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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Her Season in Bath, by Emma Marshall
+
+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: Her Season in Bath
+       A Story of Bygone Days
+
+Author: Emma Marshall
+
+Release Date: July 2, 2010 [EBook #33055]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HER SEASON IN BATH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Brian Foley, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
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+
+
+
+
+                          Her Season in Bath
+
+                       _A STORY OF BYGONE DAYS_
+
+                           BY EMMA MARSHALL
+
+    AUTHOR OF "BRISTOL DIAMONDS," "THE TOWER ON THE CLIFF," ETC., ETC.
+
+
+                          "One loving hour
+    Full many years of sorrow can dispense.
+    A dram of sweet is worth a pound of sour."
+
+    SPENSER
+
+
+LONDON
+SEELEY & CO., ESSEX STREET, STRAND
+1889
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+I. COIFFEUR
+
+II. THE TIDE OF FASHION
+
+III. ANOTHER SIDE OF THE PICTURE
+
+IV. MUSIC
+
+V. GRISELDA! GRISELDA!
+
+VI. GRAVE AND GAY
+
+VII. THE VASE OF PARNASSUS
+
+VIII. ON THE TRACK
+
+IX. WATCHED!
+
+X. A PROPOSAL
+
+XI. A LETTER
+
+XII. DISCOVERED
+
+XIII. THE PLOT THICKENS
+
+XIV. BRAWLS
+
+XV. CHALLENGED
+
+XVI. IN THE EARLY MORNING
+
+XVII. THE BITTER END
+
+XVIII. IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW
+
+XIX. TEN YEARS LATER--1790
+
+
+
+
+Her Season in Bath
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+COIFFEUR.
+
+
+It was the height of the Bath season in 1779, and there was scarcely any
+part of the city which did not feel the effect of the great tide of
+amusement and pleasure, which set in year by year with ever-increasing
+force, and made the streets, and parades, and terraces alive with
+gaily-dressed fashionable ladies and their attendant beaux.
+
+The chair-men had a fine trade, so had the mantua-makers and
+dressmakers, to say nothing of the hairdressers, who were skilled in the
+art of building up the powdered bastions, which rose on many a fair
+young head, and made the slender neck which supported them bend like a
+lily-stalk with their weight. Such head-gear was appropriate for the
+maze of the stately minuet and Saraband, but would be a serious
+inconvenience if worn now-a-days, when the whirl of the waltz seems to
+grow ever faster and faster, and the "last square" remaining in favour
+is often turned into a romp, which bears the name of "Polka Lancers."
+There was a certain grace and poetry in those old-world dances, and
+they belonged to an age when there was less hurry and bustle, and all
+locomotion was leisurely; when our great-grandmothers did not rush madly
+through the country, and through Europe, as if speed was the one thing
+to attain in travelling, and breathless haste the great charm of travel.
+
+And not of travel only. Three or four "at homes" got through in one
+afternoon, is a cause of mighty exultation; and a dinner followed by an
+evening reunion, for which music or recitations are the excuse, to wind
+up with a ball lasting till day-dawn, is spoken of as an achievement of
+which any gentlewoman, young or old, may feel proud.
+
+The two ladies who were seated with their maid in attendance in a large
+well-furnished apartment in North Parade on a chill December morning in
+the year 1779, awaiting the arrival of the hairdresser, had certainly no
+sign of haste or impatience in their manner. The impatience was kept in
+reserve, in the case of the elder lady, for Mr. Perkyns and his
+attendant, for Lady Betty had now passed her _première jeunesse_, and
+was extremely careful that every roll should be in its right place, and
+every patch placed in the precise spot which was most becoming. Lady
+Betty's morning-gown was of flowered taffety, and open in front
+displayed a short under-skirt of yellow satin, from which two very small
+feet peeped, or rather were displayed, as they were crossed upon a high
+square footstool.
+
+"Griselda, can't you be amusing? What are you dreaming about, child?"
+
+The young lady thus addressed started as if she had indeed been awakened
+from a dream, and said:
+
+"I beg your pardon, Lady Betty; I did not hear what you said."
+
+"No, you never hear at the right moment. Your ears are sharp enough at
+the wrong. I never saw the like last evening at Mrs. Colebrook's
+reunion. You looked all ears, then."
+
+"It was lovely music--it was divine!" Griselda said earnestly, and then,
+almost instantly checking the burst of enthusiasm which she knew would
+find no response, she said:
+
+"Will you carry out your intention of paying a visit in King Street? Mr.
+and Miss Herschel receive guests to-morrow forenoon."
+
+"Indeed, I vow I have but little inclination that way, but we will see.
+But, Griselda, take my word for it, you are playing your cards
+ill--staring like one daft at that singer who is no beauty, and
+forgetting to acknowledge Sir Maxwell Danby last evening when he made
+you that low bow. Why, child, don't you know he is a great catch?"
+
+Griselda's cheeks flushed crimson.
+
+"Your ladyship forgets we are not alone."
+
+"Ha! ha! as if my waiting-maid was not in all my little secrets. No
+love-story is new to her, is it, Graves?"
+
+The person thus referred to, who had been engaged in plaiting ruffles
+with a small iron, and sprinkling the fine lace with a few drops of
+starched water as she did so, on hearing her name, turned her head in
+the direction of her mistress, and said:
+
+"Did you speak, my lady?"
+
+"_You_ know--_you_ know, Graves. You know all about my billets-doux, and
+my pretty gentlemen."
+
+If Melia, otherwise Amelia Graves, knew, her face showed no sign of
+intelligence. It was a stolid face, hard and plain-featured, and she was
+a strange mixture of devotion to her frivolous mistress, and strong
+disapproval of that mistress's ways and behaviour. The real devotion and
+affection for a family she had served for many years, often gained the
+day, when she turned over in her mind the possibility of leaving a
+service which involved so much of the world and its customs, which she
+was the indirect means of encouraging by her continuous attention to all
+the finery and gauds, in which Lady Betty Longueville delighted.
+
+Lady Betty was the widow of a rich gentleman, to whom she had been
+married but a few years, when death ended what could not have ever been
+more than a _mariage de convenance_. An orphan niece of Mr.
+Longueville's, the child of a sister who had made what was considered a
+_mésalliance_, had been left to Lady Betty as a legacy, and was
+particularly mentioned in Mr. Longueville's concise will. His estate in
+Ireland devolved on the next heir, but Mr. Longueville had accumulated a
+pretty little fortune, which he had the power to settle on his wife. The
+estate was entailed, but the money was his to leave as he chose. Lady
+Betty had fully grasped the situation before she had accepted Mr.
+Longueville's proposal, and the understanding that Griselda Mainwaring
+was to be thrown into the bargain was rather agreeable than otherwise.
+Strange to say, Mr. Longueville did not leave Griselda any money, and
+simply stated that his niece, Griselda Mainwaring, the only issue of the
+unhappy marriage of his sister, Dorothy Mainwaring, _née_ Longueville,
+was to be companion to his widow, and maintained by her, Lady Betty
+Longueville, for the term of her natural life.
+
+It did not seem to have struck Mr. Longueville that either Lady Betty or
+Griselda might marry, and Griselda was thus left as one of the bits of
+blue china or old plate, which, being not included in the entail, fell
+to Lady Betty with the "household effects, goods and chattels."
+
+Perhaps the feeling that she was a mere "chattel" weighed at times on
+the tall and stately Griselda, whose grave eyes had ever a wistful
+expression in them, as if they were looking out on some distant time,
+where, behind the veil, the hopes and fears of youth, lay hidden.
+
+Griselda was outwardly calm and even dignified in her manner. She moved
+with a peculiar grace, and formed a marked contrast in all ways to the
+little vivacious Lady Betty, whose grand ambition was to be thought
+young, and who understood only too well how to cast swift glances from
+behind her fan upon the gay beaux, who haunted the city of Bath at that
+time. For although the palmiest days of the Pump Room, under the
+dominion of Beau Nash, were now long past, still in 1779 Bath held her
+own, and was frequented by hundreds for health, to be regained by means
+of its healing waters, and by thousands for pleasure and amusement.
+
+Amongst these thousands, Lady Betty Longueville was one of the foremost
+in the race; and she spent her energies and her talents on "making a
+sensation," and drawing to her net the most desirable of the idle beaux
+who danced, and flirted, and led the gay and aimless life of men of
+fashion.
+
+Graves was presently interrupted by a tap at the door; and, putting down
+the lace, she went to open it, and found the hairdresser and his
+assistant waiting on the landing for admission.
+
+The hairdresser made a low bow, and begged ten thousand pardons for
+being late; but her ladyship must know that the ball to-night in
+Wiltshire's Rooms was to be _the_ ball of the season, and that he and
+his man had been dressing heads since early dawn.
+
+"That is no news to me, Perkyns. Am I not one of the chief patronesses
+of the ball? Have I not been besieged for cards? Tell me something more
+like news than that."
+
+The assistant having spread out a large array of bottles, and brushes,
+and flasks on a side-table cleared for the purpose, Mr. Perkyns wasted
+no more time in excuses; he began operations at once on the lady's head,
+while Griselda was left to the hands of the assistant.
+
+Lady Betty was far too much engrossed with her own appearance to take
+much heed of Griselda's; and it was not till something like a discussion
+was heard between the young lady and the "artist" that she said sharply:
+
+"What are you talking about, Griselda? Pray, make no fuss!--you will
+look well enough. A little less curl on the right side, Perkyns. Oh!
+that bow is awry; and I will _not_ have the knot of ribbon so low. I
+said so last week."
+
+"The top-knots are not worn so high, my lady. Lady Cremorne's is quite
+two inches lower than the point you indicate."
+
+"Folly to talk of _her_!--a giant who might be a female Goliath! As if
+_her_ mode was any rule for mine! I am _petite_, and need height. Thank
+goodness, I am not a huge mass of bone and flesh, like my Lady
+Cremorne!"
+
+"As you please, my lady--as you please. But it is my duty to keep my
+patronesses up to the high-water mark of fashion."
+
+"I dare say folks with no taste may need your advice; but as I am
+blessed with the power of knowing what I like--and with the will to
+have it, too--I insist on the top-knot being at least two inches
+higher."
+
+"Very good--very good, my lady. What is it, Samuel?"--for the assistant
+now approached.
+
+"Shall I proceed to Sydney Place, sir? I have finished this young lady's
+coiffure."
+
+"Finished!--impossible! Why, child, come here; let me see! Why, you are
+not made up!--no rouge, nor a touch to your eyebrows!"
+
+"I do not desire it, madam; I do not desire to be painted. I have
+requested the hairdresser to refrain----"
+
+"Well, you will look a fright for your pains by night! Nonsense, child!
+powder must have paint. However, take your own way, you wilful puss! I
+have no more to say."
+
+"I have done my best to persuade the lady," Sam said; "but it is
+useless--it is in vain;" and, with a sigh, he began to gather together
+the cosmetics and the little pots and bottles, and prepared for
+departure.
+
+Mr. Perkyns turned from the contemplation of the top-knots to give a
+passing glance at Mistress Mainwaring. He shrugged his shoulders, and
+murmured:
+
+"A pity that what is so fair should not be made still fairer! But do not
+stand wasting precious time, Samuel; proceed to Sydney Place, and
+announce my speedy arrival. You can leave me what is needful, and I will
+follow and bring the smaller bag. Be quick, Samuel; and do not go to
+sleep--on a day like this, of all days!"
+
+Samuel obeyed, and took leave; while Griselda, after a passing glance at
+her head and shoulders in the mirror, retired to her own room on the
+upper story, and, taking a violin from a case, began to draw the bow
+over the strings.
+
+"If only I could make you sing to me as their fiddles sang last night!
+If only I had a voice like that sister of Mr. Herschel's! Ah! that song
+from the 'Messiah'--if only I could play it!" And then, after several
+attempts, Griselda did bring out the air of the song which, perhaps of
+all others, fastens on ear and heart alike in that sublime oratorio:
+
+    "He shall feed His flock like a shepherd."
+
+"So poor it sounds!" Griselda said; "so poor! I _will_ get to Mr.
+Herschel's, and ask if he will teach me to play and sing. I will. Why
+not? Ah, it is the money! She dresses me, and keeps me; and that is all.
+She would do nothing else. But I have bought you, you dear violin!"
+Griselda said, pressing her lips to the silent instrument, where the
+music, unattainable for her, lay hidden. "I have bought you, and I will
+keep you; and, who knows? I may one day make you tell me all that is in
+your heart. Oh that I were not at her beck and call to do her bidding;
+speak to those she chooses; and have nothing to say to those she thinks
+beneath her! Ah me! Alack! alack!"
+
+Griselda's meditations were interrupted by a sharp knock at the door;
+and Graves came in with a bouquet in her hand, tied with pale primrose
+ribbon.
+
+"That is for you, Mistress Griselda. The gentleman brought it himself;
+'and,' says he, 'give it to the young lady in private.' And then he had
+the impudence to offer me a crown-piece! Says I, 'I don't hold, sir,
+with sly ways; and I don't want your money.' Then he looked uncommon
+foolish, and said I was quite right; he hated sly ways. He only
+meant--well, _I_ knew what he meant--that I was not to let my lady know
+you had the '_buket_;' but I just took it straight into the room, and
+said, 'Here's a _buket_ for Mistress Grisel;' and, what do you think?
+she was in one of her tantrums with Mr. Perkyns, who vowed he would not
+take down her hair again; and there she was, screaming at him, and you
+might have had fifty _bukets_, and she wouldn't have cared. Ah, my dear
+Mistress Griselda, these vanities and sinful pleasures are just Satan's
+yoke. They bring a lot of misery, and his slaves are made to feel the
+pricks. Better be servants to a good master--better be children of the
+Lord--than slaves of sin. It's all alike," as she gave the violin-case a
+touch with her foot; "it's all sin and wickedness--plays, and balls, and
+music, and----"
+
+"Nonsense, Graves! Never tell me music is wrong. Why, you sing hymns at
+Lady Huntingdon's Chapel--_that_ is music!"
+
+"I don't hold with _that_ altogether; but hymns is one thing, and
+foolish love-songs another. I am trembling for you, my dear; I am
+trembling for you, with your flowers and your finery. The service of the
+world is hard bondage."
+
+Griselda had now put away her violin, and had taken up the flowers which
+she had allowed to lie on the table, till her treasured possession was
+in safety; and, as Graves departed, she said, as she saw a note hidden
+in the centre of the bouquet:
+
+"I am sure I don't care for these flowers; you may take them down to her
+ladyship, if you please."
+
+But Graves was gone.
+
+A girl of twenty was not likely to be absolutely without curiosity, and,
+though Griselda tore the scented, three-cornered billet open, and read
+the contents with some eagerness, her face was flushed and her lip
+curled as she did so.
+
+"To the fairest of the fair! These poor flowers came from one who lives
+on her smile and hungers for her presence, with the prayer that she will
+grant him one dance to-night--if but _one_----"
+
+Then there was a curious tangle of letters, which were twisted in the
+form of a heart, the letter "G" being in the shape of a dart which had
+pierced it.
+
+Griselda tore the note in pieces, and said:
+
+"Why does he not send his ridiculous billets to the person who wants
+them? I hate him, and his finery, and his flattery. I know not which is
+worse."
+
+
+Hours were early in the eighteenth century, and by seven o'clock the two
+ladies met in the dining-parlour of the house in North Parade ready for
+the ball, and awaiting the arrival of the sedan-chairs, which were
+attended by Lady Betty's own man.
+
+Lady Betty had recovered her good temper, and her rose-coloured sacque,
+with its short-elbow sleeves and long puckered gloves, was quite to her
+mind. The satin skirt was toned down by lamp-light, and the diamond
+buckles on her dainty shoes glistened and gleamed as she went through a
+step of the minuet, with her fan held in the most approved fashion.
+
+"Upon my word, we are a pretty pair to-night! But, do you know, Carteret
+vowed he thought I was younger than you were at the last ball! Fancy! I,
+a widow, not quite fat, fair, and forty, but in my thirties I freely
+allow! Child, you look as pale as a ghost! But it is a vastly pretty
+gown. Lucky for you it did not suit my complexion; dead white never
+does. But perhaps you are too white--all white. For my part I vow I like
+colour. Your servant, madam! How do you fancy my new curtshey?" and the
+little lady went through elaborate steps with her tiny twinkling feet,
+and made a bow, which, however, she was careful should not be too low to
+run any risk of disarranging her high coiffure, the erection of which
+had cost so much trouble and sorrow of heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE TIDE OF FASHION.
+
+
+Wiltshire's Rooms were illuminated by many wax-candles, shedding a
+softened and subdued light over the gay crowd which assembled there on
+this December night. Lady Betty was soon surrounded by her admirers, and
+showing off her dainty figure in the minuet and Saraband.
+
+There were three apartments in Wiltshire's Rooms--one for cards and
+conversation or scandal, as the case might be, and one for refreshments,
+and the larger one for dancing.
+
+Griselda was left very much to herself by her gay chaperon, and it was
+well for her that she had so much self-respect, and a bearing and manner
+wonderfully composed for her years. She was anxious to make her escape
+from the ball-room to the inner room beyond; and she was just seating
+herself on a lounge, as she hoped, out of sight, when a young man made
+his way to her, and, leaning over the back of the sofa, said:
+
+"I could not get near you at the concert at Mrs. Colebrook's last
+evening. Nor could I even be so happy as to speak to you afterwards.
+Less happy than another, madam, I accounted myself."
+
+Though the speaker was dressed like the other fashionable beaux who
+haunted the balls and reunions at Bath, and adopted the usual formality
+of address as he spake to Griselda, there was yet something which
+separated him a little from the rest. His clear blue eyes knew no guile,
+and there was an air of refinement about him which inspired Griselda
+with confidence. While she shrank from the bold flatteries and broad
+jests of many of the gentlemen to whom she had been introduced by Lady
+Betty, she did not feel the same aversion to this young Mr. Travers. He
+had come for his health to take the Bath waters, and a certain delicacy
+about his appearance gave him an attraction in Griselda's eye.
+
+Lady Betty Longueville called him dull and stupid, and had declared that
+a man whose greatest delight was scraping on a violoncello, ought to
+have respect to other folk's feelings who detested the sound. Music
+accompanied by a good voice, or music like the band at Wiltshire's and
+the Pump Room, was one thing, but dreary moans and groans on the
+violoncello another.
+
+"You were pleased with the music last evening, Mistress Mainwaring?" Mr.
+Travers was saying.
+
+"Yes; oh yes! Do you think, sir, Lady Betty and myself might venture to
+pay our respects to Mr. and Miss Herschel?"
+
+"Indeed, I feel sure they will be proud to receive your visit. To-morrow
+afternoon there is a rehearsal and a reception in Rivers Street. I
+myself hope to be present; and may I hope to have the honour of meeting
+you there?"
+
+"I will do my best, sir. But I am by no means an independent personage;
+I am merely an appendage--a chattel, if you like the word better."
+
+"Nay, I like neither word," the young man said; "they do not suit you.
+But to return to the visit to-morrow. Could you not make it alone?"
+
+Griselda shook her head, and then laughing, said:
+
+"It depends on the temperature."
+
+"But a chair is at your disposal. I can commend to you two steady men
+who would convey you to Rivers Street."
+
+But Griselda shook her head.
+
+"I was not thinking of wind and weather, sir; but of the mood in which
+my lady finds herself!"
+
+A bright smile seemed to show that Griselda's point was understood.
+
+"The Lady Betty is your aunt?"
+
+"Hush, sir!--not that word. I am forbidden to call her 'aunt,' it smacks
+of age and does not seem appropriate. I was Mr. Longueville's niece,
+and, as I told you, I am a chattel left to Lady Betty for the term
+of--well, my natural life, I suppose."
+
+"Nay, that word might be well altered to the term of your unmarried
+life, Mistress Griselda."
+
+Griselda grew her calm, almost haughty, self at once, and her companion
+hastened to say:
+
+"You must see and know Mr. and Miss Herschel. Now, at this moment, while
+all this gaiety goes on, they are in silence--their eyes, their thoughts
+far away from all this folly and babble."
+
+"Are they so wrapt in their production of music?" Griselda asked.
+
+"I said they were at this moment engrossed in silence, for the music of
+the spheres is beyond the hearing of mortal ears; it is towards this,
+their whole being--brother and sister alike--is concentrated, at this
+very moment, I will dare to say. Mr. Herschel and his sister lead a
+double existence--the one in making music the power to uplift them
+towards the grand aim of their lives, which is to discover new glories
+amongst the mysteries of the stars, new worlds, it may be. What do I
+say? These things are not new, only new to eyes which are opened by the
+help of science, but in themselves old--old as eternity!"
+
+"I am a stranger in Bath," Griselda said. "I have never heard of these
+things--never. I listened enchanted to Miss Herschel's voice last night,
+to her brother's solo performance on the harpsichord, but of the rest I
+knew nothing. It is wonderful all you say; tell me more."
+
+But while Leslie Travers and Griselda had been so engrossed with their
+conversation as to be oblivious of anything beside, a stealthy step had
+been skirting the card-room, passing the tables where dowagers and old
+beaux sat at écarté, and other card games, with fierce, hungry
+eagerness, till at last Sir Maxwell Danby wheeled round, and, bowing low
+before Griselda, begged to lead her to the minuet now being formed in
+the ball-room.
+
+"I do not dance to-night, sir," Griselda said. "I thank you for the
+honour you do me."
+
+Down came Sir Maxwell's head, bowing lower than before, as he murmured:
+
+"Then if I may not have the felicity of a dance, at least give me the
+pleasure of conducting you to supper. Several tables are occupied
+already, and let me hope that this request will not be refused."
+
+While Sir Maxwell had been speaking Mr. Travers had left his position at
+the back of the lounge, and had also come to the front and faced
+Griselda.
+
+The two men exchanged a cold and formal salutation, and then Sir Maxwell
+seated himself carelessly on the vacant place by Griselda's side, which
+Mr. Travers would not have thought he was on sufficiently intimate terms
+to do, and throwing his arm over the elbow of the sofa with easy grace,
+and crossing his silk-stockinged legs, so that the brilliants on the
+buckles of his pointed shoe flashed in the light, he said:
+
+"I will await your pleasure, fair lady, and let us have a little
+agreeable chat before we repair to supper."
+
+"I think, sir," said Griselda, rising, "I will rejoin Lady Betty."
+
+"The minuet is formed by this time, and her ladyship is performing her
+part to perfection, I doubt not. Let me advise you to remain here, or
+allow me to take you to supper."
+
+Griselda gave a quick glance towards Mr. Travers, but he was gone. She
+felt she must do one of two things: remain where she was till the dance
+was over, or repair to the refreshment-room with her companion.
+
+On the whole it seemed better to remain. Two ladies whom she knew
+slightly were seated at the card-table nearest her, and there might
+perhaps be a chance of joining them when the game was over. For another
+quartette was waiting till the table was free.
+
+"You look charming," Sir Maxwell began; "but why no colour to relieve
+this whiteness? I vow I feel as if I, a poor mortal, full of sins and
+frailties, was not worthy to touch so angelic a creature."
+
+Griselda was one of those women who do not soften and melt, nor even get
+confused, under flattery. It has the very opposite effect, and she said
+in a low, but decided voice:
+
+"There are topics less distasteful to me than personalities, sir;
+perhaps you may select one."
+
+"Ah! you are cruel, I see. Well, I will only touch one more personality.
+Why--why do I see no choice exotics in your hand, or on your breast? the
+colour would have enhanced your beauty, and relieved my heart of a
+burden."
+
+Griselda made no reply to this, but, rising with the dignity she knew so
+well how to command, she walked towards the open door of the next room,
+and said:
+
+"Mr. Travers, will you be so good as to take me to the ball-room that I
+may rejoin Lady Betty Longueville?"
+
+The young man's face betrayed his pleasure at the request made to him,
+and the discomfiture of his rival--rather I should say the hoped-for
+discomfiture, for Sir Maxwell Danby was not the man to show that he had
+the worst in any encounter. He was at Griselda's side in an instant, and
+was walking, or rather I should say ambling, towards Lady Betty, and,
+ignoring Mr. Travers's presence, said:
+
+"Your ladyship's fair ward is weary, nay, pining for your company, my
+lady."
+
+Lady Betty shrugged her shoulders, and said:
+
+"I vow, sir, she has enough of my company, and I of hers! Now, Griselda,
+do not look so mightily affronted; it is the truth. Let us all go to
+supper; and make up a pleasant little party. You won't refuse, Mr.
+Travers, I am sure."
+
+"With all my heart I accede to your plan, Lady Betty," Sir Maxwell said,
+"though I see your late partner is darting shafts of angry jealousy at
+me from his dark eyes."
+
+So saying, Sir Maxwell led the way with Lady Betty on his arm, and
+Griselda and Mr. Travers followed, but not before Griselda caught the
+words:
+
+"Upon my honour, she acts youth to perfection; but she is forty-five if
+she is a day. Did you ever behold such airs and graces?"
+
+Griselda felt her cheek burn with shame and indignation also, for had
+she not heard Lady Betty say that young Lord Basingstoke was one of her
+most devoted admirers? and yet she was clearly only a subject of
+merriment, and the cause of that loud unmusical laughter which followed
+the words. But Griselda had passed out of hearing before Lord
+Basingstoke's friend inquired:
+
+
+"Who is the other? She looks like a 'Millerite' and an authoress. He
+would be a brave man to indulge in loose talk with her. Upon my word,
+she walks like a tragedy queen!"
+
+"There'll be the story of Wilson and Macaulay told over again. We shall
+have her statue put up to worship!"
+
+"I don't know what you are talking about," said the young lord, with a
+yawn.
+
+"My dear fellow, have you never heard of Madam Macaulay, the writer of
+nine huge volumes of history, who deserted the reverend Dr. Wilson and
+married a young spark named Graham? She is Mrs. Graham now; has retired
+from the gay scenes of Bath with her young Scot, who feeds on oat-cakes
+and such-like abominations."
+
+"Lady Betty will be following suit--not the white lady," said the young
+lord. "I think I'll try and get an introduction," he said, "and lead her
+through the 'contre danse.'"
+
+"You won't get the introduction from Lady Betty. I'll lay a wager she
+will be too wary to give it; but I must look after my partner, so
+ta-ta!"
+
+Truly the world is a stage, across which the generations of men come and
+go! Assemblies of to-day at Bath and Clifton, and other places of
+fashionable resort, may wear a different aspect in all outward things,
+but the salient points are the same. Idle men and foolish women vie with
+each other in the parts they play. Age wears the guise of youth, and
+vanity hopes that the semblance passes for the reality.
+
+Literary women may not write as Mrs. Macaulay did nine volumes of
+ill-digested and shallow history, and become thereby famous, and it
+would be hard to match the profane folly of a clergyman like Dr. Wilson,
+who in his infatuation erected a statue to this woman in his own church
+of St. Stephen's, Walbrook, adorned as the Goddess of Liberty--an
+infatuation which we must charitably suppose was madness. Nor would such
+a woman be the rage now at Bath or anywhere else.
+
+Lady Miller was of a higher order of womanhood. She created a literary
+circle in a beautiful villa at Batheaston, inviting her friends to
+contribute poems and deposit them in a vase from Frascati.
+
+It may seem to us ridiculous that successful contributors should be
+crowned by Lady Miller with all due solemnity with myrtle wreaths. But
+there is surely the same spirit abroad at the close of the nineteenth as
+marked the last years of the eighteenth century. The pretenders are not
+dead. They have not vanished out of the land. There are the Lady Bettys
+who put on the guise of youth, and the Mrs. Macaulays who put on the
+appearance of great literary talent. They pose as authorities on
+literature and politics, and they are often centres of a _côterie_ who
+are fully as subservient as that which Lady Miller gathered round her in
+her villa at Batheaston. They may not kneel to receive a laurel crown
+from the hands of their patroness; but, none the less, they carry
+themselves with the air of those who are superior to common folk, and
+can afford to look down from a vantage-ground on their brothers and
+sisters in the field of literature, who, making no effort to secure a
+hearing, sometimes gain one, and win hearts also. It may be when the
+memory of many has perished with their work, that those who have
+laboured with a true heart for the good of others, and not for their own
+praise and fame, may, being dead, yet speak to generations yet to come.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+ANOTHER SIDE OF THE PICTURE.
+
+
+There was not a cloud in the sky on that December night, and the "host
+of heaven" shone with extra-ordinary brilliancy. The moon, at her full,
+was shedding her pure silvery light upon the terraces and crescents
+of the fair city of the West, and there were yet many people passing to
+and fro in the streets. The link-boys had but scant custom that night,
+and the chair-men found waiting for the ladies at Wiltshire's Rooms less
+irksome than when, as so often happened, they had to stand in bitter
+cold and darkness long after the hour appointed for them to take up
+their burdens and carry them to their respective homes.
+
+In a room in Rivers Street a woman sat busily at work, with a mass of
+papers before her--musical scores and printed matter, from which she was
+making swift copy with her firm, decided hand. She was so absorbed in
+the business in hand, that she did not feel the weariness of the task
+before her. Copying catalogues and tables could not be said to be an
+interesting task; but Caroline Herschel never weighed in the balance the
+nature of her work, whether it was pleasant or the reverse. It was her
+work, and she must do it; and it was service for one she loved best in
+the world, and therefore no thought of her own likes or dislikes was
+allowed to enter into the matter. Presently a voice was heard calling
+her name:
+
+"Caroline--quick!"
+
+The pen was laid down at once, and Miss Herschel ran upstairs to the
+upper story to her brother.
+
+"Help me to carry the telescope into the street. The moon is just in
+front of the houses. Carry the stand and the instrument. Be careful! I
+will follow with the rest."
+
+"In the street?" Caroline asked. "Will you not be disturbed by
+passers-by?"
+
+"Nothing disturbs me," was the reply. "I answer no questions, so folks
+tire of putting them. It is such a glorious night--there may not be
+another like it for months; and the moon is clearer than I have seen her
+since I had the seven-foot reflector."
+
+As William Herschel spoke, he was preparing to carry the precious
+reflector downstairs--that outcome of many a night-watch, and many a
+weary hour of purely manual labour. Turning the lathe and polishing
+mirrors was, however, but a small part of his unflagging perseverance.
+This perseverance had evolved the larger instrument from a small
+telescope, bought for a trifle from an optician at Bath. That telescope
+had first kindled the desire in William Herschel's mind to produce one
+which should surpass all its predecessors, and help him to scan more
+perfectly those "star-strewn skies," and discover in them treasures to
+make known to future ages, and be linked for ever with his name.
+Caroline Herschel was his right hand. She was his apprentice in the
+workshop--his reader when the polishing went on; and often, when William
+had not even a moment to spare for food, she would stand over him, and
+feed him as he worked with morsels of some dish prepared by her own
+hand.
+
+"You have copied the score for Ronzini, Caroline?"
+
+"I have nearly finished it."
+
+"And you have practised that quick passage in the song in 'Judas
+Maccabæus'?"
+
+"Yes; but I will do so again before to-morrow. It is our reception-day,
+you remember."
+
+"Yes; where is Alexander?"
+
+"He is at the Ball at Wiltshire's. He was at work all the morning, you
+know," Caroline said, in an apologetic tone.
+
+"Work is not Alex's meat and drink; he likes play."
+
+In a few minutes the telescope was adjusted on the pavement before the
+house; and the faithful sister, having thrown a thick shawl over her
+head, stood patiently by her brother's side, handing him all he wanted,
+writing down measurements, though her fingers were blue with cold, and
+the light of the little hand-lanthorn she had placed on the doorstep
+scarcely sufficed for her purpose.
+
+At last all was ready, and then silence followed--profound
+silence--while the brother's eyes swept the heavens, and scanned the
+surface of that pale, mysterious satellite of our earth, whose familiar
+face looks down on us month by month, and by whose wax and wane we
+measure our passing time by a sure and unfailing guide.
+
+Caroline Herschel took no notice of the few bystanders who paused to
+wonder what the gentleman was doing. She stood waiting for his word to
+note down in her book the calculation of the height of the particular
+mountain in the moon to which the telescope was directed.
+
+Presently he exclaimed, "I have it!--write."
+
+And as Caroline turned to enter the figures dictated to her, a gentleman
+who was passing paused.
+
+"May I be allowed to look into that telescope, madam?" he asked.
+
+Caroline only replied in a low voice:
+
+"Wait, sir; he has not finished. He is in the midst of an abstruse
+problem."
+
+"I have it--I have it!" was the next exclamation. "Write. It is the
+highest of the range. There is snow on it--and--yes, I am pretty sure.
+Now, Caroline, we will mount again, and I will make some observations on
+the nebulæ--the night is so glorious."
+
+"William, this gentleman asks if he may be allowed to look into the
+telescope."
+
+"Certainly--certainly, sir. Have you never seen her by the help of a
+reflector before?"
+
+"No, never; that is to say, by the help of any instrument so gigantic as
+this."
+
+William Herschel tossed back his then abundant hair, and said:
+
+"Gigantic!--nay, sir; the giant is to come. This is the pigmy, but now
+stand here, and I will adjust the lens to your sight--so! Do you see?"
+
+
+"Wonderful!" was the exclamation after a minute's silence. "Wonderful!
+May I, sir, introduce myself as Dr. Watson, and may I follow up this
+acquaintance by a call to-morrow?"
+
+"You will do me great honour, sir; and if you care for music, be with us
+to-morrow at three o'clock, when my sister there will discourse some
+real melody, if so it should please you. Is it not so, Caroline?"
+
+"There will be more attractive music than mine, brother," Miss Herschel
+said.
+
+"I doubt it, if, as I hear," said Dr. Watson, with a low bow, "the
+musical world finds in Miss Herschel a worthy successor to the fair
+Linley, who has made Sheridan happy--maybe happier than he deserves!"
+
+Caroline Herschel bowed in acknowledgment of the compliment, and said:
+
+"Miss Farinelli carries the palm, sir. Now, brother, shall we return to
+the top of the house?"
+
+She was almost numb with cold, but she made no complaint; and when the
+telescope with all the instruments had been conveyed to the top story,
+she patiently stood far into the night, while her brother swept the
+heavens, and took notes of all he said, as his keen glances searched the
+star depths, and every now and then exchanged an expression of wonder
+and delight with his faithful friend, and the sharer of all his toils
+and all his joys.
+
+So, while the gay world of Bath wore away the night in the hot chase for
+pleasure, this brother and sister pursued their calm and earnest way
+towards the attainment of an end, which has made their names a
+watch-word for all patient learners and students of the great mysteries
+of the universe, for all time.
+
+"The thirty-foot reflector, Caroline! That is the grand aim. Shall I
+ever accomplish it? We must make our move at once, for I must have a
+basement where I can work undisturbed. I find the pounding of the loam
+will be a work of patience."
+
+"Like all work," Caroline said, as she retired, not to bed, but to the
+copying of the score, from which occupation she had been disturbed when
+her brother called her.
+
+"Expenses are ahead," she said to herself. "Money--money, we shall want
+money for this thirty-foot; and, after all, it may be a vain hope that
+we shall produce it. Thirty-foot! Well, music must find the money. Music
+is our handle, our talisman which is to turn the common things into
+gold."
+
+"Well, Alex, is that you? Have you been playing as usual?"
+
+"Playing, yes; and you had better play too, you look quite an old Frau,
+Lina."
+
+"I don't doubt it--not I; a contrast to your painted dames at
+Wiltshire's."
+
+"One, at least, was not painted. She is a queen!--she is lovely."
+
+Caroline laughed a little ironical laugh.
+
+"Another flame! Poor Alex! you will sure be consumed ere long."
+
+"You won't laugh when you see her, Lina; and she is coming to-morrow to
+listen to your singing. Travers has told me she was raving about your
+singing at Madam Colebrook's the other evening, and he is to be here
+to-morrow and introduce her."
+
+"He is very obliging, I am sure," said Caroline with another little
+laugh. "There is a letter to Ronzini which should be sent by a messenger
+early to-morrow to Bristol. Can you write it?"
+
+"It is early to-morrow now," replied Alex. "Stay, good sister. I must to
+bed, and you should follow, or you will not be in trim to sing to the
+lady fair to-morrow. Come!"
+
+"The bees make the honey, Alex; it would not answer if all were
+butterflies. You are one of those who think that folks were made to make
+your life pleasant."
+
+"Bees can sting, I see," was Alexander's remark. "But give me a kiss,
+Lina; we don't forget our old home-love, do we? Let us hold together."
+
+"I am willing, dear Alex; if I am crabbed at times, make excuses. These
+servants are a pest. I could fancy this last is a thief: the odds and
+ends vanish, who knows how? Oh! I do long for the German households
+which go on oiled wheels, and don't stop and put everyone out--time and
+temper too--like these English ones."
+
+"We will all hasten back to Hanover, sister, with the telescopes at our
+backs, when----"
+
+"When the thirty-foot mirror is made. Ah!--a----"
+
+This last interjection was prolonged, and turned into a sigh, almost a
+groan.
+
+When Alex was gone his sister got up and walked two or three times round
+the room, drank a glass of cold water, opened the shutters, and looked
+out into the night.
+
+The moon had passed out of the ken of Rivers Street now, but its light
+was throwing sharp blue shadows from the roofs of the houses, and the
+figure of the watch-man with his multitude of capes as he stood
+motionless opposite the window from which Caroline Herschel was looking
+out into the night.
+
+Presently the dark shadow of the watchman's figure moved. He sounded his
+rattle and walked on, calling in his ringing monotone:
+
+"It is just two o'clock, and a fine frosty morning. All well."
+
+As the sound died away with the watchman's heavy footsteps, Caroline
+Herschel closed the shutter, and saying, "I am wide awake now," reseated
+herself at the table, and wrote steadily on till the clock from the
+Abbey church had struck four, when at last she went to bed.
+
+Her naturally strong physique, her unemotional nature, and her calm and
+quiet temper, except when pestered by her domestics' misdemeanours, were
+in Caroline Herschel's favour. Her head had scarcely touched the pillow
+before she was in a sound refreshing sleep, while many of the votaries
+of fashion tossed on their uneasy beds till day-dawn.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+MUSIC.
+
+
+Griselda Mainwaring was up very much earlier than Lady Betty on all
+occasions, but on the morning after the ball in Wiltshire's Rooms she
+was dressed and in the sitting-room before her ladyship had made any
+sign of lifting her heavy head from the pillow. Heavy, indeed, as she
+had been too cross and too tired to allow Graves to touch the erection
+of powder and puff, which had cost Mr. Perkyns so many sighs.
+
+Griselda had taken down her own hair without help, and had shaken the
+powder out of its heavy masses--no easy task, and requiring great
+patience.
+
+"I will forswear powder henceforth," she said, as she looked at herself
+in the glass. "Lady Betty says truly, powder must go with paint. I will
+have neither."
+
+So the long, abundant tresses were left to their own sweet will, their
+lustre dimmed by the remains of the powder at the top, but the under
+tresses were falling in all their rippling beauty over her shoulders.
+
+Amelia Graves brought her a cup of chocolate and some finger-biscuits,
+saying:
+
+"Her ladyship has already had two breakfasts, and after the last has
+gone off to sleep again."
+
+"I hope she will remember she promised to go to Mr. Herschel's musical
+reunion," Griselda said. "If not, Graves, I must go alone; I must
+indeed. You will send the boy Zack for a chair, won't you?"
+
+"More of the gay world! Ah, my dear, I do pity you."
+
+"Gay world! Well, I know nothing that lifts one above it as music does.
+I am no longer the pleasure-seeker then?"
+
+Graves shook her head, and, getting a long wrapper, she covered Griselda
+with it, and began to comb and brush the hair which nearly touched the
+floor as it hung over the back of the chair.
+
+"Come, I will gather the hair up for you. Well, it's a natural gift
+coming from God, and the Word says long hair is a glory to a woman, or
+I'd say it ought to be cut close. It is like your poor mother's, poor
+lady!" It was very seldom that Graves or anyone else referred to the
+sister of Mr. Longueville, who had disgraced herself by a _mésalliance_.
+"Poor thing!--ah, poor thing! it all came of her love of the world and
+the lust of the flesh."
+
+Griselda's proud nature always felt a pain like a sword-thrust when her
+dead mother was spoken of.
+
+"Don't talk of her, Graves, unless you can speak kindly. You know I told
+you this the other day."
+
+"Well, I don't wish to be unkind; but when a lady of high birth marries
+a wretched playwright, a buffoon----"
+
+"Stop!" Griselda exclaimed. "No more of this. If you can be neither
+respectful nor kind, say no more."
+
+"Well, my dear, there are times when I see your mother over again in
+you, and I tremble," said poor Graves, "yes, I shudder. If a bad man got
+hold of you, what then? I have my fears. It's out of love I speak."
+
+Griselda was touched at once.
+
+"I know it--I know, dear old Graves," she said. "There are few enough to
+care about me, or whether bad or good men are in my company. That is
+true, and I am glad you care," she added, springing up, and, throwing
+off the wrapper, she bent her stately head and kissed the lined, rugged
+cheek, down which a single tear was silently falling. "Dear old 'Melia,
+I am sure you love me, and I will keep out of the hands of bad men and
+women too. I want to go to-day to see a good, brave woman who sings
+divinely, and whose whole life is devoted to her brother--a wonderful
+musician."
+
+"Musician, yes. Music--music----"
+
+"But, to other things also; Mr. Herschel studies the wonders of the
+heavens, and is measuring the mountains in the moon and searching
+star-depths."
+
+"A pack of nonsense!" said Graves, recovering herself from the passing
+wave of sentiment which had swept over her. "A pack of nonsense! I take
+the stars as God set them in the heavens--to give light with the
+moon--and I want to know no more than the Word teaches me. The sun to
+rule by day, the moon and stars to rule by night. There! I hear her
+ladyship. Yes, I'll order the chair--maybe two; but you'll dine first?
+Her ladyship said she should dine at two--late enough."
+
+"Well, make haste and get her up, and stroke her the right way."
+
+"Ah, that's not easy. There's always a crop of bristles sticking up
+after a night's work like the last. It's the way of the natural man, and
+we must just put up with it."
+
+There could be no doubt that when Lady Betty at last presented herself
+from the room opening from the drawing-room she was in a bad mood, and
+Griselda said "her chance of getting to the Herschels' was remote if it
+depended on her will."
+
+Lady Betty yawned and grumbled, and taxed Griselda with stupidity; and
+said by her airs she had affronted one of the best friends she, a poor
+widow, had.
+
+"Sir Maxwell won't stand to be flouted by you, miss--a man of _ton_ like
+him; and _you_--well, I do not tell tales, or I might ruin your chance
+of matrimony."
+
+Griselda's eyes flashed angrily; and then, recovering herself, she said:
+
+"At what hour shall we order the chairs?"
+
+"The chairs?--who said I wanted a chair? I am too worn out--too tired. I
+vow I can scarcely endure myself. However, it might kill time to go to
+listen to 'too-ti-toos' on that horrid big instrument. When Mr. Herschel
+played on it the other night, I could think of nothing but a wretch
+groaning in limbo. Ah, dear! Come, read the news; there ought to be
+something droll in the Bath paper. I have no appetite. I am afraid I am
+no better for the waters. But I must drag my poor little self up
+to-morrow, and be at the Pump Room early. One is sure to hear a little
+gossip there, thank goodness."
+
+It was by no means an easy task to prepare the drawing-room at the
+Herschels' house for a rehearsal. Instruments of every kind blocked the
+way, and these were not all musical instruments. Then there was the
+arranging of the parts; the proper disposal of the music; the seats for
+the guests who might happen to drop in, for these receptions answered,
+perhaps, to the informal "at home" days of our own society of these
+later times, when "at home," written on the ordinary visiting-card,
+signifies that all who like to come are supposed to be welcome.
+
+Caroline Herschel went about her preparations with the same steady
+perseverance which characterized everything she did. Her servant was one
+of her trials--I must almost say her greatest trial--at this time. If
+ever her temper failed her, it was at some misdemeanour of the
+handmaiden who, for the time, filled the part of general helper in Miss
+Herschel's household.
+
+Like most of her countrywomen, neatness and order were indispensable to
+her comfort; and think, then, what the constant intrusion into every
+corner of the house of lathes and turning-machines, of compasses and
+glasses, and mirrors and polishing apparatus must have been! No wonder
+that the English or Welsh servant, however willing, failed to meet her
+mistress's requirements.
+
+On this occasion she had, with the best intention, bustled about; but
+had always done precisely the reverse of what she was told to do.
+
+At last, breaking out into German invective, her mistress had given her
+a rather decided push from the room, and had called Alexander to come to
+her rescue.
+
+"The slut! Look at the dust on the harpsichord! Did I not tell her to
+remove every speck before it was placed by the window? I would fifty
+times sooner do all the work myself. What would our mother say at all
+this?"
+
+"Heaven knows!" Alex said, laughing. "But, sister, the room looks spick
+and span; and here is an arrival."
+
+
+"It is only Mr. Travers; he is to play the second violin. Entertain him,
+Alex, while I go and make my toilette."
+
+Repairing to the humble bedroom, which was really the only space
+allotted to her--or, rather, that she allotted to herself--she changed
+her morning-wrapper for a sacque of pale blue, and twisted a ribbon to
+match it in her fair hair. As she was descending again to the
+drawing-room, she heard her brother William's voice.
+
+"I have concluded the business about the removal to King Street, and we
+must make the move as soon as possible."
+
+"Now--at once?"
+
+"Yes; the garden slopes well to the river. There will be a magnificent
+sky-line, and room for the great venture. The casting of the great
+thirty-foot----"
+
+"Yes, William--yes; but the people are arriving, and you must be in your
+place downstairs."
+
+Then Mr. Herschel, with the marvellous power of self-control which
+distinguished him, laid aside the astronomer and became the musician,
+playing a solo on the harpsichord to a delighted audience; and then
+accompanying his sister in the difficult songs in "Judas Maccabæus,"
+which hitherto only the beautiful Miss Linley had attempted in Bath
+society.
+
+In one of the pauses in the performance the door opened, and Alex
+Herschel went forward to meet Lady Betty Longueville and Miss
+Mainwaring. He presented them to his brother and sister; and Lady Betty
+passed smiling and bowing up the room, while Griselda moved behind her
+with stately grace and dignity.
+
+But Lady Betty was not the greatest lady in the company; for the
+Marchioness of Lothian was present, and was making much of Miss
+Herschel, and complimenting her on the excellence, not only of her
+singing, but of her pronunciation of English. The huge Lady Cremorne was
+also amongst the audience, and flattered the performers; and Lady Betty,
+wishing to be in the fashion, began to talk of the music as "ravishing,"
+and especially that "dear, delicious violoncello" of Mr. Herschel's.
+
+Mr. Travers had some difficulty in keeping his place in the trio which
+he played with the two Herschels, so attracted was he by the face of the
+rapt listener who sat opposite him, drinking in the strains of those
+wonderful instruments, which, under skilful hands, wake the soul's
+melodies as nothing else has the power to wake them.
+
+They called Miss Linley "Saint Cecilia." Mr. Travers thought "sure
+there never was one more like a saint than she who is here to-day." It
+was a dream of bliss to him, till a dark shadow awoke him to the reality
+of a hated presence.
+
+Sir Maxwell Danby and young Lord Basingstoke had appeared, and stood at
+the farther end of the room--Sir Maxwell fingering his silver snuff-box,
+and shaking out his handkerchief, edged with lace and heavily perfumed;
+while Lord Basingstoke looked round as if seeking someone; and Lady
+Betty, taking it for granted that she was the person he sought, stood
+up, and beckoned with her fan for him to take a vacant place by her
+side.
+
+This suited Sir Maxwell's purpose, and he said:
+
+"Go forward when the siren calls or beckons. Don't be modest, dear boy!
+What! must I make the way easy?" whereupon Sir Maxwell bowed, and
+elbowed his way to the top of the room; and Lord Basingstoke found
+himself left to Lady Betty, while Sir Maxwell dropped on a chair by
+Griselda's side.
+
+Miss Herschel was just beginning to sing the lovely song "Rejoice
+Greatly;" and Griselda, spell-bound, became unconscious of the presence
+of Sir Maxwell, or of anyone else. There was only one person for her
+just then in the world--nay, it was scarcely the person, but the gift
+which she possessed.
+
+
+Caroline Herschel had at this time attained a very high degree of
+excellence in her art, and Mr. Palmer, the proprietor of the Bath
+Theatre, had pronounced her likely to be an ornament to the stage. She
+never sang in public unless her brother was the conductor, and
+resolutely declined an engagement offered her for the Birmingham
+Festival. Anything apart from him lost its charm, and nothing could
+tempt her to leave him. Her singing was but a means to an end, and that
+end was to help her brother in those aspirations, which reached to the
+very heavens themselves.
+
+It is the most remarkable instance on record of a love which was wholly
+pure and unselfish, and yet almost entirely free from anything like
+romance or sentiment, for Caroline Herschel was an eminently practical
+person!
+
+At the close of the performance, Mr. Herschel told the audience that he
+should not be able to receive his friends till January, and then he
+hoped to resume his reunions in his new house in King Street.
+
+"But," he added, "my sister and myself can still give lessons to our
+pupils at their own homes, if so they please."
+
+"What marvellous people you are!" said Lady Cremorne in her loud,
+grating voice. "Most folks when they change their houses are all in a
+fuss and worry. You talk of it as if you carried your household gods on
+your back."
+
+"So we do, your ladyship," William Herschel said, with a smile. "I doubt
+whether my sister or myself would allow any hands but our own to touch
+some of our possessions."
+
+"Your telescopes, and those wonderful mirrors. Ah! here comes Dr.
+Watson. I saw him in the Pump Room this forenoon, and says he, 'I vow I
+saw the mountains in the moon through a wonderful instrument last
+night.'"
+
+"And the little man in the moon dancing on the top of it, no doubt,"
+said a voice.
+
+William Herschel turned upon the dandy, with his lace ruffles and his
+elegant coat, a look that none might envy, as he said:
+
+"Sir Maxwell, when you have studied the wonders of the heavens, you will
+scarce turn them into a childish jest."
+
+The room was thinning now, and Griselda lingered. Lady Betty was too
+much engrossed with trying to ingratiate herself with the Marchioness to
+take any heed of her, and she had gone down to her chair, conducted by
+Alexander Herschel, without noticing that Griselda was not following
+her.
+
+This was Griselda's opportunity. She went up to Miss Herschel and said:
+
+"I want--I long to learn to play on some instrument. I could never sing
+like you, but I feel I could make the violin speak. Will you ask your
+brother if I may have lessons?"
+
+Caroline Herschel was not a demonstrative person, and she said quietly:
+
+"My brother will, no doubt, arrange to attend you. As you heard, Miss
+Mainwaring, we are soon to be involved in a removal to a house better
+suited to his purpose."
+
+"But sure this is a charming room for music, and----"
+
+"I was not then speaking of music, but of my brother's astronomical
+work."
+
+"Ah! I had heard of that for the first time last night. It was you,
+sir"--turning to Mr. Travers--"who spoke of the wonders Mr. Herschel
+discovered in the sky. But where is Lady Betty? I must not linger,"
+Griselda said, looking round the room, now nearly empty.
+
+"Her ladyship has taken leave, I think. May I have the honour of seeing
+you to North Parade?"
+
+"I thank you, sir; but I have a chair in attendance."
+
+Mr. Travers bowed.
+
+"Then I will act footman, and walk by the side of the chair, with your
+permission, and feel proud to do so."
+
+"Then may I hope that Mr. Herschel will give me lessons?" Griselda said.
+"But," she hesitated, "there is one thing I ought to say--I am poor."
+
+"Poor!"
+
+Caroline Herschel allowed the word to escape unawares.
+
+"Yes, you may be astonished; but it is true. I am a dependent on Lady
+Betty Longueville. I was," with a little ironical laugh, which had a
+ring of bitterness in it--"I was left by my uncle, Mr. Longueville, to
+Lady Betty for maintenance. I am an orphan, and often very lonely. The
+world of Bath is new to me. I know nothing of the ways of fine people
+such as I meet here. But I have some trinkets which were my mother's,
+and I would gladly sell them, if only," and she clasped her hands as if
+praying for a favour to be conferred--"if only I could gain what I most
+covet--lessons in music. I have a violin. I bought it with the money I
+received for a pearl-brooch. The necklace which matches this brooch is
+still mine. Its price would pay for many lessons. I would so thankfully
+sell it to attain this end."
+
+
+Griselda, usually so calm and dignified, was changed into an enthusiast
+by the strong desire kindled within her, to be instructed in the
+practice of music.
+
+"Here is my brother Alex!" Caroline Herschel said. "I will refer the
+matter to him. This lady, Alex, wishes to become a pupil on the violin."
+
+"And to sing also," Griselda said eagerly.
+
+"It can be arranged certainly. I will let you know more, madam, when I
+have consulted my brother."
+
+"There are loud voices below, Alex. Is anything amiss?"
+
+"Two gentlemen have had an unseemly wrangle," Alex said, "and in the
+midst Dr. Watson arrived, and a poor child begging. It is over now, and
+your chair waits, Miss Mainwaring."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+GRISELDA! GRISELDA!
+
+
+When Griselda went down to the little lobby, she found Mr. Travers with
+a flushed and excited face, and Mr. Herschel trying to calm him.
+
+"Take my word for it, my young friend, there are always two necessary to
+make a quarrel, and I should beware of yonder dandy, who bears no good
+character."
+
+"I will take your advice as far as in me lies, sir; but if he ever dares
+to speak again, as just now--in the presence of others, too!--to dare to
+speak lightly of her----I will not pick the quarrel, but if he picks
+it, then I am no coward."
+
+Dr. William Watson, who had come for a second time that day to visit the
+"moon-gazer" of the night before, had been a somewhat unwilling witness
+of the high words which had passed between Sir Maxwell Danby and Leslie
+Travers, and now seemed impatient to be taken upstairs to inspect the
+process of grinding and polishing the reflector for great twenty and
+thirty foot mirrors, which was then achieved by persistent manual
+labour.
+
+Dr. William Watson was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and had come to
+invite Mr. Herschel to join the Philosophical Society in Bath, which
+invitation he accepted, and by this means came more prominently before
+the world.
+
+Mr. Travers led Griselda to her chair, and as the boy lighted the torch
+at the door--for it was quite dark--a small and piteous voice was heard:
+
+"Oh, madam! cannot you do something for us? I heard Mr. Herschel was
+kind, but he is hard and stern."
+
+"Mr. Herschel never gives alms," Leslie Travers said; "be off!"
+
+"Nay, sir; wait. The child looks wretched and sad. What is it?" Griselda
+asked.
+
+"Oh, madam! my father was engaged to play at the theatre, and he has
+fallen down and cannot perform the part. Mr. Palmer is hard, so hard, he
+says"--the child's voice faltered--"he says it was drink that made him
+fall--and he has no pity; and we are starving."
+
+The group on the steps of that house in King Street was a study for an
+artist. The shuddering, weeping child; the stolid chairman; the
+link-boy, with the torch, which cast a lurid light upon the group; the
+young man holding the hand of the tall and graceful lady, hooded and
+cloaked in scarlet, edged with white fur; then the open door behind,
+where an oil lamp shone dimly, and the maid's figure, in her large white
+cap and apron, made a white light in the gloom. It was a picture indeed,
+suggestive of the sharp contrasts of life, and yet no one could have
+divined that in that scene lay concealed the elements of a story so
+tragic and sorrowful, yet to be developed, and then unsuspected and
+unknown.
+
+"Wait," Griselda said. "Tell me, child, if I can help you."
+
+"We are starving, madam, and my father is so ill!"
+
+"I have no money," Griselda exclaimed. "Mr. Travers, if you can help
+her, please do so."
+
+"It is at your desire, for I can refuse you nothing; but I know Mr.
+Herschel is right, and that alms given like this, is but the throwing of
+money into a bottomless pit."
+
+As he was speaking the young man had taken a leathern purse from the
+wide side-pocket of his blue coat, and had singled out a sixpence and a
+large heavy penny with the head of the King in his youth upon it--big
+old-fashioned penny-pieces, of which none are current now.
+
+Mr. Travers put the money into Griselda's hand, and she held it towards
+the child.
+
+"What brought you to Mr. Herschel's?" she asked.
+
+"Brian Bellis sings at the Octagon every Sunday; he told me Mr. Herschel
+was kind, but he was wrong; it is you who are kind."
+
+"Tell me where you live, and I will come, perhaps; or at any rate send
+someone to give you help."
+
+"We live in Crown Alley; but Brian Bellis will tell you, madam. Oh!" the
+child said, "you are beautiful as the princess in the play; and you are
+good too, I know."
+
+"Come, be off, you little wretch. We don't care to stay here all night
+for you, and orders waiting," said one of the chair-men.
+
+"Will you find out Brian Bellis for me? Will you discover from Miss
+Herschel if the tale is true--now--I mean now? I will pay you extra for
+waiting," Griselda said to the men.
+
+"Can't wait to obleege you, miss; if you don't step in we shall have to
+charge double fare."
+
+Then Griselda got into the chair; the lid was let down with a jerk; the
+men took up the poles, and set off at a quick trot to North Parade.
+
+The child was still standing on the doorstep, and Leslie Travers said:
+
+"You must not stand here. The lady will keep her promise, you may be
+sure. Now then!"
+
+The child turned sorrowfully away, and the click of her pattens was
+heard on the stone pavement getting fainter and fainter in the distance.
+
+Leslie Travers was thoughtful beyond the average of the young men of his
+type in those days, and as Miss Herschel's servant shut the door--much
+wondering what all the delay had been about--he gathered his loose cloak
+round him, and walked towards the house his mother had taken in King
+Street, pondering much on the inequalities of life.
+
+"Some star-gazing," he thought, "and with their chief aims set above the
+heavens; some singing and dancing; some working mischief--deadly
+mischief--by their lives; and some, like that poor child, dying of
+starvation. Yes, and some are praying to God for the safety of their own
+souls, or thanking Him that they are safe, and forgetting, as it seems,
+the souls of others--nay, that they have souls at all! And others, like
+that angel, whose face is like the fair lady of Dante's dream, or
+vision, seem to draw the beholder upward by the very force of their own
+purity and beauty."
+
+This may sound very high-flown language for a lover, but Leslie Travers
+lived in a day of ornate expression of sentiment, as the effusions in
+Lady Miller's vase at Batheaston abundantly testified.
+
+Leslie Travers was the son of a Lincolnshire squire, who owned a few
+acres, and had lived the isolated life of the country gentlemen of those
+times.
+
+Leslie was the only son, and he had been sent to Cambridge; but his
+health failed before he had finished his course there, and he had
+returned to his old home just in time to see his father die of the ague,
+which haunted the neighbourhood of the fens before any attempt at proper
+drainage had been thought of, much less made.
+
+Mrs. Travers was urged to shut up the Grange--which answered very well
+to the description of a moated Grange of a later time--and resort to
+Bath, for the healing waters might take their effect on her son's
+health. Mrs. Travers had now been resident in Bath for a whole year, and
+her figure in widow's-weeds was familiar in the bath-room waiting for
+her son's appearance after his morning douche.
+
+But not only was her figure familiar in the bath-room, there was another
+place where she constantly took up her position, and where she could not
+persuade her son to follow her, and that place was the chapel which had
+been built by Selina, Countess of Huntingdon.
+
+Mrs. Travers was at this time greatly exercised in mind about her son.
+Since his health had improved, he had entered more into the gaieties of
+the city of Bath, and made friends of whom she could not approve. The
+Pump Room was a place where many idlers and votaries of fashion found a
+convenient resort after the morning bath; and here many introductions
+were exchanged between the new-comers and those who had been frequenters
+of Bath for many previous seasons. The present master of the ceremonies
+did not hold the sway of his famous predecessor; but outward decorum was
+preserved; and it was in the master's power to refuse or grant an
+introduction if it was objected to by any parent or guardian.
+
+Mrs. Travers was one of those sweet and gentle women, who are themselves
+a standing rebuke to the harsh and iron creed which they profess to hold
+by. Mrs. Travers had lived in an atmosphere all her life of utter
+indifference and neglect of even the outward observances of religion.
+
+The clergyman of the Lincolnshire parish where the Grange stood was a
+fair type of the country parsons of the time. He hunted with the squire,
+drank freely of his wine, and was "Hail fellow! well met!" with those
+of his parishioners who had like tastes with himself. A service in the
+church when it suited him, baptisms when the parents pressed it,
+funerals, a necessity no one can put aside, and administration of the
+Holy Communion on the three prescribed festivals of the year, were the
+limit of his parochial labours.
+
+Who can wonder that a sympathetic and emotional woman, brought to hear
+for the first time a burning and eloquent appeal to turn to God, should
+very soon yield herself, heart and soul, to what was indeed to her a
+_new_ religion!
+
+She accepted the doctrine of her teacher without reservation, and the
+offer made her in God's name of salvation--a salvation which drew a
+circle round the recipient, into which no worldly thing must enter--a
+circle narrower and ever narrower, which, as it closed like an iron band
+at last, round many a true-hearted man and woman, had all unawares shut
+in the very essence of that world they had in all good faith believed
+they had renounced. For "the world's" chief idol is self, and there may
+be worship and slavery to this idol in the closest conventual cloister,
+and in the hardest and most ascetic life that was ever led in this, or
+any other age.
+
+But, as I said, no creed could make Mrs. Travers hard or austere. Her
+sweet, pale face in its widow's cap, and straight black gown with the
+long "weepers" and linen bands, gave her almost a saint-like appearance;
+and the smile with which she greeted her boy was like sunshine over the
+surface of a little tarn hidden in some mountain-side.
+
+"Late--am I late, mother? I am sorry, ma'am; but I was detained at Mr.
+Herschel's by--by a child begging for money at the door as we were
+leaving. She spoke of starvation and deep distress. She had a lovely
+face, and it sounded like truth."
+
+"Poor little creature! Can we help, Leslie?"
+
+"One of the singers at the Octagon Chapel will direct me to the
+place--Crown Alley, a low street enough, by the Abbey churchyard."
+
+"Ah!" and his mother sighed; "a low place, doubtless."
+
+"The child's father is an actor--he was hired to play here--and has had
+a fall, and is helpless."
+
+"An actor!" Mrs. Travers' pale face flushed with crimson. "An actor! Ah,
+my dear son, one engaged in the devil's work cannot claim charity from
+Christians."
+
+"I do not take your meaning, ma'am. An actor may suffer, and his child
+starve as well as other folk, and need help."
+
+"I grieve for suffering, dear son, as you know; but----"
+
+"But you condemn all actors wholesale. Nay, my sweet mother"--and Leslie
+changed his tone--"nay, my sweet mother, it is not you who steel your
+heart; it is the doctrine taught you in the fashionable chapel yonder of
+lords and ladies, who reserve for themselves the right to the kingdom of
+heaven."
+
+"My son, do not speak thus; nor scoff at what you cannot yet understand.
+If prayers avail for your conversion, constant and persevering, mine
+will at last be heard."
+
+"I thank you for your prayers, dear mother--they come from a true heart.
+And now to supper, and then to my violoncello. The Herschels are
+removing at once to this street--almost will their music be within
+ear-shot; and there will be great works in the garden, and the largest
+mirror in the kingdom will be cast. Who can tell what may be discovered?
+Now, mother, you do not see sin and wickedness in star-gazing, surely?"
+
+Mrs. Travers shook her head.
+
+"I would not care for myself to be too curious as to the secrets which
+God does not reveal."
+
+Leslie stamped his foot impatiently, and then said:
+
+"We cannot agree there, mother. Every gift of God is good; and if He has
+given the gift of mathematical precision, and earnestness in applying it
+for the better development of the grandest of all sciences, who shall
+dare to say the man who exercises that gift is wrong? For my own part, I
+feel uplifted in the presence of that great and good man--Mr.
+Herschel--and his wonderful sister."
+
+"'When I consider Thy heavens the work of Thy fingers,'" Mrs. Travers
+quoted from the Psalms, "I say, with David, 'What is man, that Thou art
+mindful of him? or the son of man, that Thou considerest him?' Such
+knowledge, my dear son, as that, after which you tell me Mr. and Miss
+Herschel seek, is too wonderful for me, nor do I wish to attain it. Mr.
+Relley delivered a very powerful discourse on this matter last Sunday. I
+would you had heard it, instead of listening to the music at the
+Octagon, where the world gathers its votaries every Sabbath-day to
+admire music, and forget God."
+
+Leslie knew, by past experience, that to argue with his mother was
+hopeless, and he therefore remained silent. Something told him, when all
+was said, that he needed something that he did not possess. When first
+threatened with consumption, and the grasshopper of his young life had
+become a burden, he had looked death in the face, and shuddered. Life
+was sweet to him--music, and the beautiful things which were to him as
+a strain of music, were dear to his heart.
+
+At a time when the natural beauties of field, and flower, and
+over-arching sky were far less to many than the coteries of fashion and
+the haunts of pleasure, so called, Leslie Travers had higher tastes, and
+yet he would fain have been other than he was. Religion, as offered to
+him by his mother's teachers, repelled him; and he cherished a secret
+bitterness against the grand ladies who sat on either side of the _haut
+pas_--described by Horace Walpole, in balconies reserved for "the elect"
+of noble birth--in Lady Huntingdon's Chapel in the Vineyards.
+
+The waters of Bath had worked wonders on Leslie's bodily ailments. He
+began to feel strong again, with the strength of young manhood; and now
+there had risen upon his horizon that bright particular star--that, to
+him, marvel of perfect womanhood--Griselda Mainwaring. He had scarcely
+dared to take her name on his lips--it was a sacred name to him; and
+_yet_, in the lobby of Mr. Herschel's house, he had heard the man, who
+had so broadly flattered her that she had shrunk from his words as a
+sensitive plant shrinks from a rough touch of a hand--say, in answer to
+a question from a casual acquaintance:
+
+"Who is she? Low-born I hear, and a mere poor dependent on the bounty of
+Lady Betty."
+
+"Heaven help her!" had been the reply, "if that is all her dependence."
+
+Then with a laugh, as he tapped his little silver snuff-box, Sir Maxwell
+Danby had said:
+
+"She will easily find another maintenance. A beauty--true; but a beauty
+of no family can't afford to be particular."
+
+It was at these words--insulting in their tone as well as in
+themselves--that Leslie Travers had raised his voice, and angrily
+demanded what the speaker meant, or how he could dare to speak lightly
+of a lady who had no father or brother to be her champion.
+
+"She has _you_!" had been the reply, with a sneer. "Poor boy!"
+
+How the quarrel might have ended even then, I cannot tell, had not the
+master of the house, Mr. Herschel, tried to throw oil on the troubled
+waters. But the bitterness was left--a bitterness which Leslie Travers
+felt was hatred; and yet, if his mother's Bible told true, hatred was a
+seed which might grow into an awful upas-tree, shadowing life with its
+deadly presence. With that strangely mysterious power, which words from
+the great code of Christian morals are sometimes forced, as it were, to
+be heard within, Leslie heard: "He that hateth his brother is a
+_murderer_, and we know that no murderer hath eternal life!"
+
+Again and again, as Sir Maxwell Danby's figure rose before him, and his
+narrow though finely-chiselled face seemed to mock him with its scornful
+smile, so did the words echo in his secret heart: "He that hateth his
+brother is a murderer, and we know that no murderer hath eternal life!"
+
+Late into the night the strains of Leslie's violoncello rose and fell.
+The largo of Haydn seemed to soothe him into calm, calling up before him
+the beautiful face of Griselda Mainwaring, as with rapt, impassioned
+gaze she had drank in the music of Caroline Herschel's voice, as she
+sang, "Come unto Me ... and I will give you rest."
+
+"I love her! I adore her! I will win her if I serve for her as Jacob
+served for Rachel! My queen of beauty! Griselda! Griselda!"
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+GRAVE AND GAY.
+
+
+"The quality" of Bath and of other towns and cities in England, a
+hundred years ago, knew nothing--and, except in rare and isolated
+instances, cared less--of those who were reduced to the lowest depths of
+poverty, and whose struggle for daily bread was often in vain.
+
+It was in a low, unhealthy quarter of Bath--that queen of the West--that
+the child, who had begged for money at Mr. Herschel's door the evening
+before, was seated in an attic-chamber, with a heap of finery before
+her. Her little slender fingers were busy mending rents in gaudy gowns,
+sewing beads on high collars, and curling feathers with a large bodkin.
+
+Stretched on a bed in the corner of the room lay a man, whose pale face,
+sunken eyes, and parched white lips, told of suffering and want. A sigh,
+which was almost a groan, broke from the man, and the child got up and
+left her work for a minute that she might wet a rag in vinegar and water
+and lay it on her father's forehead.
+
+"Is it your leg pains, father, or is your head worse?"
+
+"Both, child; but my heart pains most. I am fallen very low, Norah, and
+there is nothing but misery before us. Child! what will you do when I am
+gone?"
+
+Norah shook her head.
+
+"We will not talk of that, father. You will get well, and then you will
+act Hamlet again, and----"
+
+"Never! The blow to my head has clean taken away my memory. 'To be or
+not to be!'"--then followed a harsh laugh--"I could not get the next
+line to save my life! But, Norah, it is your condition which eats like a
+canker into my heart. You spoke of a kind gentleman and a beautiful lady
+yesterday, who did not spurn you. Find them again, implore them to come
+here, and I will move their very heart to pity by the tale of my
+sorrows! They will, sure, put out a hand to you."
+
+"The lady was beautiful as an angel, father; but I don't think grand
+folks like her will care for us. But," she said, brightening, "I shall
+get some money for this job Mrs. Betts gave me; and I am to go to the
+green-room and help the ladies to dress."
+
+"No!" the man said, his eyes flashing--"No! I command you not to enter
+the theatre! Do you hear?"
+
+The child knew when her father's dark eyes flashed like that, and he
+spoke in the tones of tragedy, that remonstrance was useless; and the
+doctor said he was never to be excited or contradicted, or he might lose
+his senses altogether.
+
+"As you please, father," Norah said meekly, and then returned to her
+needlework; and the heavy breathing in the corner where the bed was
+placed told that her father slept.
+
+About noon there was a sound of feet on the stairs, and a tap at the
+door, and a curly head was thrust in. Norah held up her finger and
+pointed to the bed, but said in a low whisper:
+
+"Come in, Brian."
+
+"I've brought you my dinner," the boy said. "I did not want it. It's a
+meat-pie and a bun. I don't care for meat-pies and--come, Norah, eat
+it!"
+
+Norah's blue eyes filled with tears. She was so hungry, but she knew her
+father might be hungry too. She glanced at the bed, and Brian understood
+the glance.
+
+"Meat-pies are bad for sick folks," he said, shaking his head. "Very
+bad! He mustn't touch it."
+
+"I'll keep the bun then, and p'raps that may tempt him with a drop of
+the wine you brought yesterday. But, Brian, he is very ill!"
+
+"Well, eat your pie, and then we'll talk," the boy said.
+
+"Not loud, or he may wake."
+
+"I have something to tell you. There's a young gentleman who plays the
+violoncello grandly! He comes to the Octagon, you know, and I believe it
+was that very gentleman you saw at Mr. Herschel's yesterday. I'm going
+to hunt him up; and I'll bring him here, and he is certain to be good to
+you."
+
+"I don't want to beg! Oh, Brian, I do not like to beg, and be spurned
+like Mr. Herschel spurned me yesterday!"
+
+"He was in a hurry--he did not mean anything unkind. But I have got to
+sing a solo at a rehearsal, and I must be gone. Cheer up, Norah! What's
+all this rubbish?"
+
+"It's the theatre dresses. Mrs. Betts, the keeper of the wardrobe, gave
+me the job. She will pay me, you know."
+
+Brian nodded, and then left the room. His quaint little figure, in
+knee-breeches and swallow-tail short coat, with a wide crimped frill
+falling over the collar and the wrist-bands, would excite a smile now if
+seen in the streets of Bath.
+
+Heavy leather shoes, tied with wide black ribbon, and dull yellow
+stockings, which met the legs of the breeches, and were fastened with
+buckles, completed his attire. But the fine open face, with its winning
+smile, and white forehead shaded by clustering curls, could not be
+disguised. Brian had a charm about him few people could resist.
+
+He lived with his aunts, who were fashionable mantua-makers and
+milliners in John Street, and their rooms were frequented by many of the
+_élite_, who came to them to consult about the fashion and the mode,
+although the Miss Hoblyns' fame was not, in 1779, what it became when
+the Duchess of York consulted them as to her "top-gear" a few years
+later.
+
+At this time they were young women, and had only laid the foundation of
+the large fortune which the patronage of the Royal Duchess is said to
+have built up at last. Brian Bellis was therefore lifted far above
+anything like poverty, and his aunts gave him a trifle for his pocket,
+as well as his schooling, and were proud of his prominence in the choir
+of the Octagon Chapel, where on Sundays the sisters always appeared in
+the latest fashions. Indeed their dress on Sundays was eagerly scanned
+by ladies of the fashionable congregation as we might scan a
+fashion-book in these days.
+
+Brian had seen Norah several times with a burden he thought too heavy
+for her to carry, and he had gallantly taken the basket from her hand
+and carried it for her.
+
+Those were the days when there was money to pay for marketings, and
+before the accident happened which had laid her father low. But Brian
+was not a fair-weather friend, and that meat-pie and bun were not the
+first that he had bought out of his pocket-money for the now forlorn
+child.
+
+He was running away to the rehearsal for next Sunday's music, when he
+jostled against Leslie Travers, who was coming out of the Pump Room.
+
+Brian came to a dead stop, and said respectfully:
+
+"Sir, there is a man and a little girl in great want in Crown Alley; the
+child was at Mr. Herschel's door last night."
+
+"This is a lucky chance," Leslie Travers said, "for I am looking for
+Brian Bellis. Are you Brian Bellis? I know your face amongst the singers
+in the Octagon"--adding to himself, "a face not likely to forget."
+
+It was lighted now with the fire of enthusiasm, as he said:
+
+"Oh! sir; yes, I am Brian Bellis, and I can show you the way to Crown
+Alley; not now, for I have to be at the rehearsal. But, sir, I will come
+to the Pump Room this afternoon, and I will go with you then. I wish I
+could stay now, but I dare not. Mr. Herschel never overlooks absence
+from a rehearsal for Sunday."
+
+"Very good; I will be there. Come to the lobby about four, and you will
+find me."
+
+The Pump Room was full that afternoon.
+
+Lady Betty was of course there, laying siege to the young Lord
+Basingstoke, and laughing her senseless little laugh, and flirting her
+fan as she lounged on a sofa, with the young man leaning over her.
+
+Sir Maxwell Danby had had a twinge of gout, and was in an ill temper. He
+did not care two straws for Lady Betty, but he did not like to see his
+territory invaded, knowing, too, that a peer weighed heavily in the
+balance against a baronet.
+
+Griselda had rebuffed him too decidedly for him to risk another public
+manifestation of her repugnance to him, and he watched her with his
+small close-set eyes with anything but a benign expression.
+
+Griselda was surrounded by a mother and two smart, gawky daughters, who
+were strangers at Bath, and were of the veritable type of
+"country-cousins," which was so distinct a type in the society of those
+days. Now refinement, or what resembles it, has penetrated into country
+towns and villages, and the farmers' wives and daughters of to-day are
+more successful in presenting themselves in what is called "good
+society," than were the squires' and small landed proprietors' families
+when "the country" districts were separated by impassable roads from
+frequent intercourse with the gay world beyond.
+
+These good people talked in loud resonant tones, with a decided
+provincial twang.
+
+"La, ma! what a fine lady that is!" said one of the girls. "Did you ever
+see such a hat?"
+
+"And look at the gentleman courting her!"
+
+"Hush now, my dear! He is a lord, and the t'other is a baronet."
+
+"Well, we _are_ in fine company. I wish we knew some of 'em. I say,
+ma----"
+
+At this moment the very stout mamma dropped her fan, and Griselda, who
+was nearest to it, picked it up and handed it to her with a gracious
+smile.
+
+"Thank you, my dear, I am sure. Won't you take a seat here?" she
+continued, gathering together the ample folds of her moreen pelisse
+trimmed with fur, and edging up to her daughters, who were on the same
+bench.
+
+A quick glance showed Griselda that Sir Maxwell was meditating a raid on
+her, so she accepted the offer, and almost at the same moment the
+Marchioness of Lothian appeared, and Sir Maxwell advanced to her, bowed
+low, and led her to a seat.
+
+At least he would show Griselda, that if she chose to slight him, a live
+Marchioness was of a different mind.
+
+The band now struck up, and Mrs. Greenwood beat time with her large
+foot, and nodded her head till the plume of feathers in her hat waved
+like the plumes of a palm-tree in the tropics.
+
+Her daughters did not allow the band to hinder their remarks on the
+company, as some promenaded up and down, and others reclined, like Lady
+Betty, on the crimson-covered lounges.
+
+Presently Griselda received a nudge from one of the young ladies' rather
+sharp elbows:
+
+"Pray, miss, who's that fine gentleman walking with? He is looking this
+way. Bab, don't giggle, I think he was speaking of us."
+
+"Who is the lady?"
+
+"The Marchioness of Lothian," Griselda said.
+
+"Lor', ma; do you hear?" Miss Barbara exclaimed, leaning across
+Griselda, "that's a Marchioness!"
+
+It really gave these good people intense pleasure to be in the same room
+with those who rejoiced in titles. It gave Mrs. Greenwood a sense of
+added importance, and made her even dream of the possibility of some
+lord falling in love with Bab. Thus a return to the remote country town
+of Widdicombe Episopi, where Mr. Greenwood farmed his own acres, and
+lived in a house which had come down to the Greenwoods from the time of
+Charles II., would be a triumphal return indeed.
+
+"I shouldn't wonder, miss, if you was a titled lady," Mrs. Greenwood
+said, as the music stopped, and conversation in more subdued tones was
+possible.
+
+Griselda smiled.
+
+"No, I have no title of honour," she said.
+
+"Ah, well! you _look_ as if you might have, and that's something. I do
+like to see a genteel air; as I say to Bab and Bell, it's half the
+battle--it's more than a pretty face. We are come to Bath for Bell's
+health. She has been so peaky and puling of late. Do you take the
+waters, miss?"
+
+"No," Griselda said. "I am quite well."
+
+"Then you came for pleasure?"
+
+"Yes," Griselda replied.
+
+"Well, I am very proud to have made your acquaintance. We have
+apartments in the Circus. There's no stint as to money. Mr. Greenwood
+said--that's the squire, you know--'Go and enjoy yourselves. But I thank
+my stars I've not to go along with you, that's all.'"
+
+At this moment Leslie Travers entered the room, and looking round with
+the quick glance of love saw Griselda, and Griselda alone.
+
+But who were the people she was seated with? Lady Betty called him by
+name, and stopped giggling behind her fan to do so.
+
+"Here, Mr. Travers; go, I beseech you, and rescue Griselda from those
+Goths, into whose hands she has fallen. What a set! Goodness! it's as
+fine as a play!"
+
+Leslie crossed the room, and bowing before Griselda, said:
+
+"Lady Betty would be pleased if you joined her, Miss Mainwaring."
+
+Griselda rose, and, bowing to her three companions, walked towards the
+opposite side of the room.
+
+"I knew she was somebody," Mrs. Greenwood exclaimed. "Lady Betty--did
+you hear? And what a vastly genteel young man!--one of her admirers, no
+doubt. Well, girls, shall we take a turn? For my part I am getting
+sleepy;" and a prolonged yawn, which was heard as well as seen,
+announced the fact to those who were near that Mrs. Greenwood had had
+enough of the Pump Room for that day.
+
+"My dear girl!" Lady Betty exclaimed when Griselda joined her. "Who will
+you take up with next? Those vulgar folks! Did you ever see anything
+like the feet of the young one? I declare I'd wear a longer gown if I
+had such duck's feet!--and the waddle matches--look!"
+
+Lady Betty's giggle was a well-known sound in any society she honoured
+with her presence, and when she could get a companion like the
+empty-headed Lord Basingstoke, she delighted to sit and "quiz" those
+whom she thought beneath her in the social scale.
+
+"Griselda! She is offended. Look how she is strutting off! He! he! he!"
+
+And Lord Basingstoke echoed the laugh in a languid fashion, Lady Betty
+leaning back and looking up at him with what she thought her most
+bewitching smile.
+
+"I think it is very ill-bred to make remarks on people!" Griselda said,
+"and very unkind to hurt their feelings, as you must have hurt that
+lady's."
+
+Griselda spoke with some vehemence, which she was apt to do, when her
+feelings were strongly moved.
+
+"You see how I'm lectured," Lady Betty said, with the usual
+accompaniment--"the giggling fugue," as her enemies called it.
+"Griselda," she said, trying to hide her vexation, "you are very good to
+look after my behaviour. Poor little me! I want someone, don't I, Mr.
+Travers? It is news to hear I am 'ill-bred.' What next, I wonder?"
+
+But Griselda held her own, and repeated:
+
+"I must think it ill-bred in any society to turn other folks into
+ridicule, and I am quite sure no one can call it kind!"
+
+"My dear, may I ask you to mind your own business?" was said _sotto
+voce_ as Lady Betty rose, declaring it was time for her third glass of
+water, and Lord Basingstoke escorted her to the inner room, where the
+invalids assembled to drink the waters.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE VASE OF PARNASSUS.
+
+
+"I am glad to be allowed the chance of speaking to you, Miss
+Mainwaring," Leslie Travers began. "I wanted to tell you that I have
+found a clue to your poor little protégée of last evening. I am going to
+visit her, guided by the boy, to whom she referred me."
+
+"That is good news!" Griselda said. "Will you be sure to let me know if
+I can do aught for her? Oh, I would that I was not dependent on others!
+I do long to help the poor and sad! I must try once more to get Lady
+Betty to make me ever so small an allowance. But," she added, with
+sudden animation, "I have many jewels and trinkets which were my
+grandmother's, and came to me at her death. Will you sell some for me? I
+had thought of selling a necklace to pay Mr. Herschel for his lessons;
+but it will be better to feed the starving than learn music."
+
+"You must let me make all due inquiries first, madam," Leslie Travers
+said. "I do not desire that your charity should be ill-placed, and many
+beggars' tales are false."
+
+"That child was telling the truth!" Griselda said. "I knew it! I felt
+it!"
+
+"You can then judge of truth or falseness by the unerring instinct
+which is one of the gifts of true womanhood? I would hope--I would
+venture to hope--that, tried by that instinct, you would trust me, and
+believe that all I say is true. May I dare to hope it is so?"
+
+"Yes," Griselda said, looking straight into the pure, clear eyes which
+sought hers. "Yes; I could trust _you_."
+
+"Could? Change that word to _do_. Say you _do_ trust me."
+
+His voice trembled with emotion, and Griselda's eyes fell beneath his
+ardent admiring gaze. The story of his love was written on his face, and
+Griselda Mainwaring could not choose but read it. The compact between
+them might have been sealed then, had not a quiet, gentle voice near
+pronounced Mr. Travers' name.
+
+"Leslie, my dear son!"
+
+Griselda turned her face, flushed with crimson, towards Leslie's mother.
+He hastened to relieve Griselda's evident embarrassment by saying:
+
+"May I have the honour of presenting you to my mother, Miss Mainwaring?
+I have promised to meet my guide to the house we were speaking of. I
+will return hither, mother; meantime, may I hope you and Miss Mainwaring
+will have some conversation which will be agreeable to both?"
+
+"I will await your return, Leslie. But do not exceed half an hour, for
+the dark streets are not pleasant, especially for old folk like me, who
+have to pick my way carefully. Have you been long a visitor to Bath,
+madam?" Mrs. Travers said, as she seated herself with Griselda on one of
+the benches.
+
+"We arrived in November, madam."
+
+"Have you a mother and sister?"
+
+"No, no!" Griselda said passionately. "I am alone in the world--an
+orphan."
+
+"Ah, may the God of the fatherless be your Friend. You will make Him
+your Friend, my dear? This is a place fraught with danger. I feel it for
+my son--and how much more is it full of danger for you?"
+
+"There are many beautiful things and interesting people in Bath. Do you
+know Mr. and Miss Herchel, madam?"
+
+"I know them by report," was the reply. "My son is a musician, and
+attends Mr. Herschel's classes."
+
+"It is not only music for which Mr. Herschel is famous. He is an
+astronomer, and reads the star-lit heavens like a book--a poem--a poem
+more wonderful than any written by earthly hands."
+
+Mrs. Travers was surprised. She did not expect a child of the world--a
+fashionable young lady--to speak so seriously on any subject. But it was
+her duty to improve the occasion, and she said:
+
+"I would rather read the Word of God than the star-lit skies, since the
+safety of the soul is surely a more important duty than to pry into the
+secret things of God."
+
+"But He stretched out the heavens. He raises our thoughts above by their
+contemplation."
+
+"Ah, my dear young lady, this is the vain tradition of men. Let me urge
+you to come to our chapel in the Vineyards on the next Sabbath, and hear
+the truth rightly divided by Mr. Relly. Do not be affronted at my
+boldness!"
+
+"Oh no! I am obliged to you for caring about me. I have so few who do so
+care."
+
+"I can scarcely believe it!" Mrs. Travers said. "So young and fair.
+Surely there are those who stand in the place of parents to you?"
+
+"No; I know of none such. But here comes my aunt, Lady Betty
+Longueville. She will desire me to return, as we are expected at a small
+party to-night at Lady Miller's."
+
+Sir Maxwell Danby, who had been watching his opportunity, now came
+forward:
+
+"If you have quite done with yonder Niobe, will you permit me to escort
+you to your chair? No? You are walking? That is better; I shall have
+more of your company. Let me place your hood over your head--so! What a
+wealth of loveliness it hides!"
+
+Griselda turned away impatiently; but as Lady Betty was in advance with
+Lord Basingstoke, she was obliged to follow them.
+
+Sir Maxwell made the best of his opportunity, and held Griselda's hand
+as it rested on his arm, though she drew back from such familiarity.
+
+"That old gentlewoman," he said, "was reading you a lecture on the sins
+of the world and its frivolities. I could see it; I have been watching
+you from afar."
+
+"I am sorry, sir, you had no better subject of contemplation," was the
+reply.
+
+It was but a step to North Parade; and, just as they reached it, Leslie
+Travers turned the corner from South Parade. It gave him a thrill of
+disgust to see Griselda on the arm of a man who he knew was no fit
+companion for any pure-minded woman, and a pang of jealousy shot through
+him, and got the better of his discretion.
+
+"If you had waited, Miss Mainwaring, I should have returned at the time
+I appointed, and I could have told you of what I had seen."
+
+"You did find her? You know, then, her story was true?"
+
+"Yes, but the half had not been told; but more of this hereafter."
+
+
+"I should be obliged to you, sir," Sir Maxwell began, "not to hinder
+this young lady any longer. She is under my charge, and I must move on."
+
+"Who hinders you, sir?" was the answer. "Not I. Your goings and comings
+are matters of supreme indifference to me."
+
+Sir Maxwell laughed.
+
+"Boys are always outspoken, I know; and, like puppy dogs, have to be
+licked into shape."
+
+"You shall be made to apologize for this insult, sir; and were you not
+in the lady's presence----"
+
+"Oh, pray, Mr. Travers, do not be angry; no harm is meant. I shall look
+for you to-morrow to tell me the whole story of the poor little girl.
+Good-afternoon."
+
+Then Griselda stepped on quickly to the door, and Sir Maxwell bowed his
+"Good-bye," taking her hand and kissing it.
+
+"Why so cruel to me," he asked, "when I would be your slave? Nay, I _am_
+your slave, and do your bidding."
+
+"If so, Sir Maxwell, you will allow me to pass into the house, and I
+wish to do so alone."
+
+"I dare not disobey your orders, though I am invited to a dish of tea by
+her ladyship; only"--and he hissed the words out between his thin
+lips--"beware of puppy dogs--they show their teeth sometimes.
+Adieu--adieu!"
+
+Lady Betty was in high good-humour in the drawing-room. A dainty
+tea-service had been set out--delicate cups with no handles--and a
+silver tea-pot and cream-jug; and Lord Basingstoke had taken up his
+favourite lounging attitude by the fire.
+
+"What have you done with Sir Maxwell Danby, child?"
+
+"He left me at the door."
+
+"Where are your manners, not to invite him to come in?" Lady Betty said
+sharply. "I shall never teach you the proper behaviour, I believe."
+
+"You might spare me before witnesses," Griselda said angrily. "If,
+indeed, I offend you, I will not inflict my company any longer on you."
+
+Then, with a dignified curtsey, Griselda swept out of the room. It was
+terribly irritating to catch the sound of Lady Betty's laugh as she did
+so, and the words, "A very tragedy queen--a real stage 'curtshey.'"
+
+Griselda hastened to her room, where she found Graves getting her change
+of toilette ready for the evening, and kindling a fire in the small
+grate.
+
+"Oh dear, Graves! what a weariful world it is! Graves, tell me--now, do
+tell me--something about my mother."
+
+"I have told you all I know many a time, my dearie. She was a fair
+flower, nipped and withered by the breath of this same world you speak
+of. May God preserve you in it!"
+
+Griselda had thrown herself into a chair, and laid aside her cloak and
+hood. All her beautiful hair fell over her shoulders like rippling waves
+of gold.
+
+"Dear Graves, I have met a gentleman often, who is not like the rest of
+the world's votaries. His name is Travers; his mother frequents the
+chapel in the Vineyards. Take me thither with you next Sunday! Say you
+will, Graves!"
+
+"I will take you if her ladyship is up in good time; but I can't get off
+early if she chooses to lie a-bed. But you would not go to scoff, Miss
+Griselda?"
+
+"Nay; I have done with scoffing. But, Graves, do you ever think of the
+miserable poor who have no food and no clothing, like a poor child I saw
+on Mr. Herschel's doorstep t'other night? This Mr. Travers has tracked
+her at my desire, and I want to sell some trinkets to feed and clothe
+her. Hand me the large box; I rarely open it. I did sell the
+amethyst-brooch to buy my violin, and now there are the two necklets my
+grandmother left my mother, and which came to me by will; and there are
+some other trinkets--a silver scent-box and golden ear-drops. Make
+haste, dear Graves, and let me do what I wish."
+
+"Well," said Graves, "I suppose you can do what you will with your own;
+but, all the same, I don't hold with selling property--you may want it
+yourself some day."
+
+"True--ah, that is true! I wonder how it came about that I had no
+maintenance!"
+
+"Your poor dear mamma had her portion on her marriage with that
+good-for-nothing, and he made away with every penny. Then Mr.
+Longueville took you as you know, and gave you a home."
+
+"Yes; he was good to me. I remember coming, I think, when I was four
+years old."
+
+"You poor little thing!" Graves exclaimed. "Yes, I can see you now, in
+your black pelisse, so shy and so strange! If your poor uncle had never
+married, it would have been all right; but there, my lady could draw
+water out of a stone by her wiles and ways. It's no use moaning over
+spilt milk. Here's the box. Now, don't be in a hurry to sell, as I tell
+you these trinkets are all you've got in the world. I must go and look
+after her ladyship's buckles; she wants a blue rosette sewn on her
+shoes, and the buckles taken off. It is all vanity and vexing of spirit.
+She'll be as cross as two sticks to-night; she always is, when she has
+been to the Pump Room, drinking these waters for fidgets and
+fancies--they upset folks' stomachs, and then other folks have to put up
+with their tantrums."
+
+When Graves was gone, Griselda pulled the little table towards her; and,
+taking a small key from her chatelaine, unlocked the box.
+
+"Yes," she thought, "it is as Graves says, I have nothing in the world
+but these jewels. It seemed till to-day that I had no one in the world
+to care for me; but now I think _he_ does care for me. He is not like
+those gay, foolish men who treat women as if they were dolls to be
+dressed up, or puppets to move at their bidding. No, _he_ is of another
+sort, I think." And the swift blush came to her fair cheek. "What if he
+loves me! It would be sweet to be taken from this hollow
+existence--dressing and dancing, and looking out for flattery and
+admiration. If _he_ were near, that dreadful man would not dare to talk
+to me as he does--he would _not_ dare if I were not an orphan; and my
+only protector--that silly creature who drives me nearly wild with her
+folly----Well, let me hope better times are coming. Now for the jewels."
+
+The box was lined with cedar, and as the cover was raised a faint, sweet
+odour of cedar mingled with otto of roses came with a message from the
+past. Through the dim haze of long years that scent recalled to Griselda
+a room, where a tall dark man had sat by the embers of a fire, the box
+before him, and some words which the fragrance mysteriously seemed to
+bring back.
+
+"It was her wish, and the child must go." The child! What child?--and
+whither did she go? It was herself--it must have been herself--the man
+meant.
+
+Then it was all haze again. The light that had penetrated the mists of
+the past, and brought the scene before her, was obscured once more.
+
+That man must have been her father; but she had no memories of him
+either before or after that day, which had risen like a phantom before
+her, called up by the faint sweet scent of the old jewel-box.
+
+The necklets were very fair to look at--one of pearls, with a diamond
+clasp, and initials on the gold at the back, which were her dead
+mother's. No, she could not sell that; but there were heavy ear-drops of
+solid gold, and a set of gold buttons--these would surely fetch
+something. The amethyst necklace, with its lovely purple hue, had never
+belonged to her mother; and she put it, with the gold buttons and
+ear-rings, into a small leather box, and was pressing down one of the
+compartments, when a drawer flew open she had never noticed before. In
+the drawer were some diamond ornaments and rings; a piece of yellow
+paper was fastened to one of the rings:
+
+"Deserted by the husband I trusted, I, Phyllis Mainwaring, leave to my
+only child, Griselda, these diamonds. I place them out of sight, safe
+from dishonest hands. When I left him to get bread he knew nothing of
+them, or he would have sold them. They are my poor darling's only
+inheritance, and I leave them secure that one day she will find them.
+Let her take with them her unhappy mother's blessing."
+
+This was indeed a discovery. Griselda had always remembered that this
+box had stood in her room at Longueville House. She remembered her uncle
+bidding her bring it to him, and that he placed in it the trinkets left
+to her by her grandmother, but never had anyone suspected the existence
+of the diamonds. No one knew, that when the man whom she had married was
+running through her little fortune, the unhappy wife had, in her
+despair, converted a few hundreds into diamonds, and hidden them away
+from all eyes in that old jewel-box.
+
+Griselda's eyes filled with tears. She pressed the bit of paper to her
+lips, and, wholly unconscious of the worth of those precious stones, she
+closed the drawer again upon that unexpected discovery, and, putting the
+small box safely in the drawer of the bureau, she took her violin from
+its case, and tried to wake from it the music which lay hidden in it. As
+she played--imperfectly enough, yet with the ear of a musician--her
+spirit was soothed and comforted; and these verses, written in a thin,
+pointed hand, were dropped into Lady Miller's vase that evening with no
+name or cypher affixed, and the mystery of the author was not solved:
+
+            "WAITING.
+
+    "Loveliest strains are lying,
+      Waiting to awake,
+    Till a master's hand
+      Shall sweetest music make.
+
+    "Life's best gifts are waiting
+      Till a magic power
+    Calls them from their hiding,
+      In some happy hour.
+
+    "Brightest hopes are watching
+      For their time of bliss,
+    When a kindred spirit
+      Greets them with a kiss.
+
+    "Dreams of purest joys
+      Shadows still remain,
+    Till the day-star rises,
+      And loss is turned to gain.
+
+    "Sadness, grief, and sorrow,
+      Like clouds shall pass away,
+    If only we in patience wait
+      Till dawns the perfect day."
+
+"This author may claim a wreath," Lady Miller said, "but perhaps she
+likes best to be uncrowned."
+
+There was endless discussion as to the author of what seemed to be
+considered a poem of unusual merit, and one and another looked
+conscious, and blushed and simpered, for no one was unwilling to take
+the honour to herself. Lady Betty was sure it was only the dear
+Marchioness who could have written them, only she was too modest to
+declare herself.
+
+"Mock modesty I call it!" said Lady Miller, who was a bright, jovial
+woman, and had nothing of the grace or sentimental air which the
+verse-makers of those days wore as their badge.
+
+Not a single person thought of taxing Griselda with the verses, so quiet
+had she been in these assemblies, seldom expressing any opinion as to
+the poems of other people. Griselda was not in the charmed circle of the
+_élite_ of Parnassus, who had a right to wear one of Lady Miller's
+laurel crowns, and yet the verses, such as they were and poor as they
+may seem to us, were superior to the _bouts rimés_ on a "buttered
+muffin," which, report says, were once dropped into the Roman vase at
+Batheaston.
+
+At the time of which I write, Lady Miller's sun was declining. Scarcely
+two years later, she died at the Clifton Hot Wells, at a comparatively
+early age. But in her day her reputation spread far and wide; and some
+of the contributions, notably one from Sheridan's able pen, were full of
+real, and not, as was too often the case, affected feeling.
+
+This reunion to which Lady Betty and Griselda went on this December
+night was not one of the Fairs of Parnassus which were held every
+Thursday. It was a soirée, to which only a select few--such as
+marchionesses, and embryo duchesses, and future peeresses--were bidden.
+
+Lady Miller's health was failing, though she tried to hide it; and even
+now a cough, which was persistent, though not loud, prevented her from
+reading the effusions which were taken haphazard from the vase, dressed
+with its pink ribbons, and with crowns of myrtle hanging from it. Six
+judges were generally chosen to decide on the best poems, and the
+authors were only too proud to come forward and kneel to receive the
+wreath from the hand of this patroness of _les belles lettres._
+
+How old-world this all seems to us now! and how we think we can afford
+to sneer at such folly and such deplorably bad taste as the poems then
+thought worthy display! "Siren charms" and "bright-eyed enchantress,"
+"soft zephyrs" and "gentle poesies," might be the stock expressions
+always ready to lend themselves to rhymes, with a hundred others of the
+like nature. But these reunions had their better side; for reading
+verses was better than talking scandal, and apostrophes to bright eyes
+and ladies' auburn locks better than the discussion of the last duel or
+elopement, which, in the absence of "society papers," were too apt to
+form the favourite topic of the _beau monde_.
+
+Lady Miller may have won her myrtle crown for attempting to set the
+minds and brains of her friends at work, even if only to produce
+doubtful _bouts rimés_ where sense was sacrificed to rhyme, and sound
+triumphed over subject.
+
+We have our Lady Millers of to-day, although there are no pink-ribboned
+vases in which contributors drop their poetical efforts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+ON THE TRACK.
+
+
+Griselda had been much surprised at the applause which followed the
+reading of her verses. They were called for a second time, and elicited
+great praise.
+
+"They are vastly pretty, and full of feeling!" exclaimed Lady Betty the
+next morning. "I declare, Griselda, you are without an atom of
+sentiment; you sat listening to them with a face like a marble statue.
+It is well for you that you are not a victim to sentiment as I am. I vow
+I could weep at the notion of the sorrowful soul who wrote those
+impassioned couplets which were read before the five stanzas, so much
+admired. Ah!" Lady Betty continued, with a yawn--for it was her
+yawning-time between her first and second visit to the Pump Room--"ah!
+it is well for some folks that they are callous. I am all impatience to
+get a copy of those rhymes for Lord Basingstoke; and--_entre nous, ma
+chère, entre nous_--when do you propose to accept Sir Maxwell Danby's
+suit? He formally asked my permission to address you. It would be a good
+match, and----"
+
+
+"I have not the slightest intention, Aunt Betty, of listening to Sir
+Maxwell Danby's proposal."
+
+Griselda always gave Lady Betty that title when angry.
+
+"Oh! how high and mighty we are! But I would have you to know, miss, I
+cannot afford to keep you for ever. I am now embarrassed, and a dun has
+been here this very morning; so I advise you not to overlook Sir Maxwell
+Danby's offer."
+
+"If there were not another man in the world I would not marry Sir
+Maxwell," Griselda said, rising. "I will consider other matters, and
+tell you of my decision."
+
+"You silly child! Where are you going, pray?"
+
+"To my own chamber."
+
+"You must be powdered for the ball to-night. I promised Sir Maxwell he
+should have his opportunity at my Lady Westover's dance. Perkyns is
+coming at four o'clock. You must be powdered. It is not the mode to
+appear in full toilette, with your hair as it was dressed last night.
+That gold band may suit some faces, but not yours. Do you hear, miss?"
+
+"I hear," Griselda said; "and I repeat I do _not_ go with your ladyship
+to Lady Westover's ball."
+
+"The minx!--the impudent little baggage! You shall repent your saucy
+words. But you'll come round, see if you don't, if you hear that
+pale-faced fellow Travers is to be of the company. Yes; go and ask his
+old mother about it--go!"
+
+Griselda shut the door with a sharp bang, which made Lady Betty call
+loudly for her salts, and brought Graves from the inner room.
+
+"Such impudence! I won't stand it--the little baggage! She _shall_
+marry Sir Maxwell Danby, or I wash my hands of her."
+
+Graves calmly held the salts to her mistress's nose: they were strong,
+and Lady Betty called out:
+
+"Not too near! Oh! oh! I am not faint;" and immediately went off into
+hysterical crying, which, for obvious reasons, was tearless.
+
+Meanwhile, Griselda had gone to her room; and, putting on a long black
+pelisse and a wide hat with a drooping feather, set well over her eyes,
+she left the house, carrying in a large satchel, which was fastened to
+her side, the box containing the jewels she wanted to sell.
+
+At first she thought she would go to consult Mrs. Travers in her
+difficulty. She was determined to run no risk of meeting Sir Maxwell
+Danby; and if Lady Betty persisted in backing up his suit, she would
+leave her; but where, where should she go?
+
+An open door in King Street attracted her, and she saw Mr. and Miss
+Herschel passing in, each carrying some favourite and precious musical
+instrument. They were in all the bustle of removal, doing this, as they
+did everything else, with resolute determination to be as earnest as
+possible in accomplishing their purpose.
+
+Miss Herschel, in her short black gown and work-a-day apron with wide
+pockets and her close black hood, did not see, or if she saw did not
+recognise, Griselda. She was giving directions to her servant, enforced
+with many strong expressions; and as she went backwards and forwards
+from the door to a cart lined with straw, she was wholly unconscious of
+anyone standing by.
+
+Griselda could not help watching, with interest and admiration, the
+swift firm steps of this able and practical woman, as she went about her
+business, intent only on clearing the house in Rivers Street, and
+filling the house in King Street, as quickly as possible.
+
+"She is too busy to speak to me now," Griselda thought.
+
+Mr. Herschel now came hurriedly out, exclaiming:
+
+"The two brass screws, Lina, for the seven-foot mirror! They are
+missing!" and then he disappeared in the direction of the house they
+were leaving.
+
+Fortunately it was a bright winter noon, and everything favoured the
+flitting, which was accomplished in a very short time. But we who have
+in these days any experience of removals--and happy those who have not
+that experience--know how patience and temper are apt to fail, as the
+hopeless chaos of the new house is only a degree less hopeless than that
+of the old house we are leaving. We have vans, and packers, and helpers
+at command, unknown in the days of Mr. and Miss Herschel; for at the
+close of the last century few, indeed, were the removals from house to
+house. As a rule, people gathered round them their "household gods," and
+handed them down to their children in the house where they had been born
+and brought up. Removal from one part of England to another was not to
+be thought of at that time, when roads were bad and conveyances rare,
+and a distance of twenty miles more difficult to accomplish than that of
+two or three hundred in our own time. Mr. Herschel's reason for taking
+the house in King Street was that the garden behind it afforded room for
+the great experiment then always looming before him--the casting of the
+great mirror for the thirty-foot reflector.
+
+Griselda passed on without even getting a smile of recognition from Miss
+Herschel, so thoroughly engrossed was she with the business in hand; and
+a sense of loneliness came over her, as she said to herself:
+
+"How could I expect Miss Herschel to recognise me, especially in this
+thick pelisse and hat? I must not expect my concerns to be of importance
+to her or to anyone."
+
+And as this thought passed through her mind, she became conscious that
+to someone, at least, her concerns were of importance; for Leslie
+Travers had seen her from the window of his mother's house, and had
+thrown his cloak over his shoulders without delay, and, with his hat
+looped up at one side in his hand, advanced, saying:
+
+"This is a happy chance! I am anxious to see you; and, if you will, I
+would fain tell you more of a visit I paid to the poor people in Crown
+Alley. It is a pitiable case!"
+
+"And I want to see them," Griselda said, "and to help the child with the
+angelic face. I have in my bag the trinkets I spoke of. Will you take me
+at once to a shop in the Abbey Churchyard, and inquire for me the price
+they will fetch? I want also," she said hurriedly, "to consult you, or
+rather your mother, as to what I should do. I cannot--I cannot live any
+longer with Lady Betty, unless she promises to protect me from the man I
+detest!"
+
+Leslie Travers's face kindled with delight.
+
+"Come at once to my mother, at No. 14 in this street. She will be proud
+to receive you," he said eagerly.
+
+"I must not act hastily," Griselda said. "I left Lady Betty in anger
+this morning; but I have reason to be angry."
+
+"You have indeed, if you are forced into the company of a man like Sir
+Maxwell Danby. From him I would fain protect you. But," he said,
+checking himself, "I am at your service now about the trinkets, or shall
+we pay a visit to the poor folks first? It is, I warn you, a sad
+spectacle--can you bear it? I have questioned Mr. Palmer of the theatre,
+and he says the man (Lamartine) is a man of genius, but a reprobate. He
+has for some time made his living on the stage, and when not in drink is
+a wonderful actor. But he is subject to desperate fits of drunkenness,
+and on his arrival here from Bristol he broke out in one, and falling
+down the stairs at the theatre after the second rehearsal, injured
+himself so terribly that he cannot live."
+
+"And the child!--the sweet, innocent child?" Griselda asked.
+
+"The child is the daughter of a young girl employed about the theatre,
+whom Lamartine married some years ago. She died of burns from her dress
+catching fire at the Bristol Theatre, where she was acting and getting a
+fair living. That is the story. The man is by no means a deserving
+character. Shall we visit him to-day?"
+
+"Yes," Griselda said; "I wish to see the child."
+
+It was now near the hour when it was fashionable to resort to the baths
+for the second time before the dinner hour, which was generally at two
+o'clock; and as Griselda and Mr. Travers passed the Pump Room they met
+several acquaintances.
+
+It was no uncommon thing for the beaux to conduct the ladies to the
+baths, drink the water with them, and lounge away an hour or two while
+the band played; and, one by one, those who had been bathing came, well
+muffled in wraps, to the chairs waiting to convey them to their
+apartments.
+
+But eyes, which were by no means kindly eyes, were upon Griselda, and as
+Sir Maxwell Danby stood at the entrance of the Pump Room he made a low
+bow, to which Griselda responded with a stately inclination of her head.
+
+"Whither away, my fair lady, with that puppy?" thought he. "Ha! I will
+be on your scent, and maybe find out something. A silversmith's shop!
+Ah! to buy the ring, forsooth! Ah! ha!"
+
+"What amuses you, Danby?" asked a man of the same type as Sir Maxwell.
+"Let me have the benefit of the joke, for I am bored to death dancing
+attendance on my wife and girls."
+
+"Come down with me, and I will show you the finest girl in Bath and the
+biggest puppy. They have disappeared within that shop. We may follow."
+
+"What are you turned spy for?" asked his companion.
+
+"Who said I had turned spy?" asked Sir Maxwell angrily. "Please
+yourself!" and he went down the street, and turned into the jeweller's
+shop as if by accident just as Griselda had laid her trinkets on the
+counter and the master of the shop was examining them.
+
+Sir Maxwell retired to the further end of the shop and asked to see some
+snuff-boxes, where he was presently joined by his friend. Sir Maxwell
+threw himself into one of his easy attitudes, and, while pretending to
+listen to the shopman, who had displayed a variety of little pocket
+snuff-boxes in dainty leather cases, he was taking in the fact that
+Griselda was selling her necklace and gold ornaments.
+
+As soon as the transaction was over, Sir Maxwell made a sign to his
+companion, and, leaving all the snuff-boxes, he loftily waved away the
+master of the shop, who was advancing to inquire which he would prefer,
+and left in time to see which way Griselda went.
+
+"To Crown Alley--a low place! By Jove! this is a queer notion. And with
+that jackanapes, too, who sets up for being so pious! We won't follow
+them further," he said, taking out an elaborately-chased snuff-box and
+offering it to his friend. "We won't follow them--this is enough."
+
+"You are that fair lady's devoted slave, so report says. What are you
+about, Danby, to let another get before you? It is not like you!"
+
+"No, it is _not_ like me; you are right, sir. But I am not beaten out
+of the field yet. Crown Alley, forsooth! haunted by the scum of the
+theatre! Ah! ha! We must unearth this rat from its hole, and I am the
+man to do it!"
+
+"You are well fitted for the business, I must say," was the rejoinder,
+with a laugh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+WATCHED!
+
+
+Scenes of poverty and sickness are familiar now to many a good and fair
+woman, of whom it may be said in the words of the poet Lowell, that
+
+    "Stairs, to sin and sorrow known,
+    Sing to the welcome of her feet."
+
+But few indeed were the high-born ladies a hundred and twenty years ago
+who ever penetrated the dark places where their suffering brothers and
+sisters lived and died in penury and want.
+
+Class distinction was then rigid, and the sun of womanly tenderness and
+compassion had not as yet risen on the horizon with healing on its
+wings.
+
+Thus the two wretched attics, furnished with the barest necessities of
+life--to which she ascended by dark, narrow stairs--was indeed a new
+world to Griselda Mainwaring.
+
+She shrank back when the door of the room was opened, and turned away
+her head from the pitiful sight before her. The sick man was propped up
+on his miserable bed, the child kneeling by him listening to, and trying
+to soothe, his incoherent mutterings.
+
+Leslie Travers went in first and touched the child's shoulder.
+
+"I have brought the lady to see you, and to ask what she can do for
+you."
+
+Instead of answering, Norah held up her hand as if to beg Leslie to be
+silent, and continued to stroke her father's long thin hands with one of
+hers, while with the other she pressed the rag of vinegar and water on
+his burning brow.
+
+Presently the muttering ceased, and the breathing became more regular,
+and then Norah rose, and said in a low voice:
+
+"Nothing stops his wild talk till I kneel by him and hold his hand, and
+stroke his forehead; that is why I could not speak, sir." Then the child
+went up to the threshold of the door where Griselda still stood, and
+said: "I thought you would come--I felt sure, lady, you would come; but
+do not be afraid, he is asleep now, and may sleep for an hour."
+
+Griselda felt ashamed of the disgust she could not conceal at what she
+saw. But the true womanly instinct asserted itself, and pointing to an
+open door leading into another garret, she said:
+
+"May I go in there?"
+
+"Yes, it is my room; it is where I put the clothes when I have mended
+them. The queen's gauze veil got torn, and I can mend gauze better than
+anyone, so Mrs. Betts gave it to me. Mrs. Betts is kind to me." Then
+seeing Griselda's puzzled look at the heterogeneous mass of finery
+heaped up on a table supported against the wall, as it was minus one
+leg, the child explained: "I mend the actresses' dresses. Mrs. Betts is
+the wardrobe keeper at the theatre, and she has had pity on me, or--or I
+think we should have starved."
+
+"Well," Griselda said, "I have brought you money to buy food, and surely
+you want a fire; and where is your bed?"
+
+The child pointed to a mattress in the corner under the sloping angle of
+the roof, and said:
+
+"I sleep there most nights, but now he is so bad I watch by him."
+
+Griselda opened her sachet and took from it a crimson silk purse.
+
+"Here are two guineas," she said; "get all you want."
+
+Norah clasped her hands in an ecstasy.
+
+"Oh!" she said, "this is what I have prayed for. God has heard me, and
+it is come. My beautiful princess has come. You are my beautiful
+princess, and I shall always love you. I will get Brian to buy lots of
+things; he will be here after school. Does the gentleman know?"
+
+"Yes, he brought me."
+
+"Then I shall love him, too; you are both good. I shall try and make
+father know you brought the money; but he does not understand much now.
+Hark! he is calling--he is awake!"
+
+Norah hastened back to her post, and Griselda followed her.
+
+Leslie Travers had been standing by the sick man's bed, and Griselda,
+ashamed of her feelings of repulsion and shrinking, took her place by
+his side.
+
+Suddenly a flash of intelligence came into those large dark eyes, and
+the man started up and gazed at Griselda, repeating:
+
+"Who is she?--who is she?"
+
+"The dear beautiful lady who has brought us all we want. Thank her,
+father--thank her!"
+
+"Thank her!" he repeated. "_Who is she?_"
+
+Then an exceeding bitter cry echoed through the rafters of the chamber
+as if it would pierce the very roof. And with that cry the man fell back
+on his pillow, saying:
+
+"Phyllis--Phyllis! come back--come back!"
+
+Griselda started towards the door, and Leslie Travers caught her, or she
+would have fallen down the steep, narrow stairs.
+
+"Take me away--take me away! I cannot bear it! Oh, it is too dreadful!
+That face--those eyes--that cry!"
+
+"Yes," he said, carefully guiding her downstairs, and shielding her as
+much as possible from the inquisitive stare of the dwellers in the same
+house, taking her hand in his, and drawing it into his arm: "You are not
+accustomed to such sad sights, the poverty and the squalor."
+
+"It was the man who frightened me. What made him call Phyllis--Phyllis!
+that beautiful sacred name, for it was my mother's?"
+
+"He was raving; he fancied he was on the stage. He will not live many
+days, and then we will see that the child is cared for."
+
+The "_we_" escaped his lips before he was aware of it; but the time for
+reticence was past. He turned into the Abbey, and Griselda made no
+resistance. Then with impassioned earnestness Leslie Travers told his
+love, and often as the tale is told, it is seldom rehearsed with more
+simple manly fervour. For in the reality of his love Leslie Travers
+forgot all the flowery and fulsome love epithets which were the fashion
+of the day. He did not kneel at her feet and vow he was her slave; he
+did not call her by a thousand names of endearment; but he made her feel
+perfect confidence in his sincerity. This confidence ever awakes a
+response in the heart of a true woman, and makes her ready to trust her
+future in his hands who asks to guard it henceforth.
+
+"Yes," she had answered in a low but clear tone; "yes, I thank you for
+the kindness you do me."
+
+He tried to stop her, but she went on:
+
+"It _is_ a kindness to take a friendless and penniless orphan to your
+heart." Then she looked up at him, and reading in his clear pure eyes
+the story his lips had so lately uttered, she added with a smile,
+through the April mist of tears in her beautiful eyes: "Yes, it _is_ a
+kindness, let me take it as such; but not leave myself your debtor, for
+I will give you in return all my heart, and be henceforth to you tender
+and true."
+
+He seized her hands in rapture, and kissed them passionately.
+
+"We are in a church," he said; "let us seal our betrothal here, and pray
+for God's blessing."
+
+They were hidden from sight as they stood within the entrance of Prior
+Bird's Chantry Chapel, and there, hand clasped in hand, the young lovers
+knelt and silently prayed for God's blessing.
+
+As they rose, Griselda looked round, and a blast of chill air came over
+her from the opening of a side door. She shuddered, and said:
+
+"How cold it is!"
+
+"Yes; cold and damp. Let us hasten out into the sunshine."
+
+"Who opened that door?" she said.
+
+"Some old woman, I dare say, who comes to dust and clean," he answered,
+as they walked down the nave, surrounded, as it there was, with many
+tombs, and the walls crowded with tablets in memory of the dead.
+
+Lady Jane Waller's stately monument, and Bishop Montague's, were then,
+as now, conspicuous; and Griselda paused for a moment by the recumbent
+figure of the Lady Jane.
+
+As she did so, a figure, well known and dreaded, was seen coming from
+behind the monument.
+
+Griselda clasped Leslie Travers's arm with both hands, and said:
+
+"Let us hasten away--we are watched."
+
+But Leslie turned, and faced Sir Maxwell Danby.
+
+"The shadow of the church is a better trysting-place than the shelter of
+the dwellings in Crown Alley," he said, hissing the words out in what
+was hardly more than a whisper.
+
+Leslie was on the point of retorting angrily, when he controlled
+himself:
+
+"This is not the time and place," he said, "to demand an apology for
+your words, Sir Maxwell Danby. I will seek it elsewhere."
+
+But Griselda clung to his arm, and tried to advance towards the side
+door to get away from the man, who had dogged her steps.
+
+"Come--come, I pray you," she said; "do not stay."
+
+And Leslie Travers, saying in low but decided tones, "I will seek
+satisfaction elsewhere," let the door swing behind him, and he and
+Griselda passed out of the dim Abbey into the sunshine.
+
+It was still bright and beautiful without, and the fair city lay under
+the shadow of the encircling hills, which were touched with the glory of
+a brilliant winter's day.
+
+A slight fall of snow had defined the outline of church and houses, and
+the leafless trees were sparkling with ten thousand diamonds on their
+branches.
+
+The keen, crisp wind had dried the footways, and there was nothing on
+the smooth-paved roads to make walking anything but delightful.
+
+"I want to take you to my mother now," Leslie said. "Will you come?"
+
+"Will she be kind to me?" Griselda asked. "Do you think she will be
+kind to me?"
+
+"Kind! Pride in you is more likely to be her feeling, I should venture
+to say."
+
+"But," Griselda said, casting anxious looks behind, "I am really afraid
+of Sir Maxwell Danby. He will go to the North Parade with all haste, or
+find Lady Betty in the Pump Room, and speak evil of me."
+
+"Let him dare to do so!" Leslie said. "I will challenge him, if he dares
+to take your name on his lips!"
+
+"Oh no, no!" Griselda said; "no! Promise you will not quarrel with him?
+He is a man who would be a dangerous foe."
+
+"He is my foe already," Leslie said. "As to danger, sweet one, I do not
+recognise danger where honour is concerned. Do not talk more about this
+now, nor mar these first sweet hours of happiness. Say it is not a
+dream, those blessed words you spoke in the church, Griselda?"
+
+She gave him a look which was more eloquent than any words, and then
+said, in a low voice:
+
+"I feel as if I had found my rest."
+
+"Dear white-winged dove," was the reply, "if you have been wandering
+over stormy waters tempest-tossed, let me love to think you have found
+your rest with me."
+
+They were now at the door of Mrs. Travers's house; Leslie knocked, and
+it was opened by the old servant, who followed his young master wherever
+he went--a faithful retainer of the old type of servant, who, through
+every change and chance, would as soon think of cutting off a right hand
+as forsake his master's son.
+
+Giles had a most comical face--a mass of furrows and wrinkles, a mouth
+which had very few teeth left, and small twinkling eyes. He wore a
+scratch yellow wig, and a long coat with huge buttons, on which was the
+crest of the Travers--a heron with a fish in its beak--a crest
+suggestive of the land of swamps and marshes, where herons had a good
+time, and swooped over their prey with but small fear of the aim of the
+sportsman--so few were the sportsmen who ever invaded those desolate
+wild tracks of water and peat-moss.
+
+"Aye, Master Leslie," Giles said, "ye're late, and there's company at
+dinner."
+
+"It is scarcely one o'clock, Giles. Where is my mother?"
+
+"Up above with the company; and not well pleased you are not there,
+either."
+
+"Oh!" Griselda said; "I do not wish to stay. Please take me back to the
+Parade! Let me see Mrs. Travers another day, _please_. I ask it as a
+favour."
+
+She pleaded so earnestly, that old Giles interposed:
+
+"There's room at my mistress's board for all that care to come. There
+never yet was a guest sent away for lack of room."
+
+"It is not that--not that," Griselda said.
+
+"Whatever it is," Leslie said, "I cannot let you leave us thus"--for
+Griselda had moved to the door. "Nay--now, nay--do not be so cruel!"
+
+Here voices were heard on the stairs, and the next moment Mrs. Travers
+appeared, leaning on the arm of a man who wore a clerical dress, a black
+coat and bands, and a bag-wig tied with a black bow.
+
+"My son, Mr. Relly," Mrs. Travers said; and then she looked with dismay
+at the figure by Leslie's side.
+
+It was no time for explanation, and Leslie merely said:
+
+"Miss Mainwaring will dine with us, mother."
+
+"You are late, Leslie," Mrs. Travers replied, in a low, constrained
+voice; and she did not do more than bow to Griselda, adding: "Our
+mid-day meal has been waiting for some time. Shall we go to the
+dining-parlour at once?"
+
+Surely no position could be more embarrassing for poor Griselda. All her
+dignity and gentle stateliness of manner seemed, under this new
+condition of things, to desert her. Her large hat scarcely concealed the
+distress which was so plainly marked on her face, and tears were in her
+eyes as she said, in a low, trembling voice to Mrs. Travers:
+
+"I fear I intrude, madam?"
+
+But Mrs. Travers was anxious to avoid what she called the hollow
+courtesies of the world of fashion, and thus she only replied:
+
+"Will you be pleased to remove your warm pelisse? The air is very cold.
+Abigail," she said to a maid-servant who had appeared, "conduct this
+lady to the inner parlour, and assist her to lay aside her pelisse. Now,
+Mr. Relly, we will take our seats, and my son will do the honours."
+
+Griselda hastily unfastened her pelisse, but instead of following the
+maid to the room, she held it towards her; and then, with a gesture
+which implied her trust in Leslie, she put her hand into his arm, and he
+led her to the dinner-table, where Giles had taken up his position
+behind his mistress's chair.
+
+The meal was, as Giles had intimated it would be, very bountiful. Mr.
+Relly said a long grace, which was really a prayer, and which Griselda
+thought would never end.
+
+During dinner the conversation lay between Mr. Relly and Mrs. Travers,
+if conversation it could be called. It was rather an exchange of
+religious sentiments, quotations of texts of Scripture, seasoned with
+denouncements of the vanities of the world, as Bath spread them out for
+the unwary. Griselda felt that many of Mr. Relly's shafts were directed
+at her, and she felt increasingly ill at ease and uncomfortable. It was
+only when she could summon courage to look at Leslie that her spirits
+rose to the occasion, and she answered him in low, sweet tones when he
+addressed her.
+
+To the great relief of everyone except Mrs. Travers Mr. Relly took leave
+before the cloth was drawn, excusing himself on the plea of having to
+attend upon that aged servant of God, the Countess, who expected him to
+consult on important business.
+
+"If I may be so bold, may I beg you to convey my dutiful remembrances to
+her ladyship?" Mrs. Travers said.
+
+Mr. Relly assented, but in a manner which implied it was a very bold
+request to make, and then departed.
+
+As soon as they were alone and Giles had left the room, Leslie rose, and
+going to his mother's chair, he said:
+
+"I have brought you a daughter to-day, mother. You have often longed for
+her appearance, and it is with joy and pride that I tell you Miss
+Griselda Mainwaring has done me the honour to promise to be my wife and
+your dear daughter."
+
+Mrs. Travers's face displayed varying emotion as her son went on.
+Surprise and disapproval were at first prominent; then the certainty
+that Leslie was in earnest, and that to turn him from his purpose was at
+all times hopeless, when his mind was set on any particular course of
+action, brought tears to her eyes.
+
+"Oh, my son!" she began; but Griselda left her chair, and, coming to her
+side, she said:
+
+"Madam, I pray you to receive me as your daughter. I will try to be a
+loving and true wife. Madam, I am alone in the world, and as I have been
+so happy as to win the love of your son, you must needs think kindly of
+me. I will strive to be worthy of him."
+
+This avowal was so entirely unexpected that Mrs. Travers could not at
+first speak. This simple confession of love, this sad reference to her
+lonely condition, this promise to be a true and loyal wife--how unlike
+the coquettish and half-reluctant, half-triumphant manner which Mrs.
+Travers thought a Bath belle would assume under these circumstances!
+
+"My dear," she said, after a pause, during which Leslie had thrown his
+arm protectingly round Griselda--"my dear, may I do my duty to you as my
+only son's wife? I pray that you may be kept safe in this evil world,
+and that we may mutually encourage each other to tread the narrow way
+leading to everlasting happiness."
+
+Griselda bent, and said simply:
+
+"Kiss me, dear madam, in token of your approval;" and Mrs. Travers rose,
+and very solemnly putting her arm round Griselda, and holding the hand
+which was locked in her son's, pressed a kiss on the fair forehead of
+her future daughter-in-law, and uttered a prayer for God's blessing on
+her. Then Griselda said, "I must return now to Lady Betty. Will you
+come, sir?"
+
+"Give me my name," he said. "Let me hear you give me my name."
+
+"There is time enough for that," she said, rallying with an arch smile.
+"We will come to that by-and-by."
+
+And soon they were retracing their steps to the North Parade, joy in
+their hearts, and that sweet sense of mutual love and confidence, which
+in all times, whenever it is given, comes near to the bliss of the first
+love-story rehearsed in Paradise. Alas! that too often it should pass
+like a dream, and that the trail of the serpent should be ready to mar
+the beauty of the flowers of an Eden like Leslie Travers's, and Griselda
+Mainwaring's.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+A PROPOSAL.
+
+
+The door of the house in North Parade was opened by Graves.
+
+"Where have you been?" she said anxiously. "Dinner is not only served,
+but just finished. There have been tantrums about it, I can tell you.
+You may prepare for a fuss. Her ladyship----"
+
+"Perhaps," Griselda said, turning to Leslie--"perhaps you had better pay
+your visit to-morrow. Let me see Lady Betty alone."
+
+Graves, who saw the hesitation, now said:
+
+"Yes, Miss Griselda, her ladyship is in no mood to see a stranger. You
+had best bid the gentleman good-day, and come in."
+
+"It may be it is best," Griselda said. "So good-bye--good-bye till
+to-morrow."
+
+"Unless we meet in the Assembly Room," Leslie said, holding her hand;
+and bending over it, he pressed it to his lips again and again, as if he
+could not give it up.
+
+She drew it gently away, and then ran with a light step to her own room.
+Graves followed her.
+
+"What does it mean, my dear?" she asked.
+
+"It means that I am no longer alone in the wide, cold world. Oh, be glad
+for me, Graves, be glad! I am to be the wife of a good man--Mr. Leslie
+Travers."
+
+"Good! Well, there is none good--no, not one! He may be better in the
+eye of _man_ than the rest, but _good_!--he may be a _moral_ man."
+
+"He is everything that is noble and good! Oh, Graves, I am so happy!"
+
+"Poor child!--poor child!" the faithful woman said, as she smoothed the
+bow on the wide hat before putting it away--"poor child! Well, you'll
+need a protector. There's a great to-do in the dining-parlour. I heard
+your name again and again; and her ladyship and that man who is so often
+here--worse luck--were making free with it, I can tell you. There!
+that's her bell--ring-ring-ring! And here comes David."
+
+David was the man-servant, and tapped sharply at the door.
+
+"Mistress Graves, are you here? Is Miss Mainwaring here? She is wanted
+by her ladyship in the sitting-room--_now_," he added--"this instant. Do
+ye hear?"
+
+"Yes, I am not deaf," was Graves' retort; "so you needn't make a noise
+like so many penny trumpets. You had better change your dress, my dear.
+Here is your blue skirt and flowered-chintz gown--and your hair is all
+falling down. Come!"
+
+Griselda was putting away the money she had received for her jewels, and
+then submitted to Graves' hands, as she changed her morning-gown for a
+pretty toilette of chintz and under-skirt of blue brocade.
+
+"I must be quick, or she will ring again," Graves said. "There! I
+thought so"--for again the querulous bell sounded, and hurrying feet
+were heard on the stairs.
+
+"Her ladyship is in a regular passion," David said, through the door.
+"You'll repent it, Graves, as sure as you are alive."
+
+"Hold your tongue, and be off," was the reply; "I can take care of
+myself, by your leave!"
+
+David grumbled a reply, and again departed.
+
+In other times, Griselda would have shown some sign of desire to avert
+the storm of Lady Betty's anger; but to-day she went through her
+toilette without any undue haste.
+
+"Graves," she said, "I want you to go to Crown Alley for me, and see a
+poor, man who is dying, and take him some comforts. Surely there are
+plenty of wasted luxuries that might be of use to him! And, Graves, he
+has a dear little girl--such a clever child!--and as lovely as an angel,
+though half-starved. Graves, will you take some of that mock-turtle soup
+and a bottle of wine before night to No. 6, Crown Alley?"
+
+"Well, to say the truth, Miss Griselda, I ain't partial to low places
+like Crown Alley, and----"
+
+"But you might talk to the man of good things--you might tell him of the
+love of God."
+
+Graves shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"I must tell him first of the wrath of God--poor dying creature!--if he
+has been mixed up with theatre folk. It's awful to think of him!"
+
+"Do go--to please _me_, dear Graves," Griselda said. With a sudden
+impulse, she stooped and kissed her rugged face as Graves bent down to
+arrange a knot of ribbon on the chintz bodice. "Oh, Graves, I am so
+happy! I want to make someone else happy. Don't you understand? Do go;
+and take what you can in your hand. Now, what do I care for scolding?"
+she said. "I feel as if I had wings to-day;" and in another moment
+Griselda had tripped downstairs, and was at the door of the
+sitting-room, where on a sofa reclined Lady Betty.
+
+Lady Betty was fanning herself vigorously--always a sign of a coming
+storm; and Sir Maxwell Danby was leaning back in an armchair, toying
+with his snuff-box and the trifles hanging to his watch-chain. The
+ruffles on his coat were of the most costly lace, and so was the edge of
+the long cravat, which, however, was peppered with the snuff he was
+continually using.
+
+There was a gleam of something very much the reverse of kindly intention
+in his little deep-set eyes, and cunning and malice were making curves
+round his thin lips, though, on Griselda's entrance, a smile, which was
+meant to be fascinating, parted them; and, rising in reply to her
+curtsey at the threshold of the door, he bowed low, advanced to her,
+and, offering his hand, said:
+
+"May I beg leave to hand you to a chair?"
+
+Then, as Griselda drew her hand away and turned on him a look of
+disgust, Lady Betty almost screamed out:
+
+"What do you mean by flouncing like that, miss? Sit down at once, and
+hear of the honour this gentleman proposes to do you. He offers you what
+you little deserve."
+
+"Nay--nay, my lady," Sir Maxwell began; "that is impossible for any man
+to offer. A diadem laid at this fair lady's feet would be all too little
+for her deserts. But may I venture to address a few words to your fair
+ward? and then I will take my leave, and await with anxiety a
+reply--say, to-morrow at this time. I would not hasten her. Madam," he
+began, with his hand on his heart--"madam, I pray you to listen to my
+poor words; and, as you listen, believe that they come from one weary of
+the hollow insincerities of a gay world, and longing to rest itself on
+something real and steadfast. I see in you the perfection of womanhood.
+I adore you; and Lady Betty favours my suit. I can offer you a
+position--a social rank--not to be lightly esteemed. Danby Hall is my
+ancestral home, and thither I crave leave to convey you, ere many months
+have passed, as its beautiful mistress, and----"
+
+"Sir," Griselda interrupted, as this suitor bent on one knee, with due
+care not to cause a rupture between the silk stockings which met his
+knee-breeches by too sudden a genuflexion--"sir, I must beg you to
+desist. Surely, Aunt Betty, you have not encouraged this gentleman to
+pursue a suit which is distasteful to me?"
+
+Then, as Lady Betty began to raise her voice, Griselda turned to Sir
+Maxwell, who was finding his position uneasy, for his joints were not as
+supple as they had been twenty years before:
+
+"Sir Maxwell Danby," she said, her voice trembling, in spite of every
+effort she made to control it, "I thank you for the honour you do me,
+but I decline to accept the proposal you make me."
+
+"She only means to put you off, Sir Maxwell; she will think better of
+it--she _shall_ think better of it."
+
+"Nothing will change my purpose--nothing _can_ change it." Then, though
+it seemed almost sacrilege to bring to light what lay like a fount of
+hidden joy in her heart, she looked steadily into the face of the
+world-worn man, who quailed before the clear glance of those young pure
+eyes. "Nothing can change my purpose, sir; and for this reason--I am
+pledged to another."
+
+"Ha! ha!" broke out almost involuntarily from Sir Maxwell "I understand.
+Lady Betty, let me warn you that this fair lady is in some danger from
+designing folk, who frequent the lowest purlieus of the city. I warn
+you; and now"--with a low bow--"I take my leave." And casting a Parthian
+arrow behind as he made another low bow at the door, he said: "And unless
+you receive my warning in good part, you will see cause to repent it. It
+may be you will have to repent it through _another_."
+
+Griselda's face blanched with fear as she turned to Lady Betty:
+
+"Tell me," she exclaimed, "what that bad man has been saying of--of me,
+and of another!"
+
+"Saying! That you have misbehaved yourself, miss; and that you have been
+taken to Crown Alley by that canting hypocrite whom I detest. Speak to
+him again, and you leave this house. _Dare_ to refuse Sir Maxwell
+Danby's offer, and I cast you off. You had better take care, for your
+poor mother disgraced herself, and----"
+
+"Stop!" Griselda said; "not a word about my mother. I will not hear it.
+But, Aunt Betty, I will not listen to the proposal made me by Sir
+Maxwell Danby. I would not, as I have told you, marry him were there no
+other man in the world; but, as it is," she said proudly, the fire of
+her eyes being suddenly dimmed with the mist of gentle tears--"as it is,
+I am the promised wife of Mr. Leslie Travers. He will see you to-morrow
+on this matter, and----"
+
+"I will not see him. You shall marry Sir Maxwell; he has a fine fortune,
+and a fine place. You are mad; you are an idiot--a fool! Go to your
+room, miss, and keep out of my sight till you come to your senses. Get
+out of my sight, I say!"
+
+How long this tirade might have raged I cannot tell, had not David
+announced "Lord Basingstoke." Shallow waters are easily lashed into a
+storm, and as easily does the storm spend itself.
+
+Lady Betty quickly recovered herself, and as Griselda left the room she
+heard her aunt's usual dulcet tones and the inevitable giggle as the
+young lord, who was sorely at a loss how to "kill time," sank down in
+the chair Sir Maxwell had so lately left, and the usual badinage went on
+and received an additional piquancy by the arrival of two or three more
+idle people who had been to the Pump Room for their afternoon glass of
+water, and missing Lady Betty, had come to inquire for her health, and
+to talk the usual amount of scandal, or harmless gossip, as the case
+might be.
+
+
+The various love affairs on the tapis were discussed in their several
+aspects, and Mrs. Greenwood's plain daughters were made the target for
+the shafts of foolish satire.
+
+"Could you fancy, my lady, that the vulgar mother asked young Mr.
+Beresford what his intentions were because he had danced twice with that
+fright, her daughter Bell, out of sheer pity? Lor', what fun young
+Beresford is making of her!"
+
+"Ridiculous! vastly amusing!" exclaimed Lady Betty.
+
+"But there is another marriage spoken of. I hear you are to give your
+beautiful ward"--Lady Betty's friends always took care to call Griselda
+a ward, not a niece--"to Sir Maxwell Danby. He has a fine place, upon my
+word," said an old beau, who posed as a young one. "He has a fine place,
+and a pretty fortune. I congratulate you, madam, and the young lady. For
+my part, I always have reckoned her the belle of Bath this season."
+
+Lady Betty smiled, and accepted the congratulation and the admiration at
+the same time.
+
+"Sir Maxwell had just left her," she said.
+
+"Where is the young lady?" the old gentleman asked. "Upon my word, Danby
+is a lucky fellow. There are many who will envy him. I confess _I_ am
+one."
+
+"Yes. I say, where is Miss Mainwaring?" Lord Basingstoke asked.
+
+And Lady Betty, flirting her fan vigorously, said:
+
+"She has a headache, and will not be at the Assembly to-night, I fear."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+A LETTER.
+
+
+Griselda was glad to escape to her own room that she might have time to
+think over her position and decide what was best to do, and what was the
+next step to take.
+
+She laid aside her dress and hoop, and put on a long morning-gown which
+Lady Betty had discarded because the colour was unbecoming; and then,
+opening her desk, chose a very smooth sheet of Bath-post paper, and sat
+with her quill pen in her hand as if uncertain what to write.
+
+But her face was by no means troubled and anxious; on the contrary, it
+was happy, almost radiant, in its expression.
+
+Griselda had not had an experience of many lovers; indeed, the sweet
+story had never been told to her till Leslie Travers told it; and there
+was a charm for her in thinking that her heart had responded so fully to
+him and given him her first love.
+
+Foolish protestations like Sir Maxwell Danby's had indeed been made to
+Griselda since her arrival at Bath, but a certain stately dignity had
+kept triflers at a distance, and it might be said of Griselda, that she
+
+    "Held a lily in her hand--
+    Gates of brass could not withstand
+    One touch of that enchanted wand."
+
+It was the lily of pure unsullied womanly delicacy, which contact with
+the world of fashion in every town is too apt to touch, and even wither
+with its baleful breath.
+
+It would not be fair to say that in the Bath assemblies this baleful
+influence was all-pervading. Then, as now, there were many who, by their
+own guilelessness and purity, repelled the approach of what was harmful
+in word or jest.
+
+But what is now spread over a wide surface was--in those days of small
+centres like Bath and other places of fashionable resort in or near
+London--pressed within a narrower compass, and thus the evil and its
+results were more prominently brought forward.
+
+But is not the canker at the root of many a fair flower of womanhood in
+the higher circles of our own time? Do not maidens and matrons, young
+and old, of our own day permit, nay, encourage, the discussion of
+scandal and improprieties in their presence, which by their very
+discussion tend to stain the pure white flower of maidenhood and
+motherhood? Is it not true that familiarity with any evil seems to
+lessen its magnitude, and that continual conversation about matters that
+are even perhaps condemned, has the effect of making the speaker and
+hearer less and less guarded in their remarks, and less and less
+"shocked," as they perhaps at first declared themselves to be, at some
+sad lapse from the straight path amongst their acquaintances and
+friends?
+
+It would be distasteful to me, and it would not add to the interest of
+the story I have to tell, were I to draw a picture true to life of Sir
+Maxwell Danby. He was an utterly unscrupulous and base man. He had no
+standard of morality, except the standard of doing what best satisfied
+his own selfish and low aims. How it was that he had determined to win a
+woman like Griselda, I cannot say, so utterly different as she was from
+the many women who had fallen into his power. But the fact remained that
+he _was_ determined to win her, and if he failed, his love--though I desecrate that word by applying it to any feeling of Sir Maxwell
+Danby's--would assuredly turn to hatred and determination to do what he
+could to destroy her happiness.
+
+As Griselda sat that evening with the light of two tall candles in their
+massive brass candlesticks, shining on her beautiful face, there was no
+shadow over it.
+
+What if Lady Betty renounced her, and turned her out of the
+house?--well, if the whole world were against her, she was no longer
+_alone_. She was his, who loved her, and was ready at any moment to take
+her to his heart and home. "I must write to him," she was saying as she
+stroked her cheek with the soft feather at the end of her quill; "I must
+write to him and tell him all--everything! and then he will know what to
+do."
+
+Soon the pen began to move over the paper, and she smiled as she put it
+through the "sir," which had been written after "dear," and substituted
+"Leslie."
+
+How strange and yet how sweet it was to look at it! And then she went
+on:
+
+"I said you must wait till I called you by your name! You have not had
+to wait long."
+
+She wrote on till she heard a bustle on the pavement below her window.
+She went to it, and looking down saw the link-boys with their torches
+and the chair in which Lady Betty was being carried off to the Assembly,
+and the chair was followed by another, and several dark figures shrouded
+in long cloaks were in attendance.
+
+It was a clear frosty evening. The sky was studded with countless stars,
+and the fields and meadows then lying before North Parade, made a blank
+space of sombre hue where no distant forms of tree or dwelling could be
+traced; while beyond was the dim outline of the hills, which stand round
+about that City of the West. Lonely heights then!--now crowned by many
+stately terraces and houses, where a thousand lamps shine, and define
+the outline of the crescents and upward-reaching streets and roads. But
+gas was not known in that winter of 1780! It lay hidden in those
+strangely-mysterious places, with electricity and the power of steam,
+waiting to be called out into activity; for those hidden forces are old
+as the eternal hills, only waiting the magic touch of some master's
+hand, to be of service to men, who are but slow to recognise whence
+every good and perfect gift comes.
+
+When the house was quiet, Griselda returned to her desk, and slowly and
+deliberately finished her letter. It was not long, and covered only one
+side of the sheet. Then it was folded with care to make the edges fit in
+nicely, and nothing remained but to seal it; and she was about to light
+the little taper, and get the old seal from the corner of her desk, when
+a tap at the door was followed by Graves's entrance with a tray.
+
+"Your supper," she said shortly, "Miss Griselda."
+
+Graves's voice and manner were so unusual that Griselda started up.
+
+"What is the matter?" she asked. "Why do you look so miserable? Was she
+trying your patience--you poor dear old Graves--past bearing? Graves,
+why don't you speak?" But Graves's mouth was close shut, and she looked
+as if determined not to answer. "Look, Graves, I have written a letter
+to Mr. Travers, and told him what Lady Betty said to me; that is, I
+told him she said she would cast me off, unless I did as she chose in a
+matter which I could not explain in a letter, but connected with Sir
+Maxwell Danby."
+
+"She can't cast you off! You were left to her in the will for
+maintenance. I do know that much."
+
+"Yes!" Griselda said vehemently--"yes! like any other of my uncle's
+goods and chattels! Oh, I am free now!--I am free!--or shall be soon! I
+will not think of vexing matters to-night of all nights! What a dainty
+little supper! I like oyster-patties. Ah! that reminds me of your
+promise, Graves. Have you been to Crown Alley? Did you take the soup?
+and were you kind in your manner to the poor little girl? Graves, did
+you go?"
+
+"Yes, Miss Griselda, I went."
+
+"And what did you think? Had I made too much of the misery, and want,
+and wretchedness of that poor man?"
+
+"No, Miss Griselda--no, my dear!" said Graves.
+
+"I must go again in a day or two, and you shall come with me."
+
+Graves relapsed into silence again, and then Griselda put the important
+seal on her letter, and addressed it, and gave it to Graves, with
+instructions to send it safely by the hand of David early the next
+morning.
+
+"It is a comfort to have told him all!" she said, as Graves finally left
+the room. "And how happy I am to be no longer a chattel, but a part of
+the very life of another, and that other a man like my Leslie!"
+
+Sweet were Griselda's dreams that night, all fears seemed to have
+vanished, and the image of Sir Maxwell Danby bore no part in them.
+
+Women of Griselda's type, tasting the cup of happiness for the first
+time, are inclined to drink deep of its contents. Perhaps only those who
+have not felt the loneliness of heart like hers can tell how great was
+the reaction. Hitherto she had been plainly told she was an encumbrance,
+and that her business in coming to Bath was to get a settlement in life
+as soon as possible. It was this that had made her maintain the cold,
+reserved demeanour which was, as I have said, unlikely to make her
+popular in the mixed assemblies of Wiltshire's Rooms and the Pump Room.
+She had surrendered the citadel of her heart with a whole and perfect
+surrender; and while the gay crowd was bent on enjoyment, and beaux and
+belles were trying who could be first in the exchange of pleasantries
+and jokes not of the most refined character, Griselda dreamed her
+dreams, and slept in peace; while Graves, carrying the letter
+downstairs, stopped from time to time, and murmured:
+
+"I have not the heart to tell her! I dare not tell her! Or, if I do, not
+to-night!--not to-night! How could I spoil her happiness to-night! May
+the Lord call her, and may she hear His voice, for I fear trouble lies
+before her, poor lamb!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is wonderful what perseverance and energy can effect! Even in the
+very prosaic and commonplace circumstances of a removal from Rivers
+Street to King Street, these qualities were conspicuous in the
+Herschels. Miss Herschel had worked with a will from daybreak to
+nightfall, and the stolid Welsh servant, Betty, had been infected with
+the general stir and bustle of the household.
+
+By nine o'clock that evening Mr. Herschel was established in his
+observatory at the top of the house, without a single mischance
+happening to any of his mirrors or reflectors, and without the loss of a
+single instrument. It was a night when the temptation to sweep the
+heavens was too great to resist, and although he felt some compunction
+when he heard the running to and fro below-stairs, and his sister's
+voice raised certainly above concert-pitch in exhortations to Betty and
+entreaties to Alick to be sharp and quick, he had fixed one of his
+telescopes, and was lost in calculations and admiration at some
+previously unnoticed feature of the nebulæ, when his brother Alex came
+into the room.
+
+"We have got supper ready," he said, "and Travers is below offering
+help--rather late in the day--and the only help he can give now is to
+help to eat the double Gloucester cheese and drink the Bristol ale. But
+come, Will; you have had no proper meal to-day!"
+
+"Humph! what," Mr. Herschel said, "did I say? Nineteen millions of
+miles, or eighteen and three-quarter millions? Yes, Alex--yes. Can I be
+of any assistance? How about the violins and the harpsichord? There are
+several lessons down for to-morrow, and Ronzini will be here about the
+oratorio. I ought to have gone to Bristol, but it was impossible.
+There's the score of that quartette in G minor, Alex--is it safe?"
+
+"Yes--yes. I pray you, brother, trust the sagacity of your workers, and
+repay them with a scrap of gratitude." Then yawning, "If you are not as
+tired as any tired dog, I am; and I am off to bed, such as it is, for
+there is only one bedstead put up--that is the four-post for you. Lina
+and I have decided to sleep on the floor."
+
+"Nonsense! I shall not sleep to-night, I have too much to settle. Let
+good Lina take some rest for her weary limbs. And, Alex, to-morrow, we
+must see about the workshop in the garden and the casting for the
+thirty-foot reflector, for I can have no real peace of mind till that is
+an accomplished fact. The mirror for the thirty-foot reflector is to be
+cast in a mould of loam, prepared from horse dung. It will require an
+immense quantity; it must be pounded in a mortar; it must be sifted
+through a sieve."
+
+Alex shrugged his shoulders, and made an exclamation in German which
+brought a laugh from his brother.
+
+"Poor Alex, is the lowest yet most important step of the ladder
+distasteful to you? I will not trouble you, my boy, nor will I enlist
+Lina in the service against her wishes--do not fear."
+
+"I fear no work for you, William," Alex said, "when music is concerned,
+you know that; but----"
+
+"I know--I know," William Herschel said, patting his brother's shoulder;
+"but, remember, I make even music--yes, even music--that heaven-born
+gift, subservient to the better understanding of that goodly host of
+heaven, beyond and above all earthly consideration and mere earthly
+aims. But let us go to supper. We must eat to live--at any rate, young
+ones like you must. Come!"
+
+The room below was not in such dire confusion as might have been
+expected. The harpsichord was pushed close to the wall, with a company
+of violin, violoncello, and double-bass cases, standing like so many
+sarcophagi in serried rows.
+
+The table was spread with a clean cloth, and a large drinking-cup of
+delft ware, supported by three figures of little Cupids, with a bow for
+a handle, was full of strong ale.
+
+A large brown loaf, and a Cheddar cheese, looked inviting; while a plate
+of Bath buns, with puffed shining tops, indented with a crescent of
+lemon-peel, showed the taste for sweet cakes which all Germans display.
+
+"My good sister," Mr. Herschel said, "you are a wondrous housewife; we
+must not forget to give the mother far away a true and faithful report
+of your skill--eh, Alex?"
+
+"Skill!" Caroline said. "There is not much skill required--only
+strength. Come, Mr. Travers, take what there is, and overlook
+deficiencies."
+
+Then the legs of the mahogany chairs scraped on the bare boards, and the
+four sat down to their meal. The grace-cup was passed round. Miss
+Herschel, drawing a clean napkin through the handle, with which those
+who took a draught wiped their lips and the edge of the cup. The
+conversation was bright and lively, and Leslie Travers, who was in the
+first joy of Griselda's acceptance of his love, thought he had never
+before tasted such excellent bread and cheese, or drunk such beer.
+
+"There is a ball at Lady Westover's to-night, Travers," Alex said. "You
+are absenting yourself from choice, I doubt not. I absent myself from
+necessity."
+
+"You could have gone, Alex; only I warned you I had no time to get up
+your lace-ruffles to-day; and you are so reckless with your cravats--all
+were crumpled and dirty."
+
+"My dear sister, I do not complain. I heard, by-the-bye, Travers, that
+the voice of the Assembly Room is unanimous in declaring Miss Mainwaring
+the reigning beauty; but----"
+
+"But what?" Leslie asked.
+
+"There are two or three men inclined to make too free with her name."
+
+Leslie's brow darkened.
+
+"I know of _one_," he said; "but, sir, if you should chance again to
+hear a word spoken of Miss Mainwaring, you may remind the speaker that
+she is my promised wife. She has, unworthy as I am, done me the honour
+to look favourably on my suit this very day."
+
+"Indeed! you are a fortunate man," Alex said heartily.
+
+"I came with the purpose, madam," Leslie said, turning to Miss Herschel,
+"to ask if you will, when agreeable to you, give Miss Mainwaring lessons
+in singing? I am," he said, colouring, "responsible for the price of the
+lessons, only I do not desire to let Miss Mainwaring know this."
+
+"I must look in the book of engagements," Miss Herschel said; "we are
+over-full as it is. The days lost in the removal threw us back, but,"
+she said, drawing a book with a marble-paper cover from her capacious
+pocket, "_I_ will run my eye over the lists, and try to arrange it,
+William."
+
+But Mr. Herschel had left the room; he returned in a few minutes to say:
+
+"Lina, the men will be here as soon as it is light to-morrow about the
+furnace; and, Lina, I shall be glad to have the micrometer lamp and the
+fire in my room."
+
+"Yes, William;" and the question of singing-lessons for Griselda
+Mainwaring, or anyone else, was for the time forgotten.
+
+Far into the night did that loyal-hearted sister, tired with a hard
+day's work, assist her brother in the arrangement of his new study--his
+_sanctum sanctorum_, on the top-floor of the house, made memorable in
+the annals of Bath and the records of the country, to which he, William
+Herschel, came a stranger, as the spot where his labour received the
+crown of success in the discovery of Uranus.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+DISCOVERED.
+
+
+Griselda shrank from meeting Lady Betty after the stormy scene of the
+previous day, and Graves brought her breakfast to her own room.
+
+"Did you send my letter, Graves?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Surely, by a safe hand?"
+
+"I hope you don't think David's unsafe!" was the short reply.
+
+"Graves, why _are_ you so gloomy--like the day? Oh!" she said, turning
+to the window, which was blurred with a driving mist of rain--"oh! there
+ought to be sunshine everywhere to suit me to-day."
+
+"There's not likely to be a ray of sun to-day. Bath folks say that if
+the weather once sets in like this, it goes on rain, rain----"
+
+"Well, it can't last for ever--nothing does."
+
+"No; that's true," said Graves.
+
+Griselda now settled herself to her breakfast with the appetite of
+youth; and, as Graves left the room, she said:
+
+"Bring the letter the instant it comes, Graves--the answer to _my_
+letter, I mean; or perhaps Mr. Travers may come himself."
+
+But the day wore on, and Griselda waited and watched in vain. She tried
+to occupy herself with her violin; she made a fair copy of her verses,
+and smiled as she thought, that waiting--_her_ waiting--had at last been
+crowned with reward.
+
+Then she fell into dreams of her past life; the dull dreary round at
+Longueville Park; her uncle's long illness; her dependence for education
+on the library and its store of books, and the good offices of the
+clergyman of the little parish, who gave her lessons in Latin, and such
+Italian as he knew. Needlecraft and embroidery she had learned from his
+wife; and she was an accomplished needlewoman.
+
+It was a haphazard education, but Griselda's natural gifts made her able
+to adapt it to her needs; and she was a self-cultured woman, who lived
+her own life apart from the frivolity of Lady Betty, to whom, as she
+said, she was simply an appendage.
+
+Then there was the closing of Longueville Park till the heir returned
+from the Grand Tour; for, in spite of Lady Betty's wiles and effusive
+letters, the heir made it very evident that he did not desire her to
+remain at the Park till his return in a year or two, as Lady Betty
+fondly hoped.
+
+Then the little widow made the best of the circumstances, and set forth
+with David and Graves to see the world.
+
+This was two years ago now, and the interval had been filled up with a
+few months in Dublin, a short sojourn at the Bristol Hot Wells, and
+then, in the October of 1779, the house on the North Parade, Bath, was
+taken, where Lady Betty emerged from her weeds, dropping them as the
+butterfly drops the chrysalis, and floating off into the world of
+fashion, with Griselda as her "sweet friend," and "pet," and protégée,
+but never as her "niece."
+
+From time to time Griselda gave up meditation, and stationed herself at
+the window. The small panes, set in thick frames, were dim with
+moisture. The fields before her, which stretched to the hills, were
+reeking with damp. The hills themselves, and the houses and terraces
+which the day before had laughed in the sunshine, were now hidden, or
+only seen gray and black through the driving rain.
+
+No grand chariots, with red-coated post-boys, swept round the corner
+from South Parade, drawing up with a flourish at a door near. Very few
+people were out in the dim wet streets, and only a few disconsolate
+patients were conveyed at intervals by drenched and surly chair-men to
+and from the Pump Room, the water dripping from the roofs of the chairs,
+and the men's feet making a dull sound on the wet pavements, or on the
+miry road below.
+
+Soon a panic seized Griselda that perhaps that letter had been a little
+premature. Was it possible that Leslie Travers could think her
+unmaidenly to write as she had done?
+
+The thought was torture, and the torture grew more and more hard to
+bear, as the leaden hours passed.
+
+At the dinner-hour Graves appeared.
+
+"Have you brought it--the letter?"
+
+"No; I've brought a message from her ladyship--that Sir Maxwell Danby is
+below, and dines here; and you are to go downstairs."
+
+"I will _not_ go downstairs--I will not see him," Griselda said
+passionately. "Say, Graves, please, that I am unwell, and desire to
+remain in my room."
+
+
+
+"My poor child!--my poor child!" Graves said. "I think you had best
+go--I do, indeed!"
+
+"You would not say so if you knew. _No_; I will not go. Make my
+apologies, and say what is true-that I am not well. But, Graves, that
+letter--_did_ you send it?"
+
+"I have told you so, Miss Griselda. I speak the truth, as you ought to
+know."
+
+"Did David take it?"
+
+And now Graves hesitated a little:
+
+"I gave it to his care as soon as I went down this morning; but----"
+
+"But what?"
+
+"The gentleman has been here, and David was ordered to refuse him
+admittance. I must take your message; there's the bell ringing again."
+
+Griselda stood where Graves left her, her hands clasped together, and
+exclaimed:
+
+"What shall I do?--wait till he writes? He will surely write! Oh, that I
+had someone to consult! Shall I leave the house?--shall I go to Mrs.
+Travers? No; I would not force myself on her--or anyone. I must wait.
+Surely my poor little rhymes were prophetic! Waiting and watching----"
+
+Again Graves appeared with a tray, on which was Griselda's dinner. A
+little three-cornered note lay on the napkin.
+
+Griselda snatched it up, and read, in Lady Betty's thin, straggling,
+pointed handwriting:
+
+     "Do not atempt to shew your face, miss, till you have made a
+     propar apollgey, and have declared your readynes to meet the
+     gentleman who has done you the honour of adressing you.
+
+     "B. L."
+
+Lady Betty's spelling was, to say the least of it, eccentric; and
+Griselda smiled as she crumpled up the note and tossed it into the fire.
+
+"Very well, I am a prisoner then till my true knight comes to set me
+free. Make my compliments to her ladyship, and say, Graves, that I am
+obedient to her orders, and have no intention of showing my face."
+
+"My dear," Graves said, "pray to the Lord to help you; you will need His
+help."
+
+"What do you mean? Speak out, Graves."
+
+But again Graves left the room, murmuring to herself:
+
+"I have not the heart to tell her, yet she must surely know; she must be
+told."
+
+The long, slow hours passed, and twilight deepened early, for the sky
+only showed a lurid glow in the west for a few minutes at sunset, and
+then the rain and mist swept over the city, and nothing was to be seen
+from the window but the dim light of an oil-lamp here and there, and the
+flare of the link-boys' torches as they passed in attendance on chairs,
+or lighted pedestrians across the road for a fee of a halfpenny.
+
+At the accustomed hour Lady Betty set off to the Assembly Room, and the
+house being quiet, Griselda came out of her room.
+
+David was in attendance with his mistress, and only the woman who let
+the house and cooked for the family was at home with her daughter.
+
+Griselda heard her voice raised to reproach her daughter, who acted as
+servant to the establishment, and she caught the words: "Shut the door,
+Sarah Anne! Send the young rascal away!--a little thief, no doubt!"
+
+Griselda ran downstairs, impelled by some hidden instinct, and feeling
+sure that the messenger came from Crown Alley.
+
+The door was partially open, and Sarah Anne was evidently trying to shut
+it against an effort to keep it open.
+
+Then Griselda heard a voice pleading--a musical boyish voice:
+
+"Let the young lady know I'm here; pray do."
+
+And now Graves came from the back of the house, and exclaimed, as
+Griselda was trying to admit the boy:
+
+"Go back into the dining-parlour, Miss Griselda. Go; I'll speak to the
+boy."
+
+But Brian Bellis had pushed the door open, and now stood under the dull
+glow of the lamp hanging over the entrance.
+
+"Madam," he said, addressing Griselda, "I am sent to tell you that Mr.
+Lamartine is dying; he can't last till morning, and he craves to see
+you. For Norah's sake, madam, I beg you to come. I am Brian Bellis, you
+know--Norah's only friend. I beg you to come."
+
+"Yes, I will come."
+
+"He has something to tell you. He says he cannot die till he has told
+you."
+
+"I will come. Stand back, Graves; what do you mean?"
+
+For Graves had laid her hand on Griselda's arm as she turned to go
+upstairs to get her cloak and hood.
+
+"You must not go to Crown Alley at this time of night; wait till
+morning."
+
+"No, I will not wait; it may be too late to-morrow."
+
+Poor Graves almost groaned in the agony of her spirit. "My dear--my poor
+dear," she said, "you are not fit to go and see a man like him die."
+
+"Do not listen to her," Brian Bellis said; "do not listen--for Norah's
+sake."
+
+Griselda freed herself from Graves's hand and ran upstairs, returning
+presently in her long cloak and a _calèche_ well pulled over her face.
+
+All this time Mrs. Abbott and her daughter Sarah Anne had watched the
+scene with curious eyes, and a small boy who ran errands and turned the
+spit in the kitchen, cleaned knives, and performed a variety of such
+menial offices, had, all unperceived, been watching from the top of the
+stairs leading to the basement and offices.
+
+The boy had his own reasons for watching. A bit of gold was already in
+his pocket which had been given him by a fine gentleman who had stopped
+him in the morning as he was running off at David's command, with
+Griselda's letter to King Street.
+
+Another bit of gold was promised this hopeful young personage if he kept
+a watch on the proceedings of the beautiful young lady who lived with
+Lady Betty Longueville. This boy, who was familiarly called "Zach," was
+only too pleased to be thus employed. He had, in fact, given up the
+letter to this smart gentleman, who was Sir Maxwell Danby's valet, and
+who had also been well-paid for acting spy on many like occasions. It
+was the most natural thing in the world for him to stop Zach, ask to
+look at the letter, slip a half-guinea into his hand, and tell him he
+would convey it to Mr. Travers, as he had a message for him from his
+master, and that he might go about his daily business and hold his
+tongue. The letter would reach its destination--he need not trouble
+himself about it; and the bait held out of another piece of gold for
+further information if wanted, depended on his keeping silence; if he
+did this, his fortune was made.
+
+So those little lynx eyes of Master Zach's were very wide open indeed,
+and he saw Graves make a final effort to prevent the young lady from
+going off with Brian Bellis.
+
+It was ineffectual, for Griselda said proudly:
+
+"Do not interfere, Graves; I will not suffer you to do so."
+
+"Then I must come along with you," poor Graves said, and getting near to
+Griselda, she seized her hand, and putting her mouth close to her face,
+whispered something which seemed to turn the graceful figure standing
+ready for departure into stone.
+
+She put out her hand and supported herself against the back of a tall
+chair which stood near, but beyond this she never moved, till poor
+Graves, in a duffle-cloak with many capes and a large black beaver
+bonnet, returned, ready to accompany her on her errand. Then she took
+the hand which hung passive at Griselda's side.
+
+"I am ready, my dear--I am ready," Graves said. "Show the way, boy. Have
+you a torch handy?"
+
+"No, madam; but I can find the way in the dark."
+
+Then Mrs. Abbott called Zach.
+
+"Quick, Zach! quick! light a torch, and light these ladies on their way;
+or shall he call a chair, madam?"
+
+"No," Griselda said, starting as if from a dream; "no. Now, Graves!"
+Then pulling her hood over her face, and taking Graves's offered arm,
+she said to Brian: "Lead the way; I am ready."
+
+Zach trotted along with the link in his hand, keeping close to Brian,
+and the two women followed. Neither spoke till they were well within the
+shadow of the Alley, from which a noisy party of women and girls were
+coming out.
+
+Brian, who was in advance, stopped, and Griselda stopped also.
+
+"Are you sure?" she asked in a low voice--"are you sure? Is there no
+mistake?"
+
+"There is no mistake. I wish there was--oh! I wish there was!"
+
+Griselda seemed to be gathering strength now, for she left Graves's arm,
+and followed Brian up the long narrow flight of stairs. The child Norah
+had heard the sound of coming feet on the creaking staircase, and opened
+the door of the attic, saying:
+
+"He is quieter now." Then, with a sob: "Oh! Brian, Brian! you have been
+such a long, long time; and have you brought her--the lady--the young
+lady?"
+
+"Yes, I am here," Griselda said; "yes. How is your----"
+
+The word died away on her lips--that word that ought to bring with it
+nothing but tender feeling of respect and love--that word which we use
+when we speak of the highest and the best guardian for life and
+death--"Father!"
+
+
+Yes, that wild haggard man, who had sunk back in a lethargy after long
+incoherent ravings, was the father of the beautiful woman who,
+unfastening her cloak, let it fall from her on the floor of that
+wretched room; and, kneeling, clasped her hands, and cried, in the
+bitterness of her soul:
+
+"Oh, that it was not true! Can it be true? Graves--Graves, tell me it is
+a frightful dream, and not reality!"
+
+"My poor dear!" said Graves, in a choked voice, kneeling by Griselda's
+side, and putting her strong arm round her to support her. "My poor
+dear! I wish I could tell you it was a dream; but bear up, and put your
+trust in the Lord. It may be that He may save yonder poor creature as He
+saved the thief, in the hour of death."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE PLOT THICKENS.
+
+
+The money which Griselda had brought the day before had added some
+comfort to that bare room. A good fire was burning, and the bed on which
+the man lay was covered with blankets.
+
+There was wine, too, and food; and thus, all unawares, the daughter had
+performed a daughter's duty, and had ministered to the comfort of the
+last sad hours of that wasted life.
+
+But it were vain to try to tell how Griselda's whole nature shrank from
+this sudden revelation--how the impulse was strong to leave the room
+before consciousness returned to the dying man--so intensely did she
+dread the recognition which she knew must follow.
+
+For Graves had risen from her knees; and, going to the table, had taken
+a small case, and a letter from it, saying:
+
+"He showed me these last night; they tell their own tale."
+
+Poor little Norah had resumed her place by the bedside, exhausted with
+her long watching. She had slipped down on the floor, and had fallen
+into a doze. When Graves touched the case, she sprang up:
+
+"No; you must not. Father said I was to let no one touch it till she
+came. No----"
+
+The movement, and the child's voice, roused the sick man. He opened his
+large eyes, and looked about him--at first with no expression in them;
+but presently those black, lack-lustre eyes became almost bright as he
+fastened them on Griselda, and said, in a collected manner:
+
+"Yes; I am glad I have lived to see you. Look! there is the portrait of
+your mother, and a letter from her, in which is her wedding-ring. I
+would not bury it with her; I kept it for you--her child--her only
+child--_my_ child. Let me hear you call me 'father!' I was so cruel--so
+base--she had to flee from me--my poor Phyllis!"
+
+Griselda had opened the case, and stood irresolute with the portrait of
+her mother in her hand. A lock of light hair was twisted into a curl,
+fastened by a narrow band of small pearls.
+
+The mother's face, lovely yet sad, looked up at the daughter's, and
+seemed to express sympathy and pity for her.
+
+Deeply had the mother suffered--would her child be like her in this, as
+in outward form and semblance? The likeness was so unmistakable, that,
+except for the different style of dress, the miniature might have been
+painted as a portrait of Griselda herself.
+
+"My mother!" she whispered softly; and, to the surprise of those who
+stood by, the sick man said, in a voice very different from the raving
+tones which had been ringing through the room and reaching to every part
+of the house:
+
+"Yes; your mother. I remember you, little Griselda--little Griselda. I
+took you to Longueville, and left you there. You cried then to leave me;
+you weep now to find me. Well, it is just. I have been a wicked wretch;
+I have but little breath left--but take my poor little one out of
+this--this stage-life. Take her, and try to love her; she is your
+sister."
+
+"I will," Griselda said. "I shall have a home soon--she shall share it."
+
+"I thought as much--I hoped as much. He looks worthy of you, Griselda.
+Norah," he said, "this is your sister--your princess, as you call her;
+she will care for you. You will be a good little maid to her?"
+
+"Yes, father," Norah said; and then, with touching simplicity, she put
+her little hand into Griselda's, and, looking up at her, she saw tears
+were coursing each other down her cheeks.
+
+"Will you pray for me?" the dying man said. "Pray that I may be
+forgiven."
+
+"Pray for yourself, father," Griselda whispered.
+
+He heard the word fall from her lips; and, putting out his long, thin,
+wasted hand, he laid it on her head as she knelt by the bed, and said:
+
+"I pray to be forgiven, and for blessings on you."
+
+"For Christ's sake!"
+
+The voice was from Graves, who, in broken accents, called upon the
+Master whom she loved to have mercy on the poor penitent who lay dying.
+
+Then little Norah, nestling close to her father, repeated the 23rd
+Psalm; but before she had ended, her father became restless, and fumbled
+for the paper, and said:
+
+"The ring--the ring--her mother's ring!"
+
+Griselda put it into his feeble, uncertain grasp, and he murmured:
+
+"Put it on--put it on; and forgive me for all the misery I caused your
+mother. I broke her heart; and then the flames--the cruel flames--took
+from me the other poor child who loved me. My wife--Norah's
+mother--well, if she had lived, I should have broken her heart, too."
+
+After this there were no coherent words--all was confusion again; and
+before the Abbey clock had struck out eleven, the spirit had passed
+away. Who shall dare to limit the love and forgiveness of God in Christ?
+
+
+With this sad story of a misspent and miserable life we have no more to
+do here. It rolls back into the mists of oblivion with tens of thousands
+like it in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and in all the
+centuries since the world began. We dare not say such life-stories leave
+no trace behind, for true it is that the evil lives, when the doer of
+the evil is gone. The two daughters of this unhappy man were bearing the
+consequences of his sin. The child cast penniless on the cold world, the
+beautiful girl by her side suffering as only such a nature could suffer
+from the sense of humiliation and distress that her father had been a
+man whose very name must perish with him--for who would wish to keep it
+in remembrance? Oh for the good name which is better than riches to
+leave to our children! Surely, when troubled for the future of our sons
+and daughters, we may strive to leave them that which is better than
+silver and gold--the inheritance of a good name, of parents who have
+been honourable members of the great commonwealth, true to God, and true
+to man, and have scorned the paths of deceit and guile, as well as the
+ways of open sin and treacherous wickedness.
+
+"We must get back, Miss Griselda. Her ladyship will be returned. We must
+go at once."
+
+"Yes. But Norah--the child?"
+
+"I will take care of her," Brian Bellis said. "See! she is almost
+stupefied with her grief--she will scarce heed your departure!"
+
+"I cannot leave her--poor little girl! She has no one in the world but
+me!" Griselda said, in a tone of deep emotion.
+
+While they were thus speaking, the stairs creaked under the weight of
+Mrs. Betts, who, with one of the actors from the theatre, came to
+inquire for Lamartine. Mrs. Betts was a coarse, loud-voiced woman, but
+her nature was kind, and she pitied the child who had done so much for
+her father with all her heart. She was a woman of decision too, and,
+with one glance at the bed, she lifted the almost unconscious Norah in
+her arms, and turning to the pale, haggard man, who had been acting in
+Lamartine's place, she said:
+
+"You bide here while I take the child to my lodgings. And we must give
+notice of the death, and club to get him decently buried. Mr. Palmer
+will give a guinea, and we'll all follow in the same line. Harrison, do
+you hear?"
+
+"Yes--yes," the man said hurriedly; "but don't leave me long alone here.
+I--I don't care to have the company of a dead man for long."
+
+"You are an arrant coward, then, for your pains! There, go into the
+inner chamber, and I'll be back in half an hour. Turn the key in the
+lock," Mrs. Betts said, as she began to trudge down the dark stairs with
+Norah in her arms--"turn the key."
+
+But the man sprang to the door:
+
+"Don't--don't lock me in! I'll stay; but don't lock the door!"
+
+A scornful laugh from Mrs. Betts was the answer, and Graves coolly
+turned the key as she was told.
+
+Brian Bellis had gone down to look for Zach and the torch, but no Zach
+was to be found. He had made off to earn another gold-piece, and had
+performed his errand well, as the event proved.
+
+Poor Griselda had need of the support of Graves's strong arm as she
+hurried her along to the North Parade. What if Lady Betty were before
+her! What if it should come to her being really refused admittance to
+the house! Graves trembled to think of it, and of what she would
+personally be made to suffer if she were not at her post in her
+mistress's bedroom at the appointed hour.
+
+Griselda had really no thought about this. Her one longing was to get
+back--back to her room, where she could pour forth her trouble, and
+consider how she should tell him who had loved her so well, that she was
+the daughter of the man by whose bedside they had stood together, all
+unconscious that they were doing anything more than responding to the
+entreaty of a child who was almost starving, and who was the only friend
+the wretched man seemed to possess.
+
+To Graves's intense relief, Mrs. Abbott opened the door, and, in reply
+to the anxious question, said:
+
+"No, her ladyship is not come home. Nobody has been here since Zach
+returned to say you did not want him any more."
+
+"I never said so!" Graves exclaimed. "We've groped home as best we
+could, for the rain and mist put out the lights, and as to the lamps,
+the glass is so thick with damp you can scarce see a spark in them."
+
+While Graves was speaking, Griselda had gone wearily upstairs. Her cloak
+was saturated with rain, and as she unfastened her _calèche_ the masses
+of her hair fell back. At the top of the first flight she stopped.
+
+"Graves! ask if a messenger has brought a letter for me."
+
+"No," Mrs. Abbott said, answering--"no. Not a soul has been near the
+house since you left it."
+
+"No letter!--no letter!" Griselda murmured; and then, when she reached
+her room, she threw aside her cloak and seated herself, with folded
+hands, staring out into the embers of the fire with a look in her face
+which made Graves say, as she hastened towards her:
+
+"My dear! my poor child! don't look like that. It is over now--and a
+mercy too. There will never be any need to tell--no one need know. It's
+safe with me, and no one else need know. Come, let me help you to bed
+before I am wanted elsewhere. Come!"
+
+"I am not going to bed," Griselda said. "I must wait till he comes or
+sends again."
+
+"We'll, the gentleman won't send at this time of night, that's certain!
+Come, they will be back at any minute now! Let me put you to bed. I
+declare," said Graves, shuddering, "a change in the weather like this is
+enough to give one rheumatism! I don't call the Bath climate so
+wonderful--frost one day, thaw and rain the next!"
+
+Graves made up the fire, and then, finding Griselda quite determined to
+sit up, she left her to fetch some refreshment, wisely thinking that to
+urge her against her will was hopeless just then.
+
+"She will come round, poor child! It is a dreadful shock! I almost wish
+I'd told her last night; but I hadn't the courage to do it. I make no
+doubt the Lord is leading her to Himself by a rough path. But I don't
+like that look in her face; it is not natural. She ought to cry; tears
+are always softening to grief. Not that one can call it grief to lose a
+father like him!"
+
+No, it was not grief, but it was deep pity; and it was shame, and
+soreness of heart, and wounded pride.
+
+Then that letter she had written in the fulness of her first joy--that
+letter, by which she cast herself upon Leslie Travers, and confided to
+him her trouble about Sir Maxwell. He had never answered it. He had come
+to the house, it is true, but he had been sent away. Hours had gone by
+since, and he made no sign. What could she think but that he had looked
+with an unfavourable eye upon that outpouring of her full
+heart--perhaps thought her reference to Sir Maxwell's hateful addresses
+unmaidenly, unwomanly?
+
+Griselda went over all this again and again, sitting as Graves had left
+her, her head resting against the back of a high Chippendale chair, her
+feet on the brass fender, her hands clasped, and the wealth of her
+beautiful hair covering her as with a mantle.
+
+"How shall I tell him?" she said at last. "I must tell him; he must
+know; he will not wish me to be his wife now, perhaps. There is little
+Norah; I cannot part from her. How selfish I am! I am not thinking of
+her, or of anybody but myself. Oh, what a cruel, cruel blow to all my
+hopes! Ah, mother! mother!" she exclaimed as she suddenly remembered the
+case she had dropped into her wide pocket with the ring and the letter.
+"Ah! mother!"
+
+For as her cold hands drew out the case, and she pressed the spring, it
+flew open, and the mother's face seemed to have a living power for the
+daughter.
+
+Sympathy and maternal love and tenderness were all seen on that
+beautiful countenance; and yet there was a strength in the lines of the
+lovely mouth, those rosy, curved lips, parting as if to say, "Be of good
+courage! the battle may be sore; but victory comes at length. Trust, and
+be not afraid!"
+
+Then tenderly and reverently Griselda unfolded the yellow paper, to
+which a ring was fastened with many clumsy stitches of silk, and read
+the faint characters of the few lines which were traced there.
+
+"I send you back the ring, as the tie between us is broken, Patrick.
+Keep it for our child; she is in safety at Longueville Park. Do not
+molest her; leave her to a better home than _you_ can give her. You took
+her there by my request; leave her there. Before you read this I shall
+be no longer on earth; but I have forgiven you, dear, as I hope to be
+forgiven. Ours has been the wrong. Oh, do not let the child suffer!
+Leave her in the place where I was born and bred, and fulfil your vow,
+never, never to do aught which may turn her uncle's heart against her.
+It is my last request--my last hope! Adieu, Patrick!"
+
+These words were so blurred that they were illegible; and Griselda sunk
+on her knees by the chair, and the tears, so long frozen, poured forth
+in a flood till her full heart was relieved.
+
+Graves, coming in an hour later, found her with her fair head bowed on
+her arms, asleep. Youth had triumphed over sorrow of heart, and sleep
+had come, as it does come, with gentle power to blot out for a time the
+sorrows of the young. Graves's eyes filled with tears as she looked at
+her, and, taking a quilted cover from the bed, she threw it over her,
+putting a pillow under her head, and murmuring:
+
+"Alas, poor dear! I fear the worst for her is _not_ over. May God help
+her! for man's help is vain. I can only pray for her. I dare not wake
+her--not yet--not yet!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+BRAWLS.
+
+
+Leslie Travers had received an answer from David when he called at North
+Parade that day, which had puzzled him not a little.
+
+"Miss Mainwaring could not receive any visitor," David was commissioned
+to say.
+
+"Was Miss Mainwaring ill?" Leslie asked.
+
+"No, not that I know of, sir; but these are my orders."
+
+Surely there was something behind David's calm exterior, and Leslie
+turned away dissatisfied.
+
+"She will be at the Assembly to-night," he thought. "I must possess my
+soul in patience till then."
+
+So he dressed, and went to the Assembly Room, arriving just as Lady
+Betty stepped out of her chair, in a new primrose-coloured sacque and
+sea-green brocade petticoat. Her hair was powdered as usual, and several
+brilliants flashed as she moved her head in answer to Leslie Travers's
+bow.
+
+Where was Griselda? Lady Betty gave him no chance of asking the
+question, as she swept past with all the dignity her little person could
+command, and was soon forgetting her indignation against Griselda and
+her rejection of Sir Maxwell Danby's suit, in her own delight in having
+apparently captured Lord Basingstoke.
+
+Leslie wandered from room to room, and was trying to make up his mind
+whether to brave all consequences, and boldly go to Lady Betty's house
+and inquire for Griselda, when he was met by Mr. Beresford, an
+acquaintance whom he had made at Mr. Herschel's house, who told him that
+he was going to Bristol the next day to play in the orchestra at the
+rehearsal for "Judas Maccabæus," and asking him to accompany him.
+
+"There will be room," he said, "in the conveyance that is hired.
+Post-horses, and a large chariot, are engaged by the Herschels, who are
+making a pretty fortune by music, and spending it all in those
+jim-cracks of mirrors and tubes and micrometers."
+
+"Jim-cracks!" Leslie repeated. "I could not give them such a name; they
+are like the steps in the ladder Mr. Herschel is climbing skyward."
+
+Mr. Beresford laughed.
+
+"I confess I am very well content to let the stars take their course
+without my interference--I mean without my looking into the matter.
+There is enough to do for me to consider my ways down below without
+star-gazing. By-the-bye, _your_ star of beauty is not here to-night; has
+she set behind a cloud? Here come the two Miss Greenwoods, simpering and
+putting on fashionable airs which don't suit them. Like their gowns,
+such airs don't fit. Fancy their fat old mother asking me what my
+intentions were!"
+
+Leslie could not help laughing at his friend's remarks on the various
+beaux and belles who passed in review before them.
+
+Presently the young man said:
+
+"Look! did you see that?"
+
+"What?" Leslie Travers asked.
+
+
+"Sir Maxwell was called out to speak to someone by his valet. He is
+brewing mischief, I'll take my oath. Let us go into the room next the
+lobby and find out."
+
+"I decline to act spy. You may do so if you like," Leslie said.
+
+And he turned away towards another part of the room, and began to talk
+for half an hour to a retiring gentle girl, who, when the "contre danse"
+was formed, had no partner. Leslie led her out to take a place in it,
+and found himself _vis-a-vis_ with Sir Maxwell Danby and one of the most
+conspicuously dressed ladies who frequented Lady Miller's reunions at
+Batheaston.
+
+She was attired in a loose white gown, supposed to be after the Greek
+pattern, and her arms were bare, the loose sleeves caught up with a
+large brooch. She wore her hair in a plain band with a fillet, and cut
+low on the forehead. This lady had sat for her portrait to Gainsborough
+in her youth, now long past, and she had become very stout since those
+days, when many reigning belles repaired to Gainsborough's studio in
+Ainslie's Belvedere.
+
+She talked in a loud voice, and Leslie's attention was soon diverted
+from his companion, as he caught a name dear to him.
+
+"Miss Mainwaring is a beauty, no doubt of that," the lady said; "but a
+trifle stiff and heavy in manner. Why is she absent to-night? _You_
+ought to know, Sir Maxwell."
+
+Sir Maxwell stroked his chin, and said:
+
+"Perhaps she is better engaged, from all I know. Miss Mainwaring's
+behaviour is a little eccentric."
+
+"Is there a romance connected with her? I do love a bit of pretty
+romance. You know the _on dit_ is that she is to be Lady Danby?"
+
+"My dear lady," Sir Maxwell said, "it is not safe to trust to _on dits_.
+From what I have heard, Miss Mainwaring's tastes lie in a somewhat lower
+level of society than that in which you, for instance, live and move.
+There are, it seems, attractions for Miss Mainwaring in a quarter of the
+town where we look for actors and actresses, and such-like cattle--that
+is, supposing that we desire their acquaintance off the stage--which I,
+for one, do not!"
+
+"I really hardly credit what you say; I vow I can't believe it. There's
+some mistake, Sir Maxwell."
+
+"I wish I could agree with you," was the reply; "it is a matter which
+affects me very deeply. I do assure you----"
+
+At this moment it was Sir Maxwell's turn to take the hand of Leslie's
+partner, and he repeated in a voice which he meant should reach his ear:
+
+"Miss Mainwaring, the lady in question, pays daily and nighty visits to
+these low purlieus. Charity is made the pretext, of course."
+
+The dance was over, and the hour for departure drew on.
+
+Leslie Travers watched his opportunity, and lay in wait for Sir Maxwell
+in one of the lobbies.
+
+He was passing him with a lady on his arm, when Leslie said:
+
+"A word with you, sir, in private. I demand an apology for the shameful
+lies you are circulating. They are lies, and----"
+
+"Softly, softly, my dear boy; let the presence of a lady be remembered."
+
+"Oh! pray let us have no high words!" the lady said. "For mercy's sake,
+don't quarrel, gentlemen!"
+
+"Madam," Leslie Travers said, in an excited voice, "you have heard the
+basest slanders uttered against--against one whom I would not name in
+such company. Look you, sir," Leslie said, seizing the velvet sleeve of
+Sir Maxwell's coat--"look you, sir; you have been a liar, and you are
+now a coward. I will prove it."
+
+"Come, come, gentlemen; no brawling here," said the master of the
+ceremonies, bustling up. "Settle your matters elsewhere. A man of honour
+has his remedy."
+
+"Precisely!" said Sir Maxwell, who was white with rage. "Precisely! And
+as to you, poor boy--poor insensate boy--I will send my answer to your
+private residence as befits a gentleman; but I decline to brawl here.
+Move off, sir, I say!"
+
+A knot of people had collected, and young Beresford was one. He took
+Leslie's arm, and said:
+
+"Come away, and cool yourself."
+
+"I will not cool. I will throw the lie back in that fellow's throat;
+and----"
+
+But Mr. Beresford drew Leslie away; but not before Lady Betty--cloaked
+and muffled, ready to step into her chair--pressed through the little
+crowd.
+
+"What is it? Goodness! What is amiss, Sir Maxwell?"
+
+"My dear lady, we have a madman to deal with--that's all. We will settle
+our affairs on Claverton Down, as others have done."
+
+"Oh, mercy! don't fight a duel; it is too shocking, it's----"
+
+But Sir Maxwell hurried Lady Betty away, saying in his cold, hard voice,
+which, however, trembled a little:
+
+
+"That poor boy will repent insulting me; but let it not disturb you."
+And then Sir Maxwell resigned Lady Betty to David's care, and she was
+soon lost to sight in the recesses of the chair.
+
+The ubiquitous Zach had been on the watch, and had reached North Parade
+before Lady Betty.
+
+Graves, who, as we know, had been anxiously watching for Lady Betty's
+return, and congratulating herself that she had got Griselda safely to
+her own room before her ladyship arrived, heard Zach's voice below.
+
+Mrs. Abbott loved news, and thus was ready to pardon the boy's late
+return to the little box where he slept below-stairs, dignified with the
+name of the "butler's pantry;" and Graves, at the sound of voices, went
+to the top of the kitchen stairs, and hearing Miss Mainwaring's name,
+went down two or three steps.
+
+"Is anything wrong?" she asked.
+
+"Dear bless me, Mrs. Graves, I don't know! This boy says he has been
+waiting for you all these hours down in Crown Alley."
+
+"That's an untruth," said Graves; "but what do I hear him saying about
+the ladies?"
+
+"There's been a brawl in the lobby of the Assembly Room, and they say
+the baronet and young Mr. Travers will fight afore they settle it."
+
+Graves descended now to the kitchen, and asked with bated breath if Zach
+was telling the truth now, "for," she added, "the mouth of them that
+speak lies shall be stopped."
+
+Zach's little eyes twinkled. He knew he had got his reward, so Mistress
+Graves might say what she liked.
+
+"Yes," he whined, "it's a fine thing to keep a little chap like me, who
+works hard all day, awaiting in a place like Crown Alley."
+
+Graves took Zach by the arm and shook him vehemently.
+
+"You weren't there. You were gossiping by the Assembly Room door. What
+did you hear there?"
+
+Zach made a face, and said:
+
+"Let go, and I'll tell you." Graves relaxed her hold. "I heard the young
+gent tell Sir Maxwell he was a liar, and he'd fight him about Miss
+Mainwaring. There! you've told me _I'm_ a liar, and I'd like to fight
+_you_" quoth Zach savagely.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+CHALLENGED.
+
+
+When the first heat of passion was over, Leslie Travers went sorrowfully
+towards his home in King Street.
+
+Mr. Beresford would not leave him till he saw him safely to the door,
+which was opened by Giles, who greeted his young master with a yawn, and
+said:
+
+"The mistress has been a-bed these three hours. Ye are burning the
+candle at both ends, Master Leslie."
+
+Something in Leslie's manner struck the old servant. He preceded his
+young master to the parlour, threw on a log, and lighted two candles,
+which stood like tall sentinels on either side of the mantelshelf, in
+heavy brass candlesticks.
+
+"There's nothing like light and warmth if folks are down-hearted," he
+said to himself; "and really the young master looks down-hearted. Ah!
+it's the world and its ways. The mistress has the best of it."
+
+Little did Giles's mistress think, as she slept peacefully that night,
+how the leaden hours dragged on in the room below, where Leslie Travers
+sat and wrestled with that most relentless foe--an uneasy conscience.
+
+A hundred years ago duels were common enough, and any man who was
+challenged would have been scouted as a coward if he had not accepted
+the challenge.
+
+Leslie knew he had thrown the lie back to Sir Maxwell Danby, and that he
+should be called upon to answer for it, perhaps by his life.
+
+He was no coward, but this very life had become sweeter to him than ever
+before, during the last few days.
+
+He had gained the love of the woman who was to him a queen amongst all
+women, and now in vindicating her from the tongue of the slanderer, he
+might perhaps be on the eve of leaving her for ever.
+
+He had often looked death in the face when he had been lying ill at the
+Grange, and sometimes for utter weariness it had seemed no fearful thing
+to die. Since his mother had come under the influence of Lady
+Huntingdon's ministers, Leslie had heard a great deal of "the King of
+Terrors," as Death was termed in their phraseology, and he had often
+thought that it had not worn that guise to him in times of sore
+sickness--rather, as a friend's arm outstretched to lull his pain and
+give him peace. But now--now that the strength of his young manhood was
+renewed--now, when life was as a pleasant song in the possession of
+Griselda's love, in dreams of a useful happy life, with her to
+sympathize in all his hopes and aims--parting from life, and all that
+life holds dear, was very different.
+
+As he sat by the fire, or left his chair and paced the room, he seemed
+to hear words spoken in the very inner recesses of his soul.
+
+"_I_ say unto you, love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and
+pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you."
+
+"Yes," he argued, "yes; but it is not for myself, it is for her! That
+man's disappointment and disgust at her rejection of his suit will goad
+him to say all evil of her--my pure, beautiful Griselda! And yet----"
+
+Then he went hopelessly over the past week. That child who had come to
+the Herschels' doorstep; the pity which she had called to life; that
+expedition for the relief of the suffering man--if--if only that had
+never been, all this had been averted. All for a stranger, a worthless
+stranger, who was probably neither deserving of pity or help.
+
+If he had known how close between Griselda and this man the tie was, how
+far the poor dying actor was from being a stranger to her, would his
+feelings have been different? would the truth have changed the aspect of
+things for him--made the situation more or less painful? I cannot tell.
+
+The gray January dawn, creeping in through the holes in the shutters,
+and penetrating the room where the fire had burned out, and the candles
+died in their sockets, found Leslie in a fitful doze in the chair, into
+which, after walking up and down the room during the night, he had sunk
+at last from sheer exhaustion. On first waking he could not recall what
+had happened. He stretched his stiff limbs, and then the faint pallor of
+the dawn showed him the familiar objects in the room, and the present
+with all its stern realities became vivid.
+
+He tottered upstairs to his bed, not wishing his mother to find him
+dressed in his gay evening clothes, when she came down to breakfast.
+
+As he passed her door he heard her voice raised in prayer.
+
+To pray aloud, in pleading earnest tones, had become a habit of the good
+people with whom Mrs. Travers had cast in her lot, and Leslie paused as
+he heard his name.
+
+"My son! my son! Convert him, turn him to Thee, for he is wandering far
+from Thee, in pursuit of the vain pleasures of a sinful world!"
+
+"I need your prayers, sweet mother," the poor fellow murmured, as he
+passed on to his room near hers. "Perhaps to-morrow I shall be beyond
+their reach. Oh! that great mystery _beyond_!"
+
+The message came, as he expected, brought by Mr. Dickinson, who was to
+be Sir Maxwell's second, and Leslie referred him to Mr. Beresford to
+act for him.
+
+"It's a pity you can't square matters without fighting," Mr. Dickinson
+said.
+
+He was the good-natured, easy-going man who had been in the jeweller's
+shop on that day when Sir Maxwell had first had his evil suspicions
+roused.
+
+"It's a pity, but Sir Maxwell is bent upon fighting, so the sooner it is
+over, the better. He is an old hand--and you? Can you handle a sword?"
+
+"Fairly well," Leslie said.
+
+"It is proposed to have a round with swords. The place--Claverton Down,
+out Widcombe way; the time--dawn, to-morrow. It is Sunday, by-the-bye,
+and we are safe not to be hindered. What answer shall I take to Danby?"
+
+"Say I am ready," Leslie said; "ready--aye, ready!"
+
+"You don't feel inclined for a compromise, then?"
+
+"No, I do not. He has heaped insults on me which I have overlooked, but
+he has dared to slander one whom I love better than life. Do you suppose
+I can brook that?"
+
+"Dear! dear!" exclaimed Mr. Dickinson. "Women are the bottom of half the
+mischief that is brewed in the world, I do believe."
+
+Mr. Dickinson had not been gone long before Mr. Beresford arrived. He
+ran in to the Herschels to excuse himself from accompanying them to
+Bristol, saying he had urgent business, and then returned to his friend.
+
+All the arrangements were made, and the utmost secrecy agreed on.
+
+"No one need know"--hesitating--"certainly not Miss Mainwaring or my
+mother. I will employ to-day in setting my house in order, and leave
+letters behind me."
+
+"Don't say 'behind me,' man. Hundreds of people who fight do not get a
+scratch. You will be all right, and marry the lady, and live happy ever
+after."
+
+"I am in no jesting mood, Beresford; and although you profess to look on
+the whole affair as a joke, you do not do so, in your secret heart. You
+do not forget, any more than I do, that last month we walked together to
+Claverton Down to see the spot where Viscount Barré asked for his life
+of Count Rice, not much over a year ago."[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: See "DUELLING ON CLAVERTON DOWN." ]
+
+"Ah! that was a different matter. We are to have no pistols, only a
+little sword-play. I hope one of Danby's evil eyes may be put out, and,
+better still, his tongue slit. Aim at his mouth, with that end in view.
+Yes, try for the mouth and eyes, Travers."
+
+"Has the matter got wind in Bath?" Leslie asked.
+
+"Oh! the gossips have got hold of the quarrel. But dear heart, man,
+there is seldom a day but there is a war of words in the Assembly or
+Pump Room."
+
+Leslie Travers spent the rest of the day in his room, excusing himself
+to his mother on the plea of indisposition. And, indeed, she was too
+much occupied with a prayer-meeting at the Countess of Huntingdon's
+house to do more than pay Leslie a visit at intervals, see that his fire
+burned brightly, and exhort him to take the soup and wine she carried to
+him herself. Thus, all unconscious of the sword which was hanging over
+her, gentle Mrs. Travers went on her way.
+
+Unconscious, too, of trouble affecting their near neighbour and friend,
+Mr. and Miss Herschel were at Bristol, rehearsing, amidst the
+congratulations of the audience privileged to be present, the great
+oratorio to be performed in a few days under the _bâton_ of Ronzini, who
+was to conduct it.
+
+Unconscious of the peril in which Leslie Travers stood, Griselda was
+occupied with the event of the previous night--her father's death--and
+the necessary confession to Leslie Travers, of her relationship to the
+dying man, by whose bedside they had watched together.
+
+The house in North Parade was unusually quiet that day, for Lady Betty
+had caught cold, and kept Graves in perpetual attendance.
+
+A few visitors arrived, but were refused admittance, and Griselda waited
+in vain for any message from Leslie Travers.
+
+She had begun several letters to him, and then torn them into fragments.
+
+Then there was the thought of poor desolate little Norah, as she saw her
+carried away from that attic where her father lay dead, in Mrs. Betts's
+arms.
+
+Had she not promised to befriend her? and how could she fulfil her
+promise?
+
+Graves kept out of her way; she had heard enough from Zach to make her
+fear the worst about the quarrel between Sir Maxwell Danby and Mr.
+Travers. She dreaded to be questioned, and yet she longed to speak.
+
+Lady Betty was a fractious invalid, and she was constantly crying out
+that her illness was brought on by the conduct of that minx upstairs,
+telling Graves to let her know she never wished to see her face
+again--that she had disgraced her, and that she might beg her bread for
+all she cared; that she hoped Sir Maxwell would fight that young
+jackanapes, and get him out of the way. Then she cried that she had got
+the smallpox--her back ached, her eyes ached--she must have the doctor.
+Graves must send for the doctor--Mr. Cheyne, a young man who claimed to
+be a grandson of the great Dr. Cheyne, who had been a celebrated doctor
+in Bath in the days of Beau Nash.
+
+Graves preserved a calm, not to say stolid, manner, and this could alone
+have carried her through that long, dull winter's day. Her anxiety did
+not centre in Lady Betty, nor the pimple on her cheek, which she thought
+might be the precursor of the dreaded smallpox, which the little lady
+awaited Mr. Cheyne's assurances to confirm, and professed to believe
+that she was smitten by that dreadful malady.
+
+Graves's heart was occupied with the sorrow of the young mistress
+upstairs, not with the fancied illness of the lady who, propped up in
+bed in an elaborate nightgown, surmounted by a cap furbished with pink
+ribbons, was enough to wear out the patience even of her patient
+waiting-woman.
+
+Mr. Cheyne was slow in making his appearance, and the long, dull day had
+nearly closed, and still he did not answer the summons sent to him by
+David at his mistress's request.
+
+Graves had sent Mrs. Abbott's daughter up to Griselda's room with her
+dinner, and preferred waiting till it was nearly dark before she stood
+face to face with her. She dreaded lest her face should betray the fear
+at her heart.
+
+It was nearly dark when she came to Griselda's room. She found the table
+covered with letters and papers, and the case with her mother's portrait
+and the old jewel-case standing on it.
+
+"I thought you were never coming--never," Griselda said, in an injured
+voice. "Oh, dear Graves! do a kind thing for me this evening! Go to
+Crown Alley, and take this money for Norah's black dress. Oh, dear
+Graves! I must wear a black gown; he was my father. Look!" she said; "I
+have put on her little wedding-ring. There is a posy inside. I need
+those words now--'Patience and Hope.' Why won't you speak, Graves? It is
+as if you had not heard."
+
+"I hear--I hear, my dear; but as to leaving her ladyship, I don't see
+how I can do it--not till she is off to sleep. If the doctor came, he
+might give her a draught to settle her."
+
+"I _do_ want you to go to Crown Alley, and to--to King Street, to take a
+letter to Mr. Travers. It is so odd; so unaccountable, that he never
+writes nor sends. I _must_ know why. Perhaps he has heard that I am that
+poor man's daughter, and he feels he can't marry one so low-born. Yet it
+is not like him to cast me off, is it, Graves?"
+
+"Well," said Graves, "I'll try what I can do; but, after all, I'd as
+lief you left the letter till to-morrow. Leave it till to-morrow."
+
+"To-morrow! No; who can tell what to-morrow may bring? No; I cannot
+wait. Graves, I feel as if I should go mad, unless I hear soon if Mr.
+Travers is angry, and has cast me off."
+
+"You may be sure he has not done that, my dear; you may be at rest on
+that score."
+
+"How can I rest? Well, he must be told about my father--my _father_! I
+Do you think he has found it out, and that this keeps him away?"
+
+"No; I don't," said Graves shortly.
+
+"Hark! there's a ring! Run down--run down, and see who it is! Run,
+Graves!"
+
+Graves departed, glad to be released, and returned presently:
+
+"It's the boy, Miss Griselda."
+
+"The boy! What boy?"
+
+"The boy that came the night the man"--Graves corrected herself--"the
+gentleman, Mr. Mainwaring, was dying. He has a message for you."
+
+"I will come down and see him. He shall take this letter to King Street.
+He shall wait and bring me an answer. I shall meet no one on the stairs.
+Let me pass you."
+
+Brian Bellis was standing in the entrance-hall, and Griselda went
+eagerly towards him:
+
+"Have you brought me tidings?"
+
+And Brian replied:
+
+"I have taken Norah home to my aunt's house. I've had a piece of work to
+do it; but they will keep her till after the funeral. He is to be buried
+to-morrow afternoon. I thought you would like to know this, madam."
+
+"Yes--yes," Griselda said; "and I will reward you for your care of
+Norah."
+
+"I want no reward, madam," Brian said quickly. "Have you any
+commands?--for it is late. The actors at the theatre have subscribed for
+the burial; but----"
+
+"Not enough--I understand. Follow me upstairs--gently--softly," she
+said, as she led the way to a small room at the head of the stairs where
+Graves worked.
+
+Griselda pointed to the door; and then going to her own room on the
+upper story, she took up the letter she had at last written to Leslie
+Travers, and the packet of money she had sealed for Graves to take to
+Crown Alley. When she rejoined Brian, she said:
+
+"I entrust you with these two packets. I had them ready. The money is
+for the--for my sister. Let her have decent black, and proper mourning;
+and there are two guineas for the funeral of--her father. But," Griselda
+said, with a strange pang of self-reproach she could not have defined,
+as she felt how little the death of her father and her sister's sorrow
+weighed in the balance against an aching fear and anxiety about Mr.
+Travers--"but this letter I want you to put into the hands of Mr. Leslie
+Travers in King Street. For this--oh! I would reward you in any way that
+you desire. Bring me an answer back, and I will owe you eternal
+gratitude. Do you hear?"
+
+Yes, Brian heard. It seemed all but impossible that this tall, beautiful
+lady should clasp her hands as a suppliant to him. His large, honest
+eyes sought hers, and the appeal in them touched his boyish heart.
+
+"I will do what you wish, madam, and as quickly as I can."
+
+
+"Thank you--I thank you, dear boy, with all my heart. Oh, that you may
+bring back a word to comfort me!--for I am shadowed with the cloud of
+coming, as well as past, misfortune; and I scarce know how to be patient
+till the pain of suspense is relieved." Then, laying her hand on Brian's
+shoulder, she said: "Promise to see Mr. Travers, and put the letter in
+his hand."
+
+And Brian promised, and kept his promise faithfully.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+IN THE EARLY MORNING.
+
+
+Griselda returned to her room to watch the timepiece, and listen for the
+striking of the Abbey clock, as the slow hours passed, and she paced the
+floor in her restlessness from the fireplace to the window, and then
+back again from the window to the fire.
+
+About ten o'clock Graves came in with a cup of chocolate, and to tell
+her that Mr. Cheyne, the doctor, had seen Lady Betty, and pronounced her
+really ill this time. She was to keep in bed, and if not better on the
+following day, he must let blood from her arm.
+
+"Do you know the doctor, Miss Griselda--this young Doctor Cheyne?"
+
+"I may have spoken to him. Yes, I have seen him; but what is he to me?"
+
+"He asked for you, that's all," said Graves; "how you did, and
+whether----"
+
+Graves stopped. It was a habit of hers to break off suddenly in her
+speech, and Griselda scarcely noticed it.
+
+"_Is_ the boy, Brian Bellis, come back?"
+
+"No, Miss Griselda; he won't be here again to-night. I hear he is nephew
+to the Miss Hoblyns, the mantua-makers, and that they look sharp after
+him; they would not let him run about the streets at midnight."
+
+"Midnight! It's not midnight! Oh, Graves, I am so tired!"
+
+"Go to bed, and sleep till morning; that is my advice to you, and read a
+verse in God's Word to go to sleep on. You'll never know rest till you
+find it in the Lord, my dear. Let me help you to undress."
+
+"No, I am not going to bed. Promise, Graves, if Brian Bellis comes to
+the door with a letter you will bring it here. Promise----"
+
+Graves nodded her head in token of assent, and departed.
+
+There are few troubles, and few anxieties, which do not find a temporary
+balm in the sleep of youth.
+
+And Griselda, worn out at last, threw herself on her bed, and fell,
+against her will, into a deep and dreamless slumber.
+
+The Abbey clock had struck eleven when Graves, softly opening the door,
+found the fire low, and the candles burned out; while on the bed lay
+Griselda, dressed, but with the coverlet drawn over her under the canopy
+of the old-fashioned tent-bed, which was the bed then commonly in use
+for rooms which were not spacious enough to receive a stately
+four-poster.
+
+Graves had a small tin candlestick in one hand, and a letter. She
+carefully shielded the light, and, looking down at the sleeping girl,
+murmured:
+
+"I cannot wake her. I will leave the letter on the bed; she will see it
+in the morning the first thing--better she should not see it till then.
+I promised to bring it, but I did not promise to rouse her if she was
+asleep. Poor child! Poor dear! May the Lord pity her and draw her to
+Himself!"
+
+Graves moved gently about the room, and put the tinder-box near the
+candlestick, and then softly closed the door, and went downstairs to sit
+by the side of the fractious invalid, who declared she could not be left
+for a moment, and who kept her patient handmaiden awake for hours, till
+at last she, too, sunk into a heavy sleep.
+
+Never a night passes but in the silent watches some hearts are aching,
+some sick and weary ones are tossing in their uneasy beds, some
+suffering ones are racked with pain, either of body or mind! Our own
+turn must surely come; but till it does come, we are so slow to realize
+that for us, too, the night that should hush us to repose, and bring on
+its wings the angel of sleep for our refreshing, will bring instead
+sorrowful vigils by the dying, mourning for the dead, or cruel and
+biting anxiety for the living, so that tears are our meat, as we cry,
+"Where is now our God?"
+
+Griselda slept on, and it was in the chill of the early morning before
+the dawn that she awoke.
+
+She started up, and at first could not remember what had happened. It
+was quite dark, and she sprang from the bed, and, groping for the
+tinder-box, struck a spark, and lighted a candle.
+
+She was still scarcely awake, and it was only by slow degrees that she
+recalled how the evening before she had waited, and waited in vain, for
+a letter--his letter! an answer to hers--in which in a few words she had
+told him of her father, and asked him to release her from her promise if
+so he pleased. Then she had asked if his silence since the letter she
+had written two days before, meant that he desired her to think no more
+of him. Only to _know_, and not to be kept in uncertainty, she craved
+for a reply--she begged for it--by the hand of Brian Bellis, who had
+brought this, her last appeal.
+
+"No answer, no answer!" she exclaimed; "and hark! that is the clock
+striking--three--four. No answer--it is all over!" And as the words
+escaped her lips she saw lying on the floor a letter, which had fallen
+from the bed when she had sprung from it.
+
+She picked it up, and became quiet and like herself at once. She saw by
+the address it was from Leslie Travers, for in the corner was written:
+"By the hand of Brian Bellis."
+
+The tall candle cast its light on the sheet of Bath post, which had been
+carefully sealed, and threw a halo round the young head which bent over
+it.
+
+     "I have received no message from you"--so the letter
+     began--"but, dearest love, sweetheart, could you dream that any
+     circumstance could alter my love for you? Nay, Griselda, I will
+     not permit such a possibility to enter my head, or wake a
+     sorrowful echo in my heart.
+
+     "My only love, I am yours till death--and death may be near! I
+     go to-morrow to meet the man on Claverton Down who has first
+     persecuted you with his suit, and then, rejected, has vilely
+     slandered you. I gave him the lie, and he has challenged me to
+     fight, and as a man of honour I cannot draw back. If I live--I
+     live for you; if I die--I die for you. I would there were any
+     other way whereby I could vindicate your honour and my own. I
+     am no coward, nor do I fear death; but I think these duels are
+     a remnant of barbarism, meet for the old Romans, perchance,
+     over whose buried city we move day by day, but unworthy of men
+     who call themselves by the name of Christ.
+
+     "My love, when you read this letter, be not too much dismayed.
+
+     "When the dawn breaks over the city, we shall have met--that
+     base man and I--and it may be that I shall fall under his more
+     practised hand. If it is so, I commend you, in a letter, to my
+     poor mother. You will weep together, and you shall have a home
+     with her, and you will be united in sorrow. The child--your
+     sister--shall be her care, as she would have been mine.
+
+     "I have made my last will and testament--duly attested; and in
+     that you are mentioned as if you had been my wife.
+
+     "And so I say farewell, my only love.
+
+     "L. T."
+
+A strange calm seemed to have come over Griselda as she read these
+words.
+
+The restlessness and feverish anxiety of the preceding days were gone.
+In their place was the firm resolve--immediately taken--to stop this duel
+with her own hand. That resolution once taken, she did not falter. But
+Claverton Down!--how should she reach it? There was no time to lose. The
+dawn broke between seven and eight--it was now four o'clock and past.
+
+The Bible lay open on the table, and her eye fell upon the words: "They
+that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up on
+wings like eagles; they shall walk and not be weary; they shall run and
+not faint." I do not think that Griselda had ever known up to this
+moment what it was to wait on the Lord. Perhaps faithful Graves's words
+had struck deeper than she knew!
+
+"I want strength now," she said. "Give it to me, Lord! Direct me--help
+me--for I must go on this quest alone."
+
+Then she made ready for her departure, wrapping herself in the long
+cloak she had worn when she went to her father's dying bed, and covering
+her face with a thick veil under her hood.
+
+The few hours' sleep had refreshed her, and she felt strong to perform
+her mission.
+
+"Only not to be too late," she said; "not too late!"
+
+The courage of many a woman would have failed in prospect of a walk in
+the dark through the suburbs of Bath.
+
+There were watchmen here and there, and she might ask the way of one,
+perhaps; but no one must know her errand, or she might be stopped from
+performing it.
+
+The clock struck five, in deep sonorous tones just as Griselda crept
+noiselessly downstairs, and with trembling hands drew back the bolts of
+the door, turned the key in the lock, and, closing it behind her, went
+out into the winter's morning.
+
+The sky had cleared, and the rain of the past two days had ceased. There
+were breaks in the clouds, and in a rift Venus, in full beauty, seemed
+to smile on Griselda with the smile of a friend.
+
+Widcombe Hill had to be climbed, and then beyond, at some distance,
+Claverton Down stretched away in gentle undulations. In 1790, it was a
+desolate and unfrequented tract of moorland, with here and there a few
+trees, but no sign of habitation except a lonely cottage or hut, at long
+distances apart.
+
+Griselda's figure, in its black garments, did not attract attention from
+a boisterous party who had just turned out from a night's revel. Their
+coarse songs and laughter jarred on her ear, and she shrank under the
+shadow of a church portico till they had passed.
+
+Presently the watchman's voice broke the stillness as he ascended
+Widcombe Hill.
+
+"It's just six o'clock, and a fine star-lit morning."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Yes, it was a fine morning. The rift in the clouds had widened, and
+above, the sky was clear, and the host of heaven was shining in full
+glory.
+
+After two or three nights, when dull lowering skies had made
+astronomical observations impossible, the change in the weather was
+welcome to those who "swept the heavens," and found in them the grand
+interest and beauty of their lives.
+
+The Herschels had returned to their new home, after a long and fatiguing
+day in Bristol. There had been not a little worry connected with the
+arrangements for the oratorio, the proper distribution of the parts,
+jealousies amongst the performers, and missing sheets of score. But
+Caroline Herschel immediately recommenced the arrangement of the new
+house, which a day's absence in Bristol had interrupted. The sorting of
+books and music, the instruction of Betty in her duties, with not a
+little scolding for the neglect of the work she had been left to get
+through during her mistress's absence.
+
+Mr. Herschel, after taking slight refreshment, went to his new
+observatory at the top of the house, and began to arrange all his
+instruments and draw a plan for the furnace, which he intended to make
+in the workshop below, where the tube for the great reflector was to be
+cast.
+
+A stand, too, for the large instrument would have to be carefully
+constructed, and William Herschel was in the midst of his calculations
+for this, and preparation of a plan to give the workmen early on the
+ensuing week, when a tap at the door announced Caroline.
+
+"William!" she said, "the sky is clear. Venus is shining gloriously.
+Can I help to arrange the telescope?"
+
+"Yes--yes," William Herschel said, going to the window and throwing it
+up. "Yes; lose no time, for it is getting on for morning."
+
+Presently Caroline said, as she looked out:
+
+"There is a chaise waiting at the end of the street, with post-horses."
+
+But her brother's eyes were directed upwards, and he scarcely noticed
+her remark.
+
+
+"Well," he said, "get the micrometer."
+
+Caroline's feminine curiosity was roused, and presently she saw a figure
+muffled in a long cloak glide down the street to the opening where the
+carriage stood.
+
+This was followed by another, and then, after some delay, the chariot
+drove off.
+
+Alexander Herschel did not generally take part in these nightly vigils,
+although he lent his assistance in the daytime in the workshop, and in
+the correspondence about the music, which was very frequently necessary.
+
+But about six o'clock Alexander appeared, and said:
+
+"Did you hear carriage-wheels roll off not long ago?"
+
+William Herschel did not answer. He had just brought a double star into
+the proper focus, and Caroline stood by with note-book and pencil, ready
+to write at his dictation.
+
+"Yes," she said, in a low voice; "I heard carriage-wheels. What of
+that?"
+
+"There is a rumour in the town that Leslie Travers is to fight a duel on
+Claverton Down--with that beast, Sir Maxwell Danby--this morning."
+
+"I do not believe it is true," Caroline answered. "Hush, Alex!" for
+William Herschel called out: "Write! Attend!"
+
+The necessary figures were jotted down, and then Caroline said:
+
+"Do you think Leslie Travers was going off in that carriage?"
+
+"I have no doubt of it. I shall follow and find out."
+
+"Take care, Alex--do not get mixed up in any quarrel; and there is the
+new anthem of Spohr's at the Octagon this morning. You will be wanted."
+
+"Well, what if I am?" Alexander said. "Surely, Caroline, the life or
+death of a friend is of more importance than an anthem?"
+
+"You do not know that it is life or death; you are conjecturing. Yes,
+William, I am ready!"
+
+
+This was characteristic of Caroline Herschel. It was not really that she
+had no human sympathies or affections; on the contrary, her love for her
+brother was absorbing, and she had but one aim--to soar with him to the
+unexplored regions of space; and to effect this, the business in hand,
+whether it was music, or mixing loam for the mould of the new tube, or
+in giving a lesson in singing, or in singing herself at a concert, was
+paramount with her. Such characters, persistent, and with single aims,
+are often misunderstood by natures like Alexander Herschel's, who love
+to skim the surface, and pass from one thing to another, as their mood
+changes.
+
+"You take it mighty coolly," he said, "that the life of a man we call
+our friend is in peril. I confess I am not so hardened."
+
+And then he closed the door with a bang, and ran downstairs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE BITTER END.
+
+
+Meanwhile the lonely woman, shrouded in her long cloak, pursued her way.
+She missed it again and again, and was forced to inquire if she was
+right, first of a countryman she met, and once at a cottage at Widcombe
+of a woman who was standing at the door with a lanthorn in her hand.
+
+"Two miles further," she said. "What are you going there for, pray, if I
+may be so bold?"
+
+"On an errand of life or death," Griselda said, the words escaping her
+lips almost unawares.
+
+"If that's it, and a duel is to be fought, it most like is death to one
+of 'em. I am watching for my husband; he has never come home, and I fear
+something has happened. He is often in liquor, and may have stumbled
+into the quarry. I call _mine_ real troubles, I do. What do the gentry
+want with stabbing one another to the heart about paltry quarrels? Why,
+the French lord was killed out on Claverton Down by Count Rice a few
+months ago, and all about a trumpery pack of cards--a pack of lies, more
+like! I've no patience with folks who quarrel with no reason. You look
+very wan, my dear," the woman said, as Griselda turned away. "I can give
+you a cup of milk."
+
+But Griselda shook her head. To eat or drink at that moment was
+impossible to her.
+
+"Tell me," she asked, "how I shall know the spot where the men fight."
+
+"Oh! you'll see four tall fir-trees, and a big stone. It won't be light
+yet. I'll tell you what. I'll lend you my lanthorn. Here, it's trimmed!
+You can carry it along." Griselda hesitated as the woman went on: "Take
+the road straight as a line from the church. Then you'll come to
+cross-roads. You follow on with the one which leads to the right hand,
+and you'll come to the firs and the big stone. The ground where the fine
+lord's body lay for hours is just hard by. Will you have the lanthorn;
+you can leave it as you come back?"
+
+"No, I think not--I think not; but thank you kindly."
+
+And then Griselda pressed on--on to the church, on, as she was directed,
+along a lonely road, till the tall sign-post was reached, with the four
+arms painted white, stretching out in four directions. On then to the
+right, eastward, for the first faint pallor of the dawn was in the sky.
+It was clear now, and the moon in its last quarter was hanging low in
+the horizon.
+
+Griselda's feet ached, and when she saw the tall fir-trees, and the
+large rough stone, she hastened towards it, and sat down to rest. All
+was still; the silence broken only by the murmur in the dark plumes of
+the fir-trees as the crisp cold air wandered through the branches.
+
+The silence was so profound that Griselda could almost hear the beating
+of her heart. Here alone, unprotected, she could hardly realize her own
+position. Whatever happened to her, she thought, there was no one who
+would care so very much, except him whom she had come to save. Lady
+Betty would cry hysterically, but be more angry than sorry; little
+Norah--poor little Norah--perhaps she loved her; and Graves--faithful
+Graves.
+
+Presently there was a rumbling sound as of distant wheels. Griselda
+started up, but she saw nothing.
+
+Then she advanced from the shadow of the trees, and looked over the open
+space. The dawn was breaking now, and she saw two figures stooping over
+the ground, and apparently marking it.
+
+In breathless anxiety she waited and watched. She was too far off to
+distinguish the men, but she presently discerned four more figures
+appearing at the ridge of rising ground, where the Down dipped rather
+sharply to the valley below.
+
+Then there were two figures isolated a little from the rest. They seemed
+to meet and part again, and then Griselda waited no longer. She ran
+forward and skimmed the turf with fleet steps--steps that were quickened
+by a great fear.
+
+Breathless and voiceless she reached the spot just as the two
+combatants' swords had clashed, and the seconds on either side had given
+the signal for another round. Griselda went up to Leslie Travers and
+seized his arm.
+
+"Stop!" she said, "for my sake."
+
+Her appearance seemed to paralyze both combatants.
+
+"It is for your sake," Leslie said in a low voice. "Let go, my love--let
+go! I must carry this on to the bitter end."
+
+"You shall not! Desist, sir!" she said, turning upon Sir Maxwell Danby.
+
+Then the seconds drew near, and the doctor, Mr. Cheyne.
+
+"I will have no blood shed for me," Griselda said, gathering strength in
+the emergency of the moment. "I will stand here till you give up this
+conflict."
+
+"Unfortunately, fair lady, we have no intention of giving up till we
+have settled our little affair as men of honour should," said Sir
+Maxwell.
+
+"Stand back, Griselda--stand back!" Leslie cried in despairing tones.
+"There is only one condition on which I will give in; yonder base man
+knows what that condition is. He must withdraw the lies he has uttered
+concerning you."
+
+"I know not what the lies are," Griselda said; "but if lies, will the
+death of him who uttered them, or of you who resent them, convince those
+who believe them that they _are_ lies? Nay," she said, her breast
+heaving and her voice trembling, though every slowly-uttered word was
+distinctly heard. "Nay, wrong-doing can never, never make evil good, or
+set wrong right."
+
+"Pardon me, fairest of your sex," said Sir Maxwell; "permit me to ask
+you to withdraw. We will prove our strength once more; and, unwilling as
+I am to do so in the presence of a lady, I must, as your--your noble
+friend says, carry this matter through."
+
+"Can't you come to an understanding, gentlemen?" Mr. Dickinson said.
+"Upon my soul, I wish I could wash my hands of the whole business. A
+miserable business it is!"
+
+"Beresford," Leslie said to his second, "help me to get free from her,
+or she may be hurt in the conflict."
+
+But Griselda still clung to his arm; and how it might have ended who can
+tell, had not Sir Maxwell said in his satirical, bitter voice:
+
+"It is new in the annals of the world's history for a woman to be used
+as a shield by a man! Coward--poltroon is a more fitting phrase for such
+an one."
+
+Mr. Beresford caught Griselda as with a desperate effort Leslie
+unclasped the long white fingers which were clasped round his arm, and
+saying: "Guard her carefully," the signal was again given, and a fierce
+struggle ensued, which ended in Leslie Travers lying motionless on the
+ground with a sword-thrust through his breast; and Sir Maxwell, binding
+his hand, which was bleeding, with a lace handkerchief, asked coolly of
+Mr. Cheyne, who was bending over Leslie:
+
+"He is alive, I think?"
+
+"Yes, he is alive; but I doubt if he will live ten minutes unless I stop
+the bleeding. This, sir, is a pretty piece of business for you."
+
+For a moment, Sir Maxwell's face blanched with fear; then, recovering
+himself, he made a sign to his servant, who ran on towards the dip in
+the moor, and presently another servant appeared with two horses. The
+valet mounted one, and Sir Maxwell the other; and before the doctor or
+Mr. Beresford had time to consider what course to take, Sir Maxwell
+Danby was galloping off in the direction of the high-road which led to
+London.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Griselda knew no more till she found herself in a strange room, and with
+an unfamiliar face bending over her.
+
+"Where am I?" she asked, sitting up, and looking round bewildered.
+
+"You are safe with us, my dear young lady. You must take this glass of
+reviving mixture, made from a receipt of my mother's."
+
+And Caroline Herschel held the glass to Griselda's lips.
+
+"How did I get here?"
+
+"My brother Alexander brought you; but do not ask further questions, but
+lie still."
+
+The draught seemed to restore poor Griselda to consciousness, and with
+consciousness the memory of what had happened came back.
+
+"Oh!" she said; "did--did he die? I saw him fall. Yes; I remember now.
+For pity's sake, answer me!"
+
+It was well for Griselda that she was in the hands of a person at once
+so sincere and so really kind-hearted. While many well-meaning people
+would have fenced the question, and put it off, she answered quietly:
+
+"Mr. Leslie Travers is very dangerously hurt. He is lying in his
+mother's house hard by; and all that care and tenderness can do will be
+done."
+
+"Can I go to him?" Griselda said piteously.
+
+"No; not yet--not yet. You are exhausted with all you have gone through.
+Your duty is to lie quiet."
+
+Duty was ever first with Caroline Herschel herself, and she thought it
+should be first with others also.
+
+Griselda struggled to her feet; but a deadly faintness overcame her, and
+she sank back again, crying:
+
+"His life for me--for me! Oh! I am not worthy----" and then she burst
+into hysterical weeping.
+
+"My dear Miss Mainwaring," her friend said, "the doctors say that Mr.
+Travers's only chance of life is to be kept quiet. If the wound bleeds
+again, he must die. If he is kept motionless and calm, he may live. Do
+you understand?"
+
+"Yes," Griselda said; "it is always waiting with me. Look! that is my
+mother's wedding-ring! There is a posy inside--'Patience and Hope.' But
+I can only have patience; I dare not hope. Did you know that my father
+was the actor who died in Crown Alley?--that Norah, the beggar-child at
+your door in Rivers Street, is--is my sister?"
+
+"No; I did not know it. But why should you be distressed?"
+
+"Because I know it has been the root of all this trouble. I know it is
+so! That bad man's evil eye was on us in the church that day--that
+bright, beautiful day--when was it?"
+
+Caroline Herschel thought she was wandering, and stroked her head, and
+said gently:
+
+"I will draw down the blind, and you must try to sleep."
+
+"Hark to the bells!" Griselda said. "They sound like
+joy-bells--joy-bells. They ought to be funeral bells."
+
+"It is Sunday afternoon! They ring for service in the churches."
+
+Then Griselda turned her head away, saying:
+
+"Sunday! What a Sunday this has been! Sunday--Sabbath, Graves calls
+it--a day of rest--rather, a day of strife, and sin, and sorrow."
+
+Yes; it had been a Sunday never to be forgotten by those who were
+concerned in that day's work.
+
+Long before the evening shadows fell over the city, the story of Sir
+Maxwell Danby's duel with Leslie Travers was circulating in the various
+coteries of Bath society.
+
+The gay world expressed pity and surprise.
+
+The gossips' tongues were busy about the beautiful lady, who had been
+the cause of the melancholy affair.
+
+That she was the daughter of an actor, who was on that very afternoon
+laid in his hastily-dug grave, was a shock to the feelings of the
+_élite_ amongst whom Griselda Mainwaring had been considered worthy to
+be reckoned, by the unwritten laws of social etiquette.
+
+The daughter of an actor--a mere playwright--who by hard drinking had
+reduced himself to poverty, and finally killed himself by his evil
+habits!
+
+What a fall was this for the stately beauty who had held herself a
+little apart from the crowd, and had often been secretly complained of
+as one who thought herself mighty good, and vastly superior to many who
+now could hold their heads with pride and talk of her as their inferior!
+
+The religious clique who frequented the Countess of Huntingdon's Chapel,
+of which Mrs. Travers was an esteemed member, were filled with horror;
+and the terrible event was alluded to, or rather made the basis of the
+sermon, in the Vineyards Chapel that evening.
+
+In many hearts there was awakened real sympathy for the stricken mother,
+and the sad condition of the girl who must feel that she had, even if
+unwittingly, been the cause of the duel.
+
+Lady Betty, when she was told by Mr. Cheyne of what had happened,
+suddenly recovered from her indisposition, and sent off several
+three-cornered notes to her friends to say the lamentable occurrence
+had, of course, separated her from the _unhappy_ girl, to whom she was
+no real relation, and with whom she was sure the dear departed Mr.
+Longueville would not wish her to have any further dealings. It was not
+to be expected that a woman of rank and family could be mixed up with
+one of low birth who had made herself notorious.
+
+Graves, who was commissioned to despatch these notes, one of which was
+addressed to Lord Basingstoke, handed them to Zach, to whom she said:
+
+"There have been letters given to your hand that have never been
+delivered. Let me tell you that you may deliver these or not, as you
+choose, you little spy!"
+
+And Zach grinned, and said:
+
+"Give me a crown, and I'll take them safe enough."
+
+"I'd as lief give you a crack on the crown of your head!" said Graves
+wrathfully; "you little wretch!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW.
+
+
+It was late on that memorable Sunday evening when Griselda watched her
+opportunity, and rising from her bed, dressed, and went downstairs.
+
+Only the servant was in the house, for the Herschels were gone to the
+evening service in the Octagon Chapel, and had not yet returned.
+
+Griselda let herself quietly out, and, with slow and faltering steps,
+reached the door of the house, where, as everyone believed, Leslie
+Travers lay dying of his wounds.
+
+It was with a trembling hand that she knocked at the door, which was
+after a pause opened by old Giles.
+
+"I am come," she faltered, "to see Mrs. Travers."
+
+Giles shook his head.
+
+"My lady can see no one," he said; "she is in sore trouble."
+
+"Tell me, please, how the gentleman is who was--who was wounded in a
+duel."
+
+"As bad as he can be," was the short reply; "he won't live till
+morning."
+
+"I want to see Mrs. Travers, if only for a moment--I want to see Mrs.
+Travers. I am Miss Mainwaring," she urged.
+
+Giles had not known up to this moment whom he was addressing, for
+Griselda had only been in that house once, and she had drawn her hood
+over her face.
+
+When he heard the name, Giles made an exclamation of horror, and said:
+
+"My lady won't see _you_! You are the last one she'd wish to look upon.
+It was an evil day for my young master that _he_ ever looked on your
+face!"
+
+"Oh! you are very cruel--very hard-hearted!" Griselda said; and with a
+sob turned away.
+
+As she was leaving the door, a young voice she knew greeted her.
+
+It was Brian Bellis'.
+
+"Madam," he said, "I have come to tell you that Norah--poor little
+Norah--is safe at my aunt's house in John Street. I took her there after
+the funeral, and she is made welcome; it would melt a heart of stone to
+see her. Will you come and comfort her?"
+
+"Comfort her! I am in need of comfort myself. Yes, I will come. No one
+wants me--no one cares!"
+
+"_I_ care, madam," Brian said. "Is the gentleman dead? It is said in the
+town that he is dead of his wound."
+
+"No, no, he is alive, but dying," said Griselda. "Take me to poor
+little Norah--my poor little sister! And then will you go for me to
+North Parade--see, Graves, the good waiting-woman--and ask her to bring
+me my possessions, for I shall never return thither; I am homeless and
+helpless."
+
+"No, madam--no," the boy said; "my aunts will receive you--I feel sure
+they will."
+
+Then they walked on silently towards John Street, and there the Miss
+Hoblyns were awaiting her arrival. They had not reached the pinnacle of
+their fame at this time, for it was not till the Duchess of York, in
+1795, visited their establishment that they became the rage. But they
+were kind-hearted women, of a superior type to the ordinary class of
+mantua-maker and milliner of those times. Gentlewomen by nature, if not
+by birth.
+
+Brian, the son of their dead sister, was their idol, and they found it
+hard to refuse any request he made. When the poor desolate child had
+been led to their home from her father's grave, their hearts had gone
+out to her, and they gave Brian leave to fetch the sister of whom he
+spoke.
+
+Great, indeed, was these good women's surprise, when, as Griselda
+dropped her hood and cloak, they recognised the beautiful young lady, on
+whom they had waited at Lady Betty Longueville's, and who had done such
+credit to their skill in altering the white paduasoy which Lady Betty
+had discarded, and which Griselda wore when she had been the admired
+belle of the great ball in Wiltshire's Rooms. How was it possible she
+could be the sister of the orphan child, and the daughter of an actor,
+who had died sunk in the depths of misery and poverty?
+
+But they asked no questions, and, taking poor Griselda's hand, led her
+to the room where, on a couch drawn near the fire, the child lay,
+asleep.
+
+Worn out with watching and sorrow, this sufferer for the sins of another
+had fallen into a profound slumber, and Griselda, as she looked on the
+pale face, about which a tangle of golden curls lay in wild confusion,
+stooped and kissed her sister.
+
+The child stirred--as she did so, opened her eyes for a moment, smiled,
+and said:
+
+"My beautiful lady! I am _glad_ you are come."
+
+Then Griselda lifted her in her arms, and pressing her close, shed the
+first tears which she had shed since the night before, when she had
+first heard of Leslie Travers's peril, incurred for her sake.
+
+Norah was soon asleep again, and the kind women threw a covering over
+both sisters, and left them together with the tact and sympathy which is
+the outcome of a noble nature, whether it is found in a milliner or a
+marchioness.
+
+It certainly was not found in Lady Betty Longueville.
+
+When Graves went to her with the tidings that Brian Bellis brought, she
+flew into one of her "hysterical tantrums," as Graves and David called
+them.
+
+"Yes, Graves," Lady Betty screamed, "pack up the minx's things; I am
+well quit of her. Let 'em all go," she said; "but take nothing of
+mine--I would not give her a groat--spoiling my Bath season like
+this--treating my friend, Sir Maxwell, with contempt--forcing him to
+send that insolent puppy a challenge. Disgracing me--disgracing her poor
+departed uncle--lowering me in the eyes of society--she, the child of a
+common actor, with whom her wretched mother ran away. Oh! I never wish
+to set eyes on her again!"
+
+Graves coughed significantly.
+
+"She was left to your ladyship for maintenance," she said.
+
+"How dare you speak like that to me? Leave the room instantly. And,
+mind, I disown the baggage--the ungrateful hussy--when she might have
+been my Lady Danby--and--and--of use to me, repaying me for all my
+kindness these many years--for, let me tell you, Graves, Danby Place is
+a fine mansion, and she might have been mistress of it--the idiot--the
+fool! I wash my hands of her--she may go where she lists--but let me
+never see her face again!"
+
+Graves listened to this tirade with her accustomed composure, and went
+to Griselda's room to do her lady's bidding.
+
+She gathered together a few things which Griselda might immediately
+need, and gave them, with the violin, to Brian. The old leather case she
+would not trust out of her sight, and, hastily putting on her cloak and
+huge _calêche_, she said she would follow the boy to John Street.
+
+As they left the house, Zach was peeping out from behind the door, and
+Brian shook his fist at him.
+
+"I would like to thrash you--you wicked little spy--you!"
+
+But Zach had the gold-pieces in his pocket, and only made a grimace in
+return to Brian's threatening gesture.
+
+Graves' heart was touched, perhaps, as it had never been touched before,
+when she saw Griselda lying on the couch, with Norah asleep in her arms.
+
+Griselda was not asleep, and looking up to Graves, said, in a piteous
+voice:
+
+"Oh, dear Graves, I am alone now!--there is no one belonging to me but
+this child--we must hold together. Kiss her, Graves--gently, she may
+wake. Poor, poor little Norah! I have forgotten her in this day's
+misery. Speak to the kind people here, and ask them to let me stay with
+them--I can pay them. I can work for them--I was always clever with my
+needle."
+
+"Here is your box of jewels, my poor dear, I brought them myself; the
+boy has brought your clothes and a gown for to-morrow."
+
+"You forget, you forget, Graves--I must have a black gown for my father,
+and--for _him_--my only love. Oh! Graves--do hearts break? I feel as if
+mine must break--and that I must die."
+
+Graves struggled in vain with her tears: they chased each other down her
+furrowed cheeks.
+
+"Trust in the Lord, my dear. There may be a bow in the dark cloud--who
+can tell?"
+
+Then Graves went to the Miss Hoblyns, who had considerately left
+Griselda and the child alone together, and she arranged a bedroom at the
+back of the house, and placed her young mistress's possessions in some
+order.
+
+"The young lady will be able to pay for her lodgings and board, madam,"
+Graves said, "and for the child's also. She has already sold some
+jewels, and----"
+
+But Miss Hoblyn waved her hand, as if to say she wanted nothing else
+said just then, and Graves proceeded to light a fire, and make the room
+allotted to Griselda's use as comfortable as circumstances allowed; and
+then, wringing Miss Hoblyn's delicate hand in her large work-worn
+fingers, she hastened back to North Parade.
+
+There was no immediate need for Griselda to put on a mourning garment.
+Distress of mind, and the long, long walk in the cold chill air of
+January to Claverton Down, had the effect of throwing her into an
+illness--a fever--which attacked her brain, and rendered her unconscious
+of all troubles, past and present, for some time.
+
+It was touching to see how the child, so prematurely old, and so well
+accustomed to privation and nursing of the sick, took up her place by
+her sister's bed, and proved the most efficient of little nurses--as
+nursing was understood in those days.
+
+Griselda was certainly an instance of a patient suffering more from the
+remedy than the disease. The doctor--Mr. Cheyne--who was called in, let
+blood several times from her arm, cut off her beautiful hair, and
+blistered the back of her head, and brought her to the very verge of the
+grave. She took no heed of any one who came and went, or she would have
+seen Caroline Herschel by her bed every day, and would have known that
+many little delicacies were brought by her hand. She was immersed in
+ever-increasing musical engagements, for, besides the preparation for
+the oratorio to be performed during Lent, she actually copied with her
+own hand the scores of the "Messiah" and "Judas Maccabæus" in parts for
+an orchestra of nearly one hundred performers; and in the vocal parts of
+Samson, Caroline Herschel instructed the treble singers, of whom she was
+now amongst the first.
+
+Very few women of these days have gone through the amount of hard
+continuous labour which Caroline Herschel did; and when we are tempted
+to think highly of the increasing number of women, qualified by culture
+and natural gifts to fight the battle of life for themselves, we must
+not forget that the end of the eighteenth century produced a goodly list
+of able and distinguished women.
+
+Perhaps Caroline Herschel has hardly received the prominent place she
+deserves in that list, and yet it would be hard to trace a life more
+useful and more loyally devoted to serve in the cause of science--a
+service which in her case, and that of her distinguished brother, was
+encompassed with difficulties, that would have daunted the courage of
+less steadfast souls.
+
+While Leslie Travers lay on the borderland between life and death, all
+unconscious that the woman he loved so well was also treading the path
+through that dim mysterious valley of the shadow, the favourite scheme
+on which William Herschel set so many hopes failed!
+
+The house in King Street had been taken with the view of building a
+furnace on the lower floor, which was on a level with the garden.
+
+Here the musician, in the full tide of professional duties, would,
+between the lessons he was giving to the ladies of Bath, run in to see
+how the workmen were progressing. Here Sir William Watson, Colonel
+Walsh, and other philosophical friends would meet, and Sir William
+Watson was only disappointed that the noble-hearted musician and
+astronomer would not hear of any pecuniary assistance.
+
+At last the day came when all was in readiness. The metal was in the
+furnace, and the mould prepared, when a leakage caused the red-hot metal
+to pour out on the floor, tearing up the stones, and scattering them in
+every direction, William and Alexander Herschel and the workmen having
+to rush away for their lives.
+
+William Herschel fell exhausted on a heap of brickbats, and for the time
+the dearest scheme of his heart, in the construction of the large
+telescope, had to be abandoned.
+
+"Success next time, and greater care to secure it," was all he said; and
+he hastened to have the rubbish cleared away, recompense the workmen for
+their lost labour, and that very night "sweep the heavens" with his old
+instrument, and enter into the most animated conversation on the nebulæ
+with his chief and constant friend, Sir William Watson.
+
+Everyone must have noticed how quickly events, whether sorrowful or
+joyful, are forgotten.
+
+The wonder-wave which rolls over a city or town, at the report of any
+great mercantile failure, or the discovery of dishonest dealing in a man
+who has held a responsible position, soon ebbs!
+
+This is even more true of private griefs affecting families and
+individuals. Griefs which leave a lifelong scar on the few, or on _one_
+sufferer, are speedily forgotten by the outside world.
+
+This ebb and flow, a poet has well said, is the law to which we must all
+bow. None can escape from it.
+
+Pity, however sincere, is soon exhausted, and fresh cares of bereavement
+and loss, or sorrow, start up to excite a passing sympathy, while others
+are crowded out and forgotten.
+
+The duel between Sir Maxwell Danby and Leslie Travers was a nine days'
+wonder. It was the favourite topic in the Pump Room for that time, but
+scarcely longer. At first it was reported that Leslie Travers was dead;
+then, indeed, there were conjectures about Sir Maxwell's escape, and
+wonderment as to whether he would be pursued and captured, as Count Rice
+had been, and tried for murder.
+
+But when it was found that Leslie Travers was likely to live, the
+interest in the matter visibly declined.
+
+Lady Betty reappeared in the Pump Room and at the balls, and to all
+inquiries said Miss Mainwaring had left her, that she was no relation to
+her, and that she had very properly considered it better to return to
+the station in life whence dear Mr. Longueville, in the nobleness of his
+heart, had rescued her!
+
+Lent came, and was followed by a bright Easter. The Bath season was
+over, and the principal event of that season was almost forgotten.
+
+The _élite_ left the City of the West, or if they remained, there were
+no public assemblies at which they might display their jewels and varied
+costumes.
+
+It is needless to say that Lady Betty took her departure, as it was
+considered "the mode" to do so; and report said young Lord Basingstoke
+had made it evident that he had no serious intentions, by leaving Bath
+some time before the vivacious little widow deserted No. 6, North
+Parade.
+
+Perhaps few noticed, or made more than a passing remark of wonder, when
+a paragraph in the _Bath Gazette_ announced the marriage of Leslie
+Travers, of the Grange, county Lincoln, to Griselda, daughter of
+Adolphus Mainwaring, and Phyllis, his wife.
+
+The bride had walked to the Abbey church one fair May morning in her
+ordinary dress, accompanied by her faithful friend Miss Herschel, and
+the Miss Hoblyns, and Norah. There were present with the bridegroom his
+mother and Brian Bellis. Thus so small a wedding-party was not likely to
+attract attention.
+
+A great change had passed over both bride and bridegroom since that
+January day when they had sealed their betrothal in the old Abbey
+church.
+
+The brilliant beauty of Griselda had faded, and there were traces of
+long illness on her sweet face. Leslie Travers's lithe figure was bent,
+and he walked slowly and with none of the elasticity of youth. He had
+been given back to his mother's prayers, contrary to the hopes or
+expectations of the surgeons, who had watched over him with unremitting
+care; but the duel had left an indelible mark on him.
+
+The chariot to take the bride and bridegroom was waiting at the door,
+and here the "Good-byes" were said.
+
+Mrs. Travers felt Griselda's clinging arms round her as she whispered:
+
+"I will try to be a good daughter to you, madam. I pray you love me a
+little, for his sake!"
+
+"I love you for your own, my child," was the reply; "and I will cherish
+and comfort this little one till we meet again"--for poor Norah was
+convulsed with weeping, and only the promise of a home at the Grange
+with her sister could console her.
+
+And so the curtain falls, and the bridegroom and the bride pass out of
+our sight; but we must take one farewell look at them when years have
+gone by, and see how the promise of their early love had been fulfilled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+TEN YEARS LATER--1790.
+
+
+There is no country, however flat and uninteresting, which does not
+respond to the glory of a real English summer's day.
+
+The moated Grange, near Louth, was no exception to the rule. The moat
+itself had been drained, and was now covered with turf, and studded with
+countless daisies, with their golden eyes looking up into the blue,
+clear sky.
+
+Even the old-fashioned, low-roofed house, with its many gables and the
+heron carved in stone over the porch, was laughing in the sunshine; and
+on the well-kept lawn was a group, on which the eye of an artist might
+have loved to linger.
+
+A sweet and gracious mother was seated on a low garden bench with a baby
+on her knee, while on either side stood two children--twin boys--who
+were the joy and pride of her heart.
+
+The little sister of ten months old had come to put the last jewel in
+the crown of Griselda Travers's happy wifehood and motherhood.
+
+The place where she sat was under the shadow of a row of tall whispering
+poplars, which made the pleasant "sound as of falling showers," as the
+summer breeze stirred the leaves. At the back of the house was a
+plantation of fir-trees, where the turtle-doves were cooing, and the
+murmur as of "far seas" in the dark topmost branches made a low
+undertone of melody.
+
+In the old-fashioned garden, or pleasaunce to the right of the house,
+bees were humming at their work, and gay butterflies dancing over the
+lavender-bushes and large trees of York and Lancaster roses, which made
+the air sweet with their fragrance.
+
+A wide gravel-path divided the pleasaunce, and there a pair of happy
+lovers were pacing, forgetful of everything but their own happiness.
+
+Presently one of Griselda's boys left her side, and ran across the grass
+to a little gate which led from a copse, and bounded the lawn on that
+side.
+
+"Father!" the boy exclaimed; and his brother followed him, echoing the
+joyful cry.
+
+Griselda also rose, and went across the lawn with the same graceful
+movement which had distinguished her in the Bath assemblies of old.
+
+"I hope the gig came to meet the coach, dear husband?" she said. "It
+must have been a hot walk from Louth."
+
+He put his arm round her, and kissed the mother first, and then the
+little daughter, of whom he was so proud, saying:
+
+"Yes; I left the gig at the corner; and walked across the field. How
+delightful the country seems after London! and as to the boys, they seem
+in rude health. Have you taken care of your mother, William and Alex?"
+
+"Yes; and we have said our Latin verbs every day, and done our parsing
+and spelling out of the grammars and dictionaries," said Will.
+
+"I hate spelling," said Alex; "but I love sums."
+
+"That's good. Your godfather was asking how you got on with that branch
+of your education. Your godfather is a great man, boys; you may be proud
+to feel he is your godfather."
+
+"Was it very charming at Slough, Leslie?"
+
+"It was, indeed; and wonderful! 'The sweeping of the sky' is a nightly
+business; and the wife is as much devoted to it as the sister. You must
+take the journey to London ere long, my dearest, and see for yourself.
+The twenty-foot Newtonian telescope is a marvel; and there sits
+Caroline, as of old, writing down calculations and observations. I went
+to bed at one o'clock; but even on that night William Herschel had
+discovered four or five new nebulæ."
+
+"And he is now quite a great man?"
+
+"Great in everyone's eyes but his own. Royal favour has not turned his
+head, nor Caroline's either. She has sent your boys a case of little
+mathematical instruments, and she says you are to go to Slough next
+visit I pay."
+
+"And little Phyllis, too, father?"
+
+"Yes, when she is old enough. So you have two happy people still here, I
+see?"
+
+"Yes. Brian got an extra week's holiday from the law office at Bristol;
+and I knew you would not mind. Mother is so pleased to have him here."
+
+At this moment Brian Bellis and Norah awoke to the fact that they were
+not the only people in that flowery garden; and Nora, now a beautiful
+girl of nineteen, leaving Brian's arm, came springing to her
+brother-in-law, with a face flushed with welcome, to receive her
+accustomed kiss.
+
+Then from the low French window at the side of the house Mrs. Travers
+appeared, and greeted her son with a tender welcome.
+
+Mrs. Travers took the baby from her mother's arms, saying:
+
+"She is too heavy for you, my dear; she grows such a great girl. Is not
+Phyllis glad to see father safely back again?"
+
+The baby cooed as a sign of contentment, but whether this was the result
+of the contemplation of her silver rattle, or of her father's return,
+may not be told.
+
+Then the happy party turned into the house, and Leslie drew from the
+wide pocket of his blue coat with brass buttons a sheaf of letters.
+
+He singled one from the rest, and said gravely:
+
+"I got the letters at Louth. This tells sad news. It has been written
+for Amelia Graves."
+
+"Dear Graves!" Griselda exclaimed; "what does she say?" She took the
+letter, written in a round clerkly hand from her husband, and read:
+
+     "DEAR AND HONOURED SIR:
+
+     "This leaves me well; but I have to inform you my poor mistress
+     departed this life yesterday. I prayed by her, and asked the
+     Lord to pardon her. Honoured sir--and you, dear Madam
+     Travers--that bad man, Sir Maxwell Danby, behaved so ill, that
+     she had to leave his home. He is gone to foreign parts again,
+     and let us hope never to return. He treated my poor mistress
+     shameful, and she was made miserable. We went to Bath for last
+     season, but she was too ill to enter into gaieties, and sank
+     into a sad state--mind and body.
+
+     "I send my duty to you, honoured sir, and the dear lady, your
+     wife, and remain,
+
+     "Your humble servant,
+
+     "AMELIA GRAVES."
+
+Griselda's sweet face became very grave as she read this letter. Then
+she folded it and returned it to her husband.
+
+"I should like Graves to come and live with us, and take care of her in
+her old age. Might I ask her?"
+
+Then Leslie bent over his wife, and kissing her, said:
+
+"I knew that would be your wish. I will write by next post to Bath, and
+bid her come hither. She was good to you when you were in trouble, and
+won my lasting gratitude."
+
+"Poor Lady Betty! Oh that she ever was so blind--so foolish--as to marry
+that dreadful man! I never see his name without a shudder!"
+
+The news this letter contained had brought back to the happy wife and
+mother many sad memories; but the past did not long cloud her present.
+
+As she put her hand into her husband's arm that evening when the
+children were asleep, and no sound broke the silence as they paced the
+garden walk, she stopped suddenly, and said:
+
+"Dearest, you have made my life so beautiful. You have taught me so
+much. You said once--do you remember?--you would die for me, or live for
+me! You have lived for me, and I----"
+
+"And you have kept your promise, sweetheart," he said. "Do you remember
+that promise?"
+
+"Yes," she said. "It has been so easy to keep it. All joy and pleasure
+to give you what you asked for that day in the Abbey church."
+
+So, with interchange of loving words, the husband and wife saw the
+shadows of the night steal over the woods and far-stretching level
+country round their home.
+
+The lovers were also enjoying their twilight walk, and talking, as
+lovers will, of the bliss of the future they are to spend together.
+
+A happy dream is that dream of young love; but is there anything in this
+mutable life more beautiful than the deepening of that young love into
+the serene and blessed sympathy of a husband and wife who, through the
+changes and chances of ten years, can feel, as Leslie and Griselda felt,
+more secure in each other's loyalty and truth as time rolls on; who can
+feel that if all other earthly props and joys vanish, their love will
+remain, that sorrow is shared and grief softened, that all good will be
+intensified and all happiness doubled, because felt by _two_, who are
+yet _one_ in the highest sense?
+
+This is the true marriage, which has been taken as a type of the highest
+and the holiest union. Why is it that it is so often missed? Why does
+the reality of love so often flee away, and only a ghost-like shadow and
+pale semblance remain?
+
+There is a solution of this problem, but it is not for me to give it
+here. The hearts of many who read the story of Leslie and Griselda will,
+if they are true and honest, answer the question each one for herself,
+and it may be with tears and unavailing regret, yes! and of
+self-reproach also, that this full cup of bliss has never reached their
+lips, but that the honeyed sweetness of the elixir of youth has, long
+ere old age is reached, been as an exceeding bitter cup given them to
+drink!
+
+As the husband and wife of whom I write, went into their peaceful home,
+they looked up at the sky where the stars were shining in all their
+majesty, and their thoughts turned to their friends who were far away,
+and probably making their accustomed preparation for sweeping the sky.
+
+Many and many a summer night has come and gone since then; many and many
+eyes have been raised to the star-lit sky, and keen intellects and
+abstruse calculations have brought to light much for which the great
+astronomer, William Herschel, prepared the way. But I doubt if even
+amongst them all has been found a more single-hearted and reverent
+contemplation of the mysteries of that illimitable space which he thus
+describes:
+
+"This method of viewing the heavens seems to throw them into a new kind
+of light. They are now seen to resemble a luxuriant garden which
+contains the greatest variety of productions in different flourishing
+beds, and one advantage we may at least reap from it is, that we can, as
+it were, extend the image of our experience to an immense duration. For
+is it not almost the same thing whether we live successively to witness
+the germination, blooming, foliage, fecundity, fading, withering and
+corruption of a plant, or whether a vast number of specimens selected
+from every stage through which the planet passes in the course of its
+existence be brought at once to our view?"
+
+This is a finely-expressed and profound thought, and the mind which
+originated it must indeed win our admiration and respect.
+
+Surely the house in King Street, Bath, and the association with it, may
+well consecrate it as a shrine which all who appreciate true and honest
+labour, and brave struggles with difficulties, should visit. The
+discovery of the planet Uranus in that house was a grand achievement.
+The light thrown on the mysteries of double stars, and of the perpetual
+motion and marvellous evolutions of the milky way was scarcely a less
+memorable step towards the better understanding of the star-depths
+which mortals may well scan with bated breath, so infinite is the
+infinite! But it almost seems to me that pilgrims to the house where the
+great astronomer and musician lived and worked, may do well to think
+most of the faithful performance of duty, the unflinching perseverance,
+the courageous struggle with untold difficulties which was carried on by
+William and Caroline Herschel while the Bath season was at its height,
+and the butterflies of fashion and the votaries of pleasure danced and
+chattered, and sang and made merry in the assemblies, where a hundred
+years ago so many people whose names are now forgotten, flocked in the
+pursuit of health and amusement! There will always be these contrasts
+sharply defined. The bees and the butterflies go forth together over the
+same flowery pastures. There are countless hidden workers, unknown to
+fame, who yet do their part--if a humble part, in life--in the place
+appointed them by God. But there are some who by force of an indomitable
+will and the highest gifts of intellect and culture leave behind them a
+name which to all time shall be honoured, and Bath may think herself
+favoured that in the long list of distinguished men and women who have
+frequented that fair city and Queen of the West, she may write in
+letters of gold the names of William Herschel and his sister Caroline.
+
+
+
+
+DUELLING ON CLAVERTON DOWN.
+
+
+In the year 1778 many foreign nobles made Bath their residence. The
+Viscount du Barré and two ladies of great beauty and accomplishments,
+and Count Rice, an Irish gentleman who had borne arms in the service of
+France, lived in the Royal Crescent.
+
+A quarrel at cards between Du Barré and Rice resulted in an immediate
+challenge--given and accepted. At one o'clock in the morning of November
+18, 1778, a coach was procured from the Three Tuns in Stall Street, and
+Claverton Down was reached at day-dawn.
+
+"Each man," says a contemporary, "was armed with two pistols and a
+sword, the ground being marked out by the seconds. Du Barré fired
+first, and lodged a ball in Count Rice's thigh, which penetrated to the
+bone. Count Rice fired, and wounded Du Barré in the breast. Afterwards
+the pistols were thrown away, and the combatants took to their swords.
+
+"The Viscount du Barré fell, and cried out, 'Je vous demande ma vie!' to
+which Count Rice answered, 'Je vous la donne!' and in a few moments Du
+Barré fell back and expired. Count Rice was brought with difficulty to
+Bath, being dangerously wounded; and was found guilty, at the Coroner's
+inquest held on the Viscount's body, of manslaughter.
+
+"Du Barré's body was left exposed on Claverton Down the whole day, and
+was subsequently buried in Bathampton Churchyard. Count Rice recovered;
+he was tried at Taunton for murder, and acquitted. He died in Spain in
+1809. A stone slab in a wall skirting Claverton Down marks the spot
+where Du Barré fell. The ivory hilt of the sword once belonging to Count
+Rice is now attached to the City Seal in the town clerk's
+office."--Condensed from R. E. Peach's "Rambles about Bath."
+
+
+
+
+WORKS BY MRS. MARSHALL.
+
+
+ON THE BANKS OF THE OUSE; or, Life in Olney a Hundred Years Ago.
+
+     "No better story than this has been written by Mrs.
+     Marshall."--_Guardian._
+
+IN FOUR REIGNS: Recollections of Althea Allingham from George III. to
+Victoria.
+
+     "A most charming tale of bygone days. The tone of the book is
+     eminently high and refined."--_Literary World._
+
+UNDER THE MENDIPS: a Tale.
+
+     "One of Mrs. Marshall's charming stories, told with all the
+     wonted freshness and grace which characterize her
+     books."--_Westminster Review._
+
+THE TOWER ON THE CLIFF.
+
+     "The old dead time lives once more in her pages."--_Saturday
+     Review._
+
+THE MISTRESS OF TAYNE COURT.
+
+IN THE EAST COUNTRY WITH SIR THOMAS BROWN, Kt.
+
+     "A singularly delightful and interesting work."--_Spectator._
+
+MRS. WILLOUGHBY'S OCTAVE.
+
+     "We have seldom read anything more pathetic."--_Spectator._
+
+IN COLSTON'S DAYS.
+
+     "Extremely well written."--_Morning Post._
+
+CONSTANTIA CAREW: an Autobiography.
+
+     "Much superior to ordinary religious fiction."--_Spectator._
+
+TWO SWORDS: a Tale of Old Bristol.
+
+     "The lesson of the book is excellent, and the story is
+     gracefully told."--_Literary World._
+
+CHRISTABEL KINGSCOTE.
+
+     "As fascinating a tale, and as prettily told, as the reader can
+     wish for. We remember no book which we have more pleasure in
+     recommending."--_Athenæum._
+
+BRISTOL DIAMONDS; or, The Hotwells in the year 1773.
+
+     "Mrs. Marshall's stories are always first-rate."--_Church
+     Bells._
+
+BENVENUTA; or, Rainbow Colours.
+
+     "A pleasant story of family life."--_Athenæum._
+
+DOROTHY'S DAUGHTERS: a Tale.
+
+     "This interesting and well-written volume."--_Record._
+
+DAME ALICIA CHAMBERLAYNE: of Ravenshome, Gloucestershire.
+
+     "Most pleasant reading."--_Academy._
+
+THE ROCHEMONTS: a Story of Three Homes.
+
+     "A pleasant and wholesome story."--_Scotsman._
+
+HELEN'S DIARY; or, Thirty Years Ago.
+
+MILLICENT LEGH: a Tale.
+
+BROOK SILVERTONE, and THE LOST LILIES: Two Stories for Children.
+
+     "We can heartily recommend this attractive little volume. The
+     stories are genuine, life-like, and entertaining. The lessons
+     are skilfully interwoven with the narrative."--_Record._
+
+VIOLET DOUGLAS; or, The Problems of Life.
+
+     "A pleasant, healthy story of English life, full of sound
+     religious teaching."--_Standard._
+
+THE OLD GATEWAY; or, The Story of Agatha.
+
+     "It is pleasant and gracefully written, and Roland Bruce is a
+     character of no ordinary beauty."--_Guardian._
+
+EDWARD'S WIFE; or, Hard Judgments. A Tale.
+
+     "This is a very charming" story, fresh, natural, and
+     touching."--_Christian Advocate._
+
+JOB SINGLETON'S HEIR, and other Stories.
+
+LADY ALICE; or, Two Sides of a Picture.
+
+JOANNA'S INHERITANCE: a Story of Young Lives.
+
+LIFE'S AFTERMATH: a Story of a Quiet People.
+
+     "The story is admirably told, and the interest well sustained
+     throughout. The descriptions of English scenery are in many
+     instances beautiful."--_Christian Observer._
+
+A HISTORY OF FRANCE: Adapted from the French, for the use of English
+Children.
+
+NOW-A-DAYS; or, King's Daughters. A Tale.
+
+     "We have seldom met with a more pleasing specimen of what a
+     wholesome work of light literature should be."--_Record._
+
+A LILY AMONG THORNS.
+
+     "This volume is clever, and very naturally written. It is a
+     book to read and to recommend."--_Watchman._
+
+MRS. MAINWARING'S JOURNAL.
+
+     "Rarely have we come across a more touching volume. It appeals
+     to everyone who has the least feeling."--_John Bull._
+
+HEIGHTS AND VALLEYS: a Tale.
+
+BROTHERS AND SISTERS; or, True of Heart.
+
+     "The hopes and fears of a large family in a cathedral city are
+     drawn with much spirit. The dialogue is easy, and the tale
+     above the average."--_Guardian._
+
+
+
+
+TALES BY MISS WINCHESTER.
+
+
+PEARL OF THE SEA.
+
+     'A charming conception.'--_Saturday Review._
+
+A CRIPPLED ROBIN.
+
+     'A pretty story, and there is fun as well as feeling in many of
+     the chapters.'--_Times._
+
+A CITY VIOLET.
+
+     'Miss Winchester, whose power of delineating character is
+     giving her an honourable place among the writers of serious
+     fiction, has never done anything better than this.'--_Spectator._
+
+A NEST OF SPARROWS.
+
+     'Miss Winchester not only writes with skill, but writes from
+     the heart, and with full knowledge of her subject. Her story is
+     most genuine, pathetic, without being sad.'--_Pall Mall
+     Gazette._
+
+UNDER THE SHIELD. A Tale.
+
+     'We wish all religious stories were written in the same simple
+     and natural way. We can conceive no more healthy reading for
+     children.'--_Academy._
+
+     'We welcome with real pleasure another book by the author of "A
+     Nest of Sparrows." "Under the Shield" is to be noted for its
+     purity of tone and high aspirations.... There is true fun in
+     the book, too.'--_Athenæum._
+
+THE CABIN ON THE BEACH. A Tale.
+
+     'This tender story cannot fail to charm and delight the
+     young.'--_Guardian._
+
+THE WAYSIDE SNOWDROP. A Tale.
+
+     'A bright flower indeed. With all her tenderness and grace Miss
+     Winchester narrates one of those pathetic stories of a poor
+     London waif that at once arouse the loving sympathy of
+     children.'--_Guardian._
+
+CHIRPS FOR THE CHICKS.
+
+     'The book is worthy to be a nursery favourite.'--_Guardian._
+
+     'The merriest, most amusing, and infinitely the most rhythmical
+     book of poetry for young people produced this season.... Others
+     besides children may read the "Chirps" with pleasure and
+     amusement. The illustrations are very happy.'--_Standard._
+
+
+
+
+RECENTLY PUBLISHED.
+
+
+FOREST OUTLAWS; or, St. Hugh and the King. By the Rev. E. GILLIAT.
+
+     "Distinctly one of the very best books of the
+     season."--_Standard._
+
+BELT AND SPUR: Stories of the Knights of Old.
+
+     "A very high-class gift-book of the spirit-stirring
+     kind."--_Spectator._
+
+     "A sort of boy Froissart with admirable illustrations."--_Pall
+     Mall Gazette._
+
+THE CITY IN THE SEA: Stories of the Old Venetians.
+
+     "Very stirring are the tales of the long struggle between Genoa
+     and Venice ... boys will read with keen interest the desperate
+     battles between the rival fleets of galleys."--_Standard._
+
+STORIES OF THE ITALIAN ARTISTS: from Vasari.
+
+     "The book is full of delightful reading, carefully chosen from
+     a rich treasury of curiosities."--_Spectator._
+
+     "Another very charming volume."--_Saturday Review._
+
+BORDER LANCES: a Romance of the Northern Marches. By the Author of "Belt
+and Spur."
+
+     "The book is a good one ... the illustrations are
+     excellent."--_Spectator._
+
+FATHER ALDUR: the Story of a River. By A. GIBERNE.
+
+     "The nature of tides, the formation of clouds, the sources of
+     water, and other kindred subjects are discussed with much
+     freshness and charm."--_Saturday Review._
+
+SUN, MOON, AND STARS: a Book on Astronomy for Beginners. By A. GIBERNE.
+
+     "Ought to have a place in village libraries and mechanics'
+     institutions; would also be welcome as a prize-book."--_Pall
+     Mall Gazette._
+
+AMONG THE STARS; or, Wonderful Things in the Sky. By A. GIBERNE.
+
+     "We may safely predict that if it does not find the reader with
+     a taste for astronomy, it will leave him with
+     one."--_Knowledge._
+
+THE WORLD'S FOUNDATIONS: Geology for Beginners. By A. GIBERNE.
+
+     "The exposition is clear, the style simple and
+     attractive."--_Spectator._
+
+SUE; or, Wounded in Sport. By E. VINCENT BRITON, Author of 'Amyot
+Brough.'
+
+     'We do not know when we have been so charmed as we are by this
+     modest volume.... Over and over again one is reminded of some
+     of George Eliot's best scenes in English country life; and
+     though it may seem exaggeration to say so, there are some
+     points in which Mr. Briton has surpassed George
+     Eliot.'--_Guardian._
+
+AMYOT BROUGH. By E. VINCENT BRITON.
+
+     'With national pride we dwell on a beautiful English historical
+     novel ... this sweet unpretending story, with its pretty
+     engravings.'--_Academy._
+
+A CANTERBURY PILGRIMAGE. Ridden, Written, and Illustrated by JOSEPH and
+ELIZABETH PENNELL.
+
+     'The most wonderful shillingsworth that modern literature has
+     to offer.'--_Daily News._
+
+AN ITALIAN PILGRIMAGE. By MRS. PENNELL.
+
+     'This charming book.'--_Academy._
+
+EARLY FLEMISH ARTISTS, AND THEIR PREDECESSORS ON THE LOWER RHINE. By W.
+M. CONWAY.
+
+     'An altogether admirable book.'--_Graphic._
+
+THE ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT OF REYNOLDS AND GAINSBOROUGH. By W. M. CONWAY.
+
+     'A contribution to the subject which no student can afford to
+     miss.' _Saturday Review._
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Her Season in Bath, by Emma Marshall
+
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