting to the injury."
+
+"I can easily conceive all that," said Grounsell. "At this very moment,
+with want staring him on every side, he 'd rather talk of his former
+style at confound the barbarous place, I never can remember the name
+of it than he 'd listen to any suggestion for the future benefit of his
+children."
+
+"I have been a grievous enemy to him," said Sir Stafford, musingly.
+
+"He reckons the loss at something like six thousand a year," said
+Grounsell.
+
+"Not the half of it, doctor; the estate, when I succeeded to it, was
+in a ruinous condition. A pauper and rebellious tenantry holding their
+tenures on nominal rents, and either living in open defiance of all law,
+or scheming to evade it by a hundred subterfuges. Matters are somewhat
+better; but if so, it has cost me largely to make them so. Disabuse his
+mind, I beg you, of this error. His loss was at least not so heavy as he
+reckoned."
+
+"Faith, I'll scarcely venture on so very delicate a theme," said
+Grounsell, dryly. "I 'm not quite so sure how he 'd take it."
+
+"I see, doctor," said Onslow, laughing, "that his duelling tastes have
+impressed you with a proper degree of respect. Well, let us think of
+something more to the purpose than rectifying a mere mistaken opinion.
+How can we serve him? What can be done for him?"
+
+"Ruined gentlemen, like second-hand uniforms, are generally sent to the
+colonies," said Grounsell; "but Dalton is scarcely fit for export."
+
+"What if we could get him appointed a magistrate in one of the West
+India Islands?"
+
+"New rum would finish him the first rainy season."
+
+"Is he fit for a consulship?"
+
+"About as much as for Lord Chancellor. I tell you the man's pride would
+revolt at anything to which a duty was annexed. Whatever you decide on
+must be untrammelled by any condition of this kind."
+
+"An annuity, then, some moderate sum sufficient to support them in
+respectability," said Onslow; "that is the only thing I see for it, and
+I am quite ready to do my part, which, indeed, is full as much a matter
+of honor as generosity."
+
+"How will you induce him to accept it?"
+
+"We can manage that, I fancy, with a little contrivance. I 'll consult
+Prichard; he 's coming here this very day about these renewals, and he
+'ll find a way of doing it."
+
+"You'll have need of great caution," said Grounsell; "without being
+naturally suspicious, misfortune has rendered him very sensitive as to
+anything like a slight. To this hour he is ignorant that his daughter
+sells those little figures; and although he sees, in a hundred
+appliances to his comfort, signs of resources of which he knows nothing,
+he never troubles his head how the money comes."
+
+"What a strange character!"
+
+"Strange indeed. True pride and false pride, manly patience, childish
+petulance, generosity, selfishness, liberality, meanness, even to the
+spirits alternating between boy-like levity and downright despair! The
+whole is such a mixture as I never saw before, and yet I can fancy it is
+as much the national temperament as that of the individual."
+
+And now Grounsell, launched upon a sea without compass or chart, hurried
+off to lose himself in vague speculation about questions that have
+puzzled, and are puzzling, wiser heads than his.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI. A PEEP BETWEEN THE SHUTTERS AT A NEW CHARACTER.
+
+NOT even Mademoiselle Celestine herself, nor the two London footmen now
+condemned to exhibit their splendid proportions to the untutored gaze
+of German rustics, could have chafed and fretted under the unhappy
+detention at Baden with a greater impatience than did George Onslow,
+a young Guardsman, who often fancied that London, out of season, was
+a species of Palmyra; who lived but for the life that only one capital
+affords; who could not credit the fact that people could ride, dress,
+dine, and drive anywhere else, was lamentably "ill bestowed" among the
+hills and valleys, the winding glens and dense pine forests of a little
+corner of Germany.
+
+If he liked the excitement of hard exercise, it was when the pleasure
+was combined with somewhat of peril, as in a fox-hunt, or heightened by
+the animation of a contest, in a rowing-match. Scenery, too, he cared
+for, when it came among the incidents of a deer-stalking day in the
+Highlands. Even walking, if it were a match against time, was positively
+not distasteful; but to ride, walk, row, or exert himself, for the mere
+exercise, was in his philosophy only a degree better than a sentence
+to the treadmill, the slavery being voluntary not serving to exalt the
+motive.
+
+To a mind thus constituted, the delay at Baden was intolerable.
+Lady Hester's system of small irritations and provocations rendered
+domesticity and home life out of the question. She was never much given
+to reading at any time, and now books were not to be had; Sydney was so
+taken up with studying German, that she was quite uncompanionable. Her
+father was too weak to bear much conversation; and as for Grounsell,
+George always set him down for a quiz: good-hearted in his way, but a
+bit of a bore, and too fond of old stories. Had he been a young lady, in
+such a predicament, he would have kept a journal, a pretty martyrology
+of himself and his feelings, and eked out his sorrows between Childe
+Harold and Werther. Had he been an elderly one, he would have written
+folios by the post, and covered acres of canvas with dogs in worsted,
+and tigers in Berlin wool. Alas! he had no such resources. Education had
+supplied him with but one comfort and consolation, a cigar; and so he
+smoked away incessantly: sometimes as he lounged out of the window,
+after breakfast, in all the glory of an embroidered velvet cap, and a
+gorgeous dressing-gown; sometimes as he sauntered in the empty saloon,
+or the deserted corridors, in the weed-grown garden, in the dishabille
+of a many-pocketed shooting-jacket and cork-soled shoes; now, as he
+lounged along the dreary streets, or passed along the little wooden
+bridge, wondering within himself how much longer a man could resist the
+temptation that suggested a spring over the balustrade into the dark
+pool beneath.
+
+He had come abroad partly for Sydney's sake, partly because, having
+"gone somewhat too fast" in town, an absence had become advisable. But
+now, as he sauntered about the deserted streets of the little village,
+not knowing how long the durance might last, without an occupation,
+without a resource, both his brotherly love and prudence began to
+fail him, and he wished he had remained behind, and taken the chances,
+whatever they might be, of his creditors' forbearance. His moneyed
+embarrassments involved nothing dishonorable; he had done no more than
+what some score of very well-principled young men have done, and are
+doing at this very hour, ay, good reader, and will do again, when you
+and I have gone where all our moralizing will not deceive any more, he
+had contracted debts, the payment of which must depend upon others; he
+had borrowed what no efforts of his own could restore; he had gambled,
+and lost sums totally disproportionate to his fortune; but, in all these
+things, he was still within the pale of honorable conduct, at least, so
+said the code under which he lived, and George believed it.
+
+Sir Stafford, who only learned about the half of his son's liabilities,
+was thunderstruck at the amount. It was scarcely a year and a half ago
+that he had paid all George's debts, and they were then no trifle; and
+now he saw all the old items revived and magnified, as if there was only
+one beaten road to ruin, and that began at Crocky's, and ended at "the
+Bench." The very names of the dramatis personae were the same. It
+was Lazarus Levi lent the money, at sixty per cent; it was another
+patriarch, called Gideon Masham, discounted the same. A lucky viscount
+had once more "done the trick" at hazard; and if Cribbiter had not
+broken down in training, why Madame Pompadour had, and so the same
+result came about. George Onslow had got what Newmarket men call a
+"squeeze," and was in for about seven thousand pounds.
+
+Nothing is more remarkable in our English code social, than the
+ingenuity with which we have contrived to divide ranks and classes of
+men, making distinctions so subtle that only long habit and training
+are able to appreciate. Not alone are the gradations of our nobility
+accurately defined, but the same distinctions prevail among the
+"untitled" classes, and even descend to the professional and trading
+ranks; so that the dealer in one commodity shall take the pas of
+another; and he who purveys the glass of port for your dessert, would
+be outraged if classed with him who contributed the Stilton! These
+hair-splittings are very unintelligible to foreigners; but, as we hold
+to them, the presumption is, that they suit us; and I should not have
+stopped now to bestow a passing notice on the system, if it were not
+that we see it, in some cases, pushed to a degree of extreme resembling
+absurdity, making even of the same career in life a sliding-scale
+of respectability; as, for instance, when a young gentleman of good
+expectations and fair fortune has outraged his guardians and his friends
+by extravagance, he is immediately removed from the Guards, and drafted
+into the Infantry of the Line; if he misbehaves there, they usually
+send him to India; is he incorrigible, he is compelled to remain in some
+regiment there; or, in cases of inveterate bad habits, he exchanges into
+the Cape Rifles, and gets his next removal from the knife of a Caffre.
+
+Ancient geographers have decided, we are not aware on what grounds, that
+there is a place between "H--ll and Connaught." Modern discovery, with
+more certitude, has shown one between the Guards and the Line, a species
+of military purgatory, where, after a due expiation of offences, the
+sinner may return to the paradise of the Household Brigade without ever
+transgressing the Inferno of a marching regiment. This half-way stage is
+the "Rifles." So long as a young fashionable falls no lower, he is
+safe. There is no impugnment of his character, no injury that cannot
+be repaired. Now, George Onslow had reached so far; he was compelled to
+exchange into the --th, then quartered in Ireland. It is true he did not
+join his regiment; his father had interest enough somewhere to obtain a
+leave of absence for his son, and First Lieutenant Onslow, vice Ridgway
+promoted, was suffered to amuse himself howsoever and wheresoever he
+pleased.
+
+The "exchange," and the reasons for which it was effected, were both
+unpleasant subjects of reflection to George; and as he had few others,
+these continued to haunt him, till at last he fancied that every one was
+full of the circumstance, each muttering as he passed, "That 's Onslow,
+that was in the Coldstreams." Lady Hester, indeed, did not always
+leave the matter purely imaginary, but threw out occasional hints about
+soldiers who never served, except at St. James's or Windsor, and who
+were kept for the wonderment and admiration of foreign sovereigns when
+visiting England, just as Suffolk breeders exhibit a "punch," or a
+Berkshire farmer will show a hog, for the delectation of swine fanciers.
+Where children show toys, kings show soldiers, and ours are considered
+very creditable productions of the kind; but Lady Hester averred, with
+more of truth than she believed, that a man of spirit would prefer a
+somewhat different career. These currents, coming as they did in season
+and out of season, did not add to the inducements for keeping the house,
+and so George usually left home each day, and rarely returned to it
+before nightfall.
+
+It is true he might have associated with Haggerstone, who, on being
+introduced, made the most courteous advances to his intimacy; but George
+Onslow was bred in a school whose first lesson is a sensitive shrinking
+from acquaintance, and whose chief characteristic is distrust. Now he
+either had heard, or fancied he had heard, something about Haggerstone.
+"The Colonel was n't all right," somehow or other. There was a story
+about him, or somebody of his set, and, in fact, it was as well to be
+cautious; and so the young Guardsman, who would have ventured his
+neck in a steeplechase, or his fortune on a "Derby," exhibited all
+the deliberative wisdom of a judge as to the formation of a passing
+acquaintance.
+
+If we have been somewhat prolix in explaining the reasons of the young
+gentleman's solitude, our excuse is, that he had thereby conveyed, not
+alone all that we know, but all that is necessary to be known, of his
+character. He was one of a class so large in the world that few people
+could not count some half-dozen, at least, similar amongst their
+acquaintance; and all of whom would be currently set down as incapables,
+if it were not that now and then, every ten years or so, one of these
+well-looking, well-bred, indolent dandies, as if tired of his own
+weariness, turns out to be either a dashing soldier, with a heart
+to dare, and a head to devise the boldest achievements, or a politic
+leader, with resources of knowledge, and a skill in debate, to confront
+the most polished and practised veteran in "the Commons."
+
+Our own experiences of our own day show that these are no paradoxical
+speculations. But we must not pursue the theme further; and have only to
+add, that the reader is not to believe that George Onslow formed one of
+these brilliant exceptions. Whether the fault lies more in himself or in
+us, we must not inquire.
+
+If his lonely walks did not suggest any pleasant reveries, the post did
+not bring any more agreeable tidings. Dry statements from Mr. Orson, his
+lawyer, every young man about town has his lawyer nowadays, about the
+difficulty of arranging his affairs, being the chief intelligence he
+received, with, from time to time, a short and pithy epistle from a
+certain noble creditor, Lord Norwood, who, although having won very
+large sums from Onslow, never seemed in such pressing difficulty as
+since his good fortune.
+
+The viscount's style epistolary was neither so marked by originality,
+nor so worthy of imitation, that it would be worth communicating; but
+as one of his letters bears slightly upon the interests of our story,
+we are induced to give it; and being, like all his correspondence, very
+brief, we will communicate it in extenso.
+
+"Oh, Norwood again!" said Onslow, as he looked at the seal, and read the
+not very legible autograph in the corner. "My noble friend does not give
+a very long respite;" and biting his lips in some impatience, he opened
+the paper, and read:
+
+     DEAR ONSLOW, Orson has paid me the two thousand, as you
+     ordered, but positively refuses the seventeen hundred and
+     eighty, the Ascot affair, because I cannot give up the
+     original two bills for twelve hundred passed to me for that
+     debt. I told him that they were thrown into the fire being
+     devilishly tempted to illustrate the process with himself
+     six months ago, when you gave the renewals; but all won't
+     do, the old prig persists in his demand, to comply with
+     which is clearly impossible, for I have not even preserved
+     the precious ashes of the incremation. I don't doubt but
+     that, legally speaking, and in pettifogging parlance, he is
+     all correct but between men of honor such strictness is
+     downright absurdity and, as Dillhurst says, "something
+     more." Now, my dear boy, you must write to him and at once,
+     too for I 'm in a bad book about "Chanticleer" who is to
+     win, it seems, after all and say that he is acting in direct
+     opposition to your wishes, as of course he is; that the
+     money must be paid without more chaffing. The delay has
+     already put me to great inconvenience, and I know how you
+     will be provoked at his obstinacy. You 've heard, I suppose,
+     that Brentwood is going to marry Lydia Vaughan. She has
+     thirty thousand pounds, which is exactly what Jack lost last
+     winter. Crosbie says he ought to "run away from her after
+     the start as he carries no weight:" which is somewhat of
+     my own opinion. What any man has to do with a wife nowadays,
+     with the funds at eighty-two, and a dark horse first
+     favorite for the Oaks, is more than I know. Doncaster has
+     levanted, and the Red-House folk will smart for it. He would
+     back Hayes's lot, and there 's nothing can ever set him
+     right again. By the way, Orson hints that if I give him a
+     release, or something of that sort, with respect to the
+     bills, he 'd pay the cash; but this is only a dodge to make
+     a case for lawyers' parchments, stamps, and so forth; so I
+     won't stand it. Your writing to him will do the whole thing
+     at once. What a jolly world it would be, old fellow, if the
+     whole race of Orsons were carried off by the cholera, or
+     anything akin! They are the greatest enemies to human peace
+     in existence.
+
+     Believe me, yours most faithfully,
+
+     NORWOOD.
+
+     P. S. I half fancy Baden is empty by this; but if you chance
+     upon a little fellow Heaven knows to whom he belongs, or
+     whence he comes, called Albert Jekyl, will you tell him that
+     I 'll forward the twenty pounds whenever I win the Oaks, or
+     marry Miss Home Greville, or any other similar piece of good
+     fortune. When he lent me the cash, I don't believe he was
+     the owner of as much more in the world; but it suited him to
+     have a viscount in his debt a devilish bad investment, if he
+     knew but all. The chances, therefore, are that he has
+     foundered long ago, and you will be spared the trouble of
+     the explanation; but if he survive, say something
+     apologetic, for letter-writing and foreign postage are only
+     making bad worse.
+
+Although, unquestionably, the postscript of this elegant epistle was the
+part which reflected most severely upon the writer's good feeling and
+sense of honor, George Onslow was more struck by what related to his own
+affairs, nor was it till after the lapse of some days that he took
+the trouble of considering the paragraph, or learning the name of the
+individual referred to. Even then all that he could remember was, that
+he had seen or heard the name "somewhere," and thus, very possibly,
+the whole matter would have glided from his memory, if accident had not
+brought up the recollection.
+
+Returning one evening later than usual from his solitary walk, he found
+that the hotel was closed, the door strongly secured, and all the usual
+precautions of the night taken, in the belief that the inmates were
+already safe within doors. In vain he knocked and thundered at the
+massive panels; the few servants occupied rooms at a distance, and heard
+nothing of the uproar. He shouted, he screamed, he threw gravel against
+the windows, and, in his zeal, smashed them too. All was fruitless;
+nobody stirred, nor could he detect the slightest sign of human presence
+in the vast and dreary-looking building before him. The prospect was
+not a pleasant one, and a December night in the open air was by no means
+desirable; and yet, where should he turn for shelter? The other hotels
+were all closed and deserted, and even of the private houses not one
+in twenty was inhabited. Resolving to give himself one chance more for
+admission, he scaled the paling of the garden, and reached the rear of
+the hotel; but here all his efforts proved just as profitless as the
+former, and he was at last about to abandon all hope, when he caught
+sight of a faint gleam of light issuing from a small window on the first
+floor. Having failed to attract notice by all his cries and shouts, he
+determined to reach the window, to which, fortunately, a large vine,
+attached to the wall, offered an easy access. George was an expert
+climber, and in less than a minute found himself seated on the
+window-sill, and gazing into a room by the aperture between the
+half-closed shutters. His first impression on looking in was that it was
+a servant's room. The bare, whitewashed walls; the humble, uncurtained
+bed; three chairs of coarse wood, all strengthened this suspicion, even
+to the table, covered by a coarse table-cloth, and on which stood a meal
+if meal it could be called an anchorite might have eaten on Friday. A
+plate of the common brown bread of the country was balanced by a little
+dish of radishes, next to which stood a most diminutive piece of Baden
+cheese, and a capacious decanter of water, a long-wicked tallow candle
+throwing its gloomy gleam over the whole. For a moment or two George was
+unable to detect the owner of this simple repast, as he was engaged in
+replenishing his fire; but he speedily returned, and took his place at
+the table, spreading his napkin before him, and surveying the board with
+an air of self-satisfaction such as a gourmand might bestow upon the
+most perfect petit diner. In dress, air, and look, he was thoroughly
+gentlemanlike; a little foppish, perhaps, in the arrangement of his
+hair, and somewhat too much display in the jewelled ornaments that
+studded his neckcloth. Even in his attitude, as he sat at the table,
+there was a certain air of studied elegance that formed a curious
+contrast with the miserable meal before him. Helping himself to a
+small portion of cheese, and filling out a goblet of that element which
+neither cheers nor inebriates, he proceeded to eat his supper. Onslow
+looked on with a mingled sense of wonder and ridicule, and while half
+disposed to laugh at the disparity of the entertainment and him who
+partook of it, there was something in the scene which repressed his
+scorn and rendered him even an interested spectator of what went
+forward.
+
+[Illustration:    134]
+
+The piercing cold of the night at length admonished him that
+he should provide for his own admission into the hotel; and although
+nothing was now easier than to make his presence known, yet he felt a
+natural reluctance at the pain he must occasion to the stranger,
+whose frugal mode of living and humble interior would be thus so
+unceremoniously exposed. "The chances are," thought George, "that these
+privations are only endurable because they are practised in secret, and
+at no sacrifice of worldly estimation. How can I then or what right have
+I to inflict the torture of an exposure upon this young man, whoever
+he is!" The conclusion was very rapidly come to, and not less speedily
+acted upon; for he determined to spend the night, if need be, in
+the open air, rather than accept an alternative so painful in its
+consequences. His resolutions had usually not long to await their
+accomplishment; and, turning his back to the window, and disdaining the
+slow process by which he had gained the ascent, he sprang with one leap
+down to the ground: in doing so, however, his elbow struck the window,
+and at the same instant that he reached the earth, the shivered
+fragments of a pane of glass came clattering after him. In a moment the
+sash was thrown open, and a head appeared above. "I have smashed the
+window," cried George, in French, "as the only means of being heard.
+They have locked me out of the hotel, and I don't fancy spending a
+winter's night in walking the streets of Baden."
+
+"You're an Englishman," said the voice from above, in English.
+
+"Yes; but I don't see what that has to do with the matter," replied
+Onslow, testily; "even a Laplander might prefer shelter in such a
+season."
+
+"If you 'll have the goodness to come round to the front door," said
+the voice, one of the very softest and meekest of voices, "I shall have
+great pleasure in opening it for you." And at the same time the unknown
+held forth his candle in polite guidance to the other's steps.
+
+"Thanks, thanks; never mind the light. I know the way perfectly," said
+George, not a little ashamed at the contrast between his own gruffness
+and the courtesy of the stranger whose window he had broken.
+
+Onslow had barely time to reach the front door of the inn, when it was
+opened for him, and he saw before him a very dapper little figure, who
+with a profusion of regrets at not having heard him before, offered his
+candle a wax one on this occasion for George's accommodation. Protesting
+that the broken pane was not of the slightest inconvenience, that the
+room was a small dressing-closet, that it was not worth a moment's
+thought, and so forth, he permitted Onslow to escort him to the door of
+his room, and then wished him a good-night. The scene scarcely occupied
+the time we have taken to relate it, and yet in that very short space
+George Onslow had opportunity to see that the unknown had all the easy
+deportment and quiet breeding of one accustomed to good society. There
+was, perhaps, a little excess of courtesy, at least according to that
+school of politeness in which Onslow had been taught; but this might be
+the effect of living abroad, where such a tone usually prevailed. The
+urbanity was not exactly cold enough for George's notions. "No matter;
+he 's no snob, that 's clear," thought he; "and even if he were,
+he's done me good service." And with this blending of selfishness and
+speculation he went to sleep, and slept soundly, too, not harassed by
+even a thought of him who passed an hour in the effort to repair his
+broken window, and shivered the rest of the night through from the
+insufficiency of his skill.
+
+Blessed immunity theirs, who so easily forget the pain they occasion
+others, and who deem all things trifles that cost themselves
+no afterthought of regret. Happy the nature that can, without
+self-repining, spill the wine over Aunt Betty's one "peach-colored
+satin," or, in careless mood, pluck the solitary flower of her only
+geranium. Enviable stoicism that mislays the keepsake of some poor
+widow, or lames the old curate's cob, the fond companion of many
+rambles. These, whatever others think, are very enviable traits, and
+enable the possessors to wear placid countenances, and talk in most
+meritorious strain on the blessings of equanimity and the excellent
+fruits of a well-trained mind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII. MR. ALBERT JEKYL
+
+ONSLOW'S first thought, on awaking the next morning, was of last night's
+acquaintance, but all the information he could obtain concerning him was
+that he was an Englishman who had passed the summer in Baden, and during
+the season knew and was known by every one. The waiter called him, in
+the usual formulary, "a very nice gentleman;" and seemed by his manner
+to infer that any further account might be had by paying for it. Onslow,
+if he even understood the hint, was not the man to avail himself of it;
+so he simply ordered him to bring the hotel book, in which the names of
+all travellers are inscribed, and at once discovered that the proprietor
+of the humble entresol, No. 6, was a Mr. Albert Jekyl, with the ordinary
+qualification attached to him of "Rentier Anglais." Searching back in
+the same instructive volume, he found that, on his arrival in June, Mr.
+Jekyl had occupied a small apartment on the first floor, from which he
+had subsequently removed to the second; thence to a single room in the
+third story, and finally settled down in the quiet seclusion of the
+small chamber where George had first seen him. These were very small
+materials from which to compile a history, but at least they conveyed
+one inference, and that a very common one, that the height of Mr.
+Jekyl's fortune and that of his dwelling observed to each other an
+inverse proportion, and that, as his means went down, he went up. If,
+then, no very valuable contribution to the gentleman's history was
+contained here, at least the page recorded his name; and George,
+reopening Norwood's letter, satisfied himself that this was the same
+confiding individual who had intrusted the noble viscount with a loan
+of twenty pounds. George now remembered to have seen his card on Lady
+Hester's table, with inquiry after Sir Stafford. "Poor fellow!" thought
+he; "another victim of 'trente-et-un.' They have cleared him out at
+the tables, and he is either ashamed to write home, or his friends have
+refused to assist him. And Norwood, too the heartlessness of putting
+to contribution a poor young fellow like this!" Onslow thought worse of
+this than of fifty other sharp things of the noble Lord's doing, and of
+some of which he had been himself the victim.
+
+"I'll call upon him this very morning!" said George, half aloud, and
+with the tone and air of a man who feels he has said a very generous
+thing, and expressed a sentiment that he is well aware will expose him
+to a certain amount of reprobation. "Jekyl, after all, is a right good
+name. Lady Hester said something about Jekyls that she knew, or was
+related to. Good style of fellow he looked a little tigerish, but that
+comes of the Continent. If he be really presentable, too, my Lady will
+be glad to receive him in her present state of destitution. Norwood's
+ungracious message was a bore, to be sure, but then he need not deliver
+it there was no necessity of taking trouble to be disagreeable or,
+better again far better," thought he, and he burst out laughing at the
+happy notion, "I 'll misunderstand his meaning, and pay the money.
+An excellent thought; for as I am about to book up a heavy sum to his
+Lordship, it 's only deducting twenty pounds and handing it to Jekyl,
+and I 'll be sworn he wants it most of us all."
+
+The more Onslow reflected on it, the more delighted was he with this
+admirable device; and it is but fair to add, that however gratified at
+the opportunity of doing a kindness, he was even better pleased at the
+thought of how their acquaintance at the "Grosvenor" and the "Ultras"
+would laugh at the "sharp viscount's being sold." There was only one man
+of all Onslow's set on whom he would have liked to practise this jest,
+and that man was Norwood. Having decided upon this plan, he next thought
+of the execution of it, and this he determined should be by letter. A
+short note, conveying Norwood's message and the twenty pounds, would
+save all explanation, and spare Jekyl any unpleasant feeling the
+discussion of a private circumstance might occasion.
+
+Onslow's note concluded with his "thanks for Mr. Jekyl's kindness on the
+preceding evening," and expressing a wish to know "at what hour Mr. J.
+would receive a visit from him."
+
+Within a very few minutes after the billet was despatched, a servant
+announced Mr. Albert Jekyl; and that young gentleman, in the glory of a
+very magnificent brocade dressing-gown, and a Greek cap, with slippers
+of black velvet embroidered in gold, entered the room.
+
+Onslow, himself a distinguished member of that modern school of dandyism
+whose pride lies in studs and shirt-pins, in watch-chains, rings, and
+jewelled canes, was struck by the costly elegance of his visitor's
+toilette. The opal buttons at his wrists; the single diamond, of great
+size and brilliancy, on his finger; even the massive amber mouthpiece
+of the splendid meerschaum he carried in his hand, were all evidences of
+the most expensive tastes. "Could this by possibility be the man he had
+seen at supper?" was the question he at once asked himself; but there
+was no time to discuss the point, as Jekyl, in a voice almost girlish in
+its softness, said,
+
+"I could not help coming at once to thank you, Mr. Onslow, for your
+polite note, and say how gratified I feel at making your acquaintance.
+Maynard often spoke of you to me; and I confess I was twenty times a day
+tempted to introduce myself."
+
+"Maynard Sir Horace Maynard!" cried Onslow, with a slight flush, half
+pleasure, half surprise, for the baronet was the leader of the set
+George belonged to, a man of great fortune, ancient family, the most
+successful on the English Turf, and the envy of every young fellow about
+town. "Do you know Maynard?"
+
+"Oh, very well indeed," lisped Jekyl; "and like him much."
+
+Onslow could not help a stare at the man who, with perfect coolness
+and such an air of patronage, professed his opinion of the most
+distinguished fashionable of the day.
+
+"He has a very pretty taste in equipage," continued Jekyl, "but never
+could attain to the slightest knowledge of a dinner."
+
+Onslow was thunderstruck. Maynard, whose entertainments were the triumph
+of the Clarendon, thus criticised by the man he had seen supping like a
+mouse on a morsel of mouldy cheese!
+
+"Talking of dinners, by the way," said Jekyl, "what became of
+Merewater?"
+
+"Lord Merewater? he was in waiting when we left England."
+
+"A very tidy cook he used to have, a Spaniard called Jose, a perfect
+hand at all the Provencal dishes. Good creature, Merewater. Don't you
+think so?"
+
+Ouslow muttered a kind of half-assent; and added, "I don't know him."
+Indeed, the lord in question was reputed as insufferably proud, and as
+rarely admitting a commoner to the honor of his acquaintance.
+
+"Poor Merewater! I remember playing him such a trick: to this hour he
+does not know who did it. I stole the menu of one of his grand dinners,
+and gave it to old Lord Bristock's cook, a creature that might have made
+the messes for an emigrant ship, and such a travesty of an entertainment
+never was seen. Merewater affected illness, and went away from the table
+firmly persuaded that the whole was got up to affront him."
+
+"I thought the Earl of Bristock lived well and handsomely," said George.
+
+"Down at Brentwood it was very well one was in the country and grouse
+and woodcocks, and salmon and pheasants, came all naturally and
+seasonably; besides, he really had some very remarkable Burgundy; and,
+though few people will drink it nowadays, Chambertin is a Christmas
+wine."
+
+The cheese and the decanter of water were uppermost in George's mind,
+but he said nothing, suffering his companion to run on, which he did,
+over a wide expanse of titled and distinguished families, with all
+of whom he appeared to have lived on the closest terms of intimacy.
+Certainly of those Onslow himself knew, Jekyl related twenty little
+traits and tokens that showed he was speaking with true knowledge of the
+parties. Unlike Haggerstone, he rarely, if ever, alluded to any of those
+darker topics which form the staple of scandal. A very gentle ridicule
+of some slight eccentricity, a passing quiz of some peculiarity in
+dress, voice, or manner, was about the extent of Jekyl's criticism,
+which on no occasion betrayed any malice. Even the oddities that he
+portrayed were usually done by some passing bit of mimicry of the
+individual in question. These he threw into the dialogue of his story
+without halt or impediment, and which, being done with great tact, great
+command of face, and a most thorough appreciation of humor, were very
+amusing little talents, and contributed largely to his social success.
+Onslow laughed heartily at many of the imitations, and thus recognized
+characters that were introduced into a narrative without the trouble of
+announcing them.
+
+"You've heard, perhaps, the series of mishaps which compelled us to take
+refuge here," said George, leading the way to what he supposed would
+induce an equal degree of communicativeness on the other side.
+
+"Oh! yes, the landlord told me of your disasters."
+
+"After all, I believe the very worst of them was coming to this place in
+such a season."
+
+"It is certainly seeing it en papillate" said Jekyl, smiling; "and you,
+perhaps, are not an admirer of beauty unadorned."
+
+"Say, rather, of Nature at her ugliest; for whatever it may be in
+summer, with foliage, and clear streams, flowers, smart folk airing and
+driving about, equipage, music, movement, and merry voices, now it is
+really too dismal. Pray, how do you get through the day?"
+
+Jekyl smiled one of his quiet, equivocal smiles, and slightly raised his
+shoulders without speaking.
+
+"Do you shoot?"
+
+"No," said he.
+
+"But why do I ask? there's nothing to shoot. You ride, then?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Cigars will do a great deal; but, confound it, there must be a large
+share of the day very heavy on your hands, even with a reasonable
+allowance for reading and writing."
+
+"Seldom do either!" said Jekyl, with his usual imperturbed manner.
+
+"You have n't surely got up a flirtation with some 'Frdulein with
+yellow hair '?"
+
+"I cannot lay claim to such good fortune. I really do nothing. I have
+not even the usual English resource of a terrier to jump over my stick,
+nor was I early enough initiated into the mystery of brandy-and-water
+in fact, a less occupied individual cannot well be imagined; but somehow
+you'll smile if I say I am not bored."
+
+"It would be very ungenerous, then, to conceal your secret," cried
+Onslow; "for assuredly the art of killing time here, without killing
+one's self, is worth knowing."
+
+"The misfortune is, I cannot communicate it; that is, even giving me
+credit for possessing one, my skill is like that of some great medical
+practitioner, who has learnt to look on disease with such practised eyes
+that the appropriate remedy rises as it were instinctively to his mind,
+he knows not how or why, and who dies, without being able to transmit
+the knowledge to a successor. I have, somewhat in the same way, become
+an accomplished idler; and with such success that the dreariest day of
+rain that ever darkened the dirty windows of a village inn, the most
+scorching dog-day that ever emptied the streets of an Italian city, and
+sent all the inhabitants to their siesta, never hipped me. I have spent
+a month with perfect satisfaction in quarantine, and bobbed for three
+weeks in a calm at sea, with no other inconvenience than the moans of
+my fellow-passengers. There 's no secret in it, Mr. Onslow; or, if there
+be, it lies in this pretty discovery, that we are always bored by our
+habit of throwing ourselves on the resources of somebody else, who, in
+his turn, looks out for another, and so on. Now, a man in a fever never
+dreams of cooling his hand by laying it on another patient's cheek; yet
+this is what we do. To be thoroughly bored, you must associate yourself
+with some half-dozen tired, weary, dyspeptic twaddles, and make up a
+joint-stock bank of your several incapacities, learn to growl in chorus,
+and you'll be able to go home and practise it as a solo."
+
+"And have you been completely alone here of late?" said George, who
+began to fear that the sermon on ennui was not unaccompanied by a taste
+of the evil.
+
+"Occasionally I 've chatted for half an hour with two gentlemen who
+reside here, a Colonel Haggerstone--"
+
+"By the way, who is he?" broke in Onslow, eagerly.
+
+"He has been traced back to Madras, but the most searching inquiries
+have failed to elicit anything further."
+
+"Is he the man they called Arlington's Colonel Haggerstone?"
+
+Jekyl nodded; but with an air that seemed to say, he would not enter
+more deeply into the subject.
+
+"And your other companion who is he?"
+
+"Peter Dalton, of I am ashamed to say I forget where," said Jekyl; who,
+at once assuming Dalton's bloated look, in a well-feigned Irish accent,
+went on: "a descendant of as ancient and as honorable a familee as any
+in the three kingdoms, and if a little down in the world bad luck to
+them that done it! just as ready as ever he was to enjoy agreeable
+society and the ganial flow of soul."
+
+"He 's the better of the two, I take it," said Onslow.
+
+"More interesting, certainly, just as a ruined chateau is a
+more picturesque object than a new police-station or a cut-stone
+penitentiary. There 's another feature also which ought to give him the
+preference. I have seen two very pretty faces from time to time as
+I have passed the windows, and which I conjecture to belong to his
+daughters."
+
+"Have you not made their acquaintance?" asked Onslow, in some surprise.
+
+"I grieve to say I have not," sighed Jekyl, softly.
+
+"Why, the matter should not be very difficult, one might opine, in such
+a place, at such a time, and with--"
+
+He hesitated, and Jekyl added,
+
+"With such a papa, you were about to say. Well, that is precisely the
+difficulty. Had my excellent friend, Peter, been a native of any other
+country, I flatter myself I should have known how to make my advances;
+but with these dear Irish their very accessibility is a difficulty of no
+common order. Assume an air of deference and respect, and they 'll
+set you down for a cold formalist, with whom they can have nothing in
+common. Try the opposite line, and affect the free and easy, and the
+chances are that you have a duel to fight before you know you have
+offended. I confess that I have made several small advances, and thrown
+out repeated little hints about loneliness, and long evenings, and so
+forth; and although he has concurred with me in every word, yet his
+practice has never followed his precept. But I don't despair. What say
+you, if we attack the fortress as allies? I have a notion we should
+succeed?" "With all my heart. What's your plan?" "At this moment I
+have formed none, nor is there need of any. Let us go out, like the
+knight-errants of old, in search of adventures, and see if they will not
+befall us. The first step will be to make Dalton's acquaintance. Now, he
+always takes his walk in bad weather in the great Saal below; should he
+not make his appearance there to-day, as he has already absented himself
+for some days, I 'll call to inquire after him at his own house. You 'll
+accompany me. The rest we 'll leave to fortune."
+
+Although On slow could not see that this step could lead to anything
+beyond a civil reply to a civil demand, he assented readily, and
+promised to meet his companion at four o'clock the same evening. As for
+Jekyl, he took a very different view of the whole transaction, for
+he knew that while to him there might be considerable difficulty in
+establishing any footing with the Daltons, the son of the wealthy
+baronet would be, in all likelihood, very differently looked on. In
+presenting him, thought he, I shall have become the friend of the family
+at once. It had often before been his fortune in life to have made
+valuable acquaintances in this manner; and although the poor Daltons
+were very unlikely to figure in the category of profitable friends,
+they would at least afford an agreeable resource against the dulness of
+wintry evenings, and prevent what he himself called the "demoralization"
+of absence from female society. Lastly, the scheme promised to establish
+a close intimacy between Onslow and himself; and here was a benefit
+worth all the others.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII. A SUSPICIOUS VISITOR
+
+How far were the Daltons from suspecting that they were the subject
+of so much and such varied solicitude, and that, while Lady Hester was
+fancying to herself all the fashionable beauties whom Kate would eclipse
+in loveliness, and what an effect charms like hers would produce on
+society, Sir Stafford was busily concerting with his lawyer the means
+of effectually benefiting them; and George Onslow for want of better
+speculated, as he smoked, on "the kind of people" they would prove, and
+wondered whether the scheme were worth the light trouble it was to cost
+him. Little did they know of all this, little imagine that outside
+of their humble roof there lived one save "dear Frank" whose thoughts
+included them. "The purple and fine linen" category of this world cannot
+appreciate the force of this want of sympathy! They, whose slightest
+griefs and least afflictions in life are always certain of the
+consolations of friends, and the even more bland solace of a fashionable
+physician whose woes are re-echoed by the "Morning Post," and whose
+sorrows are mourned in Court Journals cannot frame to themselves the
+sense of isolation which narrow fortune impresses. "Poverty," says
+a classical authority, "has no heavier evil than that it makes men
+ridiculous." But this wound to self-love, deep and poignant though it
+be, is light in comparison with the crushing sense of isolation, that
+abstraction from sympathy in which poor men live!
+
+The Daltons were seated around Hanserl's bed, silently ministering to
+the sick man, and watching with deep and anxious interest the labored
+respiration and convulsive twitches of his fever. The wild and rapid
+utterance of his lips, and the strange fancies they syllabled,
+often exciting him to laughter, only deepened the gravity of their
+countenances, and cast over the glances they interchanged a tinge of
+sadder meaning.
+
+"He could n't have better luck," muttered Dalton, sorrowfully; "just
+from being a friend to us! If he had never seen nor heard of us, maybe
+'t is happy and healthy he 'd be to-day!"
+
+"Nay, nay, papa," said Nelly, gently; "this is to speak too gloomily;
+nor is it good for us to throw on fortune the burden that we each should
+bear patiently."
+
+"Don't tell me that there is not such a thing as luck!" replied Dalton,
+in a tone of irritation. "I know well whether there is or no! For
+five-and-thirty years whatever I put my hand to in life turned out
+badly. It was the same whether I did anything on the spur of the moment,
+or thought over it for weeks. If I wished a thing, that was reason
+enough for it to come out wrong!"
+
+"And even were it all as you fancy, papa dearest," said Nelly, as she
+fondly drew her arm round him, "is it nothing that these reverses have
+found you strong of heart and high of courage to bear them? Over and
+over again have you told me that the great charm of field sports lay in
+the sense of fatigue bravely endured, and peril boldly confronted;
+that, devoid of these, they were unworthy of men. Is there not a greater
+glory, then, in stemming the tide of adverse fortune; and is it not a
+higher victory that carries you triumphant over the real trials of
+life, kind of heart, trustful, and generous, as in the best days of your
+prosperity, and with a more gentle and forbearing spirit than prosperity
+ever taught?"
+
+"That 's nothing against what I was saying," said Dalton, but with a
+more subdued face. "There 's poor little Hans, and till a couple
+of clays ago he never knew what it was to be unlucky. As he told us
+himself, his life was a fairy tale."
+
+"True," interposed Nelly; "and happy as it was, and blameless and
+guileless he who led it, mark how many a gloomy thought, what dark
+distressing fancies, hover round his brain, and shadow his sick-bed! No,
+no! the sorrows of this world are more equally distributed than we
+think for, and he who seems to have fewest is oftentimes but he who best
+conceals them!"
+
+Her voice shook, and became weaker as she spoke; and the last few words
+were barely audible. Dalton did not notice her emotion; but Kate's looks
+were bent upon her with an expression of fond and affectionate meaning.
+
+"There's somebody at the door," whispered Daltou; "see who it is, Kate."
+
+Kate arose, and opening the door softly, beheld old Andy; his shrivelled
+features and lustreless eyes appearing in a state of unusual excitement.
+
+"What's the matter, Andy? what is it you want?" said she.
+
+"Is the master here? Where 's the master?"
+
+"He 's here; what do you want with him?" rejoined she.
+
+"I want himself," said he, as with his palsied hand he motioned to
+Dalton to come out.
+
+"What is it, you old fool?" said Dalton, impatiently, as he arose and
+followed him outside of the room.
+
+"There's one of them again!" said Andy, putting his mouth to Dalton's
+ear, and whispering in deep confidence.
+
+"One of what? one of whom?"
+
+"He's upstairs," muttered Andy.
+
+"Who's upstairs, who is he?" cried Dalton, angrily.
+
+"Didn't I know him the minit I seen him! Ayeh! Ould as I am, my eyes
+isn't that dim yet."
+
+"God give me patience with you!" said Dalton; and, to judge from his
+face, he was not entreating a vain blessing. "Tell me, I say, what do
+you mean, or who is it is upstairs?"
+
+Andy put his lips once more to the other's ear, and whispered, "An
+attorney!"
+
+"An attorney!" echoed Dalton.
+
+"Iss!" said Andy, with a significant nod.
+
+"And how do you know he 's an attorney?"
+
+"I seen him!" replied the other, with a grin; "and I locked the door on
+him."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"What for! what for, is it? Oh, murther, murther!" whined the old
+creature, who in this unhappy question thought he read the evidence of
+his poor master's wreck of intellect. It was indeed no slight shock to
+him to hear that Peter Dalton had grown callous to danger, and could
+listen to the terrible word he had uttered without a sign of emotion.
+
+"I seen the papers with a red string round 'em," said Andy, as though
+by this incidental trait he might be able to realize all the menaced
+danger.
+
+"Sirrah, ye 're an old fool!" said Dalton, angrily; and, jerking the key
+from his trembling fingers, he pushed past him, and ascended the stairs.
+
+If Dalton's impatience had been excited by the old man's absurd terrors
+and foolish warnings, his own heart was not devoid of a certain vague
+dread, as he slowly wended his way upwards. It was true he did not
+partake of old Andy's fear of the dread official of the law. Andy, who,
+forgetting time and place, not knowing that they were in another land,
+where the King's writ never ran, saw in the terrible apparition the
+shadows of coming misfortune. Every calamity of his master's house had
+been heralded by such a visit, and he could as soon have disconnected
+the banshee with a sudden death, as the sight of an attorney with an
+approaching disaster.
+
+It is true, Dalton did not go this far; but still old impressions were
+not so easily effaced. And as the liberated captive is said to tremble
+at the clanking of a chain, so his heart responded to the fear that
+memory called up of past troubles and misfortunes.
+
+"What can he want with me now?" muttered he, as he stopped to take
+breath. "They 've left me nothing but life, and they can't take that. It
+'s not that I 'd care a great deal if they did! Maybe it's more bother
+about them titles; but I'll not trouble my head about them. I sold the
+land, and I spent the money; ay, and what 's more, I spent it at home
+among my own people, like a gentleman! and if I 'm an absentee it 's
+not my fault. I suppose he couldn't arrest me," said he, after a pause;
+"but, God knows, they 're making new laws every day, and it 's hard to
+say if they 'll let a man have peace or ease in any quarter of the world
+before long. Well, well! there's no use guessing. I have nothing to sell
+nothing to lose; I suppose they don't make it a hanging matter even
+for an Irishman to live a trifle too fast." And with this piece of
+reassuring comfort, he pulled up his cravat, threw back the breast of
+his coat, and prepared to confront the enemy bravely.
+
+Although Dalton made some noise in unlocking the door, and not less in
+crossing the little passage that led to the sitting-room, his entrance
+was unperceived by the stranger, who was busily engaged in examining a
+half-finished group by Nelly. It represented an old soldier, whose
+eyes were covered by a bandage, seated beside a well, while a little
+drummer-boy read to him the bulletin of a great victory. She had
+destined the work for a present to Frank, and had put forth all her
+genius in its composition. The glowing enthusiasm of the blind veteran,
+his half-opened lips,' his attitude of eagerness as he drank in the
+words, were finely contrasted with the childlike simplicity of the boy,
+more intent, as it seemed, in spelling out the lines than following the
+signification.
+
+If the stranger was not a finished connoisseur, he was certainly not
+ignorant of art, and was deep in its contemplation when Dalton accosted
+him.
+
+"I beg pardon, Mr. Dalton, I presume; really this clever composition
+has made me forget myself totally. May I ask, is it the work of a native
+artist?"
+
+"It was done in this place, sir," replied Dalton, whose pride in his
+daughter's skill was overlaid by a less worthy feeling, shame that a
+Dalton should condescend to such an occupation.
+
+"I have seen very inferior productions highly prized and praised; and if
+I am not indiscreet--"
+
+"To prevent any risk of that kind," observed Dalton, interrupting him,
+"I 'll take the liberty of asking your name, and the object of this
+visit."
+
+"Prichard, sir; of the firm of Prichard and Harding, solicitors,
+Lincoln's Inn Fields," replied the other, whose voice and manner at once
+assumed a business-like tone.
+
+"I never heard the names before," said Dalton, motioning to a chair. The
+stranger seated himself, and, placing a large roll of papers before him
+on the table, proceeded to untie and arrange them most methodically, and
+with the air of a man too deeply impressed with the importance of his
+occupation to waste a thought upon the astonishment of a bystander.
+
+"Prichard and Harding are mighty cool kind of gentlemen," thought
+Dalton, as he took his seat at the opposite side of the table, trying,
+but not with any remarkable success, to look as much at ease as his
+visitor.
+
+"Copy of deed draft of instructions bill of sale of stock no, here it
+is! This is what we want," muttered Prichard, half aloud. "I believe
+that letter, sir, is in your handwriting?"
+
+Dalton put on his spectacles and looked at the document for a few
+seconds, during which his countenance gradually appeared to light up
+with an expression of joyful meaning; for his eye glistened, and a red
+flush suffused his cheek.
+
+"It is, sir, that's mine, every word of it; and what's more, I 'm as
+ready to stand to it to-day as the hour I wrote it."
+
+Mr. Prichard, scarcely noticing the reply, was again deep in his
+researches; but the object of them must be reserved for another chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV. AN EMBARRASSING QUESTION.
+
+How very seldom it is that a man looks at a letter he has written
+some twenty years or so before, and peruses it with any degree of
+satisfaction! No matter how pleasurable the theme, or how full of
+interest at the time, years have made such changes in circumstances,
+have so altered his relations with the world, dispelled illusions here,
+created new prospects there, that the chances are he can feel nothing
+but astonishment for what once were his opinions, and a strange sense of
+misgiving that he ever could have so expressed himself.
+
+Rare as this pleasure is, we left Mr. Dalton in the fullest enjoyment of
+it, in our last chapter; and as he read and re-read his autograph, every
+feature of his face showed the enjoyment it yielded him.
+
+"My own writing, sure enough! I wish I never put my hand to paper in a
+worse cause. Is n't it strange," he muttered, "how a man's heart will
+outlive his fingers? I could n't write now as well as I used then, but
+I can feel just the same. There 's the very words I said." And with this
+he read, half aloud, from the paper: "'But if you my consent to send
+lawyers and attorneys to the devil, and let the-matter be settled
+between us, like two gentlemen, Peter Dalton will meet you when, where,
+and how you like, and take the satisfaction as a full release of every
+claim and demand he makes on you.' Just so; and a fairer offer never was
+made; but I grieve to say it wasn't met in the same spirit."
+
+"When you wrote that letter, Mr. Dalton," said Prichard, not looking
+up from the papers before him, "you were doubtless suffering under the
+impression of a wrong at the hands of Sir Stafford Ouslow."
+
+"Faith, I believe you. The loss of a fine estate was n't a trifle,
+whatever you may think it."
+
+"The question ought rather to be, what right had you to attribute that
+loss to him?"
+
+"What right is it? All the right in the world. Who got the property?
+Answer me that. Was n't it he came in as a sole legatee? But what am I
+talking about? Sure the thing is done and ended, and what more does he
+want?"
+
+"I'm just coming to that very point, sir," said Prichard. "Sir
+Stafford's attention having been accidentally called to this
+transaction, he perceives that he has unwittingly done you a great
+injustice, and that there is one matter, at least, on which he is bound,
+even for his own satisfaction."
+
+"Satisfaction, is it?" broke in Dalton, catching at the only word that
+struck his ear with a distinct signification. "Better late than never;
+and it 's proud I am to oblige him. Not but there 's people would tell
+you that the time 's gone by, and all that sort of thing; but them was
+never my sentiments. 'Never a bad time for a good deed,' my poor father
+used to say, and you may tell him that I 'll think the better of his
+countrymen to the day of my death, for what he 's going to do now."
+
+Prichard laid down the paper he was reading, and stared at the speaker
+in mute amazement.
+
+"You 're his friend, I perceive," said Dalton.
+
+"Sir Stafford is kind enough to consider me in that light."
+
+"Faith, the kindness is all the other way," rejoined Dalton, laughing,
+"at least, in this country; for the seconds are just as guilty as the
+principals, and have no fun for their money. But, sure, we can cross
+over to Landau; they tell me it's Barbaria there, over the Rhine."
+
+"Bavaria, perhaps?" interposed the other.
+
+"Yes, that 's what I said. We can be over the frontier in two hours.
+There 's every conveniency in life," said he, rubbing his hands in high
+glee.
+
+"Our business, I trust, sir, can be all arranged here, and without much
+delay, either."
+
+"Just as you like; I 'm not fond of moving since my knee was bad, and I
+'m agreeable to anything."
+
+"You seem to contemplate a hostile meeting, sir, if I understand you
+aright," said Prichard, slowly; "but if you had been kind enough to
+hear me out, you 'd have seen that nothing was further from my friend's
+thoughts or my own."
+
+"Oh, murther!" groaned Dal ton, as he sank down into a chair.
+
+"We never entertained any such intention."
+
+"No duel?"
+
+"Nothing of the kind."
+
+"Sure, I heard you say satisfaction. I 'll take my oath you said
+satisfaction."
+
+"I hope sincerely, sir, that the word may bear a peaceful
+signification."
+
+"Oh dear, oh dear!" cried Dalton, as, clasping his hands on his knees,
+he sat, a perfect type of disappointed hope, and totally inattentive to
+a very eloquent explanation that Prichard was pouring forth.
+
+"You see, now, sir, I trust," cried the latter, triumphantly, "that if
+my friend's intentions are not precisely what you looked for, they are
+not less inspired by an anxious desire to cultivate your friendship and
+obtain your good opinion."
+
+"I wasn't listening to a word you were saying," said Dalton, with a
+sincerity that would have made many men smile; but Mr. Prichard never
+laughed, or only when the joke was uttered by a silk gown, or the
+initiative given by the bench itself.
+
+"I was endeavoring, sir, to convey," said he again, and with infinite
+patience, "that, by a clause of the late Mr. Godfrey's will, the
+suggestion was made to the effect that, if Sir Stafford Onslow should
+deem it fitting and suitable, the testator would not be averse to an
+annuity of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred pounds per annum
+being settled on Mr. Peter Dalton for the term of his life. This clause
+has now been brought under Sir Stafford's notice for the first time, as
+he never, in fact, saw the will before. The document was lodged in our
+hands; and as certain proceedings, of which the letter you have just
+acknowledged forms a part, at that period placed you in a peculiar
+position of hostility to Sir Stafford, we, as his legal advisers, did
+not take any remarkable pains to impress this recommendation on his
+memory."
+
+"Go on; I 'm listening to you," said Dalton.
+
+"Well, sir, Sir Stafford is now desirous of complying with this
+injunction, the terms of which he reads as more obligatory upon him than
+his legal friends would be willing to substantiate. In fact, he makes
+the matter a question of feeling and not of law; and this, of course, is
+a point wherein we have no right to interpose an opinion. Something like
+ten years have elapsed since Mr. Godfrey's death, and taking the sum at
+two hundred pounds, with interest at five per cent, a balance of above
+three thousand two hundred will now be at your disposal, together with
+the annuity on your life; and to arrange the payment of these moneys,
+and take measures for their future disbursement, I have the honor to
+present myself before you. As for these letters, they are your own; and
+Sir Stafford, in restoring them, desires to efface all memory of the
+transaction they referred to, and to assure you that, when circumstances
+enable him to meet you, it may be on terms of perfect cordiality and
+friendship."
+
+"Upon my soul and conscience I don't understand a word of it all!" said
+Dalton, whose bewildered looks gave a perfect concurrence to the speech.
+"Is it that I have a right to all the money?"
+
+"Exactly, sir; Sir Stafford feels that he is simply carrying out the
+wishes of your relative, Mr. Godfrey--"
+
+"But this has nothing to do with the little difference between Sir
+Stafford and myself? I mean, it leaves us just where we were before."
+
+"Sir Stafford hopes that henceforth a better understanding will subsist
+between you and himself; and that you, seeing how blameless he has
+been in the whole history of your losses, will receive this act as an
+evidence of his desire to cultivate your friendship."
+
+"And this two hundred a year?"
+
+"Is Mr. Godfrey's bequest."
+
+"But depending on Sir Stafford to pay or not, as he likes."
+
+"I have already told you, sir, that he conceives he has no option in the
+matter; and that the mere expression of a desire on Mr. Godfrey's part
+becomes to him a direct injunction."
+
+"Faith, he was mighty long in finding it out, then," said Dalton,
+laughing.
+
+"I believe I have explained myself on that head," replied Prichard; "but
+I am quite ready to go over the matter again."
+
+"God forbid! my head is 'moidered' enough already, not to make it
+worse. Explanations, as they call them, always puzzle me more; but if
+you 'd go over the subject to my daughter Nelly, her brain is as clear
+as the Lord Chancellor's. I'll just call her up here; for, to tell you
+the truth, I never see my way right in anything till Nelly makes it out
+for me."
+
+Mr. Prichard was probably not grieved at the prospect of a more
+intelligent listener, and readily assented to the proposition, in
+furtherance of which Dalton left the room to seek his daughter. On
+descending to the little chamber where he had left the two girls in
+waiting beside the dwarf's sick-bed, he now discovered that they had
+gone, and that old Andy had replaced them, a change which, to judge from
+Hansel's excited looks and wild utterance, was not by any means to his
+taste.
+
+"Was machst du hier?" cried he, sternly, to the old man.
+
+"Whisht! alannah! Take a sleep, acushla!" whined old Andy, as, under
+the delusion that it was beside an infant his watch was established, he
+tried to rock the settle-bed like a cradle, and then croned away in a
+cracked voice one of his own native ditties:
+
+     "I saw a man weeping and makin' sad moan,
+     He was crying and grievin',
+     For he knew their deceiving
+     An' rockin' a cradle for a child not his own."
+
+"Was fur katzen jammer! What for cats' music mak'st thou there?"
+
+"Where 's the girls, Andy?" whispered Daltou in the old man's ear.
+
+"They 're gone," muttered he.
+
+"Gone where? where did they go?"
+
+"Fort mit ihm. Away with him. Leave him not stay. Mein head is heavy,
+and mein brain turn round!" screamed Hansel.
+
+"Will ye tell me where they 're gone, I say?" cried Daiton, angrily.
+
+"Hushoo! husho!" sang out the old man, as he fancied he was composing
+his charge to sleep; and then made signs to Dalton to be still and not
+awaken him.
+
+With an angry muttering Dalton turned away and left the chamber, totally
+regardless of Hanserl's entreaties to take Andy along with him.
+
+"You're just good company for each other!" said he, sulkily, to himself.
+"But where 's these girls, I wonder?"
+
+"Oh, papa, I have found you at last!" cried Kate, as, bounding down the
+stairs half a dozen steps at a time, she threw her arm round him. "She's
+here! she's upstairs with us; and so delightful, and so kind, and so
+beautiful. I never believed any one could be so charming."
+
+"And who is she, when she's at home?" said Dalton, half sulkily.
+
+"Lady Hester, of course, papa. She came while we were sitting with
+Hanserl, came quite alone to see him and us; and when she had talked
+to him for a while, so kindly and so sweetly, about his wound, and his
+fever, and his home in the Tyrol, and his mother, and everything, she
+turned to Nelly and said, 'Now, my dears, for a little conversation with
+yourselves. Where shall we go to be quite alone and uninterrupted?' We
+did n't know what to say, papa; for we knew that you and the strange
+gentleman were busy in the sitting-room, and while I was thinking what
+excuse to make, Nelly told her that our only room was occupied. 'Oh, I
+don't care for that in the least,' said she; 'let us shut ourselves
+up in your dressing-room.' Our dressing-room! I could have laughed and
+cried at the same moment she said it; but Nelly said that we had none,
+and invited her upstairs to her bedroom; and there she is now, papa,
+sitting on the little bed, and making Nelly tell her everything about
+who we are, and whence we came, and how we chanced to be living here."
+
+"I wonder Nelly had n't more sense," said Dalton, angrily; "not as much
+as a curtain on the bed, nor a bit of carpet on the floor. What 'll she
+think of us all?"
+
+"Oh, papa, you're quite mistaken; she called it a dear little snuggery;
+said she envied Nelly so much that lovely view over Eberstein and the
+Schloss, and said what would she not give to lead our happy and peaceful
+life, away from that great world she despises so heartily. How sad
+to think her duties tie her down to a servitude so distasteful and
+repulsive!"
+
+"Isn't my Lady the least taste in life of a humbug, Kitty?" whispered
+Dalton, as his eyes twinkled with malicious drollery.
+
+"Papa, papa! you cannot mean--"
+
+"No harm if she is, darling. I'm sure the pleasantest, ay, and some of
+the worthiest people ever I knew were humbugs, that is, they were always
+doing their best to be agreeable to the company; and if they strained
+their consciences a bit, small blame to them for that same."
+
+"Lady Hester is far above such arts, papa; but you shall judge for
+yourself. Come in now, for she is so anxious to know you."
+
+Kate, as she spoke, had opened the door of the little bedroom, and,
+drawing her arm within her father's, gently led him forward to where
+Lady Hester was seated upon the humble settle.
+
+"It's a nice place they showed you into, my Lady," said Dalton, after
+the ceremony of introduction was gone through; "and there was the
+drawing-room, or the library, and the breakfast-parlor, all ready to
+receive you."
+
+"We heard that you were engaged with a gentleman on business, papa."
+
+"Well, and if I was, Nelly, transacting a small matter about my estates
+in Ireland, sure it was in my own study we were."
+
+"I must be permitted to say that I am very grateful for any accident
+which has given me the privilege of an intimate with my dear young
+friends," said Lady Hester, in her very sweetest of manners; "and as to
+the dear little room itself, it is positively charming."
+
+"I wish you 'd see Mount Dalton, my Lady. There '& a window, and it is
+n't bigger than that there, and you can see seven baronies out of it
+and a part of three counties, Killikelly's flour-mills, and the town of
+Drumcoolaghan in the distance; not to speak of the Shannon winding for
+miles through as elegant a bog as ever you set eyes upon."
+
+"Indeed!" smiled her Ladyship, with a glance of deep interest.
+
+"'T is truth, I 'm telling you, my Lady," continued he; "and, what's
+more, 'twas our own, every stick and stone of it. From Crishnamuck
+to Ballymodereena on one side, and from the chapel at Dooras down to
+Drumcoolaghan, 'twas the Dalton estate."
+
+"What a princely territory!"
+
+"And why not? Weren't they kings once, or the same as kings? Did n't my
+grandfather, Pearce, hold a court for life and death in his own parlor?
+Them was the happy and the good times, too," sighed he, plaintively.
+
+"But I trust your late news from Ireland is favorable?"
+
+"Ah! there isn't much to boast about. The old families is dying out
+fast, and the properties changing hands. A set of English rogues and
+banker-fellows that made their money in dirty lanes and alleys."
+
+A sort of imploring, beseeching anxiety from his daughter Kate here
+brought Dalton to a dead stop, and he pulled up as suddenly as if on the
+brink of a precipice.
+
+"Pray, go on, Mr. Dalton," said Lady Hester, with a winning smile; "you
+cannot think how much you have interested me. You are aware that we
+really know nothing about poor dear Ireland; and I am so delighted to
+learn from one so competent to teach."
+
+"I did n't mean any offence, my Lady," stammered out Dalton, in
+confusion. "There 's good and bad everywhere; but I wish to the Lord the
+cotton-spinners would n't come among us, and their steam-engines, and
+their black chimneys, and their big factories; and they say we are not
+far from that now."
+
+A gentle tap at the door which communicated with the sitting-room was
+heard at this moment, and Dalton exclaimed,
+
+"Come in!" but, not suffering the interruption to stop the current of
+his discourse, he was about to resume, when Mr. Prichard's well-powdered
+head appeared at the door.
+
+"I began to suspect you had forgotten me, Mr. Dalton," said he; but
+suddenly catching a glimpse of Lady Hester, he stopped to ask pardon for
+the intrusion.
+
+"Faith, and I just did," said Dalton, laughing; "couldn't you contrive
+to step in in the morning, and we 'll talk that little matter over
+again?"
+
+"Yes, Prichard; pray don't interrupt us now," said Lady Hester, in a
+tone of half-peevishness. "I cannot possibly spare you, Mr. Dalton,
+at this moment;" and the man of law withdrew, with a most respectful
+obeisance.
+
+"You'll forgive me, won't you?" said she, addressing Dalton, with a
+glance whose blandishment had often succeeded in a more difficult case.
+
+"And now, papa, we'll adjourn to the drawing-room," said Kate, who
+somehow continued to notice a hundred deficiencies in the furniture of a
+little chamber she had often before deemed perfect.
+
+Dalton accordingly offered his arm to Lady Hester, who accepted the
+courtesy in all form, and the little party moved into the sitting-room;
+Nelly following, with an expression of sadness in her pale features,
+very unlike the triumphant glances of her father and sister.
+
+"I 'm certain of your pardon, Mr. Dalton, and of yours, too, my dear
+child," said Lady Hester, turning towards Kate, as she seated herself
+on the stiff old sofa, "when I avow that I have come here determined
+to pass the evening with you. I 'm not quite so sure that my dear Miss
+Dalton's forgiveness will be so readily accorded me. I see that she
+already looks gravely at the prospect of listening to my fiddle-faddle
+instead of following out her own charming fancies."
+
+"Oh, how you wrong me, my Lady!" broke in Nelly, eagerly. "If it were
+not for my fears of our unfitness our inability," she stammered in
+confusion and shame; and old Dalton broke in,
+
+"Don't mind her, my Lady; we 're as well used to company as any family
+in the country; but, you see, we don't generally mix with the people one
+meets abroad; and why should we? God knows who they are. There was chaps
+here last summer at the tables you would n't let into the servants'
+hall. There was one I seen myself, with an elegant pair of horses, as
+nice steppers as ever you looked at, and a groom behind with a leather
+strap round him," and here Mr. Dalton performed a pantomime, by
+extending the fingers of his open hand at the side of his head, to
+represent a cockade "what d' ye call it in his hat; and who was he, did
+you think? 'Billy Rogers,' of Muck; his father was in the canal--"
+
+"In the canal!" exclaimed Lady Hester, in affright.
+
+"Yes, my Lady; in the Grand Canal, an inspector at forty pounds a year,
+the devil a farthin' more; and if you seen the son here, with two pins
+in his cravat, and a gold chain twisting and turning over his waistcoat,
+with his hat on one side, and yellow gloves, new every morning, throwing
+down the 'Naps' at that thieving game they call 'Red and Black,'
+you'd say he was the Duke of Leinster!"
+
+"Was he so like his Grace?" asked Lady Hester, with a delightful
+simplicity.
+
+"No; but grander!" replied Dalton, with a wave of his hand.
+
+"It is really, as you remark, very true," resumed her Ladyship. "It is
+quite impossible to venture upon an acquaintance out of England; and I
+cordially concur in the caution you practise."
+
+"So I 'm always telling the girls, 'better no company than trumpery!'
+not that I don't like a bit of sociality as well as ever I did, a snug
+little party of one's own, people whose mothers and fathers had names,
+the real old stock of the land. But to be taken up with every chance
+rapscallion you meet on the cross-roads, to be hand and glove with this,
+that, and the other, them never was my sentiments."
+
+It is but justice to confess there was less of hypocrisy in the bland
+smile Lady Hester returned to this speech than might be suspected;
+for, what between the rapidity of Daiton's utterance, and the peculiar
+accentuation he gave to certain words, she did not really comprehend
+one syllable of what he said. Meanwhile the two girls sat silent and
+motionless. Nelly, in all the suffering of shame at the absurdity of her
+father's tone, the vulgarity of an assumption she had fondly hoped years
+of poverty might have tamed down, if not obliterated; Kate, in mute
+admiration of their lovely visitor, of whose graces she never wearied.
+Nor did Lady Hester make any effort to include them in the conversation;
+she had come out expressly for one sole object, to captivate Mr. Dalton;
+and she would suffer nothing to interfere with her project. To this
+end she heard his long and tiresome monologues about Irish misery and
+distress, narrated with an adherence to minute and local details that
+made the whole incomprehensible; she listened to him with well-feigned
+interest, in his narratives of the Daltons of times long past, of their
+riotous and extravagant living, their lawlessness, and their daring;
+nor did she permit her attention to flag while he recounted scenes and
+passages of domestic annals that might almost have filled a page of
+savage history.
+
+"How sorry you must have felt to leave a country so dear by all its
+associations and habits!" sighed she, as he finished a narrative of
+more than ordinary horrors.
+
+"Ain't I breaking my heart over it? Ain't I fretting myself to mere skin
+and bone?" said he, with a glance of condolence over his portly figure.
+"But what could I do? I was forced to come out here for the education of
+the children bother it for education! but it ruins everybody nowadays.
+When I was a boy, reading and writing, with a trifle of figures, was
+enough for any one. If you could tell what twenty bullocks cost, at two
+pounds four-and-sixpence a beast, and what was the price of a score of
+hoggets, at fifteen shillings a head, and wrote your name and address
+in a good round hand, 'twas seldom you needed more; but now you have to
+learn everything, ay, sorrow bit, but it 's learning the way to do what
+every one knows by nature; riding, dancing, no, but even walking, I 'm
+told, they teach too! Then there's French you must learn for talking!
+and Italian to sing! and German, upon my soul, I believe it's to snore
+in! and what with music, dancing, and drawing, everybody is brought up
+like a play-actor."
+
+"There is, as you remark, far too much display in modern education, Mr.
+Dalton; but you would seem fortunate enough to have avoided the error. A
+young lady whose genius can accomplish such a work as this--"
+
+"'Tis one of Nelly's, sure enough," said he, looking at the group to
+which she pointed, but feeling even more shame than pride in the avowal.
+
+The sound of voices a very unusual noise from the door without, now
+broke in upon the conversation, and Andy's cracked treble could be
+distinctly heard in loud altercation.
+
+"Nelly! Kitty! I say," cried Dalton, "see what's the matter with that
+old devil. There's something come over him to-day, I think, for he won't
+be quiet for two minutes together."
+
+Kate accordingly hastened to discover the cause of a tumult in which now
+the sound of laughter mingled.
+
+As we, however, enjoy the prerogative of knowing the facts before they
+could reach her, we may as well inform the reader that Andy, whose
+intelligence seemed to have been preternaturally awakened by the sight
+of an attorney, had been struck by seeing two strangers enter the
+house-door and leisurely ascend the stairs. At such a moment, and with
+his weak brain filled with its latest impression, the old man at once
+set them down as bailiffs come to arrest his master. He hobbled after
+them, therefore, as well as he could, and just reached the landing as
+Mr. Jekyl, with his friend Onslow, had arrived at the door.
+
+"Mr. Dalton lives here, I believe?" said Jekyl.
+
+"Anan," muttered Andy, who, although he heard the question, affected not
+to have done so, and made this an excuse for inserting himself between
+them and the door.
+
+"I was asking if Mr. Dalton lived here!" cried Jekyl, louder, and
+staring with some astonishment at the old fellow's manoeuvre.
+
+"Who said he did, eh?" said Andy, with an effort at fierceness.
+
+"Perhaps it 's on the lower story?" asked Onslow.
+
+"Maybe it is, and maybe it isn't, then!" was the answer.
+
+"We wish to see him, my good man," said Jekyl; "or, at least, to send a
+message to him."
+
+"Sure! I know well enough what ye want," said Andy, with a wave of his
+hand. "'T is n't the first of yer like I seen!"
+
+"And what may that be?" asked Onslow, not a little amused by the blended
+silliness and shrewdness of the old man's face.
+
+"Ay eh! I know yez well," rejoined he, shaking his head. "Be off, then,
+and don't provoke the house! Away wid yez, before the servants sees ye."
+
+"This is a rare fellow," said Onslow, who, less interested than his
+companion about the visit, was quite satisfied to amuse himself with old
+Andy. "So you 'll not even permit us to send our respects, and ask how
+your master is?"
+
+"I'm certain you'll be more reasonable," simpered Jekyl, as he drew a
+very weighty-looking purse from his pocket, and, with a considerable
+degree of ostentation, seemed preparing to open it.
+
+The notion of bribery, and in such a cause, was too much for Andy's
+feelings; and with a sudden jerk of his hand, he dashed the purse out
+of Jekyl's fingers, and scattered the contents all over the landing and
+stairs. "Ha, ha!" cried he, wildly, "'t is only ha'pence he has, after
+all!" And the taunt was so far true that the ground was strewn with
+kreutzers and other copper coins of the very smallest value.
+
+As for Onslow, the scene was too ludicrous for him any longer to
+restrain his laughter; and although Jekyl laughed too, and seemed to
+relish the absurdity of his mistake, as he called it, having put in his
+pocket a collection of rare and curious coins, his cheek, as he bent to
+gather them up, was suffused with a deeper flush than the mere act of
+stooping should occasion. It was precisely at this moment that Kate
+Dalton made her appearance.
+
+"What is the matter, Andy?" asked she, turning to the old man, who
+appeared, by his air and attitude, as if determined to guard the
+doorway.
+
+"Two spalpeens, that want to take the master; that's what it is," said
+he, in a voice of passion.
+
+"Your excellent old servant has much mistaken us, Miss Dalton," said
+Jekyl, with his most deferential of manners. "My friend, Captain
+Onslow," here he moved his hand towards George, who bowed, "and myself,
+having planned a day's shooting in the 'Moorg,' have come to request the
+pleasure of Mr. Dalton's company."
+
+"Oh, the thievin' villains!" muttered Andy; "that's the way they 'll
+catch him."
+
+Meanwhile Kate, having promised to convey their polite invitation,
+expressed her fears that her father's health might be unequal to the
+exertion. Jekyl immediately took issue upon the point, and hoped, and
+wondered, and fancied, and "flattered himself" so much, that Kate at
+last discovered she had been drawn into a little discussion, when
+she simply meant to have returned a brief answer; and while she was
+hesitating how to put an end to an interview that had already lasted too
+long, Dalton himself appeared.
+
+"Is it with me these gentlemen have their business?" said he, angrily,
+while he rudely resisted all Andy's endeavors to hold him back.
+
+"Oh, my dear Mr. Dalton," said Jekyl, warmly, "it is such a pleasure to
+see you quite restored to health again! Here we are Captain Onslow, Mr.
+Dalton thinking of a little excursion after the woodcocks down the Moorg
+Thai; and I have been indulging the hope that you 'll come along with
+us."
+
+The very hint of an attention, the merest suggestion that bordered on
+a civility, struck a chord in old Dalton's nature that moved all his
+sympathies. It was at once a recognition of himself and his ancestry for
+generations back. It was a rehabilitation of all the Dal tons of Mount
+Dalton for centuries past; and as he extended a hand to each, and
+invited them to walk in, he half felt himself at home again, doing the
+honors of his house, and extending those hospitalities that had brought
+him to beggary.
+
+"Are you serious about the shooting-party?" whispered Onslow to Jekyl,
+as he walked forward.
+
+"Of course not. It's only a 'Grecian horse,' to get inside the citadel."
+
+"My daughter, Miss Dalton; Mr. Jekyl Miss Kate Dalton. Your friend's
+name, I believe, is--"
+
+"Captain Onslow."
+
+Lady Hester started at the name, and, rising, at once said,
+
+"Oh, George, I must introduce you to my fair friends. Miss Dalton, this
+gentleman calls me 'mamma;' or, at least, if he does not, it is from
+politeness. Captain Onslow Mr. Dalton. Now, by what fortunate event came
+you here?"
+
+"Ought I not to ask the same question of your Ladyship?" said George,
+archly.
+
+"If you like; only that, as I asked first--"
+
+"You shall be answered first. Lady Hester Onslow, allow me to present
+Mr. Albert Jekyl."
+
+"Oh, indeed!" drawled out Lady Hester, as, with her very coldest bow,
+she surveyed Mr. Jekyl through her glass, and then turned away to finish
+her conversation with Ellen.
+
+Jekyl was not the man to feel a slight repulse as a defeat; but, at
+the same time, saw that the present was not the moment to risk an
+engagement. He saw, besides, that, by engaging Dalton in conversation,
+he should leave Lady Hester and Onslow at liberty to converse with
+the two sisters, and, by this act of generosity, entitle himself to
+gratitude on all sides. And, after all, among the smaller martyrdoms
+of this life, what self-sacrifice exceeds his who, out of pure
+philanthropy, devotes himself to the "bore" of the party. Honor to him
+who can lead the forlorn hope of this stronghold of weariness. Great be
+his praises who can turn from the seductive smiles of beauty, and the
+soft voices of youth, and only give eye and ear to the tiresome and
+uninteresting. High among the achievements of unobtrusive heroism
+should this claim rank; and if you doubt it, my dear reader, if you feel
+disposed to hold cheaply such darings, try it, try even for once. Take
+your place beside that deaf old lady in the light auburn wig, or draw
+your chair near to that elderly gentleman, whose twinkling gray eyes
+and tremulous lip bespeak an endless volubility on the score of personal
+reminiscences. Do this, too, within earshot of pleasant voices and merry
+laughter, of that tinkling ripple that tells of conversation flowing
+lightly on, like a summer stream, clear where shallow, and reflective
+where deep! Listen to the wearisome bead-roll of family fortunes, the
+births, deaths, and marriages of those you never saw, and hoped never
+to see, hear the long narratives of past events, garbled, mistaken, and
+misstated, with praise and censure ever misapplied, and then, I say, you
+will feel that, although such actions are not rewarded with red ribbons
+or blue, they yet demand a moral courage and a perseverance that in
+wider fields win high distinction.
+
+[Illustration:  166]
+
+Albert Jekyl was a proficient in this great art; indeed, his powers
+developed themselves according to the exigency, so that the more
+insufferably tiresome his companion, the more seemingly attentive
+and interested did he become. His features were, in fact, a kind of
+"bore-ometer," in which, from the liveliness of the expression, you
+might calculate the stupidity of the tormentor; and the mercury of his
+nature rose, not fell, under pressure. And so you would have said had
+you but seen him that evening, as, seated beside Dalton, he heard,
+for hours long, how Irish gentlemen were ruined and their fortunes
+squandered. What jolly times they were when men resisted the law and
+never feared a debt! Not that, while devouring all the "rapparee"
+experiences of the father, he had no eye for the daughters, and did not
+see what was passing around him. Ay, that did he, and mark well how Lady
+Hester attached herself to Kate Dalton, flattered by every sign of her
+unbought admiration, and delighted with the wondering homage of the
+artless girl. He watched Onslow, too, turn from the inanimate charms
+of Nelly's sculptured figures, to gaze upon the long dark lashes and
+brilliant complexion of her sister. He saw all the little comedy that
+went on around him, even to poor Nelly's confusion, as she assisted Andy
+to arrange a tea-table, and, for the first time since their arrival,
+proceed to make use of that little service of white and gold which,
+placed on a marble table for show, constitutes the invariable decoration
+of every humble German drawing-room. He even overheard her, as she left
+the room, giving Andy her directions a dozen times over, how he was to
+procure the tea, and the sugar, and the milk, extravagances she did not
+syllable without a sigh. He saw and heard everything, and rapidly drew
+his own inferences, not alone of their poverty, but of their unfitness
+to struggle with it.
+
+"And yet, I'd wager these people," said he to himself, "are revelling in
+superfluities; at least, as compared to me! But, so it is, the rock that
+one man ties round his neck, another would make a stepping-stone of!"
+This satisfactory conclusion gave additional sweetness to the bland
+smile with which he took his teacup from Nelly's hand, while he
+pronounced the beverage the very best he had ever tasted out of Moscow.
+And so we must leave the party.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV. CONTRASTS
+
+"So you think, Grounsell, I may be able to leave this in a day or two?"
+said Sir Stafford, as, on the day following the events we have just
+related, he slowly walked up and down his dressing-room.
+
+"By the end of the week, if the weather only continue fine, we may be on
+the road again."
+
+"I'm glad of it, heartily glad of it! Not that, as regarded myself,
+it mattered much where I was laid up in dock; but I find that this
+isolation, instead of drawing the members of my family more closely
+together, has but served to widen the breach between them. Lady Hester
+and Sydney rarely meet; George sees neither of them, and rarely comes
+near me, so that the sooner we go hence the better for all of us."
+
+Grounsell gave a dry nod of assent, without speaking.
+
+"Sydney is very anxious to go and pass some time with her aunt Conway;
+but I foresee that, if I consent, the difference between Lady Hester and
+her will then become an irreconcilable quarrel. You don't agree with me,
+Grounsell?"
+
+"I do not. I never knew the ends of a fractured bone unite by grating
+them eternally against each other."
+
+"And, as for George, the lounging habits of his service and cigars have
+steeped him in an indolence from which there is no emerging. I scarcely
+know what to do with him."
+
+"It's hard enough to decide upon," rejoined Grounsell; "he has some
+pursuits, but not one ambition."
+
+"He has very fair abilities, certainly," said Sir Stafford, half
+peevishly.
+
+"Very fair!" nodded Grounsell.
+
+"A good memory, a quick apprehension."
+
+"He has one immense deficiency, for which nothing can compensate," said
+the doctor, solemnly.
+
+"Application, industry?"
+
+"No, with his opportunities a great deal is often acquired with
+comparatively light labor. I mean a greater and more important element."
+
+"He wants steadiness, you think?"
+
+"No; I 'll tell you what he wants, he wants pluck!"
+
+Sir Stafford's cheek became suddenly crimson, and his blue eyes grew
+almost black in the angry expression of the moment.
+
+"Pluck, sir? My son deficient in courage?"
+
+"Not as you understand it now," resumed Grouusell, calmly. "He has
+enough, and more than enough, to shoot me or anybody else that would
+impugn it. The quality I mean is of a very different order. It is the
+daring to do a thing badly to-day in the certain confidence that you,
+will do it better to-morrow, and succeed perfectly in it this day
+twelvemonth. He has not pluck to encounter repeated failures, and yet
+return every morning to the attack; he has not pluck to be bullied
+by mediocrity in the sure and certain confidence that he will live to
+surpass it; in a word, he has not that pluck which resists the dictation
+of inferior minds, and inspires self-reliance through self-respect."
+
+"I confess I cannot see that in the station he is likely to occupy such
+qualities are at all essential," said Sir Stafford, almost haughtily.
+
+"Twenty thousand a year is a fine thing, and may dispense with a great
+many gifts in its possessor; and a man like myself, who never owned a
+twentieth of the amount, may be a precious bad judge of the requisites
+to spend it suitably; but I 'll tell you one thing, Onslow, that organ
+the phrenologists call 'Combativeness' is the best in the whole skull."
+
+"I think your Irish friend Dalton must have been imparting some of his
+native prejudices to you," said Onslow, smiling; "and, by the way, when
+have you seen him?"
+
+"I went to call there last night, but I found a tea-party, and did n't
+go in. Only think of these people, with beggary staring them on every
+side, sending out for 'Caravan' tea at I don't know how many florins a
+pound."
+
+"I heard of it; but then, once and away--"
+
+"Once and away! Ay, but once is ruin."
+
+"Well, I hope Prichard has arranged everything by this time. He has gone
+over this morning to complete the business; so that I trust, when we
+leave Baden, these worthy people will be m the enjoyment of easier
+circumstances."
+
+"I see him crossing over the street now. I'll leave you together."
+
+"No, no, Grounsell; wait and hear his report; we may want your advice
+besides, for I 'm not quite clear that this large sum of arrears should
+be left at Dalton's untrammelled disposal, as Mr. Prichard intended it
+should be a test of that excellent gentleman's prudence."
+
+Mr. Prichard's knock was now heard at the door, and next moment
+he entered. His pale countenance was slightly flushed, and in the
+expression of his face it might be read that he had come from a scene of
+unusual excitement.
+
+"I have failed, completely failed, Sir Stafford," said he, with a sigh,
+as he seated himself, and threw a heavy roll of paper on the table
+before him.
+
+As Sir Stafford did not break the pause that followed these words,
+Prichard resumed,
+
+"I told you last night that Mr. Dalton, not being able clearly to
+understand my communication, which I own, to prevent any searching
+scrutiny on his part, I did my best to envelop in a covering of
+technicalities, referred me to his eldest daughter, in whose acuteness
+he reposes much confidence. If I was not impressed with the difficulty
+of engaging such an adversary from his description, still less was I
+on meeting with the young lady this morning. A very quietly mannered,
+unassuming person, with considerable good looks, which once upon a
+time must have been actual beauty, was seated alone in the drawing-room
+awaiting me. Her dress was studiously plain; and were it not for an
+air of great neatness throughout, I should perhaps call it even poor.
+I mention all these matters with a certain prolixity, because they bear
+upon what ensued.
+
+"Without waiting for me to open my communication, she began by a slight
+apology for her presence there, occasioned, as she said, by her father's
+ill-health and consequent incapacity to transact business; after
+which she added a few words expressive of a hope that I would make my
+statement in the most simple and intelligible form, divested so far as
+might be of technical phraseology, and such as, to use her own words, a
+very unlettered person like herself might comprehend.
+
+"This opening, I confess, somewhat startled me; I scarcely expected so
+much from her father's daughter; but I acquiesced and went on. As we
+concocted the whole plot together here, Sir Stafford, it is needless
+that I should weary you by a repetition of it. It is enough that I say
+I omitted nothing of plausibility, either in proof of the bequest, or in
+the description of the feeling that prompted its fulfilment. I descanted
+upon the happy event which, in the course of what seemed an accident,
+had brought the two families together, and prefaced their business
+intercourse by a friendship. I adverted to the good influence increased
+comforts would exercise upon her father's health. I spoke of her sister
+and her brother in the fuller enjoyment of all that became their name
+and birth. She heard me to the very end with deep attention, never once
+interrupting, nor even by a look or gesture expressing dissent.
+
+"At last, when I had concluded, she said, 'This, then, is a bequest?'
+
+"I replied affirmatively.
+
+"'In that case,' said she, 'the terms on which it is conveyed will solve
+all the difficulty of our position. If my uncle Godfrey intended this
+legacy to be a peace-offering, however late it has been in coming,
+we should have no hesitation in accepting it; if he meant that his
+generosity should be trammelled by conditions, or subject in any way
+to the good pleasure of a third party, the matter will have a different
+aspect. Which is the truth?'
+
+"I hesitated at this point-blank appeal, so different from what I looked
+for, and she at once asked to see the will. Disconcerted still more, I
+now prevaricated, stating that I had not brought the document with
+me; that a memorandum of its provisions would, I had supposed, prove
+sufficient; and finally assured her that acceptance of the bequest
+involved neither a condition nor a pledge.
+
+"'It may, however, involve an obligation, sir,' said she, firmly. 'Let
+us learn if such be the case.'
+
+"'Are you so proud, Miss Dalton,' said I, 'that you cannot even submit
+to an obligation?'
+
+"She blushed deeply, and with a weak voice answered,
+
+"'We are too poor to incur a debt.'
+
+"Seeing it was useless to dwell longer on this part of the subject, I
+adverted to her father's increasing age, his breaking health, and the
+necessity of affording him a greater share of comforts; but she suddenly
+stopped me, saying, "'You may make my refusal of this favor for such
+it is, and nothing less a more painful duty than I deemed it, but you
+cannot alter my resolution, sir. Poverty, so long as it is honorable,
+has nothing mean nor undeserving about it, but dependence can never
+bestow happiness. It is true, as you say, that my dear father might
+have around him many of those little luxuries that he once was used to;
+but with what changed hearts would not his children minister them
+to him? Where would be that high prompting sense of duty that every
+self-sacrifice is met by now? Where that rich reward of an approving
+spirit that lightens toil and makes even weariness blessed? Our humble
+fortunes have linked us closer together; the storms of the world have
+made us draw nearer to each other, have given us one heart, hope,
+and love alike. Leave us, then, to struggle on, nor cast the gloom of
+dependence over days that all the ills of poverty could not darken. We
+are happy now; who can tell what we should become hereafter?'
+
+"I tried to turn her thoughts upon her brother, but she quickly stopped
+me, saying,
+
+"'Frank is a soldier; the rewards in his career are never withheld from
+the deserving; at all events, wealth would be unsuitable to him. He
+never knew but narrow fortunes, and the spirit that becomes a more
+exalted condition is not the growth of a day.'
+
+"I next ventured, but with every caution and delicacy, to inquire
+whether your aid and influence might not avail them in any future plans
+of life they might form?
+
+"'We have no plans," said she, simply; 'or, rather, we have had so many
+that they all resolve themselves into mere castle-building. My
+dear father longs for Ireland again, for home as he still calls it,
+forgetting that we have no longer a home there. He fancies warm-hearted
+friends and neighbors, an affectionate people, attached to the very
+traditions of his name; but it is now wiser to feed this delusion than
+destroy it, by telling him that few, scarcely one, of his old companions
+still live, that other influences, other fortunes, other names, have
+replaced ours; we should go back there as strangers, and without even
+the stranger's claim to kind acceptance. Then, we had thought of the new
+world beyond seas; but these are the lauds of the young, the ardent, and
+the enterprising, high in hope and resolute of heart; and so, at last,
+we deemed it wisest to seek out some quiet spot, in some quiet country,
+where our poverty would, at least, present nothing remarkable, and
+there to live for each other; and we are happy, so happy that, save the
+passing dread that this delicious calm of life may not be lasting, we
+have few sorrows.'
+
+"Again and again I tried to persuade her to recall her decision, but
+in vain. Once only did she show any sign of hesitation. It was when I
+charged her with pride as the reason of refusal. Then suddenly her
+eyes filled up, and her lip trembled, and such a change came over her
+features that I grew shocked at my own words.
+
+"'Pride!' cried she. 'If you mean that inordinate self-esteem that
+prefers isolation to sympathy, that rejects an obligation from
+mere haughtiness, I know not the feeling. Our pride is not in our
+self-sufficiency, for every step in life teaches us how much we owe to
+others; but in this, that low in lot, and humble in means, we have kept,
+and hope still to keep, the motives and principles that guided us in
+happier fortunes. Yes, you may call us proud, for we are so, proud that
+our poverty has not made us mean; proud that in a strange land we have
+inspired sentiments of kindness, and even of affection; proud that,
+without any of the gifts or graces which attract, we have drawn towards
+us this instance of noble generosity of which you are now the messenger.
+I am not ashamed to own pride in all these.'
+
+"To press her further was useless; and only asking, that if by any
+future change of circumstances she might be induced to alter her
+resolve, she would still consider the proposition as open to her
+acceptance, I took my leave."
+
+"This is most provoking," exclaimed Onslow.
+
+"Provoking!" cried Grounsell; "you call it provoking! That where you
+sought to confer a benefit you discover a spirit greater than all the
+favors wealth ever gave, or ever will give! A noble nature, that soars
+above every accident of fortune, provoking!"
+
+"I spoke with reference to myself," replied Onslow, tartly; "and I
+repeat, it is most provoking that I am unable to make a recompense where
+I have unquestionably inflicted a wrong!"
+
+"Rather thank God that in this age of money-seeking and gold-hunting
+there lives one whose heart is uncorrupted and incorruptible," cried
+Grouusell.
+
+"If I had not seen it I could not have believed it!" said Prichard.
+
+"Of course not, sir," chimed in Grounsell, bluntly. "Yours is not the
+trade where such instances are frequently met with; nor have I met with
+many myself!"
+
+"I beg to observe," said Prichard, mildly, "that even in my career I
+have encountered many acts of high generosity."
+
+"Generosity! Yes, I know what that means. A sister who surrenders her
+legacy to a spendthrift brother; a childless widow that denies herself
+the humblest means of comfort to help the ruined brother of her lost
+husband; a wife who places in a reckless husband's hand the last
+little remnant of fortune that was hoarded against the day of utter
+destitution; and they are always women who do these things, saving,
+scraping, careful creatures, full of self-denial and small
+economies. Not like your generous men, as the world calls them, whose
+free-heartedness is nothing but selfishness, whose liberality is the
+bait to catch flattery. But it is not of generosity I speak here. To
+give, even to one's last farthing, is far easier than to refuse help
+when you are needy. To draw the rags of poverty closer, to make their
+folds drape decently, and hide the penury within, that is the victory,
+indeed."
+
+"Mark you," cried Onslow, laughing, "it is an old bachelor says all
+this."
+
+Grounsell's face became scarlet, and as suddenly pale as death; and
+although he made an effort to speak, not a sound issued from his lips.
+For an instant the pause which ensued was unbroken, when a tap was
+heard at the door. It was a message from Lady Hester, requesting, if Sir
+Stafford were disengaged, to be permitted to speak with him.
+
+"You're not going, Grounsell?" cried Sir Stafford, as he saw the doctor
+seize his hat; but he hastened out of the room without speaking, while
+the lawyer, gathering up his papers, prepared to follow him.
+
+"We shall see you at dinner, Prichard?" said Sir Stafford. "I have some
+hope of joining the party myself to-day."
+
+Mr. Prichard bowed his acknowledgments and departed.
+
+And now the old baronet sat down to ponder in his mind the reasons for
+so strange an event as a visit in the forenoon from Lady Hester. "What
+can it mean? She can't want money," thought he; "'t is but the other
+day I sent her a large check. Is she desirous of going back to England
+again? Are there any new disagreements at work?" This last thought
+reminded him of those of whom he had been so lately hearing, of those
+whose narrow fortunes had drawn them nearer to each other, rendering
+them more tolerant and more attached, while in his own family, where
+affluence prevailed, he saw nothing but dissension.
+
+As he sat pondering over this not too pleasant problem, a tall and
+serious-looking footman entered the room, rolling before him an
+armchair. Another and not less dignified functionary followed, with
+cushions and a foot-warmer, signs which Sir Stafford at once read as
+indicative of a long interview; for her Ladyship's preparations were
+always adopted with a degree of forethought and care that she very
+rarely exhibited in matters of real consequence.
+
+Sir Stafford was contemplating these august demonstrations, when the
+solemn voice of an upper servant announced Lady Hester; and, after a
+second's pause, she swept into the room in all that gauzy amplitude of
+costume that gives to the wearer a seeming necessity of inhabiting the
+most spacious apartments of a palace.
+
+"How d'ye do?" said she, languidly, as she sank down into her chair. "I
+had not the least notion how far this room was off; if Clements has not
+been taking me a tour of the whole house."
+
+Mr. Clements, who was still busily engaged in disposing and arranging
+the cushions, blandly assured her Ladyship that they had come by the
+most direct way.
+
+"I'm sorry for it," said she, peevishly, "for I shall have the more
+fatigue in going back again. There, you 're only making it worse. You
+never can learn that I don't want to be propped up like an invalid. That
+will do; you may leave the room. Sir Stafford, would you be good enough
+to draw that blind a little lower? the sun is directly in my eyes. Dear
+me, how yellow you are! or is it the light in this horrid room? Am I so
+dreadfully bilious-looking?"
+
+"On the contrary," said he, smiling, "I should pronounce you in the most
+perfect enjoyment of health."
+
+"Oh, of course, I have no doubt of that. I only wonder you didn't call
+it 'rude health.' I cannot conceive anything more thoroughly provoking
+than the habit of estimating one's sufferings by the very efforts made
+to suppress them."
+
+"Sufferings, my dear? I really was not aware that you had sufferings."
+
+"I am quite sure of that; nor is it my habit to afflict others with
+complaint. I 'm sure your friend, Mr. Grounsell, would be equally unable
+to acknowledge their existence. How I do hate that man! and I know,
+Stafford, he hates us. Oh, you smile, as if to say, 'Only some of us;
+'but I tell you he detests us all, and his old school-fellow, as he
+vulgarly persists in calling you, as much as the others."
+
+"I sincerely hope you are mistaken."
+
+"Polite, certainly; you trust that his dislike is limited to myself.
+Not that, for my own part, I have the least objection to any amount of
+detestation with which he may honor me; it is the tribute the low and
+obscure invariably render the well-born, and I am quite ready to accept
+it; but I own it is a little hard that I must submit to the infliction
+beneath my own roof."
+
+"My dear Hester, how often have I assured you that you were mistaken;
+and that what you regard as disrespect to yourself is the roughness of
+an unpolished but sterling nature. The ties which have grown up between
+him and me since we were boys together ought not to be snapped for the
+sake of a mere misunderstanding; and if you cannot or will not estimate
+him for the good qualities he unquestionably possesses, at least bear
+with him for my sake."
+
+"So I should, so I strive to do; but the evil does not end there; he
+inspires everybody with the same habits of disrespect and indifference.
+Did you remark Clements, a few moments since, when I spoke to him about
+that cushion?"
+
+"No, I can't say that I did."
+
+"Why should you? nobody ever does trouble his head about anything that
+relates to my happiness! Well, I remarked it, and saw the supercilious
+smile he assumed when I told him that the pillow was wrong. He looked
+over at you, too, as though to say, 'You see how impossible it is to
+please her'."
+
+"I certainly saw nothing of that."
+
+"Even Prichard, that formerly was the most diffident of men, is now
+so much at his ease, so very much at home in my presence, it is quite
+amusing. It was but yesterday he asked me to take wine with him at
+dinner. The anachronism was bad enough, but only fancy the liberty!"
+
+"And what did you do?" asked Sir Stafford, with difficulty repressing a
+smile.
+
+"I affected not to hear, hoping he would not expose himself before the
+servants by a repetition of the request. But he went on, 'Will your
+Ladyship' I assure you he said that 'will your Ladyship do me the honor
+to drink wine with me?' I merely stared at him, but never took any
+notice of his speech. Would you believe it? he returned to the charge
+again, and with his hand on his wine-glass, began, 'I have taken
+the liberty' I could n't hear more; so I turned to George, and said,
+'George, will you tell that man not to do that?'"
+
+Sir Stafford could not restrain himself any longer, but broke out into
+a burst of hearty laughter. "Poor Prichard," said he, at last, "I almost
+think I see him before me!"
+
+"You never think of saying, 'Poor Hester, these are not the associates
+you have been accustomed to live with!' But I could be indifferent
+to all these if my own family treated me with proper deference. As
+for Sydney and George, however, they have actually coventried me; and
+although I anticipated many sacrifices when I married, this I certainly
+never speculated upon. Lady Wallingcroft, indeed, warned me to a certain
+extent of what I should meet with; but I fondly hoped that disparity
+of years and certain differences, the fruits of early prejudices and
+habits, would be the only drawbacks on my happiness; but I have lived to
+see my error!"
+
+"The event has, indeed, not fulfilled what was expected from it," said
+Sir Stafford, with a slow and deliberate emphasis on each word.
+
+"Oh, I comprehend you perfectly," said she, coloring slightly, and for
+the first time displaying any trait of animation in her features. "You
+have been as much disappointed as I have. Just what my aunt Wallingcroft
+prophesied. 'Remember,' said she, and I 'm sure I have had good cause
+to remember it, 'their ideas are not our ideas; they have not the same
+hopes, ambitions, or objects that we have; their very morality is not
+our morality!'"
+
+"Of what people or nation was her Ladyship speaking?" asked Sir
+Stafford, mildly.
+
+"Of the City, generally," replied Lady Hester, proudly.
+
+"Not in ignorance, either," rejoined Sir Stafford; "her own father was a
+merchant in Lombard Street."
+
+"But the family are of the best blood in Lancashire, Sir Stafford."
+
+"It may be so; but I remember Walter Crofts himself boasting that he
+had danced to warm his feet on the very steps of the door in Grosvenor
+Square which afterwards acknowledged him as the master; and as he owed
+his wealth and station to honest industry and successful enterprise,
+none heard the speech without thinking the better of him."
+
+"The anecdote is new to me," said Lady Hester, superciliously; "and
+I have little doubt that the worthy man was merely embellishing an
+incident to suit the tastes of his company."
+
+"It was the company around his table, as Lord Mayor of London!"
+
+"I could have sworn it," said she, laughing; "but what has all this to
+do with what I wished to speak about if I could but remember what it
+was! These eternal digressions have made me forget everything."
+
+Although the appeal was palpably directed to Sir Stafford, he sat silent
+and motionless, patiently awaiting the moment when recollection might
+enable her to resume.
+
+"Dear me! how tiresome it is! I cannot think of what I came about, and
+you will not assist me in the least."
+
+"Up to this moment you have given me no clew to it," said Sir Stafford,
+with a smile. "It was not to speak of Grounsell?"
+
+"Of course not. I hate even to think of him!"
+
+"Of Prichard, perhaps?" he said, with a half-sly twinkle of the eye.
+
+"Just as little!"
+
+"Possibly your friend Colonel Haggerstone was in your thoughts?"
+
+"Pray do not call him my friend. I know very little of the gentleman; I
+intend even to know less. I declined to receive him this morning, when
+he sent up his card."
+
+"An attention I fear he has not shown that poor creature he wounded,
+Grounsell tells me."
+
+"Oh, I have it!" said she, suddenly; the allusion to Hans at once
+recalling the Daltons, and bringing to mind the circumstances she
+desired to remember. "It was exactly of these poor people I came to
+speak. You must know, Sir Stafford, that I have made the acquaintance
+of a most interesting family here, a father and two daughters named
+Dalton."
+
+"Grounsell has already told me so," interrupted Sir Stafford.
+
+"Of course, then, every step I have taken in this intimacy has been
+represented in the most odious light. The amiable doctor will have,
+doubtless, imputed to me the least worthy motives for knowing persons in
+their station?"
+
+"On the contrary, Hester. If he expressed any qualification to the
+circumstance, it was in the form of a fear lest the charms of your
+society and the graces of your manner might indispose them to return
+with patience to the dull round of their daily privations."
+
+"Indeed!" said she, superciliously. "A weak dose of his own acquaintance
+would be, then, the best antidote he could advise them! But, really,
+I must not speak of this man; any allusion to him is certain to jar
+my nerves, and irritate my feelings for the whole day after. I want to
+interest you about these Daltons."
+
+"Nothing more easy, my dear, since I already know something about them."
+
+"The doctor being your informant," said she, snappishly.
+
+"No, no, Hester; many, many years ago, certain relations existed between
+us, and I grieve to say that Mr. Dalton has reason to regard me in no
+favorable light; and it was but the very moment I received your message
+I was learning from Prichard the failure of an effort I had made to
+repair a wrong. I will not weary you with a long and a sad story, but
+briefly mention that Mr. Dalton's late wife was a distant relative of my
+own."
+
+"Yes, yes; I see it all. There was a little love in the business, an old
+flame revived in after life; nothing serious, of course but jealousies
+and misconstructions to any extent. Dear me, and that was the reason
+she died of a broken heart!" It was hard to say if Sir Stafford was
+more amused at the absurdity of this imputation, or stung by the cool
+indifference with which she uttered it; nor was it easy to know how the
+struggle, within him would terminate, when she went on: "It does appear
+so silly to see a pair of elderly gentlemen raking up a difference out
+of an amourette of the past century. You are very fortunate to have so
+quiet a spot to exhibit in!"
+
+"I am sorry to destroy an illusion so very full of amusement, Lady
+Hester; but I owe it to all parties to say that your pleasant fancy has
+not even the shadow of a color. I never even saw Mrs. Dalton; never have
+yet met her husband. The event to which I was about to allude, when you
+interrupted me, related to a bequest--"
+
+"Oh, I know the whole business, now! It was at your suit that dreadful
+mortgage was foreclosed, and these dear people were driven away from
+their ancient seat of Mount Dalton. I 'm sure I 've heard the story at
+least ten times over, but never suspected that your name was mixed up
+with it. I do assure you, Sir Stafford, that they have never dropped the
+most distant hint of you in connection with that sad episode."
+
+"They have been but just, Lady Hester," said he, gravely. "I never did
+hold a mortgage over this property; still less exercised the severe
+right you speak of. But it is quite needless to pursue a narrative that
+taxes your patience so severely; enough to say, that through Prichard's
+mediation I have endeavored to persuade Mr. Dalton that I was
+the trustee, under a will, of a small annuity on his life. He has
+peremptorily refused to accept it, although, as I am informed, living in
+circumstances of great poverty."
+
+"Poor they must be, certainly. The house is wretchedly furnished, and
+the girls wear such clothes as I never saw before; not that they are
+even the worn and faded finery of better days, but actually the coarse
+stuffs such as the peasants wear!"
+
+"So I have heard."
+
+"Not even an edging of cheap lace round their collars; not a bow of
+ribbon; not an ornament of the humblest kind about them."
+
+"And both handsome, I am told?"
+
+"The younger, beautiful! the deepest blue eyes in the world, with long
+fringed lashes, and the most perfect mouth you can imagine. The elder
+very pretty, too, but sad-looking, for she has a fearful lameness, poor
+thing! They say it came from a fall off a horse, but I suspect it must
+have begun in infancy; one of those dreadful things they call 'spine.'
+Like all persons in her condition, she is monstrously clever; carves the
+most beautiful little groups in boxwood, and models in clay and plaster.
+She is a dear, mild, gentle thing; but I suspect with all that infirmity
+of temper that comes of long illness at least, she is seldom in high
+spirits like her sister. Kate, the younger girl, is my favorite; a fine,
+generous, warm-hearted creature, full of life and animation, and so fond
+of me already."
+
+If Sir Stafford did not smile at the undue emphasis laid upon the last
+few words, it was not that he had not read their full significance.
+
+"And Mr. Dalton himself, what is he like?"
+
+"Like nothing I ever met before; the oddest mixture of right sentiments
+and wrong inferences; of benevolence, cruelty, roughness, gentleness;
+the most refined consideration, and the most utter disregard for other
+people and their feelings, that ever existed. You never can guess what
+will be his sentiments at any moment, or on any subject, except on the
+question of family, when his pride almost savors of insanity. I believe,
+in his own country, he would be nothing strange nor singular; but out of
+it, he is a figure unsuited to any landscape."
+
+"It is hard to say how much of this peculiarity may have come of adverse
+fortune," said Sir Stafford, thoughtfully.
+
+"I 'm certain he was always the same; at least, it would be impossible
+to imagine him anything different. But I have not come to speak of him,
+but of his daughter Kate, in whom I am deeply interested. You must know,
+Sir Stafford, that I have formed a little plan, for which I want your
+aid and concurrence. It is to take this dear girl along with us to
+Italy."
+
+"Take her to Italy! In what position, Lady Hester? You surely never
+intended any menial station?"
+
+"Of course not; a kind of humble friend what they call a 'companion' in
+the newspapers to have always with one. She is exactly the creature
+to dissipate low spirits and banish ennui, and, with the advantages of
+training and teaching, will become a most attractive girl. As it is, she
+has not been quite neglected. Her French accent is very pure; German, I
+conclude, she talks fluently, she plays prettily, at least, as well as
+one can judge on that vile tinkling old harpsichord, whose legs dance
+every time it is touched, and sings very pleasingly those little German
+ballads that are now getting into fashion. In fact, it is the tone
+of society that mannerism of the world she is deficient in more than
+anything else."
+
+"She certainly could not study in a better school than yours, Lady
+Hester; but I see some very great objections to the whole scheme, and
+without alluding to such as relate to ourselves, but simply those that
+regard the young lady herself. Would it be a kindness to withdraw her
+from the sphere wherein she is happy and contented, to mingle for a
+season or so in another and very different rank, contracting new habits
+of thought, new ideas, new associations, learning each day to look down
+upon that humble lot to which she must eventually return?"
+
+"She need not return to it. She is certain to marry, and marry well. A
+girl with so many attractions as she will possess may aspire to a very
+high match indeed!"
+
+"This is too hazardous a game of life to please my fancy," said Sir
+Stafford, dubiously. "We ought to look every contingency in the face in
+such a matter as this."
+
+"I have given the subject the very deepest consideration," replied Lady
+Hester, authoritatively. "I have turned the question over and over in
+my mind, and have not seen a single difficulty for which there is not an
+easy remedy."
+
+"Sydney certainly ought to be consulted."
+
+"I have done so already. She is charmed with the project. She sees,
+perhaps, how few companionable qualities she herself possesses, and
+anticipates that Miss Dalton will supply that place towards me that she
+is too indolent and too indifferent to fill."
+
+"How would the family receive such a proposition? They seem to be very
+proud. Is it likely that they would listen to a project of this nature?"
+
+"There lies the only difficulty; nor need it be an insuperable one, if
+we manage cleverly. The affair will require delicate treatment, because
+if we merely invite her to accompany us, they will naturally enough
+decline an invitation, to comply with which would involve a costly
+outlay in dress and ornament, quite impossible in their circumstances.
+This must be a matter of diplomacy, of which the first step is, however,
+already taken."
+
+"The first step! How do you mean?"
+
+"Simply, that I have already, but in the deepest confidence, hinted the
+possibility of the project to Kate Dalton, and she is wild with delight
+at the bare thought of it. The dear child! with what rapture she heard
+me speak of the balls, and fetes, and theatres of the great world!
+of the thousand fascinations society has in store for all who have a
+rightful claim to its homage, the tribute rendered to beauty, greater
+than that conceded to rank or genius itself! I told her of all these,
+and I showed her my diamonds!"
+
+Sir Stafford made, involuntarily, a slight gesture with his hand, as
+though to say, "This last was the coup de grace."
+
+"So far, then, as Kate is concerned, she will be a willing ally; nor do
+I anticipate any opposition from her quiet, submissive sister, who seems
+to dote upon her. The papa, indeed, is like to prove refractory; but
+this must be our business to overcome."
+
+Lady Hester, who at the opening of the interview had spoken with all the
+listlessness of ennui, had gradually worked herself up to a species
+of ardor that made her words flow rapidly, a sign well known to Sir
+Stafford that her mind was bent upon an object that would not admit
+of gainsay. Some experience had taught him the impolicy of absolute
+resistance, and trained him to a tactic of waiting and watching for
+eventualities, which, whether the campaign be civil, military, or
+conjugal, is not without a certain degree of merit. In the present case
+there were several escape-valves. The Daltons were three in number,
+and should be unanimous. All the difficulties of the plan should be
+arranged, not alone to their perfect satisfaction, but without a wound
+to their delicacy. Grounsell was certain to be a determined opponent to
+the measure, and would, of course, be consulted upon it. And, lastly,
+if everything worked well and favorably, Lady Hester herself was by
+no means certain to wish for it the day after she had conquered all
+opposition.
+
+These, and many similar reasons, showed Sir Stafford that he might
+safely concede a concurrence that need never become practical, and
+making a merit of his necessity, he affected to yield to arguments that
+had no value in his eyes.
+
+"How do you propose to open the campaign, Hester?" asked he, after a
+pause.
+
+"I have arranged it all," said she, with animation. "We must visit the
+Daltons together, or better still you shall go alone. No, no; a letter
+will be the right thing, a very carefully written letter, that shall
+refute by anticipation every possible objection to the plan, and show
+the Daltons the enormous advantages they must derive from it."
+
+"As, for instance?" said Sir Stafford, with apparent anxiety to be
+instructed.
+
+"Enormous they certainly will be!" exclaimed she. "First of all, Kate,
+as I have said, is certain to marry well, and will be thus in a position
+to benefit the others, who, poor things, can do nothing for themselves."
+
+"Very true, my dear, very true. You see all these things far more
+rapidly and more clearly than I do."
+
+"I have thought so long and so much about it, I suppose there are few
+contingencies of the case have escaped me; and now that I learn how you
+once knew and were attached to the poor girl's mother--"
+
+"I am sorry to rob you of so harmless an illusion," interrupted he,
+smiling; "but I have already said I never saw her."
+
+"Oh, you did say so! I forget all about it. Well, there was something or
+other that brought the families in relation, no matter what, and it must
+be a great satisfaction to you to see the breach restored, and through
+my intervention, too; for I must needs say, Sir Stafford, there are
+many women who would entertain a silly jealousy respecting one who once
+occupied the first place in their husband's esteem."
+
+"Must I once more assure you that this whole assumption is groundless;
+that I never--"
+
+"Quite enough; more than I ask for, more than I have any right to ask
+for," broke she in. "If you did not interrupt me, and pardon me if I
+say that this habit of yours is calculated to produce innumerable
+misconceptions, I say that, if I had not been interrupted, I would have
+told you that I regard such jealousies as most mean and unworthy. We
+cannot be the arbiters of our affections any more than of our
+fortunes; and if in early life we may have formed attachments imprudent
+attachments." Here her Ladyship, who had unwittingly glided from the
+consideration of Sir Stafford's case to that of her own, became confused
+and flurried, her cheek flushing and her chest heaving. She looked
+overwhelmed with embarrassment, and it was only after a long struggle to
+regain the lost clew to her discourse she could falteringly say, "Don't
+you agree with me? I 'm sure you agree with me."
+
+"I 'm certain I should if I only understood you aright," said he,
+good-naturedly, and by his voice and look at once reassuring her.
+
+"Well, so far, all is settled," said she, rising from her chair. "And
+now for this letter; I conclude the sooner it be done the better. When
+may we hope to get away from this dreary place?"
+
+"Grounsell tells me, by Friday or Saturday next I shall be able for the
+journey."
+
+"If it had not been to provoke me, I 'm certain he would have pronounced
+you quite well ten days ago."
+
+"You forget, Hester, my own sensations not to say sufferings could
+scarcely deceive me."
+
+"On the contrary, Dr. Clarus assured me there is nothing in the world so
+very deceptive; that pain is only referred to the diseased part by the
+brain, and has no existence whatever, and that there is no such thing as
+pain at all. He explained it perfectly, and I understood it all at the
+time. He is so clever, Dr. Clarus, and gives people such insight into
+the nature of their malady, that it really becomes quite interesting to
+be ill under his care. I remember when William, the footman, broke his
+arm, Clarus used to see him every day; and to show that no union, as it
+is called, could take place so long as motion continued, he would gently
+grate the fractured ends of the bone together."
+
+"And was William convinced of the no-pain doctrine?" cried Sir Stafford,
+his cheek flashing with momentary anger.
+
+"The ignorant creature actually screamed out every time he was touched;
+but Clarus said it would take at least two centuries to conquer the
+prejudices of the common people."
+
+"Not improbable, either!" said Sir Stafford.
+
+"Dear me, how very late it is," cried she, suddenly; "and we dine at
+six!" And with a graceful motion of the hand, she said, "By-by!" and
+left the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI. THE "SAAL" OF THE "RUSSIE."
+
+HAS the observant reader ever remarked a couple of persons parading the
+deck of a ship at sea, walking step for step through half a day, turning
+with the same short jerk, to resume the same short path, and yet
+never interchanging a word, the rhythm of the footfall the only tie of
+companionship between them? They halt occasionally, too, to look over
+the bulwarks at some white sail far away, or some cloud-bank rising from
+the horizon; mayhap they linger to watch the rolling porpoises as they
+pass, or the swift nautilus as he glides along; but yet never a sound
+nor token of mutual intelligence escapes them. It is enough that they
+live surrounded by the same influences, breathe the same air, and step
+in the same time; they have their separate thoughts, wide, perhaps, as
+the poles asunder, and yet by some strange magnetism they feel there is
+a kind of sociality in their speechless intercourse.
+
+From some such cause, perhaps, it was that Colonel Haggerstone and Jekyl
+took their accustomed walk in the dreary dining-room of the "Hotel de
+Russie." The evening was cold and cheerless, as on that when first we
+met them there, a drifting rain, mingled with sleet, beat against the
+windows, and the wind, in mournful cadences, sighed along the dreary and
+deserted corridors. It was a comfortless scene within doors and without.
+A chance glance through the window, an occasional halt to listen when
+the thunder rolled louder and nearer, showed that, to a certain extent,
+the same emotions were common to each; but nothing else betrayed any
+community of sentiment between them, as they paced the room from end to
+end.
+
+"English people come abroad for climate!" said Haggerstone, as he
+buttoned his collar tightly around his neck, and pressed his hat more
+firmly on his head. "But who ever saw the like of this in England?"
+
+"In England you have weather, but no climate!" said Jekyl, with one
+of his little smiles of self-approval; for he caressed himself when he
+uttered a mot, and seemed to feel no slight access of self-satisfaction.
+
+"It's not the worst thing we have there, sir, I promise you," rejoined
+Haggerstone, authoritatively.
+
+"Our coughs and rheumatics are, indeed, sore drawbacks upon patriotism."
+
+"I do not speak of them, sir; I allude to our insolent, overbearing
+aristocracy, who, sprung from the people as they are, recruited from the
+ranks of trade or law, look down upon the really ancient blood of the
+land, the untitled nobility. Who are they, sir, that treat us thus? The
+fortunate speculator, who has amassed a million; the Attorney-General,
+who has risen to a Chief-Justiceship; men without ancestry, without
+landed influence; a lucky banker, perhaps, like our friend upstairs,
+may stand in the 'Gazette' to-morrow or next day as Baron or Viscount,
+without one single requirement of the station, save his money."
+
+"I confess, if I have a weakness, it is for lords," said Jekyl,
+simperingly. "I suppose I must have caught it very early in life, for it
+clings to me like an instinct."
+
+"I feel happy to avow that I have none, sir. Six centuries of gentry
+blood suffice for all my ambitions; but I boil over when I see the
+overweening presumption of these new people."
+
+"After all, new people, like a new watch, a new coat, and a new
+carriage, have the best chance of lasting. Old and worn out are very
+nearly convertible terms."
+
+"These are sentiments, sir, which would, doubtless, do you excellent
+service with the family upstairs, but are quite thrown away upon such a
+mere country gentleman as myself."
+
+Jekyl smiled, and drew up his cravat, with his habitual simpering air,
+but said nothing.
+
+"Do you purpose remaining much longer here?" asked Haggerstone,
+abruptly.
+
+"A few days, at most."
+
+"Do you turn north or south?"
+
+"I fancy I shall winter in Italy."
+
+"The Onslows, I believe, are bound for Rome?"
+
+"Can't say," was the short reply.
+
+"Just the sort of people for Italy. The fashionables of what the Chinese
+call 'second chop' go down admirably at Rome or Naples."
+
+"Very pleasant places they are, too," said Jekyl, with a smile. "The
+climate permits everything, even dubious intimacies."
+
+Haggerstone gave a short "Ha!" at the heresy of this speech, but made no
+other comment on it.
+
+"They say that Miss Onslow will have about a hundred thousand pounds?"
+said Haggerstone, with an air of inquiry.
+
+"What a deal of maccaroni and parmesan that sum would buy!"
+
+"Would you have her marry an Italian, sir?"
+
+"Perhaps not, if she were to consult me on the matter," said Jekyl,
+blandly; "but as this is, to say the least, not very probable, I may own
+that I like the mixed marriages well enough."
+
+"They make miserable menages, sir," broke in Haggerstone.
+
+"But excessively agreeable houses to visit at."
+
+"The Onslows are scarcely the people to succeed in that way," rejoined
+Haggerstone, whose thoughts seemed to revolve round this family without
+any power to wander from the theme. "Mere money, nothing but money to
+guide them."
+
+"Not a bad pilot, either, as times go."
+
+Haggerstone uttered another short, "Ha!" as though to enter a protest
+against the sentiment without the trouble of a refutation. He had
+utterly failed in all his efforts to draw Jekyl into a discussion of
+the banker's family, or even obtain from that excessively cautious young
+gentleman the slightest approach to an opinion about them; and yet it
+was exactly in search of this opinion that he had come down to take his
+walk that evening. It was in the hope that Jekyl might afford him some
+clew to these people's thoughts, or habits, or their intentions for the
+coming winter, that he had promenaded for the last hour and a half.
+"If he know anything of them," thought Haggerstone, "he will be but too
+proud to show it, and display the intimacy to its fullest extent!"
+
+It was, then, to his utter discomfiture, he learned that Jekyl had
+scarcely spoken to Lady Hester, and never even seen Sir Stafford or Miss
+Onslow. It was, then, pure invention of the waiter to say that they were
+acquainted. "Jekyl has done nothing," muttered he to himself, "and I
+suppose I need not throw away a dinner upon him to tell it."
+
+Such were his reasonings; ana long did he balance in his own mind
+whether it were worth while to risk a bottle of Burgundy in such a
+cause; for often does it happen that the fluid thrown down the pump is
+utterly wasted, and that it is vain to moisten the sucker, if the well
+beneath be exhausted.
+
+To be, or not to be? was then the eventful point he deliberated with
+himself. Haggerstone never threw away a dinner in his life. He was not
+one of those vulgarly minded folk who ask you, in a parenthesis, to come
+in to "manger la soupe," as they say, without more preparation than the
+spreading of your napkin. No; he knew all the importance of a
+dinner, and, be it acknowledged, how to give it also, and could have
+distinguished perfectly between the fare to set before an "habitual
+diner out," and that suitable to some newly arrived Englishman abroad:
+he could have measured his guest to a truffle! It was his boast that he
+never gave a pheasant when a poulet would have sufficed, nor wasted his
+"Chablis" on the man who would have been contented with "Barsac."
+
+The difficulty was not, then, how to have treated Jekyl, but whether to
+treat him at all. Indeed, the little dinner itself had been all planned
+and arranged that morning; and the "trout" from the "Murg," and the
+grouse from Eberstein, had been "pricked off," in the bill of fare, for
+"No. 24," as he was unceremoniously designated, with a special order
+about the dish of whole truffles with butter, in the fair intention of
+inviting Mr. Albert Jekyl to partake of them.
+
+If a lady reveals some latent desire of conquest in the coquetry of her
+costume and the more than ordinary care of her appearance, so your
+male friend may be suspected of a design upon your confidence or your
+liberality by the studious propriety of his petit diner. Never fall into
+the vulgar error that such things are mere accident. As well ascribe
+to chance the rotations of the seasons, or the motions of the heavenly
+bodies. Your printaniere in January, your epigramme d'agneau with
+asparagus at Christmas, show a solicitude to please to the full as
+ardent, and not a whit less sincere, than the soft glances that have
+just set your heart a-beating from the recesses of yonder opera-box.
+
+"Will you eat your cutlet with me to-day, Mr. Jekyl?" said Haggerstone,
+after a pause, in which he had weighed long and well all the pros and
+cons of the invitation.
+
+"Thanks, but I dine with the Onslows!" lisped out Jekyl, with a languid
+indifference, that however did not prevent his remarking the almost
+incredulous amazement in the colonel's face; "and I perceive," added he,
+"that it 's time to dress."
+
+Haggerstone looked after him as he left the room; and then ringing the
+bell violently, gave orders to his servant to "pack up," for he would
+leave Baden next morning.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII. A FAMILY DISCUSSION.
+
+SOMETHING more than a week after the scenes we have just related had
+occurred, the Daltons were seated round the fire, beside which, in the
+place of honor, in an old armchair, propped by many a cushion, reclined
+Hans Roeckle. A small lamp of three burners such as the peasants use
+stood upon the table, of which only one was lighted, and threw its
+fitful gleam over the board, covered by the materials of a most humble
+meal. Even this was untasted; and it was easy to mark in the downcast
+and depressed countenances of the group that some deep care was weighing
+upon them.
+
+Dalton himself, with folded arms, sat straight opposite the fire, his
+heavy brows closely knit, and his eyes staring fixedly at the blaze,
+as if expecting some revelation of the future from it; an open letter,
+which seemed to have dropped from his hand, was lying at his feet.
+Nelly, with bent-down head, was occupied in arranging the little
+tools and implements she was accustomed to use in carving; but in the
+tremulous motion of her fingers, and the short, quick heaving of her
+chest, might be read the signs of a struggle that cost heavily to
+subdue.
+
+Half-concealed beneath the projection of the fireplace sat Kate Dalton
+she was sewing. Although to all seeming intent upon her work, more than
+once did her fingers drop the needle to wipe the gushing tears from her
+eyes, while at intervals a short sob would burst forth, and break the
+stillness around.
+
+As for Hans, he seemed lost in a dreamy revery, from which he rallied
+at times to smile pleasantly at a little wooden figure the same which
+occasioned his disaster placed beside him.
+
+There was an air of sadness over everything; and even the old spaniel,
+Joan, as she retreated from the heat of the fire, crept with stealthy
+step beneath the table, as if respecting the mournful stillness of the
+scene. How different the picture from what that humble chamber had so
+often presented! What a contrast to those happy evenings, when, as the
+girls worked, Hans would read aloud some of those strange mysteries of
+Jean Paul, or the wild and fanciful imaginings of Chamisso, while
+old Dalton would lay down his pipe and break in upon his memories
+of Ireland, to ask at what they were laughing, and Frank look up
+distractedly from his old chronicles of German war to join in the mirth!
+How, at such moments, Hans would listen to the interpretation, and
+with what greedy ears follow the versions the girls would give of some
+favorite passage, as if dreading lest its force should be weakened
+or its beauty marred by transmission! And then those outbreaks of
+admiration that would simultaneously gush forth at some sentiment of
+high and glorious meaning, some godlike gleam of bright intelligence,
+which, though clothed in the language of a foreign land, spoke home to
+their hearts with the force that truth alone can speak!
+
+Yes, they were, indeed, happy evenings! when around their humble hearth
+came thronging the groups of many a poet's fancy, bright pictures of
+many a glorious scene, emotions of heart that seemed to beat in
+unison with their own. They felt no longer the poverty of their humble
+condition, they had no memory for the little straits and trials of the
+bygone day, as they trod with Tieck the alley beneath the lindens
+of some rural village, or sat with Auerbach beneath the porch of the
+Vorsteher's dwelling. The dull realities of life faded before the vivid
+conceptions of fiction, and they imbibed lessons of patient submission
+and trustfulness from those brothers and sisters who are poets'
+children.
+
+And yet what no darkness of adversity could rob them of the first gleam
+of what, to worldly minds at least, would seem better fortune, had
+already despoiled them. Like the traveller in the fable, who had grasped
+his cloak the faster through the storm, but who threw it away when the
+hot, rays scorched him, they could brave the hurricane, but not face the
+sunshine.
+
+The little wooden clock behind the door struck nine, and Dalton started
+up suddenly.
+
+"What did it strike, girls?" asked he, quickly.
+
+"Nine, papa," replied Kate, in a low voice.
+
+"At what hour was he to come for the answer?"
+
+"At ten," said she, still lower.
+
+"Well, you 'd better write it at once," said he, with a peevishness very
+different from his ordinary manner. "They've remained here already four
+days isn't it four days she says? to give us time to make up our minds;
+we cannot detain them any longer."
+
+"Lady Hester has shown every consideration for our difficulty," said
+Kate. "We cannot be too grateful for her kindness."
+
+"Tell her so," said he, bitterly. "I suppose women know when to believe
+each other."
+
+"And what reply am I to make, sir?" said she, calmly, as having put
+aside her work, she took her place at the writing-table.
+
+"Faith, I don't care," said he, doggedly. "Nor is it much matter
+what opinion I give. I am nobody now; I have no right to decide upon
+anything."
+
+"The right and duty are both yours, papa."
+
+"Duty! So I'm to be taught my duty as well as the rest!" said he,
+passionately. "Don't you think there are some others might remember that
+they have duties also?"
+
+"Would that I could fulfil mine as my heart dictates them!" said Ellen;
+and her lip trembled as she spoke the words.
+
+"Faith! I scarce know what 's my duty, with all the drilling and
+dictating I get," muttered he, sulkily. "But this I know, there 's no
+will left me I dare not budge this side or that without leave."
+
+"Dearest papa, be just to yourself, if not to me."
+
+"Isn't it truth I'm saying?" continued he, his anger rising with every
+word he spoke. "One day, I'm forbid to ask my friends home with me
+to dinner. Another, I 'm told I ought n't to go dine with them. I 'm
+tutored and lectured at every hand's turn. Never a thought crosses me,
+but it 's sure to be wrong. You din into my ears, how happy it is to be
+poor when one 's contented."
+
+"The lesson was yours, dear papa," said Nelly, smiling. "Don't disavow
+your own teaching."
+
+"Well, the more fool me. I know better now. But what's the use of it?
+When the prospect of a little ease and comfort was offered to me, you
+persuaded me to refuse it. Ay, that you did! You began with the old
+story about our happy hearth and contentment; and where is it now?"
+
+A sob, so low as to be scarcely heard, broke from Nelly, and she pressed
+her hand to her heart with a convulsive force.
+
+"Can you deny it? You made me reject the only piece of kindness ever was
+shown me in a life long. There was the opportunity of spending the rest
+of my days in peace, and you wouldn't let me take it. And the fool I was
+to listen to you!"
+
+"Oh, papa, how you wrong her!" cried Kate, as, in a torrent of tears,
+she bent over his chair. "Dearest Nelly has no thought but for us. Her
+whole heart is our own."
+
+"If you could but see it!" cried Nelly, with a thick utterance.
+
+"'T is a droll way of showing affection, then," said Dal ton, "to keep
+me a beggar, and you no better than a servant-maid. It's little matter
+about me, I know. I'm old, and worn out, a reduced Irish gentleman, with
+nothing but his good blood remaining to him. But you, Kate, that are
+young and handsome, ay, faith! a deal sight better-looking than my Lady
+herself, it's a little hard that you are to be denied what might be your
+whole fortune in life."
+
+"You surely would not stake all her happiness on the venture, papa?"
+said Nelly, mildly.
+
+"Happiness!" said he, scornfully; "what do you call happiness? Is it
+dragging out life in poverty like this, with the proudest friend in our
+list an old toy-maker?"
+
+"Poor Hanserl!" murmured Nelly, in a low voice; but soft as were the
+accents, the dwarf heard them, and nodded his head twice, as though to
+thank her for a recognition of whose import he knew nothing.
+
+"Just so! You have pity enough for strangers, but none for your own
+people," said Dalton, as he arose and paced the room, the very act of
+motion serving to increase his anger. "He was never used to better; he's
+just what he always was. But think of me! think of the expectations I
+was reared to, the place I used to hold, and see me now!"
+
+"Dearest, best papa, do not say those bitter words," cried Kate,
+passionately. "Our own dear Nelly loves us truly. What has her life been
+but self-denial?"
+
+"And have I not had my share of self-denial?" said he, abruptly. "Is
+there left a single one of the comforts I was always accustomed to? 'T
+is sick I am of hearing about submission, and patience, and resignation,
+and the like, and that we never were so happy as now. Faith! I tell you,
+I 'd rather have one day at Mount Dalton, as it used to be long ago,
+than I 'd have twenty years of the life I spend here."
+
+"No, papa, no," said Nelly, winding her arm around his waist, "you'd
+rather sit at the window yonder, and listen to a song from Kate, one of
+your own favorites, or take a stroll with us after sunset of a summer's
+evening, and talk of Frank, than go back to all the gayety of that wild
+life you speak of."
+
+"Who says so?" asked he, roughly.
+
+"You yourself. Nay, don't deny it," said she, smiling.
+
+"If I did I was wrong, then," rejoined he, pushing her rudely away. "It
+was because I believed my children were affectionate and fond, and
+that whatever I set my heart on they 'd be sure to wish just as much as
+myself."
+
+"And when has that time ceased to be?" said she, calmly.
+
+"What! when has it ceased to be?" said he, sharply. "Is it you that asks
+that question, you that made me refuse the legacy?"
+
+"Nay, papa, be just," interrupted she, mildly. "The merit of that
+refusal was all your own. I did but explain to you the circumstances
+under which this gift it was no less was offered, and your own right
+feeling dictated the reply."
+
+Dalton was silent, a struggling sense of pride in his imputed dignity of
+behavior warring with the desire of fault-finding.
+
+"Maybe I did!" said he, at last, self-esteem gaining the mastery. "Maybe
+I saw my own reasons for what I was going to do. A Daltou is not the man
+to mistake what 's due to his name and family; but this is a different
+case. Here 's an invitation, as elegant a piece of politeness as I
+have seen, from one our own equal in every respect; she calls herself a
+connection too, we won't say much about that, for we never reckoned the
+English relations anything, asking my daughter to join them in their
+visit to Italy. When are we to see the like of that again? Is it every
+day that some rich family will make us the same offer? It's not to cost
+us a sixpence; read the letter, and you 'll see how nicely it 's hinted
+that her Ladyship takes everything upon herself. Well, if any one
+objected it might be myself; 'tis on me will fall the heaviest part
+of the blow. It was only the other day Frank left me; now I 'm to lose
+Kate, not but I know very well Nelly will do her best."
+
+Slight as was the praise, she kissed his hand passionately for it; and
+it was some seconds ere he could proceed.
+
+"Yes, I 'm sure you 'll do all you can; but what is it after all? Won't
+I miss the songs she sings for me; won't I miss her laughing voice and
+her sprightly step?"
+
+"And why should you encounter such privations, papa?" broke Nelly in.
+"These are, as you justly say, the greatest sources of your happiness.
+Why separate from them? Why rob this humble chamber of its fairest
+ornament? Why darken our hearth by an absence for which nothing can
+requite us?"
+
+"I 'll tell you why, then," said he, and a sparkling gleam of cunning
+lit up his eye, as the casuistry crossed his mind. "Just because I
+can deny myself anything for my children's sake. 'T is for them I am
+thinking always. Give old Peter Dalton his due, and nobody can call him
+selfish, not the worst enemy he had! Let me feel that my children are
+benefited, and you may leave me to trudge along the weary path before
+me."
+
+"Then there only remains to see if this promise of benefit be real,"
+said Nelly.
+
+"And why wouldn't it? Doesn't everybody know that travelling and seeing
+foreign parts is equal to any education? How many things haven't I seen
+myself since I came abroad, that I never dreamed about before I left
+home! Look at the way they dress the peas with sugar in them. See how
+they shoe a horse with a leg tied up to a post, as if they were going
+to cut it off. Mind the droll fashion they have of fastening a piece of
+timber to the hind wheel of a coach, by way of a drag! There 's no end
+to their contrivances."
+
+"Let us forget every consideration but one," said Nelly, earnestly.
+"What are the dangers that may beset Kate, in a career of such
+difficulty, when, without an adviser, miles away from us all, she may
+need counsel or comfort. Think of her in sickness or in sorrow, or,
+worse than both, under temptation. Picture to yourself how dearly bought
+would be every charm of that refinement you covet for her, at the price
+of a heart weakened in its attachment to home, bereft of the simple
+faith that there was no disgrace in poverty. Think, above all," cried
+she and for the first time her lips trembled, and her eyes swam "think,
+above all, we cannot give her up forever; and yet how is she to come
+back again to these humble fortunes, and the daily toil that she will
+then regard with shame and disgust? I ask not how differently shall we
+appear in her eyes, for I know that, however changed in her habits,
+how wide soever be the range of thought knowledge may have imparted,
+her fond, true heart will still be all our own; but can you risk her
+fortunes on an ocean like this; can you peril all her future for so
+little?"
+
+"To hear you talk, Nelty, one might think she was going to Jerusalem or
+Australia; sure, after all, it's only a few days away from us she 'll
+be; and as for the dangers, devil a one of them I see. Peter Dalton's
+daughter is not likely to be ill-treated anywhere. I 'e were always a
+'good warrant' for taking care of our own; and, to make short of it,
+I wish it, and Kate herself wishes it, and I don't see why our hopes
+should not be as strong as your fears.'
+
+"You remember, too, papa, that Dr. Grounsell agreed with me, and spoke
+even more strongly than I did against the scheme?"
+
+"And did n't I pay him off for his interference? Did n't I give him a
+bit of my mind about it, and tell him that, because a man was employed
+as a doctor in a family, he ought not to presume to advise them on their
+own affairs? Faith, I don't think he'll trouble another patient with his
+counsel."
+
+"We must not forget, sir, that if his counsel came unasked, his skill
+was unrequited; both came from a nature that wished us well."
+
+"The advice and the physic were about the same value both made me sick;
+and so you 're like to do if you worry me any longer. I tell you now, my
+mind 's made up, and go she shall!"
+
+"Oh, papa, not if dear Nelly thinks--"
+
+"What's that to me don't I know more of the world than she does? Am I
+come to this time of life to be taught by a slip of a girl that never
+was ten miles out of her home? Sit down here now, and write the answer."
+
+There was a stern determination in the way these last words were uttered
+that told Nelly how fruitless would be all further opposition. She had
+long since remarked, besides, how her father's temper reacted upon his
+health, and how invariably any prolonged excitement terminated in
+an attack of gout. Increasing age gave to these accesses of malady
+a character of danger, which she already began to remark with deep
+anxiety. Now she saw that immediate compliance with his wishes was the
+only alternative left.
+
+She seated herself at the table, and prepared to write. For some seconds
+the disturbance of her thoughts, the mingled crowd of sensations that
+filled her mind, prevented all power of calm consideration; but the
+struggle was soon over, and she wrote on rapidly.
+
+So silent was the chamber, so hushed was all within it, that the
+scratching noise of the pen alone broke the stillness. Speedily glided
+her hand across the paper, on which two heavy tears had already fallen,
+burning drops of sorrow that gushed from a fevered brain! A whole world
+of disaster, a terrible catalogue of ill, revealed itself before her;
+but she wrote on. She felt that she was to put in motion the series of
+events whose onward course she never could control, as though she was
+to push over a precipice the rock that in its downward rush would carry
+ruin and desolation along with it; but she wrote on.
+
+At last she ceased, and all was still; not a sound was heard in the
+little room, and Nelly leaned her head down upon the table and wept.
+
+But while she wept she prayed, prayed that if the season of trouble
+her thoughts foreshadowed should be inevitable, and that if the cup of
+sorrow must, indeed, be drained, the strength might be sent them for
+the effort. It might have been that her mind exaggerated the perils of
+separation, and the dangers that would beset one of Kate's temper and
+disposition. Her own bereavement might have impressed her with the
+misery that follows an unhappy attachment; and her reflective nature,
+shadowed by an early sorrow, might have colored too darkly a future of
+such uncertainty. But a deep foreboding, like a heavy weight, lay upon
+her heart, and she was powerless to resist it.
+
+These instincts of our nature are not to be undervalued, nor confounded
+with the weak and groundless terrors of the frivolous. The closing
+petals of the flower as the storm draws nigh, the wild cry of the
+sea-bird as the squall is gathering, the nestling of the sheep within
+the fold while yet the hurricane has not broke, are signs that, to the
+observant instincts, peril comes not unannounced.
+
+"Shall I read it, papa?" said she, as she raised her head, and turned
+towards him a look of calm and beaming affection.
+
+"You need n't," said he, roughly. "Of course, it 's full of all the
+elegant phrases women like to cheat each other with. You said she will
+go; that's enough."
+
+Nelly tried to speak, but the words would not come, and she merely
+nodded an acquiescence.
+
+"And, of course, too, you told her Ladyship that if it wasn't to a near
+relation of the family one that had a kind of right, as I may say, to
+ask her that I 'd never have given my consent. Neither would I!"
+
+"I said that you could give no higher proof of your confidence in Lady
+Hester's goodness and worth, than in committing to her charge all that
+we hold so dear. I spoke of our gratitude" her voice faltered here, and
+she hesitated a second or so; our gratitude! strange word to express the
+feeling with which we part from what we cling to so fondly! "and I asked
+of her to be the mother of her who had none!"
+
+"Oh, Nelly, I cannot go I cannot leave you!" burst out Kate, as she
+knelt down, and buried her head in her sister's lap. "I feel already how
+weak and how unable I am to live among strangers, away from you and dear
+papa. I have need of you both!"
+
+"May I never leave this spot if you're not enough to drive me mad!"
+exclaimed Dalton. "You cried two nights and a day because there was
+opposition to your going. You fretted till your eyes were red, and your
+cheeks all furrowed with tears; and now that you get leave to go
+now that I consent to to to sacrifice ay, to sacrifice my domestic
+enjoyments to your benefit you turn short round and say you won't go!"
+
+"Nay, nay, papa," said Nelly, mildly; "Kate but owns with what fears
+she would consent to leave us, and in this shows a more fitting mind to
+brave what may come, than if she went forth with a heart brimful of its
+bright anticipations, and only occupied with a future of splendor and
+enjoyment."
+
+"I ask you again, is it into the backwoods of Newfoundland is it into
+the deserts of Arabia she is going?" said Dalton, ironically.
+
+"The country before her has perils to the full as great, if not greater
+than either," rejoined Nelly, lowly.
+
+"There's a ring at the bell," said Dalton, perhaps not sorry to cut
+short a discussion in which his own doubts and fears were often at
+variance with his words; for while opposing Nelly with all his might,
+he was frequently forced to coincide secretly with that he so stoutly
+resisted. Vanity alone rose above every other motive, and even hardened
+his heart against separation and absence from his favorite child, vanity
+to think that his daughter would be the admired beauty in the salons of
+the great and highly born; that she would be daily moving in a rank the
+most exalted; that his dear Kate would be the attraction of courts,
+the centre of adulation wherever she went. So blinded was he by false
+reasoning, that he actually fancied himself a martyr to his daughter's
+future advancement, and that this inveterate egotism was a high and holy
+self-denial! "My worst enemy never called me selfish," was the balm that
+he ever laid on his chafed spirit, and always with success. It would,
+however, have been rather the part of friend, than of enemy, to have
+whispered that selfishness was the very bane and poison of his nature.
+It was his impulse in all the wasteful extravagance of his early life;
+it was his motive in all the struggles of his adversity. To sustain
+a mock rank, to affect a mock position, to uphold a mock standard of
+gentility, he was willing to submit to a thousand privations of his
+children and himself; and to gratify a foolish notion of family pride,
+he was ready to endure anything, even to separation from all he held
+dearest.
+
+"Lady Hester's courier has come for the answer to her note, papa," said
+Nelly, twice over, before Dalton heard her, for he was deep sunk in his
+own musings.
+
+"Let him come in and have a glass of wine," said Dalton. "I 'd like to
+ask him a few questions about these people."
+
+"Oh, papa!" whispered Nelly, in a tone at once so reproachful, that the
+old man colored and looked away.
+
+"I meant about what time they were to start on the journey," said he,
+confusedly.
+
+"Lady Hester told us they should leave this to-morrow, sir."
+
+"Short notice for us. How is Kate to have all her clothes packed,
+and everything arranged? I don't think that is treating us with much
+respect, Nelly."
+
+"They have waited four days for our decision, papa remember that."
+
+"Ay, to be sure. I was forgetting that; and she came every day to press
+the matter more and more; and there was no end to the note-writing
+besides. I must say that nothing could beat their politeness. It was a
+mighty nice attention, the old man coming himself to call here; and a
+fine, hale, good-looking man he is! a better figure than ever his son
+will be. I don't much like Mr. George, as they call him."
+
+"Somewhat colder, and more reserved, I think, than the other," said
+Nelly. "But about this answer, papa?"
+
+"What a hurry they're in. Is it a return to a writ, that they must
+press for it this way? Well, well, I ought to be used to all manner of
+interruptions and disturbances by this time. Fetch me a caudle, till I
+seal it;" and he sighed, as he drew forth his old-fashioned watch, to
+which, by a massive steel chain, the great family seal was attached',
+firmly persuaded that in the simple act he was about to perform he was
+achieving a mighty labor, at the cost of much fatigue.
+
+"No rest for the wicked! as my old father used to say," muttered he, in
+a happy ignorance whether the philosophy emanated from his parent, or
+from some higher authority. "One would think that at my time of life
+a man might look for a little peace and ease; but Peter Dalton has n't
+such luck! Give me the letter," said he, querulously. "There is
+Peter Dalton's hand and seal, his act and will," muttered he, with a
+half-solemnity, as he pressed the wax with his heavy signet. "'Semper
+eadem;' there 's the ancient motto of our house, and, faith, I believe
+Counsellor O'Shea was right when he translated it 'The devil a better!'"
+
+He read the address two or three times over to himself, as if there was
+something pleasurable in the very look of the words, and then he turned
+his glance towards Hans, as in a dreamy half-consciousness he sat still,
+contemplating the little statue of Marguerite.
+
+"Is n't it droll to think we 'd be writing to the first in the land, and
+an old toy-maker sitting beside the fire all the time," said Dalton,
+as he shook his head thoughtfully, in the firm conviction that he had
+uttered a very wise and profound remark. "Well well well! Life is a
+queer thing!"
+
+"Is it not stranger still that we should have won the friendship of poor
+Hanserl than have attracted the notice of Lady Hester?" said Nelly. "Is
+it not a prouder thought that we have drawn towards us from affectionate
+interest the kindness that has no touch of condescension?"
+
+"I hope you are not comparing the two," said Dalton, angrily. "What's
+the creature muttering to himself?"
+
+"It 'B Gretchen's song he 's trying to remember," said Kate.
+
+     "Nach ihm nur schau' ich
+     Zum Feuster hinaus!"
+
+said Hans, in a low, distinct voice. "'Was kommt nach,' what comes next,
+Fraulein?"
+
+"You must ask sister Nelly, Hanserl," said Kate; but Nelly was standing
+behind the massive stove, her face covered with her hands.
+
+"Zum Fenster hinaus," repeated he, slowly; "and then, Fraulein? and
+then?"
+
+"Tell him, Nelly; tell him what follows."
+
+     "Nach ihm nur schau' ich
+     Zum Fenster hinaus;
+     Nach ihm nur geh' ich
+
+     Aus dem Haus!"
+
+repeated she.
+
+"Ja, ja!" cried Hans, delightedly,
+
+     "Nach ihm nur geh' ich
+     Aus dem Haus!"
+
+"What does that mean?" said Dalton, with impatience. "It's Gretchen's
+song, papa," said Nelly.
+
+"His figure I gaze on,
+
+     O'er and o'er;
+     His step I follow
+     From the door."
+
+"I hope it isn't in love the creature is," said Dalton; and he laughed
+heartily at the conceit, turning at the same time his look from the
+dwarf, to bestow a most complacent glance at the remains of his own once
+handsome stature. "Oh dear! oh dear!" sighed he; "isn't it wonderful,
+but there isn't a creth or a cripple that walks the earth that hasn't a
+sweetheart!"
+
+A cough, purposely loud enough to announce his presence, here came from
+the courier in the antechamber, and Dalton remembered that the letter
+had not yet been despatched.
+
+"Give it to him, Nelly," said he, curtly.
+
+She took the letter in her hand, but stood for a second or two, as if
+powerless to move.
+
+"Must it be so, dearest papa?" said she, and the words almost choked her
+utterance.
+
+Dalton snatched the letter from her fingers, and left the room. His
+voice was heard for an instant in conversation with the courier, and the
+moment after the door banged heavily, and all was still.
+
+"It is done, Kate!" said she, throwing her arms around her sister's
+neck. "Let us now speak of the future; we have much to say, and short
+time to say it; and first let us help poor Hans downstairs."
+
+The dwarf, clutching up the wooden image, suffered himself to be aided
+with all the submissiveness of a patient child, and, with one at
+either side of him, slowly crept down the stairs to his own chamber.
+Disengaging himself by a gentle effort as he gained his door, Hans
+removed his cap from his head and made a low and deep obeisance to each
+of the girls separately, while he bade them a good-night.
+
+"Leb wohl, Hanserl, Leb wohl!" said Kate, taking his hand
+affectionately. "Be ever the true friend that thou hast proved hitherto,
+and let me think of thee, when far away, with gratitude."
+
+"Why this? How so, Fraulein?" said Hans, anxiously; "why farewell? Why
+sayest thou 'Leb wohl,' when it is but 'good-night'?"
+
+"Kate is about to leave us for a short space," said Nelly, affecting to
+appear at ease and calm. "She is going to Italy, Hanserl."
+
+"Das schone Land! that lovely land!" muttered he, over and over. "Dahin,
+dahin," cried he, pointing with his finger to the southward, "where the
+gold orange blooms. There would I wander too."
+
+"You'll not forget me, Hanserl?" said the young girl, kindly.
+
+"Over the great Alps and away!" said Hans, still talking to himself;
+"over the high snow-peaks which cast their shadows on our cold land, but
+have terraces for the vine and olive-garden, yonder! Thou 'It leave us,
+then, Fraulein?"
+
+"But for a little while, Hans, to come back afterwards and tell thee all
+I have seen."
+
+"They come not back from the sunshine to the shade," said Hans,
+solemnly. "Thou 'It leave not the palace for the peasant's hut; but
+think of us, Fraulein; think sometimes, when the soft sirocco is playing
+through thy glossy hair; when sounds of music steal over thy senses
+among the orange groves, and near the shadows of old temples, think of
+this simple Fatherland and its green valleys. Think of them with whom
+thou wert so happy, too! Splendor thou mayst have it is thy beauty's
+right; but be not proud, Fraulein. Remember what Chamisso tells us, 'Das
+Noth lehrt beten,' 'Want teaches Prayer,' and to that must thou come,
+however high thy fortune."
+
+"Kate will be our own wherever she be," said Nelly, clasping her sister
+affectionately to her side.
+
+"Bethink thee well, Fraulein, in thy wanderings, that the great and the
+beautiful are brethren of the good and the simple. The cataract and the
+dewdrop are kindred. Think of all that teaches thee to think of home;
+and remember well, that when thou losest the love of this humble hearth
+thou art in peril. If to any of thy childish toys thou sayest 'Ich Hebe
+dich nicht mehr,' then art thou changed indeed." Hans sat down upon his
+little bed as he spoke, and covered his face with his hands.
+
+Nelly watched him silently for a few seconds, and then with a gentle
+hand closed the door and led Kate away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII. CARES AND CROSSES
+
+THE lamp in Kate Dalton's chamber was still burning when the morning
+dawned, and by its uncertain flicker might be seen the two sisters, who,
+clasped in each other's arms, sat upon the low settle-bed. Nelly, pale
+and motionless, supported Kate, as, overcome by watching and emotion,
+she had fallen into a heavy slumber. Not venturing to stir, lest she
+should awaken her, Nelly had leaned against the wall for support, and,
+in her unmoved features and deathly pallor, seemed like some monumental
+figure of sorrow.
+
+It was not alone the grief of an approaching separation that oppressed
+her. Sad as it was to part from one to whom she had been mother and
+sister too, her affliction was tinged with a deeper coloring in her
+fears for the future. Loving Kate dearer than anything in the world, she
+was alive to all the weak traits of her character: her credulity,
+her trustfulness, her fondness for approbation, even from those whose
+judgments she held lightly, her passion for admiration even in trifles,
+were well known to her; and while, perhaps, these very failings, like
+traits of childish temperament, had actually endeared her the more
+to Nelly, she could not but dread their effect when they came to be
+exercised in the world of strangers.
+
+Not that Nelly could form the very vaguest conception of what that world
+was like. Its measures and its perils, its engagements and hazards,
+were all unknown to her. It had never been even the dream-land of
+her imagination. Too humble in spirit, too lowly by nature, to feel
+companionship with the great and titled, she had associated all
+her thoughts with those whose life is labor; with them were all her
+sympathies. There was a simple beauty in the unchanging fortune of the
+peasant's life such as she had seen in the Schwarzwald, for instance
+that captivated her. That peaceful domesticity was the very nearest
+approach to happiness, to her thinking, and she longed for the day when
+her father might consent to the obscurity and solitude of some nameless
+"Dorf" in the dark recesses of that old forest. With Frank and Kate,
+such a lot would have been a paradise. But one was already gone, and she
+was now to lose the other too. "Strange turn of fortune," as she said,
+"that prosperity should be more cruel than adversity. In our days of
+friendless want and necessity we held together; it is only when the
+promise of brighter destinies is dawning that we separate. It is but
+selfishness after all," thought she, "to wish for an existence like
+this; such humble and lowly fortunes might naturally enough become 'lame
+Nelly,' but Frank, the high-hearted, daring youth, with ambitious hopes
+and soaring aspirations, demands another and a different sphere of
+action; and Kate, whose attractions would grace a court, might well
+sorrow over a lot of such ignoble obscurity. What would not my sorrow
+and self-reproach be if I saw that, in submitting to the same monotony
+of this quietude, they should have become wearied and careless, neither
+taking pleasure in the simple pastimes of the people, nor stooping to
+their companionship! And thus all may be for the best," said she, half
+aloud, "if I could but feel courage to think so. We may each of us be
+but following his true road in life."
+
+A long intimacy with affliction will very frequently be found to impress
+even a religiously-disposed mind with a strong tinge of fatalism. The
+apparent hopelessness of all effort to avert calamity, or stem the tide
+of evil fortune, often suggests, as its last consolation, the notion of
+a predetermined destiny, to which we are bound to submit with patient
+trustfulness; a temperament of great humility aids this conviction.
+Both of these conditions were Nelly's; she had "supped sorrow" from her
+cradle, while her estimate of herself was the very lowest possible. "I
+suppose it is so," said she again; "all is for the best."
+
+She already pictured to herself the new spring this change of fortune
+would impart to her father's life: with what delight he would read the
+letters from his children; how he would once more, through them, taste
+of that world whose pleasures he was so fondly attached to. "I never
+could have yielded him a gratification like this," said Nelly, as the
+tears rose in her eyes. "I am but the image of our fallen fortunes, and
+in me, 'poor lame Nelly,' he can but see reflected our ruined lot. All
+is for the best it must be so!" sighed she, heavily; and just as the
+words escaped, her father, with noiseless step, entered the chamber.
+
+"To be sure it is, Nelly darling," said he, as he sat down near her,
+"and glad I am that you 've come to reason at last. 'T is plain enough
+this is n't the way the Daltons ought to be passing their life, in a
+little hole of a place, without society or acquaintance of any kind. You
+and I may bear it, not but it's mighty hard upon me sometimes, too, but
+Kate there just look at her and say, is it a girl like that should be
+wasting away her youth in a dreary village? Lady Hester tells me and
+sure nobody should know better that there never was the time in the
+world when real beauty had the same chance as now, and I 'd like to see
+the girl that could stand beside her. Do you know, Nelly," here he drew
+closer, so as to speak in a whisper, "do you know, that I do be fancying
+the strangest things might happen to us yet, that Frank might be a great
+general, and Kate married to God knows what sort of a grandee, with
+money enough to redeem Mount Dalton, and lay my old bones in the
+churchyard with my ancestors? I can't get it out of my head but it will
+come about, somehow. What do you think yourself?"
+
+"I'm but an indifferent castle-builder, papa," said she, laughing
+softly. "I rarely attempt anything beyond a peasant hut or a shealing."
+
+"And nobody could make the one or the other more neat and comfortable,
+that I 'll say for you, Nelly. It would have a look of home about it
+before you were a day under the roof."
+
+The young girl blushed deeply; for, humble as the praise might have
+sounded to other ears, to hers it was the most touching she could have
+listened to.
+
+"I 'm not flattering you a bit. 'T is your own mother you take after;
+you might put her down in the bleakest spot of Ireland, and 't is a
+garden she 'd make it. Let her stop for shelter in a cabin, and before
+the shower was over you 'd not know the place. It would be all swept
+and clean, and the dishes ranged neatly on the dresser; and the pig she
+could n't abide a pig turned out, and the hens driven into the cowshed,
+and the children's faces washed, and their hair combed, and, maybe, the
+little gossoon of five years old upon her knee, saying his 'Hail, Mary,'
+or his 'A B C,' while she was teaching his mother how to wind the
+thread off the wheel; for she could spin a hank of yarn as well as any
+cottier's wife in the townland. The kind creature she was! But she never
+had a taste for real diversion; it always made her low-spirited and
+sad."
+
+"Perhaps the pleasures you speak of were too dearly purchased, papa,"
+said Nelly.
+
+"Indeed, maybe they were," said he, dubiously, and as though the thought
+had now occurred for the first time; "and, now that you say it, I begin
+to believe it was that same that might have fretted her. The way she was
+brought up made her think so, too. That brother was always talking about
+wastefulness, and extravagance, and so on; and, if it was in her nature,
+he 'd have made her as stingy as himself; and look what it comes to
+after all. We spent it when we had it, the Daltons are a good warrant
+for that; and there was he grubbing and grabbing all his days, to leave
+it after him to a rich man, that does n't know whether he has so many
+thousands more or not."
+
+Nelly made no reply, not wishing to encourage, by the slightest apparent
+interest, the continuance on the theme which invariably suggested her
+father's gloomiest reveries.
+
+"Is that her trunk, Nelly?" said Dalton, breaking silence after a
+long interval, and pointing to an old and journey-worn valise that lay
+half-open upon the floor.
+
+"Yes, papa," said Nelly, with a sigh.
+
+"Why, it's a mean-looking, scrubby bit of a thing; sure it 's not the
+size of a good tea-chest," said he, angrily.
+
+"And yet too roomy for all its contents, papa. Poor Kate's wardrobe is a
+very humble one."
+
+"I 'd like to know where 's the shops here; where 's the milliners and
+the haberdashers? Are we in College Green or Grafton Street, that we
+can just send out and have everything at our hand's turn? 'T is n't on
+myself I spend the money. Look at these gaiters; they 're nine years old
+next March; and the coat on my back was made by Peter Stevens, that 's
+in his grave now. The greatest enemy ever I had could not face me down
+that I only took care of myself. If that was my way would I be here now?
+See the rag I 'm wearing round my throat, a piece of old worsted like a
+rug a thing--"
+
+He stopped, and stammered, and then was silent altogether, for he
+suddenly remembered it was Nelly herself who had worked the article in
+question.
+
+"Nay, papa," broke she in, with her own happy smile, "you may give it to
+Andy to-morrow, for I 've made you a smart new one, of your own favorite
+colors, too, the Dalton green and white."
+
+"Many a time I 've seen the same colors coming in first on the Corralin
+course!" cried Dalton, with enthusiasm; for at the impulse of a new word
+his mind could turn from a topic of deep and painful interest to one in
+every way its opposite. "You were too young to remember it; but you were
+there, in the 'landau,' with your mother, when Baithershin won the Murra
+handicap, the finest day's flat racing I have it from them that seen the
+best in England that ever was run in the kingdom. I won eight hundred
+pounds on it, and, by the same token, lost it all in the evening at
+'blind hookey' with old Major Haggs, of the 5th Foot, not to say a
+trifle more besides. And that 's her trunk!" said he, after another
+pause, his voice dropping at the words, as though to say, "What a change
+of fortune is there! I wonder neither of you hadn't the sense to take
+my old travelling chest; that's twice the size, and as heavy as a lead
+coffin, besides. Sorrow one would ever know if she hadn't clothes for a
+whole lifetime! Two men wouldn't carry it upstairs when it's empty."
+
+"When even this valise is too large, papa?"
+
+"Oh dear, oh dear!" broke in Dalton; "you've no contrivance, after all.
+Don't you see that it 's not what 's inside I 'm talking about, at all,
+but the show before the world? Did n't I live at Mount Dalton on the
+fat of the laud, and every comfort a gentleman could ask, five years and
+eight months after I was ruined? And had n't I credit wherever I went,
+and for whatever I ordered? And why? Because of the house and place! I
+was like the big trunk beyond; nobody knew how little there was in it.
+Oh, Nelly dear, when you 've seen as much of life as me, you 'll know
+that one must be up to many a thing for appearance' sake."
+
+Nelly sighed, but made no reply. Perhaps in secret she thought how much
+trouble a little sincerity with the world would save us.
+
+"We 'll be mighty lonesome after her," said he, after a pause.
+
+Nelly nodded her head in sadness.
+
+"I was looking over the map last night, and it ain't so far away, after
+all," said Dalton. "'T is n't much more than the length of my finger on
+the paper."
+
+"Many a weary mile may lie within that space," said Nelly, softly.
+
+"And I suppose we'll hear from her every week, at least?" said Dalton,
+whose mind vacillated between joy and grief, but still looked for its
+greatest consolations from without.
+
+Poor Nelly was, however, little able to furnish these. Her mind saw
+nothing but sorrow for the present; and, for the future, difficulty, if
+not danger.
+
+"You give one no comfort at all," said Dalton, rising impatiently.
+"That's the way it will be always now, when Kate goes. No more gayety in
+the house; not a song nor a merry laugh! I see well what a dreary life
+there is before me."
+
+"Oh, dearest papa, I 'll do my very best, not to replace her, for that
+I never could do; but to make your days less wearisome. It will be
+such pleasure, too, to talk of her, and think of her! To know of her
+happiness, and to fancy all the fair stores of knowledge she will bring
+back with her when she comes home at last!"
+
+"If I could only live to see them back again, Frank and Kate, one at
+each side of me, that 's all I ask for in this world now," muttered he,
+as he stole noiselessly away and closed the door behind him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX. PREPARATIONS FOR THE ROAD.
+
+IF the arrival of a great family at an hotel be a scene of unusual
+bustle and excitement, with teeming speculations as to the rank and the
+wealth of the new-comers, the departure has also its interests, and
+even of a higher nature. In the former case all is vague, shadowy, and
+uncertain. The eye of the spectator wanders from the muffled figures
+as they descend, to scrutinize the lackeys, and even the luggage, as
+indicative of the strangers' habits and condition; and even to the
+shrewd perceptions of that dread functionary, the head waiter, the
+identity of the traveller assumes no higher form nor any more tangible
+shape than that they are No. 42 or 57.
+
+When the hour of leave-taking has come, however, their characters have
+become known, their tastes and habits understood, and no mean insight
+obtained into their prejudices, their passions, and their pursuits. The
+imposing old gentleman, whose rubicund nose and white waistcoat are the
+guarantees for a taste in port, has already inspired the landlord with
+a sincere regard. "My Lady's" half-invalid caprices about diet, and air,
+and sunshine, have all written themselves legibly in "the bill." The
+tall son's champagne score incurred of a night, and uncounted of a
+morning, are not unrecorded virtues; while even the pale young ladies,
+whose sketching propensities involved donkeys, and ponies, and picnics,
+go not unremembered.
+
+Their hours of rising and retiring, their habits of society or
+seclusion, their preferences for the "Post" or the "Times," have all
+silently been ministering to the estimate formed of them; so that in the
+commonest items of the hotel ledger are the materials for their history.
+And with what true charity are their characters weighed! How readily
+does mine host forgive the transgressions which took their origin in
+his own Burgundy! how blandly smile at the follies begotten of his
+Johannisberg! With what angelic temper does the hostess pardon the
+little liberties "young gentlemen from college will take!" Oh, if our
+dear, dear friends would but read us with half the charity, or even
+bestow upon our peccadilloes a tithe of this forgiveness! And why should
+it not be so? What are these same friends and acquaintances but guests
+in the same great inn which we call "the world"? and who, as they never
+take upon them to settle our score, need surely not trouble themselves
+about the "items."
+
+While the Daltons were still occupied in the manner our last chapter has
+described, the "Hotel de Russie" was a scene of considerable bustle, the
+preparations for departure engaging every department of the household
+within doors and without. There were carriage-springs to be lashed with
+new cordage, drag-chains new tipped with steel, axles to smear, hinges
+to oil, imperials to buckle on, cap-cases to be secured; and then what a
+deluge of small articles to be stowed away in most minute recesses,
+and yet be always at hand when called for! cushions and cordials,
+and chauffe-pieds and "Quarterlies," smelling-boxes and slippers, and
+spectacles and cigar-cases, journals and "John Murrays," to be disposed
+of in the most convenient places. Every corridor and landing was blocked
+up with baggage, and the courier wiped his forehead, and "sacre'd" in
+half desperation at the mountain of trunks and portmanteaus that lay
+before him.
+
+"This is not ours," said he, as he came to a very smart valise of
+lacquered leather, with the initials A. J. in brass on the top.
+
+"No, that 's Mr. Jekyl's," said Mr. George's man, Twig. "He ain't
+a-goin' with you; he travels in our britzska."
+
+"I'm more like de conducteur of a diligenz than a family courier,"
+muttered the other, sulkily. "I know noting of de baggage, since we take
+up strangers at every stage! and always some Teufeln poor devils that
+have not a sou en poche!"
+
+"What's the matter now, Mister Greg'ry?" said Twig, who very imperfectly
+understood the other's jargon.
+
+"The matter is, I will resign my 'fonction' je m'en vais dat 's all!
+This is noting besser than an 'Eil wagen' mil passengers! Fust of all
+we have de doctor, as dey call him, wid his stuff birds and beasts, his
+dried blumen and sticks, till de roof is like de Jardin des Plantes
+at Paris, and he himself like de bear in de middle. Den we have das
+verfluchte parroquet of milady, and Flounce, de lapdog, dat must drink
+every post-station, and run up all de hills for exercise. Dam! Ich bin
+kein Hund, and need n't run up de hills too! Mademoiselle Celestine have
+a what d' ye call 'Affe' a ape; and though he be little, a reg'lar
+teufelchen to hide de keys and de money, when he find 'em. And den
+dere is de yong lady collectin' all de stones off de road, lauter
+paving-stones, which she smash wid a leetle hammer! Ach Gott, what is de
+world grow when a Fraulein fall in love wid Felsen and Steine!"
+
+"Monsieur Gregoire! Monsieur Gregoire!" screamed out a sharp voice from
+a window overhead.
+
+"Mademoiselle," replied he, politely touching his cap to the
+femme-de-chambre.
+
+"Be good enough, Monsieur Gregoire, to have my trunks taken down; there
+are two in the fourgon, and a cap-case on the large carriage."
+
+"Hagel and Sturm! dey are under everything. How am I--"
+
+"I can't possibly say," broke she in; "but it must be done."
+
+"Can't you wait, Mademoiselle, till we reach Basle?"
+
+"I'm going away, Monsieur Gregoire. I'm off to Paris," was the reply, as
+the speaker closed the sash and disappeared.
+
+"What does she say?" inquired Twig, who, as this dialogue was carried on
+in French, was in total ignorance of its meaning.
+
+"She has given her demission," said the courier, pompously. "Resign her
+portefeuille, and she have made a very bad affair; dat's all. Your gros
+milor is very often bien bete; he is very often rude, savage, forget
+his manners, and all dat but" and here his voice swelled into the full
+soundness of a perfect connection "but he is alway rich. Ja ja, immer
+reich!" said he over to himself. "Allons! now to get at her verdammte
+baggage, de two trunks, and de leetle box, and de ape, and de sac, and
+de four or five baskets. Diable d'affaire! Monsieur Tig, do me de grace
+to mount on high dere, and give me dat box."
+
+"I 've nothing to say to your carriage, Mister Greg'ry. I 'm the
+captain's gentleman, and never do take any but a single-handed
+situation;" and with this very haughty speech Mr. Twig lighted a fresh
+cigar and strolled away.
+
+"Alle bose Teufeln holen de good for nichts," sputtered Gregoire, who
+now waddled into the house to seek for assistance.
+
+Whatever apathy and indifference he might have met with from the English
+servants, the people of the hotel were like his bond-slaves. Old and
+young, men and women, the waiter, and the ostler, and the chambermaid,
+and that strange species of grande utilite, which in German households
+goes by the name of "Haus-knecht," a compound of boots, scullion,
+porter, pimp, and drudge, were all at his command. Nor was he an
+over-mild monarch; a running fire of abuse and indignity accompanied
+every order he gave, and he stimulated their alacrity by the most
+insulting allusions to their personal defects and deficiencies.
+
+Seated upon a capacious cap-case, with his courier's cap set jauntily on
+one side, his meerschaum like a sceptre in his hand, Gregoire gave out
+his edicts right royally, and soon the courtyard was strewn with trunks,
+boxes, and bags of every shape, size, and color. The scene, indeed, was
+not devoid of tumult; for, while each of the helpers screamed away at
+the top of his throat, and Gregoire rejoined in shouts that would have
+done credit to a bull, the parrot gave vent to the most terrific cries
+and yells as the ape poked him through the bars of his cage with the
+handle of a parasol.
+
+"There, that's one of them," cried out Monsieur Gregoire; "that round
+box beside you; down with it here."
+
+"Monsieur Gregoire! Monsieur Gre'goire!" cried Mademoiselle from the
+window once more.
+
+The courier looked up, and touched his cap.
+
+"I'm not going, Monsieur Gregoire; the affair is arranged."
+
+"Ah! I am charmed to hear it, Mademoiselle," said he, smiling in seeming
+ecstasy, while he muttered a malediction between his teeth.
+
+"Miladi has made submission, and I forgive everything. You must pardon
+all the trouble I 've given you."
+
+"These happy tidings have made me forget it," said he, with a smile
+that verged upon a grin. "Peste!" growled he, under his breath, "we 'd
+unpacked the whole fourgon."
+
+"Ah, que vous etes aimable!" said she, sighing.
+
+"Belle tigresse!" exclaimed he, returning the leer she bestowed; and the
+window was once more closed upon her exit. "I submitted to the labor,
+in the hope we had done with you forever," said he, wiping his forehead;
+"and la voila there you are back again. Throw that ape down; away wid
+him, cursed beast!" cried he, venting his spite upon the minion, since
+he dare not attack the mistress. "But what have we here?"
+
+This latter exclamation was caused by the sudden entrance into the
+courtyard of two porters carrying an enormous trunk, whose iron
+fastenings and massive padlock gave it the resemblance of an emigrant's
+sea-chest. A few paces behind walked Mr. Dalton, followed again by Old
+Andy, who, with a huge oil-silk umbrella under one arm, and a bundle
+of cloaks, shawls, and hoods on the other, made his way with no small
+difficulty.
+
+Gregoire surveyed the procession with cool amazement, and then, with a
+kind of mock civility, he touched his cap, and said, "You have mistak de
+road, saar; de diligenz-office is over de way."
+
+"And who told you I wanted it?" said Dalton, sternly. "Maybe I'm just
+where I ought to be! Isn't this Sir Stafford Onslow's coach?"
+
+"Yes, saar; but you please to remember it is not de 'Eil wagen. '"
+
+"Just hold your prate, my little chap, and it will be pleasanter, and
+safer, ay, safer, too, d'ye mind? You see that trunk there; it 's to
+go up with the luggage and be kept dry, for there 's valuable effects
+inside."
+
+"Datis not a trunk; it is a sentry-house, a watch-box. No gentleman's
+carriage ever support a ting of dat dimension!"
+
+"It 's a trunk, and belongs to me, and my name is Peter Dalton, as the
+letters there will show you; and so no more about it, but put it up at
+once."
+
+"I have de orders about a young lady's luggage, but none about a great
+coffin with iron hoops," said Gregoire, tartly.
+
+"Be quiet, now, and do as I tell you, my little chap. Put these trifles,
+too, somewhere inside, and this umbrella in a safe spot; and here 's a
+little basket, with a cold pie and a bottle of wine in it."
+
+"Himmel und Erde! how you tink milady travel mit dass schweinerei?"
+
+"It 's not pork; 't is mutton, and a pigeon in the middle," said Dalton,
+mistaking his meaning. "I brought a taste of cheese, too; but it 's a
+trifle high, and maybe it 's as well not to send it."
+
+"Is the leetle old man to go too?" asked Gregoire, with an insolent
+grin, and not touching the profanation of either cheese or basket.
+
+"That 's my own servant, and he 's not going," said Dalton; "and now
+that you know my orders, just stir yourself a little, my chap, for I 'm
+not going to spend my time here with you."
+
+A very deliberate stare, without uttering a word, was all the reply
+Gregoire returned to this speech; and then, addressing himself to the
+helpers, he gave some orders in German about the other trunks. Dalton
+waited patiently for some minutes, but no marks of attention showed that
+the courier even remembered his presence; and at last he said,
+
+"I 'm waiting to see that trunk put up; d' ye hear me?"
+
+"I hear ver well, but I mind noting at all," said Gregoire, with a grin.
+
+"Oh, that 's it," said Dalton, smiling, but with a twinkle in his
+gray eyes that, had the other known him better, he would scarcely have
+fancied, "that's it, then!" And taking the umbrella from beneath Andy's
+arm, he walked deliberately across the yard to where a large tank stood,
+and which, fed from a small jet d'eau, served as a watering-place for
+the post-horses. Some taper rods of ice now stood up in the midst, and a
+tolerably thick coating covered the surface of the basin.
+
+Gregoire could not help watching the proceedings of the stranger, as
+with the iron-shod umbrella he smashed the ice in one or two places,
+piercing the mass till the water spouted up through the apertures.
+
+"Have you any friend who live dere?" said the courier, sneeringly, as
+the sound of the blows resembled the noise of a door-knocker.
+
+"Not exactly, my man," said Dalton, calmly; "but something like it."
+
+"What is 't you do, den?" asked Gregoire, curiously.
+
+"I'll tell you," said Dalton. "I'm breaking the ice for a new
+acquaintance;" and, as he spoke, he seized the courier by the stout
+leather belt which he wore around his waist, and, notwithstanding his
+struggles and his weight, he jerked him off the ground, and, with a
+swing, would have hurled him head foremost into the tank, when, the
+leather giving way, he fell heavily to the ground, almost senseless from
+shock and fright together. "You may thank that strap for your escape,"
+said Dalton, contemptuously, as he threw towards him the fragments of
+broken leather.
+
+"I will have de law, and de polizei, and de Gericht. I will have you
+in de Kerker, in chains, for dis!" screamed Gregoire, half choked with
+passion.
+
+"May I never see peace, but if you don't hold your prate I 'll put you
+in it! Sit up there, and mind your business; and, above all, be civil,
+and do what you 're bid."
+
+"I will fort; I will away. Noting make me remain in de service," said
+Gregoire, brushing off the dirt from his sleeve, and shaking his cap.
+"I am respectable courier travel wid de Fursten vom Koniglichen Hatisen
+mit Russen, Franzosen, Ostereichen; never mit barbaren, never mit de
+wilde animalen."
+
+"Don't, now don't, I tell you," said Dalton, with another of those
+treacherous smiles whose expression the courier began to comprehend. "No
+balderdash! no nonsense! but go to your work, like a decent servant."
+
+"I am no Diener; no serve anybody," cried the courier, indignantly.
+
+[Illustration:    222]
+
+But somehow there was that in old Dalton's face that gave no
+encouragement to an open resistance, and Monsieur Gregoire knew well the
+case where compliance was the wisest policy. He also knew that in his
+vocation there lay a hundred petty vengeances more than sufficient to
+pay off any indignity that could be inflicted upon him. "I will wait
+my times," was the reflection with which he soothed down his rage, and
+affected to forget the insult he had just suffered under.
+
+Dalton, whose mind was cast in a very different mould, and who could
+forgive either himself or his neighbor without any great exertion of
+temper, turned now coolly away, and sauntered out into the street. The
+flush of momentary anger that colored his cheek had fled, and a cast of
+pale and melancholy meaning sat upon his features, for his eye rested
+on the little wooden bridge which crossed the stream, and where now two
+muffled figures were standing, that he recognized as his daughters.
+
+They were leaning on the balustrade, and gazing at the mountain that,
+covered with its dense pine-wood, rose abruptly from the river-side.
+It had been the scene of many a happy ramble in the autumn, of many a
+delightful excursion, when, with Frank, they used to seek for fragments
+of wood that suited Nelly's sculptures. How often had they carried their
+little basket up yonder steep path, to eat their humble supper upon the
+rock, from which the setting sun could be seen! There was not a cliff
+nor crag, not a mossy slope, not a grass bank, they did not know; and
+now, as they looked, all the past moments of pleasure were crowding upon
+their memory, tinged with the sad foreboding that they were never again
+to be renewed.
+
+"That's the Riesen Fels, Nelly, yonder," said Kate, as she pointed to a
+tall dark rock, on whose slopes the drifting snow had settled. "How sad
+and dreary it is, compared with what it seemed on Frank's birthday,
+when the nightingale was singing overhead, and the trickling stream came
+sparkling along the grass when we sat together. I can bear to part with
+it better thus than if all were as beautiful as then."
+
+Nelly sighed, and grasped her sister's hand closer, but made no answer.
+
+"Do you remember poor Hanserl's song, and his little speech all about
+our meeting there again in the next year, Nelly?"
+
+"I do," said Nelly, in a low and whispering voice.
+
+"And then Frank stood up, with his little gilt goblet, and said,
+
+     'With hearts as free from grief or care,
+     Here 's to our happy--'"
+
+"Wiederkehr," cried Hanserl, supplying the word so aptly. How we all
+laughed, Nelly, at his catching the rhyme!"
+
+"I remember!" sighed Nelly, still lower.
+
+"What are you thinking of, Nelly dearest?" said Kate, as she stood for a
+few seconds gazing at the sorrow-struck features of the other.
+
+"I was thinking, dearest," said Nelly, "that when we were met together
+there on that night, none of us foresaw what since has happened. Not
+the faintest suspicion of a separation crossed our minds. Our destinies,
+whatever else might betide, seemed at least bound up together. Our very
+poverty was like the guarantee of our unity, and yet see what has come
+to pass Frank gone; you, Kate, going to leave us now. How shall we
+speculate on the future, then, when the past has so betrayed us? How
+pilot our course in the storm, when, even in the calm, still sea, we
+have wandered from the track?"
+
+"Nelly! Nelly! every moment I feel more faint-hearted at the thought of
+separation. It is as though, in the indulgence of a mere caprice, I were
+about to incur some great hazard. Is it thus it appears to you?"
+
+"With what expectations do you look forward to this great world you are
+going to visit, Kate? Is it mere curiosity to see with your own eyes
+the brilliant scenes of which you have only read? Is it with the hope
+of finding that elegance and goodness are sisters, that refinement of
+manners is the constant companion of noble sentiments and right actions;
+or, does there lurk in your heart the longing for a sphere wherein you
+yourself might contest for the prize of admiration? Oh, if this have a
+share in your wishes, my own dear sister, beware of it. The more worthy
+you are of such homage, the greater is your peril! It is not that I am
+removed from all temptations of this kind; it is not because I have no
+attractions of beauty, that I speak thus even poor, lame Nelly cannot
+tear from her woman's heart the love of admiration. But for me, I fear,
+for you, Kate, to whom these temptations will be heightened by your own
+deservings. You are beautiful, and you blush as I speak the word; but
+what if the time come when you will hear it unmoved? The modest sense of
+shame gone, what will replace it? Pride yes, my dear sister, Pride
+and Ambition! You will long for a station more in accordance with your
+pretensions, more suited to your tastes."
+
+"How you wrong me, Nelly!" burst Kate in. "The brightest dream of all
+this brilliant future is the hope that I may come back to you more
+worthy of your love; that, imbibing some of those traits whose
+fascinations we have already felt, I may bring beneath our humble roof
+some memories, at least, to beguile your toil."
+
+"Oh, if that time should come!"
+
+"And it will come, dearest Nelly," said Kate, as she threw her arms
+around her, and kissed her affectionately. "But, see! there is papa
+yonder; he is beckoning to us to join him;" and the two girls hastened
+forward to where Dalton was standing, at the corner of the street.
+
+"I'm thinking we ought to go up there, now," said Dalton, with a motion
+of his hand in the direction of the hotel. "Take my arm, each of you."
+
+They obeyed, and walked along in silence, till they reached the inn,
+where Dalton entered, with a certain assumed ease and confidence, that
+very commonly, with him, covered a weak purpose and a doubting spirit.
+
+"Is Sir Stafford at home, or Lady Onslow?" asked he of Mr. Twig, who,
+with a cigar in his mouth, and a "Galignani" in his hand, never rose
+from the seat he occupied.
+
+"Can't say, sir," was the cool response, which he delivered without
+lifting his eyes from the newspaper.
+
+"Do you know, ma'am?" said he, addressing Mademoiselle Celestine, who
+happened to pass at the moment "do you know, ma'am, if Lady Onslow 's at
+home?"
+
+"She never receive in de morning," was the curt reply. And, with a very
+impudent stare at the two sisters, whose dress imposed no restraint upon
+her insolence, mademoiselle flounced past. "Come along, girls," said
+Dalton, angrily, and offended that he should appear to his children
+as if wanting in worldly tact and knowledge "come with me;" and he
+proceeded boldly up stairs.
+
+A folding-door lay open before them into a large chamber, littered with
+boxes, trunks, and travelling gear of all kinds. Making his way through
+these, while he left his daughters outside, Dalton approached a
+door that led into an inner room, and knocked sharply at it with his
+knuckles.
+
+"You may take it away now; I 've used cold water!" cried a voice from
+within, that at once proclaimed Dr. Grounsell.
+
+Dalton repeated his summons more confidently.
+
+"Go to the devil, I say," cried the doctor; "you've made me cut my
+chin;" and the enraged Grouusell, with his face covered with lather,
+and streaming with blood, flung open the door in a passion. "Oh, Dalton,
+this you, and the ladies here!" said he, springing back ashamed, as
+Kate's hearty burst of laughter greeted him. "Come in, Dalton, come in,"
+said he, dragging the father forward and shutting the door upon him. "I
+was longing to see you, man; I was just thinking how I could have five
+minutes' talk with you. What answer have you given to the letter they
+'ve sent you?"
+
+"What d' ye think?" said Dalton, jocularly, as he seated himself in a
+comfortable chair.
+
+"What do I think?" repeated he, twice or thrice over. "Egad, I don't
+know what to think! I only know what to hope, and wish it may have
+been!"
+
+"And what's that?" said Dalton, with a look of almost sternness, for he
+was not ignorant of the doctor's sentiments on the subject.
+
+"A refusal, of course," said Grounsell, who never yet was deterred by a
+look, a sign, or an innuendo, from any expression of his sentiments.
+
+"And why so, sir?" rejoined Dalton, warmly.
+
+"On every ground in the world: What has your fine, generous-hearted,
+dear child in common with that vile world of envy, malice, and all
+wickedness you 'd throw her amongst? What similarity in thought,
+feeling, or instinct between her and that artificial class with whom you
+would associate her, with their false honor, false principle, and false
+delicacy nothing real and substantial about them but their wickedness?
+If you were a silly woman, like the mother in the 'Vicar of Wakefield,'
+I could forgive you; but a man a hardened, worldly man, that has tasted
+poverty, and knows the rubs of life. I 've no patience with you, d--n me
+if I have!"
+
+"A little more of this, and I 'll have none with you," said Dalton, as
+he clenched his fist, and struck his knee a hard blow. "You presume to
+talk of us as people whose station was always what our present means
+imply; but I 'd have you to know that we 've better blood in our veins--"
+
+"Devil take your blood! you've made me spill mine again," cried
+Grounsell, as he sliced a piece off his chin, and threw down the
+razor in a torrent of anger, while Dalton grinned a look of malicious
+satisfaction. "Could n't your good blood have kept you above anything
+like dependence?"
+
+Dalton sprang to his feet, and clutching the chair, raised it in the
+air; but as suddenly dashed it on the floor again, without speaking.
+
+"Go on," cried Grounsell, daring him. "I'd rather you 'd break my skull
+than that dear girl's heart; and that 's what you 're bent on. Ay, break
+her heart! no less. You can't terrify me, man, by those angry looks. You
+can't wound me, either, by retaliating, and calling me a dependant. I
+know I am such. I know well all the ignominy, all the shame; but I know,
+too, all the misery of the position. But, mark me, the disgrace and the
+sorrow end where they begin, with myself alone. I have none to blush
+for me; I stand alone in the world, a poor, scathed, sapless, leafless
+trunk. But it is not so with you. Come, come, Dalton, you fancy that you
+know something of life because you have passed so many years of it among
+your equals and neighbors in your own 'country; but you know nothing
+absolutely nothing of the world as it exists here."
+
+A hearty but contemptuous laugh broke from Dalton as he heard this
+speech. It was indeed somewhat of a surprise to listen to such a charge.
+He, Peter Dalton, that knew a spavined horse, or could detect a windgall
+better than any man in the county; he, that never was "taken in" by a
+roarer, nor deceived by a crib-biter, to tell him that he knew nothing
+of life!
+
+"That'll do, doctor, that'll do," said he, with a most compassionating
+smile at the other's ignorance. "I hope you know more about medicine
+than you seem to do about men and women;" and, with these words, he left
+the room, banging the door after him as he went, and actually ashamed
+that he had been betrayed into warmth by one so evidently deficient in
+the commonest knowledge of the world.
+
+[Illustration:    228]
+
+"I 'm sorry I kept you waiting, girls," said he, approaching them. "And,
+indeed, I might have spent my time better, too. But no matter; we must
+try and find out her Ladyship now, for the morning is slipping over."
+
+As he spoke, George Onslow appeared, and recognizing the party with much
+cordiality, conducted them to the breakfast-room, where Sir Stafford,
+Lady Hester, and Miss Onslow were seated. If Sydney's reception of the
+two sisters was less enthusiastic than Lady Hester's, it was not less
+kind. Nelly was won almost instantaneously by the unaffected ease
+and simplicity of her manner. As for Dalton himself, her Ladyship had
+determined to carry him by storm. She suffered him to declaim about his
+ancestors and their wealth; heard him with assumed interest in all
+his interminable stories of Dal tons for six generations; and artfully
+opposed to his regrets at the approaching departure of his daughter
+the ingenious consolation that she was not about to sojourn with mere
+strangers, but with those united to her by the ties of kindred.
+George had, meanwhile, made two or three efforts to engage Kate in
+conversation; but, whether from the preoccupation of her mind, agitated
+as it well might be at such a moment, or that his topics were so utterly
+new and strange to her, his attempt was not attended with any signal
+success. A sense of shame, too, at the disparity of her own and her
+sister's appearance, in contrast with the quiet elegance of Lady Hester
+and Miss Onslow's dress, oppressed her. Strange was it that this feeling
+should have agitated her now, she who always hitherto had never wasted a
+thought on such matters, and yet she felt it acutely; and as she glanced
+from the rustling robe of silk to the folds of her own homely costume,
+her heart beat painfully, and her breathing came short. Was she already
+changed, that thoughts tike these could impress her so strongly? Had
+Adam's first shame descended to his daughter? "How unlike I am to them!"
+was the bitter thought that rose to her mind, and ate like a cancer into
+her heart.
+
+The sense of inferiority, galling and torturing as it is, becomes
+infinitely more unendurable when connected with matters of trivial
+importance. There is a sense of indignant anger in the feeling that
+we are surpassed by what seem the mere conventionalities and tricks of
+society, and although Kate knew not the source of her unhappiness, some
+of it lay in this fact. Every little gesture, every motion, the merest
+peculiarities of voice or accent, now struck her as distinctive of a
+class, a class to which no imitation would ever give her a resemblance.
+If it were not for very shame, she would have drawn back now at the
+eleventh hour. More than once was she on the verge of confessing what
+was passing within her mind; but fears of various kinds, of her father's
+anger, of ridicule, of the charge of frivolity, all conspired to keep
+her silent, and she sat and listened to descriptions of pleasure and
+scenes wherein she had already lost every interest, and which somehow
+came associated with a sense of her own inferiority.
+
+Never did home seem so regrettable as in that moment: the humble
+fireside in winter; the happy evenings with little Hanserl; the summer's
+day rambles in the forest; their little feasts beside the waterfall,
+under the ivy-clad walls of Eberstein, all rose before her. They were
+pleasures which had no alloy in her own humble lot, and why desert them?
+She had almost gained courage to say that she would not, when a chance
+word caught her ear one word how little to hang a destiny upon! It was
+Lady Hester, who, conversing in a half-whisper with Mr. Dalton, said,
+
+"She will be perfectly beautiful when dressed becomingly."
+
+Was this, then, all that was needed to give her the stamp and semblance
+of the others? Oh, if she could believe it! If she could but fancy that,
+at some future time, such graceful elegance should be her own, that
+gentle languor, that chastened quietude of Sydney, or that sparkling
+lightness of Lady Hester herself!
+
+"What time de horses, saar?" said the courier, popping his head into the
+room.
+
+"I scarcely know what do you say, Lady Hester?"
+
+"I 'm quite ready this instant if you like indeed, I 'm always the
+first," said she, gayly; "nobody travels with less preparation than I
+do. There, see all I want!" and she pointed to a fan, and a book, and a
+smelling-bottle, as if all her worldly effects and requirements went no
+further, and that four great imperials and a dozen capacious boxes
+were not packed with her wardrobe. "I do detest the worry and fuss some
+people make about a journey for a week, or even a month beforehand; they
+unsettle themselves and every one around them; putting under lock
+and key half the things of every-day utility, and making a kind of
+'jail-delivery' of all the imprisoned old cloaks and dresses of the
+toilet. As for me, I take the road as I 'd go to the Opera, or drive out
+in the Park I ask for my bonnet, that's all."
+
+There was some truth in this. Her Ladyship did, in fact, give herself
+not a whit more thought or consideration for preparation of any kind,
+than if the excursion had been a promenade.
+
+"It is now two o'clock," said Sir Stafford, "and if we mean to reach
+Offenburg to-night we must not lose more time. Isn't it Offenburg you
+advise as our halt, Mr. Jekyl?"
+
+"Yes, Sir Stafford," simpered out that bland personage. "It is a most
+comfortable little inn, and a very praiseworthy cook."
+
+"By the bye, has any one thought of ordering luncheon here?" cried
+George.
+
+Jekyl gave a nod, to intimate that he had taken that precaution.
+
+"And, Mr. Jekyl," said Lady Hester, "what of those bullfinches, for I
+must have them?"
+
+"They are safely caged and packed in our britzska, madam. You 'll also
+find that your sketch-book and the water-colors are available at any
+moment, Miss Onslow," said he, with a respectful gesture. She smiled,
+and bowed her thanks in silence.
+
+"And de horses, saar?" asked the courier once more, for during this
+colloquy he had been standing in expectation of his orders.
+
+"Do tell him, Mr. Jekyl," said Lady Hester, with that tone of languor
+that bespoke her dislike to the trouble of even a trifling degree of
+resolution.
+
+"I think we shall say in one hour, Gregoire," said Jekyl, mildly. "And,
+perhaps, it would be better that you should see--" What this matter
+was that the courier should bestow his special attention upon is not on
+record in this history, inasmuch as that when the speaker had reached
+thus far, he passed out of the door, talking as he went, in a low and
+confidential voice.
+
+"Capital fellow Jekyl!" exclaimed George; "he forgets nothing."
+
+"He appears to be a most accomplished traveller," said Sir Stafford.
+
+"And such a linguist!" said Sydney.
+
+"And so amusing!" added my Lady.
+
+"And such a rogue!" muttered Dalton to himself, who, although so open to
+any imposition that took the form of flattery, could at once detect the
+knavery that was practised upon others, and who, at a glance, read the
+character of the new acquaintance.
+
+"Don't you like the stir and excitement of the road, my dear child?"
+said Lady Hester to Kate, who, with very red eyes and very pale cheeks,
+stood in a window to avoid being observed. "There is something so
+adventurous about a journey always. One may be robbed, you know, or the
+carriage upset, as happened to ourselves t' other day; or mistaken for
+somebody else, and carried off to prison. It gives such a flurry to
+the spirits to think of these things, and a life of monotony is so very
+detestable."
+
+Kate tried to smile an assent, and Lady Hester ran on in the same
+strain, extolling the delights of anything and everything that promised
+an excitement. "You know, my dear child, that this little place has
+almost been the death of me," added she. "I never was so bored in all my
+life; and I vow I shall detest a mill and a pine-forest to the last day
+I live. If it had not been for you and your sweet sister, I do not know
+what we should have clone; but it 's all over now. The dreary interval
+is passed, and when we turn the foot of that hill yonder, we shall have
+seen the last of it."
+
+Kate's heart was almost bursting as she heard these words. To speak thus
+of the little valley would have been a profanation at any time, but to
+do so now, when she was about to leave it, when she was about to tear
+herself away from all the ties of love and affection, seemed an actual
+cruelty.
+
+"Small places are my aversion," continued Lady Hester, who, when
+satisfied with her own talk, never cared much what effect it was
+producing upon others. "One grows down insensibly to the measure of a
+petty locality, with its little interests, its little people, and its
+little gossip don't you think so, dear?"
+
+"We were so happy here!" murmured Kate, in a voice that a choking
+fulness of her throat almost stifled.
+
+"Of course you were, child, very happy; and it was very good of you
+to be so. Yes, very good and very right." Here Lady Hester assumed a
+peculiar tone, which she always put on whenever she fancied that she
+was moralizing. "Natural amiability of disposition, and all that sort
+of thing, is very nice indeed; but there 's luncheon, I see, and now, my
+dear, let us take our places without loss of time. George, will you give
+your arm to Miss Dalton? Mr. Dalton but where 's Mr. Dalton?"
+
+"Papa has taken him with him to his dressing-room," answered Sydney,
+"but begged you'd not wait; they'll be back presently."
+
+"No lady does wait at luncheon," said Lady Hester, snappishly, while,
+drawing Kate's arm within her own, she led her into the adjoining room.
+
+The party had scarcely seated themselves at table when they were joined
+by Jekyl. Indeed, Lady Hester had only time to complain of his absence
+when he appeared; for it was a trick of that gentleman's tact merely to
+make himself sufficiently regretted not to be blamed. And now he came
+to say that everything was ready, the postilions in the saddle, the
+carriages drawn up before the door, the relays all been ordered along
+the road, the supper bespoken for the end of the journey. These pleasant
+facts he contrived to season with a running fire of little gossip and
+mimicry, in which the landlord, and Gregoire, and Mademoiselle Celestine
+were the individuals personated.
+
+Never were Mr. Jekyl's peculiar abilities more in request; for the
+moment was an awkward and embarrassing one for all, and none, save
+himself, were able to relieve its seriousness. Even Nelly smiled at
+the witty sallies and playful conceits of this clever talker, and felt
+almost grateful to him for the momentary distraction he afforded her
+from gloomier thoughts. With such success did he exert himself, that all
+the graver sentiments of the occasion were swallowed up in the pleasant
+current of his small-talk, and no time given for a thought of that
+parting which was but a few minutes distant. Sir Stafford and Mr. Dalton
+were not sorry to discover the party in this pleasant humor, and readily
+chimed in with the gayety around them.
+
+The bugle of the postilions at length announced that "time was up," and
+the half-hour, which German politeness accords to leave-taking, expired.
+A dead silence succeeded the sound, and, as if moved by the same
+instinctive feeling, the two sisters arose and withdrew into a window.
+Close locked in each other's arms, neither could speak. Kate's thick
+sobs came fast and full, and her heart beat against her sister's side
+as though it were bursting. As for Nelly, all that she had meant to say,
+the many things she had kept for the last moment, were forgotten, and
+she could but press the wet cheek to her own, and murmur a tremulous
+blessing.
+
+"Oh, if I could but remain with you, Nelly dearest," sobbed Kate; "I
+feel even already my isolation. Is it too late, sister dear, is it too
+late to go back?"
+
+"Not if this be not a sudden impulse of sorrow for parting, Kate; not if
+you think you would be happier here."
+
+"But papa! how will he--what will he--"
+
+She had not time for more, when her father joined them. A certain flurry
+of his manner showed that he was excited by talking and wine together.
+There was that in the expression of his features, too, that betokened a
+mind ill at ease with itself a restless alternating between two courses.
+
+"'Tis you are the lucky girl, Kate," said he, drawing his arm around
+her, and pressing her to him. "This day's good luck pays me off for many
+a hard blow of fortune. They 're kind people you are going with, real
+gentry, and our own blood into the bargain."
+
+A thick heavy sob was all the answer she could make.
+
+"To be sure you're sorry; why would n't you be sorry, leaving your own
+home and going away among strangers? and 't is I am sorry to let you
+go."
+
+"Are you so, dearest papa? Are you really sorry to part with me? Would
+you rather I 'd stay behind with you and Nelly?" cried she, looking up
+at him with eyes swimming in tears.
+
+"Would it, is it?" said he, eagerly, as he kissed her forehead twice;
+then, suddenly checking himself, he said, in an altered voice, "but that
+would be selfish, Kate, nothing else than downright selfish. Ask Nelly,
+there, if that's my nature? Not that Nelly will ever give me too good
+a character!" added he, bitterly. But poor Ellen neither heard the
+question nor the taunt; her mind was travelling many a long mile away in
+realms of dreary speculation.
+
+"I 'm sorry to interrupt a moment like this," said Sir Stafford, "but
+I believe I must take you away, Miss Dalton; our time is now of the
+shortest."
+
+One fond and long embrace the sisters took, and Kate was led away
+between Sir Stafford and her father, while Nelly went through a round
+of leave-takings with the others in a state of semi-consciousness that
+resembled a dream. The courteous flatteries of Lady Hester fell as
+powerless on her ear as the rougher good wishes of Grounsell. George
+Onslow's respectful manner was as unnoticed as the flippant smartness
+of Albert Jekyl's. Even Sydney's gentle attempt at consolation was heard
+without heeding; and when one by one they had gone and left her alone
+in that dreary room, she was not more aware of her solitude than when
+they stood around her.
+
+Couriers and waiters passed in and out to see that nothing had been
+forgotten. Doors were slammed on every side, loud voices were calling,
+all the turmoil of a departure was there; but she knew nothing of it.
+Even when the loud cracking of the postilions' whips echoed in the
+courtyard, and the quick clatter of horses' feet and heavy wheels
+resounded through the arched doorway, she was still unmoved; nor did she
+recover full liberty of thought till her father stood beside her, and
+said, "Come, Nelly, let us go home."
+
+Then she arose, and took his arm without a word. She would have given
+her life to have been able to speak even a few words of comfort to the
+poor old man, whose cheeks were wet with tears, but she could not utter
+a syllable.
+
+"Ay, indeed," muttered he, "it will be a dreary home now."
+
+Not another word was spoken by either as they trod their way along the
+silent streets, over which the coming gloom of evening threw a mournful
+shadow. They walked, with bent-down heads, as if actually fearing to
+recognize the objects that they had so often looked upon with her, and,
+slowly traversing the little Platz, they gained their own door. There
+they halted, and, from habit, pulled the bell. Its little tinkle, heard
+in the stillness, seemed suddenly to recall them both to thought; for
+Dalton, with a melancholy smile, said,
+
+"'T is old Andy is coming now! 'T is n't her foot I hear! Oh, Nelly,
+Nelly, how did you ever persuade me to this! Sure, I know I 'll never be
+happy again!"
+
+Nelly made no answer. The injustice of the speech was well atoned for in
+her mind by the thought that, in shifting the blame from himself to her,
+her father might find some sort of consolation; well satisfied to become
+the subject of his reproach if the sacrifice could alleviate his sorrow.
+
+"Take that chair away; throw it out of the window," cried he, angrily.
+"It breaks my heart to look at it." And with this he leaned his head
+upon the table, and sobbed like a child.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX. A VERY SMALL "INTERIOR."
+
+IN one of the most favored spots of that pleasant quay which goes by
+the name of the Lungo l'Arno, at Florence, there stood a small,
+miserable-looking, rickety old building, of two stories high, wedged in
+between two massive and imposing palaces, as though a buffer to deaden
+the force of collision. In all probability it owed its origin to some
+petty usurpation, and had gradually grown up, from the unobtrusive
+humility of a cobbler's bulk, to the more permanent nuisance of stone
+and mortar. The space occupied was so small as barely to permit of
+a door and a little window beside it, within which hung a variety
+of bridles, halters, and such-like gear, with here and there the
+brass-mounted harnessing of a Calasina, or the gay worsted tassels
+and fringed finery of a peasant's Barroccino. The little spot was so
+completely crammed with wares, that for all purposes of traffic it was
+useless; hence, everything that pertained to sale was carried on in the
+street, thus contributing by another ingredient to the annoyance of this
+misplaced residence. Threats, tyranny, bribery, seductions of twenty
+kinds, intimidation in as many shapes, had all failed in inducing its
+owner to remove to another part of the town. Gigi every one in Florence
+is known by his Christian name, and we never heard him called by any
+other resisted oppressions as manfully as he was proof against
+softer influences, and held his ground, hammering away at his old
+"demi-piques," burnishing bits and scouring housings, in utter
+indifference to the jarred nerves and chafed susceptibilities of his
+fine neighbors. It was not that the man was indifferent to money. It was
+not that the place was associated with any family reminiscences. It was
+not from its being very favorable to the nature of his dealings, since
+his chief customers were usually the frequenters of the less fashionable
+localities. It was the simple fact that Gigi was a Florentine, and, like
+a Florentine, he saw no reason why he should n't have the sun and
+the Arno as well as the Guiciardoni, who lived at his right, or the
+Rinuncini, who dwelt on his left hand.
+
+Small and contracted as that miserable frontage was, the sun did shine
+upon it just as pleasantly as on its proud neighbors, and the bright
+Arno glided by with its laughing ripples; while, from the little window
+above stairs, the eye ranged over the cypress-clad hill of San Miniato
+and the fair gardens of the Boboli. On one side lay the quaint old
+structure of the Ponte Vecchio, with its glittering stores of jewelry,
+and on the other the graceful elliptic arches of St. Trinita spanned the
+stream. The quay before the door was the chosen rallying-point of
+all Florence; the promenade where lounged all its fashionables of an
+evening, as they descended from their carriages after the accustomed
+drive in the Cascini. The Guardie Nobili passed daily, in all their
+scarlet bravery, to and from the Pitti Palace; the Grand Ducal equipage
+never took any other road. A continual flow of travellers to the great
+hotels on the quay contributed its share of bustle and animation to the
+scene; so that here might be said to meet, as in a focus, all that made
+up the life, the stir, and the movement of the capital.
+
+Full of amusement and interest as that morning panorama often is,
+our object is less to linger beside it, than, having squeezed our way
+between the chaotic wares of Gigi's shop, to ascend the little, dark,
+and creaking stairs which lead to the first story, and into which we now
+beg to introduce our reader. There are but two rooms, each of them of
+the dimensions of closets, but furnished with a degree of pretension
+that cannot fail to cause amazement as you enter. Silk draperies, carved
+cabinets, bronzes, china, chairs of ebony, tables of buhl, a Persian rug
+on the floor, an alabaster lamp suspended from the ceiling, miniatures
+in handsome frames, and armor, cover the walls; while, scattered about,
+are richly bound books, and prints, and drawings in water-color. Through
+the half-drawn curtain that covers the doorway for there is no door
+you can peep into the back room, where a lighter and more modern taste
+prevails; the gold-sprigged curtains of a French bed, and the Bohemian
+glass that glitters everywhere, bespeaking another era of decorative
+luxury.
+
+It is not with any invidious pleasure for depreciation, but purely in
+the interests of truth, that we must now tell our reader that, of all
+this seeming elegance and splendor, nothing absolutely nothing is real.
+The brocaded silks have been old petticoats; the ebony is lacquer; the
+ivory is bone; the statuettes are plaster, glazed so as to look like
+marble; the armor is papier mache, even to the owner himself, all is
+imposition, for he is no other than Albert Jekyl.
+
+Now, my dear reader, you and I see these things precisely in the same
+light. The illusion of a first glance stripped off, we smile as we
+examine, one by one, the ingenious devices meant to counterfeit ancient
+art or modern elegance. It is possible, too, that we derive as much
+amusement from the ingenuity exercised, as we should have had pleasure
+in contemplating the realities so typified. Still, there is one
+individual to whom this consciousness brings no alloy of enjoyment;
+Jekyl has persuaded himself to accept all as fact. Like the Indian,
+who first carves and then worships his god, he has gone through the old
+process of fabrication, and now gazes on his handiwork with the eyes
+of a true believer. Gracefully reclined upon an ottoman, the mock amber
+mouthpiece of a gilt hooka between his lips, he dreams, with half-closed
+eyes, of Oriental luxury! A Sybarite in every taste, he has invented a
+little philosophy of his own. He has seen enough of life to know that
+thousands might live in enjoyment out of the superfluities of rich men,
+and yet make them nothing the poorer. What banquet would not admit of
+a guest the more? What fete to which another might not be added? What
+four-in-hand prances by without some vacant seat, be it even in the
+rumble? What gilded gondola has not a place to spare? To be this
+"complement" to the world's want is then his mission.
+
+No man invents a metier without a strong element of success. The very
+creative power is an earnest of victory. It is true that there had been
+great men before Agamemnon. So had there been a race of "diners-out"
+before Jekyl; but he first reduced the practice to system, showing
+that all the triumphs of cookery, all the splendor of equipage, all the
+blandishments of beauty, all the fascinations of high society, may be
+enjoyed by one who actually does not hold a "share in the company," and,
+without the qualification of scrip, takes his place among the directors.
+
+Had he brought to this new profession commonplace abilities and
+inferior acquirements, he would have been lost amid that vulgar herd of
+indistinguishables which infest every city, and whose names are not even
+"writ in water." Jekyl, however, possessed many and varied gifts.
+He might have made a popular preacher in a watering-place; a very
+successful doctor for nervous invalids; a clever practitioner at the
+bar; an admirable member of the newspaper press. He might have been very
+good as an actor; he would have been glorious as an auctioneer. With
+qualities of this order, a most plastic wit, and an india-rubber
+conscience, what bound need there be to his success! Nor was there.
+He was, in all the society of the capital, not alone an admitted and
+accepted, but a welcome guest. He might have failed to strike this man
+as being clever, or that as being agreeable. Some might be disappointed
+in his smartness; some might think his social claims overrated; none
+were ever offended by anything that fell from him. His great secret
+seemed to lie in the fact that, if generally easy to be found when
+required, he was never in the way when not wanted. Had he possessed the
+gift of invisibility, he could scarcely have been more successful in
+this latter good quality. He never interrupted a confidence; never
+marred a tete-a-tete. A kind of instinct would arrest his steps as he
+approached a boudoir where his presence would be undesirable; and he
+has been known to retire from a door on which he had already placed his
+hand, with a sudden burst of intelligence suggesting "to come another
+day."
+
+These, however, seem mere negative qualities; his positive ones were,
+however, not less remarkable. The faculties which some men might have
+devoted to abstract science or metaphysical inquiry, he, with a keen
+perception of his own fitness, resolved to exercise upon the world
+around him. His botany was a human classification, all his chemistry an
+analysis of men's motives. It is true, perhaps, that the poet's line may
+have been received by him with a peculiar limitation, and that, if
+"the proper study of mankind is man," his investigations took a shape
+scarcely contemplated by the writer. It was not man in his freedom of
+thought and action, not man in all the consciousness of power, and in
+the high hope of a great destiny that attracted him; no! it was for
+small humanity that he cared, for all the struggles and wiles and plots
+and schemings of this wicked world; for man amid its pomps and vanities,
+its balls, its festivals, its intrigues, and its calamities.
+
+He felt, with the great dramatist, that "all the world's a stage,"
+and, the better to enjoy the performance, he merely took a "walking
+character," that gave him full leisure to watch the others. Such was our
+friend Albert Jekyl, or, as he was popularly called by his acquaintance,
+Le Due de Dine-out, to distinguish him from the Talleyrands, who are
+Dues de Dino.
+
+Let us now, without further speculation, come back to him, as with his
+window open to admit the "Arno sun," he lay at full length upon his
+ottoman, conning over his dinner list. He had been for some time absent
+from Florence, and in the interval a number of new people had arrived,
+and some of the old had gone away. He was, therefore, running over the
+names of the present and the missing, with a speculative thought for the
+future.
+
+"A bad season, it would seem!" muttered he, as his eye traced rapidly
+the list of English names, in which none of any distinction figured.
+"This comes of Carbonari and Illuminati humbug. They frighten John Bull,
+and he will not come abroad to see a barricade under his window. Great
+numbers have gone away, too, the Scotts, the Carringdons, the Hopleys!
+three excellent houses; and those dear Milnwoods, who, so lately
+'reconciled to Rome,' as the phrase is, 'took out their piety' in Friday
+fish-dinners.
+
+"The Russians, too, have left us; the Geroboffskys gone back to their
+snows again, and expiating their 'liberal tendencies' by a tour in
+Siberia. The Chaptowitsch, recalled in disgrace for asking one of Louis
+Philippe's sons to a breakfast! We have got in exchange a few Carlists,
+half a dozen 'Legitimists,' with very stately manners and small
+fortunes. But a good house to dine at, a good salon for a lounge, a
+pleasant haunt for all seasons and at all hours, what is there? Nothing,
+absolutely nothing. And what a city this was once! crammed, as it used
+to be, with dear, delightful 'ruined families;' that is, those who
+left ruin to their creditors at home, to come out and live gloriously
+abroad. And now I look down my list, and, except my little Sunday dinner
+at 'Marescotte's,' and that half luncheon thing I take at the Villa
+Pessarole, I really see nothing for the whole week. The Onslows, alone,
+figure in strong capitals. Let me see, then, how they must be treated. I
+have already housed them at the Palazzo Mazzarini, and, for some days at
+least, their time will be filled up with upholsterers, decorators,
+and such-like. Then the campaign will open, and I can but watch
+eventualities, and there will be no lack of these. The young Guardsman
+likes play. I must see that Prince Carini does not get hold of him. Miss
+Onslow has a taste for Gothic and stained glass; that, nowadays, often
+ends in a love of saints' shin-bones and other relics. My lady is
+disposed to be a 'fast one;' and, in fact, except the gruff old doctor,
+who is a confounded bore, the whole craft is deficient in ballast. But
+I was forgetting 'the Dalton,' shame on me, for she is very pretty,
+indeed!" He seemed to ruminate and reflect for some minutes, and then
+said aloud, "Yes, ma belle Catharine, with the aid of Albert Jekyl, with
+his counsel to guide, and his head to direct you, there 's no saying
+what your destiny might not be! It would be, I know well, very hard to
+convince you of the fact, and, possibly, were I to try it, you 'd be
+silly enough to fancy me in love with you!" Albert Jekyl in love! The
+idea was so excellent that he lay back and laughed heartily at it. "And
+yet," said he, after a pause, "you 'll see this fact aright one of
+these days. You 'll learn the immense benefit my knowledge would be when
+joined to your own beauty. Ay, Kate! but it will be too late, just so,
+too late; then, like every one else, you 'll have played all your trumps
+before you begin to learn the game. A girl who has caught up every trick
+of manner, every little tactic of society within a month, and who, at
+this hour, would stand the scrutiny of the most fastidious eye, is a
+great prize in the wheel. This aptitude might lead to great things,
+though, in all probability, it will never conduce, save to very little
+ones!"
+
+With this reflection Jekyl arose to begin his toilet, an occupation
+which, less from dandyism than pure self-love, he usually prolonged
+during the whole morning. It was to him a period of self-examination.
+He seemed, to use a mercantile figure, to be taking stock of his own
+capabilities, and investigating his own means of future success.
+
+It was an "open day," that is, he knew not where he should dine; so that
+his costume, while partaking of all the characteristics of the morning,
+had yet combined certain little decorative traits that would not be
+unsuitable if pressed to accept an unpremeditated hospitality.
+
+There were very few, indeed, with whom Jekyl would have condescended
+so to dine, not only from the want of dignity incurred, but that on
+principle he would have preferred the humblest fare at home to the
+vulgarity of a pot-luck dinner, which invariably, as he said himself,
+deranged your digestion, and led to wrong intimacies.
+
+His dress being completed, he looked out along the crowd to see in whose
+carriage he was to have a seat to the Cascini. More than one inviting
+gesture motioned him to a place, as equipage after equipage passed on;
+but although some of those who sought him were high in rank, and others
+distinguished for beauty and attraction, Jekyl declined the courtesies
+with that little wave of the hand so significative in all Italian
+intercourse. Occasionally, indeed, a bland, regretful smile seemed to
+convey the sorrow the refusal cost him; and once he actually placed his
+hand over where his heart might be, as though to express a perfect pang
+of suffering; but still he bided his time.
+
+At last a very dark visage, surrounded by a whisker of blackest hair,
+peeped from beneath the head of a very shabby caleche, whose horse and
+coachman were all of the "seediest;" and Jekyl cried out, "Morlache!"
+while he made a sign towards the Cascini. The other replied by spreading
+out his hand horizontally from his mouth, and blowing along the surface,
+a pantomime meant to express a railroad. Jekyl immediately descended and
+took his place beside him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI. A FAMILY PICTURE
+
+THE fashionable life of a great city has a character of sameness
+which defies all attempts at portraiture. Well-bred people, and their
+amusements, are all constructed so perfectly alike, certain family
+traits pervading them throughout, that every effort at individualization
+is certain to be a failure. You may change the venue, if you will, from
+London to Paris, to Vienna, or St. Petersburg, but the issue is always
+the same; the very same interests are at work, and the same passions
+exercised, by the self-same kind of people. If such be the rule among
+the first-rate capitals of Europe, it is very far from being the case
+in those smaller cities which belong to inferior States, and which, from
+reasons of health, pleasure, or economy, are the resort of strangers
+from different parts of the world. In these society is less disciplined,
+social rank less defined; conflicting claims and rival nationalities
+disturb the scene, and there is, so to say, a kind of struggle for
+pre-eminence, which in better regulated communities is never witnessed.
+If, as is unquestionably true, such places rarely present the
+attractions of good society, they offer to the mere observer infinitely
+more varied and amusing views of life than he would ever expect to see
+elsewhere. As in the few days of a revolution, when the "barricades are
+up," and all hurrying to the conflict, more of national character will
+be exhibited than in half a century of tame obedience to the law; so
+here are displayed, to the sun and the noonday, all those passions and
+pretensions which rarely see the light in other places.
+
+The great besetting sin of this social state is the taste for NOTORIETY.
+Everything must contribute to this. Not alone wealth, splendor, rank,
+and genius, but vice, in all its shapes and forms, must be notorious.
+"Better be calumniated in all the moods and tenses than untalked of," is
+the grand axiom. Do something that can be reported of you, good, if you
+will, bad, if you must; but do it. If you be not rich enough to astonish
+by the caprices of your wealth, do something by your wits, or even your
+whiskers. The color of a man's gloves has sufficed to make his fortune.
+
+Upon this strange ocean, which, if rarely storm-shaken, was never
+perfectly tranquil, the Onslows were now launched, as well pleased as
+people usually are who, from being of third or fourth-rate importance
+in their own country, suddenly awake to the fact that they are
+celebrities abroad.
+
+The Mazzarini Palace had long been untenanted; its last occupant had
+been one of the Borghese family, whose princely fortune was still unable
+to maintain the splendor of a residence fitted only for royalty. To
+learn, therefore, that a rich "milordo" had arrived there with the
+intention of passing his winter, was a piece of news that occupied every
+tongue in the city. Gossips were questioned about the private history,
+the peerage consulted for such facts as were public. Sir Stafford's
+wealth was actively discussed, and all possible inroads upon it his
+son's extravagance might have made debated and decided on. A minute
+investigation into their probable reasons for leaving England was also
+instituted, in which conjectures far more ingenious than true figured
+prominently. What they were like what they said, did, and meant to do
+was the sole table-talk of the capital.
+
+"They've had their horses out from England," said one; "They 've
+taken the best box at the Pergola," said another; "They've engaged
+Midchekoff's cook," said a third; "They 've been speaking to Gridani
+about his band," chimed in a fourth; and so on. All their proceedings
+were watched and followed by that eager vulturehood which hungers for
+ortolans, and thirsts for iced champagne.
+
+Nor were the Onslows without offering food for this curious solicitude.
+From the hour of her arrival, Lady Hester had been deeply engaged, in
+concert with her grand vizier, Albert Jekyl, in preparations for the
+coming campaign. An army of upholsterers, decorators, and such-like,
+beset the Palazzo with enormous vans crammed full of wares. Furniture,
+that had served royal guests, and was even yet in high preservation, was
+condemned, to give way to newer and more costly decoration. Rich stuffs
+and hangings that had been the admiration of many a visitor, were
+ruthlessly pulled down, to be replaced by even more gorgeous materials;
+till at last it was whispered about that, except some antique cabinets,
+the pictures, and a few tables of malachite or marble, little or nothing
+remained of what once constituted the splendor of the place.
+
+These were mere rumors, however; for as yet, none, save Albert Jekyl
+himself, had seen the interior; and from him, unless disposed to accord
+it, all Confidence was hopeless. Indeed, his little vague stare when
+questioned; his simpering, "I shouldn't wonder," "It is very likely," or
+"Now that you mention it, I begin to think so too," would have disarmed
+the suspicion of all who had not studied him deeply. What the Onslows
+were going to do, and when they would do it, were, then, the vexed
+questions of every coterie. In a few days more the Carnival would begin,
+and yet no announcement of their intentions had yet gone forth, no
+programme of future festivities been issued to the world. A vague and
+terrible fear began to prevail that it was possible they meant all
+these splendid preparations for themselves alone. Such a treason was
+incredible at first; but as day followed day, and no sign was made,
+suspicion ripened into actual dread; and now the eager expectants began
+to whisper among themselves dark reasons for a conduct so strange and
+inexplicable.
+
+Haggerstone contributed his share to these mysterious doublings, for,
+while not confessing that his acquaintance with the Onslows was of the
+very slightest, and dated but from a week before, he spoke of them with
+all the affected ease and information of one who had known them for
+years.
+
+Nor were his comments of the most flattering kind, for seeing how
+decidedly every effort he made to renew acquaintance was met by a
+steady opposition, he lost no time in assuming his stand as enemy. The
+interval of doubt which had occurred as to their probable mode of life
+was favorable for this line of action. None knew if they were ever to
+partake of the splendor and magnificence of the Mazzarini; none could
+guess what chance they had of the sumptuous banquets of the rich man's
+table. It was a lottery, in which, as yet, they had not even a ticket;
+and what so natural as to depreciate the scheme!
+
+If the courts of law and equity be the recognized tribunals by which the
+rights of property are decided, so there exists in every city certain
+not less decisive courts, which pronounce upon all questions of social
+claims, and deliver judgments upon the pretensions of every new arrival
+amongst them. High amid the number of these was a certain family called
+Ricketts, who had been residents of Florence for thirty-odd years back.
+They consisted of three persons, General Ricketts, his wife, and a
+maiden sister of the General. They inhabited a small house in a garden
+within the boulevard, dignified by the name of the "41 Villino Zoe." It
+had originally been the humble residence of a market-gardener, but, by
+the aid of paint and plaster, contrived to impose upon the world almost
+as successfully as did the fair owner herself by the help of similar
+adjuncts. A word, however, for the humanities before we speak of their
+abiding-place. The "General" Heaven alone knew when, where, or in
+what service he became so was a small, delicate little man, with bland
+manners, a weak voice, a weak stomach, and a weaker head; his instincts
+all mild, gentle, and inoffensive, and his whole pursuit in life
+a passion for inventing fortifications, and defending passes and
+tetes-du-pont by lines, circumvallations, and ravelins, which cost reams
+of paper and whole buckets of water-color to describe. The only fire
+which burned within his nature was a little flickering flame of hope,
+that one day the world would awake to the recognition of his great
+discoveries, and his name be associated with those of Vauban and Carnot.
+Sustained by this, he bore up against contemporary neglect and actual
+indifference; he whispered to himself, that, like Nelson, he would one
+day "have a gazette of his own," and in this firm conviction, he went on
+with rule and compass, measuring and daubing and drawing from morn till
+night, happy, humble, and contented: nothing could possibly be more
+inoffensive than such an existence. Even the French our natural enemies
+or the Russians our Palmerstonian Betes noires would have forgiven, had
+they but seen, the devices of his patriotism. Never did heroic ardor
+burn in a milder bosom, for, though his brain revelled in all the
+horrors of siege and slaughter, he would not have had the heart to crush
+a beetle.
+
+Unlike him in every respect was the partner of his joys: a more
+bustling, plotting, scheming existence it was hard to conceive. Most
+pretenders are satisfied with aspiring to one crown; her ambitions were
+"legion." When Columbus received the taunts of the courtiers on the ease
+of his discovery, and merely replied, that the merit lay simply in the
+fact that he alone had made it, he was uttering a truth susceptible of
+very wide application. Nine tenths of the inventions which promote
+the happiness or secure the ease of mankind have been not a whit more
+difficult than that of balancing the egg. They only needed that some one
+should think of them "practically." Thousands may have done so in
+moods of speculation or fancy; the grand requisite was a practical
+intelligence. Such was Mrs. Ricketts's. As she had seen at Naples
+the lava used for mere road-making, which in other hands, and by other
+treatment, might have been fashioned into all the shapes and colors
+of Bohemian glass, so did she perceive that a certain raw material was
+equally misapplied and devoted to base uses, but which, by the touch
+of genius, might be made powerful as the wand of an enchanter. This was
+"Flattery." Do not, like the Spanish courtiers, my dear reader, do not
+smile at her discovery, nor suppose that she had been merely exploring
+an old and exhausted mine. Her flattery was not, as the world employs
+it, an exaggerated estimate of existing qualities, but a grand poetic
+and creative power, that actually begot the great sublime it praised.
+Whatever your walk, rank, or condition in life, she instantly laid hold
+of it to entrap you. No matter what your size, stature, or symmetry, she
+could costume you in a minute! Her praises, like an elastic-web livery,
+fitted all her slaves; and slaves were they of the most abject slavery,
+who were led by the dictation of her crafty intelligence!
+
+A word about poor Martha, and we have done; nor, indeed, is there any
+need we should say more than that she was universally known as "Poor
+Martha" by all their acquaintance. Oh! what patience, submission, and
+long suffering it takes before the world will confer its degree of
+Martyr, before they will condescend to visit, even with so cheap a thing
+as compassion, the life of an enduring self-devotion. Martha had had but
+one idol all her life, her brother; and although, when he married late
+in years, she had almost died broken-hearted at the shock, she clung to
+him and his fortunes, unable to separate from one to whose habits she
+had been ministering for above thirty years. It was said that originally
+she was a person of good common faculties, and a reasonably fair
+knowledge of the world; but to see her at the time of which we now
+speak, not a vestige remained of either, not a stone marked where the
+edifice once stood. Nor can this ba matter of wonderment. Who could have
+passed years amid all the phantasmagoria of that unreal existence, and
+either not gone clean mad, or made a weak compromise with sanity,
+by accepting everything as real? Poor Martha had exactly these two
+alternatives, either to "believe the crusts mutton," or be eternally
+shut out from all hope. Who can tell the long and terrible struggle such
+a mind must have endured? what little bursts of honest energy repelled
+by fear and timidity? what good intentions baffled by natural humility,
+and the affection she bore her brother?
+
+It may have nay, it did cost her much to believe this strange creed of
+her sister-in-law; but she ended by doing so. So implicit was her faith,
+that, like a true devotee, she would not trust the evidence of her own
+senses, if opposed by the articles of her belief. The very pictures
+at whose purchase she had been present, and whose restoration and
+relacquering had been the work of her own hands, she was willing to aver
+had been the gifts of royal and princely personages. The books for which
+she had herself written to the publishers, she would swear all tributes
+offered by the respective writers to the throne of taste and erudition.
+Every object with whose humble birth and origin she was familiar, was
+associated in her mind with some curious history, which, got off by
+rote, she repeated with full credulity. Like the well-known athlete, who
+lifted a bull because he had accustomed himself to the feat since
+the animal had been a calf, rising from small beginnings, she had so
+educated her faculties that now nothing was above her powers. Not all
+the straits and contrivances by which this motley display was got up,
+not all the previous schemings and plottings, not all the discussions
+as to what King or Kaiser this should be attributed, by what artist that
+was painted, who carved this cup, who enamelled that vase, could shake
+the firmness of her faith when the matter was once decided. She might
+oppose the Bill in every stage; she might cavil at it in Committee, and
+divide on every clause; but when it once became law, she revered it as
+a statute of the land. All her own doubts faded away on the instant; all
+her former suggestions vanished at once; a new light seemed to break
+on her mind, and she appeared to see with the eyes of truth and
+discernment. We have been led away beyond our intention in this sketch,
+and have no space to devote to that temple wherein the mysteries were
+celebrated. Enough if we say that it was small and ill-arranged, its
+discomfort increased by the incongruous collection of rare and curious
+objects by which it was filled. Stuffed lions stood in the hall; mock
+men in armor guarded the entrance to the library; vast glass cases
+of mineralogical wealth, botanical specimens, stuffed birds, impaled
+butterflies, Indian weapons, Etrurian cups, Irish antiquities, Chinese
+curiosities, covered the walls on every side. Not a specimen amongst
+them that could not trace its presentation to some illustrious donor.
+Miniatures of dear, dear friends everywhere; and what a catholic
+friendship was that which included every one, from Lord Byron to
+Chalmers, and took in the whole range of morals, from Mrs. Opie to Fanny
+Elssler. Indeed, although the fair Zoe was a "rigid virtue," her love of
+genius, her "mind-worship," as she called it, often led her into
+strange intimacies with that intellectual class whose strength lies in
+pirouettes, and whose gifts are short petticoats. In a word, whatever
+was "notorious" was her natural prey; a great painter, a great radical,
+a great basso, a great traveller; any one to lionize, anything to hang
+history upon; to enlist, even "for one night only," in that absurd
+comedy which was performed at her house, and to display among her
+acquaintances as another in that long catalogue of those who came to lay
+the tribute of their genius at her feet.
+
+That a large section of society was disposed to be rude and ungenerous
+enough to think her a bore, is a fact that we are, however unwilling,
+obliged to confess; but her actual influence was little affected by
+the fact. The real serious business of life is often carried on in
+localities surrounded by innumerable inconveniences. Men buy and sell
+their millions, subsidize states, and raise loans in dens dark and
+dismal enough to be prison-cells. In the same way, the Villino was a
+recognized rendezvous of all who wanted to hear what was going on in the
+world, and who wished to be d la hauteur of every current scandal of
+the day. Not that such was ever the tone of the conversation; on the
+contrary, it was "all taste and the musical glasses," the "naughty talk"
+being the mere asides of the scene.
+
+Now, in that season of foreign life which precedes the Carnival, and on
+those nights when there is no opera, any one benevolent enough to open
+his doors to receive is sure of full houses; so the Villino "improved
+the occasion," by announcing a series of Tuesdays and Fridays, which
+were, as the papers say, frequented by all the rank and fashion of the
+metropolis. It is at one of these "at homes" that we would now present
+our reader, not, indeed, during the full moon of the reception, when
+the crowded rooms, suffocating with heat, were crammed with visitors,
+talking in every tongue of Europe, and every imaginable dialect of each.
+The great melee tournament was over, and a few lingered over the now
+empty lists, discussing in familiar converse the departed guests and the
+events of the evening.
+
+This privy council consisted of the reader's old acquaintance,
+Haggerstone, a Russo-Polish Count Petrolaffski, a dark, sallow-skinned,
+odd-looking gentleman, whose national predilections had raised him to
+the rank of an enemy to the Emperor, but whose private resources, it
+was rumored, came from the Imperial treasury to reward his services as
+a spy; a certain Mr. Scroope Purvis, the brother of Mrs. Ricketts,
+completing the party. He was a little, rosy-cheeked old man, with a limp
+and a stutter, perpetually running about retailing gossip, which, by
+some accident or other, he invariably got all wrong, never, on even the
+most trifling occasion, being able to record a fact as it occurred.
+
+Such were the individuals of a group which sat around the fire in close
+and secret confab., Mrs. Ricketts herself placed in the midst, her fair
+proportions gracefully disposed in a chair whose embroidery displayed
+all the quarterings and emblazonment of her family for centuries back.
+The "Bill" before the house was the Onslows, whose res gestee were
+causing a most intense interest everywhere.
+
+"Have dey return your call, madam?" asked the Pole, with an almost
+imperceptible glance beneath his dark brows.
+
+"Not yet, Count; we only left our cards yesterday." This, be it said in
+parenthesis, was "inexact," the visit had been made eight days before.
+"Nor should we have gone at all, but Lady Foxington begged and entreated
+we would. 'They will be so utterly without guidance of any kind,' she
+said, 'you must really take them in hand.'"
+
+"And you will take dem in your hand eh?"
+
+"That depends, my dear Count, that depends," said she, pondering. "We
+must see what line they adopt here; rank and wealth have no influence
+with us if ununited with moral and intellectual excellence."
+
+"I take it, then, your circle will be more select than amusing this
+winter," said Haggerstone, with one of his whip-cracking enunciations.
+
+"Be it so, Colonel," sighed she, plaintively. "Like a lone beacon on a
+rock, with I forget the quotation."
+
+"With the phos-phos-phos-phate of lime upon it?" said Purvis, "that new
+discov-co-covery?"
+
+"With no such thing! A figure is, I perceive, a dangerous mode of
+expression."
+
+"Ha! ha! ha!" cried he, with a peculiar cackle, whose hysteric notes
+always carried himself into the seventh heaven of enjoyment, "you would
+cut a pretty figure if you were to be made a beacon of, and be burned
+like Moses. Ha! ha! ha!"
+
+The lady turned from him in disdain, and addressed the Colonel.
+
+"So you really think that they are embarrassed, and that is the true
+reason of their coming abroad?"
+
+"I believe I may say I know it, ma'am!" rejoined he. "There is a kind of
+connection between our families, although I should be very sorry they 'd
+hear of it, the Badelys and the Harringtons are first cousins."
+
+"Oh, to be sure!" broke in Purvis. "Jane Harrington was father; no, no,
+not father she was mo-mo-mother of Tom Badely; no! that is n't it, she
+was his aunt, or his brother-in-law, I forget which."
+
+"Pray be good enough, sir, not to involve a respectable family in
+a breach of common law," said Haggerstone, tartly, "and leave the
+explanation to me."
+
+"How I do dislike dat English habit of countin' cousins," said the
+Pole; "you never see tree, four English togeder without a leetle tree
+of genealogie in de middle, and dey do sit all round, fighting for de
+fruit."
+
+"Financial reasons, then, might dictate retirement," said Mrs. Ricketts,
+coming back to the original theme.
+
+A very significant nod from Haggerstone inferred that he concurred in
+the remark.
+
+"Four contested elections for a county, ma'am, a spendthrift wife, and a
+gambling son, rarely increase a man's income," said he, sententiously.
+
+"Do he play? What for play is he fond of?" asked the Pole, eagerly.
+
+"Play, sir? There is nothing an Englishman will not play at, from the
+turf, to tossing for sovereigns."
+
+"So Hamlet say, in Shakspeare, 'de play is de ting,'" cried the Count,
+with the air of a man who made a happy quotation.
+
+"They are going to have plays," broke in Purvis; "Jekyl let it out
+to-night. They 're going to get up a Vauvau-vau-vau--"
+
+"A tete de veau, probably, sir," said Haggerstone; "In which case,"
+continued he, in a whisper, "you would be invaluable."
+
+"No, it is n't that," broke in Purvis; "they are to have what they call
+Proverbs."
+
+"I trust they have engaged your services as Solomon, sir," said
+Haggerstone, with that look of satisfaction which always followed an
+impudent speech.
+
+"I heard the subject of one of them," resumed the other, who was far too
+occupied with his theme to bestow a thought upon a sarcasm. "There's a
+lady in love with with with her Mam-mam-mam--"
+
+"Her mamma," suggested the Pole.
+
+"No, it is n't her mamma; it's her Mam-ame-ameluke her Mameluke slave;
+and he, who is a native prince, with a great many wives of his own--"
+
+"Oh, for shame, Scroope, you forget Martha is here," said Mrs. Ricketts,
+who was always ready to suppress the bore by a call to order on the
+score of morals.
+
+"It isn't wrong, I assure you; just hear me out; let me only explain--"
+
+"There, pray don't insist, I beg you," said Mrs. Ricketts, with a regal
+wave of her hand.
+
+"Why, it's Miss Dalton is to play it, Jekyl says," cried Purvis, in a
+tone of most imploring cadence.
+
+"And who may Miss Dalton be?" asked Mrs. Ricketts.
+
+"She is the niece no, she's the aunt or rather her father is aunt to
+to--"
+
+"He may be an old lady, sir; but, surely--"
+
+"Oh, I have it now!" broke in Purvis. "It was her mother; Miss
+Da-a-alton's mother was uncle to a Stafford."
+
+"Perhaps I can shorten the pedigree," said Haggerstone, tartly. "The
+young lady is the daughter of a man whom this same Sir Stafford tricked
+out of his fortune; they were distant relatives, so he had n't even the
+plea of blood-relationship to cover his iniquity. It was, however, an
+Irish fortune, and, like a Spanish chateau, its loss is more a question
+of feeling than of fact. The lawyers still say that Dalton's right is
+unimpeachable, and that the Onslows have not even the shadow of a case
+for a jury."
+
+"An' have de lady no broder nor sister?" asked the Count, who had heard
+this story with much attention.
+
+"She has, sir, both brother and sister, but both illegitimate, so that
+this girl is the heiress to the estate."
+
+"And probably destined to be the wife of the young Guardsman," said Mrs.
+Ricketts.
+
+"Guessed with your habitual perspicuity, madam," said Haggerstone,
+bowing.
+
+"How very shocking! What worldliness one sees everywhere!" cried she,
+plaintively.
+
+"The world is excessively worldly, madam," rejoined Haggerstone; "but I
+really believe that we are not a jot worse than were the patriarchs of
+old."
+
+"Ah, oui, les patriarches!" echoed the Pole, laughing, and always ready
+to seize upon an allusion that savored of irreverence.
+
+"Count! Colonel Haggerstone!" cried Mrs. Ricketts, in reproof, and
+with a look to where Martha sat at her embroidery-frame. "And this Miss
+Dalton is she pretty?"
+
+"She is pretty at this moment, madam; but, with a clever hairdresser
+and a good milliner, would be downright beautiful. Of course these
+are adjuncts she is little likely to find during her sojourn with the
+Onslows."
+
+"Poor thing! how glad one would be to offer her a kinder asylum," said
+Mrs. Ricketts, while she threw her eyes over the cracked china
+monsters and mock Vandykes around her; "a home," added she, "where
+intellectuality and refinement might compensate for the vulgar pleasures
+of mere wealth!"
+
+"She may want such, one of these days, yet, or I'm much mistaken," said
+Haggerstone. "Onslow has got himself very deep in railway speculations;
+he has heavy liabilities in some Mexican mining affairs too. They 've
+all been living very fast; and a crash a real crash" this word he gave
+with a force of utterance that only malignity could compass "is almost
+certain to follow! What an excellent stable will come to the hammer
+then! There 's a 'Bone setter' colt worth a thousand guineas, with his
+engagements."
+
+And now there was a little pause in the dialogue, while each followed
+out the thoughts of his own mind. Haggerstoue's were upon the admirable
+opportunity of picking up a first-rate batch of horses for a fourth
+of their value; Mrs. Ricketts was pondering over the good policy of
+securing possession of a rich heiress as a member of her family, to be
+held in bondage as long as possible, and eventually if it must be given
+in marriage to some unprovided-for cousin; the Pole's dreams were of a
+rich wife; and Purvis, less ambitious than the rest, merely revelled in
+the thought of all the gossip this great event, when it should come off,
+would afford him; the innumerable anecdotes he would have to retail of
+the family and their wastefulness; the tea-parties he should enliven
+by his narratives; the soirees he would amuse with his sallies. Blessed
+gift of imbecility! how infinitely more pleasurable to its possessor
+than all the qualities and attributes of genius!
+
+"Dat is ver pretty indeed, tres jolie!" said the Count, bestowing a look
+of approval at the embroidery-frame, whereupon, for eight mortal months,
+poor Martha labored at the emblazonment of the Ricketts' arms; "de
+leetle dogs are as de life."
+
+"They are tigers, Monsieur le Comte," replied she, modestly.
+
+"Oh, pardon! dey are tigres!"
+
+"Most puppies are somewhat tigerish nowadays," chimed in Haggerstone,
+rising to take his leave.
+
+"You are leaving us early, Colonel," said the old General, as he
+awoke from a long nap on the little corner sofa, which formed his
+resting-place.
+
+"It is past two, sir; and, even in your society, one cannot cheat time."
+Then, having acquitted himself of his debt of impertinence, he wished
+them good-night. The others, also, took their leave and departed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII. KATE.
+
+LET us now return to Kate Dalton, whose life, since we last saw her, had
+been one round of brilliant enjoyment. To the pleasure of the journey,
+with all its varied objects of interest, the picturesque scenery of the
+Via Mala, the desolate grandeur of the Splugen, the calm and tranquil
+beauty of Como, succeeded the thousand treasures of art in the great
+cities where they halted. At first every image and object seemed
+associated by some invisible link with thoughts of home. What would
+Nelly think or say of this? was the ever-recurring question of her mind.
+How should she ever be able to treasure up her own memories and tell
+of the wonderful things that every moment met her eyes? The quick
+succession of objects, all new and dazzling, were but so many wonders to
+bring back to that "dear fireside" of home. The Onslows themselves, who
+saw everything without enthusiasm of any kind, appeared to take pleasure
+in the freshness of the young girl's admiration. It gave them, as
+it were, a kind of reflected pleasure, while, amid galleries and
+collections of all that was rare and curious, nothing struck them as
+half so surprising as the boundless delight of her unhackneyed nature.
+
+Educated to a certain extent by watching the pursuits of her sister,
+Kate knew how to observe with taste, and admire with discrimination.
+Beauty of high order would seem frequently endowed with a power of
+appreciating the beauty of art, a species of relation appearing almost
+to subsist between the two.
+
+Gifted with this instinct, there was an intensity in all her enjoyments,
+which displayed itself in the animation of her manner and the elevated
+expression of her features. The coldest and most worldly natures are
+seldom able to resist the influence of this enthusiasm; however hard the
+metal of their hearts, they must melt beneath this flame. Lady Hester
+Onslow herself could not remain insensible to the pure sincerity and
+generous warmth of this artless girl. For a time the combat, silent,
+unseen, but eventful, was maintained between these two opposite natures,
+the principle of good warring with the instincts of evil. The victory
+might have rested with the true cause there was every prospect of its
+doing so when Sydney Onslow, all whose sympathies were with Kate, and
+whose alliance had every charm of sisterhood, was suddenly recalled to
+England by tidings of her aunt's illness. Educated by her aunt Conway,
+she had always looked up to her as a mother, nor did the unhappy
+circumstances of her father's second marriage tend to weaken this
+feeling of attachment. The sad news reached them at Genoa; and Sydney,
+accompanied by Dr. Grounsell, at once set out for London. If the sudden
+separation of the two girls, just at the very moment of a budding
+friendship, was sorrowfully felt by both, to Lady Hester the event was
+anything but unwelcome.
+
+She never had liked Sydney; she now detested the notion of a
+step-daughter, almost of her own age, in the same society with herself;
+she dreaded, besides, the influence that she had already acquired over
+Kate, whose whole heart and nature she had resolved on monopolizing.
+It was not from any feeling of attachment or affection, it was the pure
+miser-like desire for possession that animated her. The plan of carrying
+away Kate from her friends and home had been her own; she, therefore,
+owned her; the original title was vested in her: the young girl's whole
+future was to be in her hands; her "road in life" was to be at her
+dictation. To be free of Sydney and the odious doctor by the same event
+was a double happiness, which, in spite of all the decorous restraints
+bad news impose, actually displayed itself in the most palpable form.
+
+The Palazzo Mazzarini was now to be opened to the world, with all the
+splendor wealth could bestow, untrammelled by any restriction the taste
+of Sydney or the prudence of the doctor might impose. Sir Stafford, ever
+ready to purchase quiet for himself at any cost of money, objected
+to nothing. The cheapness of Italy, the expectations formed of an
+Englishman, were the arguments which always silenced him if he ventured
+on the very mildest remonstrance about expenditure; and Jekyl was
+immediately called into the witness-box, to show that among the
+economies of the Continent nothing was so striking as the facilities of
+entertaining. George, as might be supposed, had no dislike to see their
+own house the great centre of society, and himself the much sought-after
+and caressed youth of the capital.
+
+As for Kate, pleasure came associated in her mind with all that
+could elevate and exalt it, refinement of manners, taste, luxury, the
+fascinations of wit, the glitter of conversational brilliancy. She had
+long known that she was handsome, but she had never felt it till now;
+never awoke to that thrilling emotion which whispers of power over
+others, and which elevates the possessor of a great quality into a
+species of petty sovereignty above their fellows. Her progress in
+this conviction was a good deal aided by her maid; for, at Jekyl's
+suggestion, a certain Mademoiselle Nina had been attached to her
+personal staff.
+
+It was not easy at first for Kate to believe in the fact at all that she
+should have a peculiar attendant; nor was it without much constraint and
+confusion that she could accept of services from one whose whole air and
+bearing bore the stamp of breeding and tact. Mademoiselle Nina had been
+the maid of the Princess Menzikoff, the most distinguished belle
+of Florence, the model of taste and elegance in dress; but when the
+Princess separated from her husband, some unexplained circumstances
+had involved the name of the femme de chambre, so that, instead of
+"exchanging without a difference," as a person of her great abilities
+might readily have done, she had disappeared for a while from the scene
+and sphere in which habitually she moved, and only emerged from her
+seclusion to accept the humble position of Kate Dalton's maid. She was a
+perfect type of her own countrywomen in her own class of life. Small
+and neatly formed, her head was too large for her size, and the forehead
+over-large for the face, the brows and temples being developed
+beyond all proportion. Her eyes, jet black and deeply set, were cold,
+stern-looking, and sleepy, sadness, or rather weariness, being the
+characteristic expression of the face. Her mouth, however, when she
+smiled, relieved this, and gave a look of softness to her features. Her
+manner was that of great distance and respect, the trained observance of
+one who had been always held in the firm hand of discipline, and never
+suffered to assume the slightest approach to a liberty. She contrived,
+however, even in her silence, or in the very few words she ever uttered,
+to throw an air of devotion into her service that took away from the
+formality of a manner that at first seemed cold and even repulsive.
+Kate, indeed, in the beginning, was thrown back by the studied reserve
+and deferential distance she observed; but as days went over, and she
+grew more accustomed to the girl's manner, she began to feel pleased
+with the placid and unchanging demeanor that seemed to bespeak a mind
+admirably trained and regulated to its own round of duties.
+
+While Kate sat at a writing-table, adding a few lines to that letter
+which, began more than a week ago, was still far from being completed,
+Nina, whose place was beside the window, worked away with bent-down
+head, not seeming to have a thought save for the occupation before her.
+Not so Kate; fancies came and went at every instant, breaking in
+upon the tenor of her thoughts, or wending far away on errands of
+speculation. Now she would turn her eye from the page to gaze in
+wondering delight at the tasteful decorations of her little chamber, a
+perfect gem of elegance in all its details; then she would start up to
+step out upon the terrace, where even in winter the orange-trees were
+standing, shedding their sweet odor at every breeze from the Arno. With
+what rapturous delight she would follow the windings of that bright
+river, till it was lost in the dark woods of the Cascini! How the sounds
+of passing equipages, the glitter and display of the moving throng,
+stirred her heart; and then, as she turned back within the room, with
+what a thrill of ecstasy her eyes rested on the splendid ball-dress
+which Nina had just laid upon the sofa! With a trembling hand she
+touched the delicate tissue of Brussels lace, and placed it over her
+arm in a graceful fold, her cheek flushing and her chest heaving in
+consciousness of heightening beauty.
+
+[Illustration:  262]
+
+Nina's head was never raised, her nimble fingers never ceased to ply;
+but beneath her dark brows her darker eyes shot forth a glance of deep
+and subtle meaning, as she watched the young girl's gesture.
+
+"Nina," cried she, at last, "it is much too handsome for me; although
+I love to look at it, I actually fear to wear it. You know I never have
+worn anything like this before."
+
+"Mademoiselle is too diffident and too unjust to her own charms;
+beautiful as is the robe, it only suits the elegance of its wearer."
+
+"One ought to be so graceful in every gesture, so perfect in every
+movement beneath folds like these," cried Kate, still gazing at the fine
+tracery.
+
+"Mademoiselle is grace itself!" said she, in a low, soft voice, so
+quiet in its utterance that it sounded like a reflection uttered
+unconsciously.
+
+"Oh, Nina, if I were so! If I only could feel that my every look and
+movement were not recalling the peasant girl; for, after all, I have
+been little better, our good blood could not protect us from being poor,
+and poverty means so much that lowers!"
+
+Nina sighed, but so softly as to be inaudible; and Kate went on:
+
+"My sister Nelly never thought so; she always felt differently. Oh,
+Nina, how you would love her if you saw her, and how you would admire
+her beautiful hair, and those deep blue eyes, so soft, so calm, and yet
+so meaning."
+
+Nina looked up, and seemed to give a glance that implied assent.
+
+"Nelly would be so happy here, wandering through these galleries, and
+sitting for hours long in those beautiful churches, surrounded with all
+that can elevate feeling or warm imagination; she, too, would know
+how to profit by these treasures of art. The frivolous enjoyments
+that please me would be beneath her. Perhaps she would teach me better
+things; perhaps I might turn from mere sensual pleasure to higher and
+purer sources of happiness."
+
+"Will Mademoiselle permit me to try this wreath?" said Nina, advancing
+with a garland of white roses, which she gracefully placed around Kate's
+head.
+
+A half cry of delight burst from Kate as she saw the effect in the
+glass.
+
+"Beautiful, indeed!" said Nina, as though in concurrence with an
+unspoken emotion.
+
+"But, Nina, I scarcely like this it seems as though I cannot tell what
+I wish as though I would desire notice I, that am nothing that ought to
+pass unobserved."
+
+"You, Mademoiselle," cried Nina, and for the first time a slight warmth
+coloring the tone of her manner, "you, Mademoiselle, the belle, the
+beauty, the acknowledged beauty of Florence!"
+
+"Nina! Nina!" cried Kate rebukingly.
+
+"I hope Mademoiselle will forgive me. I would not for the world fail in
+my respect," said Nina, with deep humility; "but I was only repeating
+what others spoke."
+
+"I am not angry, Nina, at least, not with you," said Kate, hurriedly.
+"With myself, indeed, I 'm scarcely quite pleased. But who could have
+said such a silly thing?"
+
+"Every one, Mademoiselle, every one, as they were standing beneath the
+terrace t' other evening. I overheard Count Labinski say it to Captain
+Onslow; and then my Lady took it up, and said, 'You are quite right,
+gentlemen; there is nothing that approaches her in beauty.'"
+
+"Nina! dear Nina!" said Kate, covering her flushed face with both hands.
+
+"The Count de Melzi was more enthusiastic than even the rest. He vowed
+that he had grown out of temper with his Raffaelles since he saw you."
+
+A hearty burst of laughter from Kate told that this flattery, at least,
+had gone too far. And now she resumed her seat at the writing-table.
+It was of the Splugen Pass and Como she had been writing; of the first
+burst of Italy upon the senses, as, crossing the High Alps, the land of
+the terraced vine lay stretched beneath. She tried to fall back upon the
+memory of that glorious scene as it broke upon her; but it was in vain.
+Other and far different thoughts had gained the mastery. It was no
+longer the calm lake, on whose mirrored surface snow-peaks and glaciers
+were reflected; it was not of those crags, over which the wild-fig and
+the olive, the oleander and the mimosa, are spreading, she could think.
+Other images crowded to her brain; troops of admirers were before her
+fancy; the hum of adulation filled her ears; splendid salons, resounding
+with delicious music, and ablaze with a thousand wax-lights, rose before
+her imagination, and her heart swelled with conscious triumph. The
+transition was most abrupt, then, from a description of scenery and
+natural objects to a narrative of the actual life of Florence:
+
+     "Up to this, Nelly, we have seen no one, except Mr. Jekyl,
+     whom you will remember as having met at Baden. He dines here
+     several days every week, and is most amusing with his funny
+     anecdotes and imitations, for he knows everybody, and is a
+     wonderful mimic. You 'd swear Dr. Grounsell was in the next
+     room if you heard Mr. Jekyl' s imitation. There has been
+     some difficulty about an opera-box, for Mr. Jekyl, who
+     manages everybody, will insist upon having Prince
+     Midchekoff's, which is better than the royal box, and has
+     not succeeded. For this reason we have not yet been to the
+     Opera; and, as the Palace has been undergoing a total change
+     of decoration and furniture, there has been no reception
+     here as yet; but on Tuesday we are to give our first ball.
+     All that I could tell you of splendor, my dearest Nelly,
+     would be nothing to the reality of what I see here. Such
+     magnificence in every detail; such troops of servants, all
+     so respectful and obliging, and some dressed in liveries
+     that resemble handsome uniforms! Such gold and silver plate!
+     such delicious flowers everywhere on the staircase, in the
+     drawing-room, here, actually, beside me as I write! And, oh,
+     Nelly, if you could see my dress! Lace, with bouquets of red
+     camellia, and looped up with strings of small pearls. Think
+     of me, of poor Kate Dal ton, wearing such splendor! And,
+     strange enough, too, I do not feel awkward in it. My hair,
+     that you used to think I dressed so well myself, has been
+     pronounced a perfect horror; and although I own it did shock
+     me at first to hear it, I now see that they were perfectly
+     right. Instead of bands, I wear ringlets down to my very
+     shoulders; and Nina tells me there never was such an
+     improvement, as the character of my features requires
+     softening. Such quantities of dress as I have got, too! for
+     there is endless toilette here; and although I am now
+     growing accustomed to it, at first it worried me dreadfully,
+     and left me no time to read. And, a propos of reading, Lady
+     Hester has given me such a strange book, 'Mathilde,' it is
+     called; very clever, deeply interesting, but not the kind of
+     reading you would like; at least, neither the scenes nor the
+     characters such as you would care for. Of course I take it
+     to be a good picture of life in another sphere from what I
+     have seen myself; and if it be, I must say there is more
+     vice in high society than I believed. One trait of manners,
+     however, I cannot help admiring, the extreme care that every
+     one takes never to give even the slightest offence; not only
+     that the wrong thing is never said, but ever even suggested.
+     Such an excessive deference to others' feelings bespeaks
+     great refinement, if not a higher and better quality. Lady
+     Hester is delightful in this respect. I cannot tell you how
+     the charm of her manner grows into a fascination. Captain
+     Onslow I see little of, but he is always good-humored and
+     gay; and as for Sir Stafford, he is like a father in the
+     kindliness and affection of his cordiality. Sydney I miss
+     greatly; she was nearly of my own age, and although so much
+     superior to me in every way, so companionable and
+     sisterlike. We are to write to each other if she does not
+     return soon. I intended to have said so much about the
+     galleries, but Mr. Jekyl does quiz so dreadfully about
+     artistic enthusiasm, I am actually ashamed to say a word;
+     besides, to me, Nelly, beautiful pictures impart pleasure
+     less from intrinsic merit than from the choice of subject
+     and the train of thoughts they originate; and for this
+     reason I prefer Salvator Rosa to all other painters. The
+     romantic character of his scenery, the kind of story that
+     seems to surround his characters, the solemn tranquillity of
+     his moonlights, the mellow splendor of his sunsets, actually
+     heighten one's enjoyment of the realities in nature. I am
+     ashamed to own that Raffaelle is less my favorite than
+     Titian, whose portraits appear to reveal the whole character
+     and life of the individual represented. In Velasq'uez there
+     is another feature--"
+
+Here came an interruption, for Nina came with gloves to
+choose, and now arose the difficult decision between a fringe of silver
+filigree and a deep fall of Valenciennes lace, a question on both
+sides of which Mademoiselle Nina had much to say. In all these little
+discussions, the mock importance lent to mere trifles at first amused
+Kate, and even provoked her laughter; but, by degrees, she learned not
+only to listen to them with attention, but even to take her share in
+the consultation. Nina's great art lay in her capacity for adapting a
+costume to the peculiar style and character of the wearer; and, however
+exaggerated were some of her notions on this subject, there was always
+a sufficiency of shrewd sense and good taste in her remarks to overbear
+any absurdity in her theory. Kate Dalton, whose whole nature had been
+simplicity and frankness itself, was gradually brought to assume
+a character with every change of toilette; for if she came down to
+breakfast in a simple robe of muslin, she changed it for a costume
+de paysanna to walk in the garden, and this again for a species of
+hunting-dress to ride in the Cascini, to appear afterwards at dinner in
+some new type of a past age; an endless variety of these devices at last
+engaging attention, and occupying time, to the utter exclusion of topics
+more important and interesting.
+
+The letter was now to be resumed; but the clew was lost, and her mind
+was only fettered with topics of dress and toilette. She walked out upon
+the terrace to recover her composure; but beneath the window was rolling
+on that endless tide of people and carriages that swells up the great
+flood of a capital city. She turned her steps to another side,
+and there, in the pleasure-ground, was George Onslow, with a great
+horse-sheet round him, accustoming a newly purchased Arabian to the
+flapping of a riding-skirt. It was a present Sir Stafford had made her
+the day before. Everything she saw, everything she heard, recalled but
+one image, herself! The intoxication of this thought was intense.
+Life assumed features of delight and pleasure she had never conceived
+possible before. There was an interest imparted to everything, since in
+everything she had her share. Oh! most insidious of all poisons is that
+of egotism, which lulls the conscience by the soft flattery we whisper
+to ourselves, making us to believe that we are such as the world affects
+to think us. How ready are we to take credit for gifts that have
+been merely lent us by a kind of courtesy, and of which we must make
+restitution, when called upon, with what appetite we may.
+
+For the time, indeed, the ecstasy of this delusion is boundless. Who has
+not, at some one moment or other of his life, experienced the entrancing
+delight of thinking that the world is full of his friends and admirers,
+that good wishes follow him as he goes, and kind welcomes await his
+coming? Much of our character for good or evil, of our subsequent
+utility in life, or our utter helplessness, will depend upon how we
+stand the season of trial. Kate Daiton possessed much to encourage this
+credulity; she was not only eminently handsome, but she had that species
+of fascination in her air which a clever French writer defines as the
+feminine essence, "plus femme que les autres femmes." If a very critical
+eye might have detected in her manner and address certain little
+awkwardnesses, a less exacting judgment would have probably been
+struck with them as attractions, recalling the fact of her youth, her
+simplicity, and the freshness of her nature. Above all other charms,
+however, was the radiant happiness that beamed out in every word and
+look and gesture; such a thorough sense of enjoyment, so intense a
+pleasure in life, is among the very rarest of all gifts.
+
+There was enough of singularity, of the adventurous, in the nature of
+her position, to excel all the romance of her nature; there was more
+than enough of real splendor around her to give an air of fact and
+truth to the highest flights of her imagination. Had she been the sole
+daughter of the house and name, flatteries and caresses could not have
+been lavished on her more profusely; her will consulted, her wishes
+inquired, her taste evoked on every occasion. And yet, with all these
+seductions about her, she was not yet spoiled not yet! Home and its dear
+associations were ever present to her mind; her humble fortune, and
+that simple life she used to lead, enforcing lessons of humility not yet
+distasteful. She could still recur to the memory of the little window
+that looked over the "Murg," and think the scenery beautiful. Her dear,
+dear papa was still all she had ever thought him. Nelly was yet the
+sweet-tempered, gentle, gifted creature she worshipped as a sister; even
+Hanserl was the kind, quaint emblem of his own dreamy "Vaterland." As
+yet no conflict had arisen between the past and the present, between the
+remembrance of narrow fortune and all its crippling exigencies, and the
+enjoyment of wealth that seems to expand the generous feelings of the
+heart. The lustre of her present existence threw, as yet, no sickly
+light over the bygone; would it might have been always so!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII. A SMALL SUPPER PARTY.
+
+THE great ball at the Mazzarini Palace "came off" just as other great
+balls have done, and will continue to do, doubtless, for ages hence.
+There was the usual, perhaps a little more than the usual, splendor of
+dress and diamonds; the same glare and crash and glitter and crowd
+and heat; the same buoyant light-heartedness among the young; the same
+corroding ennui of the old; taste in dress was criticised, looks were
+scanned, flirtations detected, quarrels discovered, fans were mislaid,
+hearts were lost, flounces were torn, and feelings hurt. There was
+the ordinary measure of what people call enjoyment, mixed up with the
+ordinary proportion of envy, shyness, pretension, sarcasm, coldness, and
+malice. It was a grand tournament of human passions in white satin and
+jewels; and if the wounds exchanged were not as rudely administered,
+they were to the full as dangerous as in the real lists of combat.
+Yet, in this mortal conflict, all seemed happy. There was an air of
+voluptuous abandonment over everything; and whatever cares they might
+have carried within, as far as appearance went, the world went well and
+pleasantly with them. The ball was, however, a splendid one; there
+was everything that could make it such. The salons were magnificent in
+decoration; the lighting a perfect blaze. There was beauty in
+abundance, diamonds in masses, and a Royal Highness from the Court, an
+insignificant little man, it is true, with a star and a stutter, who
+stared at every one, and spoke to nobody. Still he was the centre of
+a glittering group of handsome aides-de-camp, who displayed their
+fascinations in every gesture and look.
+
+Apart from the great flood-tide of pleasure, down which so many float
+buoyantly, there is ever on these occasions a deeper current that flows
+beneath, of human wile and cunning and strategy, just as, in many
+a German fairy tale, some curious and recondite philosophy lies hid
+beneath the little incidents related to amuse childhood. It would lead
+us too far from the path of our story were we to seek for this "tiny
+thread amid the woof;" enough for our present purpose if we slightly
+advert to it, by asking our reader to accompany us to the small chamber
+which called Albert Jekyl master, and where now, at midnight, a little
+table of three covers was laid for supper. Three flasks of champagne
+stood in a little ice-pail in one corner, and on a dumbwaiter was
+arranged a dessert, which, for the season, displayed every charm of
+rarity. A large bouquet of moss-roses and camellias ornamented the
+centre of the board, and shed a pleasant odor through the room. The
+servant, whose dress and look bespoke him a waiter from a restaurant in
+the neighborhood, had just completed all the arrangements of the table,
+placing chairs around it, and heaped fresh wood upon the hearth, when a
+carriage drew up at the door. The merry sound of voices and the step of
+feet were heard on the stairs, and the next moment a lady entered, whose
+dress of black lace, adorned with bouquets of blue flowers, admirably
+set off a figure and complexion of Spanish mould and character. To
+this, a black lace veil fastened to the hair behind, and worn across
+the shoulders, contributed. There was a lightness and intrepidity in her
+step, as she entered the room, that suited the dark, flashing, steady
+glance of her full black eyes. It would have, indeed, been difficult to
+trace in that almost insolent air of conscious beauty the calm, subdued,
+and almost sorrow-struck girl whom we have seen as Nina in a former
+chapter; but, however dissimilar in appearance, they were the same
+one individual; and the humble femme de chambre of Kate Dalton was the
+celebrated ballet-dancer of the great theatre of Barcelona.
+
+The figure which followed was a strange contrast to that light and
+elegant form. He was an old, short man, of excessive corpulence in body,
+and whose face was bloated and purple by intemperance. He was dressed in
+the habit of a priest, and was in reality a canon of the Dome Cathedral.
+His unwieldy gait, his short and labored respiration, increased almost
+to suffocation by the ascent of the stairs and his cumbrous dress,
+seemed doubly absurd beside the flippant lightness of the "Ballarina."
+Jekyl came last, mimicking the old canon behind his back, and putting
+the waiter's gravity to a severe test by the bloated expansion of his
+cheek and the fin-like motion of his hands as he went.
+
+"Ecco me!" cried he out, with a deep grunt, as he sank into a chair and
+wiped the big drops from his forehead with the skirt of his gown.
+
+"You tripped up the stairs like a gazelle, padre," said the girl, as she
+arranged her hair before the glass, and disposed the folds of her veil
+with all the tact of coquetry.
+
+A thick snort, like the ejaculation a hippopotamus might have uttered,
+was the only reply, and Jekyl, having given a glance over the table to
+see all was in order, made a sign for Nina to be seated.
+
+"Accursed be the stairs and he that made them!" muttered the padre. "I
+feel as if my limbs had been torn on the rack. I have been three times
+up the steps of the high altar already to-day, and am tired as a dog."
+
+"Here is your favorite soup, padre," said Jekyl, as he moved the ladle
+through a smoking compound, whence a rich odor of tomato and garlic
+ascended. "This will make you young again."
+
+"And who said I would wish to be young again?" cried the priest,
+angrily. "I have experience of what youth means every day in the
+confessional, and I promise you age has the best of it."
+
+"Such a ripe and ruddy age as yours, padre!" said the girl, with
+affected simplicity.
+
+[Illustration:  274]
+
+"Just so, minx," rejoined he; "such ripeness as portends falling from
+the tree! Better even that than to be worm-eaten on the stalk; ay, or a
+wasp's nest within, girl, you understand me."
+
+"You will never be good friends for half an hour together," said Jekyl,
+as he filled their glasses with champagne, and then touching his own to
+each, drank off a bumper.
+
+"These are from Savoy, these truffles, and have no flavor," said the
+padre, pushing away his plate. "Let me taste that lobster, for this is a
+half-fast to-day."
+
+"They are like the priests," said Nina, laughing; "all black without and
+rotten within!"
+
+"The ball went off admirably last night," interposed Jekyl, to stop what
+he foresaw might prove a sharp altercation.
+
+"Yes," said Nina, languidly. "The dresses were fresher than the wearers.
+It was the first time for much of the satin, the same could not be said
+for many of the company."
+
+"The Balderoni looked well," said Jekyl.
+
+"Too fat, caro mio, too fat!" replied Nina.
+
+"And she has eight penances in the week," grunted out the canon.
+
+"There 's nothing like wickedness for embonpoint, padre," said Nina,
+laughing.
+
+"Angels always are represented as chubby girls," said the priest, whose
+temper seemed to improve as he ate on.
+
+"Midchekoff, I thought, was out of temper all the evening," resumed
+Jekyl; "he went about with his glass in his eye, seeking for flaws in
+the lapis lazuli, or retouches in the pictures; and seemed terribly
+provoked at the goodness of the supper."
+
+"I forgive him all, for not dancing with 'my Lady,'" said Nina. "She
+kept herself disengaged for the prince for half the night, and the only
+reward was his Russian compliment of, 'What a bore is a ball when one is
+past the age of dancing!'"
+
+"Did the Noncio eat much?" asked the padre, who seemed at once curious
+and envious about the dignitary.
+
+"He played whist all night," said Jekyl, "and never changed his
+partner!"
+
+"The old Marchesa Guidotti?"
+
+"The same. You know of that, then, padre?" asked Jekyl.
+
+A grunt and a nod were all the response.
+
+"What a curious chapter on 'La vie privee' of Florence your revelations
+might be, padre!" said Jekyl, as if reflectingly. "What a deal of
+iniquity, great and small, comes to your ears every season!"
+
+"What a vast amount of it has its origin in that little scheming brain
+of thine, Signor Jekyli, and in the fertile wits of your fair neighbor.
+The unhappy marriages thou hast made; the promising unions thou hast
+broken; the doubts thou hast scattered here, the dark suspicions
+there; the rightful distrust thou hast lulled, the false confidences
+encouraged, youth, youth, thou hast a terrible score to answer for!"
+
+"When I think of the long catalogue of villany you have been listening
+to, padre, not only without an effort, but a wish to check; when every
+sin recorded has figured in your ledger, with its little price annexed;
+when you have looked out upon the stormy sea of society, as a wrecker
+ranges his eye over an iron-bound coast in a gale, and thinks of the
+'waifs' that soon will be his own; when, as I have myself seen you, you
+have looked indulgently down on petty transgressions, that must one day
+become big sins, and, like a skilful angler, throw the little fish back
+into the stream, in the confidence that when full-grown you can take
+them, when you have done all these things and a thousand more, padre,
+I cannot help muttering to myself, Age, age, what a terrible score thou
+hast to answer for!"
+
+"I must say," interposed Nina, "you are both very bad company, and that
+nothing can be in worse taste than this interchange of compliments. You
+are both right to amuse yourselves in this world as your faculties best
+point out, but each radically wrong in attributing motives to the other.
+What, in all that is wonderful, have we to do with motives? I'm sure _I_
+have no grudges to cherish, no debts of dislike to pay off, anywhere.
+Any diablerie I take part in, is for pure mischief sake. I do think it
+rather a hard case, that, with somewhat better features, and I know a
+far shrewder wit than many others, I should perform second and third
+rate parts in this great comedy of life, while many without higher
+qualifications are 'cast for the best characters.' This little score I
+do try and exact, not from individuals, but the world at large. Mischief
+with me is the child's pleasure in deranging the chessmen when the
+players are most intent on the game."
+
+"Now, as to these Onslows, for we must be practical, padre mio," said
+Jekyl, "let us see what is to be done with them. As regards matrimony,
+the real prize has left for England, this Dalton girl may or may not be
+a 'hit;' some aver that she is heiress to a large estate, of which the
+Onslows have obtained possession, and that they destine her for the
+young Guardsman. This must be inquired into. My Lady has 'excellent
+dispositions,' and may have become anything or everything."
+
+"Let her come to 'the Church,' then," growled out the canon.
+
+"Gently, padre, gently," said Jekyl, "you are really too covetous, and
+would drag the river always from your own net. We have been generous,
+hugely generous, to you for the last three seasons, and have made all
+your converts the pets of society, no matter how small and insignificant
+their pretensions. The vulgar have been adopted in the best circles, the
+ugly dubbed beautiful, the most tiresome of old maids have been reissued
+from the mint as new coinage. We have petted, flattered, and fawned upon
+those 'interesting Christians,' as the 'Tablet' would call them, till
+the girls began to feel that there were no partners for a polka outside
+the Church of Rome, and that all the 'indulgences' of pleasure, like
+those of religion, came from the Pope. We cannot give you the Onslows,
+or, at least, not yet. We have yet to marry the daughter, provide for
+the friend, squeeze the sou."
+
+"Profligate young villain! Reach me the champagne, Nina; and, Nina, tell
+your young mistress that it is scarcely respectful to come on foot to
+the mid-day mass; that the clergy of the town like to see the equipages
+of the rich before the doors of the cathedral, as a suitable homage to
+the Church. The Onslows have carriages in abundance, and their liveries
+are gorgeous and splendid!"
+
+"It was her own choice," said Nina; "she is a singular girl for one that
+never before knew luxury of any kind."
+
+"I hate these simple tastes," growled out the padre; "they bespeak that
+obstinacy which people call a 'calm temperament.' Her own dress, too,
+has no indication of her rank, Nina."
+
+"That shall be cared for, padre."
+
+"Why shouldn't that young soldier come along with her? Tell him that
+our choir is magnificent; whisper him that the beautiful Marchesa di
+Guardoni sits on the very bench beside Miss Dalton."
+
+Nina nodded an assent.
+
+"The young girl herself is lax enough about her duties, Nina; she has
+not been even once to confession."
+
+"That comes of these English!" cried Nina; "they make our service a
+constant jest. There is always some vulgar quizzing about saint-worship,
+or relic reverence, or the secrets of the confessional, going on amongst
+them."
+
+"Does she permit this?" asked the priest, eagerly.
+
+"She blushes sometimes, occasionally she smiles with a good-humor meant
+to deprecate these attacks, and now and then, when the sallies have been
+pushed too far, I have seen her in tears some hours after."
+
+"Oh, if these heretics would but abstain from ridicule!" cried the
+canon. "The least lettered amongst them can scoff and gibe and rail.
+They have their stock subjects of sarcasm, too, handed down from father
+to son, poor, witless little blasphemies, thefts from Voltaire, who
+laughed at themselves, and much mischief do they work! Let them begin to
+read, however, let them commence to 'inquire,' as the phrase has it, and
+the game is our own."
+
+"I think, padre," said Jekyl, "that more of your English converts are
+made upon principles of pure economy. Popery, like truffles, is so cheap
+abroad!"
+
+"Away with you! away with you!" cried the padre, rebukingly. "They
+come to us as the children seek their mother's breast. Hand me the
+maccaroni."
+
+"Padre mio," broke in Jekyl, "I wish you would be Catholic enough to be
+less Popish. We have other plots in hand here, besides increasing the
+funds of the 'Holy Carmelites;' and while we are disputing about the
+spoil, the game may betake themselves to other hunting-grounds. These
+Onslows must not be suffered to go hence."
+
+"Albert is right," interposed Nina. "When the 'Midchekoff' condescends
+to think himself in love with the Dalton girl, when the Guardsman has
+lost some thousands more than he can pay, when my Lady has offended one
+half of Florence and bullied the other, then the city will have taken a
+hold upon their hearts, and you may begin your crusade when you please.
+Indeed, I am not sure, if the season be a dull one, I would not listen
+to you myself."
+
+"As you listened once before to the Abbe D'Esmonde," said the canon,
+maliciously.
+
+The girl's cheek became deep red, and even over neck and shoulders the
+scarlet flush spread, while her eyes flashed a look of fiery passion.
+
+"Do you dare are you insolent enough to--"
+
+Her indignation had carried her thus far, when, by a sudden change of
+temper, she stopped, and clasping her hands over her face, burst into
+tears.
+
+Jekyl motioned the priest to be silent, while, gently leading the other
+into the adjoining room, he drew the curtain, and left her alone.
+
+"How could you say that?" said he, "you, padre, who know that this is
+more than jest?"
+
+"Spare not the sinner, neither let the stripes be light, 'Non sit levis
+flagella,' says Origen."
+
+"Are the ortolans good, padre?" asked Jekyl, while his eye glittered
+with an intense appreciation of the old canon's hypocrisy.
+
+"They, are delicious! succulent and tender," said the priest, wiping his
+lips. "Francesco does them to perfection."
+
+"You at least believe in a cook," said Jekyl, but in so low a voice as
+to escape the other's notice.
+
+"She is sobbing still," said the canon, in a whisper, and with a gesture
+towards the curtained doorway. "I like to hear them gulping down their
+sighs. It is like the glug-glug of a rich flask of 'Lagrime.'"
+
+"But don't you pity them, padre?" asked Jekyl, in mock earnestness.
+
+"Never! never! First of all, they do not suffer in all these outbursts.
+It is but decanting their feelings into another vessel, and they love it
+themselves! I have had them for hours together thus in the confessional,
+and they go away after, so relieved in mind and so light of heart, there
+'s no believing it."
+
+"But Nina," said Jekyl, seriously, "is not one of these."
+
+"She is a woman," rejoined the padre, "and it is only a priest can read
+them."
+
+"You see human nature as the physician does, padre, always in some
+aspect of suffering. Of its moods of mirth and levity you know less than
+we do, who pass more butterfly lives!"
+
+"True in one sense, boy; ours are the stony paths, ours are the weary
+roads in life! I like that Burgundy."
+
+"It 's very pleasant, padre. It is part of a case I ordered for the
+Onslows, but their butler shook the bottle when bringing it to table,
+and they begged me to get rid of it."
+
+"These wines are not suited to Italy generally," said the canon; "but
+Florence has the merit of possessing all climates within the bounds of
+a single day, and even Chambertin is scarcely generous enough when the
+Tramontana is blowing!"
+
+"Well, have you become better mannered? May I venture to come in?" cried
+Nina, appearing at the doorway.
+
+"'Venga pure! Venga pure!'" growled out the canon. "I forgive thee
+everything. Sit down beside me, and let us pledge a friendship forever."
+
+"There, then, let this be a peace-offering," said she, taking the wreath
+of flowers from her own head and placing it on the brows of the padre.
+"You are now like the old Bacchus in the Boboli."
+
+"And thou like--"
+
+"Like what? Speak it out!" cried she, angrily.
+
+"Come, come, do, I beseech you, be good friends," interposed Jekyl. "We
+have met for other objects than to exchange reproaches."
+
+"These are but the 'iras amantium.' boy," said the priest; "the girl
+loves me with her whole heart."
+
+"How you read my most secret thoughts!" said she, with a coquettish
+affectation of sincerity.
+
+"Lectiones pravissimae would they be!" muttered he, between his teeth.
+
+"What is that? What is he mumbling there, Albert?" cried she, hastily.
+
+"It is a benediction, Nina," replied Jekyl; "did you not hear the
+Latin?"
+
+Peace was at last restored, and what between the adroit devices of Jekyl
+and the goodness of his champagne, a feeling of pleasant sociality now
+succeeded to all the bickering in which the festivity was prolonged to
+a late hour. The graver business which brought them together the Onslows
+and their affairs being discussed, they gave way to all the seductions
+of their exalted fancies. Jekyl, taking up his guitar, warbled out a
+French love song, in a little treble a bullfinch might have envied;
+Nina, with the aid of the padre's beads for castanets, stepped the
+measure of a bolero; while the old priest himself broke out into a long
+chant, in which Ovid, Petrarch, Anacreon, and his breviary alternately
+figured, and under the influence of which he fell fast asleep at last,
+totally unconscious of the corked moustaches and eyebrows with which
+Nina ornamented his reverend countenance.
+
+The sound of wheels in the silent street at last admonished them of
+the hour, and opening the window, Jekyl saw a brougham belonging to Sir
+Stafford just drawing up at the door.
+
+"Francois is punctual," said Nina, looking at her watch; "I told him
+five o'clock."
+
+"Had we not better set him down first?" said Jekyl, with a gesture
+toward the priest; "he does not live far away."
+
+"With all my heart," replied she; "but you're not going to wash his
+face?"
+
+"Of course I am, Nina. The jest might cost us far more than it was
+worth." And so saying, Jekyl proceeded to arrange the disordered dress
+and dishevelled hair of the padre, during the performance of which the
+old priest recovered sufficient consciousness to permit himself to be
+led downstairs and deposited in the carriage.
+
+An hour later and all was still! Jekyl slumbering peacefully on his
+little French bed, over which the rose-colored mosquito curtains threw
+a softened half-sunset hue; a gentle smile parted his lips, as in his
+dreams the dreams of a happy and contented nature he wove pleasant
+fancies and devised many a future scheme.
+
+In his own dreary little den, behind the "Duomo," the padre also slept
+heavily, not a thought, not a single passing idea breaking the stagnant
+surface of his deep lethargy.
+
+Nina, however, was wakeful, and had no mind for repose. Her brilliant
+costume carefully laid aside, she was arranging her dark hair into its
+habitually modest braid; her very features composing themselves, as she
+did so, into their wonted aspect of gentleness and submission.
+
+All the change of dress being little in comparison with the complete
+alteration now observable in her whole air and demeanor, she seemed a
+totally different being. And she was so, too; for while hypocrites
+to the world, we completely forget that we share in the deception
+ourselves.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV. A MIDNIGHT RECEPTION
+
+IT was past midnight, the Opera was just over, and the few privileged
+guests who were permitted to pay their visits to Lady Hester Onslow
+were assembled in the little drawing-room and boudoir sacred to these
+exclusive receptions. Nothing could be in stronger contrast than the
+gorgeous splendor of the apartment and the half-dressed, careless,
+lounging ease of the men as they stretched themselves on the ottomans,
+lounged on the sofas, or puffed their cigars, alike indifferent to the
+place and the presence of two ladies who, dressed in the very perfection
+of "toilette," did the honors of the reception.
+
+Lady Hester, who wore a small embroidered velvet cap, coquettishly set
+on one side of the head, and a species of velvet jacket, such as is
+common in Greece, lay upon a sofa beneath a canopy of pink silk covered
+with lace; a most splendidly ornamented hooka, the emerald mouthpiece of
+which she held in her hand, stood on a little cushion beside her; while
+grouped around in every attitude that taste and caprice suggested on
+chairs, on cushions, squabs, "Prie-Dieu" and other drawing-room devices
+of a like nature were some half-dozen men, whose air and bearing
+pronounced them long habituated to all the usages of society. One stamp
+of feature and style pervaded all; pale, dark-eyed, black-bearded,
+and weary-looking, they seemed as though they were tired of a life of
+dissipation, and yet utterly incapable of engaging in any other.
+
+All born to high rank, some to large fortune, they found that no other
+career was open to them except vice in one shape or other. The policy
+of their rulers had excluded them from every road of honorable ambition;
+neither as statesmen nor soldiers could they hope to win fame or glory.
+Their habits of life and the tone of society gave no impulse to the
+cultivation of science or literature. The topics discussed in their
+circle never by chance adverted to a book; and there they were, with
+heads whose development indicated all that was intellectual, with brows
+and foreheads that betokened every gift of mental excellence, wearing
+away life in the dullest imaginable routine of dissipation, their minds
+neglected, their hearts corrupted, enervated in body, and deprived of
+all energy of character; they wore, even in youth, the exhausted look of
+age, and bore in every lineament of their features the type of lassitude
+and discontent.
+
+In the adjoining room sat Kate Dalton at a tea-table. She was costumed
+for we cannot use any milder word in a species of "moyen-age" dress,
+whose length of stomacher and deep-hanging sleeves recalled the
+portraits of Titian's time; a small cap covered the back of her head,
+through an aperture in which the hair appeared, its rich auburn masses
+fastened by a short stiletto of gold, whose hilt and handle were studded
+with precious stones; a massive gold chain, with a heavy cross of the
+same metal, was the only ornament she wore. Widely different as was the
+dress from that humble guise in which the reader first knew her, the
+internal change was even greater still; no longer the bashful, blushing
+girl, beaming with all the delight of a happy nature, credulous,
+light-hearted, and buoyant, she was now composed in feature, calm, and
+gentle-mannered; the placid smile that moved her lips, the graceful
+motion of her head, her slightest gestures, her least words, all
+displaying a polished ease and elegance which made even her beauty and
+attraction secondary to the fascination of her manner. It is true the
+generous frankness of her beaming eyes was gone; she no longer met you
+with a look of full and fearless confidence: the cordial warmth, the
+fresh and buoyant sallies of her ready wit, had departed, and in their
+place was a timid reserve, a cautious, shrinking delicacy, blended with
+a quiet but watchful spirit of repartee, that flattered by the very
+degree of attention it betokened.
+
+Perhaps our reader will not feel pleased with us for saying that she was
+more beautiful now than before; that intercourse with the world, dress,
+manners, the tact of society, the stimulus of admiration, the assured
+sense of her own charms, however they may have detracted from the moral
+purity of her nature, had yet invested her appearance with higher and
+more striking fascinations. Her walk, her courtesy, the passing motion
+of her hand, her attitude as she sat, were perfect studies of grace.
+Not a trace was left of her former manner; all was ease, pliancy,
+and elegance. Two persons were seated near her: one of these, our old
+acquaintance, George Onslow; the other was a dark, sallow-visaged man,
+whose age might have been anything from thirty-five to sixty, for, while
+his features were marked by the hard lines of time, his figure had all
+the semblance of youth. By a broad blue ribbon round his neck he wore
+the decoration of Saint Nicholas, and the breast of his coat was covered
+with stars, crosses, and orders of half the courts of Europe. This was
+Prince Midchekoff, whose grandfather, having taken an active part in
+the assassination of the Emperor Paul, had never been reconciled to
+the Imperial family, and was permitted to reside in a kind of honorable
+banishment out of Russia; a punishment which he bore up under, it was
+said, with admirable fortitude. His fortune was reputed to be immense,
+and there was scarcely a capital of Europe in which he did not possess
+a residence. The character of his face was peculiar, for while the
+forehead and eyes were intellectual and candid, the lower jaw and mouth
+revealed his Calmuck origin, an expression of intense, unrelenting
+cruelty being the impression at once conveyed by the thin, straight,
+compressed lips, and the long, projecting chin, seeming even longer
+from the black-pointed beard he wore. There was nothing vulgar or
+common-place about him; he never could have passed unobserved anywhere,
+and yet he was equally far from the type of high birth. His manners
+were perfectly well bred; and although he spoke seldom, his quiet and
+attentive air and his easy smile showed he possessed the still rarer
+quality of listening well.
+
+There was another figure, not exactly of this group, but at a little
+distance off, beside a table in a recess, on which a number of prints
+and drawings were scattered, and in the contemplation of which he
+affected to be absorbed; while, from time to time, his dark eyes
+flashed rapidly across to note all that went forward. He was a tall and
+singularly handsome man, in the dress of a priest. His hair, black and
+waving, covered a forehead high, massive, and well developed; his eyes
+were deep-set, and around the orbits ran lines that told of long and
+hard study, for the Abbe D'Esmonde was a distinguished scholar; and, as
+a means of withdrawing him for a season from the overtoil of reading,
+he had been attached temporarily as a species of Under-secretary to
+the Mission of the "Nonce." In this guise he was admitted into all the
+society of the capital, where his polished address and gentle manner
+soon made him a general favorite.
+
+Equally removed from the flippant levity of the abbe as a class, and
+the gross and sensual coarseness of the "old priest," D'Esmonde was a
+perfect man of the world, so far as taking a lively interest in all the
+great events of politics, watching eagerly the changeful features of the
+times, and studying acutely the characters of the leading men, at whose
+dictates they were modified. Its pleasures and amusements, too, he was
+willing to partake of moderately and unobtrusively; but he held himself
+far apart from all those subjects of gossip and small-talk which, in a
+society of lax morality, occupy so considerable a space, and in which
+the great dignitaries who wear scarlet and purple stockings are often
+seen to take a lively and animated share. Some ascribed this reserve
+to principle; others called it hypocrisy; and some, again, perhaps with
+more truth, deemed it the settled line of action of one who already
+destined himself for a high and conspicuous station, and had determined
+that his character should add weight and dignity to his talents.
+
+It might have been thought that he was a singular guest to have
+been admitted to receptions like the present; but Jekyl, who managed
+everything, had invited him, on the principle, as he said, that a
+gourmand has a decanter of water always beside him at dinner, "not to
+drink, but because it looks temperate." The abbe's presence had the same
+effect; and, certainly, his calm and dignified demeanor, his polished
+address, and cultivated tone, were excellent certificates of good
+character for the rest.
+
+At the tea-table the conversation languished, or only went forward at
+intervals. Onslow's French was not fluent, and he was silent from
+shame. Kate felt that she ought not to take the lead; and the Prince,
+habitually reserved, spoke very little, and even that in the discursive,
+unconnected tone of a man who was always accustomed to find that any
+topic he started should be instantly adopted by the company.
+
+The cold and steady stare with which he surveyed her would, but a short
+time back, have covered her face with a blush; she could not have borne
+unabashed the glance of searching, almost insolent meaning he bestowed
+upon her; but now, whatever her heart might have felt, her features
+were calm and passionless; nor did she in the slightest degree show any
+consciousness of a manner that was costing Onslow a struggle whether to
+laugh at or resent.
+
+In one sense these two men were rivals, but each so impressed with
+proud contempt for the other, their rivalry was unknown to both. Kate,
+however, with her woman's tact, saw this, and knew well how her least
+smile or slightest word inclined the balance to this side or to that.
+The Prince was inveighing against the habit of wintering in Italy as one
+of the most capital blunders of the age.
+
+"We forget," said he, "that, in our present civilization, art is always
+first and nature second, as we see evidenced in all the results of
+agriculture. It is not the most fertile soil, but the highest-labored
+one which produces the best fruits. So with respect to climate, we never
+bear in mind that, where nature does most, man always does least."
+
+"According to that rule, Prince, we should winter at St. Petersburg, and
+spend the dog-days at Calcutta," said Kate, smiling.
+
+"So we should," replied he; "the appliances to resist heat or cold, of
+man's invention, are far better adapted to enjoyment than the accidental
+variations of climate."
+
+"In my country," said Onslow, tartly, "men study less how to avoid the
+inclemencies of weather than to become indifferent to them. Hunting,
+shooting, and deer-stalking are very sure methods to acquire this."
+
+The Prince paid no attention to the remark, but turned the conversation
+into another channel, by asking Kate if she had ever read Fourier's
+book. From this he wandered away to the characteristic differences
+of national music, thence to the discoveries then making in Central
+America, and lastly, engaged her in an animated discussion of the
+question of slavery. On none of these points was he deeply or even well
+informed, but he possessed that fluency and facility which intercourse
+with society confers; and as all his knowledge was derived from men,
+and not from books, it bore a certain stamp of originality about it
+that secured attention. Not, indeed, from George Onslow; he was the most
+bored of men. None of the topics were his topics. Of Tattersall's, the
+Guards' Club, the society of London, the odds on the "Derby," he could
+have discoursed well and pleasantly. From what was "wrong" with the
+Sa'nbucca filly to what was not right with Lady Flutterton's niece, he
+could have told you everything; but all these other themes were, in his
+estimation, but sheer pedantry, and, indeed, they only lacked a little
+knowledge a very little would have sufficed to be so.
+
+"He is gone," said the Prince, with a caustic smile which revealed a
+plan; "gone at last."
+
+"So, then, this was a device of yours, Prince," said she, laughing. "I
+really must call my cousin back and tell him so."
+
+"No, no," said he, seriously. "I have won my battle, let me profit by
+my victory. Let me speak to you on another subject." He drew his chair
+a little nearer to the table as he spoke, and laid his arm on it. Kate's
+heart beat fast and full; and the color came and went rapidly in her
+cheek. A vague sense of fear, of shame, and of triumphant pride were all
+at conflict within her. There was but one theme in the world that
+could have warranted such a commencement, so serious, so grave, so
+purpose-like. Was this, then, possible?
+
+The glittering stars all a blaze of brilliants that shone beside her
+seemed an emblem of that high state which was now within her reach; and
+what a torrent of varied emotions rushed through her heart! Of home, of
+her father, of Nelly, of Frank; and, lastly, what thoughts of George,
+poor George, whom she knew loved her, and to whom, without loving, she
+was not altogether indifferent. "Do not be agitated, Mademoiselle," said
+the prince, laying the slightest touch of his jewelled fingers on her
+arm. "I ask a little patience and a little calm consideration for what I
+am about to say."
+
+"Is that really like an Irish peasant's cottage, Miss Daiton?" said the
+abbe, as he held before her a drawing of one, in all the details of its
+most striking misery.
+
+"Yes, perfectly; not exaggerated in the least," said she, hurriedly
+blushing alike at the surprise and the interruption.
+
+"You have no such misery, Monsieur le Prince, in Russia, I believe?"
+remarked the priest, with a courteous bend of the head.
+
+"We are well governed, sir; and nothing displays it more palpably than
+that no man forgets his station," said the prince, with an insolent
+hauteur that made Kate blush over neck and forehead, while D'Esmonde
+stood calm and passionless under the sarcasm.
+
+"So I have always heard, sir," said he, blandly. "I remember, when at
+Wredna--"
+
+"You have been at Wredna?" asked the Prince, in an altered voice.
+
+But the other, not heeding the interruption, went on:
+
+"I remember, when at Wredna, to have heard an anecdote which strikingly
+illustrates the rigid obedience yielded to power, and the condition of
+public opinion at the same time. A manumitted slave, who was raised to
+high rank and wealth by the favor of the Czar, had returned to Wredna
+in the capacity of governor. A short time after his arrival he was
+tormented by applications and letters from a woman in great poverty
+who asserted that she was his mother. Fedeorovna, of course in secret,
+proved the truth of her assertion; but the only answer she received was
+a significant caution to be silent, and not appeal to a relationship
+which could only prove offensive. Perhaps incredulous of the authentic
+character of so cruel a reply, perhaps stung to angry indignation by it,
+she carried the humble basket of fruit and vegetables that she hawked
+for a livelihood before the door of the great mansion where her son
+resided; but, instead of advertising her wares, as is customary in these
+Muscovite markets, by some picture of a saint or some holy inscription,
+she carried a little placard, with the inscription, 'The Mother of
+Alexovitch,' the name of the Governor. A crowd soon gathered around this
+singular booth, heralded by so strange an announcement, and as speedily
+the police resorted to the spot, and carried the offender before the
+judge. The defence was the simple one that she had merely averred the
+truth. I need not weary you with the mockery of investigation that
+followed; the result is all I need tell. This woman was knouted and sent
+away to Siberia. So much for the Governor. As for the governed, they
+were enthusiastic in praise of his justice and clemency; for he might
+have ordered her to be beheaded."
+
+"Do you tell the story as a fact, sir?" said the Prince, whose dark
+cheek became almost green in its sallowness as he spoke.
+
+"I tell it distinctly as a fact. The Papa who received the woman's
+confession repeated the tale on his own deathbed, from whence it reached
+me."
+
+"Priests can be liars, whether Greek or Roman," said the Prince, in a
+voice almost suffocated with passion; and then, suddenly checking the
+course of his anger, he turned to Kate with a sickly smile, and said,
+"Mademoiselle will pardon a rudeness in her presence which nothing short
+of so gross a calumny could have elicited."
+
+"I will furnish you with all the names to-morrow, Monsieur le Prince,"
+said D'Esmonde, in a whisper; and sauntered away into the adjoining
+room.
+
+"You look pale, Miss Dalton," said the Prince.
+
+"That shocking story--"
+
+"Which of course you don't believe."
+
+"The Abbe D'Esmonde I have always heard to be a person of strict
+veracity and of extreme caution."
+
+"Be careful of him, Miss Dalton. It is not without good reason that I
+say this."
+
+There was a degree of solemnity in the way he uttered these words that
+made Kate thoughtful and serious. Unaccustomed to see, in society,
+anything but features of pleasure and amusement, she was suddenly
+awakened to the conviction that its calm waters covered rocks and
+quicksands as perilous as stormier seas. Could people so full of
+amiabilities be dangerous acquaintances? Was there poison in this
+charmed cup? Was the doubt which sprang to her mind But she had not time
+for the inquiry, as the Prince offered her his arm to the supper-room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV. A "LEVANTER."
+
+IN our penal settlements nothing is more common than to find the places
+of honor and distinction filled by men who were once convicts, and who
+may date the favorable turn of their fortune to the day of their having
+transgressed the law. So in certain Continental cities are individuals
+to be found occupying conspicuous stations, and enjoying a large share
+of influence, whose misdeeds at home first made them exiles, and who,
+leaving England in shame, are received abroad with honor. There is this
+difference between the two cases; for while the convict owes all his
+future advancement to his own efforts at reformation, the absentee
+obtains his "brevet" of character by the simple fact of his extradition.
+He shakes off his rascalities as he does his rheumatism, when he quits
+the foggy climate of England, and emerges spotless and without stain
+upon the shores of Ostend or Boulogne.
+
+To do this, however, he must not bear a plebeian name, nor pertain to
+the undistinguishable herd of vulgar folk. He must belong to some family
+of mark and note, with peers for his uncles and peeresses for cousins;
+nor is he always safe if he himself be not a member of an hereditary
+legislature. We have been led to these reflections by having to
+chronicle the arrival in Florence of Lord Norwood; a vague and confused
+murmur of his having done something, people knew not what, in England
+having preceded him. Some called him "poor Norwood," and expressed
+sorrow for him; others said he was a capital fellow, up to everything,
+and that they were delighted at his coming. A few, of very tender and
+languishing virtue themselves, wondered if they ought to meet him as
+before; but the prevailing impression was charitable. The affair
+at Graham's might have been exaggerated, the Newmarket business was
+possibly a mistake. "Any man might owe money, and not be able to
+pay it," was a sentiment pretty generally repeated and as generally
+believed; and, in fact, if to be tried by one's peers be an English
+privilege, the noble Viscount here enjoyed it at the hands of a jury
+unimpeachable on the score of equality.
+
+We are far from suggesting that Norwood's character as a "shot" had any
+concern with this mild verdict; but certain it is, his merits in this
+capacity were frequently remembered, and always with honorable mention.
+
+"No man plays ecarte better," said Haggerstone, while as yet the
+Viscount's arrival was unknown, and as he discussed the rumors upon him
+before a group of listening Englishmen at the door of the "Club". "No
+man plays ecarte better, nor with better luck!" added he, with a chuckle
+that was intended to convey a meaning beyond the mere words.
+
+"Has he been a large winner, then?" asked one of the bystanders,
+respectfully, looking to the Colonel for information; for, in a certain
+set, he was regarded as the most thoroughly conversant man with all the
+faults and follies of high life.
+
+"No man wins invariably, sir, except Brooke Morris, perhaps," replied
+he, always happy at the opportunity to quote the name of a man of
+fashion in a tone of familiarity.
+
+"That was the Mo-Mo-Morris that ruined Hopeton, was n't it?" broke in
+Purvis, quite forgetting that the individual he addressed was reported
+to have a share in the transaction. Haggerstone, however, did not deign
+a reply, but puffed his cigar in perfect contempt of his questioner.
+
+"Who is this coming up here?" said one; "he looks like a new arrival.
+He is English, certainly; that frock has a London cut there's no
+mistaking."
+
+"By Jove, it's Norwood!" cried Haggerstone, edging away, as he
+spoke, from the group. Meanwhile, the noble Viscount, a well-dressed,
+well-whiskered man, of about thirty, came leisurely forward, and
+touching his hat familiarly, said,
+
+"Ha! you here, Haggerstone! What is Florence doing?"
+
+"Pretty much as it always did, my Lord. I don't think its morals have
+improved since you knew it a few years ago."
+
+"Or you wouldn't be here, Haggy, eh?" said the Viscount, laughing at his
+own joke. "Not suit your book if it took a virtuous turn, eh?"
+
+"I plead guilty, my Lord. I believe I do like to shoot folly as it
+flies."
+
+"Ah, yes! And I've seen you taking a sitting shot at it too, Haggy,"
+said the other, with a heartier laugh, which, despite of the Colonel's
+efforts not to feel, brought a crimson flush to his cheek.
+
+"Is there any play going on, Haggy?"
+
+"Nothing that you would call play, my Lord; a little whist for Nap
+points, a little ecarte, a little piquet, and, now and then, we have a
+round game at Sabloukoff's."
+
+"Poor old fellow! and he 's alive still? And where 's the Jariominski?"
+
+"Gone back to Russia."
+
+"And Maretti?"
+
+"In Saint Angelo, I believe."
+
+"And that little Frenchman what was his name? his father was a Marshal
+of the Empire."
+
+"D'Acosta."
+
+"The same. Where is he?"
+
+"Shot himself this spring."
+
+"Pretty girl, his sister. What became of her?"
+
+"Some one told me that she had become a Soeur de Charite."
+
+"What a pity! So they 're all broken up, I see."
+
+"Completely so."
+
+"Then what have you got in their place?"
+
+"Nothing fast, my Lord, except, perhaps, your friends the Onslows."
+
+"Yes; they 're going it, I hear. Is n't there a rich niece, or cousin,
+or something of that sort, with them?"
+
+"They've got a prettyish girl, called Dalton; but as to her being rich,
+I think it very unlikely, seeing that her family are living in Germany
+in a state of the very closest poverty."
+
+"And Master George, how does he carry on the war?" said the Viscount,
+who seemed quite heedless of the other's correction.
+
+"He plays a little peddling ecarte now and then; but you can see that he
+has burned his fingers, and dreads the fire. They say he 's in love with
+the Dalton girl."
+
+"Of course he is, if they live in the same house; and he 's just the
+kind of fool to marry her, too. Who 's that little fellow, listening to
+us?"
+
+"Purvis, my Lord; don't you remember him? He's one of the Ricketts's
+set."
+
+"To be sure I do. How are you, Purvis? You look so young and so fresh, I
+could not persuade myself it could be my old acquaintance."
+
+"I 've taken to homoe-homoe-homoe-homo--" Here he opened his mouth wide,
+and gasped till he grew black in the face.
+
+"What's the word? Give it him, Haggy. It's all up with him," said the
+Viscount.
+
+"Homoeopathy, eh?"
+
+"Just so. Homeo-hom--"
+
+"Confound it, man, can't you be satisfied? when you're once over the
+fence, you need n't go back to leap it. And how is the dear what's her
+name Agathe? no, Zoe, how is she?"
+
+"Quite well, my Lord, and would be cha-cha-cha-rmed to see you."
+
+"Living in that queer humbug still, eh?"
+
+"In the Vill-ino, my Lord, you mean?"
+
+"Egad! she seems the only thing left; like the dog on the wreck, eh,
+Haggy?"
+
+"Just so, my Lord," said the other, with a complacent laugh.
+
+"What a mass of old crockery she must have got together by this
+time!" said the Viscount, yawning with a terrible recollection of her
+tiresomeness.
+
+"You came out with a yacht, my Lord?" asked Haggerstone.
+
+"Pretty well, for a man that they call ru-ru-ruined," said Purvis,
+laughing.
+
+Norwood turned a look of angry indignation at him, and then, as if
+seeing the unworthiness of the object, merely said,
+
+"A yacht is the only real economy nowadays. You get rid at once of all
+trains of servants, household, stable people; even the bores of your
+acquaintance you cut off. By-by, Purvis." And, with a significant wink
+at Haggerstone, he passed across the street, in time to overtake Onslow,
+who was just passing.
+
+"I think I ga-ga-gave it him there," cried Purvis, with an hysteric
+giggle of delight; who, provided that he was permitted to fire his shot,
+never cared how severely he was himself riddled by the enemy's fire.
+Meanwhile, the Viscount and his friend were hastening forward to the
+Mazzarini Palace, as totally forgetful of Purvis as though that valuable
+individual had never existed.
+
+We may take this opportunity to mention, that when the rumors which
+attributed a grand breach of honorable conduct to Lord Norwood had
+arrived at Florence, Sir Stafford, who never had any peculiar affection
+for the Viscount, declared himself in the very strongest terms on the
+subject of his offending, and took especial pains to show the marked
+distinction between occasions of mere wasteful extravagance and
+instances of fraudulent and dishonest debt.
+
+It was in vain he was told that the rigid rule of English morality is
+always relaxed abroad, and that the moral latitude is very different in
+London and Naples. He was old-fashioned enough to believe that honor
+is the same in all climates; and having received from England a very
+detailed and specific history of the noble Lord's misdoings, he firmly
+resolved not to receive him.
+
+With all George Onslow's affection and respect for his father, he could
+not help feeling that this was a mere prejudice, one of the lingering
+remnants of a past age; a sentiment very respectable, perhaps, but
+totally inapplicable to present civilization, and quite impracticable in
+society. In fact, as he said himself, "Who is to be known, if this rule
+be acted on? What man or, further still, what woman of fashionable life
+will stand this scrutiny? To attempt such exclusiveness, one should
+retire to some remote provincial town, some fishing-village of
+patriarchal simplicity; and, even there, what security was there against
+ignoble offendings? How should, he stand the ridicule of his club and
+his acquaintance if he attempted to assume such a standard?" These
+arguments were strengthened by his disbelief, or rather his repugnance
+to believe the worst of Norwood; and furthermore, supported by Lady
+Hester's open scorn for all such "hypocritical trumpery," and her avowal
+that the Viscount should be received, by her, at least. Exactly as of
+old, George Onslow's mind was in a state of oscillation and doubt
+now leaning to this side, now inclining to that when the question was
+decided for him, as it so often is in like cases, by a mere accident;
+for, as he loitered along the street, he suddenly felt an arm introduced
+within his own. He turned hastily round and saw Norwood, who, with, all
+his customary coolness, asked after each member of the family, and at
+once proposed to pay them a visit.
+
+Of all men living, none were less suited than Onslow for assuming any
+part, or taking any decisive line, which could possibly be avoided, or
+even postponed. He hated, besides, to do an ungracious thing anywhere,
+or to any one. It might be, thought he, that Norwood's scrape could all
+be explained away. Perhaps, after all, the thing is a mere trifle; and
+if he were to take the decided line of cutting a man without due cause,
+the consequences might be most injurious. These, and fifty such-like
+scruples, warred within him, and so engaged his attention that he
+actually heard not one word of all that "town gossip" which Norwood
+was retailing for his amusement. At last, while following out his own
+thoughts, George came to the resolution of finding out at once the
+precise position in which Norwood stood, and to this end asked the last
+news from Newmarket.
+
+Norwood's coolness never forsook him at a question whose very suddenness
+was somewhat awkward.
+
+"Bad enough," said he, with an easy laugh. "We have all of us been 'hit
+hard.' Knolesby has lost heavily. Burchester, too, has had a smasher;
+and I myself have not escaped. In fact, George, the 'Legs' have had it
+all their own way. I suppose you heard something about it out here?"
+
+"Why, yes; there were reports--"
+
+"Oh, hang reports, man! Never trust to old women's tales. And that
+confounded fellow, Haggerstone, I 'm certain, has been spreading all
+kinds of stories. But the facts are simple enough."
+
+"I 'm heartily glad you say so; for, to tell you the truth, Norwood, my
+father is one of the prejudiced about this affair, and I 'm dying to be
+able to give him a full explanation of the whole."
+
+"Ah, Sir Stafford, too, among the credulous!" said Norwood, slowly. "I
+could scarcely have supposed so. No matter; only I did fancy that he
+was not exactly the person to form hasty conclusions against any man's
+character. However, you may tell him for, as for myself, I 'll not
+condescend to explain to any one but you the thing is a very simple
+one. There was a mare of Hopeton's, a Brockdon filly, entered for the
+Slingsby, and a number of us agreed to 'go a heavy thing' upon her
+against the field. A bold coup always, George, that backing against
+the field. Never do it, my boy, and particularly when you 've a set of
+rascally foreign Legs banded against you, Poles and Hungarian fellows,
+George; the downiest coves ever you met, and who, in their confounded
+jargon, can sell you before your own face. Nothing like John Bull, my
+boy. Straight, frank, and open John forever! Hit him hard and he 'll hit
+you again; but no treachery, no stab in the dark. Oh, no, no! The turf
+in England was another thing before these Continental rascals came
+amongst us. I was always against admitting them within the ring. I
+black-balled a dozen of them at the Club. But see what perseverance
+does; they're all in now. There's no John-Bull feeling among our
+set, and we 're paying a smart price for it. Never trust those German
+fellows, George. Out of England there is no truth, no honor. But, above
+all, don't back against the field; there are so many dodges against you;
+so many 'dark horses' come out fair. That 's it, you see; that 's
+the way I got it so heavily; for when Ruxton came and told me that
+'Help-me-Over' was dead lame, I believed him. A fetlock lameness is no
+trifle, you know; and there was a swelling as large as my hand around
+the coronet. The foreign fellows can manage that in the morning, and
+the horse will run to win the same day. I saw it myself. Ah, John
+Bull forever! No guile, no deceit in him. Mind me, George, I make this
+confession for you alone. I 'll not stoop to repeat it. If any man
+dare to insinuate anything to my discredit, I 'll never give myself the
+trouble of one word of explanation, but nail him to it, twelve paces,
+and no mistake. I don't think my right hand has forgot its cunning. Have
+him out at once, George; parade him on the spot, my boy; that 's the
+only plan. What! is this your quarter?" asked he, as they stopped at the
+entrance of the spacious palace. "I used to know this house well of old.
+It was the Embassy in Templeton's time. Very snug it used to be. Glad to
+see you 've banished all those maimed old deities that used to line
+the staircase, and got rid of that tiresome tapestry, too. Pretty
+vases those; fresh-looking that conservatory, they 're always strong in
+camellias in Florence. This used to be the billiard-room. I think you've
+made a good alteration; it looks better as a salon. Ah, I like this,
+excellent taste that chintz furniture; just the thing for Italy, and
+exactly what nobody thought of before!"
+
+"I'll see if my Lady be visible," said George, as he threw the "Morning
+Post" to his friend, and hastily quitted the chamber.
+
+Norwood was no sooner left alone than he proceeded to take a leisurely
+survey of the apartment, in the course of which his attention was
+arrested by a water-color drawing, representing a young girl leaning
+over a balcony, and which he had no difficulty in at once guessing to be
+Kate Dalton. There was something in the character of her beauty an air
+of almost daring haughtiness that seemed to strike his fancy; for, as
+he gazed, he drew himself up to his full height, and seemed to assume in
+his own features the proud expression of the portrait.
+
+"With a hundred thousand and that face one might make you a viscountess,
+and yet not do badly, either," said he to himself; and then, as if
+satisfied that he had given time enough to a mere speculative thought,
+he turned over the visiting-cards to see the names of the current
+acquaintance: "Midchekoff, Estrolenka, Janini, Tiverton, Latrobe, the
+old set; the Ricketts, too, and Haggerstone. What can have brought them
+here? Oh, there must have been a ball, for here are shoals of outsiders,
+the great Smith-Brown-and-Thompson community; and here, on the very
+smallest of pasteboards, in the very meekest of literals, have we our
+dear friend 'Albert Jekyl.' He 'll tell me all I want to know,"
+said Norwood, as he threw himself back on the comfortable depth of a
+well-cushioned chair, and gave way to a pleasant revery.
+
+When George Ouslow had informed Lady Hester of Norwood's arrival, he
+hastened to Sir Stafford's apartment to tell him how completely the
+Viscount had exonerated himself from any charge that might be made to
+his discredit; not, indeed, that George understood one syllable of
+the explanation, nor could trace anything like connection between the
+disjointed links of the narrative. He could only affirm his own perfect
+conviction in Norwood's honor, and hoped an equal degree of faith from
+his father. Fortunately for his powers of persuasiveness, they were not
+destined to be so sorely tried; for Sir Stafford had just walked out,
+and George, too eager to set all right about Norwood, took his hat and
+followed, in the hope of overtaking him.
+
+Lady Hester was already dressed, and about to enter the drawing-room,
+when George told her that Norwood was there; and yet she returned to
+her room and made some changes in her toilet, slight, and perhaps too
+insignificant to record, but yet of importance enough to occupy some
+time, and afford her an interval for thoughts which, whatever their
+nature, served to flush her cheek and agitate her deeply.
+
+It is an awkward thing, at any time, to meet with the person to whom you
+once believed you should have been married; to see, on the terms of mere
+common acquaintance, the individual with whose fate and fortune you at
+one time fancied your own was indissolubly bound up, for weal or woe,
+for better or for worse. To exchange the vapid commonplaces of the
+world; to barter the poor counters of that petty game called society,
+with her or him with whom you have walked in all the unbounded
+confidence of affection, speculating on a golden future, or glorying in
+a delicious dream of present bliss; to touch with ceremonious respect
+that hand you have so often held fast within your own; to behold with
+respectful distance that form beside which you have sat for hours, lost
+in happy fancies; to stand, as it were, and trace out with the eye some
+path in life we might have followed, wondering whither it would have
+led us, if to some higher pinnacle of gratified ambition, if to
+disappointments darker than those we have ever known, speculating on a
+future which is already become a past, and canvassing within our hearts
+the follies that have misled and the faults that have wrecked us! Such
+are among the inevitable reminiscences of meeting; and they are full of
+a soft and touching sorrow, not all unpleasing, either, as they remind
+us of our youth and its buoyancy. Far otherwise was the present case.
+Whatever might have been the bold confidence with which Lady Hester
+protested her belief in Norwood's honor, her own heartfelt knowledge of
+the man refuted the assertion. She knew thoroughly that he was perfectly
+devoid of all principle, and merely possessed that conventional degree
+of fair dealing indispensable to association with his equals. That he
+would do anything short of what would subject him to disgrace she
+had long seen; and perhaps the unhappy moment had come when even this
+restraint was no longer a barrier. And yet, with all this depreciating
+sense of the man, would it be believed she had once loved him! ay, with
+as sincere an affection as she was capable of feeling for anything.
+
+'T is true, time and its consequences had effaced much of this feeling.
+His own indifference had done something, her new relations with the
+world had done more; and if she ever thought of him now, it was with
+a degree of half terror that there lived one man who had so thoroughly
+read all the secrets of her heart, and knew every sentiment of her
+nature.
+
+Norwood was sitting in a chair as she entered, amusing himself with
+the gambols of a little Blenheim spaniel, whose silver collar bore the
+coronet of the Russian prince. He never perceived Lady Hester until she
+was close beside him, and in an easy, half-indifferent tone, said,
+
+"How d' ye do, my Lord?"
+
+"What, Hester!" said he, starting up, and taking her hand in both his
+own.
+
+She withdrew it languidly, and seating herself, not upon the sofa to
+which he wished to lead her, but in a chair, asked when he had arrived,
+and by what route.
+
+"I came out in a yacht; stopping a few days at Gibraltar, and a week at
+Malta."
+
+"Had you pleasant weather?"
+
+"After we got clear of the Channel, excellent weather."
+
+"You came alone, I suppose?"
+
+"Quite alone."
+
+"How do you get on without your dear friend Effingdale, or your
+'familiar,' Upton?"
+
+Norwood colored a little at a question the drift of which he felt
+thoroughly, but tried with a laugh to evade an answer.
+
+"Are they in England? I thought I read their names at the Newmarket
+meeting?" asked she, after waiting in vain for a reply.
+
+"Yes; they were both at Newmarket," replied he, shortly.
+
+"Was it a good meeting?"
+
+"I can scarcely say so," rejoined he, attempting a laugh. "My book
+turned out very unfortunately."
+
+"I heard so," was the short reply; and in a tone so dry and significant
+that a dead silence followed.
+
+"Pretty spaniel, that," said Norwood, trying a slight sortie into the
+enemy's camp. "A present, I suppose, from Midchekoff?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"It is not clean bred, however, no more than his late master. Have you
+seen much of the Prince?"
+
+"He comes here every evening, after the Opera."
+
+"What a bore that must be he is a most insufferable proser."
+
+"I must say I disagree with you; I reckon him excessively agreeable."
+
+"How changed you must be, Hes--Lady Hester."
+
+"I believe I am, my Lord."
+
+"And yet you look the same the very same as when we sauntered for hours
+through the old woods at Dipsley." She blushed deeply; less, perhaps, at
+the words, than at the look which accompanied them.
+
+"Is this your newly found niece or cousin?" said Norwood, as he pointed
+to the portrait of Kate Dal ton.
+
+"Yes. Is n't she pretty?"
+
+"The picture is."
+
+"She is much handsomer, however, a charming creature in every respect,
+as you will confess when you see her."
+
+"And for what high destiny is she meant? Is she to be a Russian
+Princess, a Duchessa of Italy, or the goodwife of an untitled
+Englishman?"
+
+"She may have her choice, I believe, of either of the three--."
+
+"Happy girl!" said he half scornfully; "and when may I hope to behold so
+much excellence?"
+
+"To-day, if you like to dine here."
+
+"I should like it much but but--"
+
+"But what?"
+
+"It's better to be frank at once, Hester," said he, boldly, "and say
+that I feel you are grown very cold and distant toward me. This is not
+your old manner, this not exactly the reception I looked for. Now, if
+you have any cause for this, would it not be better and fairer to speak
+it out openly than continue to treat me in this slighting fashion? You
+are silent, so there is something; pray let's hear it."
+
+"What of Newmarket?" said she, in a low voice, so faint as almost to be
+a whisper.
+
+"So that's it," said he, as he folded his arms and looked steadfastly at
+her.
+
+There was something in the cold and steady gaze he bestowed upon her
+that abashed, if not actually alarmed, Lady Hester. She had seen the
+same look once or twice before, and always as the prelude to some
+terrible evidence of his temper.
+
+"Lady Hester," said he, in a low, distinct, and very slow voice, as
+though he would not have her lose a word he spoke, "the explanation
+which a man would ask for at the peril of his life ought not, in common
+justice, to be quite costless to a lady. It is perfectly possible that
+you may not care for the price, be it so; only I warn you that if you
+wish for any information on the subject you allude to, _I_ will inquire
+whether--"
+
+Here he dropped his voice, and whispered two or three words rapidly
+in her ear, after which she lay back, pale, sick, and almost fainting,
+without strength to speak or even to move.
+
+"Do not say, or still less feel, that this contest is of my provoking.
+Never was any man less in the humor to provoke hostilities, and
+particularly from old friends. I have just had bad luck, the very worst
+of bad luck. I have lost everything but my head; and even that, cool and
+calculating as it is, may go too if I be pushed too far. Now you have a
+frank and free confession from me. I have told you more than I would to
+any other living, more, perhaps, than I ought even to you."
+
+"Then what do you intend to do here?" asked she, faintly.
+
+"Wait wait patiently for awhile. Fix upon anyone that I can discover
+mutters a syllable to my discredit, and shoot him as I would a dog."
+
+"There may be some who, without openly discussing, will shun your
+society, and avoid your intercourse."
+
+"Sir Stafford, for instance," said he, with an insolent laugh. She
+nodded slightly, and he went on: "My Lady's influence will, I am
+certain, set me right in that quarter."
+
+"I may be unequal to the task."
+
+"You can at least try, madam."
+
+"I have tried, Norwood. I have gone the length of declaring that I
+disbelieved every story against you, that I reposed the most implicit
+faith in your honor, and that I would certainly receive you and admit
+your visits as heretofore."
+
+"And, of course, you'll keep your word?"
+
+"If you exact it."
+
+"Of course I shall! Hester, this is no time for quibbling. I 've got
+into a mess, the worst of all the bad scrapes which have ever befallen
+me. A little time and a little management will pull me through but I
+must have both; nor is it in such a place, and with such a society as
+this, a man need fear investigation. I came here, as formerly one went
+to live 'within the rules.' Let me, at least, have the benefit of the
+protection for condescending to the locality."
+
+"Sir Stafford, my Lady," said a servant, throwing open the door; and
+the old Baronet entered hastily, and, without deigning to notice Lord
+Norwood, walked straight up to Lady Hester, and said a few words in a
+low voice.
+
+Affecting to occupy himself with the books upon the table, Norwood
+watched the dialogue with keen but stealthy glances, and then, as the
+other turned suddenly round, said,
+
+"How d' ye do, Sir Stafford? I am glad to see you looking so well."
+
+"I thank you, my Lord; I am perfectly well," said he, with a most
+repelling coldness.
+
+"You are surprised to see me in Florence, for certain," said the other,
+with a forced laugh.
+
+"Very much surprised to see you here, my Lord," was the abrupt reply.
+
+"Ha! ha! ha! I thought so!" cried Norwood, laughing, and pretending not
+to feel the point of the remark. "But, nowadays, one flits about the
+world in slippers and dressing-gown, and travelling inflicts no fatigue.
+I only left England ten days ago."
+
+"The post comes in seven, my Lord," said Sir Stafford. "I have had
+letters this morning, written this day week, and which give the last
+events in Town Life up to the very hour."
+
+"Indeed! and what's the news, then?" said he, negligently.
+
+"If your Lordship will favor me with your company for a few minutes,
+I may be able to enlighten you," said Sir Stafford, moving towards the
+door.
+
+"With the greatest pleasure. Good-bye, Lady Hester," said he, rising.
+"You said seven o'clock dinner, I think?"
+
+"Yes," replied she, but in a voice almost inarticulate from shame and
+terror.
+
+"Now, Sir Stafford, I 'm at your orders," said the Viscount, gayly,
+as he left the room, followed by the old man, whose crimson cheek and
+flashing eye bespoke the passion which was struggling within him.
+
+Of the two who now entered Sir Stafford's library, it must be owned that
+Lord Norwood was, by many degrees, the more calm and collected. No one,
+to have looked at him, could possibly have supposed that any question of
+interest, not to say of deep moment, awaited him; and as he carried
+his eyes over the well-filled shelves and the hand some fittings of
+the chamber, nothing could be more naturally spoken than the few
+complimentary expressions on Sir Stafford's good taste and judgment.
+
+"I shall not ask you to be seated, my Lord," said the old Baronet, whose
+tremulous lip and shaking cheek showed how deep-felt was his agitation.
+"The few moments of interview I have requested will be, I have no doubt,
+too painful to either of us, nor could we desire to prolong them. To me,
+I own, they are very, very painful."
+
+These hurried, broken, and unconnected sentences fell from him as he
+searched for a letter among a number of others that littered the table.
+
+Lord Norwood bowed coldly, and, without making any reply, turned his
+back to the fire, and waited in patience.
+
+"I have, I fear, mislaid the letter," said Sir Stafford, whose nervous
+anxiety had now so completely mastered him that he threw the letters and
+papers on every side without perceiving it.
+
+The Viscount made no sign, but suffered the search to proceed without
+remark.
+
+"It was a letter from Lord Effingdale," continued the Baronet, still
+busied in the pursuit, "a letter written after the Newmarket settling,
+my Lord; and if I should be unfortunate enough not to find it, I must
+only trust to my memory for its contents."
+
+Lord Norwood gave another bow, slighter and colder than the former, as
+though to say that he acquiesced perfectly, without knowing in what.
+
+"Ah! here it is! here it is!" cried Sir Stafford, at last detecting the
+missing document, which he hastily opened and ran his eyes over. "This
+letter, my Lord," continued he, "announces that, in consequence of
+certain defalcations on your part, the members of the 'Whip Club'
+have erased your Lordship's name from their list, and declared you
+incapacitated from either entering a horse, or naming a winner for the
+stakes in future. There, there, my Lord, is the paragraph, coupled with
+what you will doubtless feel to be a very severe but just comment on the
+transaction."
+
+Norwood took the letter and read it leisurely, as leisurely and calmly
+as though the contents never concerned him, and then, folding it up,
+laid it on the chimney-piece beside him.
+
+"Poor Effingdale!" said he, smiling; "he ought to spell better,
+considering that his mother was a governess. He writes 'naming' with an
+'e.' Didn't you remark that?"
+
+But as Sir Stafford paid no attention to the criticism, he went on:
+
+"As to the 'Whip,' I may as well tell you, that I scratched my own name
+myself. They are a set of low 'Legs,' and, except poor Effy, and two or
+three others of the same brilliant stamp, not a gentleman amongst them."
+
+"The defalcation is, however, true?" asked Sir Stafford.
+
+"If you mean to ask whether a man always wins at Doncaster or Newmarket,
+the question is of the easiest to answer."
+
+"I certainly presume that he always pays what he loses, my Lord,"
+replied Sir Stafford, coloring at the evasive impertinence of the other.
+
+"Of course he does, when he has it, Sir Stafford; but that is a most
+essential condition, for the 'Turf' is not precisely like a mercantile
+pursuit."
+
+Sir Stafford winced under the flippant insolence with which this was
+spoken.
+
+"There is not exactly a fair way to calculate profit, nor any assurance
+against accidental loss. A horse, Sir Stafford, is not an Indiaman; a
+betting man is, therefore, in a position quite exceptional."
+
+"If a man risks what he cannot pay, he is dishonorable," said Sir
+Stafford, in a short, abrupt tone.
+
+"I see that you cannot enter into a theme so very different from all
+your habits and pursuits. You think there is a kind of bankruptcy when
+a man gets a little behind with his bets. You don't see that all these
+transactions are on 'honor,' and that if one does 'bolt,' he means to
+'book up' another time. There was George, your own son--"
+
+"What of him? what of George?" cried Sir Stafford, with a convulsive
+grasp of the chair, while the color fled from his cheek, and he seemed
+ready to faint with emotion.
+
+"Oh, nothing in the world to cause you uneasiness. A more honorable
+fellow never breathed than George."
+
+"Then, what of him? How comes his name to your lips at such a discussion
+as this? Tell me, this instant, my Lord. I command I entreat you!"
+
+And the old man shook like one in an ague; but Norwood saw his
+vantage-ground, and determined to use it unsparingly. He therefore
+merely smiled, and said, "Pray be calm, Sir Stafford. I repeat that
+there is nothing worthy of a moment's chagrin. I was only about to
+observe that if I had the same taste for scandal-writing as poor Effy,
+I might have circulated a similar story about your son George. He
+left England, owing me a good round sum, for which, by the way, I was
+terribly 'hard up;' and although the money was paid eventually, what
+would you have thought of me what would the world have thought of him if
+I had written such an epistle as this?"
+
+And as he spoke, his voice and manner warmed into a degree of indignant
+anger, in which, as if carried away, he snatched the letter from the
+chimney-piece and threw it into the fire. The act was unseen by Sir
+Stafford, who sat with his head deeply buried between his hands, a low
+faint groan alone bespeaking the secret agony of his heart.
+
+"My son has, then, paid you? He owes nothing, my Lord?" said he, at
+last, looking up, with a countenance furrowed by agitation.
+
+"Like a trump!" said Norwood, assuming the most easy and self-satisfied
+manner. "My life upon George Onslow! Back him to any amount, and against
+the field anywhere! A true John Bull! no humbug, no nonsense about him!
+straightforward and honorable, always!"
+
+"Your position is, then, this, my Lord," said Sir Stafford, whose
+impatience would not permit him to listen longer, "you have quitted
+England, leaving for future settlement a number of debts, for which you
+have not the remotest prospect of liquidation."
+
+"Too fast, you go too fast!" said the Viscount, laughing.
+
+"Lord Effingdale writes the amount at thirty thousand pounds, and adds
+that, as a defaulter--"
+
+"There's the whole of it," broke in Norwood. "You ring the changes
+about that one confounded word, and there is no use in attempting a
+vindication. 'Give a dog a bad name,' as the adage says. Now, I took the
+trouble this very morning to go over the whole of this tiresome business
+with George. I explained to him fully, and, I hope, to his entire
+satisfaction, that I was simply unfortunate in it, nothing more. A man
+cannot always 'ride the winner; 'I 'm sure I wish _I_ could. Of course,
+I don't mean to say that it 's not a confounded 'bore' to come out here
+and live in such a place as this, and just at the opening of the season,
+too, when town is beginning to fill; but 'needs must,' we are told,
+'when a certain gent sits on the coach-box.'"
+
+Sir Stafford stood, during the whole of this speech, with his arms
+folded and his eyes fixed upon the floor. He never heard one word of
+it, but was deeply intent upon his own thoughts. At length he spoke in
+a full, collected, and firm voice: "Lord Norwood I am, as you have told
+me, perfectly unfitted to pronounce upon transactions so very unlike
+every pursuit in which my life has been passed. I am alike ignorant of
+the feelings of those who engage in them, and of the rules of honor by
+which they are guided; but this I know, that the man whom his equals
+decline to associate with at home is not recognizable abroad; and that
+he who leaves his country with shame, cannot reside away from it with
+credit."
+
+"This would be a very rude speech, Sir Stafford Onslow, even with the
+palliative preface of your ignorance, if our relative ages admitted any
+equality between us. I am the least bellicose of men, I believe I can
+say I may afford to be so. So long, therefore, as you confine such
+sentiments to yourself, I will never complain of them; but if the time
+comes that you conceive they should be issued for general circulation--"
+
+"Well, my Lord, what then?"
+
+"Your son must answer for it, that's all!" said Norwood; and he drew
+himself up, and fixed his eye steadily on the distant wall of the room,
+with a look and gesture that made the old man sick at heart. Norwood saw
+how "his shot told," and, turning hastily round, said: "This interview,
+I conclude, has lasted quite long enough for either of us. If you have
+any further explanations to seek for, let them come through a younger
+man, and in a more regular form. Good-morning."
+
+Sir Stafford bowed, without speaking, as the other passed out.
+
+To have seen them both at that moment, few would have guessed aright on
+which side lay all the disgrace, and where the spirit of rectitude and
+honor.
+
+Sir Stafford, indeed, was most miserable. If the Viscount's mock
+explanations did not satisfy a single scruple of his mind, was it not
+possible they might have sufficed with others more conversant with such
+matters? Perhaps he is not worse than others of his own class. What
+would be his feelings if he were to involve George in a quarrel for
+such a cause? This was a consideration that pressed itself in twenty
+different forms, each of them enough to appall him. "But the man is
+a defaulter; he has fled from England with 'shame,'" was the stubborn
+conviction which no efforts of his casuistry could banish; and the more
+he reflected on this, the less possible seemed anything like evasion or
+compromise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI. THE END OF THE FIRST ACT
+
+THE point discussed in our last chapter, if not a momentous one in
+itself, was destined to exercise a very important influence upon the
+fortunes of the Onslow family. The interview between Sir Stafford and
+the Viscount scarcely occupied five minutes; after which the Baronet
+wrote a note of some length to her Ladyship, to which she as promptly
+replied; a second, and even a third interchange of correspondence
+followed. The dinner-party appointed for that day was put off; a certain
+ominous kind of silence pervaded the house. The few privileged visitors
+were denied admission. Mr. Proctor, Sir Stafford's man, wore a look of
+more than common seriousness. Mademoiselle Celestine's glances revealed
+a haughty sense of triumph. Even the humbler menials appeared to feel
+that something had occurred, and betrayed in their anxious faces some
+resemblance to that vague sense of half-curiosity, half-terror, the
+passengers of a steamboat experience when an accident, of whose nature
+they know nothing, has occurred to the machinery.
+
+Their doubts and suspicions assumed more shape when the order came that
+Sir Stafford would dine in the library, and her Ladyship in her own
+room, George Onslow alone appearing in the dining-room. There was an air
+of melancholy over everything, the silence deepening as night came on.
+Servants went noiselessly to and fro, drew the curtains, and closed
+the doors with a half-stealthy gesture, and seemed as though fearful of
+awakening some slumbering outbreak of passion.
+
+We neither have, nor desire to have, secrets from our readers. We will
+therefore proceed to Sir Stafford's dressing-room, where the old Baronet
+sat moodily over the fire, his anxious features and sorrow-struck
+expression showing the ravages even a few hours of suffering had
+inflicted. His table was littered with papers, parchments, and other
+formidable-looking documents. Some letters lay sealed here, others were
+half-written there; everything about him showed the conflict of doubt
+and indecision that was going on within his mind; and truly a most
+painful struggle was maintained there.
+
+For some time back he had seen with displeasure the course of
+extravagance and waste of all his household. He had observed the habits
+of reckless expense with which his establishment was maintained; but,
+possessing a very ample fortune, and feeling that probably some change
+would be made with the coming summer, he had forborne to advert to
+it, and endured with what patience he could a mode of life whose very
+display was distasteful to him. Now, however, a more serious cause for
+anxiety presented itself, in the class of intimates admitted by Lady
+Hester to her society. Of the foreigners he knew comparatively
+little; but that little was not to their advantage. Some were wealthy
+voluptuaries, glad to propagate their own habits of extravagance among
+those they suspected of fortunes smaller than their own. Others were
+penniless adventurers, speculating upon everything that might turn to
+their profit. All were men of pleasure, and of that indolent, lounging,
+purposeless character so peculiarly unpleasing to those who have led
+active lives, and been always immersed in the cares and interests of
+business.
+
+Such men, he rightly judged, were dangerous associates to his son,
+the very worst acquaintances for Kate, in whom already he was deeply
+interested; but still no actual stain of dishonor, no palpable flaw,
+could be detected in their fame, till the arrival of Lord Norwood added
+his name to the list.
+
+To receive a man of whose misconduct in England he had acquired every
+proof, was a step beyond his endurance. Here or never must he take
+his stand; and manfully he did so, at first, by calm argument and
+remonstrance, and at last by firm resolution and determination. Without
+adverting to what had passed between the Viscount and himself, the
+letter he addressed to Lady Hester conveyed his unalterable resolve not
+to know Lord Norwood. Lady Hester's reply was not less peremptory, and
+scarcely as courteous. The correspondence continued with increasing
+warmth on both sides, till Sir Stafford palpably hinted at the possible
+consequences of a spirit of discordance and disagreement so ill-adapted
+to conjugal welfare. Her Ladyship caught up the suggestion with avidity,
+and professed that, whatever scruples his delicacy might feel, to hers
+there was none in writing the word, "Separation."
+
+If the thought had already familiarized itself to his mind, the word had
+not; and strange it is that the written syllables should have a power
+and meaning that the idea itself could never realize.
+
+To men who have had little publicity in their lives, and that little
+always of an honorable nature, there is no thought so poignantly
+miserable as the dread of a scandalous notoriety. To associate their
+names with anything that ministers to gossip; to make them tea-table
+talk; still worse, to expose them to sneering and impertinent
+criticisms, by revealing the secrets of their domesticity, is a torture
+to which no mere physical suffering has anything to compare. Sir
+Stafford Onslow was a true representative of this class of feeling. The
+sight of his name in the list of directors of some great enterprise, as
+the patron of a charity, the governor of an hospital, or the donor to an
+institution, was about as much of newspaper notoriety as he could bear
+without a sense of shrinking delicacy; but to become the mark for public
+discussion in the relations of his private life, to have himself and his
+family brought up to the bar of that terrible ordeal, where bad tongues
+are the eloquent, and evil speakers are the witty, was a speculation
+too terrible to think over; and this was exactly what Lady Hester was
+suggesting!
+
+Is it not very strange that woman, with whose nature we inseparably and
+truly associate all those virtues that take their origin in refinement
+and modesty, should sometimes be able to brave a degree of publicity
+to which a man, the very hardiest and least shamefaced, would succumb,
+crestfallen and abashed; that her timid delicacy, her shrinking
+bashfulness, can be so hardened by the world that she can face a
+notoriety where every look is an indictment, and every whisper a
+condemnation?
+
+Now, if Lady Hester was yet remote from this, she had still journeyed
+one stage of the road. She had abundant examples around her of those
+best received and best looked on in society, whose chief claim to the
+world's esteem seemed to be the contempt with which they treated all its
+ordinances. There was a dash of heroism in their effrontery that pleased
+her. They appeared more gay, more buoyant, more elastic in spirits than
+other people; their increased liberty seemed to impart enlarged and more
+generous views, and they were always "good-natured," since, living in
+the very glassiest of houses, they never "shied" a pebble.
+
+While, then, Sir Stafford sat overwhelmed with shame and sorrow at the
+bare thought of the public discussion that awaited him, Lady Hester was
+speculating upon condolences here, approbation there, panegyrics upon
+her high spirit, and congratulations upon her freedom. The little,
+half-shadowy allusions her friends would throw out from time to time
+upon the strange unsuitableness of her marriage with a man so much her
+senior, would soon be converted into comments of unrestricted license.
+Besides and perhaps the greatest charm of all was she would have a
+grievance; not the worn-out grievance of some imaginary ailment that
+nobody believes in but the "doctor," not the mock agonies of a heart
+complaint, that saves the sufferer from eating bad dinners in vulgar
+company, but always allows them a respite for a dejeuner at the court,
+or a supper after the Opera, with a few chosen convives, but a real,
+substantial grievance, over which men might be eloquent and ladies
+pathetic. Such were the different feelings with which two persons
+contemplated the same event. Sir Stafford's thoughts turned instantly
+towards England. What would be said there by all those friends who had
+endeavored to dissuade him from this ill-suited union? Their sorrowful
+compassion was even less endurable than the malice of others; and
+Grounsell, too, what would his old friend think of a catastrophe so
+sudden? In his heart Sir Stafford was glad that the doctor was absent;
+much as he needed his counsel and advice, he still more dreaded the
+terror of his triumphant eye at the accomplishment of his oft-repeated
+prediction.
+
+From George he met no support whatever. He either believed, or thought
+that he believed, Norwood's garbled explanation. Intercourse with a
+certain set of "fast men" had shown him that a man might do a "screwy"
+thing now and then, and yet not be cut by his acquaintance. And
+the young Guardsman deemed his father's rigid notions nothing but
+prejudices, very excellent and commendable ones, no doubt, but as
+inapplicable to our present civilization as would be a coat of mail or a
+back-piece of chain-armor. George Onslow, therefore, halted between the
+two opinions. Adhering to his father's side from feelings of affection
+and respect, he was drawn to Lady Hester's by his convictions; not,
+indeed, aware how formidable the difference had already become between
+them, and that, before that very night closed in, they had mutually
+agreed upon a separation, which while occupying the same house, was
+essentially to exclude all intercourse.
+
+One consideration gave Sir Stafford much painful thought. What was to
+become of Kate Dalton in this new turn of affairs? The position of
+a young girl on a visit with a family living in apparent unity and
+happiness was very wide apart from her situation as the companion of a
+woman separated, even thus much, from her husband. It would be equally
+unfair to her own family, as unjust to the girl herself, to detain her
+then in such a conjuncture. And yet what was to be done? Apart from all
+the unpleasantness of proposing an abrupt return to her home, came
+the thought of the avowal that must accompany the suggestion, the very
+confession he so dreaded to make. Of course the gossiping of servants
+would soon circulate the rumor. But then they might not spread it beyond
+the Alps, nor make it the current talk of a German watering-place. Thus
+were his selfish feelings at war with higher and purer thoughts. But
+the struggle was not a long one. He sat down and wrote to Lady Hester.
+Naturally assuming that all the reasons which had such force for himself
+would weigh equally with her, he dwelt less upon the arguments for
+Kate's departure than upon the mode in which it might be proposed and
+carried out. He adverted with feeling to the sacrifice the loss would
+inflict upon Lady Hester, but professed his conviction in the belief
+that all merely selfish considerations would give way before higher and
+more important duties.
+
+"As it is," said he, "I fear much that we have done anything but conduce
+to this dear girl's welfare and happiness. We have shown her glimpses of
+a life whose emptiness she cannot appreciate, but by whose glitter
+she is already attracted. We have exposed her to all the seductions of
+flattery, pampering a vanity which is perhaps her one only failing. We
+have doubtless suggested to her imagination dreams of a future never
+to be realized, and we must now consign her to a home where all the
+affections of fond relatives will be unequal to the task of blinding her
+to its poverty and its obscurity. And yet even this is better than to
+detain her here. It shall be my care to see in what way I can I was
+about to write 'recompense;' nor would the word be unsuitable recompense
+Mr. Dalton for the injury we have done him as regards his child; and if
+you have any suggestion to make me on this head, I will gladly accept
+it."
+
+The note concluded with some hints as to the manner of making the
+communication to Kate, the whole awkwardness of which Sir Stafford, if
+need were, would take upon himself.
+
+The whole temper of the letter was feeling and tender. Without even in
+the most remote way adverting to what had occurred between Lady Hester
+and himself, he spoke of their separation simply in its relation to Kate
+Dalton, for whom they were both bound to think and act with caution.
+As if concentrating every thought upon her, he did not suffer any other
+consideration to interfere. Kate, and Kate only, was all its theme.
+
+Lady Hester, however, read the lines in a very different spirit. She had
+just recovered from a mesmeric trance, into which, to calm her nervous
+exaltation, her physician, Dr. Buccellini, had thrown her. She had been
+lying in a state of half-hysterical apathy for some hours, all volition,
+almost all vitality, suspended, under the influence of an exaggerated
+credulity, when the letter was laid upon the table.
+
+"What is that your maid has just left out of her hand?" asked the
+doctor, in a tone of semi-imperiousness.
+
+[Illustration:   318]
+
+"A letter, a sealed letter," replied she, mystically waving her hand
+before her half-closed eyes.
+
+The doctor gave a look of triumph at the bystanders, and went on:
+
+"Has the letter come from a distant country, or from a correspondent
+near at hand?"
+
+"Near!" said she, with a shudder.
+
+"Where is the writer at this moment?" asked he.
+
+"In the house," said she, with another and more violent shuddering.
+
+"I now take the letter in my hand," said the doctor, "and what am I
+looking at?"
+
+"A seal with two griffins supporting a spur."
+
+The doctor showed the letter on every side, with a proud and commanding
+gesture. "There is a name written in the corner of the letter, beneath
+the address. Do you know that name?"
+
+A heavy, thick sob was the reply.
+
+"There there be calm, be still," said he, majestically motioning
+with both hands towards her; and she immediately became composed
+and tranquil. "Are the contents of this letter such as will give you
+pleasure?"
+
+A shake of the head was the answer.
+
+"Are they painful?"
+
+"Very painful," said she, pressing her hand to her temples.
+
+"Will these tidings be productive of grand consequences?"
+
+"Yes, yes!" cried she, eagerly.
+
+"What will you do, when you read them?"
+
+"Act!" ejaculated she, solemnly.
+
+"In compliance with the spirit, or in rejection?"
+
+"Rejection!"
+
+"Sleep on, sleep on," said the doctor, with a wave of his hand; and, as
+he spoke, her head drooped, her arm fell listlessly down, and her
+long and heavy breathing denoted deep slumber. "There are people, Miss
+Dalton," said he to Kate, "who affect to see nothing in mesmerism but
+deception and trick, whose philosophy teaches them to discredit all that
+they cannot comprehend. I trust you may never be of this number."
+
+"It is very wonderful, very strange," said she, thoughtfully.
+
+"Like all the secrets of nature, its phenomena are above belief; yet, to
+those who study them with patience and industry, how compatible do they
+seem with the whole order and spirit of creation. The great system of
+vitality being a grand scheme of actionary and reactionary influences,
+the centrifugal being in reality the centripetal, and those impulses we
+vainly fancy to be our own instincts being the impressions of external
+forces do you comprehend me?"
+
+"Not perfectly; in part, perhaps," said she, diffidently.
+
+"Even that is something," replied he, with a bland smile. "One whose
+future fortunes will place her in a station to exert influence is an
+enviable convert to have brought to truth."
+
+"I!" said she, blushing with shame and surprise together; "surely you
+mistake, sir. I am neither born to rank, nor like to attain it."
+
+"Both one and the other, young lady," said he, solemnly; "high as
+your position will one day be, it will not be above the claims of your
+descent. It is not on fallible evidence that I read the future."
+
+"And can you really predict my fortune in life?" asked she, eagerly.
+
+"More certainly than you would credit it, when told," said he,
+deliberately.
+
+"How I should like to hear it; how I should like to know" She stopped,
+and a deep blush covered her face.
+
+"And why should you not know that your dreams will be realized?" said
+he, hastily, as if speaking from some irresistible impulse. "What more
+natural than to desire a glance, fleeting though it be, into that
+black vista where the bright lightning of prophecy throws its momentary
+splendor?"
+
+"And how know you that I have had dreams?" said she, innocently.
+
+"I know of them but by their accomplishment. I see you not in the
+present or the past, but in the future. There your image is revealed to
+me, and surrounded by a splendor I cannot describe. It is gorgeous and
+barbaric in magnificence; there is something feudal in the state by
+which you are encompassed that almost speaks of another age."
+
+"This is mere dreamland, indeed," said she, laughing.
+
+"Nay, not so; nor is it all bright and glorious, as you think. There are
+shadows of many a dark tint moving along the sunlit surface."
+
+"But how know you all this?" asked she, half incredulously.
+
+"As you slept last evening in a mesmeric slumber on that sofa; but I
+will hear no further questioning. Look to our patient here, and if
+that letter agitate her over-much, let me be sent for." And, with these
+words, delivered oracularly, the doctor left the room, while Kate seated
+herself beside the sofa where Lady Hester slept.
+
+It was late in the night when Lady Hester awoke, and soon remembering
+that a letter had arrived, broke the seal and read it. If the proposal
+of Sir Stafford was in every way unacceptable, there was something which
+compensated for all in the excitement of spirits an act of opposition
+was sure to produce; nor was it without a sense of triumph that she read
+lines penned in evident sorrow and depression of spirit. In fact, she
+made the not uncommon error of mistaking sorrow for repentance, and
+thought she perceived in her husband's tone a desire to retrace his
+steps. It is difficult to say whether such an amende would have
+given her pleasure; certainly she would not have accepted it without
+subjecting him to a term of probation of more or less length. In any
+case, as regarded Kate, she was decided at once upon a positive refusal;
+and as, with her, a resolve and a mode of action were usually the work
+of the same moment, she motioned to Kate to sit down beside her on the
+sofa, and passing her arm around her, drew her fondly towards her.
+
+"Kate, dearest," said she, "I 'm sure nothing would induce you to leave
+me, I mean, to desert and forsake me."
+
+Kate pressed the hand she held in her own to her lips with fervor, but
+could not speak for emotion.
+
+"I say this," said Lady Hester, rapidly, "because the moment has come to
+test your fidelity. Sir Stafford and I it is needless to state how and
+by what means have at last discovered, what I fancy the whole world has
+seen for many a day, that we were totally unsuited to each other, in
+taste, age, habit, feeling, mode of life, and thought; that we have
+nothing in common, neither liking nor detesting the same things,
+but actually at variance upon every possible subject and person. Of
+course-all attempt to cover such discrepancies must be a failure. We
+might trump up a hollow truce, child, but it never could be an alliance;
+and so we have thought, I 'm sure it is well that we have hit upon even
+one topic for agreement, we have thought that the best, indeed the only,
+thing we could do, was to separate."
+
+An exclamation, almost like an accent of pain, escaped Kate at these
+words.
+
+"Yes, dearest," resumed Lady Hester, "it was his own proposal, made in
+the very coldest imaginable fashion; for men have constantly this
+habit, and always take the tone of dignity when they are about to do
+an injustice. All this, however, I was prepared for, and could suffer
+without complaint; but he desires to rob me of you, my dear child, to
+deprive me of the only friend, the only confidante I have in the world.
+I don't wonder that you grow pale and look shocked at such cruelty,
+concealed, as it is, under the mask of care for your interests and
+regard for your welfare; and this to me, dearest, to me, who feel to you
+as to a sister, a dear, dear sister!" Here Lady Hester drew Kate towards
+her, and kissed her twice, affectionately. "There 's his letter, my
+sweet child. You can read it; or better, indeed, that you should not, if
+you would preserve any memory of your good opinion of him."
+
+"And he that was ever so kind, so thoughtful, and so generous!" cried
+Kate.
+
+"You know nothing of these creatures, my dear," broke in Lady Hester.
+"All those plausibilities that they play off in the world are little
+emanations of their own selfish natures. They are eternally craving
+admiration from us women, and that is the true reason of their mock
+kindness and mock generosity! I 'm sure," added she, sighing, "my
+experience has cost me pretty dearly! What a life of trial and privation
+has mine been!"
+
+Lady Hester sighed heavily as her jewelled fingers pressed to her eyes a
+handkerchief worth a hundred guineas, and really believed herself a case
+for world-wide sympathy. She actually did shed a tear or two over
+her sorrows; for it is wonderful on what slight pretension we can
+compassionate ourselves. She thought over all the story of her life, and
+wept. She remembered how she had been obliged to refuse the husband of
+her choice; she forgot to be grateful for having escaped a heartless
+spendthrift, she remembered her acceptance of one inferior to her in
+rank, and many years her senior; but forgot his wealth, his generosity,
+his kindliness of nature, and his high character. She thought of herself
+as she was at eighteen, the flattered beauty, daughter of a Peer,
+courted, sought after, and admired; but she totally forgot what she
+was at thirty, with faded attractions, unthought of, and, worse still,
+unmarried. Of the credit side of her account with Fortune she omitted
+not an item; the debits she slurred over as unworthy of mention. That
+she should be able to deceive herself is nothing very new or strange,
+but that she should succeed in deceiving another is indeed singular; and
+such was the case. Kate listened to her, and believed everything; and
+when her reason failed to convince, her natural softness of disposition
+served to satisfy her that a more patient, long-suffering, unrepining
+being never existed than Lady Hester Onslow.
+
+"And now," said she, after a long peroration of woes, "can you leave me
+here, alone and friendless? will you desert me?"
+
+"Oh, never, never!" cried Kate, kissing her hand and pressing her to her
+heart. "I would willingly lay down my life to avert this sad misfortune;
+but, if that cannot be, I will share your lot with the devotion of my
+whole heart."
+
+Lady Hester could scarcely avoid smiling at the poor girl's simplicity,
+who really fancied that separation included a life of seclusion and
+sorrow, with restricted means and an obscure position; and it was with
+a kind of subdued drollery she assured Kate that even in her altered
+fortunes a great number of little pleasures and comforts would remain
+for them. In fact, by degrees the truth came slowly out, that the great
+change implied little else than unrestrained liberty of action, freedom
+to go anywhere, know any one, and be questioned by nobody; the
+equivocal character of the position adding a piquancy to the society,
+inexpressibly charming to all those who, like the Duchesse d'Abrantes,
+think it only necessary for a thing to be "wrong" to make it perfectly
+delightful.
+
+Having made a convert of Kate, Lady Hester briefly replied to Sir
+Stafford, that his proposition was alike repugnant to Miss Dalton as to
+herself, that she regretted the want of consideration on his part, which
+could have led him to desire that she should be friendless at a time
+when the presence of a companion was more than ever needed. This done,
+she kissed Kate three or four times affectionately, and retired to
+her room, well satisfied with what the day had brought forth, and only
+wishing for the morrow, which should open her new path in life.
+
+It often happens in life that we are never sufficiently struck with
+the force of our own opinions or their consequences, till, from
+some accident or other, we come to record them. Then it is that the
+sentiments we have expressed, and the lines of action adopted, suddenly
+come forth in all their unvarnished truth. Like the images which the
+painter, for the first time, commits to canvas, they stand out
+to challenge a criticism which, so long as they remained in mere
+imagination, they had escaped.
+
+This was precisely Kate Dalton's case now. Her natural warm-heartedness,
+and her fervent sense of gratitude, had led her to adopt Lady Hester's
+cause as her own; generous impulses, carrying reason all before them,
+attached her to what she fancied to be the weaker side. "The divinity
+that doth hedge--" "beauty--" made her believe that so much loveliness
+could do no wrong; nor was it till she came to write of the event to
+her sister, that even a doubt crossed her mind on the subject. The
+difficulty of explaining a circumstance of which she knew but little,
+was enhanced by her knowledge of Ellen's rigid and unbending sense of
+right. "Poor dear Nelly," said she, "with her innocence of mind, will
+understand nothing of all this, or she will condemn Lady Hester at once.
+Submission to her husband would, in her opinion, have been the first of
+duties. She cannot appreciate motives which actuate society in a rank
+different from her own. In her ignorance of the world, too, she might
+deem my remaining here unadvisable; she might counsel my return to
+home; and thus I should be deserting, forsaking, the dear friend who has
+confided all her sorrows to my heart, and reposes all her trust in my
+fidelity. This would break Lady Hester's heart and my own together; and
+yet nothing is more likely than such a course. Better a thousand times
+not expose her friend's cause to such a casualty. A little time and a
+little patience may place matters in a position more intelligible and
+less objectionable; and, after all, the question is purely a family
+secret, the divulgence of which, even to a sister, is perhaps not
+warrantable."
+
+Such were among the plausibilities with which she glanced over her
+conduct; without, however, satisfying herself that she was in the right.
+She had only begun the descent of lax morality, and her head was
+addled by the new sensation. Happy are they who even from weak nerves
+relinquish the career!
+
+Kate's letter home, then, was full of gay revelations. Galleries,
+churches, gardens; objects of art or historic interest; new pictures
+of manners, sketches of society, abounded. There were descriptions of
+fetes, too, and brilliant assemblies, with great names of guests and
+gorgeous displays of splendor. Well and sweetly were they written; a
+quick observation and a keen insight into character in every line. The
+subtle analysis of people and their pretensions, which comes of mixture
+with the world, was preeminent in all she said; while a certain sharp
+wit pointed many of the remarks, and sparkled in many a brilliant
+passage.
+
+It was altogether a lively and a pleasant letter. A stranger, reading
+ft, would have pronounced the writer clever and witty; a friend would
+have regretted the want of personal details, the hundred little traits
+of egoism that speak confidence and trust. But to a sister! and such
+a sister as Nelly! it was, indeed, barren! No outpouring of warm
+affection; no fond memory of home; no reference to that little fireside
+whence her own image had never departed, and where her presence was each
+night invoked.
+
+Oh! Kate, has Hanserl's dark prophecy thrown its shadow already to your
+feet? Can a young heart be so easily corrupted, and so soon?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII. A SMALL DINNER AT THE VILLINO ZOE.
+
+AMONG the penalties great folk pay for their ascendancy, there is one
+most remarkable, and that is, the intense interest taken in all their
+affairs by hundreds of worthy people who are not of their acquaintance.
+This feeling, which transcends every other known description of
+sympathy, flourishes in small communities. In the capital of which we
+are now speaking, it was at its very highest pitch of development. The
+Onslows furnished all the table-talk of the city; but in no circle
+were their merits so frequently and ably discussed as in that little
+parliament of gossip which held its meetings at the "Villino Zoe."
+
+Mrs. Ricketts, who was no common diplomatist, had done her utmost to
+establish relations of amity with her great neighbor. She had expended
+all the arts of courtesy and all the devices of politeness to effect
+this entente cordiale; but all in vain. Her advances had been met with
+coldness, and "something more;" her perfumed little notes, written in a
+style of euphuism all her own, had been left unanswered; her presents of
+fruit and flowers unacknowledged, it is but fair to add, that they never
+proceeded further than the porter's lodge, even her visiting-cards were
+only replied to by the stiff courtesy of cards, left by Lady Hester's
+"Chasseur;" so that, in fact, failure had fallen on all her endeavors,
+and she had not even attained to the barren honor of a recognition as
+they passed in the promenade.
+
+This was a very serious discomfiture, and might, when it got abroad,
+have sorely damaged the Ricketts's ascendancy in that large circle, who
+were accustomed to regard her as the glass of fashion. Heaven knew
+what amount of insubordination might spring out of it! what rebellious
+notions might gain currency and credit! It was but the winter before
+when a Duchess, who passed through, on her way to Rome, asked "who Mrs.
+Ricketts was?" and the shock was felt during the whole season after.
+The Vandyk for whose authenticity Martha swore, was actually called in
+question. The "Sevres" cup she had herself painted was the subject of a
+heresy as astounding. We live in an age of movement and convulsion, no
+man's landmarks are safe now, and Mrs. Ricketts knew this.
+
+The Onslows, it was clear, would not know her; it only remained, then,
+to show why she would not know them. It was a rare thing to find a
+family settling down at Florence against whom a "true bill" might not
+easily be found of previous misconduct. Few left England without a
+reason that might readily become an allegation. Bankruptcy or divorce
+were the light offences; the higher ones we must not speak of. Now
+the Onslows, as it happened, were not in this category. Sir Stafford's
+character was unimpeachable, her Ladyship's had nothing more grave
+against it than the ordinary levities of her station. George "had gone
+the pace," it was true, but nothing disreputable attached to him. There
+was no use, there fore, in "trying back" for a charge, and Mrs. Ricketts
+perceived that they must be arraigned on the very vaguest of evidence.
+Many a head has fallen beneath the guillotine for a suspicion, and many
+a heart been broken on a surmise!
+
+A little dinner at the Villino opened the plan of proceedings. It was
+a small auto-da-fe of character at which the Onslows were to be the
+victims, while the grand inquisitors were worthily represented by the
+Polish Count, Haggerstone, Purvis, and a certain Mr. Foglass, then
+passing through Florence on his way to England. This gentleman, who was
+the reputed son of a supposed son of George the Fourth, was received as
+"very good royalty" in certain circles abroad, and, by virtue of a wig,
+a portly chest, and a most imposing pomposity of manner, taken to be
+exceedingly like his grandfather, just on the same principle as red
+currant jelly makes middling mutton resemble venison.
+
+To get rid of his importunity, a Minister had made him Consul in some
+remote village of the East, but finding that there were neither fees nor
+perquisites, Foglass had left his post to besiege the doors of Downing
+Street once more, and if rejected as a suppliant, to become an admirable
+grievance for a Radical Member, and a "very cruel case of oppression"
+for the morning papers.
+
+Foglass was essentially a "humbug;" but, unlike most, if not all other
+humbugs, without the smallest ingredient of any kind of ability.
+When men are said to live by their wits, their capital is, generally
+speaking, a very sufficient one; and that interesting class of persons
+known as adventurers numbers many clever talkers, shrewd observers,
+subtle tacticians, and admirable billiard-players; with a steady hand on
+a pistol, but ready to "pocket" either an "insult" or a "ball." if the
+occasion require it. None of these gifts pertained to Foglass. He
+had not one of the qualities which either succeed in the world or in
+society, and yet, strange to say, this intolerable bore had a kind of
+popularity, that is to say, people gave him a vacant place at their
+dinners, and remembered him at picnics.
+
+His whole strength lay in his wig, and a certain slow, measured
+intonation which he found often attracted attention to what he said,
+and gave his tiresome anecdotes of John Kemble, Munden, and Mathews the
+semblance of a point they never possessed. Latterly, however, he had
+grown deaf, and, like most who suffer under that infirmity, taken to
+speaking in a whisper so low as to be inaudible, a piece of politeness
+for which even our reader will be grateful, as it will spare him the
+misery of his twaddle.
+
+Haggerstone and he were intimates were it not a profanation of the
+word, we should say friends. They were, however, always together; and
+Haggerstone took pains to speak of his companion as a "monstrous clever
+fellow, who required to be known to be appreciated." Jekyl probably
+discovered the true secret of the alliance in the fact that they always
+talked to each other about the nobility, and never gave them their
+titles, an illusory familiarity with Dukes and Earls that appeared to
+render them supremely happy. Richmond, Beaufort, Cleveland, and Stanley
+were in their mouths as "household words."
+
+After all, it was a harmless sort of pastime; and if these "Imaginary
+Conversations" gave them pleasure, why need we grumble?
+
+We have scruples about asking our reader even to a description of the
+Ricketts's dinner. It was a true Barmecide feast. There was a very showy
+bouquet of flowers: there was a lavish display of what seemed silver;
+there was a good deal of queer china and impracticable glass; in
+short, much to look at, and very little to eat. Of this fact the Pole's
+appreciation was like an instinct, and as the entrees were handed round,
+all who came after him became soon aware of. Neither the wine nor the
+dessert were temptations to a long sitting, and the party soon found
+themselves in the drawing-room.
+
+"Son Excellence is going to England?" said the Pole, addressing Foglass,
+who had been announced as an Ambassador; "if you do see de Count
+Ojeffskoy, tell him I am living here, as well as a poor exile can, who
+have lost palaces, and horses, and diamonds, and all de rest."
+
+"Ah! the poor dear Count!" sighed Mrs. Ricketts, while Martha prolonged
+the echo.
+
+"You carry on the war tolerably well, notwithstanding," said
+Haggerstone, who knew something of the other's resources in piquet and
+ecarte.
+
+"Carry on de war!" rejoined he, indignantly; "wid my fader, who work in
+de mines; and my beautiful sisters, who walk naked about de streets of
+Crakow!"
+
+"What kind of climate have they in Crak-Crak-Crak--" A fit of coughing
+finished a question which nobody thought of answering; and Purvis sat
+down, abashed, in a corner.
+
+"Arthur, my love," said Mrs. Ricketts, she was great at a diversion,
+whenever such a tactic was wanted, "do you hear what Colonel Haggerstone
+has been saying?"
+
+"No, dearest," muttered the old General, as he worked away with rule and
+compass.
+
+"He tells me," said the lady, still louder, "that the Onslows have
+separated. Not an open, formal separation, but that they occupy distinct
+apartments, and hold no intercourse whatever."
+
+"Sir Stafford lives on the rez de chaussee" said Haggerstone, who,
+having already told the story seven times the same morning, was quite
+perfect in the recital, "Sir Stafford lives on the rez de chaussee, with
+a small door into the garden. My Lady retains the entire first floor
+and the grand conservatory. George has a small garcon apartment off the
+terrace."
+
+"Ho! very distressing!" sighed Mrs. Ricketts, whose woe-worn looks
+seemed to imply that she had never heard of a similar incident before;
+"and how unlike us, Arthur!" added she, with a smile of beaming
+affection. "He has ever been what you see him, since the day he stole my
+young, unsuspecting heart."
+
+The Colonel looked over at the object thus designated, and, by the grin
+of malice on his features, appeared to infer that the compliment was but
+a sorry one, after all.
+
+"'John Anderson my Jo, John,'" muttered he, half aloud.
+
+"'We've climbed the hill toge-ge-ge-ther,'" chimed in Purvis, with a
+cackle.
+
+"Gather what, sir? Blackberries, was it?" cried Haggerstone.
+
+"Don't quote that low-lived creature," said Mrs. Ricketts; "a poet only
+conversant with peasants and their habits. Let us talk of our own order.
+What of these poor Onslows?"
+
+"Sir Stafford dines at two, madam. A cutlet, a vegetable, and a cherry
+tart; two glasses of Gordon's sherry, and a cup of coffee."
+
+"Without milk. I had it from Proctor," broke in Purvis, who was bursting
+with jealousy at the accuracy of the other's narrative.
+
+"You mean without sugar, sir," snapped Haggerstone. "Nobody does take
+milk-coffee after dinner."
+
+"I always do," rejoined Purvis, "when I can't get mara-mara-mara--"
+
+"I hope you can get maraschino down easier than you pronounce it, sir."
+
+"Be quiet, Scroope," said his sister; "you always interrupt."
+
+"He do make de devil of misverstandness wit his whatye-call-'em," added
+the Pole, contemptuously.
+
+And poor Purvis, rebuked on every side, was obliged to fall back beside
+Martha and her embroidery.
+
+"My Lady," resumed Haggerstone, "is served at eleven o'clock. The moment
+Granzini's solo is over in the ballet, an express is sent off to order
+dinner. The table is far more costly than Midchekoff's."
+
+"I do believe well," said the Count, who always, for nationality's sake,
+deemed it proper to abuse the Russian. "De Midchekoff cook tell me he
+have but ten paoli how you say par tete by the tete for his dinner; dat
+to include everyting, from the caviar to de sheeze."
+
+"That was not the style at the Pavilion formerly," roared out
+Haggerstone, repeating the remark in Foglass's ear.
+
+And the ex-consul smiled blandly towards Mrs. Ricketts, and said he 'd
+take anything to England for her "with pleasure."
+
+"He 's worse than ever," remarked Haggerstone, irritably. "When people
+have a natural infirmity, they ought to confine themselves to their own
+room."
+
+"Particularly when it is one of the tem-tem-temper," said Purvis, almost
+choked with passion.
+
+"Better a hasty temper than an impracticable tongue, sir." said
+Haggerstone.
+
+"Be quiet, Scroope," added Mrs. Ricketts; and he was still. Then,
+turning to the Colonel, she went on: "How thankful we ought to be that
+we never knew these people! They brought letters to us, some, indeed,
+from dear and valued friends. That sweet Diana Comerton, who married
+the Duke of Ellewater, wrote a most pressing entreaty that I should call
+upon them."
+
+"She did n't marry the Duke; she married his chap-chaplain," chimed in
+Purvis.
+
+"Will you be quiet, Scroope?" remarked the lady.
+
+"I ought to know," rejoined he, grown courageous in the goodness of his
+cause. "He was Bob Nutty. Bitter Bob, we always called him at school. He
+had a kind of a poly-poly-poly--"
+
+"A polyanthus," suggested Haggerstone.
+
+"No. It was a poly-polypus a polypus, that made him snuffle in his
+speech."
+
+"Ach Gott!" sighed the Pole; but whether in sorrow for poor "Bob," or in
+utter weariness at his historian, was hard to say.
+
+"Lady Foxington, too," said Mrs. Ricketts, "made a serious request that
+we should be intimate with her friend Lady Hester. She was candid enough
+to say that her Ladyship would not suit me. 'She has no soul, Zoe,'
+wrote she, 'so I need n't say more.'"
+
+"Dat is ver bad," said the Pole, gravely.
+
+"Still, I should have made her acquaintance, for the sake of that young
+creature Miss Dalton, I think they call her and whom I rather suspect to
+be a distant cousin of ours."
+
+"Yes; there were Dawkinses at Exeter a very respectable solicitor,
+one was, Joe Dawkins," came in Purvis; "and he used to say we were
+co-co-co-connections."
+
+"This family, sir, is called Dalton, and not even a stutter can make
+that Dawkins."
+
+"Couldn't your friend Mr. Foglass find out something about these Daltons
+for us, as he goes through Germany?" asked Mrs. Ricketts of the Colonel.
+
+"No one could execute such a commission better, madam, only you must
+give him his instructions in writing. Foglass," added he, at the top of
+his voice, "let me have your note-book for a moment."
+
+"With pleasure," said he, presenting his snuff-box.
+
+"No; your memorandum-book," screamed the other, louder.
+
+"It's gone down," whispered the deaf man. "I lost the key on Tuesday
+last."
+
+"Not your watch, man. I want to write a line in your note-book;" and he
+made a pantomimic of writing.
+
+"Yes, certainly; if Mrs. R. will permit, I'll write to her with
+pleasure."
+
+"Confound him!" muttered Haggerstone; and, taking up a visiting-card, he
+wrote on the back of it, "Could you trace the Daltons as you go back by
+Baden?"
+
+The deaf man at once brightened up; a look of shrewd intelligence
+lighted up his fishy eyes as he said,
+
+"Yes, of course; say, what do you want?"
+
+"Antecedents family fortune," wrote Haggerstone.
+
+"If dey have de tin," chimed in the Pole.
+
+"If they be moral and of irreproachable reputation," said Mrs. Ricketts.
+
+"Are they related to the other Dawkinses?" asked Purvis. "Let him ask if
+their mother was not godfather to no, I mean grandfather to the Reverend
+Jere-Jere-Jere--"
+
+"Be quiet, Scroope will you be quiet?"
+
+"There, you have it all, now," said Haggerstone, as he finished writing;
+"their 'family, fortune, flaws, and frailties' 'what they did, and where
+they did it' observing accuracy as to Christian names, and as many
+dates as possible."
+
+"I'll do it," said Foglass, as he read over the "instruction."
+
+"We want it soon, too," said Mrs. Ricketts. "Tell him we shall need the
+information at once."
+
+"This with speed," wrote Haggerstone at the foot of the memorandum.
+
+Foglass bowed a deep assent.
+
+"How like his grandfather!" said Mrs. Ricketts, in ecstasy.
+
+"I never knew he had one," whispered Haggerstone to the Pole. "His
+father was a coachmaker in Long Acre."
+
+"Is he not thought very like them?" asked Mrs. Ricketts, with a sidelong
+glance of admiration at the auburn peruke.
+
+"I've heard that the wig is authentic, madam."
+
+"He has so much of that regal urbanity in his manner."
+
+"If he is not the first gentleman of England," muttered Haggerstone to
+himself, "he is the first one in his own family, at least."
+
+"By the way," said Mrs. Ricketts, hastily, "let him inquire into that
+affair of Lord Norwood."
+
+"No necessity, madam. The affair is in 'Bell's Life,' with the
+significant question, 'Where is he?' But he can learn the particulars,
+at all events." And he made a note in the book.
+
+"How dreadful all this, and how sad to think Florence should be the
+resort of such people!"
+
+"If it were not for rapparees and refugees, madam, house-rent would be
+very inexpensive," said the Colonel, in a subdued voice; while,
+turning to the Pole, he added, "and if respectability is to be always
+a caricature, I'd as soon have its opposite. I suppose you do not admit
+the Viscount, madam?"
+
+"He has not ventured to present himself," said Mrs. Ricketts, proudly.
+"I hope that there is, at least, one sanctuary where virtue can live
+unmolested." And, as she spoke, she looked over at Martha, who was
+working away patiently; but whether happy in the exclusive tariff
+aforesaid, or somewhat tired of "protection," we are unable to say.
+
+"What has he do?" asked the Count.
+
+"He has done the 'ring' all round, I believe," said Haggerstone,
+chuckling at a joke which he alone could appreciate.
+
+"Dey do talk of play in England!" said the Pole, contemptuously. "Dey
+never do play high, wit there leetle how do you call 'em? bets, of tree,
+four guinea, at ecarte. But in Polen we have two, tree, five tousand
+crowns on each card. Dere, crack! you lose a fortune, or I do win one!
+One evening at Garowidsky's I do lose one estate of seventeen million
+florins, but I no care noting for all dat! I was ver rich, wit my
+palaces and de mayorat how you call dat?"
+
+Before this question could be answered, the servant threw open the
+double door of the salon, and announced, "Milordo Norwood!" A shell
+might have burst in the apartment and not created much more confusion.
+Mrs. Ricketts gave a look at Martha, as though to assure herself that
+she was in safety. Poor Martha's own fingers trembled as she bent over
+her frame. Haggerstone buttoned up his coat and arranged his cravat with
+the air of a man so consummate a tactician that he could actually roll
+himself in pitch and yet never catch the odor; while Purvis, whose dread
+of a duel list exceeded his fear of a mad dog, ensconced himself behind
+a stand of geraniums, where he resolved to live in a state of retirement
+until the terrible Viscount had withdrawn. As for the Count, a
+preparatory touch at his moustache, and a slight arrangement of his
+hair, sufficed him to meet anything; and as these were the ordinary
+details of his daily toilet, he performed them with a rapidity quite
+instinctive.
+
+To present oneself in a room where one's appearance is unacceptable is,
+perhaps, no slight test of tact, manner, and effrontery; to be actually
+indifferent to the feelings around is to be insensible to the danger;
+to see the peril, and yet appear not to notice it, constitutes the true
+line of action. Lord Norwood was perfect in this piece of performance,
+and there was neither exaggerated cordiality nor any semblance of
+constraint in his manner as he advanced to Mrs. Ricketts, and taking her
+hand, pressed it respectfully to his lips.
+
+"This salutation," said he, gayly, "is a commission from Lord
+Kennycroft, your old and constant admirer. It was his last word as we
+parted: 'Kiss Mrs. Ricketts's hand for me, and say I am faithful as
+ever.'"
+
+"Poor dear Lord! General, here is Lord Norwood come to see us."
+
+"How good of him how very kind! Just arrived from the East, my Lord?"
+said he, shaking Foglass by the hand in mistake.
+
+"No, sir; from Malta." He wouldn't say England, for reasons. "Miss
+Ricketts, I am most happy to see you and still occupied with the fine
+arts? Haggy, how d'ye do? Really it seems to me like yesterday since I
+sat here last in this delightful arm-chair, and looked about me on all
+these dear familiar objects. You 've varnished the Correggio, I think?"
+
+"The Vandyk, my Lord."
+
+"To be sure the Vandyk. How stupid I am! Indeed, Lady Foxington said
+that not all your culture would ever make anything of me."
+
+"How is Charlotte?" asked Mrs. Ricketts, this being the familiar for
+Lady F.
+
+"Just as you saw her last. Thinner, perhaps, but looking admirably."
+
+"And the dear Duke how is he?"
+
+"Gouty always gouty but able to be about."
+
+"I am so glad to hear it. It is so refreshing to talk of old friends."
+
+"They are always talking of you. I'm sure, 'Zoe' forgive me the liberty
+Zoe Ricketts is an authority on every subject of taste and literature."
+
+"How did you come here, my Lord?" whispered Haggerstone.
+
+"The new opera broke down, and there is no house open before twelve,"
+was the hasty reply.
+
+"Is Jemima married, my Lord?"
+
+"No. There 's something or other wrong about the settlements. Who's the
+foreigner, Haggy?"
+
+"A Pole. Petrolaffsky."
+
+"No, no not a bit of it. _I_ know him," said the other, rapidly; then,
+turning to Mrs. Ricketts, he grew warmly interested in the private life
+and adventures of the nobility, for all of whom she entertained a most
+catholic affection.
+
+It was, indeed, a grand field-day for the peerage; even to the
+"Pensioners" all were under arms. It was a review such as she rarely
+enjoyed, and certainly she "improved the occasion." She scattered
+about her noble personages with the profusion of a child strewing
+wild-flowers. There were Dukes she had known from their cradles;
+Marchionesses with whom she had disported in childhood; Earls and
+Viscounts who had been her earliest playmates; not to speak of a more
+advanced stage in her history, when all these distinguished individuals
+were suppliants and suitors. To listen to her, you would swear that she
+had never played shuttlecock with anything under an Earl, nor trundled
+a hoop with aught below a Lord in Waiting! Norwood fooled her to the
+top of her bent. To use his own phrase, "he left her easy hazards, and
+everything on the balls." It is needless to state that, in such pleasant
+converse, she had no memory for the noble Viscount's own transgressions.
+He might have robbed the Exchequer, or stolen the Crown jewels, for
+anything that she could recollect! and when, by a seeming accident, he
+did allude to Newmarket, and lament his most "unlucky book," she smiled
+complacently, as though to say that he could afford himself even the
+luxury of being ruined, and not care for it.
+
+"Florence is pretty much as it used to be, I suppose," said he; "and one
+really needs one's friends to rebut and refute foolish rumors, when they
+get abroad. Now, you 'll oblige me by contradicting, if you ever hear,
+this absurd story. I neither did win forty thousand from the Duke
+of Stratton, nor shoot him in a duel for non-payment." Both these
+derelictions were invented on the moment. "You 'll hear fifty other
+similar offences laid to my charge; and I trust to you and the Onslows
+for the refutation. In fact, it is the duty of one's own class to defend
+'their order.'"
+
+Mrs. Ricketts smiled blandly, and bowed, bowed as though her gauze
+turban had been a coronet, and the tinsel finery jewelled strawberry
+leaves! To be coupled with the Onslows in the defence of a viscount was
+a proud thought. What if it might be made a grand reality?
+
+"Apropos of the Onslows, my Lord," said she, insidiously, "you are very
+intimate with them. How is it that we have seen so little of each other?
+Are we not congenial spirits?"
+
+"Good Heavens! I thought you were like sisters. There never were people
+so made for each other. All your tastes, habits, associations forgive
+me, if I say your very, antipathies are alike; for you both are
+unforgiving enemies of vulgarity. Depend upon it, there has been some
+underhand influence at work. Rely on 't, that evil tongues have kept you
+apart." This he said in a whisper, and with a sidelong glance towards
+where Haggerstone sat at ecarte with the Pole.
+
+"Do you really think so?" asked she, reddening with anger, as she
+followed the direction of his eyes.
+
+"I can hit upon no other solution of the mystery," said he,
+thoughtfully; "but know it I will, and must. You know, of course, that
+they can't endure him?"
+
+"No, I never heard that."
+
+"It is not mere dislike, it is actual detestation. I have striven to
+moderate the feeling. I have said, 'True enough, the man is bad ton,
+but you needn't admit him to anything like intimacy. Let him come and go
+with the herd you receive at your large parties, and, above all, never
+repeat anything after him, for he has always the vulgar version of every
+incident in high life.'"
+
+Mrs. Ricketts raised her arched eyebrows and looked astonished; but it
+was a feeling in which acquiescence was beautifully blended, and the
+Viscount marked it well.
+
+"You must tell me something of this Miss Dalton," said he, drawing his
+chair closer; "they affect a kind of mystery about her. Who is she? What
+is she?"
+
+"There are various versions of her story abroad," said Mrs. Ricketts,
+who now spoke like the Chief Justice delivering a charge. "Some say that
+she is a natural daughter of Sir Stafford's; some aver that she is
+the last of a distinguished family whose fortune was embezzled by the
+Onslows; others assert that she is a half-sister of Lady Hester's own;
+but who ought to know the truth better than you, my Lord?"
+
+"I know absolutely nothing. She joined them in Germany; but where, when,
+and how, I never heard."
+
+"I 'll soon be able to inform you, my Lord, on every detail of the
+matter," said she, proudly. "Our kind friend, yonder, Mr. Foglass, has
+undertaken to discover everything. Mr. F., will you touch his arm forme,
+Martha?" and, the gentleman being aroused to consciousness, now arose,
+and approached Mrs. Ricketts's chair, "may I be permitted to take a
+glance at your note-book?" This speech was accompanied by a pantomimic
+gesture which he quickly understood. "I wish to show you, my Lord," said
+she, addressing the Viscount, "that we proceed most methodically in our
+searches after title, as I sometimes call it ha, ha, ha! Now, here is
+the precious little volume, and this will explain the degree of accuracy
+such an investigation demands. This comes of living abroad, my Lord,"
+added she, with a smile. "One never can be too cautious, never too
+guarded in one's intimacies. The number of dubious people one meets
+with, the equivocal characters that somehow obtain a footing in society
+here, I really must ask you to decipher these ingenious hieroglyphics
+yourself." And she handed the book to his Lordship.
+
+He took it courteously at the spot she opened it; and as his eyes fell
+upon the page, a slight very slight flush rose to his cheek, while
+he continued to read the lines before him more than once over. "Very
+explicit, certainly!" said he, while a smile of strange meaning curled
+his lip; and then, closing the book, he returned it to the lady's hand;
+not, however, before he had adroitly torn out the page he had been
+looking at, and which contained the following words: "Norwood's affair
+the precise story of the N. M. business if cut in England, and scratched
+at the 'Whip.'"
+
+"I cannot sufficiently commend either your caution or your tact, Mrs.
+Ricketts," said he, bowing urbanely. "Without a little scrutiny of this
+kind our salons would be overrun with blacklegs and bad characters!"
+
+It was now late, late enough for Lady Hester, and the Viscount rose
+to take his leave. He was perfectly satisfied with the results of his
+visit. He had secretly enjoyed all the absurdities of his hostess, and
+even stored up some of her charming flights for repetition elsewhere.
+He had damaged Haggerstone, whose evil-speaking he dreaded, and, by
+impugning his good breeding, had despoiled him of all credit. He had
+seen the Polish Count in a society which, even such as it was, was
+many degrees above his pretensions; and although they met without
+recognition, a masonic glance of intelligence had passed between them;
+and, lastly, he had made an ally of the dear Zoe herself, ready to
+swear to his good character, and vouch for the spotless honor of all his
+dealings on turf or card-table.
+
+"Has he explained the Newmarket affair, madam?" said Haggerstone, as the
+door closed on the Viscount's departure.
+
+"Perfectly, Colonel; there is not the shadow of a suspicion against
+him."
+
+"And so he was not scr-scr-scratched at the 'Whip'?" cried Purvis,
+emerging from his leafy retreat.
+
+"Nothing of the kind, Scroope."
+
+"A scratch, but not a wound, perhaps," said Haggerstone, with a grin of
+malice.
+
+"I am ver happy please ver moosh," said the Count, "for de sake of de
+order. I am republiquecain, but never forget I 'm de noble blood!"
+
+"Beautiful sentiment!" exclaimed Mrs. Ricketts, enthusiastically.
+"Martha, did you hear what the Count said? General, I hope you didn't
+lose it?"
+
+"I was alway for de cause of de people," said the Count, throwing back
+his hair wildly, and seeming as if ready to do battle at a moment's
+warning.
+
+"For an anti-monarchist, he turns up the king wonderfully often at
+ecarte" said Haggerstone, in a low muttering, only overheard by Martha.
+
+"I don't think the demo-demo-demo" But before Purvis had finished his
+polysyllabic word, the company had time to make their farewell speeches
+and depart. Indeed, as the servant came to extinguish the lamps, he
+found the patient Purvis very red in the face, and with other signs of
+excitement, deeply seated in a chair, and as if struggling against an
+access of suffocation.
+
+What the profound sentiment which he desired to enunciate might
+therefore be, is lost to history, and this true narrative is unable to
+record.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII. THE VISCOUNT'S VISION.
+
+WHEN Lord Norwood arrived at the Mazzarini Palace, he was surprised not
+to find the usual half-dozen carriages of the habitues drawn up in the
+courtyard, and still more so to learn that her Ladyship did not receive
+that evening. He ascended to George Onslow's apartment, and discovered
+that he had dined with Prince Midchekoff, and not yet returned. Not
+knowing how to spend the hours, so much earlier than those of his
+usually retiring to rest, he lighted a cigar, and threw himself on a
+sofa before the fire.
+
+The reveries of men who live much in the world are seldom very
+agreeable. The work of self-examination comes with a double penalty when
+it is rarely exercised, and the heavy arrears of time are formidable
+scores to confront. Lord Norwood was no exception to this theory. Not
+that he was one to waste time or temper in self-reproaches. The bygone
+was essentially with him the "irrevocable." It might, it is true,
+occasionally suggest a hint for the future, but it never originated a
+sorrow for the past. His philosophy was a very brief code, and comprised
+itself in this, "that he did n't think well of himself, but thought
+worse of all others." All that he had seen of life was duplicity,
+falsehood, selfishness, and treachery. In different stations these
+characteristics took different forms; and what was artfully cloaked in
+courtesy by the lord was displayed in all its naked deformity by the
+plebeian.
+
+He might have conducted himself respectably enough had he been rich, at
+least he fervently believed so; but he was poor, and therefore driven to
+stratagems to maintain his position in society. Cheated by his guardians
+and neglected by his tutor, he was sent into the world half ruined,
+and wholly ignorant, to become at first a victim, and afterwards the
+victimizer. With no spirit of retributive vengeance, there was nothing
+of reprisal in his line of conduct, he simply thought that such was the
+natural and inevitable course of events, and that every man begins as
+dupe, and ends as knave. The highest flight of the human mind, in his
+esteem, was successful hypocrisy; and although without the plastic wit
+or the actual knowledge of life which are required well to sustain a
+part, he had contrived to impose upon a very large number of persons who
+looked up to his rank; for, strange enough, many who would not have been
+duped by a commoner, fell easy victims to the arts of "my Lord."
+
+The value of his title he understood perfectly. He knew everything it
+could, and everything it could not, do for him. He was aware that the
+aristocracy of England would stand by one of their order through many
+vicissitudes, and that he who is born to a coronet has a charmed life,
+in circumstances where one less noble must perish ingloriously. He knew,
+too, how, for very shame's sake, they would screen one of themselves,
+and by a hundred devices seem to contradict before the world what they
+lament over behind its back; and, lastly, he knew well that he had
+always a title and a lineage to bestow, and that the peerage was the
+great prize among the daughters of men.
+
+Now, latterly, he had been pushing prerogative somewhat too far. He
+had won large sums from young men not out of their teens; he had been
+associated in play transactions with names less than reputable; and,
+finally, having backed a stable to an immense amount at Newmarket, had
+levanted on the day of his losing. He had done the act deliberately and
+calmly. It was a coup which, if successful, replaced him in credit and
+affluence; if a failure, it only confirmed the wavering judgment of his
+set, and left him to shift for the future in a different sphere; for,
+while a disgraced viscount is very bad company for viscounts, he is
+often a very welcome guest amongst that amiably innocent class who think
+the privileges of the aristocracy include bad morals with blue ribbons.
+
+The Turf could now no longer be a career with him. Ecarte and lansquenet
+were almost as much out of the question. Billiards, as Sir Walter said
+of literature, "might be a walking-stick, but never a crutch." There
+was, then, nothing left for it but marriage. A rich heiress was his last
+coup; and as, in all likelihood, the thing could not be done twice, it
+required geat circumspection.
+
+In England this were easy enough. The manufacturing districts were grown
+ambitious. Cotton lords were desirous of a more recognized nobility,
+and millowners could be found ready to buy a coronet at the cost of half
+their fortune. But from England late events had banished him, and with a
+most damaged reputation.
+
+Now, carrying nobility to the Continent was like bringing coals to
+Newcastle, the whole length and breadth of the land being covered with
+counts, barons, dukes, and princes; and although English nobility stands
+on a different footing, there was no distinguishing the "real article"
+amid this mass of counterfeit.
+
+Every Frenchman of small fortune was an emigre count. Every German, of
+none, was sure to be a baron. All Poles, unwashed, uncombed, and uncared
+for, were of the very cream of the aristocracy; and as for Italians!
+it was a nation of princes, with their uncles all cardinals. To be a
+viscount in such company was, perhaps, like Lord Castlereagh's unstarred
+coat, plus distingue, but certainly more modest. The milor, if not
+associated with boundless wealth, six carriages, two couriers, three
+cooks, and a groom of the chambers, the whole of the "Russie," or
+the "Black Eagle," means nothing abroad. If not bound up with all the
+extravagance and all the eccentricities of riches, if not dazzling by
+display or amazing by oddity, it is a contradiction of terms; and to
+be an English noble without waste, profusion, and absurdity, is to deny
+your country or be a counterfeit of your class.
+
+Lord Norwood knew and felt all these things. They had often occupied his
+speculations and engaged his thoughts; so that, if his mind reverted to
+them now, it was to regard them as facts for future theory to build upon
+as mathematicians make use of the proofs of geometry without going over
+the steps which lead to conviction. No; all his present reflections took
+a practical form, and might be summed up in the one resolve, "I must go
+no further. I have done everything that a man dare do,--perhaps a little
+more, and yet keep his footing in the world." That tacit verdict of "not
+proven," which had been passed upon so many of his actions, might at
+any moment be reversed now, and a review of his life's career presented
+anything but a bright retrospect. Expulsion from a great school at
+thirteen; three years' private dissipation and secret wickedness in a
+clergyman's family; a dissolute regiment, from which he was given
+leave to sell out at Malta; two years with the Legion or Don Carlos,
+it mattered not which, in Spain; a year or so in London, with a weak
+attempt at reformation; a staff appointment in India obtained and
+sold; exposure partly hushed up; debts; Jews; renewals; the Fleet; the
+Bankruptcy Court; a few disreputable duels; an action for seduction;
+ending with the last affair at Newmarket, made up the grand outline,
+the details comprising various little episodes with which we must not
+trouble ourselves.
+
+One incident, however, would come up prominently before his Lordship's
+mind, and, however little given to let the past usurp the thoughts
+which should be given to the present, it still insisted upon sharing his
+attention. This was no less than a little love affair in Spain with a
+"ballerina" of the Opera, with whom, by the aid of a young priest then
+studying at Saragossa, he had contracted a mock marriage. The sudden
+movement of a corps of the army to which he was attached gave him an
+opportunity of an easy divorce from his bride, and it is likely he had
+not twice thought of her since the event had happened. Now, however,
+that an intention of marrying in reality occurred to him, the incident
+came freshly to his mind, and he jocularly wondered if his second
+marriage might prove more fortunate than his first.
+
+The hour and the place were favorable to revery. It was past midnight.
+All was silent and noiseless in the great palace; the sharp ticking of
+the clock on the mantel-piece was the only sound to be heard, save, at a
+long distance off, the dull, subdued flow of the Arno. The room itself,
+unlighted, except by the flickering wood fire, was in deep shadow; and,
+lulled by these influences and his mild Manilla, Norwood was free to
+revel in so much of dreamland as natures like his ever explore.
+
+Who can tell whether men of this stamp know what it is to "grieve,"
+whether chagrin for some momentary disappointment, anger at being
+thwarted, is not the nearest approach to sorrow that they ever feel?
+The whole course of their lives seems opposed to the notion of deep
+or intense feeling, and the restless activity of their ingenious minds
+appears to deny the possibility of regrets. As for Norwood, he would
+have laughed at the puerility of going over the bygone; therefore, if
+he did recur to a former incident of his life, it was involuntary and
+probably induced by the accidental similarity with those which now
+engaged his thoughts.
+
+"If this Dalton girl be rich," thought he, "I might do worse. There are
+no relatives to make impertinent inquiries, or ask awkward questions.
+Hester can, and must, if I desire, assist me. Living out of England,
+the girl herself will have heard nothing of my doings, and in name,
+appearance, and air she is presentable anywhere." He thought, too, that,
+as a married man, his character would be in a measure rehabilitated. It
+would be like entering on a new road in life; and if this could be done
+with a certain degree of style and outlay, he had great trust in the
+world's charity and forgiveness to pardon all the past. "A good house
+and a good cook," thought he, "are the best witnesses to call to
+character I have ever met. Turtle and champagne have proved sovereign
+remedies for slander in all ages; and the man who can sport Lafitte in
+the evening, and split a pencil at twenty paces of a morning, may defy
+envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness."
+
+To find out about this girl's fortune was then his first object. As
+for family, his own rank was enough for both. The matter must be done
+quickly. The London season over, England would be pouring its myriads of
+talking, gossiping travellers over the Continent, and then he should be
+discussed, probably avoided and shunned too.
+
+Even already certain unmistakable signs of coolness announced themselves
+amongst the men of his acquaintance.
+
+George Onslow avoided play when in his company. Treviliani, one of Lady
+Hester's chief danglers, and the patron of the Turf in Tuscany, would
+n't even allude to a horse before him. Prince Midchekoff went further,
+and actually, save on rare occasions, omitted him from his dinner
+list. Now, although Norwood averred that he detested _petit jeu_, hated
+spooney talk about racing, and dreaded the tiresome display of a
+"Tartar feast," these were all threatening indications, and he saw their
+meaning. He would willingly have fastened upon some one man, fixed a
+quarrel on him, and shot him. He had more than once in life adopted this
+policy with success; but here it would have been inapplicable, and the
+public opinion he sought to bring on his own side would have been only
+more inevitably arrayed against him.
+
+"In what a mess does the want of money involve a man!" thought he, as
+he lay before the half-dying embers of the wood fire. "Had I won my bets
+on 'Chanticleer,' or had I but backed 'Amontillado,' how different had
+my position been to-day! That the simple change of one name for another
+in my betting-book the mere hazard of a choice, of a horse, too should
+influence a man's whole life, is a pretty fair instance of what the
+world is! Had I 'come right,' I should now be the favored guest of some
+noble duke, shooting his grace's pheasants, drinking his Burgundy, and
+flirting with his daughters. Fortune willed it otherwise, and here I
+am, actually plotting a match with a nameless girl to rescue myself from
+utter ruin. Three weeks ago I would not have believed that this could
+happen; and who can tell what another three weeks may bring forth?
+perhaps, already, there is mischief brewing. What if my Lady's refusal
+to receive this evening may have some signification in it? Haggerstone
+is too courteous by half, and Jekyl has never called upon me since my
+arrival!" He laughed ironically as he said this, and added, "It is a
+bold game, after all, for them to play! Reprisals to two of them, at
+least might prove awkward; and as for 'Master Albert,' he lives but
+on general sufferance. There has been a long run of luck against me;
+nothing but ill-fortune since the day I might have married Hester, and
+yet hung back, and that very same year she marries another, and inherits
+an immense fortune in India. What a blow to each of us! Such has been
+my lot through life; always backing the loser till the very moment when
+luck changes, and his turn comes to win."
+
+As these thoughts passed through his mind, weariness, the silence of the
+hour, the darkened room, induced slumber; and although once or twice he
+made a half-effort to arouse himself and go home, the listless feeling
+gained the mastery, and he dropped off to sleep. The uneasy consciences
+have oftentimes very easy slumbers. Norwood's was of the calmest; not a
+dream, not one flitting fancy disturbed it.
+
+It was already nigh day as he lay thus, when the dull roll of wheels
+beneath the window in part awoke him; at least, it so far aroused him
+that he remembered where he was, and fancied that it might be George
+Onslow, on the return from his dinner-party. He lay for some minutes
+expecting to hear his step upon the stair, and see him enter the room;
+but as all seemed to resume its wonted quiet, he was dozing off again,
+when he heard the sound of a hand upon the lock of the door.
+
+It is one of the strange instincts of half-slumber to be often more
+alive to the influence of subdued and stealthy sounds than to louder
+noises. The slightest whisperings, the low murmurings of a human voice,
+the creaking of a chair, the cautious drawing back of a curtain will jar
+upon and arouse the faculties that have been insensible to the rushing
+flow of a cataract or the dull booming of the sea.
+
+Slight as were the sounds now heard, Norwood started as he listened to
+them, and, at once arousing himself, he fixed his eyes upon the door, in
+which the handle was seen to turn slowly and cautiously. The impression
+that it was a robber immediately occurred to him, and he determined to
+lie still and motionless, to watch what might happen. He was not
+wanting in personal courage, and had full confidence in his strength and
+activity.
+
+The door at last opened; at first, a very little, and slowly, then
+gradually more and more, till, by the mysterious half-light to which his
+eyes had grown accustomed, Norwood could see the flounces of a female
+dress, and the small, neat foot of a woman beneath it. The faint,
+uncertain flame of the fire showed him thus much, but left the remainder
+of the figure in deep shadow.
+
+Whether from excess of caution, or that she was yet hesitating what
+course to take, she remained for some seconds motionless; and Norwood,
+who had subdued his breathing to the utmost, lay in the deep shadow,
+speculating on the upshot of an adventure from which he promised
+himself, at least, an amusing story. The deep black lace which fell over
+the arched instep indicated a degree of rank in the wearer that gave a
+piquancy to the incident, and imparted a zest to the curiosity of a
+man who probably knew no higher pleasure in life than in possessing the
+secrets of his acquaintance.
+
+He had time to run over in his mind a dozen little speculations of who
+she was, ere she stirred; and at last, as if with change of purpose, he
+saw, or fancied that he saw, the door beginning slowly to close. Whether
+this was a mere trick of his excited imagination or not, a sudden
+gesture of impatience on his part threw down one of the cushions of the
+sofa. A slight shriek so slight as to be barely heard broke from the
+female, and she banged the door to. Norwood reached it with a spring;
+but although, as he wrenched it open, he could yet hear the rustling of
+a woman's dress in the passage, the sharp sound of a door hastily shut
+and locked defied all thought of pursuit, and he stood pondering over
+what had happened, and almost doubtful of its reality.
+
+"At least, the fair visitor belongs to the family; that much I may rely
+upon," said he, as he lighted a candle to explore the locality a little
+closer. The corridor, however, abruptly stopped at a small door, which
+was locked on the inside; but to what portion of the house it led he
+could not even conjecture. He was not a very unlikely man to trace the
+clew of such an adventure as this seemed to be. It was one of
+those incidents with which his course of life had made him somewhat
+conversant; and few were better able to fill up from conjecture every
+blank of such a history. Nor was he one to shrink from any suspicion,
+no matter how repugnant to every thought of honor, nor how improbable to
+every mind less imbued with vice than his own.
+
+For a moment or two, however, he almost doubted whether the whole might
+not have been a dream, so sudden, so brief, so trackless did it all
+appear. This doubt, was, however, quickly resolved, as his eyes fell
+upon the floor, where a small fragment of a lace dress lay, as it was
+caught and torn off in the closing door. Norwood took it up, and sat
+down to examine it with attention.
+
+"Point d'Alencon," said he, "bespeaks no vulgar wearer; and such is
+this! Who could have thought of George Onslow playing Lothario! But this
+comes of Italy. And now to find her out." He ran over to himself half a
+dozen names, in which were nearly as many nationalities, but some doubt
+accompanied each. "No matter," thought he, "the secret will keep."
+
+He suddenly remembered, at the instant, that he had promised an
+acquaintance to pass some days with him in the Maremma, shooting; and,
+not sorry to have so good a reason for a few days' absence, he arose
+and set out towards his hotel, having first carefully placed within
+his pocketbook the little fragment of lace, a clew to a mystery he was
+resolved to explore hereafter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX. FRANK'S JOURNEY.
+
+Our readers may, ere this, have surmised that Frank Dalton's career as
+a soldier was neither very adventurous nor exciting, since otherwise
+we should scarcely have so nearly forgotten him. When he parted with
+Hanserl to pursue his journey, his heart was full of warring and
+conflicting emotions, love of home and hope of future distinction
+alternately swaying him; so that while his affections drew him ever
+backwards, his ambitious urged him to go on.
+
+"I could have been so happy to have lived with them," thought he, "even
+as a peasant lives, a life of daily toil. I would have asked for no
+higher fortune than that peaceful home we had made for ourselves by
+our own affections, the happy fireside, that sufficed us for all
+the blandishments of wealth and riches. Still there would have been
+something ignoble in this humility, something that would ill become
+my blood as a Dalton. It was not thus my ancestors understood their
+station, it was not with such lowly ambitions their hearts were stirred.
+Count Stephen himself might at this hour have been in obscurity and
+poverty as great, perhaps, as our own had he been thus minded; and now
+he is a field-marshal, with a 'Maria Teresa' cross on his breast! and
+this without one friend to counsel or to aid him! What a noble service
+is that where merit can win its way self-sustained and independent,
+where, without the indignity of a patron, the path of honorable
+enterprise lies free and open to all! What generous promptings, what
+bold aspirations such a career engenders! He shall not be ashamed of
+me, he shall not have to blush for the Dalton blood," said the boy,
+enthusiastically; and he revelled in a dream of the old Count's ecstasy
+on finding a nephew so worthy of their name, and in his fancy he saw
+pictures of future scenes in which he figured. All of these had the
+same rose tint; for while in some he imagined himself winning the
+high rewards of great achievements, in others he was the caressed and
+flattered guest of rank and beauty. "To think that I should once have
+been thus!" cried he, laughing at the conceit, "trudging along
+the high-road with a knapsack on my shoulder, like a Bursch in his
+'Wander-jahre;'" and then he vowed to himself that "he would have a
+picture taken of his humble guise as first he started in life, to hang
+up at some future day beside the decorated soldier he was yet to be."
+
+Selfishness can wear many a mask. Sometimes it can array itself in
+features almost noble, more often its traits are of the very meanest.
+Frank's egotism was of the former kind. He wanted to attain distinction
+by an honorable path, he would not have stooped to any other. He was
+ready to do or dare all for greatness. No peril could deter, no danger
+could daunt him; but yet was he totally deficient in that greatest
+element of success, that patient discipline of the mind which, made
+up of humility and confidence, can wait and bide its time, earning the
+prizes of life before it claim them. His pride of family, however, was
+his greatest blemish, since it suggested a false notion of distinction,
+a pretension so groundless that, like a forged banknote, it was sure to
+involve even the bearer in disgrace.
+
+So full was he of himself and his own future, that he took but little
+note of the way as he went. Avoiding, from a sense of pride, to
+associate with the "Travelling Youths," as they are called, he walked
+along from early morning to late evening, alone and companionless. It
+was mostly a dreary and uninteresting road, either leading through dark
+and gloomy pine forests or over great plains of swampy surface, where
+the stubble of the tall maize, or the stunted vines, were the only
+traces of vegetation. As he drew near the Tyrol, however, the great
+mountains came in sight, while the continual ascent told that he was
+gradually reaching the land of glaciers and snow-peaks. Day by day he
+found the road less and less frequented: these lonely districts were
+little resorted to by the wandering apprentices, so that frequently
+Frank did not meet a single traveller from day-dawn till night. Perhaps
+he felt little regret at this, leaving him, as it did, more time for
+those daydreams in which he loved to revel. Now and then some giant
+mountain glittering in the sun, or some dark gorge thousands of feet
+below him, would chase away his revery, and leave him for a time in
+a half-bewildered and wondering astonishment; but his thoughts soon
+resumed their old track, and he would plod along, staff in hand, as
+before.
+
+Walking from before daybreak to a late hour of the evening, Frank
+frequently accomplished in his day's journey as many miles as the
+traveller who, by post, only spent the few hours of mid-day on the road;
+in fact, he might have thus measured his speed, had he been less wrapped
+up in his own fancies, since, for several days, a caleche, drawn by
+three post-horses, had regularly passed him on the road, and always
+about the same hour.
+
+Frank saw nothing of this; and when on a bright and frosty day he began
+the ascent of the Arlberg, he little knew that the carriage, about half
+a mile in front, had been his travelling companion for the past week.
+Disdaining to follow the winding high-road, Frank ascended by those
+foot-tracks which gain upon the zig-zags, and thus soon was miles in
+advance of the caleche. At last he reached the half-way point of ascent,
+and was glad to rest himself for a few minutes on one of the benches
+which German thoughtfulness for the wayfarer never neglects to place
+in suitable spots. A low parapet of a couple of feet separated the road
+from a deep and almost perpendicular precipice, at the foot of which,
+above two thousand feet beneath, stood the village of Stuben. There was
+the little chapel in which he had his morning's mass, there the
+little Platz, where he had seen the post-horses getting ready for the
+travellers; there, too, the little fountain, covered with a shed of
+straw, and glistening with many an icicle in the bright sun. The very
+voices of the people reached him where he sat; and the sounds of a
+street-organ floated upwards through the still atmosphere. It was a
+scene of peaceful isolation such as would have pleased Nelly's fancy. It
+was like one of those "Dorf s" she herself had often carved to amuse a
+winter's evening, and Frank's eyes filled up as he thought of her and of
+home.
+
+The sound of feet upon the snow suddenly roused him, and, on looking
+round, Frank saw a traveller slowly coming up the pass. His dress at
+once proclaimed that he was not a pedestrian, save from choice, and was
+merely sauntering along in advance of his carriage. In the mere cursory
+glance Frank bestowed upon him he could see that he was a young and
+handsome man, with a certain soldierlike bearing in his air that well
+suited his bold but somewhat stern features.
+
+"You journey well, young fellow," said he, addressing Frank familiarly.
+"This is the fifth day we have been fellow-travellers; and although I
+have post-horses, you have always kept up with me on your feet."
+
+Frank touched his cap with a somewhat stiff courtesy at this
+unceremonious address; and, without deigning a reply, employed himself
+in arranging the straps of his knapsack.
+
+"Are you a soldier?" asked the stranger.
+
+"A cadet!" replied Frank as bluntly.
+
+"In what regiment, may I ask?"
+
+"The Franz Carl."
+
+"Ah! my own old corps," said the other, gayly. "I served four years with
+them in the Banat. From what part of the Empire are you you have n't the
+accent of an Austrian?"
+
+"I am an Irishman."
+
+"Oh! that explains it. And your name?"
+
+"Dalton. And now, sir, what may be yours, for I don't see why this
+curiosity is to be one-sided," said Frank, with an air even more
+insolent than the words.
+
+"I am Count Ernest of Walstein," said the other, without a touch of
+irritation.
+
+[Illustration:  356]
+
+"What rank do you hold in the service?" asked Frank, boldly.
+
+"That of lieutenant-colonel, boy."
+
+"And your age may be about thirty?" said Frank, half in question and
+half in sarcasm.
+
+"I was twenty-eight last August," was the calm reply.
+
+"By Jove! that is a service!" exclaimed Frank, "where a man scarcely ten
+years my senior may command a regiment!"
+
+The other laughed, and after a brief pause, said, "People are in the
+habit of calling me fortunate, so that you must not suppose my case to
+be the rule."
+
+"Be it so: even as an exception, the example is a bright one. Another
+may do what you have done."
+
+"If you mean that I have earned my rank by services, boy," said the
+Count, smiling, "you would make a grave mistake. My promotion had
+another source."
+
+Frank looked as though he were curious to hear the explanation, but the
+other gave none.
+
+"How do you call yourself?" asked he of Frank, after a pause.
+
+"Dalton," replied the boy, more respectfully than before.
+
+"We have a field-marshal of that name in the service, a most gallant old
+soldier, too."
+
+"My grand-uncle!" cried Frank, with enthusiasm.
+
+"Indeed! So you are a grand-nephew to the Graf von Auersberg," said the
+Count, taking a more deliberate view than he had yet bestowed upon him.
+"Then how comes it you are travelling in this fashion, and on foot?"
+
+"I have not asked you why you journey in a caleche with three horses,"
+said Frank, insolently.
+
+"It's my habit to do so."
+
+"This, then, may be mine, sir," said Frank, throwing his knapsack on his
+shoulder, and preparing to depart.
+
+"Is not the Franz Carl at Vienna?" said the Count, not seeming to notice
+the irritation of his manner.
+
+"I believe so."
+
+"Well, then, as I am going thither, perhaps you will accept of a seat in
+my caleche?"
+
+There was a frankness in the way this offer was made that suddenly
+routed the ill-temper Frank had fallen into. No one was less disposed
+than himself to accept of a favor from a perfect stranger; but the tone
+and manner of the proffer had, somehow, disarmed it of all appearance of
+such; and as he stood uncertain what answer to make, the Count added:
+"I 'm always lucky. I was just wishing for a travelling companion, and
+fortune has thrown us into acquaintanceship."
+
+"I don't know I can scarcely tell," said Frank, hesitating, "how or what
+to answer."
+
+"You forget that we are comrades, Dalton or shall be, at least, in
+another day or two," said the Count, familiarly; "so step in, and no
+more about it."
+
+The caleche had drawn up as he spoke, and the courier stood, cap in
+hand, beside the door, so that Frank had no time for any but an abrupt
+refusal, and that he could not give; he therefore bowed his head, and
+sprang in. The door was slammed sharply to, and the next moment the
+horses were rattling along over the snow, the merry bells of the harness
+jingling pleasantly as they went.
+
+Probably no two beings could present a much stronger contrast than the
+two who now journeyed along side by side. The one, rich, highly placed,
+and distinguished with every gift of fortune at his command, and yet
+pleasure-sick, weary, and discontented; the other, poor, and almost
+friendless, full of hope, and ardent with all the buoyancy of youth. The
+Count was as jaded and tired of life as the cadet was eager to enjoy it.
+Notwithstanding perhaps we should rather say in virtue of these strong
+contrarieties, they made admirable travelling companions, and the road
+slipped away unconsciously to each.
+
+At Innspruck they halted for a day or two, and Frank accompanied his new
+friend to the cafes and theatres, mingling in the throng of those whose
+life is a round of easy dissipation. It is true that, to conform by
+dress and demeanor with these, Frank was obliged to spend the golden
+coins of Nelly's purse; louis after louis went in some one extravagance
+or another, sacrifices that cost him many a pang, but which, from pride,
+he bore up against with seeming indifference. Walstein presented him
+everywhere as the nephew of the old field-marshal Von Auersberg; and as
+nothing was more common than to see a young cadet dispensing the
+most lavish sums, with equipages, liveries, and servants, none seemed
+surprised that the youth should indulge in these habits and tastes of
+extravagance. His very enjoyment seemed like an earnest of being long
+habituated to these modes of life, for whether he played or drank, or in
+whatever excesses he mingled, there was ever the same joyous spirit; and
+Frank Dalton had all the outward signs of a youth rich in every accident
+of fortune. At first, thoughts of his humble home and of those by whose
+sacrifices he was enabled to indulge in such costly pleasures would
+cross his mind, and, what between shame and sorrow, he felt degraded and
+debased before himself; but, by degrees, the levity of action induced,
+as it ever will do, the levity of thinking; and he suffered himself to
+believe that "he was no worse than others." A more fatal philosophy than
+this, youth never adopted, and he who seeks a low standard rarely stops
+till he falls beneath even that. Frank's pride of family made him vain,
+and his vanity made him credulous; he therefore implicitly believed
+all that his new companions told him, the familiar "thee and thou" of
+camaraderie giving an air of friendship to all the flatteries.
+
+"Were I a nephew of a field-marshal like thee, I'd not serve in an
+infantry corps. I 'd be in the Lichtenstein Hussars or the Lancers of
+the Kaiser," said one.
+
+"So he will," cried another. "Dalton only joined the Franz Carl to get
+his promotion quickly. Once at Vienna, he will be an officer, and ready
+to exchange his regiment."
+
+"Old Auersberg can make thee what he will, lad," said a third. "He might
+have been Minister of War himself, if he had liked it. The Emperor Franz
+loved him as a brother."
+
+"And he is rich, too, no one knows how rich," broke in a fourth. "He
+commanded for many years on the Turkish frontier, in those good days
+when our Grenzers used to make forays upon the villages, and every
+Pashalic paid its blackmail for peace' sake."
+
+"Thou are a lucky dog, Dalton, to find thy promotion and an inheritance
+thus secured to thee."
+
+"When thou has a regiment, lad, don't forget us poor devils here, that
+have no uncles in the 'Maria Teresa' category."
+
+"I 'll lay my life on't, that he is a colonel before I become
+Rittmeister," said a young lieutenant of dragoons, "and I have had five
+years' hard service in Galicia and Servia."
+
+"And why not?" broke in Count Walstein, who sat silently up to
+this smoking his meerschaum in a corner. "Has the empire lost its
+aristocratic character? Are not birth and blood to have their claims, as
+of old?"
+
+This speech met a ready acceptance, for the company consisted of those
+who either were, or affected to be, of noble extraction.
+
+"How our fathers deceive themselves in trying to deceive us!" said a
+young Hungarian cadet. "I, too, was sent off to join my regiment on
+foot. Just fancy to walk from Arad to Presburg! I, that never went
+twenty miles in my life save on the saddle. They fitted me with my
+knapsack, just such a thing as Dalton's. I suppose about as many florins
+jingled in my purse as in his. They gave me their blessing and a map of
+the road, with each day's journey marked out upon it. And how far did
+I go afoot, think'st thou? Two miles and a half. There I took an 'Eil
+Bauer,' with four good horses and a wicker caleche, and we drove our
+sixty, sometimes seventy miles a day. Each night we put up at some good
+country house or other Honyadi's Ctzyscheny's Palfi's; all lay on the
+road, and I found out about fifty cousins I never knew of before, and
+made a capital acquaintance, too, the Prince Paul of Ettlingen, who,
+owning a regiment of Light Dragoons, took me into his corps, and, when
+I joined them at Leutmeritz, I was already an officer. What stuff it
+is they preach about economy and thrift! Are we the sons of peasants
+or petty shopkeepers? It comes well, too, from them in their princely
+chateaux to tell us that we must live like common soldiers. So that,
+while yesterday, as it were, I sat at a table covered with silver, and
+drank my Tokay from a Venetian glass, tomorrow I must put up with sour
+Melniker, or, mayhap, Bavarian beer, with black bread, and a sausage
+to help it down! Our worthy progenitors knew better in their own young
+days, or we should not have so many debts and mortgages on our estates
+eh, Walstein?"
+
+"I suppose the world is pretty much alike, in every age," said the
+Count, laughing. "It now and then takes a virtuous fit, and affects
+to be better than it used to be; but I shrewdly suspect that the only
+difference is in the hypocritical pretension. When I entered the service
+and it is not so many years ago that I cannot recollect it the cant was,
+to resemble that rough school of the days of old Frederick and Maria
+Teresa. Trenck's 'Pandours,' with their scarlet breeches stuffed into
+their wide boot-tops, were the mode; and to wear your moustache to your
+shoulders to cry 'Bey'm Henker!' and 'Alle Blitzen!' every moment, were
+the veritable types of the soldier. Now we have changed all that.
+We have the Anglomania of English grooms and equipages, top-boots,
+curricles, hurdle-races, champagne suppers. Dalton will be the ton in
+his regiment, and any extravagance he likes to launch into certain to
+have its followers."
+
+The youth blushed deeply; partly in conscious pride at the flattery,
+partly in the heartfelt shame at its inappropriateness to himself; and
+even the sincerity with which his comrades drank his health, could not
+drown the self-reproaches he was suffering under.
+
+"Thou art an only son, too, Dalton!" said another. "What favors fortune
+will shower upon one happy fellow! Here I am, one of seven; and although
+my father is a count of the empire, four of us have to take service in
+the infantry."
+
+"What of that?" said a dark-complexioned fellow, whose high cheek-bones
+and sharp under-jaw bespoke a Pole. "I am a second lieutenant in the
+regiment that my grandfather raised and equipped at his own cost; and
+if I were to lose a thousand florins at lansquenet to-morrow, I 'd be
+broke, like the meanest 'bursch' in the corps."
+
+"It's better to be a rich Englander," cried one.
+
+"And with a field-marshal for a grand-uncle!" chimed in another.
+
+"And a 'Maria Teresa' to ask for thy grade as officer," said a third.
+
+"It's a jolly service to all of us," said a young Bohemian, who,
+although but a cadet, was a prince, with a princely fortune. "I ask for
+nothing but a war to make it the best life going."
+
+"A war with whom?" cried several together.
+
+"What care I with whom or where? With Prussia, if you will, to fight out
+our old scores about Frauconia; with Russia, if you like better, for the
+Danubian provinces, and her Servian supremacy; with France she 's
+always ready, with a cause or without one; with Italy to round off our
+frontier, and push our limits to the Apennines; I'd say with England,
+only Dalton might n't like it."
+
+"And where would you pick your quarrel with England?" said Frank,
+laughing.
+
+"Easily enough, through our ambassador at the Porte, or some outlying
+station, where Russia is her rival."
+
+"Hang your politics!" broke in a Hungarian. "Let us fight when the time
+comes, but not bother our heads about the cause. I 'd rather take
+my chance of a sabre-cut any day than addle my brains with too much
+thought. Here 's to you, Dalton, mayst soon be a Rittmeister of Hussars,
+lad; a prouder thing thou needst not ask for."
+
+"Thou shalt give us a jolly supper at the 'Schwan,' Dalton, when we meet
+at Vienna," said another.
+
+"And we'll pledge those fair sisters of thine and they 're both
+handsome, I 'll be sworn in the best Tokay Palfi's vineyard can yield."
+
+"My regiment will be in garrison, in the Leopoldstadt, next month, and
+I'll remind thee of this pledge."
+
+"And we shall be at Lintz," broke in another; "and thou mayst reckon on
+me, if I have to suffer an arrest for it afterwards."
+
+"So it is agreed, Dalton, we are thy guests. For what day shall it be?"
+
+"Ay, let us name the day," cried several together.
+
+"When he is named an officer," said Walstein, "that will be time
+enough."
+
+"Nay, nay the day month after he arrives at Vienna," cried the Bohemian.
+"I have given three breakfasts and five suppers on the occasion of my
+promotion, and the promotion has never come yet."
+
+"The day month after I arrive, then, be it," said Dalton. "We meet at
+where is it?"
+
+"The 'Schwan,' lad, the first restaurant of Europe. Let men talk as they
+will of the Cadran Bleu and the Trois Freres, I'd back Hetziuger's cook
+against the world; and as for wine, he has Steinkammer at thirty florins
+the flask! And we'll drink it, too, eh, Dalton? and we'll give a 'Hoch
+Lebe' to that old grandfather or grand-uncle of thine. We'll add ten
+years to his life."
+
+"A poor service to Dalton," said another; "but here comes Walstein's
+horses, and now for the last glass together before we part."
+
+The parting seemed, indeed, to be "sweet sorrow," for each leave-taking
+led to one flask more, friendship itself appearing to make wondrous
+progress as the bottle went round. The third call of the postilion's
+bugle a summons that even German loyalty could scarcely have courage
+to resist at last cut short the festivities, and Frank once more found
+himself in the caleche, where at least a dozen hands contested for the
+last shake of his, and a shower of good wishes mingled with the sounds
+of the crashing wheels.
+
+"Glorious fellows!" cried Dalton, in an ecstasy of delight; "such
+comrades are like brothers."
+
+Walstein smiled at the boy's enthusiasm, and lighted his meerschaum in
+silence; and thus they journeyed, each too full of his own thoughts to
+care for converse. It was not at such a moment that Dalton could give
+way to dark or serious reflections; the blandishments and caresses of
+his new friends were too powerful to admit of any rivalry in his mind;
+and even when he did revert to thoughts of home, it was to picture
+to himself his father's pride at seeing him in the society of these
+high-born youths; of Kate's delight at the degree of notice he
+attracted; and even Nelly poor Nelly! he fancied yielding a gentle,
+half-reluctant assent to a companionship which, if costly and expensive,
+was sure to be honorable and high-minded.
+
+"What would Hanserl say, too," thought he, "if he saw me seated at the
+table with those whose high-sounding names are the pride of Austrian
+chivalry, the Thuns, the Lichtensteins, the Schwartenschilds, and the
+Walsteins, families old as the Hapsburgs themselves? Little Hanserl, to
+whom these glorious families were the great lights of history, oh, if he
+could have set eyes on me this last evening! when, with arms around my
+neck, they called me comrade!" From this he wandered on to thoughts
+of his uncle, investing the old field-marshal with every noble and
+soldierlike attribute, and, above all, fancying him as overflowing with
+affection and kindness. What hosts of questions did he ask about his
+father and his sisters; how often had he to repeat their names and
+paint their resemblances, going over the most minute details of family
+history, and recounting the simplest incidents of their daily life, for
+"Uncle Stephen would know all."
+
+In such pleasant fancies he fell fast asleep, even in his dreams to
+carry out those imaginings that, waking, had no control of reason.
+
+Frank Dalton was awaked from a sound sleep and a pleasant dream of home
+by the hoarse voice of a mounted dragoon, ordering the postilion to
+halt; and, on looking out, he saw that they were drawn up close beside
+the angle of the great wooden bridge that crosses the Danube, under the
+walls of Vienna. The whole scene was one of wonderment and surprise to
+him. At his feet, as it were, rolled the stream of the rapid Danube; its
+impetuous flood splashing and foaming amid the fragments of ice floated
+down from the mountain regions, and which every moment were shivered
+against the stone breakwaters with the crash of thunder. Beyond the
+river rose the fortified walls of the city, covered with a dense
+multitude of people, eager spectators of a grand military display,
+which, with all the pomp of war, poured forth beneath the dark archway
+of the entrance-gate, and, winding over the "glacis," crossed the
+bridge, and held on its course towards the Prater.
+
+It was a clear, bright day of winter; the blue sky almost cloudless, and
+the sharp outline of every object stood out, crisp and well defined, in
+the thin atmosphere. Nothing could be more favorable for the effect of
+such a spectacle. The bright weapons glanced and glittered like silver,
+the gay trappings and brilliant uniforms showed in all their splendor,
+the scarlet Lancers, the blue-clad Hussars, the Cuirassiers, with their
+towering helmets, vied with each other in soldierlike bearing; while the
+dense mass of infantry moved along with a surging, waving motion, like
+a vast sea heaving with a ground-swell. It was an army complete in every
+detail; for, even to the "ambulances" for the wounded, everything was
+there.
+
+"A review by the Emperor!" said Walstein; "and see, there comes his
+staff." And he pointed to a group of horsemen, whose waving plumes and
+floating dolmans were seen at a little distance off in the plain.
+
+"Oh, let us follow them!" cried Frank, enthusiastically. "Such a
+glorious sight as this I never even imagined."
+
+"You 'll see enough, perhaps too many such," said the Count, languidly.
+"It's a favorite pastime of our old General's to drag us out of quarters
+in the very depth of winter, and spend a day in the snow of the Prater."
+
+"Who could have a thought for weather or hardship when engaged in such a
+scene?" said Frank.
+
+"So, evidently, think those worthy field-marshals and generals of
+division, who, well mounted, and swathed in furs, canter down to the
+ground, an hour after we have reached it, and ride back again when they
+have 'taken the salute,' leaving us to plod wearily home, through wet
+roads and sloppy streets, to our cold barracks. But just the reverse
+is the opinion of those poor fellows yonder, with blue faces and
+frostbitten knuckles, and who have neither pride in this display, nor
+sympathy with the success of what is called 'a fine manoeuvre.'"
+
+Frank shook his head distrustfully. He wished not to credit the opinion,
+but knew not how to refute it, and was silent.
+
+"That is the 'Franz Carl,' Dalton," said Walstein, pointing to a column
+of infantry, who, in their dark gray overcoats, seemed a sad-looking,
+gloomy mass. "They've got the best band and the most savage colonel in
+the service."
+
+Frank gazed at the regiment with a strange sensation of awe and fear.
+
+"There lies my destiny!" thought he. "Who knows what friendships or
+enmities await me yonder? What hearts in that dark mass will beat
+responsively with my own; what sources of sorrow or affliction may I
+meet with amongst them!"
+
+"I wish thou hadst a better regiment, Dalton," said Walstein.
+
+"How a better? Is it not a brave and distinguished corps?"
+
+"Brave enough," said the other, laughing; "and as for distinction, an
+Archduke owns and commands it. But that is not what I mean. The regiment
+is a poor one; the officers are from Upper Austria, with little or
+no fortune, fellows who dine for a zwanziger, play dominos for two
+kreutzers, waltz at the wine-gardens, and fight duels with sabres."
+
+Frank laughed at the description; but his laugh had more of gloom
+than mirth about it, for he felt at every moment the false position
+be occupied, and how inextricably complicated his circumstances were
+becoming. Every allusion to others showed him in what light he was
+himself regarded. "Was his deception honorable? was it possible to
+continue it?" were the questions that would obtrude upon him, and for
+which no ingenuity could find answer.
+
+"There 's the corps for you, Dalton," said Walstein, drawing his
+attention to the "Hungarian Guard," all glittering with gold embroidery,
+and mounted upon the most beautiful white chargers, at once the most
+perfect riders and the best mounted cavalry in Europe. "In that regiment
+you are certain of being quartered either here or in Prague. Those laced
+jackets are too costly wear to send down to the Banat, or among the
+wilds of Wallachia. Besides, the Empress likes to see these gaudy
+fellows on their 'schimmels' beneath the Palace windows. Your uncle
+will, of course, grumble a little about the cost. Perhaps your father,
+too, will look a little grave when he hears of six thousand florins for
+a 'dolman,' and four for a 'schabrach;' while ten or twelve horses the
+very least you could keep would scarcely sound like a moderate stable.
+Still, depend upon it, the corps is as good for service as it is costly,
+and Creptowitz, their Colonel, is a true hussar."
+
+For a moment Dalton hesitated whether he should not make the honest
+avowal of his narrow fortune, and tell that he had no pretension to such
+habits of cost and expense; but shame was too powerful to permit the
+acknowledgment. He had already gone too far to retract, and he felt
+that any candor now would be the confession of a cheat. If these were
+harassing and torturing reflections, one flickering ray of hope still
+glimmered through the gloom; and this was, what he might expect from his
+uncle. "If he be really rich, as they say," thought Frank, "if his favor
+be so great with the Emperor, even such a career as this may not be
+above my prospects." As he revolved these thoughts, he sat with his head
+buried between his hands, forgetful of where he was and all around him.
+
+"You 're losing everything, Dalton," said Walstein. "See, there go
+the 'Kaiser Jagers,' with their bugles, the finest in the service; and
+yonder are the Lichtenstein 'Light Horse,' mounted on thorough-bred
+cattle; and there, to the left, those savage-looking fellows with long
+beards, they are the 'Croat Grenadiers.' But here comes the Emperor!"
+And, as he spoke, one deafening cheer burst forth along the line, and
+was echoed back from the walls of Vienna; while every band struck up
+the national hymn of Austria, and the proud notes of "God preserve the
+Emperor!" floated through the air.
+
+A brilliant staff of generals of every arm of the service accompanied
+"the Kaiser;" and Walstein ran quickly over the names of these, many of
+whom were among the first nobility of the Empire. Some were the war-worn
+veterans of the great campaigns; some the young hopes of Austrian
+chivalry; but, conspicuous above all, was a figure whose stature, as
+well as the singularity of his uniform, attracted Frank's notice. He was
+a very tall old man, dressed in a uniform of purple velvet slashed with
+gold, and actually covered with the crosses and decorations of various
+orders. His cap was a tall chako of red-brown fur, from which a long,
+straight scarlet plume floated, and beneath which his gray hair was
+fastened in a queue, that hung half-way down his back. Yellow buskins
+ornamented with massive gold spurs completed a costume which seemed
+almost a compromise between the present and some bygone age.
+
+The figure of the wearer, too, suited well this impression. There was
+a stern rigidity of look as he sat still and motionless in his saddle,
+which relaxed into the polished urbanity of an old courtier as often as
+the Emperor addressed him. When bowing to the mane of his charger, he
+seemed the very type of courtesy; while, as he retired his horse, there
+was all the address and ease of a practised rider.
+
+"There, to the left of Walmoden, on the powerful black horse, do you see
+that handsome old man in the purple tunic?" said Waldstein.
+
+"I have been watching him for several minutes back," replied Frank.
+"What a singular uniform!"
+
+"Yes. It was the dress of the Artillery of the Imperial Guard in the
+days of Wagram and Lobau; and he is permitted to retain it, by a special
+leave of the Emperor, a favor he only avails himself of on occasions
+like the present."
+
+"What a mass of orders he wears!"
+
+"He has all that the Empire can bestow, from the 'Iron Cross' to the
+'Maria Teresa.' He has the 'Legion of Honor,' too, sent him by Napoleon
+himself! It was that officer who at Elchingen rode up to the head of a
+French column, and told them that the wagons they were pursuing were the
+'ammunition of the rear-guard!' 'If you advance,' said he, 'we 'll fire
+them, and blow you and ourselves to atoms!' The coolness and heroism of
+the daring were well acknowledged by a brave enemy. The French halted,
+and our train proceeded on its way. Mayhap you have heard the anecdote
+before?"
+
+"Never," said Frank, still gazing with admiration at the old soldier.
+
+"Then I may as well tell you that he is the Count Dalton von Auersberg,"
+said Walstein, lying back to enjoy the youth's amazement.
+
+"What! Uncle Stephen? Is that our uncle?" burst out Frank, in delight.
+
+"I wish I could call him 'ours,' with all my heart," said Walstein,
+laughing. "Any man might well be proud of such a relative."
+
+But Frank never heard or heeded the remark; his whole soul was wrapped
+up in the contemplation of the old field marshal, on whom he gazed as a
+devotee might have done upon his saint.
+
+"He 's like my father," muttered Frank, half aloud; "but
+haughtier-looking, and older. A true Dalton in every feature! How I long
+to speak to him, to tell him who I am."
+
+"Not here, though, not here!" said Walstein, laying his hand on the
+youth's arm; for he almost feared lest he should give way to the sudden
+impulse. "Were you even the Colonel of your regiment, you could not
+approach him now."
+
+Frank stared with some surprise at a remark which seemed to treat so
+slightingly the ties of blood and kindred; while Walstein, by no means
+easy on the score of his companion's prudence, gave the word to the
+postilion to drive on; and they entered the city of Vienna.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX. THE THREAT OP "A SLIGHT EMBARRASSMENT."
+
+The Mazzarini Palace was now a proverb for all that was dissipated and
+extravagant throughout Florence, and in proportion as the society which
+frequented it was select and few in number, the more absurd were the
+rumors that went abroad of its dissipations and excesses. In default
+of a real, good, tangible scandal the world invented a thousand shadowy
+little slanders, that, if not as deadly to reputation at once, were just
+as certain to kill character in the long run.
+
+Sir Stafford's gout, of which he was confined to his bed or a sofa, was
+pronounced the lingering agonies of a broken heart. "My Lady's" late
+dinners were orgies where every licentiousness held sway. George was
+a reckless gambler, who had already jeopardized all the wealth of
+his family; and, as for Kate, she was at the mercy of that amiable
+temperament of the human mind which always believes the worst, and as
+constantly draws the darkest inference from its belief.
+
+Now, Sir Stafford was very gouty, very irritable, and very unhappy to
+boot, about a number of matters, which, however deeply interesting to
+himself, should have had no concern for the world. My Lady did dine at
+eleven o'clock at night, and the company was assuredly not that from
+which a discriminating public would have selected archbishops, or even
+minor canons, consisting for the most part of that class of which we
+have already made mention in a former chapter, with now and then some
+passer-through of rank, or some stray diplomate on his way to or from
+his post. George Onslow was a large loser at play, but without having
+recourse to those stratagems for payment which were so generally
+ascribed to him. While Kate poor Kate was neither better nor worse than
+the reader has hitherto known her.
+
+We do not in this admission seek to conceal the fact that she was very
+different from what first we saw her. Society had taught her tact,
+grace, and elegance of deportment. Admiration had rendered her yes,--we
+say it advisedly admiration had rendered her very attractive, drawing
+forth a thousand resources of fascination, and a thousand arts of
+pleasing, that often wither and die in the cold chill of neglect. The
+most fastidious critic could not have detected a fault in her manner;
+an ill-natured one might have objected to what seemed an excess of
+gracefulness; but even this was relieved by a youthful freshness and
+buoyancy of temperament, the last the very last remnant of her former
+self.
+
+She was the belle of Florence. Her sovereignty admitted of nothing like
+a rival. Whether she drove, or rode, or danced, or walked, the same
+admiring throng surrounded her; some sincere in all their admiration,
+others but following the lead which fashion took, and others, again,
+watchful observers of a manner in which they fancied they could trace
+the settled plan of a daring and ambitious character. Vanity had been
+the foible of her childish years; it was now the vice of her womanhood.
+Lady Hester ministered to this failing in a hundred ways. Liking Kate
+as well as it was possible for her to like anything, she took an intense
+pleasure in all the admiration she met with.
+
+As an actor is said to "create the part" which is written for him, when
+he impresses the personation with traits peculiarly his own, so did
+she fancy that Kate was but a reflected image of all her own graces and
+fascinations; and probably the proudest days of her own triumphs never
+yielded more enjoyment than she now felt in the flattering praises
+bestowed upon Kate Dalton.
+
+There were good-natured people who said that Lady Hester's admiration
+had another source, and that, as a somewhat passee beauty, she knew the
+full value of a younger and handsomer woman in attracting to her circle
+and society all that was distinguished by rank or station. We are not
+prepared to deny some force to this argument, but, assuredly, it had
+less weight than other reasons. Lady Hester's own claims, besides, were
+higher than these detractors admitted. She was, although not very young,
+still very handsome, her rank and wealth both considerable, and her
+manner the perfection of that school to which she belonged. If her
+affection for Kate was only another form of selfishness, it was not the
+less strong on that account. She was the confidante of her sorrows, by
+no means a sinecure office; the chief counsellor in all her plans;
+she was the lay-figure on which she experimented a hundred devices
+in costume and toilet; and lastly, greatest charm of all, she was a
+dependant. Not, indeed, that Kate herself so understood her position;
+pride of family, the Dalton heritage, was too powerful in her to admit
+of this. Deeply, sincerely grateful she was for all Lady Hester's
+kindness; her affection she returned tenfold, but no sense of
+inferiority mingled with this feeling, save that which arose from her
+own devoted admiration of her friend.
+
+The homage amid which she passed her life, the unceasing flow of
+flatteries around her, were not very likely to undeceive her on this
+point. A more respectful devotion could not have waited on a princess of
+the royal house. The great Midchekoff gave balls in her honor. The Arab
+horses of Treviliani were all placed at her disposal. The various visits
+to objects of curiosity or taste were arranged for her pleasure, and
+nothing omitted that could tend to stimulate her vanity and heighten her
+self-esteem.
+
+The utmost we can say for her all this while is, that if she was carried
+away by the excitement of this adulation, yet, in her heart, she was
+as little corrupted as was well possible. She could not be other
+than enamored of a life so unchanging in its happiness, nor could
+she disconnect the enjoyments around her from the possession of great
+wealth. She thought of what she had been a few months back: the "same
+Kate Dalton," braving the snows of a dark German winter, with threadbare
+cloak and peasant "sabots," an object of admiration to none except poor
+Hanserl, perhaps! And yet now, unchanged, unaltered, save in what gold
+can change, how different was her position! It had been well if her love
+of splendor had stopped here. It went further, however, and inspired a
+perfect dread of humble fortune.
+
+Over and over again did she hear disparaging remarks bestowed upon the
+striving efforts of "respectable poverty," its contrivances derided, its
+little straits held up to ridicule. In dress, equipage, or household,
+whatever it did was certain to be absurd; and yet all of these people,
+so laughed at and scorned, were in the enjoyment of means far above her
+own father's!
+
+What a false position was this! How full of deceit must she become to
+sustain it! She invoked all her sophistry to assure herself that their
+condition was a mere passing state; that at some future perhaps not even
+a remote one they should have "their own again;" and that as in family
+and descent they were the equals of any, so they were not inferior in
+all the just claims to consideration and respect. She tried to think of
+her father and Nelly moving in the circles she now lived in; but, even
+alone, and in the secrecy of her own thoughts, her cheek became scarlet
+with shame, and she actually shuddered at the very notion. And even
+Frank, her once ideal of all that was graceful and noble-looking,
+how would he pass muster beside these essenced "fashionables" who now
+surrounded her! She endeavored to console herself by thinking that her
+father would have despised the lounging, unmanly lives they led, that
+Ellen would have retired in bashful modesty from a society whose tone
+of freedom and license would have shocked her, and that Frank would
+have found no companionship in a class whose pleasures lay only in
+dissipation; and yet all her casuistry could not reassure her. The
+fascinations amid which she lived were stronger than her reason.
+
+She became first aware of the great change in herself on recognizing
+how differently a letter from home affected her to what it had done some
+months before. At first she would have hastened to her room, and locked
+the door, in an ecstasy of delight to be alone with dearest Nelly, to
+commune with her own sweet sister in secret, to hang on every line,
+every word, with delight, fancying herself once more with arms clasped
+around her, or bending down beside her cheek as she leaned over her
+work-table. How every little detail would move her; how every allusion
+would bring up home before her, the snug little chamber of an evening,
+as the bright fire glowed on the hearth, and Nelly brought out her tools
+for modelling, while Hanserl was searching for some passage, a line, or
+a description that Nelly wanted; and then the little discussions that
+would ensue as to the shape of some weapon, or the fashion of some
+costume of a past age, so often broken in upon by her father, whose
+drolleries would set them laughing!
+
+With what interest, too, she would follow each trifling occurrence of
+their daily life; the progress Nelly was making in her last group; its
+difficulties how would she ponder over, and wonder how to meet them!
+With what eager curiosity would she read the commonest details of the
+household, the dreary burden of a winter's tale! and how her heart
+bounded to hear of Frank the soldier although all the tidings were that
+he was with his regiment, but "spoke little of himself or the service."
+
+Now, however, the glow of delight which a letter used to bring up was
+changed for a deep blush of anxiety and shame, anxiety, she knew not
+wherefore or how; of shame, because Nelly's writing on the address was
+quaint and old-fashioned; while the paper and the seal bespoke the very
+lowliest acquaintance with epistolary elegance. The letter she used
+to grasp at with a high-beating heart she now clutched with greater
+eagerness, but in terror lest others should see and mark its vulgar
+exterior!
+
+How differently, too, did the contents affect her! So long as they
+referred to herself, in her own latest narrative of her life, she
+read with avidity and pleasure. Nelly's innocent wonderment was a very
+delightful sensation; her affectionate participation in her happiness
+was all grateful; even her gentle warnings against the seductions of
+such a career were not unpleasing; but the subject changed to home, and
+what an alteration came over her spirit! How dark and dismal became the
+picture, how poverty-stricken each incident and event, what littleness in
+every detail, how insignificant the occupations that interested them!
+
+How great the surprise she felt at their interest in such trifles; how
+astonished that their hopes and fears, their wishes or their dreads,
+could take so mean a form! This came with peculiar force before her,
+from a paragraph that closed Nelly's last letter, and which ran thus:
+
+"Think of our happiness, dearest Kate! We have just seen one who saw
+you lately, one of your Florence acquaintances; and I believe I might go
+further and say friends, for the terms in which he spoke of you evinced
+sincere and true regard. It was so kind of him to find us out, just to
+come and tell us about you; indeed, he remained a day here for no other
+purpose, since his diplomatic duties were urging him to England with
+speed."
+
+When Kate had read thus far, she stopped, her face and neck crimson with
+shame, and her heart beating almost audibly. With lightning rapidity she
+ran over to herself three or four names of ministers and envoys who
+had lately left Florence, trembling to think it might be the gorgeous
+Russian, Naradskoi, the princely Neapolitan, Carnporese, or the haughty
+Spaniard, Don Hernandez Orloes, who had visited their humble interior.
+What a humiliation for her, if she were ever to see them again! Home,
+at that instant, presented itself before her but as the witness of her
+shame: how sordid and miserable did its poverty appear, and with what
+vulgarity associated! Her poor old father, around whose neck but a
+moment before she would have hung with rapture, she shrank from with
+very terror: his dress, his look, his accent every word he spoke, every
+allusion he made, were tortures to her; and Nelly even Nelly how she
+blushed to fancy her humble guise and poor exterior; the little dress of
+colored wool, from the pockets of which her carving-tools appeared; and
+then how the scene rose before her! her father producing Nelly's last
+work, some little group in clay or wood. She pictured to herself his
+pride, her sister's bashfulness, the stranger's pretended admiration!
+Till now, these emotions had never seen a counterfeit. Oh, how she
+shuddered as her thoughts took more and more the colors of reality, and
+the room itself, and its poverty-struck furniture, rose before her! At
+last she read on:
+
+"His visit was of course a great honor, and probably, had he come on any
+other errand but to speak of you, we should have been half overwhelmed
+with the condescension; but in very truth, Kate, I quite forgot all
+his greatness and his grandeur, and lost sight of his ever holding any
+higher mission than to bring news of my dearest sister. Papa, of course,
+asked him to dinner. I believe he would have invited the Czar himself
+under like circumstances; but, fortunately for us, for him, and perhaps
+for you too, he was too deaf to hear the request, and politely answered
+that he would send my letter to you with pleasure, under his own
+diplomatic seal; and so we parted. I ought to add that Mr. Foglass
+intends speedily to return to Florence."
+
+Three or four times did Kate read this name over before she could
+persuade herself that she had it aright. Foglass! she had never even
+heard of him. The name was remarkable enough to remember, as belonging
+to a person of diplomatic rank, and yet it was quite new to her. She
+turned to Lady Hester's invitation book, but no such name was there.
+What form her doubts might have taken there is no knowing, when Mr.
+Albert Jekyl was seen to cross the courtyard, and enter the house.
+
+Knowing that if any could, he would be the person to resolve the
+difficulty, she hastened downstairs to meet him.
+
+"Mr. Jekyl," cried she, hurriedly, "is there such a man as Mr. Foglass
+in this breathing world of ours?"
+
+"Of course there is, Miss Dalton," said he, smiling at her eagerness.
+
+"A minister or an envoy at some court?"
+
+"Not that I have ever heard," repeated he, with a more dubious smile.
+
+"Well, a secretary of embassy, perhaps? something of that kind? Who is
+he? what is he? where does he belong to?"
+
+"You mean Bob, Miss Dalton," said he, at once puffing out his cheeks
+and running his hand through his hair, till it became a very good
+resemblance of the ex-Consul's wig, while, by a slight adjustment of
+his waistcoat, he imitated the pretentious presence of the mock royalty.
+"'You mean Bob, madam,'" said he, mimicking his measured intonation and
+pompous tone, "'Old Fogey, as Mathews always called me. Mathews and
+I and Townsend were always together, dined at Greenwich every Sunday
+regularly. What nights they were! Flows of reason, and feasts of eh?
+yes, that's what they were.'"
+
+"I must remind you that I never saw him," said she, laughing; "though
+I'm certain, if I should hereafter, it will not be very hard to
+recognize him. Now, who is he?"
+
+"He himself says, a grandson of George the Fourth. Less interested
+biographers call him a son of Foglass and Crattles, who, I believe, were
+not even coachmakers to royalty. He was a consul at Ezmeroum, or some
+such place. At least, they showed him the name on a map, and bade him
+find it out; but he found out something more, it seems, that there was
+neither pay nor perquisites, neither passports nor peculation; and he
+has brought back his wisdom once again to besiege the Foreign Office.
+But how do you happen to ask about him?"
+
+"Some of my friends met him in Germany," said she, hesitatingly. She
+might have blushed, had Jekyl looked at her; but he knew better, and
+took pains to bestow his glances in another direction.
+
+"It would be kind to tell them that the man is a most prying,
+inquisitive sort of creature, who, if he only had the sense of hearing,
+would be as mischievous as Purvis."
+
+"I fancy they will see but little of him," said she, with a saucy toss
+of the head. "He made their acquaintance by affecting to know me. I 'm
+sure I 've no recollection of having ever seen him."
+
+"Of course you never knew him, Miss Dalton!" replied he, with a subdued
+horror in his voice as he spoke.
+
+"A letter for you, Mademoiselle," said the servant to Kate; "and the man
+waits for an answer."
+
+Kate broke the seal with some trepidation. She had no correspondents
+nearer than her home, and wondered what this might mean. It was in a
+strange commotion of spirit that she read the following lines:
+
+"Mrs. Montague Ricketts presents her respectful compliments to Miss
+Dalton, and begs to know at what hour to-day Mrs. M. R. may wait upon
+Miss D., to present a letter which has been committed to Mrs. R.'s hands
+for personal delivery. It may secure an earlier hour of audience if Mrs.
+R. mentions that the precious document is from Miss D.'s father."
+
+What could this possibly mean? It was but that very same day the post
+brought her a letter from Nelly. Why had not her father said what he
+wished to say, in that? What need of this roundabout, mysterious mode of
+communicating?
+
+The sight of the servant still in waiting for the answer recalled her
+from these cross-questionings, and she hurried away to consult Lady
+Hester about the reply.
+
+"It's very shocking, my dear child," said she, as she listened to the
+explanation. "The Ricketts, they tell me, is something too dreadful; and
+we have escaped her hitherto. You could n't be ill, could you?"
+
+"But the letter?" said Kate, half smiling, half provoked.
+
+"Oh, to be sure the letter! But Buccellini, you know, might take the
+letter, and leave it, with unbroken seal, near you; you could read
+it just as well. I 'm sure I read everything Sir Stafford said in his
+without ever opening it. You saw that yourself, Kate, or, with
+your scepticism, I suppose, you 'd not believe it, for you are very
+sceptical; it is your fault of faults, my dear. D'Esmonde almost shed
+tears about it, the other day. He told me that you actually refused to
+believe in the Madonna della Torre, although he showed you the phial
+with the tears in it!"
+
+"I only said that I had not seen the Virgin shed them," said Kate.
+
+"True, child! but you saw the tears; and you heard D'Esmonde remark,
+that when you saw the garden of a morning, all soaked with wet, the
+trees and flowers dripping, you never doubted that it had rained during
+the night, although you might not have been awake to hear or see it."
+
+Kate was silent; not that she was unprepared with an answer, but dreaded
+to prolong a discussion so remote from the object of her visit.
+
+"Now, Protestant that I am," said Lady Hester, with the triumphant tone
+of one who rose above all the slavery of prejudice, "Protestant that I
+am, I believe in the 'Torre.' The real distinction to make is, between
+what is above, and what is contrary to, reason, Kate. Do you understand
+me, child?"
+
+"I'm sure Mrs. Ricketts's visit must be both," Kate said, adroitly
+bringing back the original theme.
+
+"Very true; and I was forgetting the dear woman altogether. I suppose
+you must receive her, Kate; there 's no help for it! Say three o'clock,
+and I'll sit in the small drawing-room, and, with the gallery and the
+library between us, I shall not hear her dreadful voice."
+
+"Has she such?" asked Kate, innocently.
+
+"I'm sure I don't know," said Lady Hester, pettishly; "but of course
+she has! Those dreadful people always have! Make the visit as brief as
+possible, Kate. Let it not be a pretext for anything after. Use your
+eyeglass on every occasion, so that you can be short-sighted enough
+never to know her again. I have seen you very supercilious at times,
+child, it is precisely the manner for this interview. It was really very
+wrong of your papa to write in this fashion; or your sister, or whoever
+it was. Nobody thinks of anything but the post, nowadays. Pray tell them
+so; say it makes me quite nervous; you see I am nervous to-day! There,
+there! I don't want to fret you, child but everything has gone wrong
+to-day. Midchekoff has given away his box, and I have promised mine to
+the Lucchesini; and that blond flounce is much too narrow, so Celestine
+tells me; but I 'm sure she has cut a piece off it to make a 'berthe'
+for herself. And then the flowers are positively odious. They are
+crimson, instead of cherry-color, although I told Jekyl twice over they
+ought to be the very tint of Lady Melgund's nose! There, now; goodbye.
+Remember all I've been saying, and don't forget that this is a 'giorno
+infelice,' and everything one does will prove unlucky. I hope D'Esmonde
+will not come today. I 'm really not equal to controversy this morning.
+I should like to see Buccellini, however, and have a globule of the
+Elysian essence. Bye-bye; do think better about the 'Madonna della
+Torre,' and get rid of that odious Ricketts affair as speedily as may
+be."
+
+With these injunctions, Kate withdrew to indite her reply to Mrs.
+Ricketts, appointing three o 'clock on that same afternoon for a visit,
+which she assuredly looked forward to with more of curiosity than
+pleasure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI. A CONVIVIAL EVENING
+
+IT is not necessary that the reader should participate in Kate Dalton's
+mystification regarding her father's letter, that document being simply
+a piece of Ricketts strategy, and obtained to secure an admission to
+the Mazzarini Palace, which, notwithstanding Lord Norwood's assurances,
+still regained an impregnable fortress to all her assaults.
+
+Foglass was then commissioned to induce Mr. Dalton to write something,
+anything, to his daughter, to be transmitted under the Embassy seal,
+a magnificent mode of conveyance, which was reason enough to call into
+exercise those powers of penmanship which, since he had ceased to issue
+promissory notes, had lain in the very rustiest state of disuse. The
+command to obtain this credential reached Foglass just as he was about
+to start from Baden; but being desirous, for various little social
+reasons, to conciliate the Ricketts's esteem, he at once altered his
+arrangements, and feigning a sudden attack of gout, a right royal malady
+he took himself to bed, and sent a few lines to Dalton, detailing his
+misfortune, and entreating a visit.
+
+Never backward in the cause of good-nature, poor Dalton sallied forth at
+night, and notwithstanding the cutting blasts of a north wind, and
+the sharp driftings of the half-frozen snow, held on his way to the
+"Russie," where, in a very humble chamber for so distinguished a guest,
+lay Mr. Foglass in the mock agonies of gout.
+
+"How devilish kind of you, how very considerate!" said Foglass, as he
+gave one finger of his hand to shake. "So like poor Townsend this, Lord
+Tom, we used to call him. Not wet, though, I hope?"
+
+"And if I was, it would n't be the first time. But how are you yourself,
+where is the pain?"
+
+"You must speak louder; there 's a kind of damper on the voice in this
+room."
+
+"Where 's the pain?" screamed Dalton.
+
+"There there no need to roar," whispered the other. "The pain is here
+over the stomach, round the ribs, the back everywhere."
+
+"Ah, I know it well," said Dalton, with a wry contortion of the face.
+"It's the devil entirely when it gets under the short ribs! It begins
+like a rat nibbling you, as it might be, biting away little bits, with
+now and then a big slice that makes you sing out; and then the teeth
+begin to get hot, and he bites quicker, and tears you besides, sure I
+know it, this many a year."
+
+To this description, of which Foglass heard nothing, he bowed blandly,
+and made a sign to Dalton to be seated near him.
+
+"You'd like a little wine-and-water, I'm sure," said he, with the air of
+a man who rarely figured as a host, and liked it more rarely still.
+
+"Spirits-and-water--boiling water with sugar and a squeeze of lemon, is
+what I 'll take; and see now, you 'd not be worse of the same yourself.
+I 've an elegant receipt for the gout, but whether it 's sulphur or
+saltpetre 's in it, I don't well remember; but I know you mix it with
+treacle, ash-bark, and earthworms, the yolk of four eggs, and a little
+rosemary. But as you might n't like the taste of it at first, we 'll
+just begin with a jug of punch."
+
+The waiter had by this time made his appearance, and the order being
+communicated by a most expressive pantomime of drinking, and a few
+solitary words of German Dalton possessed, the room assumed a look of
+sociality, to which Dalton's presence very mainly contributed.
+
+In the confidence such a moment of secrecy suggested, Foglass produced
+an ear-trumpet, a mark of the most unbounded good faith on his part, and
+which, had Dalton known him better, he would have construed into a proof
+of implicit reliance on his honor.
+
+"I've been many years at Constantinople," said he, adjusting the
+instrument, "and the confounded muezzin has made me a little deaf. It's
+an everlasting calling to prayers, day and night, there."
+
+"How they ever expect to get to heaven by tormentin', and teasin', is
+more than I know," said Dalton.
+
+"They 're Mahomedans!" said Foglass, with the air of a man uttering a
+profound sentiment.
+
+"Ay, to be sure," observed Dalton; "it's not like Christians. Now, is it
+true, they tell me they never eat salt meat!"
+
+"Never!"
+
+"Think of that! Not a bit of corned beef, nor as much as a leg of pork--"
+
+"Would n't hear of it," interrupted Foglass. "Wine, too, is forbidden."
+
+"And punch?"
+
+"Of course, punch also. A pipe, a cup of coffee, the bath, and a little
+opium are the luxuries of Turkish existence."
+
+"To the devil I fling them all four," cried Dalton, impatiently. "How a
+man is to be social beside a coffeepot, or up to his neck in hot water,
+beats me entirely. Faix! I don't envy the Turks!" And he sipped his
+glass as he spoke, like one who had fallen upon a happier destiny.
+
+"If you 'll mix me a very small glass of that punch, I'd like to propose
+a toast," said Foglass.
+
+"There, now, that's spoke like a sensible man; pleasant company and
+social enjoyment are the greatest enemies to the gout. Make your mind
+easy, and keep your heart light, and the devil a fear but your knees
+will get limber, and the swellin' will leave your ankles; but weak punch
+and tiresome people would undermine the best constitution in the world.
+Taste that."
+
+To judge from Mr. Foglass's face, Dalton had at least provided one
+element of health for his companion.
+
+"It is very strong very strong, indeed!" said he, puckering up his eyes.
+
+"It's the fault of the water hereabouts," said Dalton. "It doesn't mix
+right with the spirits; so that one half the first, generally of your
+liquor tastes stiff, but the bottom is mild as milk."
+
+[Illustration:  384]
+
+The explanation gave such encouragement to Foglass, that he drank away
+freely, and it was only when he had finished that he remembered his
+intention of giving a toast.
+
+"Now, Mr. Dalton," said he, as he sat up with a replenished glass in his
+hand, "I am going to redeem my pledge, and about to give you the health
+of the most beautiful girl in Italy, one whose attractions are the theme
+of every tongue, and whose ambitions may realize any height, or attain
+any eminence, that she pleases."
+
+"Here 's to you, Kate Dalton," broke in the father, "my own sweet child;
+and if you only come back to me as you went away, the sorrow better I
+ask, or grander."
+
+"She will be a duchess; she may be a princess if she likes."
+
+"Who knows who knows?" said Dalton, as he hung down his head, and
+hammered away with his spoon at the sugar in his glass.
+
+"Every one knows, every one sees it, Mr. Dalton," said Foglass,
+authoritatively. "From the Archduke Ernest of Austria to the very pages
+of the court, all are her worshippers and admirers. She'll come back to
+you with a proud name and a high coronet, Mr. Dalton."
+
+"The devil a better than Dalton ever 'twill be! that I can tell you.
+'T is n't yesterday we took it, the same name; there 's stones in the
+churchyard of Ballyhack can show who we are; and if she married the--the
+God forgive me, I was going to say the Pope, but I meant the Grand Turk
+she would n't be better than she is now, as Kate Dalton."
+
+"Not better, certainly, but in a more exalted rank, in a position of
+more recognized distinction," said Foglass, blandly.
+
+"No; nor that neither," cried Dalton, angrily. "The Daltons goes back
+to the ancient times of all. There 's one of our name in the Bible. I 'm
+not sure where, but I believe it 's in the Book of Kings, or maybe the
+Psalms; but wherever it is, he was a real gentleman, living on his own
+estate, with his livery-servants, and his horses, and everything in
+good style about him; high on the grand jury, maybe the sheriff of the
+county."
+
+Foglass, who had followed this description but imperfectly, could only
+bow in a deep acknowledgment of what he did not understand.
+
+"The man that marries Kate Dalton isn't doing a piece of condescension,
+anyhow! that I can tell him. The dirty acres may slip away from us, but
+our good blood won't."
+
+"No man has a higher veneration for blood, sir," said Foglass, proudly;
+"few men have better reason for the feeling."
+
+"Is Fogles an old stock?" asked Dalton, eagerly.
+
+"Foglass, like Fitzroy, sir, may mean more than loyalty would dare to
+avow. My father, Mr. Dalton But this is a very sad theme with me, let
+us change it; let us drink to a better feeling in our native land, when
+that abominable statute may be erased from our code, when that offspring
+of suspicion and distrust shall no longer be the offence and opprobrium
+of Englishmen. Here 's to its speedy and everlasting repeal!"
+
+The word was talismanic to Dalton, connected, as it was, in his mind
+with but one subject. He arose at once, and holding up his goblet in the
+air, cried out,
+
+"Hip! hip! hurrah! three cheers and success to it! Repeal forever!"
+
+Foglass echoed the sentiment with equal enthusiasm, and draining his
+glass to the bottom, exclaimed,
+
+"Thank you, Dalton! thank you; the heartiness of that cheer tells me we
+are friends; and although you know not what my feelings are indeed none
+can you can execrate with honest indignation those hateful unions!"
+
+"Bad luck to it!" exclaimed Dalton, with energy. "We never had grace nor
+luck since we saw it!"
+
+"Those petty German sovereigns, with their territories the size of Hyde
+Park!" said Foglass, with intense contempt.
+
+"Just so. The Hessians!" chimed in Dalton, who had a faint consciousness
+that the other was alluding to the troops of the Electorate, once
+quartered in Ireland.
+
+"Let us change the topic, Dalton," said Foglass, pathetically, as he
+wiped his brow like a man dispelling a dark train of thought. "Here's
+to that charming young lady I saw last evening, a worthy sister of the
+beautiful Miss Dalton."
+
+"A better child never breathed," said Dalton, drinking off his glass.
+"My own poor Nelly," muttered he, below his breath, "'t is better than
+handsome ye are, true-hearted, and fond of your old father."
+
+"She has accomplishments, sir, that would realize a fortune; that is,"
+said he, perceiving the dark cloud that passed over Dalton's features,
+"that is, if she were in a rank of life to need it."
+
+"Yes very true just so," stammered out Dalton, not quite sure how to
+accept the speech. "'Tis a fine thing to be able to make money, not
+that it was ever the gift of the Daltons. We were real gentlemen to
+the backbone; and there was n't one of the name for five generations,
+barring Stephen, that could earn sixpence if he was starving."
+
+"But Stephen, what could he do?" inquired Foglass, curious to hear of
+this singular exception to the family rule.
+
+"He took to soldiering in the Austrian army, and he 's a field-marshal,
+and I don't know what more beside, this minute. My son Frank 's there
+now."
+
+"And likes it?"
+
+"Troth, he does n't say a great deal about that. His letter is mighty
+short, and tells very little more than where he 's quartered, how
+hard-worked he is, and that he never gets a minute to himself, poor
+fellow!"
+
+"Miss Kate, then, has drawn the prize in the lottery of life?" said
+Foglass, who was anxious to bring the subject back to her.
+
+"Faix, that's as it may be," said the other, thoughtfully. "Her letters
+is full of high life and great people, grand dances and balls, and the
+rest of it; but sure, if she 's to come back here again and live at
+home, won't it come mighty strange to her?"
+
+"But in Ireland, when you return there, the society, I conclude, is very
+good?" asked Foglass, gradually drawing him on to revelations of his
+future intentions and plans.
+
+"Who knows if I'll ever see it again? The estate has left us. 'T is them
+Onslows has it now. It might be in worse hands, no doubt; but they 've
+no more right to it than you have."
+
+"No right to it, how do you mean?"
+
+"I mean what I say, that if every one had their own, sorrow an acre of
+that property would be theirs. 'T is a long story, but if you like to
+hear it, you 're welcome. It 's more pleasure than pain to me to tell
+it, though many a man in my situation would n't have the heart to go
+over it."
+
+Foglass pronounced his willingness at once; and, a fresh jorum of
+punch being concocted, Dalton commenced that narrative of his marriage,
+widowhood, and loss of fortune, of which the reader already knows the
+chief particulars, and with whose details we need not twice inflict him.
+
+The narrative was a very long one; nor was it rendered more succinct by
+the manner of the narrator, nor the frequent interruptions to which, for
+explanation's sake, Foglass subjected him. Shall we own, too, that the
+punch had some share in the intricacy, Dalton's memory and Foglass's
+perceptions growing gradually more and more nebulous as the evening wore
+on. Without at all wishing to impugn Dalton's good faith, it must
+be owned that, what between his occasional reflections, his doubts,
+guesses, surmises, and suspicions, his speculations as to the reason
+of this and the cause of that, it was very difficult for a man so deeply
+versed in punch as Foglass to carry away anything like a clear notion
+of the eventful occurrences related. The strength of the potation, the
+hour, the length of the story, the parenthetical interruptions, which,
+although only bypaths, often looked exactly like the high-road,
+and probably, too, certain inaccuracies in the adjustment of
+the ear-trumpet, which grew to be very difficult at last, all
+contributed,--more or less, to a mystification which finally resembled
+nothing so much as a very confused dream.
+
+Had the worthy ex-Consul then been put on his oath, he could n't have
+said whether or not Sir Stafford had murdered the late Mr. Godfrey, or
+if that crime should be attributed to Dalton's late wife. Between Sir
+Gilbert Stafford and Sir Stafford Onslow, he had a vague suspicion of
+some Siamese bond of union, but that they were cut asunder late in life,
+and were now drifting in different currents, he also surmised. But which
+of them "got the fortune," and which had not, who held the estate at
+present, and how Dalton came to be there at that moment relating the
+story, were Chinese puzzles to him.
+
+Murder, matrimony, debts, difficulties, and Chancery suits danced an
+infernal reel through his brain; and, what with the scattered fragments
+of Irish life thrown in incidentally, of locking dinner-parties in, and
+barring the sheriff out, of being chased by bailiffs, or hunting
+them, all these divertissements ending in a residence abroad, with its
+manifold discomforts and incongruities, poor Foglass was in a state
+which, were it only to be permanent, would have presented a spectacle of
+very lamentable insanity.
+
+The nearest approach to a fact that he could come to was that Dalton
+ought to be enormously rich, and that now he hadn't a sixpence; that the
+wealthy banker was somehow the cause, Count Stephen being not altogether
+blameless; and that Kate was living a life of extravagance and waste,
+while her father and sister were waging a hard fight with the very
+"grimmest" of poverty.
+
+"L'homme propose," &c., says the adage; and the poet tells us an
+instance, that "those who came to scoff remained to pray." So in the
+present case, Mr. Foglass, whose mission was to pump Peter Dalton out
+of every family secret and circumstance, had opened such an unexpected
+stream of intelligence upon himself that he was actually carried away in
+the flood.
+
+"You've been badly used, Dalton," said he, at last. "I may say,
+infamously treated! Not only your fortune taken away, but your children
+torn from you!"
+
+"Ay, just so." Dalton liked sympathy too well to cavil about his title
+to it. "True for you, a harder case than mine you 'll not hear of in a
+summer's day. My elegant fine place, my beautiful domain, the seat of
+my ancestors, or, if they were n't, they were my wife's, and that 's
+all the same; and to be sitting here, in a foreign country r hundreds
+of miles away from home. Oh dear, oh dear! but that's a change!" For an
+instant the thought overwhelmed him, and he was silent; then, fixing
+his eyes on Foglass, he added, in a dreamy soliloquy, "Hundreds of miles
+away from home, drinking bad brandy, with a deaf chap in a red wig for
+company."
+
+"I call yours a case of downright oppression, Dalton," resumed the
+other, who fortunately overheard nothing of the last remark. "If you had
+been residing in Persia or the Caucasus even in the Danubian Provinces
+we 'd have made you a case for the Foreign Office. You 'd have had your
+compensation, sir. Ay, faith! you 'd have had a good round sum for the
+murder of your father, old what 's his name? You 'd have had your claim,
+sir, for the loss of that fine boy the Austrians have taken from you,
+Mrs. Dalton's wardrobe, and all that sort of thing. I must repeat my
+conviction, you 've been grossly infamously treated!"
+
+"And just to think of my own flesh and blood, Stephen, my uncle!"
+
+"I can't think of him, sir! I can't bear to think of him!" cried
+Foglass, with enthusiasm.
+
+"A count of the Empire!" resumed Dalton; "a field-marshal, and a
+something else, with his Maria Teresa!"
+
+"At his age he might give up those habits," said Foglass, who had
+converted the Cross of the Empress into a very different relationship.
+
+"And now, there 's Kate," said Dalton, who never heard his comment,
+"there 's Kate, my own favorite of them all! thinks no more about us
+than if we did n't belong to her!"
+
+"Living in splendor!" mumbled Foglass. "Boundless extravagance!"
+
+"Just so! Wasting hundreds flinging the money about like chaff!"
+
+"I saw a ball dress of hers myself, at Madame Fanchone's, that was to
+cost three thousand francs!"
+
+"Three thousand francs! How am I to bear it all?" exclaimed Dalton,
+fiercely. "Will any man tell me how an Irish gentleman, with an
+embarrassed estate, and in the present times, can meet such extravagance
+as that? Three thousand francs! and, maybe, for a flimsy rag that
+wouldn't stand a shower of rain! Oh, Fogles, you don't know the man that
+'s sitting before you, hale and stout and hearty as he looks, the
+trials he has gone through, and the troubles he has faced, just for his
+children. Denying himself every enjoyment in life!" (here he sipped his
+glass), "giving up every little comfort he was used to!" (another
+sip), "all for his family! Look at my coat; feel the wool of it. See
+my breeches; 'tis like the hide of a bear they are. Take notice of my
+shoes; and there's my purse, with two florins and eight kreutzers in it;
+and, may I never see glory, if I don't owe a little bill in every shop
+that will trust me! And for what? answer me that, for what?"
+
+Although the savage energy with which this question was put would have
+extorted an answer from the least willing witness, Foglass was unable to
+reply, and only stared in mute astonishment.
+
+"I'll tell you for what, Fogles," resumed Dalton, with a stroke of his
+clenched fist on the table, "I'll tell you for what! To have a son in
+the Hussars, and a daughter in all the height of fashion and fine life!
+That 's it, Fogles. My boy keeping company with all the first people in
+Austria, hand and glove with what 's his name? something like 'Misty,'
+or 'Hazy' I forget it now dining, driving, and shooting with them. And
+my girl, Kate. But sure you know better than myself what style she 's
+keeping! That 's the reason I 'm what you see me here, pining away in
+solitude and small means! All for my children's sake!"
+
+"It is highly meritorious. It does you honor, Dalton," said the other,
+emphatically.
+
+"Well, I hope it does," said he, with a sigh. "But how few know it,
+after all!"
+
+"And has this same Sir Stafford never taken any steps towards
+recompensing you? Has there been nothing like an amende for the great
+losses you 've sustained?"
+
+"Oh, indeed, to do him justice, he made me a kind of an offer once; but
+you see it was hampered with so many conditions and restrictions, and
+the like, that I rejected it with contempt. 'No!' says I, ''t is n't
+poverty will ever make me demean the old family! The Daltons won't
+suffer disgrace from me!'"
+
+"He could have assisted you without such an alternative, Dalton."
+
+"Maybe he could, indeed!" sighed the other.
+
+"I know it well; the man is one of the richest in England; the head of a
+great bank, besides, making thousands every week."
+
+"I often thought of that," said Dalton. "Sure it would cost him little
+just to discount a small thing for me at three months. I'd take care to
+meet it, of course; and he'd never lose a sixpence by me. Indeed, he'd
+be gaining; for he 'd have the commission, and the discount, and the
+interest, and the devil knows what besides of law expenses--"
+
+Here he stopped abruptly, for he had unwittingly strayed into another
+and very different hypothesis regarding the fate of his bill. However,
+he pulled up short, tossed off his punch, and said, "I only wish he 'd
+do it!"
+
+"Why not try him, then? you ought, at least, to give yourself the
+chance."
+
+"And, if he refused me, I'd have to call him out," said Dalton, gravely;
+"and just see all the confusion that would lead to. My daughter on a
+visit there, myself here, and, maybe, obliged to go hundreds of miles to
+meet him, and no end to the expense, taking a friend with me, too. No,
+no! that would be too selfish entirely."
+
+"What if you were to throw out a hint, when you write to your daughter,
+allude to present pressure for money; speak of tenants in arrear;
+remittances not arrived?"
+
+"Oh, faith! there's no need prompting me about these things," said
+Dalton, with a bitter laugh. "I know them too well already."
+
+"Write a few lines, then; you'll find paper and pens on that table.
+I 've told you that I will send it under my own seal, with the
+despatches."
+
+Dalton was very little given to letter-writing at any period; but to
+encounter the labor at night by candle-light, and after a few hours'
+carouse, seemed to him quite out of the question. Still, the Embassy
+seal, whatever that might be, was no common temptation. Perhaps he
+fancied it to be like one of those portentous appendages which are seen
+attached to royal grants! Who can tell what amount of wax and ribbon his
+imagination bestowed upon it! Besides this, there was another motive,
+never again, perhaps, should he be able to write without Nelly's
+knowledge. This consideration decided the question at once. Accordingly,
+he put on his spectacles, and seated himself gravely to the work, which
+proceeded thus:
+
+     DEAR KATE, I 'm spending the evening with your friend the
+     Ambassador of I forget where--Fogles is his name and as
+     pleasant a man as I ever met; and he sends his regards to
+     you and all the family, and transmits this under his own
+     seal. Things is going on bad enough here. Not a shilling out
+     of Crognoborraghan. Healey ran away with the November rent
+     and the crops, and Sweeney 's got into the place, and won't
+     give it up to any one with out he gets forty pound! I 'd
+     give him forty of my teeth as soon, if I had them! Ryan
+     shot Mr. Johnson coming home from work, and will be hanged
+     on Saturday; and that 's in our favor, as he was a life in
+     Honan's lease. There 's no money in Ireland, Kellet tells
+     me, and there 's none here. Where the blazes is it all gone
+     to? Maybe, like the potatoes 't is dying out!
+
+     Frank 's well sick of soldiering; they chained him up like
+     a dog, with his hand to his leg, the other night for going
+     to the play; and if he was n't a born gentleman, he says,
+     they 'd have given him "four-and-twenty," as he calls it,
+     with a stick for impudence. Stephen 's no more good to him
+     than an old umbrella, never gave him bit nor sup! Bad luck
+     to the old Neygur I can't speak of him.
+
+     Nelly goes on carving and cutting away as before. There 's
+     not a saint in the calendar she did n't make out of rotten
+     wood this winter, and little Hans buys them all, at a fair
+     price, she says; but I call a Holy Family cheap at ten
+     florins, and 't is giving the Virgin away to sell her for a
+     Prussian dollar. 'T is a nice way for one of the Daltons to
+     be living by her own industry!
+
+     I often wish for you back here; but I 'd be sorry, after
+     all, ye 'd come, for the place is poorer than ever, and you
+     're in good quarters, and snug where you are.
+
+     Tell me how they treat you if they're as kind as before and
+     how is the old man, and is the gout bad with him still? I
+     send you in this a little bill Martin Cox, of Drumsnagh,
+     enclosed me for sixty-two ten-and-eight. Could you get the
+     old Baronet to put his name on it for me? Tell him 't is as
+     good as the bank paper, that Cox is as respectable a man as
+     any in Leitrim, and an estated gentleman, like myself, and
+     of course that we'll take care to have the cash ready for it
+     when due. This will be a great convenience to me, and Fogles
+     says it will be a pleasure to Sir Stafford, besides
+     extending his connection among Irish gentlemen. If he seems
+     to like the notion, say that your father is well known in
+     Ireland, and can help him to a very lively business in the
+     same way. Indeed, I 'd have been a fortune to him myself
+     alone, if he 'd had the discounting of me for the last
+     fifteen years!
+
+     Never mind this, however, for bragging is not genteel; but
+     get me his name, and send me the "bit of stiff" by return of
+     post.
+
+     If he wants to be civil, maybe he 'll put it into the bank
+     himself, and send me the money; and if so, let the order be
+     on Haller and Oelcher, for I 'ne a long account with Koch
+     and Elz, and maybe they 'd keep a grip of the cash, and I 'd
+     just be where I was before.
+
+     If I can get out of this next spring--it would be a great
+     economy, for I owe something to everybody, and a new place
+     always gives courage.
+
+     I 'm hesitating whether I 'll go to Genoa or New York, but
+     cheapness will decide me, for I only live now for my family.
+
+     With all my affection,
+
+     Believe me your fond father,
+
+     PETER DALTON.
+
+     P. S. If Sir S. would rather have my own acceptance, let him
+     draw for a hundred, at three months, and I 'm ready; but
+     don't disappoint me, one way or other. Wood is fifteen
+     florins a "klafter" here, now, and I 've nobody to cut it
+     when it comes home, as Andy took a slice out of his shin on
+     Friday last with the hatchet, and is in bed ever since.
+     Vegetables, too, is dear; and since Frank went, we never
+     see a bit of game.
+
+     2nd P. S. If you had such a thing as a warm winter cloak
+     that you did n't want, you might send it to Nelly. She goes
+     out in a thing like a bit of brown paper, and the wooden
+     shoes is mighty unhandy with her lameness.
+
+     Mind the bill.
+
+
+"You are writing a rather lengthy despatch, Dalton," said Foglass, who
+had twice dozed off to sleep, and woke again, only to see him still
+occupied with his epistle.
+
+"It's done now," said Dalton, with a sigh; for, without well knowing
+why, he was not quite satisfied with the performance.
+
+"I wish you 'd just add a line, to say that Mrs. Ricketts, Mrs.
+Major-General Ricketts, who resides at Florence, is so desirous to
+know her. You can mention that she is one of the first people, but
+so exclusive about acquaintance, that it is almost impossible to get
+presented to her; but that this coming winter the Embassy will, in all
+likelihood, open a door to so desirable an object."
+
+"Lady Hester will know her, of course?" said Dalton, whose sense of
+proprieties was usually clear enough when selfishness did not interfere,
+"and I don't see that my daughter should extend her acquaintance through
+any other channel."
+
+"Oh, very true; it's of no consequence. I only meant it as an attention
+to Miss Dalton; but your observation is very just," said Foglass, who
+suddenly felt that he was on dangerous ground.
+
+"Depend upon 't, Fogles, my daughter is in the best society of the
+place, whatever it is. It 's not a Dalton would be left out."
+
+Foglass repeated his most implicit conviction in this belief, and did
+all in his power to efface the memory of the suggestion, but without
+success. Family pride was a kind of birdlime with old Dalton, and if he
+but touched, he could not leave it. The consequences, however, went no
+further than a long and intricate dissertation on the Dalton blood for
+several centuries back, through which Foglass slept just as soundly as
+the respected individuals there recorded, and was only awoke at last
+by Dalton rising to take leave, an event at last suggested by the empty
+decanter.
+
+"And now, Fogles," said he, summing up, "you'll not wonder, that if we
+'re poor we 're proud. I suppose you never heard of a better stock than
+that since you were born?"
+
+"Never, by Jove! Guelphs, Ghibellines, and Hapsburgs are nothing to
+them. Good-night, good-night! I 'll take care of your letter. It shall
+go to-morrow in the Embassy bag."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII. AN INVASION.
+
+To afford the reader the explanation contained in the preceding chapter,
+we have been obliged to leave Kate Dalton waiting, in mingled anxiety
+and suspense, for the hour of Mrs. Ricketts's visit. Although her mind
+principally dwelt upon the letter which had been announced as coming
+from her father, an event so strange as naturally to cause astonishment,
+she also occasionally recurred to the awkwardness of receiving persons
+whom Lady Hester had so scrupulously avoided, and being involved in an
+acquaintanceship so unequivocally pronounced vulgar. A few short months
+before, and the incident would have worn a very different aspect to
+her eyes. She would have dwelt alone on the kindness of one, an utter
+stranger, addressing her in terms of respectful civility, and proffering
+the attention of a visit. She would have been grateful for the
+goodnature that took charge of a communication for her. She would have
+viewed the whole as a sort of flattering notice, and never dreamed of
+that long catalogue of "inconveniences" and annoyances so prolifically
+associated with the event as it at present stood. She was greatly
+changed in many respects. She had been daily accustomed to hear the
+most outrageous moral derelictions lightly treated, or, at least, but
+slightly censured. For every fault and failing there was a skilful
+excuse or a charitable explanation. The errors of the fashionable world
+were shown to be few, insignificant, and venial; and the code showed no
+exception to the rule that "well-bred people can do no wrong." Vulgarity
+alone was criminal; and the sins of the underbred admitted of no
+palliation. Her sense of justice might have revolted against such
+judgments, had reason been ever appealed to; but such was not the
+case. Ridicule alone was the arbiter; whatever could be scoffed at was
+detestable, and a solecism in dress, accent, or demeanor was a higher
+crime than many a grave transgression or glaring iniquity.
+
+The little mimicries of Albert Jekyl, as he described Mrs. Ricketts,
+the few depreciatory remarks of Lady Hester concerning her, would have
+outweighed her worth had her character been a cornucopia of goodness.
+It was, then, in no pleasant flurry of spirits, that, just as the clock
+struck three, Kate heard the heavy door of the palace flung wide, and
+the sound of wheels echo beneath the vaulted entrance. The next moment
+a small one-horse phaeton, driven by a very meagre servant in a tawdry
+livery, passed into the courtyard, having deposited its company in the
+hall.
+
+There had been a time, and that not so very far back either, when the
+sight of that humble equipage, with visitors, would have made her heart
+beat to the full as strong, albeit with very different emotions. Now,
+however, she actually glanced at the windows to see if it had attracted
+notice, with a kind of terror at the ridicule it would excite. Never did
+she think an old gray horse could be so ugly; never did wheels make so
+intolerable a noise before! Why would people dress up their servants
+like harlequins? What was the meaning of that leopard-skin rug for the
+feet? It was an odious little vehicle, altogether. There was a tawdry,
+smirking, self-satisfied pretension about its poverty that made one wish
+for a break-down on looking at it.
+
+"Mrs. Montague Ricketts and Miss Ricketts," said a very demure-looking
+groom of the chambers; and although his features were immaculate in
+their expressions of respect, Kate felt offended at what she thought was
+a flippancy in the man's manner.
+
+Although the announcement was thus made, the high and mighty personages
+were still three rooms off, and visible only in the dim distance, coming
+slowly forward.
+
+Leaning on her sister's arm, and with a step at once graceful and
+commanding, Mrs. Ricketts came on. At least, so Kate judged an enormous
+pyramid of crimson velvet and ermine to be, from the summit of which
+waved a sufficiency of plumes for a moderate hearse. The size and
+dignity of this imposing figure almost entirely eclipsed poor Martha,
+and completely shut out the slender proportions of Mr. Scroope Purvis,
+who, from being loaded like a sumpter-mule with various articles for the
+road, was passed over by the groom of the chambers, and believed to be a
+servant. Slow as was the order of march, Purvis made it still slower by
+momentarily dropping some of the articles with which he was charged;
+and as they comprised a footstool, a poodle, two parasols, an album,
+a smelling-bottle, a lorgnette, with various cushions, shawls, and a
+portable tire-screen, his difficulties may be rather compassionated than
+censured.
+
+"Scroope, how can you? Martha, do speak to him. It's down again! He'll
+smash my lorgnette he'll smother Fidele. How very awkward how absurd we
+shall look!" Such were the sotto voce accompaniments that filled up the
+intervals till they arrived at the great drawing-room, where Kate Dalton
+sat.
+
+If the reader has ever watched a great tragedy queen emerging from
+the flats, when, after a lively dialogue with the prompter, and the
+utterance of a pleasant jest, she issues forth upon the open stage, to
+vent the sorrows or the wrongs of injured womanhood, he may form some
+faint idea of the rapid transformation that Mrs. Ricketts underwent
+as she passed the door-sill. Her first movement was a sudden bound
+forwards, or, at least, such an approach to a spring as a body so
+imposing could accomplish, and then, throwing her arms wide, she seemed
+as if about to enclose Miss Dalton in a fast embrace; and so, doubtless,
+had she done, if Kate had responded to the sign. A deep and very formal
+courtesy was, however, her only acknowledgment of this spontaneous burst
+of feeling; and Mrs. Ricketts, like a skilful general, at once
+changing her plan of attack, converted her ardor into astonishment, and
+exclaimed,
+
+"Did you ever see such a resemblance? Could you believe it possible,
+Martha? A thousand apologies, my dear Miss Dalton, for this rudeness;
+but you are so wonderfully like our dear, dear friend Lady Caroline
+Montressor, that I actually forgot myself. Pray forgive me, and let me
+present my sister, Miss Ricketts. My brother, Mr. Scroope Purvis, Miss
+Dalton."
+
+The ceremonial of introduction over, and Mrs. Ricketts being at last
+seated, a very tedious operation, in which the arrangement of cushions,
+pillows, and footstools played a conspicuous part, that bland lady
+began, in her very softest of voices,
+
+"This, indeed, repays me, amply, fully repays me! eh, Martha?"
+
+"Quite so, sister," responded Martha, in a meek whisper.
+
+"A poor invalid as I am, rarely rising from a sofa except to snatch the
+perfumed odors of a violet in spring, or to listen to the murmurs of a
+rippling fountain; denied all the excitements of society by a nervous
+temperament so finely strung as to be jarred by contact, even the
+remotest, with inferior souls think of what ecstasy a moment like this
+affords me!"
+
+As Kate was profoundly ignorant to what happy combination of
+circumstances this blissful state could be attributed, she could only
+smile courteously, and mutter some vague expressions of her pleasure,
+satisfaction, and so forth.
+
+"Eve in her own paradise!" exclaimed Mrs. Ricketts, as she turned her
+eyes from Kate to the gorgeous chamber in which they were seated. "May I
+ask if the taste of these decorations be yours, Miss Dalton?"
+
+"Lady Hester Onslow's, madam," said Kate, quietly.
+
+"I declare, I like these hangings better than 'Gobelins' they are
+lighter and more graceful. You remember, Martha, I told the dear Queen
+of Saxony that blue velvet would go so well with her small pictures. We
+discussed the point every morning at breakfast for a week, and the poor
+dear King at last called us the 'blue devils; 'very happy, wasn't it,
+Miss Dalton? But he speaks English just like one of ourselves."
+
+"These are all Dutch pictures, I perceive," said Purvis, who, with
+his poodle under his arm, was making a tour of the room, peering into
+everything, opening books, prying into china jars, and spying into
+work-boxes, as though in search of some missing article.
+
+"I 'm tired of Wou-Wou-Wou--" Here the poodle barked, doubtless in
+the belief that he was responding to an invitation. "Down, Fidele!
+Wou-ver-mans," gulped out Purvis. "He 's always the same."
+
+"But those dear white palfreys, how I love them! I always have a white
+horse, out of regard for Wouvermans."
+
+Kate thought of the poor gray in the courtyard, and said nothing.
+
+"And there is something so touching so exquisitely touching in
+those Flemish interiors, where the goodwife is seated reading, and a
+straggling sunbeam comes slanting in upon the tiled floor. Little peeps
+of life, as it were, in a class of which we know nothing; for, really,
+Miss Dalton, iu our order, sympathies are too much fettered; and I often
+think it would be better that we knew more of the middle classes. When I
+say this, of course I do not mean as associates, far less as intimates,
+but as ingredients in the grand scheme of universal nature."
+
+"'The no-no-noblest study of man-mankind is' what is it, sister?"
+
+"'Man,' Scroope; but the poet intended to refer to the great aims and
+objects of our being. Don't you think so, Miss Dalton? It was not man in
+the little cares of everyday life, in his social relations, but man in
+his destinies, in his vast future, when he goes beyond 'that bourne'--"
+
+"From which nobody ever got out again," cackled Purvis, in an ecstasy at
+the readiness of his quotation.
+
+"'From which no traveller returns,' Scroope, is, I believe, the more
+correct version."
+
+"Then it don't mean pur-pur-pur-purgatory," gulped Scroope, who, as soon
+as the word was uttered, became shocked at what he said. "I forgot you
+were a Ro-Ro-Roman, Miss Dalton," said he, blushing.
+
+"You are in error, Scroope," said Mrs. Ricketts. "Miss Dalton is one of
+ourselves. All the distinguished Irish are of the Reformed faith."
+
+"I am a Catholic, madam," said Kate, not knowing whether to be more
+amused than annoyed at the turn the conversation had taken.
+
+"I knew it," cried Purvis, in delight. "I tracked your carriage to the
+D-D-Duomo, and I went in after you, and saw you at the co-co-co-co--"
+
+"Corner," whispered Martha, who, from his agonies, grew afraid of a fit.
+
+"No, not the corner, but the co-co-co-coufessional-confessional, where
+you stayed for an hour and forty minutes by my own watch; and I couldn't
+help thinking that your pec-pec-pec-peccadilloes were a good long score,
+by the time it took to to to tell them."
+
+"Thanks, sir," said Kate, bowing, and with difficulty restraining her
+laughter; "thanks for the very kind interest you seem to have taken in
+my spiritual welfare."
+
+"Would that I might be suffered a participation in that charge, Miss
+Dalton," cried Mrs. Ricketts, with enthusiasm, "and allowed to hold some
+converse with you on doctrinal questions!"
+
+"Try her with the posers, sister," whispered Purvis. "Hush, Scroope!
+Mere opportunities of friendly discussion, nothing more I ask for, Miss
+Dalton."
+
+"Give her the posers," whispered Purvis, louder.
+
+"Be quiet, Scroope. I have been fortunate enough to resolve the doubts
+of more than one ere this. That dear angel, the Princess Ethelinda of
+Cobourgh, I believe I may say, owes her present enlightenment to our
+sweet evenings together."
+
+"Begin with the posers."
+
+"Hush! I say, Scroope."
+
+"May I ask," said Kate, "what is the suggestion Mr. Purvis has been good
+enough to repeat?"
+
+"That I should give you this little tract, Miss Dalton," said Mrs.
+Ricketts as she drew out a miscellaneous assemblage of articles from a
+deep pocket, and selected from the mass a small blue-covered pamphlet,
+bearing the title, "Three Posers for Papists, by M. R."
+
+"Montague Ricketts," said Purvis, proudly; "she wrote it herself, and
+the Pope won't let us into Rome in consequence. It 's very droll, too;
+and the part about the the Vir-gin--"
+
+"You will, I 'm sure, excuse me, madam," said Kate, "if I beg that this
+subject be suffered to drop. My thanks for the interest this gentleman
+and yourself have vouchsafed me will only be more lasting by leaving the
+impression of them unassociated with anything unpleasing. You were good
+enough to say that you had a letter for me?"
+
+"A letter from your father, that dear, fond father, who dotes so
+distractingly upon you, and who really seems to live but to enjoy your
+triumphs. Martha, where is the letter?"
+
+"I gave it to Scroope, sister."
+
+"No, you didn't. I never saw--"
+
+"Yes, Scroope, I gave it to you, at the drawing-room fire--"
+
+"Yes, to be sure, and I put it into the ca-ca-ca--"
+
+"Not the candle, I hope," cried Kate, in terror.
+
+"No, into the card-rack; and there it is now."
+
+"How provoking!" cried Miss Ricketts; "but you shall have it to-morrow,
+Miss Dalton. I 'll leave it here myself."
+
+"Shall I appear impatient, madam, if I send for it this evening?"
+
+"Of course not, my dear Miss Dalton; but shall I commit the precious
+charge to a menial's hand?"
+
+"You may do so with safety, madam," said Kate, not without a slight
+irritation of manner as she spoke.
+
+"Mr. Foglass, the late minister and envoy at--"
+
+Here a tremendous crash, followed by a terrific yelping noise, broke in
+upon the colloquy; for it was Fidele had thrown down a Sevres jar, and
+lay, half-buried and howling, under the ruins. There was, of course, a
+general rising of the company, some to rescue the struggling poodle, and
+others in vain solicitude to gather up the broken fragments of the once
+beautiful vase. It was a favorite object with Lady Hester; of singular
+rarity, both for form and design; and Kate stood speechless, and almost
+sick with shame and sorrow, at the sight, not heeding one syllable
+of the excuses and apologies poured in upon her, nor of the equally
+valueless assurances that it could be easily mended; that Martha was a
+perfect proficient in such arts; and that, if Scroope would only collect
+the pieces carefully, the most difficult connoisseur would not be able
+to detect a flaw in it.
+
+"I've got a head here; but the no-nose is off," cried Purvis.
+
+"Here it is, Scroope. I 've found it."
+
+"No, that's a toe," said he; "there 's a nail to it."
+
+"I am getting ill I shall faint," said Mrs. Ricketts, retiring upon a
+well-cushioned sofa from the calamity.
+
+Martha now flew to the bell-rope and pulled it violently, while Purvis
+threw open the window, and with such rash haste as to upset a stand of
+camellias, thereby scattering plants, buds, earth, and crockery over the
+floor, while poor Kate, thunderstruck at the avalanche of ruin around
+her, leaned against the wall for support, unable to stir or even speak.
+As Martha continued to tug away at the bell, the alarm, suggesting the
+idea of fire, brought three or four servants to the door together.
+
+"Madeira! quick, Madeira!" cried Martha, as she unloosed various
+articles of dress from her sister's throat, and prepared a plan of
+operations for resuscitation that showed at least an experienced hand.
+
+"Bring wine," said Kate, faintly, to the astonished butler, who, not
+noticing Miss Ricketts's order, seemed to await hers.
+
+"Madeira! it must be Madeira!" cried Martha, wildly.
+
+"She don't dislike Mar-Mar-Marco-brunner," whispered Purvis to the
+servant, "and I'll take a glass too."
+
+Had the irruption been one of veritable housebreakers, had the occasion
+been what newspapers stereotype as a "Daring Burglary," Kate Dalton
+might, in all likelihood, have distinguished herself as a heroine. She
+would, it is more than probable, have evinced no deficiency either of
+courage or presence of mind, but in the actual contingency nothing could
+be more utterly helpless than she proved; and, as she glided into a
+chair, her pale face and trembling features betrayed more decisive signs
+of suffering than the massive countenance which Martha was now deluging
+with eau-de-Cologne and lavender.
+
+The wine soon made its appearance; a very imposing array of restoratives
+the ambulatory pharmacopeia of the Ricketts family was all displayed
+upon a table. Martha, divested of shawl, bonnet, and gloves, stood ready
+for action; and thus, everything being in readiness, Mrs. Ricketts,
+whose consideration never suffered her to take people unawares, now
+began her nervous attack in all form.
+
+If ague hysterics recovery from drowning tic-doloureux, and an extensive
+burn had all sent representatives of their peculiar agonies, with
+injunctions to struggle for a mastery of expression, the symptoms could
+scarcely have equalled those now exhibited. There was not a contortion
+nor convulsion that her countenance did not undergo, while the
+devil's tattoo, kept up by her heels upon the floor, and her knuckles
+occasionally on the table, and now and then on Scroope's head, added
+fearfully to the effect of her screams, which varied from the deep groan
+of the melodrame to the wildest shrieks of tragedy.
+
+"There's no danger, Miss Dalton," whispered Martha, whose functions of
+hand-rubbing, temple-bathing, wine-giving, and so forth, were performed
+with a most jog-trot regularity.
+
+"When she sc-sc-screams, she's all right," added Purvis; and, certainly,
+the most anxious friend might have been comforted on the present
+occasion.
+
+"Shall I not send for a physician?" asked Kate, eagerly.
+
+"On no account, Miss Dalton. We are quite accustomed to these seizures.
+My dear sister's nerves are so susceptible."
+
+"Yes," said Scroope, who, be it remarked, had already half finished a
+bottle of hock, "poor Zoe is all sensibility the scabbard too sharp for
+the sword. Won't you have a glass of wine, Miss Dalton?"
+
+"Thanks, sir, I take none. I trust she is better now she looks easier."
+
+"She is better; but this is a difficult moment," whispered Martha. "Any
+shock any sudden impression now might prove fatal."
+
+"What is to be done, then?" said Kate, in terror.
+
+"She must be put to bed at once, the room darkened, and the strictest
+silence preserved. Can you spare your room?"
+
+"Oh, of course, anything everything at such a moment," cried the
+terrified girl, whose reason was now completely mastered by her fears.
+
+[Illustration:   408]
+
+"She must be carried. Will you give orders, Miss Dalton? and, Scroope,
+step down to the carriage, and bring up--" Here Miss Ricketts's voice
+degenerated into an inaudible whisper; but Scroope left the room to obey
+the command.
+
+Her sympathy for suffering had so thoroughly occupied Kate, that all
+the train of unpleasant consequences that were to follow this unhappy
+incident had never once occurred to her; nor did a thought of Lady
+Hester cross her mind, till, suddenly, the whole flashed upon her, by
+the appearance of her maid Nina in the drawing-room.
+
+"To your own room, Mademoiselle?" asked she, with a look that said far
+more than any words.
+
+"Yes, Nina," whispered she. "What can I do? She is so ill! They tell me
+it may be dangerous at any moment, and--"
+
+"Hush, my dear Miss Dalton!" said Martha; "one word may wake her."
+
+"I'd be a butterfly!" warbled the sick lady, in a low weak treble; while
+a smile of angelic beatitude beamed on her features.
+
+"Hush! be still!" said Martha, motioning the surrounders to silence.
+
+"What shall I do, Nina? Shall I go and speak to my Lady?" asked Kate.
+
+A significant shrug of the shoulders, more negative than affirmative,
+was the only answer.
+
+"I'd be a gossamer, and you'd be the King of Thebes," said Mrs.
+Ricketts, addressing a tall footman, who stood ready to assist in
+carrying her.
+
+"Yes, madam," said he, respectfully.
+
+"She's worse," whispered Martha, gravely.
+
+"And we'll walk on the wall of China by moonlight, with Cleopatra and
+Mr. Cobden?"
+
+"Certainly, madam," said the man, who felt the question too direct for
+evasion.
+
+"Has she been working slippers for the planet Ju-Ju-Jupiter yet?" asked
+Purvis, eagerly, as he entered the room, heated, and flushed from the
+weight of a portentous bag of colored wool.
+
+"No; not yet," whispered Martha. "You may lift her now, gently very
+gently, and not a word."
+
+And in strict obedience, the servants raised their fair burden, and
+bore her from the room, after Nina, who led the way with an air that
+betokened a more than common indifference to human suffering.
+
+"When she gets at Ju-Jupiter," said Purvis to Kate, as they closed
+the procession, "it's a bad symptom; or when she fancies she 's
+Hec-Hec-Hec-Hec--"
+
+"Hecate?"
+
+"No; not Hec-Hecate, but Hecuba--Hecuba; then it's a month at least
+before she comes round."
+
+"How dreadful!" said Kate. And certainly there was not a grain of
+hypocrisy in the fervor with which she uttered it.
+
+"I don't think she 'll go beyond the San-Sandwich Islands this time,
+however," added he, consolingly,
+
+"Hush, Scroope!" cried Martha. And now they entered the small and
+exquisitely furnished dressing-room which was appropriated to Kate's
+use; within which, and opening upon a small orangery, stood her bedroom.
+
+Nina, who scrupulously obeyed every order of her young mistress,
+continued the while to exhibit a hundred petty signs of mute rebellion.
+
+"Lady Hester wishes to see Miss Dalton," said a servant at the outer
+door.
+
+"Can you permit me for a moment?" asked Kate, in a tremor.
+
+"Oh, of course, my dear Miss Dalton; let there be no ceremony with us,"
+said Martha. "Your kindness makes us feel like old friends already."
+
+"I feel-myself quite at home," cried Scroope, whose head was not proof
+against so much wine; and then, turning to one of the servants, he added
+a mild request for the two bottles that were left on the drawing-room
+table.
+
+Martha happily, however, overheard and revoked the order. And now the
+various attendants withdrew, leaving the family to themselves.
+
+It was ill no pleasant mood that Kate took her way towards Lady Hester's
+apartment. The drawing-room, as she passed through it, still exhibited
+some of the signs of its recent ruin, and the servants were busied
+in collecting fragments of porcelain and flower-pots. Their murmured
+comments, hushed as she went by, told her how the occurrence was already
+the gossip of the household. It was impossible for her not to connect
+herself with the whole misfortune. "But for her" But she could not
+endure the thought, and it was with deep humiliation and trembling in
+every limb that she entered Lady Hester's chamber.
+
+"Leave me, Celadon; I want to speak to Miss Dalton," said Lady Hester
+to the hairdresser, who had just completed one half of her Ladyship's
+chevelure, leaving the other side pinned and rolled up in those various
+preparatory stages which have more of promise than picturesque about
+them. Her cheek was flushed, and her eyes sparkled with an animation
+that betrayed more passion than pleasure.
+
+"What is this dreadful story I 've heard, child, and that the house is
+full of? Is it possible there can be any truth in it? Have these odious
+people actually dared to establish themselves here? Tell me, child
+speak!"
+
+"Mrs. Ricketts became suddenly ill," said Kate, trembling; "her dog
+threw down a china jar."
+
+"Not my Sevres jar? not the large green one, with the figures?"
+
+"I grieve to say it was!"
+
+"Go on. What then?" said Lady Hester, dryly.
+
+"Shocked at the incident, and alarmed, besides, by the fall of a
+flower-stand, she fainted away, and subsequently was seized with what
+I supposed to be a convulsive attack, but to which her friends seemed
+perfectly accustomed, and pronounced not dangerous. In this dilemma they
+asked me if they might occupy my room. Of course I could not refuse, and
+yet felt, the while, that I had no right to extend the hospitality of
+this house. I saw the indelicacy of what I was doing. I was shocked and
+ashamed, and yet--"
+
+"Go on," said Lady Hester once more, and with a stern quietude of manner
+that Kate felt more acutely than even an angry burst of temper.
+
+"I have little more to say; in fact, I know not what I am saying," cried
+she, gulping to repress the torrent of suffering that was struggling
+within her.
+
+"Miss Dalton--" began Lady Hester.
+
+"Oh! why not Kate?" broke she, with a choking utterance.
+
+"Miss Dalton," resumed Lady Hester, and as if not hearing the entreaty,
+"very little knowledge of that world you have lived in for the past
+three or four months might have taught you some slight self-possession
+in difficulty. Still less acquaintance with it might have suggested the
+recollection that these people are no intimates of mine; so that, even
+were tact wanting, feeling, at least, should have dictated a line of
+action to you."
+
+"I know I have done wrong. I knew it at the time, and yet, in my
+inexperience, I could not decide on anything. My memory, too, helped to
+mislead me, for I bethought me that although these persons were not of
+your own rank and station, yet you had stooped lower than to them when
+you came to visit Nelly and myself."
+
+"Humph!" ejaculated Lady Hester, with a gesture that very unequivocally
+seemed to say that her having done so was a grievous error. Kate saw
+it quickly, and as suddenly the blood rushed to her cheek, coloring her
+throat and neck with the deep crimson of shame. A burst of pride the
+old Dalton pride seemed to have given way within her; and as she drew
+herself up to her full height, her look and attitude wore every sign of
+haughty indignation.
+
+Lady Hester looked at her for a few seconds with a glance of searching
+import. Perhaps for a moment the possibility of a deception struck her,
+and that this might only be feigned; but as suddenly did she recognize
+the unerring traits of truth, and said,
+
+"What! child, are you angry with me?"
+
+"Oh no, no!" said Kate, bursting into tears, and kissing the hand that
+was now extended towards her, "oh no, no! but I could hate myself for
+what seems so like ingratitude."
+
+"Come, sit down here at my feet on this stool, and tell me all about it;
+for, after all, I could forgive them the jar and the camellias, if they
+'d only have gone away afterwards. And of course the lesson will not be
+thrown away upon you, not to be easily deceived again."
+
+"How, deceived?" exclaimed Kate. "She was very ill. I saw it myself."
+
+"Nonsense, child. The trick is the very stalest piece of roguery going.
+Since Toe Morris, as they call him the man that treads upon people, and
+by his apologies scrapes acquaintance with them there is nothing less
+original. Why, just before we left England, there was old Bankhead got
+into Slingsby House, merely because the newspapers might announce
+his death at the Earl of Grindleton's 'on the eighth, of a few days'
+illness, deeply regretted by the noble lord, with whom he was on a
+visit.' Now, that dear Ricketts woman would almost consent to take leave
+of the world for a similar paragraph. I 'm sure I should know nothing of
+such people but that Sir Stafford's relations have somewhat enlightened
+me. He has a nest of cousins down in Shropshire, not a whit better than
+your I was going to call them 'your friends,' the Rickettses."
+
+"It is almost incredible to suppose this could be artifice."
+
+"Why so, child? There is no strategy too deep for people who are always
+aspiring to some society above them. Besides, after all, I was in a
+measure prepared for this."
+
+"Prepared for it!"
+
+"Yes; Jekyl told me that if they once got in, it would be next to
+impossible to keep them out afterwards. A compromise, he said, was the
+best thing; to let them have so many days each year, with certain small
+privileges about showing the house to strangers, cutting bouquets, and
+so on; or, if we preferred it, let them carry away a Teniers or a Gerard
+Dow to copy, and take care never to ask for it. He inclined to the
+latter as the better plan, because, after a certain lapse of time, it
+can end in a cut."
+
+"But this is inconceivable!" exclaimed Kate.
+
+"And yet half the absurd and incongruous intimacies one sees in the
+world have had some such origin, and habit will reconcile one to
+acquaintance that at first inspired feelings of abhorrence and
+detestation. I 'm sure I don 't know one good house in town where there
+are not certain intimates that have not the slightest pretension, either
+from rank, wealth, distinction, or social qualities, to be there. And
+yet, there they are; not merely as supernumeraries, either, but very
+prominent and foreground figures, giving advice and offering counsel
+on questions of family policy, and writing their vulgar names on every
+will, codicil, marriage-settlement, and trust-deed, till they seem to
+be part of the genealogical tree, to which, after all, they are only
+attached like fungi. You look very unhappy, my poor Kate, at all this;
+but, believe me, the system will outlive both of us. And so, now to your
+room, and dress for dinner. But I forgot; you have n't got a room; so
+Celestine must give you hers, and you will be close beside me, and we
+shall be the better able to concert measures about these Ricketts folk,
+who really resemble those amiable peasants your father told me of,
+on his Irish property, and whom he designated as 'squatters.' I am
+delighted that I have n't forgot the word."
+
+And thus, chatting on, Lady Hester restored Kate's wonted happiness of
+nature, sadly shaken as it had been by the contrarieties of the morning.
+Nothing, too, was easier than to make her forget a source of irritation.
+Ever better satisfied to look on the bright side of life, her
+inclinations needed but little aid from conviction to turn her from
+gloomy themes to pleasant ones; and already some of the absurdities
+of the morning were recurring to her mind, and little traits of Mrs.
+Ricketts and her brother were involuntarily coming up through all the
+whirlpool of annoyance and confusion in whicli th y had been submerged.
+
+The coming dinner, too, engrossed some share of her thoughts; for it
+was a grand entertainment, to which all Lady Hester's most distinguished
+friends were invited. An Archduke and a Cardinal were to make part of
+the company, and Kate looked forward to meeting these great personages
+with no common interest. It was less the vulgar curiosity of observing
+the manners and bearing of distinguished characters, than the delight
+she felt in following out some child-invented narrative of her future
+life, some fancied story of her own career, wherein Princes and Prelates
+were to figure, and scenes of splendor and enjoyment to follow each
+other in rapid succession.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII. THE CONCLUSION OF A "GRAND DINNER."
+
+LADY HESTER'S dinner of that day was a "grand one," that is to say, it
+was one of those great displays which, from time to time, are offered up
+as sacrifices to the opinion of the world. Few of her own peculiar set
+were present. Some she omitted herself; others had begged off of their
+own accord. Midchekoff, however, was there; for, however accustomed to
+the tone and habits of a life of mere dissipation, he possessed every
+requirement for mixing with general society. It was true he was not fond
+of meeting "Royal Highnesses," before whom his own equivocal rank
+sank into insignificance; nor did he love "Cardinals," whose haughty
+pretensions always over-topped every other nobility. To oblige Lady
+Hester, however, he did come, and condescended, for "the nonce," to
+assume his most amiable of moods. The Marchesa Guardoni, an old coquette
+of the days of the French Empire, but now a rigid devotee, and a most
+exclusive moralist; a few elderly diplomates, of a quiet and cat-like
+smoothness of manner, with certain notabilities of the Court, made up
+the party. There were no English whatever; Jekyl, who made out the
+list, well knowing that Florence offered none of a rank sufficiently
+distinguished, except Norwood, whose temporary absence from the city
+was rather a boon than the reverse; for the noble Viscount, when not
+"slang," was usually silent, and, by long intercourse with the Turf and
+its followers, had ceased to feel any interest in topics which could not
+end in a wager.
+
+The entertainment was very splendid. Nothing was wanting which luxury or
+taste could contribute. The wines were delicious; the cookery perfect.
+The guests were courteous and pleasing; but all was of the quietest,
+none of the witty sallies, the piquant anecdotes, the brilliant
+repartees, which usually pattered like hail around that board.
+Still less were heard those little histories of private life where
+delinquencies furnish all the interest. The royal guest imposed a
+reserve which the presence of the Cardinal deepened. The conversation,
+like the cuisine, was flavored for fine palates; both were light,
+suggestive, and of easy digestion. Events were discussed rather than the
+actors in them. All was ease and simplicity; but it was a stately kind
+of simplicity, which served to chill those that were unaccustomed to it.
+So Kate Dalton felt it; and however sad the confession, we must own that
+she greatly preferred the free and easy tone of Lady Hester's midnight
+receptions to the colder solemnity of these distinguished guests.
+
+Even to the Cardinal's whist-table, everything wore a look of state and
+solemnity. The players laid down their cards with a measured gravity,
+and scored their honors with the air of men discharging a high and
+important function. As for the Archduke, he sat upon a sofa beside
+Lady Hester, suffering himself to be amused by the resources of her
+small-talk, bowing blandly at times, occasionally condescending to a
+smile, but rarely uttering even a monosyllable. Even that little social
+warmth that was kindled by the dinner-table seemed to have been chilled
+by the drawing-room, where the conversation was maintained in a low,
+soft tone, that never rose above a murmur. It may be, perhaps, some
+sort of consolation to little folk to think that Princes are generally
+sad-looking. The impassable barrier of reserve around them, if it
+protect from all the rubs and frictions of life, equally excludes from
+much of its genial enjoyment; and all those little pleasantries which
+grow out of intimacy are denied those who have no equals.
+
+It was in some such meditation as this Kate Dalton sat, roused
+occasionally to bestow a smile or a passing word of acknowledgment in
+return for some of those little morsels of compliment and flattery which
+old courtiers pay as their rightful tribute to a young and handsome
+woman. She was sufficiently accustomed to this kind of homage to accept
+it without losing, even for an instant, any train of thought her mind
+was pursuing. Nor did the entrance of any new guest, a number of whom
+had been invited for the evening, distract her from her half revery.
+
+The salons, without being crowded, now showed a numerous company, all of
+whom exhibited in their demeanor that respectful reserve the presence of
+royalty ever inspires. It seemed, indeed, as though all the conversation
+that went forward was like a mere "aside" to that more important
+dialogue which was maintained beside the Prince.
+
+A slow but measured tide of persons passed before him, bowing with
+respectful deference as they went. With some he deigned to speak a few
+words, others had a smile or a little nod of recognition, and some
+again one of those cold and vacant stares with which great people are
+occasionally wont to regard little ones. His Royal Highness was not one
+of those accomplished princes whose pride it is to know the name, the
+family, the pursuits, and predilections of each new presentee. On the
+contrary, he was absent, and forgetful to a degree scarcely credible;
+his want of memory betraying him into innumerable mistakes, from which,
+even had he known, no adroitness of his own could have extricated
+him. On this evening he had not been peculiarly fortunate; he had
+complimented a minister who had just received his recall in disgrace; he
+had felicitated a young lady on her approaching marriage, which had
+been broken off; while the burden of his talk to Lady Hester was in
+disparagement of those foreigners who brought a scandal upon his
+court by habits and manners which would not be tolerated in their own
+countries. Divorce, or even separation, met his heavy reprobation;
+and while his code of morality, on the whole, exhibited very merciful
+dispositions, he bestowed unmitigated severity upon all that could shock
+the world's opinion.
+
+To this Lady Hester had to listen as best she might, a task not the
+less trying and difficult from the ill-suppressed looks of malice and
+enjoyment she saw on every side. From all these causes put together,
+the occasion, however flattering to her vanity, was far from being
+pleasurable to her feelings, and she longed for it to be over. The
+Prince looked wearied enough, but somehow there is nothing like royalty
+for endurance; their whole lives would seem to teach the lesson, and
+so he sat on, saying a stray word, bowing with half-closed lids, and
+looking as though very little more would set him fast asleep.
+
+It was the very culminating point of the whole evening's austerity; one
+of those little pauses which now and then occur had succeeded to the
+murmur of conversation. The whist party had been broken up, and the
+Cardinal was slowly advancing up the room, the company, even to the
+ladies, rising respectfully as he passed, when the folding-doors were
+thrown wide, and a servant announced Mr. Scroope Purvis.
+
+If the name was unknown to the assembled guests, there was one there
+at least who heard it with a sensation of actual terror, and poor Kate
+Dalton sank back into her chair with a kind of instinctive effort at
+concealment. By this time the door had closed behind him, leaving Mr.
+Purvis standing with an expression of no small bewilderment at the
+gorgeous assembly into which he had intruded.
+
+Lady Hester's quick ear had caught the name, even from the furthest end
+of the room; but while she attributed it to the mispronunciations of
+which foreign servants are so liberal, looked out with some curiosity
+for him who owned it.
+
+Nor had she to look long, for, his first moment of surprise over, Purvis
+put up his double eye-glass and commenced a tour of the rooms, in that
+peculiarly scrutinizing way for which he was distinguished. The fact
+that all the faces were unknown to him seemed to impart additional
+courage to his investigations, for he stared about with as little
+concern as he might have done in a theatre.
+
+Most men in his situation would have been egoist enough to have thought
+only of themselves and the awkwardness of their own position. Purvis,
+on the contrary, had an eye for everything; from the chandeliers on the
+walls to the crosses on the dress-coats, from the decorations of the
+salons to the diamonds, he missed nothing; and with such impartial
+fairness did he bestow his glances, that the Cardinal's cheeks grew red
+as his own stockings as Scroope surveyed him. 'At last he reached the
+end of the great drawing-room, and found himself standing in front of
+the canopied seat where the Archduke sat with Lady Hester. Not heeding,
+if he even remarked, the little circle which etiquette had drawn in
+front of the Prince, Purvis advanced within the charmed precincts and
+stared steadily at the Duke.
+
+[Illustration:  420]
+
+"I perceive that one of your friends is most anxious to pay his respects
+to you, Lady Hester," said the Prince, with a very peculiar smile.
+
+"I beg to assure you, sir, that the gentleman is unknown to me; his
+presence here is an honor for which I am totally unprepared."
+
+"My name is Purvis, madam, Sc-Sc-Scroope Purvis. Miss Dalton knows me;
+and my sister is Mrs. Ricketts."
+
+"You will find Miss Dalton yonder, sir," said Lady Hester, all whose
+efforts were barely sufficient to restrain her temper.
+
+"I see her!" cried Purvis, putting his glass up; "but she 's trying to
+escape me. She 's got a man with a re-re-red beard before her, but it
+won't do, I'm too sh-sh-sharp for that."
+
+The Archduke laughed, and heartily, too, at this sally; and Purvis,
+emboldened by the complaisance, edged more closely towards him to point
+out the lady in question. "She has a droll kind of sc-sc-scarf in her
+hair. There! don't you see her now? Have you ever seen the pictures in
+the Pitti Palace?"
+
+The question was a little startling, as the personage to whom it was
+addressed had his residence there. The Archduke, however, merely bowed
+in acquiescence, and Purvis went on: "My sister Zoe copied one and I
+like it better than the Ti-Tit-Titian itself. We smoked it, too, and
+made it look so brown, you'd never guess it to be mo-mo-mo-modern."
+
+To judge from the bewildered look of the Duke, the whole of this speech
+was pure Chaldee to him; and when he turned to Lady Hester for an
+explanation, he discovered that she had left her seat. Whether mistaking
+the motion as an invitation to be seated, or merely acting by his own
+impulses, Scroope crossed over and sat down on the sofa with a degree of
+self-satisfaction that lighted up all his features.
+
+"You 're not one of the fa-family, are you?" asked he.
+
+"I have not that honor," said the Prince, with a bow.
+
+"I thought not. I suspected that there was a tw-tw-twang in your English
+that looked foreign, but I know your face quite well."
+
+The Duke bowed again.
+
+"Pretty rooms, these," said Purvis, with his glass to his eye; "what
+a d-d-deal of money they must have cost! They 're going it fast, these
+Onslows."
+
+"Indeed!" said the Prince, who only half understood the remark.
+
+"I know it," said Scroope, with a confidential wink. "Their butcher
+se-se-serves us, and he won't give anything till they have sent their
+orders; and as for wine, they drink Bordeaux in the servants' hall.
+I don't know what you have, but a d-d-deuced sight better than ever I
+get."
+
+"Good wine, however, can be had here, I hope," said the Duke, blandly.
+
+"Yes, if you sm-sm-smuggle it," said Scroope, with a knowing cackle;
+while, to add poignancy to the remark, he nudged the Prince with his
+elbow. "That's the only way to have it. The st-stupid Government sees
+nothing."
+
+"Is that the case, sir?" asked the Prince, with a degree of interest he
+had not manifested before.
+
+"To be sure it is. My sister Zoe never pays duty on anything; and if
+you like your c-c-cigars cheap, just t-t-tell me, that 's all. The
+G-G-Grand-Duke never got a sixpence of my money yet, and if I kn-know
+myself, he never shall."
+
+"Do you bear him any grudge, sir, that you say this so emphatically?"
+
+"No; not at all. They tell me that he's good-hearted, although somewhat
+we-weak in the a-a-attic story," and here Scroope tapped his forehead
+significantly, "but that 's in the family. My sister Zoe could tell you
+such st-stories about them you 'd die of laughing; and then there
+'s Jekyl takes them off so well! It's c-c-capital fun. He gives a
+dia-dia-dialogue between the Grand-Duke and the Pope's Nuncio that's
+better than a farce."
+
+How far Mr. Purvis might have been carried in his zeal to be agreeable
+there is no saying, when Lady Hester came up, with Kate leaning on her
+arm.
+
+"This gentleman claims acquaintance with you, Miss Dalton," said she,
+haughtily.
+
+"Oh, to be sure, she knows me; and I have a letter from her her
+fa-father," said Purvis, drawing forth a packet like a postman's.
+
+"Miss Dalton would prefer being seated, sir," said Lady Hester, while
+she motioned towards another part of the room.
+
+"Yes, yes, of course; we'll find out a snug co-corner somewhere for a
+chat. Just take my arm, will you? Let us get away from all these great
+'Dons,' with their stars and crosses." And, without waiting for Kate's
+reply, he drew her arm within his own, and set out in that little
+shuffling trot which he always assumed when he fancied he had business
+on hand.
+
+The ridicule of being associated with such a companion would at any
+other moment have overwhelmed Kate Dalton with shame; but now, whether
+from the few words which Lady Hester had whispered in her ear, whether
+the fact of his unauthorized appearance, or whether it were the dread of
+some greater disgrace to follow, she actually felt a sense of relief in
+the continuous flow of twaddle which he kept up as they passed down the
+room.
+
+"Who was that smiled as we passed?" asked he.
+
+"Prince Midchekoff."
+
+"Oh, that was he, was it? You must introduce me."
+
+"Not now, pray, not now; at any other time," cried she, in perfect
+terror.
+
+"Well, but don't forget it. Zoe would never forgive me if I told her
+that I lost the op-op-opportunity; she wants to know him so very much."
+
+"Of course, at another time," said Kate, hurrying him along with
+increasing speed.
+
+"Who's he?" asked Purvis, as a tall and stately personage bowed blandly
+to Kate.
+
+"The Austrian Minister."
+
+"Not the fellow that st-st-strangled the Emperor? Oh, I forgot; he was a
+Russian, wasn't he? They got him down and ch-ch-choked him, ha, ha, ha!
+There 's a man with a red moustache, so like the fellow who sells the
+boubou-bouquets at the Casciui."
+
+"A Hungarian magnate," whispered Kate.
+
+"Is he, though? Then let's have another look at him. He has as many gold
+chains about him as a shop on the Ponte Vecchio. Zoe would like him, he
+'s so odd."
+
+At last, but not without great efforts, Kate succeeded in reaching a
+small chamber, where two others already were seated, and whose figures
+were undistinguishable in the obscurity of a studiously shaded lamp.
+
+"Isn't it strange, she never asked for Zoe?" said Purvis, as he took
+his seat on a sofa; "not to inquire for a person sick under her own
+r-r-roof?"
+
+"Lady Hester is not acquainted with Mrs. Ricketts."
+
+"Well, but sh-sh-she ought to be. Zoe made a party for her, a d-d-d-iner
+party, and had Hagg-Haggerstone and Foglass, and the rest of them. And
+after all, you know, they are only b-bankers, these Onslows, and need
+n't give themselves airs."
+
+"You have a letter for me, Mr. Purvis? Will you pardon my impatience--"
+
+"Yes, to be sure. I 've a letter, and an enclosure in it, too; at least,
+it feels crisp like a note, a bank-note; that 's the reason you 're
+impatient. Perhaps the re-reremittance was long a-coming, eh?"
+
+Kate made no reply to this speech, but her cheek grew scarlet as she
+heard it.
+
+Purvis, meanwhile, spread his packet of papers before him, and began his
+search for Dalton's letter.
+
+"No, that ain't it; that's from Foglass, all about Norwood, and his
+N-N-Newmarket affair. That 's a letter from Lord Gullston's valet, with
+such a droll ac-account of the whole family. Zoe recom-mended him; and
+the poor fellow 's very grateful, for he writes about all that goes on
+in the house. Lady G., it seems, has the temper of a f-f-fiend. Well,
+don't be im-impatient; I'll find your father's letter in a minute. He
+writes such a cr-cr-cramp old hand, one should detect it at once. I
+ta-take it that he 's a bit of a character, the old gen-gentleman. I 'm
+sure he is; but what have I done with his letter? Oh, here it is! here
+it is! and 'with haste' written on the corner, too."
+
+Kate caught the letter impatiently, and, without any thought for Purvis
+or the place, tore it open at once. In doing so, the enclosure fell to
+the ground without her perceiving it; and, stranger still, it escaped
+the attention of Purvis; but that worthy man, not exactly venturing
+to read over her shoulder, had established himself directly in front,
+where, with his double eye-glass, he scanned every change in her
+features during the perusal.
+
+"All well at home, I hope, eh? How she changes color," muttered he to
+himself. "Nobody ill; nobody dead, eh?" asked he, louder. "It must be
+something serious, though; she 's trembling like ague. Let me give you
+a chair, that is, if I can f-find one in this little den; they 've got
+nothing but d-divans all round it." And he hurried forth into the larger
+salon in search of a seat.
+
+It was not without considerable trouble to himself and inconvenience to
+various others that he at last succeeded, and returned to the boudoir
+with a massive arm-chair in his hands. But what was his dismay to find
+that Miss Dalton had made her escape in the mean while? In vain did
+he seek her through the salons, which now were rapidly thinning; the
+distinguished guests having already departed.
+
+A stray group lingered here and there, conversing in a low tone; and
+around the fires were gathered little knots of ladies muffled and
+cloaked, and only waiting for the carriages. It was like a stage, when
+the performance was over. Scarcely deigning to notice the little man,
+who, with palpable keenness of scrutiny, pursued his search in every
+quarter, they gradually moved off, leaving Purvis alone to tread the
+"banquet-hall deserted." The servants, as they extinguished the
+lights, passed and repassed him without remark; so that, defeated and
+disappointed, he was obliged at last to retire, sorrowfully confessing
+to his own heart how little success had attended his bold enterprise.
+
+As he passed along the galleries and descended the stairs, he made
+various little efforts to open a conversation with some one or other of
+the servants; but these dignified officials responded to his questions
+in the dryest and shortest manner; and it was only as he reached the
+great gate of the palace that he chanced upon one courteous enough to
+hear him to the end in his oft-repeated question of "Who was th-th-that
+with the large st-st-star on his breast, and a wh-wh-white beard?"
+
+The porter stared at the speaker, and said respectfully, "The signor
+probably means the Archduke?"
+
+"Not the Archduke Fr-Fr-Fr--"
+
+"Yes, sir," said the man; and closed the heavy door after him, leaving
+Purvis in a state of astonishment, and as much shame as his nature
+permitted him to feel. Neither upon himself nor his sensations have we
+any intention to dwell; and leaving him to pursue his way homeward, we
+beg to return once more within those walls from which he had just taken
+his departure.
+
+If Lady Hester's grand company had gone, the business of the evening
+was by no means over; on the contrary, it was the hour of her night
+receptions, and now the accustomed guests of those favored precincts
+came dropping in from theatres, and operas, and late dinners. These men
+of pleasure looked jaded and tired, as usual; and, except the little
+tinkling sounds of Jekyl's small treble, no other voice sounded as they
+walked along the corridors.
+
+[Illustration:   426]
+
+When they entered Lady Hester's boudoir, they found that lady recounting
+to Midchekoff the whole circumstances of the morning's adventure, a
+recital which she continued without other interruption than a smile or
+a nod, or a little gesture of the hand to each of the new arrivals as
+he came in. If the lady's manner was devoid of all ceremony, that of the
+gentlemen was less ceremonious still; for they stretched themselves on
+divans, rested their legs upon chairs, and stood back to the fire, with
+a degree of careless ease that bespoke them thoroughly at home, Jekyl,
+perhaps, the only one present who mingled with this freedom a certain
+courteous respect that no familiarity made him ever forget.
+
+"And they are still here?" asked the Prince. "Actually in the house at
+this moment?"
+
+"At this very moment!" responded she, emphatically.
+
+"The whole thing passes belief," exclaimed he.
+
+And now the listless loungers drew their chairs closer to hear the
+story, and laugh, as men do, who are seldom moved to mirth save when
+ridicule or malice are the provocatives.
+
+"But you haven't heard the worst yet," said Midchekoff. "Pray tell them
+of your visitor of this evening."
+
+And Lady Hester narrated the appearance of Mr. Purvis, who, having
+secured his entrance by a visit to his sister, had so unceremoniously
+presented himself in the drawing-room.
+
+"Heaven knows what he said to his Royal Highness when I was away. To
+judge from his face, it must have been something atrocious; and the last
+thing he said on leaving was, 'I must try and not forget your agreeable
+friend's name.'"
+
+"You might as well have invited me as have had your 'friend' Purvis,
+after all," said a young Italian noble, whose political opinions found
+no favor at court.
+
+"But what do you mean to do, my Lady?" asked Midchekoff. "Is the enemy
+to hold undisputed possession of the fortress?"
+
+"It is precisely on that point I want advice. Prince."
+
+"What if we form ourselves into a council of state?" said an Austrian
+general.
+
+"By all means," said the others, who now formed a semicircle in front of
+Lady Hester's sofa.
+
+"The youngest officer always speaks first," said the Austrian.
+
+"Then that duty is mine," said a little man of about eighty-two or
+three, and who had represented France at half the courts of Europe.
+"I should advise a protocol in the form of a protest. It is a palpable
+invasion of territory, but, followed by an ample apology and a speedy
+evacuation, may be forgiven. There are historical warrants for such
+transgressions being accepted as acts almost of compulsion."
+
+"The case of Anspach, for instance," said the Austrian, with a malicious
+smile.
+
+"Precisely, General, precisely a case in point," rejoined the old
+diplomate, with a bow and a smile that almost seemed grateful. "The
+shortest road to victory is ever the best."
+
+"Let's try a fever, or a fire. By Jove! the sacrifice of a few chairs
+and window-curtains would be a cheap alternative," said George Onslow.
+
+"Why not essay a compromise, my Lady?" interposed a young German
+secretary of legation; "a mixed garrison, like that of Rastadt?"
+
+"Lady Hester's troops to mount guard alternately with the Rickettses'.
+Downright treason, base treason!" exclaimed another.
+
+"What would you think of a special mission, my Lady?" simpered Jekyl.
+"It would at least serve to enlighten us as to the views of the enemy.
+The discussion of the past often throws much light on the future."
+
+"Jekyl wants to earn a decoration," said another, laughing. "He intends
+to be the envoy himself."
+
+"I'll wager that I know Midchekoff's policy," said a young Sicilian,
+who always spoke with a frank fearlessness that is most rare with other
+Italians.
+
+"Well, let us hear it," said the Prince, gravely.
+
+"You would counsel the national expedient of retiring before the enemy,
+and making the country too cold to hold them?"
+
+"How absurd!" said Lady Hester, half angrily; "give up one's house to
+a set of people who have had the impertinence to intrude themselves
+unasked?"
+
+"And yet Giasconi is right," said the Prince. "It is the best suggestion
+we have heard yet. Hostilities imply, to a certain extent, equality;
+negotiation is an acknowledgment of acquaintanceship; a dignified
+retreat, however, avoids either difficulty."
+
+"In that case, let 's starve them out," said George. "Suffer no
+supplies to be thrown into the place, and exact the most humble terms of
+submission."
+
+"Then, where to go? that 's another question," said Lady Hester.
+
+"His Eminence expects to see you in Rome," whispered the Abbe, who had
+waited for an opportunity for the suggestion. "I believe he relies on a
+promise."
+
+"Very true; but not just yet. Besides, the season is almost over," said
+Lady Hester, with a slight degree of confusion.
+
+"Don't be frightened, Abbe," whispered Jekyl in D'Esmonde's ear. "Her
+Ladyship is assuredly 'going to Rome' later on."
+
+The priest smiled, with an expression that told how fully he
+comprehended the phrase.
+
+"There 's a little villa of mine, on the Lake of Como, very much at your
+service," said Midchekoff, with the easy indifference of one suggesting
+something perfectly indifferent to him.
+
+"Do you mean La Rocca, Prince?" added the Sicilian.
+
+"Yes. They tell me it is prettily situated, but I 've never seen it.
+The Empress passed a few weeks there last year, and liked it," said
+Midchekoff, languidly.
+
+"Really, Prince, if I don't know how to accept, I am still more at a
+loss for power to refuse your offer."
+
+"When will you go?" said he, dryly, and taking out his memorandum-book
+to write.
+
+"What says Mr. Jekyl?" said Lady Hester, turning to that bland
+personage, who, without apparently attending to what went forward, had
+heard every syllable of it.
+
+"This is Tuesday," said Jekyl. "There 's not much to be done; the villa
+wants for nothing: I know it perfectly."
+
+"Ah, it's comfortable, then?" said the Prince, with a slight degree of
+animation.
+
+"La Rocca is all that Contarete's taste could make it," replied Jekyl.
+
+"Poor Contarete! he was an excellent maitre d'hotel," said Midchekoff.
+"He's still with me, somewhere; I rather believe in Tartary, just now."
+
+"Your Ladyship may leave this on Thursday," said Jekyl, who well knew
+that he was paying the most flattering compliment to Midchekoff in
+naming the shortest possible time for preparation.
+
+"Will this be inconvenient, Prince?" asked Lady Hester.
+
+"No; not in the least. If Jekyl will precede you by a couple of hours, I
+trust all will be ready."
+
+"With your permission, then, we will say Thursday," said she, who, with
+her habitual delight in novelty, was already wild with pleasure at the
+whole scheme.
+
+"Perhaps I'll come and visit you," said Midchekoff. "I shall have to go
+to Vienna soon."
+
+Lady Hester bowed and smiled her acknowledgments for this not
+over-gracious speech.
+
+"May we follow you, too, Lady Hester?" asked the Sicilian.
+
+"We expect that much from your loyalty, gentlemen. Our exile will test
+your fidelity."
+
+"There 's something or other inconvenient about the stables," said
+Midchekoff, "but I forget what it is; they are up a mountain, or down
+in a valley. I don't remember it, but the Emperor said it was wrong, and
+should be changed."
+
+"They are on the opposite side of the lake, Prince," interposed Jekyl,
+"and you must cross over to your carriage by boat."
+
+"Oh, delightful, quite delightful!" exclaimed Lady Hester, with childish
+joy, at the novelty.
+
+"La Rocca is on a little promontory," said Jekyl, "only approachable
+from the water, for the mountain is quite inaccessible."
+
+"You shall have a road made, if you wish it," said the Prince,
+languidly.
+
+"On no account. I would n't for the world destroy the isolation of the
+spot."
+
+"Do you happen to remember, Mr. Jekyl, if there be any pictures there?"
+
+"There are some perfect gems, by Greuze."
+
+"Oh! that's where they are, is it? I could never call to mind where they
+were left."
+
+The conversation now became general, in discussing Lady Hester's change
+of abode, the life they should all lead when on the lake, and the
+innumerable stories that would be circulated to account for her sudden
+departure. This same mystery was not the least agreeable feature of the
+whole, and Lady Hester never wearied in talking of all the speculations
+her new step was certain to originate; and although some of the company
+regretted the approaching closure of a house which formed the resource
+of every evening, others were not sorry at the prospect of anything
+which offered a change to the monotony of their lives.
+
+"You'll come to breakfast to-morrow, Mr. Jekyl," said Lady Hester, as he
+followed the departing guests. "I shall want you the whole day."
+
+He bowed with his hand to his heart, and never did features of like
+mould evince a deeper aspect of devotion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV. JEKYL'S COUNSELS
+
+ONE of the most striking characteristics of our present age is the
+singular mixture of frivolity and seriousness, the almost absurd
+contrast between grave inquiry and reckless dissipation, which pervades
+the well-to-do classes. Never was there a period when merely sensual
+gratification was more highly prized and paid for; and never, perhaps, a
+time when every rank in life was more eager in the pursuit of knowledge.
+To produce this state of things a certain compromise was necessary;
+and while the mere man of pleasure affected a taste for literature
+and politics, the really active-minded either sought his relaxation,
+or extended his influence, by mingling in scenes of frivolity and
+amusement.
+
+The age which made dandies philosophers made lord chancellors droll, and
+bishops eccentric. A paradoxical spirit was abroad, and it seemed to be
+a matter of pride with every one to do something out of his station. The
+whole temper of society and the tone of conversation exhibited this new
+taste.
+
+Lady Hester Onslow was not a bad specimen of the prevailing mania. There
+was by nature a certain fidgety, capricious volatility about her that
+defied everything like a regular pursuit or a continued purpose. With a
+reasonably quick apprehension and no judgment, in being everything,
+she became nothing. Always mistaking sympathies for convictions, it was
+quite sufficient to interest her imagination to secure her adhesion,
+not, indeed, that it was worth much when obtained, seeing that she was
+but a feeble ally at the best. Her employment of the day was a type
+of herself. The mornings were passed in mesmeric experiences with her
+doctor, or what she fancied were theological discussions with the Abbe
+D'Esmonde.
+
+It would be difficult to say in which the imaginative exaltation more
+predominated. All the authentic and incredible phenomena of the one, all
+the miraculous pretensions of the other, were too little for a credulity
+that stopped at nothing. Of second sight, remote sympathy, and saintly
+miracles she never could hear enough. "Give me facts," she would say;
+by which she meant narratives. "I will have no theories, doctor." "Don't
+bear me down with arguments, Monsieur l'Abbe." "Facts, and facts alone,
+have any influence with me."
+
+Now, such facts as she asked for were easily obtainable, and the
+greatest miser need not have grudged her an ample meal of them. Many
+of the facts, too, possessed the pleasing feature of being personal in
+their interest. One day it was a charming young patient of the doctor,
+who, having touched a tress of Lady Hester's hair, made the most
+astonishing revelations of her Ladyship's disposition; telling facts of
+her feelings, her nature, and even her affections, that "she knew were
+only confided to her own heart." Various little incidents of her daily
+life were foretold, even to such minute matters as the purchase of
+articles of jewelry, which she had not even seen at the time, and only
+met her eyes by accident afterwards. The Abbe, with equal success,
+assured her of the intense interest taken in her by the Church.
+Beautifully bound and richly illustrated books were offered to her, with
+the flattering addition that prayers were then being uttered at many
+a shrine for her enlightenment in their perusal. Less asked to conform
+herself to a new belief than to reconcile the faith to her own notions,
+she was given the very widest latitude to her opinions. If she grew
+impatient at argument, a subtle illustration, an apt metaphor, or
+sometimes a happy mot settled the question. The Abbe was a clever
+talker, and varied his subjects with all the skill of a master. He
+knew how to invoke to his aid all that poetry, art, and romance could
+contribute. The theme was a grand one when the imagination was to be
+interested, and really deserved a better listener; for save when the
+miraculous interposition of saints or the gaudy ceremonials of the
+Church were spoken of, she heard the subject with indifference, if not
+apathy. The consideration of self could, however, always bring her back;
+and it was ever a successful flattery to assure her how fervently such
+a cardinal prayed for her "right-mindedness," and how eagerly even
+his Holiness looked forward to the moment of counting her among his
+children.
+
+Her very tastes those same tastes that ascetic Protestantism was always
+cavilling at were beautifully Roman. The Church liked display. Witness
+her magnificence and splendor, her glorious cathedrals, the pomp and
+grandeur of her ceremonial! As to music, the choir of the "Duomo" was
+seraphic, and needed not the association of the dim vaulted aisles, the
+distant altar, and the checkered rays of stained-glass windows to wrap
+the soul in a fervor of enthusiasm. Even beauty was cherished by the
+Church, and the fair Madonnas were types of an admiring love that was
+beautifully catholic in its worship.
+
+With all this, the work of conversion was a Penelope's web, that must
+each day be begun anew, for, as the hour of the Cascini drew nigh, Lady
+Hester's carriage drew up, and mesmerism, miracles, and all gave way to
+the fresher interests of courtly loungers, chit-chat, and "bouquets of
+camellias."
+
+For the next hour or so, her mind was occupied with the gossiping
+stories of Florentine life, its surface details all recounted by the
+simpering dandies who gathered around her carriage; its deeper not
+unfrequently darker histories being the province of Mr. Albert Jekyl.
+Then home to luncheon, for, as Haggerstone related, she dined always
+after the Opera, and it was then, somewhere verging on midnight, that
+she really began to live. Then, in all the blaze of dress and jewels,
+with beauty little impaired by years, and a manner the perfection of
+that peculiar school to which she attached herself, she was indeed a
+most attractive person.
+
+Kate Dalton's life was, of course, precisely the same. Except the few
+hours given to controversial topics, and which she passed in reading,
+and the occasional change from driving to riding in the Cascini, Kate's
+day was exactly that of her friend. Not, however, with the same results;
+for while one was wearied with the same routine of unvarying pleasure,
+tired of the monotonous circle of amusement, the other became each day
+more and more enamored of a life so unchanging in its happiness. What
+was uniformity to Lady Hester, imparted a sense of security to Kate. It
+was not alone the splendor that surrounded her, the thousand objects of
+taste and elegance that seemed to multiply around them, that captivated
+her so much, it was the absence of all care, the freedom from every
+thought that this state was a mere passing one. This Kate felt to be the
+very highest of enjoyments, and when at night she whispered to herself,
+"To-morrow will be like to-day," she had said everything that could
+brighten anticipation.
+
+Her father's letter was the first shock to this delightful illusion. Her
+own false position of splendor, in contrast to his poverty, now came up
+palpably before her, and in place of those blissful reveries in which
+she often passed hours, there rose to her mind the bitter self-accusings
+of a penitent spirit. She never slept through the night; the greater
+part of it she spent in tears. Her absence from home, brief as it was,
+was quite enough to make her forget much of its daily life. She could,
+it is true, recall the penury and the privation, but not the feelings
+that grew out of them. "How changed must he have become to stoop to
+this!" was the exclamation that she uttered again and again. "Where was
+all that Dalton pride they used to boast of? What become of that family
+dignity which once was their bulwark against every blow of Fortune?"
+
+To these thoughts succeeded the sadder one, of what course remained for
+her to adopt? a difficulty the greater since she but half understood
+what was required of her. He spoke of a bill, and yet the letter
+contained none: before she broke the seal, it felt as though there was
+an enclosure, yet she found none; and if there were, of what use would
+it be? It was perfectly impossible that she could approach Sir Stafford
+with such a request; every sense of shame, delicacy, and self-respect
+revolted at the very thought. Still less could she apply to Lady Hester,
+whose extravagant and wasteful habits always placed her in want of
+money; and yet to refuse her father on grounds which he would deem
+purely selfish was equally out of the question. She well knew that in
+a moment of anger and impatience stung by what he would call the
+ingratitude of his children he would probably himself write to Sir
+Stafford, narrating every circumstance that drove him to the step. Oh,
+that she had never left him, never ceased to live the life of want and
+hardship to which time had accustomed her! all the poverty she had ever
+known brought no such humiliation as this! Poor Nelly's lot now was a
+hundredfold superior to hers. She saw, too, that reserve once broken on
+such a theme, her father would not scruple to renew the application
+as often as he needed money. It was clear enough that he saw no
+embarrassment, nor any difficulty for her in the matter; that it neither
+could offend her feelings nor compromise her position. Could she descend
+to an evasive or equivocal reply, his temper would as certainly
+boil over, and an insulting letter would at once be addressed to Sir
+Stafford. Were she to make the request and fail, he would order her
+home, and under what circumstances should she leave the house of her
+benefactors! And yet all this was better than success.
+
+In such harassing reflections warring and jarring in her mind, the long
+hours of the night were passed. She wept, too: the bitterest tears are
+those that are wrung from shame and sorrow mingled. Many a generous
+resolve, many a thought of self-devotion and sacrifice rose to her mind;
+at moments she would have submitted herself to any wound to self-esteem
+to have obtained her father's kind word, and at others all the indignity
+of a false position overwhelmed her, and she cried as if her very heart
+were bursting.
+
+Wearied and fevered, she arose and went into the garden. It was one of
+the brilliant mornings which for a week or ten days in Italy represent
+the whole season of spring. Although still early, the sun was hot, and
+the flowers and shrubs, refreshed by the heavy dew, were bursting out
+into renewed luxuriance in the warm glow. The fountains sparkled, and
+the birds were singing, and all seemed animated by that joyous spirit
+which seems the very breath of early morning, all save poor Kate, who,
+with bent-down head and slow step, loitered along the walks, lost in her
+gloomiest thoughts.
+
+To return home again was the only issue she could see to her
+difficulties, to share the humble fortunes of her father and sister,
+away from a world in which she had no pretension to live! And this, too,
+just when that same world had cast its fascinations round her, just when
+its blandishments had gained possession of her heart, and made her feel
+that all without its pale was ignoble and unworthy. No other course
+seemed, however, to offer itself, and she had just determined on its
+adoption, when the short, quick step of some one following her made her
+turn her head. As she did so, her name was pronounced, and Mr. Albert
+Jekyl, with his hat courteously removed, advanced towards her.
+
+"I see with what care Miss Dalton protects the roses of her cheeks,"
+said he, smiling; "and yet how few there are that know this simple
+secret."
+
+"You give me a credit I have no claim to, Mr. Jekyl. I have almost
+forgotten the sight of a rising sun, but this morning I did not feel
+quite well a headache a sleepless night--"
+
+"Perhaps caused by anxiety," interposed he, quietly. "I wish I had
+discovered your loss in time, but I only detected that it must be yours
+when I reached home."
+
+"I don't comprehend you," said she, with some hesitation.
+
+"Is not this yours, Miss Dalton?" said he, producing the bill, which had
+fallen unseen from her father's letter. "I found it on the floor of the
+small boudoir, and not paying much attention to it at the time, did
+not perceive the signature, which would at once have betrayed the
+ownership."
+
+"It must have dropped from a letter I was reading," said Kate, whose
+cheek was now scarlet, for she knew Jekyl well enough to be certain that
+her whole secret was by that time in his hands. Slighter materials than
+this would have sufficed for his intelligence to construct a theory
+upon. Nothing in his manner, however, evinced this knowledge, for he
+handed her the paper with an air of most impassive quietude; while,
+as if to turn her thoughts from any unpleasantness of the incident, he
+said,
+
+"You haven't yet heard, I suppose, of Lady Hester's sudden resolve to
+quit Florence?"
+
+"Leave Florence! and for where?" asked she, hurriedly.
+
+"For Midchekoff's villa at Como. We discussed it all last night after
+you left, and in twenty-four hours we are to be on the road."
+
+"What is the reason of this hurried departure?"
+
+"The Ricketts invasion gives the pretext; but of course you know
+better than I do what a share the novelty of the scheme lends to its
+attractions."
+
+"And we are to leave this to-morrow?" said Kate, rather to herself than
+for her companion.
+
+Jekyl marked well the tone and the expression of the speaker, but said
+not a word.
+
+Kate stood for a few seconds lost in thought. Her difficulties were
+thickening around her, and not a gleam of light shone through the gloomy
+future before her. At last, as it were overpowered by the torturing
+anxieties of her situation, she covered her face with her hands to hide
+the tears that would gush forth in spite of her.
+
+"Miss Dalton will forgive me," said Jekyl, speaking in a low and most
+respectful voice, "if I step for once from the humble path I have
+tracked for myself in life, and offer my poor services as her adviser."
+
+Nothing could be more deferential than the speech, or the way in which
+it was uttered, and yet Kate heard it with a sense of pain. She felt
+that her personal independence was already in peril, and that the meek
+and bashful Mr. Jekyl had gained a mastery over her. He saw all this, he
+read each struggle of her mind, and, were retreat practicable, he
+would have retreated; but, the step once taken, the only course was
+"forwards."
+
+"Miss Dalton may reject my counsels, but she will not despise the
+devotion in which they are proffered. A mere accident" here he glanced
+at the paper which she still held in her fingers "a mere accident has
+shown me that you have a difficulty; one for which neither your habits
+nor knowledge of life can suggest the solution." He paused, and a very
+slight nod from Kate emboldened him to proceed. "Were it not so,
+Miss Dalton were the case one for which your own exquisite tact could
+suffice, I never would have ventured on the liberty. I, who have watched
+you with wondering admiration, directing and guiding your course amid
+shoals and reefs and quicksands, where the most skilful might have found
+shipwreck, it would have been hardihood indeed for me to have offered my
+pilotage. But here, if I err not greatly, here is a new and unknown sea,
+and here I may be of service to you."
+
+"Is it so plain, then, what all this means?" said Kate, holding out the
+bill towards Jekyl.
+
+"Alas! Miss Dalton," said he, with a faint smile, "these are no enigmas
+to us who mix in all the worries and cares of life."
+
+"Then how do you read the riddle?" said she, almost laughing at the easy
+flippancy of his tone.
+
+"Mr. Dalton being an Irish gentleman of a kind disposition and facile
+temper, suffers his tenantry to run most grievously into arrear. They
+won't pay, and he won't make them; his own creditors having no sympathy
+with such proceedings, become pressing and importunate. Mr. Dalton grows
+angry, and they grow irritable; he makes his agent write to them, they
+'instruct' their attorney to write to him. Mr. D. is puzzled, and were
+it not that But, may I go on?"
+
+"Of course; proceed," said she, smiling.
+
+"You'll not be offended, though?" said he, "because, if I have not the
+privilege of being frank, I shall be worthless to you."
+
+"There is no serious offence without intention."
+
+"Very true; but I do not wish there should be even a trivial
+transgression."
+
+"I 'm not afraid. Go on," said she, nodding her head.
+
+"Where was I, then? Oh! I remember. I said that Mr. Dalton, seeing
+difficulties thickening and troubles gathering, suddenly bethinks him
+that he has a daughter, a young lady of such attractions that, in a
+society where wealth and splendor and rank hold highest place, her
+beauty has already established a dominion which nothing, save her
+gentleness, prevents being a despotism."
+
+"Mr. Jekyl mistakes the part of a friend when he becomes flatterer."
+
+"There is no flattery in a plain unadorned truth," said he, hastily.
+
+"And were it all as you say," rejoined she, speaking with a heightened
+color and a flashing eye, "how could such circumstances be linked with
+those you spoke of?"
+
+"Easily enough, if I did but dare to tell it," was his reply.
+
+"It is too late for reserve; go on freely," said she, with a faint sigh.
+
+Jekyl resumed,
+
+"Mr. Dalton knows there are thousands could have told him so that his
+daughter may be a princess to-morrow if she wishes it. She has but to
+choose her rank and her nationality, and there is not a land in Europe
+in whose peerage she may not inscribe her name. It is too late for
+reserve," said he, quickly, "and consequently too late for resentment.
+You must not be angry with me now; I am but speaking in your presence
+what all the world says behind your back. Hearing this, and believing
+it, as all believe it, what is there more natural than that he should
+address himself to her at whose disposal lie all that wealth can
+compass? The sun bestows many a gleam of warmth and brightness before he
+reaches the zenith. Do not mistake me. This request was scarcely fair;
+it was ill-advised. Your freedom should never have been jeopardized
+for such a mere trifle. Had your father but seen with his own eyes your
+position here, he would never have done this; but, being done, there is
+no harm in it."
+
+"But what am I to do?" said Kate, trembling with embarrassment and
+vexation together.
+
+"Send the money, of course," said he, coolly.
+
+"But how from what source?"
+
+"Your own benevolence, none other," said he, as calmly.
+
+"There is no question of a favor, no stooping to an obligation
+necessary. You will simply give your promise to repay it at some future
+day, not specifying when; and I will find a banker but too happy to
+treat with you."
+
+"But what prospect have I of such ability to pay? what resources can I
+reckon upon?"
+
+"You will be angry if I repeat myself," said Jekyl, with deep humility.
+
+"I am already angry with myself that I should have listened to your
+proposal so indulgently; my troubles must, indeed, have affected me
+deeply when I so far forgot myself."
+
+Jekyl dropped his head forward on his breast, and looked a picture of
+sorrow; after a while he said,
+
+"Sir Stafford Onslow would, I well know, but be honored by your asking
+him the slight favor; but I could not counsel you to do so. Your
+feelings would have to pay too severe a sacrifice, and hence I advise
+making it a mere business matter; depositing some ornament a necklace
+you were tired of, a bracelet, anything in fact, a nothing and thus
+there is neither a difficulty nor a disclosure."
+
+"I have scarcely anything," said Kate; "and what I have, have been all
+presents from Lady Hester."
+
+"Morlache would be quite content with your word," said Jekyl, blandly.
+
+"And if I should be unable to acquit the debt, will these few things I
+possess be sufficient to do it?"
+
+"I should say double the amount, as a mere guess."
+
+"Can I dare I take your counsel?" cried she, in an accent of intense
+anxiety.
+
+"Can you reject it, when refusal will be so bitter?"
+
+Kate gave a slight shudder, as though that pang was greater than all the
+rest.
+
+"There is fortunately no difficulty in the matter whatever," said Jekyl,
+speaking rapidly. "You will, of course, have many things to purchase
+before you leave this. Well; take the carriage and your maid, and drive
+to the Ponte Vecchio. The last shop on the right-hand side of the bridge
+is 'Morlache's.' It is unpromising enough outside, but there is wealth
+within to subsidize a kingdom. I will be in waiting to receive you,
+and in a few minutes the whole will be concluded; and if you have your
+letter ready, you can enclose the sum, and post it at once."
+
+If there were many things in this arrangement which shocked Kate, and
+revolted against her sense of delicacy and propriety, there was one
+counterpoise more than enough to outweigh them all: she should be
+enabled to serve her father, she, who alone of all his children had
+never contributed, save by affection, to his comfort, should now
+materially assist him. She knew too well the sufferings and anxieties
+his straitened fortune cost him, she witnessed but too often the
+half-desperation in which he would pass days, borne down and almost
+broken-hearted! and she had witnessed that outbreak of joy he would
+indulge in when an unexpected help had suddenly lifted him from the
+depth of his poverty. To be the messenger of such good tidings to be
+associated in his mind with this assistance, to win his fervent "God
+bless you!" she would have put life itself in peril; and when Jekyl
+placed so palpably before her the promptitude with which the act could
+be accomplished, all hesitation ceased, and she promised to be punctual
+at the appointed place by three o'clock that same afternoon.
+
+"It is too early to expect to see Lady Hester," said Jekyl; "and indeed,
+my real business here this morning was with yourself, so that now I
+shall drive out to Midchekoff's and make all the arrangements about the
+villa. Till three, then, good-bye!"
+
+"Good-bye," said Kate, for the first time disposed to feel warmly to the
+little man, and half reproach herself with some of the prejudices she
+used to entertain regarding him.
+
+Jekyl now took his way to the stables, and ordering a brougham to be got
+ready for him, sauntered into the house, and took his coffee while he
+waited.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV. RACCA MORLACHE.
+
+There is something of mediaeval look and air about the Ponte Vecchio
+in Florence, which gives it a peculiar interest to the traveller. The
+quaint little low shops on either side, all glittering with gold and
+gems; the gorgeous tiaras of diamonds; the richly enamelled cups and
+vases aside of the grotesque ornaments of peasant costume; the cumbrous
+ear-rings of stamped gold; the old-fashioned clasps and buckles of
+massive make; the chains fashioned after long-forgotten models; the
+strings of Oriental pearls, costly and rare enough for queens to wear,
+are all thrown about in a rich profusion, curiously in contrast to the
+humble sheds for they are little more that hold them.
+
+The incessant roll of equipages,--the crowd and movement of a great
+city; the lingering peasant, gazing with rapturous eyes at the
+glittering wares; the dark Israelitish face that peers from within;
+the ever-flowing tide of population of every rank and age and country,
+giving a bustle and animation to the scene, so beautifully relieved by
+the view that opens on the centre of the bridge, and where, in a vacant
+space, the Arno is seen wending peacefully along, and scattering its
+circling eddies beneath the graceful arches of the "Santa Trinita," that
+little glimpse of hill and vineyard and river, the cypress-clad heights
+of San Miniato, and the distant mountain of Vallombrosa, more beautiful
+far than all the gold Pactolus ever rolled, or all the gems that ever
+glittered on crown or coronet.
+
+There was one stall at the end of the bridge so humble-looking and so
+scantily provided that no stranger was seen to linger beside it. A few
+coral ornaments for peasant wear, some stamped medals for pious use,
+and some of those little silver tokens hung up by some devout hands as
+votive offerings at a holy shrine, were all that appeared; while, as
+if to confirm the impression of the scanty traffic that went on, the
+massive door was barred and bolted like the portal of a prison. An
+almost erased inscription, unrenewed for nigh half a century, told that
+this was the shop of "Racca Morlache."
+
+There may have been much of exaggeration in the stories that went of
+the Jew's enormous wealth; doubtless many of the accounts were purely
+fabulous; but one fact is certain, that from that lowly roof went forth
+sums sufficient to maintain the credit of many a tottering state, or
+support the cost of warlike struggles to replace a dynasty. To him came
+the heads of despotic governments, the leaders of rebellious democracy,
+the Russian and the Circassian, the Carlist and the Cristino. To the
+proud champion of divine right, or the fearless promulgator of equality,
+to all he was accessible. Solvency and his profit were requirements he
+could not dispense with; but, for the rest, in what channel of future
+good and evil his wealth was to flow, whether to maintain a throne or
+sap its foundation, to uphold a faith or to desecrate its altars, to
+liberate a people or to bind their fetters more closely, were cares that
+sat lightly on his heart.
+
+He might, with his vast means, have supported a style like royalty
+itself. There was no splendor nor magnificence he need have denied
+himself; nor, as the world goes, any society from which he should be
+debarred, gold is the picklock to the doors of palaces as of prisons;
+but he preferred this small and miserable habitation, which for above
+two centuries had never borne any other name than the "Casa Morlache."
+
+Various reasons were given out for a choice so singular; among others,
+it was said that the Grand-Duke was accustomed to visit the Jew by means
+of a secret passage from the "Pitti;" while some alleged that the secret
+frequenters of Morlache's abode all came by water, and that in the dark
+night many a boat skimmed the Arno, and directed its course to the last
+arch of the Ponte Vecchio. With these rumors we have no concern, nor
+with Morlache himself have we more than a passing business.
+
+When Kate Dalton had driven up to the door, she had all but determined
+to abandon her intention. The arguments which in the morning had taken
+her by surprise seemed now weak and futile, and she was shocked with
+herself for even the momentary yielding to Jekyl's counsels. Her only
+doubt was whether to drive on without further halt, or leave some short
+message, to the effect that she had called but could not delay there.
+This seemed the better and more courteous proceeding; and while she was
+yet speaking to the dark-eyed, hook-nosed boy who appeared at the door,
+Jekyl came up.
+
+"Be quick, Miss Dalton! Don't lose an instant," said he. "Morlache is
+going to the palace, and we shall miss him."
+
+"But I have changed my mind. I have resolved not to accept this
+assistance. It is better far better that I should not."
+
+"It is too late to think of that now," said he, interrupting, and
+speaking with some slight degree of irritation.
+
+"How too late? What do you mean?"
+
+"That I have already told Morlache the whole story, and obtained his
+promise for the loan."
+
+"Oh, sir! why have you done this?" cried she, in a voice of anguish.
+
+"I had your free permission for it, Miss Dalton. When we parted this
+morning, the matter was fully agreed on between us; but still, if
+you desire to retract, your secret is in safe keeping. Morlache never
+betrays a confidence."
+
+"And he has heard my name!" cried she, in a broken, sobbing tone.
+
+"Not for the first time, be assured. Even Croesus looked up from his
+ingots to ask if it were 'la belle Dalton;' and when I said 'Yes,'
+'That's enough,' replied he; 'would that all my moneys had so safe
+investment!' But stay; there is Purvis yonder. He is pretending to
+examine an eye-glass in that shop opposite, but I see well that he is
+there only en vedette."
+
+"What shall I do?" exclaimed the poor girl, now torn by impulses and
+emotions the most opposite.
+
+"One thing you must do at once," said Jekyl; "get out of the carriage
+and visit two or three of the shops, as if in quest of some article of
+jewelry. His anxiety to learn the precise object of your search will
+soon draw him from his 'lair.'"
+
+The decision of this counsel, almost like a command, so far imposed upon
+Kate that she at once descended, and took Jekyl's arm along the bridge.
+They had not gone many yards when the short, little, shuffling step of
+Purvis was heard behind them. Lingering to gaze at some of the splendid
+objects exposed for sale, they at last reached a very splendid stall,
+where diamonds, pearls, and rubies lay in heaps of gorgeous profusion.
+And now Purvis had stationed himself exactly behind them, with his head
+most artistically adjusted to hear everything that passed between them.
+
+Jekyl seemed to feel his presence as if by an instinct, and without
+even turning his eye from the glass case, said, in a voice of some
+disparagement,
+
+"All modern settings! very lustrous very brilliant, but not at all what
+we are looking for."
+
+Kate made no reply; for, while she had scruples about abetting a mere
+scheme, she was not the less eager to be free of the presence of the
+"Great Inquisitor."
+
+"That, perhaps," said Jekyl, pointing to a magnificent cross of
+brilliants, "would not go ill with the necklace, although the stones are
+smaller. Say something, anything," added he, in a lower tone; "the spell
+is working."
+
+"That is very handsome," said Kate, pointing at a venture to an object
+before her.
+
+"So it is," said Jekyl, quickly. "Let us see what value they place upon
+it. Oh, here is Mr. Purvis; how fortunate! Perhaps in all Florence there
+is not one so conversant with all that concerns taste and elegance, and,
+as an old resident, happily exempt from all the arts and wiles played
+off upon our countrymen."
+
+"How d'ye do d'ye do?" cried Purvis, shaking hands with both. "You heard
+of the bl-bl-blunder I made last night about the Ar-Archduke?"
+
+"Not a word of it," replied Jekyl.
+
+"I told him he was a-a-a fool," cried Purvis, with a scream and a cackle
+that very constantly followed any confession of an impertinence.
+
+"Meno male!" exclaimed Jekyl. "Even princes ought to hear truth
+sometimes; but you can help us here. Mr. Purvis, do you see that
+chatelaine yonder, with a large emerald pendant; could you ascertain the
+price of it for Miss Dalton? They'll not attempt to be extortionate upon
+you, which they would, assuredly, if she entered the shop."
+
+"To be sure; I'll do it with pl-pleasure. Who is it for?"
+
+"That 's a secret, Mr. Purvis; but you shall hear it afterwards."
+
+"I guess al-ready," said Scroope, with a cunning leer. "You 're going to
+be m-m-m-married, ain't you?"
+
+"Mr. Purvis, Mr. Purvis, I must call you to order," said Jekyl, who saw
+that very little more would make the scene unendurable to Kate.
+
+"I hope it 's not an It-It-Italian fellow; for they 're all as poor as
+Laza-Laza-Laza--"
+
+"Yes, yes, of course; we know that. Your discretion is invaluable," said
+Jekyl; "but pray step in, and ask this question for us."
+
+"I'll tell who'll do better," said Purvis, who, once full of a
+theme, never paid any attention to what was said by others.
+"Midche-Midche-Midche-k-k-off; he owns half of--"
+
+"Never mind what he owns, but remember that Miss Dalton is waiting
+all this time," said Jekyl, who very rarely so far lost command of his
+temper; and at last Purvis yielded, and entered the shop.
+
+"Come now," said Jekyl to his companion; "it will take him full five
+minutes to say 'chatelaine,' and before that we shall be safely housed."
+And with these words he hurried her along, laughing, in spite of all her
+anxieties, at the absurdity of the adventure. "He 'll see the carriage
+when he comes out," added he, "and so I 'll tell the coachman to drive
+slowly on towards the Pitti." And thus, without asking her consent, he
+assumed the full guidance at once; and, ere she well knew how or why,
+she found herself within the dark and dusty precincts of Morlache's
+shop.
+
+Jekyl never gave Kate much time for hesitation, but hurried her along
+through a narrow passage, from which a winding flight of stone steps
+led downwards to a considerable distance, and at last opened upon a
+neat little chamber on the level of the Arno, the window opening on the
+stream, and only separated from it by a little terrace, covered with
+geraniums in full flower. There was a strange undulating motion that
+seemed communicated from the stream to the apartment, which Jekyl at
+once explained to his companion as a contrivance for elevating and
+depressing the chamber with the changes in the current of the river;
+otherwise the room must have been under water for a considerable portion
+of the year. While he descanted on the ingenuity of the mechanism,
+and pointed attention to the portraits along the walls, the Kings and
+Kaisers with whom Morlache had held moneyed relations, the minutes
+slipped on, and Jekyl' s powers as a talker were called upon to speak
+against time, the figety nervousness of his manner, and the frequent
+glances he bestowed at the timepiece, showing how impatiently he longed
+for the Jew's arrival. To all Kate's scruples he opposed some plausible
+pretext, assuring her that, if she desired it, no mention should be made
+of the loan; that the visit might be as one of mere curiosity, to
+see some of those wonderful gems which had once graced the crowns of
+royalty; and that, in any case, the brief delay would disembarrass them
+on the score of Purvis, whose spirit of inquiry would have called him
+off in some other direction. At last, when now upwards of half an hour
+had elapsed, and no sound nor sight bore token of the Jew's coming,
+Jekyl resolved to go in search of him; and requesting Kate to wait
+patiently for a few minutes, he left the room.
+
+At first, when she found herself alone, every noise startled and
+terrified her; the minutes, as she watched the clock, seemed drawn out
+to hours. She listened with an aching anxiety for Jekyl's return, while,
+with a sorrowing heart, she reproached herself for ever having come
+there. To this state of almost feverish excitement succeeded a low
+and melancholy depression, in which the time passed without her
+consciousness; the half-dulled sounds of the city, the monotonous plash
+of the stream as it flowed past, the distant cries of the boatmen
+as they guided their swift barks down the strong current, aiding and
+increasing a feeling that was almost lethargic. Already the sun had sunk
+below the hills, and the tall palaces were throwing their giant shadows
+across the river, the presage of approaching night, and still she sat
+there all alone. Jekyl had never returned, nor had any one descended the
+stairs since his departure. Twice had she shaken off the dreamy stupor
+that was over her, and tried to find the door of the chamber, but,
+concealed in the wainscoting, it defied her efforts; and now, worn out
+with anxiety and disappointed, she sat down beside the window, gazing
+listlessly at the water, and wondering when and how her captivity was to
+end.
+
+The lamps were now being lighted on the quays, and long columns of light
+streaked the dark river. Across these a black object was seen to glide,
+and as it passed, Kate could perceive it was a boat that advanced slowly
+against the current, and headed up the stream. As she watched, it came
+nearer and nearer; and now she could hear distinctly the sound of voices
+talking in French. What, however, was her surprise when, instead of
+making for the centre arches of the bridge, the boat was vigorously
+impelled across the river, and its course directed towards the very
+place where she sat?
+
+However painful her situation before, now it became downright agony.
+It was clear there were persons coming; in another moment she would
+be discovered, unable to explain by what course of events she had come
+there, and thus exposed to every surmise and suspicion that chance
+or calumny might originate. In that brief but terrible moment what
+self-accusings, what reproaches of Jekyl crossed her mind; and yet all
+these were as nothing to the misery which coming events seemed full of.
+For a second or two she stood irresolute, and then with something like
+an instinct of escape, she stepped out upon the little terrace that
+supported the flowers, and, trembling with fear, took her stand beneath
+the shadow of one of the great buttresses of the bridge. The frail and
+half-rotten timbers creaked and bent beneath her weight, and close under
+her feet rolled along the dark river, with a low and sullen sound like
+moaning. Meanwhile the boat came nearer, and slowly gliding along, was
+at last brought up at the window. Two figures passed into the chamber,
+and the boatmen, as if performing a long-accustomed task, rowed out a
+few lengths into the stream to wait.
+
+From the window, which still remained open, a stream of light now
+issued, and Kate's quick hearing could detect the rustling sound of
+papers on the table.
+
+"There they are," said a voice, the first accents of which she knew to
+belong to the Abbe D'Esmonde. "There they are, Signor Morlache. We have
+no concealments nor reserve with you. Examine them for yourself. You
+will find reports from nearly every part of the kingdom; some more, some
+less favorable in their bearings, but all agreeing in the main fact,
+that the cause is a great one, and the success all but certain."
+
+"I have told you before," said the Jew, speaking in a thick, guttural
+utterance, "that my sympathies never lead me into expense. Every solvent
+cause is good, every bankrupt one the reverse, in my estimation."
+
+"Even upon that ground I am ready to meet you. The committee--"
+
+"Ay, who are the committee?" interrupted the Jew, hastily.
+
+"The committee contains some of the first Catholic names of Ireland, men
+of landed fortune and great territorial influence, together with several
+of the higher clergy."
+
+"The bishops?"
+
+"The bishops, almost to a man, are with us in heart; but their peculiar
+position requires the most careful and delicate conduct. No turn of
+fortune must implicate them, or our cause is lost forever."
+
+"If your cause be all you say it is, if the nationality be so strong,
+and the energies so powerful as you describe, why not try the issue, as
+the Italians and the Hungarians are about to do?" said Morlache. "I
+can understand a loan for a defined and real object, the purchase of
+military stores and equipment, to provide arms and ammunition, and I can
+understand how the lender, too, could calculate his risk of profit or
+loss on the issue of the struggle; but here you want half a million
+sterling, and for what?"
+
+"To win a kingdom!" cried D'Esmonde, enthusiastically. "To bring back
+to the fold of the Church the long-lost sheep; and make Ireland, as she
+once was, the centre of holy zeal and piety!"
+
+"I am not a pope, nor a cardinal, not even a monsignore," said Morlache,
+with a bitter laugh. "You must try other arguments with me; and once
+more I say, why not join that party who already are willing to risk
+their lives in the venture?"
+
+"Have I not told you what and who they are who form this party?" said
+D'Esmonde, passionately. "Read those papers before you. Study the secret
+reports sent from nearly every parish in the kingdom. In some you will
+find the sworn depositions of men on their death-beds, the last words
+their lips have uttered on earth, all concurring to show that Ireland
+has no hope save in the Church. The men who now stir up the land to
+revolt are not devoid of courage or capacity. They are bold, and they
+are able, but they are infidel. They would call upon their countrymen
+in the name of past associations, the wrongs of bygone centuries; they
+would move the heart by appeals, touching enough, Heaven knows, to the
+galling sores of serfdom, but they will not light one fire upon the
+altar; they will not carry the only banner that should float in the van
+of an Irish army. Their bold denouncings may warn some; their poetry
+will, perhaps, move others; but their prose and verse, like themselves,
+will be forgotten in a few years, and, save a few grassy mounds in a
+village churchyard, or a prisoner's plaint sent over the sea from a land
+of banishment, nothing will remain of Ireland's patriots."
+
+"England is too powerful for such assailants," said the Jew.
+
+"Very true; but remember that the stout three-decker that never struck
+to an enemy has crumbled to ruin beneath the dry rot," said D'Esmonde,
+with a savage energy of manner. "Such is the case now. All is rot and
+corruption within her; pauperism at home, rebellion abroad. The
+nobles, more tolerant as the commonalty grows more ambitious; resources
+diminishing as taxation increases; disaffection everywhere, in the towns
+where they read, in the rural districts where they brood over their
+poverty; and lastly, but greatest of all, schism in the Church, a mutiny
+in that disorderly mass that was never yet disciplined to obedience. Are
+these the evidences of strength, or are they sure signs of coming ruin?
+Mark me," said he, hurriedly, "I do not mean from all this that such
+puny revolt as we are now to see can shake powers like that of England.
+These men will have the same fate as Tone and Emmet, without the
+sympathy that followed them. They will fail, and fail egregiously; but
+it is exactly upon this failure that our hopes of success are based. Not
+a priest will join them. On the contrary, their scheme will be denounced
+from our altars; our flocks warned to stand aloof from their evil
+influence. Our bishops will be in close communication with the heads of
+the Government; all the little coquetries of confidence and frankness
+will be played off; and our loyalty, that's the phrase, our loyalty
+stand high in public esteem. The very jeers and insults of our enemies
+will give fresh lustre to our bright example, and our calm and dignified
+demeanor form the contrast to that rampant intolerance that assails us."
+
+"But for all this classic dignity," said Morlache, sneeringly, "you
+need no money; such nobility of soul is, after all, the cheapest of
+luxuries."
+
+"You are mistaken, mistaken egregiously," broke in D'Esmonde. "It is
+precisely at that moment that we shall require a strong friend behind
+us. The 'Press' is all-powerful in England. If it does not actually
+guide, it is the embodiment of public opinion, without which men would
+never clothe their sentiments in fitting phrase, or invest them with
+those short and pithy apothegms that form the watchwords of party.
+Happily, if it be great, it is venal; and although the price be a
+princely ransom, the bargain is worth the money. Fifty or a hundred
+thousand pounds, at that nick, would gain our cause. We shall need many
+advocates; some, in assumed self-gratulation over their own prescience,
+in supporting our claims in time past, and reiterating the worn
+assertion of our attachment to the throne and the constitution; others,
+to contrast our bearing with the obtrusive loyalty of Orangeism; and
+others, again, going further than either, to proclaim that, but for
+us, Ireland would have been lost to England; and had not our allegiance
+stood in the breach, the cause of rebellion would have triumphed."
+
+"And is this character for loyalty worth so much money?" said the Jew,
+slowly.
+
+"Not as a mere empty name, not as a vain boast," replied D'Esmonde,
+quickly; "but if the tree be stunted, its fruits are above price. Our
+martyrdom will not go unrewarded. The moment of peril over, the season
+of concessions will begin. How I once hated the word! how I used to
+despise those who were satisfied with these crumbs from the table of the
+rich man, not knowing that the time would come when we should sit at the
+board ourselves. Concession! the vocabulary has no one word I 'd
+change for it; it is conquest, dominion, sovereignty, all together. By
+concession, we may be all we strive for, but never could wrest by force.
+Now, my good Signor Morlache, these slow and sententious English are
+a most impulsive people, and are often betrayed into the strangest
+excesses of forgiveness and forgetfulness; insomuch that I feel assured
+that nothing will be refused us, if we but play our game prudently."
+
+"And what is the game?" said the Jew, with impatience; "for it seems to
+me that you are not about to strike for freedom, like the Hungarians or
+the Lombards. What, then, is the prize you strive for?"
+
+"The Catholicism of Ireland, and then of England, the subjugation of the
+haughtiest rebel to the Faith, the only one whose disaffection menaces
+our Holy Church; for the Lutheranism of the German is scarce worth the
+name of enemy. England once Catholic, the world is our own!"
+
+The enthusiasm of his manner, and the excited tones of his round, full
+voice seemed to check the Jew, whose cold, sarcastic features were
+turned towards the priest with an expression of wonderment.
+
+"Let us come back from all this speculation to matter of plain fact,"
+said Morlache, after a long pause. "What securities are offered for the
+repayment of this sum? for, although the theme be full of interest to
+you, to me it has but the character of a commercial enterprise."
+
+"But it ought not," said D'Esmonde, passionately. "The downfall of the
+tyranny of England is your cause as much as ours. What Genoa and Venice
+were in times past, they may become again. The supremacy of the seas
+once wrested from that haughty power, the long-slumbering energies of
+Southern Europe will awaken, the great trading communities of the Levant
+will resume their ancient place, and the rich argosies of the East once
+more will float over the waters of the tideless sea."
+
+"Not in our time, Abbe, not in our time," said the Jew, smiling.
+
+"But are we only to build for ourselves?" said D'Esmonde. "Was it thus
+your own great forefathers raised the glorious Temple?"
+
+The allusion called up but a cold sneer on the Israelite's dark
+countenance, and D'Esmonde knew better than to repeat a blow which
+showed itself to be powerless.
+
+A tap at the door here broke in upon the colloquy, and Jekyl's voice was
+heard on the outside.
+
+"Say you are engaged, that you cannot admit him," whispered D'Esmonde.
+"I do not wish that he should see me here."
+
+"A thousand pardons, Morlache," said Jekyl, from without; "but when
+I followed you to the 'Pitti,' I left a young lady here, has she gone
+away, or is she still here?"
+
+"I never saw her," said Morlache. "She must have left before I
+returned."
+
+"Thanks, good-bye," said Jekyl; and his quick foot was heard ascending
+the stairs again.
+
+"The night air grows chilly," said the Abbe, as he arose and shut the
+window; and the boatmen, mistaking the sound for a summons to approach,
+pulled up to the spot.
+
+With a sudden spring Kate bounded into the boat, while yet some distance
+off, and hurriedly said, "To the stairs beside the Santa Trinita."
+
+The clink of money, as she took out her purse, made the brief command
+intelligible, and they shot down the stream with speed.
+
+"Do not speak of me," said she, covering her face with her kerchief as
+she stepped from the boat; and a gold Napoleon enforced the caution.
+
+It was now night, the lamps were all lighted, and the streets crowded by
+that bustling throng of population whose hours of business or pleasure
+commence when day has closed. A thin drizzling rain was falling, and
+the footway was wet and muddy. Dressed in the height of fashion, all her
+attire suited to a carriage, Kate set out to walk homeward, with a
+heart sinking from terror. Many a time in her condition of poverty,
+with patched and threadbare cloak, had she travelled the dark road from
+Lichtenthal to Baden after nightfall, fearless and undismayed, no dread
+of danger nor of insult occurring to her happy spirit, the "Gute nacht"
+of some homeward-bound peasant the only sound that saluted her. But now,
+she was no longer in the secluded valley of the great Vaterland; her
+way led through the crowded thoroughfares of a great city, with all its
+crash and noise and movement.
+
+If, in her wild confusion, she had no thought for each incident of the
+morning, her mind was full of "self-accusings." How explain to Lady
+Hester her long absence, and her return alone and on foot? Her very
+maid, Nina, might arraign her conduct, and regard her with distrust and
+suspicion. How should she appear in Jekyl's eyes, who already knew her
+secret? and, lastly, what answer return to her poor father's letter,
+that letter which was the cause of all her misfortunes?
+
+"I will tell him everything," said she to herself, as she went along. "I
+will detail the whole events of this morning, and he shall see that my
+failure has not come of lukewarmness. I will also strive to show him the
+nature of my position, and let him know the full extent of the sacrifice
+he would exact from me. If he persist, what then? Is it better to go
+back and share the poverty I cannot alleviate?
+
+"But what alternative have I? Jekyl's flatteries are but fictions. Would
+I wish them to be otherwise? Alas, I cannot tell; I do not even know my
+own heart now. Oh for one true-hearted friend to guide and counsel me!"
+She thought of George Onslow, rash, impetuous, and ardent; she thought
+of the priest, D'Esmonde, but the last scene in which he figured made
+her shrink with terror from the man of dark intrigues and secret wiles.
+She even thought of poor Hanserl, who, in all the simplicity of his
+nature, she wished to have that moment beside her. "But he would say,
+'Go back; return to the humble home you quitted; put away all the
+glittering gauds that are clinging to and clasping your very heart.
+Take, once more, your lowly place at hearth and board, and forget the
+bright dream of pleasure you have passed through.' But how forget it?
+Has it not become my hope, my very existence? How easy for those who
+have not tasted the intoxicating cup, to say, 'Be cool of heart and
+head!' Nor am I what I was. How then go back to be that which I have
+ceased to be? Would that I had never left it! Would that I could live
+again in the dreamland of the poets that we loved so well, and wander
+with dearest Nelly through those forest glades, peopled with the
+creations of Uhland, Tieck, and Chammisso! What a glorious world is
+theirs, and how unlike the real one!"
+
+Thus, lost in thoughts conflicting and jarring with each other, mingling
+the long past with the distant future, hoping and fearing, now seeking
+self-persuasion here, now controverting her own opinions there, she
+walked hurriedly on, unconscious of the time, the place, and even the
+rude glances bestowed upon her by many who gazed at her with an insolent
+admiration. What an armor is innocence! how proof against the venomed
+dart of malice? Kate never knew the ordeal through which she was
+passing. She neither saw the looks nor heard the comments of those
+that passed. If her mind ever turned from the throng of thoughts that
+oppressed it, it was when some momentary difficulty of the way recalled
+her to herself; for, as she escaped from the smaller streets, the crowd
+and crash increased, and she found herself borne along as in a strong
+current.
+
+"Does this lead to the Piazza Annunziata?" asked she of a woman at a
+fruit-stall.
+
+"Tell her, Giacomo," said the woman to a youth, who, with a water-melon
+in his hand, lay at full length on the pavement.
+
+"Per Baccho! but she 's handsome!" said he, holding up the paper lantern
+to gaze at her. And Kate hurried on in terror.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI. A STREET RENCONTRE
+
+LADY HESTER ONSLOW had passed a day of martyrdom. There was scarcely
+a single contrariety in the long catalogue of annoyances which had not
+fallen to her share. Her servants, habitually disciplined to perfection,
+had admitted every bore of her acquaintance, while, to the few she
+really wished to see, admittance had been denied. The rumor of an
+approaching departure had got wind through the servants, and the
+hall and the courtyard were crowded with creditors, duns, and begging
+impostors of every age and class and country. It seemed as if every
+one with a petition or a bill, an unsatisfied complaint or an unsettled
+balance, had given each other a general rendezvous that morning at the
+Mazzarini Palace.
+
+It is well known how the most obsequious tradespeople grow peremptory
+when passports are signed and posthorses are harnessed. The bland
+courteousness with which they receive "your Ladyship's orders" undergoes
+a terrible change. Departure is the next thing to death. Another country
+sounds like another world. The deferential bashfulness that could not
+hint at the mention of money, now talks boldly of his debt. The solvent
+creditor, who said always "at your convenience," has suddenly a most
+pressing call "to make up a large sum by Saturday."
+
+All the little cajoleries and coquetries, all the little seductions and
+temptations of trade, are given up. The invitations to buy are converted
+into suggestions for "cash payment." It is very provoking and very
+disenchanting! From a liberal and generous patron, you suddenly discover
+yourself transformed into a dubious debtor. All the halo that has
+surrounded your taste is changed for a chill atmosphere of suspicion
+and distrust. The tradesfolk, whose respectful voices never rose above
+a whisper in the hall, now grew clamorous in the antechamber; and more
+than once did they actually obtrude themselves in person within those
+charmed precincts inhabited by Lady Hester.
+
+What had become of Miss Dalton? where could she be all this while? Had
+not Mr. Jekyl called? what was he about that he had not "arranged" with
+all these "tiresome creatures"? Was there no one who knew what to do?
+Was not Captain Onslow, even, to be found? It was quite impossible that
+these people could be telling the truth; the greater number, if not all
+of them, must have been paid already, for she had spent a world of
+money latterly "somehow." Ce'lestine was charged with a message to this
+effect, which had a result the very opposite to what it was intended;
+and now the noisy tongues and angry accents grew bolder and louder.
+Still none came to her rescue; and she was left alone to listen to the
+rebellious threatenings that murmured in the courtyard, or to read
+the ill-spelled impertinences of such as preferred to epistolize their
+complaints.
+
+The visitors who found their way to the drawing-room had to pass through
+this motley and clamorous host; and, at each opening of the door, the
+sounds swelled loudly out.
+
+More than once she bethought her of Sir Stafford; but shame opposed the
+resolution. His liberality, indeed, was boundless; and therein lay
+the whole difficulty. Were the matter one for discussion or angry
+remonstrance, she could have adventured it without a dread. She could
+easily have brought herself to confront a struggle, but was quite
+unequal to an act of submission. Among the numerous visitors who now
+thronged the salons, Lord Norwood, who had just returned from his
+shooting excursion in the Maremma, was the only one with whom she had
+anything like intimacy.
+
+"I am but a poor counsellor in such a case," said he, laughing. "I was
+never dunned in my life, personally, I mean, for I always take care not
+to be found; and as to written applications, I know a creditor's seal
+and superscription as well as though I had seen him affix them. The very
+postmark is peculiar."
+
+"This levity is very unfeeling at such a moment," said Lady Hester,
+angrily; "and when you see me so utterly deserted, too!"
+
+"But where 's Jekyl? He ought to know how to manage this!"
+
+"He has never been here since morning. His conduct is inexcusable!"
+
+"And George?"
+
+"Out the whole day!"
+
+"And the 'Dalton'? for she has rather a good head, if I don't mistake
+her."
+
+"She took the carriage into town, and has not returned."
+
+"By Jove! I'd write a line to Sir Stafford; I 'd tell him that I was
+going for change of ah--, and all that sort of thing, to Como for a week
+or two, and that these people were so pestering and pressing, and all
+that; that, in fact, you were worried to death about it; and finding
+that your means were so very limited--"
+
+"But he has been most liberal. His generosity has been without bounds."
+
+"So much the better; he'll come down all the readier now."
+
+"I feel shame at such a course," said she, in a weak, faint voice.
+
+"As I don't precisely know what that sensation is, I can't advise
+against it; but it must needs be a very powerful emotion, if it prevent
+you accepting money."
+
+"Can you think of nothing else, Norwood?"
+
+"To be sure I can--there are twenty ways to do the thing. Close the
+shutters, and send for Buccellini; be ill dangerously ill and leave this
+to-morrow, at daybreak; or give a ball, like Dashwood, and start when
+the company are at supper. You lose the spoons and forks, to be sure;
+but that can't be helped. You might try and bully them, too though
+perhaps it 's late for that; and lastly and, I believe, best of all
+raise a few hundreds, and pay them each something."
+
+"But how or where raise the money?"
+
+"Leave that to me, if it must be done. The great benefactor of mankind
+was the fellow that invented bills. The glorious philanthropist that
+first devised the bright expedient of living by paper, when bullion
+failed, was a grand and original genius. How many a poor fellow might
+have been rescued from the Serpentine by a few words scrawled over a
+five-shilling stamp! What a turn to a man's whole earthly career has
+been often given, as his pen glided over the imaginative phrase
+'I promise to pay'!"
+
+Lady Hester paid no attention to the Viscount's moralizings. Shame
+indignant shame monopolized all her feelings.
+
+"Well," said she, at last, "I believe it must be so. I cannot endure
+this any longer. Jekyl has behaved shamefully; and George I 'll never
+forgive. They ought to have taken care of all this. And now, Norwood, to
+procure the money what is to be done?"
+
+"Here 's the patent treasury for pocket use the 'Young Man's Best
+Companion,'" said he, taking out of a black morocco case three or four
+blank bill-stamps, together with a mass of acceptances of various kinds,
+the proceeds of various play debts, the majority of which he well knew
+to be valueless. "What amount will be sufficient, how much shall we draw
+for?" said he, seating himself, pen in hand, at the table.
+
+"I cannot even guess," said she, trembling with embarrassment and
+confusion. "There are all these people's accounts and letters. I suppose
+they are all horrid cheats. I 'm sure I never got half the things, and
+that the rest are already paid for. But no matter now; let us have done
+with them at any cost."
+
+"'Morlandi, coachmaker' pretty well for Signer Morlandi!" said Norwood
+"eleven hundred scudi for repairs to carriages for destroying your
+patent axles, and replacing English varnish by the lacquer of a tea-tray
+something less than two hundred and fifty pounds!"
+
+"He is an obliging creature," said Lady Hester, "and always punctual."
+
+"In that case we 'll deal generously with him. He shall have half his
+money, if he gives a receipt in full."
+
+"'Legendre, coiffeur; eight thousand francs.' Pas mal, Monsieur
+Legendre! kid gloves and perfumes, Madonna bands and Macassar oil, are
+costly things to deal in."
+
+"That is really iniquitous," said Lady Hester. "I see every bouquet is
+put down at a hundred francs!"
+
+"A conservatory, at that rate, is better property than a coal-mine.
+Shall we say one thousand francs for this honest coiffeur?"
+
+"Impossible! He would scorn such an offer."
+
+"Pardon me. I know these people somewhat better and longer than you do;
+and so far even from suffering in his estimation if that were a matter
+of any consequence you will rise in his good opinion. An Italian always
+despises a dupe, but entertains a sincere respect for all who detect
+knavery. I 'll set him down for one thousand, to be increased to fifteen
+hundred if he'll tell me how to cut down his neighbor, Guercini."
+
+"What of Guercini? How much is his claim?"
+
+"A trifle under five thousand crowns."
+
+"Nearly one thousand pounds!" exclaimed she. "Say, rather, eleven
+hundred and upwards," said Norwood.
+
+"It is incredible how little I've had from him: a few trifling rings and
+brooches; some insignificant alterations and new settings; one or two
+little presents to Kate; and, I really believe, nothing more."
+
+"We are getting deeper and deeper," said Norwood, turning over the
+bills. "Contardo, the wine-merchant, and Frisani, table-decker, are both
+large claimants. If pine-apples were the daily food of the servants'
+hall, they could scarcely cut a more formidable figure in the reckoning,
+indeed, if the whole establishment did nothing but munch them during all
+their leisure hours, the score need not be greater. Do you know, Hester,
+that the rogueries of the Continent are a far heavier infliction than
+the income-tax, and that the boasted economy of a foreign residence is
+sensibly diminished by the unfortunate fact that one honest tradesman
+is not to be found from Naples to the North Pole? They are Spartans in
+deceit, and only disgraced whenever the rascality is detected. Now, it
+is quite absurd to read such an item as this: 'Bonbons and dried fruits,
+three hundred and seventy crowns!' Why, if your guests were stuffed with
+marrons glaces, this would be an exaggeration."
+
+"You are very tiresome, Norwood," said she, peevishly. "I don't want to
+be told that these people are all knaves; their character for honesty is
+no affair of mine; if it were, Buccellini could easily mesmerize any one
+of them and learn all his secrets. I only wish to get rid of them, it
+'s very distressing to hear their dreadful voices, and see their more
+dreadful selves in the court beneath."
+
+"The task is somewhat more difficult than I bargained for," said
+Norwood, thoughtfully. "I fancied a few 'hundreds' would suffice, but we
+must read 'thousands' instead. In any case, I 'll hold a conference with
+them, and see what can be done."
+
+"Do so, then, and lose no time, for I see Midchekoff s chasseur below,
+and I 'm sure the Prince is coming."
+
+Norwood gave her a look which made her suddenly become scarlet, and then
+left the room without speaking.
+
+If he had not been himself a debtor with the greater number of those who
+waited below, few could have acquitted themselves more adroitly in such
+a mission. He was an adept in that clever game by which duns are foiled
+and tradesmen mollified; he knew every little menace and every flattery
+to apply to them, when to soothe and when to snub them. All these
+arts he was both ready and willing to exercise, were it not for the
+unpleasant difficulty that his own embarrassments rendered him a
+somewhat dubious ambassador. In fact, as he himself phrased it, "it was
+playing advocate with one leg in the dock."
+
+He lingered a little, therefore, as he went; he stopped on the landing
+of the stairs to peep out on the tumultuous assemblage beneath, like
+a general surveying the enemy's line before the engagement; nor was he
+over-pleased to remark that little Purvis was bustling about among
+the crowd, note-book and pencil in hand, palpably taking evidence and
+storing up facts for future mention. As he was still looking, the
+great gate was thrown open with a crash, and a caleche, dirty and
+travel-stained, was whirled into the court by three steaming and panting
+posters. After a brief delay, a short, thick-set figure, enveloped in
+travelling-gear, descended, and putting, as it seemed, a few questions
+as to the meaning of the assembled throng, entered the house.
+
+Curious to learn who, what, and whence the new arrival came, Norwood
+hurried downstairs; but all that he could learn from the postilion was
+that the stranger had posted from Genoa, using the greatest speed all
+the way, and never halting, save a few minutes for refreshment. The
+traveller was not accompanied by a servant, and his luggage bore neither
+name nor crest to give any clew as to his identity. That he was English,
+and that he had gone direct to Sir Stafford's apartments, was the whole
+sum of the Viscount's knowledge; but even this seemed so worthy of
+remark that he hastened back with the tidings to Lady Hester, instead of
+proceeding on his errand.
+
+She treated the announcement with less interest. It might be Proctor,
+Sir Stafford's man. Was he tall and black-whiskered? No, he was short;
+and, so far as Norwood saw, he thought him fair-haired. "She knew of
+nobody to bear that description. It might be an English physician from
+Genoa, there was one there, or in Nice, she forgot exactly which, who
+was celebrated for treating gout, or sore eyes, she could not remember
+precisely, but it was certainly one or the other. On recollection,
+however, it was probably gout, because he had attended Lord Hugmore, who
+was blind."
+
+"In that case," said Norwood, "Onslow would seem to be worse."
+
+"Yes, poor man, much worse. George sat up with him the night before
+last, and said he suffered terribly. His mind used to wander at
+intervals, too, and he spoke as if he was very unhappy."
+
+"Unhappy, a man with upwards of thirty thousand a year unhappy!" said
+Norwood, clasping his hands over his head as he spoke.
+
+"You forget, my Lord, that there are other considerations than moneyed
+ones which weigh at least with some persons; and if Onslow's fortune
+be a princely one, he may still feel compunctious regrets for his
+detestable conduct to me!"
+
+"Oh, I forgot that!" said Norwood, with a most laudable air of
+seriousness.
+
+"It was very kind of you, my Lord, very considerate and very kind,
+indeed, to forget it. Yet I should have fancied it was the very
+sentiment uppermost in the mind of any one entering this chamber,
+witnessing the solitary seclusion of my daily life, beholding the
+resources by which the weary hours are beguiled, not to speak of the
+ravages which sorrow has left upon these features."
+
+"On that score, at least, I can contradict you, Hester," said he, with a
+smile of flattering meaning. "It is now above eight years since first--"
+
+"How can you be so tiresome?" said she, pettishly.
+
+"Prince Midchekoff, my Lady, presents his compliments," said a servant,
+"and wishes to know if your Ladyship will receive him at dinner to-day,
+and at what hour?"
+
+"How provoking! Yes, say, 'Yes, at eight o'clock,'" said she, walking up
+and down the room with impatience. "You 'll stay and meet him, Norwood.
+I know you 're not great friends; but no matter, George is so uncertain.
+He left us t' other day to entertain the Prince alone, Kate and
+myself, only fancy; and as he takes half-hour fits of silence, and Kate
+occasionally won't speak for a whole evening together, my part was a
+pleasant one."
+
+"How Florence wrongs you both!" said Norwood. "They say that no one is
+more agreeable to your Ladyship than the Midchekoff," said he, slowly
+and pointedly.
+
+"As Miss Dalton's admirer, I hope rumor adds that," said she, hastily.
+
+"What? are you really serious? Has the Dalton pretensions?"
+
+"Perhaps not; but the Prince has," interrupted Lady Hester. "But you
+are forgetting these people all the while. Do pray do something anything
+with them; and don't forget us at eight o'clock." And with this Lady
+Hester hurried from the room, as if admonished by her watch of the
+lateness of the hour, but really anxious to escape further interrogatory
+from the Viscount.
+
+When Norwood reached the court, he was surprised to find it empty; not
+one of the eager creditors remained, but all was still and silent.
+
+"What has become of these good people?" asked he of the porter.
+
+"The stranger who arrived in the caleche awhile ago spoke a few words to
+them, and they went."
+
+This was all that he knew, and being a porter, one of that privileged
+caste whose prerogative it is never to reveal what takes place before
+their eyes, his present communication was remarkable.
+
+"Would that the good genius had remembered me in his moment of generous
+abandonment!" muttered Norwood, as he took his road homeward to dress
+for dinner.
+
+Little scrupulous about the means of getting out of a difficulty,
+provided it were only successful, Norwood scarcely bestowed another
+thought upon the whole matter, and lounged along the streets, as
+forgetful of the late scene as though it had passed twenty years before.
+
+As the Viscount strolled along towards his lodgings, Kate Dalton, with
+trembling limbs and palpitating heart, threaded her way through the
+thronged streets, now wet and slippery from a thin rain that
+was falling. So long as her road lay through the less-frequented
+thoroughfares, her appearance excited little or no attention in the
+passers-by; but when she entered the Piazza Santa Trinita, all ablaze
+with gas-lamps and the reflected lights from brilliant shops, many
+stopped, turned, and gazed at the strange sight of a young and beautiful
+girl, attired in the very height of fashion, being alone and afoot at
+such an hour. Unaccountable even to mystery, as it seemed, there was
+something in her gait and carriage that at once repelled the possibility
+of a disparaging impression, and many touched or removed their hats
+respectfully as they made way for her to pass. To avoid the carriages,
+which whirled past in every direction and at tremendous speed, she
+passed close along by the houses; and, in doing so, came within that
+brilliant glare of light that poured from the glass doors of the great
+Cafe of the Piazza. It was exactly the hour when the idle loungers of
+Florence society that listless class who form the staple of our club
+life in England were swarming to talk of the plans of the evening, what
+resources of pleasure were available, and what receptions were open.
+The drizzling rain, and the cold, raw feeling of the air prevented their
+being seated, as their custom was, before the doors, where in every
+attitude of graceful languor they habitually smoked their cigars and
+discussed the passersby, in all the plenitude of recreative indolence.
+The group consisted of men of every age and country.
+
+There were princes and blacklegs and adventurers; some with real rank
+and fortune, others as destitute of character as of means. Many owned
+names great and renowned in history; others bore designations only
+chronicled in the records of criminal jurisprudence. All were well
+dressed, and, so far as cursory notice could detect, possessed the ease
+and bearing of men familiar with the habits of good society. Although
+mixing in very distinct circles, here, at least, they met every day on
+terms of familiar equality, discussing the politics of the hour and the
+events of the world with seeming frankness and candor.
+
+From a small chamber at the back of the cafe, a little tide of loungers
+seemed to ebb and flow; while the sharp rattling sound of a dice-box
+indicated the nature of the occupation that went forward there. The
+small apartment was thronged with spectators of the game; and even
+around the door several were standing, content to hear the tidings of a
+contest they could not witness.
+
+"To sit upon the Ponte Carraja, and chuck rouleaux of gold into the
+Arno, would be to the full as amusing, and not a more costly pastime,"
+said a sharp, ringing voice, which, once heard, there was no difficulty
+in recognizing as Haggerstone's.
+
+"But Onslow plays well," said another.
+
+"When he's in luck, sir," said the Colonel. "Let him always have the
+winning horse to ride, and I don't say he 'll lose the saddle; but
+Maraffi would win on a donkey."
+
+"Is he a Russian?" asked one.
+
+"No, sir, he 's worse; he 's a Greek. I know everything about him. His
+mother was a Finlander, and the father a Cephalonian. I don't think
+Satan himself would ask a better parentage."
+
+"What luck! By Jove! I never saw such luck!" said a voice from within
+the door. "Onslow has no chance with him."
+
+"Nor will you, sir, if you persist in expressing your opinion in
+English," said Haggerstone. "Maraffi speaks every language, plays every
+game, and knows the use of every weapon, from a jereed to a Joe Manton."
+
+"I 'll not test his abilities at any of them," said the other, laughing.
+
+"_Per Baccho!_ there goes something new," said a young Italian, from the
+window that looked into the street. "Who's she?"
+
+"_Diantre!_" said the old Duc de Parivaux. "That is something very
+exquisite, indeed. She was splashed by that carriage that passed, and I
+just saw her foot."
+
+"She's the prima donna from Milan."
+
+"She 's the Cipriani. I know her figure perfectly."
+
+"She 's very like the Princesse de Raoule."
+
+"Taller, and younger."
+
+"And fifty times handsomer. What eyes! By Jove! I wish the drosky would
+never move on! She is regularly imprisoned there."
+
+"You are very ungallant, gentlemen, I must say," said the young Count
+de Guilmard, the French secretary of legation, who, having finished his
+coffee and liquor, coolly arranged his curls beneath his hat before the
+glass, "very ungallant, indeed, not to offer an arm to an unprotected
+princess. We Frenchmen understand our devoirs differently." And, so
+saying, he passed out into the street, while the rest pressed up closer
+to the window to observe his proceedings.
+
+"Cleverly done, Guilmard!" cried one. "See how he affects to have
+protected her from the pole of that carriage."
+
+"She 'll not notice him." "She will." "She has." "She has n't." "She is
+moving his way!" "Not at all."
+
+"She 's speaking!" "There, I told you he 'd succeed."
+
+"But he hasn't, though." Amid all these phrases, which rattled on more
+rapidly than we can write them, Onslow joined the party, one heavy
+venture on a single card having involved him in a tremendous loss.
+
+"Is that a countrywoman of yours, Onslow?" asked a young Russian noble.
+"If so, the entente cordiale with France seems scarcely so secure as
+statesmen tell us."
+
+Onslow gave one glance through the window, and dashed into the street
+with a bound like the spring of a wild animal. He threw himself between
+Guilmard and Kate. The Frenchman lifted his cane, and the same instant
+he fell backwards upon the pavement, rather hurled than struck down
+by the strong arm of the young Guardsman. Before the lookers-on could
+hasten out, George had hailed a carriage, and, assisting Kate in, took
+his seat beside her, and drove off.
+
+So sudden was the whole incident, and so engrossing the terror of
+poor Kate's mind, that she saw nothing of what passed, and was merely
+conscious that by George's opportune coming she was rescued from the
+insolent attentions of the stranger.
+
+"Did he speak to you? Did he dare to address you?" asked Onslow, in a
+voice which boiling passion rendered almost unintelligible.
+
+"If he did, I know not," said she, as she covered her face with shame,
+and struggled against the emotion that almost choked her.
+
+"He took your arm; he certainly laid hold of your hand!"
+
+"It was all so rapid that I can tell nothing," said she, sobbing; "and
+although my courage never failed me till you came, then I thought I
+should have fainted."
+
+"But how came you alone, and on foot, and at such an hour, too? Where
+had you been?"
+
+These questions he put with a sort of stern resolution that showed no
+evasive answer would rescue her.
+
+"Did you leave home without a carriage, or even a servant?" asked he
+again, as no answer was returned to his former question.
+
+"I did take a carriage in the morning; and and--"
+
+"Sent it away again," continued George, impetuously. "And where did you
+drive to, where pass the day?"
+
+Kate hung her head in silence, while her heart felt as if it would burst
+from very agony.
+
+"This is no idle curiosity of mine, Miss Dalton," said he, speaking with
+a slow and measured utterance. "The society you have mixed with here is
+not above any reproach nor beneath any suspicion. I insist upon knowing
+where you have been, and with whom? So, then, you refuse to speak, you
+will not tell. If it be Lady Hester's secret--"
+
+"No, no! The secret is mine, and mine only. I swear to you, by all we
+both believe in, that it has no concern with any one save myself."
+
+[Illustration:  470]
+
+"And can you not confide it to me? Have I no right to ask for the
+confidence, Kate?" said he, with tenderness.
+
+"Know you any one more deeply and sincerely your friend than I am, more
+ready to aid, protect, or counsel you?"
+
+"But this I cannot--must not tell you," said she, in accents broken by
+sobbing.
+
+"Let me know, at least, enough to refute the insolence of an imputation
+upon your conduct. I cannot tamely sit by and hear the slanderous
+stories that to-morrow or next day will gain currency through the town."
+
+"I cannot, I cannot," was all that she could utter.
+
+"If not me, then, choose some other defender. Unprotected and undefended
+you must not be."
+
+"I need none, sir; none will asperse me!" said she, haughtily.
+
+"What! you say this? while scarce five minutes since I saw you outraged,
+insulted in the open street?"
+
+A burst of tears, long repressed, here broke from Kate; and for some
+minutes her sobs alone were heard in the silence.
+
+"I will ask but one question more, Miss Dalton," said George, slowly,
+as the carriage passed under the arched gateway of the Palace, "and then
+this incident is sealed to me forever. Is this secret whatever it be in
+your own sole keeping; or is your confidence shared in by another?"
+
+"It is," murmured Kate, below her breath.
+
+"You mean that it is shared?" asked he, eagerly.
+
+"Yes, Mr. Jekyl at least knows--"
+
+"Jekyl!" cried George, passionately; "and is Alfred Jekyl your adviser
+and your confidant? Enough; you have told me quite enough," said he,
+dashing open the door of the carriage as it drew up to the house. He
+gave his hand to Kate to alight, and then, turning away, left her,
+without even a "good-bye," while Kate hurried to her room, her heart
+almost breaking with agony.
+
+"I shall be late, Nina," said she, affecting an air and voice of
+unconcern, as she entered her room; "you must dress me rapidly."
+
+"Mademoiselle must have been too pleasantly engaged to remember the
+hour," said the other, with an easy pertness quite different from her
+ordinary manner.
+
+More struck by the tone than by the words themselves, Kate turned a look
+of surprise on the speaker.
+
+"It is so easy to forget one's self at Morlache's, they say," added the
+girl, with a saucy smile; and although stung by the impertinence, Kate
+took no notice of the speech. "Mademoiselle will of course never wear
+that dress again," said Nina, as she contemptuously threw from her the
+mud-stained and rain-spotted dress she had worn that morning. "We have
+a Basque proverb, Mademoiselle, about those who go out in a carriage and
+come back on foot."
+
+"Nina, what do you mean by these strange words and this still more
+strange manner?" asked Kate, with a haughtiness she had never before
+assumed towards the girl.
+
+"I do not pretend to say that Mademoiselle has not the right to choose
+her confidantes, but the Principessa de San Martello and the Duchessa di
+Rivoli did not think me beneath their notice."
+
+"Nina, you are more unintelligible than ever," cried Kate, who still,
+through all the dark mystery of her words, saw the lowering storm of
+coming peril.
+
+"I may speak too plainly, too bluntly, Mademoiselle, but I can scarcely
+be reproached with equivocating; and I repeat that my former mistresses
+honored me with their secret confidence; and they did wisely, too, for I
+should have discovered everything of myself, and my discretion would not
+have been fettered by a compact."
+
+"But if I have no secrets," said Kate, drawing herself up with a proud
+disdain, "and if I have no need either of the counsels or the discretion
+of my waiting-woman?"
+
+"In that case," said Nina, quietly, "Mademoiselle has only perilled
+herself for nothing. The young lady who leaves her carriage and her maid
+to pass three hours at Morlache's, and returns thence, on foot, after
+nightfall, may truly say she has no secrets, at least, so far as the
+city of Florence is concerned."
+
+"This is insolence that you never permitted yourself before," said Kate,
+passionately.
+
+"And yet, if I were Mademoiselle's friend instead of her servant, I
+should counsel her to bear it."
+
+"But I will not," cried Kate, indignantly. "Lady Hester shall know of
+your conduct this very instant."
+
+"One moment, Mademoiselle, just one moment," said Nina, interposing
+herself between Kate and the door. "My tongue is oftentimes too ready,
+and I say things for which I am deeply sorry afterwards. Forgive me, I
+beg and beseech you, if I have offended; reject my counsels, disdain my
+assistance, if you will, but do not endanger yourself in an instant of
+anger. If you have but little control over your temper, I have even less
+over mine; pass out of that door as my enemy, and I am yours to the last
+hour of my life."
+
+There was a strange and almost incongruous mixture of feeling in the way
+she uttered these words; at one moment abject in submission, and at the
+next hurling a defiance as haughty as though she were an injured equal.
+The conflict of the girl's passion, which first flushed, now left her
+pale as death, and trembling in every limb. Her emotion bespoke the most
+intense feeling, and Kate stood like one spellbound, before her. Her
+anger had already passed away, and she looked with almost a sense of
+compassion at the excited features and heaving bosom of the Spanish
+girl.
+
+"You wrong yourself and me too, Nina," said Kate Dalton, at last. "I
+have every trust in your fidelity, but I have no occasion to test it."
+
+"Be it so, Mademoiselle," replied the other, with a courtesy.
+
+"Then all is forgotten," said Kate, affecting a gayety she could not
+feel; "and now let me hasten downstairs, for I am already late."
+
+"The Prince will have thought it an hour, Mademoiselle," said the girl;
+the quiet demureness of her manner depriving the words of any semblance
+of impertinence. If Kate looked gravely, perhaps some little secret
+source of pleasure lay hid within her heart; and in the glance she gave
+at her glass, there was an air of conscious triumph that did not escape
+the lynx-eyed Nina.
+
+"My Lady is waiting dinner, Miss Dalton," said a servant, as he tapped
+at the door; and Kate, with many a trouble warring in her breast,
+hastened downstairs, in all the pride of a loveliness that never was
+more conspicuous.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII. PROPOSALS.
+
+KATE found Lady Hester, the Prince, and Mr. Jekyl awaiting her as she
+entered the drawing-room, all looking even more bored and out of sorts
+than people usually do who have been kept waiting for their dinner.
+
+"Everybody has sworn to be as tiresome and disagreeable as possible
+to-day," said Lady Hester. "George said he'd dine here, and is
+not coming; Lord Norwood promised, and now writes me word that an
+unavoidable delay detains him; and here comes Miss Dalton, the mirror
+of punctuality when all else are late, a full half-hour after the time.
+There, dear, no excuses nor explanations about all you have been doing,
+the thousand calls you 've made, and shops you 've ransacked. I 'm
+certain you 've had a miserable day of it."
+
+Kate blushed deeply, and dreaded to meet Jekyl' s eye; but when she
+did, that little glassy orb was as blandly meaningless as any that ever
+rattled in the head of a Dutch doll. Even as he gave his arm to lead
+her in to dine, nothing in his manner or look betrayed anything like a
+secret understanding between them. A bystander might have deemed him a
+new acquaintance.
+
+"Petits diners" have, generally, the prerogative of agreeability; they
+are the chosen reunions of a few intimates, who would not dilute their
+pleasantry even by a single bore. They are also the bright occasions for
+those little culinary triumphs which never can be attempted in a wider
+sphere. Epigrams, whether of lamb or language, require a select and
+special jury to try them; but just in the same proportion as the success
+of such small parties is greater, so is their utter failure, when by any
+mischance there happens a breakdown in the good spirits or good humor of
+the company.
+
+We have said enough to show that the ladies, at least, might be excused
+for not displaying those thousand attractions of conversation which all
+centre on the one great quality, ease of mind. The Prince was more than
+usual out of sorts, a number of irritating circumstances having occurred
+to him during the morning. A great sovereign, on whom he had lavished
+the most profuse attentions, had written him a letter of thanks, through
+his private secretary, enclosing a snuff-box, instead of sending him
+an autograph, and the first class of the national order. His glover, in
+Paris, had forgotten to make his right hand larger than the left, and a
+huge packet that had just arrived was consequently useless. His chef
+had eked out a salmi of ortolans by a thrush; and it was exactly that
+unlucky morsel the Cardinal had helped himself to at breakfast, and
+immediately sent his plate away in disappointment. Rubion, too, his
+ninth secretary, had flatly refused to marry a little danseuse that had
+just come out in the ballet, a piece of insolence and rebellion on
+his part not to be tolerated; and when we add to these griefs an
+uncomfortable neckcloth, and the tidings of an insurrection in a
+Russian province where he owned immense property in mines, his state of
+irritability may be leniently considered.
+
+Jekyl, if truth were told, had as many troubles of his own to confront
+as any of the rest. If the ocean he sailed in was not a great Atlantic,
+his bark was still but a cockleshell; his course in life required
+consummate skill and cleverness, and yet never could be safe even
+with that. Notwithstanding all this, he alone was easy, natural, and
+agreeable, not as many an inferior artist would have been agreeable, by
+any over-effort to compensate for the lack of co-operation in others,
+and thus make their silence and constraint but more palpable, his
+pleasantry was tinged with the tone of the company, and all his little
+smartnesses were rather insinuated than spoken. Quite satisfied if the
+Prince listened, or Lady Hester smiled, more than rewarded when they
+once both laughed at one of his sallies, he rattled on about the Court
+and the town talk, the little scandals of daily history, and the petty
+defections of those dear friends they nightly invited to their houses.
+While thus, as it were, devoting himself to the amusement of the others,
+his real occupation was an intense study of their thoughts, what was
+uppermost in their minds, and in what train their speculations were
+following. He had long suspected the Prince of being attracted by Kate
+Dalton; now he was certain of it. Accustomed almost from childhood to
+be flattered on every hand, and to receive the blandest smiles of beauty
+everywhere, Midchekoff's native distrust armed him strongly against
+such seductions; and had Kate followed the path of others, and exerted
+herself to please him, her failure would have been certain. It was her
+actual indifference her perfect carelessness on the subject was the
+charm to his eyes, and he felt it quite a new and agreeable sensation
+not to be made love to.
+
+Too proud of her own Dalton blood to feel any elevation by the marked
+notice of the great Russian, she merely accorded him so much of her
+favor as his personal agreeability seemed to warrant; perhaps no
+designed flattery could have been so successful. Another feeling, also,
+enhanced his admiration of her. It was a part of that barbaric instinct
+which seemed to sway all his actions, to desire the possession of
+whatever was unique in life. Those forms or fancies of which nature
+stamps but one, and breaks the die, these were a passion with him. To
+possess a bluer turquoise than any king or kaiser, to own an arab of
+some color never seen before, to have a picture by some artist who never
+painted but one; but whether it were a gem, a vase, a weapon, a diamond,
+or a dog, its value had but one test, that it had none its exact equal.
+Now, Kate Dalton realized these conditions more than any one he had
+ever met. Her very beauty was peculiar; combining, with much of feminine
+softness and delicacy, a degree of determination and vigor of character
+that to Midchekoff smacked of queenly domination. There was a species of
+fierte about her that distinguished her among other women. All that he
+had seen done by an illustrious title and a diamond tiara, she seemed
+capable of effecting in the simplest costume and without an effort. All
+these were wonderful attractions to his eyes; and if he did not fall in
+love, it was simply because he did not know how. He, however, did what
+to him served as substitute for the passion; he coveted an object which
+should form one of the greatest rarities of his collection, and the
+possession of which would give him another title to that envy, the most
+delicious tribute the world could render him.
+
+There were some drawbacks to his admiration; her birth was not
+sufficiently illustrious. His own origin was too recent to make an
+alliance of this kind desirable, and he wished that she had been a
+princess; even de la main, gauche of some royal house. Jekyl had done
+his best, by sundry allusions to Irish greatness, and the blood of
+various monarchs of Munster and Conuaught, in times past; but the Prince
+was incredulous as to Hibernian greatness; probably the remembrance of
+an Irish diamond once offered him for sale had tinged his mind with this
+sense of disparagement as to all Irish magnificence. Still Kate rose
+above every detracting influence, and he thought of the pride in which
+he should parade her through Europe as his own.
+
+Had she been a barb or a bracelet, an antique cup or a Sevres jar, he
+never would have hesitated about the acquisition. Marriage, however, was
+a more solemn engagement; and he did not quite fancy any purchase that
+cost more than mere money. Nothing but the possibility of losing her
+altogether could have overcome this cautious scruple; and Jekyl had
+artfully insinuated such a conjuncture. "George Onslow's attentions
+were," he said, "quite palpable; and although up to this Miss Dalton
+did not seem to give encouragement, who could tell what time and daily
+intercourse might effect? There was Norwood, too, with the rank of
+peeress in his gift; there was no saying how an ambitious girl might
+be tainted by that bait." In fact, the Prince had no time to lose; and,
+although nothing less accorded with his tastes than what imposed haste,
+he was obliged to bestir himself on this occasion.
+
+If we have dwelt thus long upon the secret thoughts of the company,
+it is because their conversation was too broken and unconnected for
+recording. They talked little, and that little was discursive. An
+occasional allusion to some social topic, a chance mention of their
+approaching departure from Florence, some reference to Como and its
+scenery, formed the whole; and then, in spite of Jekyl, whose functions
+of "fly-wheel" could not keep the machine a-moving, long pauses would
+intervene, and each lapse into a silence apparently more congenial than
+conversation. All this while Jekyl seemed to be reading the complex
+scheme of doubt, irresolution, and determination that filled
+Midchekoff's mind. The stealthy glances of the Russian's eyes towards
+Kate, the almost painful anxiety of his manner, to see if she noticed
+him while speaking, his watchful observance of her in her every accent
+and gesture, told Jekyl the struggle that was then passing within him.
+He had seen each of these symptoms before, though in a less degree,
+when the coveted object was a horse or a picture; and he well knew how
+nothing but the dread of a competition for the prize would rouse him
+from this state of doubt and uncertainty.
+
+The evening dragged slowly over, and it was now late, when Lord Norwood
+made his appearance. With a brief apology for not coming to dinner, he
+drew Jekyl to one side, and, slipping an arm within his, led him into an
+adjoining room.
+
+"I say, Jekyl," whispered he, as they retired out of earshot of the
+others, "here's a pretty mess Onslow's got in. There has been a fracas
+in the street about Miss Dalton. How she came there at such a time, and
+alone, is another matter; and George has struck Guilmard, knocked him
+down, by Jove! and no mistake; and they're to meet tomorrow morning. Of
+course, there was nothing else for it; a blow has but one reparation,
+George will have to stand the fire of the first shot in Europe."
+
+Jekyl hated a duel. Had he been a member of the Peace Congress, he could
+not have detested the arbitrament of arms more heartily. 'It involved
+partisanship, it severed intimacies, it barred general intercourse, and
+often closed up for a whole season the pleasantest houses of a town. The
+announcement of a strict blockade never struck a mercantile community
+with more terror. To Norwood the prospect was directly the opposite. Not
+only an adept in all the etiquette and ceremonial of such meetings, he
+liked to see his name circulated in these affairs as a kind of guarantee
+of his readiness to seek a similar reparation for injury. He had trusted
+for many a year on his dexterity at twelve paces, and he never missed an
+opportunity of sustaining the prestige of a "dead shot."
+
+It was, then, with an ardor of amateurship that he narrated the various
+little preliminary steps which had already been taken. Merkheim, the
+Austrian secretary, had called on him, on the part of Guilmard; and as,
+in a case so clear, there was little to arrange, the only difficulty lay
+in the choice of weapons.
+
+"The Frenchman claims the sword," said Norwood; "and it is always
+awkward to decline that proposition for a soldier. But I suppose George
+has about as much chance with one weapon as the other."
+
+"You think he 'll kill him, my Lord?"
+
+"I think so. If the offence had been less flagrant or less public,
+possibly not. But a blow! to be struck down in the open street! I don't
+see how he can do less."
+
+"What a break-up it will cause here!" said Jekyl, with a nod of his
+head in the direction of the drawing-room.
+
+"It will send them all back to England, I suppose."
+
+"I suppose it will," added Jekyl, mournfully.
+
+"What a bore! It's particularly unpleasant for me, for I hold some
+half-dozen of George's acceptances, not due yet; and, of course, the
+governor will never think of acquitting them."
+
+"I conclude it is inevitable the meeting, I mean?" said Jekyl.
+
+"To be sure it is. Onslow took care of that! By the way, Jekyl, how came
+she there at such an hour, and alone, too?"
+
+"She had been shopping, I fancy, and missed the carriage. There was some
+blunder, I have heard, about the coachman drawing up at the wrong door."
+
+"No go, Master Jekyl. Don't try it on with me, old fellow. You know all
+about it, if you like to tell."
+
+"I assure you, my Lord, you give me a credit I don't deserve."
+
+"You know the whole story from beginning to end, Jekyl. I 'd back you
+against the field, my boy."
+
+The other shook his head with an air of supreme innocence.
+
+"Then George knows it?" added Norwood, half asserting, half asking the
+question.
+
+"He may, my Lord, for aught I can tell."
+
+"If so, he's treating me unfairly," said Norwood, rising and pacing
+the room. "As his friend in this affair, there should be no reserve or
+concealment with me. You can surely say that much, Jekyl, eh? What a
+close fellow you are!"
+
+"It is so easy not to blab when one has nothing to tell," said Jekyl,
+smiling.
+
+"Come, there is something you can tell me. Where does that small
+corridor behind George's apartment lead to? There is a door at the end
+of it, and, I fancy, a stair beyond it."
+
+"That, if I mistake not, leads up to Lady Hester. No, I remember now; it
+leads to Miss Dalton's room."
+
+"Just so; I could have sworn it."
+
+"Why so, my Lord?" asked Jekyl, whose curiosity was now excited to the
+utmost.
+
+"That 's my secret, Master Jekyl."
+
+"But the door is always locked and bolted from within," said Jekyl, "and
+there is no keyhole on the outside."
+
+"I'll not stand pumping, Jekyl. If you had been frank with me, perhaps I
+should have been as open with you."
+
+For an instant Jekyl hesitated what course to follow. It might be that
+Norwood really knew something of great importance. It might be that his
+discovery was valueless. And yet, if it concerned Kate in any way, the
+information would be all-important, his great game being to make her a
+princess, and yet preserve such an ascendancy over her as would render
+her his own slave.
+
+"She's a strange girl, that Dalton," said Norwood. "I wish she had about
+forty thousand pounds."
+
+"She may have more than that yet, my Lord," said Jekyl, dryly.
+
+"How do you mean, Jekyl? Is there any truth in that story about the
+Irish property? Has she really a claim on the estate? Tell me all you
+know, old fellow, and I 'll be on the square with you throughout."
+
+Jekyl, who in his remark had darkly alluded to the prospect of Kate's
+marriage with Midchekoff, now saw that Norwood had totally misconceived
+his meaning, and like a shrewd tactician, determined to profit by the
+blunder.
+
+"Come, Jekyl, be frank and aboveboard. What are her prospects?"
+
+"Better than I have told you, my Lord," replied he, coolly. "If I
+cannot--for I am not at liberty to explain why--I am quite ready to
+pledge my word of honor to the truth of what I say, or, what your
+Lordship will think more of, to back my opinion by a bet."
+
+"By Jove! that is news!" said the Viscount, leaning his head on the
+chimney to reflect. "You are such a slippery dog, Master Jekyl, you have
+so many turnings and windings in you, one is never quite sure with you;
+but supposing now, for argument's sake, that one thought of making this
+fair damsel a peeress, is there no hitch in the affair no screw loose
+that one ought to look to?"
+
+"In her birth, my Lord?"
+
+"No; d--n her birth! I mean about the tin."
+
+"I believe, my Lord, that I can save you all speculation on the subject
+when I say that pursuit would be hopeless there. The Midchekoff has
+gained the start, and must win in a canter."
+
+"That Tartar fellow! nonsense, man; I know better than that. He 'll
+never marry anything under royalty; the fellow's mother was a serf, and
+he must wash that spot out of his blood whenever he can."
+
+"You are mistaken, my Lord. He only waits to be certain of being
+accepted, to offer himself."
+
+"Refuse him!" said Norwood, laughing, "there's not that girl in Europe
+would refuse him. If every decoration he wore on his breast were a
+stripe of the knout upon his back, his wealth would cover all."
+
+"The Prince would give half his fortune to be assured of all you say, my
+Lord," said Jekyl, gravely.
+
+"By Jove! one might make a good thing of it, even that way," said
+Norwood, half aloud. "I say, Jekyl," added he, louder, "how much are you
+to have? nay, nay, man, there 's no impertinence in the question, we are
+both too much men of the world for that. It 's quite clear that this is
+your scheme. Now, what 's the damage?"
+
+"My Lord, you are as flattering to my abilities as unjust to my
+character."
+
+"We 'll suppose all that said," broke in Norwood, impatiently; "and now
+we come back to the original question, whether I cannot afford to be
+as liberal as the Russian. Only be explicit, and let us understand each
+other."
+
+"My Lord, I will not insult myself by believing I comprehend you;" said
+Jekyl, calmly.
+
+And before Norwood could detain him he left the room.
+
+"Jekyl, come back, man! just hear me out you've mistaken me! Confound
+the cur," muttered the Viscount, "with his hypocritical affectation as
+if I did not know his metier as well as I know my bootmaker's."
+
+Norwood walked noiselessly to the door of the salon and peeped in.
+Lady Hester, the Prince, and Jekyl were in earnest conversation in
+one quarter; while Kate sat apart, apparently engaged with her
+embroidery-frame, but in reality too deeply sunk in thought to notice
+the bright tints before her. Norwood entered listlessly, and strolling
+across the room, took a place beside her. She moved slightly as he drew
+forward his chair, and, then, as she drew back her flounce, Norwood
+saw that it was of deep black lace. He coolly took out his pocket-book
+wherein he had deposited the torn fragment, and, regarding it with
+attention, saw that it perfectly corresponded with the dress. So
+leisurely and with such circumspection did he proceed that several
+minutes elapsed before he looked up.
+
+"You are meditative, my Lord, to-night," said Kate, at last, making
+an effort to relieve an awkward situation; "what are you thinking of,
+pray?"
+
+"Admiring your dress, Miss Dalton, which strikes me as singularly
+beautiful and becoming."
+
+"Great praise this, from such an acknowledged judge as Lord Norwood,"
+said she, smiling.
+
+"I prefer it to antique lace, which in general is too heavy and cumbrous
+for my taste; I like these fine and delicate tissues, so frail and
+gossamer-like, not but their frailty, like all other frailty, incurs
+occasionally a heavy penalty; as here, for instance, you see this has
+been torn."
+
+"So it has," said Kate, with confusion, "and I never noticed it. What a
+quick eye you must have, my Lord!"
+
+"And a sharp ear, too, Miss Dalton," said he, significantly; "in fact,
+I am one of those people whose every-day faculties do duty for what in
+others goes by the name of cleverness. It 's a great pity," said he,
+looking down at the dress; "you see, Miss Dalton, what a false step can
+do."
+
+"And yet I cannot remember when this occurred," said she, assuming to
+misunderstand his equivocal expression.
+
+"Not recall it, not a clew to the mishap?" asked he, shrewdly.
+
+"None," said she, blushing at the pertinacity with which he clung to the
+theme; "but it's of no consequence."
+
+"Would Miss Dalton think it very singular if I should be able to assist
+her memory? Would she accept the service as kindly as it was proffered,
+too?"
+
+"Really, my Lord, you begin to speak in riddles," said she, more than
+ever piqued at his persistence.
+
+"And yet," said he, following out the thread of his own thoughts, "I am
+assuredly as safe a counsellor as Albert Jekyl."
+
+Kate grew deadly pale, but never replied to this speech.
+
+"And certainly," resumed he, "the man who speaks in his own name should
+ever take precedence of an envoy."
+
+"My Lord," said she, firmly, "the very little which I can understand of
+your words implies a pretension to knowledge and influence over me which
+I disdain to accept; but still I cannot believe that you seriously mean
+to insult me."
+
+"Of course not," said he; "I have come on a very different errand. If I
+did passingly allude to bygones, it was to show you that you can afford
+to be candid when I am frank. We two, united, would walk over the
+course, and no mistake, that 's what I was coming to. I don't mean to
+say that the Russian is not richer egad! there 's no disputing that,
+still, as to rank, a peer of Great Britain, I take it, is the equal of
+any man. Not to remind you of the old adage about 'a bird in the hand' I
+speak frankly, because you are your own mistress."
+
+"Kate, if Lord Norwood will excuse you, come to me for one instant,"
+cried Lady Hester.
+
+"Just say yes, before you go, or, if not yes, tell me that I have ground
+for hope," whispered Norwood. But she arose without speaking.
+
+[Illustration:  484]
+
+"I'll not stand a 'hedge,' by Jove!" said Norwood, sulkily; "play or
+pay, nothing else for me."
+
+"Allow me to pass you, my Lord," said Kate, courteously.
+
+"One word, off or on, Miss Dalton," said he, rising, and affecting to
+make way, while he still barred the passage. A proud, disdainful smile
+was all the reply she vouchsafed.
+
+"All right," said he, insolently; "only remember how we stand, Miss
+Dalton, and whenever you want to repair the mischance of your lace
+flounce, don't forget the piece is in my keeping;" and he opened the
+pocket-book as he spoke, and exhibited the fragment before her. Sick
+with a terror she could neither explain nor realize, she lay back again
+in her chair, unable to move, while Norwood glided quietly away and left
+the room.
+
+"Dear Kate, have you forgotten me all this time?" said Lady Hester, whom
+Kate now perceived was alone on the sofa, Midchekoff and Jekyl having
+retired into an adjoining gallery, where they walked slowly along, side
+by side, deep in conversation.
+
+"You shouldn't have suffered Norwood to engross your attention in that
+manner, my dear. The Prince has been quite put out by it, and at such a
+moment, too, and how flushed you are! What has he been saying?"
+
+"I can scarcely remember," said Kate, confusedly.
+
+"Well, it's of no consequence, dear, because I have got something to
+tell you that would speedily make you forget it. You know, Kate, how
+I always prophesied wonderful things for you, just as I did before for
+poor Georgina Elderton, and she married a Rajah afterwards, and died
+Begum of something ending in 'Bad.' Indeed, I might say it ended in bad
+for herself, poor dear, for I believe she was poisoned. But, to come
+back, I always said that you also would have astonishing luck. I told
+Sir Stafford so. The first day I saw you, 'She 'll be like Georgina,' I
+said. 'You 'll see that girl in a wonderful position one of these days.'
+It is not that men care for their wives more than formerly, I rather
+fancy the reverse, but they have got a most intense passion just now for
+beauty. Wealth and good blood were once the only requisites, but they
+are both disregarded now, in comparison with good looks. I suppose the
+fashion won't last, it would be very absurd if it should, but while it
+is the mode one ought to profit by it. Just as I am wearing all those
+horrid old brocades of my great-grand-aunt's, with odious flowers of
+crimson and yellow, now that the taste in dress is 'rococo,' but of
+course in a year or two people will recover their senses again, and
+pretty girls without portions be left for sub-alterns in the line, as
+Providence intended they should. Don't you think so, dear?"
+
+The brief question at the end of this long rambling speech would
+possibly have puzzled Kate to reply to, had not Lady Hester been far too
+much occupied in her own speculations to care for a rejoinder.
+
+"You'll hear people talk a deal of nonsense about unequal marriages,
+and they'll quote Heaven knows what instances of girls, generally Irish
+ones, picking up princes and royal dukes, and all ending unhappily.
+Don't believe a word of it, dearest; there 's never misery where there
+'s large fortune. The people who cry in velvet always shed rose-water
+tears, that don't hurt the skin or spoil the complexion. Not that I can
+say so of myself," added she, with a deep sigh; "but I am a creature
+apart. I fervently trust nature does not often form similar ones.
+Buccellini told me that I had a fifth pair of nerves, I assure you he
+did. It was a very shocking thing, and probably he ought never to have
+mentioned it to me; but it perfectly explains the excessive sensibility
+of my whole nature, does n't it, dear?"
+
+Kate smiled assent, and Lady Hester went on:
+
+"Then, as to religion, my dear, I'm afraid, indeed, we all think too
+little about it. I 'm sure I 'm quite shocked at what I see in society.
+It was only the other night Lady Grace Morton kept her seat when the
+Cardinal was speaking to her. I apologized to him for it afterwards, and
+he said, with such a sweet smile, 'If these Protestants would only give
+us back our churches, we 'd forgive their keeping their chairs.' The mot
+was very pretty, in French, and well turned was n't it? Of course, then,
+you 'll make no obstacle about the Greek Church, which I believe is
+exactly like your own, only that the priest has a beard, which I think
+more becoming. It looks affectionate, too; it always gives one the idea
+of devotion, a girl changing her faith for her husband; and really, in
+this tiresome age we live in, a new religion is the only new thing one
+ever hears of. Your excellent family that sweet sister and the dear old
+papa will probably make a fuss about it; but you know, after all, how
+absurd that is, and if you were to marry a Chinese, there 's no saying
+what strange creatures you 'd have to pray to. You 'll have to go to
+Russia, but only for presentation; that over, the Prince will obtain a
+renewal of his permission to reside abroad; still, if you have to pass
+a winter at St. Petersburg, it will be far from disagreeable. The women
+are too fond of caviare and high play; but they dress just as well as
+in Paris, and wear better diamonds. Midchekoff's jewels are unequalled;
+and, now that I think of it, there 's one thing I 've set my heart on,
+and you must positively promise to give me, a little stiletto with an
+emerald hilt and handle. I have pined for it there 's no other word
+these three years. He wore it in London, and I have never had it out of
+my thoughts since. You can afford to be very generous, dearest. How I
+envy you that pleasure! and the delight you 'll feel in providing for
+poor papa and Mary no, Elizabeth, I mean how absurd! I should say Ellen.
+It was something about that tale of Elizabeth, the Exile of Siberia,
+was running in my mind. The Prince will do whatever you suggest, and,
+indeed, he has already hinted about your brother Frank joining the
+Russian service. He 'll have him named an officer in the Emperor's
+Guard. You must insist, too, upon La Rocca being your own settled upon
+yourself. They tell me it 's the sweetest spot in the world; and I
+'ll always live there when you don't want it. I mention this about the
+settlement, because there 's no saying how men will behave. I 'm sure I
+never could have anticipated such a return as I have met with from Sir
+Stafford. And then, you know, with a Russian, one cannot be too guarded.
+Don't you agree with me? Well, never mind, you 'll perhaps come round to
+my opinion later. But here comes the Prince, and it will be as well you
+should retire, dearest. I'll see you in your dressing-room, and tell you
+everything."
+
+And with this assurance Kate retired, with a head and heart as full as
+ever young lady's felt.
+
+Kate was hastening to her room, when a short, quick step behind her made
+her turn round, and she saw Purvis endeavoring to overtake her.
+
+"Oh! I have you at last," said he, puffing for breath; "and what a
+ch-chase I 've had for it! I 've been in five rooms already, and nearly
+had a f-f-fight with that Frenchwoman of Lady Hester's. She 's a regular
+T-T-Tartar, she is, and almost boxed my ears for looking into a small
+case where my Lady's r-ringlets are kept ha! ha! ha! I saw them, though,
+two long and two short, and a pl-pl-plait for the back of the head. How
+she m-m-makes up at night!"
+
+"I must say that you have the strangest mode of requiting hospitality,"
+said Kate, haughtily.
+
+"It 's all very well to talk of hospi-hospi-hospi--" Here a fit of gaping
+brought on coughing, which, after a violent struggle, ended in the
+forced utterance of the last syllable of the word, but with such fatigue
+and exhaustion that he seemed scarcely able to continue; at last,
+however, he did resume. "It's all very well to talk of that, but we got
+in here by our own cl-cl-cleverness; at least by Zoe's."
+
+"Less good-natured persons would find another word for it, Mr. Purvis."
+
+"So they would. Haggerstone called it a Ricketty stratagem. No
+matter; we 're in ha! ha! ha! and he 's out. The pr-pr-proof of the
+pu-pu-pudding--"
+
+"Will you excuse me, sir, if I say I must leave you?"
+
+"Don't go, don't go; I've something very important to to tell you.
+And first, Zoe my sister Zoe wants to see you. The cook has been
+most im-im-impertinent to her. She says it was ginger she put in the
+maca-maca-roni, instead of P-P--Parmesan; all his truffles are only
+Piedmontese. That is n't all: don't be in such a h-hurry. They 've
+changed the wine, too. We had Ch-Ch-Chambertin yesterday, and they 've
+given us P-Pomard to-day. How is that to be borne?"
+
+"I really see but one remedy for it, sir," said Kate, scornfully.
+
+"So Zoe said; that 's exactly her opinion. They must be sent away. Zoe
+knows a very ti-ti-tidy cook. He 's not a a top-sawyer, you know, but he
+can r-roast a bit of beef, and make a c-capital rice-pudding, and he 'll
+come for six dollars a month. Wouldn't that be a sa-saving? Zoe told him
+to c-call to-day, and speak to La-Lady Hester."
+
+"He will find that difficult, sir," said Kate, dryly.
+
+"And as for the b-butler, such a j-j-jackanapes I never saw; and Zoe
+would advise you to take little Pierrette, the fellow you see every
+day at the Pergola; he sells the tickets outside the door. He looks
+r-r-ragged enough now, but when he 's dressed--"
+
+"You must see, sir," interposed Kate, "that these are all details in
+which it would be both indelicate and impertinent for me to intrude an
+opinion about."
+
+"Not when you li-live in the house; not when you're
+dome-dome-domesticated with the family. We 're all in the same bo-boat
+now; and Zoe says somebody must steer it. Now Lizetta, Zoe's maid, would
+keep the k-keys herself."
+
+"Pray remember, sir, this is Lady Hester Onslow's house."
+
+"Egad! it w-won't be long so, if she goes on as she's d-doing. Martha
+saw the meat-cart come in this morning, and I had a p-p-peep into the
+servants' hall when the fl-flunkeys were feeding, and such w-w-waste,
+such re-reckless--"
+
+"Good-evening, Mr. Purvis; I cannot stay longer," said Kate. And, before
+he could interpose a word, she hastened from the spot, and, passing
+rapidly up the stairs, gained her own room, leaving Purvis to bethink
+him over the mass of things he had not touched upon, and on which he had
+mainly intended to debate.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII. AN ARRIVAL.
+
+LET us go back a few hours in our history, and follow the short and
+burly figure which, emerging from the travelling-carriage in the
+courtyard of the palace, pushed his way through the noisy throng of
+duns, and entered the house.
+
+"How are you, Proctor how is your master?" said he, as he threw off his
+great-coat, and unrolled a capacious muffler from his throat. "How is
+Sir Stafford?"
+
+"Oh, Dr. Grounsell, glad you've come, sir. It will be a real pleasure to
+my master to see you again, sir."
+
+"How is he, man, how 's the gout?"
+
+"Poorly, very poorly, sir. Things have gone badly here, doctor, since
+you left us," said he, with a sigh.
+
+"Yes, yes; I know it all; I have heard all about that. But his health
+tell me of his health."
+
+"Greatly broken, sir. No sleep o' nights without opium, and no real rest
+even with that."
+
+"And his spirits?"
+
+"Broken too, sir. He's not what you remember him, sir, nor anything like
+it. No pleasant joke, sir, when anything goes amiss, as it used to be;
+no turning it off with a merry laugh! He 's fretful and impatient about
+the merest trifles, and he that never wanted attendance is now always
+complaining that he 's neglected, and deserted and forsaken by all the
+world."
+
+"Does the Captain come often to see and sit with him?"
+
+"Every day, sir; but these visits do rather harm than good. Sir Stafford
+is vexed at what goes on in the house; and Master George, I don't know
+how it is, but he don't calm him down, and they have oftentimes angry
+words together; not but my master is frequently in the wrong, and
+taxes the young gentleman with what he can't help; for you see, sir, my
+Lady--"
+
+"D--n! I mean, tell me about Sir Stafford; it is of him I want to hear.
+Does he read?"
+
+"He makes me read to him every day, sir, all about the money-market
+and railroad shares; sometimes twice over, indeed; and when I ask if he
+would n't like to hear about what goes on in politics, he always says,
+'No, Proctor, let's have the City article again.'"
+
+"And his letters does n't he read them?"
+
+"The Captain reads them for him, sir; and now and then writes the
+answers, for he can't hold a pen himself! Oh, you 'll not know him when
+you see him! He that was so large and fine a man, I lift him in and out
+of bed as if he were a baby."
+
+"Has he no acquaintance here?"
+
+"None, sir."
+
+"Are there no inquiries after his health?"
+
+"Yes, sir; there's plenty of people he used to give money to when he was
+up and about poor actors, and painters, and the like they come every
+day to know how he is. Some of them leave begging letters, which I never
+give him; but most go away without a word."
+
+"And his countrymen here are there none who ask after him?"
+
+"No, sir. The only English we ever see visit my Lady, and never come to
+this side of the house at all."
+
+"Does Miss Dalton come to inquire for him?"
+
+"Every morning and every night too, sir. I suppose it must be without
+my Lady's orders, or even knowledge; for once, when Sir Stafford was
+sitting up in his dressing-room, and I asked her if she would n't like
+to come in and sit a few minutes with him, she turned away without
+speaking; and I saw, from her manner, that she was crying."
+
+"What are all these people outside, who are they?"
+
+"My Lady's tradespeople, sir. They've heard she's going for a few
+weeks to Como, and they 've come with all their bills, as if she was a
+runaway."
+
+"Go and tell them to leave this, send them away, Proctor. It would do
+your master great injury were he to overhear them. Say that everything
+shall be paid in a day or two; that Sir Stafford remains here, and is
+responsible for all."
+
+Proctor hastened out on his errand, and the doctor sat down and covered
+his face with his hands.
+
+"Poor Stafford! is all your trustful affection come to this? Is it thus
+that your unbounded generosity, your noble hospitality, are requited?"
+
+When Proctor returned, he proceeded to detail, for the doctor's
+information, the various events which had occurred during his absence.
+With most, Grounsell was already acquainted, and listened to the
+particulars without surprise or emotion.
+
+"So it is, so it is," muttered he to himself; "there may be more cant
+of virtue, a greater share of hypocrisy in our English morals, but,
+assuredly, these things do not happen with us as we see them here. There
+would seem a something enervating in the very air of the land, that a
+man like him should have sunk down into this besotted apathy! When can I
+see him, Proctor?"
+
+"He 's dozing just now, sir; but about midnight he wakes up and asks for
+his draught. If that won't be too late for you--"
+
+"Too late for me! Why, what else have I travelled for, night and day,
+without intermission? Be cautious, however, about how you announce me.
+Perhaps it would be better I should see the Captain first."
+
+"You 'll scarcely find him at home, sir, at this hour; he generally
+comes in between three and four."
+
+"Show me to his room. I 'll write a few lines for him in case we don't
+meet."
+
+Proctor accompanied the doctor across the courtyard, and, guiding him up
+a small stair, reached the terrace off which George Onslow's apartment
+opened. The window-shutters of the room were not closed, nor the
+curtains drawn; and in the bright light of several candles that shone
+within, Grounsell saw two figures seated at a table, and busily engaged
+in examining the details of a case of pistols which lay before them.
+
+"That will do, Proctor," said Grounsell; "you may leave me now. I'll be
+with you at twelve." And thus saying, he gently pushed him towards the
+door of the terrace, which he closed and bolted after him, and then
+noiselessly returned to his former place.
+
+There were few things less congenial to Grounsell's nature than playing
+the spy. It was a part he thoroughly detested, nor did he think that it
+admitted of defence or palliation; still, the whole habit of his mind
+through life had impressed him with a disparaging opinion of himself.
+The limited sphere of his duties, the humble routine of his daily walk,
+and the very few friendships he had inspired, all tended to increase
+this impression, till at last he looked upon himself as one who could
+only be useful by the sacrifice of personal feeling and the abnegation
+of all self-esteem; and thus he would have declined to know another
+man for what he deemed of no consequence in himself. His fault was not
+thinking too well of others, but thinking too meanly of himself.
+
+The scene before him now was enough to suggest deep anxiety. Notes and
+letters littered the floor and the table; the embers of a large fire of
+papers lay on the hearth; open drawers and boxes stood on every
+side; all betokening preparation, the object of which the pistol-case
+sufficiently indicated. As they sat with their backs to the window,
+Grounsell could not recognize the figures; but the voice of one
+proclaimed him to be George Onslow.
+
+"And where is this place on the way to Arezzo?" asked he.
+
+"No; on the opposite side of the city, off the high-road to Bologna. It
+is a little park, surrounding a summer palace of the Grand Duke, they
+call Pratolino," said the other. "They all agree that it is the best
+spot to be found; no molestation, nor interference of any kind; and a
+capital breakfast of fresh trout to be had at the inn."
+
+"An interesting consideration for such as have good appetites," said
+Onslow, laughing.
+
+"I never saw a Frenchman who had not, on such an occasion," rejoined the
+other, snapping the pistol as he spoke. "I like these straight stocks;
+you are almost always certain of your man, with a stiff arm and a low
+aim."
+
+"I don't know that I 've forgotten anything, Norwood," said Onslow,
+rising and pacing the room with folded arms.
+
+"You 've written to the governor?"
+
+"Yes; and mentioned those acceptances," said Onslow, with a sneering
+severity that the other never seemed to notice. "You're quite safe,
+whatever happens."
+
+"Hang it, man, I wasn't thinking of that; curse the money, it never
+entered my thoughts."
+
+"My father will pay it," said George, dryly, and continued his walk.
+
+"As you have alluded to it, I hope you spoke of it as a loan, anything
+like a play transaction suggests a mess of scandal and stories."
+
+"I have called it a debt, and that is quite sufficient."
+
+"All right whatever you like. And now about this girl. Do you intend
+to let this mystery continue, or do you think that, under the
+circumstances, Lady Hester should still retain her as a friend and
+companion?"
+
+"I know of nothing to her disparagement, nor have I yet met one who
+does. That there are circumstances which she does not deem fitting to
+entrust to my keeping is no just cause of allegation against her."
+
+"You are very honorable to say so, George; but I must confess it is more
+than she deserves at your hands."
+
+"How do you mean?"
+
+"That she means to take the Russian, that's all."
+
+"Well, and why not? Would not such a match be a brilliant one for a girl
+of much higher rank and pretension?"
+
+"What's the use of all this fencing, man?" said Norwood, half angrily,
+"I know better how matters stand. Do you remember the night you lost so
+heavily at Macao? Well, I was lying stretched on the sofa, yonder, by
+the light of the fire only, when the door opened, and she stepped gently
+in."
+
+"What, Kate Dalton?"
+
+"Yes, Kate Dalton. Oh! impossible, if you like deny it as much as you
+please, but she has not equal hardihood, that I can tell you; and if she
+had, here is the proof that could condemn her, this fragment of her lace
+flounce was caught in the door as she banged it in her escape; and this
+very evening I compared it with the dress in question; ay, and showed
+her the rent from which it came."
+
+Twice did George compel Norwood to repeat over this story; and then sat
+down, overwhelmed with sorrow and shame.
+
+"You swear to me, then, Onslow, that you never saw her here, never knew
+of her coming?" said he, after a long silence between them.
+
+"Never, I swear!" said the other, solemnly.
+
+"Then, some other is the fortunate man, that's all. How good if it
+should turn out to be Jekyl!" And he laughed heartily at the absurdity
+of the conceit.
+
+"No more of this," said Onslow, passionately. "The tone of the society
+we live in here would seem to warrant any or every imputation, even on
+those whose lives are spotless; and I know of no greater degradation
+than the facility of our belief in them. In this instance, however, my
+conscience is at ease; and I reject, with contempt, the possibility of a
+stain upon that girl's honor."
+
+"The sentiment does more credit to your chivalry than your shrewdness,
+George," said the Viscount, sarcastically.
+
+"But as you are about to stake your life on the issue, I cannot impugn
+your sincerity."
+
+A hasty movement of George towards the window here alarmed Grounsell,
+and he noiselessly withdrew, and descended the stairs again.
+
+"A precious mess of trouble do I find ready for me," muttered he, as he
+passed across the courtyard. "Debt, duelling, and sickness, such are
+the pleasures that welcome me; and these not the worst, perhaps, if the
+causes of them were to be made known!"
+
+"My Lady has just heard of your arrival, doctor, and begs you will have
+the kindness to step up to her room," said Proctor, coming to meet him.
+
+"I 'm tired, I 'm fatigued. Say I 'm in bed," said Grounsell, angrily.
+
+"Her maid has just seen you, sir," suggested Proctor, mildly.
+
+"No matter; give the answer I tell you; or stay perhaps it would be
+better to see her. Yes, Proctor, show me the way." And muttering to
+himself, "The meeting will not be a whit pleasanter for her than me," he
+followed the servant up the stairs.
+
+Well habituated to Lady Hester's extravagant and costly tastes,
+Grounsell was yet unprepared for the gorgeous decorations and splendid
+ornaments of the chambers through which he passed, and he stopped
+from time to time in amazement to contemplate a magnificence which was
+probably rather heightened than diminished by the uncertain light of the
+candles the servant carried. He peered at the china vases; he passed his
+hand across the malachite and jasper tables; he narrowly inspected the
+rich mosaics, as though doubtful of their being genuine; and then, with
+a deep sigh, almost deep enough to be a groan, he moved on in sadness.
+A bust of Kate Dalton the work of a great sculptor, and an admirable
+likeness caught his eye, and he gazed at it with signs of strong
+emotion. There was much beauty in it, and of a character all her own;
+but still the cold marble had caught up, in traits sterner than those of
+life, the ambitious bearing of the head and the proud elevation of the
+brow.
+
+"And she has become this already!" said he, half aloud. "Oh, how
+unlike poor Nelly's model! how different from the simple and beauteous
+innocence of those saint-like features!"
+
+"My Lady will see you, sir," said Celestine, breaking in upon his
+musings. And he followed her into the chamber, where, seated in a deeply
+cushioned chair, Lady Hester reclined, dressed in all the perfection of
+an elegant deshabille.
+
+Grounsell was, assuredly, not the man to be most taken by such
+attractions, yet he could not remain entirely insensible to them; and he
+felt a most awkward sense of admiration as he surveyed her. With all
+a woman's quickness, her Ladyship saw the effect she had produced, and
+languidly extending her hand, she vouchsafed the nearest approach to a
+smile with which she had ever favored him. As if suddenly recalling all
+his old antipathies and prejudices, Grounsell was himself in a moment,
+and, scarcely touching the taper and jewelled fingers, he bowed
+ceremoniously and took his seat at a little distance off.
+
+"This is a very unexpected pleasure indeed," sighed Lady Hester; "you
+only arrived to-night?"
+
+"Half an hour ago, madam; and but for your Ladyship's summons I should
+have been in bed."
+
+"How do you find Sir Stafford looking poorly, I fear?"
+
+"I haven't yet seen him, madam, but I am prepared for a great change."
+
+"I fear so," sighed she, plaintively; "George says, quite a break up;
+and Buccellini calls it 'Gotta Affievolita,' and says it is very fatal
+with elderly people."
+
+"The vulgar phrase of a 'broken heart' is more expressive, madam, and
+perhaps quite as pathological."
+
+Lady Hester drew proudly up, and seemed preparing herself for a coming
+encounter. They were old antagonists, and well knew each other's mode
+of attack. On the present occasion, however, Grounsell did not seek a
+contest, and was satisfied by a single shot at the enemy, as if trying
+the range of his gun.
+
+"You will probably advise a change of air and scene, Dr. Grounsell,"
+said she, calmly, and as though inviting pacific intercourse.
+
+"It is precisely what I have come for, madam," answered he, in a short,
+dry voice. "Sir Stafford's affairs require his immediate return to
+England. The vicissitudes that attend on great commercial enterprises
+threaten him with large very large losses."
+
+Lady Hester fell back in her chair, and this time, at least, her pale
+cheek and her powerless attitude were not feigned nor counterfeited; but
+Grounsell merely handed her a smelling-bottle from the table, and went
+on:
+
+"The exact extent of his liabilities cannot be ascertained at once, but
+they must be considerable. He will be fortunate if there remain to him
+one fourth of his property."
+
+Lady Hester's head fell heavily back, and she fainted away.
+
+The doctor rose, and sprinkled her forehead with water, and then
+patiently sat down with his finger on her wrist to watch the returning
+tide of circulation. Assured at length of her restored consciousness, he
+went on:
+
+"A small establishment, strict economy, a watchful supervision of every
+domestic arrangement, together with the proceeds of the sale of all the
+useless trumpery by which he is at present surrounded, will do much;
+but he must be seconded, madam, seconded and aided, not thwarted and
+opposed. George can exchange into a regiment in India; the proper steps
+have been already taken for that purpose."
+
+"Have you been thoughtful enough, sir, in your general care of this
+family, to engage a small house for us at Brighton?"
+
+"I have seen one at Ramsgate, madam," replied he, dryly; "but the rent
+is more than we ought to give."
+
+"Are we so very poor as that, sir?" said she, sarcastically, laying
+emphasis on the pronoun.
+
+"Many excellent and worthy persons, madam, contrive to live respectably
+on less."
+
+"Is Miss Onslow to go out as a governess, doctor? I am afraid you have
+forgotten her share in these transactions?"
+
+"I have a letter from her in my pocket, madam, which would show that she
+herself is not guilty of this forgetfulness, wherein she makes the very
+proposition you allude to."
+
+"And me? Have you no sphere of self-denial and duty have you no
+degrading station, nor menial servitude, adapted to my habits?"
+
+"I know of none, madam," said Grounsell, sternly. "Varnish will no
+more make a picture than fine manners prove a substitute for skill or
+industry."
+
+"This is really too much, sir," said she, rising, her face now crimson
+with anger; "and even if all you have said prove true, reverse of
+fortune can bring no heavier infliction than the prospect of your
+intimacy and obtrusive counsels."
+
+"You may not need them, madam. In adversity," said Grounsell, with
+a smile, "healthy stomachs get on very well without bitters." And so
+saying, he bowed and left the room.
+
+For a few moments Lady Hester sat overwhelmed by the tidings she had
+just heard, and then, suddenly rising, she rang the bell for her maid.
+
+"Send Miss Dalton to me, Celestine; say I wish to speak to her
+immediately," said she. "This may be the last time we shall speak to
+each other ere we invert our positions," muttered she to herself. And
+in the working of her features might be read all the agony of the
+reflection.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX. PRATOLINO.
+
+How like the great world is every little section of it! How full of
+all its passions and interests, its warring jealousies and its selfish
+struggles! Within the Mazzarini Palace that night were at work every
+emotion and sentiment which sway the wide communities of men; and hope
+and fear, the yearnings of ambition, and the gloomy forebodings of
+despair, sat beside the pillows of those who, in vain, sought sleep and
+forgetfulness.
+
+Before that long night ended, Sir Stafford had learned his ruin, for it
+was little less. Kate had yielded, to the pressing entreaties of Lady
+Hester, her consent to accept Midchekoff; and, just as day was breaking,
+George Onslow stole to his father's bedside to see him once more,
+perhaps for the last time. It would be difficult to say in which of
+those three hearts the darkest sorrow brooded. With noiseless step and
+cautious gesture, George crossed the little sitting-room, and entered
+his father's chamber; and, without awaking the servant, who kept watch
+habitually without, but now had dropped off to sleep, he gained the
+bedside, and sat down.
+
+The terrible tidings he had just heard were evidently working on Sir
+Stafford's brain, and, despite all the influence of his opiate, still
+engaged his faculties; for his lips continued to move rapidly, and short
+broken sentences fell from him incessantly. "Poor George! poor George!"
+he muttered from time to time, and the tears rolled down the young man's
+cheek as he heard them.
+
+"How unworthy of him have I been!" thought he; "how shamefully unworthy
+and forgetful! Here should have been my place, for those hours which
+I have spent in noisy dissipation and debauch; and now I come for the
+first time, and probably the last! Oh, my poor father! How will you bear
+up against the shock that is preparing for you? for, with all my faults,
+I know how you have loved me!" A heavy tear dropped from him on the old
+man's cheek as he said this; and gently brushing it off with his hand,
+Sir Stafford opened his eyes and awoke. A mild and gentle smile broke
+over his features as he saw his son beside him, and he drew him towards
+him, and kissed him.
+
+"Have you been long here, George?" said he, affectionately.
+
+"But a few minutes. I am so sorry to have disturbed you," muttered the
+other, in confusion,
+
+"Have you seen Grounsell yet? Has he told you?" asked Sir Stafford.
+
+"Grounsell? no, sir. I did not even hear of his arrival. What are his
+tidings?"
+
+"The saddest, perhaps, one friend can bring another," sighed Onslow,
+as he covered his eyes with his hand. "Nay, nay, I am wrong," said he,
+rapidly. "So long as Sydney and yourself are spared to me I have no
+right to say this; still, George, it is a terrible blow that strikes a
+man down from affluence to poverty, and, in place of wealth and power,
+leaves him nothing but insignificance and ruin!"
+
+"Good heavens, father! is your brain wandering? What fancies are these
+that are flitting across your mind?"
+
+"Sad and stern truths, my poor boy," replied the old man, grasping his
+son's hand in his fevered palm. "A few weeks more will see the great
+house of Onslow bankrupt. These things cannot be told too briefly,
+George," said he, speaking with a tremulous and eager rapidity. "One
+should hear misfortune early, to gain more time for future measures. A
+great crash has fallen upon the moneyed interest of England. The vast
+speculations in railways have overreached themselves; failures of great
+houses abroad have added to the difficulty. The correspondents whose
+solvency we never doubted are tottering to ruin. Every post brings
+tidings of some new failure; and from Odessa, from Hamburg, and from
+the ports of the Baltic to the distant shores of the New World, there is
+nothing but bankruptcy."
+
+"But you have large estates, sir; you possess property of various kinds
+beyond the reach of these casualties."
+
+"I own nothing to which my creditors have not a just right; nor, if I
+did, could I exercise the privilege of retaining it, George," said the
+old man. "From what Grounsell tells me, there will be sufficient to meet
+every claim, but no more. There will remain nothing after. Lady Hester's
+settlement will, of course, secure to her a moderate competence; and
+we--you and I must look about, and see how we can face this same world
+we have been feasting so long. My time in it will needs be brief; but
+you, who may look forward with hope to long years of life, must bethink
+you at once of the new path before you. Arouse yourself, then, to the
+task, and I do not know but I may be prouder of you yet, buffeting
+the wild waves of adversity, and fighting the manful part of a bold,
+courageous spirit, than I have ever been in seeing you in the brilliant
+circle of all your high and titled acquaintances. Ay, George, the
+English merchant never died out in my heart, for all the aristocratic
+leaven which accident mixed up with my fortunes. I never ceased to glory
+in the pride of wealth accumulated by generous enterprises and honorable
+toil. I loved the life of labor that disciplined the faculties,
+and exercised not alone intelligence, but turned to use the gentler
+charities of life, linking man to man, as brethren journeying the same
+road, with different burdens, perhaps, but with the same goal. For
+myself, therefore, I have few cares. It remains with you to make them
+even fewer."
+
+"Tell me what you propose for me, sir," said George, in a low, weak
+voice.
+
+"First of all, George, you ought to leave the army. Grounsell, I must
+tell you, is not of this opinion; he advises an exchange into a regiment
+in India, but I think differently. To repair, if it be possible, the
+shattered wreck of our fortunes, you must address yourself to business
+life and habits. You 'll have to visit the West Indies, and, probably,
+the East. We still possess property in Ceylon, of value; and our coffee
+plantations there, as yet only in their infancy, need nothing but good
+management to ensure success. Grounsell laughed at my suggesting you for
+such duties, but I know you better, George, far better, than he does.
+The English pluck that storms a breach or heads a charge is the very
+same quality that sustains a man on the long dark road of adverse
+fortune. I have often told Grounsell that the stuff was in you, George."
+
+The young man squeezed his father's hand, but was obliged to turn away
+his head to hide the tears which filled his eyes; for what a terrible
+deception was he practising at that very moment, and what duplicity was
+there even in the silence with which he heard him!
+
+For a few seconds Sir Stafford seemed to revel in all the bright visions
+of a warm fancy. The prospect his imagination had conjured up appeared
+to have momentarily lifted him above the reach of sorrow. He thought of
+his son engaged in the active business of life, and displaying in this
+new career the energies and resources of a bold and courageous spirit.
+He imagined the high-principled youth becoming the British merchant, and
+making the name of "Onslow" great and respected in the old arena of all
+their victories, the city of London. Could this but come to pass, were
+this dream to be realized, and he would bless the hour that wrecked his
+fortune, and thus made his poverty the foundation of future greatness.
+
+"I confess, George," said he, "that I have a pride in thinking that I
+knew you better than others did, and that I read in the very wayward
+caprices of your disposition the impatience of an active mind, and not
+the ennui of an indolent one." From this the old man branched off into
+his plans for the future; and, as if the emergency had suggested energy,
+talked well and clearly of all that was to be done. They were to start
+for England at once. Sir Stafford felt as if he was able to set out
+that very day. Some weeks would elapse before the crash came, and in the
+interval every preparation might be taken. "I hope," said he, feelingly,
+"that I have few enemies; I am not sanguine enough to say, none; but,
+such as they are, they will not seek to humiliate me, I trust, by any
+unnecessary publicity." The theme was a very painful one, and for a few
+seconds he could not go on. At last he resumed: "The extravagance of
+this household, George, will give much and just offence. It must be
+retrenched, and from this very day, from this very hour. You will
+look to this. It must not be said of us that, with ruin before us, we
+continued these habits of wasteful excess. Let these troops of idle
+servants be discharged at once. Except Lady Hester's carriage, sell
+off all equipage. Take no heed of what will be the town talk; such a
+downfall as ours can never be kept a secret. Let us only take care that
+we fall with dignity. Grounsell will remain here after us to settle
+everything, and our departure ought to be as speedy as may be. But you
+are not listening, George; do you hear me?"
+
+It was quite true George heeded little of what his father spoke; for,
+with bent-down head, he was trying to catch the sounds of what seemed
+a long, low whistle from the court without. As he listened, the whistle
+was repeated; he knew now that it was Norwood's signal, and that "his
+time was up."
+
+"I must leave you, my dear father," said he, assuming all that he could
+of calmness. "I have an appointment this morning, and one that I cannot
+well shake off. Norwood and I have promised to meet some friends at
+Pratolino."
+
+"It was of that same Norwood I wished to speak to you, George. The
+sophistry of thinking him 'no worse than his set' will serve no longer.
+Such men are not fitting acquaintances for one whose character must be
+above reproach. Norwood is a most unworthy friend for you."
+
+"I scarcely ever thought of him in that light. We are intimate, it is
+true; but such intimacy is not friendship."
+
+"The greater the pollution of such acquaintanceship, then," said the old
+man, gravely. "To see the dark side of such a nature, and yet live
+under its baneful shadow, is infinitely worse, George, than all the
+self-deception of a rash confidence. Keep your promise to-day, but I
+beseech you, let it be for the last time in such company."
+
+Again the whistle was heard, and with the sharp crack of a whip,
+denoting impatience; and fearful that some accident might betray his
+secret, George clasped the old man's hand fervidly within his own, and
+hurried away without a word.
+
+"Is that George?" cried Norwood, as he stood beside a calessino ready
+harnessed, and with lamps lighted, for the morning was still dark, "is
+that George? Why, where have you been loitering this half-hour, man?
+Our time is six sharp, and it is now considerably past five, and the way
+lies all up hill."
+
+"I have often done the distance in half an hour," said George, angrily.
+
+"Perhaps the errand was a pleasanter one," rejoined Norwood, laughing;
+"but jump in, for I feel certain the others are before us."
+
+George Onslow was in no mood for talking as he took his seat beside his
+companion. The late scene with his father and the approaching event were
+enough to occupy him, even had his feeling for Norwood been different
+from what it was; but in reality never had he experienced the
+same dislike for the Viscount. All the flippant ease, all the cool
+indifference he displayed, were only so many offences to one whose
+thoughts were traversing the whole current of his life, from earliest
+boyhood down to that very moment. A few hours hence he might be no more!
+And thence arose to his mind the judgments men would pass upon him, the
+few who would speak charitably, the still fewer who would regret him.
+"What a career!" thought he. "What use to have made of fortune, station,
+health, and vigor; to have lived in dissipation, and die for a street
+brawl! And poor Kate! to what unfeeling scandal will this unhappy
+meeting expose you! how impossible to expect that truth will ever
+penetrate through that dark atmosphere of mystery and malevolence the
+world will throw over the event!"
+
+Norwood was provoked at the silence, and tried in various ways to break
+it. He spoke of the road, the weather, the horse's trotting action,
+the scenery, over which the breaking day now threw fitful and uncertain
+lights, but all in vain; and at last, piqued by non-success, he
+spitefully pointed attention to a little valley beside the road, and
+said, "Do you see that spot yonder, near the pine-trees? that 's where
+Harry Mathews was shot. Malzahn sent the bullet through the brain
+at forty paces. They were both first-rate pistol-shots, and the only
+question was who should fire first. Harry determined to reserve his
+shot, and he carried the privilege into the other world with him.
+Malzahn knew he might trust his skill, and fired the very instant he
+took his ground. The moral of which is, always try and have first fire
+with a foreigner."
+
+"I heard the sound of wheels behind us; who are they?" said George, not
+heeding either the story or the counsel.
+
+"The doctor, I suspect. I ordered a calessino to wait for him at the
+door of the palace, and bring him up as fast as possible."
+
+"If Guilmard be equal to his reputation, we shall not want his
+services," said Onslow, with a faint smile.
+
+"Who can tell? We 'll put you up at a short distance; and there 's
+nothing shakes the nerves of your practised pistol-shot more than ten or
+twelve paces."
+
+The road here became so steep that they were obliged to get down and
+walk for some distance, while the horse toiled slowly up behind them. As
+they went, Norwood continued to talk on incessantly of this, that, and
+t' other, as though bound to occupy the attention of his companion;
+while George, with half-closed eyes, strolled onward, deep in his own
+thoughts.
+
+"We 're not far off the place now, George," said Norwood, at last, "and
+I wish you 'd throw off that look of care and abstraction. These foreign
+fellows will be quite ready to misinterpret it. Seem at your ease, man,
+and take the thing as I have seen you take it before, as rather good fun
+than otherwise."
+
+"But that is precisely what I do not feel it," said George, smiling
+quietly. "Twenty-four hours ago, when life had every possible advantage
+to bestow on me, with the prospect of an ample fortune before me, I was
+perfectly ready to turn out with any man who had the right to ask me;
+and now that I am ruined--"
+
+"Ruined!" broke in Norwood; "what do you mean? You have not lost to that
+Greek fellow so largely as that?"
+
+"Now that my father is on the verge of utter ruin," repeated George,
+slowly, "the news came last night, I never felt the desire of life so
+strong within me. A few days or weeks more will make it public gossip,
+so I may tell you that we have not escaped the torrent that is sweeping
+away so many of the richest houses in Europe; and what between our
+immense liabilities and my father's scrupulous sense of honor, the
+chances are we shall be utterly beggared."
+
+"The devil!" exclaimed Norwood, whose thoughts at once reverted to his
+own claims on George, and the unpaid acceptances he still held of his.
+
+"That's what I feel so strange," said George, now speaking with a degree
+of warmth and interest, "that it should be exactly when life ceases
+to give promise that I should care for it; and I own to you, I 'd give
+anything that this meeting was not before me."
+
+Norwood started, and turned his keen eyes on the other, but in the calm,
+unmoved features he saw no traces of fear or even agitation; and it was
+in his habitually calm voice Onslow resumed,
+
+"Yes, I wish the Count's hand would shake a little, Norwood. I 'd be
+most grateful to the bullet that would take to the right or the left of
+me."
+
+"Come, come, George, no more of this. We are alone here, it's true; but
+if you talk this way now, you may chance to look like it by and by."
+
+"And if I do not, my looks will strangely belie my sentiments, that I
+can tell you," said Onslow, with a quiet laugh. "I don't care how you
+read the confession, Norwood, but I tell you frankly, that if the insult
+in this instance admitted of an apology, if there were any way to come
+off consistent with honor, I 'd take it, and not fight this Frenchman."
+
+"Have you forgotten his reputation as a shot?" asked Norwood, hastily.
+
+"I was not thinking of it. My mind was dwelling merely on myself and my
+own interests, how far my life, if preserved, could be rendered useful
+to others, and in what way my death might occasion detriment and
+injury."
+
+"A most mercantile estimate of profit and loss, by Jove!" said Norwood,
+laughing; "and perhaps it is fortunate for you there is no amende
+possible, for if Guilmard should miss you--"
+
+"As to these acceptances," said George, not paying attention to what the
+other said, "I 'd prefer that they should not be presented to my father
+under our actual circumstances. My horses and carriages, and some other
+trumpery of mine, when sold, will more than meet them, and I have given
+orders to that end."
+
+"Come, old fellow, it's not gone that far yet," said Norwood, affecting
+a tone of friendship, suggested by the self-satisfaction the promise of
+payment afforded him. "But, hush! There they are, all together. Let us
+talk no more of these matters; and now, George, for Heaven's sake, be
+cool."
+
+Norwood drew the other's arm within his own as he said this, and
+advanced to where a group of some half-dozen persons were standing,
+beside a low balcony, overlooking the Val d'Arno and the graceful valley
+in which Florence stands. Norwood quitted his friend's arm as he came
+forward and saluted the company. Nothing could possibly be more easy and
+unconstrained than the tone of their conversation, as they chatted away
+about the prospect beneath, and over which, like a gauzy veil, the gray
+shadow of dawn was hanging. With the exception of an Italian or two,
+they were all French, the young fashionables who were the loungers of
+the salons and cafes of the city.
+
+"Have you breakfasted, my Lord?" said one. "If not, let me recommend
+some excellent cutlets, which are not too cold, even yet."
+
+"And the best chocolate I ever tasted out of Paris," cried another.
+
+"Thanks," said Norwood. "We 'll profit by the good counsel." And, taking
+a cigar from his case, he lighted it from Guilmard's, as, with hands in
+his paletot, he sat negligently on the wall, surveying the scene below
+him.
+
+"Come, George, let's have something," whispered Norwood, eagerly;
+for the vacant and unoccupied stare of Onslow continued to cause the
+Viscount the most intense anxiety. "These fellows are affecting to be
+devilish cool. Let us not be behindhand." And, rather by force than mere
+persuasion, he dragged Onslow along, and entered the little parlor of
+the inn.
+
+A large table, covered with the remains of an ample breakfast, stood
+in the middle of the room, and a dish of cutlets was placed to keep hot
+before the stove. Several loose sheets of paper lay scattered about the
+table, on which were scrawled absurd and ill-drawn caricatures of duels,
+in which attitudes of extravagant fear and terror predominated. Norwood
+glanced at them for a moment, and then contemptuously threw them into
+the fire.
+
+"Sit down, George," said he, placing a chair for the other; "and, if
+you cannot eat, at least take a 'nip' of brandy. Jekyl will be up, I
+suppose, in a few minutes. I told him to come with the doctor."
+
+"I never felt an appetite at this early hour," said Onslow; "and perhaps
+the present is not the time to suggest one."
+
+"Did you remark Guilmard?" said Norwood, as he helped himself to a
+cutlet, and prepared his plate most artistically for a savory meal. "Did
+you observe him, George?"
+
+"No; I never looked that way."
+
+"By Jove! he has got a tremendous scar on his cheek; the whole length,
+from the eye to the corner of his mouth. English knuckles do not
+certainly improve French physiognomy. A left-hander, eh?"
+
+"I remember nothing about it," said Onslow, carelessly.
+
+"Well, you 've left him a memorandum of the transaction, any way,"
+said the Viscount, as he ate on. "And you were talking about an apology
+awhile ago?"
+
+"I was wishing that the case admitted of one," said Onslow, calmly.
+
+Norwood gave a sidelong glance at the speaker, and, although he said
+nothing, a gesture of angry impatience revealed what was passing within
+him.
+
+"Do try that brandy. Well, then, take a glass of curacoa," said he,
+pushing the bottle towards him.
+
+"Something! anything, in fact, you would say, Norwood, that might serve
+to make my courage 'carry the bead;' but you are altogether mistaken in
+inc. It is not of myself I am thinking; my anxieties are. But what could
+you care, or even understand, about my motives? Finish your breakfast,
+and let us make an end of this affair."
+
+"In one minute more I'm your man; but if I have a weakness, it is for a
+plain roast truffle, with butter. It was a first love of mine, and,
+as the adage says, 'only revient toujours.' Were I in your shoes this
+morning, George, I 'd not leave one on the dish."
+
+"On what principle, pray?" asked Onslow, smiling.
+
+"On that of the old Cardinal, who, when his doctors pronounced his case
+hopeless, immediately ordered a supper of ortolans with olives. It was
+a grand opportunity to indulge without the terror of an indigestion; and
+_a propos_ to such themes, where can our worthy doctor be all this time?
+The calessino was close up with us all the way."
+
+Leaving Norwood to continue his meal, George strolled out in quest
+of the surgeon, but none had seen nor knew anything of him. An empty
+calessino was standing on the roadside, but the driver only knew that
+the gentleman who came with him had got out there, and entered the park.
+
+"Then we shall find him near the little lake," said Norwood, coolly, as
+George returned, disappointed. "But it's strange, too, that he should
+be alone. Jekyl was to have been with him. These foreigners ever insist
+upon two seconds on either side. Like the gambler that always is calling
+for fresh cards, it looks very like a suspicion of foul play. Go back,
+George, and see if the fellow knows nothing of Jekyl. You 've only to
+name him, for every cab, cad, and barcaruolo of Florence is acquainted
+with Master Albert."
+
+George returned to the spot, but without any success. The man stated
+that he took his stand, as he was desired, at the gate of the palace,
+and that a little man, apparently somewhat elderly, came out and asked
+which way the others had gone, and how long before they had started.
+"See that you pick them up then," said he, "but don't pass them. He
+talked incessantly," added the man, "the whole way, but in such bad
+Italian that I could make nothing of it, and so I answered at random.
+If I were tired of him, I fancy he was sick of me; and when he got out
+yonder, and passed into the park, it was a relief to us both."
+
+George was just turning away, when his eye caught a glimpse of the
+glorious landscape beneath, on which a freshly risen sun was shedding
+all its splendor. There are few scenes, even in Italy, more striking
+than the Val d'Arno around Florence. The beautiful city itself, capped
+with many a dome and tower, the gigantic castle of the Bargello, the
+graceful arch of the Baptistery, the massive facade of the Pitti, all,
+even to the lone tower on the hill where Galileo watched, rich in
+their storied memories; while on the gentle slope of the mountain stood
+hundreds of beauteous villas, whose very names are like spells to the
+imagination, and the Dante, the Alfieri, the Boccaccio, vie in interest
+with the sterner realities of the Medici, the Pazzi, the Salviati, and
+the Strozzi. What a flood of memory pours over the mind, to think how
+every orange-grove and terrace, how each clump of olives, or each
+alley of cedars, have witnessed the most intense passions, or the most
+glorious triumphs of man's intellect or ambition, and that every spot we
+see has its own claim to immortality!
+
+Not in such mood as this, however, did Onslow survey the scene. It was
+in the rapt admiration of its picturesque beauty. The glittering river,
+now seen and lost again, the waving tree-tops, the parterres of bright
+flowers, the stately palaces, whose terraces were shadowed by the
+magnolia, the oleander, and the fig, all made up a picture of rich and
+beautiful effect, and he longed to throw himself on the deep grass and
+gaze on it for hours. As he stood thus, unable to tear himself away, he
+heard the sharp cracking of a postilion's whip immediately beneath him,
+and, on looking down, saw two heavily laden travelling-carriages, which
+all the power of eight horses to each could barely drag along against
+the steep ascent. A mounted courier in advance proclaimed that the
+travellers were persons of condition, and everything about the equipages
+themselves indicated wealth and station. As Onslow knew all who moved
+in a certain class in society, he was curious to see who was journeying
+northward so early in the year, and, stepping into a little copse beside
+the road, he waited for the carriages to pass.
+
+They came slowly forward, now halting to "breathe" the weary horses, now
+struggling for a brief space against the hill, and at last, turning a
+sharp angle of the way, the first carriage drew short up, directly in
+front of where he stood. The panels bore the flaunting and pretentious
+arms of Prince Midchekoff, with many an armorial emblem, which, however
+tolerated in the rest of Europe, the Czar would not suffer within his
+own dominions. As George glanced at these, he started, for a well-known
+voice caught his ear, and, forgetting his desire of concealment, he
+leaned forward to listen. It was Kate was speaking; he could not hear
+the words, but the accents were her own. "Oh for one look at her,
+for the last time!" thought he; and dashed headlong through the copse
+towards where, by another bend, the road made a rapid turn upwards.
+
+Already the horses had regained their wind, and were away at a brisk
+trot, as George tore onward through the closely interwoven branches and
+thick underwood of the grove. There was no path, nor, once out of sight
+or sound of the road, anything to guide him; but he dashed on, in the
+direction he supposed the carriage must take. At every step the way grew
+more intricate and difficult; the pits the peasants dig for chestnut
+leaves, the little heaps collected for firewood, intercepted him at
+each moment. With torn clothes and bleeding hands he still rushed madly,
+resolutely bent upon his object; and, with many a bruise and many a
+scar, at last gained the open country just in time to see the second
+carriage crowning the peak of the mountain above his head, while he
+could hear the sharp, clanking sound of the drag as they fastened it to
+the leading carriage. Any attempt to overtake them on the hill must
+now be hopeless. He well knew the pace at which a continental postilion
+descends a mountain, and how the steepest galleries of Alps and
+Apennines are often galloped down at speed. For miles below him he could
+see the winding zigzags of the road, and at each turning he fancied
+how he might catch sight of her. The mountain itself was terraced with
+vineyards from base to summit; but, from the steepness of its side,
+these terraces were but narrow strips of ground, barely sufficient for
+the vine-dresser to pass when tending his plants, or gathering in their
+produce. To look down on this giant stair, for such it seemed, was a
+giddy sensation, and few could have surveyed the precipitous descent
+without a sense of danger. Onslow's thoughts, however, had but one
+object, to see Kate once, and for the last time. By a straight descent
+of the mountain, leaping from terrace to terrace, it was possible for
+him to reach the bottom before the carriages could traverse the winding
+course of the road; and no sooner was the thought conceived than he
+proceeded to execute it. It is difficult to convey to those who have
+never seen these terraced flights of earth a true notion of the peril of
+such an undertaking; but they who have beheld them will acknowledge
+that little short of utter recklessness could dare it. Less leaping than
+dropping from height to height, the slightest impulse will carry the
+footsteps beyond the edge of the terrace, and then all self-control is
+lost, and destruction, to every appearance, inevitable.
+
+The youth whose nerves have been trained by the sports of fox-hunting
+and deer-stalking, however, is seldom unprepared for sudden danger; and
+George never hesitated when once the undertaking seemed practicable. By
+sidelong leaps he descended the first three or four terraces well and
+safely. Impressed with the risk of the exploit, he never turned his eyes
+from the spot whereon he meant to alight, and measured every bound with
+accuracy. Suddenly, however, his attention was caught by the postilion's
+bugle sounding, several hundred feet below him, and, in a bend of the
+road, he saw the dust left by the fast-descending carriage. Forgetful of
+safety, of everything, save his object, he leaped at random, and with a
+tremendous bound cleared one terrace completely, and alighted on the one
+beneath it. The impulse drove him forwards, and ere he could recover, he
+was on the very verge of the cliff. Even yet his presence of mind might
+have rescued him, when the loose masonry gave way, and carried him
+down with it. He fell forwards, and headlong; the force of the descent
+carried him on, and now, half falling, half-struggling, he bounded from
+height to height, till, shattered, maimed, and bleeding, he rolled, an
+unconscious heap of clay, in the long grass of the valley.
+
+Not fifty yards from where he lay, the carriages passed, and Kate even
+leaned from the window to gaze upon the winding glen, little thinking
+how terrible an interest that quiet scene was filled with. And so the
+equipages held their speed, and pressed onward; while, with a faint
+breathing, poor George lay, sleeping that dreamless slumber that seems a
+counterfeit of death.
+
+
+
+END OF VOL. I.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Daltons, Volume I (of II), by 
+Charles James Lever
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