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diff --git a/40405-0.txt b/40405-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c8fde83 --- /dev/null +++ b/40405-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5165 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40405 *** + + MARY SEAHAM, + A NOVEL. + + BY MRS. GREY, + + AUTHOR OF "THE GAMBLER'S WIFE," &c. &c. + + + IN THREE VOLUMES. + VOL. I. + + LONDON: + COLBURN AND CO., PUBLISHERS, + GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. + 1852. + + Notice is hereby given that the Publishers of this work reserve to + themselves the right of publishing a Translation in France. + + LONDON: + Printed by Schulze and Co., 13, Poland Street. + + + + +MARY SEAHAM. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + She left her home with a bounding heart, + For the world was all before her; + And felt it scarce a pain to part, + Such sun-bright beams came o'er her. + + A. A. WATTS. + + +The wedding feast was cleared away, the guests had departed, and the +last joy peal with its varied chimes, and crashing cannons from the old +church tower was sounding musically through the mountain valley. + +Over the whole aspect of Glan Pennant was spread that air of almost +desolation, ever, more or less, succeeding an event such as had, this +day, been celebrated there. + +The very servants, to whose festive entertainment the evening had been +appropriated, whether able to carry out to the required extent the kind +intentions of their employers, or reduced by the fatigue and excitement +of the day to the condition of that establishment, Dickens has so ably +and ludicrously described, at all events suffered not their notes of +mirth to escape the precincts of their apartments. All was hushed as the +sleeping beauty's palace in the superior portion of the mansion; and if +not quite deserted, to one entering the house at the moment of this +opening chapter, it might almost have seemed that the same spell had +been cast over its inmates. + +Another moment, however, and there could have been distinguished the +quick opening and shutting of an upper chamber door, and soon down the +staircase, a young lady, divested of all bridal costume, in every day +walking attire, might be seen to glide, and passing along the oaken +passage to the door of the library, enter that apartment. A profound +stillness reigned therein, though the room was not devoid of living +occupants. + +An old gentleman had quietly yielded himself to the indulgence of an +evening nap in a maroon-coloured leather chair; whilst on an opposite +sofa an elderly lady had, it seemed, been overtaken by the same +necessity, whilst to the murmur of the summer breeze she contemplated +the satisfactory completion of the day's great event, over the large +piece of worsted work, in which, as it now lay idly at her feet, a +little terrier dog had made its nest. + +Mary Seaham looked upon this scene and smiled to herself. Her quiet +entrance had not disturbed the sleepers. It amused her perhaps for a +moment to witness a placid forgetfulness, affording so strong a +contrast to the eager bustle which had but so lately subsided. + +But her smile, not exactly sorrowful, was gentle and subdued, +harmonising entirely with the spirit of her movements, as well as with +the whole character of the scene in which she seemed to play so solitary +a part. + +The smile, however, was soon chased by a slight sigh, and softly calling +the little dog, who roused and shook itself at her summons, springing +with alacrity to obey her call, she passed through the open window, and +with a semblance of relief proceeded across the lawn, her spirit +appearing to revive with every elastic step she took, beneath the +influence of the fresh and open air. + + * * * * * + +The clock struck eight as she passed from the grounds, and skirting the +village made her way through a romantic dell, where a rapid stream +issued from a thick wood, turning the rustic mill situated at its base. + +Slowly she ascended a precipitous hill leading to a heath-clad common. +Although she had avoided the actual village, where rude attempts at +wedding decorations would have greeted her on every side, and her +appearance have attracted more notice than would have been agreeable to +her feelings just then, she did not escape, during her route, some stray +encounters; and many a curtsey, smile, and kindly word, were bestowed +upon her, by the good, simple-hearted people she met. Whilst none the +less did she prize this greeting, because with the congratulatory +expression of their countenances, something of pitying condolence might +be visible. + +The poor and humble however devoid they may be of sentiment, have often +readier sympathy for the natural feeling of humanity, than we are apt to +give them credit, and they could compassionate the poor young lady who +had acted bridesmaid to a last unmarried sister--seen that sister +carried far from home--and she left behind all alone with the old +people. + +Perhaps their compassion might extend almost further than the real state +of the case required. + +It is very sad indeed to be left behind under similar circumstances. The +void, the blank, at first experienced, is perhaps one of the most +painful of all mental affections that can be sustained. But I think +there is something almost more melancholy, in what is sooner or later +sure to follow, in more or less degree according to the tone of men's +minds or the circumstances of their position--namely, when the aching +void begins imperceptibly to assuage, the blank to fill up, and we cease +to miss, or with difficulty realize the consciousness of our +bereavement; when the strong realities and intimate associations of +years seem, as by one magic touch, obliterated, and we would fain +recall even the haunting shadows of the past, to assure us that such +things have been. + + "We cannot paint to memory's eye + The scene, the glance we dearest love, + Unchanged themselves, in us they die, + Or faint and false their shadows prove." + +But Mary Seaham was not to be subjected to any of the latter +contingencies. She, also was to depart on the morrow from the home of +many years, and it is to contemplate scenes which for a long time she +may not look upon again, that we find her hastening. + + * * * * * + +The history of Mary Seaham's present position was this: She was an +orphan, and till the return of a brother from the colonies, where he had +gone to examine into the state of some very important family property; +she was thrown, (particularly since the event celebrated that morning) +to a certain extent, alone upon the world. Even had she desired to +linger in her deserted home, the privilege was denied her. +Circumstances rendering it expedient that Glan Pennant should continue +to be let until the final settlement of her brother's affairs, and the +Great uncle and aunt who had hitherto rented the place from their +nephew, and at the same time filled the office of affectionate guardians +to their unmarried nieces, now in their old age, becoming desirous of +being established more among their kindred and acquaintances, than in +this beautiful but distant, and out of the way country. + +They were shortly to leave Wales and settle in London, with an only +daughter, who had lost her husband, and lately returned from India, with +her children. + +The offer had been kindly made to Mary, to make her home with these +relations under this new arrangement; but being a stranger to her Indian +cousins, together with other motives for its rejection, she declined the +proffer, at least for the present, and preferred accepting an +invitation to spend the rest of the summer with another cousin and his +wife in ----shire, although these relations, except from early +associations, which drew her towards them with interest and affection, +might be said to be almost equally unknown to her; thus her future +prospects, were but of a very dim and uncertain nature. + +But Mary Seaham did not take this much to heart. She was not of an age +or character, nor did she possess experience sufficient, to feel any +great weight of depression on this score. + +The melancholy she now felt was rather of the soft, tender nature from +which, like the early blossom beneath the influence of the mild spring +air, her soul seemed struggling forth with hope and longing towards the +uncertain future. + +Although now one and twenty, her life had been, in its outward course, +so calm and circumscribed, within the current of home interests, and +domestic affections; so gently and gradually had the home circle broken +up around her, link by link falling away, till she scarcely felt the +influence of the change, that it was with confiding pleasure rather than +any anxious care, or restless misgiving, she contemplated an entrance +upon a changed sphere of action, never doubting but that she should find +love and affection, such as she had ever been accustomed to receive, in +all those professing friends who now came forward with proffered +assistance in her time of need. + + "In every heart a home, in every home a heaven." + +In the warm-hearted cousin she remembered of old, one in whom she might +repose trust and confidence, as in a brother, and in his beautiful and +engaging wife the truth and sympathy of a sister. + +Seated, therefore, upon the heathy common, there was more of pleasant +dreaminess than of regretful sadness influencing her spirit, as her eyes +wandered over the prospect spread before her with the attention of one, +who would fain engrave each familiar feature on her memory, and bear +away therein, a true and vivid picture of their beauties. + +The pretty valley we have described lay immediately at her feet, with +the woods beyond, amongst which proudly rose the mansion of Plas Glyn, +of which her sister, by her marriage that morning with Sir Hugh Morgan, +had become the youthful mistress; and a faint peculiar smile played on +Mary's countenance as she sat there in her solitary freedom, and dwelt +for a moment on this feature of the landscape. + +But it had passed away, when her glance turned towards the spot where +stood her own more modest, but still fairer home, Glan Pennant--then +upwards, where the mountain ridges towering one above the other, were +now eradiated by one of those sunsets of rare magnificence, which nature +seemed to have called forth on this occasion, as a farewell token of +affection to her meek and loving votary. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + Once, and once only, let me speak + Of all that I have felt for years; + You read it not upon my cheek, + You dreamed not of it in my tears. + + L. E. L. + + +Whilst thus absorbed, a step whose sound the soft carpeting on which it +trod had not permitted her to hear, approached near to where Mary Seaham +sat, and a voice broke upon her reverie. + +She started a little, but perceiving who was the intruder, with a smile +and only a slightly heightened colour, she arose and frankly extended +her hand with the gentle exclamation: "Mr. Temple!" + +The person thus addressed was a man in the full vigour of his days; of +tall commanding figure, whose pale and noble countenance seemed to wear +less marks of worldly care than of high and chastened thought. + +His temples were already partly bare, but the rest of his thick dark +curly hair bespoke the strength of manhood, and his eye, full and +eloquent, beamed with a spirit and enthusiasm which might have become a +martyr. The black dress he wore, seemed to denote his clerical +profession. + +"I shall not apologize so much as I should otherwise have done, for thus +abruptly disturbing you Miss Seaham;" were the words of his rich +full-toned voice, "concluding as I do, that this evening, your +meditations must naturally be of somewhat melancholy a nature." + +"About an hour ago you would have been but too right in your +conclusion, Mr. Temple;" responded the young lady. "The bustle of the +day over, the dreary feeling of being 'the last left,' was stealing over +me to a most insupportable degree, but since I quitted the deserted +house, the influence of this lovely evening has worked most effectually +on my feelings. In the open air I think this is generally the case," she +added. "However, the sense of isolation and separation, may oppress one +in the confinement of the house. Here, one can feel at least that the +same blue sky," and Miss Seaham as she spoke lifted up her clear serene +eyes to the heaven above, "over-canopies us all. I have," she continued +with simple feeling, and a slight suffusion of the eye-lid: "great need +for my comfort, to realise that perhaps rather vague idea, for we shall +be now indeed a most scattered family. Arthur in America, Jane and +Selina in India, Alice in Scotland and Aggy so soon to be in Italy." + +She paused, her voice slightly faltering, as if the idea of this +domestic dispersion, when thus recorded in words, had brought the truth +before her with too much painful reality. + +"And you, Miss Seaham," interrogated Mr. Temple, a slight tremor also +perceptible in his deep clear voice, and which a kind and friendly +sympathy in the young lady's sadness might naturally have occasioned, +"do you really desert Glan Pennant so very soon?" + +"Yes, Mr. Temple, and had I not relied upon your promise of calling this +evening, I should have sent to let you know. I could not have gone +without seeing you again. I leave Glan Pennant to-morrow morning. I +travel part of the way with the Merediths, and some change in their +arrangements make this necessary. I own that it is a relief that I am +not to linger any longer here, though this speedy departure has come +upon me rather suddenly." + +She looked up, as her companion did not immediately reply to this +intelligence, and then he inquired seriously if she still kept to her +resolution of visiting her relations in ----shire. + +She answered in the affirmative. + +"It is a long time since your cousin, Mr. de Burgh, and I have met," he, +after some little cautious consideration, remarked. "We were +schoolfellows and college friends. Our lives have taken a different turn +since then, and I suppose our tastes and manners of life likewise. At +least I understand"--slightly hesitating--"that he has married a gay +wife, and, with his large fortune, I suppose, acts up to his +circumstances and position; but in days of old, I remember Louis de +Burgh to have been a man of quieter tastes and habits than his friend +Edward Temple." + +"I have seen nothing of my cousin since his marriage, nor of his wife +either. But their letters are the kindest and most affectionate, as you +may suppose," she added, "by my having accepted their invitation to pay +them so long a visit." + +"Ah, I once knew a great deal of some members of her family," Mr. +Temple continued, speaking, not so much in the way of common +conversation, than as if moved by some under current of deep and serious +interest. "And you think," he added, "that you shall find your cousin's +house agreeable?" + +There was something dubious in his tone of voice, as he uttered that +last enquiry, and Miss Seaham smiled. + +"You think perhaps I shall find it too gay to suit my quiet fancy," she +said, again raising her eyes to her companion's face. + +He looked down upon her, and after a short pause answered with simple +earnestness. + +"I only think that we shall miss you sadly here." + +Miss Seaham shook her head. + +"I fear not, Mr. Temple," she said ingenuously; "not half so much, at +least, as Selina and Aggy must be missed. I am ashamed of myself, when I +think how little I have done, during the last five or six years, in +comparison with my more active sisters--how I have selfishly dreamt +away my time, whilst they--and Aggy, my younger sister too--have been +continually going about doing good. Truly like Wordsworth's old Mathew, +I have been, I am afraid, + + "'An idler in the land, + Contented if I might enjoy what others understand.' + +No, Mr. Temple, I fear you must have found me a very incompetent +disciple, and only flatter me when you talk of missing my services." + +Mr. Temple smiled. + +"I did not indeed speak professionally when I talked of missing you," he +rejoined in a low, earnest tone, "though I by no means subscribe to your +self-accusations, on the score of uselessness; besides, there are such +things as moral influences," he added more seriously, with no assumption +of superiority, but almost reverence in his tone and manner, "and in +such, I am sure, as more than one can testify, you have not been found +wanting, whilst at the same time remember, _Mary_ more than Martha +found acceptance in the eyes of Him they equally desired to serve." + +"Alas! alas! Mr. Temple, if you do not flatter, you make me deeply +ashamed, and I fear for the first time," she added with a degree of +playful reproach, "I must set you down as an unfaithful pastor--speaking +false-praise, when you should be sending me away with serious +exhortation and advice as to my future course of life." The colour +mounted in sudden force to Mr. Temple's brow. + +"Then, God forgive me my unfaithfulness if so it be!" he murmured with +strong emotion, "for I do indeed confess, that never did I feel less +competent to act the part of Mentor, than I do now, standing before you +this evening, only trembling to be awakened from a dream I fear as +futile--though not less sweet--as any day-dream which may have coloured +the pure light of your existence, Miss Seaham." + +She looked up. Startled by the thrilling earnestness of the speaker's +voice, and still more struck by the expression of the countenance bent +down upon her, Mary Seaham withdrew her gaze in some confusion the +crimson blood suffusing her temples, and with averted countenance, she +said, with some hurried embarrassment, whilst striving to recover from +the sort of alarm her feelings had undergone, yet scarcely conscious of +what she uttered. + +"I am not sorry then to find that _you_ also can indulge in the weakness +of a day-dream!" + +But the awkward pause then followed--for Mr. Temple was silent after she +made this remark and beginning to fear lest she might have offended him +by its apparent lightness, she turned a timid glance towards her +companion. + +He was stooping down caressing the little dog by her side, not looking +offended, but grave and abstracted. + +She was reassured, and regarding him as thus he continued, seemingly +absorbed in his own particular thoughts--his fine, strikingly handsome +and intellectual countenance on which seemed to have been originally +impressed the stamp of talent of a higher order, and fitted for a wider +field of action than the little theatre in which they at present found +employment--the feelings to which this observation gave rise, moved her +to express herself in accents not devoid of gentle, admiring interest, +when she said: + +"Mr. Temple, do not think me impertinent, but I sometimes wonder that +you should linger so long in this remote, retired spot, where all the +good that it is in your power to effect is necessarily of so limited and +contracted a nature. Indeed," with a blush and a smile at her own +temerity, "I shall feel almost a melancholy regret in thinking of you, +when I am away, hiding your talents, wasting your powers amongst the +mountain heather, or on the humble inhabitants of this obscure, though +lovely valley." + + "'What dost thou here, frail wanderer from thy task? + Why hast thou left those few sheep in the wild?'" + +quoted Mr. Temple, a look of pleasure nevertheless lighting up the face +which he again raised towards her. + +"But a self-imposed task may not yours at present be?" persisted Miss +Seaham. + +He shook his head, but with the same smile continued: + +"I never thought to have found _you_ my tempter; but now tell me, +whither would you direct me?" + +"_I_ direct you! oh, Mr. Temple, you speak ironically; but surely, there +must be ways and means, by which one like you, may more effectually use +your powers to the glory of God and the good of mankind, than by +remaining in this secluded place, amongst people, who for the most part, +do not even comprehend your language. If I understood aright, you only +retired for a time, when some sorrow or trouble came upon you. I am very +bold, to-night;" breaking off in some confusion, for she perceived a +deep palor overspread his countenance, "but, I hope, now that there is +such an excellent man as Mr. Lloyd to fulfil your voluntary duties, +amongst the poor people of this dear place, you will not doom yourself +longer to such--I could almost fancy it--ungenial retirement." + +"Where should I go?" he sadly said, but with an earnestness which again +surprised and startled Mary, whilst he fixed his eyes on her face as if +on her answer his future course depended. + +"Where?" she repeated with embarrassment, "you ask _me_, who know so +little of the world, _you_ who know so much?" + +"I do indeed," he replied, with something of bitterness in his tone, +"and my experience, my dear Miss Seaham, has not made that text to me so +difficult of fulfilment which says, 'Love not the world, neither the +things that are in the world.' But you will think that I speak to-night +more like a disappointed melancholy misanthrope than a minister of that +Word, which breathes forth the spirit of peace and goodwill towards men; +nor will you think it kind that I thus unfavourably impress you +concerning this world, with which, it may be said, you, almost for the +first time, are about to make acquaintance." + +"_I_, Mr. Temple? oh no, indeed. I look upon myself as far too +insignificant a being, one destined to play far too insignificant a part +on that great stage to fear much its enmity." + +"Or its friendship?" Mr. Temple responded interrogatively; "for we must +remember, 'that the _friendship_ of the world is enmity with God!'" + +He spoke these words with a certain sad solemnity. + +Miss Seaham listened to the exhortation in meek, submissive silence, +though to look upon her calm, sweet, holy countenance one might have +thought the sin of worldliness could scarcely cleave to the soul which +seemed reflected thereupon. + +A silence again succeeded, broken by Mr. Temple. + +"Miss Seaham, do you think you shall find the life in this same great +world, so suited to your tastes as that which has glided by so +peacefully in this quiet sphere of action?" + +"Perhaps not," she answered; but with frank simplicity quickly added, +"yet I cannot but fancy I might enjoy this all the more if I were +permitted to return from having been parted from my old pursuits for a +little time--from having seen more, and entered upon a more varied scene +of existence." + +"This is but a natural fancy," Mr. Temple resumed, "but the trial is a +dangerous one. Of thousands who so return, like soldiers from the battle +field, to their peaceful homes, there are few, I fear, who come not back +to find their former existence of innocent enjoyment blighted by the +wounds and bruises wherewith their hearts and spirits have been +inflicted during that sorrowful campaign. They return--may be to live +resigned, but seldom happy--happy at least with that same peaceful joy +which was before their portion, they come either thus to pass their days +or--die." + +Mr. Temple paused for a moment, evidently to command the agitation of +his voice; he then resumed: + +"And, alas! Miss Seaham, it is not always the least proud and +unconspicuous objects of assault who are thus brought low--made the mark +of this same, blasting world. Not the eagle only, but the dove, is +pierced and wounded by the archer. No, the purest and holiest must, more +or less, sooner or later, if not amalgamated in its sin, at least be +stricken by its sorrow and its evil--I should rather say its evil men +'the men of this world.' Oh, Miss Seaham, beware of such men." + +He spoke again with an earnestness so bordering on enthusiastic +excitement that Miss Seaham, though almost inclined to treat with +playful lightness a warning which might have seemed to exceed the +occasion, or her case, suddenly felt the words thrill through her heart +with that peculiar feeling, which the superstitious, or sometimes even +those who deride such significance, are apt to interpret as a +_presentiment_. An involuntary shudder ran through her frame, and "the +evening fair as ever," began to her altered sensation to turn chill and +dusk. + +"You forget," she murmured, in faltering, almost reproachful accents, +"you forget, Mr. Temple, while you thus, in kindness I am sure, diminish +any attractive idea I may have formed of society, for it is, I conclude, +the society of the world, not anything appertaining to the good and +beautiful world itself, which can prove so hurtful and invidious, you +forget that I do not voluntarily seek its dangers, or rush upon its +temptations, but that I am in a manner thrown upon its mercy. It is not +permitted me to stay here. My sister in Scotland would gladly receive +me, but she is not entirely mistress of her own actions, and her large +family would make such an addition inconvenient. Is it not then natural +that thus situated I should, until the return of my brother, accept the +pressing invitations of such kindly disposed relations as my cousin and +his wife, though their position and circumstances may involve me in a +wider and perhaps gayer circle of acquaintance than that into which I +have hitherto been thrown." + +She spoke in a half pleading tone, and with almost tearful eyes, for the +urgent manner in which the subject under discussion had been pressed +upon her consideration, began gradually to work upon her mind in the +manner we have described. + +Mr. Temple listened with eager attention to her words, bending down his +head as if to prevent his losing one syllable of their significance, +and then when she ceased to speak, his countenance brightened hopefully. + +"But were your circumstances--your position the only motive which +compelled you to such a resource?" he earnestly rejoined, "and if a hand +were stretched forth would you repulse it--a hand which would fain +withhold one too pure and good for a soil uncongenial to qualities of +that nature, to all that is pure, lovely and of good report. Oh, Miss +Seaham, would you, will you reject it when it _is_ extended, and with it +a heart trembling for the answer which is to proceed from your lips. +Yes!" he hurried on as if with the nervous desire to postpone what he so +eagerly awaited; "this is as you say, a world most good and beautiful. +The glories of the Great Jehovah still gild this ruined earth. Yes, +beautiful it is--beyond even what this fair country, wild and lovely of +its kind, as it may be, can convey an idea to those whose experience +extends no farther. Yes, it is most right and natural that you, with a +mind above the common range, should thirst for such enjoyment; and oh! +what happiness--what privilege to be the means of ministering to the +desire--to be your guide--your guardian dear Miss Seaham, to regions +whose charms even your refined imaginative mind is scarce able to +conceive. But what do I say? My fears were indeed too well grounded, my +dream dissolves apace, if I read aright the expression of that calm +astonished countenance!" + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + And so, beloved one--life's all--farewell! + Still by my hearth thy gentle shade shall dwell, + Still shall my soul, where night the dreariest seem, + Fly back to thee, O soft--O vanish'd dream! + + THE NEW TIMON. + + +What indeed had Mary heard--what did she understand? + +Mr. Temple the great, the excellent--he who for the many years he had +made that retired neighbourhood his abode, had shone with such bright +and exalted lustre among his little circle of acquaintances, inspiring +in the minds of all, especially of those best able to appreciate his +superiority, the family of Glan Pennant--admiring regard almost +approaching to veneration, who to their eyes appeared more to approach +in character as far as mortal may without impiety be said to approach, +to that Great Being--Him who made himself of no reputation, stooped from +his high estate--humbled himself for the sake of the poor and ignorant +of mankind--was it he who thus addressed her? + +From what could be gleaned gradually from his discourse, by those with +whom he became most intimately associated, a man of high family and +connections, he had come unknown and lonely, like one dropped suddenly +from some higher sphere, divested of all proud pretensions, to act as a +voluntary and unostentatious minister to the wants and necessities both +temporal and spiritual of the poor and needy, whilst at the same time +affecting no misanthropic and reclusive habits, though a certain +impenetrable mystery ever hung over his former history, he did not +shrink from mixing in social intercourse with the very few families of +which the retired neighbourhood could boast, and more particularly with +the inmates of Glan Pennant; becoming a zealous assistant in all the +charitable pursuits and interests in which the young sisters of the +house had engaged with such active and untiring interest, as long as +they remain unmarried. + +Mary Seaham, perhaps, had been the one whose character and pursuits had +thrown her less than any of the family in the way of similar +association, and therefore might have been the least prepared to find +she had made so strong an impression on Mr. Temple's feelings, as his +present discourse discovered her to have done. But it was not so much +surprise, nor on the other hand, was it so much an overwhelming sense of +the honour done her by such distinction, as a feeling almost approaching +to self-disgust--shame; which for some moments kept her silently rooted +to the spot with that expression of countenance, her trembling lover +had interpreted as cold astonishment, excited by his proposal. + +Ashamed and sorrowful she felt, as one might be to whom some guardian +angel--some higher spirit from another sphere--had stooped to offer +himself as guide and guardian through this earthly pilgrimage, and she +the favoured mortal had turned away, despising the blessed boon thus +proffered, saying: + +"I will go forth and try whether I cannot walk amidst the dangerous +paths alone, or find at least some other Lord to have dominion over me." + +Or, as the self convicted Israelite, who seeing the heavenly manna +scattered round his path, felt his heart still turn away, after the +flesh pots of Egypt. + +This we mean to say was the light in which Mary was inclined to view her +feelings on this occasion. No one else, perhaps, would have judged them +so harshly, seeing in the first place, that the very exalted +superiority which in her own eyes made her heart's rejection of Mr. +Temple's suit, a reflection on her taste and feelings, would in the +opinion of others have rendered it but the more excusable; whilst in the +estimation of those possessed of less pure and simple enthusiasm than +the lady of his love, the possibility of such high strained excellence +existing in the life and character of a man of mortal mould, might have +been strongly doubted. + +But as it was, Mary Seaham now with downcast eyes and faltering tongue, +gave answer when to answer she was able, in such sort as might have +suited more an ashamed and humble penitent, confessing to a superior +being a sin or an infirmity, than a woman free to choose or to reject, +yielding her gentle death blow to a trembling lover's hopes. + +"Mr. Temple, how humbling to my feelings is the opinion you must have so +flatteringly formed of me, ere you could have addressed me thus; an +opinion, alas! how little accordant with reality. I fear, if you read my +mind, my character aright, you would start aside at the unexpected fact +of discovering worldly tastes and feelings, lying hidden there, dormant +only, perhaps, from want of time and opportunity for bringing them +forth. What, for instance, would you say, were I to acknowledge that it +is not so much the world--in the sense you have described it, with which +I am desirous of becoming acquainted, as that very world which you, in +your well grounded experience, so much contemn. I mean," she added the +colour tinging her cheek, "I mean its society." + +"Society!" Mr. Temple repeated, looking down upon her with a sad, but +mild and tender expression; "alas! can it indeed be so? your pure hopes +and aspirations, do they really tend in that direction?" + +"I had always fancied," she pursued apologetically, "that much of good +and beautiful--much worthy of interest and admiration, might be met +with in that last great work of the Almighty; and I may be said to have +comparatively seen as little of that branch of the creation in its +varied characters as of any other," she added with a smile. + +"And you go forth," he responded, in the same tone and manner as before, +"with your unsophisticated imaginings--your poetic fancy--prepared to +find this so called society peopled with the beings you have pictured in +your dreams?" + +"No, no! not quite that," she rejoined with returning animation; "but, +Mr. Temple, do you really consider the whole circle of society +individually as well as collectively, in so dark a light? Are there no +flowers amongst the thorns--no wheat among the tares?" + +"Yes truly," he responded with a still more sorrowful and earnest +interest, as he marked the glowing cheek and unwonted excitement of the +loved enquirer; "but the tares unhappily in that cursed ground--cursed +for man's guilty sake!--too much preponderate, and those springing up, +choke the wheat till even _they_ become unfruitful. But, oh, Miss +Seaham! am I answered now? The words, the acknowledgement you have just +made are they the vehicles you have chosen, by which to convey your +final rejection of that which I have dared to proffer, for if not, here +is a hand and heart as ready and willing--if possible ten times more +eager--to be allowed to guide and guard you through those dangerous +paths you desire to tread. Think not that I will shrink from turning +back even to that world I have so condemned; if it be to walk by your +side--to protect--to guide--to guard you there. Yes," he murmured to +himself, whilst some strong emotion evidently struggled for mastery, as +the idea suggested itself to his imagination, and again his cheek became +deadly pale. "For her sweet sake--with such an angel by my side--what +could I not brave, what could I not encounter? Even thou, mine enemy! +thou and thine insidious unnatural machinations!" + +Then recollecting himself, Mr. Temple turned in some alarm, lest his +half muttered soliloquy might have created unpleasant surprise in the +mind of her he was so anxious to propitiate. But his fear was +groundless. Mary Seaham, too much engrossed by the more apparent subject +of his discourse, so completely absorbing her attention, heeded not the +mysterious tendency of these latter words, and when recollecting +himself, he again paused in breathless enquiry; she could only shake her +head, and with averted face and downcast eyes, sorrowfully confess her +unworthiness, and her rejection of such distinguished favour as had been +shown her by his offer. Then in other words more clear and explicit, she +faltered forth sentences which tended slowly and sadly to convey with +certainty to Mr. Temple's mind--and what to him were the others +feelings, bowing down the young girl's heart before him as before a +superior being--that the one feeling he required was wanting there--the +love which alone could crown his hopes--induce her to become his wife. +A dreary pause ensued. It might have seemed that even nature sympathized +in the disappointment of one human heart, so hushed and still was all +around. + +The silence was broken by Mr. Temple. His voice had recovered the wonted +calm of its low, deep accents as thus he spoke: + +"And in this world of imagination--this dream-land sphere which you own, +alas! to have been no coral strands or balmy groves of the natural +world, but the glittering shores, the giddy mazes of society--there +wherein you have long in fancy loved to wander, and now in the might of +your innocence and purity of heart, so confidently and gladly haste to +enter and prove their reality. Tell me, amongst all the features of your +glowing picture, has your mind formed for itself hopes and aspirations, +which have in any degree stood in the way of those which I had dared to +entertain? Have your dreams carried you thus far, or do you go into the +world, with--at least on this one point, your heart and feelings, I +should rather say--your fancy, disengaged?" + +He did not speak as if in mockery and disdain to a weak and romantic +girl, but with the serious delicate kindness of one whose very skill and +knowledge in diving amongst the fantastic images of the human heart, is +all the less moved to scorn or derision at the conception of its hidden +enormities. + +Mary Seaham started. The crimson blood suffused her pure pale cheek. She +shrank from the enquiring scrutiny of that dark eye bent down upon her, +as if she felt that it had power to draw forth into light and substance +every indistinct shadow, each vague imagination which had ever floated +across her mind, a power too, which it was not possible by commonplace +subterfuge to evade. Something also in that dark eye strangely affected +her at that moment; the impression it produced, connecting itself in an +indescribable manner, with the very dream and fancy, Mr. Temple's +searching words had stirred up within her conscience. + +But the sense and spirit of her soul's pure innocence soon came to Mary +Seaham's relief. She shook off the morbid consciousness, and with +ingenuous courage, turning with bright open face to her inquirer, +replied: + +"That I have had many a foolish dream, Mr. Temple, connected with the +world of my imagination, I will not attempt to deny, but to the dignity +of hopes and aspirations, I assure you, they have never yet +arrived--never attained to such weight and importance in my mind, as +would lead me to the folly or madness of allowing them to interfere with +the substantial good--the real blessing which have this evening been +laid before my unworthy acceptance, and which--" + +"Enough!" interrupted Mr. Temple, as if to save himself, and her, the +pain of further explanation as to the motives which had forbidden the +acceptance of those acknowledged blessings. + +"Enough dear Miss Seaham. Dream on, and never may you wake from the pure +and blameless dreams, which, whatever be their nature, can alone have +taken rise in such a soul. Never may you awake from these to dark +sorrowful reality. But should you so awake, and find those dreams +dispersed, and Providence should again place us in each other's paths, +remember.... But alas!" he broke off abruptly, "of what avail such +imaginings? May God preserve you in this evil world! is all that remains +for me to pray." + +He wrung her hand in strong emotion, and when Mary Seaham raised her +tearful eyes to thank him for his fervent vow, Mr. Temple had turned +away, his tall form was already to be seen slowly disappearing across +the darkening common--and this long and singular interview was at an +end. + +Mary in her turn hurried home, and all that had passed seemed to her +recollection but as a bewildering dream, when she found herself once +more in the quiet library, officiating for the last time at the tea +table, which with the hissing urn, she found standing ready awaiting her +return. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + They grew in beauty, side by side, + They filled one house with glee, + Their _homes_ are severed far and wide, + By mount and stream and sea. + + HEMANS. + + + Pure girl! thy tender presence + Has an unconscious ministry to me, + And near thee, in the night that shrouds me still, + My darkness is forgotten. + + WILLIS. + + +The good old couple, awakened from their refreshing slumber, had already +sent a servant in search of their missing niece, wondering a little what +could keep her out so late upon this last night at Glan Pennant, after +a day of such fatigue, and the eve of her long journey. + +But Mary told them that she had been detained talking to Mr. Temple, +whom she had met upon the hill, and they were glad that she had seen +him, little devising all that parting interview had comprised, or they +might not have been quite so well satisfied with the part their niece +had taken therein. For it being their chief anxiety to see this last +remaining niece well settled in life, now that the critical and +uncertain circumstances of the family affairs rendered some secure +provision so desirable, and their matter of fact perceptions leading +them to regard Mr. Temple in the light of a very exemplary clergyman, of +comfortable means--and judging from his gentlemanly carriage and +superior conversation, more than from his own profession, or other +guarantee--of good family and birth; they had often thought, and even +ventured to express in words to each other, what a good husband he +would make for their quiet Mary, whose tastes and qualities--judging +from the same simple-minded rule of observation, which never saw ought +beyond the surface of appearance or boundary of circumstances--the good +old couple interpreted, were exactly those befitting her for the +vocation to be thereby entailed upon her, namely, that of clergyman's +wife, an inference which we have seen from our heroine's own confessions +that evening, to have been by no means correctly drawn. + +Mary Seaham's four sisters had been severally disposed of in marriage, +since by the death of their father, the charge of the orphan daughters +had devolved upon them. The eldest in every way--as the eldest daughter +of a family is often seen to do--most to the entire approval and +satisfaction of her friends. + +The superior advantages of a girl's introduction into the world, under +the care and superintendence of sensible and estimable parents, had +distinguished her opening career above those of her other sisters, and +she had been engaged before her father's death to Lord Everingham--whom +she subsequently married--a nobleman of high worth and distinction, at +this time holding a considerable post in India. + +Alice, the second daughter, a few years after, became the wife of Mr. +Gillespie, a Scotch lawyer, with whom she had become acquainted whilst +visiting some friends in Scotland, and he being a widower, with children +already provided for her care, to whose number she had duly added, her's +had proved no sinecure undertaking. But laudably had she fulfilled the +destiny appointed her, devoting herself in her still youthful years +without a murmur or backward look of regret to the life of comparative +drudgery which this choice of a husband had entailed upon her--a course +of life to which sneerers may be ready to apply the slighting axiom of +Iago, + + "To suckle fools and chronicle small beer;" + +but which nevertheless, when thus accomplished, may be accounted one of +the most honourable a woman can fulfil, the one perhaps best meriting +that commendation which the faithful workers in this world's vineyard +shall receive at the last day. "Well done, thou good and faithful +servant," &c., and though some might have fancied, at the time that +Alice Seaham, with her refined tastes, and somewhat superior +qualifications, was entering on a vocation she was ill fitted to +sustain, either with pleasure or profit to herself or others, it +surprised them to find how little these characteristics stood in the way +of her usefulness, capability, or perfect contentment in the part she +was called upon to act on this life's theatre--that part which devolves +on the wife of a professional man, with an increasing family, and +limited income. How far more usefully and happily employed for herself +and others were those refined tastes, and those superior qualifications, +though thus adapted, like the beautiful plants and products of the +foreign climes, to the common uses and necessities of mankind, than if +suffered to expand and expend themselves upon the leafless desert, in +selfish, listless, idle inefficiency, often preying morbidly on their +own resources for lack of legitimate exercise or healthful outlet--those +very tastes and qualifications, proving oftener a curse and a reproach, +than a blessing and an ornament to their possessor. For woman's strength +and honour lie in her heart, in her affections, in the duties which from +them devolve; if she lean upon her own understanding, trusts to the +resources of her mind, or intellect, she leans on a broken reed, she +makes for herself broken cisterns which can hold no water. + + * * * * * + +Selina Seaham, the third daughter, and the beauty of the family, only +one year before the marriage celebrated on the day in question, +consulted the inclinations of her own heart, rather than the prudent +wishes of her friends, and gave her hand to an officer, who had +immediately after left England to join his regiment in India with his +bride; and then the two younger sisters had remained together at Glan +Pennant without any seeming prospect of such speedy disseverment as had +since occurred, till some months after, Sir Hugh Morgan, the great man +of those parts, to the astonishment of all, proposed to the youngest +Miss Seaham and was accepted; he being her senior by some +five-and-twenty years. And though he had ever been on very intimate and +friendly terms with the family, had not shown any tendency that way +since the time, when, on the Seahams first coming to settle in the +neighbourhood, after their father's death--Mr. Seaham having absented +himself from Glan Pennant for some years, for the education of his +daughters--Sir Hugh Morgan made an offer of his hand to the eldest +daughter, and finding himself at fault, she being engaged at the very +time to Lord Everingham, oddly overlooked the precedence of the genius +and the beauty amongst the sisters, and transferred his offer of a place +in his hard-named pedigree to the startled Mary, then a girl of scarcely +seventeen. But though a man of much honest worth, not to speak of the +worldly recommendations of the match, the proposal produced no effect +upon the mind of the unambitious maiden, but surprise and repugnance. + + "And she refused him, though her aunt did say, + 'Twas an advantage she had thrown away. + (He an advantage!) That she'd live to rue it." + +Whether or not, she had reason for repentance on this score, may cause, +amongst those who follow her future history a difference of opinion. +But certain it is, that with not a pang of envious regret on her own +account, had she seen her young and blooming sister, Agnes, give her +hand that morning, five years after the event of her refusal to the same +excellent man, the only disagreeable feeling the occasion excited in her +mind being, the difficulty of reconciling herself to the idea, that her +dear, pretty, young sister Aggy, should so cheerfully acquiesce in a +fate which had once raised in her own mind such unqualified +disinclination. + +But then she was the only individual in the world, who did not think the +fair bride the luckiest creature in the world, and the wisest. + +"Who but a fool like me, they think, no doubt," mused Mary Seaham, with +a humble sigh, "would have rejected such an advantage as they seem to +consider it. True, I was only seventeen at the time, but am I wiser at +twenty-one? to-night's experience has well shown forth." And she +remembered a certain fable which had composed a portion of her +childhood's lessons, 'The dog and the shadow,' and smiled in very scorn +and derision at her own puerility. + +But alas! there are shadows which our wild and wilful imaginations have +conjured up which, scorn and deride them as we may, are destined to cast +a darkening influence on our future destinies. + + "Our fatal shadows that walk by us still;" + +to become, in fact, a substance--a reality--from which we would often +fain be able to awake and say: it was a dream. + + "Grant us not the ill we ask--in very love refuse-- + That which we know, our weakness would abuse." + +But it is as well, perhaps, to retrograde, in order to relate the +incident which some years ago had cast its beguiling shadows upon the +pure stream of our heroine's young existence. She was scarcely sixteen, +when, under the _chaperonage_ of her sister, Lady Everingham, then a +bride, she had found herself at the summer fête, given by the father of +her cousin, Mr. de Burgh's beautiful betrothed. Lady Everingham was +taken ill soon after her arrival, and returned home with her husband, +leaving her young sister under the nominal care of her cousin, Louis de +Burgh, and his _fiancée_ (the queen of that day's revels), who had, with +the most eager kindness, taken upon themselves the charge, but as may be +naturally supposed were but far too much better employed to carry out +their good intentions, so that Mary, having for some little time kept +near them, feeling very greatly _de trop_, being at length divided for +an instant from their side, saw the lovers, when next in view, disappear +together within the shade of a _bosquet_, and she left alone amidst +these few strangers, and indifferent friends, who happened to be near +the spot. + +Her youth and timidity made this situation of itself one of sufficient +embarrassment to her feelings, there being none with whom she felt such +a degree of intimacy or acquaintance as gave her courage to claim their +protection or companionship, but when these even began to drop off by +degrees from the parterre, wherein a portion of the company had +assembled, and the last lady had eventually departed without her having +the courage to follow in her train, poor Mary's distress was at its +climax. Only a group, composed of several gentlemen, with not one of +whom she was in any way acquainted, remained behind. + +The solitary position in which she found herself, causing her to become +a conspicuous object, the timid, though not awkward embarrassment of the +young girl as she stood irresolute, whether to remain or to retire, +attracted the attention of the party. They all looked at her, one or two +exchanged smiles which poor Mary, was very quick to interpret into those +of amusement and derision; and crimsoning to the temples, she was +preparing to glide away in desperate search of her cousin, when out of +that very group from whose fancied satire she was so anxious to escape, +a gentleman stepped forward and politely addressed her. + +He was afraid that she had lost her friends; could he in any way assist +her? She thanked him, and hesitatingly murmured the names of her cousin +and his bride elect. But this seemed sufficient explanation to the +gentleman, with regard to the situation to which he found the young lady +exposed. He smiled good-naturedly--feared she must not find fault with +any deficiency in _their chaperonage_ just now; and begged her to accept +his arm, and avail herself of his escort until she could be restored to +the runaways. The speaker was young and handsome. Mary Seaham looked up +gratefully into the dark eyes bent down so kindly upon her. The tone in +which he mentioned her cousin seemed to denote that an intimacy existed +between them. But setting aside these considerations, there was no +prudery in that young and innocent heart. She placed her arm within that +of the stranger's with the _naïve_ and simple confidence of a child, and +suffered him to lead her away from the scene of her discomfiture. + +Neither did he seem in any hurry to relieve himself of the charge he had +undertaken, for though he met and spoke to many lady friends, to whose +care he might, had he desired it, have committed Mary, he did not avail +himself of the opportunity but still continued to conduct her here and +there--finding she was a stranger to the beautiful domain--to every spot +considered worthy of interest and admiration, seeming himself pleased, +and interested by the gentle intelligent delight, with which his young +companion--now that she was happy and at ease--entered into the spirit +of everything around her; her first shyness wearing away, and her +innocent re-assurance, being still more effectually established after +an encounter with her cousin and his intended. The enamoured pair, +reminded, for the first time of the charge they had neglected, by the +sight of Mary, if they looked a little surprised at first, to see her +thus accompanied, were evidently relieved by finding her in any way +happily disposed of; and when playfully attacked by her protector for +having so unfaithfully fulfilled their office to his fair charge, they +answered in the same tone that Miss Seaham could not have found a better +_chaperon_ than her present companion. And then the handsome lovers, a +more graceful pair at that time could not have been found, gaily kissed +their hands, and pursued their flowery path--a path in which there +surely seemed as yet to lurk no thorn. + + "It was the time of roses, + They plucked them as they passed." + +Thus again, left standing alone together, Mary's companion looked at her +and smiled. Mary too smiled, but she blushed also and said: "You see +they will not take me off your hands; pray do not let me be in your way, +but take me to some lady of your acquaintance, who will doubtless let me +stay by her side." + +"Not for the world!" was the earnest rejoinder, "at least if you are not +tired of my society. Dinner--to which you must allow me the pleasure of +conducting you--must," he added, looking at his watch, "soon be ready; +till then, let me show you the aviary." + +And again he offered his arm, and led her in that direction. After +which, as she owned at last to feeling a little tired, they seated +themselves in the pavilion, where others of the company were assembled, +awaiting the banquet to be given in the house. There was one peculiarity +about her companion which impressed Mary at the time. + +Though animated and lively in his manner and discourse when he did +speak, his words were not many, whilst on the contrary the earnest, +thoughtful interest with which he seemed to listen to every sentence +proceeding from her mouth, trivial and simple as she considered them +herself to be, at the same time as it encouraged and irresistibly +flattered her modest pride, made her, nevertheless, wonder, and once or +twice look up inquiringly into the dark eyes bent down so earnestly upon +her face, as she gave utterance to any opinion or remark, as if to +discover from what reason this might proceed. + +She could not tell what attraction there often is in the simple-minded, +guileless nature of a youthful being like herself, to the man plunged in +the cares and passions of maturer years, and though Eugene Trevor, at +that time was young--not more than five and twenty--a more experienced +eye than Mary's might have discerned, _that_ stamped upon his +countenance, which told him to be, even then, no stranger to those dark +storms of passion, or of secret sin which, sweeping over man's breast, +blight before its time the freshness, health, and purity of youth. + +But how could Mary Seaham read all this? how should her guileless spirit +divine the wild, dark thoughts--the sinful purposes, unspeakable, +unspoken, which must even at that very time, like so many demons, have +been working, suggesting, forming themselves within the soul of him who +thus was seated by her unsuspecting side? And well for all of us, that +thus it must ever be-- + + "For what if Heaven for once its searching light + Lent to some partial eye, disclosing all + The rude bad thoughts that in our bosoms' night + Wander at large, nor heed Love's gentle thrall; + Who would not shun the dreary uncouth place, + As if, fond leaning where her infant slept, + A mother's arm a serpent should embrace; + So might we friendless live--and die unblest." + + * * * * * + +Yet Mary need not have wondered, even had it been given her, to look in +less partial light upon the being who by his kindness and other +fascinating qualities had so propitiated her sensitive, susceptible +young heart. + +Must the little brooklet wonder if the heated traveller, passing +fiercely on his dusty way beneath the noon-day summer sun, consumed with +inward fever and parching thirst; should turn with grateful delight to +kneel and bow his head over its cool and limpid waters, blessing +unawares the source of such pure refreshment. + +But then, alas! he rises like a giant refreshed to pursue his course of +ambition, pleasure, sin to whichever of these that course may tend; and +what more does he think of that clear, pure stream, when quaffing freely +of those turbid waters, from which at length the fevered votary is fain +to slake his fiery thirst? + +And thou silly stream, to retain so long the softened shadow of that +dark image, which for one brief minute had been reflected on thy limpid +bosom! + + * * * * * + +It was then five years since the period of the little episode we have +retrograded to relate, five years which had softly glided over Mary +Seaham's head, in the almost uninterrupted retirement of her mountain +home, and the simple enjoyments and pursuits this existence provided. +Five years, which at her happy hopeful period of life, adds, oftener +than detracts, from each charm either of mind or person--when, under +such untried circumstances, the heart springs forward upon the wings of +hope with freshness yet undiminished, and vigour unabated. + +It was then between five and six years after, that Mary Seaham, on a +summer eve found herself approaching her cousin's house in ----, which +place she had last visited with her sister, Lady Everingham, and from +thence repaired to that fête which had proved no unimportant incident in +her life. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + Then came the yearning of the exile's breast, + The haunting sound of voices far away, + And household steps. + + HEMANS. + + +Silverton was a fine estate, and though the country in which it was +situated was tame and unlovely in comparison with that to which she had +been for so long accustomed, yet Mary Seaham was not so inveterate a +mountaineer that she could look, as I know many do, upon the different +aspect of the mother country, with the eye of utter aversion and +distaste, and though she could not perhaps have gone so far as to agree +with old Evelyn when he, asserts Salisbury plain to be in his opinion, +the part of Great Britain most worthy of admiration, yet for the gaze to +be able to stretch unbounded over a level tract of cultivated land after +having been long imprisoned within the massive confines of a mountainous +district, she was not ashamed to own, there may be a certain degree of +pleasurable relief. + +But as may be supposed, any very critical survey of surrounding objects +was at an end, when with that degree of nervousness ever more or less +attending an arrival of this kind, she drew near the place of her +destination in the carriage which had been sent to meet her. There was +no one to receive her at the door when she alighted, but the servants, +and its being near the dinner-hour, Mary concluded her cousins to have +retired to their dressing-rooms. On making inquiries, however, to that +effect she was informed that Mrs. de Burgh had not yet returned from her +drive, and Mr. de Burgh was also from home. + +Mary therefore accepted the offer of the civil domestic to be shown to +the room prepared for her, and retired thither, not sorry to be able to +rest awhile, after the fatigues of her long journey before a meeting +with her relatives. Perhaps her spirits might be a little damped by the +reception, or rather _non_-reception she had met with. + +There is so much importance attached to a warm welcome, by those not +well initiated in the careless frigidities of general society, that the +very sensitive and inexperienced are often more chilled by any such +accidental or habitual infringements on this score, than the occasion +really requires. + +We grow wiser or harder as we pass farther through the world, and learn +to look upon it no longer as one large home of loving hearts, such as +some may have accounted it; but a stage on which every man is too intent +to play his own individual part, to have much respect for these minor +charities of social life--the word, the look of kindness, of affection +which to the sensitive and unworldly spirit are often of higher +price--contribute more to make up the sum of mortal happiness, than the +most generous deed, or striking act of beneficence. We grow as we have +before said, wiser or more callous, as we pass on through this world of +our's--learn to see upon what principle society is founded, and cease to +shrink chilled, and wounded, before each touch which falls coldly upon +the warm surface of our too _exigente_ heart--each unsympathetic glance +which meets our wistful gaze. + +Mary Seaham sat down by her window, which commanded a view of the +carriage road, through the park, to watch for the return of her cousin's +wife. + +The evening was lovely, and she could not feel astonished that Mrs. de +Burgh should have prolonged her drive. A cool freshness had succeeded +the sultriness of the day, and she had perhaps not gone out till late. + +The scene too on which Mary looked was pleasant and refreshing to the +eye. The wide park with its troop of spotted deer, herding for the night +beneath the luxuriant foliage of the trees, which in rich clumps or +single majesty were scattered thickly over the demesne, gilded by the +still bright but softened sunbeams. + +But Mary Seaham was not quite able to enter into the enjoyment, which at +any other time would have been amply afforded her. + +She raised her eyes and began to feel a regretful longing for the +sun-gilt or cloud capped mountains, which for so long had met her gaze, +towering above the highest tree-tops of the Glan Pennant gardens--and +then a sense of strangeness and desolation came creeping over her +feelings. + +For the first time she seemed to realize the true nature of her present +position--and the sight of some labourers, wending their way across the +by-paths from their daily toil, tended to bring her gathering sadness to +a crisis. + +"They are going home," she murmured, and a few tears stole gently down +her cheeks. Then she thought of her sisters--the youngest, in +particular, as most lately and intimately associated with her in +sympathy and companionship, now so far divided, not only by distance, +but by the different ties and interests of her new estate; and then +occurred to her the words she had so lately heard. + +"Do you think you will find your cousin's house agreeable to you?" and +she began to ask herself that question too, though not for the same +reason, which had suggested the question to Mr. Temple--not lest it +might prove too gay and worldly for her tastes and inclination, but by +reason of the loneliness she might therein experience--that worst of +loneliness--the loneliness of the heart, or,-- + + "She might meet with kindness and be lonely still, + For gratitude is not companionship." + +Why then had she come here, would not her sister Alice, have gladly +opened her doors to receive her? And all the comparative inconvenience +and discomfort of that arrangement, seemed to melt into insignificance +before the other attractions of the picture suddenly conjured up. A +sister's warm, and earnest welcome--the familiar family voice which +would have greeted her, the tone of which at once would have made her +feel at home, though in a strange land, amongst unfamiliar scenes and +personages, whilst even the noisy delight of half-a-dozen nephews, and +nieces, which would have celebrated her arrival, came before her +fancy--as she sat in her silent solitary grandeur--in most alluring +contrast with her present undemonstrative, though luxurious reception. + +But no! she had been attracted by the urgent and pressing desire +expressed in the letters of her cousins, to make their house her home +until the return of her brother to England, and there had been something +in the impression she had received, or the associations connected with +her memories of those relatives, that had moved her, perhaps with little +reflection, to embrace the offer. + +But now she is thinking on the fête of six years ago--of the urgent +alacrity with which her cousin and his beautiful intended had then +volunteered their protection and support, and their subsequent neglect +and abandonment. Might not this incident be a type of what she had to +expect, under her present circumstances? + +She did not even, in this mood of dark imagining to which she had +yielded herself, carry her thoughts beyond the point of her discomfiture +on that occasion, or she might perhaps have had some dream analogous to +the sequel, conjured up to brighten the gloom of her present +anticipations. + +But dreams of any nature came not just then to her relief. She had never +felt so wide awake to dull reality, unrelieved but by the meek +philosophy with which she determined to make the best of everything +relating to her present position, cheerfully and contentedly to submit +herself to existing circumstances, keeping ever in view for her comfort +the expected return of her much-loved brother from Canada, when whatever +turn their fortunes might have taken, "for better or for worse, for +richer or for poorer," so that brother wrote, the cherished picture of +their early youth, might still be realized, and a home provided for his +favourite sister, which at least would make her independent of the cold +and heartless people of the world, till she found or desired a dearer or +a better. + + "Two things are left me for my destiny: + A world to rove o'er, and a home with thee." + + * * * * * + +Mary Seaham had just arrived at this point of her meditations, when her +maid returned to say that Mr. de Burgh was in the house dressing for +dinner, and to inquire whether her young lady would not do the same. +Mrs. de Burgh had not come home, but it was already past the usual +dinner hour. + +Miss Seaham proceeded accordingly to make the simple toilette she +thought suited to the occasion, for she learnt from her maid that there +was no company staying in the house, and then she determined to go down +stairs, to have at least her interview over with her cousin Louis, +whilst awaiting the arrival of her tardy hostess. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + Alas! when angry words begin + Their entrance on the lip to win; + When sullen eye and flushing cheek + Say more than bitterest tone could speak, + And look and word, than fire or steel, + Give wounds more deep--time cannot heal; + And anger digs, with tauntings vain, + A gulf it may not pass again. + + L. E. L. + + +Two little children--a fine girl of four and a delicate boy of +three--were passing from the drawing-room, through the vestibule on +their way to bed followed by a nurse. Mary Seaham would have stopped to +make the acquaintance of her little cousins, but too eager in their +amusement, the noisy chase of one another through the long _suite_ of +rooms, they, like Jaques's careless herd, "jump along by her and never +stay to greet her," in spite of the chiding injunctions of their +attendant, to wait and speak to the young lady. And Mary walked on into +the adjoining saloon. + +There she found Mr. de Burgh standing alone, his elbow resting on the +marble mantelpiece of the fireless grate, his eyes gazing fixedly +through the opposite window. + +He did not hear her noiseless approach over the velvet carpet; and she +had time at the same moment that she recognized the unchanged, almost +feminine beauty, of her cousin's handsome features, to remark no very +promising expression, namely, one of dissatisfaction and annoyance, to +be now seated on his countenance. It, however, brightened +instantaneously, when he became aware of Mary's presence; and with the +most affectionate cordiality, he advanced to meet and welcome her to +his house. Then seating her on an ottoman by his side, he made anxious +inquiries as to her journey and the wedding of her sister, slightly +touching upon other family matters, in which, as guardian and trustee to +his young cousins, he was concerned. And thus, for awhile, his attention +and thoughts seemed diverted from any previous cause of discontent. But +his powers of interest or politeness seemed at length exhausted. He +became evidently restless and fidgetty, cast sundry impatient, or as +Mary was more likely to interpret them, anxious glances towards the +window which commanded the same view across the park as she had been +lately contemplating, and finally rising from his seat, resumed his +former station near the chimney-piece, to watch, as Mary concluded, for +the arrival of his truant lady. + +Mr. de Burgh had only alluded to his wife's absence during their +conversation, by casually mentioning her not having returned from her +drive; but Mary Seaham, after noticing with rising sympathy and +compassion, the increasing perturbation of her cousin's countenance, and +naturally attributing its origin to the tender solicitation of an +adoring husband, ventured, after a few minute's silence, in which Mr. de +Burgh had been too much absorbed in his own feelings for common +discourse, to express in her gentle voice, the hope, that he was not +uneasy at her cousin Olivia's remaining out so late. + +"Uneasy? Oh no!" Mr. de Burgh exclaimed, aroused by the question, and +turning to the speaker with a careless laugh, "Oh, no, not in the least +uneasy! I suppose I shall have the pleasure of seeing her back between +this and bed-time. Oh no! My present cause of uneasiness is merely at +the thought that the dinner--for which about an hour ago I had +considerable appetite--must be, by this time, fit only for the dogs to +eat: and, also, that you"--he added, softening his voice of irony into +one of kind concern, observing probably, that his cousin looked pale, +grave, and exhausted, "that you, after your long journey, must be quite +faint for want of nourishment; but it is just like her," he continued, +in soliloquy, hastily walking to the window, "selfish, inconsiderate, +careless of everybody, everything, but her own pleasure and amusement. +But at all events," he added, "we'll have dinner, such as it is," and +approaching the bell, he rang it impatiently, and desired that the +dinner should be immediately served. + +If Mary Seaham had looked pale and serious before, she was ten times +more so after what she had heard. This outbreak of her cousin took her +so by surprise. The bitter words he had spoken with regard to his wife, +were in such direct unconformity, not only with anything she had been +accustomed to hear from one relative towards another, but, also, with +the picture her imagination had previously formed of the mutual +happiness and affection of the married pair with whom she had come to +sojourn. She looked back to the devoted lovers in their wanderings +through the flowery paths of courtship, devotion she had believed to be +but a faint fore-shadowing of the full-crowned sacred bliss, the +well-tried love, of a six years' union, such as she had expected it +would be now her lot to witness. But those disdainful expressions, this +disparaging declamation, came like an icy wreath upon her warm +imaginings. + +"Selfish!" "Inconsiderate!" Could her cousin's beautiful wife really +merit such a character? Or was the accusation merely the casual effusion +of a hungry husband's fretful humour. If this were not the case, it +spoke indeed little for her own chance of comfort as that lady's guest. +Still she was far less affected by any selfish interested consideration, +than by the shock her inherent principles and preconceived ideas upon +the subject had received. + +Louis de Burgh remained too much engaged with his own inward +dissatisfaction, for any further conversation; consequently, no more +words were spoken till dinner was announced, and then her cousin's arm, +with something of revived cheerfulness, was offered to her, and they +proceeded to the dining-room. + +They were seated _tête-à-tête_ at the table, and had not proceeded half +way through the meal, which was far from justifying Mr. de Burgh's +unpromising prognostications, when the sound of carriage wheels was +heard, and a loud peal at the door bell denoted the expected arrival. + +Mr. de Burgh made no demonstration of interest or excitement, but +continued the occupation in which he was now pleasantly engaged in +uninterrupted indifference. Mary, on the contrary, felt no slight degree +of nervous trepidation, and laying down her knife and fork, awaited in +anxious suspense the entrance of her other cousin. + +In less than an instant, Mrs. de Burgh, in carriage costume, made her +appearance followed by a gentleman. + +"Well, here we are at last," she exclaimed, rushing in with careless +abruptness, "and Mary arrived, I declare!" she added, with immediate +change of tone, "well, I _am_ shocked! I really had imagined that you +could not be here till nightfall. But welcome a thousand times!" she +continued, advancing with extended hands, and embracing her with an +affectionate warmth which almost brought tears into Mary's eyes. + +"The fact is," she continued after a few other inquiries, and having +thrown her bonnet aside, and put back the ringlets from her +face--flushed and heated to a very brilliant hue by the exertions of a +hurried drive--she seated herself to partake of the dinner reproduced +for herself and her companion. "The fact is, I have really been engaged +in your service, for feeling sure you would be horrified to come out of +the wilds of Wales, to find us here in as stupid and uncivilized a state +of reclusiveness as any of the natives of Kamschatka--though, for what +I know," she parenthesized with a laugh, "_they_ may have much more +society of their kind--feeling sure, however, of the dullness of this +place, I determined to drive my ponies as far as Morland, and see if I +could beat up a few recruits from the party assembled there, for your +enlivenment." + +Mary smiled and blushed, hardly knowing how to answer this speech. + +"_I_ am a person," continued Mrs. de Burgh, "who _can_ exert myself a +little for the sake of my friends--who _am_ willing to take some slight +trouble, unconnected with my own tastes and inclinations; to consider +that a young lady _may_ possibly require a little more amusement than +seeing trees cut down--a little more society than a man, his wife and +two children." + +Mary remarked the flashing eyes of Mrs. de Burgh directed towards her +husband, as she made this latter speech with much of marked +significance in her look and tone; and with the very contradictory +charges brought against the absent wife by Mr. de Burgh fresh in her +memory, she would, if she had deemed it smiling matter, have been +inclined to smile to see the table thus turned upon him. + +Perhaps her cousin was not himself quite unimpressed or unconvicted in +his conscience by the unconscious retort, for colouring slightly, and +for the first time directly addressing his wife since her entrance, +though he had entered into some conversation with the gentleman by his +side, he said with a not ill-natured, though somewhat provoking laugh, +which nevertheless displayed to great advantage his set of ivory teeth. + +"Well, Olivia, pray, the next time let your _unselfish consideration_," +with a stress on the latter words, "be a little more considerately +timed. To keep a tired guest waiting for her dinner till nearly nine +o'clock--for you knew as well as I did, that she was sure to arrive +before seven--whilst you are scouring the country in search of people to +say pretty things to her on the morrow, is a specimen of attentive +consideration, which at least was not dreamt of before in my +philosophy." + +"No of course not," was the contemptuous reply, "though perhaps Mary +Seaham may see the circumstance in a different light, supposing that +dinner, as she is a reasonable being, is not quite so important and +paramount a point in her existence as in yours. But why you waited for +me I cannot tell. You are not usually so painfully polite. I suppose you +wanted to show off to the utmost, the great inconsideration which marks +my conduct towards yourself and others, and the excessive consideration +of your own." + +How distressing and astounding all this was to Mary's feelings may be +imagined, more especially from being herself made so prominent an object +in the debate. + +In the first agitation of the meeting, what with the grateful and +gratified surprise which the unexpected warmth of her reception had +inspired, and subsequently her attention and interest being so much +absorbed by her newly arrived cousin, on whose unchanged beauty she +could not refrain from dwelling in unfeigned admiration--her opposite +neighbour who sat with his back to the now declining light had almost +entirely escaped her notice; but now, as with downcast eyes and flushing +cheeks, she sat listening in painful embarrassment to this conjugal +_tirade_, it occurred to her to lift a timid glance to discern how her +fellow-sufferer bore the infliction to which they were mutually exposed. +She raised her eyes, therefore, and having done so, that very timid +glance was rivetted, and became gradually changed into a gaze of +earnest, calm surprise, for as she gazed the indistinctness of the +vision seemed to clear away, and the face of him whose kindness had been +once so strongly impressed upon her girlish fancy to be revealed to her +astonished sight. + +The same dark eyes fixed with interest upon her changeful countenance, +that very same peculiar smile which he had turned towards her, when they +were left standing alone together on the occasion of her second +_cavalier_ abandonment, by the self-absorbed lovers--seemed to mark his +observation of the discomfiture which the startling contrast now +exhibited had caused her. A smile--such as moves one to look again, and +observe with curious interest the countenance from whence it +emanates--in much the same way as one would look upon a book of strange +characters, whose mystic language we feel certain could we but read it +aright, would unto us a tale unfold of more than common import. + +But, setting aside the interest which this unexpected recognition +inspired--the encouragement that smile, as on the former occasion just +mentioned, tended to convey--Mary Seaham felt--considering the many +secret thoughts and feelings which in her idle moments she had once +wasted on this--the almost, it might be said, ideal hero of her +imagination--wonderfully little affected by the fact of his real +substantial embodiment--not more so perhaps, than one might be who +awakens from a series of fanciful dreams to see the object who has +played therein the most fantastic and highly coloured part, standing, +divested of all supernatural and exaggerated characteristics, before his +eyes; and with a smile, almost as quiet and confiding as the one with +which she had yielded herself to his guidance six years before in the +grounds of Morland, she had acknowledged the recognition, ere Mrs. de +Burgh, after an angry pause and a killing glance across the +table--provoked by her husband's mortifying contradiction of her +assertion respecting the knowledge she had entertained of the hour of +her guest's arrival (a glance which was probably intended to convey to +his conviction how extremely odious an individual she deemed +him)--recovered sufficiently to proceed with her relation in the same +lively strain. + +"I was not very successful," she continued. "Of course, every body is in +London; however, I have the promise of a reinforcement in a day or two. +In the meantime, determined not to return empty-handed, I pressed this +gentleman--whom I found just about to start homewards--into my service, +and brought him--I cannot say a willing captive--chained to my +triumphant car. Nay, I am glad you are beginning to be ashamed of your +conduct," she added, as the accused party, looking at Mary, attempted a +smiling refutation of the charge. + +"Ah, yes, we will imagine what you would bring forth as your +excuse--that you did not expect _such_ a young lady, for you know I told +you there _was_ a young lady in the case, that you cannot deny. Well, +Mary and I will forgive you, now you are here, if you will only stay, +and withal--make yourself extremely agreeable--but, bye the bye, I ought +to introduce you to one another--how very forgetful of me! Miss Mary +Seaham or rather Miss Seaham now, I believe I should say--Eugene +Trevor." + +And Mary Seaham and Eugene Trevor exchanged another smile, as they +slightly bent their heads in acknowledgement of the ceremony, but both +at the same time murmuring their declaration of a previous acquaintance. + +"Indeed!" exclaimed Mrs. de Burgh, with some surprise, "when and where +could you have possibly met?" + +"You forget the fête at Morland, when you so cruelly abandoned Miss +Seaham to her fate, whilst you and Louis," with a little covered malice +in his tone, "went love-making." + +"Ah! to be sure, I do remember something of the kind," rejoined Mrs. de +Burgh, "that is to say, of you two being together, but that is so very +long ago," she added, in a tone of marked carelessness, and glancing at +her husband. + +"Not quite six years," said Mary. + +"_Only_ six years!" interposed Mr. de Burgh, blandly, "I should have +imagined it sixteen." + +"And I too," rejoined the wife colouring; "but at any rate," she +continued, with affected carelessness, "it has been quite long enough to +have almost effaced from my mind the impression--almost the recollection +of things then existing--you two it seems," glancing from Mary to Mr. +Trevor, "have better memories." + +Mr. de Burgh retorted with a beautiful smile; that the tablets of their +memories had happily been kept apart during that interregnum, that there +was nothing like six years of close contact for rubbing out old +impressions. + +"And then in that space of time," he added, probably with more secret +meaning than the not very original remark expressed, "and then in six +years, a great deal of change may have taken place." + +"A great deal indeed!" was almost unconsciously echoed by Mary's lips, +as her thoughts silently wandered over the domestic changes and family +events which coloured her reminiscences of that intervening period, +whilst from the soft pensive expression which stole over her +countenance, it might have seemed that it was more a soothing relief to +take refuge from "the strife of tongues" in the private sanctuary of +thought thus suggested, than that any very sharp pang of sadness or +regret was roused by this reflection. + +"A great deal certainly!" had echoed instinctively from Eugene Trevor's +lips. But why has the smile with which he lightly commenced the words, +faded away like a gleam of sunshine, from the dark hill side, ere they +died upon his lips, what were the suggested thoughts, the awakened +recollections he would have wished diverted? What record did the history +of these six years inscribe on the tablets of his memory? + +What ever it might be, he did not pause to contemplate it long; but +pouring himself out a glass of wine, drank it down hastily, as if the +ruddy draught could wash away the unrepented sin; the unatoned iniquity +of his secret soul--then looked and spoke as unconsciously as before. + +"Each mind has indeed," as it has been ably written, "an interior +apartment into which none but itself and the divinity can enter. In this +secluded place, the passions fluctuate and mingle in unknown agitation. +Here all the fantastic, and all the tragic shapes of imagination have a +haunt--where they can neither be invaded or discerned. Here projects, +convictions, vows, are confusedly scattered, and the records of past +life are laid; and here in solitary state, sits conscience surrounded by +her own thunders which sometimes sleep, and sometimes roar, while the +world knows it not." + +We said or quoted something to the same effect in a preceding chapter, +and added--that it was well that it should be so. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + There are some moments in our fate + That stamp the colour of our days. + + And mine was sealed in the slight gaze + Which fixed my eye, and fired my brain, + And bowed my head beneath the chain. + + L. E. L. + + +Mrs. de Burgh soon after led Mary to the drawing-room, when all that was +kind and affectionate, and calculated to reassure her young guest's +mind, with regard to her previously conceived misgivings, was expressed +by the former lady. + +They were, however--owing probably to the lateness of the hour, soon +joined by the gentlemen. + +Mr. de Burgh immediately sat down by his cousin's side, and, as if with +the intention of making himself more thoroughly agreeable than +circumstances had previously permitted, he entered into animated +discourse, in which, finding Mary perfectly able to sustain a competent +and intelligent part, he had speedily passed from the merits and beauty +of his children, and such like natural easy points of discussion, to +some improvements in the grounds, in which his interest seemed to be at +present much engrossed, showing more scientific and general information +on the whole than she had previously conceived him to possess;--he, +appearing on his part pleased to find so willing and intelligent a +listener in his young lady cousin. + +Mrs. de Burgh in the meantime had, soon after the conversation commenced +between them, called Eugene Trevor away to the open window, and +conversed with him at intervals in a low, confidential voice, whilst +turning over a pile of new music lying on the ottoman by her side. + +At last she called out to Mary, and asked her if she sung. + +Mary replied in the negative, but remembering well the beautiful voice +possessed by Mrs. de Burgh before her marriage, she rose with glad +alacrity to solicit a song from her. + +Mrs. de Burgh, whose question probably had been but a note of +preparation for her own projected performance, smiled compliance with +the request, and proceeded to the piano, whilst Mary, ensconcing herself +in a quiet nook between the piano and window, yielded her senses to the +soothing enjoyment which poetry and melody conjoined always afforded +them; and Mrs. de Burgh sung that evening only English songs, with a +beauty and pathos perfectly enchanting. + + "My spirit like a charmed bark doth swim + Upon the liquid waves of thy sweet singing, + Far away into the regions dim of rapture, + As a boat with swift sail winging + Its way adown some many-winding river." + +Many an evening Mary sat in that same place, and listened with +never-tiring pleasure to the same delightful songs, but never perhaps +with such pure, unmingled pleasure as had this sweet music on the +present occasion inspired her. + + "Softest grave of a thousand fears, + Where their mother care, like a drowsy child, + Is laid asleep in flowers." + +Once, at the close of a peculiarly beautiful ballad, she lifted up her +eyes, those "down-falling eyes, full of dreams and slumber," now gemmed +with a delicious tear, to encounter the dark orbs of Eugene Trevor, as +he stood shaded from the light, in the deep embrasure of the window. + +"You are very fond of music," he said, coming forward with a smile, on +finding his earnest gaze thus discovered. + +"Oh, very fond indeed!" Mary replied, with a low sigh, which marked +perhaps the spell of musical enchantment to have been broken by the +question, or it may be--the moment when some other power first fell upon +her spirit. + + "Though who can tell + What time the angel passed who left the spell?" + +"Very fond indeed," she continued; "but who is there that is not fond of +music?" + +"That man for one," answered Mrs. de Burgh, turning quickly round, and +denoting by her glance "that man" to be Eugene Trevor. "He is not, I can +assure you; he cannot distinguish one note from another--a nightingale's +from a jackdaw's. I believe my singing is the greatest infliction I +could put upon him. Can you deny this?" + +"Oh, if you choose to give me such a character to Miss Seaham, I can +have nothing to say against it, of course. I only hope she will not +judge me accordingly." + +And Eugene Trevor laughed, and looked again at Mary. + +"It is to be hoped not, indeed," chimed in Mr. de Burgh, who, as it +seemed, had become by this time tired of remaining _hors de combat_, in +the back-ground, and now came forward to join the trio; "for does not +Shakespeare say: + + "'The man that hath no music in himself, + Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, + Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; + The motions of his spirit are dull as night, + And his affections dark as Erebus. + Let no such man be trusted--'" + +He just glanced at Eugene Trevor, who, however, did not seem to have +paid any particular attention to this severe commentary on his want of +taste--then, with a smile at Mary, who also smiled most unconsciously +upon his declamation--proceeded to exonerate himself from any share in +such dark imputations, by joining his wife in a duet she placed +carelessly before him on the desk, and in which, for the first time that +evening, Mary had the satisfaction of hearing the voices of the married +pair, blended in notes and tones of harmony and love. + +At its conclusion, Mrs. de Burgh quickly arose, declaring that they had +been very cruel in keeping Mary up so long, and that she must go to bed +immediately. Candles accordingly were lighted, and Mrs. de Burgh, before +wishing Eugene Trevor good night, impressed upon him again, her orders +that he should not desert them on the morrow. + +Mr. Trevor shook his head, saying his father would expect him; but that, +at any rate, he need not go early, so they could talk about it in the +morning, and he shook hands with both ladies in adieu. Mrs. de Burgh +accompanied Mary to her room, where, after lingering a little to see +that she had everything that she could want to minister to her comfort, +she left the pale and now really-wearied traveller to her needful +repose. But though somewhat subdued by bodily fatigue, Mary, having +humbly knelt and lifted up her heart in prayers of devout gratitude for +the mercy which had not only preserved her in safety through her +journey, but "brought her to see her habitation in peace, and find all +things according to her heart's desire," lay down with a mind divested +of much of those gloomy misgivings, which had troubled her spirit on her +first arrival. + +Was it alone the kindness her cousins had shown her that produced this +magic change? Perhaps so, for Mary was just at that age, and more still, +of that disposition when a word--a look--the most imperceptible +influence suffices to change the whole aspect of existence. + + "Even as light + Mounts o'er a cloudy ridge, and all is bright, + From east to west one thrilling ray, + Turning a wintry world to May." + +But she did not long remain awake to analyze her own sensations on the +subject. The echo of Olivia's "sweet" singing seemed to lull her senses +to repose, and she sank asleep to fancy herself again standing with Mr. +Temple on the hill-side heath. + +At first Mr. Temple it seemed to be, till turning, she thought her +companion's form and face had changed into those of Mr. Trevor. And +pain, trouble, and perplexity were the impressions produced by the +circumstance upon her dreamy senses. + +The same hand that had so lately pressed hers so gently on bidding her +"good night," was now in her dream wringing it with the fervent emotion, +which had marked her rejected lover's sorrowful farewell, till finally +she was awakened from her first light slumber, by finding herself +repeating aloud in soliloquy these strangely suggested words: "The voice +is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + Oh! she is guileless as the birds + That sing beside the summer brooks; + With music in her gentle words, + With magic in her winsome looks; + + With kindness like a noiseless spring + That faileth ne'er in heat or cold; + With fancy like the wild dove's wing, + As innocent as it is bold. + + WORDSWORTH. + + +Fortunately for Mary Seaham's health and spirits, the following day, she +was troubled with no more such bewildering dreams throughout the +remainder of that night, and when the bright sun streamed in upon her +through the window, thrown open by her maid, she woke up cheerful and +refreshed. Accustomed at home to early rising, she found herself on +going down stairs--though it was later than her usual hour--the only one +of the party who seemed to have made their appearance. Hearing, however, +children's voices on the lawn, looking from the window of the +breakfast-room which she had entered, she stepped forth, and seeing the +little boy and girl sporting amongst the flowers, she made a more +successful attempt upon their notice than she had done on a previous +occasion. Attracted by her sweet looks, her gentle youthful manner and +appearance, the little people soon accorded to her their full confidence +and favour, and gambolled in her path or led her by the hand to point +out some gay butterfly or beautiful flower, with the same reliance and +satisfaction as they would have bestowed upon a new playfellow or +long-established friend, whilst-- + + "In virgin fearlessness--with step which seemed + Caught from the pressure of elastic turf-- + Upon the mountains gemmed with morning dew, + In the full prime of sweetest scents and flowers--" + +Mary yielded to their capricious guidance, walking by their side, and +entering with playful interest into their childish amusements and +pursuits. + +We have not yet described our heroine as to her personal appearance; and +some may ask if she were beautiful, or, as we have never hinted at any +such decided perfection, they may more shrewdly divine her, from all +they have put together, to have been more pleasing and attractive, and +pretty perhaps--than beautiful. And at any other time, perhaps merely +taking into consideration the long dark grey eyes with their drooping +eye-lids such as I have before pourtrayed, the soft brown hair braided +on a fair and open brow; the other features, which, whether regular or +not, breathed a softness and an intellect combined, which disarmed +criticism, to say nothing of her figure, which, a little above the +middle height, light and pliant as became a mountain maid, might have +seemed nevertheless, by her movements and habitual carriage, to denote +it governed by a soul within, as much, if not more conspicuously +inclined to _Il penseroso_ than _Il allegro_; but these two so nicely +combined, so delicately intermingled, so harmoniously playing one upon +the other, that it was hard to separate or distinguish them apart. + + "Serious and thoughtful was her mind, + Yet by reconcilement exquisite and rare." + +All this taken together, and I might perhaps have conceded to the +supposition and replied, + + "She was not fair nor beautiful-- + Those words express her not." + +Mary had never hitherto been much considered in the family, as far as +good looks were concerned. The mountain breezes which had dyed with +such brilliant bloom her sisters' cheeks, had failed to chase the clear +paleness of her own complexion; and therefore those around her who +adhered to the usual vulgar idea of beauty, had never thought of giving +her equality in that respect,--with the exception perhaps of the good +Baronet, who on the principle of "loving others different to oneself," +had first coveted the pale violet above the brighter flowers of the +family, as in pleasing contrast to his own ruddy hues,--and by him whose +refined perception had, as we know long since, discerned and singled out +the pearl of great price from the more glittering jewels of the +sisterhood. + +But as we see her standing before us at this moment, in her delicately +tinted attire, watching with a quiet smile of admiring interest the +pretty children, who have bounded away together a little in advance--or +lifting up her eyes toward the blue sky above, seeming to drink in with +a pure and lively sense of rapture, the delight of that most beautiful +of summer mornings-- + + "A morn for life in its most subtle luxury." + +Standing thus, unconscious that human eye was upon her, to have seen her +with that glow of youth and hope, and innocent intellectual enjoyment +kindling her cheek, few could have looked coldly upon her, and said or +thought "she was not fair or beautiful." + +Very fair at least she seemed to him, who from an upper chamber window +thrown open to cool the fever of his brow, looked down upon this morning +scene, and dwelt upon that living object, pleasant and alluring to the +thirsting of his heart--the thirsting for that something, purer, holier +than his own nature could supply--which sometimes springs up within the +soul of him who has wandered farthest from the paths of innocency and +peace. + +Mary was talking to her cousin Louis, who first joined her on the lawn, +when Mrs. de Burgh and Eugene Trevor made their appearance. The latter +congratulated Mary when they sat down to breakfast, on her having +apparently so completely recovered from her last night's fatigue, and +mentioned his having seen her in the garden from his window. + +She blushed, and said she had been making acquaintance with the dear +little children, whose praises she then rung upon the father and +mother's ears. Mr. de Burgh looked delighted, and quite agreed upon the +subject, his lady said more carelessly: "They were nice little monkeys; +the girl good-looking enough, but getting to that dreadful age when she +would require teaching; the boy a puny little fellow, who should be at +the sea if everything was done for him that ought to be done." + +Whereupon, Mr. de Burgh, who took this remark--probably as it was +intended to be--as a reflection upon his own backwardness in forwarding +that arrangement, began an assurance, in way of defence, of Doctor +somebody's preference of his native country's air to that of the +seaside; adding, that it would do the boy much more good to have that +long hair cut off which was exhausting all his strength. Mrs. de Burgh +declared that he was welcome to have it cut off, for what she cared, for +he knew she never interfered in any of his whims, however absurd they +might be. + +And so it went on for a short time, till Mary began to wonder if every +repast was to be seasoned by such agreeable accompaniments, as the +bickerings of this and the preceding conversations. But Eugene Trevor, +who seemed to be accustomed to this sort of thing, managed, laughingly, +to divert the conversation from this exciting topic, and peace was +accordingly restored during the remainder of the meal. + +But how wonderful it was to Mary, that those two beings, whom nature, as +well as fortune, seemed to have crowned with every blessing their bounty +can bestow to make this world a paradise--health, beauty, talents, on +the one hand; wealth, station, princely possessions on the other--should +awaken in her mind feelings of pain and compassion, rather than envy or +admiration--as apparently lacking in so lamentable a degree, that first +great ingredient in the cup of life--_love_. + +How had this come to pass--how had the precious drop been banished from +the draught they were about so joyously to quaff, and which seemed to +sparkle with such glittering lustre when she had seen them last? + +Yet the same changeless heaven was above their heads--and earth should +have been to them a still more thornless paradise. + +Alas! Mary had not learnt to see by sad experience, how often this is +the case with hearts that have once loved with--it might have seemed +undying fervour; affection frittered irreclaimably away in the caprice +and wantonness of unbroken prosperity, + + "Hearts that the world in vain had tried, + And sorrow but more closely tied. + Who stood the storms when waves were rough, + Yet in a sunny hour fall off, + Like ships which have gone down at sea, + When heaven was all serenity." + + * * * * * + +Soon after breakfast Mary went up stairs to write to her aunt and uncle, +then returned and sat with Mrs. de Burgh till luncheon time, when the +gentlemen rejoined them, and after that they all went out together--that +is to say Mr. Trevor and the two ladies, for Mr. de Burgh soon left the +party, to follow his own business and pursuits. + +They visited the garden, the green-houses, strolled through some of the +most shady and picturesque parts of the grounds, conversing pleasantly +the while; and then, rather wearied by their exertions, were about to +place themselves on a seat, beneath the cool shadow of some magnificent +trees, not far from the house, when a servant was seen approaching to +inform Mrs. de Burgh that visitors were in the drawing-room; the +Countess of Patterdale, and the Ladies Marchmont. + +Mrs. de Burgh made a gesture expressive of distaste at this disturbance, +but walked towards the house. Mary did not think it incumbent upon her +to volunteer her assistance in the entertainment of these strangers, so +remained behind; and a few moments after, she saw Eugene Trevor, who had +accompanied his cousin across the lawn, coming back to rejoin her. + +"You see I have followed your example, Miss Seaham," he said, sitting +down beside her, "and have made my escape. Life is too short, in my +opinion, for mortals to be shut up in a room this hot afternoon, making +themselves agreeable to three fashionable fine ladies." + +"But it is rather hard upon Olivia," Mary said, with a smile. + +"Oh, not at all. She is quite equal to the task. A match for all the +fine ladies in the land--are you?" + +"Oh, no!" Mary answered laughing, "not at all; I have had so little +experience in that way." + +"Ah, well! Olivia is quite in her element amongst them; her real delight +is a London season, where she can play that part to perfection: +unfortunately de Burgh's inclinations do not tend that way, particularly +now that he has this improving mania upon him." + +"It is unfortunate that their tastes in this respect do not agree," Mary +rejoined. + +"Very unfortunate," he repeated, regarding his companion with the marked +interest and attention her simplest expressions or observation seemed to +inspire; a peculiarity which, as it had in earlier years excited her +wonder, now made as strong though somewhat more undefined impression on +her feelings. + +The effect it produced was, however, far from being one to embarrass or +constrain--on the contrary, there almost might have seemed to be some +soothing power--some magnetic influence in this "serious inclination" on +the part of Eugene Trevor; for never, with a less unreserved and +uncommunicative companion, had she felt more at ease; had her own +thoughts and feelings been drawn forth with such freedom and +unconstraint. And a calm and pleasant conversation had been carried on +between them for nearly three-quarters of an hour before Mrs. de Burgh +reappeared, complaining of the length of time her visitors had remained. + +Mary did not say anything, though it seemed to her that the complaint +was somewhat unreasonable; but Eugene Trevor scrupled not to declare, +that he never knew these people pay so short a visit before. + +"Ah, it is very well for you to say so, and Mary to think the same," +Mrs. de Burgh said, looking rather curiously from one to the other. "You +two sitting here so comfortably; but it was very cruel of you both to +let me have the whole burden, you Eugene should really have come and +taken the Ladies Marchmont off my hands. I had a good mind to bring them +out here, just to spite you." + +"I am glad you did not," said Eugene Trevor, "or I should have been +obliged to run away, as it is necessary that I should do now, my +dog-cart having been waiting for me, I believe, more than an hour in the +yard." + +"What! are you really going?" exclaimed Mrs. de Burgh. + +"Yes, my father will fidget himself to death if I do not arrive," was +the reply. + +"Well, come again as soon as you can." + +"Oh yes, you may rely upon that. Good bye," and shaking hands with Mary +and his cousin, he left them, and was soon driving rapidly through the +park. + +"You will find it very dull I am afraid, Mary," Mrs. de Burgh said, as, +having watched this departure, she turned slowly to re-enter the house; +"but I hope we shall have some people to-morrow." + +Mary earnestly deprecated such an idea, and with the utmost sincerity. +She felt perfectly contented and happy all that evening, particularly as +there was very tolerable harmony kept up between her cousins. + +Mr. de Burgh inquired at dinner, though with no great interest "what had +become of Trevor?" Mrs. de Burgh answered that he had been obliged to go +home to his father who seemed to be in one of those fidgetty moods, when +he could not bear to be left alone; and Mary asked very simply if he had +no other child? + +"Yes--no--that is to say," hesitated Mrs. de Burgh, looking at her +husband, "one son died a few years ago." + +"And the other--" proceeded Mr. de Burgh, as his wife did not carry on +the reply--but some authoritative look or sign from Mrs. de Burgh which +he seemed to have received, interrupted his intended information, and +only murmuring "Nonsense!" he was silent on the subject. + +"I must drive you over to Montrevor, some day," said Mrs. de Burgh, +addressing Mary; "the place is well worth seeing." + +"I don't agree in that at all," Mr. de Burgh remarked testily--"at +least, not worth knocking up the ponies by so long a drive. What should +you take Mary there for? The old man will not greatly appreciate the +visit, and I do not think there is any other consideration to make it a +desirable excursion." + +Mrs. de Burgh shrugged her shoulders; but as if it was not a subject she +wished brought under discussion, she allowed it to drop for the +present. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + You first called my woman's feelings forth, + And taught me love, ere I had dreamed love's name-- + I loved unconsciously.... + At last I learned my heart's deep secret. + + L. E. L. + + +Mrs. de Burgh's expedition the preceding day did not prove without its +fruits. For the next few days, several idle young men of the +neighbourhood, who had nothing better to do, came dropping in to dine or +stay a night or so at Silverton. + +Mr. de Burgh received these guests with much courtesy and kindness; +though apparently regarding them as the visitors of his wife, he left +them almost entirely to her entertainment, and went about his private +occupation as usual with a scientific friend of his own, who arrived at +this time. + +As for Mary, although obliged, considering that this gathering had been +formed chiefly on her account, to show her sense of the attention by +making herself as agreeable as possible, yet before long she began to +feel her exertions in that respect a weariness, rather than a +pleasurable excitement; and that her powers were not equal when placed +in competition with the light and careless spirits around her. Indeed, +so gladly would she hail the intervals which set her at liberty, to +read, or think, or dream, free from such demands, that she began to +suspect very soon that her thirstings after society would easily be +satisfied, and that Mr. Temple need not have been alarmed lest she +should be too much ensnared by its fascinations; in short, that she was +not so sociably inclined in a general way to the degree for which she +had given herself credit. + +One morning, Mary made her escape about an hour before luncheon from the +gay party by whom, since breakfast, she had been surrounded; and seated +herself, with a new book of poetry, at the open window of a room leading +into a little garden, the luscious perfume of whose flowers were wafted +sweetly upon her senses; shaded by the light drapery of the muslin +curtains, the sound of laughing, talking, billiard-balls falling at an +undisturbing distance from her ear-- + + "Oh, close your eyes and strive to see + The studious maid with book on knee!" + +Mary had not long luxuriated in this enjoyment, when a footstep sounded +on the grass without, and a dark shadow obscured the bright light upon +her page. Lifting up her eyes, she saw Eugene Trevor standing before +her. + +He smiled at her start of surprise, and apologised for the abrupt +intrusion. He had expected, he stated, to have found her and his cousin +Olivia in this, Mrs. de Burgh's usual morning-room; and then Mary--the +bright glow with which, although not naturally nervous, this sudden +apparition had coloured her cheek, fading gradually away--told him how +Mrs. de Burgh was engaged in the adjoining room. + +"And you have deserted her?" he said, taking up the book she had laid +down and examining its contents with the greatest apparent interest, +though he only smiled when she asked him if he were fond of poetry, +smiled--and answered, looking into her face, "Some kind," and replaced +the volume; then resting against the window-sill, they conversed on +other subjects, and were still thus engaged when luncheon was announced. + +Eugene Trevor stayed at Silverton that day and part of the next: when +all the rest of the party took their departure, with the exception of +Mr. de Burgh's own particular friend. + +But, somehow or other, Mary had by this time begun to change her mind, +and to think--that after all she might be rather fond of society. + +One circumstance a little surprised and puzzled her, before she had been +very long at Silverton. + +One day, when speaking of Wales, she carelessly mentioned Mr. Temple's +name, and alluded to the college acquaintance that gentleman had +professed to have once subsisted between himself and Mr. de Burgh. But +Mr. de Burgh remembered no person of that name, answering to the slight +description she attempted to give--could not the least recall him to his +recollection, and as Mrs. de Burgh and Eugene Trevor, who happened to be +present, did not seem able to assist his memory in that respect--though +Mary also remembered Mr. Temple to have claimed acquaintance with Mrs. +de Burgh's family, she did not press the point; a certain conscious +embarrassment associated with the object of discussion preventing her +from entering into further particulars, though she thought the +circumstance rather strange and unaccountable. + +Her aunt and uncle mentioned in their first letter that Mr. Temple had +called to see them, and had seemed much interested to hear of her safe +arrival at Silverton; but those relatives did not remain in Wales more +than a week or two after her own departure, therefore with them, +intelligence regarding that most remarkable--and to her, now peculiarly +interesting--person must cease, at least for the time being, she having +no other correspondents at present in the neighbourhood. + + * * * * * + +Beyond such occasional gatherings as the one just described, there was +very little of what could be strictly called company, during the +ensuing month--July--at Silverton; and Mary sometimes smiled to think of +the exaggerated idea Mr. Temple seemed to have formed, concerning the +dangers to which she might be exposed in the evil world she was about to +encounter. Yet how did Mary know whether the weapon of danger he most +deprecated on her account, might not even then be hanging singly over +her head, rendered only still more perilous by the absence of other +exciting and diverting circumstances. + +We said there was not much actual company at Silverton; but besides an +intimate friend or two of Mr. de Burgh's, Eugene Trevor often made his +appearance to luncheon, or to dine and spend a night, so that it became +at last quite a habit of Mrs. de Burgh's to say in the morning, if they +had lost sight of him for many days together: + +"I wonder if Eugene Trevor will turn up to-day!" + +And often did Mary find herself seated near her chamber window, her eye +directed with feelings very far removed from those uneasy thoughts, +which had arisen in her mind the first evening she had there taken up +her position--her eyes directed across the park, along which perchance +the sound of carriage wheels, having previously reached her ears, she +might soon behold Eugene Trevor's well-appointed turn-out, with the fine +blood horse, urged by its impatient master, advancing at a flying pace +towards the house; and then with what ingenuous pleasure would Mary +hasten to make her prettiest toilette, now that there was one who, she +could not but flatter herself, would be far from indifferent to its +effect. Mr. de Burgh, though there might have appeared to be no +particular cordiality existing between him and his wife's cousin, never +by word or manner testified any distaste to the frequency of these +visits, indeed seemed to concern himself very little on the subject. + +At length, however, he did say one day, on Mrs. de Burgh remarking +Eugene's absence to have been a somewhat longer one than usual: "Well! +what of that? It would really seem as if it was impossible to exist a +day without Eugene Trevor. Are _you_ so very fond of this wonderful +Eugene, Mary?" + +Poor Mary! this direct question took her quite by surprise, and she was +unable immediately to reply. + +Mrs. de Burgh came to her rescue. "Oh, never mind him, Mary," she said; +"he only abuses Eugene Trevor because he is my relation, and objects to +his coming here because he knows he is the only person I care for at +all, excepting you Mary, who has entered the house this summer, whilst +these tiresome scientific friends of his infest the place continually." + +"Well, at any rate I am very glad," Mary was able now to say with a +quiet smile, mingled perhaps with a little inward _pique_ towards her +cousin, "that you do not turn the tables upon Louis by objecting to +_his_ relations." + +"Ah, Mary!" said Mr. de Burgh with his most amiable smile, "are you too +taking up the cudgels against me? but I was not aware that I did abuse +or object to any one." + +"Poor Eugene! no wonder he is glad to come over here as often as he can; +it must be terribly dull for him at Montrevor with that old man," +rejoined Mrs. de Burgh. + +"Then why does he stay?" inquired her husband. + +"Why--why--you know Mr. Trevor is ill and cannot bear him to be away. +Eugene's kindness and dutiful behaviour in that respect is an excellent +trait in his character, you must confess." + +"Dutiful behaviour!" murmured Mr. de Burgh rather scornfully, as he +walked away. "Pooh, nonsense! Epsom was a failure, and Goodwood remains +to be proved." + + * * * * * + +One of the reasons which had furnished Mr. de Burgh with an excuse for +remaining quietly at Silverton all that season, and perhaps had much to +do in reconciling his wife to the arrangement, was the fact of Mrs. de +Burgh's situation, promising an addition to their family in the early +part of the winter; and as the heir was far from being a strong child, +the chance of other healthy sons was most acceptable. Therefore, more +care than the gay young wife had ever taken of herself, on previous +occasions, was rendered desirable. + + * * * * * + +"Yes!" Mrs. de Burgh said one day, when she was driving with Mary, in +allusion to these above-mentioned expectations, "I have been patient all +through this season in consequence, although it is provoking that Louis +should so selfishly spend his time, interest, and fortune, in the +improvement, as he calls it, of this property; of one thing, however, I +am quite certain, that he will soon tire of the pursuit, leave +everything half done, and take some other quirk into his head, which, no +doubt, will be equally tiresome--build a yacht perhaps, and station me +and the children at Cowes; whilst he amuses himself with this new toy, +and then is astonished at my being discontented, and amusing myself as I +best may. Oh, Mary!" she added, "when you marry, never give way to your +husband's selfishness in the first instance, or you will find it +annihilating at the last." + +"Did _you_ give way?" inquired Mary, with some archness. + +Mrs. de Burgh laughed. + +"No, I cannot exactly say I did," she replied. "I had not the slightest +idea that Louis would ever have any will but mine; of course, he gave me +reason to suppose so before we married; but ere the honeymoon was over, +I found out my mistake. Anything that did not interfere with his own +pleasure, or inconvenience, I was at liberty to do; but that was not +what I wanted. I expected him to be the slave of my slightest wish." + +"But was not that somewhat unreasonable?" suggested Mary. + +"It certainly proved a mistake; and so we soon began to pull different +ways, and I suppose will do so to the end of the chapter." + +"Oh, my dear Olivia, how can you talk thus, when you and Louis +ought--and do really, I am sure--so to love one another?" Mary +exclaimed, feeling shocked and sorry. + +"Humph it does not signify much what we ought to do, or what lies +_perdue_, when daily and hourly experience makes us most feelingly act +and speak to the contrary. As for Louis, the quiet, unresisting manner +in which he has allowed me to do things other husbands would have soon +prevented, contenting himself with a few cutting words and sneering +inuendoes, does not speak much for the depth of his affection. But the +fact is, there is not much depth of any kind in Louis's nature--no +strength--no firmness of feeling or purpose--nothing to lay hold of +except the whim of the moment, and that melts away before you can get a +very sure grasp. + + "'One foot on land and one on sea, + To one thing constant never.'" + +Although it was somewhat repulsive to Mary's ideas and principles to +hear a wife thus critically expose the weak side of a husband's +character, her naturally quick perception of human nature-- + + "The harvest of a quiet eye," + +as well as the intimate insight now afforded her, by constant +intercourse, into Mr. de Burgh's disposition, made her own this +portraiture to be not incorrectly drawn, and to fancy that much of his +wife's decline of feeling towards her handsome, captivating husband +might have been thus unfavourably influenced by the discovery of these +points of character in her cousin Louis. + +She could imagine in her own case, that however faithfully, if once +beloved, she might have preserved her affection towards such a truly +amiable man, that he was not exactly the being who would ever have very +strongly impressed or awakened any deep and lasting feeling in her +heart-- + + "That love for which a woman's heart + Will beat until it breaks." + +Woman, feelingly conscious of her own comparative infirmity of mind and +disposition, vague, imperfect in idea and purpose, either for good or +evil, naturally inclines towards those of the opposite sex, who carry +out to their fullest extent the distinguishing attributes of their +nature--masculine stability, and strength of purpose and of action; nay, +even to the abuse of this same principle--she is sometimes led more +easily to yield her heart to the influence of the firm and well-defined +character, under whose most common aspect may be detected a current of +fixed purpose, strong, earnest, and undeviating in its course--even +though that course may tend to evil--that character be strong in all, +that unblinded reason must condemn--than to men of Mr. de Burgh's +_calibre_, whose very weaknesses may "lean to virtue's side." Thus many +a Medora becomes linked to a Conrad--many a Minna to a Cleveland. + +With all this, and in spite of that intuitive sympathy which inclines +one woman to side with another, in similar cases of right and wrong, +Mary was far from suffering any such consideration to tend to the +deterioration of her cousin Louis in her eyes. Nay, as far as concerned +the state of feeling to which Mr. de Burgh might have arrived regarding +his wife, the more she saw of him, the more was she led to image to +herself the bitter disappointment--the great provocation which must have +gradually converted into the apparently indifferent and inconsiderate +husband, that naturally most affectionate and amiable of beings. + + "Till fast declining one by one, + The sweetnesses of love were gone, + And eyes forgot the gentle ray + They wore in courtship's sunny day, + And voices lost the tones that shed + A tenderness round all they said, + And hearts so lately mingled seemed + Like broken clouds, or like the stream + That smiling left the mountain's brow + As though the waters ne'er could sever, + Yet ere it reach the plain below + Breaks into floods that part for ever." + +Nor could Mary, though Mrs. de Burgh's extreme kindness to herself made +her easily incline to indulgence and partiality, at all times bring +herself to approve or enter into her feelings or course of conduct, or +be led quite to do, and think as it pleased her beautiful cousin. + +One instance of the kind it may be necessary that we should record, both +as in it our heroine was more personally concerned, and as forming a +more regular link in the chain of our story. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + Lo! where the paling cheek, the unconscious sigh, + The slower footstep, and the heavier eye, + Betray the burthen of sweet thoughts and mute, + The slight tree bows beneath the golden fruit. + + THE NEW TIMON. + + +It was a beautiful afternoon, in the first week of August, and the two +ladies set off as usual for their afternoon's drive, the little Louisa +seated between them. Mr. de Burgh had been on the steps to see the party +start, himself lifting the child with his usual tenderness into the +carriage--and wishing them a pleasant drive, he casually inquired in +what direction they meant to go. + +"To Morland, I think," answered Mrs. de Burgh carelessly, as she +gathered up the reins, and arranged herself upon her seat. + +"To Morland," he repeated. + +"Yes! have you any objection?" + +"Oh, none whatever!" + +"Well, good bye!" and with a light touch of the whip, the pretty ponies +were put in motion. + +Ere they had proceeded far through the park Mrs. de Burgh said, +laughing: + +"I told him we were going to Morland, but that is not at all my +intention. You need not say anything about it, but I have made up my +mind to drive you to Montrevor. Really I ought to go and see old Uncle +Trevor after his illness; at any rate, I must speak to Eugene, and make +personal inquiries." + +"But why tell Louis that you were going to Morland? Oh, Olivia! do not +drive there to-day," Mary exclaimed in some consternation. + +"Why not," inquired Mrs. de Burgh, looking at her companion in surprise: +"you really do not mean to say that I ought to submit to the absurd +objection Louis expressed the other night upon the subject?" + +Mary could not say with sincerity, that this--or even the unnecessary +deceit which her companion intended to put upon her husband--however +this might have offended her conscience, was the chief cause which now +rendered the proposed excursion so repugnant to her feelings; there was +another, of a nature she could not exactly explain; but which +nevertheless influenced them greatly on this occasion. + +The fact was, upon poor Mary's heart by this time had been worked an +impression far from being of a light or imaginative nature. + +The constant visits of the dark-eyed cousin of Mrs. de Burgh, had +conjured up feelings as far removed from the dream-like fancy of other +days, as is the shadow from the substance, and the very fact of the +existence of such feelings made her painfully susceptible to any +proceeding which might, in the slightest degree, even on the part of +others, make her appear desirous of courting the society of the object +who had awakened them--and of whose corresponding sentiments towards +herself, she had as yet no certain guarantee. + +Mary could not but suspect that this excursion to Montrevor would be +only made by Mrs. de Burgh on her account, and that this might be made +to appear to Eugene Trevor by his cousin; therefore, when Mrs. de Burgh +only laughed at her evident disinclination, she, on the impulse of the +feelings with which the idea inspired her, begged that at any rate, if +her cousin were really bent upon the plan, that she would suffer her to +remain behind. Whereupon Mrs. de Burgh, somewhat coldly drawing in the +reins, begged Mary would do as she pleased; if she really had so great +an objection to going to Montrevor--perhaps she would not mind +returning, as she had a particular wish to go and inquire after her +uncle. + +Mrs. de Burgh indeed offered to drive her back, but Mary said, she would +really like the walk, and accordingly was suffered silently to alight, +feeling perhaps a little inclined to doubt, whether she had not gone +rather too far in thus decidedly carrying out her own way, yet not +liking to give in after she had so strongly expressed her +disinclination. + +Mrs. de Burgh wished her a pleasant walk, and little Louisa knelt upon +the seat and kissed her hand regretfully to her retreating cousin as +they went their several ways. + + * * * * * + +Mary walked slowly, and rather dejectedly back towards the house, +knowing that her cousin Louis, with whom she would fain have avoided the +necessity of giving the reason of her return, had been on the point of +setting off towards a distant part of the grounds when they had left +him. + +Just as she arrived in sight of the mansion, the sound of a horse's feet +met her ear, the next moment a horseman riding up a different approach +to that by which she came, appeared in sight. It was Eugene Trevor. He +immediately perceived her, and dismounting threw his bridle to a servant +standing on the step, and hurried forward to meet her. + +Mary was so totally unprepared for a _rencontre_, which circumstances +rendered at that moment peculiarly embarrassing to her feelings, that +she received Trevor with a coldness and constraint unusual to her +manner; and when he mentioned the fear he had entertained of finding +them out, she merely answered, that Olivia had gone for a drive, but +that Louis was in the grounds, and proposed walking on to find him. +Eugene did not object, so they proceeded in the requisite direction. + +Then he told her that he had come to say good-bye. A friend of his had +engaged a moor in Scotland in partnership with himself, and that he was +therefore obliged to set off in a day or two, not much to his +gratification--for there were many things which made him regret to leave +the neighbourhood just then, and he should be away, he supposed, about a +month. + +Mary was dismayed to feel how her heart sank low at this communication; +she, however, made an effort to rally her spirits; and the subject thus +started, she discussed the delights and merits of the grouse-shooting +and moorland country, with a careless interest which made her inwardly +wonder over her new-found powers of duplicity. + +But they fell in with Mr. de Burgh sooner than she had expected, or +Eugene, perhaps, had hoped; for in spite of any change which he might +have discerned in his companion's manner, his lingering step and earnest +attention plainly demonstrated, that the charm he ever seemed to find in +her society was not decreased. + +Mr. de Burgh was evidently surprised at Mary's re-appearance, but +supposing it was a whim of his wife's to put an end to the intended +drive, on account of Eugene Trevor's visit, and that she too had +returned to the house, he made no further remark upon the subject than +his first exclamation, "What come back already?" + +On hearing of Eugene Trevor's intended excursion, he entered into +conversation with him on the subject. Then he called Eugene's attention +to those alterations he was superintending, into which the former +entered with all due interest and understanding; and his attention thus +engaged, it was not for some time that he was at liberty to turn to +Mary, who stood by in the meantime silent and abstracted. + +He did not remain much longer; he was obliged to return home to meet a +friend, and therefore took leave of Mr. de Burgh and finally of Mary, +lingering a little as if he half hoped to have had a companion in his +walk back towards the house; but finding this was not to be the case, +he went off regretfully alone. + +Mr. de Burgh asked Mary if she felt inclined to extend her walk to a +further part of the estate. She acceded cheerfully to the proposal, for +she fancied her cousin's eye had glanced somewhat anxiously upon her +countenance as they stood silently together after Eugene's departure. +And so they proceeded, making a lengthened circuit which did not bring +them back to the house till a later hour than they had supposed, and +Mrs. de Burgh had by that, time returned. + + * * * * * + +Mary went immediately to her cousin's dressing-room, anxious to do away +with any offended feeling her conduct might have excited. She found Mrs. +de Burgh quite amicably disposed. She began immediately to rally Mary on +the very clever manner in which she had managed her morning's +amusement; she had seen Eugene Trevor, who had told her of the +delightful walk they had taken together. + +"The fact is," Mrs. de Burgh continued, "I did not go to Montrevor after +all. It was too far to go all alone--and returning I met Eugene, and we +had a long chat." + +"He told you, I suppose," said Mary, "that he was going away." + +"Yes, for a month--what shall we do without him in the meantime? By the +bye, I told him, Mary, of _your_ conduct this afternoon." + +"My conduct?" asked Mary in alarm. + +"Yes, your insurmountable objection to a drive to Montrevor." + +"Oh, Olivia!" in a tone of reproach. + +"Yes, I did, indeed; and do you know what he said to this?" + +"No, indeed," Mary anxiously replied. + +"He laughed quite scornfully and said: 'She shall go there some day,' +then spurred his horse and rode off at full speed. Ha! ha! + + "'He laughs and he rides away.' + +Nay, Mary do not look offended. He did not intend anything _very_ +insulting I dare say. Go dear, and rest yourself after this long walk +Louis has dragged you, and which has made you look so pale." + +And thus dismissed, Mary went to her room, but not to take up her usual +window-seat. There would be no interest in looking across the park that +night. No--nor for a great many nights to come. + +Most of that next month passed without much outward change or +excitement. Mrs. de Burgh declared that the extreme dulness made Mary +look quite listless and ill. + +On the first of September, however, there was a shooting party, and a +few other gaieties in the neighbourhood, the country houses beginning +again to fill. + +Mary during this interval of time had received one piece of information, +which rejoiced her greatly, if it did not succeed in making her so +completely happy as she fancied it would have done a month or two +before. + +Her brother Arthur wrote word, that he should be in England towards the +end of the autumn. He gave no very flourishing account of their property +and affairs. He spoke of the necessity for his entering into some +profession, and of his wish of following up the study of the law. But +all was written in as cheerful a strain as if his communication had been +of a contrary nature. + +Who but the young can thus look cheerfully into the face of the grim +monster poverty, and say "be welcome," feeling now that talents which +had otherwise been weighed down beneath the deadening power of +affluence, may now be given eagle wings wherewith to mount above to +honour and renown? For as the German author writes: + +"Riches often weigh more heavily on talents than poverty; but," he +beautifully continues, "Just Providence preserve the old man from want, +for hoary years have already bent him low, and he can no longer stand +upright with the youth, and bear the heavy burden on his head. The old +man needs rest on the earth, ever while he is upon it, for he can use +only the present, and a little bit of the future, and the past does not +reflect for him as in a glass the blooming present." + + * * * * * + +It was not till the middle of September that Eugene Trevor returned. +Mary saw him first again at an archery _fête_ given in the grounds of +Morland, the scene of their former meeting and acquaintance. + +But that it would prove a day coloured by the same bright remembrances, +appeared at first unlikely. + +For some time, Mary feared that the expectations of his being present at +all were doomed to disappointment, for he did not make his appearance +till very late; and Mary walked about with her cousin Louis (who on this +occasion proved a better _chaperon_ than on the former), trying to look +more cheerful than she really felt. + +An hour before dinner, he was discerned among the gay throng, but as Mr. +de Burgh did not direct his course that way, he remained--as Mary was +too easily inclined to imagine, coldly aloof--either she thought +offended, or discouraged by the recollection of the coldness of manner +she had shown towards him on his parting visit, or--(why should she +imagine it otherwise?) the new pursuits and scenes of interests in which +he had been engaged, had effaced all traces of any slight impression she +might have made upon his mind or feelings. + +No greeting passed between them until, on their way to the _déjeûner_, +Eugene passed her with another lady on his arm, and the one they then +exchanged was necessarily slight and hurried, signifying nothing. + +His companion was young and beautiful, and Mary, with pardonable +curiosity, inquired who she was of the gentleman who escorted her. + +She was told it was the young Lady Darlington, lately married, and we +will not say that the substance of this communication was not a relief +to Mary. They sat at the same side of the table, not very far divided, +and Mary's companion must have found her rather an absent neighbour, she +so often discovered her attention directed to what was being said by +Eugene Trevor, though there was nothing very particular to interest an +indifferent listener in his conversation with the young Countess. + +Indeed, even to Mary it might have seemed most satisfactorily +uninteresting, neither did it appear incapable of speedy exhaustion, for +before the close of the repast, the Countess had turned her attention to +her other neighbour, a young captain of the Guards, who seemed to have a +greater flow of small talk at his disposal, whilst Eugene was joining in +general conversation with others of the company, or leaning forward ever +and anon, as if carelessly to review the guests beyond. + +At length, Mary heard some remarks made upon some figs of peculiar +growth, which had appeared upon the table. A few minutes after, a +servant, to whom Trevor had been whispering some directions, brought the +dish containing them round to a lady, a seat or two below, and said, +distinctly enough for Mary to hear: + +"Mr. Trevor sends these, Miss, with his compliments, and hopes you will +take one, as they come from Montrevor." + +The lady, not a very attractive person, acceded to the request, most +graciously bending forward to smile and bow her acknowledgment of the +flattering attention bestowed upon her. + +But Eugene Trevor, who had also bent forward, seemed anything but +gratified. On the contrary, he looked back in an irritated way at the +servant, as if dissatisfied with the manner in which he had performed +his behest; and in a few seconds more he had risen, and was standing +himself behind Mary's chair. + +"That fool of a man," he said, in a suppressed tone, "evidently would +not know a rose from a peony. I told him to take those figs to the young +lady with the blue forget-me-nots in her white bonnet, and he took them +to your neighbour with the unconscionably large china-asters. You must +oblige me by taking one. They come out of my father's hot-house. I had +them picked on purpose to send to Silverton, as I remembered hearing you +say they were your favourite fruit; but Lady Dorington happened to call, +and carried them off for this affair of to-day." + +Mary turned her head, and lifted up her face towards the speaker. A look +met hers from the dark eyes of Eugene Trevor--a look surely possessed of +deeper meaning--which must have been intended to plead a greater boon +than her acceptance of the fruit of his father's garden. And though the +next moment he was gone, and she left with a beating heart to taste the +luscious offering--nay, though he was scarcely many minutes by her side +again that afternoon--for dancing quickly succeeded the repast, and +Trevor did not dance, while Mary's hand was in great request--yet a +feeling of such perfect happiness had suddenly taken possession of her +soul, that she was fully contented to feel that, as he stood apart +amongst those not joining in the dance, Trevor's eye was constantly +following her every movement with earnest, never-diverted attention. + +How strange the secret power which sometimes attracts one towards the +other, two beings of natures the most opposite! + +Perhaps if two individuals had been chosen from amongst that large +assembly, by those who knew them best--who on the score of +incompatibility were least calculated to blend harmoniously together--it +would have been that pure-hearted, single-minded, high-souled girl, +whose ideal standard of the good and beautiful was of so refined and +elevated a nature, a standard hitherto kept intact by the peculiar +circumstances of her youthful existence--from whose very outward aspect +seemed to breathe the undisturbed harmony of her lovely character;--she +and that man, of a corrupted and corrupting world, upon whose brow was +set the mark of many a contracting aim, many a darkening thought, a +debasing pursuit, upon whose soul lay perhaps as dark a stain of actual +crime as any in that company;--yet it seemed that this mysterious +unaccountable power, did from the very first draw their hearts with +sympathetic unison one towards another. + +Well it showed at least that Trevor's soul was not as yet "all evil," +that it could still bow before an image of purity and goodness, such as +was enshrined in Mary's breast, and _she_-- + + "Why did she love him?-- + Curious fool be still-- + Is human love the growth of human will?" + +Absorbed in her happy dreams, Mary drove home that evening with her +cousins, too happy, even, to be much disturbed by that generally most +fruitful source of disturbance, the bitter words passing between her +companions. + +They seemed now to have been provoked by some imprudence of Mrs. de +Burgh's during that day; her husband's animadversions thereupon exciting +the lady's scornful resentment; but its exact nature, Mary had too +little observed Mrs. de Burgh during the day, to be able fully to +understand. + +Mrs. de Burgh, on her part, had been too much occupied with her own +pleasure and interests to attend much to Mary and her concerns; but she +told her, as they parted for the night, that she expected Eugene the +next day to dinner. + +Mary also had received information to the same effect, communicated in +her ear, as she was being handed to the carriage. + +Expectation on this point was, however, doomed to disappointment; the +next evening, about the time that Eugene Trevor generally arrived, when +he was to dine and sleep at the house, a horseman was seen approaching +across the park, which proved to be a servant from Montrevor, mounted on +his master's beautiful chesnut. He was the bearer of a note to Mrs. de +Burgh. + +Eugene Trevor wrote word that in returning home the preceding night, +with a friend, he had received a kick from his companion's horse, and +was now a prisoner to his bed. It was to him a most provoking accident, +on many accounts, but he supposed he must submit to at least a week's +confinement, as the medical man considered it his only chance of a +speedy recovery. Mary looked a little pale at dinner after this +intelligence, but was otherwise as cheerful, as calmly happy, as she had +been since the _fête_. + +Mrs. de Burgh afterwards sent over to inquire after her cousin, and once +Mr. de Burgh, having occasion to ride into the neighbourhood, called to +see Trevor, and brought back word of his progress towards recovery. + +The injury proved, however more tedious than it had at first been +anticipated. October had set in before he was allowed to walk; but still +Mary's spirits did not fail her. + +If "love could live upon one smile for years," much more throughout a +few weeks of such unavoidable and accidental contingency. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + I thank thee for that downcast look, and for that blushing cheek, + I would not have thee raise those eyes, I would not have thee speak. + Tho' mute, I deem thee eloquent, I ask no other sign, + While thus thy little hand remains confidingly in mine. + + HAYNES BAYLEY. + + +A friend of Mrs. de Burgh's came to stay at Silverton about this time, a +lady of a certain age. + +She had lately lost her husband. + +Though malicious report spoke her to have loved him little during life, +she now mourned with considerable effect at his decease; and though +there was but the family party--for which circumstance she had been +prepared--staying in the house--this being the first visit she had paid +since her bereavement, she had not yet--though several days had elapsed +since her arrival--been able to muster sufficient nerve to issue from +the luxurious apartments assigned to her. + +Mr. de Burgh maliciously expressed himself fearful that the cap was not +becoming, hearing that the dainty, but not unsubstantial meals so +plentifully partaken of by the fair widow in her retreat, did not well +agree with any very wearing sentiment of grief. + +But Mrs. de Burgh said it was just like his ill-nature on every subject +connected with _her_ friends--and _faute de mieux_, rather enjoyed the +lounge of Mrs. Trevyllian's room, where she spent a great part of her +time. + +One evening, about the end of three weeks after Eugene Trevor's +accident, having remained talking to Mary some time after they had left +the dining-room, Mrs. de Burgh announced herself obliged to go up +stairs to Mrs. Trevyllian, for the rest of the evening, that lady having +made her promise so to do, she being in more than usually bad spirits +that day. + +"I know you do not mind a quiet evening for once," she added, "and I +have already seen you cast many a wistful glance at those books on the +table, whilst I have been talking nonsense; so make yourself comfortable +and if you find it dull come up to us. Mrs. Trevyllian will not mind +you. You will not have Louis' company to-night, for he has ordered +candles in the library, and means to adjourn there with his landscape +gardener when he leaves the dining room." + +Mary was accordingly left in solitary possession of the fair saloon, +through which the soft clear lamps and ruddy fire cast so cheerful a +radiance, feeling quite capable of appreciating the enjoyment, nay +luxury, of occasional solitude of the kind under similar auspices. + +She felt quite sure as she glanced around, when Mrs. de Burgh closed the +door behind her, that the _tête-à-tête_ of Olivia and her friend would +not be intruded upon by her to-night, that for the hour or two before +bed-time she should be well able to wile away her moments more +agreeably; and when in accordance with Mrs. de Burgh's anticipations, +she listened to the retreating voices of Louis and his companion, as +issuing from the dining-room they proceeded to the library, and shut the +door upon them to pore, for the remainder of the evening, over books and +plans--for Mr. L---- had to leave early on the following morning--Mary +obediently followed Mrs. de Burgh's injunction, "to make herself +comfortable," by sinking back on a luxurious _bergère_ on one side of +the fire place, and returning to the perusal of a work she had commenced +that day--whether for the name's-sake we cannot tell--but when my +readers learn its title, they will scarcely wonder if she now proceeded +with almost as much absorbing and abstract interest as if in Madeline's +own words there had been "no more Eugene's in the world than one"--the +strange and mysterious hero of her romantic studies. The book she read +was Eugene Aram. + +Thus engaged, Mary's attention wholly rivetted by the stirring interest +of the story, her taste enchanted by the glowing descriptions; and more +than all, her feelings and sympathies affected by the striking +sentiments of force and pathos with which its pages abound. She must +have become insensible to the existence of common worldly sounds, for +that of the door bell at this unusual hour, made no more impression on +her senses than any other might have done. + +Reclining back in indolent repose, one hand supporting the book, whilst +her other fair girlish arm lay in listless abandonment across the arm of +the chair, she just heard the door of the apartment open, but never +troubled herself to turn her head to look upon the intruder, concluding +that it could be only the servant come to attend to the fire, and not +till he had crossed the room and stood close before her, did she raise +her eyes to behold Eugene Trevor. + +Yes, there he was, standing looking down upon her with a smile on his +lips, provoked, first by the extreme absorption in which he had +surprised her, and then by the gaze of startled wonder, her upraised +countenance expressed. But astonishment soon gave way to other +appearances. If Eugene Trevor had ever reason to doubt the true +impression made by him on Mary Seaham's heart--by this sudden and +unexpected arrival after an interval of absence such as had occurred, +and from causes such as had existed--he had now taken good means to +ascertain its real nature and extent. + +Nothing speaks so truly as to the character and durability of the +feelings we have awakened, than the effect produced by meetings of this +sort. + + "Le plus aimé n'est pas toujours le meilleur reçu," + +some French poet writes, but _rencontres_ of this description admit of +no such refined and delicate subterfuges. The truth must out in glance, +or tone, or countenance, + + "And then if silence does not speak, + Or faltering tongue, or changing cheek-- + There's nothing told." + +And these tell-tale signs were unmistakeably revealed in this unprepared +moment upon poor Mary's countenance, when her lover, for so she had +lately dared to deem him, so unexpectedly appeared before her sight +after three weeks separation. + +She knew him during that time to have been ill, and suffering from a +dangerous and painful accident. She saw him paler, thinner, than she had +ever yet beheld him. They were alone together at this uncommon time and +under these unexpected circumstances, and her heart beat fast with +feelings she had never before experienced. + +And there she sat; the colour fast mounting over cheek and brow, then +leaving them very pale. Her eyes half filled with tears, her half parted +lips unable to falter forth, but incoherently, the words of welcome, of +congratulation, of pleasure at his recovery; which to any other +individual under the same circumstances, nay to himself, but a few weeks +ago, would have flowed so calmly and naturally from her kind warm heart. + +"Eugene Aram" fell unheeded from her hands. To Mary, indeed, at that +moment, "there was but one Eugene in the world." + +Fortunately for her, he in whose presence she now found herself, however +culpable he might be in other points of conduct and of character, was +not one, in this instance, to take a vain and heartless pleasure in the +discovery he thus made. + + "To trifle in cold vanity with all + The warm soul's precious throbs, to whom it is + A triumph that a fond devoted heart + Is breaking for them--who can bear to call + Young flowers into beauty--and then to crush them." + +Nay, still more fortunately for Mary, he was as much in love himself at +this time--perhaps, even still more so--different, totally, in kind, as +that love might be; and that he was loved, unsuspectingly, undeservedly +loved, by one, in his idea, as far above himself in purity and goodness, +as an angel is above a being of this fallen earth--loved even with that +excellence with which "angels love good men," filled his soul, at that +moment, with emotions of a softer, holier nature, than any which, +perhaps, for a long time, it had been his happiness to experience; and a +grateful, almost humbled, exultation, if any such feeling was excited by +the conviction, lit up with a sudden flash of animation, his keen dark +eve. He did not wait for Mary to finish what she had attempted to +express on his account. A moment's earnest abstracted pause ensued, +then moving quickly from his position on the hearth-rug, as if impelled +by a sudden irresistible impulse, he drew a chair close to her's, and +sitting down by her side, at once began. + +Her face was half averted, but he bent down his that she might catch the +low, soft, earnest accents, in which he breathed forth expressions of +his joy at beholding her again--how that she alone had filled his +thoughts during the period of his confinement--how impatiently he had +awaited the moment of liberation--and how, though unavoidably prevented +from leaving home as he had intended, in time for dinner, he could not +bear to delay one night longer after receiving his release, and had +therefore set out even at this eleventh hour--finally, he alluded to the +unexpected delight of finding her thus alone, the circumstance affording +him, as it did, the joyful opportunity of at once expressing in words, +what she must long ere this have inwardly discerned, the admiration, the +respect, the far deeper, tenderer feelings, with which she, almost from +the first moment he beheld her, had inspired him. He knew he was +unworthy to possess so inestimable a treasure, but if any strength or +measure of affection could atone for other imperfections, his surely +might be sufficient to plead in his behalf, did she not disdain the +compensation. + +Poor Mary! Her head sank lower, lower, on her heaving bosom, as one by +one these thrilling words--these fond assurances--came falling on her +ear, or rather sinking into her heart, + + "Like the sweet South + That breathes upon a bank of violets + Stealing and giving odour," + +overpowering it with emotions of only too exquisite a nature. + +Was not her's a happiness rare and almost unexampled, to find the hero +of her maiden meditations thus prove in truth the master and magician of +her fate? + +Yet even in that moment of joyful agitation, was there no swift under +current of thought, and recollection mingling strangely with her +immediate sensations; bringing with it, a certain confusion of feeling +and idea, similar to the one which had broken her slumbers the first +night of her arrival at Silverton? + +Alas! if it was the remembrance of the Welsh hill-side which again +suggested itself, if the image of her rejected lover standing by her +with that suppressed, yet deep and manly grief and disappointment, +expressed upon his noble countenance--might there not have been too a +voice to whisper in her ear, "And what then is there in this man by your +side, that he has thus found favour in your eyes; what superiority and +excellence have you fancied in him, that he is thus chosen when the +other was rejected?" + +But no such voice it seems did speak, or if so, it made itself not +heard. + +The charmed ear is deaf to whom it whispers--the fascinated eye is blind +to whom it would suggest such comparison. + +Yes, blind! Blind as the aged patriarch of old. Jacob is blessed: the +blessing and the birthright is taken from the rightful claimant. "I +have blessed him, yea, and he shall be blessed." + +Mary has not yet spoken, but there is a silence more expressive than +words--and expressive, as that which had followed Mr. Temple's +declaration and so coldly fallen upon his trembling hopes, was, to +Eugene Trevor, the silence which now hung upon her tongue. That blushing +face, those tearful eyes, those smiling lips, spoke all that he desired +to hear. They emboldened him so far as the pressing one of the soft +hands, which now nervously grasped the chair beside him, and though it +trembled, it was not withdrawn; and then the first overpowering flood of +agitation subdued--Mary, her emotion soothed and composed, had told her +love with "virgin pride--" and now sat calmly happy by her lover's side, +listening to his earnest conversation on many points connected with that +future now before them; yes whatever might have been the nature of his +feelings on the occasion, how intense and delicious were _her_ +sensations of happiness; for as it is expressed in the pages of the book +to which we have, in the last chapter, had occasion to allude: + +"In the pure heart of a young girl loving for the first time, love is +far more ecstatic than in man's more fevered nature. Love then and +there, makes the only state of human existence which is at once capable +of calmness and transport." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + She hath flung + Her all upon the venture of her vow, + And in her trust leans meekly, like a flower, + By the still river tempted from its stem + And on its bosom floating. + + WILLIS. + + +Mary did not feel quite equal to face her cousin and his friend in her +present state of mind; therefore, on the first movement making itself +heard in the direction of the library, she took alarm and escaped up +stairs, leaving Trevor, who did not suffer the same shamefaceness, to +undergo the encounter alone. Mary first went to her own room, then +shortly after, trying to look as if nothing had happened, proceeded to +Mrs. Trevyllian's apartment, to wish her cousin good night. She found +the ladies both reclining on their respective sofas, and was cordially +welcomed by each, as if by this time they had began to have had enough +of each other's uninterrupted society. + +"Do you know that Mr. Trevor is here?" Mary murmured to her cousin, with +averted countenance. + +"Why, I fancied you had a visitor of some sort," Mrs. de Burgh replied +with a smile of arch significance. "Was I not good to leave you +undisturbed?" she added at the same time in a whisper, trying to catch a +glimpse of Mary's face, whilst Mrs. Trevyllian turned upon it a glance +of such scrutinizing curiosity, that Mary finding this an ordeal, +unendurable for the present, bade them "good night," and made her escape +back to the sheltered sanctity of her solitary chamber, where no +intruding gaze could pierce, to meddle with the shrinking, modest joy, +which overflowed her heart. + +But it seems that Mrs. de Burgh, with all pardonable curiosity, +considering she was not quite unprepared for what Eugene Trevor's visit +would bring forth, had gone down-stairs after Mary left her, and had a +long private conversation with her cousin; for though she did not +disturb her again that night, it being very late before the interview +came to an end; yet the next morning, just as Mary was endeavouring to +clear her senses, and remember whether what had occurred the night +before had been a dream or a reality, Olivia made her appearance to +embrace and congratulate her on the happy intelligence she had received. + +"You cannot imagine, dear Mary," she said, "how pleased I was when +Eugene told me. It is just what I have wished all along. I have always +been very fond of Eugene; all that he required was a good wife, such as +he will find in you; and I feel convinced that he will make you very +happy." + +Mary smiled, as if she too felt perfectly satisfied on this point. + +"Louis," Mrs. de Burgh continued, "will most likely say that he is not +half good enough for you, but I suppose you will not feel much inclined +to agree with him there. As far as that goes, I assure you Eugene thinks +the same, but that is only as it should be, the more humble men's ideas +of themselves, and the more exalted their views of us, the better; they +are not often disposed to hold such doctrine. Of course you cannot +expect that even Eugene, has been, or ever will be, a piece of +perfection in character or conduct; but ah, I see by your face that you +think him so now, at any rate, so what signifies the _has been_, or the +_may be_? Well, you are quite right. 'Sufficient for the day' is my +motto, and, as I said before, I am convinced Eugene will love you as +much as ever wife was loved." + +Mary's beaming eyes spoke indeed her perfect satisfaction, at this +summing up of Mrs. de Burgh's discourse. The rest she heeded not; it +agreed so little with the spirit of her pure and perfect love, and she +then inquired whether "Eugene," (with a blushing smile, as for the +first time she called him by that name,) had made Louis acquainted with +the fact of their engagement. She should be very glad if this were the +case, as she could not keep it a secret for a moment longer from her +kind cousin than was necessary; but Eugene seemed the evening before, +rather to wish that she should delay the communication for a day or two. + +"Yes," replied Mrs. de Burgh, "he told me so last night, and still would +prefer our being silent on the subject just at present. The fact is, he +anticipates some little difficulty in reconciling his father to the idea +of his marriage. Uncle Trevor is rather a strange old man. Besides being +very fond of his son, he may imagine such an event likely to interfere +with the comfort he has in his society at Montrevor, not, of course, +that Eugene would allow that to be any obstacle; but only he thinks, I +dare say, that it is as well to keep the matter as snug as possible, +till he has prepared the old man's mind a little for the change." + +"Oh, of course," Mary said. "It is much better that it should be so. It +is only Louis, who I should not like to keep in the dark longer than was +really necessary, staying as I am in his house, and he being so near and +responsible a relation. Besides, it will be so difficult when Eugene is +here, to prevent letting it appear that something peculiar has +happened." + +Mrs. de Burgh laughed. + +"Well! Eugene seemed to think that he would find it rather difficult +too, and for that reason imagined it better to go away this morning +before breakfast. He gave out last night, what is partly true, that he +only came here _en route_ to M----, where he has business to transact; +he will return home to-night, and begin operations on the old gentleman. +In the meantime, as the most likely means to expedite and facilitate +matters, Eugene has set his heart upon a little plan which he +commissioned me to lay before you, and also to beseech you, with his +most tender love, not to disappoint his wishes on the subject." + +Mary's countenance seemed to say that already his request was granted, +but she paused for further information. + +"He proposes," continued Mrs. de Burgh, "that, perhaps not the next day, +but the one following, you and I should drive over to Montrevor to +luncheon, and that in this way his father, before he knows of anything +being in the wind, should see and know you--and he thinks--as a matter +of course, be charmed and delighted, and so half the battle gained at +once." + +Mary smiled. + +"But what will Louis say to this?" she inquired, "he will object now, I +suppose, as much as formerly, to our driving to Montrevor." + +"_Louis!_ how very good you are Mary, why you are not half in love if +you would allow ought that Louis could say or think, to interfere with +anything in which Eugene is concerned now. But to set your mind at ease +on this point, Louis happens to leave home this morning and does not +return till the next day, so you need not have to tell any stories on +the subject, and perhaps, when you see him again, you may be able to +divulge all, and he have no more business to quarrel with your drives to +Montrevor." + +Mary gave a yielding smile, and we are afraid that even if she had +entertained any conscientious scruples after the above discourse, they +would have melted quite away after the first love-letter she received, +under cover to one addressed to Mrs. de Burgh, from Eugene Trevor on the +following morning. A little note which she wrote in reply, necessarily +settled the point. + +Mr. de Burgh took his departure early the next morning, and his fair +lady ordered the pony carriage to come round at noon the same day, for +their drive to Montrevor, which was more than twelve miles distant. + +"Adieu, happy people, you will have a delightful drive!" sighed Mrs. +Trevyllian, who had actually been emboldened by the absence of gentlemen +to face the sunshine beneath the cover of her crape veil, and to go out +for a stroll upon the lawn. + +And a delightful drive it was, at least to Mary. It would have been so, +even under less favourable auspices, with the same happy prospects at +the end. A visit to her intended, under his father's roof! But even +nature seemed to smile upon her hopes. It was a perfect specimen of an +October day, with the balmy and refreshing warmth, sometimes +characterizing this period of the year; the sky serene and clear, above +their heads, whilst the woods and trees which skirted the roads, along +which they so swiftly sped, were still in one rich golden glow. + +And it was not for Mary, on this happy day, to think, how there wanted +but one chill and wintry blast to lay these thousand glories low. + +She naturally felt a little nervous when she was informed they were +approaching their destination. The trembling happiness of meeting Eugene +for the first time since their last eventful interview, made her heart +beat fast--and then there was her introduction to his father, the +"strange old man," on whom the impression she should make was to her, +for Eugene's sake, of such great importance. + +Mrs. de Burgh, in her conversation, during the drive, touched in great +measure on the subject of this relative. + +She described him as having for years lived a very reclusive life at +Montrevor; and thus to have acquired peculiarities and eccentricities, +even beyond those which in a degree were natural to his habits and +disposition--one of which, by her account, seemed to be an inclination +to the most rigid parsimony, and she prepared Mary to see some signs of +this in the character of their entertainment upon the present occasion. + +"Of course," Mrs. de Burgh added, "Eugene does not much interest himself +in amending such matters at present, and indeed during his father's +life-time--or perhaps till he married--it was of little consequence to +him, and to say the truth, any interference on his part would not have +been of much avail, for an old favourite servant has hitherto held +sovereign sway over the house. However, it will be all very different +some of these days," she added with a smile, "when a Mrs. Eugene Trevor +comes into power." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + I know + She prizes not such trifles as these are: + The gifts she looks from me, are pack'd and lock'd + Up in my heart. + + WINTER'S TALE. + + +They entered at last upon the domain of Montrevor, a very fine estate, +on much the same scale, and not very different in style, to the mansion +of Silverton; a not uncommon similarity which might seem, generally +speaking, to run through the estates and great houses of our several +English counties, almost as much as their distinctive characteristics +are shown forth in the dialect of the common people, and even--as we +fancy--in the style and manners of the superior class of inhabitants. + +But there was one important point which imparted a very opposite aspect +to the two places, and must have at once struck the beholder; whereas +the grounds of Silverton, under the influence of Mr. de Burgh's zealous +exertions, were undergoing the process of improvement--or at least +alteration to a great extent--those of Montrevor, if not quite allowed +to run wild, from neglect, showed at least no signs of anything like +expensive outlay being wasted on their culture, or arrangement; whilst +on the other hand, the frequent sight of naked stumps, interspersed +within the still richly wooded domain, gave rise to the suspicion that +the woodman's axe found no inconsiderable measure of employment there. + +"Yes!" Mrs. de Burgh observed, in allusion to these appearances; "Eugene +does all in his power to prevent too great a dilapidation of this kind; +so the greatest delight the old gentleman can have is a regular +destructive storm, after which he walks about--like a certain duke, +whose propensities where restrained by an entail--chuckling over the +devastations it may have occasioned, and yet I believe he is richer by +far than Louis. I only wish," she added, giving a smart lash to the +ponies, as they started aside from some fallen timber which lay near the +road, "that he would spare his money a little in the same way; or at any +rate, keep it to spend in a more satisfactory manner." + +"Is Eugene the eldest son?" Mary quietly enquired, not the least afraid, +in her unconscious simplicity of heart, lest the demand might have +awakened suspicions that the sight of these fine family possessions had +for the first time suggested the important question. + +"The eldest son. Oh! I will tell you all about that presently. See, here +is the house, and there is Eugene on the anxious look-out." + +And what further thought had Mary as to her lover's primogeniture? + +With glad alacrity, he hastened to meet them when the carriage stopped +before the door, and warm and fervent was the meeting and the welcome he +gave to his gentle, happy betrothed. + +On Mary's part all nervous discomfort seemed to vanish, as handing her +from the carriage he drew her trembling arm within his own, and led her +up the steps into his father's halls, thanking her all the time, with +the most earnest tenderness for having thus acceded to his request. + +"My father," he said, turning to Mrs. de Burgh, as before proceeding +they paused for a few moments together to converse, "is quite prepared +to see you; and a very charming young lady--" looking with an expressive +smile at Mary--"who, I told him, would accompany you; and I suppose +luncheon must be nearly ready, that is to say, if there is anything +prepared deserving of that name, and really I have been so busy this +morning, and am so unaccustomed to eat in this house, that I never +thought of making particular inquiries on the subject. But I suppose +Marryott will give us something." + +"Oh, yes, I dare say!" Mrs. de Burgh rejoined laughing; "and I am so +hungry that I shall not much care what it is, so, that there only is +'something.' I have prepared, Mary, for finding that there will be some +few points of reformation required in the domestic arrangements of +Montrevor; but neither of _you_, of course, can do anything so +unromantic as to eat just at present. Come along! where is my uncle--in +his library?" and she proceeded to lead the way to that apartment. + +In the long, low, and rather gloomy-looking library, on a faded crimson +leather chair before a bureau, or old-fashioned writing-table, with +drawers innumerable, was seated Mr. Trevor, the unconscious +father-in-law elect of Mary Seaham. At the opening of the door, which +instantaneously followed Mrs. de Burgh's knock, he hastily closed one of +the receptacles over which he had seemed to be bending assiduously, and +turning round his head and beholding his visitors, rose to receive +them--giving his wasted hand to his niece, and saying in a weak and +tremulous voice: + +"My dear Olivia, I am very glad to see you." + +"And _I_ overjoyed to behold you again, uncle. It is really an age since +I have had that pleasure; but how excessively well you are looking!" +Then turning towards Mary, she added: "Allow me to introduce Miss +Seaham--Louis' cousin, you know. I think you must remember her mother." + +The old man looked at Mary and bowed with the utmost old-fashioned +courtesy, then begged both ladies to be seated. + +"I really have been intending to drive over to see you, dear uncle, ever +since your illness in the summer," continued Mrs. de Burgh, "but one +thing or the other has prevented me. Besides Louis always persisted that +you would only think me a nuisance, and Eugene," she added, looking at +her cousin, who laughed at the accusation, "really did not much +encourage the contrary idea." + +"Eh, Eugene, is that the case?" responded the old gentleman, with an +attempt at a jocular smile, which sat ill on his naturally careworn, +anxious countenance. "A nice character they seem to give me, and that +young lady," glancing towards Mary, "must look upon me of course as a +sad old churl." + +Mary with a sweet and earnest smile, denied the truth of any such +assumption, and Mr. Trevor looked at her again more attentively, as +almost every one who did look upon her countenance with any degree of +observation, seldom failed to do a second time; not so much for its +beauty as for that "something excellent which wants a name," attracting +still more irresistibly. Mr. Trevor might have been also not a little +struck by the expression of earnest, almost affectionate interest +emanating from the gaze, with which he caught the soft grey eyes of this +young stranger fixed upon his face; "and why does she look at me in +that manner, does the girl want to borrow money?" were exactly the +words which might have seemed to suit the first sharp suspicious glance +with which he marked the circumstance, though diverted irresistibly and +almost instantaneously by the silent magic of her ingenuous countenance. + +Mary could not help regarding Eugene's father with a considerable degree +of interest and attention, but even under indifferent circumstances, she +would not have been quite unimpressed. His long silvery hair falling +nearly to his shoulders--the sort of loose vest he wore, and little +velvet cap covering the baldness of the crown of his head, gave him on +the first _coup d'oeil_ a very venerable and picturesque appearance. +But what on survey most attracted Mary's observation was the likeness, +her loving quick-eyed perception perceived, or fancied she perceived +between the father and son, allowing of course for the changing effects +of age and infirmities, the latter perhaps in as great, if not in a +greater degree in this case, than the former, for Mr. Trevor at this +time was only seventy. + +To the now bent and shrunken form, it was easy to imagine there had once +belonged the manly build and middle height of Eugene. In his voice too, +there was as much similarity of tone, as could have been preserved +between such an unfeebled, time warped instrument, and the full toned +organ of the other. Then there were the same dark, deep-set eyes, though +dimmed and sunken; the same cast of features, though compressed, +sharpened, and marked with signs and characters which she could not +forbear to hope even age and infirmity might never mature on those of +Eugene; for the impression they imparted was on a closer observation, of +a far from agreeable nature. + +"Well, Eugene, are we not to have some luncheon? these ladies must be +hungry after their long drive," the old gentleman said after he had made +civil enquiries as to the length of time Mary had been in the country, +remarked on the weather &c. + +"Yes indeed, Sir, Olivia professes herself very hungry indeed," Eugene +replied, "I will ring the bell and ask if there is anything to be had." + +"Yes, do so pray. Anything to be had," he repeated with a semblance of +anxious hospitality, "of course there is something, Olivia is not to be +starved (with an uneasy smile), eh, Olivia? But do not expect such +feasting as you have at Silverton; we are plain housekeepers here at +present, Eugene and I. My appetite is gone--irretrievably gone--can +scarcely swallow a morsel, and Eugene is not particular. Bachelor fare +suits him--Eh, Eugene?" he added with a facetious chuckle, "is not this +the case?" + +"Certainly, Sir, _at present_" his son replied with a significant laugh, +in which Mrs. de Burgh joined, whilst both stole a glance at Mary, who +cast down her eyes and blushed, though a smile at the same time played +upon her lips. + +A servant then entered, and in answer to the bell, announced that +luncheon was on the table. Mr. Trevor by the manoeuvre of Mrs. de +Burgh, was made to offer his arm to Mary, whilst Eugene having smiled +expressively upon her as she passed, followed with his cousin. + +"What in the world induced you to put us in this dungeon of a room?" he +enquired, turning to the butler, who with one other servant composed +their attendance, as they entered the vast dining room, the door being +thrown open for their reception. + +"Yes, the small room would have done perfectly," said his father, +glancing somewhat uneasily at the moderate fire burning not very +effectually in the cold, bright, spacious grate, "but you and I can dine +here Eugene, to-night--and the other fire," looking at the servant as he +seated himself at the table, "may be let out." + +"Very well, Sir," said the man, as he lifted up the cover of the dish +placed before his master at the top of the long table, which might well +have accommodated fourteen, a space being thereby occasioned between +himself and Mary, and the couple at the bottom, of very formidable +extent; and which seemed irresistably to excite Mrs. de Burgh's mirth, +while Eugene was half angry, half amused at the stupidity and ridiculous +nature of the arrangement. + +"What have you there, Eugene?" Mr. Trevor then demanded, as the bottom +cover was, at the same moment, removed. + +"Potatoes, Sir, hot potatoes, I am glad to say, for we require heat, +here, of some kind, excessively. I shall be glad to yield you and Miss +Seaham, the benefit of their vicinity, and save you the trouble of that +joint. Roland, bring that mutton here," and the small loin being placed +before Eugene, he proceeded to help the ladies, (Eugene was always a +silent observer of these little points,) according to his, now not +inexperienced, estimate of their several tastes and appetites. + +"None for me, Eugene, none for me," Mr. Trevor said, surveying Mary's +small supply, not uncomplacently, and helping himself to a potatoe. +"Never eat meat at this time, you know, and at any time but with a poor +relish. Youth, and health, and spirits, make the best sauces. Eh, Miss +Seaham?" in answer to Mary's glance of pitying concern. + +"The best to be had here, at any rate," laughed the younger Trevor to +his companion, as he impatiently pushed away the cruet-stand, from which +he had vainly been attempting to extract, for his own use, some remnant +of its exhausted contents, "have them replenished immediately I beg," he +added, addressing his servant. "Olivia, pray renew your acquaintance +with your favourite old sherry; it will be many a long day before that +is exhausted. Has Miss Seaham any? Ah, yes!"--with a smile across the +table, which cleared away the momentary cloud that had passed over his +countenance, and he proceeded to pour himself out a glass, and several +others in succession, though his appetite, in other respects, appeared +not much better than his father's. + +Mrs. de Burgh and Eugene seemed to keep up a brisk and animated +conversation, yet it was easy to perceive that they were not inattentive +also to the progress of their opposite neighbours, and that Eugene's eye +was continually directed towards Mary, with earnest solicitude as to her +comfort and entertainment; whilst the complacent smile occasionally +exchanged between him and his cousin, demonstrated their sense of the +satisfactory progress she seemed to be making in the good graces of her +host. For Mr. Trevor appeared in no way uninfected by the peculiar charm +Mary had cast around the son. Her quiet, gentle manners, appeared to +soothe him and set his mind at ease, whilst at the same time, the +intelligent interest and animation in which she entered into all he +said, flattered and pleased him. + +"You must send Miss Seaham some more mutton; you helped her to only +enough to feed a sparrow, you should make allowance for her long drive," +he called out quite reproachfully to his son, as Mary's plate was about +to be removed by the servant. + +"I shall be happy to send Miss Seaham as much as she can possibly eat," +said Eugene demurely, "but," he added, as Mary begged to decline a +second supply, "I fancy she will prefer a slice of that cake I see on +the side table." + +"Cake! is there any cake?" exclaimed the old gentleman, looking round in +doubtful search of this reported, and as it would have seemed, +unexpected and unusual adjunct to his table. + +"Oh, of course," Eugene replied, smiling; "all young ladies like cake, +and Marryott knows that too well not to have supplied Miss Seaham with +one to-day." + +"But Marryott," said the old man, somewhat sharply, "did not know till +this morning that we were to have ladies to luncheon. You did not tell +her till this morning. Eh? How, then, could she have had one made in +time?" + +"Well then, Marryott is a prophetess, for, at any rate, here is a cake, +and a capital one too," the son added, with a little quick impatience in +his tone, though at the same time losing none of the respectful +consideration, ever peculiarly observable in his manner towards his +eccentric old father. + +"Formerly, they used to make me cakes and all sort of good things to +take to school when I was a boy; why, I wonder, are these, as well as +many other good things, now denied me?" Eugene continued, laughing. + +"Because you do not deserve them, I suppose," playfully rejoined Mrs. de +Burgh. + +"I suppose so," he answered rather quickly, a flush passing across his +brow, whilst a slight glance was directed towards Mary, as if +conscience suggested to his secret soul, one of those whispers which +sometimes disturb the proud heart of man in his most careless moments. + +"How, then, are you deserving of this good, best thing you are about to +appropriate to yourself?" + +Perhaps, too, for at the slightest word, "How many thoughts are +stirred," his own careless question might suggest this one reply: + +"And where is she, the fond, the faithful, and unselfish administrator +to the tastes and pleasures of your boyhood--your thoughtless, selfish, +slighting boyhood?--that gentle, excellent being, prized too little on +earth, too soon forgotten in death, to whom, alas! you too seldom had +recourse but when other resources failed you--who gave and did all +unrebukingly, looking for nothing in return--never wearying of doing you +good?" + +"I think sometimes,"--are the words of gentle Charles Lamb--"could I +recall the days that are gone, which amongst them should I choose? Not +those 'merrier days' not 'the pleasant days of hope,' not those +wanderings with a fair-haired maid, which I have so often and so +feelingly regretted, but the days of a mother's fondness for her +schoolboy. What would I give to call her back for _one_ day, on my knees +to ask her pardon for all those little asperities of temper, which from +time to time have given her gentle spirit pain." + +We do not know--we only imagine--we only hope that some such reflections +might have suggested themselves to Trevor's mind, for they are those +which, however unfrequently indulged--like the droppings on a stone, or +as angel's visits, few and far between--cannot leave the heart less hard +than the nether millstone--less unredeemable than the forsaken +reprobate--quite uninfluenced by their softening power, and the careless +words which almost uninterruptedly followed this under current of +thought, no way militates against our hopes and wishes on that +score--for it is by the careless, outward sign that the deep utterance +of the heart is oftenest disguised. + +"Olivia," he continued, as he proceeded to cut the cake, "shall I give +you some? No? Ah, I forgot, married ladies, I observe, seldom do eat +cake;" and he sent round the plate to Mary, whilst Mr. Trevor, though he +still kept his eye curiously fixed on the object of discussion, as if he +could not yet quite reconcile to his mind the phenomenon of its +production, was not ungratified to hear Mary praise it, and finally +consented to taste a piece, in obedience to her recommendation; +pronouncing himself perfectly satisfied with its merits, inasmuch--as it +certainly was not too rich. + +Independently of the natural promptings of her disposition, which would +have led Mary under any circumstances, to pay every amiable and +respectful attention to one of Mr. Trevor's age and circumstances, it +had been certainly her anxious desire on this peculiar occasion to find +favour in the eyes of Eugene's father, and to this effect--to make +herself--as the phrase goes--as agreeable as possible; an endeavour all +must know, in which--when the heart has so dear an interest as in the +present case--it requires no great art or effort to engage _con amore_, +and Mary's time and attention thus employed upon the father, it was not +very often, though we cannot vouch for how often, her thoughts might +have turned in that direction, that she suffered her eyes to wander down +the long table towards the son, unless especially addressed. + +Perhaps she might not feel quite bold enough as yet to brave the +observation of her father-in-law elect in this manner, and it was easy +to discover that Mr. Trevor's sharp anxious glances, were of no +unobservant a character, therefore it certainly happened that when her +eyes did venture to turn from his immediate vicinity, they were oftenest +raised towards an object, upon which it was to be imagined, she might +gaze _ad libitum_, without risk of incurring suspicion or animadversion. +It was one of the family portraits, lining the walls of the spacious +apartment, and hanging over the fire-place, facing where she sat; not +one of the quiet gentlemen in brown lace adorned suits, and powdered +bag wigs, but one whose habiliments pronounced him a warrior of still +earlier date; and by that noble countenance, Mary's eyes might be seen +very frequently attracted, so much so, that towards the close of the +repast, when the servants had retired, Mrs. de Burgh called out, across +the table: + +"Mary, Eugene is quite jealous--that is to say," correcting herself, +"Eugene is very anxious to know whether you have quite lost your heart +to that gallant ancestor of his over the mantelpiece, for it seems to +attract your most earnest interest and attention?" + +Mary smiled. + +"Not quite," she said, "though he is very handsome, I confess; but what +most drew my attention to the picture, is its extreme likeness to a +person with whom I am acquainted." + +"Indeed!" Eugene exclaimed gaily, "well I cannot say that much mends the +matter, does it, Olivia? A likeness to a person Miss Seaham has seen--a +likeness too, she owns so handsome, attracting so much interest and +attention, that we have scarcely had one glance cast upon us all this +long time. We must really make some further enquiries about this +'person.'" + +Mary responded to this fond raillery of her lover by an affectionate +beaming smile, whilst Mr. Trevor in whose mind his son's words did not +appear to awaken any suspicions, began for Mary's edification, to give +an account of the name, birth, parentage and exploits of the warrior in +question; which Mrs. de Burgh and Eugene interrupted, in the midst, by +rising and moving from the table, and the former proposing that they +should take Mary to show her over some parts of the house and gardens. + +Whereupon the old gentleman expressed his fears that they would find all +the rooms worth seeing, "shut, and covered up, and cold--very cold" +(though in truth they could not have been much colder than the one in +which they now found themselves) "and the garden very desolate"--and +then he went off to his library. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + And side by side the lovers sate, + + Their talk was of the future; from the height + Of Hope, they saw the landscape bath'd in light, + And where the golden dimness veil'd the gaze, + Guess'd out the spot, and marked the sites of happy days. + + THE NEW TIMON. + + +Then once more was Eugene at Mary's side, congratulating himself that +the separation from one another--which the stupidity of the servants, +out of practice in anything like civilized entertainments had occasioned +them was over. + +"Is not that flattering, considering who was his partner in this +isolation, as he calls it?" replied Mrs. de Burgh. "Stupidity, not at +all! poor old Richard wished to do us honour, and he thought he could +not do so to greater perfection than by putting us into the largest, +coldest room, and at the longest table. Besides it could not have been +better arranged, for other reasons. How well you got on with Uncle +Trevor, Mary; we see that he is quiet charmed with you already." + +"I fear I have had little time or opportunity as yet to win or merit any +such unqualified approbation," Mary replied, "though I may hope, that in +time,"--looking at Eugene with a smile. + +"Oh, I assure you," interposed Mrs. de Burgh, laughing, "that you did a +great deal in that short time. First of all you fully proved to my uncle +that your appetite was of no formidable dimensions, (I know he holds +mine of old in horror) not greatly above that of a sparrow. Then you +only took a thimble full of wine; and he obtained full assurance that +you had not been in London for ages--had no great longing to go there +at all--had been accustomed, and indeed did, prefer the country; and +therefore he need have no fear--when the truth is broken to him--of +Eugene's being dragged off by you to London every season, his money +squandered, as he fancies my husband's is (I wish, indeed, it was so +squandered) upon hotel-bills and opera boxes! Oh, you did it capitally, +Mary! did she not Eugene?" + +"Olivia is too bad, is she not?" was Eugene's reply, having--during Mrs. +de Burgh's speech--been gazing with a fond smile into the expressive +countenance of his betrothed, as she listened, half amused--half +surprised and shocked, to her cousin's unceremonious ridicule of her +uncle's peculiarities before his son. + +"She is too bad," he continued, "and will give you but a poor idea of +what you may expect in this house; when, of course, everything would be +set on a very different train on your becoming its inmate." + +And Eugene took the hand of his betrothed within his own with such +tender affection, that Mrs. de Burgh began to experience something of +the uncomfortable sensation of feeling herself _de trop_, to which +_chaperones_, or any third person, under similar circumstances, are apt +to be exposed. So she proposed an immediate adjournment, deeming this +the best measure to be adopted for promoting a more comfortable position +of affairs. + +They accordingly proceeded through some of the large apartments, +handsome rooms, for the most part, though covered and shut up, and as +Mr. Trevor had reported, "cold, very cold." Mrs. de Burgh at least found +them so, and Trevor having proposed to show Mary a more pleasant and +habitable room, which he thought she would prefer, Mrs. de Burgh +applauded the plan, and accompanied them up the staircase, but in the +gallery suddenly remembered that she had something particular to say to +Marryott, and adding that she would go and look for her, and return to +them in the boudoir, when they might go out to walk, she left the lovers +alone together. Trevor accordingly proceeded to lead Mary in the +direction of the room thus specified. + +There were pictures on the walls of the corridor through which they +passed, and one of these Mary would fain have waited more particularly +to survey. + +It was a large oil painting, representing a group composed of three +boys, from about the ages of ten to fourteen. One, apparently the +eldest, was mounted on a handsome pony, the reins of which were held by +the second, the most striking in appearance of the party, and whose fine +animated countenance was turned eagerly aside towards the third and +youngest, a dark-haired, dark-eyed little fellow, carrying a cricket-bat +in his hand. A large Newfoundland dog completed the picture. + +"Yes," Trevor said, in answer to the look of interest and half-uttered +enquiry which a glimpse of the painting drew forth from Mary, "that +gentleman with the bat was intended to represent my hopeful self." + +But there was something of constraint in the smile which accompanied, +and in the tone in which he uttered these words, which instinctively +caused Mary to pass on without further demonstration of the wish she +felt to pause for its closer inspection. + +There might be, for aught she knew, some melancholy associations +connected with the brother, she remembered he had lost, perhaps even +with the one still living, but concerning whom she had as yet heard so +little, and to whom she could not help, from that very cause, attaching +the existence of some mystery. But at any rate, she had ascertained that +Eugene was not the eldest son. + +Their course was destined to meet with one other interruption. They +suddenly came upon a remarkable looking woman, tall, and rather +handsomely dressed, with remains of considerable beauty, though now +apparently past fifty. + +Mary at once concluded her to be the Marryott of whom she had heard +previous mention, though the ideas she had formed respecting that +personage were rather of a more venerable and old fashioned looking +person--a housekeeper of the old school, in sweeping serge, high +starched cap, and massive bunches of keys at her girdle. + +She had, however, a kindly smile, and some few gracious words ready for +this--from all she had heard and imagined--old and faithful servant of +the family, who drew back with all due deference to let her young master +and his fair companion pass. + +But Trevor did not testify much more inclination to pause here than he +had showed before the picture; he merely said, _en passant_, +acknowledging her presence by a hasty glance: + +"Oh, Marryott, Mrs. de Burgh has gone to look for you. I want to show +Miss Seaham the boudoir; I suppose the door is open?" + +The woman answered civilly that it was, though she was sorry to say +there was no fire lighted, and they proceeded on their way. + +The room which the happy pair finally entered was indeed of a more +pleasant, and alluring aspect than any Mary had yet seen. The whole +brightness at present pervading the mansion, appeared concentrated +within its walls, for all want of fire was supplied by the genial warmth +the afternoon sunshine emitted through the pleasant window, near to +which Eugene and Mary at once seated themselves, to enjoy under these +auspicious circumstances the first _tête-à-tête_ interview afforded them +since their engagement. + +"This is a pretty room, is it not?" Eugene remarked. + +"Delightful!" Mary replied, looking around her. + +"Yes! and might be made more so," Eugene continued. "The furniture is, +as you see, quite old-fashioned; it has been left much in the same state +ever since my mother died, nearly nine years ago." + +And certainly though that peculiar air pervaded the apartment which +bespoke its original occupation by a woman of refinement, there was very +little in the furniture or decorations, to show that much expense in the +way of modern adornment or improvement had been bestowed upon it, for +many years before the period alluded to by Eugene, or those consisting +but of the simplest nature; since, for the only signs of costliness in +any of its appurtenances it had evidently been indebted to days long +gone by. + +But Mary said (as her eye wandered round with no slight increase of +interest since Eugene's mention of his mother--upon the time-worn +instrument whose notes had probably been so long unawakened, the books +within the carved oak shelves, the _escritoire_, and work-box,) that +she rather liked its simple, old-fashioned appearance. + +Eugene smiled upon her, but said he thought there would be some few +improvements and additions required before the room would be again quite +rendered fit for a lady's occupation. + +"It was your mother's boudoir, then," observed Mary; "how fond you must +be of it." And she seemed to wish to draw him on to give some +particulars of that lost parent, whose memory she doubted not he as +feelingly cherished as she that of her own. And Eugene did then speak a +few words in commendation of the worth and excellence of the deceased +Mrs. Trevor; but still, as had ever been peculiarly the case in his +intercourse with Mary, he seemed to prefer that she should rather be the +speaker. He was never weary of listening to the most trivial +communications she chose to make to him, drew her on, to speak of her +sisters, her brother; everything in the least connected with her past +or present circumstances; whilst it might have seemed from the little he +spoke concerning aught, hearing no reference to the _one event_--his +marriage with herself, sooner or later as it might occur, (for of course +as yet, no time was definitely specified)--that that subject formed the +_nucleus_ around which clustered all interest concerning his own +affairs, past present or to come. + + * * * * * + +The moments thus engaged, as may be imagined, glided quickly and +imperceptibly away, and Mrs. de Burgh's prompt return was neither looked +for nor expected, though nearly an hour had elapsed ere there was any +sign of interruption. Mary and Eugene were leaning together over the +window, which the latter had thrown open a few moments before, for Mary +to gain a better view of the park and woods and church tower, which from +their present post were seen to such advantage, and now were tinged by +the first brilliant tint of the sun's departing radiance with such +glowing hues. + +They were leaning thus out of the window together--of course entirely +engrossed by the beauties of the scene before them--when a sound within +caused them to draw back, and turn their heads, expecting to see Mrs. de +Burgh, but in her stead they beheld old Mr. Trevor standing before them. +Mary taken by surprise looked a little frightened, but Eugene appeared +in no degree disconcerted, however unexpected might be the sight of his +father, in a part of the house to which he now rarely found his way; and +which circumstance rather gave rise to the supposition that some secret +movement of suspicion, that a plot was hatching against him, must have +prompted him to so doing on this present occasion. + +He merely said in the most natural manner: "Oh! Sir, have you come to +look for us? We are waiting for Olivia who has gone to speak to +Marryott. Miss Seaham is delighted with this room and the view from the +window, but she was just suggesting--" + +"What--what?" interposed the old man sharply; "what is there to be done +now? nothing that would improve the prospect I am sure. I did that by +cutting down the trees. No, no young lady," softening his first quick +tone into an attempt at jocoseness, "you come from Silverton, where de +Burgh I hear is playing a fine game, doing grand things with the place; +but it won't do for me, I am content with it as it has been, and now is. +I leave it to Eugene to make ducks and drakes with his property if he +pleases, when I am not here to see it, but," becoming considerably +excited, "I'll have nothing of the sort going on whilst I'm alive, +no--no--not I. Eugene knows that, don't you Eugene? ha, ha!" + +"But my dear Sir, you quite mistook me," Eugene soothingly interposed. +"Miss Seaham far from suggesting any such expensive improvements as you +seem to have taken into your head, was only just now saying," with an +arch smile as he glanced at Mary, "how much more she liked this place in +its present wild and picturesque disarrangement, than in a state of high +and artificial culture. Indeed she is so very simple and unpretending in +her taste, that the only thing she could at all suggest, as I was going +to tell you to make a place like this, as it is now--quite +perfect--would be, plenty of mignonette sown in the beds beneath the +windows, as there used to be round her family house in Wales. If there +was only this, it seems that all the green-house ruinations might go to +the dogs for what she cared." + +Mary smiled, and of course did not attempt a contradiction of those +points in her lover's exculpation which were rather beyond the mark, for +the old man's mind was evidently relieved--his alarm abated. + +"Mignonette!" he repeated, "well, I don't see any harm in that. Yes, +that might be done--easily done; we'll see about it by the spring. It is +a sweet and pleasant thing to have in summer time; we used to have it I +think when your mother was alive," looking at Eugene, "but it's worn out +since--and Eugene and I," again addressing Mary, "are no gardeners. +You've seen the gardens I suppose, though there is little to be seen +now. No! eh? why I thought you were out all this time--where's Olivia? +what's she saying to Marryott? it's getting late and she has a long +drive to take--I am sure it must be four by this time." + +"Oh, my dear Sir, nothing like it, besides there is no hurry; no hurry +whatever. De Burgh's away, so no matter keeping dinner waiting, (not +that I believe Olivia has ever many scruples that way,) even if they are +late. Oh, here she is, now we can go out and look about us a little." + +Mrs. de Burgh showed a little surprise to see her uncle of the party, +but she began to tell him she had been talking to Marryott about a +housemaid she wanted. She then professed her readiness to go out, though +in half an hour they must be setting off home, therefore they might as +well take leave of dear uncle Trevor at once, that they might not have +to disturb him again. + +This they accordingly did when they reached the foot of the stairs, for +Mr. Trevor accompanied them thus far, first staying behind to pull down +the blinds and carefully to shut the boudoir door. + +He shook hands with his niece with some warmth, and with Mary with most +marked politeness, and said, when they thanked him for his kind +reception, that he should be very happy to see them again when they had +any fancy for the drive; and then walked off towards his library, +shutting the door behind him with a noise which was in no slight degree +expressive of relief. The rest of the party then adjourned to the +grounds, their half hour's perambulations extending nearly to an hour. +Then Mrs. de Burgh, professing herself quite tired out, though she sat +some time in the gardener's cottage, (either for her own sake or in +consideration of her companions,) they went back towards the house, and +found the carriage waiting at the door, into which, Mrs. de Burgh having +first had a little private confabulation with Eugene, the two ladies +entered. + +Many last words were exchanged, as Eugene assisted in the arrangement of +the extra wraps round Mary which the evening air rendered requisite; but +they were at length cut short by Mrs. de Burgh's movement of the reins +and the consequent springing forward of the ponies, when he stepped back +and regretfully waved his hand in adieu. + +"Well, Mary, I think we have done very well," Mrs. de Burgh exclaimed, +when they had driven on a few hundred yards. "Now look back and say how +you feel when you fancy yourself, in a few months perhaps, established +mistress of this fine old place." + +Mary turned her head as she was desired, but probably more as an excuse +for taking a last look at Eugene, who she could see slowly withdrawing +back into the house, than for the reason suggested. + +Then indeed she suffered her eye to wander over the wide mansion, but +turning back with a half smile--half sigh--she murmured: + +"I cannot as yet quite realize that idea, dear Olivia." + +"Well, my dear Mary," Mrs. de Burgh gaily replied, "then I hope you may +very soon have it in your power to realize the _fact_." + +After a day of mental excitement and bodily fatigue such as they had +undergone, the ladies did not of course feel equal to keeping up the +animated and unbroken conversation of the morning. Mary for the most +part of the way, lent back in the carriage in the silent indulgence of +the ample source of thought and meditation afforded her by the events +of the day, whilst Mrs. de Burgh drove but weariedly, and after her +first animated address, made but languid attempts at reference or remark +upon the incidents of the visit. + +There was one important communication which she did however make in a +careless quiet way, perhaps owing to the same physical exhaustion, but +which seemed certainly rather disproportionate to the interest and +magnitude of the facts it conveyed. + +"Bye the bye," she said, _à-propos_ to something to which Mary had +alluded concerning Eugene, "I promised to tell you about his brother. +His elder brother, you must know--" + +"Yes," interrupted Mary, "I thought so from the picture I saw at +Montrevor, of Eugene--and, I suppose, his brothers, the youngest of +whom, Eugene pointed out to me as himself." + +"Yes, exactly--did he mention the others?" + +"No, he did not, and I did not like to ask him questions, not knowing +the exact state of the case." + +"No, of course, and the fact is, the subject is a very painful one for +him to touch upon to those unacquainted with his family history--more +particularly to you; but Eugene wishes you to be told all about it. The +truth is, that elder brother, the second you saw in the picture, is +unfortunately deranged--that is to say, is subject to occasional attacks +of insanity, which naturally unfits him for the position he would +otherwise have held as his father's heir; therefore Eugene, ostensibly +speaking, holds that place--indeed his father always treats him, and +some say has unconditionally constituted him his successor, for I +believe the property is mostly unentailed." + +Mary did not make much comment on this revelation, and Mrs. de Burgh +doubtless thought that she received the communication as coolly as she +had herself imparted it; but Mary was far from being at the moment so +entirely unaffected as her cousin might imagine. + +There is a natural horror associated with the idea of a calamity such +as had been related, which more or less revolts the human mind even in +the most indifferent cases, and no wonder that to hear of its being so +closely connected with the being to whom her interests and affections +were so closely linked caused an inward shudder and a dark shadow to +pass across the full-tided happiness of her heart. But as we have said, +she made few comments on the facts imparted, and Mrs. de Burgh therefore +added in the same tone: + +"Louis will no doubt be too glad to bring this forward as one of the +objections he is sure to make against anything he has not himself +concerted or previously approved; but you must not mind him; he is +always full of quirks and fancies. By the bye, when is he to be told?" + +"I hope very soon," said Mary; "Eugene is to write to-morrow or the next +day, if possible, to tell me how his father receives the intelligence, +which he means to break to him by degrees, and at the same time he hopes +to be able to give me leave to inform Louis. I think," she added, +smiling, "that at any rate I shall be allowed to do that; for I have +told him, and he is very good and thinks perhaps I am right--that it +will be far better for him not to come to Silverton again until matters +are more definitively settled--I mean until his father's approval and +sanction have been obtained." + +"How _very_ good of him indeed!" laughed Mrs. de Burgh, with a touch of +sarcasm in her tone. "What a _very_ virtuous being you will make of +Eugene, Mary!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + But should detraction breathe thy name, + The world's reproofs defying; + I'd love thee, laud thee--trust thee still-- + Upon thy truth relying. + + HAYNES BAYLEY. + + +Mr. de Burgh's return was somewhat opportunely delayed until the day +following the one on which he was expected, so that Mary had only for +one evening to maintain the, to her, very repugnant and unaccustomed +system of concealment and comparative dissimulation, to which she was +reduced towards her kind and amiable relative, a course she was ably +assisted in by his wife. The following morning brought a note from +Trevor, written overnight, and despatched before breakfast by a servant; +the substance of which was of a most satisfactory nature. + +He had broken the news to his father, that is to say, had given him to +understand that, sooner or later, it was his intention to take unto +himself a wife; that Mr. Trevor had been, of course, at first, a little +startled and annoyed, and made fidgetty and uneasy by the intelligence; +but that it had seemed no little relief to his mind, when informed that +it was the nice, pretty, gentle, _moderate_ young lady-visitor of the +day before, upon whom his son had fixed his choice; a young lady who, +though of good family and respectable position, possessed no extravagant +tastes or preposterous pretensions; to sum up all, as complete a +contrast as he could wish, to his spoilt, expensive and exacting niece, +whom, allowing for the ties of relationship existing between them, he +had always held in distaste and terror, as one of the most +ill-disciplined of woman, of course according to his own peculiar +notions on the subject. + +In short, whatever difficulty might really have attended his important +revelation to his father, Trevor only brought forward the smooth side of +the matter; and he further desired that no time might be lost in +imparting the intelligence to Mr. de Burgh also, as then he should only +wait her summons to make all speed for Silverton. + +"Why did Trevor's man come scampering here so early?" enquired Mr. de +Burgh at the close of breakfast. + +"He brought a little note for me," replied his wife. + +"What about?" + +"Oh, a little private business of mine own; are you very curious?" she +added, whilst Mary took little Charlie on her knee, to hide her +conscious countenance. "Very well, you may be informed perhaps before +long." + +She uttered all this with more playful and propitiatory suavity of tone +and manner than she often condescended to use towards her husband, +having probably in view her forthcoming interview, for she had proposed +to Mary that she should first take upon herself to break the +intelligence to Mr. de Burgh of _his_ cousin's engagement to _her_ +cousin, Eugene Trevor; an offer to which Mary had willingly acceded. + +Accordingly, very shortly after they parted at the breakfast-table, Mrs. +de Burgh followed her husband into the library, where he had gone to +write his letters. + +Mary, as may be supposed, waited with some degree of nervous anxiety for +the close of this interview--more perhaps than might have seemed +suitable to the occasion, or than she could herself account for. Surely +her cousin Louis was of no such very formidable a character. She tried +to divert her mind during the interval, by occupying herself with the +children, who were playing in the drawing-room, but she soon found the +noisy merriment, and exacting attentions of the little creatures--as we +are, even with the sweetest and most engaging, all apt to do, when the +mind is in any way agitated or over-burdened--an infliction rather than +a relief; so she gladly relinquished them to the nurse, who came to +summon them for their walk; and then as she justly deemed the +_éclaircissement_ between her cousins had lasted quite as long as was +either necessary or desirable, and that it would be less formidable to +join them at once than to wait any longer, in suspense, a formal +summons, she determined to proceed to the library, and soon had carried +this determination into effect. + +Opening the door rather timidly, she found Mrs. de Burgh seated with an +expression of countenance plainly evincing that even a discussion in +which they were neither personally concerned, had not passed off without +giving occasion for altercation between the married pair; but +immediately on perceiving Mary, she smoothed her brow, and exclaiming: +"Oh here she is! well I will leave you together," smiled encouragement +on Mary, and left the room. + +Mr. de Burgh, who it seemed had been perambulating the apartment during +the latter part of his conversation with his wife, and had paused before +the window on Mary's entrance--now turned, and without exactly looking +her in the face, held out his hand as he advanced towards her, saying: + +"Well, I suppose I ought to congratulate you, Mary." + +His countenance too, Mary saw, bore signs of annoyance; but that his +recent quarrel might have effected, and she affectionately placed her +hand in his, and looked her thanks for the implied felicitations, coldly +and cautiously as they were conveyed. + +"You have done a great deal in my absence, I find Mary," he next said, +throwing himself upon a chair. She thought he alluded to the proposal of +Eugene and her acceptance, so answered in her truthful manner, and +somewhat apologetically. + +"Oh, no! not in your absence; that took place a day or two before you +left, but Eugene thought it better that I should--" + +"Oh yes!" he answered with some repressed impatience, "I have heard all +that--I mean to say that you have been taken to Montrevor to see your +future possessions; introduced to the old father--in short, everything +has been so well managed between Trevor and Olivia, that there only +requires the signing and sealing to make the whole thing sure, before +you know _yourself_ very well what you are about." + +"Indeed, Louis?" Mary answered gently, though at the same time +surprised--in spite of Mrs. de Burgh's warning as to the objections she +was sure to encounter--at the tone and tenor of her cousin's words; and +feeling naturally a little hurt and offended, she added "I do not quite +understand you. I assure you, I know very well what I am about." + +"Do you?" he said, with something of the sneering way of which Mrs. de +Burgh so often complained; "I think not--I don't know indeed how you +should--" + +"I have promised to marry one whom I love, and whose love for me I feel +sure is as deep and truthful as my own," Mary replied, the colour +mounting to her brow, and a tear glistening in her eyes, + + "Like a child who never knew but love, + And who words of wrath surprised." + +"Oh, of course! no doubt of all that," he said, much in the same tone. + +"Well! what then, Louis?" she enquired meekly, yet firmly, "Why--what +cause?--" + +"What cause or impediment why these two persons should not be lawfully +joined together in holy wedlock?" repeated her cousin, breaking suddenly +into a more amiable and lively tone and manner, as if not proof against +the gentle manner in which his ungracious strictures were received. "I +will tell you why--he is not good enough for you, Mary, or rather, you +are far too good for him." + +"Is that all?" Mary's quiet smile might have seemed to express, for she +had been previously prepared for this particular objection of her +cousin's, by his wife. + +"_You_ think so, Louis," she replied, "but forgive me if I differ from +that opinion." + +"Yes, I certainly think so," he coldly retorted, "we read in +the bible that 'we are not to be unequally yoked together with +unbelievers,'--nay," as Mary attempted to interrupt him, "I do not speak +literally--Eugene's religious faith may be, for aught I know, as pure as +my own, or yours--but 'what fellowship has righteousness with +unrighteousness, and what companionship has light with darkness--and +what concord hath--'" + +"Louis, Louis!" Mary interposed, the crimson blood mantling her cheeks +and brow, and her gentle eyes flashing fire, "in your exaggerated +estimate of my own worthiness you are unjust, you are injurious towards +Eugene, as well as unkind to me. Yes, is it not unkindness to bring +forth such slighting insinuations against one whom you know I love, must +ever love, and whose wife," she added, lifting up her eyes as if she +felt the compact signed and sealed at least in heaven, "I have promised +to become." + +"Well--well, Mary," Mr. de Burgh soothingly replied; not totally +unaffected by this unwonted demonstration of excited spirit in his calm +and gentle cousin; "I will not ask you not to love Trevor; that I +suppose--indeed, I too plainly see would be crying out to shut the door +after the horse was stolen, but I may--I must advise you," he added with +an expression of great kindness, "as a cousin, feeling himself under +present circumstances almost standing in the place of a brother, to be +in no haste to involve yourself irremediably in so important and +irreparable a step as marriage, without further knowledge, a clearer +insight into the nature of the man who will have the rule and influence +over your whole future destiny. Oh, to see," he continued, with +increased excitement, "how people do rush ignorantly and recklessly upon +this matter, it might seem that the happiness of a whole lifetime was +nothing in comparison to the gratification of a passing fancy, a +temporary infatuation." + +He paused, but Mary made no reply. Her cousin spoke feelingly, no doubt, +he often expressed himself thus warmly after having been provoked more +than usual, or put out of humour by some altercation with his wife. She +thought it might be but the angry insinuations of the excited +moment--for she often hoped, indeed was sure, that beneath this outward +show of bitterness and strife, which bad habit had engendered, in the +intercourse between man and wife--a fund of real, genuine affection, one +towards another, lay deep and dormant in either heart, but especially in +that of the husband's. But what availed all this towards "the mutual +society, help, comfort," which, as the marriage service sets forth, "one +ought to have had towards the other," whilst the most indispensable +requisites to that effect, "to bear and to forbear," were wanting. + +"Husbands love your wives, and be not bitter against them. Wives submit +yourselves to your husbands as unto the Lord." How came it that the +injunctions to which they had both listened at the altar had been so +soon, to all appearances, forgotten or disregarded? + +So Mary, as we have said, made no reply. She only lowered her long dark +lashes, and waited in painful silence the close of her cousin's supposed +philippic, one with which she considered she had no individual concern. +For what had passing fancy or momentary infatuation to do with her own +deep, true, steadfast love? + +Mr. de Burgh receiving no interruption, in a calmer tone continued: + +"And Trevor, he loves you, as he has given good proof, (and for this I +honour and applaud him,) and thus loving you, is of course everything +agreeable, irreproachable in your eyes. But dear Mary, I speak to one +whom I am aware is no rash, unreasonable fool; but a right-judging, +thoughtful, superior woman. What do you know of his real character and +secret qualities? what _can_ you know of the previous tenor of his +life?" + +Mary lifted up her clear truthful eyes to her cousin's face. + +"As to the nature of his character, and the tenor of his life," she +quickly replied, "that surely I can have scarcely cause to doubt or +question. There could not possibly be anything very reproachable in the +character and life of one admitted as a constant and familiar guest in +your house, Louis. True, he is Olivia's cousin; but then again, how fond +she is of that cousin; and though," she added smiling, "you may have +testified no such great affection for him, still how kindly, if not +cordially, you have ever seemed to receive and countenance this +intimate visitor." + +Mr. de Burgh was fairly nonplussed for the moment, by this just, though +simple argument. How indeed, could it be supposed that it should enter +into the thoughts of his pure minded cousin, cautiously and coldly to +observe, watch, or inquire into the life and character of the man to +whom not only her heart had so instinctively and spontaneously +inclined--but her love for whom not only circumstance and opportunity, +but, if not the connivance, to say the least, the tacit approval of +those who were at present responsible for her welfare, had seemed in +every way to encourage and facilitate; and Mr. de Burgh could not quite +comfort his conscience, as he was at first willing to do, by attributing +the blame of this, in his opinion, undesirable issue of affairs to the +foolish, inconsiderate match-making propensities of his wife. There was +no slight misgiving as to culpable, or rather careless negligence on his +own part. + +For when or how had he, with no such allowance for cousinly feeling or +partiality as Mrs. de Burgh--when or how had he, save occasionally by a +few slighting, sneering innuendoes, such as not unfrequently defeat +their own purpose, by strengthening and promoting in the generous mind +of youth the germs of true attachment which previously have been +engendered; how had he--save by those careless and ill judged +means--ever warned, cautioned, or even given his young relative to +understand, ere it was too late, that there was in the favoured cousin +of his wife, and his own cheerful tolerated guest, anything either +reprehensible in himself, or objectionable in their attachment, or even +union? No, absorbed in his own selfish interests, his own pursuits, he +had gone his way "to his farm or to his merchandize," and never given +his mind the trouble to think or care whether much might not be doing +which it would require more than a few strongly expressed adjurations +and highly coloured representations on his part to undo--which, in +short, must cause him practically to prove + + "He might as soon go kindle fire with snow + As seek to quench the fire of love with words." + +He probably thought all this during the short silence which succeeded +Mary's last address; and had at length nothing better to say in reply, +and that with some conscious impatience, than-- + +"Oh, my dear Mary, as to this view of the matter, in the present state +of the world, it would be impossible to shut one's doors or turn one's +back upon many a person, whom we should on the other hand be very sorry +to see more closely associated with those for whom we feel interest or +affection." + +"But of what, then, do you accuse Eugene?" Mary inquired, still with the +quiet confidence of one whose faith and trust are yet unshaken. And Mr. +de Burgh was again at fault. + +There is a natural code of honour subsisting between men of any +generosity of mind, which sensitively withholds them from a direct +exposure of those reprehensible points of conduct or of character for +which they have not openly and to the face of the offender testified +their blame or abhorrence. And to have now coolly set to work, and laid +before the eyes of Mary facts or fancies concerning the man with whom he +had ever lived on terms of friendly intercourse, and so deprive him, as +was at least his desired purpose, of the blessing which, perhaps for +some good end, had been assigned him; all this assumed--when thus by +Mary's question brought so directly to the point--an aspect somewhat of +a dastardly and serpent-like character. + +So, rising from his seat and taking a turn across the room, as if by +movement to assist himself in this dilemma, Louis de Burgh replied: + +"Accuse! why that is rather a strong term to use, Mary. I should not +like to accuse any man, or even to prejudice you against Trevor; but +still, without particularising any enormities, there must be many things +in the life and character of a man, hitherto so entirely given to the +world and its pursuits, which must make him in the eyes of many besides +myself, not exactly the person worthy to become the husband of my pure +and gentle-hearted cousin." + +Mary drooped her eyelids sadly and thoughtfully. Perhaps the +recollection of Mr. Temple, and all that he had brought forward against +this evil world, of which she now heard her lover so decidedly +pronounced the votary, passed before her mind; but of the real nature or +extent of that evil she could form but so obscure and vague an idea, +that in her present state of feeling it only awoke in her heart a more +sorrowful interest, to think that it was Eugene's fate to be exposed to +its dread and grievous influence. + +"Perhaps you think, as women so often flatter themselves," Mr. de Burgh +continued, as she uttered no comment on his words, "that the power of +your _love_ will suffice to reform all that may be amiss." + +"No, no!" interrupted Mary; "believe me, Louis, I have no such +presumptuous expectations--no such reliance on my own influence and +power, to reform, what a higher strength and higher power alone could +effect; but I should indeed have faith and hope--" + +"Oh yes, I daresay, and boundless charity to boot!" interposed her +cousin with a smile; for he began to perceive, perhaps, that he was +making but a bad business of the affair he had taken in hand. "Well, +well, Mary; all I can say is, that if Trevor is destined to possess you, +he will be more fortunate than many a better man, if I may dare so to +express myself before you; for he will, I feel pretty sure, be blessed +with one of those loving and amiable, faithful and obedient wives, such +as the Church directs us to pray that each woman may become who +approaches the altar as a bride, but which petition, I am sorry to say, +we do not in _every case_ see fulfilled." + +"My dear Louis, I fear you are inclined to be very severe to-day on all +(I must thankfully own) except myself; but tell me, if you are not +compelled to confess that I also may hope to possess a loving, amiable, +and faithful husband (obedient, you know, is not enjoined in his case). +You say I do not know enough of Eugene to be convinced of his real +qualities; I think you are mistaken in this. It does not surely require +a very long acquaintance to discern whether a person is amiable; and I +am nearly certain no partial affection would blind me in that respect. I +should say Eugene's temper was perfect--oh! of course you laugh at me--I +do not quite mean perfect, though even if it were not--" + +"Oh no, of course, if he had the temper of the devil--excuse me Mary--I +have no doubt you would be content at present; but I do not wish to say +anything against Trevor's temper, I would not undertake to do so. He is +a good son to all appearance; what kind of husband he will make remains +to be proved." + +"That he will ever love me less than he does now, I cannot, could not +_try_ even to fancy," Mary continued, with a voice tremulous with +feeling; "and now, at least you must confess that his affection for me +is most true, most purely disinterested; that he loves me for myself +alone; or how else would he wish to marry one who possesses neither +beauty, talents, or fortune." + +"By the bye," rejoined Mr. de Burgh, as if the subject had been but +suddenly suggested to his mind by Mary's latter words, "I suppose you +are aware to what circumstances Eugene is indebted for the position he +now, to all appearance, holds as his father's heir?" + +"Yes," Mary responded, rather sadly, "to the mental derangement of his +brother." + +"Yes, that is the plea," Mr. de Burgh coldly replied. + +"But," Mary continued, after a pause, and without having been struck by +any peculiar emphasis her cousin might have placed upon these latter +words, "Olivia, I think, told me at the same time, that this misfortune +was purely accidental, that at least there was no hereditary evil of the +kind existing in the family." + +"Oh, none whatever; most perfectly accidental, I believe," was Mr. de +Burgh's apparently careless rejoinder, as he stood looking out of the +window, as he had done on Mary's entrance. And here the conversation +ended, except that Mary, before leaving the room, approached her cousin, +saying in an affectionate tone: + +"And now, before I go, Louis, you will wish me joy, I am sure." + +"Most certainly, dear Mary," he replied, as he fervently wrung her +proffered hand, "all possible joy and happiness that heaven and earth +can bestow upon you." + +"Thank you very much, dear Louis," Mary replied, "and I may write," she +added, more timidly, "and tell him that he may come; I would not let him +do so again, till I had informed you of our engagement." + +"Oh yes, write of course if you like, most certainly." + +And Mary, again thanking him, left the library, and returned to the +drawing-room. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + She watch'd for him at dawn, and she watched for him at noon, + Tho' well she knew she could not hope to see him come so soon; + She could not rest, but peeping thro' her casement's leafy screen, + She watched the spot where she was told his form would first be seen. + + HAYNES BAYLEY. + + +Mrs. de Burgh looked with some anxiety, and Mrs. Trevyllian, who was +also present, with some curiosity, into the face of Mary as she entered +the apartment; but whatever signs of recent excitement or agitation +might be discerned thereupon, there was a happy smile trembling on her +lips, which told that all was peace and contentment now, and when Mrs. +de Burgh, on contriving to draw her apart, eagerly enquired as to the +issue of her interview, Mary answered: + +"Oh, all is right! Louis is very kind, and he has given me leave to +write immediately to Eugene, and bid him come here." She was +sufficiently satisfied to ask no more questions for the present, and +Mary went upstairs to write her letter. + +When she returned to the drawing-room, Mr. de Burgh had joined the +party, and was standing with his back to the fire, looking rather cross, +while Mrs. de Burgh was smiling with some evidently suppressed triumph. + +"I suppose," she said, with careless ease, "that we may send a servant +on horseback with Mary's letter." + +"Oh, certainly! if Mary wishes it; but I think there is no such +particular hurry, and that it might very well wait till to-morrow. The +horses and servants have had, and are likely to have, plenty to do, with +all this scampering to and fro, between this and Montrevor." + +Mrs. de Burgh remarked that she never knew anything so ill-natured as he +was. Mrs. Trevyllian even looked astonished at such a show of +ungraciousness on the part of the handsome Mr. de Burgh; but Mary said +good humouredly that the post would do quite as well for her letter, and +dropped it quietly into the letter-box on her way to luncheon. + +It was--as it turned out--"quite as well," for Trevor was engaged at +some county meeting that evening--and had been from home, which +prevented his going to Silverton the following day till a short time +before dinner. + + * * * * * + +It was no use now for Mary to take her summer place by the window, and +watch for her lover's arrival, for the shades of the October evening had +almost closed over the scene before the happy time arrived; but the +noise of wheels, along with the quick, sharp sound of the horse's hoofs +gladly saluted her ears, and she was down stairs to meet him ere he had +many minutes reached the drawing-room. + +They were standing together on the hearth-rug when Mr. de Burgh made his +appearance. + +He shook hands with Eugene Trevor with the most perfect cordiality, and +having first rang the bell for dinner, stood beside him conversing in +his usual manner on indifferent subjects, Mary, on his entrance, having +retreated a little into the back-ground, to talk to the children; and +they were thus all spirits and good humour, when Mrs. de Burgh joined +them, accompanied by Mrs. Trevyllian, who had been induced to make one +of the dinner-party, in order that she might be introduced to, and have +an opportunity of beholding Mr. Trevor; she having been--of course in +the strictest confidence--enlightened by Mrs. de Burgh as to the +position of affairs between that gentleman and Miss Seaham. + +At dinner everything went on _à merveille_, sociably and agreeably in +the extreme, and as the two gentlemen left the dining-room, the cheerful +laugh which was heard proceeding from Eugene Trevor's lips told that if +the _great_ subject had been discussed during the _tête-à-tête_ to which +he and Mr. de Burgh had been subjected, nothing but good humour and +friendliness, had been the issue. + +Before their arrival, Mrs. de Burgh and Mrs. Trevyllian had been in deep +admiration of a very beautiful ring, of which the quick eyes of the +former had caught sight during dinner, glittering on Mary's finger, +where it had been placed by her lover on their private meeting that +evening. How Mary prized this first love-gift we may well imagine! + +The rest of the evening proved one of undisturbed serenity and +enjoyment. Mrs. de Burgh seated herself at the piano, and sang over her +most beautiful and touching songs, whilst her husband made himself very +agreeable to Mrs. Trevyllian. + +How Eugene and Mary occupied themselves it is not very difficult to +explain. Mary at least could have entered into the fancy of Madame de +Staël, who depicts her idea of one of the highest felicities that could +be imagined as belonging to that seventh heaven of which an angel was +sent to explore the delights--to be the listening to sweet music by the +side of one's beloved. + +How, too, this evening must have brought to her remembrance that first +night of her arrival at Silverton, when she had listened to those sweet +strains with so much more unmingled, unassociated delight; though even +then, could she have remembered right, something beyond the mere spirit +of the music had faintly stirred her heart in that same hour. + + "That hour when first this glance met thine, + Yet trembled lest it told too much, + The hour when first thy hand pressed mine, + Yet pressed as though it feared to touch, + When some strange voice appeared to say, + That each must rule the other's lot-- + Forget it not!--forget it not!" + + * * * * * + +And so, from this day forward everything with reference to that +engagement, seemed to run on as smoothly towards its projected end as +ever did the course of such "true love." Mr. de Burgh, however he might +continue inwardly to disapprove, appeared to think he had done all that +duty and conscience entitled him to attempt; and that he had no chance +against love and trust, such as had been exhibited by the object on whom +he had made his attack. Even with his wife, he forebore any direct +discussion on the subject after this period, with the exception perhaps +of the following short and pithy colloquy, which some time or other had +occurred. + +"My dear Louis, I really hope you are beginning to think a little better +of this affair." + +"Indeed! you are quite mistaken on that point." + +"At any rate, you have come to the determination that it is a most +foolish, if not most dangerous and presumptuous act, ever to attempt to +mar a match." + +"I have come to the determination that there is _one_ thing more +foolish, dangerous, and presumptuous, namely, to _make_ one." + +"Oh, if you mean to apply that to me, you are quite at fault. You seem +to give me all the credit of this business; I assure you it is more than +I can lay claim to. I never saw a match which seemed more truly one of +those said to be made in heaven. Why, years ago, at that fête at Morland +before we married, I now perfectly remember Eugene telling me after it +was over, that he had never met with a sweeter little girl than that +Miss Seaham, whom he had good-naturedly taken under his charge, and the +first night he met her here, after Mary's arrival, he hardly took his +eyes off her all the evening; whilst Mary tells me she had never +forgotten him since he was so kind to her at that _fête_. But even if it +were not so, I cannot imagine why you should set your face so much +against the marriage." + +"Really!" responded the husband, shrugging his shoulders. + +"No; any one else would think it a splendid match for Mary." + +"I have no doubt of that." + +"And, under her circumstances, so peculiarly desirable." + +"Oh! certainly--peculiarly so." + +"I really think (petulantly) you must be in love with Mary yourself." (A +look of ineffable scorn was the sole response.) "That is to say, if you +_could_ be in love with any one but yourself." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + The rose that all are praising + Is not the rose for me; + Too many eyes are gazing + Upon the costly tree. + But there's a rose in yonder glen + That shuns the gaze of other men, + For me its blossom raising-- + Oh, that's the rose for me! + + HAYNES BAYLEY. + + +And Mary--her love and trust had indeed stood full proof against the +breath of warning and insinuation, which had passed over their strength +and beauty as unavailingly as the breeze across the hardy floweret. + +There is a beautiful description of one of Bulwer's heroines, which so +exactly corresponds with the characteristics of our Mary's nature, that +we hope we may be excused from quoting it here in application to her +case. + +"There was a remarkable _trustingness_, if I may so speak, in her +disposition. Thoughtful and grave as she was by nature, she was yet ever +inclined to the more sanguine colourings of life; she never turned to +the future with fear. A placid sentiment of hope slept at her heart. She +was one, who surrounded herself with a fond and implicit faith to the# +guidance of all she loved and the chances of life. It was a sweet +indolence of the mind which made one of her most beautiful traits of +character. There is something so unselfish in tempers reluctant to +despond. You see that such persons are not occupied with their own +existence--they are not fretting the calm of the present life with the +egotisms of care--of conjecture and calculation: if they learn anxiety, +it is for another; but in the heart of that other how entire is their +trust." + +Thus the constant intercourse which from that day forth was maintained +between them, served but to strengthen the infatuation, (if we are +justified in applying such a term to such genuine affection) of Mary +towards her lover. + +Scarcely a day passed on which Trevor did not arrive to stay, or at +least to spend some hours at Silverton. They walked--and often--for +there was Mrs. de Burgh's beautiful horse now at Mary's disposal--they +rode out together, attended only by a groom. + +One day their discourse happened to fall on the subject of Christian +names, and Trevor was telling Mary how hers was, and ever had been (a +not uncommon taste amongst gentlemen) his greatest favourite. He had +always imagined, that every woman who possessed it must be the epitome +of all that was pure, sweet, and gentle; and of course he gave Mary to +understand that he saw in her, at length, a perfect embodiment of that +idea. + +"And you, Eugene, you have certainly a very beautiful name," Mary +remarked, after listening with a blushing smile to this tender +flattery; and she uttered the name now in question, in accents, which +must certainly have rendered it even to its owner "a very beautiful +name." + +"Oh yes!" he replied, laughing, "a most beautifully romantic, and +uncommon name; one ought to be a great hero to possess it." + +"It was possessed by a very unfortunate hero," Mary replied. + +"Oh! you mean Eugene Aram." + +"Yes! have you read the book?" + +"Why, no; I cannot say that exactly; (with a smile) but I saw that you +were reading it on a certain night of delightful memory; for when you +left me in so cowardly a manner to face your formidable cousin alone, he +found me standing before the fire, deeply absorbed in your late studies, +which I had picked up from the floor, in a jealous way, to see with what +romantic gentleman you had been so deeply occupied on my entrance. Fancy +my relief to discover it was an Eugene. Of course it was for the sake +of his name alone that he won your affections. I was even in hopes that +I might find the lady to have been a Mary, but I saw it was Madeline, +which I thought a great mistake." + +Mary laughed with the sweet laugh which had become so clear and joyous +of late. + +"I could not discover whether the Eugene resembled me in any way," he +continued; "to me he seemed a dark, mysterious sort of fellow." + +"He was, indeed," Mary replied, "but a man of extraordinary genius." + +"So you will not flatter me by the comparison." + +"Flatter you! I do not think you need be ambitious of the compliment. +You know, I suppose, his dreadful end." + +"Oh yes, of course, at least, I know the real villain was hanged for the +murder of Clarke. Well, that would not do for me, certainly: I +willingly concede the genius, if that were all its fruits." + +"No," continued Mary, more seriously, "but there is one person, whom, +above all others I have ever known, might in some points have reminded +me of Eugene Aram, had I read the book before, (the Eugene Aram as +represented in the novel, I mean,) for the real character, it is said, +resembled Bulwer's hero in nothing but his intellect and his crime. Not +that Mr. Temple," she continued, "could be called a dark and mysterious +character, no, for he gave one the idea of being naturally of a +disposition clear and open as the day; but there was a mystery and +impenetrability about his coming to Wales, and his former history. And +then the seclusion and obscurity to which a man of his talents, nobility +of demeanour, seemed to have doomed himself; his great charity; his--" + +"Stop, stop, in mercy, Mary; do you think I can listen to all this, +without bursting with jealousy? Oh, I have no doubt now, that this +noble, excellent, mysterious genius, was a worthy imitation of his +likeness, and is guilty of theft, murder, and all other possible +atrocities." + +Mary smiled at her lover's jesting philippic; but she added with perfect +seriousness: + +"I do not say that Mr. Temple was any such gigantic genius--rather may +he be said to possess a mind which might have arrived at any extent of +acquirement, had, in early life, his powers been rightly tested or +employed; and as to any guilt being attached to his life or character, +the most suspicious person, who had once looked upon his countenance, +could not for a moment have retained such an idea. No, it was easy to +read there, the history of one who had been more 'sinned against than +sinning.'" + +Though Mary said all this with no show of enthusiasm, but in the firm, +quiet manner of one who, irrespectively of personal feeling, would give +all due justice and honour to some highly revered and superior being; +her companion seemed not altogether unmoved by her earnestness; for he +fixed his eyes attentively on her as she spoke, and although he still +assumed a tone of light and playful tenor, there was something of real +anxiety, in the manner in which he demanded how it had possibly +happened--if indeed it had happened, though he could not bear to imagine +the contrary--how it had happened that she was not enchanted into a +second Madeline by this most sublime of Eugene Arams? + +"Because I suppose," Mary gravely responded, "I had not the high taste +and capability of Madeline, for though I honoured and esteemed Mr. +Temple, I did not love him; and when he proposed to me the night before +I left Glan Pennant, I refused him. I have never told this to any one +else--but with you, I suppose," she added with a tender smile, "I must +have no secrets." + +Her smile was returned with a depth of ten-fold love and tenderness; but +Trevor rode on more silently, thoughtfully pondering perhaps on the +privilege which he found thus so peculiarly to have been procured him, +and the why and wherefore such privilege had been awarded to his share. + +There was another point in Mary's disposition greatly in Trevor's +favour--the extreme humility of feeling she entertained concerning +herself, and the consequent exaltation of her lover's prerogatives; that +humility of true love, + + "Which does exalt another o'er itself + With sweet will-worship." + +For beauty especially, of a degree more accordant with her idea of +Trevor's due claims and privileges, she would sometimes in his absence +breathe a sigh. True he had had all the world before him, with plenty of +time and opportunity before he loved her, of choosing from amongst the +most fair and beautiful with whom he must have come in contact; but +still when he came to see her placed in contrast with other women, +might he not, though she was sure it would not make him love her +less--might he not then be struck and mortified perhaps by her +inferiority in that respect. Some such ordeal, however, ere very long it +was given her to prove. + +A very great beauty of the two or three last London seasons, who +happened to be staying in the neighbourhood was amongst the dinner +guests assembled one evening at Silverton. She of course, like all +wandering stars--who under similar casual and unusual circumstances, +shine forth in all their glory, "to be a moment's ornament"--created no +slight degree of sensation amongst the assembled company, especially the +gentlemen; and Miss L---- might certainly have stood the test amongst a +score of beauties as to all outward perfection which the severest +critics could require. The perfection of well moulded features, +brilliant colouring, symmetry of form, all had been bestowed upon her by +bountiful mother nature; and Miss L---- walked and moved this night the +conscious favourite of that very partial and unequal distributer of her +gifts--in short, a very queen and goddess of beauty. + +Mary was perhaps the most enthusiastic amongst her dazzled admirers; for +she, unlike most of the other guests on this occasion, had not been +accustomed to the frequent sight of beauties of every kind and degree, +equally in their turn "the Cinthia of the minute," "the cynosure of +neighbouring eyes." Nor was a shade of envious feeling excited in her +breast by all the sensation and attention of which the dazzling beauty +was made the object. There was nothing in this which could have stirred +the sentiment, even had it been one to which her bosom was more prone. +But she had better reason than she had any idea existed, for this +unconcern; had she but known how there was more real and abiding +influence exercised by the, comparatively speaking, pale, and quiet girl +who, without any pretentions to ostentatious retirement, so calmly and +gently played her part in society--the more real and heartfelt +influence inspired by the nameless charm which she exercised over all +those who approached her; no need, indeed, of envy on her part! + + "It was not mirth, for mirth she was too still; + It was not wit, wit leaves the heart more chill; + But that continuous sweetness, which with ease, + Pleases all round it, from the wish to please." + +No, there was nothing in all this; but still, at times this night, her +dark eyelashes might be seen to droop somewhat sadly and seriously on +her cheek, and once when she raised them and turned a nervous admiring +gaze upon Miss L----, a gentle sigh was breathed unconsciously from her +lips. + +That bright beauty, who was not, as may be supposed, without some of +those beauty airs in which she felt herself privileged to indulge, yet +by no means disdained bestowing a few of her most bewitching smiles, +upon the handsome, and as she had heard reported, eldest son of the +wealthiest commoner of the county, and of course it was not in Trevor's +nature to refuse to submit himself in some degree to the distinguished +favour; besides, although Trevor and his thoughts were with his own Mary +all the evening--and indeed his eyes pretty often too--yet their +publicly unacknowledged engagement did not admit of his paying her that +particular and undivided attention it was his wont to do on other +occasions. + +Eugene was therefore, at the moment when Mary gave that sigh, sunning +himself complacently, if not a little indolently, in the beams of that +radiant beauty's smile and those still more radiant eyes. Mary had no +jealous thought upon the subject; she only sighed and wished that she +possessed but one tenth portion of the beauty's conspicuous charms for +Eugene's sake--for Eugene's glory! + +"She looked down to blush, though she looked up to sigh," for surely she +had caught that glance, so full of fond reassurance with which her +lover tried to attract her earnest, anxious gaze:-- + + "Yes, lift thy eyes, sweet Psyche, what is she + That those soft fringes timidly should fall + Before her, and thy spiritual brow + Be dark, as if her presence were a cloud-- + A loftier gift is thine than she can give, + That queen of beauty, + She may give all that is within her own + Bright cestus--and one silent look of thine, + Like stronger magic, will out-charm it all. + Ay, for the soul is better than its frame, + The spirit than the temple-- + Marvel not + That love leans sadly on his bending wing, + He hath found out the loveliness of mind + And he is spoilt for beauty."[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Psyche before the Tribunal of Venus, by_ N. P. WILLIS.] + +A month since the engagement of Trevor and Mary had passed. Before the +expiration of this period, the latter, with her lover's full consent, +had written to her sisters in Scotland and in Italy, to confide to them +her happy prospects, and from the former she had already received in +return the most affectionate and fervent congratulations, another drop +added to the already well filled cup of Mary's happiness; for before +this, there had been times when she could not but feel regretfully the +want of that real participating sympathy in her joy, which like as in +our sorrow, those bound to us by the ties of close family relationship, +can alone fully and adequately impart. + +The mind, diverted and absorbed by new interests and attractions, may +for a time wander contentedly through other pastures--may find +gratification and satisfaction in the new and flattering friendship of +other hearts; but when that sorrow comes of which the heart alone can +know the bitterness, or that "joy with which the stranger intermeddleth +not,"--then, like the child, who beguiled by the flowers of the fields +to stray far from the parent home, yet when sudden fear assails his +breast, or some bright found treasure fills his little heart with +rapture, flies back at once to pour forth his grief or his ecstacy upon +his mother's bosom--so then he that was lost is found; the recreant +heart or the diverted affections, seldom fail to reassert their power to +testify and prove, that those ties which nature's early associations and +kindred interests have sanctified and connected, alone in such seasons +can suffice to comfort or to satisfy the mind. + +Mary often yearned for that true, lively and affectionate sympathy in +her present joy which it had been her privilege so tenderly, and +cheerfully to impart to each successive sister, when placed under +similar circumstances to her own; and she began to think the necessary +lack of all this on her own account to be certainly one of the worst +consequences which can accrue from being left the last unmarried. + +But every thought and feeling of this kind was soon dispelled and +changed into those of most unalloyed pleasure and delight. + +The long-wished-for and expected news at length arrived. Arthur Seaham +wrote to inform his sister that the next American packet which was to +reach England, would number him amongst its passengers, and accepting +the kind invitation of Mrs. de Burgh, conveyed to him by Mary, he should +immediately upon his disembarkation proceed to Silverton. + +A truce now to every sigh, lest sympathy should fail, that no dear +familiar face was near, in which to see her joy reflected--no dear +familiar voice to repeat the glad echoes of her heart. + +In Arthur, her own beloved brother, how fully she should meet all this! +They two had been sworn friends and special companions from their +earliest childhood to their later youth. Whatever turn their fortunes +took, they were to have shared them together; one home was to have +received them. Where had flown those visions now? But would he not +rejoice in the bright prospects of his favourite sister? + +How he would love Eugene, if only for her sake! what friends he and +Eugene would become--what constant companions should they all be still! +Besides, until her brother's return to England, no important arrangement +could be set on foot with regard to the projected marriage; therefore +her brother's speedy return was on that point alone a subject of +congratulation to the parties interested in that event, and to Trevor of +course more particularly so. + +Now too, Mary would be able to write by the next mail to her sisters in +India, and give them that information it had been deemed at such a +distance, more satisfactory to defer, until the brother's arrival had +placed matters on a more definite and circumstantial footing, and any +day from the week succeeding the receipt of that welcome letter, young +Seaham might make his appearance. + +He would arrive in England perfectly uninformed as to his sister's +engagement; but in the joyful letter he would find awaiting him at the +post-office at Liverpool, Mary had hinted of some news she should have +to break to him when they met, which she was sure would cause him +satisfaction--nay, delight! + +The happy suspense of the interval which ensued may be imagined. Eugene +playfully declared himself quite jealous, though he was at the same time +very properly sympathetic on the occasion, a little fidgetty and anxious +perhaps, as is but natural for those to be who for the first time see +the object of their affections anxiously excited by any feeling or +expectation irrelevant to themselves; and he laughingly declared that it +was his intention to take the opportunity of her brother's first +arrival, to run up to London for a day or two, till the first +effervescence of her ecstasy was past, to spare himself the envious +feelings its contemplation might excite, whilst at the same time he +might prepare his lawyers for the work they soon would have to put in +hand. + +Mary did not much approve this determination; she told him her brother's +arrival would be incomplete unless he were near to participate in her +joy, and make Arthur's immediate acquaintance; but as Trevor more +seriously assured her, that a short absence at that time would be really +indispensable, she submitted with resignation. + +The happy hour at length arrived--the afternoon of the same day in which +the morning paper announced the arrival in port from Canada of the ship +'Columbia,' and amongst its passengers the name of Mr. Seaham--Mary, who +had taken leave of her lover an hour before, and was in her room +recovering from the slight dejection this first parting, even for so +short a period, had necessarily occasioned, heard the carriage-wheels +swiftly sounding along the park, and a post-chaise, bearing evident +marks of travel, soon appeared in sight. + +No need to ask her beating heart who that traveller might be. She +watched it nearer--nearer--her hands clasped together, almost trembling +with the power of that strong delight which overflowed her breast; but +the carriage stopped before the door, and then with almost a cry of +gladness, she had disappeared from the room. + +What would Trevor have said had he seen her then? What indeed! for +perchance he may be amongst the number of those who do not know the +force and purity of natural affection; and how, far from detracting from +other ties, other affections, it is but the fountain in which these have +learnt to flow with a singleness and strength to which those unexercised +in such a school can seldom attain. Perhaps he may be one of those to +whose ear the name of "brother" bears no glad and holy signification. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + .... Manhood's earliest youth + Shone from the clear eye with a light like truth. + There play'd that fearless smile with which we meet + The sward that hides the swamp before our feet; + The bright on-looking to the Future, ere + Our sins reflect their own dark shadows there. + + THE NEW TIMON. + + +We will not intrude on the first sacred moments of the reunion of the +brother and sister, but rejoin them in the drawing-room, when that +tumultuous period being over, there is something more distinct and +connected in their words and conduct for the reasonable and indifferent +reader to appreciate. + +They are still alone together. Mrs. de Burgh is driving Mrs. +Trevyllian, and Louis out in the grounds; no one, then, is in the house +to break upon their glad communion. + +And it was well; for theirs was indeed a joy in which the stranger +intermeddleth not. Mary, with the glistening drops gladness had called +forth still hanging on her lashes like rain in the sunshine of her +beaming countenance, sits on a low seat, and gazes up in the face of her +tall, handsome brother, as he stands on the hearth-rug, looking down +with caressing interest into her own. + +She tells him he has grown ten times more handsome--that she had no idea +he was so tall. She gazes up into his clear blue eyes, clear, open, +truthful, unshrinking eyes, and it must have been to her like one who +gazes on the blue, pellucid, open vault of our summer heaven, after +having been long accustomed to the dark, uncertain, latent fire of some +tropic sky. + +But of course Mary, had no such defined conceptions. She only felt "the +sense, the spirit, and the light divine at the same moment in those +steadfast eyes," shaded like her own, with the long dark lashes; but +which were not so prone, as hers, to sweep thoughtfully and seriously +his cheek; the glance might wander too, over that high, white, open +brow, as over a pleasant field, which the hand of his Creator had +blessed for the expansion and production of all good seeds of intellect, +intelligence, and virtue. To look there, was to see that no base, +corrupting passion or pursuit had as yet worked their contracting power, +that the commerce with the world and its affairs, in which for so young +a man he had been so intimately and responsibly involved, had served but +to expand and develope the higher, nobler properties of his mind, which +else might longer have been kept in abeyance. But it is the expression +of that mouth--that smile which more than all bespeaks the pure, the +amiable, the genial and pleasant feelings of his nature--attributes +which characterize Arthur Seaham's disposition, in a manner rarely seen +exemplified, though we may in our experience have seen precedented. + +No wonder Mary always doated on this brother, no wonder she looked on +him now with almost an adoring gaze, and marvelled how she had been all +this time so happy and satisfied without him, nay--almost wondered for +one moment how it could have ever come to pass, that she loved another, +better even than himself. + +But if her admiration was thus strongly drawn forth by her brother's +appearance, Arthur Seaham, on his part, seemed none the less struck by +his sister's looks; and brothers, it is well known, are particularly +disposed to be critical on the subject of the personal appearance of +their sisters. + +"But Mary," he suddenly exclaimed, taking his sister gently by the arm +and bringing her face in direct confrontation with his own, "let me look +a little more closely at you. There you sit, staring me out of +countenance, paying me compliments till I do not know where to look, and +yet think yourself to escape all criticism. Now tell me, pray, what has +changed you so? Made you grow so beautiful? Surely you are not the +little pale Welsh mountain flower, I left behind me two years and a half +ago?" + +"Oh, my dear brother," Mary answered, as she laughingly and blushingly +submitted to this inspection, "I assure you I am just the same, just as +much a 'bit of white heath,' as you used flatteringly to call +me--but--but you know when I was agreeably excited you always told me I +was _almost_ pretty, and I am _very_ agreeably excited at present." + +"And have been for the last month or so, I should say," her brother +rejoined, assuming the mock air and tone of a judge, as he gravely +continued his research; "that is to say, judging from the extent of the +influence I see has been exercised upon your face. No, do not tell me, +who have been amongst the shrewd, long-headed Yankees, that any true +sisterly feelings have given such diamond brightness to your eyes, such +radiant beauty to your cheek and brow." + +The young man was right. The change he marked was not the influence of +the present happy hour; a stronger and less recent power had done the +magic work. + +Mary had become, within the last few months, what less partial judges +than a brother might have rightly owned as "almost beautiful." + + "But, Melanie, I little dreamed + What spells the stirring heart may move, + Pygmalion's statue never seemed + More charged with life than she with love. + The pearl-tint of the early dawn + Flush'd into day spring's rosy hue, + The meek moss folded bud of morn, + That opens to the light and dew. + The first and half-seen star of even + Wax'd clear amid the deepening heaven. + Similitudes perchance may be, + But these are changes oftener seen, + And do not image half to me + My sister's change of face and mien; + 'Twas written in her very air + That love had passed and entered there." + +"Well, well," he continued, as he marked the conscious effect his +latter words had made upon his sister's speaking countenance, "tell me +all about it, and what is that very interesting piece of news, you +mentioned in your letter, awaiting my arrival?" + +"Dear, dear Arthur, I am going to be married." + +The young man made a theatrical start backwards, of affected wonder and +amazement. + +"Going to be married!" he repeated, "and how do you know whether I will +give my consent?" + +"Oh, you will! I am sure you will, when you know and hear all about it; +and when you have seen Eugene." + +"Eugene! what a very delightfully romantic name, for my dear little +romantic sister; and who is this Eugene?" + +"Eugene Trevor; the son of Mr. Trevor of Montrevor, in this county." + +"And how long have you been acquainted?" + +"Oh, ever since I came here in June. I had seen him once before, but +that was a long time ago." + +"Well! I suppose, I ought to be very much pleased." + +"Ought! but you are--yes, though you try to look so solemn--you are +delighted at your prophecy--your old _bête noir_ being thus effectually +removed. Namely, that your sisters would be 'old maids.'" + +"Ah! yes--for how could I ever have imagined, that so many eligible +husbands should be picked up amongst the wilds of poor old Wales? But +you--you very sly little thing--when did you ever hear me express a fear +or a wish respecting your marriage?" + +"Never, Sir, because I really believe you thought me quite a hopeless +subject of speculation; that T was cut out irreparably for 'an old +maid.'" + +"And I wish to know," he continued without attending to this +interruption of his sister's, "I wish to know what has become of all the +plans and promises, on which I have been building my hopes and +expectations all this time? What has become of my companion, my +housekeeper; the pleasant peaceful home we were to share together?" + +"Oh, Arthur!" said Mary pleadingly, for though her brother spoke +jestingly, she really thought she saw a liquid drop, dim the clearness +of his eyes. "Oh, dear Arthur!" and she laid her face tenderly on his +shoulder. She could not bear to see what almost brought a reproachful +pang to her heart. "Do not say that; my home, I am sure, may still be, +as much your home whenever you like to make it so. Eugene says the +same--he is quite prepared to love you, as much as I do. Our love, our +companionship, need not be at an end; and you, dear boy! you will like +Eugene so very much, and be quite reconciled to my marrying, when you +see what a husband I shall have." + +"Yes, Mary, if I find him worthy in every respect (but mind--I shall be +very difficult to satisfy on that point) then indeed I shall be fully +reconciled," straining her to his heart, "for I _am_ glad to hear all +this dear girl. What I said was only nonsense--of course I am glad--, I +should be a very selfish fellow were I not rejoiced to hear anything +which is so apparently to your happiness and advantage. Besides," +resuming his gaiety of tone, "for the next few years, I am going to be +so busy amongst old musty papers, and law-books, and folios, that I +should make but a sorry companion for any but the benchers of Gray's +Inn." + +"Then have you really, dear Arthur, made up your mind to study for the +law?" + +"Yes really--why, do you not approve, or do you doubt my ability?" + +"No, Arthur, not your ability to do anything you heartily undertake." + +"Then it is my diligence--my perseverance." + +"No, nor that either; but my dear boy, I cannot bear that you should +have to toil and drudge at such a very irksome profession." + +"Oh, nonsense! you idle girl, that is my own affair. I intend to be a +second Erskine or Eldon. The former, you know, was not called to the bar +till he was eight and twenty, and had no better preparation than I have +had--not so much indeed, for I have already dipped considerably into +Coke, Lyttelton and Blackstone, and long had a leaning that way. Ah! +already I feel mounting on eagle's wings into the very 'marble chair.' +The fact is, the fortune I shall now have remaining from the general +wreck, will enable me to give myself every advantage for the next few +years in my legal studies, as will render me, when I launch forth on my +circuits, not quite dependant on my briefs, which, for the first year or +two may not be so plentiful as, of course, I intend they should be +hereafter. About five hundred a year I shall have, after you girls' +fortunes are paid off." + +"Our fortunes? Oh, Arthur! I am sure neither Jane, Agnes, or myself will +receive or touch our fortunes now. They must be added to yours; and +then I am sure you will be rich enough to work, if you must work, only +for your own amusement." + +"Thank you, dear Mary, but speak for yourself, and do not be in too +great a hurry to do that either, for remember you have another to +consult about this cavalier disposal of your property. No, no, my dear +girl, money will not be despised under any circumstances, depend upon +it. 'All is grist that comes to the mill,' and the larger the mill the +more grist only is required. Besides, I am not going to give a +portionless sister away, when she may have a snug little six thousand to +tack to her _trousseau_." + +"Six thousand! oh, my dear brother, how well you must have managed for +us, thus to have saved so much more of our fortunes than of your own." + +"Oh no, Mary, I did myself full justice, but my sisters' money was in +better funds." + +"Well, for Selina and Alice's sake I am very glad"--Mary begun. + +"But you, are to be so very affluent, that six thousand pounds is but as +a drop in the sea. Trevor, then, is an eldest son, I conclude?" the +brother inquired. + +"Not exactly, but--oh, here is Louis coming, he will be very glad to see +you; he is such a kind, affectionate creature, and has been so very good +to me." + +Young Seaham was warmly welcomed by his cousin Mr. de Burgh, and none +the less so by his wife, when she returned from her drive. There was +something particularly graceful and agreeable in the manner of both Mr. +and Mrs. de Burgh's reception of the guests and friends they entertained +at Silverton; and when it happened, as it did on this occasion, that +their good feeling towards the person or persons in question were in +perfect unison, (a rare occurrence!) they only vied with each other as +to who should show forth most attention and kindness. + +Mrs. de Burgh was delighted with Arthur Seaham's lively and engaging +manners and appearance; Mr. de Burgh fully appreciated the intelligence +and good conduct, with which he had conducted himself throughout the +late trying and difficult course of business in which he had been +engaged, as well as his present praise-worthy determination to embrace +some certain profession--although he was perhaps somewhat surprised at +the obtuse and weighty matters of the law, being the one on which he had +set his mind--as would be indeed all those who only remembered Arthur +Seaham as the rather volatile Eton boy, of lively parts and excellent +capacity, but little application, except in those few points touching +upon his peculiar tastes or inclinations:--or at Oxford, where he had +been for two years and a half, and had quitted it with much the same +opinion as has been recorded of a celebrated historical character, +"rather with the opinion of a young man of parts and liveliness of wit, +than that he had improved it much by industry," and therefore many were +inclined to entertain the very generally conceived idea, that a man of +such calibre could never make a good lawyer. + +But to all doubts and objections of this sort, Seaham had ever his +favourite example, Lord Chancellor Erskine at hand, to demonstrate how a +man who, until his twenty-eighth year, had never looked into a book of +law--who then had rather plied his head with Milton and other English +authors, than with the Greek and Latin classics--and who brought to bear +upon the profession he embraced, no fitter attributes for success than +those which were comprised in a lively imagination, quick observation, +and a logical mind, had risen triumphantly to the very top of the tree. + +Of course the subject of his sister's marriage was the one uppermost in +Arthur's mind just at present, and he listened with eager pleasure to +all Mrs. de Burgh had to say concerning the match, which she of course +made appear arrayed at every point in brightest _couleur de rose_. + +Mr. de Burgh, after his few first cautious remarks upon the subject, was +as silent with regard to it towards the new comer as he seemed to have +made it a rule to be of late to every one; but then, if this at all +struck Seaham, he felt that Mrs. de Burgh really enlarged so much upon +the topic that there remained little more to be said--that gentlemen are +never so interested and diffuse as ladies on these matters, and probably +his cousin thought it better to wait and let Trevor speak for himself in +person, when in a week from the time of his departure--during which +period letters were daily exchanged between the lovers--he returned. + + +END OF VOL. I. + + + LONDON: + Printed by Schulze and Co., 13, Poland Street. + + +[Transcriber's Note: Hyphen and spelling variations within each volume +and between volumes left as printed.] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mary Seaham, Volume 1 of 3, by +Elizabeth Caroline Grey + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40405 *** |